To All Those Brave and Lovely

Wedding Plans

There's a wedding to plan.

Nora hadn't really thought of everything that had to be put into a wedding before.  She'd always been in the position where she could just show up and eat the food selection that someone else had slaved over, admiring decorations that she must have thought just hung themselves and thinking that it was a lot of bother for just one day.  Now, though, she's looking back on every wedding she'd ever gone to (not that there had been many, other than a few cousins and an aunt and one girl from her volleyball team who got married in her backyard right after graduation) with a new set of eyes, appreciating every tiny detail that much more.  

Because it takes a lot of work.

"I don't need to check with Tony about how to fold the napkins,"  Pepper was saying, waving her hand at the picture on the screen that Natasha was showing both her and Nora.  "He's probably going to be on the verge of a panic attack all day until the ceremony starts, he won't bother to look at the napkins."

"He might."  Natasha had dropped in on SHEILD business and then just decided to stay, and now it seemed like she was having more fun than anyone else in the room.  (Which was just Nora and Pepper.  Nora's the official helper with all the planning, and she's really bad at color coding).  "And do you really think this is the fold that he'd want to go with?"

"And what should we go with instead?  The ones that are folded up like tiny doves?"  Pepper holds up a hand to stop both of them before they could stop talking, waving the question away and writing something down on her check list.  "That was a joke.  Simple is better.  These are the ones we're going with."

Nora snorted.  That's the one they had started with, and then they'd argued back and forth for a good ten minutes before going back to the first option.  They always end up going with the first option that catches Pepper's eye, because she always seems to know what she wants even before she sees it.  

Nora doesn't even know why she's here, really, if Pepper keeps making decisions without ever needing to ask her for a second opinion.  When she says so, Pepper frowns at her, reaching over to swat at her arm before taking a long swallow from her diet mountain dew.  (That's how Nora knows that this more stressful for her than she's letting on-Pepper only drinks soda when she's stressed.  Something about the carbonation calming her down.  And from the look on Natasha's face, she noticed it too.  But that's not surprising.  She's a spy.)

"Don't be silly."  Pepper was already moving on to the next page, and it looked like they were going to waste another half hour talking about flowers.  "You have to be here.  You're the maid of honor.  They have to help plan everything."

"Including the bachelorette party."  Natasha got up to leave, gathering her purse up.  "But seeing as how I'm not- I'll be on my way out."

"What are you talking about?"  Pepper spins away from the computer to glare at her.  "You have to stay, too.  Your schedule's clear today, I had Tony hack in to check."

Natasha froze for a moment, then let her purse fall back to the table.  She'd do whatever Pepper asked her to (there was a weird bond between them) but she always liked to make her work for it.  "And why do I need to do that?"

"You're my bridesmaid."  Pepper waved a hand and took another drink from her mountain dew.  when she set it down, Nora moved it out of her reach.  She'd already gone through an entire two liter.  "Well, you,  my sister, and my college room mate.  Didn't I tell you?"

"No."  Natasha, for all her careful spy training, could not have hid the surprise that had come from this announcement.  "Why am I a bridesmaid?"

Maybe she was expecting to be on security detail, just in case, or something.  Nora knew that Natasha wasn't used to having friends, to letting people in, but Pepper sort of just steamrolls her way through things like that.  "Because you're my best friend."  Pepper said it like it was a fact, but it seemed like it was news to Natasha.  "And you're one of Tony's closest friends, too.  It wouldn't seem right without you." She clicked on a flower arrangement without asking either of their opinions, then kept going.  "I already checked in with Fury.  The only thing that could pull you away is a national emergency, and the wedding would be canceled anyways if that happened, because Tony would be off playing superhero."