Viva La Vida

Part 26

"Here's a tip," Louis says. "Zayn. Zayn. Are you listening? I have a tip for you: don't ever, ever get married. As your older and wiser brother, I can tell you with utter certainty that it's a bad idea and you should never do it. Okay?"

"I'm sensing that you're in the 'I'm regretting my decision to have the most extravagant wedding on the planet' stage of your decision to have the most extravagant wedding on the planet," Zayn says drily. "Tell me, is it the questionable decision to have potted orchids as your party favors or the knowledge that I'll embarrass you to hell and back in my best man speech that's putting you off?"

"Oh, shut up. Your wedding is going to be way worse than mine, anyway, so you don't have room to talk—you're going to have a royal wedding. The whole world is going to be obsessed with you. Yankee Candle might even come out with a scent line based on your unique musk."

"Please never say the words 'unique musk' in reference to me or anyone else ever again," Zayn says. "Also, I have no plans to get married anytime soon, so you don't need to be worrying about any of that."

Louis stops in the action of tying his tie and gives Zayn a withering look. "I have no plans to get married anytime soon, he says. Please. You'll be wedded and bedded by this time next year, I can tell you that for sure."

"Technically, I'm already bedded."

"Things I never needed to hear about: your sex life," Louis says boredly. "Anyway, my point is that weddings are a huge hassle and you shouldn't ever bother having one. But also if you don't marry Liam soon I'll fucking kill you both."

Zayn ignores this last comment. "I feel like you should have done something about your aversion to weddings sometime before the night of the wedding rehearsal," he says. "Speaking of which, are you done getting ready? We're already late."

Louis sighs and checks his reflection in the mirror one more time. "Yeah, I'm done. Let's get going."

Louis and Harry are indeed getting married in two days, and it's been the talk of the palace—and of the nation—for days. It's been a surprisingly well-received affair, which does make Zayn hopeful for his and Liam's future. But to be fair, Harry and Louis aren't facing quite so many barriers and traditions as he and Liam will. Harry is the second child in his family, meaning that there aren't any pressures to produce heirs, and even though he's a relatively high-profile noble because of his closeness to Liam, he has nowhere near the level of scrutiny and celebrity Liam has. Maybe most importantly, he's not the first noble to come out as gay—while it's rare and somewhat frowned-upon in the aristocratic community, there are out nobles, and even more that harbor their sexuality as an open secret. Liam will be the first king to ever announce his attraction to men.

But today isn't about how much easier Louis and Harry have it compared to him and Liam. It's about the overjoying fact that they've finally gotten their shit together for long enough to plan this ridiculously overdone affair, and that they'll finally be legally joined as man and husband. Needless to say, there have been several long quibbles over who is the man and who is the husband. But like most of the arguing they've been doing lately, it's mostly for show, and also utterly sodden with love-sick glances and lingering touches that make Zayn wish he didn't have eyes.

(He's ecstatically happy for the two of them.)

(He would never tell them that.)

(He's told them several times already.)

They end up being late to the rehearsal, but it's fine because Harry and Liam are too, and so they're met by a very early and pissed-off group wedding party who are very curious to know why the grooms, one of the best men, and the wedding officiate are late to their own wedding rehearsal. Niall, as Harry's best man, is standing behind Harry's furious sister Gemma with a glass of wine and a smug smile. How he got here on time—even early, by the sounds of it—Zayn has no idea, because when he'd left to go drag Louis out of his room, Niall had texted him saying he wasn't even dressed yet. But he doesn't question it—with Niall, it's often best not to.