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Yukine was trying to sleep, and it seemed Yato was doing everything in his power to prevent him from ever sleeping again.
For the past few nights, Yato had spent hours sprawled out on the floor surrounded by papers, feverishly scratching out lines, crumpling them in a ball to throw them away, and muttering to himself in a way that suggested that he was increasingly frustrated.
Yukine generally tried to ignore Yato at times like these, but after Yato had muttered “No, you fucking idiot,” at himself for the tenth time that night, Yukine reached his breaking point.
“What are you doing?” Yukine demanded.
“Writing,” Yato replied.
“I can see that,” Yukine said, debating the merits of killing Yato right there and then. “What are you writing?”
“A letter.”
“To who?”
“Hiyori!”
“Why don’t you just text her?” Yukine asked. “Or, you know, talk to her when you go on your dates,” he said the word “dates” with mock (and slightly real) disgust.
“I can’t do that!” Yato said, looking horrified.
“Why, don’t even have time to breathe in between make-out sessions?”
“How dare you?” Yato said, looking scandalized.
“Then why write a letter?”
“Because this has to be perfect, Yukine,” Yato said.
Yukine looked at all the crumpled-up papers strewn about him, “And how’s that going for you?”
“Not great,” Yato admitted. “I just can’t think of the right words!”
“What are you trying to tell her?”
“It’s a secret!”
Yukine leaned over to try and see some of what Yato had written and Yato leapt over his papers, shielding them from Yukine’s eyes with his body.
“NO, THESE ARE FOR HIYORI’S EYES ONLY!”
Daikoku’s voice thundered through the house.
“Yato, shut the hell up, do you have any idea what time it is?!”
He was blessedly quieter after that, but Yukine woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of Yato scratching away with a pen.
***
If Yukine had any hopes of Yato finishing his stupid letter any time soon, they were quickly dashed. A full week later, their room was officially covered in crumpled-up papers and Yukine was at the end of his rope.
“Just give it to her!”
“I can’t! It has to be perfect!”
“What does it matter? She’s dating you, so clearly she doesn’t care about how dumb you sound!”
“That’s mean, Yukine!”
They continued this argument as they went to fight some ayakashi that had appeared on the other side of town. It probably was not particularly safe to fight each other while fighting ayakashi, but they were sort of used to that by now.
Hiyori stopped by after school as usual, though she wasn’t particularly surprised that they weren’t there. Even she had noticed the increase of ayakashi this week.
“Do you mind if I stay until they come back?”
“Nah, go ahead,” Daikoku said. “You can do your homework in their room if you want.”
“Thanks, that would be great!”
The second Hiyori opened the door to their room, however, she realised that she would not be getting much work done.
The room was an utter disaster. For whatever reason, the room was literally covered in papers. She was sure that it was Yato’s doing, too, and not just because weird things were almost always Yato’s fault. The papers were mostly concentrated on his side of the room, and it looked like Yukine had attempted to shove some away from his side so that they formed a pile.
Sighing deeply and wondering, not for the first time, what on earth went through Yato’s head, she set to work trying to put the papers in order. Or at least make walking space on the floor.
She started with the most crumpled ones, as she assumed they were rejects for whatever Yato was doing. She didn’t want to throw anything out in case Yato needed them (though she couldn’t imagine why he was doing this).
She made a neat little pyramid of the crumpled up paper balls before turning to the rest of them.
The papers had so many lines scratched out and notes to himself that they were barely legible. She really never intended to read them, but on one of the ones where some of the words could actually be made out she saw:
…Hiyori…
But couldn’t make out anything else beyond that.
Great. Now she was implicated in whatever crazy thing Yato was plotting. She knew she shouldn’t, but as she sorted through the papers she started looking to see if there were any she could actually understand.
She had no luck at first, and it was only when she was almost done that she saw a piece of paper lying further away from the others, closer to where Yato usually slept. It had the least crossings-out, and in fact the majority of it was visible.
Looking over her shoulder, just in case someone showed up, she hastily picked up the piece of paper and read it.
Dear Hiyori,
I know it’s pretty weird to do this in a letter, but I know I wouldn’t be able to do this in person without screwing it up.
Even now I don’t know how to say what I want to, nothing seems to actually express how I feel. It’s kind of funny, even though I’m a god I’ve never been sure how much I believed people were bound by fate, which is pretty bad, don’t you think?
But I know now that it has to be true. There’s no other reason I can think of that I could have met someone like you. It’s oddly appropriate that the first time you met me, you saved me.
I can’t even count how many times you’ve saved me since then. I’m grateful every day that I met you, and I’m even more grateful that I fell in love with you and that you love me back (I still can’t believe that, either!).
I know relationships between gods and humans are difficult, but I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of it so far. No matter how long I’ve known you, I’m still so amazed by how strong you are. I don’t know if I can ever measure up to all you’ve done but for me, but I want to stay by your side forever and show that I can.
Marry me?
Love,
Yato
Hiyori only had a moment to stand there, frozen in shock, when she heard the door slide open behind her.
She whipped around. Yato was standing there with his hand on the door. His eyes travelled from the paper in Hiyori’s hand, up to her face, and back to the paper again. She could practically see the gears turning in his head as he figured out what had happened.
He let out a high-pitched scream and leaped across the room, trying to grab the paper from her hands. She quickly jumped out of the way and held the paper close to her chest.
“What is the matter with you?!” she demanded.
“You can’t see that, it’s not ready yet!” Yato tried grabbing at the paper again and Hiyori hid it behind her back.
“I’ve already seen it!” she said, her face going red from embarrassment as she remembered the contents of the letter.
“Oh,” Yato stopped dead. There was an awkward silence between them.
“The whole thing?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
He paused, then said “Wh-what did you think of it?”
Hiyori went even redder (if that was possible) and said, “I thought it was, um-”
“It was a rough draft!” Yato said quickly. “I didn’t work out the details yet and, um, I… I don’t even have a ring yet!” he said with a look of horror as the thought struck him.
Hiyori was struggling to suppress a smile as Yato rambled on and on.
“Can I have a piece of paper too?” she asked.
“Huh?”
Hiyori rolled her eyes and picked up a piece of scrap paper and a pen that Yato had left lying on the floor. He watched, dumbfounded, as Hiyori wrote something and wordlessly handed the paper to him.
His eyes widened as he read her response.
Yes, I will marry you, you idiot.
Sincerely,
Hiyori Iki
Yato looked up at her and asked in a quiet voice “R-really?”
“Yes, you idiot,” Hiyori said.
Yato leapt at her and lifted her off her feet in a fierce hug, twirling around with her as he did so.
“Y-Yato!” she laughed.
“I can’t help it, I’m gonna get married to the cutest girl in the world, you know?” Yato said as he put her down.
Hiyori smacked him gently on the shoulder, “You idiot,” she said again in the most affectionate way possible.
She had never seen Yato smile like this, his eyes were sparkling and his happiness lit up his whole face.
She closed the distance and kissed him gently, it still hadn’t quite sunk in that she was going to marry him, and she imagined it would take a while to get used to the thought.
But as he kissed her back and pulled her in closer, she knew that she could never ask for anything more.
They broke apart, Yato still looking breathless and amazed. Hiyori was sure she looked the same way.
“Your brother is going to be so mad,” Yato said with a laugh.
“Oh, he’ll get over it,” Hiyori smiled.
Yato’s smile faded slightly. “Are you sure about this, though? I mean, you won’t exactly have a normal life with me…”
“Good,” Hiyori said fiercely. Yato smiled again.
“See this is what I meant in the letter, about the whole ‘you being strong’ thing…”
Hiyori just rolled her eyes at him.
“It’s true!” Yato insisted. “And for the record you really weren’t supposed to see that letter yet. I was going to buy you a ring and get down on one knee and hand it to you…”
“Why couldn’t you just say it out loud like a normal person?”
“I’d be too nervous,” he whined. “In a letter I can be all eloquent and stuff!”
Hiyori wasn’t sure if she would describe the letter as “eloquent” but decided to spare his dignity. In any case, the letter was undeniably sweet.
“At least with a letter I’ll be able to keep what you said forever,” she said.
Yato nodded and then his eyes widened as though he realized something.
“Stay there!” he shouted before running off into the house.
Hiyori didn’t have a chance to ask him what he was doing, and stood there listening to the sounds of Yato running through the house and definitely knocking something over (Daikoku was yelling at him as he ran back up the stairs).
He burst through the door, grinning from ear to ear.
“Yato, what-?”
“Close your eyes!”
Hiyori sighed as she closed her eyes. She felt Yato grab her hand and he tied what felt like a thread around her pinky finger.
“Yato, that is not the engagement ring finger!”
“As a mighty and all-knowing god, Hiyori, I know that,” Yato said. “This will make sense in a second, I swear!”
It was another moment before Yato said “Open your eyes!”
Hiyori opened her eyes and looked down. On her pinky finger, there was a ring woven out of red thread.
Yato held up his own hand to show that he had tied an identical ring around his pinky!
“The red string of fate!” he announced, clearly pleased with himself. “This will work until you have a proper engagement ring!”
“You’re completely ridiculous,” Hiyori stated, twisting the “ring” around her pinky gently. But she couldn’t repress a small smile. He always found some new way to be surprise her.
She was looking forward to dealing with his ridiculousness for the rest of her life.