Summary: Hating weddings, the missing groomsman ditches his speech. The events organizer just wants her proposal. But life has other plans. [AU]

"Hanging by a Moment" by Lifehouse

Starving for Truth

It is the stream of light that escapes the narrow opening of the curtains of his bedroom window that wakes him up, and boy, was it painful to wake up. There was a throbbing in his head, and a piercing ringing in his ears that was sure to make him go deaf soon if he doesn't make it stop. Without sitting up, or opening his eyes, he reaches out trying to find the source, and it takes him a while to find that cellphone that was just on the other half of the bed that he wasn't occupying.

Someone is calling, he sees when he opened his eyes, but it was too blurry to tell whom, so he slides that green blob and puts the phone to his ear. He realizes, however, that it wasn't the ringing that was causing the throbbing in his head even though the piercing wave ringing in his ears had stopped.

"What do you want?" he groans in what he hoped to be a tone that made the caller on the other end ashamed they called so early in the morning.

"Why are you so grumpy?" the caller says, unfazed at his tone. "Is Yamato at your apartment?"

"Stop shouting," he grunts bringing the phone out of the reach of his lobes whenever the caller spoke, recognizing the voice to be of the newly-engaged Miyu. He imagines she is because the splitting sound her voice makes causes him to press the balls of his palm on his temple. "And how would I know? You just woke me up. And stop calling so early in the morning."

"It's nearly noon," Miyu answers as a matter-of-factly.

"What?" he says, disoriented, the fact of the time of day not completely registering.

"Never mind," she mumbles figuring it doesn't really matter. He can hear her sighing on the other end, his auditory senses overly elevated. "If he is there, tell him to call me, Rei. And take some aspirin for your hangover, and some brewed coffee too."

"Hn."

He manages to throw his phone to the side, not really caring where it falls, wanting to go back to sleep immediately regardless of the time. And he was planning to, until a painful yet tingling sensation hits him on his leg.

The feeling of pins and needles made him cringe, and he wonders what the hell was causing this pain (as if his headache brought about by the six shots of Jack Daniels he got himself into mixed with the beer he drank the night before wasn't enough). He tries to raise his leg but then something heavy was pinning it down. Deciding he'd rather risk the headache the movement of sitting up would cause him than not finding out what was keeping his leg pinned, he sits up slowly, pulls the blanket off and finds a familiar blonde lying on his stomach, sprawled on his bed and over his leg, whose mouth was slightly open enough to drool on his sheets.

Annoyed, he kicks the sleeping fellow with his free foot, regretting the instant action as the blood came rushing back to his leg. The said fellow rolls off of him, and being so close to the edge, falls down to the floor with a loud thud. This woke him, and if his groaning is any telltale sign, then he must have a much worse a hangover than Rei. Even better, Rei thinks, since that friend was the source of the terrible one he's experiencing right now.

"Shit," Rei hisses, the loud thud ripping the inside of his head. He's never going to believe Yuuya again when the latter calls a shot 'one for the road,' although really, he should have known better himself.

Clad in his boxers and a tee he must have changed into before going to bed (and finding it impressive he even managed to change into something, unlike his friend, considering he barely remembers how he got home), he makes his way to the kitchen to get himself some much needed aspirin.

He's surprised to see a drunk Yamato flopped very uncomfortably on his couch and the jacket the groom-to-be wore on the floor, next to his necktie. Ah, he thinks, so Miyu's hunch was spot on. Women's intuition, he surmises. But he doesn't bother waking him up having other personal matters to deal with at that moment.

He has brewed some coffee and has taken an aspirin by the time the blonde finally joins him still garbed in his dress shirt and pants from the night before, albeit disheveled and crumpled in most places. He has the aspirin bottle ready on the dining table for his friends to take. Yuuya sat groggily, massaging his temples before taking a pill out and downing it without any fluid to help, groaning and sighing all the while, making known the massive headache he was experiencing.

"You know," Rei begins to say, and he realizes his voice must be too loud for the newly awakened Yuuya from the way the blonde winces when he starts talking, but needless to say, he didn't care. "I can understand how you got us all drunk. I can also understand that you fools ended up spending the night at my place. What I don't get is how you ended up on my bed."

Yuuya groans. "You begged me."

Rei smirks in spite himself. At least his best friend still maintains his humor no matter what state of mind he's in. "Do you always do what people beg of you?"

"Only when it's you, and you're in your boxers," Yuuya grinned mischievously, eyeing Rei from head to toe, which does nothing to make Rei uncomfortable. "Oh, and I guess also when Ran—"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," groans another half-awake man who was struggling to get his grips together.

"You don't even know if I'm talking about your sis—"

"Stop!" He shouts, slowly getting up from the couch. "Oh god—my head. I shouldn't have shouted— and I don't need to know anything about my sister's sex life."

All the while, Rei hands Yuuya a cup of freshly brewed coffee before returning to his spot by the kitchen counter and finishing his own cup of coffee. "You're the one bringing up Ran's sex life."

Yamato manages to sit up and finally able to turn and face the two other men. "See, this," he gestured around the room with both his hands, "is the problem with being friends with your sibling's friends."

"Says the guy who's been banging his sister's best friend since she was in college," says Yuuya in a singsong voice, unable to hide his amusement when Yamato is left red and speechless.

"I'm starting to think you're losing your moral ascendancy over us, Yamato." Rei held up a cup of coffee meant for Yamato as he tries to entice him to get over to the dining area.

The older Kotobuki sluggishly makes his way to the kitchen. "I never had one over the two of you anyway, your moral compasses broken since the day you hit puberty." He took the cup of coffee from Rei before settling down beside Yuuya, popping an aspirin for himself. And they drank their coffees in silence for a while before Yamato brings up another matter. "By the way, I'm still not amused by the fact that you totally ditched the speech you were supposed to give me and Miyu last night."

Rei winces at the reminder. Joke all they want about Yamato's seniority, or the fact that he dated a woman at a time when it could have been considered cradle snatching, or how he's always the big brother no one ever listens to, but the truth is they do. They go way back to middle school while Yamato was in high school, and he was the big brother they never had. And so, in spite of all the teasing, Yamato will always be an important person to the two men, and they the same to him.

So he knew that Yamato must be upset about him being a no-show when he should have been on stage to make a testament to two of his closest friends' impending marriage.

"Don't get mad at him, Yamato," says Yuuya, a small grin forming by the edge of his lips. "He was busy flirting with the event organizer last night."

Rei raises an eyebrow confused until he finally remembers whom Yuuya was referring to. Yes, he remembers the raven-haired woman who was candid enough to take off her shoes on the dirt-covered balcony while unwittingly ranting about him to him.

He shrugs. "She came into the balcony, we started talking. I wouldn't exactly call that flirting."

Yuuya waves a hand ignoring him. "You wouldn't know flirting if it hit you in the face."

Rei narrows his eyes at him.

"Oh yeah?" Yuuya dares. "When was the last time you tried hitting on somebody?" Rei falls silent. "See?"

"That's not the point," says Yamato in his authoritative voice that makes them cower a little when he uses it, or at least, it used to. "It was important to me—to us, that you be part of our wedding, to give us your words of encouragement and support—"

Rei snickered. "No offense, but I think I'm the last person you want to be giving you words of encouragement about getting married."

"Look," Yamato said softly this time. "I know it's been three years since, you know," and he knows he's entering into very sensitive territory.

"Since she left?" Rei finished for him, his tone even and his demeanor calm.

"Rei—"

He has told them before that he's okay, that he already accepted that she left him, and that they shouldn't treat him like he just lost the most important person to him in the entire world. But still, every time she comes into the conversation, his friends start to walk around eggshells, afraid they might trigger some buried feelings he has. What his friends don't understand is that the more they talk to him like that—like he's the poor little man whose world crumbled into pieces the day she left him, the more he feels the empty hole she's left, and the harder it is for him to come back to a time when she wasn't his world. And that was—is—all he needs, to feel normal again.

"I'm sorry," Rei says sighing, catching both guys off guard at his sudden and unexpected apology. But he needed to stop Yamato before he goes into the pity voice he knows is reserved for him, and it being his wedding season, there was a lot of that voice to go around. He doesn't need to be pitied, he just wants his normal. He supposes, however, that it was his fault anyway for not doing the toast. "I was wrong for ditching the toast, and how important that was—is—to you. I just got—sidetracked, by beer, and just the whole thing."

Yamato's expression softens. He knows that it was big of Rei to apologize, and even if Rei didn't, he would have understood.

"I promise I'll sit through your entire wedding without downing the mood, well, not that much."

Yamato narrows his eyes at him in disbelief.

Rei doesn't like the feeling that Yamato doubted him so he continues, "Also, tell me how I could make this up to you."

There was a glint of slyness in Yuuya's and Yamato's eyes and immediately he regretted offering, but it was too late to back out now. He needed to make it up to Yamato.

"Actually," says Yamato. "Yuuya's going out to be in and out of the city during the months leading up to the wedding." This Rei knew. "And Ran's going to be busy with the opening of her shop, so," and he started dreading the next couple of words. "I need you to help out with the wedding details, at least those that were delegated to Yuuya and Ran."

Yuuya tries to stifle his laughter at his friend's predicament knowing fully well how much the chocolate-haired man will hate this, but the irony was just too much for him and he is unable to hold his laughter, thus earning a glare from his friend.

Rei sighs, defeated. "Fine, what do I have to do while he's gone?"

Yamato shrugged. "There's a bunch of things lined up, but for the most part you'll just be coordinating with Aya, and Miyu will also be with you most of the time."

"Aya?" he asks.

"The wedding coordinator, remember?" grins Yuuya, his voice telling. "Oho. I guess you'll be continuing whatever it is I interrupted last night."

Rei rolls his eyes. "There was nothing. I can even barely remember what happened because of all the alcohol you made me drink."

"She is very pretty—"

"Shut up."

"Anyway," Yamato intervenes. "I'll give her your number and Miyu will call you about it too."

Suddenly, Rei remembered something he was asked to do earlier on. "Oh yeah, Yamato, your fiancée called earlier." Yamato raises his eyebrow, waiting for Rei to continue. "She was looking for her bitch."

Yuuya laughed, spilling the coffee he just sipped even though he tried to cover his mouth with his free hand. Yamato gives him a look, but Rei just smirks it off, catching the bottle of aspirin thrown his way by the elder man who was feigning offense from the teasing.

The punishment, all things considered, he thinks, is not as bad as it could be. He'll only have to proxy for Yuuya during the times that he'll be out of town, and the best man's job can't be that hard, right? (He thinks this is so because of personal experience and also because all the movies point out to the maid-of-honor handling all the important duties.) So he doesn't give much fuss when Miyu asks him to deliver some important documents for the filing of their marriage certificate to the organizer's office since she still had to meet with the wedding dress designer.

After his office hours, he makes his way to the address he was texted, pleased to find that it wasn't such a far away walk from his workplace. He arrives at the small building situated in one of the less busy streets and on the ground floor, he sees the small signage of the events organizing company stuck on the glass door. There was a cream curtain that prevents him from seeing if there was anybody inside, but there was an 'open' sing hung just below the signage with makes him proceed anyway.

A bell rings as he pushes the door forward and he finds himself in a quaint little office of white walls, a maroon-carpeted floor, a cream-colored sofa set upon immediately entering, and an office desk at the end of the room. On the walls hung framed pictures of a sweet sixteenth birthday party, a fiftieth anniversary celebration, and a wedding reception among others—a gallery that also serves as the company's resume for walk-in clients. He takes a longer look at the wedding reception photo, it was taken before any of the guests arrived, and it showed the dinner tables set out on the beach, and the candles laid out on the floor, and paper lanterns hung above the open venue as if to add to the stars of the night.

It strikes him for a moment, as if he'd seen it all before. But before he lets himself dig deeper into his thoughts, he shakes his head and turns away.

He gives the room a once over. The wall partitioned another area of the office that Rei could not see from the reception area, which makes him think that the office is bigger than he thought it was. Seeing as there was no one on the office desk he took a seat on the sofa, which he found to be a lot cozier than it looks, placing the brown envelope with the documents on the coffee table that had magazines and albums on top of it.

"Sorry, I'm coming!" shouts a voice from the other side of the partition.

A small blob of dark hair slowly peeked out of the wall, coupled with a pair of eyes that caught the gaze of the chocolate-haired guest, watching her as she slowly inched her way out of the partition. She raises an eyebrow, and there was a momentary flicker in her eyes as if she had come to the sudden realization of his identity. And the flush on her cheeks tells her that he's correct.

She claps her hands together. "Ah! Right. Mr. Otohata!" She makes her way to the couch and he stands to greet her. "Miyu told me you were coming over with the documents."

"It's Rei," he corrects immediately while they sit down.

She blinks, a little slow on the correction. "Ah, right. Sorry," she smiles shyly.

"Here are the documents that Miyu needed to bring here." He hands the brown envelope he brought with him and she takes it.

"Thanks, I'll be filing these tomorrow—"

"So you also do these kinds of works for your clients? I mean, aside from organizing the actual event." His voice was casual, not intending to be offensive, but just curious in an almost dispassionate tone.

"Well, we're a small company so we kind of do the full service if our clients need it," she answers truthfully. "We have to stand out somehow. Also, these are the kinds of things couples ask about when they have their weddings planned. It's a plus for us that we know these details too."

"I suppose most engaged couples don't know really know what they're getting themselves into after proposing and after saying yes."

She laughs gently, finding the humor in his words. And there's a sense of relief that washes over him when he hears her laugh so genuinely, that makes the corners of his lips curl unconsciously.

"I suppose so," she says. "They should have read the pamphlet first, shouldn't they?"

"Or the many warning signs down the road," he adds. "You know, those ones that read 'caution: don't proceed'."

And there she goes again, her laugh graceful and almost contagious.

After she recovers from her laughter, she looks thoughtfully at him with her dark orbs, and he finds himself wondering what she was thinking before she speaks her thoughts out loud.

"But still, out of all the kinds of events I plan, weddings are my favorite."

He looks at her curiously, and it's probably the look he gave her that made her go on.

"You know when the bride and the groom are saying their vows, you know, that magical moment when they look into each other's eyes and just know that they've made the right choice," she says, and there's this glow in her eyes as she speaks that keeps him from interrupting. "When the words come out of their mouths and their stuttering on their nerves because they're so overwhelmed with feelings that just—and then they start to tear up and—ugh, how do I say this—like you know," she gestures. "Then their words just flow out of their mouths like it's coming from their hearts, and it's just—it's just the most beautiful thing."

He stares at her, half-amazed, half-refreshed.

When she catches him staring, she blushes, retreating into her timid and ladylike form. "Oh, I just said all of those out loud, didn't I. Really, you should stop me when I start going on and on about random things."

He chuckles. "It's fine. You are quite amusing." She blushes, and he's not quite sure if he complimented her or offended her. "You're a hopeless romantic, aren't you?"

"Guilty as charge." She scratches the back of her neck absently, showing her slight embarrassment. "My boyfriend always frowns once I get into one of my 'episodes', as he'd like to call it. He's the more pragmatic type."

"Ah," he says. "So you must have planned everything about your wedding by now, haven't you?"

She nods, hesitantly, blushing at the truthfulness of it. "But I suppose I'll need a proposal before I can plan a wedding." Her laugh is soft, almost contemplative.

He notices her smile fade a little.

"Oh!" It was as if a realization just hit her. "You did say you hated weddings didn't you?"

He nods.

"Why?" She asks as if it's not the most personal question in the world. "I remember you not really answering last time."

"If I remember correctly," he says. "There wasn't a question to answer. You were merely throwing guesses around."

She blushes at the reminder of the conversation they had that night.

"And the answer to that," he says, grinning. "Is a story for another day."

And she's about to say something before another person interrupted them peeking from the partition, much like how Aya looked like a moment ago.

"Aya! I'm done cooking. You have to taste this! We can eat—" The voice came from a blond-haired, dark-skinned man, whose face turned into a curious smile upon laying his eyes on Rei. "Oh, we still have a client!"

"Mr. Oto—I mean, Rei. This is Tatsuki, one of my partners," Aya introduces as Tatsuki, wearing his yellow apron, comes closer to greet Rei. "Tatsuki, this is Rei, one of the groomsmen of the Kotobuki wedding."

Rei stands up and holds out his right hand, while the other guy cheerfully grabs it for a fervent shake. "Hello! You can call me Tatsukichi."

"I really wouldn't—"

"Join us for dinner! It's looks like you haven't eaten—"

"Tatsukichi! Rei might be busy—"

"Now, now, come this way."

But before either of them could protest, Tatsuki had already brought Rei to the other side of the partition, revealing a much bigger area allotted to a kitchen. The kitchen was big, those types used for businesses with the large baking oven, a walk-in freezer, two large working areas, and a big refrigerator that looks newly bought.

He scans the room, in awe as if he had just chanced upon a hidden passage way. His look of surprise causes the raven-haired organizer to explain.

"We do catering services too," she says. "Actually, Tatsukichi used to do a small scale catering business before partnering with me and Mami. This," she gestured to the space around them, "used to be his office."

"But," he interjects. "Small scale catering won't pay for the rent, so Mami came up with the idea of having an events business. That way, I don't have to give up this space and they can help me pay for the rent."

He turns to look at her. "Mami?"

"Oh, she's our other partner. She basically funded us," she smiles.

"You might meet her too," says Tatsuki while setting up another place on the island table in the middle of the room for Rei. The space doubles as the prep table and their dining table. "She's supposed to be dropping by today."

As if on cue, the bell chimes signaling the arrival of another person.

"Ah, that must be her." Aya goes back to the other to check if she's right. When she comes back, she brings along with was a golden haired woman around the same age as they were, statuesque in her high heels. She had her coat over one of her arms—designer he presumes, and her leather hand bag around the other. She an air of sophistications about her, Rei noticed.

He had already taken one of the seats around the island table by the time the Aya came back, and her companion's eyes immediately fell on the unknown brown-haired man sitting rather uncomfortably in the presence of strangers after being dragged almost quite literally to an unexpected dinner.

"Who's that guy?" her quirky voice says without any subtlety whatsoever.

"That's one of the groomsman of the Kotobuki wedding," Aya explains whispering. "He was bringing documents over when Tatsukichi invited him for dinner."

"Ah," was all she says before going over to where the men were, the corner of her eye sizing up the brown-haired man, walking in stride, her movements almost make it seem as if she was bouncing. She stands beside him, tall and grinning, her golden hair shining behind the light and she extends her hand. "Hi, I'm Mami. I've heard quite a bit about you. I didn't realize all the groomsmen of that wedding were just so… yummy-looking."

"Yummy…looking?" He raises an eyebrow but she doesn't explain. Instead, she takes her seat and so does Aya when Tatsuki comes with his baked chicken marinated in tequila and lime with some ginger and garlic sauce to go with it, and his mashed potato.

Hesitant at first after hearing that the chicken was marinated in a strong, treacherous alcoholic beverage, his opinion changes drastically upon taking his first bite of the dish.

His eyes grow wide, and the blonde man grins widely, proud.

"Yup. I knew it was good."

He nods approvingly while he chews, savoring the strong yet deep flavor of the chicken.

"Huwaaaw!" Mami exclaims. "I really love this mix, Tatsu! I wished you put more tequila though."

"You should open up your own restaurant," says Rei, taking a forkful of the mashed potato.

"That's the goal." He brings out a bottle of wine. "But I need to save up for it."

He takes another bite, this time with a swig of the mash. "Are you catering Yamato and Miyu's wedding too?"

The response was an enthusiastic nod. "The Kotobuki wedding? Yup, that's the plan! But the menu hasn't been planned yet."

Rei didn't want to admit it, but at least now there was something to look forward to in that wedding (aside from two of his closest friends tying the know, of course). They ate through the rest of the dinner chatting, with Aya's partners trying to get to know Rei, and Rei avoiding the personal questions, mostly pried by the curious yellow-haired beauty, by directing them at the other two who are too happy to talk about themselves when given the chance.

"Come by here sometimes, I'll feed you."

"Feed me?" Rei bristled at the idea of treated like a dog.

"He'll cook for you," Aya corrects her friend's ineptness of expressing himself in words. "And Tatsukichi, you shouldn't just invite random people into the office for food—"

"He's not a random person—"

"Stranger—"

"His name is Rei—"

"I meant clients—"

"He's not a client either." Aya closed her mouth, unable to retort. "Don't be stingy, Aya. I cook more than enough food for all of us."

He turns to Rei who's already trying to figure out how he got himself into this situation, and told him, "I love to experiment a lot, and more often than not they turn out good! So I usually cook meals for Aya and Mami. So come by sometimes, or I can text you and you can come by, alright?"

"I probably shouldn't impose—"

"Nonsense!" declares the blonde man. "Come one, give me your number."

And normally he wouldn't have agreed to anything that Tatsuki said, to eating lunch with strangers, to promising to drop by when he's free, to eat experimental dishes of aspiring chefs, but then he held his phone loosely on his hand, and let the other man take it from him, to type in his number and exchange it with his.

"Alright, you got my digits and I got yours."

The women can be heard sighing in the background.

"Come back soon, okay?" There was a goofy smile plastered in his sunburnt face.

Maybe it was the keenness and sincerity in Tatsuki's eyes that makes Rei half-heartedly nod his head. Then again, a free meal for a working man in his twenties sounds like a very good proposition considering that the price of restaurants can be a pain in the wallet. Plus, there was something about this crowd that was new, different, and, as he later finds, very refreshing, that the idea of coming back is becoming more and more appealing.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Share your thoughts!