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For Yuuichirou Hyakuya, marriage is a complicated thing.
Marriage was never in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, a union of two people so in love nothing can ever tear them apart.
For Yuuichirou Hyakuya, marriage is raised voices after the sun goes down, empty beer bottles littering the faded hardwood floor, glass shattered against yellowed wallpaper, hiding underneath his bed in hopes that the rage won’t find him, too. For Yuuichirou Hyakuya, marriage is an ugly, corrupted thing.
For Yuuichirou Hyakuya, family is an even harder concept to grasp.
No matter how hard he resists, every day the word is forced upon him, wrapped around his shoulders and shouted in his ear with a wide grin and sparkling blue eyes.
But for Yuuichirou Hyakuya, family is beginning to mean something more. It is bartering his food rations for second-hand toys and hair ties for braids. It is wiping eyes of tears, scaring bullies away with snarled lips, taking punches and kicks so no one else has to bear the bruises. And many, many times, it is holding hands and stroking hair while Mika is kneeled on the ground, applying disinfectant to scraped knees with near surgical precision.
“Hold still, Ako,” Mika murmurs. He pulls a tattered cloth away from the cut, speckled red with blood. Mika looks up and smiles, sweet as summer rain. “All I have do is put the bandage on and you’ll be as good as new!”
Ako sniffs, chin wobbling. “It hurts.” Yuu runs his fingers through her hair silently.
Mika’s eyes soften as he applies the plaster. “I know it does. Just try to be careful running around the house in the future, okay?” He smooths the bandage down with a gentle hand. “We don’t want you to trip again!”
Yuu snorts derisively. “As if it’s her fault. The problem is this shitty house! The floorboards are coming up all over the place!”
Mika sighs as he rises to stand. “Yuu-chan, we can’t exactly change the house we live in. So it’s better for us all to just try and be as careful as we can.” He pats Ako on the head, and she giggles when he ruffles her hair.
Yuu crosses his arms. “If those damn vampires would actually give us proper supplies, I could fix up this shithole.”
Mika rolls his eyes, but his smile is fond. “I think if you tried to fix anything, I would have to patch you up next. And watch your language around the kids, Yuu-chan.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
Soft laughter catches both of their attentions, and they cease their squabbling to look toward the source of the noise. Akane is setting the squat wooden table with cracked, dingy plates. Her face is soft with tenderness, braid swinging as she shakes her head.
“What is it?” Yuu asks petulantly. She laughs again as he crosses his arms over his chest.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she says. Her eyes dart up for only a moment before refocusing on arranging mismatched silverware. “Just hearing you two. It almost sounds like you’re a bickering married couple.”
Yuu blinks, silently, as he processes the words. After a moment, his face burns furiously.
“H-huh?!? What do you mean by that?!?”
“She’s right, you know,” Chihiro says. She sits with Fumie on the ground, doodling idly on scrap paper. She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “You guys act married all the time.”
The heat has climbed its way up to Yuu’s ears.
Taichi and Kouta peek their heads over the side of the loft. Kouta’s lips peel back into a gap-toothed smile.
“Yeah!” he shouts. “You guys are like the mom and dad!”
Yuu nearly chokes. “M-mom and dad—”
Fumie perks up. “But which one is the mom and which one is the dad?”
Taichi slides down the ladder of the loft after Kouta. “Yuu is definitely the dad! He makes us go to bed early all the time!”
Yuu’s palms sweat as the children gather closer around him and Mika. “Wait a minute—”
“But Mika likes to play with us, just like my daddy used to!”
“Would you guys just—!”
“Yeah, but Mika knows how to braid hair. Yuu can’t do that!”
“Plus, Yuu can scare off the big kids! Only dads know how to do that!”
“But, what about—?”
“Alright, enough!” Yuu shouts. He’s positive that if his face got any hotter he would surely burst into flames.
The children look up at him, blinking their big eyes innocently. He clenches his hands into fists.
“Me and Mika are not your parents,” he says. “We can’t be! We’re not even m-married!”
Yuu’s words hang heavy in the silent atmosphere that follows. Mika, who still stands in front of Ako, stares at Yuu with a wide-eyed expression. The other children follow suit, gawking blankly. There is a soft clatter as Akane places more dishes onto the table.
“Well,” she says with a grin, “perhaps you two should just get married and make it official, hm?”
The silence is shattered nearly instantly.
“That’s a great idea!”
“We can make the best wedding that has ever been!”
“I call being the flower girl!”
The beginning of a sentence gets lodged in the back of Yuu’s throat. “Ah—”
Around him, the children buzz, chattering happily of white dresses and wedding bells and throwing rice into the air. Akane smiles smugly, and she hums a quiet tune as she finishes her task.
“Stop talking!” Yuu shouts. His arms shake with how hard his hands are clenched. “There isn’t going to be any wedding!”
“Aw, Yuu-chan,” Mika says. He holds a hand over his heart and juts out his lower lip. “What are you saying? You don’t want to be married to me?”
“What? No way!”
“But look how excited the kids are!” Mika walks around the chair toward Yuu. Yuu takes a hasty step back and nearly collides with the wall. Mika’s smile is wide and saccharine, and Yuu doesn’t trust it one bit.
Mika leans closer, arms held behind his back. He lowers his eyes eyelashes. Yuu gulps.
“Yuu-chan,” he coos. “Don’t you think it could be fun? Don’t you want to make the kids happy?”
Behind him, the children nearly chant in unison.
“Please? Please, Yuu? Pretty please?”
Yuu’s heart beats in double time. He tries to lean back further, but there is nowhere to go.
“I-I don’t—”
Mika sinks down to one knee. Yuu nearly faints.
“Yuu-chan,” Mika says. He holds one hand over his chest, and his other arm is held off to the side in a flourish. “Will you make me the happiest man in the whole world?”
“Say yes! Say yes, Yuu!”
The children are squealing with delight, eyes glittering with anticipation. Yuu draws a shaky breath. Mika looks up at Yuu expectantly, cheeks bright with color, expression as charming as a prince.
“Please, Yuu?” Ako asks in a tiny voice. Her delicate fingers grip the back of the chair tightly. The tears on her cheeks haven’t even dried yet.
Yuu exhales loudly.
“F-fine,” he stammers. He looks at the corner of the ceiling, counting the number of cobwebs in favor of witnessing Mika’s reaction. “It’s not like it’s for real or anything.”
Yuu squawks as he is crushed into a bear hug.
“He said yes, everyone!” Mika exclaims. Yuu’s feet lift from the ground as Mika spins them in a giddy circle. The children clap and cheer as Yuu struggles in vain to get free.
“Congratulations!” Akane says with a smile. “When will the wedding be held?”
Ako stands on top of the chair and puts her hands on her hips. “Tomorrow, of course!”
“Tomorrow?!?” Yuu cries, arms flailing. Mika squeezes tighter, and Yuu wheezes.
“I can’t wait!” Mika sings into Yuu’s ear. He finally stops twirling them both, and Yuu’s head is spinning for more than one reason. Mika grabs his shoulders, and his grin stretches from ear to ear. He’s almost too bright to look at directly. Yuu’s heart thumps loudly in his ears.
Yuu can’t decide if he wants tomorrow to come early or never happen at all.
On his wedding day, Yuuichirou Hyakuya has barely opened his eyes before tiny hands clap themselves across his face.
“Ack!” Yuu shouts. He grabs the arms around his neck, trying to pry himself free. “What the hell are you doing?”
The response is met with a chorus of laughter. Yuu jumps when hands he can’t see start directing him toward the edge of the loft.
“You guys aren’t allowed to see each other before the wedding!” Chihiro says from in front of him.
The weight on his back giggles into his ear. “Yeah, it’s against the rules!” Ako says. Her hands pressed tighter over Yuu’s eyes.
Mika speaks from somewhere to Yuu’s left. “I guess I’ll just have to see you at the alter, Yuu-chan.” Yuu can’t see him, but he can practically hear the smile on his lips, the gleaming whites of his teeth.
Kouta laughs as he pushes Yuu forward. “Yuu, your face is so red!”
“S-shut it!”
The Hyakuya household is not very large, but the children manage to keep Yuu and Mika confined to opposite ends of the house as they prepare the “wedding venue.” Yuu purposefully keeps his nose buried in a vampire biology textbook to avoid having to engage with anything happening in the center of the house, but the sounds of shuffling paper and hushed whispers and children’s laughter raise his blood pressure far too much for someone of his age.
It isn’t long until he is approached by an envoy of scuttling feet and enthusiastic faces. Chihiro stands in front, and Taichi and Ako flank her sides with their hands held behind their backs. Yuu eyes them warily.
Chihiro tilts her head, and Yuu can imagine sparkles dancing around her face. “Ok! We’re ready for you!”
Yuu’s stomach drops, and he crosses his arms over his chest.
“Fine,” he says. He places his book down and stands with a sigh. “Let’s just get this whole thing over with.”
He takes a step forward, but the children block his path.
“Wait a minute!” Ako cries. She bounces up and down on her tiptoes, arms still behind her back. “We have to get you dressed!”
Yuu doesn’t like where this is heading. “Dressed?”
Chihiro giggles. “Just close your eyes!”
It is much harder to resist the big eyes and pleading stares of the children than it is to dismiss Mika’s relentless teasing, so Yuu can do little more than do as he is told. With a rough exhale, he closes his eyes and awaits whatever the children have planned for him. Someone stands on tiptoes and fastens something to the center of his livestock collar. Someone else tugs on his sleeve until he bends down, and he struggles to swallow his complaints when something is nearly painfully fastened into his unruly hair.
“Ok! Open your eyes! Open!” Taichi exclaims.
Again, Yuu does as instructed.
The thing on his collar is made of paper, and it crinkles as he touches it with careful fingers. He reaches up to his head, and something soft and billowing rests on the center of his scalp. He turns his head to catch a look, but the sides of it flutter out of view with the motion, and he can feel the swing of fabric tickling the center of his back. He looks back to the children, more confused than ever.
Ako’s eyes shine with unshed tears. “You look so beautiful!”
Yuu blinks, and his face gets warm as he processes the words “T-thanks. But what did you—?”
“It’s time for the ceremony!”
Before the question can make it past Yuu’s lips, he’s being gripped harshly by the wrists and dragged forward, leaving the words to hang behind in the empty air. He stumbles across the uneven floor, and he nearly has half a mind to remind Ako to be careful, she got hurt only yesterday, until he looks up and sees—
Never in his life did Yuu think he would use the word “charming” to describe the shoddily built home he and the other Hyakuya orphans share, but it is the only word that comes to mind when he sees how the limited space has been transformed.
The drab walls are bright with color, paper chains and twirled ribbons cascading toward the ground in slanted and off-centered bundles. A trail of white paper stacked end to end leads to below the loft, under a canopy of paper flowers tacked to the wooden beams. Akane stands at the end of the path, smiling wide, an old brown book held open in her hands. Yuu blinks at her, and Chihiro, Taichi, and Ako squish in close to his sides.
“Do you like it?” Ako says. She turns her face up, and if Yuu looks closely he can count the myriad of freckles on her nose one by one. “It took us all day!”
Yuu wants to ask where they got the supplies, how they managed to make so much out of so little. He thinks to Chihiro and Fumie drawing stick figures with shortened pencils on the backs of notices nailed to their doors by vampire officials. He thinks of Ako and Taichi and Kouta sharing one paper airplane between the three of them, never complaining about whose turn it was next. He thinks of Mika coming home, pale and gaunt, handing over a brand new pack of colored pencils and notebook paper into the hands of five mesmerized children.
Yuu thinks of how they held those gifts to their chests as if it was the most precious thing in the whole world. He looks around the room again, at the paper ripped and torn and turned into something new. His chest tightens.
“Yeah,” he murmurs. He looks down to Ako, her delicate arms wrapped around his waist, and something that feels very much like a smile threatens to rise to his lips. “It looks amazing.”
She laughs. Yuu never wants to see her crying again.
“Ok, enough talking!” Taichi says. “It’s time to walk you down the aisle!”
Yuu’s momentary serenity vaporizes into a cloud of smoke. He had nearly forgotten the whole point of this escapade.
“I get to do it, since I’m the oldest!” Chihiro announces. She loops her arm through Yuu’s, but Ako and Taichi begin whining almost instantly.
Taichi latches onto to Yuu’s other arm and yanks. “But I want to do it!”
Ako clings to Yuu’s middle. “But what about me?”
“I thought you wanted to be the flower girl!”
“This is funner!”
Akane clears her throat gently, and the four of them look toward her. Her face is as calm and kind as ever.
“Why don’t you all do it?” she suggests with a raised finger.
Yuu nearly tips over with how suddenly the children cling onto him.
“That sounds like a great idea!”
“Why didn’t we think of that before!”
“Three people are definitely better than one!”
Yuu is being pushed forward before he can resist or agree.
Slowly but surely, Yuu makes his way down the aisle, and he tries to ignore how fast his heart is beating as he approaches Akane. The children steer him to stand on Akane’s right side before releasing their hold to stand in a single file line behind him. Yuu looks to Akane. Her smile is almost motherly, but Yuu knows it is far from innocent. He narrows her eyes at her. She grins wider.
Akane cups a hand to her mouth and calls out. “Ok, you guys! You can bring him out now!”
Yuu follows the line of her eyes. From around the corner, Fumie and Kouta walk forward, faces bright, steps giddy. Between them, Mika lets himself be led, arms looped through theirs on either side. He meets Yuu’s gaze, and he laughs softly, cheeks rosy with color. Yuu’s heart quickens almost painfully.
Mika has gotten a makeover as well. On the front of his collar, two black paper triangles are attached side by side in imitation of a comically large bowtie. In the nest of golden curls atop his head, Mika sports a plume of white fabric, torn and ragged on the edges, falling down to his shoulders and back. A veil, Yuu pieces together after a moment.
With how Mika is looking at him, Yuu realizes his own outfit must not be too far off. He gulps thickly as Mika approaches.
Just as before, Fumie and Kouta deposit Mika to stand to Akane’s left side before flocking behind him, peeking out from his back with excitement brimming in their eyes. Mika looks to Yuu with a blinding smiling. Yuu is having trouble looking at him directly. Akane looks between the both of them, and she lifts the book in front of her face.
“Friends and family,” she says, loud and clear. “We are gathered here today to join Mikaela Hyakuya and Yuuichirou Hyakuya in holy matrimony!”
“What is ‘matrimony’?” Ako whispers behind Yuu. Chihiro shushes her.
Yuu’s blood is roaring so loud in his ears he can barely hear them. Mika is still smiling.
“Though the circumstances under which you met weren’t the best, they did bring you together,” Akane says. Her face softens. “They made you into a family.”
Yuu bites his tongue. Looking at Mika’s face is becoming harder by the minute.
“In order to prove your devotion to each other and your family, we bind you together today in a bond that can never be broken.”
Akane looks between them and draws a breath.
“And now, it’s time for the vows!”
Yuu’s stomach flips.
“V-vows?” Yuu stammers. He stares at Akane accusatorily. “No one ever said anything about vows!”
“Yuu-chan,” Mika whines. He’s finally stopped smiling, but the way he’s pouting is nearly just as annoying. “I’ve been working on my vows to you all morning! I hoped you would do the same...”
Yuu knows better than to trust the dejection on Mika’s face as he stares at his feet, but the sullen looks on the faces of the children are nothing but sincere. Yuu scrambles for words.
“W-well, I just, I didn’t—!”
“It’s ok, Yuu,” Akane whispers to him. “Just speak from the heart and you will think of the right thing to say.” She winks. Yuu’s hands shake.
Akane turns toward Fumie and holds out a hand. “May I have the rings, please?”
Fumie jumps to attention and fishes around in her pocket, tongue hanging out of her mouth until she clasps onto the prize. She whips her hand back out and drops the contents into Akane’s awaiting palm. Twin pieces of warped metal settle into the divet of Akane’s hand.
Yuu recognizes them immediately.
He remembers finding them, by chance, after a session at the blood donation center. He was woozy and swaying as he walked, but he saw them, nonetheless, and scooped them up before he knew what he was doing. He showed them to Mika, and after a thorough lecture about the morality of taking other people’s property, Mika assured him that Fumie would adore the gift. He recalls Akane in the kitchen, using a sponge nearly falling to bits in her hand as she scrubbed the metal free of grime and rust. More than anything, Yuu remembers how Fumie’s face had lit up like a Christmas tree when Yuu gave her the barrettes, and Yuu doesn’t know if he has ever been hugged that hard in his entire life.
Yuu looks at them now, bent out of shape into warped circles, and Fumie still looks at them like they are more valuable than anything.
“Thank you, Fumie,” Akane says. Yuu wants to say the same thing, but he doesn’t get the chance.
Akane turns to Mika. “Mika, why don’t you go first?”
Mika salutes. “You got it!” He spins toward Yuu, grabbing Yuu’s hands in his own, and Yuu squeaks as Mika pulls them a step closer together. He is still smiling, but his eyes lower tenderly. He takes a long breath. Yuu’s heart hammers.
“Yuu-chan,” he says. “When you first came to the orphanage, I knew we were going to be best friends right away! Even though you were angry and scared, I knew that you were a good person. I’m so happy that you are in our family.” Mika takes one of the rings from Akane and places it onto Yuu’s left ring finger. “So with this ring, I promise to protect you and love you and never let anything bad happen to you ever!”
Mika tilts his head just so, and the lamplight catches his eyes just right, and Yuu’s hand shakes as he snatches back it from Mika’s grip.
Akane turns to Yuu. “Alright, Yuu, your turn!”
Yuu gapes at her, and when he turns to face Mika, his mind blanks almost entirely. Mika’s smile is soft and lovely and the words “protect you and love you” echo loudly in Yuu’s ears.
Just speak from the heart.
“So, Mika,” Yuu says. He doesn’t have the courage to look Mika in the eye, but he feels under scrutiny regardless. “Sometimes you can be annoying. Like, a lot. You’re always hanging off of me, and calling me family, and doing things to piss me off.”
“Are these supposed to be vows?” Taichi mutters. Again, Chihiro shushes him.
“But even though you’re so annoying you really...” Yuu clears his throat, blush climbing up the back of his neck. “You really are. Good. For the kids. And Akane. And...me, too, I guess.”
It is the understatement of the century, and Yuu knows it well, but he can’t bear to push himself any further, to tell Mika just how much he means to him, how much he admires him, how his smiles keep him sane in the dark hours of the night. He does muster the courage to look up at Mika, and his heart falters when he sees that the smile on his lips has gone from teasing to something much more sincere. Blue eyes waver, and Yuu feels words of gratitude pressed against the border of his lips.
Akane clears her throat. “Yuu. The ring?”
Yuu blinks, and he comes back to himself. He snatches the ring from her hand and shoves it onto Mika’s finger unceremoniously.
“There,” he says, but he does keep Mika’s hand sandwiched between his own.
Akane grins. “Now that the rings are exchanged, all that’s left are the magic words.” She clears her throat and holds her head high. “Mikaela Hyakuya, do you take Yuuichirou Hyakuya as your playfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poor, until death do you part?”
“I do!” Mika exclaims. He laces his fingers into Yuu’s.
Akane nods. “And do you, Yuuichirou Hyakuya, take Mikaela—”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Yuu interrupts. The heat simmering behind his skin is becoming too much to handle.
Mika clicks his tongue. “Yuu-chan, you’re supposed to say ‘I do.’” Again, Mika’s mouth twists into a quiver. “Unless you don’t really mean it?”
The guilt of disappointing the children is worse than the heat. “Fine, fine! I do.”
Akane closes the book with a decisive clap. “Then that’s that! By the power invested in me by the children of the Hyakuya Orphanage, I now pronounce you married! You may kiss the bride!”
Yuu nearly blacks out. Mika’s smile wavers, but only for a moment
Kiss the bride.
“Huh?!?” Yuu cries. He balls his hands into fists, and the ring digs into his palm. “No way! And which one of us is supposed to be the bride, anyway!”
“Aw, Yuu-chan,” Mika coos. He turns his face to the side and taps a finger onto the apple of his cheek. “You don’t want to give your bride a kiss?”
“You have to, Yuu!” Ako exclaims. “Or else it won’t be official!”
The other children join in.
“Come on, Yuu, do it!”
“Just one kiss!”
“You can’t be married if you don’t kiss him!”
Yuu’s head spins as the children chatter around him, and Akane stays deceptively silent, though her expression reveals her amusement far more than words ever could. Mika keeps his face tilted, and his cheeks are flush with color, and Yuu wonders idly if his skin would feel hot under his lips.
Yuu swallows. He leans in.
Mika turns. “Don’t worry, Yuu-chan, I’m just teasing—”
He turns, just in time, and the kiss Yuu intended to land on Mika’s cheek is planted firmly against his lips instead. They both freeze, eyes blown wide with shock. A few seconds pass in silence before Yuu is reeling back. He holds the back of his hand over his mouth. Mika’s lips are parted in quiet awe. They stare at each other, transfixed.
The room explodes into cheers.
“Congratulations!”
“Yay!! They got married!”
“Congratulations, Yuu and Mika!”
The commotion breaks the spell between them, and Yuu and Mika jump as the children tackle them into a hug. Akane rubs both of their heads, and Yuu can’t escape her touch with the children corraling them all together.
“Congratulations, you two!” she says.
Mika grins at her. “Thank you!” He makes eye contact with Yuu, and he bites his lip and looks away for just a second before turning back. “How does it feel to be married to me, Yuu-chan?”
An elbow hits Yuu directly in the spine. “Cramped.”
Ako disentangles herself from the group hug. “Oh! I almost forgot!” She grabs Yuu and Mika by the arm and wrangles them free as well. “Now it’s time for your wedding night!”
Mika’s face goes blank. Yuu cocks his head in confusion.
“Wedding night?”
Ako runs behind them and pushes them with her fragile strength toward the ladder leading into the loft. “Yeah! Now you guys go and be alone and no one can talk to you for the rest of the night!”
“Woah, wait,” Yuu says. He turns to Mika for help, but he remains silent, just as confused. “What are we supposed to do?”
Ako hums and shrugs. “I don’t know! Whatever grownups do!”
“Don’t worry you two,” Akane says. She walks over and hefts Ako into her arms. “You guys go have fun. I’ll watch the kids for tonight!”
Mika’s smile returns, though his blush is deeper than before. “Thanks, Akane.” He turns to Yuu and grabs his hand. “I guess it’s time for our honeymoon!”
Yuu has little time to complain before Mika is pulling him up the ladder, and soon the two are alone in the loft. The blankets have been folded and tucked away into the corner, no doubt by Akane judging by the neatness of the edges. It makes the loft seem so much larger, and the distance between Yuu and Mika so much wider as they stand apart.
Yuu scratches the back of his head.
“So,” he says, looking to his feet. “What do we do now?”
Mika taps his chin. “What do we do on our wedding night...” A light turns on behind Mika’s eyes, and he snaps his fingers. “Ah! I remember!” His eyes lower and the shift in the air feels dangerous.
“I know what couples do on their wedding nights,” Mika murmurs. He stalks forward, and Yuu’s pulse quickens with his advance. Mika places a hand onto Yuu’s shoulder, and the other snakes down to lace with Yuu’s fingers. Mika leans close, and Yuu’s breath catches in his throat.
“On their wedding nights,” Mika says. “Couples like to...”
Mika pulls hard on Yuu’s hand until he stumbles forward. Mika’s arm wraps around him as fast as a serpent, and he holds their joined hands up and out to the side.
“Dance!”
The movements are disjointed and jerky as Yuu flounders in Mika’s arms, barely keeping up with the way Mika rocks them back and forth. Yuu tries to pull away, but he is bound tightly. He can feel the press of Mika’s ring between his fingers.
“Mika, let me go!” Yuu cries. Mika spins them in a tight circle, and Yuu stumbles into his chest. He feels the rumble of Mika’s laugh.
“Dance with me, Yuu-chan!” He leans back, and his eyes sparkle like gemstones. “Please?”
Funny little things swim around in the base of Yuu’s stomach. His hand slides up to rest between Mika’s shoulder blades.
“Fine,” Yuu says. He purses his lips and looks away, bashful. “But if I step on your feet, don’t blame me.”
Mika laughs but says nothing more.
Together, the two of them sway in silence, and Yuu would find the whole thing absolutely stupid if he wasn’t too busy basking in the feeling of Mika’s warmth pressed against him. He does step on Mika’s feet, but only once or twice, as the two find a rhythm, moving to a song only known by them alone. He lets his eyes slide shut, deciding that finding peace in the situation is far easier than retaining needless frustration.
Mika sighs, and Yuu’s hair ruffles with his breath. “Hey, Yuu-chan?”
Yuu hums in lieu of an answer.
“I meant it all, you know,” Mika says. His fingers twitch against Yuu’s shoulder. “I will always protect you, even if it kills me. I swear it.”
Yuu’s fingers curl into the back of Mika’s shirt, and something fierce burns hot in his veins.
“Idiot, don’t say things like that,” Yuu scolds. “Besides, it’s the same for me, too...”
Yuu doesn’t know if he imagines the tremor in Mika’s hands then, but he blushes as Mika shuffles in closer.
“Yuu-chan,” Mika whispers into the crook of his neck. “Do you think, maybe one day...?”
Yuu opens his eyes then, puzzled. “One day?”
There is a beat of silence, and Mika laughs. It is tinged with sadness, though Yuu can’t exactly name how. Mika lays his forehead onto Yuu’s shoulder.
“Nevermind,” Mika says finally. “Just...keep holding me like this, ok?”
Yuu hums and says nothing more.
The two dance together for what could be either an eternity or no time at all before weariness settles into them. They discard their veils and bowties, though they are careful to keep them for posterity’s sake, lest the children ask what happened to their wonderful creations. The children stay true to their word and leave the loft vacant, unwilling to interrupt the newlyweds.
As usual, Mika and Yuu unroll their blankets and lay down, curling in on themselves to search for warmth against the cold wooden floor. The space between them feels utterly chasmic as they whisper their goodnights to each other in the dark.
As usual, Mika waits until he thinks Yuu is asleep before he rises, carefully shucking off his blanket. His steps are practiced as he moves toward the ladder, careful to avoid squeaks and bumps that may give him away.
As usual, Yuu is still wide awake.
He doesn’t know where Mika goes at night, but he thinks it has something to do with the colored pencils and notebooks, the fresh vegetables without any rot, the tremble in his hands as he lifts the children onto his back, the purple shadows under his eyes that come and go.
The ring on Yuu’s left hand is heavy as a stone.
“Mika,” he calls out.
Mika stops dead in his tracks, and Yuu doesn’t have to see him in order to recognize the panicked silence that permeates the stagnant air. Mika takes a step. A floorboard creaks.
“Yuu-chan,” Mika says. Yuu hears him swallow. “I was just—”
“Stay,” Yuu whispers.
Mika stops talking immediately.
Yuu shivers, but it has nothing to do with the chill of the ground. “I don’t know where you go all the time when you think I’m asleep, but please stay.” He huffs. “It’s our wedding night, isn’t it?”
The silence that follows is thick, and Yuu is thankful that he doesn’t have to see Mika right now, doesn’t have to confront whatever Mika looks like in this moment. Yuu’s heart thumps loudly in his ears. Another floorboard creaks.
Mika speaks at last.
“Ok,” he says. Yuu hears the rustle of his clothes as he settles back down, and his breath catches as Mika slides close to him, burying his face into Yuu’s chest. Yuu’s arms wrap around him, and Mika draws a shaking breath as he relaxes into Yuu’s touch.
“I’ll stay, Yuu-chan,” Mika says, his voice muffled into the front of Yuu’s shirt. “I promise. I won’t leave.”
Yuu wonders if Mika can feel the racing of his heart, hear the blood thrumming electrified underneath his skin. He holds Mika tightly, all the same.
Do you think, maybe one day...?
Yuu doesn’t know what Mika was about to say at that time, but he wants to tell him “yes” regardless.
Yes, they will all make it out of here safe.
Yes, there is a future waiting for them beyond death and bloodshed and sharp-toothed monsters in the darkness.
Yes, Yuu will protect him, and love him, and never let anything bad happen to him ever.
Love. What a funny, spectacular concept.
For Yuuchirou Hyakuya, the person of Mikaela Hyakuya is a complicated thing. He may just save him, yet.