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Ainosuke isn’t sure what to expect as he pulls up to the modest home with which he has become familiar over the past seven years.
Seven years.
He is now solidly in his mid-30s and doing as well as he could have ever hoped. He is no longer worried about being seen in this neighborhood, at this house. He has met Langa’s neighbors, had tea with the old woman three houses down, pet the shiba inu that walks past at the same time twice per day and seen it grow from a puppy to an adult. He has found a home in an unlikely place, with an unlikely person, and over the course of these seven years, he has healed from wounds so deeply ingrained that they will always be a part of him, even if he now knows how to live peacefully with the scars.
The reason he’s not sure what to expect, despite his comfort in being here, is because Langa has told him nothing except what time to arrive and that he should not bring anything. That in itself had been a little surprising—Ainosuke likes to arrive with flowers in hand for Nanako (Langa had eventually asked him to stop bringing them to him for every date, as he had quickly run out of places to put them), or sometimes a sweet treat for his sweet, which Langa always cheerfully accepts.
So, as he walks up to the door, he suddenly finds himself nervous. Ainosuke has never been one to doubt himself. He has always succeeded, no matter what obstacles he has faced, and firmly believes that he could have the whole world if he just wanted it badly enough. So far, that belief has held true.
Now, seven years into the best relationship of his life, he feels he has achieved that goal. He has the whole world. It stands right behind the door before which he currently stands. And perhaps that’s why he feels so unbalanced now. Why did Langa ask him to arrive empty-handed? Is he now, seven years on, finally reconsidering their relationship? Has he finally come to his senses now that he has two and a half decades of life experience under his belt?
He tries to shake himself out of it as he raises his hand to ring the doorbell, but even as he smooths his expression into his usual self-assured smile, he can’t rid himself completely of the dread bubbling low in his gut.
“Ai-kun!” Nanako greets him as she opens the door to welcome him inside. “We’ve been expecting you.” She steps aside to allow him space, and he nearly forgets to bow and give his excuses, caught entirely by surprise at the sight that awaits him.
The small hallway leading into the house is lit only by fairy lights strung along the ceiling and a few candles on the console table where Langa usually sets his keys. There are red rose petals scattered on the ground in a path leading to the kitchen, and Ainosuke follows them dumbly. He dares not hope, but his heart is already pounding, and now he feels nervous for an entirely different reason.
In the kitchen, instead of the usual arrangement, he finds a long table set with ten chairs, decorated with more rose petals, both red and white. There is a red table runner over a white tablecloth, red and white long-stem roses spread across it, and ten place settings with covered dishes. He can’t see anyone else, and before he’s able to turn and ask the obvious questions, Nanako gestures to the floor where he finds that the trail of rose petals continues in the direction of Langa’s bedroom.
It takes everything in him not to sprint, but he can’t help but quicken his pace, hurrying to where he is now certain his love is waiting for him. His pulse is racing, and his hand shakes as he turns the knob to enter Langa’s bedroom.
The first thing that hits him is the soothing scent of vanilla mixed with rose water, and he reflexively smiles. The next is the room’s transformation. Much like the entryway, the room is lined wall to wall with fairy lights and candles. The overhead lights are off, but there are small lamps muted by sheer fabrics that provide a soft, romantic ambiance. Rose petals decorate the floor, the bed, the dresser, every surface in the room, softly reflecting the warm light. When he looks up, he sees a blanket of stars like the night sky. There is not a stray sock in sight. The bed is perfectly made (a larger bed now than the one Langa had when he’d first moved to Okinawa) with decorative pillows, perfectly fluffed. The sight makes Ainosuke’s heart skip a beat; Langa had never cared much for throw pillows, and Ainosuke recognizes this as a gesture specifically for him.
He continues to look around, enchanted, until he hears the door quietly click shut behind him, and gasps at what he sees when he turns: beautiful Langa, with his hair pulled half up in a braided crown woven with thin strands of tinsel. His outfit is smart and put together, a simple pink, pressed button-up shirt with a pair of nice black jeans that Ainosuke had bought him only recently. Langa smiles softly at him, adoringly, and Ainosuke can only do the same. He can feel his heart growing three sizes, can feel the oncoming tears beginning to well up behind his eyes, but he fights to hold them back.
“Hey,” Langa says, nearly whispers, as he takes hold of Ainosuke’s hand and pulls him toward the center of the room. “You okay?”
Ainosuke nods enthusiastically, his throat too tight to speak. It’s one of the very few times in his life he’s found himself utterly speechless. He’s reminded of the very first time he ever saw Langa, flying high above the crowds, the perfect picture of an angel sent from Heaven especially for Ainosuke. He glittered then, and he glitters now.
Langa exhales an airy laugh. “It’s kind of funny seeing you like this. Normally you have a lot to say,” he teases. Ainosuke chuckles somewhat wetly, still doing his best to maintain his composure. It’s then that he begins to notice Langa’s nervous tells, too: the way he rubs his thumb across Ainosuke’s hand, the way the corner of his smile twitches, the way he looks back and forth between Ainosuke’s eyes. He does the only thing he can think to do and bends to kiss him. Langa has grown slightly since they first met, but he’s still not as tall as Ainosuke, to his secret delight.
Langa kisses him back, and they share a silent moment together, just being in each other’s presence. Although Ainosuke still dares not hope, the dread that he had been feeling has completely dissipated, replaced only with love and heavy anticipation. It seems that they both understand how big this moment is.
“Okay,” Langa whispers again. “Just let me get through this.” Ainosuke realizes with a start that Langa is talking to himself, giving himself a pep talk, and again he is doused in fondness for the young man who did all of this for him. It gives him the courage to finally swallow the lump in his throat and speak.
“Take your time, my love. We have all the time in the world.”
Langa looks up at him and gives him another lovestruck smile. He takes a deep breath, and then drops to one knee, and at this point Ainosuke can no longer hold back his tears. One falls before Langa has even spoken the first word.
“Ainosuke. Adam. Ai,” he begins. “You are a lot of things to me, but most of all, you’re my best friend. You’re the person who saved me when I needed saving, the person who pushed me to always do my best, and the person who understood me when nobody else could. I know things haven’t always been easy, but nothing worth doing ever is. You’ve taught me so much, and given me so much, but if you’ll let me, I want to ask you for one more thing.” He pauses here, and Ainosuke worries his heart might give out if Langa doesn’t get on with it. He realizes that Langa is waiting for a response, and so he nods again, squeezing the hand that Langa is still holding.
“Anything for you, Langa. Anything in the universe.”
Langa smiles brightly at him, and from behind his back, he reveals a single blue rose—on the stem, resting lightly upon the two remaining leaves, a pair of white gold rings.
“Adam,” Langa says, using the name they now reserve for private moments together, “Will you marry me?”
Ainosuke cannot hold himself back any longer. Tears stream down his face as he bends to pull Langa back to his feet. He kisses him hard, with the passion of thirty-four years of longing behind it. Langa’s arms wind around his neck easily, as they have thousands of times before, and they only manage to kiss for a few short moments before Ainosuke finds himself inexplicably sobbing and has to hide his face in Langa’s soft hair.
“It’s okay,” Langa soothes gently as he moves to rub Ainosuke’s back. “Take your time.”
It’s an embarrassingly long couple of minutes while Ainosuke pulls himself back together. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had assumed he would be alone forever. He’s wanted this for so long, so desperately, and now he is here, with the single greatest person he has ever known, and he is wanted.
“Yes,” he eventually chokes out. “Yes, Langa, my Eve, love of my life, yes, I want nothing more. Please, please marry me, my love. Please be mine for all of eternity.”
Langa laughs his sweet, quiet laugh again and pulls him into another kiss. “I’m the one who asked you, dummy,” he says, but his tone is happy and light. There is a shine in his eyes that suggests he may have become teary-eyed as well, and so Ainosuke kisses him again just for that. He can’t help the thought that comes next: I can do this any time I want, for the rest of my life.
“The rest of my life,” he murmurs aloud, and Langa nods.
“The rest of our life.”
Ainosuke scoops him up by the waist then and twirls him around, causing Langa to gasp and burst into surprised laughter.
“Yes!” Ainosuke screams. “Yes! Yes! A thousand—a million times, yes!”
“Okay, okay,” Langa gasps, still spinning. “I get it! Yes!”
Ainosuke slows to a stop and lowers his new fiancé to the floor, steadying him when he staggers slightly. Langa pulls the rings gently from the flower’s stem and places the blue rose into a crystal vase on his nightstand. Once that’s done, he moves to take Ainosuke’s left hand and then, ever so gently, slides the larger of the two rings onto his finger.
A perfect fit.
“Langa,” Ainosuke gasps, feeling his emotions coming on again.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Langa answers. “I know. Me too.”
“I love you more than life itself,” Ainosuke says anyway, utterly entranced as he turns his hand this way and that, watching the way the light reflects off of a single small diamond in the center of his band.
“I love you, too,” Langa says simply, and he lays his own ring in the palm of Ainosuke’s hand. “Do you want to put it on me?”
“More than anything.” As he slides the matching ring onto Langa’s finger, he feels himself settle.
This is it, he thinks. My whole life. Right here.
They share another emotional kiss, and then they stand, entwined in each other, until they are interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Um, sorry to ruin the moment,” Reki says as the door cracks open, “but we kinda overheard the good news a while ago, and everyone is waiting…”
Langa smiles again and holds up his hand.
It’s a testament to how far they have come that Reki immediately smiles and offers a heartfelt, “Congrats, you guys. Now come on, Joe says the food is getting cold.”
The night is a lively celebration. As he looks around at the table full of smiling faces, and to his side where Langa has been holding his hand tightly all night, Ainosuke feels he is truly the luckiest person who has ever lived.
He will make sure that their wedding is the event of the century.