Note: This is set in a universe like Princess Diaries. Also, I will try to keep this series as K as possible, but somethings may be T-rated for safety, and I will label them as such
To say you were against this idea would be putting it mildly. You were absolutely, 10,000% against this idea. And yet you were going along with it. Why? Well, for starters, your king had ordered you to. You could've refused him, but you'd probably end up starting a rebellion against him, and that would lead to way more politics than was necessary.
What exactly was this idea you were so against? Being married off to a complete stranger. And not just any stranger! Oh, no. This stranger was a monster. No, not a proverbial way of saying someone is cruel and heartless, an actual monster.
One of the maids helping you get ready that morning had mentioned his name was Sans Gaster, one of the Royal Guardsmen of the Monster Kingdom. Aside from his name, however, you knew absolutely nothing about him, but rumors which had spread around the kingdom about monsters made you…apprehensive about meeting him, to say the least.
Almost as soon as monsters had been released from Mt. Ebott, they had been wreaking havoc around the smaller villages, stealing territory from the king and just terrorizing any humans that came near them.
You knew of one human who had -somehow- gained the monster's trust enough to become their ambassador, Frisk, you thought the name was. In fact, come to think of it, Frisk was probably the one who had proposed this idea to the king in the first place.
You didn't know the specifics of it, but it sounded as if this marriage would be a way to attempt peace with the monsters and integrate them into the small yet successful kingdom of Makiisa. Said attempt was probably going to go up in smoke though. Despite being the princess' right hand while she lived in this kingdom, you were the exact opposite of her.
You like staying indoors, reading books, watching TV, eating, surfing the internet, just generally doing things that didn't require much effort but you still enjoyed. Not to mention you had terrible people skills when interacting with another person. It wasn't that you couldn't make friends with people, it just made you nervous to come out of your shell long enough to make friends.
Although…with this marriage being enforced, you mused that the "making friends" part had been done for you, all you had to do was make sure the friendship part stayed intact. But still…
You tore yourself out of your thoughts long enough to get a good look at you in your …...wedding gown. Your stomach twisted into a giant knot, it suddenly hit you that you were being wed. Suddenly, the thought of being married to a stranger wasn't as scary as the thought of being married.
You looked at yourself, shifting around a bit so you could see the dress a bit more, admiring how the fabric draped around you. Wasn't exactly what you'd call your ideal gown, but then again, this wasn't an ideal moment for you either.
The dress itself was modest, having minimal patterned stitches and pearls on the bottom half of the gown and the sleeves, but it was on the heavy side. Suddenly the thought of you in a wedding dress made you queasy.
You had always thought you'd see yourself in a wedding dress getting married to the love of your life, not for a political treaty….You weren't normally one for fantasizing on romance (unless it was with fictional character but that's not the point here), so being flung into a situation which was normally for people who'd fallen in love was a bit…jarring to say the least…
A cough coming from the doorway grabbed your attention and you turned to see the king of Makiisa at the entryway, Alvero Renaldi, holding his arm out for you. "It is time, my dear." He said solemnly.
You felt your blood turn cold, but you kept a neutral face and nodded, heading over to the king and bowing slightly in greeting. The king offered you a weary smile, placed your veil on, and escorted you to the palace courtyard where the ceremony was being held.
Your breathing was shallow and you were sure your face paled with every step. Oh geez, what if you messed this up? What if you suddenly said something to offend him that would trigger another war? Could you even say something bad enough to start a war?...Well, maybe you could if you were sleep and food deprived enough…
But that thought wasn't very helpful.
The king noticed your sudden influx of nerves and patted your hand softly. "Deep breaths," He said "Don't overthink anything, just…" He looked as if he wanted to say 'Just be yourself and everything will be fine' but he instead chose to say "Just be calm, and try not to worry so much."
You forced a smile -the veil didn't do much to cover your face- and nodded "Thank you, your majesty." Thanks for shoving me in the middle of a potential crisis you thought in your head. You mentally smacked yourself. Now was not the time to be mentally sassing everyone off. The king smiled forcefully at you again and halted behind a pillar that marked the entry way to the courtyard.
You saw him nod to one of the ushers and the usher in turn nodded to -you were guessing- the pianist. Your guess was confirmed correct because as soon as the nod-signals were complete, "Here Comes the Bride" began playing, and the courtyard doors swung open.
You were temporarily blinded by sunlight, and a nervous smile immediately plastered itself on your face. But once your eyes adjusted, and you could see who was in the courtyard, you felt your fight or flight instincts kick in.
There were hundreds of people watching! Not just humans! But it looked like the entire monster kingdom had showed up too! You felt your stomach hit the floor when your gaze went slightly upwards and saw a video camera being used on one of the upper balconies. Great, not only was every eye in the kingdom watching you but now you knew this moment would be recorded forever….
You began internally screaming.
To the right was apparently the designated seating areas for humans and to the left was for monsters. Way to go, guys. You thought sourly Nothing says 'unity' at a wedding like splitting the courtyard in half. The courtyard was modestly decorated, balloons, banners, some streamers placed on the balconies and pillars.
Some decorations contained the Makiisa kingdom seal, the monster kingdom seal, both, or no pattern at all. For a wedding, there was an awful lot of red, but you guessed it was the monsters' idea.
As you walked down the aisle, a smile that was more of a nervous reflex than a genuine one froze to your face. Suddenly digging through your memories of how girls at weddings acted, you began moving your head around, trying to look as if you were smiling at everyone. Surprisingly enough, it was…easier to look at the monster than the humans…
Possibly because you had never seen monsters (aside from the news and artist renditions), but also because they were all so different! You saw…frogs? Fly looking-thingies, a flying fish thing, a….ghost!? Your gaze lingered a bit longer on this one from pure curiosity.
Although, it seemed as if Mr. Ghost noticed your staring because he sent a piercing glare at you. You responded with changing your nervous smile into an apologetic one for a moment before it regained its nervousness and you went back to gazing equally at humans and monsters.
You refused to look at the alter.
It wasn't that you didn't want to see who exactly it was you were marrying, you were in fact very curious, but the butterflies in your stomach convinced your brain that you wouldn't be as nervous if you didn't look at him.
Unfortunately, that plan didn't last long.
At about halfway through the walk, your vision seemed to focus on him. You felt as if all the oxygen in your lungs had been punched out, and the nerves that made you smile suddenly extended into an embarrassed blush. The king squeezed your hand. "Breathe." He prompted.
You shook your head to center yourself and took a shaky breath before nodding at the king, silently thanking him, before trying to return to attempting to work the crowd.
Three seconds after you told yourself to focus on the crowd and not…your soon-to-be-husband, you looked at your soon-to-be-husband.
There were several things that ran through your head the first as you gazed at him while walking up to him, but the most prominent being that he was in fact…that Sans Gaster of the monster kingdom, was a skeleton.
You had no idea why the concept of a skeleton monster knocked your ability to think offline, but it did. Literally the only thing you could think of was that he was a skeleton. How'd he eat without organs? Did he wash himself using toothpaste or regular soap? Did…..did he even need to wash or eat?
Did he get cold easily? Just…?!
Before your million-dollar questionnaire could continue, you had reached the alter, and the earlier fight or flight instinct kicked in. You suddenly understood why people got cold feet at weddings.
As the king released your arm, you tried to offer a genuine smile at your groom, trying to ease a little tension.
Maybe he was just as nervous as you, maybe he was also fighting an urge to run from the courtyard and not look back. Maybe…he was just as reluctant as you were and the boney grin (how does he grin without lips!?) was just a nervous reaction too.
Or not.
As soon as your king released you over to Sans, he lightly rolled his eyes at your smile and gruffly offered his arm the way the king did. Well fine then. You thought Make this even more miserable for us, why don'tcha.
You took Sans' arm and you both walked the last few steps up to the easy-set-up pavilion to the priest who held a practiced smile on his face. Once in place, you both released each other and placed your hands awkwardly to your sides. The priest nodded to the both of you and began the ceremony. "Dearly beloved," He began "We are gathered here today to witness –"
And it was at this exact moment you tuned out. Probably not a good idea to tune out of your own wedding, but currently the thing that went through your mind was Why couldn't we get the priest from Princess Bride to do this? At least I'd be able to laugh off some nerves.
Apparently, Sans had the same idea, because he was staring lazily off into the distance, a little to the left of your head. You guessed he was probably trying to get a better look at you without being awkward or trying to find a familiar face…Or he was just genuinely bored, in which case, you could relate.
Trying to remember how long these opening speeches lasted, you decided to kill time by getting a good look at the groom. He was a skeleton, which normally meant no eyeballs, yet there were these two lights in his eye sockets that seemed to serve as eyes. They would…"blink" occasionally, the red lights would turn off for half a second before reappearing the same way you would blink.
He didn't have a nose, but a nasal bone like you would in the skeleton in the biology room but unlike the skeleton in the biology room, you couldn't see into his skull, it just looked like the bone disappeared into a dark void. Come to think of it so were his eye sockets. You couldn't see inside his skull, it was just the little…eye-light…things.
Your gaze drifted to his teeth. They were…...sharp….to say the least. What is this guy going for? You asked yourself Best Jaws cosplay? Yeesh. The sharp teeth, along with the red-colored "eyes" gave you the impression of "edgy".
And not in the meme-worthy edgy, but the "I'm edgy because I have an attitude problem" edgy…
You prayed silently that you were misjudging him on his looks. You did not wanna be saddled with a guy who was dramatic and emo-y for the sake of being dramatic and emo-y.
You were about to study more of Sans' features when you vaguely registered the priest turning to you and asking you a question. You blinked, having no recollection of what he just asked you.
You panicked.
Oh, shoot, shoot, shootshootshoot what'd he say!? Okay, okay, stay calm, maybe, maybe he said the line where you're supposed to say "I do" You internally rambled No...wait….do the "I do"s come before or after the ring!? Ah, shoot he's just staring, quick! Say something, doofus!
"I-I'm, sorry, what- what'd you say?"
You began considering ways to plan your death.
The priest gave a good-natured laugh. "It's alright, my dear." He said kindly, "I asked if you had any opposition to this marriage." You want the alphabetical list or the chronological list? You mentally asked.
"Oh, uh, no." You stammered, trying to be brave and firm with your answer. "I-I have no objections…" Satisfied, the priest turned to Sans "And do you have any objections to this marriage, Mr. Gaster?" Sans rolled his eyes.
"nuthin' i can say in public, pops." He grunted, for a second, your mind was split between "How'd he talk without moving his jaw and without lips" and being a bit irked at him for being rude to the poor priest who was just doing his job.
Apparently, the irk you felt had shown on your face, because Sans stared you in the eye and glared. You had no idea how that worked on a face like his, but you felt yourself giving a spite-filled smile in retaliation.
Is it too late to change my answer? You thought.
"Then, if there are no objections, please bring forth the rings!"
Evidently it was.
Your stomach dropped again, and both you and Sans turned to see a small human child walking with a monster child with spines coming out of his back and head coming up. The Monster Kid was balancing the ring pillow on his head, as he had no arms (you briefly wondered if that was normal for his species or not).
Upon arriving at the alter, the monster child leaned down so the human kid could reach up and hand Sans one ring and you the other. The rings were extremely simple, only a band of gold, with the Makiisa kingdom seal on the ring you held and the monster kingdom seal on the one Sans held.
"Please exchange the rings as I recite the official vows." The priest said, nodding to Sans to start. Sans suddenly looked a bit nervous, his nod a bit slow and his…fingers?
Er, phalanges began to shake a bit as he grabbed your hand and placed the ring halfway on your index finger. The ring felt heavy. The priest continued speaking and nodded at you, signaling to do your part of this half of the ring exchange.
"The groom places the ring on the bride's index finger, and the bride will move the ring to her ring finger, symbolizing her acceptance of this union." The priest explained to the masses, "By moving the ring, she accepts this duty of marriage for herself, and acknowledges her husband's rule."
I can't believe I'm doing this, I can't believe I'm doing this, I can't believe I'm doing this! You mentally chanted. Despite the reality slap you felt back in the dressing room, you suddenly felt as if you finally understood what was going on. You were literally one step away from becoming completely married, and it was terrifying.
You didn't have time to dwell on this, as the priest signaled for you to put your ring with the Makiisa seal on Sans' index phalange. The priest repeated the explanation, but instead of saying "acknowledges her husband's rule" he said "accepts his wife's counsel and promises to treat her with respect".
You thought you saw Sans roll his eyes, but you had no time to dwell on it because the next words out of the priest's mouth was "And with the acceptance of the rings, I present to you: …"
You and Sans made eye contact, fear evident in both of your expressions at the reality of the situation. "Mr. and Mrs. Gaster, unifiers of the Monster Kingdom and the Makiisa Kingdom!" The priest exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air, signaling the bands to begin playing and the people to begin the celebration.
The forced cheers that exploded from the crowd of monsters and humans alike nearly deafened you, and with a quick glance of Sans, you knew he felt the same. Your heart was beating so fast you marveled how you didn't die of heart attack right then and there. You and Sans linked arms, the fabric of his tux stiff under your arm.
Sans walked you down the aisle, well, more like you both grabbed each other, and speed walked (there was no running in these over-decorated strait jackets) and into a small room which was designated for you and Sans. The guards -one human and one monster- in front of the door offered you a smile, and the guard on the left opened the door, allowing you and Sans to all but run inside and slam the door shut.
Upon doing so, the two of you released each other and ran to opposite sides of the room, panting. Apparently, you weren't the only one terrified of large crowds. Sitting down in a chair, you held your head in your hands. I'm married you informed yourself I'm actually married to someone, and practically the entire relations between monsters and humans rest on the both of us and our ability to not murder each other…
Swallowing, you lifted your head up to see Sans pinching the bridge of his nose (or where it would be) and watched as he lifted his face up to get a good look at you. "so…" He said, the sound of his voice making you jump slightly. "you're who i'm stuck with now, ey?"
Ho boy, this was certainly going to be an adventure…