Luciano was in his training room for a change. It was a large room filled with target practice dummies, weight lifting machines and normal hand weights, and various weapons. The dark auburn haired prince stood before a row of practice dummies, a small, round dark oak wood table next to him with throwing knifes neatly placed in row. Each one had a nice shine to it, all of them having just been polished by Luciano himself. Lutz and Matt stood behind him quite a distance away, both lifting hand weights and watching closely as Luciano studied the hay filled dummies. He reached a hand to hover above the knife filled table, his gaze never leaving the heart stitched into the center dummy's chest on its left side. He quickly plucked a throwing knife from the table by its blade and hurled it towards the dummy. It hit the heart dead in the center before another one landed in the center of its head. The dummy shook violently from the impact, nearly toppling over from the sheer force of the throws from Luciano.
"You know," Luciano began, attention focusing on another dummy. "I've been thinking about the wedding a lot lately." He threw another knife and hit his target.
"That's not surprising. It is only eight days away," Lutz said as he put the weights he was using back on their rack and grabbing a pair of heavier ones to try and keep up with the size and weight of Matt's.
"Yes, I know, but I've been thinking about the guest list more so."
"What about the guest list?" Matt asked, going to grab a heavier set of weights once more, much to Lutz's displeasure.
"I'm thinking of extending it."
"Extending the guest list? You already have the surrounding towns and cities of the kingdom attending, plus that small village of humans that live among us. That's a lot of people that are going to show up, some couple hundred attendees. Do you really think inviting more people is a good idea?" Lutz inquired while grabbing another pair of weights.
"It may not be a good idea, but I'm going to go through with it anyway."
"And who are you thinking of inviting?" Matt questioned, this time putting the hand weights back entirely and opting to set up a barbell to bench press instead.
"I was thinking (y/f/n) and (y/m/n) (l/n) and Luke and Isabelle Castel."
Matt dropped the weight he was about to put on the one side of the barbell and Lutz dropped both of the hand weights he was using, both of their mouths gaping from shock.
"You're joking," Matt said.
Luciano shot the two men a serious look.
"He's not joking," Lutz stated in a surprised tone.
"Correct, I am not joking. I am being absolutely serious when I say I want to invite them to the wedding. After all, one couple is her actual parents and the other are her adoptive ones. They should be able to see their daughter married off."
"Is this a part of your plan to get back at (y/f/n)?" asked Matt, picking up the weight he dropped and positioning it on the barbell.
"Well, look who passed high school!"
"I'm taking that as a yes."
"Yes, that is the whole reason behind this. I'm going for the "eye for an eye" approach. He took away my grandfather, so I'll take away his precious little girl."
"He was nine when he killed him, and it was in an effort to save his father, which still failed. You can't really hold that against him Luciano."
A throwing knife whizzed past the French-Canadian's head and embedded itself in the wall next to him.
"Don't you dare say I can't hold that against him! He killed my grandfather, my last living relative-!"
"Isn't Flavio your last living relative?" inquired Lutz, which earned him a throwing knife in his chest.
The blond haired German looked to his wife beater with disdain. The once white fabric now had a bright red stain of unoxygenated blood surrounding where the dagger pierced his pale skin. He pulled the knife from his chest and took off his blood soaked shirt. The sight of the wound was fully healed already. He grinned and flexed his muscles at Matt who in turn glared at him.
"I meant my last living elder relative you idiot! He took away something that mattered to be, someone that I held dear to my non-beating heart, so I will do the same damn thing to him, even if it kills me!"
"Yeah, I think we get that, but you're not killing (y/n). You're keeping her alive, dangling her presence in front of (y/f/n), just out of his reach until he snaps and declares war on you," Matt explained, taking his flannel shirt and white t-shirt off and flexing back at Lutz, the three scars running across his chest rippling with each movement.
"Precisely Matt! I don't even have to elaborate my plans. You can read me like an open book. That just shows that your vampire traits are becoming more dominant over your human ones. Whether that is a good thing is up to you Matthieu, but they are helping you tremendously. I'd like to think of it as-! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! PUT ME DOWN YOU ASSBAG!" Luciano screamed as Lutz picked him up and put him on top of his barbell which had two hundred pounds of weight divided between the two ends, as well as the forty-five pounds the barbell weighed and now Luciano's weight of one hundred forty pounds.
Lutz slid under the bar and gripped it on either side of Luciano. He pushed the bar up with minimal effort, causing Luciano to let out a rather girlish shriek as he almost slid off of the barbell and onto Lutz's face and chest below him. The vampire prince gripped onto the metal bar tightly, his knuckles turning white. Lutz smirked at Matt and looked at him from the corner of his eye. The blond male growled under his breath and discarded the two hundred pound weight he was about to place on the side of the barbell. He walked over to the double doors of the room and opened one, forcefully having it slam against the wall behind it. Lutz continued smirking as he shifted his violet eyes upward to meet the magenta hues of Luciano. The prince's eyes were wide open as he continued to be bench pressed, his knuckles now seeming to achieve what would be considered a new shade of white.
The two men soon heard Matt whistle rather loudly into the hallway. The sound of rapid and heavy footsteps was soon could acknowledged by both males. A mass of white fur, also known as Matt's beloved polar bear named Kuma, lumbered into the room with a menacing growl directed towards Lutz. Matt shut the door and walked over to where the bench press station he was using was set up. He pushed the barbell holder back and far away from the bench. Matt then laid down on the bench and gave a few commands to Kuma in French. The polar bear seemed to nod at him in an understanding manner.
The white furred mammal stood on his hide legs and turned to have his back face Matt. Kuma then fell backwards onto Matt's awaiting hands and was held above the half human, half vampire male. The violet and light blue speckle eyed male began to push his pet polar bear companion up into the air and then lower him down to almost his chest before pushing him back up again, then repeating the process. Matt didn't struggle one bit to bench press his one thousand four hundred fifty pound polar bear, and shot Lutz a chaste glance and a smug smirk. Lutz stopped bench pressing Luciano and the weights and put the barbell back into its holder before storming out of the training. He had been shown up by what his race would consider to be the only human-vampire hybrid to ever exist. His pride was hurt, and he would have to spend years repairing it to his former standard.
Luciano slipped himself off of the bar and readjusted his red wife beater and black with grey accent athletic capri pants. He awkwardly stood watching Matt continue to bench press Kuma until he was sure that Lutz was gone. The white, fluffy polar bear gave a small roar.
"Yes, you can get down now buddy," Matt said while settling his arms lower to his chest so Kuma could roll off of his hands and onto the floor. "Thanks for the help Kuma. I appreciate it." Matt ruffled the fur on his best friends head, earning a purr from the large creature.
"That was quite impressive Matt. I never knew your strength was so great," Luciano awkwardly coughed out.
"Thanks. I've been conditioning myself to be able to lift items around Kuma's weight. It's only to piss Lutz off thought. It's fun to irritate him since I know he doesn't particularly like me."
"Ah, I see. Well, I should head off to my study to prepare a letter for (y/n)'s parents. I suggest that you get some sleep. Come day break, I want you to deliver it to the (l/n)s and Castels,
personally. The Castels trust you, right? You should no issue in convincing them to come to the wedding. You won't have to do much convincing with (y/f/n) and (y/m/n). The Castels will do that for you."
"Alright. I'll see you later then Luciano."
"Good night Matt."
~Time Skip - Early in the Morning~
The letters to your parents and foster parents were finally done. Luciano looked the nearly identical letters over again, the one to your actual family was his main concern. It read:
Dear (y/f/n) and (y/m/n) (l/n),
I would like to cordially invite you to my wedding and coronation on March 17th. While this is short notice, it would be a pleasure to have the two of you attend. I have taken the liberty of inviting a couple that you are very familiar with by the last name of Castel so that you do not feel too out of place, though other humans will be attending as well. I do believe that after reading this far into my letter you both are thinking that this is a devious attempt to lure you to my castle to kill you. I can assure you though that no harm will come to either of you, or the Castels, during your visit. The man bringing you this shall be your body guard. You have my word, and trust me when I say that this is one event that you are not going to want to miss.
Sincerely,
Luciano Vargas, Prince of the vampires
Luciano nodded to himself in approval before folding the two papers into three sections. He grabbed a red wax stick and a lighter from one of the drawers in his desk. He held the wax above where the tap hold met halfway into the bottom fold on the one letter and began to heat it up with the lighter. The vampire prince figured that since he was already writing a letter, why not go all the way and do it the old fashioned with with wax seals.
Once enough wax had accumulated on the paper, he grabbed the stamper containing his family's royal seal and pressed it down into the center of the wax, effectively leaving the seal's picture in the now cooling wax. He repeated the process of the second letter. While the second letter's wax cooled, Luciano neatly wrote your parents names to make sure that Matt would give the correct letter to them. When the wax on the letter addressed to your foster parents had cooled, he then wrote their names on the front. A knock sounded throughout the room from the door.
"Enter," Luciano commanded in a tired voice.
Matt entered quietly, looking well rested and ready for his mission. Luciano stood slowly, his back cracking as he stretched. He snatched the letters from his desk and walked over to the tall French-Canadian. Matt took the letters, careful not to accidentally break the fresh seals.
"You know what you must do," Luciano stated as he walked over to the one bookcase and pulled on a random blue spine book.
The bookcase sunk into the wall with little sound and shuffled behind the bookcase to its left. Luciano began to walk into it as Matt spoke.
"What if they question me? I have been gone for a little over three years now. I don't think they are going to exactly welcome me back, especially since I was transporting these." Matt held up the letters, giving them a small wave.
"You're creative. I'm sure you'll think of something," Luciano mumbled just loud enough for Matthieu to hear as the bookcase moved back into place.
Matt nodded and walked out of Luciano's study to round up Kuma to come with him, just in case things started to go down hill. Luciano walked down the dark, windowless corridors, his foot steps echoing. He made lefts and rights down branching hallways and up flights of stairs until he made it to his room. He hit the small button on the wall, the passage door next to the fireplace opening in response. The dark auburn haired male stepped into his room, the door closing behind him. He looked around the room, his eyes glowing in the darkness. Luciano could see your figure already curled up on his side of the king size bed. His pillow was firmly pulled against your chest as you hugged it close to your body, the lower half of your face buried in it.
The vampire prince sighed contently. You were starting to form an attachment to his presence while sleeping. How cute. Luciano stepped into the master bathroom to prepare himself for bed. He soon emerged with black and red plaid pajama pants on and walked over to the bed in the back center of the room. He carefully removed the pillow from your grasped and gently rolled you over onto your side of the mattress. He set his pillow down in its proper place and climbed into his bed, laying down shortly after. Luciano pulled you close to him and snuggled with you until he too soon drifted off to sleep.
~Author's Note~
DreamsForDays here! Ooh, a part of Luciano's master plan has been revealed! I would like to apologize in advance that Reader-Chan hasn't had much involvement with the last few chapters. I know it normally follows her around, but I like to change thing up a little bit. The wedding planning will continue next chapter with Reader-chan and Luciano, as well as a new character or characters! I'm not sure if I'm going to add more than one new character next chapter or it, but there will be at least one for sure. Also, Lutz finely got more time in the story! Yay! I'm curious as to how many of you guys actually read my author's notes, as lengthy as they may be sometimes. I want to play a little guessing game. Here's the question:
~Who do you think is going to be added to the story's next chapter, and what do you think their roll in the wedding is going to be?~
If someone guesses and gets the answer correct, I will say so in the comments under their comment. I normally won't say if someone is correct when they make a guess about what is to come later on in the story, but considering the answer goes with next week's chapter, I'll allow myself to say if you are correct or not if you decide to take a guess. Thanks for reading! Feedback in the comments is always appreciated! Until next time!