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The room looked magical, if Raven was feeling overly romantic about it. It had a feeling of Old Hollywood mixed with the grand style of their mansion - there were white Christmas lights hung in and all around the plants in the conservatory as well as the parlor that connected it to the rest of the house.
She felt proud to see Erik and Charles happy here, even if they still spent part of dinner sending nervous glances in her direction.
Maybe she should just get the toast out of the way and spare the room the pain of anticipating her speech; she’d done all she could to hype it up without giving too much of the surprise away, much to Charles’ and Erik’s dismay.
It really served them right for being so blind seven years ago at The Actors’ Studio.
Now she was going to pay both of them back for being stupid. Just like she had done fifteen months ago.
*
The room had settled into a nice, if slightly boisterous, lull after dessert. It was almost perfect. She pointedly looked over at Charles and Erik, looking besotted and every bit the almost-married couple, and then tapped her water glass with her fork.
The clink wasn’t very loud and everyone kept up their conversations.
“Oi!” she yelled as she stood up. The room quieted at her voice bouncing off the glass and walls. She cleared her throat. “Today, as the Best Woman, it’s my job to thoroughly embarrass my big brother and his fiance just before they become husband and husband.”
There was a heartfelt groan from Charles and Erik's seats, and she tipped her champagne flute to them in response.
“You all know how Charles and Erik met, right? Yeah, I’m sure you do, because most of you are also from their class at The Actors’ Studio. So, it goes without saying that Charles and Erik haven’t been dating since they first meet each other seven years. In fact, they’ve only been dating for fifteen months.
“But that doesn’t mean that The Actors’ Studio isn’t important--because it is. It’s where they met, if not where they fell in love. It’s too easy to go into all the details on how Charles pined away for Erik, but never said anything, just as it’s easy to say that Erik was smitten and hiding it very well.
“That’s where they started their journey together, but it wasn’t until last year that everything else fell into place.”
The room murmured, as if they knew where this was headed, and Raven realized that they probably did, but she wasn’t going to cut it from her speech. It was her time to shine for a few moments.
“It’s also no big shock to you that Charles is a bit absent-minded, especially when he’s in the middle of a show. Well, he’s even worse now that he’s on junkets and still doing work. To the point where one day when he was visiting me between a junket and a premiere that he checked Twitter from my computer - and forgot to log out!
“How stupid of him, right?” She wanted for the room to laugh or do something, and she wasn’t let down when Logan started to chortle all through the room. He was followed by Alex and Sean a beat later.
“So, yes, Charles forgot that he was still logged in, and when I came back to look at the news, lo and behold, there was Charles’ account. Just begging for me to use it.
“Next think you know, I’ve tweeted that he was silly and left it open for me and that I’ll be answering questions for the next two hours. Because I can.”
“I still hate you for this,” Charles said, before hiding his blush in Erik's shoulder.
“You don’t actually, because you’re getting married tomorrow, brother dear.
“Anyway, the point is that Erik, Mister-I-don't-need-social-media, decides to ask some questions - that he already knows the answers to! - on Twitter.
“Because they were too blind to see what they had back at school. So, I do what any self-respecting sister should do, and I answer his questions, and I tell him just a few stories about Charles’ reactions to his performances from school. Maybe I let it slip that Erik’s name had been on Charles’ lips more often than not when Charles came home tanked.
“Maybe I did that with thousands of Charles's followers paying way too much attention. But, it was for the greater good. Because of this little prank I pulled, Charles changed his password, apologized to his whole feed for his crude sister and sent Erik a very nice DM.”
Angel pretended to vomit at that, and Raven just smiled.
“This next part is just a little sketchy - mostly because Charles and Erik refuse to say anything on the subject - but a few others have told me that at the next event they attended together, Erik nearly grabbed Charles - fireman’s lift and all - and took him to the public restroom.
“Or so the story goes. But, the end result of this possibly possessive meet-up was a real meet cute and some dates where they were both able to get their heads out of their asses and admit their feelings.
“So it was the magic of Twitter that brought the two of them together at last - with a little help from me, of course. I think that deserves a toast! Here's to Charles and Erik!”
Raven raised her glass high and waited for everyone else to follow suit. It took no time at all for everyone to yell, “Salut!” and for the champagne to flow after that. Sitting back down in her seat, she saw Charles still tucked into Erik’s neck, as if he were to eat his fiance whole. Or maybe Charles was getting ready for a vampire movie or something.
She’d ask him after the honeymoon.