A/N: I would like to point out that I've had a very good reason for not updating my stories for a bit there, as opposed to the usual 'meh, I had stuff' reasons. You see, dear readers, I am now engaged. Yes, that's right, on the evening of March 21st, 2014, our fifth anniversary, I asked my boyfriend to marry me, and he said yes. I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to Kgirl1 for her support and kind words, for letting me vent when I was FREAKING OUT, MAAAAAAAN, and for just being a good friend. This vergura's for you, sweetheart!

Disclaimer: I wish I owned this stuff. Man, there would be so much random crazyness in the 'verse. Like, more than usual even. It would be awesome. But I don't, so here's this shlock instead. Enjoy!

He Said Yes – Or, How Agura Learned to Stop Worrying and Gave Vert His Man-Gagement Ring

Though Vert's smile was somewhat sheepish, he managed to handle the attention he received with remarkable dignity and composure. This was not something he ever expected to have to do. The joyous congratulations and celebrating was something he expected, yes, but his position in all of it was quite novel. One could say that some roles had been reversed.

"Hold still a tick, mate," Stanford said. "I want a picture of this!"

Vert blushed. "You've been taking pictures since you got here, Stanford."

"Yes, but I want to send one to your mum. As a parent, she should know that someone has asked for her baby's hand."

The entire top half of his face went bright red, and the crimson one obligingly stuck out his left hand. Vert reminded himself that his mother had attended Berkeley; as a card-carrying, combat boot-wearing feminist, she would have no problem with his taking a non-traditional gender role in this relationship milestone, because the important thing was that they were happy together.

But the Wheelers' only son had no illusions about his father's reaction. Jack was old school and white trash deep down to the bone, and he was going to make even more fun of him than Spinner had. Afterwards, his wife would say something along the lines of "stop being sexist, that's such patriarchal bullshit," and he would shut up because she terrified him when she got that burning look in her eyes and called him a chauvinist. But Jack would still sneer at Vert whenever Janet wasn't looking.

The door chimed as Zoom entered the diner, Grace in tow. The pair had been at the movies when Spinner's and Stanford's mass-texts had made the rounds. Only minutes before had Muppets Most Wanted let out, at which point Zoom and Grace had checked their phones and heard the exciting news.

"So, who's getting married now?" Zoom asked in mock anger. He gently punched his captain's arm. "How come you didn't say anything?"

"And more importantly, where's the ring?!" Grace flittered over to Agura, failing to contain her eagerness.

Agura gave a self-satisfied smirk and looked to her fiancé. She eyed him and raised a single eyebrow. Vert blushed harder and looked away, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. He was forced to pay attention when her elbow nudged into his ribs. Reluctantly, he gave in and stuck out his hand again.

On the fourth finger of Vert's left hand was a band carved with Celtic designs. Knots of golden vines curled tightly around his finger, the only space left between the twisted lines filled by a trio of princess-cut, bezel-set rubies.

Grace frowned, furrowing her eyebrows. "Oh," she said, somewhat surprised. "You proposed to him. That's…different."

Once again, Vert sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Agura shrugged and put an arm possessively around Vert, her smirk evolving into a grin. "I liked it, so I put a ring on it," she explained.

The crimson one lived up to his moniker and turned a deeper shade of red. Vert had a feeling he was going to be doing a lot of blushing this week.

Grace wrinkled her nose. "Um."

"Dudes, dudes!" AJ interjected, putting up his hands to signal a timeout. "I think we're all forgetting the most important thing here."

All eyes turned to him and heads tilted in question.

The Canadian grinned. "Who gets to be Best Man at the wedding?"

Zoom stepped up to duke it out with AJ over this dilemma, Vert trying desperately to calm the two and reach a compromise. This left Agura and Grace standing awkwardly together near the diner entrance while the boys carried on arguing, Stanford and the Cortez brothers egging them on the whole time they walked over to their usual booth.

"It's usually the other way around, isn't it?" Grace asked.

The huntress harrumphed and nonchalantly began inspecting her nails. "I suppose it is," she replied.

The waitress chuckled uneasily. "Well, this is certainly a…surprise."

"Yep."

Finally, Grace could hold off no longer. She needed clarification, no matter how potentially tactless her burning question was. "You…asked him?"

"So what if I did?" Agura had crossed her arms in an attempt to look tough and uncompromising, but suddenly all the confidence she tried to fake fell to pieces. She sighed. "Look, I've been seriously wrestling with this decision for months," she said. "It's going to be hard enough explaining to my parents that I'm bringing home a white boy—"

Grace cringed. "Yeah, I was wondering if that might be a problem."

"—Let alone that I didn't just sit and wait for my prince to sweep me off my feet. The people who don't think I'm pathetically desperate are going to think I'm pushy and domineering." She growled in frustration and started rubbing her temples. "My mom's going to pitch a total fit about how 'unladylike' this is as soon as I tell her. So could you just cut me some slack here?"

"If this bothers you so much, then why did you propose?"

"Because I love him, damn it!"

The sincerity and weariness in her voice—the need for someone, anyone, to understand— hit Grace hard. Agura had never shown that kind of vulnerability before. And as much stress as making a marriage proposal was for a man, for a woman to go against thousands of years of human history and take the lead… Just asking Vert was a huge leap of faith. The huntress was completely throwing etiquette out the window.

Even an otherwise liberal man, who may have even been thinking of marriage before, could reject a woman simply because she asked. Girls were not supposed to do that. That was a guy thing. To risk her entire relationship like that was mind boggling to Grace. The danger of refusal was too terrifying.

To pin all of her hopes on Vert, to say he was the one and bet it all or nothing...

'She must really love him…'

And in the end, was that not the only thing that truly mattered?

"You're right, Agura," Grace told her, giving her a big hug. "Congratulations on your engagement. I hope you and Vert have a long happy life together."

Agura returned the hug. "Thanks, Grace. You're a good friend."

All of these feelz were interrupted by raucous laughter from the boys.

"Dude, you can't skip the garter toss!" AJ crowed. "It's an important tradition!"

Grace blanched. "We should probably step in before they do something stupid," she said.

Agura grinned. "Let 'em go for a bit longer," she said. "Some of the silly b.s. they come up with can be pretty entertaining."