Appropriately Chaperoned

Posted on Sun 24th Sep, 2023 @ 2:01am by Maiek s'Ethien & Mary Elizabeth Gregory

947 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Neither Yours Nor Mine
Location: Romulan Diplomatic Ship
Timeline: MD 9: 0930

Maiek swayed with the tune playing on the overhead speakers whilst he meticulously placed the last of the tiny rhinestones on the nearly transparent material of the veil. It would fall just over her face and would add an iridescent sheen to the neckline of her dress. It was a red-gold iridescence, and when he would bring it over her face, the two colors would look like fire behind her black curls. The glitter of gems at the edge and at random intervals caused glinting flickers of fire that would only add to the effect. She would flicker like fire, and the bottom of the dress would glisten like water, as if she was the flame itself rising from the water at the solstice. The imagery of the ensemble made him shiver somewhat with the theological implications, which he was not yet of a mind to comprehend much less study in any detail. He hadn't intended to make the dress a study of theology, but when he'd mated the two cultures, the symbolism of the items he was using was very much forward in his mind.

The material he'd found was nothing short of miraculous, though his hand and wrist was starting to ache abominably with the repetitive motions of putting the whole ensemble together. It attached to a comb that would be settled into her ebony curls, and she could secure it in whatever manner she decided to wear her hair. The comb was white and glittered with inlaid spirals and interlocking swirls.

A knock sounded at the door. "Maiek, are you ready for me?" Mary Elizabeth called out. "Mum's here, if you're sure you want her." On Earth it wasn't done for the husband to see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding day, but hey, the rules had to be different when your fiancé was the dress designer. Mary Elizabeth had to admit she enjoyed that break from tradition.

"She is essential to my control of myself" he teased her gently, as he opened the door before them. "Please come in ladies." His fitting room was an intimate and comfortable smaller room attached to his main workroom. The dress was on a holographic dress dummy with no face, just a form with the precise measurements of Mary Elizabeth.

"Hello, Maiek," Mildred Gregory said to him as Mary Elizabeth stood aside so her mother could enter first. She looked about Maiek's workroom amid its sketches and cut-out patterns with a lively interest. "This is amazing! I would never have guessed you had such a space on this ship. And this dress!" The soft intake of her breath could be heard. "Maiek, I don't have words. 'Beautiful' is too paltry a thing to say about it."

"It is glorious," Mary Elizabeth agreed in hushed tones as she studied the dress with an eye to its symbolism. "The way the jewels sparkle like drops of water reflecting fire--It's perfect."

His chin raised in justifiable pride in his work. "All honor to you, my love, for the inspiration in this" he whispered to her, bowing slightly to her, in what was a fairly courtly gesture. "Now, I just have to put you in it."

Delightful shivers ran down Mary Elizabeth's spine at the touch of his breath on her ear and neck and at his words. "You're right; it's a very good thing Mum is in here."

"No hanky-panky!" Mildred said brightly. She winked at Maiek. "Just doing my job, dear."

"Go, and stand in the circle of white light in front of the mirrors." he instructed quietly, his eyes deepening their color to a near black "Then, strip down to your panties and face the room at large. I don't want you to see it, until the very end."

Mary Elizabeth did so and went to stand under the light, feeling a bit self-conscious in her plain, everyday underwear. She had a lacy bit of nothing saved for her wedding day. Just don't think about it, she told herself. "All right, I'm ready. Now what?"

"Now, we put it on you" he murmured, and lifted the first layer of the garment. This one was easy, a sheath of butter-soft cotton silk in pure white, and an anchor point for the other pieces.

"Just lift your arms above your head, and let the hem fall to your feet as we slip it on," Mildred directed as, together with Maiek, she held one side of the sheath and got Mary Elizabeth's right wrist through the arm hole.

The sheath slipped down her body as if it were Maiek caressing her. "This feels like sin, and I'm loving every square centimeter of it," she told him.

A delicate little chuckle escaped from Maiek's lips and he gave her a heated look. He murmured to himself in Rihan, as he placed tiny marks on the places where it didn't quite fall appropriately.

"I thought I was here so talk of temptation wouldn't take place," Mildred said.

"No, you're here so temptation doesn't take place," her daughter said.

"Oh, is that what it is?" Mildred gave a sage nod and then shot Maiek a saucy look. "I think you're both plenty tempted."

Mildred Gregory was a shrewd judge of the mood in the room, and he couldn't help but wonder if she couldn't read him just as easily as she read her daughter's interactions with him. It was uncanny, how much his lovely Mary Elizabeth favored her mother in her mannerisms. Some were uniquely hers of course, but she could see part of her programming in watching her interact with her mother.

"Mum! You're not helping."

 

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