The Indecent Proposal

DISCLAIMER: I do not own 'Corpse Bride' or anything affiliated to it, including story, characters, settings, and wardrobe.

Chapter 1 - The Indecent Proposal

This world was strange to Victor.

Although the people around him were friendly and charming, and there didn't seem to be any real danger at all, the world would always be strange to him. The streets ended in narrow slits and were dark and green with death. Signs protruded from walls advertising products he would never even dream of owning. But there was one redeeming feature of this world...

...Emily...

...that beautiful corpse who, in a swirl of ravens and moonlight, brought him to this place. Everything about her was intoxicating and seductive: the way her hips moved as she walked, her blue hair floating in the gentle wind, and her round eyes deep with emotion. Even though she was dead, Emiy was an amazing woman. As Victor sat on the coffin which Emily lied on, he wondered if marrying her was as bad as it seemed. Of course killing himself was the major negative point of this deal, but the reward was everlasting and sweet. An eternity with the corpse that stole his heart.

Emily came in and leaned against a wall asking, "Having second thoughts?"

Victor shivered a little and replied, "No, no...just thinking, that's all."

"It's not strange to have second thoughts before a wedding." she said, sitting next to him, "Especially with what you're about to go through."

"It's just..." he rattled in the icy wind as he finished "...I don't even know that much about you."

Emily sat back and asked, "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Well, where do you come fro-" but before he could even finish, he started shivering again.

"Oh you poor soul, here..." Emily draped a moth-eaten quilt around them and she wrapped a bony arm around him. "Better?"

He sighed in comfort as he leaned his head closer to hers, closing his eyes in a calm manner. They sat there for what seemed like ages, when she asked something that broke the atmosphere like a hammer on ice...

"Victor, are we ever going to...have...sex?"

He quickly opened his eyes and stuttered, "W-W-WHAT?!"

Emily quickly said, "No, no, no, I'm just asking, that's all. It's just that I've never...you know...so I was just...ummm...yes. Well, here we are."

"Yes...well...NO! not yes to the..ummm...child...making, yes to the 'Here we are'."

"...yes."

"Yes. Well, umm...I'm not even sure how that would work. What with my being alive and your...being..."

She finished for him, "...dead."

"Yes...I would imagine it to be quite...awkward...to say the least."

"Well...", she edged closer to him under the blanket "I've heard that the only way the dead feel warmth..." she laid her still-intact hand on his leg "...is when they make love."

Victor was amazingly jittery. He had never 'made love' before, and the prospect of his first time being with a dead woman was frightening. However, it was not such a bad idea...that is...if everything was still...in...working order.

"Uh..." he began "...but is everything of yours...still..."

"Yes. Last I checked, anyways.", she replied with a small giggle.

"...Then I see nothing wrong with that." he finally said.

Emily took him in a huge hug and said, "Thank you, Victor...thank you so very much..."

"You're...welcome."

And for the first time that evening...

...Victor was having second thoughts.