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As with anything involving the Mankanshoku family, the Mankanshoku-Matoi wedding was a lively chaotic flurry of activity that not even Satsuki, maid of honor and wedding planner extraordinaire, could hope to corral for more than fifteen minutes at a time - long enough to take a few nice pictures, before one of the brides starts to get too agitated to stand still any longer; long enough for a simple, orderly procession, right up until the best man tries to pickpocket Satsuki herself out of habit and gets put in a headlock by the other bride; long enough for a short and sweet ceremony and an emotional, beautiful, and utterly perfect exchange of vows, interrupted by the whole family erupting loudly into tears. Once the brides have finally sealed their betrothal with a kiss and the whole group has been herded into the adjacent reception hall where homecooked croquettes and a towering wedding cake await them, Satsuki officially gives up, and everyone agrees she had earned a break and then some. Naturally, the first order of business for the Mankanshokus, before dances or speeches or gifts of any sort, is dinner and dessert. Shiro and Houka wander off to the side, content to watch the chaos unfold from a safe distance away with a slice of cake each. Mankanshoku and her kin are chowing down, and beside her new wife, Matoi chats happily with Satsuki. Uzu and Nonon are bickering over something inane, Nonon jostling Satsuki's arm linked with her own with every exaggerated retort, while Ira sits and carefully sips his tea, looking bashful beside his tiny pigtailed date. Mitsuzou chats quietly with Hououmaru, and in the back, Tsumugu and Mikisugi are already drinking gamely.
"Why are they even here?" Shiro asks with a frown.
"As near as I can tell, Tsumugu and Matoi have developed some sort of pseudo-siblinghood," Houka explains, adjusting his glasses as he recounts the tabs he's kept on everyone since high school - though he will admit, the true nature of this particular relationship eludes and baffles even him, "And Mikisugi is his plus-one."
"His what?" Shiro coughs, narrowly managing to avoid choking on his cake.
"Yeah, I don't want to think about it either." Houka shudders.
"And what about her?" Shiro inquires, gesturing with his fork at the brunette sitting beside Ira, laughing behind a hand at something Uzu says that causes Ira's flush to deepen and his pout to become even more exaggerated.
"Momo Kanoko - she was a No-Star in the same year as us. Apparently she had been planning to confess to him at graduation but was interrupted by the business with Hououmaru and lost track of him during the evacuation..." Houka explains, "Actually, I was the one who helped direct her to where his family's ironworks are. They've been courting each other for about a year now - both are rather old-fashioned and content to take things slow."
"You are such a gossip," Shiro laughs.
"I am not!" Houka insists, "It's purely data collection! That's what I do!"
"Relax, it was a joke," Shiro says, standing on tiptoe to press a kiss to the corner of Houka's frown. "I love you, stalker tendencies and all. Really."
Houka huffs a sigh, then smiles, answering with a kiss to Shiro's temple before returning to his cake.
"You know, she looks a lot like..."
"Mankanshoku? Yeah," Houka smirks, "Ira clearly has a type."
"Well, I'm glad he's found someone," Shiro says, smiling softly, and seeing it, Houka smiles too.
"Me too. Especially since it's Mankanshoku's wedding after all," Houka agrees.
It's at that moment that Mankanshoku decides to jump up onto her chair and start addressing the entire reception.
"It's time to throw the bouquet!" she shouts with effortless volume. At this, Momo-san springs up out of her chair excitedly, and Ira's face continues to grow redder in color. Nonon seems to straighten in her seat, and then immediately looks around to see if anyone noticed her barely-concealed eagerness.
"Oh! Toss it here, Mankanshoku!" Uzu says, standing up as well and waving his arms.
"Idiot monkey, you're not even dating anyone!" Nonon spits at him as she too stands up on her chair in order to look down at him.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Satsuki does nothing to intervene at this point, merely laughing along with Matoi at Mankanshoku's antics - and this is why no one informs Mankanshoku that the bouquet throw is meant to be a gentle over-the-shoulder toss, not an overhanded pitch as far as the thing will possibly go, which, in this case, is over the heads of the three guests vying for it, all the way across the room, and into Shiro's cake.
There's several seconds of stunned silence, and then -
"Great throw, sis!"
"Yeah, nice going, Slackerdoodle,"
"Nonon, it's her wedding, you should be nicer."
"Shiro! Throw it here! I'm open!"
"Congratulations, Iori-senpai! Inumuta-senpai!"
Shiro and Houka both flush pink as all the chaos in the room is suddenly directed at them. They look at each other, and for one of the few times since they first met, they find themselves both speechless.
Mankanshoku seems blissfully unaware of the embarrassment she has wrought as she barrels onwards in the reception itinerary that Satsuki has seemingly left it up to her to make up on the spot; Apparently, what's next on the docket is dancing.
Nonon is in a foul mood now, and though she claims it's because she wasn't consulted on the music, Shiro knows its because, even though she'd never admit it, she wanted to be the one to catch the bouquet. While Ira, Uzu, Tsumugu, and Dr. Mankanshoku clear tables and chairs off the dance floor, Shiro offers it to her.
"No thanks," she grumbles, refusing to look at him.
"I cleaned off the frosting and everything,"
"I don't care about some stupid flowers, okay? It's just a silly superstition," she waves a hand, "And it doesn't count if you just give them to me, anyway,"
Why do you care how much it counts if it's just a silly superstition?, Shiro thinks but doesn't say, and then smiles thinking about how Houka would've said it for him if he weren't on the other side of the room setting up the music (which consists of simply plugging Mankanshoku's off-brand mp3 player into the reception hall's sound system and hitting play). Mankanshoku's little brother dims the lights, and a cheesy 90s synth-pop love song begins to play as Mankanshoku and Matoi take the floor together, and for once the guests manage to stay behaved without Satsuki's instruction.
With his meager disc jockey duties complete, Houka rejoins Shiro in watching as the two brides sway in each other's arms, tripping over their feet a bit and laughing and kissing and looking about as in love as two people could ever be.
"What are you thinking?" Shiro asks carefully, still holding the bundle of red-tipped yellow roses in one hand.
"Right now? I'm just admiring your work," Houka answers with a nod to the dance floor as Mankanshoku spins, the skirt of her dress flaring out in an arc of yellow tulle.
"Oh, that? It was nothing, really," Shiro shrugs, "Those two were actually among the least troublesome clients I've had, if you can believe it. Surprisingly straightforward requests by each, and the only modification I ended up having to make was to lower Mankanshoku's neckline even further for 'maximum boobage'."
"Well, I'm proud of you, anyway," Houka says with a laugh, circling an arm around Shiro's waist, and Shiro leans in to him, resting his head against Houka's shoulder with a contented sigh.
Everyone continues to watch quietly as Matoi and Mankanshoku dance, but from the looks on the brides' faces, it seemed as though they couldn't care less one way or the other what the rest of them did, because as far as they were concerned, they were the only two people in the whole world.
The spell is lifted as the song fades out, sealed with a last, lingering kiss, and then another, more up-tempo song begins, and the two brides invite their guests to join them on the dance floor. Mankanshoku's parents are the first to join, followed by Momo-san eagerly pulling Ira behind her, and when Satsuki holds out a hand to Nonon, the frown she had been wearing since her conversation with Shiro vanishes without a trace, replaced by a lovestruck grin.
"Let's dance," Shiro says, taking Houka's hand at his waist and leading him out onto the floor. Neither of them are exactly dancers, but holding each other and swaying to sappy love songs is something they can manage. They wouldn't usually put themselves so close to the center of the action, but there's something so alluring about the aura that surrounds Matoi and Mankanshoku, romantic and magical and suffusing the very air of the little reception hall, that even the two bespectacled wallflowers can't help but be drawn in. Houka's arms encircle Shiro's waist, and Shiro's arms clasp behind Houka's neck, the bouquet he's still holding hanging behind Houka's back.
"It would make sense, you know," Houka finally says, "If we got married,"
"Oh?" Shiro prompts.
"Well, I mean, it's the logical thing to do, right?" Houka continues, blushing faintly and struggling to meet Shiro's gaze, "When you consider all the benefits, like hospital visitation rights, and-"
"Just admit you want to marry me because you want to be married to me," Shiro interrupts him, feigning frustration.
"And there's that, too," Houka concedes with a smile.
They continue to move gently to the music, Shiro resting his head against Houka's chest, taking comfort in the sound of his heartbeat.
"You know, when I was young," Houka speaks up again, "I assumed I'd always be on my own. Marriage hadn't done a thing for my mother, and it didn't seem fair she should have to take care of me alone, so I just... left. I was entirely prepared to live the lone wolf hacker lifestyle, but now..."
"Now you find you've been domesticated." Shiro finishes his thought with a smirk. Houka blushes furiously at this, and Shiro snickers - it's always been surprisingly easy for him to fluster his boyfriend. "But I suppose I can't take all the credit for that - Satsuki played a much bigger role in transforming you into a social predator," Shiro concedes.
"Untrue," Houka says, and Shiro looks up at his face, still flushed, but refusing to look away now. "Satsuki and the others were comrades in arms, and they convinced me I didn't have to work alone, but you... you were the first person I ever called a friend. You made me realize I didn't have to be alone."
Though Shiro has truthfully always known this to be the case, it's the first time Houka has ever admitted as much out loud. His eyes start to mist over, and now it's his turn to look away. After a moment, he manages to compose himself, and looks back at Houka.
"Uncle never expected of me that I serve the Kiryuins - I was only meant to be Satsuki's playmate at first, nothing more. The choice to serve her was my own, one they both tried to talk me out of at first, but I was stubborn and determined to do whatever I could to help her, my first real friend. It's a choice I won't ever regret, but..." Shiro pauses, takes a breath. "I feel it allowed me to avoid thinking about myself, who I wanted to be or to be with, because what I wanted was not as important. Something as trivial as marriage was so far from my mind in those days that it may as well have been impossible."
"But ever since we graduated, I've thought about myself a lot, and I know what I want now," Shiro's voice is wavering now, tears stinging his eyes again and threatening to spill, but he doesn't break his gaze, "And more than anything else, what I want is you."
He's barely finished getting the words out when Houka pulls him even closer, lifting him onto the tips of his toes as he kisses Shiro, warm and passionate, tasting faintly of the lemon frosting from the wedding cake. Shiro is briefly surprised by the suddenness before he returns the gesture with fervor, winding his arms even tighter around Houka's neck, the bouquet brushing up against his face and introducing the scent of roses. Houka adjusts his stance so he can lean forward and dip Shiro slightly, and the dramatic display does not go unnoticed - Uzu wolf whistles teasingly, while Nonon makes a gagging noise and Momo-san and Mankanshoku both coo. But just like the brides during their first dance, the reactions go unnoticed, because the whole universe has narrowed to just Shiro and Houka in each other's arms and a million words between their lips.
They finally come up for air as the song comes to an end, but they barely have time to catch their breath or feel self-conscious about their uncharacteristically public display of affection before the next song begins and they break into laughter at Mankanshoku's scarily apt taste in music.
"Does this mean we're officially engaged now?" Shiro asks as they move to the edge of the dance floor and return to their lazy slow dance, making room for the more exuberant wedding-goers to bounce around to the upbeat, vapid pop tune.
"I suppose we are," Houka answers, pressing his forehead to Shiro's with a small smile, "Although, I don't think anyone else needs to know that, at least not now,"
"Agreed. I think if Nonon found out we were beating her to the altar, she might actually poison us," Shiro chuckles.
"Personally I don't believe the altar is strictly necessary, perhaps we can use that loophole to escape her wrath?"
"We can work out the details later. All that matters to me is that we're dressing in our very best," Shiro says, closing his eyes to better imagine the ensembles already drawing themselves in his mind.
"In your very best," Houka corrects him, raising a hand to cup Shiro's cheek and pressing a kiss to his forehead.
"In my very best," Shiro agrees, covering Houka's hand with his own.
The reception carries on into the night. Eventually Dr. Mankanshoku cuts in to dance with his daughter, while Matoi dances with her newly minted mother-in-law. Everyone vies for a turn to dance with Satsuki, much to Nonon's chagrin, but then Satsuki returns from dancing with Shiro holding the bouquet, and Nonon's mood does a 180 yet again, leaving her floating on cloud nine for the rest of the evening. Momo-san takes pity on dateless Uzu and dances with him for a while, and Mankanshoku's brother takes advantage of Mikisugi and Tsumugu's inebriation and steals their wallets, before getting caught by Ira and being made to return them - with the two men none the wiser.
Satsuki makes a toast to the brides and the strength of their love that causes Mankanshoku to begin bawling and even brings Matoi to tears, and the Mankanshokus follow it up with a speech about how they'd considered Matoi to be family from the moment she came into their lives that leaves not a single dry eye in the whole reception hall, and Mitsuzou's butler instincts kick in as he goes around offering tissues to everyone.
The brides then open gifts as though it was a birthday party, saying they'd prefer to thank everyone in person. These range from practical (a high-quality set of stainless steel kitchenware courtesy of the Gamagoori Ironworks) to romantic (two all-inclusive coupons for a fancy ryokan owned by a family friend of Nonon's father) to pretty much useless (a combination fruit bowl-banana hanger from Uzu). The last and biggest gift is from the Mankanshokus, a brand-new motorcycle that they'd already attached cans and streamers to the back of so that the newlyweds can depart in style, Mankanshoku clinging tight to Matoi as they ride off into their honeymoon.
After they're seen off, Satsuki and the Mankanshokus stay behind to clean up the reception hall. Naturally, Satsuki's inner circle all choose to stick around and help, as do Momo-san and Tsumugu, and between the dozen of them the whole place is in a presentable state in just under an hour and a half. Finally, at a quarter after one in the morning, Shiro and Houka arrive home at their apartment.
"You know," Houka muses, "if you really want to torture that embarrassing metaphor from earlier, you might say that Satsuki was the one who brought me into the pack, but you were the one who managed to get me on a leash."
Shiro snorts at this as he unlocks the door.
"I think that's the perfect way to put it."
But before going inside he turns around, hooking a finger in Houka's tie and pulling him down to his eye level.
"I do always seem to be the one collaring you, after all."
