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Arashiyama is quiet when he walks into the room, pushing the door shut gently and moving to the bed with soft, steady steps. Yuuichi holds still, holds his breath, not sure why.
Arashiyama pulls back the covers and slides into bed, facing Yuuichi. Their eyes meet. Yuuichi is curled up, a pillow in his arms, and Arashiyama mimics the position.
Their hands find each other in the middle, and Arashiyama grins.
“It’s midnight,” he whispers, even though they’re the only two people in the house. Yuuichi had been counting down as well, but hearing it aloud still sends thrills through him. It’s midnight. It’s officially time. Something curls in his chest, wound tightly and ready to burst at any second.
Arashiyama, like he always does, senses this. With an exhale, he begins to rub circles on the back of Yuuichi’s palm with his thumb, slow and careful. It seems to calm them both, giving them something to focus on away from the looming weight of the future made now.
“It’s… it’s a lot, right?” Arashiyama confesses, eyes closed. Yuuichi swallows and tries to feel less like he’s going to throw up.
It is a lot. He’s not exactly scared, or nervous, or excited. He’s a weird, anticipatory mix of all three, trying to find some solid ground as the world around him shakes.
“Yeah,” he murmurs back. “It’s so much.” He tightens his grip on Arashiyama’s hands. The world steadies.
Arashiyama huffs a laugh. They are silent, and Yuuichi realizes that their breathing has synced up. It’s a small, coincidental and inconsequential thing, but it still fills him with warmth. This is how they are. This is what defines them, this love that defies all words. An easy state of being, a syncopated life, a rhythmic heartbeat shared.
He breathes in. Arashiyama breathes in.
Arashiyama breathes out. He breathes out.
“Hey,” Arashiyama calls softly, his eyes open now. “For today. What’s the most favourable future?”
Yuuichi smiles, because the answer is obvious. “This one,”.
Arashiyama laughs. “Really?”
Yuuichi nods, reaching out a hand to brush the hair out of Arashiyama’s eyes. Arashiyama stops his hand before he can retract it, grabbing it during the motion and bringing it to his lips. He presses a kiss to Yuuichi’s knuckles. Yuuichi closes his eyes and feels the tension melt out of him, because in the end, today is about him and Arashiyama. And Yuuichi will never, ever be anything but content around him.
“When I was younger,” Yuuichi begins, his grip on Arashiyama’s hands just shy of desperate, “I would think about the future. All the time. The future I couldn’t see, because it was too distant and too unpredictable. I would imagine it.”
Arashiyama nods, his gaze devoted as he stares at Yuuichi. Despite the darkness, Yuuichi sees him like he’s looking into the sun.
“In all of those futures,” he breathes, “I never imagined that I could be this happy.”
The engagement rings on their hands seem to gleam with the light of Arashiyama’s smile. There is a part of Yuuichi that marvels and marvels, that cannot believe this is happening, and there is a part of Yuuichi that knows that this, this , is good. That this is right. That there is no future more perfect than the one Yuuichi has waiting for him come sunlight.
“Sap,” Arashiyama teases, as if Yuuichi can’t see the tears in his eyes. It’s a wetness that Yuuichi can feel building in his own, so he doesn’t say anything, just smiles and smiles and smiles.
“Are you ready for it?” Arashiyama asks. It’s a sign, a tell of how nervous he is, that he keeps asking questions he knows the answer to.
Forever with Arashiyama Jun is something Yuuichi will always be ready for.
“Yes,” he whispers. “More than anything.” Yuuichi’s heart is a calm, steady thing as he says this. There isn’t much he can be sure about, and the view of the future hangs in front of him, taunting, but he knows this: a future with Arashiyama by his side is a brighter one. A more favourable one. A more hopeful one.
“Okay,” Arashiyama says. He squeezes Yuuichi’s hands. “Okay.” His voice is affirmed. His smile is a thing reassured. His grasp is an embrace hopeful.
Yuuichi is effortlessly in love.
“Let’s adopt a million dogs,” Arashiyama says.
“Anything you want,” Yuuichi promises.
With a laugh, Arashiyama shakes his head and attempts at a mock frown. “If this relationship is going to work out, you’re going to need to be the reasonable one.” He lectures, giggling as he says it. Yuuichi pokes out his tongue.
“Trust me, I can see the future. We’re getting a million dogs,” he says solemnly.
“I’m holding you to that,” Arashiyama teases.
“We can get a million cats, too,” Yuuichi replies.
“Stop making promises you won’t keep.”
It occurs to Yuuichi that he has an entire lifetime, the rest of forever, the end of eternity, to fulfil these promises.
“We have the rest of our lives,” he says, reverent.
Arashiyama pauses, blinking.
“Yeah,” he mumbles, smiling shyly. “We do. We do.”
“Come on,” Yuuichi says, shuffling closer to Arashiyama and pulling the blankets tighter. “Let’s sleep. Konami will kill us if we’re too tired in the morning.”
Arashiyama laughs, and Yuuichi is obsessed with the idea that he’ll be hearing that laugh for the rest of his life.
“Alright,” Arashiyama agrees, moving closer still, until their foreheads are almost touching. “Goodnight, Yuuichi. See you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Jun. See you in the morning.” It’s something they’re going to get used to saying, and nothing has ever sounded more beautiful to Yuuichi.
They fall asleep with smiles on their faces. The future beckons, certain and happy.