"You're kidding."
It was all Shinon could splutter out, his green eyes fixed bewilderingly on his grinning friend.
"I told you it was fate, Shinon!" Gatrie laughed, clapping the red-haired man on the back. "We fought so well in the war together. We were just meant to be! Just three weeks ago I confessed to her that I loved her, and she said it back. We know we want to be together forever, so we're going to get married!"
"Gatrie...she's..." Shinon stammered, unable to comprehend anything coming out of Gatrie's mouth.
"Beautiful," Gatrie sighed.
"She's a cat!" Shinon shrieked, finally managing to push his thoughts out. "All the pretty girls in the world and you choose to get married to someone that's not even fully human!"
"She's perfect," Gatrie insisted. "And she's the prettiest girl I've ever known. Oh, look, here she comes now!"
Shinon was so shocked he could barely see straight. Waltzing around the corner toward Gatrie, Lyre stopped in front of her new fiance and giggled. Gatrie blushed and couldn't contain his grin as he looked down into her face. Shinon felt like throwing up. I thought that sub-human was just one of his short-lived crushes during the war, he grumbled to himself. Had I known he was actually getting serious with her, I would've put a stop to it earlier. Now he's getting married to the pussycat?
"I just talked to Rhys," Lyre spoke excitedly, her tail wagging side to side. "He agreed to be the officiant!"
"Then it's official!" Gatrie exclaimed, his face full of more joy than Shinon had ever seen. Then, causing Shinon's heart to startle, Gatrie wrapped the cat laguz in a tight hug. Lyre giggled and held him tightly back, purring as Gatrie rubbed one of her furry ears. Shinon felt a burning in his stomach. This just wasn't right. This couldn't actually be happening. His best friend marrying a sub-human?
As Gatrie and Lyre slowly pulled away from their embrace, Lyre turned around. Her expression immediately changed when her eyes met Shinon's. Back when they first met, Shinon had called her a hairball and she had called him the worst man she ever met. Having made it explicitly clear that they hated each other, they hadn't spoken since. The anger was no less clear in Lyre's eyes as she glared at the archer.
"He's invited to our wedding, I suppose?" Lyre asked. Shinon could tell she was trying to keep her voice steady and cheery for Gatrie.
"Invited? Why, he's my best man!" Gatrie said, oblivious to the unspoken seething anger between his fiance and his best friend.
"What?!" both Shinon and Lyre blurted out. Gatrie had mentioned nothing about Shinon being his best man. The red-haired man supposed it was reasonable, as they got along really well, but Gatrie knew him well enough too. Shinon didn't like laguz. He was not going to stand there, right up front, and watch his friend kissing the whiskery face of one. Just the thought made vomit lurch in the back of his throat.
"Oh! I guess I forgot to ask," Gatrie chuckled, putting his arm around Lyre's shoulders and smiling at Shinon. "Will you be my best man, Shinon?"
Shinon felt his throat tighten. No, Gatrie! If you're going to be stupid enough to get yourself hitched to a furry freak, I'm having no part in this. Humans and sub-humans were never meant to relate like this.
But damned loyalty tugged at Shinon's heart. Every time he tried to run away from something, that wretched sense of loyalty that Commander Greil instilled in him would make him think twice. He hated Ike, but he couldn't leave the Greil Mercenaries. He hated sub-humans, but he couldn't throw away his best friend just like that. He couldn't abandon those whom he'd connected and attached to.
"Yeah," Shinon finally replied. "I'll be your best man."
"Perfect! I knew you would, you're the best!" Gatrie crowed, letting go of Lyre to wrap Shinon in a quick two-second bear hug. Immediately after letting go, he charged back toward the mercenary fort, shouting behind him, "I'm telling everyone I know! Next week at the church, Shinon!"
"Next week?!" Shinon squawked, but Gatrie didn't hear him. He was already halfway to the fort, preparing to tell the entire world of his marriage to his beloved, which would take place in one short week.
Lyre paused for a moment, then before she turned to rejoin Gatrie at the fort, she looked at Shinon with seemingly as much anger as she could muster, and hissed, "If you ruin our wedding, I swear..."
Her throat tightened up on the last word, and Shinon swore he could see wetness in her eyes before she briskly turned away and hurried back to the fort.
–
That week was bare misery for Shinon. No matter where he went, he couldn't get away from the nonstop talk of the other mercenaries: "Gatrie's getting married in five days!" "I don't know about anybody else, but I think Gatrie and Lyre are adorable together." "I wonder if laguz do anything different at their wedding ceremonies."
The whole thing bothered Shinon more than he expected. He'd heard stories all his life of beorc falling in love with laguz, but they were always about distant people that he neither knew nor cared about. They were disgusting, idiotic people who should've been born without reproductive organs so they wouldn't spread their stupidity to the next generation.
But Gatrie wasn't some distant person that Shinon didn't know or care about. Gatrie was his best friend, getting married to a furry fuzzy beast. It's just wrong! Shinon's insides screamed, but his mind wouldn't think of Gatrie as a disgusting, idiotic person who shouldn't reproduce. Gatrie wasn't disgusting and stupid, he was simply misguided.
Gatrie would laugh at Shinon for pestering him with questions, humiliating the archer even further. "One week, Gatrie? Don't you think you should wait a little first?" "Naw, Shinon, we know we're meant for each other, so why wait?" "What am I supposed to be doing? I don't go to weddings." "All you do is stand in the front and support me. That's all."
"Look, are you really, really sure about this?" Shinon asked for what seemed like the eight hundredth time. "She's not a beorc. She has furry ears and a tail and she can instantly turn into an animal. She's not like us."
Usually Gatrie would simply reply that he was sure about the marriage, but this time he chuckled and said whimsically, "I don't know why you don't like laguz, Shinon. I think you'll love Lyre once you get to know her."
He had said it so lightly and Shinon knew he probably meant nothing by it, but it had bothered Shinon so much that he stayed awake at night thinking about it. Did Shinon even know why he didn't like laguz? They're subordinates, the goddess just made them that way, Shinon told himself. Beorc and sub-humans marrying is against the natural order of things.
He always used that excuse when he thought about why he hated laguz, but now the answer no longer satisfied him. If it were truly against the natural order of things, shouldn't he be doing all he could to stop Gatrie? He would never stand by and let Gatrie marry an actual animal, or a rock, or an imaginary person. Those were against the natural order of things. Why should he let him marry a pussycat laguz?
Laguz are humans, Shinon, a tiny voice in the back of his mind would chime, a voice that Shinon tried desperately to silence. They have rational thought like humans. They are simply a different kind of human. Laguz and beorc are different, yet equal.
No, they're not! Shinon's aggression would scream back.
Then why are you letting your best friend get married to a laguz? the smaller voice would ask. Wouldn't it be cruel to let him go through with this, if laguz and beorc are not equal?
And Shinon would toss and turn in bed again, unable to answer.
–
On the day of the wedding, Shinon was at a bar.
He couldn't go. He hated sub-humans and he would not support his best friend marrying one. Maybe if he didn't attend the wedding, the war inside his heart would just shut up and stop bothering him. He wouldn't have to think about whether it was a deadly sin to marry a laguz or not. He could just sit and drink all day.
Yet as the time for the wedding ceremony drew nearer and nearer, anxiety twisted and churned inside his stomach, until finally he felt so sick that one more sip of whiskey would leave him retching on the floor. In his mind, he saw Greil's face looking at him in disappointment.
"Abandoning your best friend on his wedding day?" Greil's voice sighed. "I thought I taught you better than that."
Without thinking any further, Shinon threw some money on the counter and charged out of the bar, knocking into all sorts of people on the way out. As he ran, he heard the church bells begin to chime. It was time for the wedding to begin, and he was late.
Gathering all the speed he could muster, Shinon bolted through the church doors just as the last of the chimes rang. He was startled to see how packed the church was. All kinds of beorc and laguz were gathered together. He even saw the hawk king sitting in one of the pews, with Janaff and Ulki on each side. Everyone turned their heads to look at him as he briskly walked down the aisle and joined Gatrie, who was already standing at the front of the church.
"I almost thought you weren't going to make it," Gatrie whispered to him, his voice sounding entirely relieved. Shinon nodded and tried to control his breathing so it didn't look like he'd run all the way from the bar to get there.
A small quartet began to play beautiful music. Shinon clasped one hand over his wrist in front of his hips, patiently waiting. Even as he caught his breath again, his heart still hammered against his chest. As Lethe, Lyre's sister and maid of honor, walked down the aisle, the small voice in Shinon's head spoke: Are you sure you're ready for this? Gatrie is about to get married to a laguz.
Shinon glanced at Gatrie and noticed his face filled with peace and happiness. This was Gatrie's happiest moment, the time of his life. Shinon's stomach still soured.
Everyone stood as Lyre walked down the aisle, accompanied by her laguz father. Gatrie's face was absolutely beaming at her. When she saw her to-be-husband at the end of the aisle, her face brightened until she couldn't help laughing. Several people in the audience sniffed back tears of happiness. Shinon, however, felt numb.
"Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" Rhys, the officiant, asked.
"Her mother and I do," Lyre's father smiled proudly. Shinon couldn't detect a trace of resentment in his eyes. Lyre's laguz father was perfectly okay with her getting married to a beorc?
As Lyre's father sat down and Rhys began the traditional vows, Shinon became consumed by the silent turmoil inside him. Why did he hate laguz? Why did he believe they were sub-human? Deep down, he remembered.
He remembered as a young boy playing tag with a laguz playmate. The young tiger chased him around, occasionally transforming into beast form, and Shinon loved seeing how long he could run before the transformed tiger could catch him. He'd spent all afternoon going on adventures with his friend, asking him all kinds of questions about laguz, admiring his tail, when his mother suddenly appeared and yanked him by his arm so firmly that his shoulder popped.
"You get away from that sub-human!" his mother had shrieked at him, right in front of the confused tiger. "Shinon, you...you bad boy! You could have gotten yourself killed! You are always so much trouble, I don't know why I put up with you..."
Then she had turned to the tiger child and screamed, "You stay away from my son, filthy beast!" That was the last time Shinon had ever really seen a laguz in his childhood. His mother told him regular stories of the brutality of the laguz, how they would tear him apart if he didn't pay attention, how they regularly maimed any beorc that dared to look at them, how their arrogance and power had raged unchecked since laguz slavery was abolished. She was absolutely convinced that the tiger child Shinon had played with was just waiting to make a meal of him when he least expected it. With all the gruesome stories, Shinon began to fear the laguz, and then to hate them as much as his mother did.
I still hate them, Shinon thought, trying desperately to convince himself. My mother would never lie to me.
But as Gatrie and Lyre repeated their vows to each other, everything within Shinon shattered. Either marrying a laguz was a sin or it wasn't. Either his mother was right or Gatrie was right. It couldn't be both ways. Just one week ago, it would have been a no-brainer; Shinon's mother was right and Shinon couldn't be convinced otherwise. But now...now...
"If anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in matrimony," Rhys said, "Let them speak now or forever hold their peace."
Shinon could feel every eye in the room, however subtly, turn to him. Even Lyre turned her eyes away from Gatrie and rested on him. Shinon met her eyes and saw the nervousness in them. The room suddenly felt very, very tense. The pause dragged on...one second...two seconds...but Shinon said nothing.
"Well, then, Gatrie, you may kiss your bride," Rhys smiled.
The room exploded with applause as Gatrie and Lyre pressed their lips together. Even Lethe offered a smile. Shinon, however, gripped his wrist even firmer. His hands had begun to tremble violently. Everything my mother ever taught me about laguz...
Seconds later, Rhys pronounced Gatrie and Lyre husband and wife. More applause. All Shinon wanted to do was get away and be by himself, but Gatrie announced that there would be a celebration at the fort, with music and supper, and then he proceeded to happily snatch Shinon's arm and tug him along to the fort. Shinon's pitiful protests were loudly covered over by Gatrie's enormous laughter.
At the fort, everyone gathered their food (Shinon put a little meat on his plate to give the impression that he was eating something, but he certainly was in no mood for supper) and sat down to eat. There was a long table at the front of the gathering area where Gatrie insisted Shinon sit next to him. After a few pathetic bites of his meat, Shinon glanced over to see Gatrie grinning at him.
"What do you want?" he snapped.
"Aren't you going to give a speech?" Gatrie asked.
"A what?!" Shinon croaked. "Gatrie, you said nothing about me having to give a speech!"
"I guess I forgot to mention it," Gatrie shrugged. "But the best man usually gives a speech, about our marriage."
Shinon couldn't believe how the day was going. First he was almost late to his best friend's wedding after trying to avoid it. Then so much of what he'd always believed was shattered. His trust in his mother was damaged. He was still trying to sort through how to feel about laguz. Now he was supposed to give a speech on Gatrie's marriage to a laguz?
Gatrie looked expectantly at him. Shinon swallowed, then stood up and screamed, "Hey!"
Everyone immediately stopped eating and talking and looked at him.
"Normally you just clink your glass with a spoon, but okay," Gatrie murmured.
"I'm supposed to give some sort of speech right now, so I guess I'd better do it," Shinon announced. He gazed out at the audience, seeing an even mixture of laguz and beorc staring back at him. He saw Titania. He saw Lyre's parents. He saw Jill and Haar. He saw Muarim, Tormod, and Vika. They all sat together, mingled together, spoke together, laughed together.
"Gatrie and I have been good friends for I don't even know how long," Shinon began. "We trained together, we hung out together, we fought in two wars together. He's a good guy. Has to be to put up with me, I guess." He saw various members of the Greil Mercenaries smirk. "And if there's one thing I know about Gatrie, it's that he's got a soft heart. You'd think I would've hardened it up a bit, but really, he's fine the way he is. Wouldn't be Gatrie without it. And so he's now given his heart to this...young lady here, Lyre."
The audience especially paid attention to him now. Shinon could see Lyre swallow as she watched him. His heart pounded so hard that he swore it was inflicting pain. Somehow he had to find something to say about Gatrie and Lyre among the crumbled remains of his beliefs. He searched frantically in his mind for something to say. He felt a burning inside his stomach, and he realized the familiar feeling of anger. However, this time, his mind directed it toward his mother. If I ever really thought about it, I would have accepted the laguz, Shinon thought bitterly. I accepted them when I was little. If it were a crime against the goddess, it should have been born in me. But I merely copied you, Mother. I copied everything you taught me.
"I'm sure some people in this room may be wondering how appropriate it is for a beorc and a laguz to fall in love and marry," Shinon suddenly said.
The room was so still that it almost seemed like nobody was even breathing. Silent tears began to well in the eyes of Lyre.
"And to those people, I say..." Shinon paused. To myself, I say... "...That it is nobody's business. Who cares if a person with a tail falls in love with a person without a tail? Who cares if those who soar in the air mate with those bound to the ground? Certainly not me."
Shinon ignored the surprise in the eyes staring at him. He instead turned to look at Gatrie and Lyre.
"He's happy," he said, pointing at Gatrie, then pointing at Lyre continued, "She's happy. They're both happy with each other. That's what matters. I'm not going to tell someone they can't be happy with whoever they want to be happy with. When people hate, they try to tear apart those that love, because they don't want to see how ugly they themselves actually are. I think those people are disgusting."
The room waited expectantly, waited for the end of his speech on the edge of their seats. Quietly clearing his throat and finding his strength, Shinon turned back to Gatrie and Lyre.
"Congratulations to you both," he said. "I wish you both the best. From the bottom of my heart, I truly do."
He raised his glass of wine and announced, "To Gatrie and Lyre."
"To Gatrie and Lyre!" the audience toasted, then exploded into applause. Shinon attempted to sit back down, but was quickly scooped into the most bone-crushing hug he'd ever been given from Gatrie.
"You're the best best man in the world!" Gatrie bellowed in his ear. "That was amazing!"
Shinon hoped Gatrie couldn't feel him trembling.
As Gatrie let him go, Shinon was immediately wrapped in another hug. Feeling fur tickling his arm, he looked down and saw it was Lyre. Tears brimmed her eyes as she met his.
"I'm sorry I called you the worst man in the world," she whispered. "I was wrong about you."
"No, you were right," Shinon muttered back. "I was the worst man in the world, in more ways than you'd know."
Lyre glanced back up at him, then smirked and said, "Emphasis on 'was.' You're not anymore."
After supper ended and the music began to play, Shinon tried to make his escape, but ran into guest after guest congratulating him on his speech and telling how it stirred them. Shinon nodded and thanked them, but emotionally he was exhausted. He'd finally accepted what he'd truly known deep down all along, what the teachings of his mother had tried to suppress in him – that laguz really weren't that bad. Yet he still felt like he lost a large part of himself and he didn't know what would replace it.
"Shinon," said a female voice.
Shinon turned to see Vika standing beside him, her long hair as black as her wings.
"I admit," Vika said quietly, swallowing before continuing, "You were talking to me with your speech. I've been having doubts on where beorc and laguz stand...I didn't trust beorc for so long. I only came to this wedding because the Boss and Muarim wanted to go. I didn't know if I agreed with a beorc and a laguz marrying."
Shinon simply stared. He didn't quite know what to say to her.
"But...but everything you said was right," Vika said, looking into Shinon's eyes. "You and I, we're both people. We both have thoughts, feelings, motives, souls. Different, but equal in worth. ...The marriage between Gatrie and Lyre was truly a beautiful thing."
She gazed into Shinon's face, and Shinon suddenly felt himself blush. Ridiculous, he thought to himself. You hated her kind just yesterday. There's still a part of you that wants to hate her. Now is not the time for dumb feelings.
Vika took one more step toward him, still silently and gently looking into his face. Shinon's heart began to race. No, no, no, this is stupid this is stupid this is so so so stupid oh my goddess why am I reacting like this it's the stupidest thing this isn't happening goddess she's beautiful...
"W-would you like to dance?" Vika asked. Shinon had almost forgotten there was music playing.
"I don't dance," he stated bluntly. Okay, good, you're still there, normal me. I was afraid I lost you for a moment.
"Just one dance?" Vika asked. "Please?"
As much as Shinon told himself not to, he looked back into her eyes and got lost in them again. He swallowed, his fluttering heart raging against the caution he was trying to hold it to.
"Just one," Shinon finally agreed.
Vika smiled. She placed her hands on Shinon's strong shoulders, while he placed his hands on her soft, tiny waist. They looked at each other. Vika gave a small nervous laugh. Shinon returned a nervous smile.
They danced until dawn.