What if we took over a beach? Imagine.
who: Helena and Harley What: Wedding planning when: Recent Where: Their house Status: complete Rating: PG-13
The trip had been a good one. Harley had gotten to meet the rest of Helena’s family, Christina had gotten an awesome birthday party, and then the three of them had taken their own tour of the UK. Now they were back home in California. Christina got to meet the new babies, the hyenas, that had joined their family while Christina had been in London. But now they were all home, Christina was settled, and things were back to normal.
Or at least as normal as life in Orange County ever got. After all, Helena was the one hundred and forty-nine year old father of science fiction, and Harley was a little bit on the wrong side of the law. But that was par for the course here, and they were getting along well enough. Though there was a wedding that needed planning, and Helena was sitting with her laptop and a notebook, though she wasn’t yet looking anything up. She was making a list in the notebook of things they needed to go over and decide on.
At least they already knew who was going to be the flower girl, but there was a lot of other things that went into a wedding.
“Harley?” She asked as she jotted down a couple more things on her list.
Harley skidded into the room, wearing her socks, a tyedyed t-shire and booty shorts. It looked like she’d just gotten out of the shower. She danced a bit to hidden music as she skated over to her wife. “Ya rang?”
The smell of shampoo and soap hit her before she looked up, cluing her in as to Harley being fresh from a shower. She looked up and smiled. “Are you in the mood for doing some wedding planning? I’ve started a list of things we need. A list that will probably grow quite a bit before we finish.”
Her hair was a little damp, and freshly dyed. She leaned over the back of the couch and snuck a kiss or six before responding. “Actual real life wedding planning? Sign me up. Just no Adam Sandler, thanks.”
Helena returned the kisses and chuckled. “Actual real life wedding planning, yes. Adam Sandler free, and consisting of you and me.” She smiled, then reached out to brush her fingers through Harley’s hair. “I like the dye job.”
“Thanks! I wanted something a little more subdued. Yanno, professional like!” And yet even upon close examination there was nothing subdued about this dye job. Just let Harley have it, let her believe. She hopped over the back of the couch and situated herself next to Helen. “Where we at?”
Upon closer inspection, the dye wasn’t subdued, but Helena didn’t say anything. She liked the color(s), and Harley could pull it off. As long as Harley was happy with it, that’s what mattered. “We’ve got our flower girl and whatever other roles we would like Christina to be, and we’ve got an idea on who to invite. I suppose we should decide whether we want an indoor or an outdoor wedding. I’m not religious, but if you wanted a wedding in a church or synagogue or something, I would not be opposed.”
“Lets go with the out doors. Like big flowy tents and places to hide if it rains, and we can have performers! LIke a circus! Only not a circus because they abuse their animals but you know what I mean. And how about a fireworks show for when we kiss?”
Helena circled ‘outdoors’ on her list. “We can take a look at various parks around here, see which one we think would fit best.” She smiled. “I know what you mean. Perhaps a string quintet, or a band of some sort? Perhaps an illusionist, or a troupe similar to Cirque du Soleil? And I would love fireworks. Both literal and figurative.”
“What if we took over a beach? Imagine.” She moved her hand as if laying out the scene. “The sun is setting, all shiny on the ocean, there’s the sound of seagulls, godzilla is there, and then FIREWORKS!”
“If godzilla was there, pretty certain the fireworks would be aimed at him. And he would not wish to ruin our wedding lest he wish to deal with at least one angry bride.” Helena smirked a bit. “But I think a wedding on the beach would be more than beautiful. The perfect accessory to my stunningly beautiful wife.”
An angry science bride who could probably find a way to beat him. Harley draped herself over her wife, smiling brightly. “I don’t care if there’s a tsunami coming, we’re having our beach wedding!”
Oh she would definitely find a way to defeat godzilla or whatever else tried to ruin their wedding. Helena grinned and pressed a kiss to Harley’s cheek. “Beach wedding with tents. And a wide selection of desserts, of course.” Helena did have a bit of a sweet tooth.
“A huge, huge selection of desserts.” Harley kissed Helena back, letting it linger a bit longer than necessary. A few years ago she would have laughed at the idea of loving someone enough to marry them. But that was before she’d met Helena. Even if a part of her would dearly love to add a third.
“And a very large wedding cake.” Helena didn’t mind the lingering kiss. In fact, she relished it. She’d believed she would never seriously date, let alone marry, someone again after Christina’s father had left her in the dust. But Harley had come along and proven her wrong. Though she also wouldn’t mind adding someone else in either. They just hadn’t quite found someone else yet.
That third person would have to be the right sort of person, and Harley didn’t know anyone in the waking world who’d put up with her and be okay in a poly marriage. She also wondered if they could get a wedding cake mountain. Something that could feed a thousand people, or give a hundred people very large sliced of cake. Harley was happy with either option. Or maybe they could do a themed cake. “That Duff guy that does those special cakes is in the LA area, we should hit him up for something huge and amazing!”
That would be something they’d discuss at length if either, or both, of them found someone who could potentially be added in. But for now, there were other things to focus on. “Oh excellent idea. We should see about getting an appointment for consultation there.” Helena added that note. “Though I suppose we should also pick a date. Obviously something when it’s still warm enough that a beach wedding wouldn’t be considered too cold, though something far enough out to allow for things like the cake and food to be properly arranged and the like. Late August? Early September?”
“He has this show and one time the cake was on fire, and another time they made like this awesome replica of - oh my god H.” She grabbed her wife’s shoulders. “Scale replica of Gotham city! Eh? Eh? Eh too much.” Harley settled down and tapped her lip. “Late august sounds good. Should be nice an’ warm still!”
“A scale replica of Gotham City? Now that is a feat.” Helena tilted her head. “What if our cake was a combination, such as your diamonds and some sort of steampunk theme?” Now her brain was clicking on potential images for their cake. “Late August it shall be!”
“....I like how you think.” Steampunk meets jesterpunk! Harley already had a few ideas and maybe she’d sketch some as examples later. She pulled out her phone to look at the calendar. “How about the 27th? That’s a Saturday!”
“You’re welcome,” she responded with a sly smirk. Helena would have to see what ideas Harley came up with for the cake. Though an entirely different thought about what to do with the diamond pattern that seemed to be associated with Harley came to mind. She filed that thought away for consideration later on. “The 27th sounds perfect to me. We’ll see what beaches we can reserve for that day, then have the arduous task of picking one.”
“If its big enough we’ll have to put out some extra dough. I want this to go super smooth. Might even walk into a church an’ ask a favor of the big guy!” Not that that would make a difference at all, but it didn’t hurt to ask. “Yanno. To avoid weather.”
“I want it to go smoothly as well. Though that may entail gagging and chaining my mother to a chair.” Helena laughed at the image, then she quickly sobered. “It would not hurt to try and ensure we have the best weather possible. We could see about getting tents that have sides in the event that it’s raining we can still have the ceremony and festivities on the beach. Might also make for some interesting wedding photos.” Because they definitely also needed a photographer.
Harley looked like she was already planning on how to chain her mother in law to a chair, and what kind of gag to use. She didn’t want to use anything kinky, that would just be creepy. “Do we know anyone that can control the weather? Maybe we could ask around I think that one x-person is around or something.” Tents would be important, anyway. Even just for shade and to protect the cake from the wind.
She certainly wouldn’t mind if her mother was going to be chained and gagged during the ceremony. But she would just let it be for now. Though they could certainly buy some chain and a gag to have it on standby. “I do not know anyone who can control the weather. I could attempt to build a machine, but that would take far too long to get it working the way we wish it to.”
They already had chain and gags. At least Harley did. Shh. “We could ask on the valarnet! But you really should make one anyway imagine snow in July? Wouldn’t that be amazing!” And welcome depending on the heat.
“It would not hurt to ask! And I am certain I can build one, see how that goes. I did build a functional rocket meant to carry men to the stars in 1893, after all. And I built a time machine a few years after that. Controlling the weather would be a logical next step.” Helena chuckled. “Now, the wedding rings. Do you wish to simply use the ones we already have, or shall we get new ones?”
“New ones,” Harley answered almost before her wife finished speaking. She took Helena’s hands and squeezed them, looking her in the eyes. “I kind of feel like this is...the real start of things. Like what we was doin’ before was kinda like practice for the real thing, ya feel?”
A warm smile crossed her face and she squeezed Harley’s hands. “I understand completely. So what do you say to getting customized rings? Something like the diamond and steampunk theme of our cake? Possibly getting our initials engraved on the band?”
She nodded enthusiastically. She liked the idea of diamonds and steampunk. Diamonds, after all, were one of her things, and a thing she was much happier about than anything distinctly joker-like. “Yeah, that sounds perfect.”
“Then one of these days, how about we go visit some jewelers and see about designing them?” Helena wasn’t certain how long it would take for the rings to be made, but best to have them started as soon as possible. She glanced down at their hands, brushing her thumb over the ring on Harley’s left ring finger. “Though I seem to be forgetting a step in all of this.” She smirked a bit, letting go of one of Harley’s hands as she shifted to kneel on the floor. She pulled a diamond ring out of her pocket, holding it up as she held Harley’s left hand in hers.
“Harleen Quinzel-Wells, will you marry me?” Because after all, there needed to be a proper proposal in all of this. Obviously Harley had ‘proposed’ when she’d brought the topic up, but Helena wanted to make it an official thing.
“I’m game for that!” It sounded like a lot of fun, and they’d probably end up bothering the jewellers for like ever. It would be worth it. For them at least. “Wait, what are you….oh!” She got a little choked up on the last word. Harley couldn’t believe it, had never expected it, and was now faced with unexpected, if not unwelcome emotions. A dozen jokes floated through her mind, but she only managed to exclaim, “Yes! A hundred times yes!”
There’d been a few times on their trip when Helena had debated proposing properly, but the timing hadn’t quite felt right to her. Helena had wanted it to be more spur-of-the-moment to catch Harley off-guard. And it seemed as though it worked from Harley’s reaction. Helena grinned widely and brightly as she slid the ring onto Harley’s finger. She then leaned up and wrapped her arms around her wife and gave her a nice big kiss.
Spur of the moment tended to be how Harley lived her life. She rarely thought more than a few weeks ahead, and even that was usually a checklist of things she wanted. It currently consisted of Helena, Christina, her babies (both canine and Hyena form), a windmill, and that nebulous third party to share heart and bodies with.
But the marriage. The real wedding. That was a good start.
While Helena was a romantic at heart, she could easily be more spontaneous with things, such as actually proposing. A nice romantic, candlelit dinner with all the bells and whistles and hints that a proposal was coming had crossed her mind, but she didn’t want to be predictable. Helena could, in some respects, be predictable, mostly where Christina was concerned, and in her job and other such things. But she also enjoyed having the element of surprise, doing unexpected things for those she cared about.
“I love you,” she said with a wide, bright smile as she settled back on the couch beside her wife.
“Love ya too.” Harley snuggled in. Life was good, and no matter what happened, she finally had things she could count on.