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Hannah was the only one who didn’t know.
That hadn’t been the plan originally. Kyoko knew because this was about her baby sister and she’d overheard when Aaron had asked Ivan for his blessing- which had been equal parts hilarious and endearing. He’d been terrified standing in front of her father after all, and Kyoko was fairly sure that had done a lot to get Ivan to agree to this… even if he still didn’t like the man, something she was reasonably sure Aaron knew anyway. It wasn’t even anything to do with the man himself, Kyoko suspected, not really. For all their father wasn’t thrilled about his little angel (however ironic her childhood nickname now felt) falling in love with a corpo-cunt, it was hard to pretend she didn’t know Ivan was far more bothered by his littlest girl being at an age where she was even thinking about getting married. She had a distinct feeling the man still saw the frightened, shivering, tear soaked little eight year old Hannah had been the night he found her whenever he looked at his now 24 year old daughter… she wondered if he thought the same about her, and if she’d ever get to see the proof if he did.
Laurie had found out deliberately too. She was Hannah’s best friend, after all, and therefore that had made her the best option for the stealthy parts of the plan. It wasn’t exactly an uncommon thing for her to call Hannah and complain about being bored and wanting an excuse to do something. It was easy to talk her favourite netrunner into going to get their nails done, and it wouldn’t be anything that actually made Hannah suspect anything was up either. She’d also been the one recruited into finding out her ring size… something that was also easy enough to do, now that Laurie herself was engaged. Running the simple errand of getting her ring resized the same day gave her an easy excuse to start that conversation, and it was even easier to pass that information on to Aaron when his soon-to-be fiancée had run to the bathroom.
Percy had only found out through Laurie. She hadn’t told him, but she hadn’t had to, rather she’d been entirely too lazy to get up from her comfortable position flopped with her head in her partner’s lap to sit up and grab her phone when she heard it buzzing. She’d instead opted to give Percy her best pathetic, wounded puppy dog eyes until he picked up her phone from the coffee table right next to them and read her the message.
“It’s just Aaron… he said would you be able to find an excuse to take Hannah to get her nails done and-“ he paused then, a smile breaking onto his face as he added “and do you know her ring size?”
“No, fuck off, has he actually asked that?” Laurie asked, gasping as she shifted to sit up herself, grabbing her phone to read the text herself. “Oh my God! Oh, Hannah’s going to be fucking ecstatic!” She laughed, eyes wide and bright as she tapped out a reply promising her help.
“You seem pretty happy about it too.” Percy hummed, his tone obviously fond and teasing, as if he wasn’t still smiling at the thought himself. Their group had been friends for years, and Hannah and Aaron had been together before Percy had even met the rest of them. Anyone with eyes knew how utterly seamlessly the two slotted into each other’s lives, and so everyone knew how inevitable this had been.
“No shit I’m excited! Elio doesn’t believe in marriage so this is realistically my one shot at being a bridesmaid” Laurie grinned, nodding. “But seriously- my best friend’s getting married! There’s only one thing that ranks above finding out your best friend is about to get engaged to the love of her life.”
“And that would be?”
Laurie smiled, leaning up to press a soft, lingering kiss to his lips. “Getting engaged to your own.”
From there, the D&D group had inevitably found out. Laurie had mentioned it to Iris when she’d complained about not being invited along to their manicures, and Iris had told Andrew when she got too excited to keep it to herself. Andrew had forgotten who knew and let slip about it to Elio, and so in a matter of days they’d accidentally ended up in this position: Hannah was the only person in her life who didn’t know she was about to get engaged. This fact had left their entire group split into two camps. Group A: Andrew, Percy, Elio, and Kyoko knew and simply weren’t saying anything to anyone. They had no real part in planning anything, and Andrew had all but forgotten he knew at all within a week of Iris telling him. Group B: Laurie, Iris, and Zina (because of *course* Aaron had told his siblings about his plan too) had been delightedly roped into helping.
The beach day had been Iris’ idea, something she’d offered when Hannah had needed to leave their D&D session early one week. “It’s perfect!” She’d promised. “Half a day’s drive from NC, but the place is super quiet and cute… a real hidden gem, and the sunsets are awesome!” she’d gushed, as though the group had needed much convincing. “The plan’s easy- we say we’re going up either because we all deserve a break, or to actually celebrate Laurie and Percy since we haven’t had chance yet, and Hannah’ll have no reason to suspect anything!”
“That’s genius.” Zina agreed, nodding along. “Plus, if we’re going to the beach it means we have an easy excuse to drag her shopping for something- you know what Hannah’s like, she’ll love having a new outfit for her engagement photos.” She laughed. “So all that’s left is for you to set a date.” She grinned, nudging her brother.
“You know- that’s the other advantage to us all being in on this now.” Iris hummed, eyes sparkling mischievously. “You can’t chicken out anymore!”
Not for the first time in his life, Aaron found himself simultaneously exhausted by and eternally grateful for their whole group.
Iris had been right, the beach was perfect. It wasn’t entirely empty, but there were only two or three people milling about, and that gave the twelve of them almost free rein. They’d spent most of the day broken into smaller groups, snapping random little photos and generally enjoying their rare moment of peace. All of them were so endlessly busy with schedules that never lined up… a day with nothing to do was a luxury none of them wanted to waste.
Even so, sunset came around all too quickly and Kyoko and Iris, in true mom-friend and older sister solidarity, had yelled for everyone to group up for a photo. Caleb had offered to take it, since someone needed to, and so they’d gathered into a group that coincidentally left Hannah and Aaron right in the centre.
Hannah might have been the only one who didn’t know she was getting proposed to- but Aaron was definitely the only one who hadn’t known what her answer was going to be.
Slowly but surely after that, the group trickled away to bed or bars or ‘work- don’t ask’ until Hannah and Aaron were the only two left on the beach. Iris had left the battered little radio when she’d turned in for the night, and they were making the most of it, holding each other and half dancing, half just swaying to the quiet song spilling from the old speakers.
“You know what this reminds me of?” Hannah offered after a moment, finally forcing herself to move from where her head had been settled on his shoulder to instead meet his eyes.
“I dread to think what you’re about to say… some crappy old Rom-com?” Aaron scoffed, though his expression softened again and he let a soft laugh escape as she swatted his shoulder. “Go on then, what does it remind you of?”
“You’re such an ass…“ Hannah huffed, though her own voice was tinged with the same lighthearted teasing. “But- doesn’t it remind you a little of prom?” She hummed, her smile growing softer at the thought. “Us, like this, more cuddling and swaying than dancing… still pressed together long after everyone had left.” She paused then, before quietly admitting “I knew after prom that you were the one I wanted to marry, you know.”
Whatever teasing retort Aaron had wanted to offer was thoroughly swallowed by that last remark, and he found himself just looking at her for a moment. “Since prom?” He repeated quietly, trying to ignore how the thought made his heart flutter. They’d been so much younger then, and yet… he couldn’t help but think he knew her certainty well. He remembered getting back home after dropping her off the morning after prom, and he wondered if Caleb still had the text he’d sent…
And if Hannah was wondering the same thing about Laurie- neither of them chose to voice it.
