Something old; Something New

The white material was smooth as it slipped through her fingers, just from that she could tell it was expensive - good quality, worth the money, but she didn't care. Her eyes swept passed the rows upon rows of dresses unseeingly. Kallie knew that she should at least care, if not be excited, but neither emotion was coming to her.

Instead, the woman, dressed primly as always - black pencil skirt, pressed white blouse, long dark trench coat, the soft material pristine and the sash undone to reveal the rest of the outfit - felt nothing but the dull drum of dissatisfaction. . Her hair, pulled tightly to the back of her head allowed for every plane of her face. Most of the shallow look that had been in it, in recent months had disappeared, though Kallie still fancied she could see the lines of starvation when she looked in the mirror - she didn't tell anyone about it though. Kallie never told anyone about anything.

The sounds of a voice, muted to a point of unintelligence, nothing more than the mawomp of a cartoon character, was prattling on in her ear; it wasn't until she tore her gaze away from the wedding dress in her hand, and looked at the petite owner of the voice that Kallie even realized she was hearing it.

"Hmm?" her look was glazed over, expression neutral. Her usually alert eyes didn't even note the slight concern waver in the perky woman's face before it went back to a wide grin.

"Lovely isn't it?"

It took Kallie a long moment to realize that she was talking about the dress. She looked between the two, almost as if she couldn't comprehend the question being asked.

"Oh yes, very." She managed to respond.

"Are you shopping for yourself? Or are you waiting for-?"

"I'm not-" she was going to say waiting for anyone, but she stopped half way through her sentence, changing her mind. The walls, loaded with row after row of dresses were slowly folding inward, being pulled down by the weight of the items on them. "I'm not staying, sorry."

She muttered another apology, before she pushed passed the woman and was out of the shop, running across the road -a car squealing to a stop as she did so, only missing hitting her by a second - and folded herself into the first sembelence of a seat she saw. Face significantly paler than it should have been, she bent forward onto her knees, pressing the heals of her hand into her eyes. Kallie felt like she was going to be sick.

"Herra auttaa minua."

Spoiler:

"Are you alright?" The girl was sitting on the bench the minister had just occupied, knees to chest with her arms wrapped 'round, chin resting in the nook between her kneecaps, her eyes on the shop before them. Turning her head to look at the minister on her left, the girl gazed at her, her single dark eye brightening to match the other. She had the look of someone interrupted in the middle of deep conversation, but the look was fleeting. She was just herself again, if a bit mellowed out.

"You have the look of someone stuck in a love triangle." Karma informed the minister, her tone seriously. "Believe me, I know the look of such things. I've been seeing the same thing in the mirror since I was in third year. Well, then it was kinda an pentagon, and now it's sort of a triangle again, but more of a octagon, but you know. Things like this are complicated." She grinned impishly, scars hidden by her legs as she leaned into herself, honey colored eyes flicking to the bridal store she had been gazing at.

"If it's a thing about service, I could always buy the place and replace all the workers. I've been thinking..." Her voice trailed off, and she watched the bridal store for a bit before she caught herself and looked back at the minister. "It's barely any money anyway. I'd get more from it." She grinned, leaving the offer in the air.

The result at the sound of the voice was instant. Kallie sat up straighter, a hand rushing to her hair to check that it was still all in place, before doing the same with her clothes. It didn't help the emotions that were raging inside her, but at the very least people did not need to know about that.

"Miss Black," she stated primly for a moment, only to be completely sidetracked by the girls rant. Her other thoughts forgotten for the moment in the confusion it took to even attempt to follow the girl. "Uh.. I'm sorry, I can't say that I quite follow."

Shaking her head she glanced back at the store.

"Oh no, the services was... fine, a little perkier than necessary perhaps but that certainly is not a cause for her to lose her job."

"You look like you're stuck in a love triangle." Karma repeated slowly. She grinned easily. "I know these things." She kept the rest of her story back in the last telling. "Who are the lucky two?" She smiled invitingly, knowing full well that the minister wouldn't tell her, but a distraction was a distraction.

"Oh, not the service then..." She frowned at the bridal shop for a brief moment before shrugging. "I'll probably buy it anyway." She shrugged a shoulder. "Never know when owning a bridal shop will come in hand- hey! Nice ring! Lemme see!" Taking the woman's hand, she held the ring up to the light, eyes latching almost greedily upon it. "It's so pretty." She murmured. "Which of your triangle did you decide to marry, then?"

Her polite smile turned slightly bashful as the girl repeated herself. That had been the part she had heard of course, but the fact that she was trying to deny that she was indeed in this problem, and the other stuff she had added had thrown her head through a loop.

"Just an old friend... and a new one."

She gave a rueful grin and shook her head, blinking slightly as her hand was grabbed and the ring admired. "It is, isn't it. I suppose I owe it to him to find a dress to match... but the place makes me feel uncomfortable. Part of me can't get over the fact that most brides would come in with full entourage. But its just me."

She spun the ring on her hand as she took it back.

"The new one, if you must know. It would have been fine too, everything as it should have been... if the old one hadn't come back."

"Ooooh..." She leaned toward the other woman slightly, eyes shining as she listened. "But you've decided, right?" Nodding she stood suddenly, turning to face the minister, showing her scars for the first time, but thinking nothing of it.

"I can be your entourage then. Come on. We'll go back in, and I'll even try some things on. For your brides maids." She nodded, holding out her hand for the older woman's. "I'm enough entourage for everyone, Mini. You'd be surprised." She offered Mini her hand, an inviting grin on her face. "I'll be the perfect wedding planner slash brides maid slash maid of honor until whoever or whatever gets here, and if they don't, fine. More fun for me. Do you have a theme yet? Do you know where you're gonna have it? That could change everything, you know."

There was a slight shock to seeing the marks on the young girl - vampire she reminded half heartedly -'s face; Kallie was quite certain that they had not been there last time she had seen her, but no change of expression happened, and she knew better than to ask. It wasn't one of those things you talked about.

Nodding her head, she looked back down at her hand, fiddling with the ring slightly. "I have, I really have. Brock's, Brock's a very good man, the best of men really, but... we were just - we were kids. I think maybe we were doomed from the start, as it was."

That was the truth. It hurt to admit - more than she'd like - but, she couldn't deny that that was the truth. Maybe there had been a time when the world had been set to make a life between her and Brock possible, but now too many things had happened. They were different people.

They could still love each other. They just couldn't be together. Not like how they were.

It was with a slight laugh that the girl's proposal brought her out of her painful thoughts. She wasn't surprised, actually. She could see how Karma Black could be "Enough entourage" for anyone. Though she was a little surprised by the offer. Glancing between the hand and the bright smile, Kallie felt oddly compelled to take it. In the past, for her job, this young woman had caused her nothing but pain.

But then again, she was still a child. They were allowed to make mistakes - they had to grow up.

And, hell, Kallie needed someone right then.

"Can it?" she raised her eyebrow, taking the hand, and pulling herself off the bench. "I can't say I did know that about themes. Eli wants to have it on the lake - I don't think I ever can say no to his grinning face."

"On top of a lake?" Her eyes sparkled, almost missing the way the woman's gaze had strived not to linger on her scar. It made her relax slightly, even as she tugged Mini back across the street toward the bridal shop. "What season is it in? Winter would be cool, if it were on the ice, you know? As long as you magically thickened it, that would be a downer, you know? Slipping through ice during your wedding." She pulled to a stop before the doorway and smirked impishly, glancing at the minister. "Wanna see a magic trick?"

Tugging the locket from underneath her shirt so that it resting squarely below her collarbone. Her steps became more purposed, a determined sway adorned her hips, and she suddenly seemed much taller. Pulling on a pair of much-too-big sunglasses, she raised an eyebrow at the minister before throwing the door open. Walking in she made a loud dissatisfied sound, turning her head as she looked at what seemed to be the entire store in disinterest.

"Are you quite sure that this is the place you want, Mini? It's so small. We could go to Paris, New York, even California, for Merlin's sake. This little shop is just..." Giving a brief glance back at the woman, she gave her a secretive smile before turning back to front, as if having gotten an acceptance from the woman. "Alright, alright, this will have to do then. Where is the service in here? It's like I'm in a ghost town."

"Madmoselle Black!" It would appear that someone had gone to get the store owner herself, because the modest woman was all a flutter, talking in a rapid french accent apologizing for the complete lack of service she had gotten since the whole sixty seconds since she walked in. The other attendants hovered nearby, fidgeting just out of view ready to be called on on a moment's notice. Karma kept a distinctly unimpressed air about her, until at last it seemed the french speaker had talked one second too long.

The girl raised her hand and silence fell. "This is my client. You need not worry about who she is at the moment. We need to plan a wedding. I want twenty five of your best dresses ready for that changing room." She pointed to the obvious biggest one. "In ten minutes. And if any of them aren't up to par, believe me, you will not be selling a dress in this country, ever again." They scattered like ants, and Karma allowed herself a grin, taking the minister's hand and tugging her toward the dressing room.

"See how easy that was? You show a family crest and suddenly everyone knows you're royalty." Smiling brightly, she glanced around as the first of the dresses showed up, picking the first one and holding it up for the minister to take. "Here, try this on. hmm... I may need a second opinion..." Pulling out a smart phone, the girl slid open the QWERTY keyboard, typing a quick message somewhere between 'In need of your manly expertise or something pretty boy' and 'take a break from snogging girls for sixteen seconds ey?' with an added 'and bring snacks we'll be here for a while'.

Humming, the girl sat on the bench and waited for the arrival of her second opinion, as well as for the minister to finish changing. "Oh, and if you need help I can... HEY YOU!" Pointing at a random attendant, who froze and plastered on a smile, Karma gestured to the changing room. "Help her get that on, would you. She's a bride, you numbskulls. That makes her a Queen til the honeymoon's done, and long after. Hop to it." The woman slipped inside the changing room to assist her.

"Well... that's Eli for you, I suppose - always a little more creative than me, though I suppose it doesn't take much to be that, almost everyone is," her tone was light as she followed the girl, still a little stunned she was even doing this. Not just following Karma Black, and behaving more like the child than the girl who really was, but...

Well getting married.

All her life she'd... well she hadn't dreamt of this moment, not really. That's what made the whole thing truly unbelievable. As a little girl she had thought it impracticable if not impossible for her to even think that she would have a wedding. Love was... foreign to her, and a wedding, a premise so based in love now-a-days, she didn't understand it all. Then came her school days a little older, but when it came to these things, not any wiser; not until someone had come along and shown her what that foreign - almost imaginary to her - world of love could be like.

For a few brief years she had thought, that maybe...

But then, that had crashed upon her, and she was back to where she started. Love as removed from her as life was from the dead. What room did she have for a wedding?

Yet here she was. Getting married.

And allowing herself to get bossed around by the girl in front of her as the employee's were. It was only with a stuttered half protest that she was pushed towards the biggest change room, and found herself being put into the dress. The material was as soft and smooth as it had been on which ever dress she had fingered the first time she had entered, yet the whole thing felt....

"Zere," the woman who had helped her drawled with a wide grin that Kallie almost took to be sincere, "Magnifique."

Kallie glanced between the woman and the dress. She felt so out of her league that she didn't even know if she agreed or not. Taking a deep breath, she decided that just meant she needed someone else to tell her.

She stepped out.

At first, he ignored the cellphone, more concerned with the girl in front of him than whoever wanted to contact him. And besides, it wasn't as if Karma was in any danger. He'd feel that in an instant. So she could wait.

But the feeling of guilt washed over him, and he pulled away from the redhead, ignoring the look he relieved from her. "You can go now," he said dismissively, not caring enough to glance up at her, already reading the half-vampire's text message and so completely missing the vulgar hand gesture she threw at him before disappearing.

A small frown crossing his face, he tucked the phone away, tilting his head up at the sky. "This would be a little easier if I knew where you were." And then, almost as if the universe seemed to understand, he just knew where to find her.

His expression brightening, he didn't dwell on the logistics, instead looking around him for somewhere to buy candy.

Minutes later, the bridal shop's door clanged open, the blond practically obscured behind the oversized bag of junk food. Peeking around it at his surroundings, Julian gave the wedding dresses cursory glances. Why was Karma here? Spotting the girl, he flopped down beside her, placing the candy by their feet.

"Did your boyfriend propose or something? How'd I miss that? I feel like I should've felt -"

His voice trailed off, staring up at Kallie. "Wow," he murmured. It was only a clothing change, but he felt as if she looked completely different than the last time he'd seen her. "You look - wow."

Something happened with Karma's emotions at Julian's statement, a slight speeding of her heart and blinking of eyelashes that she wasn't expecting. Lying across his lap, she sat directly on him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as she reached into the bag for a chocolate frog. "We're helping Mini find a wedding dress. You're my second opinion." She informed him cheekily. Her fingers tangled in his hair as her eyes swept the minister, a small smile taking over her lips.

"You do look nice... but not wedding-nice. You have to look surreal." She unwrapped the chocolate frog with her teeth and caught the frog with one hand, holding it up to Julian's lips for him to take a bite of. "Next."

The attendant tugged Kallie into the changing room once more, and Karma yawned, nuzzling into Julian's familiarity and grinning. "So how's life been, Pretty boy?"

To say she was surprised to find Julian outside was an understandable, just like to say she wasn't entirely pleased with the draping the girl was doing over her apprentice was too. However, at this point in time she figured it was less prudent to let her distaste be known. As a young man Julian had his right to say whatever he wished.

Though she couldn't help but recall how she had first found the boy with slight apprehension.

Still she ducked her head giving a fond smile at his reaction, "You are only saying that because you were not expecting to see me Lapsi."

Seeing as she had not felt entirely comfortable in the dress she allowed the employee to drag her back to the change room with only a muttered protest of her belief that she could never look 'surreal'.

Again feeling like someone's play thing, Kallie allowed the woman to stuff and tie her into some fluffy contraption that had about seven layers of skirt upon it. Her gut instinct was to say no to the horrid thing that moment - she did not wish to look like a marshmallow - but walked out to the others none the less.

"Please do not tell me, this is the one that gets your vote."

He raised an eyebrow at Karma, the change in her emotions not going unnoticed by the Marked teenager. But he said nothing of it, simply leaning into her touch. It'd been months since they'd last seen each other, hadn't it? And the last time they had...

Julian frowned, a hand snaking upwards to rub underneath his eye. This was why crying was a waste of time and energy. If anything, it made things worse.

"Yeah, I think I got the second opinion part," he shrugged a shoulder, though a smile pulled at his lips. "And I must admit, it is an honour." He nodded gravely.

Looking from Kallie to Karma, he nodded in agreement. "So surreal, that when Eli sees you, he'll forget how to think." Though personally, he preferred to forget all instances in which a girl had made him completely forget everything, he supposed it could be a pleasant experience. Glancing down at the chocolate frog uncertainty for a moment, he still managed to take a bite, chewing slowly.

"Oh, you know," he nuzzled back, humming under his breath. "It's been -" he paused for a moment, thinking. His life had definitely been worse, that was sure. But... "It's been good." He said finally, nodding.

"That is true," he directed his attention up at his mentor with a grin and a wave. "But you do look amazing." It was always so weird to see the girls and women around him all glammed out. They always managed to look so different than they usually did.

Pulling out two lollipops, he held one out to Karma, sticking the blue one into his mouth as he waited for Kallie to exit the changing room stall. When she did come out, the Prideux took one look at her and immediately struggled to keep a straight face.

"I don't know..." he tilted his head, trying very hard not to burst out laughing, even as it sounded in his voice. "You could wear it and start a wedding dress trend."

Karma grinned, wrapping her lips around the lollipop in his hand and plucking it out with ease. She sucked on it thoughtfully, eyes gauging him just as she gauged his emotions. "That's good." she murmured, leaning into him as the door opened once more.

Brown eyes falling on Kallie, she nearly choked, trying to hold back the laughter while attempting not to inhale her lollipop. "Please..." She smirked, eyes falling on the owner of the shop. "If you're telling me that is one of your best designs, you must be out of your mind. We might as well just leave now." She arched a brow, before looking back at Mini.

"You could work that, though, you know." She kept a completely straight face before breaking into a warm smile. "Just kidding. That's completely disgusting. Next." The attendent took her off, and Karma rolled her eyes.

"You want to try something on, Juli?" She asked the boy beneath her. "I mean we are in a bridal shop. Might as well get your tux. I'm sure you're invited, at least." She made a face, sure the invitation did not exstend to her.

Kallie was containing an urge to glare at both the children and the dress. It was human torture, to be forced to parade in such ridiculous things. Did it really matter so much that she dress up? Would it not be more practical to wear something simple, something nice but not over the top.

Something she didn't feel completely ridiclous in. After all, it was supposed to be about how she and Eli felt about each other, not how they looked - he should want to marry her even in her worst outfits, on the worst days.

Of course, Kallie would never let anyone see her like that, she barely felt comfortable allowing Eli (or when she was younger, and in the same situation with a different man, Brock) to witness those moments, a whole crowd of people would crush her.

Despite these feelings, she let the attention force her into another dress, this one far less of monstrosity - a little more practical, a little more her. The sleek nature of the skirt, though fancier than her work clothes, was reminciant of them, gave her a comfort, a security that she valued greatly.

"If this still looks atrocious I give up."

"I don't think," he raised an eyebrow at Karma before glancing around them extravagantly. "Bridal shops sell tuxes." He looked back at her, a tiny smile tugging at his lips. "But yeah, sure." Julian swung his legs, tilting his head at her. "You're coming to the wedding. Even if I take you as my date and face the wrath of demonboy."

He grinned slightly. Her boyfriend couldn't hurt him. At least, not without hurting Karma. And it was that he was gunning on.

Humming softly, he moved the lollipop from one side of his mouth to the other, glancing up at Kallie as she came out again. "I like it," he inclined his head slightly, scanning the dress. Nodding, he nudged Karma. "Whatcha think?"