what is love? [OPEN/CLOSED]

[circumitus]

Who: Rey and Maketh Tua + Nick Valentine and OPEN prompts to anyone who wants in on that small town wedding business.
What: An actual firefighter wedding turns into more of a shotgun wedding and not quite like how those movies usually end.
Where: The Park + Church.
When: The last day of Stepford Summer.

[ooc: Prompts will be in individual comments below. Some details of the plot are here and here, but feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

[Otherwise, feel free to assume that your character has received a wedding invitation and they're there... or square.]

Comments

[circumitus]

The mention of her mother sends her heart sinking in her chest. She doesn't hold it against Nick for bringing Undine up; he misses her as well. Though she might've been Rey's mother, he loved the woman all the same, too.

Her lips twitch at what Nick has to say. "That sounds like something you'd say," she jests, but there is some sincerity there as well.

Joking aside, Rey lowers her eyes to their hands. Her fingers squeeze his.

"This is... going to sound weird. But have you ever, um. Loved someone? Other than my mom? Before her, that is."

There's no doubt that Undine was the only woman in his life during their marriage; that isn't what's on her mind when she asks such a thing from him. It's just that there is someone, who seems more real to her than any of this.

[synthedick]

It wouldn't be that odd of a question for someone else, someone who wasn't mechanical. Even now, it doesn't strike Nick as odd as it really should, save for the timing, but while he gets that inkling in his mind that there is something off about this whole thing, he can't put a finger on the reason why. He'll blame the wedding for now, the obvious choice; it will only be after he comes to his senses and realizes this idyllic life is just more of the gods' nonsense that he'll remember why it is he feels so apart from most of the people in Hadriel.

"Before her, yeah," he answers; there's a flicker of regret in his eyes that clearly says he doesn't want to talk about it -- not today, of all days. "It was a long time ago, before I met either one of you. Well before I knew your mom was the one for me."

His brow knits again as he squeezes Rey's hand. "Why? What's this all about?"

He shouldn't ask -- his instincts tell him not to, but he goes against them this time, hoping that putting it into words will help Rey sort out what's going on in her head. She's had moments like these for as long as he can remember; whatever is on her mind, he's there for her. They've got to be there for each other now -- Undine would have wanted that, and Nick wouldn't want it any other way, either.

[circumitus]

A long time ago. That's what it feels like now, with Sully. Like a distant memory that has long since lost its relevance. Nick is different, though. Nick is real, like Maketh. Rey can reach out and touch him, feel his hand tighten around her own, even if it's synthetic and not at all human. And that's okay; Undine loved him anyway. For who he is.

So why does that also feel like a detached memory? Rey's eyes narrow, and she'd rather not think about it, because that's her mother. The woman who had looked after her since the day she was born. Who had made a union with the man before her to do the same, so long as they lived.

Now one of them is gone, and yet she's still grateful to the one who remains.

Rey bites her lower lip, glancing away from Nick's concerned gaze for the moment.

"I..." She sucks in a breath, ducking her head. "Don't worry about it."

Futile that it might be, for both of them.

[synthedick]

Telling Nick don't worry about it is a guaranteed way to get him to do just that, especially when those words are coming from his only family. Maybe it's cold feet, the type folks usually get when they're about to take a step into the deep end that is married life. It's not for everyone, and hell, not all goes well even for folks who think they are as prepared as they can be.

Then again, maybe it's something else. Nick feels in his gut that it is, but he can't place why. Maybe the old instincts are getting rusty, or maybe he's just a sentimental fool who's worried for his daughter on her big day, one where she's surrounded by everyone she loves, save for one notable absence.

Everyone she loves, though... hm. He doesn't like where his mind goes with that tangential thought -- that's definitely the cop in him getting anxious about that rust, for sure.

"Hey."

He puts his metal hand against her chin, tilting her face upward in the hopes she will meet his eyes.

"If there's something really bothering you about all this" — he cocks his head to the side, toward where final preparations are being made for the ceremony — "and you want to call it off for now, it's okay. It's been a hard time for both of us, and you only oughtta go through with this if you're good and ready, and that's if you're ever ready. Whatever the reason is, I'm on your side, Rey. You know that, don't you?"

[circumitus]

The irony that someone like Rey would get cold feet isn't lost to her, and not far from her train of thought. And soon as she tries to cast her eyes away out of the shame that wraps around her heart, Nick's pulling her gaze back towards him. She struggles to maintain contact, and to hold herself together. After all, a lot of effort had gone into getting her dolled up like this. The last thing she wants to do is ruin...

No, it isn't the last thing she wants. That's such a stupid thought. Stupid. Pointless. Stop it.

"She... went through so much for this," Rey painfully admits, though a niggling voice on the back of her mind tells her that there's more to it than that. "She did so much for me and I don't even know why. She's not here; I can't ask her why."

Her memories of Sully are so muddy that she can't figure out even the littlest details. When did they meet? Did Undine really like him, or did she even exist...?

Such a mere passing thought makes her chest ache with fear, as she snaps her mouth shut. This is more than just 'cold feet' now, that is certain.

[synthedick]

"You don't know why?" Nick asks, puzzled. He gives her a reassuring smile. "Because you're her daughter, Rey. She loved you more than anything else in the world, and no matter how much work she put into this wedding, I can guarantee she'd rather you be happy."

But it does strike him as beyond odd that she'd even say such a thing. Undine was Rey's mother; of course she'd have done anything for her, desite—

... despite what?

Nick's brow tightens just a fraction. Undine was absolutely Rey's mother, no question about it... then why did he question it just then? Why was there even a second of doubt in his mind, as though it'd have been reasonable for Undine to hold something against Rey, but chose not to? It must be something wrong with his processor, Nick insists inwardly, his memories not connecting in his head. Did something happen between Rey and Undine? Or was it between himself and Undine?

There's a flash of a memory he can't place, an image that's there for only an instant -- the riverside, blood in the water, a gunshot that rings in his ears. He'd say it came from a nightmare, but he doesn't sleep; he doesn't dream.

Not that he knows of.

Aware of his moment of distraction, he tightens his grip on Rey's hand, focusing on her to bring himself back to the present.

[circumitus]

It should be so obvious, and yet the answers are muddied in her mind. Like everything else, it's been hard to think clearly. Think outside of the scope of her goal. Right now, that goal happens to be at the end of an aisle...

The squeeze of Nick's hand around hers grounds Rey as well, trying to keep herself focused on what is happening now.

"I am happy," Rey says with a strained smile.

Maybe not with the event itself, but it was done out a labor of love. The last thing her mother ever prepared for her. Though Undine passed just weeks before this day, she at least has the closest thing to a father she's ever had to be here with her, and that makes her happy.

[synthedick]

Rey says she's happy, but that strained smile of hers says something else entirely, something he can't just blame on prenuptial jitters. She might be happy to have him there, but if he had to guess, she's not happy about much else at the moment.

And that's ultimately worrying. This wedding had a lot of love put into it by Undine in her final days, but Rey is the one who has to go through with it. She's the one who the day is really about -- not Undine. Nick has no doubt her mother would agree... but Rey's never been the type to put herself first. Undine knew it, Nick knows it -- hell, anyone who has seen how hard she works knows it. Even her husband-to-be probably knows.

"If you say so," he replies, giving her hand another squeeze as he gets ready to go. He doesn't release it quite yet.

"I've got to get back and make sure things are going all right with the preparations, but... if you're having second thoughts about all this, you know your mother would come back to haunt us both if you went through with it anyway, just for her sake."