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The ambient crash of the surf greets them the moment they open the car doors, salted breeze running its fingers through their hair.
Mika doesn’t wait for Yuu, slamming the door of Yuu’s beat-up Honda Civic behind him as he takes off toward the beach. He pulls his shoes free, jams his socks beneath the tongues, and rolls the bottoms of pant legs halfway up his shin before stepping into the powdery sand. He wiggles his toes and laughs, giddy.
“I can’t believe we made it in time,” Mika says. He glances at his watch. “Only 10 more minutes until sunset.” He draws a deep breath and hums, kicking up sand behind him as he treks closer to the water. He smiles over his shoulder, wide and dazzling. “Come on, Yuu-chan!”
Yuu doesn’t follow him right away. He watches Mika from the driver’s side, descending down the sandy hills, blonde curls tousled in the night air. The sky is bleeding in shades of red and purple and pink, and Mika’s silhouette spirals across the tapestry like the subject of an impressionist painting.
Of course they made it in time for sunset. Yuu had planned everything about this road trip exactly to a T. Which hotels they would stay at, which sights they would see, how long it would take them to get exactly to this moment, to Mika dancing across the sand and smiling like an earthbound angel. Everything has gone exactly to plan. Perfect.
Well, except for one minor detail.
Yuu seems to have misplaced the ring he was planning on proposing with somewhere along the journey.
Mika turns and calls for Yuu to join him again. He looks beautiful. Yuu’s heart sinks right along with the sun.
He knows he put it in the front pocket of his backpack. He knows it. He spent the majority of their first day on the road frantically feeling for its presence like a compulsion, distracting Mika with a shout to look somewhere out the window in an effort to be discreet. Mika got tired of staring at pine trees after a while, and Yuu’s opportunities ran short. After that, it was easy to distract himself with Mika’s presence, the reason for this whole trip, the love of his entire life. And it wasn’t like he needed to check every five seconds anyway; it wasn’t just gonna get up and walk away, right?
“Yuu-chan?” Mika asks. His smile is beginning to waver. “Are you coming?”
Yuu shudders through a breath. He checks the time. 8 minutes until sunset. He swears under his breath, kicks off his shoes, and follows Mika’s footprints in the sand.
Had he even gone in that pocket at all during the trip? The only other things he kept in there were spare cash and chapstick. How could it have fallen out without him noticing? When?
“There you are,” Mika says softly as Yuu approaches. He tucks a lock of hair behind his ear, eyes gleaming as brightly as the ocean. “I was worried you didn’t want to get your feet wet.” Mika grabs his hand and laces their fingers together, tugging Yuu along. “You don’t mind, right?”
Yuu swallows thickly and hums. “Yeah, sure.”
Mika tilts his head. The smile has disappeared completely. “Hey, are you ok?”
Yuu’s heart clenches. The sea breeze chills the sweat on the back of his neck uncomfortably. “Yeah! Yep, yes, totally fine. Why?”
Mika drops Yuu’s hand, crossing his arms over his chest. “You seem kind of upset about something.” He bites his lip and looks out toward the water. “I know that seeing the ocean together for the first time was my idea, but maybe that isn’t something you wanted?”
Yuu’s panic screeches to a halt. “What?”
“I don’t know,” Mika sighs. He looks up at Yuu from beneath his lashes. “For the past few hours, you’ve seemed stressed. I thought we were having a good trip together, but...”
Another kind of panic rises like bile in Yuu’s throat.
He is an idiot.
“Mika,” he says. He takes Mika’s hands back into his own and squeezes. “Of course I wanted to see the ocean with you. This was the part I was looking forward to the most! Because I—!”
Yuu cuts himself off, and Mika blinks at him wide-eyed. A strangled sound bubbles up from Yuu’s throat. He groans and digs his heels into the sand.
“You’re gonna think I’m so stupid,” Yuu mutters.
Mika shakes his head. “No! I would never think that.” His thumbs caress the back of Yuu’s knuckles gently. “Just tell me what’s wrong.”
The sun is well on its way from disappearing beneath the horizon. Yuu can see it behind Mika’s shoulder, right next to the infallible patience painted along the curves and lines of Mika’s expression. Yuu truly doesn’t deserve him. He stares at his feet, ashamed.
“The whole reason,” Yuu says slowly, “that I planned this trip was so that we could be here, watching the sunset on the beach for the first time. Together. And then I...I was gonna propose.” Mika’s fingers go still against Yuu’s skin. Yuu keeps his head cast toward the sand. “But—I don’t know what happened, I really don’t—somehow I...lost the ring. And now I just feel stupid, because I love you so much, and I just ruined everything, and now—!”
“Yuu-chan.”
Yuu’s mouth snaps shut when he hears his name. It is said so earnestly, brimming with wonder, and Yuu scrambles to find the courage to look Mika in the eyes. When he does, Mika stares at him slacked-jawed, expression morphed into unbridled disbelief.
“Yuu-chan,” he whispers again. “Are you serious?”
“Y-yeah?” Yuu stammers. He isn’t sure whether or not to be relieved or confused by Mika’s reaction. “I know, I’m sure you wanted this to be perfect—”
Mika pulls his hands free, frantically patting himself down before reaching into the left pocket of his jacket. His hands shake as he pulls something free, cradling it carefully in his palms.
For a moment, Yuu thinks to himself: Oh. He found it.
Then, he realizes.
The ring box in Mika’s hands is a deep burgundy, unlike the black box Yuu was given with his purchase. It’s more rounded at the sides, and perhaps a bit bigger from what Yuu can tell. Regardless of the differences, it is a ring box all the same. Mika smiles sheepishly, and Yuu’s chest floods with emotion as everything clicks into place.
Yuu blinks vacantly. It takes a few tries for him to actually speak. “Huh?”
“When you said you wanted to go on this trip, I thought it was the perfect opportunity,” Mika says. He scratches his nails lightly along the velvet and chuckles. “I thought it was the right time to ask.” He smiles then, cheeks dusted the same hue of pink as the darkening sky. “I’m glad we were on the same page.”
Yuu sucks in a sharp breath.
“Oh my god.”
Mika looks at his watch. He looks behind him toward the rapidly setting sun. He turns back to Yuu and takes a long breath.
“Ok,” he says. “I guess we’re running out of time, huh?”
Mika drops to one knee.
Yuu’s pulse kicks into overdrive. “Oh my god.”
“Yuu-chan.” Mika’s lips wobble around the word, and his eyes shine. “You make me so happy. This entire trip was proof of that. How you make me happy every single day, make me laugh like no one else, make me feel loved like I never thought I could be.”
The air around them is turning colder and colder as the sun retreats behind the skyline, but Yuu feels warm, indescribably so, and his eyes sting with unshed tears. Mika’s tender gaze leaves his knees weak.
“I love you,” Mika breathes, “and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. So, please.” He pinches the top of the ring box between his finger and lifts the lid. “Will you marry me?”
The ring inside is completely different from the one Yuu picked out for Mika. It is gold, polished and solid, and it catches the last remnants of the fading light in its band. At the center, a single white diamond is cradled between four golden prongs, glittering like the crashing waves. It is beautiful. It is perfect. It trembles in Mika’s hands as he waits for an answer.
Yuu’s heart swells, close to bursting, when he realizes wonderfully and unbelievably that both of them are his.
“Idiot,” Yuu says. Tears have begun to flow freely, cutting hot wet paths down both of Yuu’s cheeks. He hiccups a laugh and wipes his face. “Like you even need to ask.”
Yuu nearly topples over with the force of Mika launching himself into his arms. Yuu kisses him, as much as he can with both of them blubbering and laughing and whispering sweet words against each other’s lips. Yuu cries harder when Mika slips the ring onto his finger and settles it comfortably at the base of his knuckle. It feels right. It feels like home.
The sun is gone, and the beach fades into twilight, stars twinkling to life in the darkening sky above. Yuu holds Mika in his arms tightly, the press of his ring between their joined hands a novelty that will never grow old.
This night has gone nothing like what Yuu had planned in his head. He truly couldn’t have asked for anything better.