A/N: In celebration of Valentine's Day, here's the rest of Allen and Lenalee's wedding reception. Thanks for sticking around despite my slow updates. The next chapter will be posted once I can get myself in the correct mood for writing their wedding night.

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

The Earl's toast almost made me laugh. It was sweet and tasteful, and absolutely nothing like the vampire. It was a toast meant to make him look good in a very public setting. The whole thing was a ridiculous display of theatrics.

But that was exactly what I wanted. The last thing I needed was for anyone to make a scene at my wedding. Which was why I'd faked a psychic episode to convince the Earl and the rest of the Noah that I knew the FBI was going to be there; I needed them to be on their best behavior. It was also why I made Cross and Teidoll swear on their mothers' graves that they would only be spectators and wouldn't try to arrest anyone. This was not the time or place for any of that.

Then again, I might not have even noticed if they did cause problems. Even in my everyday life, Lenalee was usually something of a distraction, but today it seemed like she was all I could focus on. That was understandable, it was our wedding day after all, but it was still embarrassing. Throughout the night, I often found myself staring at her and completely missing my surroundings. She was just too gorgeous. Lenalee's dress, hair, and makeup were all flawless, but it was her bright, happy smile that made her the most beautiful person in the room. My new wife had my full, undivided attention.

We did a lot of the cliché wedding traditions, mostly because Road wanted to catch the bouquet and Tyki wanted to see me embarrass myself by taking Lenalee's garter off blindfolded and with my teeth - seriously, why in the hell was that a wedding tradition? We didn't particularly care for most of the customs, and would have rather not been at the center of attention so many times, but seeing as our wedding was basically one big show for the Noah, the least we could do was humor them by doing the things they wanted. Though we did absolutely refuse to shove cake in each other's faces during the cutting of the cake, we both agreed that that was a horrible waste of good cake.

I was later told - by quite a few people - that our first dance was 'nauseatingly perfect', but at the time, all I was thinking about was not giving into the urge to bite her. Dancing together was not something we did, ever, especially after we had first slept together and my vampire instincts had gotten stronger; having her be that close to me in a public setting was just asking for trouble. But knowing that this would be one of the last times I held her as a human helped me push away my vampire urges - for long enough to get through our dance at least.

As soon as the dance was over and we were no longer being watched by everyone, I headed straight for the bar for a fresh glass of blood-laced wine. It had been Lenalee's idea to choose a beverage caterer that would provide that service, and while I had been against it during the planning stage, I was definitely glad that she had trusted her instincts and not listened to me. I already needed blood and the night wasn't even half over. Lenalee approached just in time to see me down my glass in one go and order a refill. She smirked smugly at me as she leaned against my shoulder. "See? I told you that you'd want that."

Before I could admit that she was right, our private moment was interrupted by guests wanting to talk to us, just like had been happening all night long. It was getting annoying to not have more than two minutes alone with my wife. I was only more annoyed when I turned around and saw that it was Cross who wanted our attention. "What do you want, Cross?"

He snorted and flicked my ear. "To finally meet your wife. Be nice, brat."

I scowled but kept my mouth shut. When Cross offered his hand to Lenalee, she took it with a bright smile on her face that I knew was genuine. Ever since I had referred to him as my stepfather, she had become very curious about Cross and liked to pester me for more information about him. "It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you. From Anita." She shot me a dirty look. "He won't tell me anything."

Cross laughed as he dropped her hand. "It's nice to meet you too. You're a heck of a lot prettier than he made you out to be."

I narrowed my eyes at him, unable to keep my mouth shut any longer. "You're engaged. Stop hitting on my wife."

Cross flicked my ear again. "I wasn't hitting on her, brat. I was just ... appreciating her beauty. A flower like her deserves to have its wonderful blooms on display."

That almost made me gag. "That's creepy. Can you get to the point without all that poetry crap?"

Cross practically snarled at me for the comment. "Just go back to your friends, brat, and let us talk in private."

I shot him a dirty look, but Lenalee smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'll be fine, Allen."

Not wanting to argue with her on our wedding day, I wandered back over to our table. While I sat and pretended to listen to Lavi chatter about nonsense, my eyes never left the corner of the room where Lenalee and Cross were standing. I tried to pick up on their conversation, to try to find out what on earth Cross wanted to talk to Lenalee about, but even with my enhanced vampire hearing, the room was just too noisy for eavesdropping.

Fortunately for my nerves, Lenalee was only with Cross for about five minutes. She smiled as she sat down beside me, clearly knowing that I was about ready to explode with curiosity. "We talked about what happened to me when I was a kid. He's really impressed that you were not only able to change my mind about vampires, but that you were able to convince me to be turned. I really don't get why you're so hostile towards him; he's not as bad as you made him out to be."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes at her. "That's because you're a woman. And not a fledgling vampire that he suddenly found himself responsible for. We're dealing with two completely different people."

.x.x.

Eventually the reception began to wind down and only a few people were still partying. The Earl and most of the Noah had left, as had Cross and Anita, Teidoll, and the majority of our human guests. I made my way over to the bar at last call, intending to get one last glass of blood-laced wine before I headed home with my new wife.

Alma was leaning casually against the bar, clearly having the same idea I had. I couldn't help staring critically at my best friend. He'd been a whole lot quieter this evening than he usually was. "Are you alright? You seem much more subdued than usual."

Alma laughed, but I knew him well enough to know that it wasn't genuine. "Weddings aren't really my scene. There are never enough hot, single people at these things. "

I laughed to humor him as I reached for the glass the bartender placed on the counter. Only, instead of touching glass, my fingers brushed against Alma's hand as he too reached for the glass.

My surroundings changed in an instant. The lack of color made it rather obvious that I was seeing the past, as my visions were always in black and white, but the old fashioned cars and the advertisements in the shop windows around me made that clear as well. The buildings were different than they were in the present, but it wasn't hard to deduce that I was standing in the middle of Times Square. This was easily the furthest back I'd ever seen.

I hadn't seen any of Alma's memories before. In fact, the only concrete thing I knew about his past was that he was turned during prohibition in New York City. And given that, and what I was seeing around me, this was a memory from when he was human.

My attention turned from wondering when I was to what was happening as Alma turned to look at the young Asian woman on his arm. To further solidify my guess that this was sometime in the 1920's, she was dressed in a fringed flapper dress, complete with a feather and a sequined headband in her hair. But her clothing wasn't what truly caught my attention. Whoever that woman was, she was eerily familiar. There was something about her that I recognized.

That was immediately forgotten though, as the next thing Alma did was take her hand and get down on one knee. "Will you marry me?"

Before I could react to the completely unexpected turn of events, the vision was over and I was once again standing in the reception hall.

Alma was giving me a strange look, and I knew he was trying to figure out if I'd seen anything or if he was just being paranoid. Because of that look, I wanted to keep what I'd seen a secret so that I could bug him with it later, but it was just too much to keep in. It was all I could do to not shout it so that everyone could hear. "You were engaged?"

His answer was immediate and terse. "Yes. But then I was turned and everything fell apart. It was a long time ago, and she wasn't that important to me. Your wedding simply reminded me of it. There's really nothing to tell."

I believed him, but I also knew that he wasn't telling the whole truth. That woman - his ex-fiancée - was far too familiar for that to be all there was to the story. I could also tell from the look in his eyes that he was about to run away to avoid having to talk about this more, which only made me more curious, so I reached out and grabbed him before he could disappear. Using that power on purpose, on someone who wasn't willingly letting me in, was not pleasant - it was by far the worst pain I could inflict on myself - but I needed to know the rest of the story.

.x.x.

I knew exactly what was coming from the moment Allen's fingers had accidentally touched mine. That one brief flash of my past he'd gotten had made him so curious that he was going to read my memories on purpose. He was usually the kind of guy who would respect my wishes and leave me alone, but the fact that I had been engaged was something that he couldn't let go, which was why I had tried to keep it from him. I moved to get away from him, but he was quicker than I was and caught my wrist before I could get out of his reach. I yanked my arm away, but it was too late.

I watched in horror as Allen's eyes glazed over and rolled back in his head. His knees gave out and he collapsed to the floor. Despite being angry at him for using his ability on me, I had to resist the urge to laugh. Allen may have been an incredibly powerful vampire, especially given his young age, but his tendency to pass out when he used his abilities was quite a weakness; he looked so pathetic crumpled up on the ground like that. Right as I was thinking that this would be the perfect opportunity to pull out a knife and prove to him just how vulnerable he was like that, he rolled over onto his back and burst out laughing.

It wasn't really surprising that he found my past funny; I already knew what he was going to see and knew that it would amuse him. I just wished he'd been more composed about it. Sure, the majority of the wedding guests were gone, but our whole circle of friends was still there, and there was no way any of them missed Allen's outburst. It was only a matter of moments before he spilled what he'd seen to them, and there was nothing I could do about it. No amount of bribery or blackmail was going to buy his silence. He was going to tell them everything.

Maybe I really should have stabbed him while he was unconscious.

.x.x.

My vision of Alma's past picked up almost exactly where it had left off. "Will you marry me, Kieko?"

The girl's name was just as familiar as her appearance was, but I still couldn't place her. However, as I watched her react to the proposal, that changed. Rather than getting excited and starting to scream with joy, like women usually did in movies and books, Kieko remained stoic. She merely smirked at Alma and shot him several sarcastic barbed quips in response to his proposal. And it suddenly became painfully obvious who she was and which of my friends she was related to. I may not have known her maiden name, but I did know who she had married after her failed engagement to Alma.

Kieko was Kanda's grandmother.

I pulled myself out of the vision, only to find myself lying on the floor with my face buried in the rough carpet. I was ravenously hungry and had a pounding headache that made it feel like my head was going to split open, but my pain was nothing compared to what I had just learned. Alma being engaged was hilarious in and of itself; he was never with the same person for more than a few days, and recently, he'd been leaning much more towards men than women. But as ridiculous as it was to picture him engaged, it was even more amusing that his former fiancée was the grandmother of the man he was currently pursuing.

I couldn't hold my laughter in, so I rolled over and let it out. Alma kicked me in the side rather painfully, and I knew that he was trying to tell me to shut up, but I wasn't about to do that. Alma had been teasing me relentlessly for months about Lenalee and my upcoming marriage, and I finally had payback. Our friends all needed to know that Alma wasn't the cynic he claimed to be. Plus I really wanted to see the look on Kanda's face when I told him that Alma had slept with his grandmother.

The rest of our friends all gathered around us upon hearing me laugh like that, but it wasn't until Lenalee approached that I was able to get control over my laughter, her very human scent reminding me that there were more important things than making fun of Alma. "Don't come any closer, Lena. I don't want to bite you in that dress."

She gave me a confused look, obviously not understanding why I was warning her that I was thirsty when I had been laughing so hard, but she stopped where she was and let the others help me up. "What happened?"

Alma grumbled and swore under his breath, but he still handed me the glass of blood-wine that he knew I needed. "Is there any chance at all that I can convince you to not tell him what you saw?"

I smirked at him as I downed the glass. "Nope."

Krory placed a hand on my shoulder, and it was clear that he was worried about me. "Allen?"

I shot him a reassuring smile before fixing Kanda with my evilest smirk. "Alma was engaged to your grandmother."

While Lavi laughed so hard that he fell over, Kanda looked like his eyes were going to fall out of his head; his utter confusion was every bit as priceless as I had expected it to be. But before any teasing could start, Alma spoke up in self-defense. "It was nearly a hundred years ago. Back when I was human. It's not that big a deal."

To my surprise, Lenalee agreed with him. "Maybe not. It really doesn't matter who you used to be engaged to when it was that long ago. But isn't it weird to be flirting with Kanda, knowing that you once thought his grandmother was the love of your life?"

He glared at her. "Well, when you put it like that, I can't really say no, now can I?"