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Wedding Plans
Wufei woke up feeling eyes on him. Since he knew the body laying on top of his as well as those eyes he opened his own slowly to see Lucrezia with her hands folded against his chest, her head on them while she watched him with a soft look in her eyes. "Morning." Wufei said sleepily, lifting a hand to stroke her head before dropping the hand back on her waist. It was rare for her to be up before him but he couldn't say he minded waking up to the sight of her watching him with her love for him plain in those beautiful amethyst depths.
"Good morning." Noin returned, smiling as she slid her arms up and over to brace on either side of his head as she shifted forward to place a morning kiss on his lips.
Returning the soft kiss Wufei's lips curved into a small smile, pleased when she shifted back to lay her head back against his chest, cuddling against him. Turning his head to the side Wufei checked the time before turning his head back to kiss the top of hers, wishing that he didn't have to point out the time. "We need to get up and start getting ready for work."
"Can't we call in sick?" Was her muffled reply as she yanked the covers up to her shoulder blades, snuggling closer. She wanted to stay right where she was, damn it. She hadn't gotten much sleep and she was currently relaxed and warm, the perfect combination for a very happy morning in bed.
"I don't think anyone would buy it." Wufei pointed out dryly.
"Damn." Was her response since he had a pretty valid point. Rolling off him to lay beside him Noin stared up at the ceiling for a moment before looking over at him with a small smile. "But I guess you're right. Besides, Sally will kill me if I wait a whole day to show her my ring." Putting her hand up, just to admire it some more Wufei had long since lost track of how many times she'd done that since he'd given it to her. Her eyes went all weird and shiny too. It was sort of freaky. "Speaking of which, you need to call Duo."
"And why would I need to do that?" Wufei wanted to know, sitting up in bed, stretching his arms into the air. Now that he was awake he wasn't one to loiter around in bed. Unless of course she continued to lay there naked and he forgot about work which could possibly happen, Wufei thought wryly.
"Because if you call him and tell him we're getting married then he can spread it all over Preventers and he'll stop pouting about not getting the spill the beans about us being a couple." Noin pointed out, sitting up as well though she brought the covers up with her, tucking the ends under her arms for modesty's sake. "I know his pouting's gotten to you."
"You mean it's made me want to hurl him into oncoming traffic." Wufei corrected, smirking over at her. "However you do have a point."
"Of course I do." Noin said with a wink.
"Fine." Wufei said as he leaned across the bed to get ahold of the cordless phone. Grabbing it he dialed Duo's number, knowing that he would most likely be waking Duo up since the idiot never got up until the last possible second. The idiot was often late as a result. When Duo's bleary hello came over the line Wufei was surprised the moron had heard the phone over his snoring. "It's Wufei. Lucrezia and I are engaged so go spread the word and stop pouting like a child." Hanging up Wufei looked over at the sound of his future wife's chuckling. "What?"
"That was so you." Noin chuckled, shaking her head at him before getting out of bed and heading for his shower. Closing the door behind her she wasn't surprised to see herself grinning like an idiot in his mirror. She had a feeling she was going to be doing a lot of that in the future.
Arriving at work at hour and a half later they weren't really surprised to find a small crowd waiting to pounce on them at the main entrance. Sally was the first to pounce, rushing forward with a straight forward command of 'Lets see it!'. Soon surrounded by girls wanting to see the ring Wufei just rolled his eyes and accepted the hugs from Duo and Quatre as well as the back slaps from Trowa and Heero. The girls of course turned on him too once the guys butted in to give Noin their congratulations which meant Wufei had to suffer through their chatter, not appreciating at all their request for every single detail which was none of their business as far as he was concerned. Of course they didn't really expect answers to their questions so as soon as the guys were done they pounced on Noin all over again for which Wufei was very grateful.
"Did he get down on one knee?" Trinity asked, wiggling her eyebrows in Wufei's direction, not at all surprised when he returned it with a scowl. That was Wufei for you after all. Noin meanwhile was busy talking to Milliardo which unfortunately left Wufei to answer all the questions which he didn't appreciate at all.
After confirming that Noin was indeed marrying Wufei Milliardo gave the pair his regards then headed off to his office, the girls quickly distracting Noin from worrying that Milliardo was possibly upset at the news.
"Was it terribly romantic?" Relena wanted to know.
"Did you like the kitchen?" Quatre put in.
"What did he do to the kitchen?" Sally wanted to know, wondering how the kitchen could possibly fit into all this. "You didn't set up a romantic dinner in the kitchen, did you?" She asked, giving Wufei a you better not have glare that had him shrinking under it slightly. After all, how unromantic was that kitchen? Especially given its hideous color that they'd as yet been unable to get him to paint.
"He had it painted the color I wanted it to be in the first place." Noin answered smugly, the girls all awwing which just made Wufei want to get the hell out of there that much more. Smart enough to notice this Noin figured it was time to spare Wufei all the standard female questions before he got really annoyed or embarrassed. "And I'll tell you guys all about it while you walk me to my office." That being said Noin headed in that direction with a wide circle of girls calling out questions as they rounded the corner and out of sight. She'd find Milliardo later and they'd talk.
"Well who'd have thought it. Mr. Women Are Weak is the first to get caught by the old ball and chain." Duo said with a grin as he slapped Wufei on the back, his past grudge forgotten now that his place as head gossip collector had been restored. Everyone wanted to talk to him now to see what information he had on Preventer's most talked about couple. Yup, he wasn't even mad at his friend for waking him up so early. "So how does it feel to know your bachelor days are over, pal?"
"Seeing as this will be my second marriage I believe I beat you to that status a long time ago." Wufei pointed out, rolling his eyes at Duo's words. "And as you'll recall I'm used to living with people including you, Maxwell."
"Oh ya." Duo said in surprise, blinking since he never really thought of Wufei's first marriage as a real one. After all Wufei's first marriage had been arranged and had been pretty much over before it had really begun. For that matter since they were like fourteen he doubted the marriage had ever been consummated were they still technically married? Plus weren't marriages that were a result of corrosion invalid? Had they even been asked if they'd wanted to get married? "Hey, Wufei...did you have to propose in that case too?"
"No, our parents set everything up. We were just told when it was to be and who we were marrying. We knew each other briefly before hand though as we both attended the same boarding school." Wufei replied.
"So did she like the dinner?" Quatre wanted to know, interrupting before Duo could bring up anything else to do with Wufei's first wife. Now wasn't the time to dwell on those sorts of thoughts.
"We never actually got around to eating any of it. It looked good though." Wufei said sheepishly, thinking of the ruined food they'd found in the kitchen that morning, much to both their dismay. Some of it had been salvageable but most of it had unfortunately ended up in the garbage. They'd been a bit too involved with each other after the proposal to really notice the food only a few feet away from them. By the time they'd made it upstairs they'd both had other things on their mind other then putting the food away in the fridge, Wufei thought with an inner grin before hurrying to reassure Quatre who'd put a lot of work into helping him plan yesterday. "It really was great, she was really impressed. Thanks again for all your help arranging everything, by the way."
"Hey, no prob. Happy to help." Quatre said with a grin as he slugged an arm over his friend's shoulder.
"So tell me..did you really get down on one knee?"
"Shut up, Maxwell."
"I gotta tell you, when Duo up and called me I thought he was pulling my leg or that the cup of coffee I was drinking was decaf." Relena said with a chuckle as she took another look at the utterly gorgeous ring on her friend's finger with an envious look. It was really beautiful and she was so happy that her friend was so happy, even if it wasn't with Milliardo the way Relena had always hoped it would be. "And I gotta say, the guy has good taste in jewelry. According to Quatre Wufei picked it out and everything, no help if you can believe that."
"Well he could have definitely knocked me over with a feather when he held that out." Noin said dryly, considering her own words an understatement. "I called my mom on the way to work and I could actually hear her jumping up and down. I couldn't decide whether to be amused or a little insulted that she was that excited that I'd finally found myself with a ring on my finger, her former goal in life."
"What did your dad say? He likes Wufei right?" Sally wanted to know, looking over Relena's shoulder. "I mean I know my father wouldn't give his approval to any guy unless he'd hand picked that guy for me. Come to think of it that's probably why I'm not married yet." She added with a wink in Noin's direction.
"Apparently, especially seeing as he gave Wufei permission to ask me." Noin answered, rolling her eyes as she remembered her surprise when she'd been informed by her father that he'd been in on this all along. "According to my father Wufei actually called him to ask formally for permission if you can believe that."
"Seriously?" Relena demanded, gapping at Noin before sighing dreamily. "That's so old fashioned..and romantic."
"Wufei say what he'd have done if your father had said no?" Sally asked curiously, smirking at Relena's typical girlie reaction.
"He didn't say but I'd imagine he wouldn't have been really worried, knowing that he could count on my mother to back him up." Noin said with a chuckle, recalling her mom's record breaking amount of questions on the phone once her mother had finished her little happy dance. "I mean seriously, I bet she's already putting together stuff for the wedding if she hasn't already been doing it behind my back for years."
"So what sort of wedding do you want?" Trinity wanted to know, ever the practical one. "I mean you've got two culture clashes here, plus your mother and his grandmother to deal with, right?"
"Yeah, I know." Noin said with a grimace, taking a seat beside Trinity, Trinity's words reminding her of the realities she'd been pushing to the back of her mind since her mother had begun a list of all the things they'd need to plan out and start researching. "There's so much stuff to figure out and I don't even know how we're going to pull off the wedding party. I don't even want to think about that right now. I mean we both have so many friends and I don't want anyone to feel left out but you can only have so many bridesmaids and groomsmen. Plus who are we supposed to chose to be best man and maid of honor? Both of us have best friends who are of the opposite gender then us. Then there's the fact that I have a really big family and he doesn't so that has to be balanced out too, right? I mean if it's in a church then we can't have one side full and the other with a few rows filled. If it's outside then it's not such a big deal because you can play around with things but I don't even know what sort of customs I have to deal with for my own culture, much less his!"
"Well don't let it stress you out that much or you'll have a nervous breakdown." Hilde advised, chuckling as she patted her friend on her shoulder. "And hey, since your best friend is a guy and Wufei's is Sals why don't you guys just switch? Bridesmen and Grooms...well have the girls on his side. I don't know what you'd call them but it doesn't really matter right? Then Wufei wouldn't have to chose just one guy to be his best man and you wouldn't have to pick out of all your girlfriends, Noin. I mean you guys share the same friends anyways so why shouldn't the guys be on your side?"
Having never thought about that Noin mulled it over, a slow smile coming over her face. "You know, you're absolutely right. Why couldn't the guys be on my side? This wedding isn't going to be traditional after all. It will already be a mixture of two cultures, why not just add in one more little change to the usual?"
"And I'm sure that Wufei's grandmother could give you help with the planning, I bet you couldn't stop her for that matter." Sally pointed out with a grin. She'd only met Lazuli a few times but the woman certainly did make an impression. "I'd offer to ask my mother but if I did she'd assume I wanted to know for personal reasons and then all holy hell would break loose."
"Yeah, Wufei said he was going to call her this afternoon. That is if my mother doesn't beat him to it. Those two are thick as thieves already, I can only imagine what it's going to be like once they get their fingers into this."
"Come to think of it...isn't white supposed to be an unlucky color in Chinese culture?" Relena asked Sally, remembering hearing something about that somewhere.
"Yeah, pretty much. You mean for the wedding dress right?" Sally replied, looking over at Noin who was looking more then a little horrified at the idea.
"But then what do they wear on their wedding days?" Relena wanted to know, trying to picture getting married in any other color without a lot of luck. She'd never been to a wedding where the bride didn't wear white, it was just tradition as well as a symbol of the character of the bride.
"Red." Sally told her, not surprised to see Noin and Relena looking even more horrified. "Yeah, I know. In European cultures wearing red on your wedding day would seem like the worst color to wear, right after black or gray but it's not in Chinese culture. In that culture red is the luckiest color while white is associated with death."
"There's no way my mother is going to let me wear red on my wedding day. If I tell her I want to wear red on my wedding day she'll disown me or demand I get a C.A.T. Scan." Noin said slowly, fighting the urge to bury her face in her hands. "For that matter I don't really want to wear red on my wedding day either but I can't exactly wear white and have his relations, few that there are, think I'm wearing the symbol for death!"
"Well I can't see Wufei having a problem with your dress whatever the color. Besides, it's your wedding, your big day. Who cares what your relatives think. It's what you two want that's important." Hilde assured, hoping to make Noin feel better. From where she was standing her friend was between a rock and a hard place.
"Yeah right. Anyone who believes that doesn't have any female relatives." Noin muttered under her breath though Hilde did have a point. This was her one and only wedding, she was going to have to put her foot down not to mention talk to Wufei in detail about what aspects of their cultures they felt were necessary parts and what could be left out or compromised. She couldn't see that being easy, especially since guys usually preferred to have as little to do with the wedding as possible in her experience. So long as the tuxes were all right they were pretty much willing to keep their mouths shut. They got away with it too. Lucky bastards.
"Well we can help you with the plans and stuff." Relena offered, understanding Noin's muttered words perfectly. When it came to weddings she'd seen more then one happy mother/daughter relationship be put to the test. One of her friends had even eloped just to get away from her grooms mother. "I mean with the catering and flowers and stuff, whatever you want help with. I'm sure Quatre will help too and the other guys can be guilted into it."