Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the crazy plot lines I come up with. Thanks to all those who've been reviewing and I hope you enjoy this latest chapter. Have a great day!
Wedding Plans
With her arms on her desk and her face buried in them Noin was the picture of dejection a week later when her partner came into their office, pausing to raise an eyebrow over Noin's dejected pose. Well the happy bride to be certainly wasn't giving off happy vibes, Milliardo thought with a faint smile. Setting his briefcase by his desk he then walked over to stand in front of her paper covered one. "Problem?"
"Too many to count." Was her muffled response, not moving a muscle.
"Was there some sort of world disaster while I was out for that lunch meeting?" Milliardo inquired dryly, having a good idea what had her in this particular mood. This wasn't the first time after all.
"I think we should elope. I really think we should." Noin said as she lifted her head, her eyes full of desperation edged slightly with hysteria. "I mean who cares that my mother and his grandmother will hate me for life? It's my wedding after all. I should be able to elope if I damn well want to. It's his second after all and he's a guy! He wouldn't care right? Right?"
"True but you care." He pointed out. "Isn't this whole mess supposed to be what you females live for?"
"Not any sane woman." Was her muttered response, sitting back in her chair as she rubbed her hands over her face. "It's evil, that's what it is. It's a conspiracy perpetrated by the evil commercial industries to force women to shell out huge sums of money on one friggin day that will, in all likelihood, not go perfect anyway. Do you know how often there are countless screw ups when it's a wedding? The sort of pressures brides are put under to get everything just right? It's like you aren't good enough if you can't handle it! Well let me tell you, I've run military ops that were a hell of a lot easier then this!"
"It can't possibly be that bad." Milliardo said, his expression becoming just a little weary when she shot him a pretty good imitation of Heero's death glare. "Look, if it's that bad why don't you ask for help? The other girls would be happy to help you, right?"
"And what the hell am I going to do about my dress?" Noin demanded to know, not even listening now. "I mean what the hell am I supposed to do when white is an evil color in his society. I can't wear red, my mother, grandmothers and great grandmothers will all have heart attacks. How the hell am I supposed to celebrate my wedding when my dress alone is going to put people in the hospital?"
"Well uh..." He didn't quite know how to answer that question. "A combination of both colors maybe? Placate both sides?"
"Red is not my color though." Noin complained, slumping in her seat once more. "And I just know if I wear white something terrible will happen. As a kid whenever I wore white I attracted dirt and stains like Heero attracts bullets. It just completely defied all explanation."
"Well then have a dress in neither of those colors. It's not like white or red are the only choices here, Noin. Choose whatever color you want." Was his suggestion since he knew absolutely nothing when it came to this sort of thing. He was glad his sister was such a girlie girl. He didn't doubt that she already had hers all planned out so that all he had to do was pay for it. Thank God.
"But it's my wedding dress! Its supposed to be white. And what other colors are there to pick from? I am not walking down the aisle in blue or purple or heaven forbid yellow. I'll go down laughing before I'll do that. And what color am I supposed to chose for my bridesmaids? They don't all have the same coloring, there isn't one color that suits all of them perfectly!"
"But bridesmaids dresses are supposed to be traditionally ugly or at the least only so so." Milliardo pointed out. "It makes the bride look better."
"Are you saying I need to stick my girlfriends with ugly dresses to make me look half way decent?" Noin asked calmly as her eyes went to mere slits, giving off a decidedly dangerous aura. His unfortunate comment had taken her mind off her wedding woes but not in a good way. At least not for him that was.
"Oh damn." Milliardo said under his breath, backing up just little in case he needed to make a run for it. "Not at all. I just meant that..that no matter what you wear you'll outshine all your bridesmaids. No question." Putting his hands in front of him defensively he took a couple more steps back when she continued to watch him darkly. "That's all I meant."
"You know..I also have control over what you get stuck wearing too, pal of mine." Noin threatened, her gaze icy and more then a little mean spirited. "Just remember that when you make comments about my impending choices."
"I won't forget." Milliardo promised, cautiously lowering his hands. "Maybe I should just go get us both a drink from the vending machine. I think we've both had enough caffeine for the day, don't you?"
"I want a Coke. A cold one."
"One icy cold coke, coming up." Milliardo assured her before making a hasty retreat out the door. God. He hoped those two did elope. Soon.
"She gone nuts. Completely and totally nuts." Wufei said with a rather pained expression as he slumped over his own desk. He hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before thanks to Noin's restless tossing and turning. "And she always wants my opinion then blows up when it doesn't align with hers. If she didn't want my opinion then why the hell did the woman ask for it?"
"It's a girl thing." Was Duo's opinion of the whole thing. "They always get weird about stuff like this. It's in their genes or something."
"Plus I would imagine it's harder for Noin, with so many things to plan on top of all her normal work." Trowa offered up in Noin's defense. He had no idea what sort of planning and time went into a wedding but he'd lay odds there was a lot to do.
"I still have nightmares about my sisters and they knew what they wanted." Quatre put in, sending Wufei a sympathetic look of understanding. "They just want everything to be perfect. Then they seem to have to have break downs whenever the smallest thing gets out of whack. Don't worry, once the basics get finalized she'll calm down a bit."
"Somehow that doesn't reassure me. She's always been so sensible and steady. Now the slightest thing can set her off." Was the groom to be's exasperated reply. "It's like she's turned into this whole other person. She keeps saying we should elope but her mother would kill her."
"Would you elope?" Heero wanted to know. He'd always thought that made more sense then blowing thousands of dollars on one day to solidify a marriage that might not even last two years. He figured Noin and Wufei's for the lasting kind but for society as a whole..eloping would have at least meant they had some money to pay their divorce lawyers down the road.
"My grandmother and future mother in law would stake me to the ground and pour fire ants over me if I even brought the idea up." Was the sad reply. He wasn't even joking either.
"Well at least you solved the whole best man and maid of honor problem." Quatre pointed out, trying to help Wufei look on the bright side. "And your mother in law likes you. You wouldn't believe how some of my sisters complain about theirs."
"Right now that's not much of a comfort, Quatre. She still has brothers who I may get along with now but if I step out of line in any way they don't like you can bet they'll make your mothers in laws seem like sweet women."
"Well it is you, I doubt you'll give them too much reason to worry." Duo pointed out as he elbowed his friend teasingly in the side. "Speaking of which...which one of us is supposed to head your bachelor party committee? I personally nominate myself."
"Why does that not surprise me." Heero muttered under his breath to Trowa who nodded in agreement.
"If I let you head it we'd end up in some seedy bar full of health threatening substances and strippers."
"You make that sound like such a bad thing." Duo replied with a wide grin, a definite twinkle in his eye. "It'll be fun, trust me. So can I?"
"NO!" Was the general consensus of the room.
"Ahhhhhh you guys are just no fun."
Getting home late that night since he'd ended up giving Sally a ride home Wufei pulled into his driveway feeling tired but happy. Pulling up the lights were on in the house and it was nice to know that there was someone waiting for him other then Patch. Not to under appreciate Patch but the dog could only provide so much companionship. Plus Lucrezia always smelled a hell of a lot better too, Wufei thought with a small smile as he undid his seat belt, opening the car door. Closing it behind him he locked up then headed for the stairs, absently noting that he was going to have some shoveling to do tomorrow morning. Damn. Kicking some of it off as he went he pulled out his keys and unlocking the door let himself in, locking it behind him. "I'm home." He called out even as Patch burst into the hallway at break neck speed before skidding on the hardwood floors. "One of these days you're really gonna hurt yourself." Wufei informed the floppy eared idiot, the dog prancing around his master now while Wufei struggled out of his coat before hanging it up. "And if I trip over you it's your own damn fault."
"Patch!" Hearing his name called Patch turned before zooming back the way he'd come. Noin had popcorn after all and unlike Wufei she was far more likely to slip him some.
"Thanks!" Wufei called out, tucking his gloves into his coat pocket before getting out of his winter boots. Everything put away he followed his dog's retreat to find Noin sitting on their sofa, surrounded by wedding dress pictures and the countless wedding lists she seemed to take with her where ever she went. Patch was curled up at her feet, looking up at her adoringly as he waited for her to slip him some of the popcorn he was smelling. "Hey." Wufei said softly, plopping down beside her after picking up the sheets of paper in the way. Setting them down on the table he leaned over to pet Patch.
Chewing on her bottom lip absently as she scanned one of her lists Noin turned to look at him. "Which color do you think would be better for the bridesmaids dresses? Light purple or navy blue?"
Since he'd quickly learned to treat these questions with the utmost severity and seriousness Wufei took a lot longer to think about it then he normally would. It was safer that way. "I like the idea of light purple but the navy would work as well depending on the rest of the color scheme." There, that was a good answer, he congratulated himself. There was no way she could get mad at him for that one.
"I like the light purple too but I wanted your opinion." Noin said with a bright smile, all happy for the moment since he agreed before the last part of his answer sunk in. "But I guess you're right. I can't order those or even think about style until I know what my color scheme is." The dark clouds hanging over her head were back.
"Well you know...I know you're trying to incorporate aspects of my culture into all this but you really don't have to. I'm happy with whatever makes you happy."
"You're supposed to care!" Noin informed him, those dark clouds getting a wee bit stormy now. Wrong button to push. "It's your wedding too you know."
"I know but I think I'd like a more..Italian sort of wedding. Chinese customs tend to be overly formal and steeped in old traditions that have nothing to do with properly expressing what a marriage is about." Wufei tried to explain, desperate to redeem himself before she let him have it. "I mean I barely remember my first wedding but what I do remember was a ceremony that just made the whole situation worse. It was all about obeying certain ideals and family honor, what does that have to do with getting married. I've read up on your cultures marriage practices and they seem to revolve around celebrating the marriage, not forcing two people to be together for the rest of their lives."
"Oh." Noin said, having to think about that. She had looked into his too of course and she had to agree that not a lot of the standard traditions had been quite...what she'd been hoping for in terms of easily incorporated into her other plans and culture. "Well I do want to try, at least for some of the things like the dress at least. I don't know what color I'm wearing but it won't be white."
"You know, only the very old or steeped in tradition hold with those silly superstitions." Wufei pointed out.
"I don't care. I'm not taking any chances." Noin said with a fierce look in her eyes. Maybe it was childish and silly but it was one small way that she could avoid possibly, however unlikely, jinxing things for them. It had taken them a hell of a messed up time getting to this point and there was no telling what might happen in the future. "This wedding is going to go without a hitch and we are going to live happily ever after if it damn well kills me."
"I wouldn't have much of a happily ever after if you were dead though." Wufei couldn't help but point out, trying not to smile at her. It was sort of cute and scary at the same time, how obsessed with all this stuff she was.
"You know what I mean."
"Sort of. You know..why don't you just give me half of this stuff. The stuff that doesn't involve colors and clothes." Wufei corrected, the idea of being in charge of anything involving those areas a scary one. Mostly because he knew that whatever he chose would end up with a seal of disapproval. Of course he couldn't imagine any woman letting the groom pick out that sort of stuff but just in case..better safe then sorry.
"You...you want to help me plan it?" Noin said in surprise, her eyes going wide. Her brothers had never offered to help their brides with this stuff. Her brother in law hadn't either.
"I could do the food and music, the travel plans if you want. If you want my help that is." Wufei said cautiously, not quite sure if her reaction was positive or negative. This was, after all, generally a closely guarded female ritual. Or at least he thought it was. It could just be a myth perpetuated by his sex to get out of this sort of thing.
"Of course I want your help! Oh, Wufei!" Noin gushed, throwing her arms around his neck. She was marrying such a wonderful guy, Noin thought as she placed happy kisses all along his jaw. How many guys would be willing to be put through the hell of planning a wedding when they didn't have to? Not many. But then her Wufei wasn't most guys, Noin thought proudly, cuddling against him. "This is so great of you. I'm so happy that you want to help!"
Pleased that he'd solved the problem and was obviously going to be unexpectedly rewarded he had time to pause and wonder just how bad this whole planning thing could be that she was so desperate to get out of doing it. After all, how hard could it really be? Plus, if it got really bad..he'd just drag Quatre into the mess too to help him. "On a lighter note keep an eye on Duo for me, will you. Let me know if he looks like he's plotting anything."
"Okay, but why?" Noin asked, content to stay right where she was for a while. It was so nice to have someone to cuddle against. To know that you could look forward to decades of being able to snuggle with this one person that you loved more then your very life.
"He's got it into his head that he's going to be in charge of my bachelor party. I already said Quatre was going to do it but I think he'll try to pull something anyway." Wufei said with a sigh, knowing without a doubt that Duo would pull something eventually. He could only hope it didn't involve a large cake with something other then cooked batter inside.
"Oh dear God. If he was in charge you'd end up at some run down bar with pole dancers and poisons disguised as drinks." Was Noin's horrified reaction to that little tidbit of knowledge. "Not to mention the fact that none of my brothers know when to stop when it comes to drinking games, especially if they have a special occasion as an excuse! No one will ever get to see the awesome wedding I'm planning because you guys will all be in the ER having your stomachs pumped."
"With our luck, it could happen."