Emy

(it's them)

(like LOOK AT THEM, do you see the vision?)

So, imagine James who has to marry the love of his life, Lily, who unfortunately barely knows him, definitely doesn't love him back, she's disappointed and scared about the wedding, but her family is poor, they need to get by, one Petunia who married Vernon Dursley and left isn't enough anymore.

And, it doesn't quite fit the corpse bride canon, but I'm thinking of James, who meets Lily before, at the wedding rehearsal, and realizes she doesn't share his excitement and joy, so he deliberately gets it wrong a few times when giving his speech, and then runs off to give her time to think. He knows it's not enough, that she probably needs more to get over it, but it's all he has, all he can offer her.

He walks through the forest, a little frustrated, repeating the wedding speech over and over, wanting to give it tomorrow as best as he can without making Lily feel ashamed and embarrassed for him. James doesn't even think about letting the ring out of his hands, but he does pass out when he gives the speech again and hooks the ring onto a branch - as he thought. Then, of course, when the groom, dressed in a black tattered suit, climbs out of the ground, he realizes that it wasn't a branch at all - it was a hand. Quite beautiful, even dead, even bony, even skinless. And he can't move for a few seconds, and then he starts running, not knowing why. He feels the fear so far and deep, in his fingertips, but he can't really feel it. His body is afraid, but he himself is not. James admits he's a little fascinated, though he shouldn't be. He has a bride waiting for him.

A bride who doesn't want to be his bride.

He feels bitter for a second, but in the end, it doesn't matter. They have to get married, he wasn't the one who thought it up. James can't betray her.

But later discovers he already has. When he wakes up in the world of the dead, when he discovers that he has bound himself by a vow of love and fidelity to a dead fiancé whose name, he learns later, is Regulus. Regulus seems as upset by this as he is. He grudgingly explains to James that it was all an oath he took in a fit of grief and anger, lets the others finish his story, tells how his heart was vilely and brutally broken, not at all metaphorically ripped from his chest to go out into the night with all his riches. Regulus, of course, glosses over the fact that he wasn't stupid, that he was naive, that he saw it coming, didn't take a penny with him, fought back so violently, forever leaving his former fiancé with a deep scar on his wrist, cutting through his skin with a blade hidden in his sleeve. It didn't help him survive.

He was dead anyway, and if you look closely-which, of course, no one does-you can see that the bones in his chest are deformed from how hard he was beaten, how many times he was stabbed, how his still-beating, red, bleeding heart was ripped out.

James likes Regulus. He doesn't admit it right away, looking for a way to get out of there at first, but when he doesn't find one, his feet lead him to his fiancé's corpse anyway. They talk a lot. Getting Regulus to talk is tricky, but in the end, they both seem interested in getting James out of there. They do talk a lot. And then, a desire that wasn't there originally starts to show itself. It's a selfish, nasty desire that makes him sick - the desire to own James. He wants him for himself, wants to keep him here, wants him to forget everything that happened when he was alive, and yet Regulus can't do that to him.

When James offered to meet his parents, Regulus agrees, even though he knew it's a ruse (Did James knew? Hardly. He really wanted to meet his parents, see them, and also maybe check on Lily, because he was still worried, still have wanted her to be okay, even if he felt so wrong, he felt like a such betrayer)

Of course, they don't meet his parents. But James sees Lily, and Regulus is surprised that he doesn't feel outraged to notice it. "Maybe I don't actually like him very much," he thinks, but knows he's wrong. He thinks about how James actually deserves a girl like her. That she's kind, sweet, god she's adorable, and she gets dimples in her cheeks when she smiles, and she has freckles, and she's so, so achingly alive, and he hasn't seen such vibrancy in too long, almost forgotten what it feels like. He brings James back, not out of jealousy or anger, but out of a desire to show himself in front of her, to scare her, to see her up close, if only for a second, holding James gently against his chest.

When he comes back, though, he's still angry. At himself, first of all. At everyone else in the second. He's so tired. He so wants to be free, he so wants to not carry this weight of grief, of death behind him, he so wants to stop being the fiancé who will never be a husband.

James feels shame. He wants to make things right. He can't go back to Lily - okay, he admits he failed her. But he can't fail Regulus as well.

He finds poison to poison himself when the time comes, and then proposes to Regulus - for real. Not by accident. And Regulus says yes, not out of any real desire to marry, but out of a desire to... to stay with him. Out of a desire to find someone who will love him, even if it's fake. Out of a desire to be the husband he once failed to be.

Their wedding is a huge celebration. They think everything is going well until they see the woman in white. Her hair is bright red, it looks like flashes of flame against the surrounding grayness, her green eyes seem to burn as brightly as not even Christmas lights do. And she cries looking at it, pretending to rejoice with everyone else, her veil covering her face, the hem of her dress stained. She doesn't want to spoil their celebration.

But James eventually notices her. There isn't a universe in which he doesn't notice Lily. And his heart breaks - so quickly, so easily. He feels like such a terrible person, he feels like a terrible lover, he feels dirty.

Regulus can't take his eyes off Lily. She's alive, alive, alive. She's real, her heart is beating, and if her wrist is opened, hot, life-giving blood will pour out. He wants to feel her pulse with his lips, wants to press his nose against her hair, breathe in the scent of life. Regulus isn't sure what he really wants.

But when he sees his former fiancé at her back, he knows he wishes her harm in the least.

But Regulus doesn't have time to move. The man notices him, stares coldly straight into her eyes, smirking, and then stabs her right between the ribs, causing her white dress to turn red.

Regulus stands. He can't move, though he wants to push him away, wants to take her away from here. He doesn't move. Large tears roll down her cheeks, she presses her hand to her wound, choking on air as she tries to speak.

The next thing he sees is James rushing towards her. He pushes the man away, but he happily lets her go, pushing her into his arms. Regulus hears a cold, cruel laugh, sees the man move closer to him, reaching for his glass, deciding to waste words once again, but Regulus doesn't interrupt him this time. Let his last words be long - the important thing is that they are his last.

James calms Lily, asking her to breathe, but the blood is leaving her face, her skin turning blue

The man next to her falls dead. Only then does Regulus walk over to them, taking Lily's hand, explaining in a slow, patient voice that everything will be okay. That she's dead, but it's... not that scary.

The only thought in James's mind is poison. But the glass is empty, leaving only a couple drops at the bottom of the bottle. He drops them on his tongue, then swallows.

"I want to be with you," he whispers, "the two of you."

Regulus nods at him, rocking Lily gently in his arms. She almost imperceptibly but moves her head to nod as well.

"I love you," she whispers to James. Her gaze stops on Regulus. She doesn't know what she should say, "I think I could love you too."

He nods. James falls to the ground, but it's not so scary this time. After all, he's dead now. They're all dead. There is no more dead groom, only two husbands, a wife, and vows of eternal love shared between them

trick <3

(inspired by blood sacrifice to get me back into writing it)