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“Thank you so much for that, I think, heartfelt toast, Kei. And thank you all for being here tonight to help celebrate! Seeing you all coming together, from across the globe, to help celebrate how much I love this man, it really means more than you all know.”
“And before this guy gets too sappy up here, I’ll cut in and echo what he just said. We wouldn’t be here without each of you, and we feel so special listening to you all talk about us and about our journey. Cheers to a great weekend and an even better tomorrow!”
“Cheers!”
–
The wedding suite is packed with all of Shouyou and Tobio’s best friends. It’s the night before their big day, arguably the wedding of the century, and everyone has gathered in one of their reserved rooms to reminisce on the two’s hilarious, complicated, dramatic, and beautiful journey to the altar.
“Remember when Coach clocked you guys before anyone in this entire room!”
*laughter*
“Or the time yall got in a literal fist fight!”
More laughter followed, but Ushijima cut in to ask if Ryu was being serious.
“Yes Ushijima-san, we got in a fight, but it was too angsty for us and so long ago that–”
“Too angsty?! You two are the definition of angsty!” Tooru cuts in.
“You’re one to talk.” Tobio jabs.
“The things Chibi-chan revealed to me in Rio would blow everyone's mind!”
“Okay, uh, moving on!” Shouyou mutters nervously as people speculate what moments he could be referring to.
“The proposal story is so sweet though,” Tomas exclaims.
“If you liked that one, you should hear about the first one!”
The chatter and noise around the room falls silent.
Tomas looks around, confused by Suga’s statement, to find a similar bewildered look on about ninety percent of the faces in the room.
Daichi brings a hand to his face as Suga tries to divert the topic onto something else, but everyone is locked in now.
Shouyou and Tobio exchange a glance, and decide to put their friends out of their misery.
“It wasn’t a proposal in the traditional sense of the word…” Shouyou starts.
“It wasn’t a proposal at all, dumbass.” Tobio tuts.
“Oh yeah? Then why did you say yes!?”
“I didn’t say yes because you didn’t ask me!”
“I would’ve asked you!”
“I technically said yes to that woman on the beach.”
Before they get too far off topic, Suga chimes in, for good this time, and asks them to try explaining it again.
Tobio clears his throat and Shouyou rubs his hand against the back of his neck as they dive into retelling the story from the beginning.
–
“Tob, these past few days have been amazing! Flying all the way to Brazil just to see me? Who does that?”
“Me, dumbass.” Tobio says while he bumps their shoulders together.
“You missed me a lot too, didn’t you?” Shouyou asks slyly.
“Not at all,” he jokes, “I just knew you’d be homesick and I need you fully focused so you can meet me at the top before I die.”
“Hey!” Shouyou pokes him playfully.
“Where are we going?”
“Patience. I want to take you to my favorite spot in the city.”
Tobio blushes as Shouyou grabs his arm and drags his best friend behind him.
In no time, they arrive at the beach. Tobio scratches his head because they have literally been to the beach every day this week. They even played beach volleyball this morning.
“Uh, Sho, am I missing something?”
“Hold on, hold on! Just a little farther.”
Tobio rolls his eyes, but continues to follow his best friend along the sand.
They pass games of beach tennis and soccer, and volleyball of course, but they don't stop. Shouyou keeps guiding them further along the shore.
They walk by the same person selling swim suits they’ve seen every day, and the same pair of golden retrievers hanging out under an umbrella with their owner.
Surfers slice and crash through the waves on their right and things feel strangely familiar to Tobio. Like the last few days have nestled their way into his soul. He really understands why Shouyou has fallen in love with Brazil.
“Just up ahead, okay. We have to follow this path for a few minutes and then we’ll be there.”
Tobio nods and they start walking around a sandy curve that transforms into a more rocky path around the edge of the beach.
As promised, the trek is only a few minutes long, but right before the end Shouyou stops abruptly and Tobio nearly crashes into the smaller man.
“Close your eyes and grab my hand.” Shouyou directs.
Tobio’s cheeks flush, but he obeys.
Shouyou tugs Tobio forward, spins him around so that he is facing out towards the ocean and can see over Shouyou’s head, and then pats his shoulders indicating he is in the correct position.
“Okay, open your eyes!”
Shouyou gazes up into an ocean of his own, searching Tobio’s face for that same glint of disbelief and awe as he takes in all of Copacabana beach for what it is. The look he sees is more than he anticipated, but Tobio is always exceeding Shouyou’s expectations.
When the taller man gulps but doesn’t say anything, Shouyou takes the liberty and asks, “Well? What do you think? Isn’t it perfect?”
Hesitantly, so softly Shouyou can barely hear it over the waves crashing against the rocks beneath them, Tobio manages a, “ Yes .”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
Tobio surges forward, ready to kiss his best friend for the first time. Ready to kiss his fiance for the first time. Ready to take on the world with his best friend by his side forever.
When their lips touch, Shouyou’s eyes spring open wider than a net without a blocker for a moment, then he leans into the taste of Tobio’s supple, sweet lips.
They get used to the feeling, and in turn grow bolder. Hands explore the curves of backs, the mess of hairs, and the broadest of shoulders when Shouyou suddenly pulls away. Their eyes meet and both men sport sheepish grins.
“How did you know I was going to ask you?”
Tobio’s brows assume their signature furrowed position, and Shouyou comes down off his tiptoes.
“What do you mean, how did I know ?”
“I mean, how did you know I wanted to ask you to be my boyfriend?”
“ Boyfriend ?” Tobio stares up at the sky, more confused than he’s been since their first year exams.
“Yeah…I sort of brought you up here to show you how gorgeous this place is…but also to explain that it reminds me every day of you, and how much I miss you, and other stuff I had been practicing all week.”
“Wait, Sho, I’m lost.”
“No, I think I’m lost? Why did you kiss me if you didn’t know I was going to ask that?”
The confusion on Tobio’s face turns to pure embarrassment and he tilts his head up to the sky.
Shouyou follows his eyes and then sees what is written in the sky.
“Você quer se casar comigo?”
Shouyou whirls around faster than any of their quicks have ever been and stares at Tobio.
It feels like years go by as they look at each other with a million questions racing through their minds.
–
“Wait wait wait. How in the WORLD did you know what the plane even wrote if it was in Portuguese?” asks Hoshiumi.
Shouyou grins triumphantly and Tobio hangs his head in his hands out of embarrassment.
“Because Tobio had been planning to ask me to be his boyfriend as well on that very same trip.”
“Right…but marry and boyfriend are not the same thing.”
Tobio lifts his head up to explain, but Yachi beats him to the punch.
“That may be my fault. We kind of got carried away daydreaming one day while he was practicing and we looked up how to ask someone to marry you. Then it became this whole thing that I assumed we were doing for a bit, but the poor guy really mixed the two phrases up in his head completely.”
“Hell, if that hadn’t been written in the sky behind me, Tobio might’ve asked me to marry him that day anyways!”
“You both are so stupid,” Tsukishima said in his own loving way.
“So why are you getting married now, when you asked each other three years ago?”
Bokuto asks the question on everyone’s mind.
“That day we fully realized we loved each other, and we realized we wanted to be together forever, but we also understood how far we still needed to go.”
Shouyou squeezes his fiance’s hand, and continues, “And I wouldn’t trade our timeline for anything.”
Tobio and Shouyou lock eyes, and the taller man places a kiss atop the smaller’s forehead.