Since your three days of freedom from Luciano were up, you were forced to sleep in his room with him once more. To your delight, he hadn't tried to pull anything on you while you slept except the occasional kiss to the forehead or pulling you close to him in his sleep. Though you weren't too keen on all the unconscious physical contact, you were beginning to not mind them. The gestures showed that he cared deeply for you, sometimes seeming too deeply for your liking, but they were sweet nonetheless. You wouldn't tell Luciano this of course. You continued to make a big deal of how it was an invasion of your personal space and privacy, especially when he had walked in on you in the bath the early in the morning and kissed you on your head before going to bed.
Today was no different than any other day with the vampire prince. You woke up almost completely laying on top of him and immediately scrambled out of the bed. He calmly turned onto his stomach in his sleep for once, the scars that Flavio had told you about on the night of Luciano's "proposal" to you showing as his back displayed itself to you. They were of a lighter tone than the rest of his tanned body. Some seemed to have been acquired from a whip while others were too jagged or misshapen to tell what caused them. The scars seemed to draw you to them. You made your way back to the king size bed and sat at the edge on Luciano's side. Your fingers traced along each and every scar, only stopping when the prince shivered from your light and gentle touches, only to have you continue. You had completely forgotten that you had once hated this man, the one who kept you locked in his castle and was forcing you into marriage. In all honestly, it felt like what you had been taught in your history class when you were younger.
The lessons when you didn't have to learn about vampires were always treasurable ones. While you enjoyed learning about vampire history, cultural, and their nature in general unlike most kids in your class, you enjoyed learning about the rich history of the old world when vampires were just a legend more than anything. To you it was absolutely intriguing how the world used to function when most people had freedom and how the world evolved to accommodate the creatures living in it and vice versa. You loved how over the centuries countries would rise and fall in and out of power, how the politics invented by humanity changed depending on the geographic region of the world and time period you looked at, and how the features of people and their races were different than that of another's, giving the world a never ending surplus of varying looks and cultures to go with it. It truly was outstanding in every way.
One thing that was almost constant in the olden days was arranged marriages between nobles and royalty. You could relate to this to a certain degree now that you were going to marry the prince, soon-to-be king of the vampires. You could sympathize with the noble and royal men and women of history. You could only imagine what it felt like back then to have been forced into a marriage with someone you barely knew but to have that done to you in modern times, well, you could bet it was even worse for you considering who you were to be wed to. It never seemed fair to you, but who ever said the world was fair? Sure there was always that cliché "All is fair in love and war," but this wasn't war, or at least it didn't seem to be.
To your knowledge, there hadn't been any wars between the vampires and humans since the last one thousands of years ago, back when a vampire named Remus was still in power. If you could recall correctly, that was Luciano and Flavio's grandfather. From what you know from your history classes, he was ruthless, always trying to conquer something in the most barbaric manner possible and ruling with an iron fist. No one could say for sure what caused him to die, except for those of the royal family and those closest to him. Perhaps you could ask Flavio about it, or maybe even Luciano? No, it was best not to ask, at least not yet anyway.
You suddenly felt the mattress shift below you, causing you to snap out of your deep thought. In your preoccupied state, Luciano had woken up from your delicate touches but stayed laying on his stomach, only shifting his arms so that he could place them under his pillow to give his head extra support. He would be lying if he said he wasn't enjoying you tracing the shapes of his scars on the sensitive skin of his back. To him it tickled and was the most attention you had ever given him out of your own free will. He wasn't going to count the times you gave him attention at your engagement ball, the following night when you both had a hangover from said ball and spent the evening cuddling in bed, or when you came to him in his private study in search of some form of entertainment. You did those things either because you were told to do it, weren't feeling your best and didn't care what it took to make you feel better, or simply wanted to find something to do. Heck, he had you under his control for part of the last incident and you didn't even know it until the other night. Yes, this was indeed the first time you ever gave him a decent amount of attention because you wanted to. Sure, he may have been asleep when you initially started running your fingers lightly over his bare back, but it was that you continued to do it even after he gave you a small sign that he was no longer in a deep slumber.
"You are aware that I am awake, correct?" Luciano asked lazily as he partially mumbled into his bicep.
The prince turned his head just enough to look at you from the corner of his eye. You continued to trace the lines on his back as you glanced at his face for a moment before looking back to where his spine was. He gave you a small smile before turning around to lay on his back. You immediately retracted your hand from his premises, which earned you a frown from the still sleepy Luciano. He sat up and went to kiss you, but you scooted away ever so slightly. The dark auburn haired male just shook his head at you before getting up. He placed a hand behind your head to keep you from moving as he placed a gentle kiss on your forehead. You made a face of annoyance and reluctantly gave him a chaste one on his cheek in return right before he moved away. He looked at you shocked for a moment, then smiled.
"I'm glad to see that you are warming up to me amore mio."
You made a rather rude sound in return to show your displeasure. Luciano chuckled and walked into his master bathroom to take care of his post waking up routines. While you waited for him to come out, you walked over to the couch where you had put what you were going to wear for the night after your bath in the morning. You quickly changed, afraid that Luciano would walk in on you half dressed. Then again, he had walked in on you bathing that morning. Thank goodness it was a bubble bath though, so he really didn't see anything. You found the body mirror that hadn't seem to have left the room since the night of the engagement ball. You looked over yourself, making sure that what you picked didn't look too horrible for what ever activities you had to endure for the day.
You had on a rather plain (f/c) three quarter sleeve baseball tee with an accent color of (s/f/c), a pain of light wash jean shorts, and a pair of black flip flops. You grabbed the brush you had also grabbed earlier that morning and ran it through you hair to rid it of any tangles. You found yourself sitting on the couch waiting for Luciano to exit the bathroom so you could go in and brush your teeth and go to the bathroom. Luciano must have sensed your need and popped his head out of the bathroom.
"I'm going into the walk-in closet, so you can come in and do your thing. I won't come in until you're done. I promise."
Thanking him quietly, you nearly ran into the bathroom. He laughed and walked into the closet to get dressed, shutting the door behind him to give you some privacy. You did you're thing and washed your hands before proceeding to brush your teeth. Luciano knocked on the door that separated him from you.
"May I come in?"
You responded with a barely audible "yes", but he still heard you thanks to his heightened hearing. You didn't bother to look at him since you could hear him approaching you. His reflection appeared as he came into the range of the mirror. He wore a dark red v-neck t-shirt, a pair of dark wash jeans, and a pair of white and red Converse. You raised an elegant brow at him.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing, just, what's with the outfit?" you responded, your words being slightly muffled by your tooth brush.
"I don't have any real duties today. It's just going to be you, me, and the caterer for the wedding."
You spit out the tooth paste in your mouth and rinsed off your tooth brush before putting it in its holder.
"Caterer? But don't your guys only drink blood?"
"Ah, yes, but it's the things you can do with blood and one very talented vampire that gives need for a caterer. Besides, you're going to be there and the humans that live in that one community I told you about. I don't expect you or them to eat what the rest of us will be eating, that is unless you choose to have me turn you before then." Luciano's fangs poked out over his bottom lip as he whispered the last part into your ear, his arms around your waist.
You laughed nervously and dashed out of the bathroom. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" you said in a nervous tone.
You left the bedroom and began walking down the right branch of the hallway. Luciano walked out directly after you, closing the doors behind him. He stayed in front of his doors and looked at your retreating form with a smile on his face.
"The room we are meeting him in is in the other direction bella."
You calmly walked back towards him and then past him. "I knew that," you muttered.
Luciano chuckled at you once again and went to escort you to meet the caterer. The two of you walked in silence, Luciano only grabbing your hand when he sensed another vampire nearby. When he felt the presence dissipate, he would release your hand. After a few solid minutes of walking, you both came to a large set of open doors. Inside was a rather long hall with a table almost as long in the center and lined with chairs as well as various covered dishes scattered on top of it. At the opposite end of the room, you could see the figure of a brightly dressed man. He seemed to be wearing a magenta, almost purple sweater vest, a pink button up shirt, an electric blue bow tie, a pair of tan slacks, and brown loafers. His hair seemed to be a strawberry blond color. The strange man suddenly caught sight of you and Luciano and gave a small squeal of delight before using his super speed to get to where the two of you were. You found yourself wrapped in a tight hug by the man, your oxygen supply slowly leaving you.
"Oh! I am so glad to finally meet you poppet! Mattie's told me so much about you!" he chirped excitedly in a British accent.
Luciano tapped him on the shoulder gently. "She's still a human you know."
"Oh good heavens! I am so sorry dear!"
The man released you and gave you time to catch your breath. He apologized once more before shaking hands with Luciano and greeting him. When you seemed fine, he grabbed your hand and left a short kiss on your knuckles like a gentleman.
"My name is Oliver Kirkland. I'm Matthieu's step-father. I already know your name seeing as though you are engaged to Luciano."
"Ah, you must be Al's father then!"
"Oh, you've met Allie-bear then!"
You snorted and put a hand up when you noticed that Oliver looked offended. "I'm sorry. That nickname is just too adorable for someone like him."
"I'm glad someone agrees with me on that! Allen doesn't seem to like the name too much, but I think it suits him just fine."
"Indeed it does."
"Well, now that our much needed introduction is out of the way, let's get down to business, shall we?"
You and Luciano nodded you heads in sync before you followed Oliver to the beginning of the long row of covered platters. The cheerful man explained each dish to you and the prince before letting whoever the dish was meant for taste it. After the appetizers and main course were done, you all moved onto desserts. Oliver excused himself to get the cake he was thinking of making for the wedding. He came back within mere seconds of leaving with a small cake and a sketch pad in hand. The cake looked like a typical cake with red and white icing upon first glance, but Oliver showed you both that their was a small divider in the center, which could be used to push the two halves apart.
Oliver explained that the dark red half of the cake was made entirely of blood. The cake looking section, the icing, it was all blood, but it looked like a red velvet cake. The normal half was a vanilla cake base with vanilla icing. You asked Oliver how he made the vampire half of the cake look like a normal cake. He responded by putting a finger to his mouth.
"It's a secret I'm afraid," he said with a smile.
His eyes suddenly had pink swirls in them, but they vanished as quickly as they came. You had only just noticed that his eyes were a sky blue, but boy were they freaky. Oliver laughed at your confused expression but showed you and Luciano the plans for the entire wedding cake. It was going to be a giant five tier cake. He went on to explain that three fourths of the cake was going to be like the half of the sample cake Luciano tried to accommodate the large vampire population that was going to be there. You were fine with this since you knew that their weren't going to be many humans at the wedding reception. Luciano approved the cake design with your additional approval. After thanking the eccentric and energetic British man, you and Luciano left and headed to his study so you could finish reading the book you never got to finish all because of a paper cut.
~Author's Note~
DreamsForDays here! Oliver has formally been introduced! Finally! It took me long enough to give him a more prominent part in the story, and what better to have him join than to have him be the caterer to Luciano and Reader-chan's wedding? This turned out to be slightly longer than anticipated, but that's okay! Time for translations!
Translations: All Italian
Amore mio- My love
Bella - Beautiful
That should be all of the translations this time around. I don't really have much to say again except for thank you guys all so much for your support for this story and my writing! Also, if any of you are Attack on Titan fans and are a Levi fan, I will hopefully be getting a Levi x Reader modern AU up some time within the next week or two. Thanks for reading! Feedback in the comments is always appreciated! Until next time!