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“Can we just agree not to play stupid music? If I hear one more idiot crying about how nice their girlfriend’s hair is, I might actually leave you at the altar.”
“That better be a joke, Hemithea,” muttered Jo over her piles of notes for their wedding.
“How do you feel about Come on Eileen? That’s always popular when we host weddings and parties and I don’t want to tear my ears off when I hear it,” she kicked her feet onto the table and lounged back on her chair.
“Yeah, we can do that,” Jo scratched it down on the paper. “Have you heard back from the tailor about our clothes?”
Emmie cracked her neck, trying to stop it from feeling so stiff. They’d been at it for three days. It wasn’t even that bad, they’d organised and hosted far more complicated weddings, they just wanted something simple. Sure, they had differing opinions on decorations and music, Emmie wanted something slightly more Greek, but not terribly traditional, and Jo had, hopefully jokingly, suggested a 1920s gangster theme.
Which she had obviously shot down immediately. She supported her fiancée’s former lifestyle but they had seen Scarface three times, and that was all she wanted to interact with that kind of thing
It’s not like the marriage would be legal or anything, America was far too backward for that, not in the year of their lord 1995, hopefully one day they could be married in law but for now it was more of a ceremony and excuse for her to call Jo her wife. And Jo to do the same for her of course.
She really liked the sound of that. “My wife. That’s my wife! Get away from my wife! I didn’t kill my wife!”
It had a certain ring to it.
But as an excuse for a party, it was a damn expensive one. It was a good thing they weren’t short on money since some of these prices were beginning to freak her out. At least they didn’t have to pay for the venue. That was something.
Even though she was utterly exhausted and had been there all day, to the point she was nearly sick of it, when she looked over at Jo, her Josie, her love, she couldn’t stop herself from smiling.
She interlaced her fingers with her fiancée, “One week to go.”
“One week to go.”
Just as promised, in exactly a week’s time, she was all dressed to the nines and sitting on her bed, gaze never tearing away from her watch.
Five more minutes . Then she’d be going to the hall and repeating her vows to Jo, in front of everyone they loved. Or knew in a polite sense. She had enough people that if she hadn’t invited them, she’d have been in a lot of trouble for it.
At last the timer went off and she picked up her skirts, careful not to catch her heel in the hem, and went as gracefully as she could speedwalk, all the way to the Grand Hall.
The Waystation (as well as them) had outdone itself for the wedding, expanding the room to fit a dance floor and their tables and Jo had gotten yellow and white decorations from somewhere, since the place was utterly draped in those colours.
Jo herself was out the front, at the centre of the aisle made by chairs. More people showed up than Emmie was really expecting, the hall was packed and some of the chairs weren’t actually matching which meant they’d had to pull them from somewhere and the people there were of all sorts, from business associates, to hunters, to Britomartis (weaving a net from threads she’d pulled from her jacket), and some demigods who’d stayed with them for a while too, little Ruthie, now more a six foot six muscle mountain grinned at her as she made her way down the aisle and Moses, still the same as ever, except the arm Jo had given him had received an update, waved at her enthusiastically.
She was so beautiful that Emmie lost her breath just looking at her. All dressed up in a dark red suit and her hair cropped just for the occasion, even if she still spied a bit of motor oil under her lip and she smiled so widely when she saw Emmie, Emmie thought her face might split in half.
Her heart was drumming itself out of her chest when she took Jo’s hand in hers, far more callused and rougher than hers - she really needed to start using the moisturiser she had left for her in the bathroom - but she felt totally calm as they repeated practiced words to each other and when her wife - Her Wife - slid the ring on her finger, she had to stop herself jumping up and down with glee, and when their officiant said “You may kiss the bride,” both of them leaning in and Emmie nearly bashing her nose off of Jo’s jaw until they fixed their angle and gave it their best shot as people cheered in the background.
Because they didn’t actually need to sign any documents, they all headed to the tables and Emmie prepared herself when she saw Alexis, a friend from the Hunters, pull out a sheet of paper.
Jo didn’t see it, too busy staring at everything, starstruck by it all, until Jo elbowed her and she started rubbing the side of her face. “Which story do you think she’s gotten out?” Jo whispered
“Probably the one where we really obviously liked each other but neither of us knew it and you fell into the river trying to impress me.”
“It worked, since we’re here,” Jo kissed her cheek and they sat down as Alexis remained standing, looking positively evil for someone who was only physically nine.
“Hello everyone, for those that don’t know me, I am Alexis, an old friend of theirs, even if I don’t look it,” she paused for polite laughter before continuing on. “We all used to be a part of this club but they left, what, ten years ago?” She looked over at Emmie for confirmation.
“Eight.”
“Right, eight. Close enough anyway. But that’s how we all met, aaaand, it’s how the two brides got together.”
Emmie put her head in her hands and Jo bit her lip. “Oh no ,” she muttered.
“So, Jo was a newcomer and we were all out camping when Emmie started noticing how Jo kept staring at her-”
“I mean, you did do that a lot,” she muttered to her wife.
“Yeah, but you were so pretty, how could I look away?”
“Nope. Too cheesy.”
“-and she thought she hated her, and started pranking her in retribution for something she hadn’t even done! I remember there was a thing with her stringing her bows, everytime Jo let hers out of sight so they’d be damaged. Of course that never worked, they were way too high quality-”
“Magic.”
“-to be ruined by that but every morning, Jo would be so surprised and she thought she was going insane for a period of time until Zoe let her in on the secret. And she was so upset, she didn’t get it and eventually she just yelled at Emmie and that was that. Emmie was so embarrassed that she became her friend.
“I mean… that is pretty accurate.”
Alexis finished up her speech tidily and just in time for the food, which was a good thing because Emmie was starving. Unfortunately, as one of the brides, she couldn’t just gorge on, but if being a literal princess when she was younger had taught her anything, it was how to eat a lot and still be polite doing it.
A lot of that involved turning so nobody could see you or running away to another room but it still worked.
Pretty well.
Eventually the music came on and she felt relieved at her choice of music as her wife twirled her around the dance floor.
She felt some sense of loss, especially when she had left the hunters, that she would never have a great wedding in Greece with her family. Of course, she certainly didn’t miss all of them but she had been to weddings before, of her cousins and sisters and just really rich people her family knew and they were wonderful and she just wished she hadn’t lost that, even if she’d gained so much.
She wouldn’t have traded anything for Jo though, not with her here, holding her as they moved in tune, even if she was stepping on her toes at that second and that she never cleaned her work clothes unless forced and left the cap off of the toothpaste. How could she when she made her little things as toys when she got bored and made the best dinners on their anniversary and loved her .
She couldn’t keep the stupid grin off of her face when she thought about it. Jo loved her. And they were married. And she couldn’t be happier about that.