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There's something nostalgic about summer in the countryside, even though Nicholas never spent much time outside the city when he was growing up. Sure, the cicadas are obnoxiously loud and the humidity seeps relentlessly into the house, but it's undeniably peaceful being out among the forest and rolling hills. Time seems to slow down, thickening like honey and tinging everything with lingering sweetness. Barbecuing on the porch, splashing through the stream, eating fruit so fresh it bursts with juice. The scent of warm earth carried on the breeze. Everything feels more special bathed in summer's glow.
At least that's what Nicholas tells himself as he stares at his latest project—a denim jacket that will eventually have detailed embroidery across the back—and tries to force himself to focus instead of dozing off in the warmth of early afternoon. Sami has the right idea: she's asleep in her cat tree by the window, tail hanging over the edge and twitching occasionally as she dreams. The temptation to join her in dreamland grows stronger by the minute, but Nicholas valiantly resists.
He can hear the muffled sounds of a movie coming from the living room, something that Euijoo put on to watch while folding the laundry. Eujioo's been puttering around the house all day, filled with restless energy. He keeps flitting from one thing to another: washing the dishes, sweeping up the cat litter Sami tracked everywhere, cleaning the windows. He's gotten more chores done in one day than probably in the past week or two combined.
In contrast to Euijoo's bout of productivity, Nicholas feels like melted ice cream dripping lazily down the side of a waffle cone, sticky and slow. He's always had a difficult time waking up in the mornings, but the summer heat makes it even worse. He crawled out of bed around noon, sat at the kitchen table clinging to a glass of sweetened iced coffee while Euijoo fed him bites of his lunch, and promptly abandoned his original afternoon plans of shifting and going for a run. Even though his wolf form has shed his winter coat, it's still much too hot to be covered in fur. Instead, he'd slunk into the spare room—his workroom, now—to poke at his project.
The jacket is currently sitting on a dress form as Nicholas glares at it, as if he can make it look right through sheer force of will. He's been indecisive about the length, debating between a longer cut and something more cropped. He thought he'd finally come to a decision, but no matter how much he stares or what angle he looks at it from, there's something that feels off about it. Nicholas pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, worrying at it as he contemplates the fabric. No, he decides, this simply won't do. He needs to see the jacket in action.
"Jagiya!" he calls out. There's the patter of bare feet across hardwood, and then Euijoo pokes his head around the doorframe. The apples of his cheeks are flushed a rosy red. Even after four years of dating, endearments still make him adorably flustered— something that delights Nicholas to no end.
Euijoo's eyes as he peers into the workroom look especially round in contrast to his cropped hair. It's been a few months since he finished his enlistment, but he's been keeping his hair short. He says that he's used to it like this now and that it's more convenient, especially in the summer heat. Nicholas thinks it's cute. When Euijoo first shaved his head it was fuzzy like a peach, but now he looks more like a hedgehog. Nicholas loves running his fingers through the short strands and dragging his nails gently across Euijoo's scalp, making him shiver and lean into the touch.
"What's up?" Euijoo asks in English. He's been doing that a lot lately, trying to speak in English or Mandarin when he can, even if it's only a sprinkling of words and phrases here and there. These days Euijoo can hold an entire conversation with Nicholas' mom, although they need to stick to simple topics. Nicholas knows they've been texting, too. It makes him so happy that he feels incandescent with it, unable to hold all of the warmth inside of himself and letting it spill out into the world.
"Come here for a sec?" Nicholas asks, waving him over, and Euijoo immediately comes closer. Nicholas tries not to ogle him as he moves, but it's hard. The summer may mean heat, humidity, and lethargy, but it also means Euijoo in tank tops and low-slung sweats. Nicholas' eyes linger on Euijoo's arms, still toned from his time in the military, before sliding down hungrily to his waist.
"Did you actually need something, or are you just planning to stare at me?" Euijoo asks dryly.
"I can multitask," Nicholas says, which is patently untrue when it comes to Euijoo, but whatever. He tears his eyes away and holds up the jacket. He's already made Euijoo stand through several fittings, but Euijoo, patient as ever, holds his arms out and lets Nicholas dress him up once more. The fabric drapes perfectly across his shoulders, which fills Nicholas with pride, but when he backs up and regards Euijoo with a critical eye he can't help but feel that he'd been right: the length is wrong.
"How does it feel?" Nicholas asks. "Do you like where it falls on your hips?"
"Yeah, it's fine," Euijoo says, twisting a bit to test the fabric's movement.
Nicholas frowns. "I don't want fine," he grouses before maneuvering Euijoo so that he's looking into the full length mirror hanging on the wall. "I've been thinking of making it a bit shorter, so that it hits here," he uses his hand to indicate about five centimeters above the length the hem is currently pinned at. "I think it would show off your lines better. What do you think?"
"I think that it will look amazing no matter what you decide," Euijoo says, his sincerity both sweet and excruciatingly frustrating. Nicholas resists the urge to shake him. He doesn't need compliments right now (although he will admit his ego is pleased), he needs feedback.
"Just for that I'm going to make it a crop cut and pair it with a sheer shirt when I dress you up for the final product shots," Nicholas grumbles.
Euijoo laughs, preemptive shyness making his cheeks glow again. He's a good sport about wearing whatever Nicholas dresses him in, although lately he's taken to complaining that he's "too old" for crop tops— as if turning 30 last year did anything except make him even sexier. Nicholas gets Euijoo to twirl, once quickly and once more slowly, before making up his mind: he is going to make it shorter.
"Okay," he says. "I think I'm good now. Thanks, Juju."
He slides the jacket back off of Euijoo's shoulders and down his arms. And if he cops a feel of Euijoo's biceps while he's at it, well. He's only a man— er, werewolf.
Euijoo swats at him. Nicholas laughs. He sets the jacket down carefully on his work table, then turns back and cups Euijoo's face in his hands. He really—truly!—only intends to give him a quick peck, but as soon as their lips brush Euijoo snakes an arm around Nicholas and pulls him in close. And who is Nicholas to deny his boyfriend kisses?
Nicholas' hands slide from Euijoo's face down to his chest, before settling on the dip of his waist. Euijoo shivers under his touch. He's always so responsive, and Nicholas can never get enough of it. He moves one hand to Euijoo's hip, intending to give his butt a squeeze, but the second his fingers brush along the waistband of his joggers Euijoo flinches. He stumbles back a step, eyes wide. Nicholas stares at him in confusion.
"Sorry, sorry," Euijoo gasps out. "Just, um, ticklish."
Nicholas blinks. He is intimately familiar with Euijoo's ticklish spots, the places that make him squirm. As far as he's aware the place he was touching has never been one of them. And yet— Euijoo had pulled away from him.
"Juju," Nicholas says slowly. "Did I do something wrong?"
Euijoo stares at him, eyes still wide. His tongue darts across his lips. Nervous, Nicholas suddenly realizes. Euijoo is nervous.
"It's not— you didn't do anything wrong," Euijoo says. "I just…" He trails off, eyes flickering around the room before skittering back to Nicholas. He inhales deeply, then exhales and says, "Ah, fuck it."
Nicholas gapes. Euijoo hardly ever swears, and when he does it's usually reserved for occasions like hammering his thumb or stepping in cat barf. Or during sex, sometimes, when Nicholas manages to do something that makes him feel particularly good. But this isn't any of those scenarios. While Nicholas is still wrapping his brain around hearing the word fuck come from Euijoo's mouth, Euijoo reaches out and grabs his hand.
"Come with me?" he asks.
Nicholas goes without question. Euijoo leads him out the front door, onto the porch, but he doesn't stop there. Nicholas follows him down the steps and across the path, straight into the midst of the flowers. Neither of them stopped to put on shoes; the earth is warm beneath Nicholas' feet. Some sort of yellow flower is in season right now and the petals sway around them as they move, an ocean of sunlight. Summer hangs around them, golden and heavy, sweet like the peaches Euijoo picked yesterday from the tree out back.
Euijoo stops in the middle of the flowers. He reaches into his pocket—so close to where Nicholas' hands had been earlier when Euijoo flinched away—and pulls out a small box before dropping to one knee.
"Euijoo," Nicholas breathes out, mind racing, trying to process the sight in front of him: Euijoo among the wildflowers, opening the small box in his palm to reveal a ring, staring up at Nicholas with the entire world in his eyes.
"Wang Yixiang," Euijoo says. His tongue darts nervously across his lips again, and his throat bobs as he swallows. But his voice doesn't waver as he asks, "Will you marry me?"
"Euijoo," Nicholas says again, voice breaking on the first syllable, and then he bursts into tears.
Euijoo is on his feet in an instant, ring box clutched in one hand while his other hand hovers awkwardly by Nicholas' face, like he isn't sure if he's allowed to touch. "Nichol," he says, voice full of concern. "What's wrong?"
Nicholas shakes his head, unable to get any words out past the tears. Euijoo watches him helplessly.
"Nico, I'm sorr—"
"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Nicholas finally manages to say. He can barely see, vision blurred, but he reaches for the ring box anyway. Somehow he gets the ring out without fumbling it and shoves it onto his finger. "Yes," he says fiercely. "My answer is yes. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes."
Euijoo is still staring at him, wide-eyed and beautiful. "Really?" he asks, so caring, so Euijoo.
"Yes," Nicholas says one more time. Then he kisses him.
Euijoo makes a sweet little noise of surprise. He's tense at first, but quickly relaxes into Nicholas' touch. Nicholas loops his arms around Euijoo's neck, pulling him down. Euijoo goes easily, parting his lips to let Nicholas in. Nicholas suddenly imagines kissing him at their wedding—their wedding!—and gets so overwhelmed he nearly starts crying again. He breaks off the kiss with a gasp, leaning back and holding Euijoo's precious face between his hands. His ring catches in the sunlight, glimmering against the soft skin of Euijoo's cheek.
"I love you," Nicholas says. It comes out kind of watery, but he doesn't care, and Euijoo doesn't seem to either.
"I love you, too," Euijoo replies. He reaches up to gently pull Nicholas' hands away from his face, staring down at the ring on Nicholas' finger with awe. He laughs, a soft huff of relief. "I was so worried."
"Why?" Nicholas asks, genuinely curious. It's not like they haven't talked about marriage before, although it was always hypothetical, something for the future. Nicholas has never felt particular urgency about it. The wolf part of his brain already considers Euijoo his mate— any sort of official ceremony would just be a cherry on the top, sweet but not strictly necessary.
"Because you deserve everything," Euijoo says simply, so sincere that Nicholas' stomach swoops. "And I don't— I'm not good at romantic gestures, but I know how important it is for you. So I thought, well, I wanted to propose in the same place you first asked me to be your boyfriend. But then you started crying—"
Nicholas laughs, helplessly fond. "Yeah, because I'm happy." He tips forward, burying his face in Euijoo's neck. He inhales deeply, drinking in his scent. Euijoo always smells faintly of the forest, like everything green and good. "I'm so happy, Juju."
He can feel the rumble of Euijoo's answering laughter. "I'm glad."
They stand there for a moment, swaying gently like the flowers. The world moves around them, unhurried and unbothered. The hummingbird that flits past doesn't care that Nicholas' life is about to change— is changing, has been changing ever since he decided to book a ticket to Korea four years ago and see if he could repair something he'd left broken for too long. In this moment, Nicholas feels both minuscule and giant, lost in the momentum of life.
Eventually, Nicholas straightens and looks up at Euijoo. "Can we get married in Taiwan?" he asks, employing his best puppy dog eyes. "I mean, obviously we'll have a ceremony in Korea, too, but— my dad's friend owns a resort, we could have a private ceremony by the sea with our families and our pack."
Euijoo smiles. "You've been thinking about this, huh?"
"A little," Nicholas admits with a grin.
Euijoo squeezes his hands. "A wedding in Taiwan sounds lovely," he says. "And I bet the kids will love running around on the beach."
Nicholas throws his head back and laughs. "Yeah, I bet they will."
"You're in charge of getting everyone's calendars to match up, though." Euijoo grins, cheeky, and Nicholas rolls his eyes.
"Sure, sure."
Euijoo, still smiling, leans in to kiss the tip of his nose. Nicholas immediately reels him back in and kisses him properly.
They stay there for a long time, standing among the flowers, wrapped in warmth and the promise of everything that is to come. Even when they eventually pull apart, they don't go far. Nicholas closes his eyes and leans their foreheads together. He breathes in, Euijoo breathes with him, and together they bloom.