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All in all, it was the best wedding Veth had ever attended.
There wasn't much competition. Veth had felt like she'd played a bit part in her own wedding - her brothers' business interests had a larger impact on the guest list, and the tastes of her sisters-in-law on the food and decorations. She'd blocked her brothers' out (with the exception of the one with an itinerant goat), and it was hard to think of any other married couples. She scoured the party looking for any, then spotted Beau and Yasha. Oh, right. She always forgot that they were married. Because she hadn't been invited to their wedding.
A sliver of rejection, ages old, made itself known in her heart, but she ignored it in order to stomp as heavily as she could towards the couple. "Why wasn't I invited to your wedding?"
Both of them had the audacity to look confused for a moment, then Beau slowly spoke. "Because we didn't invite anyone?"
"Yeah, it was kind of a spur of the moment thing," Yasha said.
Veth narrowed her eyes. "Who married you, then?"
Beau and Yasha pointed at each other.
"No, who pronounced you wife and wife. Caduceus?" Veth moved her glare up to her supposed friend, who was in a different conversation with Kingsley, but still shook his head no.
"Oh, we didn't do anything like that."
Now Veth was getting confused, and she didn't think it was just the drink. "Well. What did you do, then?"
"We lay in the tall grass, then I put a flower crown on Beau's head and she gripped my arms and declared her undying love to me, and I to her. Then she fell asleep on my chest." Yasha smiled sweetly at the memory.
"Wait, no, that's not when we got married," Beau turned to Yasha. "Babe, I love you and I meant every word. But you've got to understand, I was real high at the time."
"You can't get married when you're high?"
"Not as high as I was."
"Oh. But when did you think we got married, then?"
"Do you remember that night when we found that jeweler that worked with like, whisky barrels and meteors and bone and stuff? And then later that night we got really into each other's hands and then," Beau grinned, then made a ring with one hand and put her other hand through it, wriggling her fingers. Then she saw Veth's face. "Oh, don't worry, we used the other hand for that. Didn't want to lose the rings."
Veth was tempted to get lost in that mental image, but she was nothing if not persistent. "That's not a wedding either! There's no way that's legally binding."
Beau shrugged. "Why would I care?"
Yasha looked even more confused. "Why would the Empire care about our wedding?"
Veth thought about explaining about taxes, but she thought that Beau might then refuse on principle and Yasha was still getting a handle on personal property.
Beau spoke up before Veth had figured out what to say. "Hey, maybe we didn't have a wedding. But that's still my wife. If we think we're married, we're married. Do you think your wedding day defined your marriage to Yeza?"
Veth thought back to her wedding. Of the ache she'd felt on a day that was supposed to be about her but felt anything but. And then of everything that had happened in the decades since.
"Fine. But when you renew your vows so you can figure out your anniversary, I better be there!"