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It’s a very simple game.
They go to a restaurant; neither a super upscale nor a shabby one. A fair one. A fair one where it would be a bit expensive to eat and surely over their budget but not so exorbitant that they would look out of place. (Not that he would look out of place anywhere—he could manage, his charm has no boundaries; the same cannot be said for his boyfriend-slash-buddy though.)
So they go and right in the middle of the dinner, one of them (and they take turns for it) will get up abruptly, then kneel in front of the other and loudly propose. Loudly—but not too loudly that it would look odd or showy, just audible enough to at least a few waiters and fellow patrons to realise. The one being proposed will go through the usual antics of shock before accepting and voila, it is done.
It is done: their meal is on the house as other guests give approving nods or fawning faces.
It is done, because they are beautiful people and they manage the ‘couple that is stupidly in love’ look perfectly and they choose their restaurants carefully (or at least Kise does—and he will never cease from reminding Aomine about that one time Aomine dragged him to that extravagant sushi place which apparently never offered anything for free and they ended up paying for the meal).
It is a very simple game and this time it is Kise’s turn so he is quite baffled that Aomine pushes a small velvet box towards him as they are having their dessert. His brows furrow and he scrutinises the obviously meaningful item before turning his puzzled gaze to Aomine’s face.
It is red.
Or to be exact, there is a tawny blush residing on Aomine’s cheeks, softly contrasting his cool umber complexion. Kise has seen too many different faces of Aomine over the years; they have known each other since middle school, not counting the one year they spent alienated, they have met quite regularly all the time, and been in the same university for almost four years now. They have been roommates for the last three years. They have been lovers for the last two and a half years. Kise has seen Aomine sick, furious, exhausted, happy, sad, disgusted—his face contorted in all kinds of ways, good or bad but not… this. This is very similar to shyness but is there any possibility of the always so shameless Aomine to be shy, all of a sudden? And for what? The only time Kise has ever witnessed an embarrassed Aomine was that one time they came early from shopping with Momoi and found Aomine jerking off to some real kinky hardcore gay porn and Momoi had shrieked (partly with glee and partly with horror) and for the first time in his life Kise had discovered what a blushing Aomine looked like. It is quite similar to how Aomine looks now but there is no reason for it and then Kise remembers how it is also similar to the way Aomine sometimes flushes when he is drunk. So he asks the most sensible question.
“Are you drunk? Did you drink before we met up?”
Because it would make sense and explain why Aomine suddenly jumped the gun and took the role of the one proposing as well—it was definitely Kise’s turn and Aomine can be awfully childish about whose turn it is.
Aomine’s eyes widen and he splutters: “What?! No. Why the hell would you even think that?”
Perhaps he made a rash decision; he cannot deny that Aomine has also been uncharacteristically fidgety throughout their dinner, which is the opposite of how he is when he’s drunk. Aomine is one of those lazy, calm drunks—he’s not rowdy or boisterous. He will smile more or rather smirk more and make obscene jokes. He will also be overtly emotional and confess his love and all the corny feelings he usually keeps strictly contained. Once in a while, if he is in a particularly sentimental mood (if he lost a game of basketball earlier or heard a song from back their middle school years or so), he will cry too. They don’t talk about these—Aomine never drinks enough to be fully intoxicated unless he is alone with Kise.
He still watches Aomine intently for a few seconds to make sure and this somehow makes his grumpy boyfriend even grumpier.
“No, you stupid shit. No, of course I’m not drunk.”
“Well you’re not acting normal…”
“I—Uh.” Aomine pushes the box a bit further and glares, which earns him a rightful eye-roll from Kise who takes a moment to get in character. It’s not that hard—he has always been good at acting.
He deceptively gapes and takes the little thing, peering around before exclaiming a relatively loud “Oh!” that garners the attention he wanted. Aomine is looking at him with confusion—what is wrong with him today? Did he eat anything bad? It’s not possible, Kise thinks; this particular restaurant Aomine chose for the day is actually better than their usual average. They wouldn’t serve anything remotely iffy.
“Oh My God! This is so sudden! I’m speechless… Wow!” Kise coos not so silently while Aomine seems slightly miffed; it is honestly weird and does not fit to their standard script but then the lord of sloth has been weird for the whole night so Kise simply ignores him, ready to earn the price of this meal with his acting and overall adorableness alone. But even he cannot hide his momentary surprise when he opens the box—the ring this time is not the one they’ve been using for the last couple of months. Did Aomine lose that one? Quite likely—he had lost the one before. It wasn’t anything pricey at least but this… this actually looks expensive. Kise is frankly impressed on the quality of fake golden coating and the tiny stone that resembles a topaz. He collects himself soon though and puts on the ring with enough showiness to ensure that enough number of people, including some from the staff, are witnessing this important scene.
“What… are you doing?” Aomine questions, his lips curled down in a sour scowl and brows drawn together.
Kise coughs awkwardly to hide his boyfriend’s blunder and then giggles—the high-pitched fake giggle he has perfected over the years.
“Yes!”
Aomine only gapes in return—he is really being sloppy tonight. It is worse than that one time they went out and did this after Aomine had lost a game against Kagami and sulked throughout Kise’s elaborate proposal.
“Yes, of course I accept!” Kise repeats once more with passion only for Aomine to grumble, “I didn’t even ask yet…”
Another loud chuckle to cover up the very lacking acting on the asshole’s part, Kise leans in and squeezes Aomine’s hand—really squeezes, with a lot of force to draw a shocked grimace from Aomine, good, he deserves it for making him carry all the burden. He has tried his best but he is honestly not sure if they’ll be able to make it convincing if Aomine doesn’t do something good… Something sensational. Maybe cry. Yeah, that would look awesome but he doubts his ‘tough guy’ image loving boyfriend is capable of such a profound display of emotion so easily, even though they both know Aomine gets teary eyed every time they watch a sad film.
Aomine closes his eyes and laughs, which sounds a lot like sobbing so perhaps he is not as terrible at this as Kise thought. Just then a waiter approaches with a bottle of champagne, pouring for the both of them, grinning and congratulating, offering the whole meal plus the drink as a gift, which Kise joyfully accepts with a well-played expression of surprise while Aomine simply nods with the weirdest smile-not-smile on his face.
Once the waiter leaves, Kise drinks half his glass in one go and sincerely beams at Aomine.
“Your performance was exceptionally poor this time but hey, lucky that you’ve got me, huh?”
“Yeah… lucky me.”
Kise chuckles and considers his ring for a moment—it really looks pretty.
“This is a very cute one.”
“Is that so…”
“Yeah! I’m kind of impressed, Aominecchi. Your taste is awful and well these things can cost quite a bit… But wow, you’ve managed to find the perfect fake.”
“It’s not fake.”
“Huh?”
“You heard me. It’s not fake. It’s a real golden ring.”
“What?!”
He lifts his hand into the air as if on reflex and starts to closely examine the ring—it indeed looks… perfect.
“You… you’re serious?”
“Yeah. It is a goddamn real engagement ring.”
“But how did you get it?”
“I bought it Kise.”
“What? Why would you buy—“
His mind short circuits.
This isn’t happening. This is impossible. This is Aomine we’re talking about—the Aomine who cannot do anything romantic and will fluster and fidget in the smallest act of actual tender affection—holy shit. It is happening and Kise’s mind would fail if it had already not done so and instead his whole face goes pale, his eyes pop and lips part and—and Aomine simply reclines on his seat, crossing his arms on his chest.
“You’re kidding me?!” Kise whispers—whispers, because this is not happening. It cannot be happening. Holy fuck. No.
“No.”
“You bought… a wedding ring.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Aomine snorts and rubs his whole face with the palm of his right hand for a second before turning a decidedly furious gaze right onto Kise’s face.
“Just guess why, you shithead.”
“You… you really… were…”
“Yes… I really was. Or at least I was supposed to. I don’t know. Does this count?”
“What, of course it doesn’t!”
“I didn’t even get to ask it so yeah but then you did say yes. I think it counts.”
“I didn’t say yes for that!” Kise almost shouts, earning a few suspicious side-eyes which he cannot register that very second because he is too absorbed in the fact that yes, his boyfriend just proposed to him which he completely did not comprehend and maybe said “yes”—rather definitely said “yes”—but then he would actually say “yes” if it was for real as well, but then it was actually for real—oh shit, oh no, his brain is simply overloaded. He cannot compute what the hell is going on. He cannot believe he has screwed up one of the most important moments of his life. It is especially horrifying to know that it wasn’t Aomine who ruined it but him.
“You literally said yes exactly for that.”
“No—but—“ His arms flail and yes, even their waiter is now peeking with doubt.
Aomine shrugs and reaches for his drink, taking a sip and savouring it before speaking; too smug and at ease for Kise’s comfort.
“You said ‘yes’ already and it was already such a fussy thing… I’m not going through that again. This definitely counts.”
“You—You’re awful. No, I’m refusing this.”
“Oh, so what—you’re gonna give me my ring back?”
“Uh, I mean—“
“Sorry, maybe you were planning to say no if it was for real?”
Aomine raises one of his eyebrows; he looks to be calmly judging and this further infuriates Kise. Indeed the blond is about to lash out and claim that yes, perhaps he was not considering such a change in their relationship (which is a lie—he has thought of it more than once since the first time they played this silly game in the hopes of a free, luxury meal but hey, the massive-ego-holder Aomine does not need to know that). But before the clumsy words of defiance can make it out of his mouth, he realises how Aomine’s hand that’s not holding the glass but resting atop the table is trembling, fingers tapping rapidly as well as his right foot and there’s that little twitching at the left corner of his mouth.
Kise closes his eyes and curls his hands into fists. He inhales and then exhales deeply before opening them and regarding the man before him. Several memories fly by his mind and he recognises that Aomine has stopped even breathing waiting for him to speak. This jerk of thrilling beauty and skill is his jerk after all and quite useless at proper communication. Also Kise might be a tad bit in the fault too in how this went. Hence, his lips crack into a grin and immediately the smirk returns to his boyfriend’s as well.
“So?”
“So,” Kise nods his head thoughtfully before taking a mouthful from his drink, “what kind of a proposal it is if you’re not going to kiss me? I’m thinking that would nullify this whole thing even more.”
Aomine snickers, leaning in, placing his glass on the table and then his elbows before resting his chin on his curled hands.
“You know what happens when we kiss.”
“We start making out?”
“Yes. And we’re in public.”
“So?”
“So the last time this happened we got kicked out.”
“It was in a cinema and it was dark so you became too bold and adventurous and actually started heavy petting—that’s why we got kicked out. Plus,” Kise cocks his head and smiles devilishly, “the worst comes to worst we’ll have to pay for the meal? I think it’s the least you can do, y’know.”
“You’re so horrible why am I even doing this with you…”
“I honestly don’t know how I stand you either sometimes but hey, you did, and I did, and we’re both in it for the win, so no going back…” Kise leans in and flutters his eyelashes as he licks his lower lip not so innocently.
“Fuck…” Aomine whispers and slides his right leg to rub on Kise’s underneath the table.
“Fuck indeed…” Kise hums, very slowly sipping from his drink.
Just as Aomine is about to move forward for a kiss, their moment shatters with someone audibly clearing their throat. Both their heads turn in surprise to find their waiter giving them a very displeased look.
“Your bill,” he says and Kise pouts.
“But I thought it was on the house?”
“Really?” The waiter snaps and Aomine just grabs the leather booklet indifferently, muttering about how it’s okay before he opens and sees the actual number there, which causes him to visibly gulp.
“Uh… Kise…”
“Yeah?”
“Please tell me you brought your credit card with you.”
“Ah…” Kise frowns dramatically and Aomine closes his eyes.
“Let me call Satsuki…”