Her heart is all of her, from her ears to her toes to her frantically wagging tail. It's all alight with the wine of Bella: intoxicating, inflaming, as rich and deep as the sea. She stands on tiptoes, leans after her demigoddess-- which is to say her peer, but in the moment she feels unworthy of this woman cloaked in glory. But she longs. She yearns. She wants to be the bride more than she wants to breathe. She wants to take Bella's hand and jump off the ship onto the back of her horse and ride across the stars until they've found something that nobody has ever laid their eyes on. She wants to kiss her heroine under the eye of a dazzling sapphire sunset. And she wants to be that princess that Bella remembers.

[i](and a long-quiescent blessing stirs, and while it has withdrawn from Redana, it may still grant the wish of this yearning Ceronian girl as swiftly as if it were on winged foot; all this time, it has half-sleeping transcribed all that it has seen in a manner which will not burn out nerves and stop that vast heart, and for a moment it is roused once more with a mother's love)[/i]

There is a flash like all the endless azure skies beneath her veil, one which makes the shadows of lace dance across the floor. The bride staggers. With one hand she fumbles at her lips; with the other she pulls the veil free. Beneath, her hair is done up in a net of pearls, white on gold, worthy of a princess. Her lips are wet, and she drags breath through them like a drowning woman, blinking in pain and shock. But she is smiling, too, like she was in a giddy heap at the bottom of the stairs staring up at a frantic maid demanding that she not grab the pillow and ride it all the way back down again.

"Bella?" She looks up. A lock of hair has come free from her perfect bun. Her mismatched eyes shine like stars. Her ears are perked up and eager. "I... [i]Bella![/i]"

When she runs, when she jumps, her Bella's arms are there waiting for her. She clasps her own about her Bella's neck, presses her forehead to hers, laughs like a madwoman. "We [i]did it,[/i]" she babbles, feet kicking in the air. "Fuck you, Aphrodite, and [i]fuck[/i] your river! [i]We did it![/i] I do, I do, a hundred times I do, and I'll say it again when we stand on Gaia together: [i]Bella Hostilius Mosaic, I do![/i] And--"

A sudden thought flashes across her face. Her ears droop. "I, um. Do you [i]mind[/i] that I joined Ceron? I don't know if I can go back. Not that I [i]can't[/i], but that I can't-- ugh! It's that we [i]match,[/i] and I don't want to lose that any more than I want to lose the pack, and you smell so--"

The kiss is sudden, the passion of violence barely restrained. The princess melts into the lips of her bride, the fingers of one hand digging into those blue-black locks even as the other smushes a bouquet of flowers against Bella's ear. One of her heels falls to the floor as she returns that hunger, inelegant and delirious with joy, heedless of the audience[1]. That net of pearls tumbles after, her hair spilling free over her first wedding gown. Love and Joy and Devotion[2] mist the air.

"I'm back," she says, as Bella nips at her sodden throat, "and I never left, and I missed you, and we found each other anyway, and I will marry you as many times as it takes, Bella, Bella, [i]Bella[/i]..."

[hr]
[1]: let all of the Endless Azure Skies see! Let the stars marvel at their good fortune! Let the gods attend in pride!

[2]: and, it must be admitted, Screaming Carnal Lust. Fortunately, there are no Ceronians around to pick up on the fact that Dany wants Bella to tear her right out of the dress.