CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BRIDAL PARTY
Buffy, Tara and Anya had awoken, strewn across the floor of the Summers' living room, with various degrees of hurting hangovers. After aspirin and plenty of water, the girls were in the back room of the hall they'd hired for the wedding, trying to keep from giggling as they tried to fix each other's hair and make-up.
Buffy was trying to help Anya with her mascara, but the bride-to-be was far too excited to actually sit still, and Buffy was having a hard time not poking the girls eye out.
"Sit still," Buffy ordered impatiently.
"I wanna see him," Anya complained. "Come on…just five minutes."
"No, it's bad luck," Buffy said firmly. "And that is something you definitely don't need on the hellmouth."
Anya pouted, but finally sat still, allowing Buffy to finish with the mascara. Tara was behind Anya, trying to fix the ex-demon's hair. Buffy and Tara couldn't help but exchange grins and shy glances over the bride-to-be's head whenever Anya began one of her rants.
"You don't think he's having second-thoughts do you?" Anya asked worriedly.
"Anya, he loves you," Tara said firmly. "Nothing in this world-"
"Or any other," Buffy interjected.
"Could keep him from you," Tara finished.
Anya smiled and felt her eyes tearing up.
"No!" Buffy yelled, fanning at Anya's eyes with her hands. "No crying! We couldn't get waterproof mascara!"
Anya forced herself to control her tears and calmed herself completely. A grin broke out on her face. Tara took a step back and pronounced that she was done. Anya stood excitedly and raced to the mirror, looking at herself and turning to the side to make sure the dress made her look slim.
"We done good," Buffy said quietly.
Tara laughed softly at Buffy's horrible grammar but nodded anyway. "We did very good," she agreed.
Neither of them noticed Anya's curious glance as she stared at them through the mirror. They both missed the speculative and mischievous twinkle in Anya's eyes as well. Had they seen it, they would have known that they were definitely in trouble.
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Xander stood at the 'altar' with Willow and Dawn at his sides. He was bouncing nervously and his palms were sweaty, but he knew that this was the right decision. He didn't want to spend a single day without Anya in his life, and marrying her was the next step that he wanted to take with the woman he loved. Willow squeezed Xander's shoulder comfortingly. He shot her a grateful grin before snapping his attention back to the centre aisle as the strings quartet began to play the wedding march.
Tara went down the aisle first, followed by Buffy, and both girls took their positions on the other side of the 'altar', leaving room for Anya to stand beside Xander.
The bride, dressed in a beautiful white form-fitted gown that buttoned up in the back, escorted by Giles, smiled widely as she walked up the aisle. The small amount of guests that consisted mostly of several of Xander's friends from his construction site, and a few random acquaintances from Sunnydale, stood as the bride walked up the aisle to meet her groom.
Buffy and Tara grinned at one another; both of them thankful that it seemed as though the event had gone off without a single hiccup. As the minister announced them husband and wife, all of the Scoobies breathed a collective sigh of relief, thankful that nothing had disturbed the one day they had wanted to have run smoothly.
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The reception was held back at the Summers' house, as Anya hadn't wanted to spend an inordinate amount of money on hiring a hall for so few people. It was a Scoobies only affair, and one of the rare few happy occasions that they celebrated with no demons or vampires gate-crashing the party.
It ended fairly early, mainly because Anya insisted on leaving as early as possible to get to the hotel they were staying in before leaving on the weeklong honeymoon that she and Xander had organised. When Anya and Xander had left, Giles, Willow, Dawn, Buffy and Tara remained in the house, cleaning up the plates and bowls that had been used.
"I'd say that that was a complete success," Giles said happily.
"Anya looked so beautiful!" Dawn gushed.
"And Xander cleaned up pretty nicely as well," Tara added. "If you, y'know, like that sort of thing."
Buffy hid her grin behind her hand and Dawn just giggled. Willow approached the group cautiously and looked to Tara. Buffy's smile faded and she felt her heart and throat constrict. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that Willow was her best friend.
"Dawnie, can you give Giles and I a hand in the kitchen?"
Both Giles and Dawn looked slightly startled by the suggestion, but both of them noticed the tension between Willow and Tara and complied without comment.
Tara looked at Buffy, the Slayer smiling gently and trying to keep the tears from welling in her eyes.
"Good luck," she whispered for Tara to hear as she passed by, gently touching the other blonde girls hand on the way to the kitchen. Tara felt her heart jolt and couldn't help but wonder just what would come of the next few moments. All she knew was that things would never be the same within the Scooby Gang no matter what was decided.