Wedding Dress
Clary x Maia, 1201 words, Proposal, Human AU
Clary overthinks the show stopper of her new collection, and Maia offers an alternative to the original wedding dress...
Femslash February Prompt 1: A WLW Ship with Clary
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Clary wakes up when a cup of smoking hot coffee is put down in front of her by the pink-nail-polished hand of her girlfriend. She sits up from where she’d slumped over the desk during the night and winces. Her back hurts, her neck hurts… Falling asleep on her desk, in the middle of the night is a bad idea. Thankfully, she didn’t drool on the pencil sketches that are still on top of the pile.
She loves her latest designs, but the very last piece of her collection is wrong. Well, not wrong exactly, but definitely off. It’s far from perfect, and it doesn’t translate.They’ve made some versions of the garment in simple cotton, and they are going to put them on a model today to see if it can trigger something in Clary’s mind.
The dress is beautiful, maybe, but it’s far from perfect. It’s far from what she feels she wants, and needs. And it’s not the plain beige cotton fabric that’s not working for her, she usually is able to go past the fabric and right to the finished product.
“Did you sleep okay?” Maia asks as she moves to the back of the desk, reaching to massage Clary’s tense, tense shoulders.
Clary’s been designing for a few years now, but only a couple months ago did her name start buzzing in the fashion industry. She’s dressed the entire Lightwood family for a charity event in July, thanks to Maia’s contact with their stylist. Isabelle Lightwood alone has 17 million followers on instagram, and it made Clary’s name explode.
Which means that Clary is now almost dying under the pressure to put out the best for her new collection. With award season coming up, stylists have been ringing her up for pieces for their clients, both men and women, to wear.
“I don’t know. I know I slept some time,” Clary mumbles and reaches for the cup of coffee. She takes a sip. It’s burning hot and bitter, way too strong for any time that isn’t as desperate as the one she’s in right now.
She looks down at the sketches, including the ones she did during the night. Here and there, details are changed, the collar and the sleeves, but nothing feels right.
Wedding dresses have been the show stopper of collections for decades, and everything has been done. Pants underneath a skirt, long sleeve and sleeveless, shapeless and completely fitted. Clary can’t seem to find the combination that’s her. Maybe because she’ll probably prefer a suit to a dress to her own wedding. She can’t imagine herself in a wedding dress.
“Izzy will be here in 30. I brought you a change of clothing, and some toiletries,” Maia points, kissing her cheek. “Go get presentable. She’s a friend maybe, but she’s probably going to instagram the whole thing, and we want you to be presentable.”
Clary reluctantly gets up. She stretches out her aching body and sends a loving look to Maia who just chuckles. Her trip to the bathroom to change into another pair of torn jeans, another bralette, panties and a simple tshirt is fast. She puts her hair in a ponytail after spraying it with dry shampoo and brushes her teeth. The coffee is still incredibly hot when she comes back.
They grab sketchpads, cameras and everything Clary needs before walking down to the showcase room, where they usually have celebrities and models try out finished looks. The cotton version of the wedding dress is there, with drawings of patterns and stitched pieces of fabric to try and show what it will look like.
Clary barely has time to glare at her unruly creation that there’s a knock at the door and Isabelle Lightwood and her entourage walk in.
Isabelle smiles widely at Clary and Maia. She has a full face of makeup, her hair is perfectly styled, and she comes to hug them like they truly are best friends. Behind her are two beautiful but definitely less stunning and perfect people.
Isabelle says hi to everyone. She’s relatively small, but perfectly proportioned. Her chest is large but appropriate, her waist is small and her hips finish an almost perfect hourglass. She knows she’s hot too, and she definitely plays on it.
The woman approaches the mannequin with the cotton dress on it and nods. “It’s pretty,” she says. “Not something I would envision for my own wedding, but definitely pretty.”
Without much shame, she starts undressing there, pulling her tshirt over her head and slipping off her jeans and shoes. She stands there wearing a simple tube bra and black thong, as they get her into the cotton dress.
She’s given a pair of combat boots that Clary ornated with pearls herself for the collection, and stands in front of the mirror.
The dress is inspired by 18th century clothing and underwear. A simple long-sleeved and high-collared shift that hits the floor with a high slit, under a corset, with a stomacher. For now, it’s nothing much, but the silhouette is flattering to Isabelle and it would be much more beautiful, following Clary’s show, all made of beautiful shimmering and pearly shift of the fabric Clary has chosen.
With the combat boots, the effect is rather striking, and Clary cannot wait until she sees it done, and with the silk stocking and garters that will go with it. Maybe there is nothing to change after all. Maybe this is supposed to be it, even if it doesn’t feel like her show stopper.
“It’s good,” Clary says softly. “I don’t know what’s lacking…”
Maia moves a little closer to her. “I have an idea.”
Clary looks up at her with a raised eyebrow.
Maia shifts a little, grabbing something from her pocket. “Instead of focusing on… whatever wedding dress for someone who is not you, what if you focused on a design for… our wedding?” She asks.
Clary frowns. “We’re not getting married.”
Maia chuckles, and goes down to one knee. Fuck. Clary just stares at her with wide eyes. Is that really happening? Right now? Maia looks up at her with tear-filled eyes, beautiful and happy and Clary is ready to scream yes before she even asks.
“Clary Fray. Will you marry me?”
Clary feels like she’s forgotten how to breathe, and think and function as a whole. She’s… getting proposed to? That isn’t something she’s been expecting.
“Yeah!” She blurts out uncontrollably and Maia puts the beautiful, simple and elegant ring on her thing.
Clary can feel tears running down her cheeks as she kisses Maia until she can’t breathe anymore and well past that. She’s so happy. She never thought this would happen to her. Growing up, marriage was something she dreaded. She knew she liked women, and she knew none of her family, or the government, would accept that she married one.
And now she is engaged to Maia.
Isabelle checks with her assistant that she has it on video before coming to hug Clary and Maia tightly.
Clary takes a decision. The dress Izzy’s wearing will be featured in the collection but the show stopper would be two designs. Maia’s wedding dress and Clary’s wedding suit.