It was morning, cold and clear.  The sun made an appearance at dawn for the first time in days, lighting up the snowfields surrounding the castle in a blaze of glory, so that those who peeked out the castle windows had to shield their eyes from the brightness.  Trees, covered in ice, looked like crystalline sculptures in the sunlight.  Winter had finally, officially, arrived, but the bright sunlight, and the cheery scattering of birds around Fields-of-Heather’s bird feeders, made it seem as if spring could not be far behind.

It was a perfect day to be married.

The Great Hall was decorated with bouquets of white roses, yellow daffodils, and pink hyacinth, forced in Heather's greenhouse and tied with white, yellow, and pink ribbons.  The hyacinth filled the hall with perfume.  The furniture had been pushed to the walls, and folding chairs lined up in two banks of rows down the length of the room faced a raised dais at the far end opposite the fire place.  An ivy-entwined lattice archway stood over the dais, and pots of daffodils flanked it.  Sunlight, streaming in through the freshly washed cathedral windows, made the old dark room glow with life.  The Hall itself was empty, but sounds could be heard coming from the far reaches of the castle, where MartiniKai, CrescendoKai, and their B&B staff had taken over the kitchen to prepare a feast to celebrate the coming nuptials.

Upstairs, in dgrequeen's apartment, total chaos reigned.

The place was jammed with women, chattering, bustling, busying themselves with getting each other and themselves ready.  An extremely nervous SniperKai had been handed over to the tender mercies of his Kai cousins and hauled off to PartyAnimalFAA and FAAnboy's quarters to be dressed in a black tuxedo and await his fate there.

QueenieTwo sat forlornly in the midst of the hub-bub, pale and wan.  She had put on the dress, but the veil was draped over a mirror like an orphan child, and nobody knew where the bride's bouquet was.  For the millionth time, Queenie said to the crowd:

"Really.  You didn't have to go to all this trouble."

"Nonsense," replied Doffy.  "Of course, we did."  She rushed off to make sure --- one more time --- that Queenie's bridesmaids from the SuperNova were all getting dressed and staying on schedule.  TwilightRhapsody and dgrequeen squabbled over the choice of music for the evening's reception, and Angelmay and Verti kept busy doing everybody's hair.  Mayaxiong practiced on her Chinese flute --- she was going to accompany the piannist.  Elfie was fussing with the veil, and several others were hustling here and there, climbing over each other, and accomplishing virtually nothing.

Unnoticed, Queenie stood up and went to the balcony door.  She opened it and stepped outside, half afraid that they would stop her.  It was freezing cold out on the balcony, but she'd felt stifled in the room, and at least it was quiet out here.

The door opened behind her and she tensed, but it was only ZenFAA, dressed in a warm down jacket and carrying one of dgre's fleece throws.  He wrapped it around her shoulders.

"You don't want to make yourself sick on your wedding day," he said.

"I already feel like I'm about to throw up," she said ruefully, pulling the blanket close about her.

"Not having second thoughts, are you?"

Queenie shook her head, vehemently, threatening to dislodge the pile of hair on top of her head, artfully arranged to show off her purple streak to its best advantage.  "No!  I love Sniper with all my heart!  But… I just never saw myself getting married, that's all."

Zen smiled.  "Think what an antiKai must feel."

She was suddenly apprehensive.  "Do you think he regrets asking me?"

Zen laughed out loud at that.  "No.  I think he's the happiest antiKai I ever saw.  I just think he's terrified he won't be able to live up to you."

"What do you mean… live *up* to me?"

"The antiKais are awed by the very concept of having a mistress, or in your case, a wife --- even more so than the APEC Kais.  They were created for other purposes, most of them not beneficial, and the idea that they can know a normal life and love is more than most of them can take in right away.  Deep in their souls, I think they don't feel worthy."

QueenieTwo considered that.  "I think I can understand that," she said softly.

"Well, since you and I are clones ourselves, it does come a little easier for us."

"Zen,"  Queenie frowned, troubled.  "Sometimes I think Sniper… *settled* for me.  Because I'm another clone.  He was in love with dgre, after all."

"Now we get to what's been bothering you," Zen said, nodding to himself, "and just in the nick of time, too.  This wouldn't have been a question to consider *after* you two were married."

"So…" she looked at him fearfully," you think he did?"

"No, I don't.  Kais are meant to love, it's part of their nature.  They have to find someone to love who will love them, but it's emotionally risky for antiKais because of their deep-seated fear that they aren't quite good enough.  There are a few exceptions --- KK, Recon --- but for the most part, the antiKais fall in love with mistresses who won't return their love, so that they *don't* have to deal with it.  It's a safe kind of adoration.  Sniper could have stayed among his antiKai brothers, loving from afar, but instead, he saw you for what you are and gave you everything he had.  I find that indescribably beautiful… and very courageous of him."

Queenie grinned at him.  "I never thought I'd hear an FAA complimenting a Kai."

"Keep it to yourself, OK?" he said, putting his arms around her.  "Now let's get you back inside.  It's freezing out here.  We don't want to be thawing out during the ceremony, the ladies would never forgive me for the puddles."

############

The usual disclaimers
(If I forgot to mention you, please forgive me, you actually were there.) 
 

CT - The Wedding, Part 2

The guests were arriving and being ushered to their seats by the impeccably polite KillerKai and Kai21.  They had studiously researched the art of ushering at weddings, and had solved the seemingly insurmountable problem of bride and groom families (or lack thereof) by seating antiKais and mistress clones on one side of the room, APEC mistresses and Kais on the other.  These were the respective families, after all, in the view of KK and Kai21, after they stopped arguing about it.

As neither QueenieTwo nor SniperKai had ever expressed a particular belief --- still being so new to the world that they hadn’t yet begun to explore those deeper questions --- dgrequeen had, with their permission, engaged the services of Roshi Yoshi from the fledgling Fat Smiling Buddha and Dharma Media Center on Garden Street to officiate at the wedding.  Roshi Yoshi stood at the entrance of the Hall, greeting all the guests as they entered, his round bald head gleaming and his face lit up with a sweet smile as he bowed to each one.

The procession of guests seemed endless:  Doffy and CowboyKai came, followed by EvilKai and Doffy2, and after them marched a veritable army of Camorran Kais, with the obviously lovestruck StrikeKai and his lady Raven trailing along behind them.  Then came dishroom_princess, escorted by prince_kai, and BoyToyFAA.  Pandora and DionysusKai were next, closely followed by lafemmenikita, TechnoKai, and ReconKai.  After them came the regal PrayrieWolf and her magnificent PsyKai, accompanied by Arista and Unknown,  Fields-of-Heather and Kai13, and revolution9 and SamuraiKai.  Lily and HunterKai followed (Jade and AJ had come along, but they lay down in the foyer where they wouldn’t knock anything over by wagging their enormous tails).  Insipida came next, escorted by LedgerKai, and after them came MythicalKai and myrrhawa, Stanelle and her two, Hart and Sentinel, and the eminently dignified PrimaNightWind and KaiForté NightWind.  Kaia_3 and Niner came together and were seated on the groom’s side.  HotMama, sniffling into a hanky, was seated in the back, flanked by her big FAA boys, who did their best to comfort her, thinking she was sad.  Logan55 appeared amidst a veritable army of assassins and FAA clones.  Micromary and the Trio sat on the groom's side, Micromary looking for all the world like a proud mother, even though she hadn't had a hand in Sniper's creation.  Arania came with MusiKai, followed by Insipida and Ledger.  Zen and PartyAnimal brought their girlfriends, Marge Pageturner and Willie Bubble, who kept having to hand Party tissues to wipe his eyes and blow his nose.  All the Xevs were sniffling, while their companions handed them hankies and rolled their eyes.  Ace_Reporter sat off to one side, observing the clothes and decorations, the flowers and the guests, scribbling furiously for the morning edition of the Kaitown Herald.  Someone had even thoughtfully invited Samurai Jack, who sat stiff as a rod in the first row, his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his katana.

The FAAs and Stans were sprinkled throughout the hall, spiffy to the man in black tuxedoes with arctic white shirts and black bowties.  All the 790 clones were lined up on the other side where they could get a clear view of the proceedings.  Even the animals had been invited (with the clear understanding that they stay out from underfoot and behave themselves, or there would be NO animal goodies at the reception later).  And still the guests came, until it seemed as if all of Kaitown as well as APEC Castle had come to see Sniper and Queenie wed.

Kai10 sat down at the grand piano in the corner and began to play a soft medley of love songs, suitable for a joining of two people in love.  VisionAri sat behind him and accompanied him softly on her multi-stringed lute, while Mayaxiong stood beside the piano and played a counterpoint on her Chinese flute.  The notes of piano and flute entwined each other and lifted to the shadowed, vaulted ceiling of the Great Hall like two souls in flight joining to make one, bound with the ribbon of lutesong.  The guests laughed and murmured among themselves, but their conversations were muted.  Everyone was waiting in breathless anticipation for the appearance of the bride.

At last the time came.  Roshi Yoshi mounted the dais and stood beaming, his eyes like dark half-moons over his chubby cheeks, his hands folded over his round stomach.  Kai10 launched into a lovely processional and dgrequeen led the bridesmaids down the aisle, each bridesmaid a mistress clone from the Super Nova escorted by one of the antiKais from the mansion.  The ladies were resplendent in pale sea green silk gowns, and the Kais, of course, were in basic black tuxedos, their hair done up the traditional Brunnen-G way.  They reached the dais and filed to either side of it.  SniperKai, visibly shaking, took his place on the groom’s side of the dais.  There was pause, during which the crowd looked back, craning their necks for a glimpse of the bride, and then Kai10 began playing the wedding march.

Everyone giggled a little.  Oddball and Clueless marched down the aisle, Oddball scattering flower petals, and Clueless proudly bearing the cushion with the rings (thoughtfully fastened on the pillow with a single unknotted stitch by dishroom_princess so that the rings wouldn’t go rolling).  Later, everyone would agree how handsome the boys were dressed up in tuxes, with their hair combed and bunned neatly for once.  However, Heather made a mental note to herself to have a word with Oddball later about pelting the guests with flower petals.

Then QueenieTwo appeared, holding onto MyKai’s arm for dear life.  She smiled nervously at the crowd, and he leaned over and whispered something to her, patting her hand reassuringly.  She looked up at him, nodded, and then stood straighter and lifted her chin.  Together they made the measured walk down the aisle.  At the dais, MyKai handed her over to Sniper, and then took his place at Sniper’s side, while dgrequeen stepped up to stand beside QueenieTwo.

Roshi Yoshi stepped forward, aiming his sunny smile at all the guests and turning it on the two nervous people in front of him.

"Hello," he said conversationally.  "So nice to see so many people here to witness the joining of these two," he spread his arms wide, "SniperKai and QueenieTwo.  Solid proof, I believe, that love --- not to mention romance --- is alive and well."

There was tittering in the audience, and many a glance was exchanged between clone and lady.

"It is not the tradition of a roshi to officiate at weddings," he said, "but I was asked to do so by a close personal friend who admires my taste in literature."  He winked at dgrequeen.  "Therefore you are spared the ordeal of an hours-long ceremony of obscure customs and boring chants.  Instead, I will speak plainly, so that none may mistake our purpose here."  He lowered his glance to the two before him, and from then on, though he was heard plainly throughout the hall, he spoke only to them.

"Reiner Rilke said, for one human being to love another human being," he said,  "is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us - the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. Loving at first does not mean merger, surrender and uniting with another person.  Love is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in ourselves, to become world in ourselves for the sake of another person. Love is a great, demanding claim on us, something that chooses us and calls us to vast distances.

"Therefore, I charge you, as did Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet:

      You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. 
      You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. 
      Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. 
      But let there be spaces in your togetherness, 
      And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. 

      Love one another, but make not a bond of love: 
      Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. 
      Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. 
      Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. 
      Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, 
      Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. 

      Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. 
      For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. 
      And stand together yet not too near together: 
      For the pillars of the temple stand apart, 
      And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

Sniper and Queenie, who had been listening intently, now turned to each other and clasped hands.

"I, SniperKai, take you QueenieTwo, to be my wife, "Sniper said, looking deep into her eyes.  "To share the good times and hard times side by side as husband and wife. I humbly give you my hand and my heart as a sanctuary of warmth and peace, and pledge my faith and love to you."  The trembling clone lifted one of the rings off the pillow thrust toward him by a grinning Clueless (who first had to be nudged by Oddball).  "Just as this circle is without end, my love for you is eternal. Just as it is made of incorruptible substance, my commitment to you will never fail. With this ring, I thee wed." 

Queenie took the other ring, and repeated the words to Sniper.  Then they both faced Roshi Yoshi.

"Now you will feel no rain" he said, "for each of you will be the shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be the warmth to the other. Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you. Go now to your dwelling, to enter into the days of your life together, share chocolate, and may your days be good and long upon the earth, husband and wife."

Then he leaned forward and whispered in a theatrical voice heard throughout the hall:  "You can kiss each other now!"

The Great Hall erupted in cheers, as Kai10 played the Triumphal March and Sniper and Queenie embraced in a toe-curling, tonsil-tickling, soul-stealing kiss.  Oddball tossed his whole basket of petals into the air, showering them, and Clueless jumped up and down, pumping his fists in the air.

"YAY!"  he hollered.  "This is fun!  Oddball, you wanna get married?"

###########

And once again, disclaimers
 

CT - The Wedding, Part 3

Martini's kitchen Kais had outdone themselves.  The feast was a marvel of roast meats, seafood, rotisserie roasted chicken and turkey, fresh steamed vegetables, vegetable casseroles, salads of every description, fresh rolls, vegetarian rice and bean dishes, with artistic bread sculptures of the APEC animals everywhere, and a huge watermelon cut like a decorative basket and filled with every kind of fresh fruit.  Off to one side stood the magnificent wedding cake, a baroque tower of sugary goodness, topped with a Sculpy bride and black-clad Kai.  The dining hall had been strung with streamers in pink, yellow, and white, and there was a balloon arch over the door.  The Stanleys of the castle had formed a jazz combo (called, unsurprisingly, the Manly Stanleys) and played lively tunes while the guests ate.  The B&B Kais, quite natty in their tuxes, hustled to and fro, making sure no guest's plate was left empty, no glass left unfilled.  Crescendo, overseeing everything with a critical eye, made a note to himself to compliment them on their enthusiasm and competence when they all returned to the B&B later, and to recalculate their end-of-fiscal-year bonuses.

Roshi Yoshi stuffed himself and smiled and nodded at everyone, while the bride and groom, sitting to one side of him, picked at their food and mooned over each other, whispering and giggling.  In fact, as the evening wore on, there was quite a lot of whispering and giggling between couples.  But no one was allowed to slip away just yet.

The Manly Stanleys launched into a number of lively dance tunes, and dgre and MyKai, grinning evilly, circled the room, routing overfed and sluggish guests out of their chairs.  Everyone had to dance, even though they groaned and tried to beg off.

"Nope!  Gotta dance," was dgre's response.

Of course Sniper and Queenie floated around the room, having had nothing but a few bites of wedding cake, lovingly fed to each other.  The others struggled through the first dance, and then, as they loosened up they started to have fun.  But, at last, the dreaded moment came:

"Chicken Dance!" dgre yelled.
 

(ooc:  I lied.  *Everybody* has to dance.  The Chicken Dance is performed as follows:  everyone forms a circle, holding hands, and skips around the circle.  Then, while the band leader sings the appropriate verses,  the dancers face into the circle, and first make chicken beaks with their fingers, then flap their wings, then wiggle their butts, and last but not least, do a slow squat and rise, still wiggling.  Circle again, and the music speeds up.  This goes on until everybody finally collapses on the floor.  Now's your chance.  Strut your stuff, and anything goes!)

#############

Yup.  Disclaimers
 

CT - The Wedding, Part 4
 

At last the moment came.  The dreaded Chicken Dance ritual had been performed, and those couples who could still move were dancing a dreamily slow waltz.  Sniper, holding Queenie close, leaned down to whisper in her ear:  "I think it's time we made our escape, my love."

She looked up at him with shining eyes.  "Yes, I think so too."

Trying not to attract any notice, they waltzed their way to the edge of the room nearest the door.  It was no use, though.  dgrequeen's eagle eyes spotted them trying to make their getaway, and she raised a hue and a cry.

"Oh no you don't!" she hollered.  "We've come this far, we've got to do the whole rice-throwing bit!"

Sniper looked at Queenie.  Queenie looked at Sniper.

"Run!" he said.

Hand-in-hand, they made a break for it, but instead of running for the main door, where the crafty dgre would have stationed lookouts, they went up the grand staircase, making for the battlements.

"Sniper!"  Queenie said breathlessly.  "We'll be trapped up there!"

"Trust me," he called back to her, and pulled her along.  They sped up the stairs, floor after floor, until Queenie could run no more, at which point Sniper scooped her into his arms.  Behind and below them, they could hear the howl of the mob, screaming something that sounded like "Chivaree!  WHOOHOO!"  At last, they burst through the last door onto the battlements, and Sniper barred the door with a golf club.

Taking her hand, Sniper led Queenie along the parapet wall, around to the river side of the castle.  Snowy moonlit fields stretched away to the dark woods ringing the castle and below, the river was a frozen white road winding its way to the horizon.  Everything was covered with a rime of frost, sparkling like the stars above.  Queenie shivered, and Sniper took off his jacket and wrapped it around her.  He held her close, searching the horizon for something.

"Well, now what?" Queenie said, giggling.  "They're sure to catch us now."

He turned to her and swept her into a kiss that set her soul afire.  When he let her go, she very nearly fell down in a faint.  It seemed that the sound of her pounding heart filled her ears, until she realized that it wasn't her heart at all, but the rotor of a helicopter sweeping low over the trees across the frozen river.  The huge dark thing came at them like some beast of the night, then turned and hovered beside them, just out of reach.  CowboyKai grinned at them from the pilot's seat.

"Air taxi, at your service," he yelled over the noise.

Sniper put his lips to Queenie's ear.  "Hold on to me," he said.

"Forever," she said, putting her arms around his neck.

He braced them into the helicopter and soon they were winging toward the woods.  CK laughingly regaled them with the tale of how he had slipped away from the party, picked up their luggage from the room dgre had prepared for them in the castle, and made his way to the hangar where he kept his beloved Black Hawk.  Nobody had suspected a thing, he assured them.  Well, except for one or two people who were in on the Great Escape.

Shortly they were hovering over the woods.  Sniper picked Queenie up, winked at his cousin, and leaped out into the night.  As they fell, he reached up, catching the runner of the helicopter with his brace, and swung down, gently as a feather, to come to rest on the observation deck of the tree house.  CK lowered their bags down to them, and almost as an afterthought, lowered a covered basket down.  "Doffy made it up for you!" he yelled down to them, and then swung the BlackHawk away and was gone, over the treetops.

Sniper took it and handed it to Queenie.  "Don't look in it yet," he told her.

She followed him into the tree house doubtfully.  This was the place the antiKais had used to spy on APEC Castle, if she remembered right, and she'd heard it was destroyed in an explosion.  But what she saw amazed her.

Someone had rebuilt the main room, repairing the giant hole in the floor that Clueless and Oddball had blown in it.  In fact, it was more than rebuilt.  It had been remodeled into a warm, secure, comfy hideaway.  KK's surveillance equipment was neatly stowed away and disguised so as not to clash with the furnishings and the beautiful rose rug that covered the bare floor.  Someone had even built a cheery fire in a free-standing ceramic room heater in the corner, venting it out a pipe attached to the wall.

"KK let me furnish it for the occasion," Sniper said.  "We can stay here for the whole week if we want to.  I didn't think you'd want to go back to the Super Nova or my dingy apartment for our wedding night, anyway."

Queenie looked through the windows at the lacy, moonlit tangle of treetops that stretched away toward the glowing towers of APEC castle in the distance.  "Oh, Sniper," she said, "it's perfect!"

He went to the sofa that stood in front of the room heater, and grinned at her.  "I had an argument with KK about some of the arrangements.  He didn't see the point in putting a bed in here, since it's a Kai hangout, but we compromised and got this."  He did something, and the sofa unfolded itself into a low comfortable-looking bed, already made up with fine percale sheets and fluffy duvet.  He walked over to her and slowly removed his jacket from her shoulders.

"What do you think?"

"I bought a beautiful nightgown especially for this night," she said.  They stood looking at each other and then they kissed.  Suddenly, they were pulling each other's clothes off, tossing them aside, while they kissed and embraced and explored, until they backed up and fell into the bed.

##########################
For the last time, disclaimers
 

CT - The Wedding, Part 5

"Wait, wait!"  Sniper broke away from her and scampered over to get the forgotten basket.  Together, they climbed under the duvet, and he set the basket between them.  Smiling at his little secret, he pulled the cover off, and there, arranged in all its brown glory, was an array of Agostoni da Morbegno Italian chocolates, flavored in amaretto, cappuccino, tiramisu, orange, cocoa, hazelnut cream.

"What's that?"  Queenie asked breathlessly.

"We've never…" Sniper was suddenly shy.  "I mean, we didn't… There's a proper way to do this, but I---"

She silenced him with a kiss.  "It's chocolate, isn't it?"

He grinned.  "Yes."

"Then what's the problem?"  She picked up a capuccino bonbon and bit into it, and then laughingly brushed the other part against his mouth, teasing him.  Grinning, he captured it, and then her, with his lips, and they fell backward, giggling. 

Their lovemaking was slow and sensuous, sweet with a tinge of bitterness, like capuccino chocolate, but as fresh and lively as tiramisu or orange.  They tasted each other in literal and figurative ways, exploring each other's secrets with gentle, restless hands.  Each one found the heart of the other, and shared the dark richness of love until dawn.  As the night gave way to a curtain of fiery orange streaked with gold rising in the east over a black net of treetops, they lay wrapped in each other's arms, she asleep, he watching the beautiful sky, each sharing a dream as sweet as amaretto of what their lives together would become.
 
############

neat phrase:  made from love to know love

You are cordially invited to the wedding of SniperKai and QueenieTwo, to be held in the Great Hall of APEC Castle on the afternoon of Friday, January 11, 2002.  There will be a reception.  RSVP.

Ooc:  I'm asking for volunteers to attend the wedding and the reception.  I promise cake and champagne (virtual), and only some of you will have to dance the chicken dance.