"We still have no lead on the murder."

Poppy Donovan stirred her drink with her straw, gazing doubtfully at it like she didn't trust the evils behind it. Stars twinkled in her eyes, but not because they were chatting about gruesome murder. "How unfortunate."

"I just don't understand how someone can kill someone and not leave behind a single piece of evidence," he complained, stabbing his own straw at the table to open the wrapper. She raised an eyebrow, watching his frustration.

"Why don't you just ask Lilith to take over?" she suggested, like it was an obvious solution. "She'll solve it in under an hour, like she always does with all your cases."

"Lilith does not solve all my cases."

"Name one case she took over that she didn't manage to solve."

He couldn't answer that.

"Exactly."

The cafe was small and cozy. It was only May, but the two felt like the heavy weight of winter had finally been lifted off their shoulders. It was the first time Poppy was able to go out in a dress without a giant sweater overtop. So naturally, she had to celebrate. With Branch. At the cafe.

"I keep wondering," Branch said randomly, steering their conversation away from their current mysteries. "What hat Noe Montgomery is going to show up in to the wedding."

Poppy snickered between sips. "They'll put a whole damn peacock on their head, for all we know."

They laughed, and peace swept through the air.

"So you're going to be a bridesmaid," Branch teased, remembering what Poppy had announced to him several weeks ago. Jade called her not too long after the invitations came out. Branch remembered when they were sent; he had been at Poppy's flat at the time. Which may have sounded strange only months ago, but now, he was spending an increasing amount of time with the pink haired troll. "How fun."

She made a face back. "You sound sarcastic."

"I am not."

"You always are."

They laughed again, and their little world was filled with joy and delight, where nobody else could intrude, but that was a lie, and someone did intrude. Quite dramatically.

She came bursting into the cafe, eyes wide and panic spread across her face. Branch spilled his coffee, it dripped down his face as he attempted to choke it down rather than spitting it in Poppy's face.

"Lilith-?"

"WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME I HAD TO WRITE A SPEECH?"

~*~*~*~

Things were not going so great.

Perhaps she should have seen it coming sooner, like when she woke up at five in the morning that day to scramble to the bride's flat to help with finishing touches to the seating plans. Perhaps it should have been when she nearly tripped over the inspector's feet trying to make sure his tuxedo was fitting. She felt like a panicked wedding planner all this time, and she didn't think it suited her very well. The same way Lestrade's tux didn't.

It wasn't that Lilith didn't understand weddings. She never really cared to, but as far as she was concerned they were only a reunion of happy celebration between two families, bound together by marriage.

She never really thought she'd practically be planning one herself.

She found out easily neither Jade Watson nor Mason Morstan were very good at planning. In fact, they were rubbish.

Sometime during those months since the near-bombing and today, Lilith found herself inserted in the whole thing. She originally wanted to complain, but then realized how much the couple really needed her. So she went along with it, and everyone teased her about it.

She could not wait for the wedding to be done with.

She realised that things were not going so great that same day, exactly one week before the actual event, after having spent the day with Jade and making sure her dress fit.

She ended up choosing the one she had been wearing the moment she discovered Lilith revealed herself after two years of being 'dead.'

Things were not going great because she had to write a speech.

It was May 1st, seventeen days until the wedding. The big day. The day everyone kept reminding her about, the one that made her so sick to her stomach she thought she was truly going to vomit all her thoughts out onto the floor before them so everyone could see them lying there in a heap. It didn't help that everyone had been overjoyed for the day. She heard it all too well, like it was tortue for her and her alone.

The day she found out, the day she sat there in the pub listening to the music clogged up her ears as she gazed over to him and felt the truth coming down her like a pile of bricks. She thought she couldn't breathe, like somebody was grabbing her insides and twisting them around and around until they were useless.

The minute she excused herself for the toilets, when the song hit it's final note, she made a run for it. She didn't think anybody noticed. No one asked her about it later. Maybe they just thought she had something very wrong with her bladder.

She found her brother at his office. He was not expecting to find his sister barging into the office so late at night, but then again, it was Lilith.

She asked him to pull up whatever files he could on Mason Morstan.

And now she was sitting there in 221B, staring mindlessly at the dress. Her bedroom door was wide open and it hung over the chair in it. At the moment she was staring at it from the sitting room; she sat on the very top of the sofa, feet on the cushions.

Something inside her ticked as she shivered, like she had been hit with a bucket of ice cold water. Satan shivered too, and she thought that was incredibly interesting.

She was alone. Although, that was understandable, considering it was four-thirty in the morning.

She glanced out the window. Pitch black darkness, and the lamps in the pod weren't giving much light. She felt like she was cocooned in her own little cave without needing to worry about anything. She wished that was the case. It was not. She was worrying about everything.

The floor was scattered with crumpled sheets of paper, reaching all the way to the kitchen. Several had landed in Satan's tank, which was why she took him out in the first place. Now he slept on the cushion beside her feet, and she wished she was a turtle for once.

She closed her eyes, notebook sitting on her lap, and wished she could make everything disappear.

It wasn't like she wasn't planning on telling Jade at any time. But as the months went by since November it got harder and harder and Lilith hated herself for it. She felt like banging her head into a wall every time she couldn't find the courage to do it. It was a strange feeling, one Lilith was unfamiliar with. She asked August about it one, and he told her she was becoming more like People.

Lying to herself was hard enough, but lying to Jade burned through her soul.

She told herself again and again, it wasn't lying. She had not not told her about it. But she watched them for months, watching them love one another and be happy. All while Lilith stood back and watched their new life turn into a lie.

She hated lies.

She might've fallen asleep, she couldn't really tell. She sat there with the pages practically cutting through her skin, and she thought she was seeing ink blotches on the carpet. Everything felt weak, oh so weak, and she thought she was going to start hallucinating. She had not slept for several days, nor had she eaten.

The needle was still in it's dish on the coffee table. She must get that put away before Catherine finds it in the morning.

When she came to, possibly in a whole other dimension for all she knew, she felt ringing in her ears, and it wouldn't go away. Her head had been practically absorbed in the pillows, and she realized she was now laying across the sofa. The ringing did not go away.

She then realised the ringing was the doorbell.

She thought for a moment she was hungover when she stood up, like she spent the night wasted away in a club somewhere. She was not like that, but that's what it felt like.

Her hair had been a mess and she was wearing a night dress that reached her ankles, sleeves long and wide. She could fit three arms through one. When she opened the door with as much irritated energy as she could, she was hit in the face with a blanket of excitement.

"IT'SSSS THE DAY!"

She groaned audibly. It was much too early to deal with these two.

"Have you not anywhere else to parade around?" She sounded like a tired mother dealing with her two children, which was a big difference considering it was usually others having to parent her. "I'm this close to bashing your heads through the cement."

Daylight soaked in the world, and she was practically being blinded by it. She looked at the two trolls, noticing how Noe's hair had been recently done up, curls at the front and slick in the back, and Max smelled fresh from the shower. She determined he left the house only half an hour prior, stopping at the local bakery to grab breakfast. She ate a strawberry cheesecake muffin. Noe's eyeshadow had been done only an hour ago, bright and perfect as ever.

"Jade called and asked us to pick you up," Max explained, smiling wide and like a child on Christmas. "The girls are all going to get ready at her place."

"It's literally seven in the morning."

Noe picked at the peeling paint off the side of the pod. "Well, Jade Watson just so happens to be a Bridezilla. So, by law that means you must obey her no matter what." They raised their free hand in the air at her. "Don't ask me, it's common knowledge."

"Well that's the biggest lie I've heard all day."

"You look like you've been awake for five minutes."

Lilith stares at their shoes. Not five minutes, the last seventy-two hours.

"Well what, are you here to escort me out?" Lilith bickered, finding a reason for them to leave her alone for even the slightest moment. She had to keep herself from grinning at the ridiculous smile perched on both of their faces. "Because I don't see any carriages or horses."

"Sorry, Your Majesty."

"As you should."

She sighed. The sunlight felt like it was smoking her skin, despite there still being a slight breeze in the air. Maybe she was a vampire now. Not that she thought that, because those sorts of things were obviously not real. She felt like a fool, like she was outside of her usual mind.

"Anyways," Noe cleared their throat at the strange silence that took place. "I suppose this is farewell, my good troll-" They bowed slightly, smiling slyly with a wink. "-until the wedding."

Lilith rolled her eyes until they were practically in the back of her head. She held the door tightly, ready to slam it shut. "I can't wait."

~*~*~*~
{🎵}

The door to the bedroom burst open, and Jade Watson popped out of it like a newborn baby, her underdress bright and beautiful and like silk. Happiness smirked across her face like a fresh streak of paint.

"Are you girls ready?"

~*~*~*~

As Branch made some sort of remark about how he couldn't fasten the buttons, and Noe debated between hats, and Max burst into the room with a handful of clothing, Mason Morstan grinned from where he sat on the sofa.

The room was buzzing with excitement, and he couldn't have it any other way.

"How long will this take?" The complaint came from Noe, who had finally decided on a hat, glowing with marvellous designs and purple colours. Mason laughed in return, standing up with his suit nearly ready for the day.

He couldn't wait for the day to begin.

Take me to your best friend's house

Going around this roundabout, ohh yeah

Take me your best friends house

I loved you then and I love you now, ohh yeah

As Mason bounced around the room, a gleeful spring to his step, he watched as everyone's attention was brought to him, the groom to be, the husband to be.

He glanced up, peering over the boxes of flowers and ribbon stacked high in Branch's flat, and noticed Noe quickly tying the bow tie on their suit before practically swinging out the door.

"Where're you going?"

"I fear the girls may take a while," Noe said with a wrinkled expression, darting past another man in the room who had been dressed ages ago and was now strumming a guitar on the floor. His name was Briffle Riley. "My assistance is most likely required elsewhere."

The room erupted into chuckles.

~*~*~*~

The comb was stuck in her hair.

"If only Lilith was here," Matilda Noble groaned loudly, everyone in the room turning to glance at her and smiling. "She's got the best locks in all of Trolldon."

Before she knew it, a new figure appeared in the mirror before her. "AH- Noe? What are you doing here?"

"Spreading the Christmas cheer," they joked, immediately grabbing the hairbrush and heading to work on her hair. "What do you think I am?"

Oh, take me to your best friend's house

Normally we're making out, ohh yeah

"So where's the lovely bride to be?" Noe asked fondly as the knots and tangles in Tilly's hair vanished from sight.

"Still in her room," Jolly told them from the other side of the room, jerking a finger in the direction. A smile crept upon her lips, painted red. "Getting her dress on!"

"Lilith better be here before so," Tilly mumbled.

"Well," Noe said, looking pleased with their hairstyling handiwork. "She's been a fool to miss such a grand moment."

~*~*~*~

Don't wave no goodbyes

The boys in the room, all dressed and readied and looking like they just flew out of a magazine cover, practically ran out the door in a heap of song and dance, down the road and in a clump. Some trolls turned to gawk, but all they got to see were three men rushing down the street, singing their hearts out. The laughs and cheers were enough to bring smiles to anyone's faces.

~*~*~*~

"One, two, three, four!" Tilly shrieked, and Dr. Jade Watson emerged from the bedroom.

And it was like God himself entered the room, if God were a woman and dressed in the most marvellous wedding dress anyone in the room had ever seen. She glowed like a newborn baby, her smile sparkling and joy engraved in her eyes. The gasps that escaped everyone's lips were enough to express how beautiful Jade truly looked.

"Oh my God." Noe dropped the hair brush in their hand to stare in awe, raising their eyebrows and covering their mouth like they were watching a firework show. "You look-"

"Stunning."

Everyone who once had their eyes on the beautiful bride were now staring at the figure in the doorway, who wore her usual clothes, usual coat, but carried a particular dress zipped in it's bag. She was staring at Jade like she was a queen, a princess.

Don't take me tongue tied

Don't wave no goodbye

Jade was staring right back at her.

"Thank you, Lilith."

"Thank GOD you're here!" Tilly exclaimed, and everyone laughed.

"Yes." It was odd, as Jade was the most lovely one in the room right now and yet she looked at Lilith like Lilith herself were the one getting married to the handsome music teacher. "Thank God she's here."

It wasn't until they heard the loud voices and the stomping and the song when the ladies realized that Lilith was not going to be the last one to arrive. Catherine nearly had a panic attack, attempting to shoo Jade back into the room like Jade was a escaped criminal. But Jade could only grin wildly when Max Hooper arrived at the house, poking his head through the still-open door behind Lilith.

"Max!" Poppy scolded him, smiling through the anger though. "What the hell are you doing-"

"Why did you bring Mason here?" Catherine snapped at him. "The groom is never allowed to see the bride before the wedding!"

And then another man appeared at Max's side, also grinning like a mad man. Lilith thought wedding's made everyone mad, and she might have been right. "Don't worry," Branch assured them all, suit and tie shimmering. "He got on a cab to the hall. But Jade, you really look amazing."

Don't wave no goodbyes

"You do!" Max agreed, and Tilly grinned at him.

"Just know that you will most likely never see me wearing anything this glamorous for the rest of my life," Jade told the men strictly, trying not to laugh again.

And everyone laughed for what seemed to be the millionth time that day, and it was the most glorious thing Jade had ever heard.

If Lilith had not had a worry eating her up inside like there were some sort of snake-like creature living in her stomach, she would have laughed too.

"Well what are we waiting for?!" Poppy screamed suddenly, beaming at Branch. "We have a wedding to get to!"

"Yeah!"

When everyone flooded out of the room and out the door and down the front steps onto the sidewalk, their voices bringing life to everything and everyone around them, Lilith watched from the doorway, wishing she could feel half as happy as they did.

The morning sun greeted them all, ready for the wedding to begin.

Yeah, yeah

Yeah yeah

Yeah yeah

Ooooooo

~*~*~*~

Something inside her clicked, a bug cracking out of its shell, a doorknob opening by the lock, something. She sat there with the glass of champagne dangling between her fingers, moments away from falling out of her hand and spilling onto the floor with a giant splash. She imagined the glass breaking at her feet, then wondered how much trouble she would get for it.

She felt itchy at all sides even though the dress she wore was not uncomfortable in any way. Lilith thought she would hate, thought she would feel the urge to rip it to shreds the moment she was done with it, but instead she loved it. The itchiness probably came from the fear boiling in her stomach at the moment.

Despite her fear, her panic, her deepest worries flowing through her blood stream, she looked peaceful, calm, crossed legs at the table with a resting face. She looked somewhat bored out of her mind, and she was.

Then she felt a swat hit her in the head. A napkin, engraved with Jade and Mason's initials. Lilith spent weeks trying to get them ordered on time. "Stop looking miserable, it's my wedding day."

"I don't look miserable." She took a giant gulp of alcohol, letting it slide down her throat. She hardly drank, but this was the one time she was allowing it. It tasted unbearably strong.

Jade rolled her eyes. "The wedding hasn't even begun yet."

Lilith looked around. They were the only two people in the room, the hall empty.

Lilith glanced up at her. The guests were filed outside in the garden, and she had been soaking up the last few minutes of time she had left to herself, sitting alone in the hall. Said hall had been painted with a lovely pale yellow, the decorations spilling colours of gold and white. The tables, circular, led all the way down to the end of the hall. And at the end of the hall, there was a doorway leading to the dance room, a stage at the very end. The hotel rooms were all above them. It was the perfect place to get married, and Lilith thought it would be a waste cramping it up with People.

"Would it be bold of me to ask you why you're planning to get drunk before the wedding even starts?" Jade was asking her a question, but Lilith's eyes were focused on something in the distance. What it was, not even she knew. She was avoiding eye contact as best she could, hating herself for it.

"I'm not getting drunk," Lilith corrected, taking another swing. "I'm simply enjoying the only time I'll get alone for the rest of the night." She wrinkled her nose, and a smile popped onto the bride's face. "Where'd you even find so many people? I hardly knew you even knew ten."

"Well half of them are Mason's friends," Jade shrugged. "He's got no family."

"Then again, neither do you." She realized too late that sentence would be considered rude. Luckily, Jade didn't even flinch.

Jade sat down in the seat beside her, the one she was meant to sit in during the dinner, before at least fifty other people. Lilith finally decided to look her up and down, taking in her whole presence. The dress really did look divine on her, the design wrapping around the top and spilling down. The skirt reached past her feet, poofy and fluffy, and she looked like the definition of free in it. "I've hardly seen you these past weeks. Honestly the last time I can remember seeing you was this morning at the house. Is there a reason for that, Miss Holmes?"

Lilith rolled her eyes, but she wanted to puke inside. "Perhaps it has to do with the outrageous amount of planning that goes into one night."

Jade narrowed her eyebrows, slight waves falling above her eyes. Her hair had been tied half up, and curled at the ends.

She looked like a princess.

"Stop looking at me like that." Lilith sounded like an irritated child.

Jade grinned. "Like what?"

"Like you're about to drill me with questions about my social life."

"Nah, I wouldn't do that," Jade scoffed, tapping the side of Lilith's glass, noticing the amount she's had already. "Because I already know you don't have one."

Lilith gaped at her with some offense, but it was mostly sarcastic. "Just because it's your wedding does not mean you can be mean to me."

Jade laughed, pure and blissful, and it made Lilith's heart spin in circles like a merry-go-round. She heard that bride's glow on their wedding day, and she never really believed it until now.

Jade rested her head on the knuckles of her hands, looking fondly at Lilith. It wasn't until now that Lilith realized that rather than socializing with the guests of her own wedding, some friends, some co-workers, some of them Noe and Max and Branch and Poppy and whoever the other girl was, the girl who Max practically had wrapped around his shoulders, Jade decided to make her way all the way into the hall to sit with the childish, drinking detective who had been suffering with clouds and clouds of thoughts for the past months.

"Why are you here?" Lilith didn't have time to catch herself before she blurted it out. Jade blinked and Lilith wanted to turn the table upside down and fall into a dark void.

"What?"

"Why are you here?" Again, like the waterfalls of Darling's Fall, it came out.

"I-" Jade made a face like she sucked on a lemon, sour and gray and filled with questions. "I'm here because I want to be."

Lilith made a vague gesture to the door that led to the garden, people chattering a mile a minute outside. "You've got a crowd of people who are here to celebrate your marriage. Why don't you see them?"

"Because..." Jade bit her lip, frowning down at the now-nearly glass of champagne on the table. "You're my best friend. And I've hardly seen you. And I am not one for having to socialize with people who I barely even know."

Lilith coughed back a smirk, fiddling with the forks and knives on the table before her. She wondered if she could try hard enough, she could throw the knife like a dart until it hit something. She longed for the satisfaction of causing chaos, but then she wondered if that would make her comparable enough to a criminal or a villain.

"Well," Lilith said, cracking her knuckles separately on both hands. "I suppose it's time to bring the guests in."

~*~*~*~

The trolls that filed into the hall reminded Lilith of flies, bees, some sort of annoying pest of an insect. They talked much too loud and made her head throb, made everything pound like nails against wood. Lilith hadn't left her seat for a long time, until Max pulled her over to the centre of the busy room to chat with him and Noe. Several times Noe needed to fix the hem of their hat, which was three times as big as it normally was. And of course, Max nearly kept falling over on his head by Noe's long, glorious skirt which was hiding under the tuxedo jacket.

She half listened, basically putting the two of semi-mute in her mind. She kept looking around. There in the corner, Catherine chatted with Poppy. Branch was talking to Jade somewhere in the crowd. Tilly kept wandering around herself, no less searching for Max. Mason had been switching through the guests at the party, chatting and laughing along to them. Her heart went sour every time she laid eyes upon him.

She caught Jolly Stamford, wearing the same lilac dress that all the bridesmaids wore. Lilith made sure Jade was aware it was lilac, not purple. She was standing with Briffle Riley, both holding glasses of wine in their hands.

Words faded out like the leaves of a tree in the fall, flying away until they eventually shivered up and died. Then they were trampled and stepped on and crushed by the feet of people. She stopped listening and started watching, which was perfect because nobody seemed to care or notice. She was in her own world, but nothing was stopping her from falling into a deep hole of toxic thoughts.

Everywhere she looked, there were people smiling. She felt like she was the only one in the room who wasn't smiling. Should she? No, lying to herself wouldn't help much.

So she excused herself from the group and left, pulling her phone out as she made her way back to the table.

It rang four times before he answered.

"Lilith..." He sounded irritated, yet exhausted. "What do you want?"

She sat in her seat at the table, the only one in the room sitting down, and propped her feet upon what was supposed to be Jade's chair. Her dress fell. "Why do you sound so tired?"

August, sweaty and ready to sleep, stepped off of the treadmill and scowled. "Working."

"Well either I've caught you in a compromising situation or you've been working out again," Lilith deduced, hoping it would be the latter. Luckily, as this was her brother she was talking about, it was.

He reached for his water bottle on the table. "Again, may I ask, what do you want?"

"Oh I was just checking in," Lilith said innocently, glaring back at the party before her. "You know, having your big brother as someone so high in the government system comes with benefits."

"Today." He fell back into his chair, wiping sweat off his forehead. "It's today, isn't it? No, Lilith, I will not be coming to your night-do as you so poetically put it."

She made a face at him, like the annoyed little sister she was, despite him not being able to see her from his house. "How tragic. I'll let the happy couple know you were too busy working to attend."

There was a sickening silence afterwards, and Lilith had to bite back at the crawling lump in her throat. She kept an eye on Jade, who was now laughing at something remarkably hilarious with Tilly. Tilly, on the other hand, was already on her third glass of wine.

"What?" She couldn't bear the silence anymore. "What is it?"

August, back in his home, stared like a zombie down at the floor. "And... about the happy couple, Lilith-"

"I will tell her," Lilith snapped, quite louder than she expected. Her mouth felt dry and she could taste metal, so she took another sip of the honestly bitter glass of wine that was still sitting in front of her. "I will."

August bit his lip, hearing the distaste in her voice. "And what do you wish for me to do about the groom?"

"Leave him to me," Lilith told him, scowling at the world before her. "For now, at least. I still need to tell Jade. And then we'll figure out what to do with him."

"Just promise me you won't get into any danger in this, Lilith."

She raised an eyebrow, picking at the tablecloth. "Do my ears deceive me or do you sound worried about me?"

"Anyways," the older sibling changed the subject quicker than ever. "You've been fretting for months about a little speech, haven't you?"

She sighed. She was hoping August would not bring it up, but it was impossible to expect otherwise when everyone (other than the actual bride and groom) knew about it. It seemed her problems were piling higher and higher by the second. "Yes. Inspector Lestrade told me I should get her a gift as well, since it's only proper to do at a wedding."

"And what gift would that be?"

"Let's just say," Lilith said with a mysterious undertone, eyeballing the crowd before her like it was her own personal army. "It's not one to hand to them."

"Oh, lord. How dreadful for them indeed."

"Goodbye, August." She hung up before he could say another word, tossed the phone on the table, and took one long swing of the nasty alcohol before standing up to find someone she could tolerate standing with.

~*~*~*~

Noe had noticed how Lilith left the group, phone in her hand, a strange look on her face, like she just discovered her entire family was moving across the world. Although, they knew she probably wouldn't mind that. Still, something odd was happening with the young detective, and Noe was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Originally Noe thought it was the entire wedding in general. It was clear she was not thrilled with having to socialize at an event such as this. She looked sick constantly, like the thought of the wedding brought her stomach to churn and twist until she couldn't breathe.

So when Max left to go find Tilly, possibly to take her never ending glass of wine away from her, Noe took the opportunity to dash across the dining room to find the only person they knew that knew Lilith Holmes better than anyone. Well, other than Jade Watson.

They saw Lestrade sitting with Donovan at their respective table, the one where Noe themself was going to be sitting when the lunch began. Noe thought it was lovely that Jade decided to host two meals; lunch in the hall, the actual ceremony later in the day, and then dinner afterwards. Anyways, as they made their way squeezing by people, apologizing multiple times for stepping on their feet, they were only tables away from the two.

And then someone came crashing right into them, like an avalanche on the ground.

"Gah-!" Noe instantly clapped their hand to their head, where the collision happened. When they opened their eyes, leaning against an empty table for support, they realized the Avalanche was flipped on the ground, groaning and scowling.

"Oh my- I'm so sorry-"

"No need." The man on the ground limply waved a hand in the air and staggered himself to his feet. Noe was staring at awe at the glorious suit the man wore, a pale yellow with a white tie, until they realized how long they were standing. It grew slightly awkward, and the man raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Noe caught themself, still rubbing their forehead. A bruise would be sure to form, and they were not looking forward to something so hideous to appear on their face when they looked so fantastic. "I should have been looking."

"No, I was the one running," the man scoffed, shrugging a bit. "It's not your fault."

Noe frowned. The man's hair was fine and a pure blonde, and his eyes shone with beauty. And yet, the man did not look very happy to be here. "If it's... alright to ask, why were not you running in the first place?"

The man froze, like he was hiding a big secret of some sorts. "Oh- I, uh..."

"It's fine if you-"

"Yeah." The man looked down at their shoes like they were suddenly very important to him. As he did, Noe noticed the small amount of dark freckles scattered across his nose and cheeks. His hair was the colour of the sun.

Noe seemed to have completely forgotten about their plans to find Branch and Poppy, and smiled fondly. "I'm Noe. They/them."

"Asa. I'm, uh, the groom's best man."

Noe nodded, faintly remembering Mason mentioning someone called Asa. "Ah, yes. What a pleasure that must be."

"It's bloody awful."

"Oh." Noe felt their cheeks go red, and laughed. "Well, maybe not so pleasant after all."

Asa smiled like he was staring at an angel. "And... what about you...?"

"Oh, friend of both. I'm a journalist- or..." Noe hesitated.

They had not yet told anyone about this yet, so why tell a random man you just met a few minutes ago?

Or, why not tell a random man you just met a few minutes ago?

Asa raised an eyebrow. "...or...?"

"I was a journalist," Noe said again, hesitation in their voice. "But... I've got different plans. I'm planning to tell my best friend- he's here- later."

Asa made a knowing look and chuckled under his breath, bringing joy to Noe's stomach. There was something in the man's eyes that made Noe feel like they were the only one existing in his life, and they wondered if that was something that was normal for this man.

They must have been smiling like an idiot for quite some time because before they knew it, Asa was clearing his throat. "Well, I should be... off, somewhere."

"Ah!" Noe snapped back to reality and nodded, fumbling with the sleeve of their jacket. "Right, as do I."

"I'll see you around?" There was a tone in Asa's voice, one that made Noe think Asa truly meant it.

"Yes, I hope so."

~*~*~*~

It seemed that the lunch would have to start at some point, although Lilith was hoping it would never have to come. She sat beside Jade, the love struck bride, and Jolly Stamford. Everyone seemed to be smiling wickedly like it was everyone's wedding to enjoy.

The guests were seated, Branch, Noe, Max, Tilly, Poppy all clumped together at the same table as the couple. All seated in a row, glowing happily. Lilith scowled down at the table. Jade took her wine glass away, and now she could only taste a bitter, foul metallic taste on her tongue.

She was glad that Jade blocked her view of Mason.

Then the next thing she knew, Jade was tapping the side of her glass with a fork, the tune chiming through the hall until she was joined by every single other guest. Lilith found herself doing the same thing, although she didn't exactly feel like it.

"Hello, everyone," Jade said cheerfully in front of the crowd, and Liltih would be lying if she said she didn't feel the slightest bit surprised she was managing to speak in front of a crowd of at least fifty. "Uh, I just wanna thank you all for showing up, you all look fantastic. We're going to be starting with some speeches first, since apparently everyone here is utterly obsessed with me."

Lilith could have sworn Jade winked at her, but she was too busy dealing with the knot forming in her stomach at the moment Jade uttered the word "speeches."

"Wait!"

Jade was clearly not expecting to be interrupted, especially not by two voices at once. Both of them belonged to Branch Lestrade and Poppy Donovan, who had now stood up from their seats at the table. Jade in the middle, drowning.

"Hang on hang on hang on!" Poppy was now scrambling out of her seat, same as Branch, around the table until they were both standing in front of them, in front of Jade, backs facing the crowd. There was a twinkle in their eyes that meant only one thing: something amazing was going to happen.

"What- what's going on?" Mason asked, chuckling amusingly at them. "What's happening?"

"Oh my God if they start singing I'm going to throw up," Lilith groaned audibly, to which Jade instantly kicked her shin from under the table. She winced and glared back at her, but Jade was grinning.

"She really is the great Detective Holmes," Poppy gasped mockingly, a smile creeping upon her lips. Branch made a noise that sounded like he was trying to hide a snort, unsuccessfully.

"Wait- you're actually singing for us?" Jade exclaimed, shock dripping in her voice. She chuckled in disbelief, and Mason's eyes were wide. "Guys, I- you don't need to-"

"Please." Poppy was rolling her eyes, and before Jade could blink there was a magical mic in her hand, sitting there like it was made to be there. "Don't even try to object. You two deserve this. Plus, I've discovered that Branch has the voice of a literal angel!"

And Branch's cheeks were going beet red, and Lilith wondered how long it would take for her to realize that Branch was acting like a lovestruck schoolgirl.

Jolly was gasping like an excited toddler. "Are you- you're going to perform now?"

Poppy winked as she spun on her heels, dress swishing. "What better time than the present?"