Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

"Wait. What??? No!!!" Jason waved frantically in protest.

"I am not going to have my beautiful wedding themed in blue, green, yellow, red, pink, and black! No, no, no." He shook his head, giving her a horrified stare.

"Those are the color choices the bride has picked." Poppy tried to reason.

She was feeling a bit overwhelmed by her brothers. Candace had run off to taste cakes with the chef while Poppy went in search of the twins to discuss the color choices but it seemed the twins were not buying the choices Candace had picked.

"Where is she getting these horrid color choices from?" Jared huffed. "That blue looks positively evil, and that shade of green reminds me of horse poop!"

"But—" Poppy tried to interrupt.

"And look at that garish yellow," Jason pointed at the color samples. "How tacky is that? And the brassy red is…ugh!" He shuddered.

Jared sighed. "The only color sample she picked out that is acceptable is the pink. I think she went as close to the avgo gemstone's shade as she could."

BAAAM!!!

Poppy slammed her hands onto the table, disrupting all the color chips that Candace had so lovingly chosen.

The twins jumped, startled by Poppy's sudden violent outburst.

"She chose all those colors because they were her favorites! And do you know why they are her favorites? Hmm? Do you?" Her eyes glittered with anger.

They shook their heads.

"She chose them based upon the colors of your hair! That color you called horse poop green is the shade of green that reminded her of your hair!"

Poppy reached out and yanked on one of the twin's long locks.

"Owww!" Jared yelled, rubbing his head.

She stuck the color sample chip next to his hair to demonstrate.

Sure enough, the color chip was a very good match to the shade of his brownish-green hair.

Jason grimaced. "She thinks we have poopy heads?"

"No!!!" Poppy heaved a big sigh. "She loves all of you, warts and all. She wanted that day to represent all of you, and she needed to pick out colors that most represent you, so she went with your hair colors!"

The twins looked at each other. Their foreheads touched for a moment, as if they were sharing a single thought.

"Okay Poppy." Jason finally spoke up. "We'll figure out a way to work with these colors."

Jared nodded his agreement.

Poppy patted both of their arms. "Good! Stretch your design skills. Incorporate all those colors int something that will look good. I have great faith in your abilities!"

The twins nodded and walked away, mumbling between themselves.

"…how the hell are we going to incorporate Slate's black hair color into this wedding scheme…"

"…yuck. I can't believe our hair is such a gross green color…"

"…well, at least we still have the one good pink color from the Avgo stone…"

She was still standing there trying to put the color chips back into their order when she felt a presence behind her.

Poppy turned her head.

"Ash!" She grinned. "I'm glad you're here. You have been chosen to be an esteemed signer of some very important royal documents!"

"What???" Ash blinked at her, looking a bit panicked.

Poppy bared her fangs. "We have literally THOUSANDS of invitations that have to be sent out by tomorrow and we need to hand-sign them all. There is no way for Candace to sign all of them herself, so we need some help."

She tapped Ash on the chest. "You will get a chance to sign some VERY important documents! Royal invitations!!!" She grinned.

"Oh…" Ash looked relieved. "You mean signing invitations…"

Poppy's face broke down. "Please, please, please, help us!"

She began fake crying. "I can't take up all of Candace's time to do the signing because she has too many other things to do, but I can't do all of them myself and I don't know anyone here in Marakaran but you."

Ash began chuckling gently to himself. She had scared him for a moment there when she started off the conversation with signing important royal documents. She would not know that he did that every day of his life as King of Marakaran.

"I will do my best to help you. I promise." He placed a hand over his heart.

For this woman, he would do most anything, including sign all the thousands of wedding invitations that she wanted him to sign.

Poppy threw her arms around his neck and gave him a body-crushing hug.

"Thank you!" She pecked him on the cheek. "How did I get so lucky to have such a nice friend as you?"

She turned away and clapped her hands for an attendant, completely missing out on the fact that Ash had almost choked on his own breath.

Poppy had just kissed him!!! And he had almost missed their first kiss because it had been so sudden!

He reached up and touched his cheek where she had pressed her lips. It wasn't as if he had never been kissed before by a woman, but this was so different. So very different.

This was his Poppy who had just kissed him!

"Can you bring the invitations and some nice fountain pens here? We need to start this right away or it won't be ready to be delivered." She informed the attendant.

"Yes, Your Royal Highness."

"We're going to sign them right here?" Ash looked around at the soft cushioned willow chairs and rattan table covered with a glass top that Poppy had set up within the gazebo area to plan out the wedding.

"Why not? This is such a beautiful spot to be doing wedding preparation work, don't you think?" Poppy chortled. "I'll have the attendants bring drinks and sandwiches and you and I can sit here and sign Candace's name on as many of these invitations as we can."

"You—you and me?" Ash mumbled. "Just the two of us out here?"

"Yes. I don't know anyone else I can trust with this."

Ash felt his spirits rise into the clouds. He gave an indulgent smile at Poppy.

"Make mine a lemonade." He paused. "And I like cucumber finger sandwiches."

Poppy laughed. "You're so cheap to hire as a laborer to do this work. Lemonade and cucumber sandwiches it is."

"Only for you, Poppy." Ash grinned.. "Only for you."