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You missed your boyfriend. Terribly. Kazuichi, being the lead mechanic of the local auto shop, was always on call for the most difficult of mechanical problems. He was an absolute genius when it came to anything machine-driven, and he took pride in being able to help you with your problems. Spark plug worn out? Done. Oil change? No problem! Serpentine belt needed replacing? He’s your man!
It didn’t seem to matter how much he smelled like motor oil or how caked in grease his hair had become....you were completely enamored with everything that he did. That sharky grin of his was like a warm hug on a cold day, but that grin had been absent lately.
The problem that you had now couldn’t be fixed with a wrench or car lift. He seemed to be avoiding you like the plague, and every spare moment that he had was spent under a car or just at the shop in general. For the past month, it seemed like he didn’t even want to spend any time with you at all. He spent most of his time avoiding your gaze and blushing whenever you said his name.
With all of the time that he spent at the shop lately, you sometimes found yourself hanging out with him late into the night or early in the morning before you had to part ways.
This is how you found yourself leaning against a truck in the bay next to Kazuichi. He was currently working on...something. He had explained it to you in explicit detail, but honestly, the words seemed to blend together after a while. The jargon he used was complicated, and sometimes it was better for him to just rant it out. He often did so when figuring out a problem; speaking aloud helped him come to a conclusion that he felt was satisfactory. No input on your behalf was needed. He was happy just to have a beautiful face staring back at him as he rationalized his thoughts.
Once he was finished, his eyes would light up and he’d rest his fingers on his chin with a, “Thanks, babe!” And then he’d be off to the shop to work on whatever his current problem was.
Kazuichi was ranting now, clanking and banging coming intermittently from under the car where he lay on a creeper, a variety of tools scattered around him and the wheeled dolly.
It was hard to focus when all that you could think about was how much you had missed him lately. His voice ebbed and flowed like waves around you, and it was hard to absorb any of the words that he was currently speaking. He had promised to take you on a date to the movies to watch the new romantic comedy that had just premiered. Honestly, it was so much more fun to watch them with him than by yourself. He found himself mocking the movie in front of him, and the way that he was able to mimic the cheesy dialogue always had you in stitches, tears running down your face as he pretended to be frustrated with the dopey characters and the unbelievable disasters that they found themselves in.
Your gaze drifted to the clock on the wall as his words came into focus once again.
“And ya know, movies make proposing seem really simple, ya know? I mean, it should be easy! You see it in all of the chick movies we watch. The guy bends down, shows off the ring, and says those four magical words, ‘Will you marry me?’”
The word ‘magical’ was said mockingly, but those four words...you had dreamed of Kazuichi saying them to you for almost as long as you had been dating. He wasn’t a romantic in the slightest, and he avoided the topic of marriage whenever it came up. He even avoided the conversation when Gundham and Sonia had announced their engagement during a meetup with your former Hope’s Peak Academy classmates last month. Kazuichi had claimed that he had a terrible stomachache and needed to go home and rest. By home, he had meant the auto shop. He avoided you for the rest of the day, not even bothering to answer his texts. His behavior had been pretty much the same since that day.
“See, I could say it right now! Y/n? Will you marry me? But, GOD. You’re just so pretty! And you look at me with those eyes of yours, and I can feel my goddamn heart stop!”
A hot streak of adrenaline shot through your toes. You heard the sound of the ratchet under the car cranking away. How much of the conversation had you missed zoning in and out like that? Shaking your head, you focused on the only part of him that you could see from under the vehicle, which happened to be his legs and feet.
You heard more clanking and clattering from under the car, and a wrench appeared next to his creeper.
“See, easy? But it’s like you're a goddess or something.” The wrench disappeared under the car again. “I wish that I could just ask you to marry me, but every time I try to, I just can’t get the words out.”
“Kazuichi?” Your voice was barely a whisper as he continued his rant.
“I’ve practiced in the mirror, and goddamnit, I even had Gundham help me practice! Can you believe that? Gundham!”
“Kazuichi!” Your voice was louder this time, insistent. He continued to ramble.
“Will. You. Marry. Me. Y/n.” He turned the socket wrench in time with each word. “Will. You. Marry. Me. Y/n?”
“KAZUICHI!” This time, you raised your voice loud enough that it broke him from his train of thought, and he scooted out from under the car, a surprised expression covering his face.
You felt tears begin to prick the corners of your eyes as you looked down at the disheveled mechanic that has just wheeled his way out from under the car. A smear of oil was spread across his forehead, and his hands were covered in grease and grime.
You locked eyes with him, which wasn’t easy to do right now considering what he had just confessed.
“K-kazuichi? Did you just ask me to marry you? Were you serious?”
He looked up at you with a shocked expression before sitting up on his creeper, legs spread on either side of the small, rolling dolly. He looked as confused as you were, as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
“Uh...well, I guess that depends on your answer? I could be joking. Like, totally joking! Like, ‘Haha! Can you believe that he would do that? Propose to the woman of his dreams from under a car?’”
Planting both hands on either side of his body, he stood up fully and leaned back against the body of the car and began to pretend to laugh, seeming as if he couldn’t meet your eyes. He crossed his arms in front of his body.
You felt your heart stop. Your mouth was dry, and time seemed to freeze. The only thing that existed in that moment was the man in front of you that you’ve loved for as long as you could remember.
The only thing that you could do was nod your head, your hands flying to your mouth, as he turned his head to look at you.
He stared at you unbelieving. “Yeah?” A streak of pink appeared across his cheeks.
The only thing that managed to slip from your lips was a quiet, “Yeah!”
He launched his body at you as he curled around you, his strength and warmth immediately relaxing your body. You hadn’t even realized how tense you had become throughout the one-sided conversation. You felt yourself melt into his arms as he began to stroke your hair delicately. The two of you stood there for a few moments, simply holding each other, captured in a moment in time that neither of you wanted to break.
Kazuichi’s body tensed under your fingertips, and a look of panic spread across his face.
“Ah...shit. Y/n?” His grip loosened around your body, and he let go of you to shuffle around the many pockets of his jumpsuit. “I don’t even have a ring to make this official, ya know?” He unsnapped another pocket and fished around inside of it.
“Kazuichi,” your heart began to soften even more, though it seemed impossible. “We don’t need a ring to make it official.”
“Yeah, but…” His voice trailed off as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his hips quickly and started moving down. He unsnapped the right pocket on his leg and started to dig around inside of it. “You’re my princess! So you deserve the best!”
He moved to his left hip pocket, and he looked at you ecstatically. His eyes began to sparkle as he pulled an object from his pocket. He held it up, admiring it, as if he'd struck gold. It glinted against the lights of the shop for a moment, and he held it out to you in his right hand.
“I know that it’s not much, but, uh…” He moves his eyes from his hand up to lock them with yours before you both glance down at his treasure.
His voice trails off as you gaze down at the object that he pulled from his pocket. A nut. A hexagonal nut. You stared down at it for a few moments, and his hand began to slowly retreat back to his body.
He looked away sheepishly, embarrassed, and his voice was barely audible. “I know that you deserve better, y/n. I mean, I have no idea what I did to deserve YOU. I’m sorry...”
He moves to place the fastener back into his pocket, and your arm shoots out to grab his hand. You use your other hand to unwrap his fingers from his proffered gift.
“It’s perfect, Kazuichi.”
You take it from him and slip it onto your ring finger on your left hand and stare down at it admiringly. Surprisingly, it seemed to fit you, even if the shape was a little awkward. He seemed to glow as he took you in. The blush had grown to encompass his entire face, and it seemed as if he had tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.
Engaged! You and Kazuichi were engaged! Before you can stop yourself, both of your arms flew out to embrace your new fiance, knocking him backwards against the driver side door of the vehicle parked behind him. He reached out both arms to hold you again as he planted a kiss on the top of your head. Butterflies filled your stomach as you buried your face into his jumpsuit, not believing what had just happened. You couldn’t wait to tell Chiaki! And Akane! Mahiru too!
“Ya know, I wasn’t planning on doing this today.” One of his hands flew to the back of his head as he averted his eyes. “I was going to do it...uh...last week. But I got a little nervous.” He smiled down at you with his sharktoothed grin.
“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me the past few weeks?”
“Well...yeah. I had a feeling that you knew, and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it...I couldn’t bear the thought of being rejected by you.”
A tear dripped down the left side of his face as he smiled down at you through the tears that threatened to overflow from his closed lids. Using your hand, you wiped it away and began to stroke his cheek. “Please don’t ever worry about that again. You have me. Forever.”
Pulling his face down to kiss him quickly on the lips, you stated, “Let’s get cleaned up! We have to celebrate!”
You helped him pick up and sort his tools as he brought the car back down onto the ground using the lift. Linking your fingers with his, you smiled up at him as you walked with him to the back of the auto shop to shower and freshen up.
As he opened the door to the employee bathroom, you turned to him and asked, “Honestly, who accidentally proposes?”