That One Time We Kissed // Bishova College AU

Say Yes To The Dress

The fall semester flew by in a gold and amber haze. With Halloween in the books, only a few weeks lay between finals and then Christmas break, and Kate welcomed the chill of November with open arms. Yelena wore her hoodies nearly every waking moment, the breeze rejuvenated her lungs with crisp autumn air, and anticipation built by the day.

Kate Bishop had so much to look forward to- the PeterMJ wedding, Christmas in the city, Pepper's baby, graduation, her eventual proposal. It was enough to stave off the horrors of the holidays with her mother and the existential dread of graduation and finding a career, at least for the moment. Those crippling anxieties could not harsh her mellow. Yet.

The only current problem Kate faced was assisting MJ in finding a wedding dress. Both the bride to be and the best man could not care less about mile long trains or sweetheart necklines, so MJ begrudgingly allowed Yelena to be brought along to combat the apathy of the other two.

As Yelena sat in the bridal shop dressing room next to Kate, waiting on MJ's first silhouette, it dawned on her that she and MJ had not really talked since she and Kate made up. MJ had always been more protective of Kate and more skeptical of Yelena in general, but the blonde did not expect the level of coldness currently exuding from the woman. Kate seemed none the wiser; perhaps this was a typical MJ temperament, but Yelena had experienced enough sorority passive-aggression to know better. Any other person and Yelena may not have cared, but this was Kate's best friend, and she was determined to make a good showing.

"Pssst," Kate hissed quietly, leaning over. "Lena."

"Yes?" Yelena replied in a normal volume.

"Did I tell you what I told Nat?"

"No? When?"

With a sheepish grin, Kate sat up, thumbs twiddling. "At the Halloween party. I told her that Wanda wants her to propose."

"Oh." Yelena's eyebrows shot up. "Well, it's about time someone gets the wheels moving on that."

"How long have they been together, again?"

"Since spring break of freshman year, but they'd been dancing around asking each other out for months."

"Hm."

"Guess they're still dancing around each other." Yelena tapped her foot, impatient to see the first dress. "When's the wedding, again?"

"Wha- Peter and MJ's?" Kate stuttered, worried she had somehow proposed whilst high.

Yelena eyed her. "Yeah, who else's?"

"Um... it's in January."

"It's January fourteenth." The curtain of a fitting room flung open unenthusiastically, revealing a visibly uncomfortable MJ. "But after this dress I'm thinking about canceling."

The dress, a very feminine, very well fitted mermaid style gown, inhibited MJ's movement as she stiffly walked out, nearly tripping on her way to the mirror. It looked wonderful on her, as most dresses would at her height and build, but given her body language it was not the one.

"What do you think?" Yelena asked tentatively, aiming to gauge what kind of dress she would actually want. "Too tight? Too long?"

"Too..." MJ shook her head, glancing over to Yelena for half a second. "It's fine."

"Yeah, I think it looks nice," Kate shrugged, and Yelena covertly elbowed her in the ribs. She coughed. "I mean, it looks awful?"

Eye twitching, Yelena forced a smile. "You're going to look good in all of them. Just pick whichever one feels the best to you."

Frowning, MJ wobbled back to her fitting room. "If I get to double digits in wardrobe changes, I'm done."