Older-love, I love you. :))))))) (-double chins! hahaha!)

"This is hard," Arianna complained, twisting her ring around her finger in annoyance. Her friends were out of town, she was pouring through weddingy things with her mother. Her mother was lovely, and she loved her, but her mother was OBNOXIOUS.

"What about yellow?" her mother asked, indicating to several lovely mens dress robes in yellow.

"Somehow I can't imagine Severus in yellow," Arianna commented dryly.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" her dad commented as he passed through.

"Well, I'm not getting any younger," Arianna told him cheekily.

"And Merlin knows Snape isn't either," her dad shot right back, leaving the room.

"I think he would look lovely in yellow," her mother said causing Arianna to frown.

"No, he's too pale for yellow."

"There is no such thing as 'too pale for yellow'."

Arianna was fighting a losing battle.

"TWO HUNDRED?!" Severus dropped a bowl. Lucky for him it was plastic, or it would have shattered. Arianna still winced.

"Yeah...my mum is going a bit...over board..."

"I don't know even fifty people!" he ranted, looking slightly insane.

"Er...yeah...well...my family is pretty large..." she looked down at her feet, afraid he might kill her.

"I thought we had an agreement?" he asked, sounding angrier than usual.

"What do you want me to do? My mom has been planning this wedding since I was born? 'Oh, sorry mom, I'm going to have to crush all the hopes and dreams you had for me because Severus is being bat shit scared!'"

"It's not about her, it's about you!"

"It's about me and you!" she yelled back, looking him dead in the face. She almost wished she hadn't, he looked really scary, but she wasn't about to back down now.

"Exactly," he said to her, his voice lethal. "It's about you and I. Not you, I, your mother and two hundred of her closest friends."

She just shrugged, looking past him. "If you don't like it, don't show up," she said simply, walking out of the room. Severus groaned in frusteration and picked up the bowl in defeat. This was not what he had in mind.

Things had not gotten better between Severus and Arianna, and Arianna didn't find it hard to stay away from him. He was moody and sullen most of the time, making planning a wedding completely unbareable. She had attempted to give him back his ring twice, telling him they could just live together in sin for the rest of their lives, but he refused, insisting she have a proper wedding.

"Mom." Arianna wandered into her parents home one afternoon.

"Hello darling. Your dress came," she said, showing Arianna the large poofy number Arianna had specifically said she did NOT want.

"Oh...thats....yeah. Can we talk?" she asked, wandering into the living room only to be shocked by piles of food.

"We need to figure out what to serve."

Arianna stood there frozen. "Um..."

Two hours later, Arianna was pretty sure she was going to be sick.

"Mom...no more..." she groaned, leaning over the edge of the sofa.

"We're not done though," her mom frowned.

"I know...can I just...twenty minutes," Arianna said, and without waiting for a response she apparated to Severus'. She pounded on the door hard until he answered.

"Arianna, are you aware of the time...?" he trailed off, looking at her concerned.

"Are you alright?"

"Elope with me. Right now," she said, grabbing his hand. "Just me and you, no one else."

"What about your parents?"

"We can come back and do that one, but let's elope now."

Severus wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, slowly, deeply, and she pushed up against him hard until he hit the doorframe. He began kissing her harder, his grip around her fiercely tight and almost possesive. He growled low in this throat, picking her up and shutting the door behind them as he carried her up to his room.

"I...mean...it..."she breathed out as he kissed her. "Elope with me." He silenced her with his mouth, tugging at the hem of her shirt. She drug her hands through his hair and arched up, forgetting everything except him and her.

Later in the evening, or maybe morning, she wasn't sure, Arianna had her head on Severus' chest, her fingers drumming a random tune on his arm.

"We can't elope," he murmured softly into her hair.

"We can do whatever we want. We're adults," she said back, twisting so she could look back up into his face.

"If it is twelve hours of making your mom happy while allowing the world the chance to know you are marrying me, then we should do it. I'm only marrying you once."

Arianna's eyes were getting droopy. "Hokay..."

"Go to sleep..." he whispered, and it was the last thing she heard before drifting off...