With Tongues of Fire

|Prologue|

Ai had been ignoring her parents all day.

They had been sent messages, been trying to facetime, and had even gone so far as to message Rachel too. It was unrelenting.

She knew exactly what they wanted to talk about, she had seen the message on her notification bar when they had decided to message her at 3am in the morning— though considering the time difference between Japan and the UK she knew that it wasn't entirely their fault.

She had refused to respond, or to even open the message. Especially not on this day of all days.

If her anger at her parents had been fierce before for going behind her back and against her wishes to arrange her marriage, then it was kindled all the fiercer at them for choosing this specific day to ruin for her.

It was her best friend's wedding day for goodness sake! It was supposed to be a day full of joy and celebration, especially celebration considering Rachel and Killian had walked through hell and back again just to make their relationship happen.

The last thing Ai wanted was to spend the day wallowing in her own self pity. She was going to be there for her friend, to celebrate, to be happy for her friend. She was not going to think about what wedding bells meant for her own impending doom.

Rachel tapped her shoulder gently, her warm fingers against her cold skin snapping her out of her daydream. Her friend was watching her with gentle concern, her brows furrowed, threatening to crease her makeup. 'Are you okay?'

'Thinking about that open bar,' Ai brushed her off with a half hearted joke. The rest of the week had gone by amazingly, Rachel had absolutely glowed for the Hindu ceremony yesterday though she seemed to be far more nervous for today.

It didn't help that apparently Killian's entire town would be attending their ceremony (Ai very much suspected that Rachel was keeping something about that from her,) not to mention Diana's little tryst with the hair gel earlier.

"Are you sure?" Rachel fretted, her brows furrowed, her nervous hands smoothing over her dark blue dress. It was the mother in her, Ai knew, that would try to distract herself by trying to take on and figure out everyone else's worries but her own.

'I'm alright, Rach, I promise.' Ai smiled, it didn't quite reach her eyes, as much as she wanted to spill her guts to her friend, it would be unfair for her to do it here or now. The bride had enough on her plate as it was... like the fact they were running late for a start. 'Besides, don't we have your wedding ceremony to get to?'

'Alright...' Rachel eased off to Ai's relief, though it seemed half hearted. Ai almost expected her to protest a little more, only when she continued to sign Ai realised she had been cornered. 'But we are going to talk about this, maybe next week over coffee or something, 'kay?'

Ai just nodded, knowing that if she did anything else, Rachel would press an answer out of her and they didn't have time for that. Instead, she scooped Diana up into her arms and gestured towards the door collecting the girl's diaper bag on the way.

Her nude pumps clacked against the concrete as she walked, the pink mermaid cut dress swishing around her as she went. By the time she got Diana into the car and settled, Rachel had come down and was ready to go— they piled into her little Volkswagen and took off down the road.

***

The wedding party stood waiting in the foyer when they arrived. Rachel had fretted on the drive over about the rain ruining their outdoor ceremony and was both relieved and disappointed to hear that Killian's friend Leandra had made sure things would run smoothly, albeit indoors.