#sapphicsummerriordanverse

[sapphic-summer-riordanverse]

WE ARE BACK FOR SAPPHIC SUMMER YEAR TWO!!!! 

rules are the same but submit any potential prompts you want to see and ideas for dates between mid june and the end of august!!!

[sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021]

next monday!!!

[mallorykeen]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32109832

[mallorykeen]

Sapphic Summer Day Seven

@sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

“You ready to go?” Drew asked her girlfriend. Billie stuck her head up from her plant boxed and nodded. 

“Yeah, let’s just get this into the car, and we should be all good.”

 I want to move to the country

Do nothing but drink wine and bake bread

 Drew’s dad had bought her a station wagon for her eighteenth birthday and now she was using it to take all hers and Billie’s things to their new cabin. It was isolated enough for the both of them, while in reach of the city for their jobs, just a few miles out of Albany. 

��Don't give a shit 'bout the others

'Cause they do what the government says

 She managed to spill some earth down her shirt and cursed rather creatively in Japanese. It wasn’t like she had been expecting to stay clean, she was wearing the ugly orange shirts anyway (they were awful with her complexion) but now it was down her bra and on her chest. Never mind, at least she’d have an excuse to take the first shower at their new place then. In three and a half hours. She sighed and resigned herself to being uncomfortable for that time. 

 It's you and me and anarchy, my dear

We'll have two cats and a corgi

 But when she looked up at Billie’s face shining with happiness and anticipation, she felt she could put up with that. “Have you got all your makeup? It would suck if you left it behind by accident.”

Drew fished out her checklist and, while she took a minute with her dyslexia, made sure it was crossed off. “I think that’s it then.”

“Huh.” She climbed in the passenger seat beside Billie. “Is it me or did you never think we’d leave this place either?”

“Half of all demigods make it to the mortal world, right?”

“I mean, we didn’t get lucky. Only a handful of us are actually still alive, right? Us and like ten others.”

“I try not to think too much about it. At least we’re not big three right?”

Billie laughed, a note of apprehension in her voice, “There’s that. Anyways, I got all these weapons ready and you’ve got your knives, so we’re ready regardless. You’re a pretty good fighter.”

“I thought you were just letting me win so I’d pin you down.”

“I- Maybe but you did beat Malcolm and Sherman.”

Drew conceded and took the compliment, “Okay, I did do that.” 

 Grow sustainable plants in the front yard

Buy an old guitar for the aesthetic

 Billie started the engine, a juddering loud thing, and, at the bottom of Half Blood Hill, they looked back for what might be the last time.

 But never learn it 'cause that shit's too hard

Not that it would matter anyway

 As she saw the retreating camp, she was strangely sad. It was weird, for ages she hadn’t even liked the place, but after the Giant War and all the shit that came with that, she had decided to give the bitchy hyperfemme persona that she had thought had to be there for a daughter of Aphrodite. 

It boiled down to Silena, really, Silena was nice, so she wasn’t, Silena’s appearance was effortless, so hers was an hours long process. Silena was a traitor, in the basest sense, so she was loyal. Whatever she was, however horrible she’d been, she was upfront about her intentions at least. 

 Because, my dear, I'd love you just the same

 But then she let it go. Chilled out. Yeah, she was still a bitch if someone was a bitch to her, eye for an eye and all that, but she made her apologies and repaid her debts. It was literally the bare minimum. 

 Woah

Woah

Woah

 Not that people wanted much to do with her anyway and she still didn’t like those big swords or capture the flag or getting messy. But her fear powered her through it. She didn’t want to die and that was enough to make her train hard and now that Piper wasn’t coming back, she’d retaken her role as counsellor, not that anyone else was able to do it. Lacy and Mitchell were the next in line but still too young. 

 Love you just the same

Woah

Woah

Woah

 She’d teamed up with Billie for Capture the Flag, when Miranda left. Two underestimated cabins made a good surprise attack. Billie didn’t ask for anything she’d thought she’d want: not their shower slot, not taking their hard chores, not giving up their good activities. No, she wanted Drew to come with her and do stuff with her in return. 

 Love you just the same

 Gardening. Obviously, Drew was nothing to her, Billie had a bit of a genetic advantage but it was nice to get her hands dirty for once, once she’d given up on looking so clean and perfect all the time. 

 We could watch the news and writе letters

To a congressman wе both hate

 And now they were moving in with each other. It wasn’t a new decision, they’d been together for years and among Camp alumni, it was pretty common to have a roommate from there after years of living together, or at the very least, someone to watch their backs. 

 Slowly steeping in our disappointment

Realize that you can't escape from it

 Billie gripped her hand, calluses against her soft skin, and kissed her at their first red light and all of her worries and fears dissolved into nothing. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Drew flicked on the old tape she had made up and they were yelling the lyrics out into the air all the way from New York City to Albany. Three and a half hours felt like nothing after all. 

 We want our voices to be heard

To make the world outside a little better

 The car pulled up at their new home, in the middle of the woods, away from anyone who might bother them. Just them and whoever they wanted to come. Drew knew Billie was close with most of her siblings, and while she wasn’t as close with hers, she’d be willing to extend an invitation at the very least. 

 Overthrow a tyrant, start a riot

And babe you know I'm with you for whatever

 “Our new home.”

“It’s perfect,” said Drew. “You want to go inside or unpack everything now?”

She stretched up dramatically, almost as tall as Drew. Almost. “Let’s get it over with now and then I’m going to bed.” 

“Do you snore?” Billie threw her a mock-dirty look.

“Yes.” Obviously Drew knew that already, she’d fallen asleep in her lap too many times in the strawberry fields for her to not notice. She snored like a foghorn. Drew had slept through monster attacks, fire alarms and earthquakes before so it worked between them.  

 Nothing you could do would ever change-

(And I will tell you as many times as you need to hear it)

 Their cabin was cute. Small, but they had a garden with space for flowers and vegetables and trees and a big covered south facing porch to sit on in the evening like a pair of pensioners. Inside was pretty spacious, just five rooms: kitchen, living room, their bedroom, bathroom and a guest room. And it was full of light for all of their house plants to thrive. Or just for Drew to lay on the ground and bathe in the sun, like a cat but with better eyeliner. 

 I will always love you just the same

(It's you and me against the world, bunny. Let's go!)

 “We made it. We actually made it.”

 Woah

Woah

Woah

 “Of course we made it, I refuse to die with acne. I would definitely demand a closed casket for that.” Billie rolled her eyes at her. 

 Love you just the same

 “Would you believe I was trying to have a moment here?” 

Drew kissed her as an apology, “Go get all your plants settled. I’ll see what we can do for dinner. Something light?”

 Woah

Woah

Woah

 “Sounds great.” And with that, Billie Ng was out the door and it was just Drew Tanaka in an empty house.

What was it again? Dinner. She just looked around at the bags of groceries they'd sent ahead. No meat since both of them were vegetarians, just vegetables, milk, oat milk and eggs. 

 Love you just the same

She shrugged and turned on the stove, heating it up, while she made her omelettes. Another thing she’d gotten good at at camp: cooking. Chef and kitchen cooking, gourmet cooking, baking and pastry making, wilderness cooking? It was kinda her thing. 

When she was making up apologies for people, she liked to bring them bread and pies. And when she was pissed off, kneading dough over and over was better than biting out insults or forcing charmspeak. 

 And we'll watch the world from our front porch

Remember all our plans

 Maybe the things people said about putting love into food made it taste better was true. Aphrodite was all about love so Drew could put her love into her food. She hoped her mother liked that concept at least. 

 For making vegan brunch on Sundays

And playin' Rockaband with our friends

 Billie was out back, digging into the ground, commanding soil to her will, when Drew brought the food out. She set a tree into its place and pressed her hands to the trunk, doing some magic plant thing to help it settle or something before running up to the poarch to get her food. 

 Will that fantasy survive?

Will it have to step aside

When there's so much more to fight for

 Once everything was done, it was long dark and the fire they had built and the moon were the only sources of light around. Drew would’ve suggested stargazing like they did at camp but the midges biting her skin said otherwise so they went inside to sit on their battered secondhand settee instead. 

 Woah

Woah

 Drew couldn’t see her in the dark but she could still trace her form anywhere, feel her where she couldn’t see, hear her even if she was invisible. 

 Woah

One, two, three, four!

 It wasn’t hard, where Drew was sitting straight on, Billie had strewn herself over the couch, and over her, legs crossing legs, arms touching arms, hands holding hands. 

 Woah

Woah

Woah

Love you just the same

 The dirt under Billie’s nails cast onto Drew’s hands, a thick earthy smell in the air and Drew still had dirt down her shirt from earlier. 

 Woah

Woah

Woah

Love you just the same

 “We got really lucky, didn’t we?” 

She just kissed Billie in response. 

[sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021]

for the record this event is open to anyone not just sapphics

[sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021]

is it okay if the fics are submitted a little later than the week?

sure, not many people have submitted much so far so that’s fine! (same goes for arists)

[mallorykeen]

Sapphic Summer Day One

@sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

It would’ve been a pretty standard day for her. Killing people here, killing people there, getting killed herself, waking up, doing other stuff until she went to sleep and repeated it all. 

It was a Tuesday too, free for all fighting, the best kind. No stupid wyrms to mess things up, no seige warfare where she got hit by missles or killed by stupid hyperactive diseases. 

No, today was just good old fighting, dodging falling bodies and flying axes and hoping her knives would find their mark somewhere in another einherji’s throat, or at least an important artery. 

It was kind of awkward when they took a while to die and were just looking up at you all betrayed and in agony. 

Unfortunately her moronic hallmates, her so-called “shield brothers” had gotten themselves killed already. Halfborn took an axe straight to the dick and she just ended it quickly for him because his squealing was uncomfortable to be around and T.J. decided to try and charge a legion of Thor’s children from Floor 35 and fell unlucky from being fried with lightning. 

That looked like it hurt. Poor T.J.

So she was all alone, just standing behind a tree a few minutes after T.J. died, trying to gauge where she could make the most effect, when she realised she’d been spotted. 

Now, she wasn’t hiding. There was a difference. She was being strategic, clever, all that. If she was a coward, she would’ve just left. Or never arrived. Or just not in Valhalla at all. They were “Odin’s chosen warriors” after all. Except her hallmates. They were just Odin’s chosen idiots. 

The fucker with the eyepatch and the axe was there. Mallory hated him. He talked too much and was just so smarmy and annoying and thought he was so much better than anyone just because his mom was Frigg. What an arsehole. 

“Keen!” Oh great he’d spotted her, “How’s it going?”

“Shut the fuck up, let’s just get this over with.” She drew her knives but even they weren’t much compared to the entire group of sheep with Eyepatch and their purposefully deadly weapons. 

“Let’s-” He was suddenly cut off by a sparking flying hammer to the head, bursting his skull open in a way which was almost artistic, if it wasn’t plain disgusting. 

Mallory couldn’t see far enough down the hill to see who had killed him but Eyepatch’s group could and did, since they all turned tail up to her and started running away. And chasing after them, at the bottom of the hill, holding a matching sparking hammer, in full armour and already bloodied, was the woman, the legend herself: Gunilla. 

She gulped and took up a fighting stance, ready to meet her. If anyone was taking her down today, it would be the most beautiful and most terrifying woman Mallory had ever met. 

Gunilla didn’t look interested in fighting her though. She went for the stragglers, people who were running away from her, just not fast enough. When she reached her, she stopped clean in front of her. 

“Well? Aren’t you going to help me kill them? They were going to kill you.” She was so tall, Mallory had to crane her neck to see her face properly. The sparking and lightning had gone but in her icy blue eyes, there were still tinges of it firing away, like synapses in a brain. 

“Oh! Of course, uh, let’s- let’s go.” 

“Come on.” Gunilla grabbed her wrist, despite Mallory’s complaining and lifted her off the ground and onto her back, charging right to where the rest of the einherjar were hiding or trying to escape. 

The problem was, this hill had a bottleneck entrance into this basin, where there was a lake. Outside of battle, it was probably very beautiful, but at the moment, there were too many corpses, or soon to be corpses, lying around, for Mallory to appreciate it properly. “Lemme down!” She kicked Gunilla’s back and was dropped onto the ground immediately. 

“You’re welcome for the lift.”

“Thanks? Now can we please deal with them.” She pointed at them, trying to find another exit. There wasn’t one. She’d discovered that the hard way when she and her hallmates got chased in there, about five years ago and ended up drowning because of it, pushed in by some dickhead from floor 29. 

“My pleasure, you stop them escaping, I deal with them?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Mallory felt herself blush from Gunilla’s rare grin, probably matching her hair. 

She marched off, cornering a few quickly while the worst of them jumped into the lake, trying to escape her by water since her armour would probably drown her before she caught them. 

Mallory grimaced. That was a poor mistake to make. 

As soon as all the einherjar on land were dealt with, bloodily and bodily, Gunilla set her sights on the lake. 

She left her post at the bottleneck and joined Gunilla at the edge, who was looking at the water, almost gleefully. “So, you’re going to do your zappy thing and kill them?”

“Yes. It’s gonna be fun.”

“I like your style.” She cocked her head to the side, “But why do I never actually see you out here so often. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you on the battlefield.”

“Huh,” Gunilla looked up. At her. Like, right at her. “I’m just busy. Lotta paperwork with the valkyries and the thanes and all that. Figured I deserve a break. And I’m looking for a new sparring partner, I don’t want to feel like I’m getting out of practice, you know?” She flexed her biceps and Mallory couldn’t resist it. She just felt it, only for a minute. 

“Sorry! Sorry. I-”

“It’s fine. You fight good though. What you doing next Saturday?”

“You want me to spar with you?”

“If you want to.” She looked… nervous? 

“Course I do.” She finally tore her gaze away from Gunilla’s face, to the einherjar trying to escape the lake now, furiously swimming to the side now that they were apparently distracted. “You wanna deal with them now?”

“With pleasure.” She focused for a few seconds and her hammer started sparking away and she slammed it down on the water, being careful to let go in enough time, just in case and both her and Mallory took a steady step back. 

Once it was over, they were both still standing there, looking at Gunilla’s hammer, which was sitting in the shallow part albeit, covered in water, still sparking away.

“So how are we getting that back?”

“I may have not thought this far through.”

“Seriously-” She was lucky she was cute. 

[mallorykeen]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32173864 Sapphic Summer Day Five @sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

[mallorykeen]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32191501 sapphic summer day six @sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

[mallorykeen]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32131141 sapphic summer day three @sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

[mallorykeen]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32150881 *pounds fist on table* new gallory one shot

@sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

[mallorykeen]

Sapphic Summer Day Five

@sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

Jaz was very surprised to be rushed out of her bed in the middle of the night because the princess had a broken ankle. 

“Your Highness, may I ask how you did this? It would help me heal it faster.” She clarified. 

“...I tripped.” This was the first time she’d been so up close with her and she was terrifying to be beside. Or maybe that was because of her guard whose sword was very sharp and glinted threateningly in the light. How could glinting seem threatening? She didn’t know, but it was. 

“Would you mind telling me exactly how?” The princess rolled her eyes and Jaz felt very close to having that blade slit her throat. 

“I- uh… I fell off the roof.”

She blinked. What on earth was the princess doing up there? It wasn’t her business though. Not if she wanted to live past this appointment. 

“May I take a look?” Her leg was already propped up so it just took a nod for Jaz to examine the swollen ankle. “Well, you’ve definitely twisted it. It’s not serious though. Just keep it elevated, the swelling should go down in it’s own time and… try not to fall off of roofs in the future.”

“Can’t you heal this right now? You follow the path of Sekhmet, don’t you?” She wasn’t pleased. Jaz gulped. 

“I could do that, but in the case of injuries such as this, it’s more beneficial to the body to let it heal on its own. We’ve found that when it’s been healed with magic, the ankle might fail or break more easily in the future and we don���t want to risk that of course.”

“Right. Well, you must accompany me for that time then!”

“What- I mean, pardon?”

“If I am to rest, then you have to keep me company. You will still be paid and when I am well, you can return to your job.”

“Of course, your highness.” She didn’t have a choice so it was more to be genial. Better than execution though. 

She didn’t have much to bring so she just accompanied the princess to wherever she was going, even though she had to walk and the princess was carried on a litter. She’d seen her run around most of the time, evading servants and chastising family members so it was unnerving to see her so regal. 

They reached a lounge, except ten times as grand as Jaz had ever seen it and a guard moved Sadie from the litter to a couch. Jaz grabbed a cushion and placed it under her swollen foot, extremely obviously even though she was acutely aware of all the rules she was breaking. The princess patted her hand though and she felt at ease. 

“The healer is permitted to touch me,” she announced to her entourage who bowed and left the room when she waved her hand. 

The second they left, she completely transformed. Far less a princess and more of a young girl having fun. 

“Okay, since I can’t roof run anymore, I want some company. So you’re going to do that.”

“Your Highness-” Jaz began but the princess cut her off. 

“When they aren’t here, call me Sadie.”

“Your name?” What was going on? Had the world turned inside out? Had Nut and Geb reunited? There was no way a lowly healer had just been given permission to call the princess by her name. It was too late for this. She needed some sleep. 

“Not my actual name, and not my secret name, Gods, but it’s something I like to be called.” 

“Of course, Your- Sadie.”

“Your Sadie? I like the sound of that.”

She blushed and carried on down the hallway, offering her arm to the princess. She’d never been through his part of the palace before, her patients preferring to come to her with the exception of that old man, the retired general, who had been unable to walk because of gout. That had not been a fun healing session.  

Eventually they made it to the princess’ chambers - a whole apartment with it’s own household. She had her own servants, guards, maids inside the palace. 

Why wouldn’t she though? Jaz shook herself. Her brother was the Pharaoh, she was one of the most important people in the kingdom. 

Sadie turned to her, “Since this wasn’t exactly planned… we don’t have a room for you.”

Jaz bit her tongue in an effort not to protest that the Pharaoh didn’t have a spare room for when his sister was determined to kidnap another person into her household. What, was she going to have to sleep on the floor like a dog?

“-so we can share my bed.” 

Jaz blinked a few hundred times before she processed what Sadie was saying. “I’m sorry, so sorry, Y- Sadie, I must’ve misheard you.”

“I said we could share my bed.” She suddenly grew shy, an emotion most likely foreign to her. “Only if you want to though, it’s completely fine if you don’t. There’s lots of space though-”

“That sounds good.” Jaz smiled at her, trying to reassure her. She felt a yawn incoming and said, “I don’t suppose, we can sleep now?”

“Come on, I’ll show you.” Sadie limped down the hallway to a room, a far reach from the cell that Jaz slept in, with gold everywhere and flowing fabric curtains. In the centre was the bed, a frame covered in blankets and pillows. 

“You’ll need to keep your foot elevated when you’re asleep so if we just,” she picked up a pillow and put it down where Sadie’s foot would go. 

She laid down next to Sadie, unrelaxed, held stiff as a board, their shoulders just  brushing as the princess’ breath got deeper and deeper and once she was sure she was asleep, she just looked at her, hair covered to keep it from being ruined and every part of her crisp makeup which Jaz had seen her wear whenever she left her room, washed away, revealing her light brown skin. 

She let herself relax, untensing her muscles and fell into deep sleep beside her princess.  

[mallorykeen]

Sapphic Summer Day Four

@sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

Gunilla fucking hated frost giants, the freezing fuckers. They didn’t respond to her lightning at all, able to shake it off like it was no effort. It was so annoying that she couldn’t use her most useful ability against these gargantuan monsters. 

She knew that, but doing it did slow them down enough for Mallory to close the weak spot between Jotunheim and Midgard. A blast, enough to kill a human ten times over, only made them stumble but it was enough for her, as Mallory did her best with the magic bloody needle that Junior had promised would seal up the crack. 

If he was lying, she’d go over there and fry him to a crisp. Also Ragnarok would happen too, which would be significantly worse. 

Just a few more seconds. She grunted and threw her hammer right into the eye of one of the jotun and it shattered into little crystals raining down on top of her and instinctively she went to pull her cloak over herself to protect her skin but she was too slow and one went right through her armour, and straight into her stomach. 

As an einherji, she was stronger and faster and healed better than a human did, and her being a demigod enhanced this too, but even a hit like that unbalanced her. 

Her sight went dark and when she recovered, woozy and losing blood by the second, the other jotun was staring right at her, ready to strike, just taking its time. That was their mistake. 

Stronger and faster meant some things worked though when it really shouldn’t and she did the same thing to it that she had done to it’s friend but this time, sheltered herself the entire time, crystals hitting against her cloak but thankfully never breaking though. 

The adrenaline could carry her though until she was back in Valhalla. She covered the hole in her armour and the blood pouring out of it with her cloak, adjusting it just so. What Mallory didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. Even if she was in excruciating pain and those black spots in her vision definitely weren’t meant to be there.

“You okay?” Her girlfriend in question joined her where she was crouched, sweaty and disgusting from closing the weak spot to stop the jotun from crossing over to Midgard. 

Gunilla cracked her neck from side to side and stood up, towering over Mallory. “Yeah, I’m good. How far do you think we have to go to get to Yggdrasil?” Now that they’d closed that gap, they’d need to find another way to get to Valhalla, and soon. She did not want to go out like this, that was plain embarrassing. 

And her stomach felt like it was on fire and she was going to sit down soon. Nope this was not good. 

At least they only had to walk half a mile until they found a campsite and set themselves up for the night since it was getting dark and if there was one thing worse than fighting jotun, it was fighting jotun at night. 

She thought she could hold in the pain through her body but when she sat down, she involuntarily groaned. 

“What’s wrong?” Mallory was at her side in an instant, her usually long hair tied back in a bun to keep it out of the way of the fire that she had just built. 

She didn’t see any point in pretending she was fine and let the cloak fall away from where it was hiding her wound. It looked a lot worse than it had before, but at least the blood was beginning to clot. From what she remembered, that was good. Now she just needed to get it all fixed and keep from infection. A small ask really. 

“Gunilla?” She was nervously laughing, “Please tell this is a joke.”

“You know I’m a horrible actor. I got hit by the first one so…”

“Oh my god.” Mallory looked like she wanted to swear for hours in every language she knew and beat up Gunilla for not telling her about it when it happened. Instead she went into her pack and pulled out their limited medical supplies. 

Some antiseptic, sterilised needle and thread and a piece of wood for her to bite on instead of biting off her tongue (she’d seen that happen when she was alive and people were getting amputations and amputated their tongues as well as their limbs. No painkillers though. 

Mallory grimaced. “I think you’re just going to feel this, moron.”

“Why am I a moron?” The piece of frost giant - urgh - was still in her, skin slowly knitting around it. Was this the best idea? Of course not! Did she want to dig it out later? Fuck no, that was far worse. So this was happening. 

“Because you didn’t tell me before and now this is going to be a lot worse than it could’ve been.”

It hurt a lot more than she was expecting when Mallory pulled it out of her. It was also a lot gooeyier and the noise made bile rush up her throat. She gave a shake and a groan, trying to shove it down because she didn’t want to deal with vomit and her wound at the same time. There would be time to throw up later. 

If she survived this, of course. 

Mallory got to work, thread and needle going through her flesh, binding it together. Her head felt hot and ears fuzzy and holding herself up was too much and she let her head loll backwards, even though it was even harder to breathe. 

After what felt like an age and a half, she could sit up again. Mallory had put her shirt back even though it was torn through and her armour would cost her a good amount of red gold to get repaired or replaced, depending on the damage. 

“No, you don’t.” A hand was on her forehead and another was on her shoulder, pushing her back down. Gunilla was too tired to disobey. Sleeping would make her feel better, right? Maybe it would make her nausea go away. 

“Thank you for looking after me, Love.” That got her a kiss on her forehead and a blanket around her before she shut her eyes for the night. 

[mallorykeen]

Sapphic Summer Day Three

@sapphic-summer-riodanverse-2021

“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.