Chapter Text
Mafuyu can probably count the amount of times he’s ever actually called Yayoi on the phone on five fingers, this being one of them. It’s a little strange, but for the occasion, she’s the only one who really makes sense.
“Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Mafuyu. I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”
“Hi, Mafuyu! No, it’s okay. Something on your mind? Did Ritsuka do or say something to upset you?”
Mafuyu suppresses a giggle. As expected of siblings. He wouldn’t know much as an only child, but he’s seen enough of it mostly from Ritsuka and Yayoi, but also Haruki and his older sister on a few occasions over the years. It’s funny how not a whole lot has changed in this regard between Ritsuka and Yayoi despite both of them being a few years older now than when Mafuyu first met Ritsuka.
“He didn’t,” Mafuyu says. “I… would like to ask a favour of you, if that’s okay.”
As strange as it is for Mafuyu to call Yayoi, she probably thinks it’s weird of him to call, too. Well, maybe their relationship can improve now, if things to the way Mafuyu hopes they will.
“Sure,” Yayoi says, and Mafuyu hears the mixed surprise and confusion in her voice. Again, that’s to be expected. “What can I help you with?”
He can’t exactly pinpoint what led him here, but there are certainly a few factors that probably helped push him in the right direction. Mafuyu doesn’t want to give Hiiragi more credit than he deserves since Hiiragi’s head is already way too big to rest on his shoulders. Even so, yes—Hiiragi has in some way encouraged Mafuyu to take this step, as well as Shizusumi.
Akihiko was a hundred times more helpful than Haruki was (Haruki did nothing but say ‘aww’ and figuratively melt into a puddle of something rainbow-coloured and absolutely disgusting as soon as Mafuyu told them about his plans), but ultimately, Yayoi will probably be the only, truly helpful person here.
After all, Mafuyu can’t see himself going shopping for engagement rings with anyone but his possible future sister-in-law.
The timing finally feels right for this sort of commitment. Things certainly haven’t been easy for Mafuyu and Ritsuka over the years, but the fact that they’ve managed to overcome all of the issues they’ve encountered might be proof enough that they’re meant to last. There were certainly times when Mafuyu thought that maybe their relationship wouldn’t survive a certain argument or problem, and they even had to enlist the help of their bandmates more than once—but they made it this far in the end.
Mafuyu and Ritsuka made it through their turbulent high school years, their relationship survived three years at different universities, and now they’re still together. This year marks the sixth year they’ve been dating, and in both positive and negative meanings, it certainly feels like it’s been six years. But despite the difficulties they’ve faced, Mafuyu wouldn’t take any of it back, wouldn’t change anything, because if he changed something, things wouldn’t be as good as they are now.
All of the struggles they faced probably made them stronger and better people in the end, anyway, so all Mafuyu can do is accept what happened and live with it as he now focuses on the present and the future rather than clinging to the past.
Mafuyu and Yayoi meet up on a Saturday when Mafuyu doesn’t have studio practice. Akihiko and Haruki are out of town visiting Haruki’s family, and since Mafuyu had to lie to Ritsuka and say that he’s spending time with his mother today, Ritsuka has instead elected to hang out with Shougo and Ryou. The good thing is that neither of them have really lied to each other before, since they established fairly early on that openness, honesty, and communication is really important. Mafuyu screwed that up once, and has since done his best to give Ritsuka what he could never give Yuki.
… So for him to lie to Ritsuka today feels strange. Makes him feel guilty, in a way. It isn’t as if he’s doing anything illegal or immoral like cheating on his boyfriend, but it’s sort of like going Christmas shopping. Except this has a much bigger meaning to it than a Christmas gift.
The first thing Yayoi does when they meet is to pull Mafuyu into a nearly bone-crushing hug which squeezes most of the air out of his lungs. She may not look it, but Yayoi is surprisingly strong considering her build.
“I’m so happy for you,” she says. “I know I’m way ahead of things by saying that, but just the fact that you’ve gotten here makes me happy.”
Mafuyu smiles as Yayoi lets go of him. “Thank you. And thank you also for coming with me.”
“Oh, I’m just honoured you asked me. I guess I kind of get to live vicariously through you while we go browsing for rings.”
“What do you mean?”
Yayoi laughs a little. “It’s not that I’m bitter about not being engaged or married, but I want to get there someday, too. But for now, I get to at least look at rings, maybe get some inspiration.”
A question pops up in Mafuyu’s head, but he decides to leave it unasked. Yayoi’s relationship with Yatake isn’t Mafuyu’s business since he’s not particularly close with Yatake to begin with. And then there’s the fact that he hasn’t spent a whole lot of time with Yayoi, either, but he wants to make sure that this marks the start of change, in many ways. Both for him and Ritsuka, and for his relationship with his possible future sister-in-law.
He feels a fluttery feeling in his stomach at the very thought of that, the whole idea of him being married to Ritsuka and them becoming even closer, now on paper, too. It isn’t as if he needs a ring and a shared last name to prove his love for Ritsuka, but it would certainly feel nice. Plus, it’d give him some bragging rights, being able to tell people that Ritsuka is truly his.
… That is, if even Ritsuka says yes in the first place.
Leading up to this day, Mafuyu has prepared and thought things over to an almost unrealistic extent. It’s not just that he wants to cover all of his bases, but he still wants to be as sure as possible that he’s making the best decision. Not just for himself, of course, but for Ritsuka, too. It had taken him a while to be able to admit that he got into his relationship with Ritsuka a bit too soon after Yuki’s passing, which led to a few issues between him and Ritsuka in regards to communication and honesty. Of course, most of that has been ironed out and settled by now, but again, Mafuyu wants to make sure he does things right from now on to avoid those kinds of conflicts.
The last thing he wants is to feel overly confident, but he does know that Ritsuka loves him back. It’s a great feeling to know that he’s loved and cared for, that they’re both willing to fight for what they have. This belief is one of the many things that led Mafuyu to this point, literally to Shibuya in Tokyo with Yayoi in search for engagement rings.
Yayoi gasps quietly with delight the second they walk in through the door, above which a bell chimes when they enter. A woman behind the cash register counter turns her attention to them, bowing her head slightly.
“Welcome!” she says. “Can I help you with anything, or are you just looking?”
Mafuyu clears his throat as he approaches the counter, Yayoi half-heartedly following behind him as she’s apparently busy marvelling at the various pieces of jewellery around them.
“I’m looking for engagement rings,” he says.
The woman smiles warmly at him, and she nods. “I see. We have a wide selection of rings from different brands, in all kinds of styles. Do you have anything in mind?”
Mafuyu hums. “I did a little research online, and all I really decided was that I don’t want anything too flashy. Just… normal rings.”
The cashier glances quickly at Yayoi, who’s now standing next to Mafuyu. “Does the miss have any preferences?”
“Me? Oh… uh, no—it’s not for me. I’m just here as moral support and possible future sister-in-law.”
“Ah,” the cashier says, laughing. “I understand.”
She takes a step to the side, pointing with her hand at a box beneath the glass containing several sets of rings, most of which are adorned with all sorts of gemstones. Sapphires, diamonds, rubies, emeralds… but then there’s the other ring of the set which is quite clearly meant for men, which are sort of in the style Mafuyu is looking for. But he really doesn’t think Ritsuka would want a diamond ring, or even one with a sapphire decorating it.
“These are some of the engagement ring sets we have,” she continues. “If I may be so bold, I would like to suggest picking a ring with a gemstone corresponding to her birth month.”
Mafuyu raises his eyebrows, and he can feel Yayoi’s gaze on him from the side. “Oh, uh. It’s not for a woman.”
Silence falls for just a beat too long after Mafuyu’s clarification. Maybe he should’ve been clear about that from the start as to not possibly embarrass the woman who’s just working here, obviously knowing absolutely nothing about the people walking into her store. Well, at least he’s said it now that it still isn’t too late to relay this, apparently important, information when shopping for engagement rings.
If all goes well and they have to go out and buy wedding rings sometime soon, Mafuyu makes a mental note to mention this before anything else, just in case the person helping them thinks Ritsuka’s just there with Mafuyu as a friend or whatever else they could think of.
“Ah,” the woman replies, her voice just a tad lower in volume this time. “I apologise for making assumptions. Wait here for just a moment, please. I have a few other alternatives I would love to show you.”
She then disappears into a room behind the counter, and as soon as she’s pretty much out of their sight, Yayoi exhales a sigh next to Mafuyu.
“You can be really bold sometimes, Mafuyu—you know that? I thought I was gonna die from the second-hand embarrassment I felt for her.”
Mafuyu shrugs. “It was my fault, really. I should’ve said something beforehand.”
“Nah, she’s still in the wrong for making assumptions. I mean, what year is it?”
“What do you mean?”
Yayoi sighs. “The fact that people still assume only straight couples get engaged and married. You know? That stuff happens in real life these days. Has happened for a few years, in fact.”
“Oh, that.” Mafuyu shrugs. “She’s just a stranger. I won’t be back here again… hopefully.”
This time, Yayoi pinches him in the arm. Another thing she’s probably done to Ritsuka a lot over the years which Mafuyu never got to experience; again, as an only child.
“Come on, do you really think he’d say no? Why else are we here?”
“It’s not that,” Mafuyu replies. “But the risk is still there.”
“You’ve never talked about getting married before?”
Mafuyu shakes his head. “Not in that sense, no. As a concept, probably.”
What truly sucks is that, no matter how well Mafuyu can read Ritsuka most of the time, there are certain cases in which he just can’t. He has no idea how Ritsuka feels about possibly getting married one day, because Ritsuka just hasn’t given much of a reaction whenever they talked about marriage and weddings. It isn’t as if he ran screaming out of the room or jumped up and down with joy—there was just… nothing. And now that Mafuyu has no idea, he regrets not having tried to push the subject further, if even just a little.
“He loves you,” Yayoi says simply. “He really does. I haven’t seen him as happy as he is right now in forever, and I know that’s thanks to you. Sure, I’ve seen him really upset and on the brink of tears several times throughout the time you’ve been dating, too, but that’s just something that comes with any relationship. Trust me, if he didn’t wanna get married to you, you would know.”
Mafuyu’s eyebrows rise slightly. “You think?”
“Yeah, I do. He’s really obvious and an open book when it comes to these things, you know? Now let’s pick out a set of rings for you two so you can propose to my little brother, hm?”
He feels a little bit more at ease by Yayoi’s words, and Mafuyu is once again reminded of how glad he is that he went here with Yayoi and not anyone else.
The jeweller returns with more than just a few ring sets in tow, restoring Mafuyu’s faith in this shop a little. Yayoi’s words from earlier make him now wonder why these rings were stored in the back instead of displayed in the actual store like these other rings. They might state a reason like low demand or popularity, but it doesn’t really matter to Mafuyu, anyway.
Mafuyu looks at the various ring pairs in the display case, him and Yayoi discussing them quietly between each other. Most of them look fairly similar, but then there are some slightly more extreme rings that either look like an ideal way of getting robbed or an even better way of getting one’s finger degloved. Mafuyu shudders at the thought, looking at some of the rings looking like they were once part of a metal pipe that someone just cut off and decided would make a fitting wedding or engagement ring.
“These look identical,” Mafuyu says after a while, “but the price isn’t the same. What’s the difference?”
Two pairs of rings that are a little thinner in design and domed, rather than those looking like cut off iron pipes, managed to catch Mafuyu’s attention. They don’t look too over the top, but they’re sleek and elegant enough that one would definitely want to wear both casually and formally. At least Mafuyu would, and he’s really not much for jewellery to begin with.
“Ah, those. One of the pairs appears ever so slightly lighter in colour, see?” the woman asks. Mafuyu leans forward, squinting, and then he hums when he sees it. It’s miniscule, but definitely there. “That pair is made of palladium. Now, it’s a very sturdy material and it’s also very light-weight, but the other pair right here is made of platinum, and in my opinion the better choice. It really depends on preference and maybe what you and your boyfriend do for a living, but I would still recommend the platinum pair.”
Mafuyu hears Yayoi snort very, very quietly next to him. He knows exactly why she does, and it’s not because of the rings. Looking back down at them, Mafuyu nods once, and then looks back up at the jeweller. “I want to get this pair,” he says.
“Excellent choice. Do you know your sizes?”
“Yes. We both have about the same size—eighteen.”
She smiles, nodding. “Okay. Well, I would just need for you to sign a form, and then we will call you back in about ten to fourteen days when the rings are ready.”
Mafuyu signs the form which mostly just asks for his contact information and card number for the payment, some of which is made today as a deposit fee. It will be the most he’s paid for anything in quite a while, but he hopes it’ll be worth it in the end. Otherwise… well, he might be back here again soon to sell the rings back to the shop. But hopefully, he and Ritsuka will keep them.
“How’d you know Ritsuka’s ring size?” Yayoi asks when they exit the jeweller’s.
Mafuyu laughs a little, scratching his earlobe. “I measured his ring finger in his sleep once. My mother has one of those slim measuring tapes for some reason, which I borrowed to get the sizes.”
Yayoi lets out a low whistle. “See, that’s the kinda thing I would’ve expected Ritsuka to do. Haruki, too, I guess… but who’s to say he didn’t actually do that?”
“It does sound like something Haruki would do.”
“Yeah,” Yayoi says, and then she laughs, too.
∞
Keeping the huge secret that he’s been shopping for rings with Yayoi for a marriage proposal is proving to be incredibly difficult, Mafuyu finds. It only gets worse the day he has to go pick them up at the jewellery shop, because he has to—once again—lie to his boyfriend about where he’s going on a day when he isn’t working. Mafuyu tells himself that it’s for a good cause, it isn’t a lie that will hurt Ritsuka or, really, anyone else. The ‘interesting’ thing about this whole situation is that probably everyone around them knows by now, but not Ritsuka himself. Or maybe he does, and he just hasn’t said anything about it because—
No. Mafuyu can’t allow himself to spiral down that path of negative thoughts like he has so many times in the past. He’s nervous, yes, but he’s also terrified of the possibility that this might damage their relationship, maybe even beyond repair. It all really depends on how Ritsuka feels about the whole marriage thing; again, Mafuyu still beats himself up over not having gotten an actual opinion from Ritsuka before he made up his mind, before he went looking for rings that he eventually bought. And now has in his possession.
He’s barely looked at the rings since he went to get them, other than the fact that the woman in the shop insisted he try it on ‘or he might regret that decision later on if he needs his ring resized’. It still doesn’t feel real, having that box with two domed platinum rings inside it, in the pocket of his zip hoodie. Not only are they, again, the most expensive items he’s bought in a long time, the contents of the box are also wonderfully disproportionate to that price he paid. The biggest thing about it, though, is what the rings signify, and how much could change just because he and Ritsuka might wear those soon.
Mafuyu arrives back at his and Ritsuka’s apartment sooner than Ritsuka gets home from work. It gives him a little time to mentally prepare himself and calm his nerves, but plucking at the strings on his Gibson and humming to himself helps, at least a little. He plays through parts of some of their older songs, among others the song Given performed the first time they participated in CAC, “Dawn will break”. It reminds him of the incredible journey he’s been taken on because he met Ritsuka. Going from merely humming the melody that would one day become “A Winter Story”, to performing in front of live crowds, actually playing the guitar that Saeko gave him after Yuki passed away.
Over the years, Mafuyu has sometimes found himself wondering if maybe Ritsuka wished Mafuyu had gotten another guitar. Maybe one that wasn’t tied to his past, to his ex-boyfriend. In the beginning, the guitar had felt like a heavy burden that Saeko dumped on him because she couldn’t bear it herself. It took him a long time, over a year, but Mafuyu finally came to terms with things, learnt to live with Yuki’s old guitar, learnt to actually love and cherish it for what it is. But he still can’t help but wonder if Ritsuka sees something else in it while Mafuyu now doesn’t think too much of what it once meant to him.
His thoughts are interrupted at the sound of the door to the apartment unlocking. Mafuyu’s fingers tremble on the strings; one of his fingernails accidentally scratches a string as he lets his hand fall onto his lap, the sound making him wince.
“Mafuyu? Are you home?”
Mafuyu swallows, takes a deep breath. “In here,” he responds. Shortly thereafter, Ritsuka appears in the doorway to their bedroom, and the second their eyes meet, Ritsuka gives Mafuyu a smile.
“Hey,” Ritsuka says. “Why’re you in here?”
Mafuyu shrugs. “Felt like it.” He feels the box in his pocket as if he was holding it, but he feels his heart beating against his ribcage a lot more. It almost hurts with how hard his heart is beating. “Come sit with me?”
Ritsuka does as he’s told, and when he sits down next to Mafuyu, he kisses Mafuyu on the side of his head. “What are you playing?”
“Nothing in particular. Played through a few of our older songs.”
“Ah. We’ve composed a lot of good songs, huh?”
Mafuyu huffs, smiling. “You have. You’ve composed almost all of our songs, Ritsuka.”
“Oh, come on. They wouldn’t be anything without your lyrics.”
“Maybe,” Mafuyu half-heartedly concedes.
Actually getting to the topic might be the hardest thing Mafuyu has done in a very, very long time. He has absolutely no idea how to bring this up, how to start his proposal to Ritsuka. How do other people do it? Maybe Mafuyu should’ve watched sappy romance films and taken notes beforehand? He’s overthought so many things up until now, yet he hasn’t really ‘studied’ the art of marriage proposals. If there’s even an art to this thing; Mafuyu has no idea.
Sometimes he feels like people just go for it without putting too much thought into it. Sometimes, though, it’s a lot more elaborate—a proposal on live television where the poor person who was proposed to probably feels like they have to say yes, a candlelit dinner prefacing said proposal… they probably don’t go like this a lot of the time. But then again, when has Mafuyu ever done anything according to the books? The only time he did was when Ritsuka lent him guitar books when Mafuyu had just started out playing guitar, but otherwise, he’s just played things by ear. It wasn’t until after a while that he bothered trying to read sheet music so that he could write his own, but he still never really did what people usually do.
So why would he have to do it now?
“Something on your mind?” Ritsuka asks, and Mafuyu now knows he can’t prolong it any further.
He looks down at the red Gibson resting in his lap, the fingers on his right hand touching the ring box in his pocket. Mafuyu musters all of the courage he has and then some, and then he speaks.
“This guitar has been with me for a very long time, and… it has obvious significance with my past. It also represents meeting you. If I didn't have this guitar, I wouldn't be here with you right now. I can't say we wouldn't have met, because… I mean, we went to the same high school.”
Mafuyu’s little quip at the end makes Ritsuka laugh, and Ritsuka’s laugh makes Mafuyu’s heart flutter. After all this time, he’s still so much in love. After all this time, they’re still here, together—and that’s got to count for something.
“But it… this guitar has the potential to represent my future as well,” Mafuyu continues, his voice just loud enough to drown out the sound of his hammering heartbeat in his ears. “Our future, together.” He pauses to put his guitar aside, to minimise the distance between them, and then he shifts his focus back to Ritsuka again, to his best friend, his partner, and hopefully—his future husband. “I want you to marry me, Ritsuka.”
The little box has weighed heavy in his pocket all day, and having taken it out, it still feels way more weighted than it should. As nervous and scared as Mafuyu has been up until this point, he’s made it this far and might as well see this through to the end. Not only that, but he’s got to get this off his chest… and that damn box out of his pocket.
He opens it to present Ritsuka with the rings he and Yayoi had gone to pick out two weeks ago. Two domed rings made out of platinum, engraved on the inside with the date of the day they’d started dating, when Mafuyu and Ritsuka had ended up at Minatomirai in Yokohama in their second year of high school. They still talk about that day sometimes, and Ritsuka is still embarrassed of how he’d reacted to Mafuyu’s confession, which Mafuyu just thinks is cute.
“Will you marry me?” is the question he’s almost died to ask Ritsuka for months now, and finally, he gets to ask it. And as much as it makes him terrified, Mafuyu keeps his eyes on Ritsuka to watch his reaction, to try and read any kind of thoughts Ritsuka may have regarding this.
Ritsuka’s eyes widen slowly, and he puts a hand over his mouth. Mafuyu is taken aback when he watches tears start to form in the corners of Ritsuka’s eyes, soon thereafter rolling down his cheeks. It might be the first time Mafuyu has seen Ritsuka cry in all of these years they’ve spent together, starting out as acquaintances, then bandmates, then boyfriends. Only now does Mafuyu get to see Ritsuka cry, and he doesn’t know what to make of it yet.
“I think that might be the easiest question I’ve had to answer in a long time,” Ritsuka says between sobs. God, he’s sobbing. “Yes. Of course I’ll marry you, Mafuyu.”
Now it’s Mafuyu’s turn to be surprised, and it’s only amplified as Ritsuka takes Mafuyu into his arms, still very much sobbing and slowly making Mafuyu’s shoulder wet with tears.
“Really?” Mafuyu finds himself asking, and he earns an incredulous snort in response.
“… What do you mean ‘really’? Did you think I wasn’t gonna say yes?”
Mafuyu chews on the inside of his cheek. “I might have been scared that you wouldn’t, yes.”
Ritsuka pulls back again, far too soon in Mafuyu’s opinion, but he still lingers close, looking Mafuyu in the eye. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to get married, and I realised a little too late that I never asked you about it. It would’ve been too obvious if I asked you the day before I went to look at rings, or even after I’d gotten them. You would’ve figured it out.”
Ritsuka wipes his eyes—Mafuyu wonders if it’s wrong of him to think that his boyfriend-turned-fiancé is cute when he’s crying—and he furrows his eyebrows. “I… well, okay; I guess I can’t argue that since I’d probably be the same way. But I do wanna marry you. I love you, you know.”
Mafuyu feels like his heart swells in size, and his smile quickly becomes so wide his cheeks are already starting to hurt. “I know, and I love you too.”
“Good. I’d hope so since you were the one to propose. Though I would’ve done so at some point, anyway.”
“Do you think it was too soon?”
Ritsuka laughs, and he shakes his head before he squeezes Mafuyu’s cheeks between his hands, then pressing a kiss to Mafuyu’s lips. “No, dummy. Again, I wouldn’t have said yes if I didn’t wanna marry you.”
Mafuyu exhales quietly through his nose, feeling impossibly even lighter than he did the moment Ritsuka said yes. With ever so slightly trembling fingers, Mafuyu takes out Ritsuka’s ring from the box, taking Ritsuka’s left hand in the other. He’s a little nervous as he slides the ring onto Ritsuka’s finger, but feels even more relief wash over him as he notes that the ring fits perfectly.
“Wow,” Ritsuka says. “It’s… really pretty. Like, it’s simple, but it’s pretty, too.”
“It is,” Mafuyu agrees. He then takes out his own ring, bringing it closer for Ritsuka to see the inscription on the inside. “I engraved our rings with something. See if you can figure out what it is.”
Ritsuka squints as he reads the tiny engraved text, and then he lets out a little huff. “Oh, come on—you think I wouldn’t remember our dating anniversary?”
Mafuyu raises an eyebrow. “You have gotten it wrong at least once before, you know.”
“But that was years ago! I know it now.”
“Good. Just making sure you won’t forget again.”
“… that’s not why you had the rings engraved with the date, right? Please tell me it isn’t.”
Mafuyu laughs again. “No, that wasn’t why.”
“Oh, thank god.” Ritsuka’s gaze falls down to their now joined hands, and he smiles. “I can’t believe we’re getting married. Married.”
“Me neither.”
Ritsuka suddenly looks like he remembered something. “Ah, hey. How’d you know my ring size, by the way?”
Mafuyu thinks back to his conversation with Yayoi, and he can’t help but smile. “I measured your finger, how else would I know?”
“… You did what? I don’t remember that.”
“That’s because I did it when you weren’t awake.”
“Wow,” Ritsuka replies. “Sneaky. And maybe a little creepy.”
Mafuyu laughs quietly, rolling his eyes. “What was I gonna do, ask you? ‘Hey, I’m planning on proposing to you but I need to buy rings first, and before I do that, I need to know your ring size.’”
“Touché. Well, guess we’ve gotta tell people now.”
“Yeah… and plan a wedding.”
Ritsuka lets out a nervous laugh. ”And plan a wedding. I’m sure Yayoi wouldn’t mind helping out with that, so we’ll probably be fine.”
Mafuyu holds back a giggle when Yayoi is mentioned, knowing very well how eager she would be to help. They’ll do just fine, Mafuyu is certain of it. As long as he’s with Ritsuka, he can do anything. As long as they’re together, they can do anything. It’s a nice, comforting thought, something he’ll continue to carry with him as he and Ritsuka head towards their future as a married couple.
∞