Natalya took a deep breath, braced herself for the incoming events of the night and went downstairs to open the door. When she was swept off the ground into a hug by a cheerful Italian, she reminded herself that she was doing this for Lily and tried to stay calm as Feliciano put her down.
Ludwig shoot her an apologetic look "Forgive him, he is just a really affectionate guy."
"It's…" Natalya sighed, finally coming to terms with what she would have to go through that night. "It's okay, don't worry about it."
She led them to the dining room, where Lily had already finished putting up the table. Ludwig and Feliciano sat down at the table; Lily poured them some wine while listening to the brunette as he told her about how their plane ride had been, answering Feliciano's questions about their life in Liechtenstein. Natalya sat down next to her girlfriend, watching their attempted efforts to make Ludwig join the conversation and only succeeding in making him flustered. It was actually kind of nice, and then there was a knock on the door and she could her Gilbert Beilschmidt's voice shouting at someone. It's definitely gonna be a horrible night.
When Matthew received a phone call from a foreign number a week ago, the last thing he had expected was for his boyfriend's only female cousin to invite them to a family reunion in Liechtenstein, of all places.
"Oh, hello, are you Matthew Williams?"A soft female voice had asked.
"Yeah, I am. Um, who are you?"He had been really curious about how this stranger knew his name.
"Hey, Matthew! I'm Lily, Gilbert's cousin, not sure if you remember me. But anyway, I'm calling to invite you two to a dinner at my house in Vaduz next week. I know it's really sudden and I understand if you can't make it, but I just wanted to have the family together again for one night…"
The girl had sounded really excited about the whole thing, and they were both off work at the moment, so really, Matthew saw no reason for them not to go. He had told Gilbert about it as soon as he had gotten home, Gil had said it was a good idea and they had both agreed that seeing Gilbert's family would be an interesting way to spend their vacations. However, when they had arrived from Zurich to Vaduz, they had stumbled onto the elder Beilschmidt.
It was okay at first, Legolas had greeted them, and they had all decided to share a taxi. Then, halfway to Lily's house, Legolas had commented on Gilbert's attire, Gilbert had gotten defensive and somehow they had ended up fighting about Gilbert's life choices. Matthew knew he should have expected that.
The night had just started.
From the moment his sister had called to invite him to a "family meeting", Vash knew he would have to face Roderich. He just wasn't prepared to see him so soon. He didn't hate the man, not really, it was just… they had complicated relationship, one he would prefer not to talk about. So when he had been forced to share the train ride and the taxi all the way from the station to Lily's place, Vash was about ready to die. The only reason he hadn't killed himself yet was the fact that his sister was expecting them all to arrive, and if some annoying family reunion would make her happy, he would do it for her.
But if Roderich didn't shut up now, someone would definitely be dead by the end of the night.
Lily knew having all of her family together in one room was very dangerous, it was the reason they didn't usually get together on holidays. Add Natalya, an expert with sharp things and a girl with a quick temper, and there is a high possibility that someone will end up dead. But it had been a long time since they had been all together in years, it wouldn't hurt them to get along for one night. Just to make sure everything would go smoothly, though, Lily had made sure that no one had any kind of weapons and that her girlfriend stayed away from any and all sharp objects in the house.
When everybody had finally arrived and they had managed to stop Gilbert and Roderich from ripping each other's throats, Lily went to the kitchen to start serving the food.
After making sure that Gilbert wouldn't start a fight with anybody, Matthew stood up and went after her.
"You don't have to do this you know" said Lily as she slumped against the kitchen counter to stare at the Canadian "It's a long way from Canada to Liechtenstein, I'm sure you must be pretty tired."
"It doesn't matter, I want to help" Matthew smiled kindly at her "Also, I want to apologize for Gilbert's behavior, I know you want this dinner to go smoothly."
"Oh, don't worry about him, he has always been like that. He used to pick on Roderich all the time when we were kids" Lily laughed a little as she remembered her childhood.
They shared a few more stories about Gilbert, then remembered about the food and brought it out to the dining room.
While they laughed in the kitchen though, Ludwig had to stop Natalya before she strangled Gilbert with her bare hands.
It wasn't that Natalya disliked Gilbert, it was that she totally despised him. He was so fucking obnoxious, always talking about how 'awesome' he was, but oh no, that was not what she hated about him. What Natalya Arlovskaya hated the most about Gilbert Beilschmidt was his nosiness, the way he was always intruding in other people's lives. So when he had asked how regularly she had sex with Lily, Natalya was about ready to strangle him, and if his brother hadn't stepped in, she might have succeeded. I have no idea how that Matthew boy can live with him, she thought as she sat as far away from him as possible.
After the little incident was over, they all started eating; Legolas praised his granddaughter on her cooking and, to Lily's relief, everybody stayed calm for the rest of the night.
"So you have been married to Ludwig for 4 years now?" Matthew asked.
"Oh yeah, we dated for like 5 (maybe 6, I don't remember very well) years. And then one day he proposed to me!" Feliciano said happily.
"You two have been together for a really long time" Matthew commented as he ate some of the cake Lily had served them earlier.
"I know!" the brunette took a bite of his own piece of cake and swallowed before continuing "I think it's kinda sad that most people don't last this long."
"Yeah, it's a shame…" Matthew smiled sadly, then abruptly changed the topic "But anyway, have you thought about adopting children?"
Lily watched them talk, not really paying attention to what they were saying anymore. She was glad that finally everybody was getting along. Or well, kind of…she thought as saw her brother talk to her grandfather in order to avoid interacting with Roderich, who was, oddly enough, having a civilized conversation with Gilbert. She took a sip of her wine, yeah, maybe we could do this again.
The blonde girl smiled softly when her girlfriend sat down next to her, grabbed the glass of wine she had put down seconds earlier and drank it all in one go.
"Please tell me the night is already over" Natalya pleaded her. Lily just laughed fondly and rested her head in her lovers shoulder.
Lily dismissed the last of their guests and made sure Vash and Legolas were comfortable in the couch and the guest room respectively, then finally went upstairs to get some rest. Natalya had already changed into her pajamas and was waiting for her in their bedroom. After Lily had changed, they turned off the lights and curled up in bed.
"Thank you for helping keep everybody alive" Lily whispered.
"I'm just glad we won't have to do this again."
"Aw, but I was planning on inviting your siblings too next time."
Natalya groaned loudly.