What's This? (A Wedding)

She didn't need to breathe, but she usually did anyway. It was a Masquerade precaution, so it was also accurate to say that she was holding her breath. This was it; do or die time, so to speak. Her hand, in Erik's, gave him a little squeeze.

She wouldn't be offended if he said no. She was there for him no matter what he answered. She was just scared.

"I Do." he said smoothly with no hesitation and squeezing her hand back.

To all those placing bets: Screw you. With love and kindness, of course.

She was actually surprised that her voice didn't waver.

"I do," was her firm answer.

Victor smiled softly when both parties completed their vows. He was actually certain the whole thing would go through. Because seriously, optimism mattered.

Erik took the rings from Matieu and handed them to the Priest.

The ring she had chosen was rather simple, but still somehow elegant. The blue was only a shade or two darker than her own eyes, which was one of the reasons she had chosen it. She took the ring, looked up at Erik and repeated the words the priest told her to:

"With this ring, I thee wed, and all my worldly goods to thee endow. In sickness and health, in poverty and wealth, 'til death to us part"

Oh, Christ, she really had just said that, hadn't she? Ohhh, Lord. Now she started shaking. Now. She had been calm about five minutes before. She was fairly sure that this was the part where he would run away. And if he did? She wouldn't blame him. They had less than five minutes before this was done. Last chance to back out.

'With this ring, I thee wed, and all my worldly goods to thee endow. In sickness and health, in poverty and wealth, 'til death to us part'." He replied smoothly with no fear or hesitation at all.

Oh Erik didn't need to be told twice, taking her gently by the waist he kissed her far from chastely, but not vulgarly either, and made sure she Knew she was now with her partner and husband.

There was that brief flash of panic again: No! Wait! That was too fast.... And that thought was rapidly replaced by a different thought as she felt herself pulled against Erik - a familiar thing - and, oh, hey! Kisses! She was both familiar with those and as a matter of fact, she really, really liked Erik's kisses.

She returned that kiss, not vulgar by any stretch - her dad was sitting right there and there were people staring at her - oh, wait. Not a deterrent. His arms were around her waist and her arms went around his shoulders most naturally. She waited until the kiss broke before she opened her eyes and smiled. The entire world could have disappeared and she wouldn't have noticed.

Do you have any clue how hard it is to sit still for that long? And to keep your big mouth shut for that long? DO YOU?

Thankfully, he had a sense of decorum. It was just slightly different. He rose to his feet as that kiss happened, put two fingers in his mouth and whistled - following said whistle with some enthusiastic clapping.

Victor followed Joseph's lead although he was somewhat more restrained about it and rose while clapping and contemplating the confetti poppers that he had removed from his jacket.

Joseph had a bit of a different sound. He rose as well, clapping along with Salif, though he had to do it. He cleared his throat in that way fathers do when their daughters were spending too much time kissing a boy. That way that said 'that's enough', but he was more cute and playful about it rather than any seriousness to it.

It just needed to be done. She was still his little girl.

Erik turned his head at the sound Joseph made with a smirk, hugging Griselda, he whispered to her, then turned with her on his arm, and faced the group.

She laughed softly when she heard his whisper, gave him a whisper in return with a slight smirk. Then, yes, she turned and faced the crowd, giving her father a wink.

Victor smirked and handed Audrina and Miyu a long confetti cannon and popped his own off with a silly grin

Erik whispered something to Griselda, squeezed her hand then headed down the aisle with his bride, grinning like a Chesire cat from ear to ear.

Miyu took the confetti thing from Victor and just smiled. Actually, she had spent most of the ceremony in conversation with God - not that anyone would know that - but whatever had been said had her smiling brightly from more than just her happiness for the couple.

Yes, she was clapping - and even laughed a little at the look on their faces.

Erik Johns wrote:

Erik whispered something to Griselda, squeezed her hand then headed down the aisle with his bride, grinning like a Chesire cat from ear to ear.

Whatever he said had her very near to laughing. It was really, really hard to pay attention to anything but Erik right now. Which made her feel like an ass because there were all these people hanging around staring at her and she felt like she needed to play hostess to them all. But attention span. She just didn't have one for anything other than Erik.

Which meant that yep, she was looking at him with her own grin as she walked down the aisle with him.

Rachel stepped up to take Matieu's arm, with no flinching or showing how creepy it really was - which was huge kudos to her that most there didn't know but yeah - bugs crawling on one's flesh did not make for a good time.

Big smile and Salif so owed her cause she won the bet on this time.

Happily went to take Sean's arm, she'd skip down the aisle if she could but both were so happy it showed. What more coudl she ask for?