In Which Yvanette Braces for More Wedding Talk

May 16, 1198

"You should definitely go with that last one you tried on. It looked amazing on you!" Alina asserted once again now that she and Laveria and Yvanette had returned to Taurus House. Yvanette fidgeted as Laveria blushed at the compliment. Both of the other two had weddings scheduled for the end of the year, and after a prolonged morning burning off any required transformation time in her room, Yvanette had joined them for an afternoon of dress-hunting. She couldn't expect her life to ever be half-normal if she didn't occasionally go out and about with people who might have been close-ish to being her friends, after all.

But of all her uncomfortable topics--and there were quite a lot of them--weddings had a spot rather near the top of the list these days.

"Aww, thank you! But it couldn't have been nearly as perfect as that first one you tried on!"

Alina laughed. "I did like the style of that one--but it's a little late for me to be wearing white! Perhaps Yvanette might try something like that when it's her turn?"

Yvanette rubbed at her forearm. She was, indeed... qualified for a white dress, as she was damned terrified of transforming mid-coitus and Sevvie either understood that or was too polite to argue. There were also the certain complications that a pregnancy would bring. If she transformed with a baby in her... would it transform too? Could it transform back? If it didn't, wouldn't it be too big for her body?

And yet, Sevvie's eyes kept skipping any time anyone ventured a hint about any upcoming nuptials. Yvanette hated feeding him that false hope. It might have been kinder to steal away to a nunnery and leave him to find someone else: an actual, proper person.

Not that she dared mention any of that to her roommates. "Maybe..."

"You would look good in it," Laveria agreed, locking eyes with Alina for the nod. "Though, if you did decide to speed things along before the wedding, I doubt anyone would really know any better if you wanted to wear white anyway. Sevvie's a Kemorin, after all, and so is his father; Lonriad's not about to bother with anyone checking your sheets."

Yvanette curled her toes inward, rocking somewhat in her too-tight slippers. "We're not even betrothed..."

"But it's only a matter of time!" Alina winked--if only to showcase that she had the same deep blue eyes Sevvie did. "He's my cousin, after all; don't think I don't see him just as often as you do, and don't think he always keeps his musings to himself."

No--unless it was someone else's secret, Sevvie never did keep much to himself. Given enough time, who was to say he wouldn't expect the same from her eventually?

"I, uh... well, I still have a year left here; I should focus on my studies before getting worked up about a wedding that may or may not happen."

Teasing, Alina stuck out her tongue. "You dork. Any chance we can change your mind if you join us for a cake tasting at my grandfather's castle next week?"

Yvanette shrugged. She doubted a week would be long enough to get over this first bout of endless wedding talk, but... well, normalcy.

For all she feared she'd get poor Sevvie stuck married to her merely for want of normalcy. "All right..."

"Good!" Alina smacked her hands to a fold as she turned back to Laveria. "Yvanette can mediate if we both decide we want the same flavor."

"Who's to say we can't have the same flavor?"

"Oh, please. Your wedding is only six weeks before mine, and my grandparents are your aunt and uncle, and your betrothed is my uncle; we're going to have all the same people at both weddings, and they're not going to want the exact same cake only six weeks later."

Perhaps that wasn't the most ridiculous thing imaginable. Yvanette was invited to both weddings, and she doubted she'd be able to work up the energy for Alina's only six weeks after Laveria's--especially since Sevvie would also be attending both.

Not that either of her roommates--or anyone--knew it. Or could know it.

"I think you underestimate the skill of the bakers. If it's a good enough cake, they'll all be wanting it every Tuesday."

NEXT CHAPTER: