A/N: Previously in ON2B, the bachelorette and bachelor's parties begin! Lots of shenanigans are occurring. Matchmaking plots fill the air to get together Leon and Francis, despite them already being together. Ludwig investigates, Gill makes a phone call to a certain Johnson, Antonio and Francis begin reconciling, Arthur is glad that finally some of this UST is being resolved... And now, the continuation.


Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Part 54: In Which the Guest of Honor Arrives

Kiku already regretted coming to this party.

It would be difficult for him to explain why he decided to attend in the first place. His initial instinct, after reading Robin's email, was to send a regret-filled excuse that said he appreciated the invite, but was unfortunately already engaged that day. It wouldn't be entirely truthful, but Kiku knew that parties always made him feel uncomfortable and he always had projects to work on. And while he did like Antonio well-enough, they weren't particularly close.

He didn't decline, though, and he wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because he was the type of person who found it difficult to say 'no' to a request. It was one of his most unfortunate personality traits. Or maybe it was just because he wasn't often invited to these sorts of things, so it felt like almost an honor?

Whatever the reason, Kiku now sighed as he gazed into the rose-colored depths of his wine glass. He didn't even like wine, but it gave him something to hold and made him feel less out-of-place.

He wanted to make an excuse and leave early, but knew that would be rude. Antonio hadn't even arrived yet, after all. So, he would just have to wait until some of the others began departing. Then, he could go home and spend the rest of the night playing video games or watching anime while bundled up in a blanket cocoon.

At least he had that to look forward to.

"Bloody stupid gits."

Kiku was slightly startled by the sudden, irritated-sounding muttering coming from his left. He lifted his head from wine-contemplations and noticed that Arthur had just entered the room.

He looked annoyed, which wasn't particularly surprising. It would be stranger to see him in a good mood right now, since everyone knew that he and Antonio didn't get along very well. He also was weaving slightly as he walked, which, unfortunately, also wasn't startling.

Kiku actually did like Arthur. They were very dissimilar when it came to personality, but the two shared a deep interest in world mythologies and literature, and Arthur was a good person to talk with about story ideas and philosophies. He could be overly-blunt and not at all the type of person his parents would approve of, but Kiku valued their friendship.

However, he knew that it was generally a good idea to avoid his friend when he'd been drinking. While Arthur never grew physically violent, his already acerbic tongue just grew more caustic after alcohol. Either that, or he started crying, and Kiku honestly wasn't sure which was worse.

He had walked into the room and was now gazing out at the other guests, who were currently milling about and gathering in groups. Kiku wasn't entirely sure what this room was originally meant to be—some sort of ballroom, perhaps?—but now it served as the refreshment area. Three large tables were burdened with snacks at one end of the room, while other, smaller tables, were scattered around the room to provide the guests with places to sit.

This room was obviously the most popular gathering place right now, presumably due to the presence of food. He could see Feliks and Toris sitting together at one of the tables—judging by Feliks' arm movements, they were currently engaged in an intense discussion. Ivan, Berwald, and Yao were seated at another table. Kiku wasn't sure if that was an entirely voluntary gathering, though. Yao looked rather uncomfortable and Berwald's expression was as stony as usual, but Ivan was beaming happily.

He could see Sadiq preparing a plate at the snack table and Ludwig hovering near a wall. Kiku wasn't sure who else was supposed to be here; Gillian and Francis were presumably somewhere and hopefully the guest-of-honor would arrive eventually.

He knew of at least one other guest, but... He had no idea if he'd be attending or not and Kiku wasn't sure which option he preferred, honestly.

Arthur was presumably observing the same setting he was, but he responded with a snort of disdain and another muttered, "Bloody gits." He, then, turned his head and seemingly noticed Kiku for the first time. He frowned, but then approached. "So... Surprised to see that you actually showed up."

Kiku wasn't certain what the proper response was to that, so he went with a safe, "It's very nice to see you, Arthur-san."

Arthur just flopped against the wall beside him with a huff and rolled his eyes. "Sure, it is... I don't know why I even bothered coming. Free booze isn't worth this."

Kiku made a noncommittal sound that could be interpreted as agreement, then glanced back down at his wine glass and finally took a sip. He wrinkled his nose at the unpleasantly bitter taste.

"Pretty clear that Antonio wasn't the one in charge of this guest list, at least," Arthur continued. "The only people who probably want to be here are Gill and probably Feliks."

Kiku couldn't argue with that. It was something that struck him when he first read over the guest list; this was a very odd assortment of people. It was like someone decided to simply invite every male in their peer group, whether they were close to Antonio or not.

Arthur continued, unconcerned by Kiku's continued silence. "Everybody's just here to watch for the bloody fireworks."

"Fireworks?" He wasn't aware that fireworks were on the schedule for tonight.

Arthur lifted his head and stared at him for a moment, then snorted. "A row. I bet everybody's already started taking bets on who's going to try killing who first."

Oh, those types of fireworks.

...Maybe he should excuse himself early.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem like it was going to be an option, because he could now see Sadiq approaching them. He grinned and lifted the hand not holding his plate in greeting. "Yo, Kiku! Arthur!"

"Hello, Sadiq-kun."

Arthur lifted his head for a moment and nodded in acknowledgment, but seemed uninterested in actually responding. Sadiq just continued to smile and then leaned against the wall on Kiku's opposite side, which had the unfortunate effect of boxing him in and cutting of all potential escape routes.

"I didn't expect to see you here!" He took a huge bite out of some type of pastry. "How've you been doing? Finished that game yet?"

"Not yet." His thoughts flicked to a particularly difficult boss fight that he'd been stuck on for weeks now. "I've been doing well. How are you?"

"Great, I got to see my baby niece for the first time last week! I'll have to show you the pictures I took later. She looks just like my mom's pictures of Tadita as a baby." He continued grinning as he took another bite of the pastry and then said, "At least the food's good here. Haven't seen Antonio yet, though."

"I'm surprised that you decided to come," Arthur remarked. Kiku twisted his head toward his friend. "I didn't think that you and Antonio were on particularly good terms."

Sadiq shrugged. "Hey, free food. Besides, I don't really care about any of that stuff anymore."

Well, that was good at least. Kiku had been slightly worried when he saw Sadiq here, since he knew that he and Antonio had a rather antagonistic past. He knew that Sadiq was responsible for Lovi breaking her leg when she was little and, apparently, Antonio had retaliated rather savagely. Kiku wasn't sure what exactly happened, but since then there'd always been an undercurrent of dislike between them. Especially when Sadiq developed a crush on Lovi at the beginning of high school...

He just hoped that Antonio had also managed to forget about 'that stuff'.

"So, do you know where our 'guest of honor' is, then?" Sadiq asked. "Kind of weird that nobody's seen him yet."

"The trio of idiocy is outside, probably waiting to make some grand entrance."

And Kiku had never actually seen such perfect timing before, because as soon as Arthur said those words, Gill burst into the room with an exclamation of, "You guys ready for the awesomest party ever?!"

Kiku saw Ludwig wince and rub at his forehead in a familiar expression of exasperation.

"Luddy!" She apparently noticed as well, and immediately ran over to her brother. He heard Arthur snort in possible amusement, possible derision when she threw her arms around Ludwig's neck. Kiku merely winced in sympathy.

"Git number one," Arthur muttered.

Kiku's stare moved automatically to the door she just entered. Only a few seconds passed before her two best friends appeared, arm in arm.

"And there's two and three, right?" Sadiq murmured to Arthur before taking a rather large bite out of a strawberry.

"Of course."

'The trio of idiocy', huh? It wasn't a particularly nice thing to call them, but there was a sort of ring to it. Kiku filed the phrase away in the corner of his brain dedicated to storing potential story elements, then turned his full attention to the trio.

Gill bounded over to the two boys as soon as they entered, leaving a very relieved Ludwig behind. She now grabbed Antonio's hand and practically yanked him away from Francis. Kiku noted the slight shadow of reluctance that passed across his expression in that moment, remembering Arthur's words that the only people who wanted to be here were Gillian and Feliks—who was watching the proceedings with an expression of delighted anticipation. Apparently, his generalization included the future groom himself.

Antonio was good at masking those sorts of feelings, however. He waved toward the two currently-occupied tables. "Hola, everyone! I'm sorry that I was late!"

Francis apparently was going to let his friends handle this, as he remained near the door.

"Yep, super unawesome, but we're all here now, so that means it's time to party! But, first!" She threw her arm into the air and pointed up toward the ceiling. "The rules! First, nobody's allowed to mention the bride at all tonight! If you do, you gotta pay the price!"

"Pay the price?" Kiku heard Antonio repeat, sounding slightly nervous. "What does—"

She ignored him. "Rule two! Nobody's allowed to change the music, 'cause Awesome spent a lot of time picking it out!" There wasn't any music currently playing in here; Kiku hoped that meant that there would be at least a few locations he could hide in to avoid Gillian's extremely loud taste in tunes. "Rule three! Nobody's allowed to drown in the pool, because that'd be the most unawesome thing ever!"

Kiku heard Sadiq snort at that. "Well, there go my plans for the night."

"In addition," Francis stepped forward now, "I ask that everyone avoid breaking anything or making too much of a mess here." He turned his head and looked straight at Arthur, then winked.

Arthur flipped him off.

"Also, anyone who's going to be drinking tonight will be required to leave their car keys with Monsieur Ronnie, who will be acting as our bartender tonight. On that note, drinks are located in the parlor. Although, I'm sure some of you know this already." He flashed another grin toward Arthur, who now flipped him off with both hands.

"Yeah, don't ruin the house!" Gill agreed. "So, there's all sorts of stuff to do. There's the bouncy house and there's loads of food and the swimming pool, but no skinny-dipping!"

"Well, now she's ruining all my plans," Sadiq said. Kiku hoped he was just joking.

"And later tonight we'll be having an event. That will be much later, though, and we will make sure everyone knows when and where to gather." Francis tapped a finger against his neck. "I think that was all I wanted to say."

"There's also awesome karaoke!" Gill added.

Kiku couldn't help but notice that Antonio's smile was looking slightly strained. It might be difficult for most people to notice, but Kiku had spent a long time watching and drawing people and learning to read and represent body language...

Antonio definitely wasn't feeling particularly comfortable right now.

"Well," Arthur suddenly pushed himself away from the wall. "I'm going back to the parlor. Alcide's probably wondering where I went. Don't tell the frog where I went."

"I'm pretty sure he'll be able to guess, but sure, bro," Sadiq answered.

That was true. Kiku was sure that anyone searching for Arthur would head toward the alcohol first thing. He wasn't going to say so, though.

He watched his friend leave and then realized that he was again faced with the problem of what he should do now. He still wanted to go home, but he shouldn't leave before at least greeting Antonio. Unfortunately, Gill had already dragged the guest of honor toward the tables and was engaged in animated conversation with Toris and Feliks.

"Man, I'm just glad that bastard Heracles didn't show up."

Kiku felt his heart stop for a second there. His hand jerked, spilling wine onto the floor. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Sadiq-kun!"

"Hey, it's fine. You didn't hit me." It was true, but there was now a puddle on the floor. He felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment as he quickly glanced around the room. There were napkins on the refreshment tables, but if he left his spot, then someone would probably notice him.

He had to clean it up, though.

"I—I'll be back in a minute. If you could make sure no one slips?" he left, without waiting for a response. If he stayed close to the wall, then it'd be fine...

He made it to the table and grabbed a handful of napkins without any problem, releasing a breath as he did so. Then, he turned, just in time to see the door of the room open yet again.

The feeling that filled Kiku's heart at that moment was a rather odd mixture. There was an immediate leaping flutter of excitement, but then a cold, dread-filled weight dropped into the pit of his stomach as his eyes flickered to where Sadiq was standing. He had turned at the sound of the door opening and Kiku knew that any hope of peace would shatter as soon as he laid eyes on the new visitor.

"Heracles, you finally made it!" Especially when Gill's voice rose in a thunderous crescendo.

Maybe he'd just go and hide with Arthur in the parlor. That might be the best option, at this point.


A/N: And the guest of honor has arrived, as have all of the guests. At least all of the traditionally-invited guests.

Anyway so, it's been a while... A really long while, unfortunately. Explanation for why it's been so long since my last update basically comes down to me having the worst mental breakdown I've had since undergrad. Extremely sucky, especially since I've been completely unable to write for more than three months now. Which includes thesis-writing... I'm probably not going to be able to graduate for quite a while now, which sucks. But, I have started feeling better when it comes to fun-writing, recently. So hopefully that continues. (Especially since I have a Secret Santa story to write in the next couple weeks and I signed up for a big bang, so... Kind of hoping that having deadlines will help keep me going. We'll see.)

I hope you guys still enjoy this story, even if I do disappear for a while sometimes. I love writing this verse so much and enjoy sharing it with you all. Just gotta continue fighting this battle with my brain, as never-ending as that is... Bleh.