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Yunho had known Mingi for long enough to know when something was on his mind. But when Mingi slowed down a little too much in front of the ring displays in the little jewelry shops of every town they visited, he didn’t want to assume too much. Mingi always loved shiny things, never leaving the house without an assortment of earrings and jewels in any place he could wear them. Then again, if he saw something he liked, he normally wouldn’t hesitate to gasp and pull Yunho along to take a closer look. This time, Mingi was silent. Yunho watched his head turn as they walked past a jeweler until he couldn’t turn anymore.
Wonder what that’s all about.
Maybe he felt guilty making Yunho buy things all the time, even though he made it clear that he loves spoiling Mingi? There was no way he was thinking about… marriage.
Nah, that’s a human thing. We don’t need rings to tell each other we’re in love.
But it was a beautiful autumn afternoon, the leaves were fiery as they fell, and Mingi looked so lovely with a brisk wind blowing through his hair. They rarely visited human settlements beyond their own local villages near their mountain home, but this particular town was known for its beauty in the autumn, the falling leaves matching the red roofing of every building. As such, the streets were full of tourists, and of course, lots of couples holding hands. Not that Yunho was in any place to complain, his own hand tightly interlocked with Mingi’s. They got a fair number of stares and frightened gasps, being, well, the only half dragons in the land, but they couldn’t care less. No one would dare chase a dragon out of their establishment, or want to knowing the fortune that fairy tales say they bring. To their right, wedding bells began to ring in a temple. Looking through the open doors, Yunho found two women at the altar, one in a flowing red gown and the other in traditional southern clothing. It was a nice gown. Yunho wasn’t much of a dress wearer, but Mingi loved his collection of floor length chiffon pieces. He’d run around their house in a dress just to feel it billow around him. And he always looked so sweet, but maybe he’d look even sweeter in an ornate dress with a veil and a special ring that was a promise that he’d stay forever-
And I need to stop being sappy.
Yunho looked ahead again, but from the corner of his eye, he caught Mingi watching the wedding too.
┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈
If Mingi had read a book in which the main characters went through all sorts of trials pretending they hated each other only to realize they were in love and they promised themselves to each other at the end of the story and Mingi cried because of it, that was nobody’s business. It was also nobody’s business if he started taking interest in the rings he saw some humans wearing, even those who didn’t own any other jewelry. He had attended exactly one wedding in his life, when he was just a kid in a village of humans who mostly didn’t trust him. His memory was foggy, but he was pretty sure there was music and dancing and long speeches in a language he couldn’t understand, but overall there was a palpable sense of joy, even though Mingi wasn’t allowed to partake in any of the festivities. The whole marriage thing just seemed so cute. Like, you give me a ring, I give you a ring, and we get to talk about how much we love each other in front of all our friends. Not like Mingi had many friends. It’s hard to make friends in the mountains where there’s only travelling oreads and a few human villages. Yunho was a lot more social. He was friendly with some of the owners of human establishments he frequented, but only those who were kind to him out of amiability and not fear. He had also brought Mingi to visit the mountain river naiads a couple times, always to a warm if slightly chaotic welcome. There was another, lone naiad in a nearby mountain tarn who they wanted to visit, but it was empty when they got there. That naiad, Wooyoung if Mingi could remember correctly, had talked about someone he loved very much who lived in a pond in the forest. He hoped the cause of Wooyoung’s disappearance was that he had gone to live with his lover. The day he moved in with Yunho was one of the happiest in his life, and he wished that joy on everyone who he (or Yunho) liked.
A week after their visit to the autumn town, Mingi couldn’t help but notice the way Yunho was looking at him. Of course, he always made Mingi blush by staring at him lovingly no matter what he was doing, but these days it seemed like he was gazing with a little more… thoughtfulness? Mingi sure hoped it wasn’t just his love-addled brain making him see things. But there had to be something more going on when Yunho insisted on measuring him again for every garment he made for Mingi even though he had done it so many times before, just so he could touch him gently and look into his eyes for a little too long before giggling and looking away. He always looked back when Mingi averted his eyes, though. And there had to be something more when Yunho bought turmeric plants for their garden and cooked with the roots they produced even though he couldn’t stand the smell of them, just because Mingi liked them. And when he woke up to Yunho stroking his hair, smiling idly with his sleepy eyes and puffy cheeks, he didn’t know what was happening in Yunho’s mind, but he knew that he had made up his own.
There was just one problem: Mingi was shit at metalworking. He was mighty good at every instrument he touched and loved to strum his lute while making up lyrics about how gorgeous Yunho was, much to the latter’s amusement. But when it came to anything else involving his hands, he was pretty much useless. And to make things worse, Yunho was hogging the metalwork shed, insisting that he was “reforming some silverware”. But still, he usually let Mingi in to watch him work…
While Yunho busied away in the shed, Mingi studied the jewelry making books in their many, many bookshelves.
Advanced chain forging… Simple gem cutting… Wireworking for intermediate jewelers… Oh!
He picked up a dusty book that clearly hadn’t been used in who knows how many centuries. “Make Your First Ring” was engraved on the cover. Excitedly, he flipped to the first page.
“Before learning how to make your first ring, it is imperative that you are comfortable with metalworking tools and you can carry out casting and other high heat activities safely.”
Well, fuck.
The last time Mingi was in the shed, he nearly spilled a crucible of molten iron all over Yunho and himself. He had to get all the practice he could. Carefully tucking the book back in to make it look like it was never touched, he went outside and knocked on their work shed door.
“Yunho, can I come in? I’m lonely,” he whined, needing an excuse.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” Yunho called from within. He pressed his ear to the door. Didn’t sound like there was much heavy labour going on.
“Please? I’ll just sit in the corner, I swear I won’t touch anything.”
“Aww, sorry Minmin. I want what I’m making to be a surprise, okay? So just wait outside for a second and I’ll be right with you once I clean up a bit.”
Mingi huffed, but the door opened just as he counted thirty two seconds. He couldn’t help his smile as Yunho pulled him in for a hug and a quick peck on the lips, even though he smelled of sweat and his hands were dusty.
“So what are you making in there?”
“I told you, it’s gonna be a surprise. Come take a shower with me.”
While Yunho tended to his flowers, Mingi snuck back into the library to look through the book he found again.
Alright, I’ll just skip past the safety precautions page, then.
“Before taking the plunge into making a full ring, some beginners may find it helpful to tinker with existing rings made of easily available metals such as tin or bronze. You may play around with setting stones, engraving, or resizing to familiarize yourself with the tools you will be using.”
Now that’s not a bad idea at all.
A quick rummage through Mingi’s jewelry box uncovered a plain bronze ring. Something used to be set in it, but there was just a hollow pit in the ring now.
That’s an issue. I sure as hell can’t carve gems, so what should I…
His eyes flickered to the wire and resin earrings Yunho had made him, each with a daisy in the resin. He heard their back door open.
“My baby’s breaths are growing so well this year! I’ll probably be able to dry a whole bunch and put them in our room.”
Mingi was starting to know what he was doing.
When Yunho announced that he was off to the villages for a grocery run, Mingi sprung into action. He snipped off a couple blooms from Yunho’s baby’s breath plants, taking care to choose flowers that he wouldn’t notice, and popped them in the oven which he lit after a few puffs of weak flame. In the meantime, he scrambled to find Yunho’s resin casting tools, which were in his woodworking shed. Mingi always thought they had way too many sheds. He had to flip through the instruction booklet a couple times, but he had helped Yunho make matching resin necklaces to celebrate the bonding of a pair of his naiad friends a decade or two ago, so he vaguely knew what he was doing. He mixed his resin and poured half of it into a little round mold, letting his hot breath pop any bubbles that appeared. While that cured, he went to get the flower blossoms which had dried out nicely in the oven. Yunho had been out for twenty minutes, meaning Mingi had around half an hour to get things done. With a pair of tweezers, he carefully placed the flowers into the resin, praying his notorious clumsiness away. When everything looked alright, he poured in the rest of the resin. Now he just had to wait.
By the time Yunho came home, everything had been put away. The smell of resin still hung in the workshop air, but Yunho was in the library, so that wasn’t an issue. The resin had cured pretty much completely, but just to be sure, Mingi placed it in his music room where Yunho rarely ventured for it to harden a little more. He knew he should probably get back to work and figure out what to do with the bronze ring he would set the resin into, but there was no way he could resist cuddling with Yunho who was sitting in his armchair reading some sort of almanac.
“Oh, there’s gonna be a big meteor shower next week. Do you wanna go up to the peak and watch it?”
Mingi nuzzled into Yunho’s neck, entirely too large for his lap but sitting there anyway.
“Sure, but why this one? The last cosmic event we deliberately watched was that comet that happened like, sixty years ago.”
“This one only happens once every eighty three years. And I just think they’re cool. You’re pretty cool too.”
Mingi giggled, and Yunho turned to place a gentle kiss in his hair.
Next week, I could give him the ring and ask him…
Mingi really, really needed to use the metal workshop if he wanted a chance at finishing the ring in time to go to the peak with Yunho. He had five days left. Unfortunately, Yunho was hogging the workshop way more than he usually did.
Alright, well, if he’s not gonna let me in, I can at least plan what I’m gonna do with this ring in the meantime.
Looking through Yunho’s smaller, much less ornate jewelry box, he found a ring and held it up next to his own bronze one. Luckily, they were just about the same size, the bronze ring a little too big for Mingi anyway. So, no need for any resizing. But it felt very plain.
Oh! I could engrave something. Wait, no I can’t. My handwriting is shit. But maybe I could try…?
Holding the bronze ring in his hand, he mulled it over. The ring was pretty wide, and thanks to Yunho’s big hands, a lot of space to write. But Mingi figured he should probably do a little practice run first.
When he heard the workshop door open, Mingi snuck in, shoved a scribe and a piece of scrap metal in his pocket, gave Yunho a kiss in the hallway, and holed himself up in his music room. Then came the issue of what to write in the ring.
“My dearest”… ew, no. “To the moon and back”? Wait, that’s kinda long.
He picked up a lyre and idly strummed at it, waiting for inspiration to strike.
You know what? Fuck it. “Forever yours”.
It was a little sappy, but how could he not be with the man he loved the most?
An hour or two later, and he was definitely not ready to engrave anything into the ring. But his scrap metal was covered with marks on both sides, repetitions of “forever yours” in varying fonts and capitalizations, going from wonky to semi-straight, but always in Mingi’s distinctively scratchy handwriting. While on his way back to the workshop to grab a clamp, he popped into the kitchen to give Yunho another kiss, as was his duty to the loveliest person on earth. Once again in his room, he placed the ring in the clamp and sat down, just staring at it for a while, scribe in hand. He took a deep breath and brought the sharp tip of the scribe to the inside of the bronze.
All in all, his little engraving project could have gone a lot worse, leaving him in a jolly mood when Yunho called him to dinner, the ring in his pocket.
“There was a sale on flour today, so I made a quiche and some pie crust so we can use those cherries later- Hey, let me take off my apron first!”
Mingi had jumped into Yunho’s arms, making him stumble backwards. There was a dusting of flour over his apron, so probably not the best idea, but he couldn’t resist. Yunho held him anyway, separating for just a second to pull off his apron which Mingi untied, but they went right back to holding each other.
“Is something up?”
“Nope, just love you lots.”
“Aww, I love you too. So,”
A kiss on Mingi’s nose.
“So,”
A kiss on Mingi’s forehead.
“Much. Now go eat.”
Mingi wasn’t much of a baker, but he loved to sit on a high chair and watch Yunho mill around the kitchen, helping out when he was called. He was rolling out some pie crust, when he noticed the sound of Yunho’s stirring had stopped. He looked up to find Yunho gazing at him. He smiled, set his stirring spoon down, and moved the pan of cherries off the stove.
“Mingi, how long do you think you’ll want to stay here?”
Neither of them said anything for several seconds.
“...What do you mean?”
“You’re a nomad by nature, right? That’s why you came here, you were looking for somewhere to be. But you’ve been here a really long time.”
“Do you…” Mingi started. The voices of humans now long dead began to swim in his ears, and the weight of the ring in his pocket began to bore through the fabric.
“We don’t want him here.”
“Can’t you see that taking him in was a mistake? He’s dangerous, all the children are frightened of him, he’s going to bring us bad luck…”
“We need to get rid of him. We’re going to get rid of him.”
“...Not want me?”
The words came out weakly. He didn’t even notice Yunho had moved until he was right in front of him, wiping tears he didn’t know had fallen. Yunho cooed indistinctly, cradling Mingi’s head against his chest. Mingi just clutched his shirt and cried, Yunho murmuring softly to him all the while.
“It’s not that, sweetheart. Of course I want you. I’ll always want you. But if you ever wanted a change of scenery, I’d be happy to make it happen with you. And I’ll stay with you for as long as you’ll have me. I thought you might be getting tired of being in these mountains, considering that you spent your whole life travelling. You’re the most important thing in the world for me, Mingi, and I’d be happy to go anywhere as long as I’m with you. God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you-”
“I wanna stay.”
Mingi pulled away from Yunho’s body, but held onto his fingers. Yunho nudged a box of handkerchiefs towards him with his free hand.
“I never travelled because I wanted to, you know. I travelled because wherever I went, no one wanted me. It was so lonely, Yunho. Three hundred years of wandering, from as soon as I could fly. And if it weren’t for you, I’d still be wandering today. I’m happy here.”
Yunho gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
“That’s good to hear, honey. I should have phrased my first question better, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You didn’t know I’d freak out like that.”
Mingi could tell he wanted to know why he reacted that way, why for their first few years of living together he would never let Yunho leave the house alone, why even when he got over that, it took a few more years for him to not wait anxiously by the door every time Yunho was gone. Why Mingi still talks to his tattered toy rabbit and likes to wear a centuries old knitted cape that barely covers his shoulders now. But he let the questions go in favour of giving Mingi a kiss on the lips.
“I love you, Mingi. Don’t you ever forget that, okay?”
Mingi nodded.
“I love you too.”
A few hours later, Mingi had eaten his fill of cherry pie and was being tucked into bed. Yunho gave him a kiss on the forehead before leaving to brush his teeth. Mingi could feel the ring still in his pocket. He pulled it out and slipped it onto his own finger. It was just a little too loose for him. Could definitely do with some polishing as well. He tucked away into the nightstand on his side, and vowed to finish it the next day.
It was the afternoon, and Yunho was knitting some kind of baby hat for the family that ran the bakery they usually got their baguettes from. They were a lovely bunch that Yunho had spent generations with, even baking a cake for the two of them when he introduced Mingi as his boyfriend for the first time. The manager of the family business, a middle aged man who always had a cat around the shop, told them that he had a grandchild on the way. Of course, Yunho was very happy for him, but he had to sit down for a long while when they got home.
“It’s just crazy, you know? I could have sworn that I knitted a blanket for him as a baby just weeks ago. Humans just come and go, don’t they…”
As for Mingi, he dug up an old book about polishing metal, because Yunho had books on every single obscure subject. He flipped to the bronze section, and it seemed easy enough: just a little bit of lemon juice and baking soda. He went and sliced a lemon, squeezing a few drops into a bowl and dropping the slices into their water jug. Vitamin C is important for preventing scurvy. He mixed it with a little baking soda and coated the ring with it. While it did its magic, Mingi scampered back to the metal workshop to grab some fine sandpaper. By the time he came back and rubbed some of the mixture off the ring, it was pleasantly shiny, just about done. He wiped the rest of it off and took everything into his music room. The resin was completely hardened, and it already fit the setting. All that he had to do was glue it in place and sand the engraving on the inside of the ring.
Honestly, Mingi was pretty proud of himself. It was a solid ring. Granted, he didn’t forge it himself or anything, but considering that it was his first time making one, not bad at all, even if the engraving was a little slanted and it took him two tries to get the resin cast to stay in place.
Now, he just had to wait.
Two more days, and he’d be able to…
Actually? I have no idea what I’m going to say to him.
He read all the plays and stories he could find, and all the characters said something along the lines of “Will you marry me?” which was all fine and dandy, except Mingi and Yunho weren’t exactly getting married. They were just… promising themselves to each other, but formally.
I guess, anyway. Fuck it, I’ll just wing it and hope inspiration strikes when I need it to.
When the night of the meteor shower came, Mingi spent a while mulling over what to wear. He was pretty sure he saw Yunho take something nice out of his closet, so he had to look good as well. That being said, Yunho always swore he looked amazing in anything he wore, but he at least wanted to put the effort in. His hand flitted over some gowns that Yunho had made for him. Definitely lovely and fun to run around in, but perhaps not ideal for flying to the top of a mountain in. He settled for a gold trimmed shirt and regular trousers, but also the very first garment Yunho had made for him: a brown wool coat. Most importantly, it had closable pockets, where he would keep the ring until he was ready. He put in the daisy earrings Yunho made him, and he was ready.
Outside, Yunho looked very classy in a long coat, his wings folded neatly against his back. He positively beamed when Mingi ran out to greet him.
“You’re so gorgeous.”
Mingi took his hand and gave him a peck on the lips.
“You’re gorgeous too. All the time. You remember when you got sick after eating those questionable berries and your face swelled up and you had to lie in bed for three days? You were still so hot-”
“God, don’t remind me,” Yunho grimaced, opening their front door and looking up at the night sky.
“When is it supposed to start?” Mingi asked.
“Should be pretty soon. Let’s go up,” Yunho replied, unfolding his wings and propelling himself several feet off the ground with one flap, Mingi quickly following. There wasn’t much wind, so they had no problem making their way up to the peak of the mountain, rising and dipping in playful attempts to catch each other. Above the snowy summit, Mingi let himself fall from a little too high up, hitting the snow with an “oof” as Yunho landed gracefully next to him.
“You alright, princess?”
Heat flooded Mingi’s cheeks.
“Don’t call me that in public,” he whined, letting Yunho pull him out of the snow crater he made to sit beside him.
“This doesn’t count as public. And it’s true, you are my princess- Oh, there’s the first one!”
A faint stream of light fell slowly across the sky, followed by another, and then another. Mingi rested his head on Yunho’s shoulder, mouth agape as more and more of them flew through the air, trails of fire behind them. The sky was alight with bright white meteors. He thought nothing would look more beautiful than their reflections in Yunho’s eyes, but when he looked up to see them, he caught Yunho gazing at him softly instead. They both giggled and looked away, but the tightening of Yunho’s arm around his waist just made the butterflies in his stomach flutter harder.
Far too quickly, the fall of the meteors began to slow.
It’s now or never.
Heart beating in his throat, he rose slowly until their faces were just centimeters apart. He was right: the sky was beautiful, but it was even lovelier reflected in Yunho’s deep brown eyes.
Now or never.
He breathed in the cold, mountain air, opened his mouth, and-
“Mingi…”
Closed his mouth again. Yunho turned towards him.
“Will you marry me?”
Mingi blinked.
“Sorry, I know it’s a weird question considering we don’t really have actual marriage rites, I just thought, symbolically,” Yunho pulled out a ridiculously ornate ring, delicately carved and set with jewels Mingi couldn’t name.
“Fuck, I was about to ask the same thing,” Mingi breathed. From his pocket, he lifted the ring he made, slightly embarrassed by its far inferior workmanship. Yunho gasped, looking at it closer.
“You made that? For me? Is that why you kept taking stuff from my workshop, thinking I wouldn't notice?”
“Oh. Uh, yeah. I mean, I didn’t exactly make it, I just engraved it badly and set it. Is that why you wouldn’t let me in the workshop when you were in there?”
“You caught me. But, Mingi, you still haven’t answered the question.”
They were facing each other, hand in hand, rings clasped between them.
“Yunho, of course I’ll marry you. You mean everything to me, Yunho, you know the night we met? That was the night I came to this land. All my life, I had wandered aimlessly, but when I stood at the edge of the last continent I was on, I didn’t have a map, but I knew where I was going. You led me here, Yunho. Whether you intended to or not, you led me here, and I’ll always be so thankful for that. For you.”
Speechless, there was nothing Yunho could do other than pull Mingi into a teary kiss. “I love you”s were mumbled between breaths, and hands fumbled to slip rings onto the other’s finger.
They pulled apart for air, as much as they could still wrapped in each other’s arms. Foreheads pressed against each other, Mingi laughed breathlessly. It was just so surreal that someone as beautiful as Yunho could not only exist, but love him as well. Judging by the way Yunho’s hands cradled his face, and his wings wrapped around him protectively, he was thinking something along the same lines about Mingi.
Yunho’s hand tilted his head up, so, so, delicately.
And under the last falling meteors of the century, they kissed once more.