A/N I'm obsessed help
Dawn was so tired. Tired of everything really; but she might finally have a way out. Her "family" had been very against the marriage. They didn't want to let her out of their sight for more than a second. It was smothering; under constant watch from both her bodyguard and clingy sisters. (Not siblings in canon but you guys gotta give me slack, this is a whole new universe.) It was unfair; they knew she could defend herself, and Outer would get help the second anything happened to his charge.
Shadow, her older sister, had almost listened. She had always been the closest to Dawn, so it made sense she was sympathetic. She was also the most overprotective, but thanks to her abilities to warp through shadows, just sending a text was good enough. Shadow understood that this lack of freedom was having really unhealthy effects on Dawn's life. She wasn't a kid anymore; she was 23 for goodness sake.
Unfortunately, Tsunami had not been as chill about it. She was the youngest; and when her family and friends had died in an accident she had taken it to heart. She took a full 180 in personality. She went from being a sweet, innocent, and compassionate young girl to being a moody, angry, reckless force of nature. She refused to lose another family member, even though Dawn was plenty strong enough to protect herself even without a bodyguard.
She could only travel through water, and she wasn't as good at it as Shadow. So, to ease her worries, Shadow agreed to stay with both of them. Now, Dawn had no privacy. She was grateful for the bodyguards though. Usually they did their best to give her space. Outer often told the others that they should run errands so Dawn didn't need anything, which often took a long time to reach since the mansion they lived in was in the woods about a mile outside of the city. Still, thanks to warping that wasn't far.
Luckily, their bodyguards insisted that they needed to go with. This usually ended up in car rides to the city. Shadow's bodyguard, Blossom, was a pretty laid back girl. Her personality was very motherly and mixed well with Shadow's more protective and silent side. Shadow often opted to do things like paint, so she stayed out of Dawn's way a lot. It was nice on days Tsunami wasn't there. She loved her little sister, but she was a lot.
Tsunami's bodyguard was quite the character. Eight was a slime person, and loved randomly talking to an audience that wasn't really there. They were kind of chaos incarnate, and she sometimes ended up doing reckless things with Tsunami. For example, they once decided to make a bomb out of lemons. Don't ask anyone how they did it, nobody knew. In addition, Eight was a whole eight feet tall. She often had to squat down to waddle through the doors.
Dawn did have one good friend she could trust though. She had such an affinity for sweets and special drinks, her family had hired a barista. His name was Cappuccino, but they usually called him Ccino. He always took the time to listen to her, and he gave great advice. He was one of the people who had helped advocate for an arranged marriage.
When she was younger, Dawn probably would have dreamed of a fairytale ending, with her perfect prince charming. She didn't want that anymore. She just wanted to make it to a place where her family wasn't always watching her, where she could finally have at least a little bit of privacy. From what she'd heard about Nightmare, he was also trying to escape having attention on him. This meant she could live in a new place, and all of those weirdos who wanted to try and woo her could finally be put to a rest.
Plus, apparently he lived in the city. She could stay in all day and just paint city views. Plus, Nightmare apparently lived in the same building with his brother, and had some floors to house the bodyguards and employees he was close with. She would be living in an area with people who would probably want to meet her; she could finally make a friend other than Ccino! Speaking of, she was definitely going to be taking him with her.
She doubted Nightmare had a barista, or would really care. Dream had agreed to this over email; especially since Ccino had been the one to help convince everybody to let her go. He reasoned that Apple Tree was one of the most secure businesses in the world, and no attempt to do harm had ever made it out successfully. Plus, it would mean they could finally stop having to avoid paparazzi asking if she had been taken yet.
She had been anxiously waiting for weeks. She didn't care that Nightmare was rumored to be angry and unpleasant; she wasn't going to look the gift horse in the mouth. This was her way to freedom; and now it was only two days away. She absentmindedly began fiddling with her hair. She loved her dress.
Dawn probably would have looked stunning in any dress. She was a skeleton, yes, but she was pretty good looking for one. Her bones were a pale white, with almost no trace of discoloration anywhere. She was decently tall and pretty ridiculously strong. She had what could almost be clarified as hair; although it was more of a concentration of magic that affected her appearances and stature.
Her skull was covered in a layer of light magic; it looked like human hair. It was wavy, and trailed down past her shoulders. The left half was a light blue, and the right half a light rosy pink. She looked like cotton candy; and her demeanor often was so. Paired with her intelligence, she was certainly very impressive.
The dress Dream had chosen was simple and silky. It was long and plain; with sleeves that hung off her shoulders. It fit perfectly, and came with a long and elegant pair of white silk gloves. They went all the way up to her elbows, and she absolutely adored them. Tsunami thought it was too simple, but Dawn thought that it was absolutely perfect.
It wasn't someone forcing elaborate goals for her- it was someone accepting that simplicity could be beautiful. She may not care about the groom, but she was very grateful for this opportunity. It meant a lot to her, because she was finally going to have a choice with what happened in her life. It was all she'd wanted for a very long time, and she had finally gotten it.
She needed to plan so much though. How was she meant to approach him? As far as she was aware, there was no intention to meet up with him beforehand. Should she communicate with Dream to figure out the best way of talking with his brother? No, then it would seem like she was interested in romance, and she was in it just for benefit as he was.
Should she be polite? Maybe just be herself? What would be more likely to keep the wedding from being called off? She stood up and began anxiously pacing around the room. Outer looked up and watched closely; he didn't want to interfere if this was helping her declutter her mind. Still, it wasn't great for his nerves.
Blossom and Shadow looked up from their paintings; but then promptly went back to having their previous conversation. It wasn't uncommon these days for Dawn to do this, but she was losing her mind a bit. That was the biggest reason Shadow had agreed and advocated for this wedding. Getting her somewhere she could relax was very important.
Besides, it wasn't like they could never visit. Having her out of the house might also encourage Tsunami to find other things to do. She could go crazy in the forest with Eight like they used to. Eight was only about 4 years older, so when Tsunami met her she was more at ease than she had been when it came to having much older bodyguards.
Dawn glanced back at Shadow. She had honestly been a bit surprised when she learned that her sister had agreed to the terms of the arrangement. She hadn't realized that Shadow spent that much time focusing on small changes in her behavior. It was honestly really sweet, and she felt pretty honored by that fact. Her family hadn't noticed that type of thing for quite a while if she was being honest.
She twirled her hair absentmindedly. At a wedding you're supposed to kiss right? She hadn't ever kissed anybody, what was she supposed to do? Also, it was pretty awkward for everybody involved. Maybe she could ask him for a handshake? Would that be awkward or endearing? She hoped it would be the second one.
She didn't want to be his lover; that wasn't what either of them were looking for. She still wanted to be his friend though. They'd have to live together thanks to paparazzi and stuff- and while she didn't think they'd be sharing rooms there was still a low chance she'd never see him. Being on bad terms would be awkward.
Maybe they could be friends even. It wouldn't be the worst if she was suddenly in a roommate situation. Actually, that could be fun. Apparently Ccino could stay with the staff; Dream said he'd even make sure he felt perfectly comfortable! Dawn was very relieved at that. Especially because the other would have nowhere to go without her.
She finally collapsed onto a couch. She was starting to get hungry, so she hoped her stomach wouldn't growl. She hated eating in front of others, so she'd have to sneak off and eat late at night when only Outer would notice. If her family found out about her issue, they'd probably start some lame version of the blame game.
It wasn't that she was self-conscious of how she ate, it's more that due to traumas she used to starve herself in high school. When her family found out, they flipped. They monitored every meal to make sure she ate. After a while, she couldn't eat in front of everyone, because she felt like all eyes were on her.
As the famous daughter of a special family, she should be great with all eyes on her- but she had developed pretty extreme paranoia and social anxiety. She had to get used to people in small groups; so that might be some sort of hindrance at the wedding. Then again, she had specifically requested it be kept small.
Whoever was at the wedding might also be someone who she would have to see all the time, so it was probably for the best that she got adjusted to them anyway. A wedding would be an event where everyone was looking at her anyway. She was going to be the center of everyone's attention.
It's fine. She felt her heart beat faster. Nobody knew anything about her, they'd probably just be trying to learn. They'd be judging her every move. They were probably all excited to meet her. What if she didn't meet their expectations? It would be a fun event, and was her way out of this. What if it's worse there?
Dawn tried, as hard as she could. She tried to shut off her thoughts. Make them stop, this is what you wanted, this is a freedom from prying eyes. You can make friends, see new sights, do new things! It will all be worth it in the end.
She couldn't stop worrying though. She hoped it didn't go like this at the wedding- that would be absolutely disastrous! She would ruin it all by breaking down in tears or something, then her chance would be all gone. She needed this, she could heal this way.
Dawn closed her eyes and took in a deep breath; it would be okay. Hopefully this wouldn't cause any issues- no, it wouldn't. She wasn't letting her anxiety win.