THEY HADN'T decided to rush into a wedding like Bella and Edward had. No, Athena and Jasper waited a mere two years before their date. Not for any particular reason at all, it just happened that way. With Athena getting her teaching degree, she was far too busy to plan a wedding and would never let Alice have full control. She had part of the control, just not all of it. They had planned a more vintage, dark academia sort of wedding when compared to Bella's. It took place deep within the forest, rather far away from the house, in the clearing that was full of white budding flowers. And per to both their request, the wedding was small. It was just the Cullen family, the wolves that she wanted there (Billy, Jake and Seth), Benjamin, Tia and Amun, Pria and Ela along with a couple of Jasper's friends that she hadn't had quite met just yet. She, like he was, deeply looked forward to the day.
The day before the wedding, the two of them had decided to do something on the less traditional sort of side. They did not want to exchange any sort of personalised vows in front of their family, instead choosing to do so in the privacy of her home where the words would be even more special as they were their own. "Right, ready?" she grinned, sitting up from her blanket cocoon as she could not handle the wait any longer. Plus the movie they had been half watching, half talking over, had just reached the credits.
He glanced at the clock on the wall, checking when Luna was due to come to the house and dispel him from it. Just to check that they would have enough time without her interruption. "I have been ready for weeks," he half chuckled, turning entirely to face her.
She grinned then, feeling a surge of feigned heat to her cheeks as she looked down to her jumper and played with the hem on the sleeve. She took a deep breath, steadying herself before she began a well thought and heavily practised speech that had stolen her focus for months. "I honestly never thought I'd find someone like you. Someone kind and ever so caring, who puts up with my most random mood swings. I've always been someone who believed in fate, or signs from the universe and well, fate hadn't really been on our side for the first year of knowing you. But honestly, if I could change one thing about it, it certainly wouldn't be choosing not to go. The gap in not seeing you just made me realise all that I felt for you, the blooming attraction there," she paused, clearing her throat of the slight waver. "And I love you. I love you more than the trees love the sunlight and the rain. I love you more than I love the trees, and that's really something," she grinned as he chuckled softly, searching her eyes again as the ever so overwhelming love rushing over him bought the biggest of smiles to his face.
"I love your smile and your smirk. I love every single aspect of your personality. I love your protectiveness and how you are always there to hold my hand through things that I didn't even realise I needed support through. I love that you try, you try in every single aspect of life and even if you fail - which albeit is not very often- you learn from that and try again. I love how you care so deeply about others that you make sure they're okay before you yourself are okay - even though that is not the most healthy thing to be doing. And I love that you listen to my music, even though I can tell that you aren't particularly inclined to some of it. Maybe most of it," she chuckled. "And I love that, even from the beginning, you always cared how I was. That I was safe." A relatively long space of time followed as she paused again, getting her ever so swirly thoughts straight. "I promise to be there for you whenever and wherever to love you for eternity and so intensely that mortals believe us mad. And I genuinely cannot wait to be able to call you husband, or to take your name and hear it as a normal occurrence." She could not help it anymore, with the look in his eyes and the emotion flooding off of him she just had to. She leant forward and kissed him briefly, lingering in front of his face for a second before he pulled her in again with a hand on the back of her head. She grinned into that kiss, wondering if the one after they were married would feel any different.
"I don't know how I'm supposed to follow that," he replied softly as she returned back to her resting place, albeit a little closer than before. "My love, adoration and fascination with you is eternal." With that simple sentence, Athena's eyes stung with tears that would never fall. The happiest of tears that she so wished could fall, but keeping the utter joy inside did not seem like such an awful thing. "Being in your presence brings out the best version of myself. A version that is not so melancholy and floating from place to place, only moving because I had to. But I want to see the world with you, to tick off every single country or town in the world and explore it top to bottom with you and nothing more. I will never love anyone like I love you and never have. I fall in love with you more every single day, whether it be a day we spent apart and I deeply feel your absence or it's one of the days where we spend every waking moment together. You are too perfect, too special and I cannot believe that someone so captivating in personality fell in love with me. You are it for me, Athena, everything and anything all rolled into one and even eternity will not be enough time with you," he finished by kissing the place where her engagement ring lay, imagining what it would look like the day following with another ring on top of it.
She grinned ever so brightly and kissed him again. This time it escalated to a certain degree, with his head tracing down her spine sending shivers all through her soul. She laughed into the kiss as it happened, feeling no other way of getting the feeling out of her system. The laughter and events stopped when a knocking came at the door, frantic and forceful. She knew it to be Luna without even smelling anything. "Seriously? Her timing is awful," she sighed deeply.
"Torturous," he muttered into her ear before kissing the spot on her neck that always got the best reaction out of her.
Luna had other ideas, she yelled through the door, "Stop macking! Jasper get back to the house, Ena and I have some things to do!"
"I better go, before she breaks the door down," he chuckled softly, pulling away with great reluctance. "See you tomorrow?"
"Nah, thought I'd skip it. Go book shopping instead," she joked, shrugging as he opened the door. He, with a slight laugh, walked out of the door and past Luna - who stormed in as his replacement.
The evening and the very early morning was absolute chaos.
-
The wedding was anything but chaos. It was utterly perfect in every way shape and form. Alice had the timings down to the absolute second, so much so that Luna had to escort Athena to the house so she did not wander in the forest for too long. They had it set so the vows would be given just as the sun fell so much from the sky that it cast everything in gold. Since there were no mortals unaware of the vampire thing present, the sparking was not a problem and it just added all the speciality in the photos - as Alice would say. There were flowers everywhere, out of every single crevice and tied with brown twine to every single chair. There were landers dotted all around, along with the most gorgeous candles and twirling ivy. She walked down the aisle with Billy at her side, like she had wanted so deeply and the picture of Jasper's face when he saw her would be etched in her mind forever. The smile and the sharp intake of breath, another speechless mark to be added to the journal. The dress, made by Alice, was absolutely perfect. Half corset tied with ribbon, lace covering the bodice and half down the a-line skirt that took her in at all the right places. It was exactly what she had dreamed about for so long and Alice did the most incredible job of creating it from a very small description that Athena gave.
And the first kiss they shared as a married couple, well that was something ever so indescribable that even she couldn't think of the words.
-
Later, as the celebration was an incomplete full swing and she and Jasper had met and talked to every single person present at the wedding within forty-five minutes, she found herself gravitating towards a rather lost looking Billy. Jake was off with Bella and Renesmee and Seth had wondered somewhere, probably towards Pria who he seemed to take a liking to despite their five year age difference. Which wasn't that large, really, for mortals anyway. "I am so glad you could be here today," she smiled, sitting down in one of the chairs next to him with a slight sigh.
"Wouldn't have missed it, Athena, you know how I am, stubborn," he chuckled, brushing off the comment without much second thought.
She chuckled momentarily, then turned back to the seriousness that she carried before, "Seriously Billy, I honestly didn't think you would witness this sort of thing in my life."
"I am very glad to be witnessing it," he replied with a smile that she knew was not an exaggeration nor a lie. They hugged then, briefly and not so tight as usual since she didn't want to accidentally do something.
"Did you want anything to eat?" she asked as the hug broke, concern still flooding through her eyes.
He smiled, "No, maybe a drink though."
She raised a brow, "Alcoholic?"
"Always," he chuckled. She grinned then floated off, falling through the crowd as she headed to the bar stocked only for mortals. She got a little distracted talking to Ela and billy took that as his opportunity. He went over to where Jasper was standing, alone by the time that he got there. He, after asking to talk to him, went to a place that was a little quieter - away from most of the noise of the wedding. He began, "Make sure you take care of her. She acts strong but she has a very delicate soul with some things." A pause followed as he swallowed some form of waver in his voice "Especially after... I am unable to do so any longer."
"I'll take care of her, don't worry," Jasper reassured with a hidden brow raise, knowing that Billy wasn't one to talk of the looming threat of mortality on his back. It annoyed Athena, how little he talked about it all and Jasper had heard quite a few rants about that situation. So the sudden change in his demeanour must have meant something that Athena did not know, the looming must be a little bit closer than he thought it was.
"I do worry for her, constantly, but maybe there's a certain level of relaxation with you in the picture," he paused, looking around the corner for any sign of her coming back from the bar. But no, she seemed far too distracted with Benjamin. So, he continued, "Something else, nature documentaries. She will say that she doesn't like them but she does, it stops her mind for a while even if she says that it doesn't. Flick them on ever so often, without saying that you're doing it because of that...Just, look out for her and notice the little changes in her attention when it occurs, they all mean something. Oh! And do not interrupt her reading of one particular book with a yellow spine and white flowers on it, trust me."
"Too late for that piece of advice," Jasper chuckled, remembering the berating he got for doing that very thing. Then, as the laughter stopped, the seriousness returned again, "I'll always watch out for her, after and before..."
"Good," Billy responded just as Athena turned the corner, stopping briefly in shock at the two of them in conversation.
"Woah! Weird vibe over here, what's going on?" she asked with an unsuspecting grin, glowing under the love that surrounded her as she handed him the glass she had collected from the bar.
"Talking about you behind your back," Billy joked, earning quite the piercing glare from her. All the bad things he should know about you."
She laughed awkwardly, looking to Jasper for some sort of hint to what they were talking about before she looked back to Billy, looking in his eyes for the same thing. Then she stopped, focus falling onto the look in his eyes, "Are you okay? You look almost...tearful?"
"Don't worry about me, go dance and have fun," he put on a reassuring smile that he knew wouldn't convince her but Jasper was already working on that, taking away some of her suspicious emotion.
She smiled softly, still confused by the tears in Billy's eyes, "That's what I came here for, Jazz?"
"Thought you didn't typically tend to dance?"Billy laughed and Jasper raised a brow, thinking something completely different about her.
"I used to love dancing at balls, you know that and I will dance at my wedding thank you very much," she laughed softly, taking Jaspers offered arm with a grin. She then spoke softly to him, "Just not any of that extravagant dancing you do with Alice, I don't fancy being flipped over."
"I would pay to see that," Billy laughed as they walked away. Athena turned and gave him an angered smile before they disappeared onto the dancefloor, Jasper laughing at her anger towards Billy.
She smiled goofily at Luna as she danced with Alice then gave her new husband her full and undivided attention. "What were you and Billy talking about?" she asked quietly as they waltzed, surrounded by the orangey glow of all the lit lanterns above them.
"You," he replied with slight reluctance, knowing the questioning look that would befall her face. she "It's between him and me," he brushed off, twirling her around on the beat of the music. She grinned, momentarily forgetting all about it but her gaze landed on the forlorn-looking Billy (who smiled when he noticed she was looking) and the question arose again, along with a slight tug of worry that Jasper soon soothed away - just as she had asked him too. She wanted to enjoy the day, not be locked down by such overwhelming anxiousness.
"I could just look into your head and find out," she smirked jokingly before she rested her head on his shoulder, inhaling deeply with a grin replacing the smirk.
"But I know and trust you wouldn't," he responded with a knowing tone of voice. She chuckled then, knowing for the thousandth that she had made the correct decision walking down the aisle. "So, Mrs Witlock, has this wedding been what you've dreamt of?" he asked as they fell into more of a waltz, her head no longer resting on his shoulder but instead looking straight at him.
She chuckled and glanced to their clasped hands, straight to the ring with such a meaning on his finger. "Every single thing or atom has been exactly how I wanted it to be," she smiled brightly, letting her gaze drift to some things around the room. It had been everything she ever wanted, she had the heirloom, the perfect dress and the perfect partner. They were surrounded by people who loved them and who they loved dearly, but not too many. "Even with Alice trying to persuade into somethings. Has it been the same for you?"
He chuckled, glad that she had everything she wanted mixed in with the very few things that he wanted. "If it was everything you wanted, then yes."
"You're far too perfect for this world, Jazz," she smiled softly and rested her head back on his shoulder, as they began to sway instead of the waltz as the music had changed. He chuckled deeply, the sound echoing in her ears. A sound she could and would listen to forever.
"And I can't wait to spend forever with you," he whispered in her ear, only imagining the smile of joy that came onto their face.
"Neither can I," she whispered back, feeling herself fall into a pit of happiness that would take something awful to climb out of. Touchwood.
And their forever was the happiest of them all.
Barring the ten years, it took Athena to become somewhat okay with Billy's death, taking place a week after their wedding.