On the day their wedding was to be officiated, they were no longer a boy and a girl but a man and a woman. The fumbling and the blushing and the heart-racing (his, especially) had long since stopped. They had been dating exclusively for years, were well acquainted with each other by now, knew how they felt for each other, and even became intimate recently.
She had wanted to keep things simple. Just a civil ceremony at a governmental office followed by a small gathering of family and close friends. Her parents could stay civil for the few hours these would take maybe. She wasn't even sure she wanted to wear a white wedding dress, too bulky and impractical for her taste.
But although he had loosened up over the years, he was still a traditional man at heart and seemed really excited about doing everything in the playbook: the vows, the banquet, the nuptial chamber, the tea ceremony, and of course an audience to witness it all.
So she relented. It was his wedding day too, and hopefully his only one. She could afford to go through a whole day doing things she thought were ridiculous, and maybe he could return the favor during their honeymoon.
In her hotel room, where she had watched over the attendees arriving one by one, somebody knocked on her door to let her know it was time. Everybody was ready for the bride to join them and the groom and give them the performance of their lives.
She rose up from her seat, pulling up her dress to avoid tripping over herself, having previously refused to receive help over this. She didn't want them to remind her to replace her tennis shoes with a pair of heels, which nobody would be able to see underneath this dress anyway.
In the courtyard, where everyone had been waiting for her, all eyes suddenly turned towards her. She found this oddly unnerving. She was used to public attention a long time ago. Now, not so much.
Trying to keep herself from falling over, she kept her eyes on the one she was doing this for, who was looking at her with the same expression he had the morning after they first spent the night together. A lot of things made him happy, but this was an expression of pure joy. He did look pretty sharp in his tuxedo as well.
She couldn't help then to smile, and as she got close to the stage he was on, he helped her climb up. His vows were scheduled to go first. As a man who had narrowed down his eventual field of study to either science or social science, he wasn't able to craft anything that resembled poetry. But his honesty shone through, and she had to respond by kissing him even though the script hadn't yet called for it.
The audience didn't seem to mind. They cheered, in fact. Some whistled. A blush returned; the reaction was just too much. Then it was her turn to say her vows. In sickness and in health, till death did them part. She, too, meant every word.
They had flown to a hot spring resort the night after they were officially declared husband and wife. They were both tired, and maybe this conversation could've waited until tomorrow. But something people kept saying to her at their wedding earlier bothered her. Maybe it was his reaction too.
Maybe if she weren't so tired she'd have more self-control. But she did have to change into two more dresses for the banquet and the tea ceremony, which didn't let her hide her tennis shoes and ended with her having to walk in uncomfortable shoes all day. Besides, her parents did get into a verbal spat when they were too close to each other, largely because her Dad was flirting with another woman, a reminder of the reason they were divorced to begin with.
Gohan, I have to tell you something, she said as they lay in bed, both getting ready to sleep. It just had been too long of a day to do anything but.
What is it? He yawned, not sensing the urgency in her tone.
I'm not ready to have kids yet.