#grane

Shane smiled to himself in the mirror as he fixed his hair. It was his big day, and he was determined to look good for it.

It was hard to believe that just barely over a year ago, Shane was rudely telling Graves to leave him alone... And now they're getting married.

He looked over to the mannequin next to the vanity, smiling at the fancy clothes he'd picked out for the wedding. But as he did, he was suddenly filled with anxiety.

He sighed and shook his head, taking care to not mess up his hair. He stared into the mirror and said to himself, "Well, Shane, you've been through a lot... This is nothing, you can do it."

He heard a knock at the door. He turned and called out to whoever was there.

"Come in!"

In stepped Elliott wearing a cute, fancy dress and Sebastian wearing a neat suit.

"Hey, guys! I was just finishing up. I'm almost ready."

Elliott smiled warmly at his friend. "Well, we're just here to help if you need any."

"I think I'm good." Shane returned his gaze to the mirror. "Wait, actually... I'll need help lacing up my dress."

Sebastian glanced over at the mannequin, doing a double take as he saw a beautiful, Victorian-style purple gown with white details.

"You're wearing a dress?" he asked.

Shane chuckled awkwardly. "Uh... Yeah. It's pretty, isn't it?" He gently pulled it off the mannequin and started putting it on.

Elliott stepped over to help him get dressed. "It's gorgeous, Shane!"

"Wait, why are you wearing this? I thought you said feminine clothes make you dysphoric..." Sebastian crossed an arm over his own chest, all too familiar with the concept of gender dysphoria.

Shane sighed. "Well, normally that's true. But..." He paused to think for a moment. "Can I tell you a story?"

Elliott slowed his lacing of the dress to signal he was listening. Sebastian sat in a nearby chair.

Shane took a deep breath. "So, I always talk about my younger self as if she's a different person, right? Well, that's how I see her.

When we were a little girl, she always saw in movies that the princesses would always fall in love, be obsessed with a boy... Getting married was the happy ending."

"I remember feeling the same way when I was little." Sebastian chimed in.

"So, she thought she should be obsessed with marriage, like all the other girls seemed to be. She tricked herself into being just that... Obsessed with marriage."

Elliott pulled the laces of the dress into an elegant bow. "How so?"

"Oh, you know. Thinking about boys... Forcing herself to believe she had a crush... Hyperfixating on a local news anchor... Fantasizing about characters from movies... Wrapping blankets around herself, and pretending that was her dress, and she was on the altar." Shane laughed as he recalled his childhood fantasies.

Suddenly, his expression shifted. He looked sad. He sighed again. "...Im happy with my present, but... I miss that little girl. And in my transition, I... I haven't been very nice to her."

Shane turned to face Elliott and Sebastian, who both offered looks of sympathy.

"I feel... I feel like this is my way of apologizing to her; letting her have the dress she always dreamed of."

Shane clasped his hands in front of him, turning back to the mirror and seeing how beautiful he looked.

"Maybe then she can finally have peace."

Elliott stepped forward and laid his hands on Shane's shoulders. "That's... That's beautiful."

Shane smiled. "Thank you."

Sebastian stood up. "I think she'd like to know you're doing this for her."

Shane nodded slowly, reached out to the vanity, picked up his veil and slipped it onto his head. "I think so too."

The three of them looked into the mirror at Shane's dress for a moment, before Shane turned and started for the door.

"Welp. I better not keep my groom waiting. Let's go, guys."

As he stepped through the door into the sunlight and saw Graves standing on the altar in his tuxedo, Shane officially entered his big day.