Arranged Marriage

[bostonhowler]

It's a trope near and dear to our hearts. Arranged marriage.

Maybe it's for the family. Maybe it's for a friend. Maybe you know the person and have been expected to marry them for years. Maybe it's the wedding day and you have no clue who it is you'll be tied to for your natural life. Maybe you've been married a while, and you're just now starting your life, away from the expectations of others. Or maybe, the "others" are watching, waiting, making sure this marriage sticks.

Prompts for those who need them:



Reasons:

1. Station → You come from a royal, noble, or otherwise distinguished family who has chosen a suitable spouse for you.
2. Feud → You are being married to put an end to the bitter enmity between your two families.
3. Economics → Your economic state and/or your station will improve through the union, though one of you may be marrying down.
4. Empire → You and your spouse are merging your businesses and/or property to create something more influential or profitable.
6. Tribute → You have been offered as a gift or appeasement, alternately you're the spoils of war.
8. Bloodline → Carrying on your distinguished family name has fallen to you and the equally well-bred spouse of your family's selection.
7. Disapproval → Your marriage has been arranged to keep you away from the person with whom you truly wish to be.

Scenario:

1. First meeting → This is the very first time you're meeting your future spouse.
2. Courtship → To get to know each other and encourage affection, your family has approved of you going on dates.
3. Engagement party → Be it a huge, formal affair or a small, intimate get together, you're celebrating (or pretending).
4. Wedding day → The big day!
5. Reception → The big party!
6. Wedding night → Every meme needs a smut prompt, right?
7. Honeymoon → Where will you go with your new spouse and what will you do there?
8. Been at this a while → Just starting to get to know the other person

Comments

Brigid Finn M/F

[bostonhowler]

Misa M/F

[the_gardens_apple]

Reason 1, Scenario 2

[fitzthomas]

They've known each other since childhood.

Misa had always been older, more mature. Taller, too, until he hit his growth spurt at fourteen. He remembers a confusing childhood crush on this quiet, regal girl, and her tears when she thought he'd died.

But Joscelin hadn't expected this. He hadn't expected that a wife would be provided for him, and he certainly hadn't thought that she would be the intended bride.

They're walking in the garden, and Joscelin can't quite get around the strangeness of the situation. "Are you...enjoying yourself?" he asks awkwardly, feeling like that little boy Misa had once known all over again.

[the_gardens_apple]

How had she gotten into this situation? How? How... she doesn't know. She'd been trained, since birth, to be someone's wife, but she hadn't thought it would be Joss of all people.

They've known each other for years, paling around and just being friends, and now... it's different. They're not friends, but... engaged. The families have approved them to walk in the garden, but she can feel the eyes on the pair of them, knowing that they're being watched.

Cautiously, she reaches out and touches Joss's hand, the motion hidden by their bodies. The maze is just up ahead, and they can hide in there, figure this out. When they get to the entrance, she grabs his hand, and drags him into the maze, a brief reprieve from being stared at. "You're treating me differently." She says, looking up at him.

[fitzthomas]

He can feel the blush start at the back of his neck, where it always had when they were children. Misa knows him too well.

He's not even yet a man, not even by the standards of their country. He won't be until he turns nineteen. But his family has always married young; he's expected to have a consort and an heir waiting in the wings whenever Father pops his clogs and he gets stuck as the head of the House.

Looking around and not seeing anyone watching, he takes her hand fully.

"Am not," he says peevishly, acting younger than his seventeen years. "But this...its..." He's normally so eloquent, but finds himself stammering. "This. You. You've known me practically since I was in diapers. Well, not quite that long. But still. It's awkward."

[the_gardens_apple]

Misa does know him well. Well enough that she's about to push him in a bush and stomp away, just as she had when they were younger. It'd serve him right. "You are too." She snaps back at him. Things are different, if only because now they're being watched, instead of being told to run off and play.

"It's only awkward if we want it to be." She says, taking her hand away from him. "We're still friends, Joss. Aren't we?" She asks, suddenly unsure if he doesn't want to be friends anymore. She does! She'd rather him a friend, than anything, but they don't get that choice. Their, well, guardians in her case parents in his, had made that choice for them. She bites her bottom lip, like she's always done when she's nervous.

Kevin Ford OTA

[southernreaper]

look at me being a rebel with no numbers

[x_coriare]

Sooraya was not, as a rule, happy about the arrangement of her marriage; she understood, yes, because her part of the world had rules, and those rules were concrete. And she had *finally* found her mother, but to go back she had to have a valid male escort.

Kevin had been the only option, and she hoped he'd understand why she asked. She cared about him, and he was the only person she genuinely had ever wanted to be with her in a romantic way. He was caring and soft and lovely.

"Kevin?" she asked, knocking softly on his door. "Did you think about...earlier?" When she'd actually explained and popped the question, so to speak.

ROCK ON

[southernreaper]

Kevin had stared at her, utterly flabbergasted, when she'd asked. Now, two hours later, he's not sure that he's got an answer for her. It had been completely pragmatic, no romance involved. She needed a husband to escort her to find her mother. Even if that husband was a godless heathen such as himself.

When she knocks on the door, he automatically reaches for his gloves. He's hanging out in a tank top and jeans, without his customary boots on. But, ever the gentleman, he doesn't keep a lady waiting. So, he opens the door. And steps aside. Rules or not, this is not a conversation that he wants to have where others in the Mansion can hear. And the only other place to go is out, and it's past curfew. They still have the run of the Mansion for an hour or so, just leaving the grounds is prohibited.

"Sooraya." He says, when the door is closed and he's sitting on the edge of his bed. "Soo, we don't talk about religion. I don't, quite, understand yours. And mine... is deeply personal." He'd once thought about becoming a priest. "But in my religion, there is no divorce. I marry for life." Good ol' Catholic boy that he is. "And I don't want to trap you with someone with..." His gloves creak. "My type of power." He says, softly.

Re: ROCK ON

[x_coriare]

"There wouldn't...you wouldn't be trapping me," she said. "We should talk about it. But it's my mother. And I haven't seen her in years."

Kevin is pretty much her only option.

The only one period she's willing to approach.

"You can say no, Kevin. It's okay," Sooraya murmured. "I wouldn't want to trap you with someone like me either."

[southernreaper]

"No, listen to me." He gets up and kneels in front of where she's sitting. "I'm willing." And in that moment, he realizes, he is. He's willing. Not just because she has a mother to find and visit, but because he likes her. A lot. He'd shown her his forge, and given her a key and that's a level of trust he doesn't have with anyone else. So, yes, he'll marry her, but he wants her to know just what she's getting into.

"I'm willing." He repeats. "But ours won't be a typical marriage. I can't... I can't do all the things a husband should be able to." Not that he's not physically capable of doing them, just with his power, he can't run the risk of hurting her. "My power is too dangerous." He's saying this all wrong and shoves a frustrated hand through his hair.

"I just want you to have everything, and I can't give it to you." He admits, softly.

Kitty Pryde M/F

[goingthroughaphase]

Reason: 8.

[southernreaper]

Kevin has known Kitty for a while. Two mutants that have not so much in common. She's a partier, he prefers quiet time at home. She's into modern conveniences, he's studying blacksmithing. But. The professor had put it to them, that it was better to marry other mutants, than to run the risk of marrying outside, and getting hurt. He was pairing up a lot of the mutants, putting those who might get along together.

Kevin thinks the professor is cracked. Him and Kitty? He doesn't need someone to "bring him out of his shell" or to drag him out of his newly made forge now and again. That's what he had his dog, Mimsy, for. At least she liked Kitty?

He looks down at the huge Rottweiler as she watches him put his tux on for the wedding he was about to go to. His wedding, to Kitty Pryde. "What the hell am I doin', Mims?" He collapses on the side of his bed and ruffles his dog's ears. By some quirk of genetics, or divine intervention, or something, she's immune to his deadly power, and he can touch her without worrying about killing her. She puts her big head on his knee, and whines softly. She knows something is up and he's not liking it.

He stands up. Time to go get married.

He walks down the hall, where he knows Kitty is getting ready and taps at her door with one gloved knuckle. His wedding ring will go on over his gloves to protect his new wife from his powers. "Kitty?" He calls, his soft Southern drawl more pronounced with the stress in his life.

[goingthroughaphase]

In truth, Kitty doesn't really have much of a problem with Kevin exactly. While they weren't really close, she didn't mind him. He reminded her of Rogue, who she did get along with, and she wouldn't have minded being his friend if he would let her.

The real problem she had was with the idea of getting married. Not necessarily to Kevin, but this whole matchmaking thing in general. She definitely understood the professor's reasoning for them to marry a fellow mutant. But she didn't necessarily agree with it. Wasn't the professor the one telling them that integrating with regular humans was the way to get them used to mutants?

And partnering her up with Kevin? What made the professor think that the two of them getting married was a good idea? She'd wanted to get along better with Kevin, but she wasn't sure this was really the way to do it.

Not that either of them had much of a choice about it now, as she stood looking at herself in the full-length mirror. The knock on the door startles her a bit, but she isn't sure what emotion she's feeling when she hears the familiar voice on the other side.

Slowly she walks over to the door, but doesn't open it yet. "Isn't it bad luck to see the bride before the ceremony?" she asks, the attempt at a joke feeling a little flat compared to the nerves buzzing in her stomach.

[southernreaper]

Kevin sighs and rests his forehead against his hand on the door. "Probably." He admits. "I haven't seen you though. Just thought I'd come ask you if you wanted to run away. We'll steal a car, get the hell out of here?" He's joking, weakly. They're going to do this in front of God - in the form of a rabbi friend of the Professor, and his priest from down the road - and everyone.

He's not sure that he likes this. His stomach is tightening threateningly, and when he'd gone to Confession a day or two ago, he'd ended up in Father Frankie's study with a cup of coffee, and the priest trying to talk him down off a metaphorical ledge. He takes a deep breath. "I'll meet you downstairs, alright? Don't go running without me."

Not that she would, but he's just as terrified as she is. It's not like they're going to have a normal relationship. He can kill with a touch, meaning he'll never be able to touch her. Though, that's probably to her advantage.

He takes another deep breath. If he's not careful, he's going to hyperventilate.

[goingthroughaphase]

She manages a soft laugh, though it lacks her usual warmth and enthusiasm. She knows this isn't easy for either of them, but they both also know that running away isn't an option.

No matter how tempting it is.

Leaning with her back against the wall by the door, she answers, "Y-Yeah...I'll be down soon." When it was time for the actual ceremony to start. After another moment, she adds, "How...How're you holding up?"

If he's anything like her, then probably not well. But she needs to do something with all this jittery energy.

ATLANTA

[southernreaper]

Time at Disney had been... idyllic. They'd explored during the days and then during the nights a whole different type of exploration had happened. But there'd been no politics, no worries, no... anything to intrude on them enjoying themselves. They even have pictures of the pair of them. He's got a new lock screen picture: her laughing with a dollop of strawberry ice cream on her nose.

They really had eaten their way through Disney, often returning late into the evening and simply collapsing in the hotel bed, snuggling. He does owe her a couple new shirts - in addition to the souvenir ones they'd bought - because his powers suck and he still feels like he should be apologizing.

He hasn't had his phone on for a while. They'd reached Georgia and he'd turned off the maps. He can follow signs to Atlanta. And he knows, sort of, how to get to Miss Amelia's house.

The sun is setting early in the fall evening, when he pulls the car to a stop in front of a small ranch style house. The door opens as he steps around the car to let Kitty out. "Kevin!" An older black woman, a little stooped, hands holding a cane, her white hair back in a braid, stands in the doorway, smiling brightly. "Kevin! You bring that pretty girl of yours on up here! Gettin' married without family, I just won't hear of it!" Two large shadows appear in the doorway behind her. "Boys, you go get that boy."

One of them laughs. "He's comin' Grandmama." He says, shaking his head.

Kevin surreptitiously slips his suppressor on. He takes Kitty's hand, and walks up to where Miss Amelia is waiting. "Howdy, Miss Amelia." He kisses her cheek. "Ma'am, this is my wife, Kitty. Kitty, this is Miss Amelia and two of her grandsons, Jacob and Mike."

[goingthroughaphase]

Kitty had really been enjoying the entire trip. Even more than having fun at Disney and eating as much as they could, it had actually been nice just getting to know Kevin better. There were certainly things he still kept to himself, but she felt - or at least hoped - that he was starting to open up to her more. And even nights that they didn't talk, where they would just lie together and quietly hold each other, were starting to feel more natural and easy, and she enjoyed his silent companionship just as much.

As she steps out of the car, she looks over to where the older woman and two guys are standing. And with a small smile of her own, she walks with Kevin up the porch steps to greet them.

"Hello," she says, hoping she doesn't sound as nervous as she feels. "It's nice to meet you all."

[southernreaper]

"Oh, chil' you come here, now." Miss Amelia says as Jacob puts Kevin into a headlock. "You come sit with me. Boys!" She snaps, tapping her cane on the ground as Kevin has wrestled Jacob to the ground and been dogpiled by Mike. The three immediately stop horsing around.

"Sorry Grandmama." Jacob and Mike say at the exact same time Kevin sheepishly says,

"Sorry Miss Amelia."

She humphs, but she's smiling. "Now, these boys gonna put on a dinner for us. Why don't you come talk to me, just us girls?" She says to Kitty, smiling.

[goingthroughaphase]

Kitty stifles a giggle as the boys' wrestling is cut short, before turning back to Miss Amelia with a bright smile of her own.

"Sure thing, Miss Amelia."

Katara M/F

[dropwaterdroplet]

[restoredhonor]

He stares at his advisors. "I'm sorry, what?" He asks, stepping down from his throne. Mai had broken up with him, hating the scrutiny, and the intense public eye that was required by just being friends with him, let alone a girlfriend.

The advisor repeats himself and Zuko stalks out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Sometimes, his temper still gets the best of him. It shouldn't, because right now, he's still injured from Azula's lightning, and that hurt. Grimacing, he leans back against the door, for a moment, and then decides to look in on his uncle who is visiting for the time being.

But Iroh has no words of wisdom for him - mainly because he's not in his rooms, and Zuko isn't going to send someone searching for him. So, he goes to find the woman in question. He finds her feeding the turtleducks in the pond that he so loves.

Several of the little ones quack at his presence and immediately climb out of the pond, pooling around his feet and begging for treats. The advantage to voluminous sleeves is he can hide food up them. So, he pulls out a few crackers he'd stolen from the kitchen and crouches down among the little ones, as the mother turtleduck takes gently from Katara's hand.

Her grandmother, and new grandfather, are around the palace compound somewhere. No doubt having told her what his advisors had told him: For the good of the Fire Nation, the Southern Water Tribe and the world, they should marry. He brushes crumbs off his hands and shoos the little ones back into the water, getting a grateful quack from the mother. "So." How is this so awkward? It's Katara! And yet...

He sighs and sits next to her. "You were told?"

[dropwaterdroplet]

Even though she hears him approach, she doesn't say anything, focused on the mother turtleduck in front of her. She'd come out to the gardens to try to clear her head, but her mind was still reeling.

When she'd been asked to come to the Fire Nation - not at Zuko's request, but from Pakku's - she'd been more than a little surprised. She was even moreso surprised when Pakku had come to greet her at Zuko's palace - his home - along with a few other members of the White Lotus. But the biggest shock came when they had made their...request.

When she finally runs out of bread, and the turtleduck family swim off, she sighs softly and wipes her hands. "Yeah," she replied, not looking at him. "I was told."

Without any discussion from her or Zuko, they were asking for the two of them to be married. Something about unifying two different nations to establish peace or something, but she had stopped listening after that.

[restoredhonor]

He'd stalked out of the meeting when they'd started in on 'unification' and 'for the good of the world'. He smiles when the little ones try to come back, probably sure he has something in his sleeves for them. But the mother turtleduck herds them away. Somewhere, a hawk cries, and Zuko looks up, tracking the messenger hawk with his eyes.

"We could say no." He finally settles on. He's the Firelord; he's pretty sure he can do that. She's a powerful bender from a strong people. No reason she couldn't say no.

He knows it won't happen. But it feels good to say it, to know that the option is there, even if they can't take it. He wonders... just what would it be like to not have to marry for politics. He'd thought about marrying Mai. She'd keep him in line. But she'd left. No one knows that, yet, because he'd kept his ache quiet, just like he always did, but he'd thought about it.

And then there was Aang....

[dropwaterdroplet]

“We could.” She’s tempted to. Not because of Zuko, though, because he’s a much a victim in this as she is. It just isn’t fair.

Haven’t they already sacrificed enough because of this war?

After a long moment, she finally glances up at him, her eyes settling on his chest. “How are you feeling?” she asks, not wanting to talk about this for the moment.