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“Hiyori-kun, did you know you had a suitor submission to our mother, recently?” Hiyori hummed, taking another bite of his quiche and nodding. His brother quirked a brow before Hiyori explained himself.
“I already told her, I’m not interested in some old coot or anyone who she just wants me to marry to extend our reach. I remain as I am, out of sight and out of mind.” This only caused the older Tomoe to sigh and shake his head.
“Did you even see the name and image of the young man? I think you ought to, because I would have thought you would have known sooner, given how strict the idol world seems about these things…” Hiyori blinked, then shifting to pull his phone from his pocket. For a moment, he smiled at the image of Mary and Ibara on his lock screen before he unlocked it to check his email he kept separate for family business. Opening it once again, he finally opened the marriage proposal to look at the portrait and name, only for him to nearly choke on his own spit.
“Wait, is he even eligible? I thought-- Isn’t he too young for her to even consider it?” As his older brother shrugged, he actually found himself wondering how that arrangement would go. He knew his mother was desperate to marry him off to some successful businessman, but he wasn’t really aware of just how successful he was as a young entrepreneur on the outside. He was never particularly good at reading through business reports and charts, they bored him to no end and his attention span was short for things he had no interest in. “...do you think I’d be Saegusa Hiyori afterwards?” He’d leaned forward to whisper this, and his brother started laughing, finding the sudden secrecy with his discovery rather adorable.
“I’m not certain, I suppose it is up to our family, but… I was simply surprised you didn’t see he had put in a submission to our mother. She was the one looking originally, but I think she’s grown weary after every suitor you’ve forcefully shut off rather quickly… I thought this would have caught your attention enough to even call me up about it… Honestly I thought that was why we were meeting for lunch before you said it was to talk about how Mary has grown.” Hiyori blinked, then feeling his cheeks grow red.
“W-Well! If she had titled the email with who it was that submitted it, I might have looked faster!” His brother simply laughed again and hummed, quirking a brow, finishing his own food and drink before covering the check for their lunch.
“Well, no matter the case, if this is something you want to look into, I do hope you know the things you’ll have to endure for her to allow that sort of thing… Not to mention, if you can’t have it go public due to the both of you being idols… She’s going to be even more strict than she would be normally.” Hiyori nodded, sighing a bit as he thought on it. He did want this though, and perhaps it might be the only way he could get away with it, given that once he fully transitioned, it was likely he wouldn’t be allowed to be wed any time soon lest a miracle arrived.
“You already know how I feel about him… I don’t shut up about him, Asahi-kun!” The older Tomoe nodded, smiling softly. “He’s my everything right now, and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him…” Shifting in his seat, he poked at the last bite of his quiche, looking at it almost sadly. “...I don’t want to lose him, but even if he submitted that… I’m scared of our parents, especially mother… Trying to use him in any way to make us prosper…” This was a fair thing to be concerned about, and Asahi simply nodded, knowing full well that given their mother’s language surrounding marriage, it was a possibility.
“Well, whatever the case, I am certain the two of you can work this out in a way that is beneficial to the two of you while managing to get our old mother off your back finally. That would hopefully make dinners with everyone a bit less tense than they have been every holiday. It’s nicer to see you when you’re actually enjoying yourself, you know?” Hiyori hummed, nodding and getting up from his seat as Asahi was finally doing so as well. “For now, though, I need to return to the estate, I have some things I needed to organize and look over for submission before next week… If you do decided to go through with this arrangement, send me a message before you speak to our mother so I at least can prepare a convincing speech for her beforehand, fufu~”
“Of course, Asahi-kun~ I always keep you in the loop!” With that, they shared a hug and a quick kiss on each other’s cheeks before Hiyori was waving to him while his chauffeur opened his car for him. Once Asahi had disappeared from sight, Hiyori found himself sighing dreamily at the concept. “Mm… Saegusa Hiyori… or even Tomoe Ibara…? No matter the case, I wonder how serious he was about that… To submit a request like that to my mother when she’s been trying even these days…” Lavender hues looked up to the tall ES building where he knew Ibara’s office was located. He stared for a moment before deciding he would, in fact, go and have a word with him.
After all, submitting for an arranged marriage was one thing if they were a stranger, but since Ibara was his boyfriend, he would have preferred something more romantic!
A sigh left tired lips as blue hues looked up toward the ceiling as their owner found themselves exhausted from the finished workload for the day. Between submitting requests, signed documents, and sending emails for confirming appearances by Eden, Eve, or even Adam in some rare cases… The poor redhead was exhausted mentally, and a bit physically. He really needed to stand and stretch more often than he did, but when he was on a roll it was hard to stop the flow. As he did finally stand, he felt his elbows and knees pop, and almost flinched, groaning.
“Grief, I’m going to sound like I’m forty before I hit twenty-one if I’m not stretching more…” As he sighed again, deciding to do other stretches, he felt other pops and cracks and let out a few other groans in the process. That felt much better, but he wanted to almost lay down after getting all stretched out like that. Before he could even consider, however, there was knocking on his office door and he was quickly straightening things out on his person in case it was someone of great importance. Of course, that wasn’t a too far cry from the truth, as he would count his boyfriend far up on the people of great importance list.
“Ibara! You have some explaining to do!” The redhead stiffened with the demand, and he felt a slight sweat building on the back of his neck. Oh dear, he wondered what that could be referring to, actually. There were some Eve jobs he’d approved before receiving Hiyori’s consent, not to mention some Eden shoots that he had a feeling the blond wouldn’t enjoy… So it was going to be interesting seeing which thing he needed to explain. “Submitting that to my mother and not even telling me beforehand? You sneaky, selfish viper!” Oh . That wasn’t at all what he had prepared to explain, and his cheeks erupted in a vibrant red shade.
“Ah, y-your highness, you see, that… Well, I had hoped she would have taken more time to look it over and consider before just submitting it to you for your consideration, after all I am still rather up and coming as a businessman, and I assumed that a woman of her age would have preferred you married off with someone older and more established and--” Before he could finish, Hiyori was in front of him, and a finger laid itself over his lips, lavender boring into cerulean as though he could see right through his soul. Ibara felt as though his heart was on the scales of judgement right now.
“Ibara. Submitting something like that to my mother, the Tomoe Yuki, isn’t just some silly, simple task, you know. She doesn’t just pass along suitors to me without having already scrutinized them. She sees something in your position worth taking advantage of. She sees something she can use to her advantage, and she wants to eat you alive like some rare steak. My feelings are never taken into account with these suitor submissions, but…” As he hesitated, his eyes grew soft, and there was a soft huff of a sigh. “...I really would have wished you’d just propose to me yourself if you wished to be with me eternally… All the ‘til death do we part’s don’t count for much when there’s no sincerity in them…” His arms wrapped around Ibara tight as he sniffled slightly, and Ibara could feel the immediate onset of guilt for what he’d done.
“Y-Your highness, I assure you, I had planned something extravagant, something just for you, that would have made up for this selfish deed of mine… I was simply hasty, though, as I wanted to be sure I submitted myself for consideration before I missed any possible window of opportunity… Submitting myself to your family for consideration was the first step of several, and I know these arranged marriages don’t allow much for flowery gestures that I know you much prefer… Please, if you would, your highness… Allow me to follow through with the plan I had in place for doing just that. Whether she approved of it or not, I wished to go through with that much for you.”
The words caught Hiyori entirely by surprise, having not been expecting Ibara had been looking into something like this prior. He had really thought this through, hadn’t he…? Well, he supposed that was very like Ibara, he didn’t like to leave any room for mistakes and always had back up plans… Everything was done with meticulous strategy that even he missed at times… With another sniffle, he pulled away enough to look at Ibara again, damp lavenders making Ibara’s expression blurry. “Promise it’ll be perfect? You won’t mess this up, right…?” The redhead shook his head and was already pulling his phone from his pocket, removing its stylus to swipe a few times and pull up that morning’s date.
“Your highness, you’re so insistent on surprises that I tried to keep even the submission a secret. That’s why I’m so shocked your mother just gave it over to you without any warning… Today was supposed to be a surprise this evening, so I won’t go into details, but… If you can return to your dorm and get ready, I can still make good on my promise of it being extravagant and a surprise all at once. All for you, your highness.” The offer was tempting, and it was making Hiyori’s heart soar and flutter about in his chest. He wanted to know what it was, but the surprise of it all was making it that much more exciting. Nodding, he then held still as Ibara reached up, a handkerchief in hand to clear the tears and gently pat the blond’s eyes dry.
“I suppose… I can forgive you, if this is as good as you claim it to be.” With another sniffle, the blond leaned forward to press a gentle, tender kiss against the snake’s lips. “Can I dress up for the outing? I want to wear something really cute, okay?” Ibara nodded, of course. He wasn’t about to deny his princess what he desired after he unintentionally made him feel as though the prospect of marriage was a trivial one to himself. Once Hiyori left to get ready, he sighed again.
Marriage really wasn’t something important to him, it was a trivial ritual to make finances, insurance, and other things easier on a couple seeking to become a family. Something to that extent, at least… But, to many, it was still this sacred union… Something important to the two people being wed… Although he didn’t see the importance of something like this… He had researched and researched to come to some better understanding of why it was so important to Hiyori, why he looked at it with such a nostalgic lens for how often he spoke of hating old, outdated things. The thought of remaining at Hiyori’s side, linked with him eternally… he had slowly started to understand why it was so important to Hiyori and it made his own cold heart flutter and pulse to life.
Hiyori waited rather impatiently once he was dressed for their outing. The weather was perfect outside, it wasn’t too hot or cold by the time evening was drawing close, and before he could start texting Ibara when he was supposed to be heading his way, there was a knock to the door. Hiyori jumped up before either of his roommates could even try to answer it, and when he did, it seemed it was a chauffeur.
“Saegusa-san has asked me to escort you to the rooftop, Tomoe-san.” Hiyori blinked a few times, tilting his head and blinking before he simply nodded, smiling and waving to his roommates as he followed the chauffeur. Upon arriving to the rooftop, he saw a helicopter and Ibara, along with another chauffeur it seemed. The blond was at least glad to see his boyfriend had changed into what looked like a comfortable suit for the weather. Making his way over, he hummed, looking to the helicopter, then Ibara.
“Is the destination a surprise, Ibara~?” The redhead simply nodded, humming and linking their arms to walk toward the helicopter. Giving Hiyori the proper protective equipment and helping him inside, he donned his own protective equipment before the chauffeur shut the door and soon they were off. While they were in the air, Ibara undid his tie and carefully turned and mouthed out a request to blindfold Hiyori. The blond blinked, surprised by the notion, but simply nodded, allowing him to do so with the tie. As the helicopter eventually came to a stop and settled, it was only a few moments before Ibara was carefully removing Hiyori’s protective equipment for him and then helping him out of the helicopter, since he had blindfolded him.
“We’re almost there, your highness, I assure you it will be perfect for you.” Perhaps even perfect for us both . He could feel his heart pounding as he helped Hiyori up some stairs to a gazebo looking out over the ocean from atop a rocky outcrop. Before he removed the blindfold, he reached in his back pocket to procure a velvet box from within. Swallowing as he felt his heart racing, he got on one knee, and cleared his throat. “Your highness, Tomoe Hiyori… Could you please remove your blindfold for me?” Hiyori nodded, carefully pushing the tie up and off before he found his eyes widening when he looked down at Ibara first and foremost.
It was true the landscape was beautiful, absolutely stunning, and the sounds of the ocean against the rocky outcrop just beneath them was nothing he would have expected for this… However, beneath the full moon and star sprinkled sky, his boyfriend was there in front of him on one knee, a velvet box in hand that had him tearing up. “Ibara…” The redhead made a quiet hushing sound as he slowly opened the box to reveal a silver ring with a green gemstone set in it. The metalwork was floral, twisting around the gemstone in a way that made it look as though the gem was set in a metal flower. The gem itself was a green so similar to his own hair, he was surprised Ibara was able to find something like this. Then, he was clearing his throat and Hiyori was waiting with baited breath.
“Tomoe Hiyori, your highness, leader of Eve and member of Eden… You have shown me things I never thought myself privileged to receive, let alone thought myself worthy of indulging in. You have given me sunlight where I laid in shadows… I wish to find the knowledge of what eternity could mean for someone like me, and hope that you would like to accompany me on this journey in life… Will you take my hand in marriage, your highness?” The blond, of course, was finding tears sliding down his cheeks as he nodded frantically, then closing the ring box to set it aside so he could fall onto Ibara, causing them both to crumple on the floor of the gazebo in a pile as Hiyori sobbed.
“Yes, of course, o-of course! A h-hundred times yes! Ibara-kun… I-Ibaraaa…!” He sobbed and hugged him tight to his body, trembling as he couldn’t believe he’d really gone so out of his way to do something this extravagant for him all for a proposal. It wasn’t the exact scenery he’d wished for, but it was very like Ibara in how beautiful it was. Dark, secretive… Somewhere no one could find them or spy on them… He hoped he could pick their honeymoon location in the future in this case, he wanted somewhere in particular, but knew the trip would be a long one for certain.
Reaching in his pocket for a handkerchief, Ibara was already taking care of Hiyori’s tears, rubbing his back and softly hushing him, reminding him that this was far from a dream at all. Telling him that he wouldn’t regret a thing about this, and hoped that Hiyori wouldn’t regret it either. “Of course… Handling your mother and father will be… difficult, but I will take all her expectations in stride. I have my own strategies myself, I’m certain I could handle her just fine.” Hiyori sniffled, a little hiccup bubbling up before he laughed softly, reaching for the ring box again to look at the ring, smiling happily at it. “...mm, would you like me to place it upon your finger, your highness?” The blond nodded excitedly, another hiccup coming up before he handed the box to the redhead, immediately getting giddy once more as the ring fit him flawlessly. Of course it did, Ibara really took everything into account when planning things, didn’t he?
“...even if my mother demands hair extensions and some outdated dress and some ceremony I am bound to hate… If it’s with you, I think I could handle it. I know in your heart, you’d never think of me as anyone else but the Tomoe Hiyori you know… That I’ve allowed you to see…” Ibara nodded, humming and pressing a kiss to the blond’s forehead.
“No matter the way she wishes to see you and perceive you… you are Tomoe Hiyori, leader of Eve and member of Eden… A stunning young man I wish to spend my life with, even if the concept is a bit terrifying… The future is something I will never cease fearing, but… I believe it will be easier with you at my side.” Hiyori smiled brightly at this, leaning in to press a soft kiss to Ibara’s lips. For a moment, they simply lay there in the collapsed heap Hiyori’s emotions had brought them to, and they cuddled a bit, nuzzling and enjoying the close comfort of being in such a quiet, serene location all alone.
Though there were sure to be hurdles with the wedding ceremony and how his mother would treat either of them… Hiyori was looking forward to it. He could handle this last hurdle with his family for Ibara, especially if it meant remaining at his side for a lifetime.