Meet cute Marathon: A's parents have been hassling them with the same old thing for years: "why haven't you found someone yet?" Not wanting to spend another aggravating Christmas dinner with the family alone, A calls up a friend and tells the friend that they needs a date to take to dinner. As a result, the friend sends an acquaintance, B, to pretend to be a loving partner of six months.

(Scavenger Hunt: write a family fic.) (Insane House: Plot Point - Meeting someone's family for the first time) (Fem Feb: padma/luna) (Char App 5. (Relationship) Father) (Disney C2: Abu - Write about a faithful Pet) (Francis Goldsmith: (character) Lily Evans-Potter, (word) pregnant, (setting) garden, (object) diary, (emotion) hope, (action) pleading) (Showtime 10. A Sentimental Man - (relationship) Father/Child) (Buttons: D4: "Does s/he know?") (Lyric Alley: 14. But I get a little lonely) (Liza's Loves. 8. Blushing Bride - Write about a woman on her wedding day) (Jenny's Jovial Quotes: "If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them." - Sue Grafton) (365. trope: fake dating 0 (Snek 46. Australian scrub python- (word) luxury) (Library: Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll; (Item) clock; (action) Falling; "Who are you?")


Parvati is tired of this.

She loves her family, she really does. She's always been her father's daughter, quick to anger but just as quick to joy. Padma is like their mother, quieter and more reserved, but Parvati has always been more like their father.

But her mother won't stop asking when she's going to find a steady relationship. And now Padma's getting married and her mother's insistence is only getting sharper.

So it is that a week before the wedding, she winds up calling Seamus in a fit of desperation.

"Seamus, please, for the love of the gods, tell me you can find me a date in the next week. My mother is driving me insane."

"Well hello to you too, Parvati. So nice to hear from you. Yes, I am doing well, thanks for asking."

"Oh, shove it," Parvati says, but she's laughing.

"Wow, what a way to talk to someone when you're begging for help."

She rolls her eyes, but she's still grinning. "Seamus. Because you are a fabulous human being. Will you please help me find a date to my sister's wedding?"

Seamus hums thoughtfully down the line. "I'll find you someone. I'm assuming you want the rehearsal and the wedding covered?"

"The gods bless you," Parvati says in relief. "Send me her phone number when you have it?"

"Will do, love."

Parvati goes to her parents house that night, because Padma is starting to get nervous and Parvati took the whole week off in advance, figuring this might happen.

She walks in the front door and Helena, her parents dog, runs up and puts her paws on Parvati's legs. Parvati grins. "Hey, love. Did you miss me?"

"She always does," her father says warmly.

Her mother gives her a look when she notices that Parvati has shown up alone. "Oh, mum, we have room for my girlfriend, right? I forgot to mention. She'll be here for the rehearsal on Thursday."

Her mother's face brightens. Her father steps forward, cutting a little bit of the heat on Parvati by giving her a hug.

"Love you, dad," she says in his ear. He smiles at her.

"This girlfriend is real, right?" he whispers back.

Parvati tips her head back and laughs, and then whispers back, "She'll be here."

She hopes and prays that Seamus will come through instead of making her a liar.

Her mother hugs her tightly and says, "I'm just so glad you're not alone anymore."

Parvati isn't sure what makes her say it, but, "Actually, we've been dating for almost six months now," tumbles out of her mouth without her control.

And the look on her mother's face means that she cannot take it back.

She looks at her father, sees the look on his face, and shrugs slightly.

So that's how Parvati winds up in established relationship with someone she's never met.

Helena is curled up on her bed when Parvati finally gets a chance to drop her suitcase. "Hey, Hell dog," Parvati says to her. She scratches Helena on the head. "At least you don't care if I'm a fraud, right?"

She dramatically falls on her bed next to Helena and stares at the ceiling, wondering if she can even convince a stranger to lie to her parents.

She really just doesn't want to ruin Padma's wedding day.

There's a knock on her door.

"Come in," she calls.

Padma pokes her head in.

Parvati grins, patting the bed beside her. Padma smiles and lays down beside her, Helena between them. It makes Parvati feel five years old again.

"Can you believe you're getting married this week?" Parvati says after the silence rests for a moment. Padma tips her head to look at Parvati, and then smiles.

"I can, but only because Luna is perfect."

"How did you know," Parvati says to the ceiling, " that she was the one?"

She breathes out heavily. "I didn't. Not at the beginning. But the more time we spent together, the more it felt like we had always known each other. And when I thought I might lose her, that was when I knew."

Parvati finally looks at her.

"What if I never find someone, Pads? What if I'm just stuck like this, a little bit lonely, a little bit bitter, for the rest of forever?"

Padma rolls on her side, resting her head on her hand and looking at Parvati intently.

"I thought you didn't mind. I thought you were tired of mother nagging."

"I am tired. But mostly because I don't need the reminder. It's not like I don't know that I'm alone."

Padma takes her hand. "You're never alone."

Parvati knows her smile is twisted in a way she doesn't mean it to be, as she says, "There's a difference. Between family and someone who's just mine, as I am theirs. You know that."

They hold the rehearsal in the garden, where the wedding will be in two days. It's a luxurious affair. Their parents have spared no expense.

Parvati is starting to worry, because Seamus hasn't contacted her yet. But then, an hour before the rehearsal dinner, one of the maids leads a gorgeous brunette wearing an emerald wrap dress steps into the back yard.

"Parvati, darling, I'm here," she calls, and Parvati pauses, and then dashes over to throw her arms around the stranger.

"Thank gods you're here, and if anyone asks we've been dating six months thanks," Parvati says all in a rush.

The woman curls her arms around Parvati, says in her ear, "My name is Lavender." And then she's kissing Parvati, and it doesn't feel like a first kiss.

It feels kind of like stars colliding.

"Wow," Parvati breathes when Lavender lets her go. "What a hello."

Lavender throws her head back and laughs.

Lavender watches them as they finish their rehearsal. Parvati can't keep her gaze from flicking over to Lavender periodically, but the woman seems largely unconcerned.

When the rehearsal is finished, Parvati steps over and greets Lavender with a kiss on the cheek. She has to bend down just a bit, but only because she's wearing heels while Lavender is in flat.

She points out Padma. "That's the beautiful bride herself, my sister, Padma."

"Does she know?" Lavender asks quietly.

Padma glances at her face, but she doesn't seem bothered by the lie. "She does. And I think my father may, but my mother definitely doesn't, and that's how I'd like to keep it." Lavender nods, and when Padma comes over, Lavender greets her with enthusiasm.

"Padma, darling, so good to see you again."

Padma roles with this.

"I'm so glad you could make it for the wedding!" she says loudly.

And then, quieter, to Lavender, "Um, who are you?"

Lavender giggles. Parvati cannot help but notice how beautiful she is when she's laughing.

"This is Lavender," she says quietly.

"Mum, have you met Lavender," Padma calls loudly. Their mother takes this as her cue and seems to appear from out of nowhere.

"Hello, darling," her mother says. "I love your dress. And your flats. Where did you get them?"

Lavender beams. "These are Harvey Nichols. Thanks for noticing! And so comfortable. I maintain that if high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them."

And Parvati can tell that her mother is already charmed.

Before her mother can steal her fake girlfriend away before Parvati even gets a chance to talk to her, Parvati cuts in and says, "Lav, honey, I'll show you where you can drop your things and freshen up before dinner, if you'd like?"

"Sounds perfect," Lavender says, and Parvati guides her up to her room before anyone can stop them.

She falls onto her bed, laughing. "Harvey Nichols. Oh my gods, my mum probably loves you already."

After a moment she reigns in her laughter, sits up, and sticks out a hand. "Hi. I'm Pavati, your fake girlfriend for the next three days. I'm eternally grateful for your help."

Lavender grins back, looks her up and down, and says, "Seamus did not exaggerate how smoking hot you were. I'm Lavender. Seamus is one of my best friends, and I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm lonely, which is how I wound up landing this role."

Parvati feels her cheeks warm at the compliment.

Lavender smirks a little at the sight. But then she raises an eyebrow. "It's not a problem if I actually think you're hot, is it?"

Parvati's blush darkens and she stammers out, "Oh… I mean. No. Because I also. Think that. About you."

She wonders if she's always been quite this awkward.

Lavender's smirk grows.

"Oh, really?" she purrs. Parvati swallows.

"Erm. Yes," Parvati says. "But considering the inherent consent issues in a deception of this level, I'm still voting on a safeword if someone gets uncomfortable."

"Smart, considerate, and sexy? Hot damn," Lavender says. Parvati swallows again.

"Erm. Pineapple?"

Lavender tips her head back and laughs. Parvati tries not to get distracted by the pale line of her neck.

"Pineapple is just fine, darling," Lavender says with a smirk. Parvati looks at the clock, and jumps up.

"Dinner! Late! We… will be."

Lavender just smiles and hooks her arm through Parvati's.

"Don't worry, love, I trust you to get me there."

Lavender is a thrilling conversationalist, and spectacular at managing a conversation with many different personalities at once. She woos Parvati's mother flawlessly, entertains her father, talks to Padma like they've known each other for ages, and even seems to get on well enough with Luna, which is a feat, because first impressions for Luna can be very hit or miss. Parvati has come to adore her sister's fiance, but it came after a long string of what the hell moments.

Her mother, of course, thoroughly interrogates both Lavender and Parvati about their relationship, and Parvati finds that Lavender is very good at improv, and that they work really well together.

And Lavender adores Helena, which automatically increases Parvati's opinion of her tenfold. Anyone who doesn't love the family dog is immediately suspect.

Parvati looks around the dining table at her parents, who are holding hands under the table and hoping no one sees, her sister, who is smiling widely at her soon to be bride, Luna, who is staring at something above the table and commenting on it with a dreamy smile, and at Lavender, who is engaged in all of this.

This is what I want, she thinks.

She meets eyes with her father across the table, and he smiles at her, flicking his eyes to Lavender and grinning. Parvati ducks her head, and then smiles back at him.

She's missed her family.

The day of Padma's wedding dawns bright and sunny. Parvati sends her blessings to Surya for lighting the sky.

She dresses in her dark blue sari and hurries to help Padma into her own bright red one.

Padma only loosely practices Hinduism (even less than Parvati herself, and Parvati barely considers herself practicing), and Luna practices no religion at all but calls herself a humanist. Though their parents had pushed for a more traditional Hindu wedding, Padma had put her foot down and told their mother that she refused to stand on multiple days of ceremony that neither she nor her bride actually cared about.

"I just want to stand in front of everyone I care about and tell them that Luna is mine. And that I'm hers. That's all I want."

"Then that's what you'll get," their father had said.

And so their planned ceremony winds up mostly Western with some Hindu influences.

She helps Padma do her hair, and when Padma stands up, Parvati hugs her tightly.

"I'm so happy for you," she says.

She hands Padma her bouquet, red roses and yellow pansies, and carefully grips Padma's hand.

"I love you forever and always," she tells Padma.

Padma smiles at her. "Always and forever." She blinks. "You're going to make me cry."

"Hey, now. Don't mess up your makeup," Parvati says. Padma gives a wet, wobbly laugh. "This isn't goodbye," Parvati says. "It's not. I promise."

"No, but things will be different now," Padma says.

"Different is good." Parvati smiles at her, soft but genuine. "You're always going to be my sister."

Padma hugs her again, even tighter.

"I love you, Parvati," she says quietly.

"Love you, too," Parvati says quietly back.

And after the ceremony, when she goes up to talk to Padma and Luna, Luna looks straight at her and says, "I'm glad you found someone to take a chance on."

And Parvati looks at Lavender and she thinks, yeah. I'm glad too.