FWF Ficlets: Something New
Featuring the lovely @shannaraisles‘s absolutely endearing Felicitas de Campana. Set in the Beastly AU.
“Fabs, you have got to hold still, or one of these pins is going to end up going through your skull and I am not explaining blood stains on your dress.”
Princess Felicitas de Campana, very soon to be Princess Felicitas Theirin, flashed a grin in the reflection of the mirror but settled down slightly. “I am sorry, Thea. I am simply excited. Were you not excited on your wedding day?”
Theadosia Mac Tir bit her lower lip slightly, considering her answer as she carefully arranged the crystalline rose hair pins in her friend’s hair. “Yes and no? Had we our way, Loghain and I would have simply eloped and not bothered with any of it, but my people… my friends… They deserved something to celebrate. We had all lived too long in the darkness and isolation.”
Fabs reached a hand back to rest briefly on Thea’s, a sweet, comforting smile on her lips. The pair were, perhaps, the unlikeliest of friends, and yet there was a certain rhyme and reason to their companionship. Both intelligent, clever young women who had found themselves far from their native homes. Granted, Thea had fair run from hers while Fabs had left hers only for true love, but still. More to the point, Fabs had treated Thea with kindness, something she was still not entirely used to even now. When her new friend had asked her to be her maid of honor, there was no way Thea would have ever told her ‘no.’
“They also both know perfectly well I would have hunted them down and given them an impressive lecture if they had skipped out on the wedding they promised me,” Anora added drily. She and Cataline were neatly arranging the skirts of Fabs’s wedding gown and doing a last minute check for wrinkles.
“Some of us had been waiting for her to admit she actually had feelings for him for years,” Cataline chimed in, offering her cousin a sweet smile when the latter turned to give her a flat gaze.
This sent a fresh wave of giggles rolling through Fabs, and Thea could not help but smile a bit as well. “It is all so romantic,” Fabs sighed happily.
“Says the woman who is giving up her home and her crown to marry the man she loves,” Thea retorted, but her tone was kinder than many were accustomed to. “The two of you together are nearly sweet enough to give me a stomachache.”
“Tease me all you like, my Lady Mac Tir,” Fabs replied airily, standing up and moving over to where Cataline and Anora, her bridesmaids, were waiting to help her into her gown, “But I saw the way your eyes lit up when Loghain surprised you with those sunflowers the last time I visited.”
“Well, Alistair was willing to risk his life just to bring you a single rose, so-”
“What?” Fabs interrupted her, confusion written in her expression. Thea raised a brow in her direction.
“He never told you?” She asked. “About the day we met?”
Anora gave a brief snort, then shrugged at the look of question in her friends’ faces. “He swore me to secrecy, and I felt so bad for the poor boy I never told.”
Thea rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “Fabs, he was stealing a rose from my garden. For you. Something along the lines of how it was ‘perfect, just like she is.’”
“I remember that!” Anora broke out in laughter, briefly pausing in her careful buttoning up of the gown. “Andraste’s blood, it was bad, but it was adorable.”
“Thea… you don’t even like roses,” Fabs protested.
“She was looking for a reason,” Cataline pointed out drily. “Remember, Fabs, we were getting desperate at that point. Someone would have come looking for Alistair; all the better that Anora was there too. That way we had someone to send back with word to the castle.”
“I would have come after him,” Fabs announced stubbornly.
“Exactly,” Cat agreed. “Because you are just as hopelessly in love with him as he is with you. And you would have dragged Loghain and the entire imperial army along with you. So either way,” she neatly tied the lacing off with a bow and gave a satisfied nod, “It worked out beautifully.”
Fabs’ face lit up. “Yes. It truly did.”
“Alright.” Anora stood up and placed her hands on her hips, reviewing their work. “You look absolutely stunning, Fabs. Now we just need the objects for the rhyme.” Matching looks of confusion settled onto the faces of Thea and Fabs, and Anora gave a brief huff of exasperation, then turned to Cataline. “How do they not know?”
Cataline shrugged, laughing softly. “I think it’s a Fereldan thing, Nora. We didn’t even think of it for Thea’s wedding because she already had everything for it and we simply wanted to make sure her and Loghain didn’t try and run off.”
“Is someone going to explain this ‘rhyme’?” Fabs asked, her expression wary.
“‘Something old, something new,’” Anora began.
“‘Something borrowed, and something blue,”’ Cataline finished. “Thea’s tiara was old; a Cousland heirloom. The wyvern locket Loghain gave her on their wedding day was new, she borrowed my sapphire drop earrings, and her gown was blue.”
“Your gown is new,” Anora pointed out, “and your rose hairpins are old, from your family yes? And here,” Anora pulled a golden rose pin from her own carefully braided hair and tucked it neatly amidst the colorful crystals, “Something borrowed.”
“And something blue.” Thea took Fabs’ right hand in hers and slipped a golden ring set with a starcut aquamarine. It looked, in fact, very much like the rings Anora, Cataline, and Thea herself wore on their right hands. Fabs stared at Thea for a moment, then threw her arms around her neck and hugged her fiercely.
“We were going to give it to you later, but as it seems no one saw fit to explain the tradition to me,” Thea shot a withering glance at Anora and Cataline, “Now seems as good as time as any.”
“We know it is not easy leaving behind your homeland, and your family and friends and the life you grew up with,” Cataline offered gently.
“But you will always have a place here, with us.” Anora added as both women came and joined in the hug.
“Andraste’s ass, you really are going to put me into a sweets coma,” Thea grumbled, but she also made no move to leave.
“Thank you. All of you.” Fabs smiled, then took a deep breath.
