Disclaimer: Hm, Malice Mizer? Nope, I don’t have any connections to them.
Puff: Gackt, would you please open the door? My hands are full because of the tea tray.
Gackt: Um, sure, Puff, just a minute. *looks over at Mana*
Mana: *sleeping*
Puff: This tray is heavy, Gackt. But don’t hurry yourself on account of my discomfort.
Gackt: *shakes doorknob* It won’t unlock, Puff.
Puff: I didn’t lock it…
Gackt: …it must have locked itself when you left.
Playing House
Chapter Eighteen
Mana smiled to himself, practically radiating with happiness as he prepared himself to tell the story that he and Gackt had previously arranged. They hadn’t cleared the tale through the people who sent them over, but the pair of musicians knew that no one could get upset at them after the neighbors thought it was the truth. Fighting the urge not to giggle, the guitarist quietly set down his chopsticks and let his sapphire eyes slip over each guest in turn.
“It really was a lovely ceremony,” Mana began, pushing a black-blue lock of hair over his shoulder, “I just wish that I could remember more of it. I think the mixture of sedatives and fear kind of messed-up my memory for that particular bit of time. Such a shame.” The seven guests looked confusedly at one another, quickly letting their confused eyes fall onto their hosts. Gackt’s vaguely darkened lips curled into a tiny smirk as he leaned back in his chair, waiting to see how his friend would continue to tell the story.
“Ceremony?” Helen said questioningly, wondering if it was the right time to be speaking up. Mana nodded his head, his loose ringlets swaying lightly, and reached over to pat Gackt’s hand softly.
“We didn’t meet one another until we were married,” Mana said in a tone of voice, which if you didn’t know any better, sounded like that was to be the end of the explanation. He smiled sweetly, sipping from his teacup. Gackt noticed that the neighbors weren’t quite satisfied with an explanation that vague and took Mana’s current silence as the prompt for him to pick up where the guitarist had left off.
“Though, I have to say our parents did a rather good job of setting everything up behind our backs,” Gackt said cheerfully, lacing his fingers together, “It was an odd surprise, when they finally decided to tell me. I was rather confused for a while.” Mana nodded his agreement, toying absentmindedly with a bow on his sleeve.
“I’m probably wrong here, but are you trying to say that you two have an arranged marriage?” Miriam asked, the shock barely held out of her tone. A forced smiled spread over her face as she waited for someone to say something in response. The other six guests put the façade of amusement over their faces as well, while each desperately wanted a quick answer.
“Yes, that’s correct,” Mana chimed, slowly swirling the tea in the cup before placing it back down onto the lace covered ebony table. It was all that the pair of musicians could do when they kept themselves from laughing at the sight of seven jaws dropping in perfect unison. For a few moments, the pure shock value of what had been said held the guests in absolute silence. Then, the urge to breathe prevailed and a couple of people choked on food they had forgotten they had in their mouths.
“Is everyone alright?” Gackt asked calmly after the choking sounds stopped, his azure eyes pinned to the table so he wouldn’t laugh. He didn’t even dare to look over at the guitarist.
“I think we’re fine,” Melissa mumbled, glancing around at her friends to be sure, “It’s just that you shocked us all with that little joke. Now, why don’t you tell us the truth?” Mana bit his tongue softly so he would be able to keep his face perfectly straight and looked over at Gackt with convincingly puzzled eyes.
“I’m afraid that you misunderstand; we aren’t joking,” Mana said with utter seriousness, folding his hands neatly together before he continued, “I know quite well that arranged marriages aren’t at all common here and it’s the same in Japan. Gackt and I just have very, some times overly, traditional families.” All the neighbors looked around at each other, hoping that at least one of them would know what was going on.
“To make things more clear, our families own large companies. This was a bit of a business merger,” Gackt stated, attempting to force down the small smile that was trying to make itself seen, “It makes perfect sense, when you stop to think about it.”
“I don’t quite see how…” Anthony muttered to himself, rubbing at his forehead.
“I’ll explain. Both of us come from small families. In Mana’s family, it’s just her parents and her older brother, Kami. In my family, there’s me, my parents, and my two cousins, Yu~ki and Kozi, who were raised like they were my brothers,” Gackt elucidated, pushing a few strands of auburn hair away from his eyes, “And, since the companies didn’t have anybody on the outside who owned any sizable portion of stock, it was just a matter of setting things up so each family owned a good sized chunk of stock in the other family’s company.” By this point, the neighbors’ eyes were all wide open and their mouths were barely kept shut.
“I own a lot of stock in my family’s company and Gackt owns stock in his family’s company as well. Therefore, when we got married, we each owned stock in the other company,” Mana added, smiling softly when the guests acted like they perfectly understood the concept, “I’m so glad you all understand. I don’t think we could simplify the explanation anymore.”
“Wouldn’t it have been easier for everyone if some paperwork had been drawn up instead?” Miriam asked, fiddling nervously with her silver fork, “I mean, it seems a bit cruel to force someone to marry someone else that they’ve never met just for a business deal.” The three other women nodded their heads softly in agreement.
“The marriage represents the joining of the families. It’s not just a business deal; it’s two separate groups of people becoming one bigger group with the same interests at heart,” Gackt said with a hint of annoyance, glancing over at Mana, “There’s not really a better way to show that you’re sincere about something than if you hand over your own flesh and blood. Paperwork is just plain paper with words and signatures; it can be easily ignored. But how easy would it be to ignore a son-in-law or a daughter-in-law?”
“Well, I suppose it would be rather difficult to break that kind of agreement,” Helen reluctantly said, her eyes slightly downcast.
“Besides, I think our parents had grandchildren in mind when they decided on this,” Mana said brightly, smiling at the vocalist, “You can’t get grandchildren from a contract, though they’ll have to wait a while for us.” A quick bout of laughter resonated around the room at his comment, breaking the tense atmosphere momentarily. The mood returned when Miriam softly cleared her throat to get attention so she could speak.
“You seem well suited for one another, but what would have happened if you couldn’t get along?” Miriam questioned, still timidly playing with the utensils in front of her, “Or what would happen if, in the future, differences develop that you just can’t work out?” Mana and Gackt quickly looked at each other as they tried to figure out what to say; they hadn’t planned for someone to bring up that particular subject.
“We get along just fine and I’m sure that we won’t have any major problems in the future,” Mana snapped, even surprising himself with his tone of voice which he immediately mellowed out before he said anything else, “I guess you could say we’re lucky.” Gackt smiled at how well his friend handled the question, while watching the already timorous Miriam recoil even further against her chair.
“That’s the truth. When you first got here, I think you said you had only been married a month or so. That means you barely had any time to get to know one another, but yet it seemed like you had been together for years,” Terri said as she reasoned things out in her head, trying to recall certain facts, “You must have been instantly drawn to one another, when you first met.” Mana nodded, his long midnight blue hair shimmering in the light as he moved.
“When we had a chance to talk alone, after the ceremony and the reception, we just clicked. It was like kismet, I suppose,” Gackt stated cheerfully, figuring he might as well make it sound really good while he was talking. The neighbor women smiled at one another, each imagining how great it would be to meet their soul mate. Their husbands, however, were fiercely glaring at the handsome vocalist who simply ignored the antagonizing looks he was receiving.
“You should tell us about the actual wedding. I’m sure it must have been absolutely stunning,” Melissa said dreamily, her eyes clouding over as she thought about it before she snapped back to reality and turned to glare at her husband, “At least a thousand times better than what I got.” Scott rolled his eyes, choosing not to say anything that could, potentially, make things worse for him once they went home.
“We can show you pictures before we explain the details,” Mana said sweetly, quietly getting out of his chair and walking over to a dark wooden cabinet, “Of course, these pictures were taken after the ceremony was finished so we’ll have to describe that part just from memory.” He pulled open a drawer and gently lifted out a book bound in white silk. The guitarist wandered back to the table, setting himself back into his chair before undoing a silver bow and opening the book.
“Just pass the book around so everyone can see the photographs,” Gackt said as Mana gently handed the book over to Miriam, who handled it like it was a newborn kitten. She quickly looked through the pages, knowing quite well that Melissa would start to pressure her if she didn’t hurry. The scrapbook made its way around the table in just over five minutes. The men weren’t that interested in looking at the pictures and the women didn’t want to get too envious.
“Your dress was gorgeous, Mana,” Helen said, her voice dripping with sweetness, “But your veil seemed like it would have been rather heavy.”
“It was. Even though it was lace, it was layered heavily. Mother was torturing me,” Mana stated coolly, his blue eyes fixed on his hands, “She kept telling me that the heavier the veil, the calmer I’d be. It was like she wanted me to freak out. She even gave me a sedative, saying she didn’t want me to do anything embarrassing during the ceremony.” He bit the inside of his mouth and fought down a grin, watching the confused looks spread over the neighbors’ features once again.
“Why would your mother say that?” Terri asked, the bewilderment that she was feeling completely coating her voice, “I mean, I could see that happening if your parents had set it up for you to marry some old man but Gackt is an extremely good-looking guy.” John glared vaguely at the vocalist before he let his attention return to Mana, knowing quite well that he should look while his wife was distracted.
“That’s simple enough to explain,” Gackt said quickly, smirking noticeably because he realized that Terri had tried to make the comment sound nonchalant but had failed miserably, “We didn’t know what the other looked like. Our parents didn’t give us pictures or anything. We saw each other for the first time after we had already gone through the ceremony. I think they were trying to scare us a bit.”
Two of the neighbor ladies were about to open their mouths to ask more questions when a loud crashing sound emanated from the kitchen. It was immediately followed by Adam screaming at the top of his lungs like he was in pain and Britney yelling random curse words intermingled with the names of the children. Allison wasn’t shouting quite as loudly at Britney, but her oddly calm yelps could still be heard over the other noise.
All of the adults were looking around at one another, as if they were trying to decide if they really wanted to know what was happening in the other room. After the initial shock wore off, the four mothers scrambled from their chairs and dashed into the kitchen, pushing to get there first. The three neighbor men sat quietly, confident that their wives would inform them later of what their children had done. Gackt and Mana sighed resignedly in unison and excused themselves from the table, both knowing that they should see how bad the damage was.
Author’s Note: It’s a story within a story! *bounces* Sorry, sorry, I should sit still. But it’s so fun to have Mana and Gackt make up a story for the neighbors. ^_^
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