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The clock on the wall read 14:12. The wedding ceremony was supposed to begin at 14:00. Leone Abbacchio was twelve minutes late to his own wedding and no one knew where he was. Mista, Fugo, and Narancia had searched high and low while Trish had asked the few guests if they had seen him. Giorno was also missing, which was strange.
That left Bruno standing at the altar by himself. He could feel all the sympathetic and worried eyes on him, and he hated it. He wanted to disappear from everyone’s sight and go search for his husband-to-be himself, but he was told to wait there. He looked like a fool; he had no doubt.
The freshly picked flowers that Trish had picked out were taking the brunt of his nerves, their poor stems being held so tightly they could break at any moment. Bruno had been nervous about the idea of a wedding from the get-go and now all his doubts and fears were coming true. He was going to be left at the altar.
His friends assured him he wouldn’t, they wouldn’t let it happen. Their voices had been comforting, but without them here the voices were far away now. Bruno was left with the bad voices echoing, echoing, echoing…
Trish, who was talking with some of the guests near the front, noticed the look in Bruno’s eyes and ran to him. “Bruno—Bruno, hey look at me.” Trish was pulling at his sleeve. “We’re going to find him and he’s going to have a stupid reason as to why he’s late, but he will be here.”
Bruno swallowed past the lump in his throat and nodded. He didn’t trust himself to speak.
“I promise you, I know he wouldn’t just ditch. He’s head over heels for you, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone so in love. And when he does show up, I’m going to give him the worst talking of his life. Giorno too if he has anything to do with this—” Trish cut off when her phone started ringing.
Mista’s face came up on the screen and Trish answered it immediately. Bruno leaned closer, hoping to hear any good news.
“Did you find him?” she asked urgently.
Bruno held his breath. He could hear Mista’s voice but couldn’t hear any words being said. Trish glanced up at him before she turned away and huddled the phone closer to her. Bruno felt his heart drop.
“Even Narancia can’t find him? Nothing at all?” Trish whispered into her phone. “Are there any leads?” Trish was silent while Mista talked. “Alright, alright.” She sighed. “Then head back here so we can make a plan, this could be rough.”
Bruno was frozen in his spot, ice creeping through his veins. If someone pushed him, he felt his body would shatter into shards.
Leone had left him, hadn’t he?
Trish turned back to Bruno and saw the broken look on his face, she quickly put on her bravest face for the bravest man she knew. She grabbed Bruno’s face and held it gently in her hands. She turned his face down towards hers.
“We’re going to find him, I promise. He would never leave you. All we have to do is have faith. Do you have faith in him?”
“Yes,” Bruno whispered weakly, but it was without hesitation. He did, he had all the faith in Leone, but an evil voice was attempting to crush it. But for Leone, he would fight it for as long as he could.
Mista returned with Narancia and Fugo in tow. Mista and Narancia looked worried, while Fugo looked like he was ready to bite someone’s head off.
“I swear, when I find Abbacchio and Giorno, they’re going to get a Bucciarati-like lecture that they’ll never forget,” Mista threatened as they approached.
“Yeah,” Narancia huffed. “This is very not cool of them. Even I was on time.”
Fugo glared at the floor, refusing to meet Bruno’s eyes. “I think I will be joining you on the lecture, Mista. They know better than to be late to important events., especially one such as this.”
Bruno listened to his friends talk, they all believed Leone would show up with Giorno right behind him. They had no doubts they’d show, they had faith.
Have faith.
Bruno had put all his faith in Leone long ago and never looked back.
The doors to the grand hall slammed open. All eyes shot to the doors. There, in all his glory, was Leone Abbacchio. But, instead of wearing the suit that he’d planned, he was covered in butterflies.
They were all different colors, reds, oranges, and greens, but most prominently were blues and purples. Even as Leone hurried down the aisle, most remained attached with their wings opening and closing slowly, but some flew around his head.
It was almost cartoonish.
Leone rushed over to Bruno, ignoring all the eyes and whispered questions from the others in the room. Giorno was right behind, closing the doors. An apologetic smile was on his face, his cheeks painted with a bit of pink. He was strangely butterfly free.
“Bruno, Bruno, amore , I’m so sorry.” Leone was focused only on his fiancé’s anxious face. He reached out to touch him but retracted his hand.
Naranica was staring wide-eyed at Leone. “What the he—”
Mista quickly covered Narancia’s mouth.
“I had this great plan—I was going to have butterflies fly out during my vows, make it something you’d never forget, but Giorno couldn’t get things to work right.”
Giorno looked up when Leone said his name but didn’t have a chance to put in his piece before Leone continued.
“The room just burst with all these butterflies. They were on me, the walls, the floors, the door out. I know what happens to people who hurt the creatures Giorno makes, so I just stood still.” Leone was speaking with his hands, but the butterflies hung on.
Was his suit transformed into butterflies too?
“I had to wait until Giorno had fixed most of the problem before I could get out. I hated knowing that I was stuck in there while you were waiting out here.”
“That does answer why Narancia couldn’t find you guys.”
Giorno snuck in his chance to speak while Leone focused all of his attention on Bruno. “Abbacchio took me downstairs so that it could be a surprise for everyone. The basement has a lot of weird machinery that we had to walk through; it was very loud. They were why I messed up; it was hard to think with all the noise.”
Bruno never looked away from Leone’s face while listening to Giorno. He was too relieved that Leone was here, he didn’t leave or run. Leone was here.
“See?” Leone gestured desperately. “Even Giorno is saying it’s his fault, it wasn’t me. I would’ve been here and waiting like we planned. Please, Bruno, please forgive me.”
The desperation in Leone’s voice struck Bruno’s heart. Ever so carefully, Bruno tucked a loose strand of hair behind Leone’s ear.
“I’m not upset,” Bruno whispered.
Leone heaved a sigh, and the tension left his shoulders. As he did, a butterfly crawled off of Leone’s face and onto Bruno’s hand. Bruno stared at the butterfly, it walked down his finger before flying back to Leone’s face.
“I’m really sorry Bruno, I wanted to make this special for you. I didn’t mean to make you panic, I wanted this to be a memorable day.”
Bruno smiled sweetly at his husband-to-be, “I don’t think I’ll forget your butterfly suite anytime soon. Of all the things that could have gone wrong today, I’ll take you being late because of a butterfly mishap every time.”
“I’m surprised you were still here, I thought we took too long. I was worried you would be gone…why didn’t you leave?”
“Trish, actually,” Bruno said and nodded towards her. “She reminded me to have faith in you, and I’m glad that I did.” Bruno grabbed Leone’s hands and pulled him into place by the altar. “Shall we start this?”
“Yeah,” Leone nodded with his butterflies fluttering their wings. “No more interruptions.”
So they did. Everyone found their place and watched as Leone and Bruno shared their vows, butterflies flying around them the whole time. It seemed that the happier Leone was, the more his suit was revealed. Butterflies flew around the two grooms, creating a mystical moment.
The most amazing moment was when Leone slid Bruno’s ring onto his finger. Leone, though out of tradition, held his Bruno close instead of standing and facing the other. Bruno didn’t mind, this was their moment, they could be a little selfish this time.
Leone’s hands were warm as they slid the ring on. They only had the slightest shake to them, more due to excitement than nerves. When the ring couldn’t go any farther on Bruno’s finger, they locked eyes. They were truly one. Any remaining butterflies left Leone’s suit and soared around the room. The room was alive with Leone’s excitement.
Bruno could hardly believe the sight in front of him. Not only were the butterflies making it feel like they were the only two in the room that mattered, but Leone was smiling more than Bruno had ever seen before. He hoped that this wouldn’t be the only time he was able to bring a smile to Leone’s face so continuously.
He was barely able to keep himself from pouncing on his now-husband the moment they were allowed to kiss. Leone held Bruno firmly and dipped him low, earning cheers from their small crowd. And as if they all thought as Leone did, the butterflies rushed back to their host and his husband, giving them one more second of cover to sneak in one more kiss.
Having faith was well worth it.