Thank you so much for Sakagami Hina for the beta-ing my disastrous grammars *3*
I'm sorry to distract you from your HW
Chapter 10: Don't Cry, I Will Make You Happy
He woke up with a sore back and immediately threw the blanket aside instead of folding it and putting it back in its respectful place. When he was about to rant with frustration, the alluring smell of something nice visited his nostrils. Putting away his anger, he started to walk towards the kitchen to find Rin and Len peeking from the door frame.
"What are you doing here?"
"Luka-nee is cooking…"
"Haaa? And Kiyo-nii doesn't say a word?" Gakupo turned his head to see his brother sipping his morning coffee while reading local newspaper.
"Nope, he's impressed."
Gakupo frowned at this change: no one was ever allowed in Kiyo-nii's so-called Holy Temple, but somehow this girl managed to enter. It made him wonder, how good was she on the cooking department?
"What are you doing?" he asked suspiciously.
"Cooking, as you can see, darling," she replied.
He shuddered and rolled his eyes. "I know. What are you cooking, anyway?"
"Curious? You will see later, they're almost ready."
She hushed him and led him to sit next to Kiyoteru. The eldest realized that his brother was staring dumbly at him, looking for answers, as she returned to the center of the kitchen.
"As your quizzical eyes would like me to inform you, she had done the same to me after I saw her boiling the water." Kiyoteru gave him that smug look on his face.
"Us too!" the twins chirped to join the table.
"So basically, she just stole your job in the kitchen and you're okay with that?" Gakupo asked.
"The smell from the food informs me that she has done the right job."
"But…" Gakupo lowered his voice. "What if she tries to poison us?"
Kiyoteru gave him a questioning look. "Why would she do that? She is your fiancée, she loves you, right?"
Gakupo bit his lip, feeling how stupid he was, almost blurting out the secret and digging his own grave. "Aaah…yes- yes, of course she loves me… just… sometimes… she likes to spike the food, if you know what I mean, I-I just don't know what will she put inside our breakfast today…"
"Ridiculous." Kiyoteru turned back his head to read the newspaper again. "By the way…how long have you known each other?"
"Eh?"
"Luka-nee is the one that you gave the flowers right?" Len interjected smoothly. "You said to us that you only play games with her, I didn't think that you actually love her so much and would introduce her as your fiancée…" Somehow Gakupo felt the urge to strangle him on the spot for giving the eldest unnecessary info. Why, you little...
"Hmm…is that so?" Kiyoteru gave him an analytical look before sneered. "Let just say Karma is a bitch, right?"
Gakupo turned away with funny expression that made Rin giggle. Just after that, Luka came in with the food. All of them drooled when she finished putting their meal on the table like a professional waitress at a restaurant. Now present in front of them were bowls of steamed rice, miso soup, tamagoyaki, natto, tsukemono, sprinkled nori and broiled fish.
"Cool! I haven't eaten the complete breakfast set for a long time! Usually Kiyo-nii only gives us the broiled fish and natto, since it's easy to prepare and he buys the packaged natto!" Len exclaimed and started to devour his breakfast.
Luka smiled and diverted her eyes to a certain purple-haired man who was poking his food with his chopsticks instead of eating it.
"What are you doing?"
"Examining it, I'm afraid you po… I mean, half-cooked my dish, so…"
She glared and sat opposite him. "Well, if you don't want it, I can give the breakfast to Take-san. I promised him to make something for him… that gentleman will always appreciate what I make."
"What? Are you blind? Take is nowhere near gentlemanship!" Gakupo pointed at her with his chopsticks and Kiyoteru lazily informed him it was not polite for the elder to be completely ignored by the younger.
Luka drank her ocha calmly. "At least he's gentle to me."
He gritted his teeth and gripped his chopsticks until they snapped, and somehow it calmed him down. He excused himself to get new chopsticks while Kiyoteru put his on the empty bowl.
"Rin, Len." The twins looked up at their calm eldest brother. "That was called jealousy."
Luka spurted her tea and they heard a protest from the kitchen. Kiyoteru gave a slight smile and turned to Luka. "Today is your shiromuku fitting, right? I hope you don't mind we arrange it in Japanese style."
She froze, somehow remembering her wedding that would be held tomorrow, with the guy she distastes, no… not really distastes… and everything started pouring in her head.
What should I tell Meiko, Kaito and Miku? 'Hi, I'm married to a yakuza family?' CRAP!
What if they discovered me as a liar? Would they cement my feet and throw me into Tokyo bay to drown?
Ugh…how come these things didn't occur to me sooner?
"Megurine-san?"
"Ye-yes?"
"You're spacing out, are you okay?" Rin clutched her hands. Luka smiled weakly and nodded, feeling sorry for worrying the little one.
"I'm all right with the Japanese wedding."
"Nice, then…" Kiyoteru smiled and turned his head to his brother who had already returned from his chopsticks-hunting and was now eating his share of breakfast. "You have to prepare yourself for your montsuki fitting."
"Nah, I'm fine, they know my size… I'll go to work and hang out with my friends until tonight."
"Fine…" Kiyoteru stood and left the table – maybe to inform their father – while the twins scrammed immediately to prepare themselves for school, leaving the pair in silence.
"You should tell your friends." Gakupo was the one who break the silence first.
"How? By telling them I'm getting married into a shady family?"
"Don't call my family shady!"
"Well, it is!"
Silence.
"At least tell them, they'll get worried," he said, standing up.
"Where are you going?"
"To take a bath, bother to join?" He snickered.
"Go to hell!"
He finished bathing and applied good clothing on his body. While adjusting his tie, he stared at himself at the mirror. The man before him showed no anxiety for his soon-to-be-changed relationship status. Well, pardon, maybe it was because of the lack of love between them, or the fact that he barely known her. Either way, this wedding was for a greater good – his father's health that he couldn't compromise. Heck, he would marry a frog if that was the only way to cure his stepfather.
Closing the door of his room, he strolled to a certain room Kiyoteru said would be the preparation room for the bride before he left to meet his friends. He opened the door aside to find his soon-to-be-bride circled by two women from the bridal house. She already wore her shiromuku, and turned her head to look at him.
"Do you know?" she started. "In the western myth, if you see the bride in their wedding dress before the wedding, your marriage will be doomed?"
The two women gasped, and he ignored them. "I don't care, it's doomed anyway" Another loud gasp, and Gakupo ordered them to leave.
"Going out to drink your head off until you can't remember who you are going to be married to?" She took off her headpiece.
"Sort of… well, how could I forget, you're here anyway…"
"Good thing, I was starting to be afraid that you'll run to another woman after our wedding ceremony finishes."
Gakupo twitched at her poker face which she had shown since the first time they'd met today. "Am I the one who should worry? Maybe my wife will run away with this anonymous guy that haunts her even in her sleep?"
Luka was about to yell and give him a good punch when a familiar voice broke off their cold war. "Bickering before marriage? How am I not surprised?"
"I-I'm about to leave…" Gakupo dashed past his brother and left the two alone.
Kiyoteru exhaled and turned to Luka. "That was kind of different than your usual bickering… are you okay?"
Luka calmed herself, her hands trembling after the intensity they spit to each other through words. And the mentioning of that guy, how dare he!
"Yes… I-I'm fine…"
"You should be at home preparing for your wedding…" said one of his friends.
"Nah, the people at home can handle it." He chugged down the brandy.
The club was crowded as usual, but the four men in the VIP room didn't care. They enjoyed a good stash of alcohol and a nice loud chat without hindrance.
"I can't believe you're the first one to end his free life as a bachelor…"
"And you would be more surprised if I told you the one I'm marrying."
"Who? Some chick from another group?"
"Nope… I'm marrying the one who broke your heart." He said it with half laughter as he blew cigarette smoke out of his system.
"Seriously?"
"Yes, tomorrow she'll pledge her undying love to me… too bad it will be a closed wedding, father only wants the family members and some group representatives to attend…" he stopped for a while to rub his lips. "I'll send you pics."
"You better, or we'll assume you're lying."
He quirked an eyebrow. "Yes… of course…"
After the laughter and the drink competition, he started to feel the world spinning. He bid his friends goodbye and walked outside the club, covering his body from the cold night wind with his long black coat. Outside, a black SUV was already waiting and Take stood next to it – smoking – unaware of his tipsy boss.
Gakupo didn't complain; he hated to be helped when he thought he still could manage – in this case – walking. Striding grandly without noticing his moving surroundings, he bumped to someone and fell down. He lay on the ground, his eyes staring at the dark sky with too many bright lamps and high buildings. Somehow he started to giggle for an unknown reason, rolling on the ground.
Take, who was on his way to help his boss, could only stare at his fit, frozen. Everyone who remained and passerby on the pavement stared at the purple-haired guy, but no one bothered to helped him, until a black-haired man came down and helped him stand again.
"Are you okay, Mister?"
"Yah… I'm okay…" he answered after he managed to control his laugh. "Hmm? Who are you?" Gakupo put his palms on the helper's cheeks and examined him. "You're quite good-looking, aren't you?" He let another giggle before his voice changed to something intimidating as he squished the helper's cheeks. "But you're no match for me."
Take, who'd already recovered from the shock, rushed towards him and separated the unsuspecting victim from his boss' famous drunk tantrum. Take bowed in apology and dragged away his boss, who was yelling 'Who are you? Don't you dare to touch me!'
It was ruckus when he arrived at home; he almost woke the entire house with his singing and Take had to hold the consequences of getting beaten up by him. No one dared to stay near the young master when he was drunk.
Luka heard the knocking on the door of their shared bedroom and opened it to find a beaten Take and a very drunk Gakupo, who was talking to the wall in threatening tone.
"He was like this when we got home…" Take whispered and shoved the man to Luka before running away.
"Hey, wait…" She frowned at the smell of alcohol, which ruined the aroma of her vanilla body lotion. "What am I going to do with you?"
"Bonjour beauté…" he giggled and walked past her inside the room. "Combien de tempsêtes-vous ici?"
"Huh?" She eyed him with full suspicion as he approached her. Not only because he'd babbled something she couldn't understand, but because he'd also acted nice to her.
The dim light in the room illuminated the eyes which enchanted her. They were glowing like cat's eyes – well, that would be spooky – but seriously, she still could sees his eyes perfectly even though shadow was cast over his face and body.
He led her to the bed and somehow she obliged. They sat and stared at each other's faces like a couple of heavily lovesick teenagers. He brushed her hair through his fingers while she circled her thumb on his palm.
Unknown to them, their face were getting closer, until their breaths mingled with each other. Even though Luka hated the scent of alcohol on him, she couldn't resist the tempting of his lips. Biting her own lower lip, she heard him whisper.
"Luka…I…bleerrgghhh"
She screamed on the top of her lungs when she realized the man before her had thrown up on her lap.
He rolled on his back and walked, half-asleep, towards the bathroom while complaining about his headache. Apparently he'd lost a part of his memory after he walked outside the club to the awaiting car; he couldn't remember a thing. He scratched his head facing the bathroom mirror, reaching for a tooth brush and stared at his reflection.
He blinked.
And blinked again.
His free hand made contact with the mirror and rubbed its surface. The black-purplish color surrounding one of his eyes didn't disappear, so that means that….his eye looked like that?
God, it couldn't be true! He was about to married; he couldn't show up with this bruise! What happened to him? How did he get it? Right, he came to remember about his wedding. What time was it? What day was it?
A knock from in front of the door informed him that Len was searching for him. "Gaku-nii, are you ready? The ceremony's about to begin"
CRAP!
Hordes of lavish black cars stopped in front of the shrine, intimidating the people who were there for praying, who decided to take another route inside. One by one the cars unloaded their passengers, some wearing black suits and sunglasses, watching their surroundings before letting another passenger in their traditional attire get out of the car. One of them was a purple-haired young man, clad in his black montsuki. The groom was lacking his bride: they didn't go in together, since the bride needed more time – or so she said.
He tried to dismiss the whispering around him, well, not really whispering since he could still hear it; the old men didn't put his feelings into consideration, did they?
The make-up division had already tried their best to cover the bruise with their cosmetics, but somehow that damn thing refused to dissolve for a while and decided to give the audience a good look at his swollen left eye.
He stood in front of the shrine, surrounded by his family and acquaintances and waiting for his bride, who was probably the one who'd inflicted the harassment on his face – heck, we haven't even get married and she's already humiliated me!
While thinking about the domestic violence, he didn't notice that another car had already arrived. The driver opened the door smoothly to reveal his soon-to-be-wife in shiromuku. She was walking slowly and stood beside him with the elegance he didn't recognize – even the elderly approved with their loud whispers that reached Gakupo's ears.
Luka didn't stare at him. She acted like a nice, shy bride and Gakupo invisibly scoffed but praised her. Only inside his heart, of course, since he didn't want to fan another wind to her already big head. He took her hand when the photographer asked them to take some photos before they headed inside the shrine area and held the ceremony.
They were photographed once, and then twice with Gakupo's side of family since Luka had none that had come to the ceremony. Both of them smiled like a happy couple would do in their wedding – they were professionals on this kind of thing, anyway.
The priest came with two mikos behind him, leading their way to the shrine. While walking, they exchanged whispers once in a while that nobody else heard.
"That swollen color somehow fits your hair and eyes," she sneered.
He twitched his eyebrow, suppressing the urge to explode. "Well, thank you"
She chuckled. "You're welcome."
They walked around the shrine, stopped, and the priest asked both of them to go inside and undergo the purification ritual. The closest members of the family could join them to witness the ceremony, and the others could sit in the place provided for the groom and bride's family and friends.
On a small table positioned in front of them the ochoko and the wedding bands were placed. The priest started to chant the norito – a ritual prayer in the classical language to celebrate the beginning of the couple's new life and to ask God's blessing. The traditional music 'Gagaku' started to play after the priest stopped his chanting, wrapping the ceremony in a sacred atmosphere.
The Miko approached and poured sake into three different sizes of ochoko. Luka elegantly drank them one by one. Three takes for the biggest one, two for the middle sized one and one for the smallest. Gakupo followed suit. While drinking his sake he found guilt in his heart, especially when he met his father's gaze. Will it be okay if I lie to them?
He decided to brush off the guilty feeling and masked off his expression, blaming it all on the ceremony that was so sacred it made him think that way.
The priest then asked them to exchange the wedding rings that were already provided in the small box on the table. He took Luka's palm and stared at her eyes. He couldn't read anything except 'I will drag you together with me to hell in this lie,' which made him gulp as he slowly slid the silver ring onto her left ring finger. She then followed his step.
Both of them didn't talk much sitting together inside a black limousine – both drawn too deep in their own remorse.
After the kekkon hiroen, somehow they found themselves stranded in the suite of a luxury hotel. Sitting side by side on their flowery bed, still in their wedding attire – it was too awkward to say anything. Luka eyed the silvery ring, now branding her ring finger, smiling bitterly. The dream wedding with the man she loved now flashed in front of her eyes before scattering apart.
The man who'd left her behind, but who she couldn't hate. In fact, she was still in love with him.
Gakupo eyed his bride from the side, her long tresses now tightly tied behind, showing her long lashes wettened by tears she didn't notice. He sighed and walked to the table, took two glasses and popped open the cool wine.
Hearing the pop from behind her, she erased her pooling tears with the back of her hands and inhaled deeply, hoping the purple-haired man – her legal husband – hadn't realized she was crying. She let out a small gasp when she noticed the man already sat in front of her, below on the carpeted floor, watching her with a sheepish smile on his face.
"Is it that bad to have me as your husband?" He offered the red wine to her.
She scoffed but smiled nonetheless. "Yes."
"Uwaaahhh… you break my heaaaarrtt!" he clutched his left chest pretending to be hurt by her answer.
"Knock it off." She started to laugh and gulped the wine in one go, with Gakupo's eyes following her movement.
"Hey…"
When Luka turned back to him, he was kneeling before her, watching her with his intense eyes. Once again she was captivated and did nothing but stare back at him, trying to ignore the remaining swollenness on his eye.
"Don't cry…"
"I… am not…"
He leaned towards her and whispered softly while holding her hands, like he was reassuring her that everything would be alright. "Liar…"
"Same goes to you…" Their distance grew closer and closer and she didn't even notice until he managed to free her hair from the complicated head piece and all the hair pins.
"I like you more when you're smiling…"
Before the girl could answer, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead and headed to the bathroom, leaving her alone sitting on the bed with the glass in her hands. She bit her lower lip and stared at his empty glass on the floor.
What was that supposed to mean?
For some unknown reason, the tears started building up in her eyes again.
~to be continued~
Ocha: Green tea
Ochoko: The sake plate
Montsuki: Traditional formal attire for man
Shiromuku: Traditional wedding dress
Actually I cut the wedding ceremonial. Pardon for the inaccuracy and GoogleTranslate!French I kind of carried away with the Hetalia fic I'm writing atm m(_ _)m