The law was set in place years ago to stabilize the population, though such things were forgotten immediately in school after the teacher moved on to equally mundane topics. It was a tradition to some, a punishment for others, or a reason new couples got married as quick as possible.

The law was that all those unmarried by twenty-five were assigned to get married to someone else in the same predicament. It wasn't all bad; mostly everyone Nea knew who were married through this system were happy. The government needed to ensure that things would work out to prevent public outrage, and so Nea thought it would be easy, and chances were the other person would probably feel the same way, unless their family taught that this system was a punishment for laziness or being anti-social (a trend he'd seen in recent years), so he had hopes higher than the baseline of apathy.

What Nea didn't expect, however, was for on his wedding day to find his match bound and leashed to the altar.

It was awkward enough being pushed up there by the planner, put in place by the government without much heed from Nea and most likely his match. They stared at each other as the priest gave his speech, Nea not even listening as he could feel a subtle tinge of dread eating through him.

The atmosphere for the wedding was strange and tense, Nea having expected it to be rather mundane since nobody was truly excited for these matched weddings. Though, having one half of the couple bound to the altar and looking like he was ready to jump the fence any moment made it… awkward.

To make it worse, it didn't seem like his match had any family there, which made Nea wonder about his history and his life, about his family and friends or if he even had any. Normally, an event like this would mean that they would have time in the future to learn about each other and grow from it, but with his matched apparently trying to figure a way to escape and needing to be bound? He couldn't be sure.

At least he was cute, though.

The priest kept talking, and Nea glanced over to the spectators to catch sight of his brother Mana, giving a slightly uneasy smile which was returned by a hopeful and reassuring one, accompanied by a thumb's up, too. It eased away Nea's tension just a bit so he could return his gaze to the man in front of him, looking like he followed Nea's gaze over to Mana and then back again. Mana's smile and thumb's up seemed to settle him down a little bit, so Nea thought that that was good, at least.

In a wedding like this, there were no vows written by either party as they did not know each other, did not know what to expect, and it was simply cut down to the priest all but reading a set of official vows that could branch out to every couple.

Nea didn't listen, he just waited for the cues he was supposed to know, but he didn't even know if his match was paying attention. His eyes, so silver and clear they resembled diamonds, kept flickering back and forth from the priest, the spectators, Nea, and then everything behind and around them, almost searching.

Yeah, he wanted to run.

Repressing a groan, Nea noted a few words that were coming up to the finalization of the priest's job, and he didn't know how he was going to do this. It was awkward, a little embarrassing, and with his match not even listening he didn't want to surprise him.

Of course, wishing could only go so far, and when the priest said, "You may now kiss the groom," Nea felt himself dying inside, particularly at the insinuation that they'd been waiting for ages just to be given permission to do such a simple interaction.

Goddammit, it was the twenty-first century! Nobody waited until marriage to kiss anymore!

Barely keeping his uneasiness off his face, Nea decided to give his match some warning by reaching out to grip his wrist, catching his attention for good.

Their eyes met, and then Nea saw the recognition in the man's gaze. 'So he was listening,' Nea thought to himself, and then decided now was better than later. The match followed his lead, and they tentatively and unpassionately shared a chaste kiss. Both of them were quick to pull away from it, like they didn't just do it and the spectators weren't there to witness it.

Just then, when normally the two of them would start walking down the aisle together, Nea remembered that the match was still leashed to the altar, and another government worker stepped out to unhook him.

They barely started walking, and yet the worker still held the leash.

Unable to hold himself back, Nea stepped over to him and slipped the leash from the worker, taking in his alarmed and almost offended gaze as Nea simply smirked at him.

"Sorry, but I thought that since he's my husband and it's our honeymoon, that I'm the one who should be holding his leash," he held out his hand and gave a flashy wink, "and the key to his restraints for later tonight."

His newlywed and the worker's eyes were saucers, but from behind him he could distinctly make out Road's voice as she groaned loudly and yelled out, "Nea, seriously?!"

Nea simply grinned over his shoulder, seeing the exasperated, if not thoroughly amused, expressions of his family members in varying degrees of embarrassment, and then turned his attention back to his newlywed and his personal watchdog. Surprisingly, it was the worker who was still flustered, but Nea's husband only seemed to be conflicted between embarrassed and amused.

"Sorry," Nea apologized, starting to walk alongside his new husband, "didn't mean to drop that bombshell on you. The mood was suffocating."

His husband gave a quiet, restrained giggle before glancing behind him. "Link, are you alright?"

The worker gave a tired sigh.

Laughing quietly, Nea decided to keep their conversation down until they got away from his family, and only then did the worker, apparently named Link, undid Nea's husband's bonds. His husband flexed his wrists and stretched his arms, Nea simply watching him and wondering how long it took to dye his hair white. It was almost as white as a wedding dress, so it was impressive to look at.

Noticing his gaze, the man paused in his stretches before offering his right hand. "Oh, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Allen."

Smiling at this sudden positive change of pace, Nea mirrored Allen and shook his hand. "And I'm Nea Campbell. So, are you taking my last name or am I taking yours?" Nea hymned, earning a rather intrigued smile from Allen.

After a moment's thought, he glanced back to Link. "I want your last name."

"Absolutely not!" Link bristled, his cheeks dusting with pink, and Nea laughed.

He kind of liked this.

However, seeing Link continue to follow them out to his car, Nea found himself continuously glancing back at him, waiting to see him leave. Link never did, and even took up the job of driving them to where Nea decided would be a good honeymoon (even if it was just so they could learn about each other), and insisted that Nea and Allen sit together in the back.

It was quiet, Link not even touching the radio, and Nea couldn't hold it back any longer.

"Hey, Allen, did I marry you or did I marry you and your husband Link?"

Allen all but exploded into giggles, and Link startled so hard he almost swerved the car out of their lane.

Neither answered his question. Oh well.