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

[southernreaper]

"I really like driving." He says, opening her door for her. He enjoys driving more than he enjoys about anything else. Well, except forging. He climbs into his seat and buckles up. "Why don't you take that nap? I'll get us to Florida, no problem." He says taking her hand.

[goingthroughaphase]

Buckling her own seat belt, she takes his hand as well. “I can’t really sleep so soon after eating,” she says with a small laugh. “But I might fall asleep later.”

[southernreaper]

"Well, don't feel like you have to keep me company, all right? If you need to sleep, sleep." He says gently. He can entertain himself on a long car ride.

But he does stop for gas before they leave town, and gets a full tank before they head out on the freeway for Disney.

[goingthroughaphase]

She nods, though she does try to stay up a little while longer during the trip. A little conversation, some songs on the radio. But eventually, she does start to drift off during the long drive.

With an arm pillowing her head as she leans against the passenger door, Kitty is lulled to sleep.

[southernreaper]

When he stops, he pulls a coat over her. But, then, he gets right back on the road and heads south. Finally, around mid afternoon, he pulls into the resort where they'll be staying. "Kitty?" He reaches out a gloved hand and strokes her hair. "Kitty, time to wake up."

[goingthroughaphase]

"Mm...?" she murmurs sleepily, stirring slightly as she's roused awake. She yawns and rubs her eyes, glancing around as her mind tries to catch up.

[southernreaper]

Kevin smiles, taking his hand away. "We're here." He says, gently. "Disney's Kidani Village." He smiles crookedly, watching her. "I dunno what's waiting for us, but hopefully it won't be too horrible."

[goingthroughaphase]

She gives a sleepy giggle, stretching as best as she could to wake herself up more.

"It shouldn't be too bad," she says. Then she smiles playfully at him. "And if it is, we can just stay in the hotel room."

[southernreaper]

He chuckles and squeezes her hand, his gloves creaking. "Come on. Time to get out of this car. I need a shower and a nap." He checks his phone. "Alright, not a nap, because we've only got an hour until dinner, but definitely a shower." He finally gets out of the car and stretches hard. That felt good.

He goes and opens the door for her. "You wanna check us in, and I'll get the bags?" He asks.

[goingthroughaphase]

With a grateful smile, she steps out of the car and stretches again, this time having more room for more of a full-body stretch.

“Sure,” she says with a nod. “Is it under your name?”

[southernreaper]

He smirks a bit. "Well, Miss Ororo made the reservation so try Mr. And Mrs?" He's not sure whose name the reservation is under. It could be under Xavier's for all he knows. "If not, try the Professor's." He says, walking around to start gathering bags.

[goingthroughaphase]

With a playful salut, she heads into the hotel to get them checked in.

It really only takes a few minutes, and soon she returns, holding up a key card with a grin.

“It was under the Fords. Apparently we’ve got a nice honeymoon suite waiting for us.”

[southernreaper]

He chuckles, swinging the last bag over his shoulder. "Can you grab the garment bags?" He asks, loaded down. While Logan had packed light for them, letting them get the hell out of the Mansion - thank you Logan - Josh and whoever had packed for Kitty had not. They'd packed for a two week plus stay at a resort, so there were all sorts of things that had been packed.

Right now, he wouldn't be surprised is Mimsy is in one of the bags.

[goingthroughaphase]

Honestly, neither would she.

With a nod, she grabs the two garment bags still left before closing the trunk. Then she leads them to where the concierge had told her their room would be. "We have one of the villas, with a view of the Savanna," she says with a smile. "I'm kind of excited to see some of the animals they said are roaming around."

[southernreaper]

He chuckles. "Want to wake up to antelope on the porch?" He teases, following her. When they're in the room, he grunts and divests himself of all the bags. He digs through his bag, and puts the suppressor box on the side table so it's able to be found in a hurry.

"Why don't you shower first, and then while you get dressed I'll shower and stuff? We've only got about an hour."

[goingthroughaphase]

She laughs softly. "Sure, why not? It could be fun. Apparently there's guide in the room to help identify the different animals that are walking around."

As they enter the room, Kitty heads into the bedroom to hang up the garment bags.

"I think there are actually two bathrooms in here?" she says, poking her head out from the bedroom. "There should be another bathroom across from where the washer and dryer is, when we first walked in, if you want to use that?"

[southernreaper]

He drops his boots next to the bed and goes rooting through the bags. He knows which ones are his - the black and silver luggage isn't very distinctive, but it's enough for him to guess - and finds all sorts of things in the bag and shakes his head. Leave it to Josh. He finds his dress shoes, and grabs his garment bag.

"Then, I will see you in a little bit." He cups her cheek in his hand, and rubs his thumb over her cheekbone. "We'll put the suppressor on after dinner, alright?"

[goingthroughaphase]

With a small smile, she places her hand on top of his as she leans into his touch. "All right," she replies softly, lingering for a moment. At least dinner shouldn't be too much of a hassle to get through.

After another moment, she reluctantly draws away to grab her things before heading into the bathroom to get ready.

[southernreaper]

He watches her go, understanding what she wants, but this will never be a normal marriage. This will never be "typical". And he hates it. Grabbing his garment bag, he heads for the other bathroom and doesn't slam the door, but it's a close thing. He can't... he can't give her the spontaneity that she deserves. Everything has to be planned. Because of his damned power. Because he could kill her if they're not careful.

He slams his fist against the tile wall, hating that he can't be like other mutants. He can't be the spontaneous, happy, does what he wants when he wants guy. He can't do that. Not even for her.

Kevin is not going to analyze right now why it's important to him for her to have all those things. He just knows he can't do it.

He takes a deep breath and wishes he could talk to someone, anyone, about how horrible her life is going to be, tethered to a man who can't touch her. He pulls out his phone. His go-to is to call Father Frankie, but he won't do this time. He just... wouldn't understand. So, he calls Josh. Because he needs someone to talk to him about this.

[goingthroughaphase]

Unaware of the inner turmoil that's currently plaguing him, Kitty's mind wanders as she stands in the shower, remembering their shower together earlier that morning. She's still surprised that things have escalated so quickly, given that they had been little more than acquaintances - at best - only two days ago. She expected things to take a lot more time, and yet here she was, finding herself slightly sad that her husband isn't able to join her now if they wanted to do anything later tonight.

She couldn't imagine how difficult things must be for him. Rogue had described it once as being a prisoner in your own body, but even then it was difficult for her to really grasp what that kind of loneliness must feel like. And as much as she wants to help, there's only so much she could do.

But she would try. If she's able to do anything at all, then she would try.

[southernreaper]

Kevin spends his shower, well not talking to so much as talking at Josh. At the end of it, Josh calls him an idiot with valid concerns, but he's not the one Kevin should be talking to. Josh was quite blunt about it. And When Kevin whined that he'd tried, Josh had threatened to hang up on him.

Sighing, Kevin steps out of the shower and starts drying off, listening to Josh read him one of the many riot acts the guy has in his repertoire for Kevin. He sighs and leans against the porcelin sink. "Josh..." But Josh keeps going, and then just hangs up the phone.

That is less than helpful. But still, he puts on his clothes and the nice suit that had been packed for him. The dark blue suit fits seamlessly over his unstable molecules. (As much as he hates to wear them, he hates dissolving his clothes more.) The light violet shirt brought out the green in his eyes, and the ice blue tie brought it all nicely together. He's just finishing tying his tie, when he steps out of the bathroom.

[goingthroughaphase]

After finishing her shower, Kitty dries off and decides to do her hair and makeup first. While not using anywhere near as much makeup as she wore during the wedding, she figures a bit of light blush and lipstick would look nice. She decides to leave her hair down for a change instead, using the blow dryer to make sure it's dried and set properly.

Once she's finished with that, she goes into the bedroom to get the garment bag that she'd left in there, finding a classy little red dress waiting for her. It was a sleeveless, off the shoulder dress, with a sash that seemed to wrap around the shoulder with one end resting over the front. The top skirt was slightly asymmetrical, with a longer skirt underneath that was longer on the sides than the front and back. At the bottom of the bag were red pumps that really did nothing to help with her height, but she liked how they looked anyway.

She doesn't know exactly who had gotten her this dress, because she knows for sure that it's not hers, and she's never seen anyone else at the mansion wear it. But she appreciates their tastes, and will have to ask around and thank them later.

[southernreaper]

Kevin knows exactly where this suit came from, and he'll thank Miss Frost and Josh later. But seeing Kitty in her red dress... that's something else. She was right, he's going to enjoy peeling her out of that later. He's really going to enjoy it. Do they have to go to dinner?

He brushes his gloved - deep purple - fingers along the back of her neck, that's exposed to him.

"You look beautiful." He whispers. And he hasn't even seen the front of her yet. He trails his fingers down her neck and steps around her. It's even better from the front! She deserves to have jewels draped over her. Not to be... Alright, Josh had already yelled at him tonight, he's going to put those thoughts to the side.

[goingthroughaphase]

A bit surprised, she glances up at him with a smile. "Thank you," she says softly, as she finishes putting in a pair of earrings. "You're pretty handsome yourself."

Once she's finished, she grabs a small evening bag - just big enough to fit a wallet and a cellphone, though it's not like she'll be calling anyone else right now - and slips on her shoes. "Ready to go?"

[southernreaper]

He smiles and offers her his arm. There's plenty of fabric between the two of them, so she'll be just fine. "You know what? This is our first date. I think we went about things a little backward." He's smiling crookedly though and ready to show her a good time.

It's the least he can do. He won't be drinking tonight - not old enough - but that's alright. They don't need alcohol to have fun.

Outside, the sunset is spectacular, coloring the west in purples and reds and oranges that flare out everywhere. He opens the car door for her. He wants this night to be special.