Work Text:
Aiba sighed as he looked at the clock again.
Sitting at the kitchen table, he looked down at his phone again, where Sho’s last message was staring back at him.
‘Something came up at work. I’ll be late.’
He bit his bottom lip as he re-read that message again. After that night when he found Sho and Ohno’s messages, he was now convinced that Sho was really cheating on him. It had been a week since that night now. When Sho had come out of the shower, he had found his phone where he had left it, and Aiba under the covers, pretending to be sleeping.
He hadn’t been ready to talk to Sho about what had happened then, and he wasn’t more ready now, but he couldn’t live like this for much longer. The previous day he had heard Sho whisper to Ohno again on the phone, telling him that he had sensed that Aiba suspected something, and that he didn’t know how to hide whatever it was that was happening between them anymore.
Aiba took his head in his hands. He couldn’t wait for Sho to break up with him while he did nothing. He needed to confront him about it, and that last call had helped him make up his mind.
He had gotten out of work a little earlier that day, so he could cook for the both of them. If their relationship was to be over that night, he at least wanted a last moment of happiness before the storm.
Just as he had decided that he was going to wait on the couch, he heard the front door open. The sound of Sho’s steps as he walked into the kitchen were like beats of a drum echoing in Aiba’s heart.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” Sho said as soon as he saw him sitting at the table.
He sat down and dropped his suitcase next to him, taking off his coat and putting it on the back of the chair.
“Things got crazy at work at the last second because someone from another department screwed up and we all had to pitch in,” he said. “What is all this?” he asked, noticing the food. “Did you cook all of this?”
Sho smiled widely as he waited for his husband to reply, and it broke Aiba’s heart to believe that he could be capable of lying to him.
“Don’t lie to me.”
Sho’s smile slipped away from his face, giving way to confusion. “What?”
Aiba’s fists clenched on his knees under the table. He wanted to wait. He wanted to have a last nice moment with Sho before the confrontation, but the betrayal and resentment were bubbling in his chest, pushing to come out.
“Are you cheating on me?”
Completely bewildered by that question, Sho’s body jolted on the chair and bumped on the table, making the open bottle of wine fall. He rushed to catch it, managing to make only some of the content spill, and then stared at Aiba incredulously.
“What!?”
“Answer me, please.”
Aiba’s tone was calm, surprisingly enough. He thought that when this was going to happen, when he was finally going to confront Sho about it, that he was going to yell, that he was going to cry. But he felt calm now, as if this wasn’t him speaking; as if this wasn’t happening to him. Because in no universe he ever thought this would be something Sho would do.
“Where is this coming from?”
Aiba put his hands in front of him on the table. “I know you’ve been meeting with Ohno-kun in secret for months now. I heard you whisper to him on the phone,” he said, looking at him right in the eyes. “And I know I shouldn’t have, but I looked through your texts, too. Are you cheating on me? You fell in love with him and you want to leave me, is that what it is about?”
Sho tried to grab his hand, but Aiba pulled away. “Masaki, stop, please,” he begged. “This is all a big misunderstanding that’s gone too far, I swear.”
Aiba smiled ironically. “Then explain it to me, Sho. Because I’ve been going crazy for almost two months, thinking you were sleeping with another man behind my back, thinking you were going to divorce me…”
“Hey,” Sho stopped him. “Please don’t say that. Don’t even think that. It kills me that you would even think that.” He looked at Aiba with tears in his eyes. “I’ll tell you everything, okay? Don’t move.”
Sho only got up when Aiba gave him a short nod. Then, looking at him as if afraid that Aiba would take off if he took too long, he all but ran to their bedroom.
Aiba heard him open and close a drawer, and a minute later, he came back with something in his hand.
Sho sat down in front of him again, putting the thing he was carrying on the table, gesturing for him to take it.
Aiba looked at it and grabbed it. It was a small box, and when he opened it he found a ring inside. He looked up at Sho with confusion written in is face.
“What is this?”
Sho took a breath.
“I’ve been meeting with Ohno-kun in secret, it’s true. But I wasn’t cheating on you,” he said. “He was giving me dance lessons.”
“Dance lessons?” Aiba was even more confused by that.
Sho’s gaze softened. “We never really had a wedding,” he said. “And it was because of me and my family, as you know. We were very young, and when they tried to marry me off to a partner of their choosing, we decided to elope.”
“Yeah,” Aiba said, “but what has that got to do with it?”
Sho’s gaze dropped. “It was my fault that you didn’t have a big wedding like you deserved—”
“I never cared about that, you know it,” Aiba interrupted him. “I just wanted to be with you.”
“Yeah, I know.” Sho enveloped his hands that were still holding the box. “But I also know that you sacrificed a lot for me. So I wanted to do something for you.”
He took the box off of Aiba’s hands and stood up.
“This was going to be a surprise for our anniversary,” he said, as he looked down at the ring. “There was supposed to be a big musical number, and then I would get down on one knee and ask you to marry me again.”
“Sho-chan,” Aiba said, as he realized what he was saying. “But you hate embarrassing yourself in public.”
His husband smiled. “Yeah, I do. But I also know how much you like those big proposals, so I was gonna do it for you.”
Aiba stood up and got closer to him. “You’re not anymore?”
Sho looked up at him. “What’s the point? Not only is the surprise ruined, I even made you feel sad.”
Aiba felt a bit guilty seeing Sho’s face when he said that. “I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re right. I didn’t think about how it would look. I was just too focused on the bigger picture.”
“You even spent time learning a dance for me?” Aiba brushed his cheek.
“Yeah, well,” Sho grimaced. “I’m not that good of a dancer though.”
Aiba chuckled. “How about you show me?” He looked at him. “Let’s dance together.”
Sho looked around. “But there’s no music.”
Aiba smiled as he took the box from his hands and put it on the table.
“We don’t need any music.”
“I didn’t really learn the steps to any couple dances though.”
Aiba took his arms and put them around his neck.
“We don’t need any steps,” he whispered, grabbing his hips and swaying with him.
Sho hummed contentedly, smiling as their forehead touched. Aiba nudged him slightly with his nose before kissing him tenderly.
When he pulled back, he found Sho staring at his lips.
“So,” he said, gaze moving to his eyes as he spoke. “Will you marry me again?”
Sho looked at him expectantly, wearing the soft expression that Aiba knew was reserved for him and only him. That’s when he realized that he was a fool to believe that his husband would ever be cheating on him when he was still looking at him like he was the only person in the world that mattered.
“Yeah,” he smiled and left another kiss on his lips. “Yeah, Sho-chan. I think I will.”