What does a wedding look like at the Sanctuary? Well first of all, let me tell you that Eric was a fucking tyrant about wedding traditions. That whole 'the bride and groom have to sleep apart the night before' thing? He fucking enforced it. Rolling his eyes at Negan's insistence that he had no fucking fears that we'd be FINE sleeping in the same fucking bed, he grabbed my future husband a clutch of clothes and pushed him toward the door of our rooms.

"Out." My very haughty, very flaming best friend ordered, and I saw Negan's eyes widen. Ut oh. "Don't you give me that Lord on Fucking High look, Coach." The eyes closed to slits and I felt a tiny twist of fear for Eric's safety, but he just rolled his eyes and sighed. "Do you REALLY want to chance tomorrow not fucking going according to plan, just because you two can't keep your genitals apart for a few fucking hours?" Negan's mouth opened and I knew he was about to argue. "Steven has the apartment set up for a 'stag night' or whatever it's called, alcohol, snacks, NO stripping exes," this was offered to appease me, I'm sure. "In fact," he called Trey over and picked him up. "You're keeping mini tyrant," he handed our son to Negan and it was my turn to try to argue. "Shut up, bitch, this will keep Coach Big Dick Spanks You Hard from getting too fucking drunk to function tomorrow." Trey was snuggling into his daddy's arms, Negan's forced clothes tucked under his tiny tushy. "And don't worry about Trey's toys or clothes, we have some at our place. Now scoot." He shut the door before I could kiss my guys goodbye, and I glared at him and reopened it.

Kissing Trey and then Negan, I whispered that if Eric kept it up I might not have a man of honor for the wedding because I was probably going to smother his ass. That made Negan's face clear of irritation and I smiled at the laughter that echoed behind him as he and Trey went to Eric and Steven's for the night.

Turning back to face my horrible, terrible no good best friend, I caught him smirking at me. "What? It had to be done," he said with an air of confidence. "Trust me, you two don't need any more doses of cosmic horror. Besides, we're gonna have our own party."

Our 'party' consisted of Eric, Laura, Arat, and a few of the moms I'd made acquaintance with during my teaching. We chatted, a few drinks were shared, but mostly everyone seemed fascinated by the story of Negan and Amara. I didn't get to tell it, of course, since Eric was intent on taking over Mary's place as drama queen of our trio.

"We were seniors. Negan was our coach, well, he taught PE since we didn't do organized sports." I shook my head and got comfortable in the chair I'd taken for myself. "Amara wasn't SUPPOSED to need another semester of PE, but she'd gotten on Coach's bad side." All eyes locked on me in surprise. What could meek, sweet, mild as milk Amara Kendall have done to get on Negan's bad side? "She told a cheerleader that she was glad the tart was flexible because her future job would no doubt involve a pole and a g-string." Titters of laughter came from the moms, but Arat and Laura looked at me with more respect, which was hilarious because they already gave me buckets of it. "And she's a grammar Nazi," he stage whispered and I rolled my eyes again. "Corrected his ass so much that he gave her ass an incomplete." He smirked and took a drink from his glass, needing more lubrication for his tale. "First day of senior year, Amara fucking Kendall gets called into the principal's office and finds out that her least favorite teacher in her least favorite class gets her ass back for another semester." He smiled. "The next thing I know, she's counting his balls and updating his gradebook." Even the updating part sounded dirty when his ass said it. More titters, more looks from Laura and Arat. "They had a hiccup, once during senior year, and then another came-" He stopped and shot me a look of worry that I'd be upset at the reminder of how we'd gotten separated. "All that matters is that we're here now, and Coach finally gets to marry our princess." A wink to me and I grinned back.

"You were together for how long before-" Annie, one of the moms left her question dangling.

"Around five years." I smiled, thinking about how comfortable I was with what brought us to this moment, and tomorrow. "Tomorrow is a LONG time coming."

"Too fucking long," Eric offered, taking my hand in his. "I hope like fuck that Steven looks at me like Coach looks at you, Amara. Because then I'd know for a fact that-"

"He does, you fucking flaming Dorito." Everyone giggled, even Laura and Arat. "It was torture being around your happy asses for so long while I waited-"

"No more waiting, right?" His hand squeezed mine and we both knew he was right. Come hell or high water, tomorrow I'd FINALLY marry Negan. Thank fucking God.

Our party didn't last long, and I nearly had to order Eric to share our bed with me. Rolling my eyes, I pulled down the sheet and blanket. "We've shared a bed before, you freaking weirdo." I said, shaking my head and wearing one of Negan's shirts and a pair of his boxers. Hell, I'd even put on granny panties. "What is your problem?"

"I don't know," he groaned, yanking down the linen on Negan's side. "Feels fucking weird to end up in this bed, lying in Coach's spot." I grinned, realizing I had something to fuck with him about until we fell asleep. Teach his ass to keep me and Negan apart.

"What's wrong, Eric?" I smirked, crawling into bed. "Are you afraid you might go straight because Coach's fucking alpha male pheromones are basically saturated in the fucking linen? Or are you scared because you're gonna smell his scent and have wet dreams, and he'll smack you with Lucille for marking his territory?"

I heard him groan into Negan's pillow, and then muttered, "Fuck he does smell fucking good, doesn't he?"

I was laughing and then I was asleep. The edge off from the alcohol I'd had, and the silliness of my best friend made my dreams soft and vague. And I knew that I'd wake up to the sunlight, and get ready for the moment it seemed I'd waited my entire life for: marrying the man of my dreams.

Back to my first question, what does a wedding in the Sanctuary look like? Well, pretty fucking normal by apocalypse standards. Chairs were lining the room where I learned housed the furnace, but it wasn't a focal point, since the 'altar' was on the opposite side of the room. I walked down the metal stairs, where I knew that Negan often addressed his masses, and felt all eyes on me as I heard a concentrated echoing gasp.

My eyes were on Negan, waiting with someone he'd picked to perform the ceremony and I could tell that he was fighting back emotion. Trey stood quietly beside him, eyes wide at Mama dressed in my wedding day finery. Laura had brought up a man who had worked as a hairdresser before the world went to shit, and he'd worked to tame my hair into a soft updo. I was careful with my makeup, wanting to look pretty, but natural. Eric had insisted that I wear the jewelry that Negan gave me all those years before during our first parting. Instead of wearing the long strand of rhinestones down the front, however, he turned it and let it fall down the length of my bare back. Covering the clasp that was now in the hollow of my throat by tightening the shorter necklace, he deemed me gorgeous.

Arms linked, he helped me walk forward, toward the two men who made up my world, along with Eric and Steven, and as time passed adding Laura and even Arat, my family stood together as Negan FINALLY completed the trio of rings that he'd promised me when we first moved in together. Kissing the breath from me, I smiled as our officiant pronounced us 'husband and wife'. When we turned to face the people who made up the Sanctuary, I was startled when they all knelt, thinking it was simply for him, I felt my throat tighten when they answered his question of "who are you" with "Negan AND Amara." Shit.

The mood was festive, for everyone, since Negan pulled out some stops and treats were had without points. Sparingly giving out alcohol, since rations weren't unlimited, and small delicacies that the kitchen worked to create everyone appeared to be happy for us.

Negan told me, repeatedly, how gorgeous I looked. How he was so fucking happy he hadn't peeked in the fucking bag, and how much he couldn't wait to start the honeymoon. I raised an eyebrow at this. One night was all I expected, but his smile was blinding as he reminded me that our honeymoon was forever.

"Ready to get out of here, wife?" He whispered in my ear and I nodded. Trey was in his arms. "Boo?" His tiny face looked into Negan's seriously. "Give Mama a kiss, you're going to have a sleepover with Uncle Eric and Uncle Steven tonight, ok?" He nodded and offered me his puckered lips. Rubbing his nose with mine, I smooched him loudly and caused a ringing giggle to come out of his lips as he shook his head. "Mama's silly, isn't she, buddy?" Eric was nearby and he watched as Negan kissed Trey's cheek, making his own loud smacking sound and the giggles continued. Hearing his cue, my best friend, man of honor, and forever brother came over and opened his arms for Trey to launch himself into.

"Time for Mama and Dada to say night-night?" He waggled his eyes, causing more giggles from the toddler and a smirk from Negan. "Held out longer than I had odds on, Coach." He winked, and then grinned at us. "Go, we'll make sure chaos isn't unleashed on the festivities." Steven was in conversation with Simon and a few of the other outpost leaders. "I'll even keep my eye on Magnum PI over there."

Negan scooped me into his arms, forcing all eyes on us again. "If you'll all excuse us-" he bellowed, and then we were up the stairs and heading for our rooms, before I could even start to blush at what I could imagine were shared knowing looks about our rush to our rooms.

I surprised him by NOT letting him undress me. Telling him I had one more surprise, I locked the bathroom door behind me and got ready to knock my husband off his feet. Luckily taking off the gown was easy, I even managed to not get any makeup on the delicate fabric. Off came the required undergarments. The shoes were gone too. Then I took a moment to release my hair from its pins, and had to work carefully to put on my wedding night lingerie.

Lace and ribbon, that's what made up the scrap that I wore. Taking another moment to study myself in the mirror, spraying a spritz of perfume to refresh myself, I smiled at the glowing woman looking back at me.

When I opened the bathroom door, my smile softened when I took note that Negan hadn't been idle while I got ready for bed. A few candles from our old house were flickering around the room, the curtains drawn so the room was in darkness, and there he was waiting for me with his back propped up on his pillow. I bit my lip as I watched him drink me in.

"Was that-" his voice went away in a breath, and he tried again. "I'm very fucking happy I didn't peek in that bag, Amara."

I crawled onto the bed, holding out one of the satin bow's ends, Negan took it and pulled. Then I was under him, the scrap of lace being tugged off of me before we finally made love as husband and wife.