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To say Tonbokiri was nervous was an understatement.
Honestly, he probably didn’t have anything to worry about. He and Yagen had been dating for a while now. They practically lived together with how often one of them spent the night with the other, nevermind the fact that they had actually discussed Tonbokiri moving in with him and Atsushi at the end of Tonbokiri’s lease. Surely this was the next logical step and he had nothing to worry about… but he was still fretting about it. He wanted this to be perfect after all.
The plan was simple. Yagen would come over and join him and his roommates for lunch, exchange some gifts… then Otegine and Nihongou would conveniently have to leave. Otegine was easy of course because he actually did have to leave to spend Christmas with his boyfriend… Nihongou was a little harder, considering his boyfriend was one of Yagen’s brothers… but thankfully after being told the plan, Hakata happily agreed to call with “spontaneous plans” to get Nihongou out without alerting Yagen that something was up. Then, once they were alone, Tonbokiri would pull out the ring he had custom made for Yagen and ask him to be his husband. It was simple. Straight forward. Nothing complicated to mess up. It should be fine, right?
“Eh heheh… You ready?” Nihongou asked with a big grin on his face, leaning against the kitchen counter as Tonbokiri pulled a dish out of the oven. “I better get a text the
moment
he says yes!”
“Well… it probably won’t be the moment he says yes, Nih.” Otegine laughed. “He is going to want to kiss him first!”
“True, true! Fine. Kiss him stupid then text me!” Nihongou laughed and took a drink of the rather potent eggnog in his hand
Tonbokiri gave a nervous chuckle, sitting the dish on the stove and closing the oven door. “Let’s get through lunch first… we don’t even know that he will-”
“Shhhh. No.” Nihongou huffed at him. “He
will
. Don’t even start that shit.”
“Nihongou is right. Yagen adores you. Of course he’s going to say yes.”
“I suppose…”
“Come on Tonbokiri! You are just nervous! How about a drink?”
Tonbokiri couldn’t help the soft snort he let out when Nihongou happily lifted up his glass as he offered. “No… but thank you.”
“Eh… More for me!”
He shook his head, a smile on his face, then started to check over everything one more time. Yagen was going to be here soon, so this was his last chance to make sure everything was in place. Lunch was ready… The place was clean… Tree looked nice, despite Nihongou having drunkenly tripped over it yesterday night on his way to the kitchen and Otegine having to panic set it back up this morning… the ring was in-
Suddenly the color drained from his face as he frantically felt the shirt pocket the ring was supposed to be in and then his pants pockets.
“Uuuuh… You ok, Tonbokiri?” Otegine asked.
“The ring…” Tonbokiri mumbled, hurried checking around the kitchen counters. “The ring is gone!”
“What??”
“Shit…” Nihongou sat his drink down. “Ok where did you have it last?”
“In my pocket…”
“Not helpful. Ok. Tonbokiri, check the kitchen. Otegine and I will check the living room.” And before he could get argument from either one, he grabbed Otegine by the arm and dragged him off.
Tonbokiri checked
everywhere
. The counter, the drawers, the cabinets, the pantry… Even the fridge, freezer and microwave got checked… However, the ring was nowhere to be found. Defeated and growing more and more panicked with each ticking second, he hurried out to the living room. “Did you find… it…?” His words trailed… watching Nihongou, who was perched on a mildly disgruntled Otegine’s shoulder, checking the vent near the ceiling. “I don’t think it will be in there, Nihongou…”
“Hey I’m being thorough!” He huffed. “But it’s not. Hey, Otegine! Move me over to the overhead light! Maybe it got flung up into the cover!”
“Nng… You expect me to walk like this?? And why am I on the bottom??”
“Quit your griping and move! This is important!”
Otegine grumbled and slowly staggered his way over to the light, swaying and struggling with each unsteady step. “Geh… you are heavy… lay off the snacks next time!”
“Not my fault Tonbokiri cooks! Now quit dancing I can’t see!”
“Nihongou… Otegine… I don’t think-” He started to say, only to cut himself off and rush over when the two started to fall. Despite his efforts, they still ended up falling… on top of him. “Hnn… ow…”
“Ffff… ow…” Nihongou groaned, laying there for a moment to try and get the room to stop moving. “You good, Tonbokiri, Gine?”
“I’m ok…” Otegine groaned softly. “... You didn’t find it did you…?”
“No… did you, Tonbokiri?”
“No…” He sighed at the bottom of the pile, accepting his fate for the moment.
“How much time til he gets here?”
“What time is it?”
Otegine pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Uuuh 12:30.”
Tonbokiri let out a soft whine and tried to unbury himself from the roommate pile. “He should be here any minute! I-I don’t… get off Nihongou! I don’t know where else to look. I know I had it this morning after I got out of bed because I put it in my shirt pocket.”
Nihongou grunted as he got pushed off into the floor. “I dunno… do you really need the ring though? I mean you could just ask him to marry you without it, yeah?”
“I’m sure he would say yes no matter what.” Otegine offered. “Or if you do need it, we can always just help you find it later and you can do it for New Years! That way he won’t realize something is up with us running around everywhere!”
“Heeey there's an idea. Besides, means you could start the year off with a bang!”
“I…” He sighed and just put his head down on the floor with a defeated sigh. “I guess… Thank you for the help though. I just hope we find it…”
“Sure we will! Just need more time and less panic!”
After getting Tonbokiri to his feet, Nihongou and Otegine tried their best to cheer him up. After all, it would be hard enough to hide it from someone like Yagen anyway. It’d be impossible to keep him from asking questions if Tonbokiri was clearly upset. Thankfully, by the time Yagen got there for lunch… they were pretty sure they had him at least convincingly happy enough. Especially seeing as the moment Yagen walked in the door, Tonbokiri went running like an excited puppy as always.
The gift exchange went over well. Nihongou had gotten each of them their favorite spirits (never mind that Tonbokiri hadn’t finished his bottle from last year). Otegine’s gifts were all things he knitted and each was really well done despite his insistence that he wasn’t any good at it. Tonbokiri’s gifts varied a bit more, a gift card to the liquor store for Nihongou, a new set of knitting needles for Otegine to encourage him to keep at it, and various items that Yagen had been mentioning that he wanted but hadn’t gotten around to buying. Yagen’s were all gift cards because he wasn’t really sure what to get any of them… but Tonbokiri got an extra thing, a really cute hoodie with bunny ears. Why? Because he thought it would be funny.
At some point right before lunch though, the facade faltered. Otegine and Nihongou stuck bows to Tonbokiri’s head and jokingly told Yagen that they were going to give him to the man as a gift too… and a sadness crossed Tonbokiri’s face as he quickly got up to go to the kitchen. At first, Yagen let it slide, thinking maybe, strangely, he had been wrong about what he saw… but every so often as they ate, he would see it again, just for a moment… and finally he sighed and looked at his boyfriend.
“What’s wrong?”
“Huh?” Tonbokiri asked, looking up from his plate and internally starting to panic when he looked Yagen in the eyes. “Nothing.”
Yagen hummed, a small smile crossing his face as he took another bite. “Ton… Not only are you a bad liar, but I can read you like a book. It’s ok if you don’t want to talk about it… I just wanted to know if I could help.”
“Er… No. It’s nothing you can help with.” He admitted sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. “Just… something I had planned didn’t go well.”
“Mm. Sorry to hear that. Tell me about it? Maybe I can help.”
“No!” He half shouted, then immediately let out a nervous laugh. “No… it’s… fine. I know what I need to do to fix it. It’s alright.”
After watching for a moment… Yagen decided to let it go for now, seeing as Tonbokiri really seemed to be trying to avoid the question. “If you are sure, Ton. I’m here to help if you need it though.” And he left it at that, putting another bite of the curry doria in his mouth… and suddenly winced.
Tonbokiri made a soft noise of surprise and concern crossed his face. “Yagen?”
Yagen sat there for a second before slowly reaching up to his mouth to pull whatever it was he had bitten down on out of his mouth, blinking at the item in his hand because of all the things he expected to find… a ring had definitely
not
been on the list.
Tonbokiri, Otegine, and Nihongou all went wide eyed, staring at the ring in Yagen’s hand.
“Uhhh…” Nihongou started, looking over to Otegine, who looked back at him… and then the two suddenly bolted for the door, tripping over each other in their hurry to leave the two alone. They ended up getting stuck in the door because they went through it at the same time, then fell on the ground after a struggle. Only then did they manage to actually make themselves scarce, shutting the door quickly behind him.
Yagen snorted softly and cleared his throat before looking back at Tonbokiri, who was blushing like a mad man now. “Ton…”
“I can explain!”
“Is this what you had planned?”
A soft whine escaped Tonbokiri’s throat and he ducked his head with a defeated sigh. “Yes…”
“I see…” Yagen looked back at the ring in his hand. It was pretty simple. A black band with little round amethysts nestled down into a braided accent around the center and their initials and the date they got together on the inside of the band. A soft smile crossed his face. “It’s nice Ton…”
“I… you like it..?”
“I do, yes.” He said as he slipped it on his hand and admired it. “Question, will this make you Mr. Toushirou? Or me Dr. Muramasa?”
Tonbokiri blinked at him, processing the question for almost too long… then he slowly lit up. “I- Yagen is that-?”
“Yes.” He said simply. “It was always going to be yes, Tonbokiri.”
Tonbokiri smiled so bright the sun itself seemed dull by comparison and got to his feet quickly, scooping Yagen up. He hugged him tightly, laughing right up until he stole his lips in an excited, almost clumsy kiss.
Yagen squeaked when he was yanked up… but it soon melted into a cheerful, muffled laugh as he clung back to him, totally pretending that Tonbokiri didn’t almost miss his lips when he went to kiss him. When it broke, he chuckled softly, looking at his now fiance with a content smile… that then bled into a playful smirk. “As happy as I am… I do have one major issue now aside from the fact that biting down on that hurt…”
“Heh… Sorry…” Tonbokiri said with a shy smile… then realized he said there was another issue. He adjusted the man in his arms to be able to cradle him and looked at him with worry. “What’s wrong??”
When Tonbokiri walked right into his trap, his smirk grew and he reached into his pocket, pulling out a small black box. “You beat me to it.”
Tonbokiri looked at the box and relief swept over him, starting to laugh as he leaned to press his forehead to Yagen’s. “Ah. Forgive me for the transgression?”
He snorted softly and tilted his head to steal another kiss, lingering for several moments before he pulled back and readjusted his glasses. “I will consider it.”