Red Queen One-Shots

Fade Modern AU - Wedding

A/N: Requested by my friend Bernice ;-) Another episode from the modern AU featuring Farley, Shade, and Clara

Farley POV

There's a difference between dressing up for work and for your own wedding. I didn't anticipate this, not really. It might play a role that although I'm a lawyer, I don't focus on an immaculate appearance. Now I sit in front of the mirror and feel utterly underwhelming. My hair curls loosely to my chin, my skin is shiny with glittering rouge. I have mascara on my lashes, have just drawn a sharp black eyeline and still I remain uncertain if this is enough.

If only my dress was – well, a bridal dress. But the one I had was ridiculous. I tried it on in the shop, even brought it home. Yet I only felt glad after I returned it the next day. A long, silky and crème-white dress, even with a small train, just neither fit me nor made me feel comfortable.

I should've went with Shade, damn the silly traditions. If he'd seen me in the dress and liked it, maybe I wouldn't have been bothered. Now I damn the silly tradition in another way, having put on an older dress of mine, one I'd worn on some summer days that he should be able to remember. At least it's white, that has to be enough. The skirt hardly covers my knees and that has to be enough as well.

Is it?

I don't feel ready and that's almost funny. Diana Farley is too nervous to go to her own wedding, like a shy maiden, and only because of her looks. How disgraceful.

"Mama?" I turn to Clara approaching my chair. I wave her closer and she leans over my thigh, looking up to me and my reflection. I pat her head as much as I dare to. Her hair is curly like mine, but not as carefully styled. She doesn't have the patience and looks cute anyway. I've bought her red dress on Ebay and I was relieved it becomes her so much. It didn't fit her perfectly, however, so Gisa made improvements to the fit as well as adding little amber stars and flowers to the hem. It's so beautiful. The embroidery has the same colours as Clara's eyes and like always, Gisa proves her talent for fashion.

I wonder how shocked she'll be to see me in a basically casual dress. She'll needle me why I didn't ask her advice before, won't she? I just haven't thought of it, believing I could organize our wedding all by myself, at least where it concerns me.

Now Clara gazes up to me, enchanted. "Am I a beautiful bride, dove?" I ask her, smiling.

She nods. "You look great, Mama." Probably my current sight is only unusual to her.

"You do too." I pull her onto my lap, then cursing inwardly, as it'll crease my dress. I sigh, deciding not to care as I throw one last glance at the two of us in the mirror. Smiling for our sakes. "As long as Daddy likes us, right?"

She grins. She stayed with me in the last hours few hours but she must've seen Shade in his wedding attire as well. Suddenly, her expression become questioning again. She thinks about what to say. "Mama, but what is a wedding?"

Oh. "Haven't you heard before?"

She shrugs. "You always say you have to know for sure ..."

I clear my throat. "Yes, you go that right, dove. Perfectly right." My cheeks flush. "You should ask Daddy about this, he'll have the most beautiful answer. He made such a beautiful proposal to me as well, you see?"

"But I'm with you now! I want to stay, and I want to know." She pouts.

Great. "It means Daddy and I make a pledge to each other. To stay together, to love and care for each other." A pledge to god, to be accurate. But only I will, not Shade. I wonder how Reverend Fawkes will react to our compromise. I'll have a church wedding but Shade won't make a vow to any deity. Doesn't want to start our marriage with a lie, he insists.

"And you make a party about that?" Clara asks, confused. "Don't you do these things anyway?"

I laugh out loud. She's so innocent and outspoken. And right. What's the difference? "Well, Clara, it means something when you're in love. Maybe you'll see that as well one day. A wedding ... make things official. That's really it. Daddy and I will have the same name from now on, Farley-Barrow, the same one you had from birth. The society, the state, the church will record our union and know we'll promise to stay together and take care of each other." I take a breath. "It's actually a legal matter. About the money. We tell the state Daddy and I support each other financially, and it gives us benefits in return."

Now she's really startled. "Mama?"

"Really, it was always like this, that's why marriages were invented. Don't look so shocked, Clara, a happy and stable couple can talk about dull and complicated things like money."

And about money in case of a break-up. I wrote our marriage contract, signed it yesterday when we legally married in the town hall. Cold and detached, I considered the case of a future divorce like a lawyer would. Keeping our finances separate would've been the easiest thing, my own parents had it that way. That's why I could inherit Mom's money, instead of seeing the sum of it passed to my father as if it was his all along.

That's not possible for Shade and me, as our accounts have been too convoluted from the start. No, our assets would be split by half and any acquired estates would be transferred to our children, and ...

I don't want to think about that again. I want to marry him, from the pit of my heart, and not be reminded of a decline of our love.

Clara touches the hairclip waiting on the vanity. I sniff, take it from her. "Right, I can't forget that one." I don't wear a veil, so I thought I should've some other decoration for my hair. The clip is gilded, but its dragonfly brooch is actual gold inlaid with aquamarines and peridots.

"From the twenties," Gisa told me, and this style fits with my hairstyle and the cut of my dress if you don't look to closely. It's another heirloom of my mother's, just like the butterfly pendant now hanging around my neck and making it a set.

It was my necklace before I gave it to my sister Madeline when I decided I was too cool for jewellery. She wore it frequently, but not on the day she and Mom died.

If she had, I would've buried her with it. But she didn't, and so I forgot about the necklace until I found it among her things, weeks later. I didn't tell my father about it, already doing nothing but quarrel with him at the time, nor have I worn it or the hairclip until this day. The grief has never left me.

I miss you, I mouth to the mirror. Clara notices I'm hugging her tighter. She's my family now. And today, Shade Barrow – actually Shade Farley-Barrow since yesterday – will become my husband in the eyes of heaven and the world.

"Clara," I say ceremoniously, taking another box jewellery box from the vanity. "I have something else to give to you. Your grandfather will be at the wedding, but he sent this for you beforehand." I have her full attention. I open the box with a click, and she's in awe.

"It's from your grandmother, my mother after whom you were named." Clara slowly extends her hand to touch the heart-shaped garnet pendant on its golden chain. I came to think it cheesy when I was a teenager, but I'd loved it as much as Clara when I was her age. Now, I admire its simple beauty.

"Mama, can I wear it?" she asks. "Can you put it on?"

"Of course, dove. I'm glad you like it." I thought of this pendant when I ordered her dress, not sure whether my father would really send it. But I forget his reliability frequently.

"Thank you, Mama!" I smile with her, then add some of the glittery rouge to her cheeks, careful not to spoil her dress.

Hand in hand, we go down the stairs. Shade waits at the foot with his brothers; I wonder for how long, given the way I procrastinated. Joy flares in his face when he sees us, soon replaced by surprise. It has to be my simple outfit. He's attired like a gentleman, with his hair parted on the side and slicked back, and a golden-brown vest and necktie beneath his tuxedo. I can't help chuckling. Clara lets go of me and rushes into her father's arms. When I arrive, he hugs me as well.

"How immodest, wait until after the ceremony," I mock him quietly.

"I couldn't help the sight of my radiant bride."

I shove him away, slowly because I'm reluctant myself. "You're gorgeous as well, dear," I say. "Let's go to the garden and get married."