A/N: Welcoming 2019 with a short story! 

[Wedding Crasher]

Vergil's phone rang just as the cab pulled into the lobby of the hotel. Throwing a few notes enough to cover for the cab fare, paired with instructions for the cabbie to keep the change, Vergil picked up the call impatiently as he got off the vehicle, looking around to get his bearings quickly.

"What?" He barked shortly.

"I guessed right. Guess I still know you well enough to predict that you'll go running after her if you saw the wedding invitation on the table." Dante's satisfied voice in his ear did nothing to ease his nerves at the moment. Vergil itched to hang up the call, but he believed his brother would not be as pointless as to call him with no information.

"You were the one who put it there?" Vergil guessed he should have known. How could the wedding invitation have grown legs and walked all the way from the bin to a very visible spot on the table?

"I had a feeling that things were not as 'over' as you said. You wouldn't have bothered to throw away the invitation if you really didn't care." Dante answered knowingly, and at the moment Vergil was not sure if he should curse or thank his twin brother for knowing him so well.

"Did you really call just to check if I'm at the hotel?" Vergil demanded as he ran through the open sliding doors of the hotel lobby, looking around wildly.

"No, but I thought you would want to know that the reception is happening in Function Room 2. It's on the second floor." Dante said, and Vergil was suddenly very glad that he had not hung up on his brother yet, because he realised that if Dante hadn't informed him, he would have spent precious time finding out where his target was.

"Got it. Thanks." He said shortly, running towards the stairs that led to the second floor, dismissing a helpful hotel staff that had been in the process of approaching him to find out what he needed.

"Good luck, and don't make a mess of the situation." Dante bade, and Vergil did not have the breath to reply that there was no way to avoid making a mess of the situation given what he was planning. Dante hung up on the call, and Vergil took the stairs two by two as he pocketed his phone.

He kept his thoughts singular and focused as he ran down the long, opulent corridor. If he allowed himself more thoughts, he knew that his footsteps would slow down, and he might actually turn back and go home without achieving anything. Thinking and rationalising had all he had done for the past few months, and when he had walked out of his room earlier in the day to find the wedding invitation miraculously appearing in front of him on the table, his thoughts had stopped. In the silence of the absence of his thoughts, he had finally heard his heart.

It was not hard to find Function Room 2 given the helpful signs in the hotel corridors, and he pulled himself to a stop right outside the door. He paused to catch his breath, dragging a hand through his hair to drive his fringe out of his face. He had rushed out of house without thinking to throw on anything decent or worthy of a wedding, and the only thing relative presentable enough for his status was his full-length coat.

Still, he wasn't here to attend a wedding. He was here to stop one.

Through the door, he could hear the scattered sound of applause before a voice spoke through the microphones throughout the hall.

"Without further ado, the moment we have all been waiting for. Will the bride and the groom please come up to the stage to proceed with the signing?"

Applause happened again, and Vergil breathed a sigh of relief to know that he had not arrived too late. The situation was still salvageable; the wedding hadn't started for very long at all.

Preparing himself emotionally, Vergil forced calmness into his frame as he pressed his palm lightly on the set of swing doors. What preparation he had been trying to come up fell to pieces when his phone rang again. Vergil jolted in shock at the sudden call, then backtracked far enough so that the guests closest to the door would not hear him in conversation right outside.

"What is it?" He hissed.

"Vergil! Are you in the hall yet?"

"No, but I was going to!" Vergil would have yelled back, but he was still trying to keep a low-key for now. "What is it?"

"Oh, you were? Sorry, don't let me hold you up. Can't have you missing your timing to burst in dramatically, can we?" Dante answered, which only irritated Vergil more.

"What did you call me for? Make it quick; I have to go in before they sign on their certificates." Vergil rushed, glad that the applause was only beginning to die down inside the room. There was no doubt that the emcee would have somethings to say before the bride and groom of the day were cued to sign their lives away to each other.

"I don't know if you know this, but you probably should not piss off the groom too much. Reena's parents outdid themselves this time and caught a big fish. Denzen's background is pretty dark, and you don't want to step on his toes."

"I'm about to steal his wife." Vergil reminded. "Am I not already stepping on his toes?"

"Well, this is just an arranged marriage. There is possibility that Denzen doesn't like Reena at all. What I'm trying to say that if there is a possibility that he's actually completely fine losing Reena to you as long as he can get another wife through his family's connection, then maybe you should watch your words and try not to insult him too much. You got to let a man of status like him off his high horse gently, or he'll be hounding our asses for the rest of our lives." Dante explained.

"I'm about to humiliate him in front of his guests and leave him alone on the altar with a runaway bride. How am I supposed to do that without insulting him?" Vergil wasn't even sure if exasperation or desperation was a bigger emotion inside him now.

"I don't know. You're the one crashing the wedding, not me. But you're Vergil. You'll think of something." Dante's reply was not a single bit reassuring at all, and once more Dante bade him good luck and hung up before he could make another reply.

"Since there is no objection from anyone in attendance, may the bride and groom please sign the certificates you have in front of you?" Vergil was thankful to have hung up the call at the perfect moment, because any moment later, he might have been too late.

This time, there was no time for emotional preparation as he slammed the door open with one hand, the other pocketing his phone.

"I object!" He shouted, and the effect was expected as heads turned to him in shock, surprise and horror.

"I object to this marriage!" Vergil repeated just in case he was not heard the first time in the confusion. Ignoring the eyes pinned on him, Vergil weaved through the tables full of well-dressed guests to reach the front, jumping up the stage with ease to stand in front of the table where the two main subjects sat, their marriage certificates in front of them.

"Sir?" The emcee stood uncertainly at the corner of the stage, clearly not prepared for Vergil's crashing.

"Who are you?" Denzen Lavin –the groom of the day –stood up with shock and irritation all over his face.

"My name is Vergil Sparda. You may have heard of me from your fiancée." He answered evenly. Dante hadn't been wrong; one look, and Vergil could tell that Denzen was a man born and bred in a completely different tax bracket.

"Vergil, what are you doing here...?" Reena rose to her feet as well, though her voice was weaker than her usual insistence.

"I'm here to stop this wedding. To stop you. And to take you away." Vergil landed his hand on the woman's slender wrist, pulling her stumbling around the table until she stood beside him at his side of the table.

"Why are you doing this?" The tears were already running down the bride's face when Vergil gave the beautiful face a brief look, but he could not decipher if there was happiness, love, or just disgust at his presence.

"The Reena I know isn't someone who just accepts an arranged marriage with someone she doesn't love. This isn't you, and you will regret this." Vergil expressed strongly.

"How would you know if I love him or not? You're the last person who knows who I love!" Reena shook her wrist free from Vergil's grip, taking his full attention to her crying face. The folded-back veil somehow made her look beautiful even as she cried.

"I know that you don't love him because I'm the one you love, you idiot!" He shouted back, grabbing her wrist again. "I know you've always been hanging around me because you want me to give you attention and love you back! You can't possibly forget all of your feelings for the past year in a month!"

"This wedding is not only about me, Vergil! My parents chose Denzen for me! He can take care of me and my parents when we grow old. If I'm with him, I don't have to work myself to the bone. If I'm with him, I don't have to take insults from my boss everyday who makes me feel small and unloved. If I'm with him, I don't have to face a man who knew about my feelings for him, but refused to give any back!" The bride shouted back as she cried, trying to draw back but failing due to Vergil's strength.

"Let go of my fiancée and get out of here!" A strong hand landed on Vergil's.

"I'm not leaving this room without Reena. I gave up caring about my reputation when I came in. Reena comes with me today." Vergil was –regardless of his secondary role today as a wedding crasher –after all, a martial artist as he swiped Denzen's hand away from his, still holding on to the crying bride.

"I'm not going with you, Vergil. I told you that I gave up on you a month ago, and I meant it!"

"You don't." Vergil warned seriously, spinning around to look back at the tear-stained face. The bride's makeup had been waterproof and they were proving a good choice now, because despite the tears, Vergil still thought that she was gorgeous. "You don't mean it, because you wouldn't be crying if you did. You still love me, and you will come with me."

"I hate that about you!" Reena screamed as she resisted Vergil while he dragged her towards the stairs. "I hate that you always pull me and put me wherever you want me, and you don't even care a single bit about my feelings!"

"Shut up, Reena! You never complained about it whenever I did!" It was not that Vergil did not have the strength to pull the woman; it was more because of the fact that he didn't actually want to hurt her physically by putting too much force in dragging.

"I never complained because I loved you! I thought one day you would look back at me who always obeyed you and listened to you and tried her best to help you even though you always didn't care! I'm tired of that! I'm tired of loving you!" Reena was hammering at his hand with her other free fist desperately now.

"Well, you got your 'one day'!" Vergil said shortly, stopping the both of them at the top of the stairs because it would be really dangerous if he forced her down the stairs in her high heels while she struggled.

"I hate you- What?" Reena's shout stopped abruptly as his short sentence sunk in.

"You have your 'one day'. Am I not looking back at you? Am I not acknowledging your feelings for me? If I really didn't care, why else will I be here, making a whole mess out of this situation and trying to drag you off the stage? You are the death of me, Reena. I'm never going to live this down."

"What do you mean...?" The woman's struggles had ceased as the both of them paused.

"It means for the past one month, not having you around is a pain. It means that even though I'm not as rich as your fiancé, I'm going to let you and your parents live the rest of your lives as peacefully as I can make it. It means that even though you're still going to have to work under a boss who insults you and make you feel small, you're going to have reason to keep staying by his side, because you will know that he's actually been doing all that because he didn't want you to know that all those words came because he was embarrassed and didn't know how to tell you that he cares for you." Vergil managed to bite the embarrassing words out, but this time turned his face away to escape the shame and the heat that was rushing to flood his face.

Jesus, he hadn't really wanted to let those words go.

"Vergil... you mean..."

"Stop making me rephrase my words!" He shouted back, then decided that he was not getting anywhere with the runaway bride who didn't know she wanted to run away with him yet.

Letting go of her hand long enough to sweep her off her feet instead, carrying her bridal style across his arms, Vergil turned to the groom of the wedding who still stood in the middle of the stage looking terribly angry.

"My brother told me not to step on your toes more than I can help. I'm not trying to insult you, or humiliate you in any way in front of your guests. I sincerely apologise for crashing this wedding, but I cannot let Reena marry you. She is mine, and you're going to have to try and fail a thousand times before I allow her to marry you. I know no extent of apologies will make up for what I have done, but understand truly that I do not mean any offence to you. In fact, I am saving you from making a risky investment. Don't marry Reena; she is an idiot. She cannot follow orders well, and she doesn't think twice before doing anything. She will burn down your house if you allow her into the kitchen. She makes your room twice as messy if she tries to clean it. She will spill coffee on your important documents, and ruin them more by trying to wash the coffee out. She will be a stupid wife who can't do anything right, and you won't be able to forgive her deeds if you don't love her. Leave this idiot to me, and I truly you hope that you find yourself a woman whom you love enough to forgive her deeds the next time." Vergil expressed.

Then, before any more actions could be taken against him –while he still owned the element of surprise –Vergil ran down the stairs of the stage, down the aisle, and out of the hall with the bride in his arms.