The wedding: love of a lifetime series.
Summary: When Michael and Y/N sneak off to get married.
Authors note: weirdly for the chapel and her dress, I picture the video clip for ‘Hero’ by Enrique Inglesias. Fluff! Enjoy :)
The decision to get married happened quietly.
No dramatic proposal in front of cameras.
No elaborate planning meetings.
Just Michael sitting beside Y/N on a hotel balcony somewhere in the middle of the Triumph Tour, exhausted and in love and watching the city lights flicker beneath them.
“I don’t wanna wait anymore” he admitted softly.
Y/N turned toward him immediately.
He looked nervous all of a sudden.
Strangely nervous for someone who performed in front of stadiums.
Her breath caught instantly.
Michael rushed on before fear could stop him.
“I know things are crazy right now and maybe the timing’s bad and I know everybody would have opinions and I know we’d have to keep it quiet but…”
The relief that crossed his face was so overwhelming it nearly undid her completely.
“Oh my God” he whispered.
Then he started laughing.
Pure joy pouring out of him as he grabbed her face and kissed her hard beneath the glow of hotel balcony lights while somewhere below them fans screamed his name into the night.
Neither of them heard a thing.
Three weeks later, during a tiny gap between shows, they drove two hours out into the middle of nowhere with only Bill and a pastor waiting at a small white chapel tucked beside an empty highway.
The chapel was tiny and warm, glowing softly with candlelight when they stepped inside.
Michael looked around almost shyly.
“It’s beautiful,” he whispered.
Soft music playing somewhere faintly in the background.
A wedding meant for love instead of performance.
Exactly what they wanted.
With Michael waiting with Bill and the Pastor at the alter, he turned slowly towards the aisle when he heard the door click open and all the air left his lungs.
Because Y/N had stepped out from the small back room wearing her dress.
Long sleeves delicate against her skin and her lovely neck and shoulders exposed.
A soft flowing veil pinned into her hair with a humble bouquet of white roses and only her engagement ring.
Nothing flashy. Nothing overly royal or extravagant.
Just heartbreakingly beautiful.
Michael physically swayed where he stood.
The sound barely left his chest.
Y/N suddenly felt shy under the intensity of his expression as she gazed at him through her veil.
He looked seconds away from tears already.
“You’re…” He laughed shakily. “You’re so beautiful.”
The veil especially ruined him.
Because suddenly this was real.
Not hidden kisses backstage or whispered promises in hotel rooms between tour dates.
Michael’s eyes glossed immediately behind his sunglasses.
And Y/N smiled softly because she knew him well enough to recognize what came next.
The thing he hid behind whenever emotions got too overwhelming.
She walked toward him slowly until they stood together at the front of the alter.
“Will you take them off for me?”
Not because he didn’t want to.
Even after all these years, being fully seen still frightened him sometimes.
Especially in moments this emotional.
“I just…” He swallowed nervously. “Everybody’s looking.”
There were barely two other people inside the chapel.
Y/N touched his face softly.
Michael shut his eyes briefly before slowly removing the glasses.
The vulnerability in his eyes nearly shattered her on the spot.
Open and emotional and terrified and deeply in love.
“You’re so handsome, honey” she whispered immediately.
He looked away shyly, dressed in his signature military regalia smiling despite himself.
The pastor pretended not to listen to the young couple.
When the ceremony started, Michael held Y/N’s hands so tightly it was almost ridiculous.
Like he thought she might disappear if he loosened his grip.
The vows they’d planned suddenly felt too small for what they were trying to say.
Still, Michael went first.
Because once he looked at her standing there in white lace and a veil, there was no chance he’d survive waiting longer.
His voice shook immediately.
“Y/N…” He laughed softly through nerves. “I had this whole speech in my head and now I can’t remember any of it.”
“No, I wanted it perfect.”
Finally, “You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
The simplicity of it broke something open inside the room.
“You made me feel safe when I didn’t think I could.” His eyes never left hers. “You saw me before anybody else did. Before the fame and the noise and all the… everything.”
His voice cracked slightly.
By now Y/N was openly crying.
Michael looked emotional enough to collapse in on his self.
“I promise I’ll spend the rest of my life loving you the way you deserve” he whispered. “I promise I’ll protect your heart. I promise I’ll make you laugh when you’re sad.” A tiny smile flickered. “And I promise I’ll still hold your hand when we’re old and annoying.”
She laughed through tears.
Then he leaned closer very slightly.
“And I swear” he whispered shakily, “there is nothing on this earth I will ever love more than you.”
The chapel fell completely silent.
Y/N could barely breathe by the time it was her turn.
“You ruined my vows” she whispered tearfully.
Michael looked alarmed immediately. “I did?”
“They were too good, how am I going to follow that!”
His relieved laugh cracked through the room softly.
Then Y/N took his hands tighter.
“Michael… loving you has been the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
She watched tears finally spill down his face openly now that the glasses were gone.
“I vow to protect the parts of you the world doesn’t understand” she continued softly. “I vow to remind you who you are when fame makes you forget. I vow to choose you over and over again in every lifetime I get.”
Michael looked completely overwhelmed.
“And I vow” she whispered, voice breaking now too, “that no matter how loud the world gets… you will always have somewhere quiet to come home to.”
Just tears slipping freely down his face while Y/N smiled at him like he hung the moon.
When the pastor finally pronounced them husband and wife, Michael looked stunned for a second.
Like the words genuinely didn’t register.
Then suddenly, he grinned.
The brightest, happiest smile Y/N had ever seen on him.
“My wife,” he whispered immediately.
And before anybody could say another word, he pulled her forward and kissed her.
Then deeper when emotion overtook both of them completely.
Her veil fell slightly when his hands slid into her hair.
His fingers trembled against her face.
And somewhere in the tiny chapel in the middle of nowhere, hidden from cameras and headlines and the entire world—
Michael Jackson married the love of his life exactly the way he always should have,
Just as a man hopelessly in love.
