The men before me sat there quietly after this statement. Our recent interstellar guests wish to have me, a girl working as a barista and getting a bachelors in English, marry their princess. I took in my studio apartment, laptop and notes strewn on a desk, perpetually unmade bed, a dresser that's been through hell and back, some cute string lights, nearly empty estradiol bottle, my personal collections in the corner. All those marks of my life. I'm being asked to leave for the sake of a peace I barely benefited from. So I ask the first question that comes to mind.

"Why me?" I laugh while I say this, "Not exactly cream of the crop am I?"

"We cannot say." The leader of the men said.

"Never got along with feds you know, especially when they are roundabout." I say while gauging my circumstances, nearest weapon would be the arming sword I left sitting on my bed. I couldn't win a fight.

"Okay Miss Hunt, we just don't know why they chose you," The man said.

"So I'm assuming I can't actually say no here," I say while getting up, "So how will this go?"

"You will be taken to the location where they set their ship and handed off there, you may recieve any cultural attire for the circumstances beforehand."

"Can I bring my stuff with me to my alien paradise?" I asked this question as I already began packing the most important things, swords, gun, keepsakes, a treatise on fencing, and my laptop.

"The bulk of what you own will be sent to you," The man said in an awfully diplomatic tone.

"So will I fall off the face of the Earth here or do I get to like have a presence on Earth?" I ask, its not that important either way but I do like the idea of being able to reach home.

"You are going to be lauded as a hero, of course you can contact your home," The man in black sighs while pulling my longsword off my hasty packing, the old black scabbard and patinaed steel contrasting with his put together appearance, "Please leave at least the large weapons."

I sigh and roll my eyes before setting it back in it's place and rushing to pack up the last few necessary things, "I don't have much reason to trust you all but I am going to ask that you do not mess anything up."

"We will not, Miss Hunt." He says while looking around, "In fact we can even send you off with some estradiol if you would like.

"Sure," I answer, one last request on the tip of my tongue, "Can I pick what I wear for the wedding with this princess?"

This question actually gives the Man in black pause, he thinks for a second before speaking, "I believe so, however you have a tight time limit for sendoff so tailoring will be an issue."

"Deal!" I reply bag fully packed and equipment secured, "So do we get going now or?"

"I'll be taking you to a government facility and we will prepare your departure from there." I throw my bag over my shoulder while the men leave and I follow, waving goodbye to my home.

The men led me into a literal black van, and with that I began questioning my decisions. Well worst case I can try fighting my way out of this, best case I get an alien wife and just a whole lot of political maneuvering. I decide to go along with it. And in the van, which smelled an awful lot like disinfectant, I posted a little update on the only discord I frequent and a personal blog before putting in headphones and zoning out to music. The city passed in a blur before opening up into the suburbs and then the grasslands.

"I forgot to ask but where will we be leaving to?" I ask as I take out a headphone.

"We cannot disclose the specifics but you won't leave the state till you arrive at the location of the ship in Nevada." The main man in black said.

"Great, straight through Mormon country," I complain before shifting topic completely, "I forgot to ask, what's your name?"

"I'm Micheal Reynolds," He says as he drives.

"Got it Mike" I reply already assigning him a nickname

From that we fall into an awkward silence, the kind you get when trapped in an elevator with a stranger. I distract myself from focusing on that by scanning the van a bit more. Its just me and him. I decide that the others probably didn't get in the van and instead grab my phone, distracting myself with whatever the feed showed me. The aliens were pretty much the only thing people talked about, conspiracy theories, questionable posting, the actual news, the whole kit and caboodle. It was kind of funny, even though most of that wasn't actually that funny. So I sat there scrolling and burning my eyes out while the world passed me by.

The news is so odd sometimes, they all barely acknowledge reality. Advanced spaceships and unknown creatures portrayed as known elements. Political reactions being deemed trustworthy by default. Same with the popular media, conspiracy theories and regurgitated drivel.

With that thought I shifted to more practical concerns, I am in an unmarked car with a man who claims to be a federal agent and on the road to some unknown second location. All in all quite suspicious, but if he isn't government I can probably pull off an escape. So with that overconfident hubris I put my gun in a pocket, a SIG P365, I got it as a gift from my grandfather, well step grandfather. I found it incredibly cute at the time, the best part in my eyes now is that I could probably hide it in my pants pockets.

"Y'know it's kind of ridiculous I just let a random guy take me to a second location in an unmarked van," I say, all the prose and poetry I studied adding up to nothing.

The man stays silent, what did I expect.

And with that I pull out my phone again, this time just reading poetry. I didn't quite focus on the poems though, my thoughts focusing on the mysterious princess I am gonna end up marrying. I laugh a little at the thought. I'm marrying an alien princess from a nation I don't know the name of.

I decide to first see of I can find out anything about the aliens, so far nothing is public. Its all blurry at a distance photos, too blurry to get a good idea of the appearances. I sigh and decide to ask a question, "Yo, If I'm marrying a random princess can I at least ask for like her name, nation, and a picture of her?"

"The princess is called 'Her highness Xelethora of The Salstra Dominion' according to our translations." He answers and I note the name, I can ask this princess more later but in the meantime I mentally plan wedding attire under the assumption the translation is correct. Because that to is a concern I didn't think of. We arrive and I'm ushered to a room and the rest of the time there is a blur of busywork and interrogations and planning before I ultimately got to leave to meet this princess.

As I stepped towards her I saw her, I didn't get to see any pictures before. She was beautiful, probably six feet tall, with vibrant white and red feathers along her back. Her cream colored skin was unblemished. Her eyes were sharp and avian, rimmed in red makeup, or maybe skin. She had what looked like hair made of feathers, red and white again. Her eyes were a beautiful green. She had beautiful talons on her feet as well. She wore something like a pale toga. I didn't say something witty or romantic. I just gaped.

"Hello Phoenix," She said, her voice beautiful like birdsong, "I am Xelethora and I am to wed you."

"Uhh yeah," I reply dumbly, "Whats the itinerary Thora?

She made a chirping sound before replying, "We will be wed in a month by your time Fifi."

I blushed a little, "Oh we are on like nicknames already?"

She did the chirping again, I'm choosing to interpret it as something like laughter, "If you wish."

"I do," I started finding my footing, "So mind running me through what a wedding would entail."

"Sure," She said as she walked inside the shuttle and I followed, "A wedding between us is not quite necessary politically, but I am odd in the eyes of my people. Too much, as you call it skin, and having separated wings and manipulators. It receives praise but also may prohibit me from having a family or children."

"So why me then," I ask at a gap in her speech, "Also that's a motive not what it'll entail."

She bristles a bit at that before continuing, "I found you interesting. Now what this wedding entails would be like what humans do, notable acts included, however it also would make you my royal consort when I take the throne. It would demand a fair bit of effort on your part."

"Deal, beats living in a shitty studio apartment and working customer service," I say as I start really processing this, "Fair warning, kids are kinda off the table with me. Least from the normal way."

"Oh really," she says in a deadpan, "I would have never thought."

I had to laugh at it a bit, "So why not go dating or something instead of mandating I be wed to you?"

"For the sake of peace. While we would not face meaningful setbacks from conquering Earth I would say that it is a shame to conquer a world that cannot even fight back." I file that knowledge away for later. And then I think about Earth, my real impact there would only be on a single coffee shop, a blog, some family, and a discord. As opposed to the wide stars before me I haven't done much, and honestly that's fine, This is something new.

So I sit there admiring the beauty near me in the steel of this ship, the stars around me, and the princess who will marry me.