And just like that, it was finally June 18th, the day of the wedding rehearsal. Like the eventual wedding ceremony, the rehearsal was being held at the U.Z.Z. base. Doctor Doctor wanted everything to go smoothly. Professor Professor wanted more or less the same, only he was way more zealous about it than even his fiancee could ever hope to be. For starters, he was still riding high of celebrating his birthday the week before, using the megaphone that his landlady had got him as a present to bark out orders. Not everyone was thrilled with this, of course.
"Is all this micromanaging really necessary, Professor Professor?" Wulfrun couldn't help but ask. "It's only a wedding."
"It's totally necessary," Professor Professor replied. "Everything has to be lupenrein."
"I mean, I know it's supposed to be your special day, but you don't have to take all this so seriously. Maybe you should take it easy a little bit?"
"Nonsense. Everyone knows weddings are serious business. Now where's my megaphone?"
"Uh, I think Leoffled has it." Wulfrun pointed to her flaxen-haired sister, who was currently using the megaphone to serenade some peacock butterflies in the area. "You can ask her to give it back."
"Thank you, Wulfrun. I don't know what I'd do without you."
With that, Professor Professor ran off to track down Leoffled about the megaphone, which left Wulfrun to try to converse with Doctor Doctor.
"Don't you think Professor Professor seems a little, um... what's the word I can use for this situation?" Wulfrun thought about it for a few seconds. "Pushy?"
"Of course," Doctor Doctor replied. "But this is a special day for us both, you understand. Who's to say he'll get another shot at something like this?"
"Of course I understand how special this day is for you. I just wish he focused more on having fun, that's all. Weddings aren't supposed to feel like a chore to get through."
"Just let him have this one. Sure, it can be grating, but he's got the passion to back it up."
Wulfrun wanted to protest, but she bit her tongue and decided to comply instead. So what if he was acting like a borderline groomzilla? At least he was making sure things were going somewhat to plan, even if some of those things were totally untested and highly dangerous.
Once everyone had rehearsed the wedding ceremony, including the parts where everyone arrived in descending order based on ranking and where Professor Professor and Doctor Doctor read out their vows they wrote themselves, it was time to practice the best man's speech. Professor Professor figured who better to give the speech than his trusted guinea pig, Victor Volt.
"Seriously, I'm your best man?" Victor asked, miffed that Professor Professor would even force the role on him.
"Ja, we're close," Professor Professor replied.
"No offense, Professor Professor, but you're not really someone I could call a friend. I mean, I know you and I work with you, but we're not friends. And we definitely aren't close enough for you to make me your best man."
"Come on, Victor. This is really important to me. Just give the speech."
"I would've thought you'd make someone else your best man, you know? Like maybe, oh I don't know, Todd or something?"
"You're the only one who even gets to test my experiments."
"Uh, yeah, because you force them on me!"
"Just give the speech, Victor."
"Fine." With that, Victor practically dragged his feet as he made his way to the podium. "I'll give you a speech, alright." He cleared his throat. "Good evening, everyone. My name's Victor Volt, and my wife and I have worked alongside Professor Professor for several years. Given that I'm standing here right now giving you this speech, you can tell that Professor Professor and I have something of a special relationship, not least because I'm the only one he can trust to test out his 'totally untested und highly dangerous' experiments."
Everyone else in attendance just laughed, including King Oberon and Queen Titania.
"Anyway," Victor continued. "Man, talk about reckless. You'd think he would bother to actually test his experiments rather than waiting until I needed them, but apparently not. He always seems intent on screwing around with people, even when it would really be inappropriate like in the middle of a life or death situation."
Wulfrun just burst out laughing at that one. "Good one, Victor!"
The rest of Victor's best man speech just went on like that, talking about all the times he hung out with Professor Professor for better or worse. In essence, it felt more like a roasting speech than anything else, but everyone seemed to be having a good time regardless. Finally, Victor ended the speech by wishing Professor Professor and Doctor Doctor good luck.
"Thank you, Victor," Professor Professor said. "That was a nice best man speech, definitely one for the ages."
Victor laughed despite himself. "Well... I'm glad to hear that, Professor Professor. I know I said we're not friends, but when push comes to shove, I'll be there for you."
As the rehearsal came to a close with a dinner, Doctor Doctor came up to the podium to speak. Oluremi just stood beside her as the maid of honor and watched intently.
"Thank you all so much for coming," Doctor Doctor began to speak. "As someone once said, 'we're happy that you were able to come to this rehearsal despite not having time to RSVP with the self addressed, pre-paid envelope we sent you months ago.' But anyway, we hope you enjoyed yourselves and that you'll be able to make it to the real ceremony in August. I assure you that it will have been worth the wait."
The guests just murmured amongst themselves.
"Doctor Doctor, you mind spicing it up a bit?" Oluremi asked in sotto voce. "You're kind of bombing out there."
Doctor Doctor cleared her throat. "In all seriousness, I'm so glad you could all come. It means the world to me and Professor Professor to have you here while we declare our love for the world to see. Hopefully, you'll be here to see us declare our love to the world again. May it last us forever. Uh... thank you."
Some scattered clapping could be heard amongst the guests. In just a few short minutes, the rehearsal was over and everyone started heading off for home. Professor Professor and Doctor Doctor, in particular, decided to take a taxi back to their flat and contemplate on what was left to be done before the big day. They knew now that the big day needed to be spectacular (or at the very least, better than how the rehearsal transpired).