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This is gonna be the day.
This is gonna be the day he finally does it!
I can do this, he tells himself as he gets ready for the day.
He puts his fanciest hat on and examines the final look in the mirror. It looks great, he thinks.
Staring intently at his reflection he's checking if he missed anything. The hat sits atop his head, as usual, but with the addition of a mistletoe sitting in the wedges of the fabric running across the base. His hair is glistening in the lighting, and the bit of hair sitting on his left shoulder curled at the tip. He fixes his choker's buckle and brushes some specs of dirt off his collar. He's wearing his usual blouse, and over it is his grey vest. The buttons that run down are black, each one of them having a glossy look to them making the vest seem brand new. Hanging off his shoulders is his winter coat with the big puff of fluff on the hood. His pants are the same black and on his feet are his boots, the heels making him seem taller than he actually is.
He takes one last look at his face, excitement, but also nervousness filling his chest. After all, today is the big day.
The day he's going to propose…
Chuuya got the ring somewhere deep inside his pockets, so deep he fears he's gonna struggle to find it when he finally goes down on one knee.
He tried to prepare something to say, but no words came to mind. He'd just have to improvise, but he can do that! Yep, definitely, he can come up with words to say to the love of his life in the most important moment of his life on the fly. Chuuya can't convince himself to believe that statement, oh well.
He finally steps outside, the cold winter air hitting his face. He takes one last look at his phone to see if the annoyingly pretty fish has texted him. Honestly, how does this guy manage to look so good all the time? He even manages to make eyebags look attractive. Sometimes Chuuya wishes he could do that too.
Anyway!
He decides to walk to the market instead of using his bike, he needs some time to gather his thoughts. Chuuya doesn't think he's ever been more nervous in his life. The picture of him on one knee asking the man he wants to spend the rest of his life with to marry him is branded into his mind, but there's no words. He cannot come up with words to say. What does someone even say when they want to marry someone? He's never witnessed something like that before.
Chuuya didn't even notice that finally arrived at the spot they said they'd meet at. A few blocks before the market starts, but he doesn't see the man in question anywhere. Just then he feels a hand on his shoulder and almost jumps.
He abruptly turns around, instinctively getting ready to punch at whoever jumpscared him just now. That idea immediately leaves his mind when he sees who's standing in front of him.
There he is, smiling with his usual smugness, the man of the hour. Seems like Dazai put way less effort into his outfit than Chuuya did, yet he's still so… so UGH! He has a pink Gravity Falls sweater with that girl on it, was it Mabel? Well, over that he has a really big winter coat with a very fluffy hood. He also has grey sweatpants, is he really gonna propose to this guy while he looks like this? Why did Chuuya have to fall in love with some mackerel that doesn't have any sense of fashion at all? But he's still so annoyingly pretty!
“Why is Chibi staring at me like that? Has he finally realized that I have a way better fashion sense than him? Seriously, a mistletoe? Your hats are already ugly enough by themselves”
“Shut up! You cannot call that an appropriate outfit for a date”
“But it's cold! Do you want me to freeze to death? That doesn't sound like a peaceful way to die!”
Chuuya just sighs and grabs his lover's hand. He starts walking towards the market while the fish just lets himself get dragged along. The closer they get, the more people they see walking in the same direction as them. He can already smell the cinnamon mixed with the cold air.
Dazai breaks the silence when they reach the big Christmas tree with some fake presents underneath. “Look! Which one did you make?” You could practically see the gears in Chuuyas's head turning before it finally clicked. “I didn't make any of these! Why aren't you doing your job as the Christmas tree? The poor guy that has to replace you is probably cursing you out right now!”
“You're so mean!!! I thought Elfs were nice” Dazai put on the fakest pout he could manage before bursting out laughing. Chuuya however, was not amused by this joke, he just rolls his eyes and keeps dragging the bandage waste along. He is really contemplating his life choices.
Chuuya maneuvered through the crowd of people quite easily, looking at the different stands by passing. It's mostly just Christmas decorations and ornaments in this area, neither of them are really interested in that. They're just here for the food, mostly.
Just then Dazai drags him to a stand, a stand with lots of sweets, like all kinds of sweets. Sugarcane, gingerbread cookies, snowman-shaped chocolate, Santa-shaped chocolate, just chocolate in all kinds of shapes, marshmallows, you name it. Chuuya has no choice but to get him everything he wants, his wallet is probably gonna have a big hole in it at the end of this.
“Chuuyas's being so much nicer today…” Dazai remarks after Chuuya paid for all of that without complaining. “At least for his standards“
“What's that supposed to mean?” Chuuya asked, a hint of annoyance visible in his face.
But Dazai just ignores him and goes on to the next stand without even waiting for Chuuya to grab the bag full of candy.
“Hey! Wait for me you stupid mackerel!”
Said mackerel couldn't hear him anymore.
Just stay calm, Chuuya. Just stay calm, do not choke him to death.
Chuuya chanted that sentence in his head over and over again before following after Dazai, who was already waiting for his hot chocolate.
This goes on for a while, going from stand to stand without break, stuffing their faces full with roasted almonds and crepes, occasionally getting a sweater at another stand. Chuuya should be exhausted, but really he was grinning to himself. The little angel on his shoulder was rubbing its hands together evilly. Dazai was being so annoying right now, but what would he look like while the stars reflected in his eyes?
Chuuya didn't even realize when the tension left his shoulders, nor did he realize the sun completely disappearing. The date barely felt like an hour but it's almost midnight. No one had been at the market for quite some time but they stayed anyway.
The ginger wipes the hot chocolate from his lover's mouth, intertwines their fingers and started walking.
“Where are we going?” Dazai asked after a while, completely oblivious.
“You'll see” Chuuya answers with a smirk that Dazai couldn't see.
They finally reach the bridge that gave Dazai the nickname “fish”, and said fish was visibly confused.
The plan was simple: make him look at something beautiful to distract him and then get down on one knee, and what's more beautiful than the night sky? Dazai had probably only ever looked at the water when he was on this bridge and creating another inconvenience for Chuuya, today that would change.
But Dazai was staring at him, trying to decipher every twitch of his face like usual, trying to figure out his plan.
Just then the street lanterns went dark and stars were twinkling all over the sky. Dazai finally looked up, Chuuya glanced at Dazai and oh.
He didn't have to look at the sky when he could see the whole galaxy reflecting in wine-brown eyes. He wished he could see light in those eyes all the time, maybe he will. Chuuya didn't waste any more time admiring those sparkling eyes.
“Dazai, you're smart…” He started, struggling to find the next words, but Dazai didn't turn to look at him yet, good.
“But you're also a really annoying mackerel that won't stop throwing itself in rivers and then I have to save you,” Now the words were flowing out of him like a bucket and Dazai tore his eyes away from the sky, the light no longer there.
“But I like it that way. You're my annoying partner and not anyone else's and I never want that to change so…” Chuuya scrambled to find the box buried somewhere deep in his coat, he knew this would happen.
"Dazai- no Osamu,” Chuuya dropped his knee onto the -kind of gross- ground, he opened the box to reveal a ring.
“I love you, Osamu, will you marry me?”
Osamu's eyes sparkled again, not because of the stars still twinkling above them, but because he felt alive for the first time.
“Yes”