Prompt: I'm the brother to the bride and you look really good in that groomsman tux AU.
Yasuhara felt guilty. Really guilty. Like, stepping on a puppy's foot level of guilty. But worse. Much, much worse.
Mai, his best friend since university whom he had just walked down the aisle, stood metres away in the most beautiful dress he had ever seen. And all he could look at was her groom's best man.
Now is not the time, he thought. He wrenched his eyes away from the gorgeous young man to focus on the ceremony. Why had no one told him that weddings were really, really boring?
He could just see Mai's beaming smile. She kept glancing at Oliver, her soon to be husband. Yasuhara had not liked Oliver at first. But the longer they had known each other, the more they had gotten along. Oliver was smart, kind and had a quick wit. He did not often smile, but today, he was.
However, the bride and groom were not the only people smiling.
Oliver's best man was grinning like some kind of goofy idiot. Yasuhara had never met Eugene but had often heard about Oliver's twin from Mai. It did not take a genius to guess who Oliver's best man was.
A small part of Yasuhara's brain told him that it was weird to like the look of someone who was identical to Mai's husband to be. However, he could not help but think that Eugene made much better use of his twin's facial features. There, upon his face, was a smile that sent warmth into his very heart.
"... I do," Mai's voice said, breaking Yasuhara out of his trance momentarily.
It would be the reception soon. He knew Eugene, as Oliver's best man, would be required to dance with Mai's maid of honour, Masako. A brief glance told Yasuhara that Masako, at least, looked happy about this fact. He was not the only one with an eye on Eugene.
Yasuhara sighed.
The inevitability that he would end up dancing with a load of old widows wanting to get their hands on some young meat rolled over Yasuhara. He would end up in the corner talking about something deep to John while everyone else paired off. Lin and Madoka, Ayako and Monk, Masako and Eugene…
He sighed again.
"... I do," Oliver said.
Yasuhara hitched a smile back onto his face as the bride and groom kissed.
"I now pronounce you man and wife," John concluded.
The church rose to their feet with applause. Luella, Oliver's mother, was bawling her eyes out, as was Monk…
Half an hour later found Yasuhara ushering people into the reception hall.
"Yes the drinks are on the right," he said, gesturing. "There are tables on the left if you want to grab yourself something to drink before finding your table."
He must have repeated that phrase a hundred times in the last five minutes.
"Having fun?"
Yasuhara spun around.
"Um, hi!"
"We haven't been formally introduced, I'm Gene."
Eugene stuck his hand out, which Yasuhara shook.
"Hi. Yasuhara."
"Mai's gay best friend, huh?"
"Is that how she explained me?" Yasuhara looked mortified.
"Well, words to that effect." Eugene grinned.
"Oh dear…"
"Noll sent me over here to be useful," Eugene grumbled, yet a grin was still plastered on his face. "Where do you want me?"
"U-Umm…" Yasuhara refrained from speaking his true wishes. "Stand on the other side of this door. We're pointing out the drinks and tables."
Eugene did as asked and soon the two young men were guiding the remaining guests. Yasuhara occasionally sent exasperated looks Eugene's way. He returned them with a laugh, and Yasuhara smiled.
Eventually, everyone was seated.
"Where are you sat?" Eugene asked.
"Top table," Yasuhara replied. "Mai's side obviously."
"Do you get to do a speech?"
"Mai banned me from it."
"Noll wanted to ban me," Eugene said. "But Luella had words. So Noll has given me an edited version of my original speech. Do you want to see?"
"Okay," Yasuhara replied. Eugene pulled a folded piece of paper from an inside pocket and showed it to him.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for coming," Eugene mumbled. "Crossed out… More crossing out… I hope Mai and Oliver live happily together. Please raise your glasses, to the happy couple."
"He crossed out half the page," Yasuhara commented.
"Yup." Eugene did not look upset though, in fact, he was grinning wickedly. "But that just means I get to improvise."
"He'll kill you."
"Nah, he won't. Too many witnesses." They both laughed. "Besides, you'd come to my rescue, wouldn't you?"
Yasuhara knew his cheeks were flaring red, but he attempted to keep his cool.
"Of course I would. You might get blood on Mai's wedding dress. She'd hate that."
Eugene snickered.
"Come on, we should get to our seats."
After one final glance about the room for stragglers, they hurried to the top table.
Mai and Oliver were waiting.
Yasuhara slipped into his seat between Masako and Monk.
"Having fun there?" Monk asked.
"Leading in old ladies? Sure," Yasuhara deadpanned.
"Was the Best Man lost too?"
"What?" Yasuhara blinked stupidly.
Monk smirked and turned back to Ayako, who was complaining about being at the end of the table.
Eugene soon stood up and called for silence.
"So I wrote a speech," he began. "But my brother chose to censor it," he showed his script to the audience, who dutifully laughed, "so I am going to make this up a bit. Ever since Mai and Noll met, they have bickered like an old married couple."
Another round of laughter.
"Though I'm sure not many of us thought they would actually get together. I know I am not the only one who was surprised by Noll's forwardness." Oliver glared at his twin.
"But I have seen these two grow as people, and as a couple. I wish them all the happiness in the world, as together they can achieve anything. I want to raise a toast, to Mai and Noll."
The guests cheered and clinked their glasses as the waiters and waitresses began bringing out the food. Conversation broke out within the individual tables.
"Was that okay?" Eugene asked Oliver, who grunted in response.
"That was lovely," Mai gushed. "Thank you so much!"
"No problem!"
They all tucked into their food with gusto, conversing between mouthfuls.
"I don't think I want this sort of thing at my wedding," Masako told Yasuhara, who had definitely not asked. "I certainly would not let my fiance's mother plan everything either."
"Hmm?"
"I would do everything myself. I would want it to be perfect," she went on.
"Really?"
"Have you had any of the wine?" Masako inquired. "It's delicious."
"Can't, I'm driving."
"You can't drink yours?" she asked. Yasuhara shook his head. "I'll have it then."
She plucked his wine glass from beside his plate and poured the wine into her own glass.
"Thanks," Yasuhara muttered. "It's Luella's favourite wine apparently."
"Well maybe I'll let her plan the wine then," Masako said. "Why did they use her favourite?"
"Mai and Oliver don't drink, do they?"
"Oh yes… I suppose they don't."
She downed the rest of her glass.
Yasuhara's eyes widened in shock.
"Maybe you should lay off the drink for a bit," he suggested weakly, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"What? But it's so nice!"
The meal could not end soon enough. Yasuhara's only consolation was that Mai and Oliver were talking happily together. In fact, he had never seen Oliver look so happy for so long.
Well, perhaps not his only consolation. It seemed Eugene was as bored as he was. Yasuhara made eye contact once or twice but had quickly looked away. He did not want to be accused of staring.
Mai and Oliver took to the floor for the first dance. Mai stared at her feet the whole time, while Oliver wore a bemused look.
Luella and Martin soon joined them. Ayako and Monk, and Lin and Madoka began a bar later. Yasuhara's heart sunk as Eugene offered his hand to Masako, who readily accepted it.
Having no wish to watch the happy couples, Yasuhara headed to the open bar to grab a drink.
"Oi. You!"
Yasuhara turned, beer in hand, to see a dishevelled man at the next table.
"Yes?"
"Get me a beer."
"The bar is just there…" Yasuhara said, pointing. He frowned at the man. "Hang on… Hirota? Is that you?"
"Is that for me?" He pointed at the beer in Yasuhara's hand.
Rolling his eyes, Yasuhara turned to the bar and asked for another beer. He passed one to Hirota and took a sip of the other.
"Thanks."
"Why are you here?" Yasuhara asked.
"Oliver invited me. So he could gloat about his happiness," Hirota mumbled. His words were heavily slurred. "Look at them. It's disgusting how happy they are."
"Uh. Yeah…"
"I mean how does a guy like that even get a girl. He's an arse!" Hirota grumbled. "Didn't even look my way…"
Yasuhara noticed Hirota was swaying in his seat.
"How many of those have you had?" he asked, indicating the drink.
"Just one!" Hirota insisted.
"Really?"
"Maybe two… Or three… Why do you even care? You're not my mother!"
Yasuhara shrunk back. He turned and caught the bartender's eye. Pointing to Hirota, he mouthed the words 'no more'. The bartender nodded.
"Did you bring a date?" Yasuhara asked, making a stab at conversation that he immediately regretted.
"A date? No…"
Hirota's head sunk onto the table and stayed there.
"No one wants to date me. Did you know I got fired from my job?"
"No, I'm sorry."
"They fired me! I worked so hard and they fired me!"
Yasuhara searched for a polite escape to this madness. But nothing short of a knight in shining armour wielding a sword was going to get him out of this one.
However, luck was on Yasuhara's side.
"Hey! I've been looking everywhere for you!"
Eugene sidled into the chair next to Yasuhara.
"Hey."
"I need you to rescue me from Masako," Eugene begged. "She won't leave me alo—"
"Gene!" Masako fell onto Eugene's lap at that moment and giggled. "You ran away!"
"Hey, Masako," Yasuhara said as an idea struck him. "This is my good friend Hirota."
Masako fell off of Eugene as she twisted to see Hirota. Eugene pulled her into a chair.
"You should talk to him," Eugene suggested. "We'll be right back!"
Eugene grabbed Yasuhara's hand and dragged him away from the table.
"Thank you!" The two young men exclaimed in unison and laughed.
"So, do you want to dance?" Eugene asked.
Yasuhara's mouth fell open.
"What? Y-You want to dance with me?" he stammered.
Eugene lent forward.
"You're not the only one that swings that way," he whispered.
Yasuhara began to smile.
"But the old people will be scandalised! I don't want to cause a scene at Mai's reception!"
"Let them be scandalised! They're only here because they didn't believe Oliver had found someone willing to put up with him," Eugene pointed out. "Luella invited them to prove them wrong."
Eugene held a hand out to Yasuhara. Tentatively, Yasuhara took it.
Within two steps, the two young men realised they had a problem.
"Okay, only one of us can lead," Yasuhara said. "I don't know how to do the 'girl' bit…"
"Hmm. I can try."
They began again, dancing off beat and slower than everyone else as they tried to get their own timing right. To anyone else, they must have looked ridiculous. But they did not care.
Caught up in their own little world of laughter and trampled feet, they missed the gossiping old ladies and amused younger guests.
Only Mai managed to interrupt them.
"Now I wanted to have a dance with both of you," she complained. "But you look so cute together I don't think I can break you up." She beamed at Yasuhara and Eugene.
"As if you weren't trying to set this up," Eugene said with a roll of his eyes. Yasuhara frowned at Eugene before noticing Mai's guilty face.
"What…?"
"Didn't you know?" Eugene looked back at Yasuhara. "So for the whole of the last week, she has gone on and on about how lovely, handsome and clever you are. She then threw in a casual comment about you being interested in men and—"
"Mai!"
Yasuhara wanted to glare at Mai, but she had disappeared.
"Oh my," Yasuhara groaned. "I never asked her to do this."
"I know," Eugene said. "But who am I to resist someone who, so far, has lived up to every one of Mai's compliments?" Yasuhara blushed furiously. "Come on, there are several old biddies that we haven't given heart attacks yet."
"I have an idea of what would really give them a heart attack," Yasuhara said. He then slapped a hand over his mouth. But Eugene had already caught his meaning.
"Well if you do that, it's not going to work."
Slowly, Yasuhara lowered his hand. Eugene moved forward, his eyes flickering between Yasuhara's eyes and lips.
Yasuhara stopped breathing. He could no longer hear the music over the sound of his thumping heart.
Then Eugene's lips touched his own. They were warm and soft and Eugene still tasted like the chocolate cake from the dessert.
It was only as they broke apart that Yasuhara heard the old people tutting. But he did not care. He had eyes only for Eugene.
Perhaps the beer in his stomach had given him confidence or perhaps the overwhelming atmosphere of love had infected him.
To hell with it all; it did not matter.
He was happy.
"I'm part of the clean-up crew," Eugene began. "But after that, if you want to get a drink together…?"
"Yeah, I'd like that." Yasuhara grinned and kissed him again.
Omake
"So it worked?" Oliver asked as the car sped away.
"Like a dream," Mai replied. She grinned up at her husband. "Yasuhara was staring at Gene for the whole of the ceremony apparently. Madoka told me."
"And Gene was trying to catch his eyes for the whole of dinner…" Oliver smirked. "My mother will be delighted. That'll keep her off our back for a while."
"You say that as if your brother's happiness means nothing to you," Mai scolded playfully.
"It means a great deal," Oliver retorted. "But if I can kill two birds with one stone, I will."
Author's note: Thank you so much to TeaAddictedGhostHunter for editing this, her talent has no end and I'm so glad she was willing to check this over!
Please review :)