Prompt: Wedding

Word Count: 2,284

Day thirty (!) of the thirty day drabble challenge

To the anon who gave me this prompt: I'm sorry. You probably had Dami and Mar'i's wedding in mind. This is not that. Hope you like it anyway.

Blue isn't really my color, but that's okay because my dad looks really great in it. So's Aunt Babs. And Lian, actually, who also gets to be a bridesmaid.

That's right. It's my dad's wedding day. It's a few days until Christmas, and the ground is dusted with enough snow that it looks really gorgeous but not so much that it's problematic. The sky will be grey in pictures, but I think it's so pretty.

Even though my dad isn't really religious—I mean, I guess he's more religious than me, considering I'd be a pagan or something weird like that—the wedding's at a church. It's not what I would want, but it's nice in a traditional way.

Aunt Babs is in a white dress and she looks so pretty. It's not so poofy that she's uncomfortable in her chair and it's got tons of decoration on the top portion, which is sort of like a corset. It's long-sleeved, and the sleeves attach to the corset. I went with her to try on dresses, along with Steph and Cass, and she looks so good in this one.

Steph, Cass, Lian, Dinah Lance, and I are bridesmaids. Dinah's the maid of honor. Aunt Babs actually asked me if I wanted to be the maid of honor, which was really cool of her but I told her that this is her wedding, not mine, and I wanted her to pick someone she's known longer.

My dad and Aunt Babs are being so considerate of what I want, but this really doesn't have much to do with me. She's been part of my family for so long that it doesn't feel very different at all. I'm pretty sure my relationship freaks my dad out more than his freaks me out.

The wedding is so pretty. My Uncle Vic and Aunt Sarah's daughter is the flower girl. My Uncle Roy, Garth, and Wally, and Tim, Damian and even Jason are the groomsmen. Babs's dad gives her away and he shakes my dad's hand.

It's cute. I don't even think I would mind getting a half-sibling out of this arrangement. Probably.

The actual ceremony is cute and everything, but I hope it's okay that I skip to the fun part: The reception

They're so, so cute dancing. My dad picks her up and she hooks her arms around his neck, and then she goes back to the chair and dances with her dad while my dad comes to get me and we dance together.

He's so happy he can't stop smiling, and I hope he was this happy when he got married to my mom. I hope my mom was this happy when she married Phy'zzon. I hope I'm this happy when I get married, someday.

The song changes and my dad leaves for a second and he comes back with Damian in tow, his fingers tight around his wrist, and he pushes us together. Steph and Tim come on the dance floor, and so do Bruce and Selina, and Nell and her boyfriend, and Cass dances with my dad.

Damian doesn't like being so touchy in public. He'll hold my hand, he'll kiss me once or twice, he'll do that thing where he touches me under my chin. He's worse in front of our family. I lace my fingers together behind his neck and I get closer.

"Hi," I say, and I slide my fingers into his hair at the nape of his neck. We've been seeing each other, but everything's been kind of a rush and we haven't had much time to actually talk.

He smirks at me, amused. "You realize that the Commissioner is now your grandfather."

Oh man. I hadn't thought of that. "Ugh, why is that the first thing you have to say to me?"

"Sorry. You look very pretty," he amends, but he's still smirking.

"Liar. This is a bridesmaid's dress. Nobody looks pretty in those."

"You do."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Honestly," he says, and he pulls me even closer.

"Cutting in," a familiar voice says, and an arm crosses over my front. Damian doesn't let go and he's glaring over my shoulder at Jason. "Beat it, baby bird," he tells Damian, and he takes my hand out of Damian's and spins me so I'm facing him. "Go see if Wilkes wants your company. I wanna dance with your niece, if you don't mind."

"Hi, Jay," I giggle, and he grins at me. I'm pretty close to Jason and Lian's dad, since they used to team up with my mom a while back.

As the night goes by, I dance with lots of people. Jai, Colin, Michael Logan, and Iris, Lian, and Annie Logan. It's a lot of fun.

But I notice that Steph keeps leaving, which is so not like her. I don't know why I notice when nobody else seems to. Maybe it's because I'm excited enough about the party to want to see everybody, but no so into it that I'm getting caught up. I follow her into the bathroom and wait for her to come out.

"What's going on?" I ask as she washes her hands at the pretty sink, lit with yellow lights from overhead.

"What do you mean?" she counters. She's not being defensive or anything; just evasive.

"You've been disappearing a lot. You're not avoiding Tim, are you? Or maybe you're sick or something?"

"Avoiding—? No. Hang out. Let's take a walk." Steph takes me by the wrist and our matching shoes click on the shiny floors. It's snowing gently and Steph'll be cold, but she doesn't stop to get her coat.

The outside of this place is so pretty. A lake that's reflecting the blurry circle of the light of the moon struggling to shine through the clouds and the falling snow so clearly it might as well be a mirror. We stop at a bench in the light of a streetlamp that's set on the banks of the pond and Steph sits down. I sit next to her and let my hair burn gently as an attempt to keep her at least a little warm.

She lets a violent burst of air out through pursed lips. "I really wasn't planning on saying anything for another week, because I don't want to steal the show," she explains. "I've never been really sneaky, though."

I don't interrupt even though she leaves a long space for me to say something. "I'm pregnant," she tells me softly.

I gasp and jump to my feet. "You're what?" I demand. "Oh X'hal, Steph, that's great!"

A grin stretches from ear to ear and she laughs at my excitement. "I know!" she agrees, giggling. "But I'm gonna wait until next week to tell everybody."

"Does Tim know?"

"Yeah, but I told him to stay if I got sick because I didn't want to draw attention to myself." She smiles at me apologetically and I tug her by the hands into a standing position so I can hug her.

"What are the two of you doing?"

I turn around to find Tim and Damian walking toward us. They get along if they try. I hug Tim, earning a frown from Damian. "Congratulations!" I blurt, giggling.

He scratches the back of his neck sheepishly and laughs nervously. "Steph told you, huh?"

Letting go of him, I turn to Damian and say, "They're gonna have a baby!"

He raises his eyebrows and I can tell h's both surprised and pleased, but he says, "Great. A clumsy, ill mannered, flighty child with the intelligence of a—"

"Oh, shush," I scold him, swatting at him.

"You're going to be an uncle," Steph tells him. "If that's not a terrifying thought, I don't know what is."

"Not half as terrifying as the image of you as a mother," he scoffs, and I elbow him and he adds, "Congratulations to you both."

Tim nods and Steph leans against him. "Let's go in," he says to her, and he rubs her bare arms with his palms to warm.

She sighs, a large puff of air condensing in front of her, and she agrees. They leave footprints in the dusty snow as they wave to us.

"You're not cold, are you?" I ask Damian, because I'd kind of like to stay out here for a few more minutes.

"No," he answers, and he holds out his hand for me to take. I do and he pulls me close and runs his hands through my hair.

"I guess it helps that you have your own Tamaranean heater, huh?"

"Hm," he says, and he brushes snow from my hair.

I'm too excited to hold still for very long, though, so I say, "Hey, do you think the pond is frozen enough to stand on?" and I kick off my shoes.

"Um," he answers, and he tries to catch my arm but I'm too quick for him. "I don't suggest attempting to find out."

"Noted," I answer. Interesting biological fact, Tamaraneans are a bit lighter than humans, proportionally. It won't help much, but I won't fall because I can just hover a little.

Gingerly, I shift my weight onto the edge of the bank. It's no good, especially at the edge like this. It won't hold me. But I can still freak Damian out and that's what's important here.

I hover over the ice and smirk over my shoulder at Damian.

"I would really prefer it if you did not do that. Your father would be quite angry with me if you returned soaked with ice water."

"Well thanks for worrying about my health," I mutter, which makes him roll my eyes.

"You would be fine," he tells me. And I would, but he could at least act concerned.

He watches me, hovering so close to the surface of the thin ice that I can feel the coldness tickling at the bottom of my feet, and something about his expression changes. "I wonder," he says, and he pauses and doesn't continue until I tilt my head at him. "If I asked you to marry me, would you say yes?"

I swear I almost faint. I fall out of my excellently controlled hover and the ice cracks underneath me. A jumpline tightens around my waist and chest and I'm whisked off the surface of the ice and I crash against Damian, who's smirking at me and looking very pleased with himself as he loops his arm around my back, holding me firmly against him.

"Wh-what?" I stutter, and I keep blinking at him like an absolute moron. "Wait, why do you have this on you?" I demand breathlessly as I tug at the jumpline around me.

"I always have it," he tells me with a shrug. "And some batarangs. But you did not answer my question."

"I, um…" I clutch his shoulders tightly. "You're… Are you asking me?"

He lets out a short laugh. "Heh. No. I'd prefer for you to be finished with school first."

Great X'hal. Damian scared me. "I don't know," I tell him. "I haven't thought about it."

"I haven't given it much thought, either," he admits, and he starts unwinding the jumpline from around me. "But I think I might like being married to you."

My hair ignites as heat floods to my face and he chuckles. "I was wondering when that was going to happen," he mutters, amused, and he holds up my hair so that the flaming tips are pointed up.

I make a displeased noise in the back of my throat and snatch my hair out of his fingers. "I don't know if I want to be married," I tell him, and he furrows his eyebrows at me as his hand pauses on the jumpline at my stomach. I pause and then I raise my hands to his face, which is getting kind of cold. "I mean, I didn't think I ever would. But maybe with you… it would be different."

"I was simply wondering," he tells me, and he finishes unraveling me and I kiss him until his face doesn't feel cold anymore.

The rest of the wedding is fun. There's lots more dancing, and people start to trickle out. The Commissioner, my family, and me and Damian stay until everyone's gone, and at that point I've gotten pretty tired and I only meant to sit on one of the couches in the parlor-type room for a minute but I guess I fall asleep because the next thing I know Damian's shaking my shoulder.

"Mar'i," he says. "Come on. It's time to go."

"Kay," I mumble without opening my eyes. "Gimme a minute."

"Ri," he sighs. "Get up."

"Rude," I mumble, and I turn so that my face is pressed into the back of the couch.

Without saying anything else, he slides his hands underneath me and picks me up.

"Hey!" I complain, and I kick my feet as I bring my hands up to his shoulders to balance. "Put me down."

"In a minute," he says, and he kisses me quickly before letting me right myself.

I grab my shoes and we leave, and when we get home we're both so tired that I crawl into bed in my dress and Damian just takes off his jacket and tie before lying next to me so I curl into him.

I don't know. Maybe one day we will get married. But not for a few years, at least, and right now just the possibility or hope that we'll stay together for that long makes me twist my fingers into the fabric of his shirt and give a little sleepy sigh. One day, maybe.