Paul was the type of person who always dreamed of his life being something more than just a simple life in the country. While others in his small hometown seemed content to their lives of going to school, going to work, going home, and sleeping, in order to do the same process the next day... Paul just couldn't face the idea of his entire life being like that.

Paul's childhood heavily involved with passing the time watching the extraordinary lives of people on television, listening to over-dramatic musicals, and watching the thrilling movies that made him believe there were people out in the big world out there that were living their lives, and not just in a state of existing.

Not just this constant small-town cycle of sleep, work, repeat.

The narrow, sheltered mindset in this place also made things that much more unbearable. Combine Paul's dress habits, how he spoke, and the fact he was in choir in school, along with Paul never really being interested in dating girls, it lead people to wrongly treat Paul as something of an outcast. Paul never let that get to him, however. In fact, it toughened him up. He spoke his mind when he didn't agree with something, and stood up for himself when others tried to make fun of him and cast him aside. He never physically fought anybody, but he did speak up for himself!

He continued to dress as he wanted, and continued his little joys he had, no matter what anyone thought about him! He sang his best in choir, able to pull off alto pitches easily. He continued to garden, bringing up the most beautiful flowers anybody in that small town had ever seen! He even continued to pursue an interest in home decorating! Screw everybody else in this place, Paul was going to be himself!

Though he put up a brave front to everybody else, there was one thing that brought him down. That was the fact his father knew and openly disapproved of most of the things that Paul did. His father never liked any of his hobbies. Paul and his father often argued about Paul's behavior and mannerism's, as if there was something bad about his personality.

Once Paul had finished high school, he dreamed about getting out of this small town and going anywhere for a change of scenery. It didn't matter where! Anywhere seemed alright with Paul.

Though, he's never really left town for anything. He wouldn't know where to begin.

So for about a year Paul just worked at the local diner. He hated it, but he didn't see any other option for getting out if here.

For another year after he had planned to get out of this town after high school, he was still waiting tables for the people who irritated him and treated him as an outcast. He would hear remarks, jeers, and teasing, but have to deal with each of the customers and coworkers with only mild irritation. He dealt with it all as best he could, able to respond to each calmly and with a sense of poise and tact.

One night, after a particularly hard and grueling day of work, he arrived home to the trailer he and his father shared. Paul walked off of the dirt road and onto the front porch, getting out of the slight rain as he stepped through the screen door. He made sure to close the door slowly, making sure the screen door didn't clang shut so as not to wake his father. He sighed, reaching behind his back and slipping the knot of his pale yellow apron undone, folding the slightly damp cloth over his arm and making a mental note to clean it before work the next day. He glanced towards the living room and seen his father slumped over the armrest with half a beer in his hand at risk of spilled onto his lap and sighed, walking over and gently taking the alcohol from his sleeping father's hand and moving a blanket from the room to put over his dad.

Afterwards, Paul walked into the kitchen and wandered towards the fridge to get some fruit. He knew his dad didn't cook anything, because Paul was usually in charge of most of the things his father just couldn't be bothered with. He flicked on the light switch and glanced at the clock. He was pleasantly surprised to see it was only 8:25 PM. Way earlier than his usual time it took to walk home!

Paul picked up an apple from the fruit drawer in the fridge, wandering to the sink and rinsing it off, humming quietly to himself. He glanced over to see a small pile of envelopes on the counter. He curiously set the fruit down in favor of going through his and his fathers mail they had. There, he had just found the usual. Bills, bills, more bills, some junk mail, and... A letter invitation?

"Dad?" Paul called hesitantly over his shoulder towards the living room. He only received a loud snore in response, so he rolled his eyes once before opening the invitation the rest of the way. His eyes scanned over the light lilac coloring of the paper, and then read the nice cursive writing inviting he and his father to... Oh!

It was a wedding invitation!

Oh, wow, it was in the city. Which was more than a few hours out of here. Which required a car.

Paul made a slight face at the letter. It sounded nice, and he had never really met his aunt because of some weird falling out between her and Paul's father, but Paul knew that she lived in the big city. He wondered if his father just didn't bother to open the letter because of the fight, but this seemed like an opportunity to see if the city would be a kind of life he could live. He could see what it was like!

Paul softly sighed as he listened to his father's uneven snores from the next room over. It's strange how he never even mentioned to Paul that he had an aunt who lived in the city, except for the few times Paul had overheard him speaking to his bar-friends or to anyone else who knew his father when he was younger. The knowledge of his aunt probably would have been helpful this whole time Paul was trying to leave this tiny excuse for a town.

Paul frowned slightly to himself, glancing up out of the window as the sky became a little darker and stars began to poke out into the sky. He sighed slowly, setting the mail aside. He would just have to bring it up to his dad later on.

Paul picked up the apple from the counter, flicking the light in the kitchen off before walking down the short way to the other end of the trailer house and quietly stepping outside of the back door. Whenever he felt down when he was at home, he found that being alone outside usually helped him think through his thoughts more clearly.

He looked up at the darkening deep purple sky, ignoring the tree line shrouding beneath it.

He knew he wanted to live something different than his father or anyone else he knew here. Paul knew he wasn't happy living this endless, boring cycle that everyone here seemed content with.

Paul didn't know how he was getting out of here, or even if his new-found aunt would help him, but he did know he was going to go to that wedding, even if it was only to see the city at least once.

He held his resolve, and decided that in the morning, he was going to count up the money in his savings.

Honestly, Paul had never been to a wedding before.

Though it was one argument with his father, a long walk, and a few bus-rides later, and he was in the city with the savings he had accumulated during the year of working. He had made sure to look presentable as he went to the address of the letter the day before the wedding to introduce himself. His aunt had opened the door and she looked surprised at first, but then with a cheerful smile she spoke, and claimed Paul looked just as beautiful as his mother, and Paul had to correct her and tell his aunt he was a boy. She just smiled and asked him all about his father and how he was doing. It was a bummer when he had to tell her that he didn't wish to attend, but it was easily gotten over with the upcoming rush of the busy wedding ceremony.

Paul had offered to help as much as he possibly could help his aunt, and she was absolutely pleased with how politely he acted. According to her, it was a relief that he didn't turn out like his father, but Paul just ignored it and continued to help set up the large church for the wedding.

He went out and rented a nice outfit for the wedding, made sure he was presentable (as he pretty much always was, anyway), and was gladly at the wedding.

He knew the general gist of it. You wait around with everybody else, exchange awkward small talk with everyone else the bride and groom knows, go watch the bride and groom say some things, the preacher says some things, then they kiss and...

Then they're married. He looked around at the other people attending and bit his lip a bit in nervousness. Wait, is he supposed to clap, or what...?

Carl loved to crash weddings.

Literally. With a stolen car he would just race inside of the building through the most narrow wall or one of those stained glass window things, and BAM! Wedding crashed! screaming people! bloodshed! and cake!

Though, this time, he found himself a bit hungry. His stomach gurgled and made the rudest sounds at him he had heard since about two hours ago.

Hmm, oh hey! A wedding! Those things have food!

He smiled widely, turning his borrowed car into the parking lot area in front of the large church designated for the wedding, making sure to roll up slowly next to a certain minivan which currently held a small family. The father figure was lovingly fixing the little girls hair just right, while the mother figure was applying makeup in the mirror.

Carl was grinning as he realized both were preoccupied enough to not notice him pull in, park right next to them, grab the metal pipe from out of his passenger seats and creep up near the drivers seat. He idly wiped some blood off of his own face before he tapped the window with a smile.

"Hellooooo~"

He chuckled as he raised the pipe up above him and the lady inside the driver's seat gasped just before he cracked it against her head quickly. She slumped back onto the car seat instantly, before Carl then turned to do the same to the father's skull, sending blood across the parking lot and side of the car, and against the young girl. Then heard the young child screaming.

He smiled gently and got down and placed a bloody hand on the kids shoulder.

"Hey! Heyyy. Don't worry! Stuff like this builds character! That means you probably wont be boring when you get older! And if there's one thing I hate, it's being bored! So, when you're older, we should totally fight so you can seek vengeance or whatever! But for now, I'm going to go get some food while I'm playing the role of..."

He picked up the invitation and frowned, "hmmm, I can't pronounce your dead parents names, sooo I'll just say I'm the plus two!"

He grinned and casually threw the kid inside of the vehicle while he picked up the father and stole the suit jacket and tie off of him. "Good enough!" He chuckled as he tried to wipe most of the mess off the suit. He strode away from the scene of the crime and the traumatized kid as he made his way into the building, showing his stolen invitation, earning a very confused look from the doorman, but being let inside none the less.

Carl stepped inside of the building, looking around at rather huge wedding, with excited and emotional people having fun and enjoying themselves. Also, he smelled food. And ya know, sociopaths gotta eat!

Paul loved being in places where everyone was polite and orderly, where the tables were set nice and neat, everything was scheduled ahead of time, and everything was flowery and happy...

He sighed, glancing at the table he was currently seated at. There was a ragtag group of people dressed up, and oddly enough it seemed three people were running late to a wedding. Rude.

Paul wasn't too close with the bride, being that he only met his aunt a few days before the actual wedding, but she seemed to think he was a good friend and a shoulder to cry on when planning the wedding became a bit stressful... Point being, he wasn't too entirely close to the bride, but just close enough to be invited. This table, it seemed, was the table of people who were in that same category, going by the impression that nobody at this table knew anyone else sitting there.

It was a lot of awkward fidgeting, awkward small talk, and then some spots of prolonged silence as wedding chatter went on in the background...

Paul gave a slight uncomfortable smile as he looked at everybody else seated with him. "Soooo my name's Paul..." He smiled with a slight muted chuckle. After nobody continued his desperate grasp at conversation, he waited in the awkward silence and people looking away at their phones. Paul frowned a bit, sighing under his breath and expecting to be bored for a few more hours. He reached out and raised the glass of water to his lips and sipped from it.

"Sooo I'm Carl!"

Paul looked up from his glass at the lone voice that seemed to pop out of nowhere, to see a man in a nice suit smiling as he pulled out one of the three empty seats at the table. He pulled out the middle one, one seat away from the man as he smiled at Paul with a devil-may-care type of grin.

Paul couldn't help but notice the way this man's bright green eyes matched the bright green hat that didn't match his suit.

As the man who introduced himself as Carl sat down in one of the empty seats, Paul shifted a bit to glance at the others at the table. Nobody seemed to care much that they had a new person seated amongst them at the table. A few halfhearted murmurs of acknowledgment at most.

Paul smiled back at Carl politely, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Carl." He said as he held out a hand to shake with the man with the bright green hat.

Carl had stepped into the wedding just as the bride and groom were going over their vows. Boring!

He glanced around the room quickly for the empty seats from the people he just borrowed the suit and invitation from, and found three empty seats at a table. He smiled to himself as he approached the table, and seen a bunch of boring people. Nobody really seemed to be interesting, but that was fine. Carl had something in mind for this party after he had a chance to eat, anyway.

Just as he was in hearing distance, he heard one of the people at the table speaking, and couldn't help but smirk a bit at the way they spoke. They sounded something like a mother trying to get kids to introduce themselves. Carl chuckled slightly to himself, and his eyes scanned over this person, taking in the red and yellow hues of their clothing, their dark tanned skin, and a nice appearance. "Soooo I'm Carl." He spoke, not able to help the interest of this particularly pretty woman? - (He wasn't entirely sure, but he was pretty sure, so it was whatever.)

He seen the slight flicker of interest Paul had in his eyes ass he looked over Carl, and Carl just smiled in response to it.

Carl knew he was fairly attractive. It was a fairly important factor he took into account whenever he manipulated people into helping him get what he wanted. He also took into account when others found him attractive, and right now, he was loving the slightly in awe look Paul had.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Carl."

The man in the green hat smiled and sat down, already anticipating food. He glanced around at the others at the table, controlling his expression to appear polite and kind, which in his mind meant keeping a perpetual slight smile on his face and appearing calm. His gaze on the others didn't last long, however, before his sharp green eyes were back on the pretty one in the red hat.

"So, how late am I? Did I get past the boring part?" He asked promptly, and took a moment to enjoy the slight look of shock on Paul's face. Who just straight up says the vows are boring?

"What?" Paul asked, but then glanced at the front where the two were still exchanging vows with each other. He sighed slightly, "I.. I guess not?" He asked hesitantly.

"Huh... I give it about two minutes." Carl spoke smoothly, a smile on his face as he looked over to the pocket of his stolen suit. He had something special just for the wedding. You know, to spice things up a bit.

"Two minutes...?" Paul questioned the strange man.

"Two. Minutes." He grinned at him.

Paul had a slightly puzzled expression, but decided to just brush off the stranger's words. Paul's eyebrows furrowed slightly, knit together in a bit of bewilderment at this man's words. Though he was extremely handsome, he was also extraordinarily weird. Paul glanced over at the man in the green hat and noticed him peering into his pocket, and then chuckling quietly as he looked up at the bride and groom. Paul frowned at him. "Carl, what's funny?" He asked. He didn't care if they just met. if this man was up to something, he was going to stop him.

[[A/N: Hello! Just wanted to let everyone know I am working on sequels for the other fics, and have a two brand new fics besides this one for Paul and Carl! :) For any other Llamas with Hats fics, there are more on my author page!

Reviews help encourage me to write more, so please leave one to help me keep going! ^^
A quick shoutout to

BlueLithiumShadow, patient935, and Anidori Pegasus 55Cancri-e