Okay, so I realize that I wrote this oneshot more than a year ago. But I had considered adding a second part about the actual wedding before, and it was only recently that I had the idea for it. So. Here it is!

For the first (and hopefully only) time in my life, I was willingly going dress shopping.

Argh.

But this trip couldn't really be avoided, I supposed, because the dress I was looking for was the most important one of my life.

My wedding dress.

"Okay," Fang said, looking around the store we'd chosen for its huge blowout sale. "Remember what I said. Find something first, worry about the price later."

"But we're on such a strict budget," I told him. "Maybe I shouldn't try anything on until I know we can afford it."

"No." He shook his head and nudged me forward, into the sea of gowns. "I want you to have what you want."

When I opened my mouth to argue, he looked at me sternly and shook his head, so I sighed and started looking.

All the dresses sort of looked the same to me, but at the same time they each had a distinctive quality that made them uniquely beautiful. I picked out three that I liked, careful not to look at the price tags.

"I'll try these on first," I told Fang. He nodded and took them from me, draping them over his arm before grabbing my hand and leading me to the fitting rooms.

"I'll be out here," he said, handing me the dresses. As soon as I had them, he had his arms around me and was kissing me. I kissed him back, almost forgetting about why we were here in the first place until he pulled away and smirked. "Hurry up, Mrs. Fang."

With a mock glare, I turned my back to him and sashayed into the stall. When the door was shut and locked behind me, I slid out of my thrift store clothes and into the first dress. Then the second. And then the third.

None of them really felt… right. I'd seen the people on TV who went, "This is the dress," and I just wasn't feeling that. I put the dresses back on their hangers and went outside to tell Fang this, and we went to look around some more.

When we came to the first rack, though, I couldn't help my wandering eyes from glancing at the tags: even at half price, they were two or three hundred dollars. We were on the run, and we had six people to feed. As nice as it was for Fang to try and give me a normal wedding, the sad truth was that it just wasn't possible.

"Fang," I sighed, leaning back because I could feel him standing there. "We can't afford this."

Instead of protesting as I half-expected, he didn't say anything, just wrapped his arms around my middle. Both our eyes landed on the price tags, and we digested how much money this demanded of us, money that we didn't have.

"You're probably right," he whispered, kissing my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Max."

"It's okay," I said, my voice not wavering in the slightest. "You know how I feel about dresses, anyway." But my heart was heavy was disappointment. Even though I hadn't been overly thrilled at the idea of buying a huge, frilly dress, I was excited to be having a normal bridal experience like a normal female.

I should have known it wasn't going to work out. Not for me.

0000000000

"Max, you nervous?" asked Nudge, looking at me excitedly.

"Why would I be nervous?" I replied, as if I didn't know. As soon as Fang got back to this cave with our food, we were going to stand across from each other, hold hands, and promise to love each other for the rest of our lives.

Yeah. It was lame. But it was the best we could do. And he was right- a marriage is just a deal between two people. That much, we were capable of doing.

"We are gathered here today," drawled Iggy, who was going to serve as our "pastor", "to join this man and this wo-"

"Shut up," I groaned, slumping against the wall of the cave as a black dot came into view in the distance, then got closer with each passing second. It was Fang, his dark wings beating down hard. As he landed in the cave, I saw that he had three Wal-Mart sacks.

"Here's dinner," he said, tossing two of them to the side. Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy pounced on them, elbowing each other out of the way to get to the grub. The other sack, Fang dumped in my lap.

"What's this?" I asked, turning it over to dump the contents. "My own special meal?"

But it wasn't food that fell out of the bag. It was only two items: a simple white sundress and a little pocket Bible.

"What-" I began, but Fang jumped in before I could ask.

"I managed to weasel that ring away from a street vendor for ten bucks," he said, nodding to where it sat proudly on my finger. I stared first at him, then at the ring; that vendor must really need some money, because my ring looked like it was worth a lot more than that. "But there was no way I could get that lucky again. So… I got what I could for another ten bucks." Picking up the dress, Fang looked at me and smiled, and the warmth in his eyes made my heart swell. "Go put on your wedding dress."

Nudge and Angel squealed and pulled themselves away from their dinner to accompany me to a dark corner of the cave where I could change. And when I was in that sundress, feeling the soft fabric against my knees and how light my body seemed in it, that was when I had a "this-is-the-dress" moment. It may have been from Wal-Mart, and it may have been cheap, and I may be wearing Converse with it- but I liked it. And Fang had picked it out for me. It was perfect.

When I came back out to where the cave was lit, I saw that the food had been shoved aside, and Iggy, Fang and Gazzy were waiting for us. I came to stand in front of Fang, Nudge and Angel following, giggling all the while. He grinned at me and moved my hair behind my ear.

"Please take your seats," Iggy said in his deep pastor's voice, and the younger kids sat down on the cave floor. Iggy, Fang and I were standing like people do in normal weddings, and Iggy had the pocket Bible opened to a random page.

"Alright," he said, and closed the Bible and held it out. Fang and I both put one hand on it, locking our fingers together because there wasn't really enough room to move our hands apart. And maybe because we just felt like holding hands.

"Fang, tell Maximum Ride that you love her and always will."

"Maximum Ride," Fang said, looking at me with a small grin on his face, "I love you and I always will."

"Maximum Ride, tell Fang that you love him and always will."

I smirked, because I was pretty sure that those weren't the actual vows. They pretty much summed it up, though. "Fang, I love you," I told him, "and I always will."

"I now pronounce you man and wife!" Iggy said. "Fangster, you may kiss the bride."

The Bible was removed from under our hands, and Fang cupped my face and pulled it to his. I tilted my head up and kissed him back while our flock whooped around us.

My wedding was in a cave.

We made our vows by swearing on a pocket Bible.

I wore Converse and a sundress that was bought at a Roll Back price.

It couldn't have been better.

I really hope this captures the message I'm trying to get across of what love really is. I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out.

Let me know how you liked it!