Work Text:
Kita Shinsuke believed in doing things properly. When entering the house, put your shoes on the rack neatly. At the new year’s, make an offering to the gods. And if you and your boyfriend of two years are at the stage of your relationship where the two of you make plans to visit friends in a foreign country as a couple, then it was time to talk about marriage.
There was no need to make it dramatic. After all, it wasn’t a proposal so much as a conversation to make sure that Aran even wanted a proposal. Nevertheless, Shinsuke didn’t want it to be so casual as to be offhand, so he made a modest plan: he would invite Aran to his home, take him on a short but scenic hike, and surprise him with a picnic breakfast before broaching the topic.
With the way their schedules panned out, however, there was no opportunity to meet until the day before they were supposed to fly to Brazil for a month-long visit with Atsumu and Hinata Shouyou. Shinsuke figured that since their flight wouldn’t leave until late in the evening, they could still fit in the date. It would just have to be shorter than planned.
The expected day came, and Aran arrived—and a summer storm followed right on his heels.
Shinsuke only had time to give him a hurried peck on the lips before running out into the rain; the storm was harsh, and he needed to cover the seedlings with tarp before they got flattened. After he’d returned and changed into dry clothes, he found Aran in the kitchen with a steaming cup of tea in one hand. Another cup sat on the table next to him waiting for Shinsuke. Shinsuke sat down, running a towel through his damp hair.
“Here, let me do that for you,” Aran said, taking the towel. “Drink your tea so you can get warmed up. Honestly, couldn’t you have grabbed a raincoat before goin’ out?”
“That would have been wiser,” Shinsuke admitted. “But I was worried about the seedlings, so it slipped my mind.”
“You’re gonna catch your death of cold one of these days.”
“I’ll be more diligent next time.”
“Good. You’d better.”
Aran patted Shinsuke’s hair dry, his hands gentle. His touch warmed Shinsuke up as much as the tea did. They sat like that for a few minutes, silently enjoying each other’s company. Then Shinsuke remembered his plans for the date. What a shame, when all the food was already prepared and stored in neatly stacked tupperware in the fridge.
“This storm has ruined my plans,” he solemnly informed Aran.
Aran paused and raised an eyebrow. “What plans?”
“Nothin’ grand. Just a short hike in the mornin’ to this nice little spot I found, so we could have a picnic breakfast. But with all this rain, the roads will be in no condition to hike on, and I don’t think either of us fancies sittin’ in the mud.”
“Kita Shinsuke,” Aran cried, “why were ya makin’ these plans in the first place? You know we’re flyin’ out to Brazil tomorrow night. You should be resting until then.”
“I didn’t think a date would be that much extra work. Besides, I wanted to talk to ya about somethin’ important.”
Aran finished drying Shinsuke’s hair and folded the towel neatly, hanging it over the back of his chair. “Something so important it needed a hike and a picnic breakfast? I don’t know what goes through your brain sometimes, Shinsuke. Why don’tcha just tell me now?”
He sounded exasperated and affectionate—a common combination whenever he and Shinsuke talked. It made Shinsuke want to tease him a little, so he said, “Nah, it wouldn’t be proper.”
As expected, Aran pouted. “I know you’re just sayin’ that to make fun of me.”
Shinsuke patted his cheek. “And ya always go for the bait. But really, Aran, I didn’t want to bring it up all rushed like this.”
“All right, now you’re really worryin’ me. It’s not somethin’ bad, is it, so you made all these plans to soften the blow?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then,” Aran said, pointing a threatening finger at him, “I demand that you tell me right now, Kita Shinsuke, or I’m not lettin’ you get up from that seat.”
“Goodness, that’s rather forward of you.”
“Shinsuke!”
Aran reached forward to smack his shoulder, but Shinsuke intercepted his hand. Bringing it to his lips, he kissed each knuckle softly before lowering it to his lap, still clasped in his own hand. Once more they sat in silence as Shinsuke searched for the words. It wasn’t that he was at a loss—it was just that sitting here with Aran’s familiar callouses pressed against the weathered skin of his palm felt incredibly precious, and he wanted to do right by that feeling.
“Shinsuke?” Aran’s soft brown eyes were trained on him with nothing but gentleness. “Whatever it is, it’s okay to tell me.”
His gaze erased the last of Shinsuke’s hesitations. “It’s nothing big,” he said, smiling at Aran. “I just wanted to ask if you feel like you can spend the rest of your life with me.”
Aran’s mouth fell open. He gaped at Shinsuke for a few seconds before sputtering, “Excuse me, did you just say ‘It’s nothing big’ and then propose to me?”
“Ah, but this isn’t the actual proposal,” Shinsuke said, as pedantically as Aran might have done if he were the one doing the correcting. “This is just the part where I make sure that the two of us are on the same page.”
“I—well—”
Shinsuke waited patiently for Aran to collect himself.
At last, he blurted out, “Of course we’re on the same page! Of course I want to marry you!”
“Good, then I’m glad,” Shinsuke said simply, and stood up to walk over to the fridge. He took out the picnic food—no point in letting it go to waste, even if it couldn’t serve its original purpose—and set it in front of a still sputtering Aran.
“How are you so calm about this?” Aran demanded, even as he took the chopsticks that Shinsuke handed him and cracked open one of the tupperware.
“Why wouldn’t I be calm about it?”
“Well, it’s a big deal!”
“So it is. But like I said, this isn’t the actual marriage proposal. Just a preliminary survey.”
“You were gonna take me on a romantic hike to ask me if I wanna spend the rest of my life with ya, and yer tellin’ me it’s not the proposal?”
“Aran, I’m surprised at ya. Yes, the hike was supposed to be nice and all, but surely ya didn’t think that was the proper setting for a marriage proposal.”
Aran looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or to scold some more. He grabbed Shinsuke’s face and kissed him long and deep.
“Shinsuke…yer really somethin’ else. If that wasn’t proper enough, then I gotta wonder what counts as proper!”
Shinsuke held Aran in place, cradling his face in his hands. He wanted to admire it a little longer. “First of all, we’ve gotta have the rings. Second of all…well, you’ll just have to wait and see.”
He leaned forward and kissed Aran again, thinking about the velvet box tucked safely into an inner compartment of his suitcase. Everything had to be done properly, and the proper thing would have been to wait until after this conversation to bring it home with him. But Shinsuke had had a feeling that everything between him and Aran was already proper, and right, and good—so maybe it wouldn’t hurt, just this once, to skip ahead a little and dream of warm sand, salty breezes, and the morning sun glinting off the gold of a wedding band.