"I still don't believe you actually agreed to this." Lilli comments, standing next to her brother and looking up at the pink and white sign above the bridal store they're standing outside of.
"Well I couldn't exactly say no, could I? What would Roderich have said to that, he thinks I genuinely like her. Besides, I don't know why you're complaining; you always say you wish you saw more of me and you wish you got to spend more time with the girls, now you get to do both.
Lilli pouts at him, rearranges the skirts of her dress absently and reaches up to retie the bow in her hair. He crouches a little and kisses the side of his sister's head and she smiles.
"Love you, big brother." She smiles up at him, leaning against him. Vash lets her, hugging her loosely with one arm.
"Yeah, I know. Love you too."
Elizabeta drives up then, in her little green Peugeot, pulls into the empty space beside Vash's car.
"Lilli, hey!" She grins when she steps out of the car, locking it and moving quickly towards the two of them. She hugs the teenager tightly. "How are you?"
"I'm good." Lilli smiles, pulling back from her. "How are you?"
"I'm great!" Elizabeta links their arms together and leads her towards the store. "Now, I need to ask you something. Would you like to be a bridesmaid?"
"Wow, really?"
Vash sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, following them inside.
They're greeted by a cheery tan girl, her dark hair in two thick ponytails tied with red ribbons and wearing a nametag with Michelle written on it in pink calligraphy.
"Hi, how can I help you?" She bounds over to them and smiles. "Are you the happy couple?"
She looks between Vash and Elizabeta expectantly; they stare at each other in horror before they turn back to her.
"No!" They exclaim in unison.
"But I'm the bride." Elizabeta clarifies quickly, waving her hands around.
"I'm just the best man." Vash explains, raising his own hands. "I don't even-"
"Oh, I'm sorry; I just thought you must have been a couple since you came together!" Michelle smiles, laughing into her hand. "My mistake. What can I help you with today?"
"Well, er, I need a wedding dress, if that wasn't obvious." Elizabeta laughs. "Vash, you need a suit, don't you? And Lilli would like to find her bridesmaid's dress."
"Oh, that's easy!" Michelle claps her hands together excitedly. "Shall we start with the dresses?"
Elizabeta emerges from the dressing room for the first time about fifteen minutes later, fumbling with her dress skirts and glaring at the floor.
"I know it's too long for me, but what do you think?" She drops the skirt and looks at her reflection in the mirror and rearranges her hair.
"You look good." Vash admits with a small nod. "I don't think it's very you, though."
She thinks for a second, looks down at the intricate pattern of flowers and vines embroidered onto the dress with glittered thread and tiny beads, before she finally nods in agreement.
"You're right, I think. I'm not sure I've ever worn this much sparkly stuff before." She shrugs, pulling up the front of her dress as it threatens to slip down. "I just really want to impress Roderich, you know."
Yes, I know. I've been trying to impress him for the last five years at least. Vash thinks, almost bitterly.
"I know you do." He says, standing up and moving over to her. "But if I know Roderich –and I do– then he'll want you to be yourself. He won't care how 'plain' you think you look, he'll just care that you're there and that you're the Elizabeta he fell in love with."
Elizabeta turns to look at him, looks up at him across the four inches of height difference and smiles softly at him.
"You really know him, don't you."
"It comes with putting up with someone for fourteen years, I think." Vash smiles, and Elizabeta laughs airily, holding her arms out and hugging him.
"I'm glad you're helping me with this, Vash." She says, turning back and disappearing behind the dressing room curtain. "I don't think I could have done it alone."
"It's fine. I needed a reason to stop swearing at my experiment analysis anyway."
"I'm glad I could help." Elizabeta reappears, her jeans back on and t shirt clumsily pulled over her head. "Can you help me look? I think Michelle is helping your sister."
They rummage through racks upon racks of wedding dresses, occasionally tugging one out to show the other and see what they think.
"You know, part of me is tempted to indulge in my Hungarian history for the wedding." She muses, flicking through a collection of straight-cut dresses.
"How so?"
"Well, at my parents' wedding, they broke a lot of stuff." She laughs. "Eggs, plates, glasses; I think they went a little crazy. It was traditionally Hungarian, or so my grandmother always used to tell me when she'd talk about it or show me the videos. My mom's dress was gorgeous; covered in flowers and bright colours, but I don't think I could get away with it now."
"If it makes you feel better, my parents flew us all back to Switzerland for their wedding –I was four, but Lilli obviously wasn't born yet- and my mother wore this stupid wreath on her head and then took it off and set fire to it like it was completely normal. Apparently it's something that happens a lot, but I was too young to understand it. And when we got home, they planted this little pine tree outside our house in Boston to celebrate –it's still there now, actually. It's getting really tall."
"That's really sweet." Elizabeta smiles, tucking her hair behind her ear as she turns around. "I keep meaning to ask Roderich's parents how they celebrated their wedding, see if there are any traditions we could carry on."
"His mother's told me the story of their wedding so many times." Vash's lips twitch with the ghost of a smile. "Apparently it was a lovely service."
"Do tell."
"She showed me the video of it her mother-in-law had taken once; we were thirteen and I'd just gone over for pizza and to watch the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie that had just come out on DVD and she hijacked the TV to make us watch the whole wedding." Vash laughs quietly and shakes his head. "It was interesting. Since she's Austrian, and his dad is Jewish, it was crazy. Like some weird hybrid of folk dancing and glass-breaking."
"I'll have to ask her to show me sometime." Elizabeta laughs, pulling out a dress from the racks.
"Oh, she will. She'll sit you down and tell you every little detail that you probably didn't even want to know, it's in her nature. She's always been like that."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Even when we were kids and we lived halfway across town from each other. She'd be driving me and Roderich to school in the morning and she'd be talking all about how she had a horrible dream, or she knew she was going to have a terrible day at work or whatever. I didn't really mind, I thought she was pretty funny, but Roderich was so embarrassed about the whole thing. I just told him she was being a pleasant person and that he ought to learn a little from her."
"I've only met his mother twice, I think." Elizabeta muses, looking at the dress in her hand before sliding it back into the rack. "He's nothing like her, is he?"
"Not really." Vash admits. "Where Carli is warm and friendly, he's pretty closed-off and grumpy. Not that I can talk, or anything. But yeah, he's definitely like his dad."
"What do you think of this one?" Elizabeta changes the subject and holds out another dress.
"It looks okay, but it'll probably look better on. Go and try it." Vash nods towards the dressing rooms. "Do you mind if I go find a suit?"
"No, go ahead. I'll yell when I'm ready." Elizabeta grins at him and pulls the velvet curtain across in front of her.
Vash heads for the suits, flicking through rack after rack of black three pieces that all look exactly the same. He eventually stumbles across a dark grey number, with an admittedly uncomfortable looking waistcoat, but thinks it's probably the best he's going to get.
"What are you doing?" Lilli hisses from behind him, and he jumps, turns around to glare at his sister.
"Finding a suit, what does it look like?"
"Not that." She says, her shoulders dropping. "I meant with Liz. You're in love with her fiancé!"
"I'm well aware of that." Vash replies, turning back to the suits behind him.
"Brother, you're only hurting yourself." Lilli says, her voice quiet as she reaches over to touch her brother's side.
"I know that much." Vash sighs, quickly turning back to his sister. "It's technically for Roderich, though, isn't it?"
"You can't justify things with that, Vash." She answers quietly, with a shake of her head. "You'll only hurt yourself more."
"I'll be fine."
"Vash!" Elizabeta's voice echoes across the store. "Come and look at this!"
He and Lilli move across the store towards the dressing rooms and see Elizabeta standing there, resplendent in a bright white, sleeveless dress. There's a wide, ribbon band around her waist with barely-there flowers embroidered delicately in places. She has a tiny, glittered tiara on her head and a veil falling over her hair.
"What do you think?"
"You look great!" Lilli enthuses, moving past Vash and staring at Elizabeta in awe.
"You do." Vash admits, coming closer to her and reaching to rearrange her veil a little over her shoulders. "Roderich will love it."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah." Vash smiles lopsidedly, and she grins at him.
"Oh, you found a suit! Go put it on!" She ushers him to the dressing room next to hers and pulls the curtain across. He can hear her and Lilli gossiping outside, and Elizabeta compliments Lilli's dress –that Vash suddenly realizes he never even noticed- as he fights with the buttons on the waistcoat. He eventually gets it fastened and pulls the jacket over the top, closing the single button and straightening everything in the mirror.
"Well, it needs a tie, but what do you think?"
Both girls turn to look at him and Elizabeta smiles wide at him, clapping her hands together.
"You look so good! And I know exactly what tie you need." She disappears around the corner and Vash can hear her humming to herself as she goes.
"Here." She comes back a minute later with an orange strip of ribbon and holds it out to him. "I was going to get one of those clip ones, but I figured if anyone knows how to actually tie one nicely, it'd be you."
"Francis taught me when I was younger, for some reason." He replies as he arranges the fabric around his neck. He ties it quickly and clumsily, straightens it up and looks at the two of them again. "Why orange, though?"
"My bouquet is orange flowers. I don't know which yet, though."
"Wow, you all look fabulous!" Michelle reappears then, with padded coat hangers and carrying covers in her hands. "I told you that dress would look amazing on you."
Elizabeta smiles almost shyly, looks down at the floor and goes a little pink across her cheeks.
Fifteen minutes later, after Vash is back in a much more comfortable pair of jeans and a thick hoodie and they've spent collectively far too much on dress clothes, Elizabeta hugs them both goodbye and clambers into her car.
Vash drives Lilli to the airport, because even though she only flew in two days ago, their mother is making sure she's back as soon as possible so she doesn't miss too much school.
"Stay safe, alright?" Vash instructs as he hands her her ticket and bags. "Don't talk to anyone you shouldn't; they could be dangerous."
"I know, I know, you tell me every time I go anywhere." She smiles at him. "Love you, brother."
"Yeah, I know. Love you too." He kisses her forehead and ushers her towards the check-in desks. "Call me when you get home, okay?"
She nods and dashes off to check in.
Vash sighs and shakes his head affectionately after her before he turns on his heel and heads for his car. Roderich texts him as he's leaving, asking to meet him at the Starbucks downtown to finalize the bachelor party plans.
He gets there first, perusing the area and moving to check the shifts to see when he's next at work.
"Oh, hey, Vash." Henri appears over his shoulder with a cup in his hand. "Bella told me she saw you the other week."
"Yeah, she did. I was in the cafe she runs with your brother with everyone."
"Sounds fun." Henri laughs. "Do you want anything?"
"Yeah, might as well. You know what I order."
Henri smiles at him, and has turned around to start the coffee machines when Roderich comes bustling over.
"Hey, Vash. I thought I'd missed you." He says, face flushed pink from the wind outside.
"No, I just got caught up talking to Henri. How are you?"
"I'm good." Roderich says with a nod. Henri turns back around and takes his order. "Thanks for shopping with Elizabeta this morning, by the way. She really appreciated it."
"So she said." Vash replies, and the two of them scoop up their drinks and head towards a table.
"Well, we've set a date." Roderich announces when they're settled down in huge armchairs. "Two months from now."
Vash reels back, because he knew it'd be soon but he never imagined it'd be that soon, but he recovers enough to nod and choke down some of his caramel latte.
"I was thinking we should just go out for drinks or something, maybe be a little stupid."
"That sounds okay, but you do realize we'll probably be the only two that won't get served, right?"
"Please. We've been served before." Roderich reasons with a shrug. "And besides, if we don't, we always have a backup plan."
"And what's that then?"
"We have a Francis."