"No," August immediately warned.

"What?" Ruby snapped her head at him after staring off after her, and put two and two together. "No, she likes me better."

"We had a moment when I got here."

"We were talking the entire time downstairs, and I helped Emma and Regina pick the floral arrangements. You don't even know her name!" Ruby stomped her foot petulantly.

Before August could retort, the familiar accent spoke up over the music.

"Ruby?" August's eyes widened when he saw not one, but two Accented Beauties. He hadn't realized the one who had sneaked between them mere seconds ago had been wearing a different style of dress, flowy and fairly conservative compared to her counterpart.

Ruby smiled and turned her attention to the florist. "Hey, Belle."

"This is my sister, Lacey," Belle introduced, though Lacey's eyes had been permanently fixated on August's with a knowing smirk on her burgundy painted lips. "She's here for a few months helping my father and I run the shop."

Slowly, August and Ruby turned to one another, their lips quirking pleasantly. "Lacey," Ruby began, shoving the man toward the woman in a clubbing dress, "this is August."

The foursome walked away from the bar just as Tina caught the mischievous glint in Ruby's eye. The preschool teacher shook her head and hooked Kathryn by the arm and tugged them to the vacated spot. "I thought we agreed no wedding hook ups."

"That was really just for you." Kathryn leaned over the counter and ordered a drink.

"Me?" Tina asked aghast, her even springier curls bouncing in her shock. "What did I do?"

"Las Vegas."

The two words stopped the petite blonde in her tracks and added a pink to her cheeks that wasn't caused by make-up. She muttered nonetheless against Kathryn's laughter and crossed her arms accusingly. "Well, what about you, then? It's been close to a year since you stopped seeing Oliver."

"Can I just be blessedly single for once?" Kathryn reached blindly for her drink only to pull back sharply to find fingers already surrounding it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Miss." A voice, deep and sweet that was laced with just a bit of a Southern accent apologized profusely, but Kathryn barely registered it when she noticed the man, tall, crew cut, and one of the three in attendance who had been sporting their army blues. "I thought it was my drink."

Kathryn, despite her sharp tongue and quick thinking as a lawyer, was left gobbling like a fish as Sweet Army Boy chuckled bashfully, rubbing his palm against the back of his neck. "You have good taste in drinks, Miss...?"

"Sorry, Holt, F," Tina said catching his name stitched on his breast before patting his bicep apologetically. "No wedding hook ups."

She looped her arm through Kathryn's and shoved the drink in her hand.

"No, that's just for you!" Kathryn complained, tossing her head over her shoulder to give Holt a parting pout.

They passed August, who was leaning against a wall speaking closely with Lacey. The younger twin had spent the last seven months in Australia back with their Mum, but had been backpacking across Europe since she was seventeen. Her stories rivalled August's. While he had been sowing his wild oats in Thailand, she was trekking along the Berlin Wall. When he had been training in the desert, she had been cliff diving and swimming with manta rays. August was instantly infatuated. If this was what Emma felt for Regina, then sign him up.

"Uncle August!" Henry, nearly as tall as him, slung an arm around his shoulder in greeting. August made a mental note to talk to the kid about game, but Lacey, sensing their time was interrupted momentarily, bowed her head gracefully and stepped away. "My moms were gonna kill you if you showed up late."

August grabbed a champagne flute from a passing server and snorted. "Today would have happened with or without me."

"Yeah, but they'd never let you live it down." He made a grab for the remaining flute on the tray, but August beat him to it, leading the pouting boy away from any semblance of alcohol.

"Good try," he scolded playfully.

"Just one?"

He contemplated it for a moment, glancing between his own glass and Henry's hopeful face before shaking his head. "I value my life."

"They won't know," the teen argued, his voice cracking in his defense. "They're still taking pictures."

August chortled and guided Henry away, whispering something about when he turns sixteen when Ruby, torn away from Belle's side to be the MC for the evening, tapped the microphone at the podium beside the head table near the windows overlooking the beach and called everyone to their seats.

Emma and Regina were about to come up.


"Nervous?"

"Excited."

Regina pressed her forehead against Emma's as the glow from the illuminated stairs silhouetted their features. Strands of hair had escaped from her chignon bun, the bottom of her dress was spotted with sand and dirt from their shoot on the beach, and she was fairly certain there was a pebble in her heel, but she didn't care. She once thought this day was just for show, allowing their friends and family to see them wed, but smiling at Emma, walking down the aisle toward her, marrying her, she finally realized what all the fuss was about.

"Me too," Regina whispered against pink lips, brushing them together just slightly. She leaned back and took Emma in once more. Seeing her at the head of hall with a smile so wide it made her own cheeks hurt sent a flurry of butterflies deep into her stomach. They fluttered so rapidly, she could have sworn they would have lifted her up and flown the rest of the distance to Emma. "Have I told you that you look radiant?"

"Radiant is a new one," Emma admitted playfully. "Beautiful. Gorgeous. Though my personal favourite from today has been delicious."

Regina giggled as Emma dove for her neck, peppering kisses there as she lazily draped her arms around the younger woman's shoulders. They could hear Ruby announce their presence and their guests clap in time with some music, but Regina was fairly certain she could forego being the perfect hostess for a moment if she could relax into the embrace of her wife.

"Ready, Mrs. Swan-Mills?" Emma whispered against her jaw when she trailed her lips up there.

Regina nodded and linked their fingers together. "Ready, Mrs. Swan-Mills."

Together they stepped onto the stairs just as Ruby announced "Presenting Mrs. And Mrs. Swan-Mills!" Their guests cheered the moment they were visible, and Regina nearly blushed under their enthusiasm.

She hadn't really taken in the venue when she walked up those steps an hour earlier, her gaze dead set on green swirls shining happily at her. Whether it was the ornately decorated hall with its purple and red hanging paper lanterns or the guests themselves, standing by their tables surrounding the dance floor, Regina felt a myriad of emotion wash over her. As a child, she and Kat had spent nights lying awake planning their perfect weddings. Grand affairs. Ice sculptures. Doves released into the air as they made their way out of the church. It had once been her dream. But this small wedding in a clubhouse overlooking the ocean with the handful of friends and family they had collected over the years was just perfect.

As they stepped onto the main hall, their arms wrapped around each other's waists, Regina grinned when the table closest to them seating Emma's former squad momentarily stopped them when one of them held his hand up for a high five.

"Nice job, Swan!" Emma smirked and leaned over Regina to palm his hand.

Regina smiled at the young man, attempting to put a name to his demeanor when the burley Argentinean man beside him leaned in closer and spoke softly she barely caught it. "Cuidar de ella."

Regina looked surprised for a moment, but the hint of pride quirking on his otherwise stoic face had her nodding back and whispering, "Si, señor."

She led Emma forward when the blonde looked confused by the quick conversation, but as they waved and smiled to their guests—Emma's director from the youth center for disabled children; Mary Margaret Nolan (sans David) and her heavily pregnant belly; Alicia Stevens and Dr. Caleb Mitchell; Jefferson and Paige Hatter, Robin and Roland Locksley, Marco Borelli, and Gwen du Lac—the moment was forgotten in favour of arriving to the middle of the dance floor. For a brief second, Emma looked uncertain as she studied the floor under their heels, but when the beginning bars of a familiar Aerosmith song blared from the DJ's speaker, the blonde looked up with a grin on her face, pulling Regina close.

"This song reminds me of you," Regina teased as they swayed to and fro along the dance floor.

"Hopefully without the death."

"Definitely without the death."

They chuckled pressing their foreheads together, swaying until the end of the verse before Emma unexpectedly gripped Regina around the waist in time with the chorus and raised her up. Regina yelped surprised and reached quickly behind Emma's neck, but the younger woman's hold was strong. Somewhere in the back of Regina's mind, she could hear the crowd hollering, but all she could process was how entrancing Emma was. When Emma circled them around the floor, slowly lowering her inch by inch, Regina was content to let her arms drape lazily over the blonde's shoulder. "Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Kathryn may have introduced me to the dance instructor she went to for her wedding," she shrugged, letting her nails rake lightly against Regina's exposed back.