Mio Dio, I was an idiot. This was the stupidest thing I'd ever done, and would ever do. I'd gone over the pros and cons several times, and all I'd been able to come up with was that at least he wouldn't be marrying him. At least he would get the chance to think, and maybe reconsider, and realize why this was a mistake. Because they've never been close. Not like we had. They'd never been like that. We had. My stupid fratello...
Now, don't go getting any ideas. I was definitely not the kind of guy to go and wreck up someone's wedding, especially not my own brother's, but Antonio wasn't the kind of guy to go marrying the wrong Italian.
I found the back door of the church and crept in quietly, trying to blend in as best I could, but that was hard. Here everyone was, wearing flowy dresses or formal tuxedos, and I was in a grey t-shirt and jeans. I saw Gilbert and Francis, Antonio's best friends, up at the altar where they were both acting as his best man. They were laughing and chatting quietly, pointing at people or winking into the audience. Antonio wasn't up there yet. I turned my gaze to the spectators of the wedding. There was our stupid family, all dressed in pastels. That one crazy aunt with the horrible spaghetti sauce recipe, and the total bastardo of a second cousin who was trying to flirt with Ivan's older sister to no avail. Jeez, I hated them sometimes. Especially now, looking all stuck-up because their little Feliciano is getting married, isn't it wonderful? I could vomit.
"But Elizaveta!" I suddenly heard Feliciano's voice from a room near where I'd just entered the church. I followed his voice and peered in through the slightly opened door to see Feliciano - wearing a dress? Come on! I realized they were gay, but didn't both men usually wear tuxedos? And to top it off, he couldn't have gone with just a normal white wedding dress, he had to wear a dress that looked like a freaking strawberry millefoligie! Yes, it was his favorite, but did he need to dress like one? "The bow has to go on the back of the dress! On the front, it looks dumb!" he whined.
I rolled my eyes, and muttered, "Bastardo." Then I walked out again to the main church area to see if Antonio was out there yet. He was, and he looked...well, he looked pretty damn great. He wore a formal black tuxedo (like my brother should have been wearing) with a pinkish-red rose tucked in the lapel. His hair, always untameable, hung in his face a little, wavy and, honestly, pretty sexy... Ahem. His tan skin was also...um...tan. And his eyes...well, I couldn't say much for them. They were normally a bright green, like the stem of a ripe green pepper - dark or light, but still somehow brilliantly green. When he smiled, they sparkled. But I hadn't seen him smile for real in a while. I didn't see him often, but when I did, he was holding hands with my brother, and looking like he was just trying to put up with it. Surely this isn't what you thought it was going to be like, I whispered to him in my mind.
I leaned back in my spot (hidden behind some flowy pink curtains on a window near the back of the church) and tried to imagine what the hell I was going to say once I intervened.
"Don't say it!" I would yell. "Come with me, run away! I can...meet you at the back door of the church, if you decide to come..." No, that sounded stupid. "Don't just stand up there waiting! And don't you dare vow anything, you hear me? They said I could speak, so I did! Just hear me out." I could convince him to listen, at least, I know I could. We'd been friends since we were young...he would listen. I was sure of it. I stood up a little straighter when the priest came to stand just in front of Antonio, and everyone in their seats looked more lively, too.
People from Feliciano's and my side of the family were smiling at Antonio's, patting them on the back or shaking hands, excited for the ceremony to begin. I, however, felt sick again, especially when that song started playing. Mio Dio, that song! Did anyone else hear how a song meant to be solemn but sweet could sound like a funeral durge? Or something you'd hear when walking to the guillotine, your hands tied behind your back?
I shifted a little in the pink curtains, barely able to see out while keeping hidden at the same time. I honestly didn't blame Feliciano for un-inviting me. We'd fought a lot since Antonio and Feliciano had gotten engaged, and I think he'd figured it out but didn't say anything, that I was jealous. So a week before the wedding, I got an embarrassed call from my great-uncle telling me that Feliciano had asked me not to come. Well, oh well. I was here now. And what was he going to do about it?
Suddenly, I saw Feliciano, walking down the aisle between the rows of pews, and I noted, sickened, that it almost looked like he could be floating, in the dress that looked like cream and icing. He was smiling, but not happily. More like...nervous. In a nervous, but almost relieved way, that made me wonder just what was going through Feli's head. But I wondered more about Antonio, and the way he was looking at my brother. Did he wish it was me, floating down the aisle towards him in a dress that looked like a dessert? Okay, well, no, I'd never wear a dress. But maybe a tuxedo with strawberries on it? Did he wish I was my brother?
"Don't say yes," I pleaded in my head. "You can just run away with me. We'll get you out of here and go somewhere, just the two of us. Then maybe you'll realize you loved me, all along..." The back door was calling to me already. I wished he wouldn't just stand up there waiting for him. And if he started saying those vows I'd heard him planning with Francis a few weeks ago, I felt like I might cry, or throw up, or both. I would just wait for my chance to speak...he had to hear me out... Time was running out. It wouldn't be long now until the time I would rush out there, looking like an idiot. But hopefully it would be worth it.
Before I knew it, the priest was saying it: "And if anyone here, in this house of God, can see any reason why these two should not be wed, I ask you to speak now, or forever hold your peace." Then there was a pause. A quick silence. It was my last chance. My hands began to shake so I curled them into fists, and I stepped out of the curtain, standing as tall as I could.
But when I said "I object," I was surprised to hear someone else saying it with me. He sounded more resigned, and actually a hell of a lot more embarrassed than I did, which was the first thing that shocked me. The second thing, though, was when I looked over to see that it was Ludwig. All eyes in the church were turned to one or both of us, giving us horrified looks. But even we looked at each other, slightly confused and nervous. Then we turned back to the front. This would work out perfectly. I knew who he wanted. He knew who I wanted. We stepped forward together into the main aisle and for the first time, I really looked at Antonio. His hands clasped Feli's, and they, along with the priest, Antonio's best men, and Feli's bridesmaids - Elizaveta, Natalia and a very embarrassed Kiku - looked at Ludwig and I, giving us the same horrified looks as the people behind us.
But I didn't care about them. I cared about Antonio, and so that was who I looked at. He was looking back at me, looking shocked, happy, and confused, all at once. But his eyes were shining, bright green, just like they used to.
Then Ludwig spoke, and I knew he was talking to my brother. "I am not the kind of man who should be rudely interrupting this ceremony," he said, sounding nervous.
I finished. "But you're not the kind of man who should be marrying the wrong guy."
Antonio and Feliciano were standing so close, that out of my peripheral vision, I could see a tear running down Feli's cheek, but I didn't think he was looking at me. Or at least, I hoped he wasn't.
"So don't say yes," I pleaded Antonio, trying to save my dignity but show him how passionate I was about this.
"Run away now," Ludwig implored Feli.
"I'll meet you when you're - we're - out of the church, at the back door," I promised.
"You need to hear me out, Feli."
"And the priest did tell us we could speak now," I pointed out. Antonio smiled a little, the old sparkle back in his eyes.
Feliciano ran down to meet Ludwig in his stupid dress, and flung himself into the German's arms. Ludwig looked surprised, I noted, as I turned to look at them. But Feli was crying happily, and Ludwig was holding onto him tightly, smiling. "Damn lucky potato bastard," I whispered to him, and his smile only grew. Then I turned my attention back to Antonio.
Everyone knew how this wedding was going to end for Feliciano and Ludwig, now, as they turned and left the church through the wide front doors, but no one, I believe, could know what Antonio was thinking. I couldn't, at least. He looked at me with a strange emotion in his eyes and a small smile on his face, like I was the ghost of a happy memory, and not the ragazzo stupido that had just told him to ditch his fiancée.
The silence lasted a little longer as we all just looked at Antonio, wondering what on earth was running through his mind. After a moment longer, it became too much for me, and I knew what his decision was. I turned, too, and began to leave the church the way I had come. But as I was almost to the doorknob, I heard his voice calling after me.
"Hey! Lovino!" I turned a little, surprised, but with angry and embarrassed tears in my eyes. "Let's run away now! I'll meet you when I'm out of this stupid tux at the back door!" I poked my head back into the main room to see Antonio only a few feet away. "Cariño, you heard; I didn't say my vows." He was grinning like an idiot, and my responding smile was forming, too. "I can't tell you how glad I was that you were there when they said 'speak now.'"
And he kissed me, just once, in front of both of our shocked families and one very confused priest, before going to change out of his tuxedo. I turned around and waited at the back door. I shook my head, happy beyond what I could have imagined. When Spain came around to the back, he picked me up in his arms like we were kids again and kissed me a little more romantically before.
He laughed at my blush and I smiled. "Well, you weren't going to say anything. So I spoke for you." I hugged him close and whispered to him, with love, "You bastard."