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Kyoutani was out for his daily run at the park near his apartment when he heard an unholy shriek behind him. He turned around to see a rather large dog pulling a helpless person at the end of it’s leash through the muddy banks of the pond while it chased ducks that were gathered at the edge. He ran over to help the person up to their feet and was surprised to find a very muddy and very upset Yahaba Shigeru.
When their eyes met they both gaped at each other, until Kyoutani burst into a fit of laughter. He helped Yahaba to his feet and handed him a handkerchief to try to clean at least some of the mud off his face.
“You know, I thought I recognized that shriek. It’s been a few years but it has its own unique ring to it.”
“Your laugh hasn’t changed much either, asshole.”
Kyoutani tried his best to stop laughing and the dog ran back over to them, having successfully chased the ducks out of the pond. He looked over and was surprised to find it was his neighbor’s Tosa, Pochi.
“Pochi! Why’re you out here with Yahaba instead of Suzuki-san?”
“I was walking him as a side job. I pick ‘em up on occasion to make extra cash between classes. Suzuki-san twisted her ankle and was looking for someone to take him for walks for a couple weeks. How do you know her?”
“Her house is down the street from my apartment and I dogsit him whenever she has to go out of town. C’mon, we can drop him off and you can take a shower at my place. I think I have some clothes that’ll fit well enough. Might be a little baggy though.”
“Please, I’ll take anything, I just wanna get clean.”
Kyoutani chuckled and grabbed Pochi’s leash before leading Yahaba back to his neighborhood. They dropped him of at Suzuki’s house, and she offered for Yahaba to take a shower and wash his clothes, but he declined since he was going to Kyoutani’s anyway and they made their way to his apartment. Once they got there Kyoutani showed him the bathroom and left a towel and a change of clothes outside while Yahaba cleaned himself off.
Kyoutani busied himself with making some tea, throwing together something quick for them to snack on, and tossing Yahaba’s clothes in the wash. He never thought he’d see Yahaba again after he and his family had to abruptly move to Tokyo after their third year in high school. He didn’t really get a chance to say anything about his feelings back then, because there would be no point if he was three hours away.
Now he was on his own and working at a soul sucking job that paid well enough while he finished his graduate school. He dated a few people, but never really felt that spark he did back in high school. There was something… invigorating about Yahaba. He couldn’t forget about how every conversation felt like a challenge, how even though they didn’t always agree, they always respected each other, how petty arguments always ended in them laughing their asses off at something stupid one of them said to try to finish it.
It was weird, having these feelings flood back over him just from seeing Yahaba again. Yahaba came out of the bathroom, looking refreshed and smiled at Kyoutani.
“So… this is where you disappeared to, huh?”
“Sorry… we weren’t given a lot of notice. We had like, two weeks to pack up everything and move. I didn’t even have time to say bye to you guys in anything other than a text.”
Yahaba shrugged and sat down at the table. Kyoutani brought over the tea and a plate of small sandwiches and Yahaba’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Don’t look at me like that, even I know how to treat a guest.”
Yahaba laughed before picking up a sandwich and taking a bite.
“Shut up, I know you do. I’m still trying to get over the fact that it took a dog literally dragging me through the mud for us to see each other again.”
“If I’d’ve known it was you I would’ve taken a picture. Watari would pay money to see something like that.”
“I don’t doubt it. He’s here now too you know, most of our team from when we were second years is, actually. Kindaichi and Kunimi both came to Tokyo to work after high school, and Oikawa and Iwaizumi moved here after Oikawa got offered a job as a setting coach since his knee’s too hurt to play anymore. Shinji and I are both going to Todai to finish off our degrees. He’s doing economics and I’m going for law.”
“Damn, I’m going for engineering. It’s no wonder I haven’t seen you guys. I’ve seen Iwaizumi around, but Matsukawa and Makki moved to France. They seem happy enough there though.”
“Yeah, well maybe we can hang out again. Shinji and I share an apartment not too far from here, I’m sure he’d like to see you too.”
“Sure. Anything you wanna do? Your clothes are gonna take a bit.”
“I wish I had my books, then I could study.”
“Well, if you have online resources you can use my laptop? Most of my homework has to be done on graphing paper anyway.”
“Really? That’d be awesome, thanks. I have a test in a couple days and if I’m not making money I at least can’t sit by doing nothing.”
“I feel ya. Finals fucking suck.”
“Language.”
Kyoutani snorted and looked back at him.
“You are the last person who’s allowed to tell me that. I’ve heard you stub your toe on a ball cart.”
“Yeah, well my mom hasn’t.”
“She’d probably bleach your mouth.”
Yahaba shuddered.
“I don’t wanna think about it.”
Kyoutani laughed and cleared the table before going back to his bedroom to bring out his laptop and making a second trip for his own books and papers. Yahaba got himself settled on Kyoutani’s couch and Kyoutani spread his papers across the coffee table. He walked into the kitchen to get them both glasses of water before they both got themselves lost in their studies.
Kyoutani found it odd, the comforting silence he found with Yahaba being in the same room. It was as if five years hadn’t passed since they last saw each other and everything was back to the way they were in their third year of high school. When the washer sounded off Yahaba was so engrossed in the computer that he didn’t even notice Kyoutani turn over the laundry until after the clothes were already dry and he dropped them on Yahaba’s head.
“WHAT THE-?”
“It’s been two hours, get your nose out of the computer for two minutes and get changed.”
“Seriously? Holy shit.”
“Pfft. ‘Language’ Yahaba.”
“Bite me.”
“You wanted to go home to study properly right?”
Yahaba hesitated then looked back at him.
“Yeah, I suppose I should. Thanks for all this, by the way. I really appreciate it.”
He handed Kyoutani the computer back and disappeared into the bathroom to get changed back into his clothes. Once he was done Kyoutani walked him to the door, Yahaba started to walk out then turned around as Kyoutani reached out to grab his shoulder.
“Do you wanna get dinner sometime?”
“We should meet up for dinner or something!”
They both stared at each other, neither expecting the other to ask them out. Yahaba fell into a fit of laughter when Kyoutani turned beet red, then pulled out his phone.
“Here, gimme your number. Once you start breathing again you can ask me out properly.”
Kyoutani huffed out a laugh and grabbed Yahaba’s phone to type his number in.
“You can ask me when you stop laughing instead, asshole.”
---
Ten years later, Kyoutani still couldn’t believe how they got together. They had since gotten a small home nearby together, graduated, and gotten careers with successful companies. Kyoutani was sent around the world multiple times a year for projects and Yahaba joined him when he could, even though it was usually only for a couple days. Kyoutani always made sure to be home for their anniversary, even made sure it was written into his contract when he went from a contractor to a permanent employee.
They found this small hole-in-the-wall restaurant when they got lost on their first anniversary. It was nothing fancy, but the food was delicious and the staff treated them to their specialty desert when they heard about their anniversary. They turned it into their special place and had gone there every year since.
This year was different, though. This year marked their ten-year anniversary, and although they had talked about getting their partnership certificate, they hadn’t actually done it. Yahaba liked romantic gestures, always cried during confession and proposal scenes in movies, so Kyoutani figured this was as good of a time as any. He had Watari help him get their old team together to meet them for dinner in secret, rented out the entire restaurant so they could have some semblance of privacy, bought a simple but stunning white gold band with their names and they date they got together engraved on the inside. They couldn’t get married, but this certificate was as close as they could get, so why not propose?
When the big day finally arrived he made sure to keep his schedule clear. He gave all of the project managers he was working with the contact information for his subordinates and set up his email to send notifications that he was unavailable to reply.
They both turned off their alarms to be able to sleep in. Yahaba managed to sneak out of bed before Kyoutani woke up and surprised him with an American breakfast he saw on TV.
“Ken, wake up. Breakfast is ready.”
Kyoutani rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked up to find Yahaba wearing an apron with flour dust handprints all over it. He laughed and pulled Yahaba down for a kiss.
“Good morning to you, too. It’s not like you to make breakfast, what’s the occasion?”
Yahaba pushed him into the bed before crawling on top of him and kissing him again.
“I dunno, just thought it’d be nice to do for once. It’s not like today is special or anything like that.”
Kyoutani wrapped his arms around Yahaba’s torso and rolled them over so he was crushing Yahaba and buried his face in Yahaba’s neck.
“Let’s just stay in bed, we don’t have to get up until dinner anyway.”
Yahaba struggled for a few seconds before giving up and resorting to tickling Kyoutani’s sides until he was free, then slid off the bed before he could get trapped again.
“Nice try, but I promised Miso we’d take her for a walk after breakfast. She was so excited, how are you gonna tell her we aren’t going anymore?”
Kyoutani groaned and sat up.
“How dare you use her to drag me out of bed on our anniversary? So rude.”
Yahaba chuckled and pulled the blankets off of Kyoutani.
“Whatever works. C’mon, I made fried chicken and waffles.”
Kyoutani perked up and crawled out of bed.
“You could’ve started with that! Let’s eat.”
Yahaba laughed as Kyoutani pulled him by the hand back out to the kitchen. Miso was waiting outside the bedroom door and jumped up to greet them before running to her bowl. Kyoutani fed her while Yahaba set the table for them to have breakfast together. When Kyoutani took his seat at the table he was thrilled with the stack of Kara-age on the plate in the center with a waffle and syrup in front of him. Yahaba scratched the back of his head before grabbing some chicken to start eating.
“The American dish has a different kind of batter for the chicken, but I know you prefer this so I decided to make it more of a fusion thing.”
Kyoutani smiled and stared piling chicken on his plate.
“No complaints here.” He cut pieces of the chicken and waffles and took a bite of them together, humming in appreciation. “Delicious. Thank you.”
Yahaba blushed and gave him a small smile.
“You’re welcome.”
They finished eating and did the dishes before taking quick showers to get ready for the day. After they were dressed Yahaba grabbed Miso’s leash and Kyoutani slipped back into the bedroom to grab his jacket. He slid the ring box into his pocket, wanting to keep it close. For all he knew, the perfect opportunity might come up for him to drop on one knee and surprise Yahaba. When he went back out to the entryway he noticed Yahaba startle.
“You alright?”
Yahaba waved him off.
“Yeah, you were so quiet I didn’t notice until you were here. That’s all.”
“If you say so, you ready?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
They made their way down the street to the park where they were reunited, since it was Miso’s favorite place to run around. As they made their way through the park to get to the designated dog area they walked past the pond in the center of the park. Kyoutani felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Hey Ken, wait a sec.”
Yahaba got down on his knee to tie his shoelace that got untied, but stayed on the ground.
“Shigeru? You okay?”
Yahaba nodded and took a deep breath, then looked up at Kyoutani.
“Kentarou.”
Kyoutani realized what was happening a little too late for him to stop it. He started blushing and immediately went to cover his face.
“You’re really doing this right now?!”
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it. This is where we finally saw each other again, and this is where I wanted to propose. I guess I kinda need to get the question out first though.”
The women in the surrounding area saw Yahaba down on one knee and immediately all eyes were on them, some had their phones out to take videos and Kyoutani wanted to disappear and take Yahaba and Miso with him. Yahaba reached up to pull Kyoutani’s left arm down and kissed the back of his hand.
“Kentarou, I love you so much. We’ve spent the last ten years together, and I want us to stay like that for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?”
By the time he was done Kyoutani couldn’t tell if the tears streaming down his face were from embarrassment or happiness, but he was willing to bet on the latter. He knew if he opened his mouth he would start sobbing so he nodded and Yahaba slipped the ring onto his finger while everyone surrounding them cheered. Kyoutani fell to his knees and pulled the ring box out of his pocket. He opened it and offered the ring to Yahaba.
“I was planning on doing this later, I booked the whole restaurant and asked the guys to meet us. I wanted to make it special for you, but you beat me to it. Guess this means you woulda said yes though.”
Yahaba laughed and jumped at him with such force that Kyoutani landed flat on his back. They gave each other a kiss while Miso jumped on their heads and started licking Yahaba’s hair. Shouts of congratulations came from everyone nearby and they picked themselves up and nodded at them all. Kyoutani grabbed Yahaba by the hand and leaned to whisper in his ear.
“Can we please go home now?”
Yahaba laughed and kissed him on the cheek.
“Yeah, sure. I can’t wait to see everyone’s faces tonight.”
“They think it’s a surprise, you’re gonna ruin it for them.”
“I can act surprised!”
Kyoutani rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, sure.”
Yahaba glared back at him.
“You’re so rude.”
“Me being right doesn’t make me rude.”
They both laughed, walked home, then spent some intimate time together to celebrate their new engagement. Afterwards they went out for lunch and to a movie before coming back home to get ready to meet everyone for dinner. Kyoutani had asked everyone to be there ten minutes before he planned to walk Yahaba through the door, so they were waiting at the back of the restaurant when they walked in.
“SURPRISE!”
The sheer volume of the shout made Yahaba jump and grip Kyoutani’s arm tighter.
“You guys just scared the shit out of me!”
That didn’t stop him from breaking away from Kyoutani to give them all hugs, though. Even Kunimi reluctantly hugged him back. As they all got settled into their seats Oikawa sighed and looked over at Kyoutani.
“You told him, didn’t you Kyouken-chan? He isn’t surprised at all.”
Yahaba laughed as Kyoutani pouted at him.
“It’s not his fault, Oikawa. I kinda forced it out of him on accident. Doesn’t look like Matsukawa and Hanamaki made it though.”
“They live in France, Shi-chan. It’s not like they can just come over for dinner. How did you force it out of him on accident, though?”
“Well-“
The bell for the door chimed as the final guests arrived. Kyoutani smiled and turned to call out behind him.
“You guys are late!”
“Listen, it’s not our fault the traffic by the airport sucks.”
“We even came straight here instead of checking into our hotel, or we’d’ve gotten here even later.”
The rest of the group looked to the door to find Matsukawa and Hanamaki walking in with their luggage in tow. Oikawa and Iwaizumi both got out of their seats so quickly that their chairs toppled to the floor in their rush to nearly tackle their friends that they hadn’t seen in a few years. Yahaba pulled Kyoutani into a kiss in his excitement and Kyoutani wrapped an arm around Yahaba’s waist to whisper into his ear.
“Surprise?”
“I hate you. How dare you keep that a secret from me?”
“You love me.”
“You’re lucky I do.”
“I know.”
“God, stop being sappy.”
“We literally just got engaged this morning, let me have this. C’mon, they came here to see all of us.”
By the time they stood from their seats Matsukawa and Hanamaki were behind them and draped themselves over the couple. Hanamaki pulled Kyoutani into a headlock and aggressively rubbed his hair.
“Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep my damn mouth shut with Tooru calling to talk about tonight every day this past week?”
Matsukawa chuckled from Yahaba’s shoulders.
“He was practically screaming into the phone after he hung up that we were coming.” He turned his head to look at Kyoutani. “Did we miss it?”
Iwaizumi clapped his hand over Matsukawa’s mouth and shushed him. Kyoutani shook his head.
“Don’t bother Iwaizumi.” Kyoutani held his left hand up to show the ring on his finger. “Shigeru beat me to it this morning.”
Watari, Hanamaki, and Matsukawa all cursed under their breath and reached into their pockets. Everyone else looked confused, except Kunimi who held his hand out as the three produced 2,000 yen bills and dropped them into his hand.
“I told you Yahaba-san would do it first.”
Yahaba glared at Watari, completely offended.
“YOU GUYS BET ON WHO WOULD PROPOSE FIRST?! AND YOU BET AGAINST ME?!”
He shrugged.
“Kyoutani’s never been patient. I’m surprised he waited this long.”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“That we made this bet seven years ago and you took too damn long.”
Kunimi folded up the bills and slid them into his pocket.
“It was worth the wait.”
Hanamaki sighed and released Kyoutani from the headlock.
“Whatever, drinks are on you then.”
Kyoutani cleared his throat and gestured for everyone to sit down.
“Enough of this betting nonsense. Kunimi, keep the money, everything’s on me tonight. I just wanted everyone to be here so we could celebrate together.” He sat next to Yahaba and kissed him on the cheek. “It’s a happy occasion.”
Yahaba blushed and covered his face while the rest of the group cooed at them. The restaurant staff brought drinks and appetizers to everyone, Oikawa pulled out his phone to play music, and they spent the next couple hours talking and tasting each other’s food. By the end of the night all of them were loose, relaxed, and full. Iwaizumi was a little drunk and raised is glass for a toast.
“To the happy couple, who brought all of us back together again, even if it’s only for a night.”
“Cheers!”
Matsukawa laughed as he leaned heavily on Hanamaki’s shoulders.
“We’re here for a couple weeks though. We missed you guys, so when Kyouken asked when to have the return flight we made him give us some time. Tooru, I hope you’re ready to take us on a tour of all the bakeries that’ve popped up since we were last here.”
“Hiro already looks like he’s been enjoying them too much back home. His cheeks are fuller than the last time we saw you guys.”
“Fuck off, Hanger.”
Matsukawa reached down to grope Hanamaki’s butt.
“I like ‘em fuller anyway.”
Everyone laughed, and the restaurant staff started to clear the tables. Kunimi was practically asleep in his chair, so Watari helped Kindaichi pick him up while everyone else called for taxis. Kyoutani paid the owners, thanking them for allowing him to rent out the restaurant for probably the hundredth time since his plan went into motion, they just waved him off and congratulated him again.
After he made sure everyone was safely on their way back home or to their hotel he grabbed Yahaba by the hand and gently tapped their foreheads together.
“Happy anniversary, Shigeru.”
Yahaba leaned in to press a kiss against his lips.
“Happy anniversary, Kentarou.”