Seeing his baby acting like a pure and shy maiden, Levi's mouth twitched in an attempt to suppress a smile, 'If you feel so shy now, baby, what will you do after dinner, hmm? Didn't you promise to soothe me tonight?'
After all, he had a clear goal to cuddle his baby to sleep today, and this time, there was nothing that could stop him from achieving it! He was fully prepared for today's final round of battle with his father-in-law! And this time, he was not going back in defeat!
30 minutes later, the fully prepared Astar Levi ground his teeth as he hauled his suitcase away from the Cordia manor.
What happened?
Father-in-law directly kicked him out!!! And with a valid reason too! The groom couldn't see the bride–ahem, the other groom before the wedding!!! As per the initial plans, the groom and bride should spend tomorrow morning preparing for the wedding separately, welcoming their side of the family in their own respective manors. When the designated hour arrived, each side would lead their half of the wedding procession to the wedding venue, where they would unite as one before the altar.
Sure, now the groom and bride turned into two grooms, but everything else stayed the same! Ergo, Levi was supposed to go back to Astarea today!
(ノ꒪Д꒪)ノ︵ ┻━┻
Levi felt indignant! So indignant! Don't want to, ah! Want to sleep with baby, ah! ＞︿＜
"I… I also forgot about this…" Noah guiltily avoided Levi's gaze and stuttered out a cute attempt at comforting him, "Just bear it for one more night… take sleeping pills if you can't sleep… just one night, and then you can get SS-ranked sleep whenever you want…"
Levi stared at his evasive little darling with a deep, meaningful gaze, mulling over the words he was about to say to turn this unreasonable situation around. Surely they could work something out! He was determined to snuggle with his baby tonight!
As Levi was laying out a logical argument in his head, a ping was heard from his communicator. Levi glanced at the message, then his thoughts did a resolute 180 degrees turn, "Alright, baby. But no going back on your word later."
Noah's ears heated up, but he nodded.
And thus Astar Levi left the Cordia manor.
As for the message he received…
It was his mother, saying their manor just received a priority delivery, asking him if he had ordered something online.
Ahem, right, so he DID have to go back to Astarea… it would be better if Levi picked up that crate of super important equipment himself. （︶‿︶）
***
There was no such thing as a church wedding in Concordia. Religions, in general, weren't a prominent part of the culture. When you've got a society where everyone has a power, somehow a feat of waking on water or splitting the sea looked much less worship-worthy.
The groom and the bride would exchange vows in front of their wedding guests and sign the marriage certificate, and voila, they would be legally married. Straightforward and simple. No long and boring sermon to sit through, no old stone building to squeeze into.
Of course, the literal act of marriage itself wasn't all there was to the wedding. This wedding was a whole day event. And it started with the bride and groom greeting their halves of the family at their homes.
Hence, Noah stood in the foyer of the Cordia manor, fully dolled-up in his wedding suit, looking like a masterfully photoshopped version of a prince charming. So radiant and handsome it was nearly blinding.
He wore a small yet captivating smile as he slowly greeted the Cordia family's relatives, yet internally he kept sighing. He didn't personally know any of these people, and Aris wasn't close to these relatives either. The only two people here that he knew besides his parents and sister were Trey and Shaw.
Trey, as his personal bodyguard, followed a few steps behind Noah at all times. After a few days of healing his bleeding heart, Trey had managed to regain a semblance of tranquility. Though he still felt jealous of the scoundrel who would be marrying his lovely young master, he had accepted the fact that his young master and him were not meant to be. He could still remain by his young master's side as a friend and a bodyguard, and that was more than enough.
In due time, he would surely be able to let go of his inappropriate feelings and move on. As for now… Trey smiled wryly at his lovely young master, who was worried that Trey would feel ignored, so he kept happily chirping and chatting with Trey in between greeting his relatives.
'Sigh~ Young master, the better you treat me, it's harder to let you go…' (◞‸ლ)
Other than Trey, Noah also happily chatted with Maery and Shaw.
Shaw, though invited to the wedding as Noah's friend, actually shouldn't have appeared at the Cordia manor because he had no familial relations to the Cordias. Guests that weren't considered family to the grooms were supposed to skip the gathering at their homes and directly arrive at the wedding venue later.
So, then, what was Shaw doing there?
The answer to this question laid with Maery.
After the change in the bride, many nasty rumors were going around. Half of them would eventually be dismissed as Noah's and Levi's love become more and more evident to everyone. However, the other half of the rumors were about Maery, so she had to do something to dismiss them herself.
And thus, Maery thought that she ought to show that everything she had said in the press release was totally true, and that she had 0 romantic interest in Levi and was very happy and supportive of this marriage.
And what best way to show that than to bring a date to her brother's wedding?
However, where would she find a boyfriend to play along with her on such short notice? Worst still, she had been too dedicated to her work lately and had no social life! She could only turn to Shaw, who was the only male she was currently close to besides the two grooms.
And thus, Shaw was brought in as Maery's date for her act of a 'happy sister that can finally date a man she liked after breaking off the engagement she didn't want'.
Maery led this gentle and handsome doctor by the arm around the manor for a while and couldn't help but peek towards him from the corner of her eyes. Shaw wore a soft smile from beginning to end, fully showcasing the charm of a mature intellectual and perfectly playing his current boyfriend role.
However, the more he acted like this, the guiltier Maery felt, 'Ai! Not only do you have to watch your sweetheart marry another man, but you even have to pretend that you are dating his sister! I've really wronged you, Shaw! Don't worry! You'll find a lovely man in the future! In fact, just wait, I'll help matchmake you to another lovely little bottom! You can count on me!'
Noah chatted a bit with the guests, a bit with Trey, a bit with Maery, a bit with Shaw. Yet, although he was the star of this show, surrounded by people, he couldn't help but feel that something important was missing.
Ever since he arrived in this world, Noah had been stuck at the hip with Levi. Now that the man was not by his side, Noah felt strangely lonely. And he was not the kind of person prone to feeling lonely. He was the flexible kind who both enjoyed company AND quiet solitude. So now that he suddenly found himself missing this person whom he'd only known for a week, Noah felt justifiably rattled. Which made him think about another thing that he had grown so used to recently that he missed it once it was gone – Blackie's annoying comments.