Y/N: Wow, okay, so this one has actually been written for awhile. We were writing it as we were writing arc 5 of Digimon Adventure 04, but we wanted to wait to put it up. Between now and new years, you will have all of this story, and quite a few more one shots, as we work our way through writing arcs 1 and 2 of Digimon Adventure 05. We're hoping to be able to keep ahead of the story this time around, as we try and cram in all of the previous plot points that need ending, and a whole slew of new ones. It'll be different than the last two, but we think—and hope—that it will be better too. But enough of 05. We're here to read about a Very Digi-Wedding. You know Miyako accepted Ken's proposal, and now, we get to see that what all can—and will—go wrong! Enjoy.
U/N:This is the first chapter in our in-between story! It's obviously about Ken and Miyako's wedding, with flashes to the future so yoou can get a little hint of what might happen. You're welcome :P I hope you like it... i personally do. i think it's much better than "how iori met their mother" anyway...
Title: Here Comes the Bride?
By: Yukira and Urazamay King
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.
Part 1: Musical Crisis
Miyako:
It was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining; there wasn't a single cloud in the endless blue sky. I was a room in the upper part of the church, with two of the three bridesmaids, and the bride herself. The ceremony was to be held in less than an hour's time, and the bride was freaking out.
"It's not going to work," she said frantically. "It just will not work. I didn't even remember anything blue. How could I forget that? No. It's probably just best to just call this thing off. It's not meant to happen. This is a sign."
"Hikari," Sora said sighing. "That's not a sign. It's just a small bought of forgetfulness. On my part. I designed this outfit, didn't I? I'm the one that made that dress, the one that bought those shoes, lent you that necklace, hunted through your mother's storage closet to find your grandmother's old earrings. It's my fault that I didn't get anything blue."
"Sora, you're just trying to talk me out of this," Hikari said, tossing herself onto a chair.
"Stand up," Sora said quickly. "You're going to wrinkle that dress!"
"If I'm not getting married in it, it won't matter," she said.
"Hey," I told her. "None of that. You were at my wedding. Did I call it quits?"
"No," she admitted. "But Miyako, your wedding was a train wreck from the start. You didn't even have that much of a lead up."
"We were engaged for a little over a year," I said defensively. "Ken and I just didn't tell you all until four months to the wedding. We didn't want you to talk us out of it."
"I would have tried," Sora said with a sigh. "I didn't want anyone to get married too young, especially when I didn't even help them get to that point."
"You were playing matchmaker back then, weren't you?" Hikari said teasingly.
"Oh yes I was," she said proudly. "And it worked, for Koushiro anyway."
"One more success than anyone else," Kurayami told her, inflating her ego a little bit. She'd gone through a rough patch back then, and any praise over her crest really made her day, even now, years later.
"Well, I would've helped you," Sora said with a pout.
"But you didn't trust me enough to set me on anyone else?" Kurayami asked.
"Yeah," Sora said. "You can't blame me though. You were absolutely terrifying."
"Still are, sometimes," Hikari teased.
I looked in the mirror, making sure everything was in place. The light pink dress was very modest, with an empire waste, for Mimi in particular, and the dress draped out from there. It was light and fun and cute, the definition of Hikari. She'd really done a great job at picking them out. It didn't even clash with my violet hair, which was a plus. There were heels, but nothing too steep, Hikari wanted them to be practical as well as beautiful. It didn't stop Sora from picking out a dramatic pair for Hikari though. They were white, and had a Mary-Jane strap, giving them a look of innocence, despite the four inch heels. Hikari was horrified when she first saw them, but after months and months of practice, had decided she'd be able to walk down the aisle in them—so long as she had a slightly less dangerous pair to wear at the reception.
Sora worked hard to ensure that each bridesmaid looked different than the others, but still looked uniform. That was how I ended up with a delicate headband holding back my bangs—my standard way of styling my hair—which had yellow and pink flowers weaved in and around it. Kurayami had bangle bracelets around her wrist, and a single clip in her hair. It had one pink and one yellow flower on it. Sora kept her hair free of flowers, and wore a necklace instead, and Mimi—wherever she was—had a complicated hairstyle that Sora had way too much fun with. There were loads of flowers in it. Hikari however just had her simple veil overtop of an even more complex style with lots of twists and braids.
Our bouquets were on a small table beside the door, along with a small basket of rose petals for the flower girl—who had yet to show up.
There was a small knock on the door, causing the four of us girls to look at it. When no one made a move to open it, I sighed dramatically and went to it.
"We're decent," I said rolling my eyes, when I opened it. There was Koushiro with a sheepish smile, standing on the other side.
"You've got lipstick, right there, did you know?" Sora said and pointed to the corner of his mouth, which he immediately began wiping away.
"She does that on purpose," he said conspiratorially.
"Come now," Sora said. "She's just marking you as hers."
"She doesn't even need to do that though," he said. He was adorable when he talked about Mimi. "Don't most women wear lipstick that doesn't come off nowadays?"
"She thinks it's funny," Hikari said.
"It is," Kurayami joked. "Mostly because you never notice."
His face flushed bright red.
"Mimi sent me for her shoes," he said, trying to contain his blush.
"Aren't you a sweetheart, getting her shoes for her," Hikari said teasingly.
"It'd tire her out to get them," he said. "She avoids stairs when she can."
"Girls as pregnant as she is tend to do that," Sora said. "I saw she forgot them. I was going to bring them to her, honest. Hikari is just being a little difficult."
"Oh?" Jou said, coming up behind Koushiro, holding the little flower girl's hand.
"Hello Emiko!" I said happily.
"Aunty Miyako," she cheered, running over to me. "You look real pretty today."
"Not as pretty as you do," I told her.
"She's demanding we call of the wedding," Sora continued.
"No!" Emiko shouted. "I won't be flower girl any more. I want to be the flower girl. I look fantastic in this dress." That she did...
"You will," I reassured her. "Because Hikari is just being silly."
"Silly, am I?" Hikari said.
"Yes," Sora said. "Because I have a blue ribbon right here that we're going to weave into your hair; it'll be gorgeous, and it's blue, so you didn't forget it."
"I still forgot," Hikari insisted, fidgeting in her chair.
"What did I say about sitting down," Sora commanded.
"Not to," Hikari said with a sigh, pulling herself to her feet. Sora then climbed onto the chair, so she could work the ribbon into her hair without rumpling the dress she'd worked on for weeks.
"So you're not calling off the wedding," I said, not asked.
"But—" she said.
"One thing has gone wrong," Kurayami said. "That's nothing."
"Yeah," Jou said with a laugh. "Remember my little sister's wedding?"
I knew he said little sister just to get in my good books. I couldn't glare at him when he did that. It made me feel special to have him as my big brother after all.
"It was a disaster," Koushiro said.
Him I did glare at.
"I only speak the truth," he said defensively. I rolled my eyes. He was right after all.
"It didn't go downhill until right before the rehearsal," I said.
"Story time!" Emiko demanded with a grin. "I want a story."
"Emiko," Jou said.
"It's alright," Hikari said. "It'll make me feel better I suppose."
"Yeah, let's laugh at my special day," I joked, glad that she wasn't going to be backing out, and that her panic attack seemed to be over. "Well, the rehearsal was at seven, and at six thirty, I got a phone call…."
"What do you mean you can't do it?" I shrieked. "You can't do this to me now. Yes, I realize it's hard to play with one man short, but do you really need a bass? Yeah, well, see if I give your name out when people ask!"
"What's wrong sweetheart," Ken said coming up behind me and wrapping his arm around my waist.
"The band just called," I said. "They can't make it. Their bass player was in a car accident. He can't play 'cause he's in a coma. They doubt he'd be awake by tomorrow, let alone able to play. What are we going to do?"
"These things happen," Ken said. "We'll figure something out."
"These things aren't supposed to happen on my wedding day," I said. I was ready to cry. Everything had been perfect up until that moment. We'd spent eight months being engaged without telling anybody, just wrapped up in the bliss of it all, and then the last four months were a rush of excitement and preparations. Everything had been booked for ages. And now this!
"What are we going to do," I cried. "We can't get anybody else now. There's not enough notice. We won't know how good they are. We don't have time to go band hunting again. It took us three months to find this one."
"I know," he said, rubbing my back. "We'll figure something out. For now though, we have to run through the ceremony, so we know what happens and when. We'll deal with everything else afterwards."
"That'll just leave us with less time," I pointed out.
"But we've got everybody waiting for us right now. We can't keep them waiting much longer," he said.
"Fine," I sighed. "But if we can't find a band, it's your fault."
"Okay, it'll be my fault," he said.
We made our way to the ceremony site only for me to discover that he was right. Everyone was there waiting for us. My bridesmaids, his groomsmen, the officiate, friends that weren't really a part of the event but wanted to share this day with us as well. I reluctantly let go of Ken's hand and walked over to my maid-of-honour.
"That was me, sweetheart," Hikari interrupted, patting Emiko on the top of her head. I rolled my eyes. If these people intended to scatter interjections throughout this story, we might miss Hikari's wedding, and while at the moment, that was what she wanted, I could tell she was just nervous. I'd been there after all, and I was a natural panic. I could see the signs.
"Like how Miss Kurayami is yours?" Emiko asked to clarify. Miss Kurayami? She had to spend less time with Natsuni.
"Yes," Hikari said. "Now let's listen to the story?"
Emiko nodded her head vigorously.
Hikari was waiting with Momoe, my only other bridesmaid. Ken and I had decided to keep it simple, because we were so young. We didn't want any of our older, more traditional relatives to complain about frivolities and other such nonsense.
"Here comes the bride," Hikari sang excitedly. "You're about to rehearse your marriage! Isn't this exciting?"
"Nerve wracking actually," I said.
"Are you sure you're ready then?" Momoe asked. I didn't glare at her as I might have if it were Mom or Chiziru. Momoe was being sincere in her questioning. The others were critical about the whole thing. Mom was upset with Momoe still about not sharing the knowledge of Emiko's conceiving, and that I'd chosen her over Chiziru was a strike against me. Well, that and deciding to get married at twenty years old. She thought I was throwing my life away on some boy. What she didn't understand, was that this wasn't just some boy. This was Ken. And if I could love him this much even after watching him join the side of evil, I wasn't about to fall out of love with him any time soon.
Of course she didn't exactly remember our brief break up there because of the Queen's spell.
But that was beside the point. Chiziru was now the golden daughter. Chiziru!
"I'm ready to be married to him," I told her. "I'm just not so sure about the public ceremony."
"It's not too late to back out of it," Momoe said. When she saw my eyes narrowing, she hastened to add. "The ceremony, I mean. You don't need one. You just need to say the vows and sign the registry. And you have to have two witnesses to sign as well. None of this big fanfare is necessary."
"But if I cancel it, Mom's going to think she's won. And I don't care who all sees me get married. It could be a bunch of strangers in the park for all I care," I said. "It's not so much the people watching me, it's the part where Mr Watanabe has to ask if anyone objects that worries me. Mom and Dad are going to do it. I know they will. And when asked for a reason, they'll say we're too young and we're throwing away any chance we have of a future. I can just see it."
"They won't," Hikari said soothingly, but she didn't understand. It wasn't her family. She didn't realize how strained everything was, with the surprise baby and the surprise wedding. Mom and Dad were worried about what surprise Chiziru or Mantarou could spring on them next.
"She's right," Momoe said. "They wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of all of those people. They have their honour to uphold, and Mr Watanabe won't be able to accept that as a reason anyway. I'm fairly certain that part is only so people can stop an illegal wedding, like if some guy has a wife already that he keeps locked in his attic 'cause she's insane and tries to get married again anyway, or if two sixteen year olds try and get married without parental consent."
"Thanks," I told her in a whisper.
"Gotta protect my baby sister," she said with a wink.
"Momoe!" Jou called. "Emiko's getting fussy. I think she wants you."
"I'll be back," she said with a sigh. Having a baby was hard on her and Jou. Jou was still in school. Momoe had taken a year off, to care for Emiko, and Mom and Dad worried that she would never return to school. And since the way she was talking at the moment sounded like she was taking another year off, I didn't think their worries were too far off.
"Emiko was too young to leave with a nanny," Jou said.
"She was a year and a bit," I said. "And you could have left her with her grandparents."
"She went back to school later, didn't she? It worked out just fine," Jou said firmly.
"I know," I said. "I told you, it seemed like they were right…"
"Mom wasn't smart when I was born?" Emiko asked.
"She was brilliant," Jou said.
"Then why did she have to go to school?"
I had to push on with the story before I started laughing. But it was so cute.
"Attention," Mr Watanabe called. Everyone stopped talking and turned to him. "We have a wedding tomorrow, so it might be best if we start rehearsing. We can't have anyone forgetting what to do tomorrow."
No. We couldn't. I would probably have a heart attack if that happened. My wedding day was supposed to be perfect. A sort of perfect that just wouldn't work without a band…but I'd have to make do with whatever we could get.
The sort of mindless following that a rehearsal called for was exactly what I needed to keep myself from going into full out panic mode.
I watched as Mr Watanabe led Ken, Daisuke and Iori over to their positions. Emiko was crying in Jou's arms in one of the pews, because Mr Watanabe had sent Momoe back over to Hikari and me. Our other friends were sitting around Jou, waiting to watch the rehearsal. As I was walking down the aisle—walking down the aisle! I was so thrilled to say that—I saw Mimi give Koushiro a strange look. She pointed to her eyes, and then pointed her fingers towards him. It was the "I'm watching you" symbol. And she had her game face on. But I didn't know what it was about, and I couldn't really care less at that moment. I was walking through the steps of getting married.
"What was it about?" Sora asked her best friend.
"It was rather embarrassing actually," Koushiro told her. "I don't really intend to elaborate."
"Spoil sport," she teased.
The actual marrying part wasn't really run through. We'd met up with Mr Watanabe earlier that day to go through the lines. He'd insisted upon it when he found out our friends would be watching. He said something about keeping it fresh. I personally didn't think they'd care if we ran through the vows both days, but I figured I'd let him be in charge. It left us more time to try and find a new band.
It wasn't really until we were almost finished that the whole band situation really hit me hard. I'd been a little excited about the whole running-through-my-wedding-and-my-parents-weren't-there-to-mess-it-up thing to worry about it.
But as Mr Watanabe said "And then the band will start to play, and I will announce you as Mr and Mrs Ichijouji, and you will start walking back down the aisle. You can do that now. You might also wish to run through it with your band, should they arrive," I started to freak out.
"There won't be any music," I whispered, clutching Ken's arm. "There won't be any music and we'll have to walk all the way back in silence, and I'll have to walk out without anything, and I'll be able to hear all of the comments about how we're way too young to get married, because there won't be music to drown it out. It will be horrible. And everyone will really think we're too young for this, because they'll think we aren't financially stable enough to even hire a band!"
"Miyako, honey," Ken said, running his hand down my arm, pulling me into a one armed hug. "No one is going to think that. Especially since that's not what happened. And I'd like to see them say something that you won't have a completely honest comeback for. If they don't support us, then they shouldn't be here."
I knew he was right. If they didn't want to support us, they didn't have to come to witness the event. But it was my parents that I was worried about, and they wouldn't miss their daughter's wedding for the world. Even if they didn't support the timing of it. Or really who I was marrying. Or that it was me and not Momoe, who they were determined to marry off soon, so as to protect her already damaged 'honour'.
They didn't know what honour was. I did of course. It was my crest, and I'd learned a lot about it in the past four years. Family honour, in the sense they were thinking, was not honour. It was about saving face, making sure no one had anything to insult about your family. But honour, was sticking up for what was right, doing everything the right way, no cheating, no stealing, no black mailing. No guilt trips. Mom and Dad really needed to learn that lesson.
"Did they learn that lesson?" Emiko asked.
"They did," I told her. "It just took them a little while. Like school. You learn, but-"
"But it lasts for forever..." Emiko sighed.
"You guys okay?"
I turned to see Yamato was standing there. He was the only one to have noticed my little panic episode, and I was immensely grateful for that.
"Not exactly," Ken said, clearly trying to walk on eggshells. He didn't want to set me off again. It was sweet, but I'm not nearly so delicate.
"Everything is definitely not okay," I told him.
"What's wrong?" he asked. I found it odd, since Sora seemed fond of insulting him, and his need for careful planning, that he was offering at all. Maybe I should've ignored a few more of Sora's lectures.
"Tell him," I told Ken, when I found I couldn't. I wanted to cry, but Mimi was very consistent in telling me not to cry before my wedding. I didn't want to wake up with red puffy eyes that would be hard to conceal.
"Our band cancelled on us due to a comatose bass player," Ken explained. "She's a little upset about it."
"I understand," Yamato said nodding his head. "The band is kind of important I take it?"
"Really vital for the ceremony," I said. "And the only entertainment for the reception."
"Yeah," Yamato said. "Important. So you're going to need one then."
"Yes," Ken said. "We're going to call around tonight, but we aren't very hopeful."
"Well, you do that," Yamato said. "And if you can't find anybody, give me a call. I could get my band to do it if you can't find anybody else. I mean, our music isn't stereotypical wedding material, but it's better than nothing, right?"
I opened my mouth to tell him that though better than nothing his music would be way too loud in my opinion to play at our wedding. But one look at Ken made me reconsider. His eyes had lit up brightly. Here Yamato was, offering to play our music for us—without actually asking for payment I noticed—on our wedding day, with incredibly short notice, and he was bringing the rest of his band with him. The Teenage Wolves, currently one of Japan's hottest music groups, who have sold out concerts everywhere they go. At our wedding…where the groom was a huge closet fan. Honestly, Ken sang their songs everywhere, and he and his mom went to concerts together. They loved this band. The fact that we were close friends of the lead singer seemed to embarrass Ken though, so he'd never tell him that.
It was too good to be true for Ken.
So, instead of telling him we'd let him know, I just nodded and gave him a smile. "That would be great," I told him.
He nodded, patted me on the shoulder and told me to "Hang on. Things are going to be alright." And then he left us on our own to figure out what to do next.
Next on A Very Digi-Wedding: Sora takes over the telling, but can this story really calm Hikari's nerves enough to go through with her wedding? Only time will tell, and the next chapter!
