This is based off of some AU prompts that I have been peddling around. Specifically "i know im supposed to be your best man/maid of honor, but maybe i should mention now that I'm in love with you" and probably later on "they said 'speak now or forever hold your peace' so i'm speaking up".
This is the first fic I've published since I was like 12 so be gentle on me. I'm doing some world building with the relationships, going off of what we know and changing things up a little bit. There is implied Skyeward, she'll make a real appearance next episode.
Title lyrics are from Taylor Swift's How You Get The Girl.
(Preemptively rating this as Mature, because I know myself too well.)
It's not that he doesn't like Lorelei.
He does.
Sure, sometimes her voice grates on him. Sometimes she turns into a hell beast (the same one that Lance used to call Bobbi; not a good sign). Sometimes she reminds him just how haughty and spoiled she can be.
Or the sometimes when he catches her flirting with other men; wandering hands and wandering eyes are two different things.
It's not that he doesn't like her.
(He'll keep repeating that to himself)
(He never says he loves her)
It's an honest-to-god beneficial match. And up until recently, he couldn't imagine anyone else he'd be walking down the aisle with other than her. They've been dating for the better part of three years and inevitably got engaged. Not that it was ever a question about whether or not he would marry her; she was the kind of girlfriend who talked in future tense with immense confidence.
Is this how it's going to be when we raise kids? They get to eat this trashy processed food?
Our wedding can never be on a beach, it's so cliché. Don't you think, Grant?
I guess we can get a dog, at the very least help us in the future. Test out our parenting skills.
For a girl who could never keep her eyes off of other men, she demanded quite a lot of commitment. But she was the kind of girl who expected things to work out. It was the plan from the first day they met when he introduced himself as "that" Grant Ward, from those Wards. Plans were Lorelei's forte.
His father loves her, as most people do. She's got a silver tongue and can charm the pants off of everyone in the room with a saccharine smile and an eloquence that would make Shakespeare weep. His mother is another story, her eyes flicker between Grant and Lorelei, and she asks him, "Is this what you really want?"
She's not worried about the gold digger thing, Lorelei is from enough old money to set herself up for life as a spinster if she wants, she's worried about the 'true love' thing.
His parents aren't anything near soul mates, but that's because soul mates are unrealistic. They're each other's rocks, the constants, two sides of the same coin. And while his father will see everything right in someone, his mother is far more cautious.
Once upon a time, he could nod with confidence that Lorelei was the best thing that'd ever happened to him. He could lay out their five year plan (something created about an hour after he proposed) of him going into law and then politics, like the rest of his family with her by his side as a power-trophy wife. She could tout her family name as another badge of honor among the upper echelon of the right wing. He could imagine the two and a half kids as he ran for Congressman or State Rep.
But that was back before Skye came barreling back into his life. Single, and completely changed.
Back before Christian "injured himself in a skiing accident" with Anna. He threw his back out during some suspiciously acrobatic sex and was told by the doctor to stay off his feet, since the combined stress of his job and active sex life was not putting him in prime position to be best man.
It was Lorelei's idea to make Christian best man, it would look good in the pictures. Or else he might have asked Trip, or Thomas. But then Skye, in the way that she was best at, came back into his life without warning or foresight, and he couldn't remember why it was a bad idea to make the girl he had been carrying a torch for since they were in college together his best woman. He didn't really register why Lorelei looked like she could dig her manicured nails into his chest and rip out his beating heart when he told her the good news.
"What's wrong with Skye?" he frowned, looking up from cutting the steak in front of him at the strawberry blonde across the table. "She's an international reporter, it makes me look good. She's a better replacement to Christian than any of my other choices." She was nothing like a replacement, but Lorelei didn't want to hear that. "Imagine the conversation it will stir up, the founder of The Rising Tide News alongside us. It would help my dad with the his Pentagon friends if I was seen rubbing elbows with the daughter of one of the founders of SHIELD Tech. Might even help the talks about those security contracts."
She fumed, crossing her arms stubbornly, glaring daggers into him across the table. "Skye isn't even affiliated with her father's company. If anything, she actively works to tear down corporations like SHIELD. She practically tore Hydra Fabrications apart in her last exposé. She's a scandal waiting to happen." Pausing, he could see the exact moment she changed tactics. Unfolding her arms, she reached for the fork and knife, wielding it more like a poised weapon than eating utensils as she carved into the quail in front of her. "Plus, what if being seen with her ruins your father's plans? As I remember you telling me, Phil Coulson isn't your biggest fan. What if he takes this opportunity to turn against your dad?"
The notion, while uncharacteristic of a man like Coulson, was still a reasonable concern.
Shaking his head, brushing it off, he responded calmly. "Coulson is a fair man. He wouldn't let personal emotions get in the way of a professional deal. Plus he's only one-third of that company. Melinda May and John Garrett are also co-board members, and Garrett is a family friend."
She hadn't responded. She read him well enough to know that simply mentioning the possibility of breaking the hard-wrought contract between SHIELD and the Pentagon had jabbed a splinter of doubt in his own plans. But it wasn't nearly enough to assuage him from reneging on Skye's role in the wedding. Part of him was just glad to have her back, the other part didn't want to let her go.
Lorelei knew, sometimes even better than himself, how he had once felt about Skye. And up until now, it hadn't been a problem. But some things changed.
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