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Gotou slapped lazily at the hand running teasingly along his side and turned to press his face further into the pillow. Finally, after years of early mornings and hard-pressed responsibility, he was slowly, but surely, learning the fine art of feigning sleep when it suited him. Annoyingly though, although his audience was usually very appreciative of new skills he’d mastered in the bedroom, this particular morning’s performance was failing to gather the looked for response.
“Heya Gotou-chan, you need to wake up; you don’t wanna make us late, do you?” Date asked, and Gotou was barely able to hold back a ticklish flinch as he felt a determined hand skitter along his ribs.
Even knowing his layabout was being cut short, Gotou smiled reflexively at the lazy humour in his lover’s voice and turned to rub his cheek against the hand that moved from his ribs to settle possessively on his shoulder.
Then what Date had said clicked in Gotou’s sleep-muddled brain.
“Late?!” Gotou’s sleepy lassitude all but burned away as he shot upright out of the covers, as quick as Ankh diving for cell medals, sending Date sprawling on the mattress as he overbalanced in shock. Gotou then scrambled across the mattress, and his lover, rushing to get to the calendar on the bedside table.
The calendar was usually more of an affectation for him, as being the responsible half of this relationship, Gotou kept track of their various social, work, and “world-saving” responsibilities via a specialised multivariate database. Date, however, was more used to the rather laisse-faire scheduling of an on-call doctor and frequently needed a visual reminder to explain why Gotou was standing over the bed looking exasperated.
Calendar secured, Gotou sat on the edge of the bed and reviewed it with far more gravitas than any bedside agenda warranted. He then turned back to Date, who had taken the opportunity to attempt a seductive lounge across the middle of their bed. Deciding that the best route was to focus on resolving whatever this situation was quickly and definitively, Gotou elected to make no mention of the fact that the older man was wearing what could only have been a new suit, even as he self-consciously adjusted his pyjama top. “Date-san, there is nothing written on the calendar.”
“Now Gotou-chan,” Date said, smiling winningly as he reached out a hand conciliatorily towards his lover.
“NO.” Gotou responded; gently smacking away the offending hand. He then started to move back towards his side of the bed, grumbling as he tried, rather unsuccessfully, to climb over Date’s sprawled form. “Plans that aren’t on the calendar don’t exist; the procedure for adding events is clear.”
“Boya,” Date groaned theatrically and, taking advantage of their proximity, flipped Gotou onto his back. Seeing that a distraction was in order, and with Gotou so conveniently trapped beneath him, Date snuck in a lazy kiss, although he broke it off before he got too distracted as well.
“Some plans are so big that they just don’t fit on a calendar, Gotou-chan.” Date said sweetly, pulling back as much as Gotou’s arms, which had wound around his neck, would let him.
“Still, no.” Gotou emphasised his statement by releasing Date and letting his arms drop to the mattress in evident exasperation.
“Seriously boya, you can’t keep saying ‘no’,” Date groaned, evidently not prepared to take Gotou’s lack of enthusiasm to heart. “That really isn’t an option at this point.”
“Rule 15 clearly states that, if an event is not on the calendar, my answer can be ‘no’, Date-san.” Gotou replied. “This is the first free day we’ve both had for months. I have planned a free day. The planning for this free day, not even including convincing Satonaka-san to remove us from rotation, took days.”
“Exactly!” Date said jubilantly. “You’ve got everything planned out, boya, but you didn’t think BIG enough. It seems like the best way to take advantage of this lovely free day you’ve spent so much time getting organised, is to get married.”
Gotou opened his mouth to respond to THAT, but was distracted by the bedroom door opening to give way to Satonaka in a beautiful black suit and skirt; her customary heels and weapons left in the mudroom as per Rule 20-B. (20-A referred unsurprisingly to Ankh and dealt primarily with dragging yummies, and associated collateral damage, to their house rather than to the apartment he and Eiji shared.) Gotou immediately felt himself perk up at the smell of coffee that wafted into the room with Satonaka and, even after all this time, was struck a bit dumb as how she gracefully walked across the room without spilling a drop from either of the full mugs in her hands. The feat was made even more impressive as she easily navigated the numerous candriods strewn across their bedroom floor, as neither Gotou nor Date really had the heart to make them stay in the den (Rule 45).
Satonaka, having made her way to the bed, nonchalantly lifted one stockinged leg and, still balancing the coffee cups, pushed at Date with her foot, sending him rolling off of Gotou and back onto the mattress. She then sat down beside Gotou and handed him one of the steaming cups as he gingerly sat up. As Gotou sipped, rather desperately hoping that the coffee would assist him in dealing with whatever shenanigans were occurring, or scheduled to occur, he watched as Satonaka grabbed one of the pens from the ‘Riders Do It On Bikes’ mug which lived beside the calendar. He sighed heavily, resigned, as she put down her coffee to pick up the calendar and elegantly scribbled ‘We’re getting MARRIED!!’ in the small empty box before placing the calendar back on the table and picking her mug back up.
“You know that doesn’t count? Right?” Gotou asked. Not because he felt that it might affect the outcome, but because even after all this time, he was categorically unable to tell if she honestly thought she was following their rules, or just messing with him. Satonaka for her part, blinked innocently at him as she sipped her coffee, her gaze warm as it travelled over his shoulder to where Date had picked himself up and, grumbling, moved back across the bed to settle up against Gotou’s back, resting his head against the younger man’s shoulder. Once settled, Date also made a small movement towards Gotou’s coffee, which Satonaka, stopped with a single raised eyebrow.
“Hey,” Date protested, immediately throwing his hands up in professed innocence. “I made that coffee.”
“Satonaka-san set up the machine last night,” Gotou reminded him. “We were in the kitchen when she did it.”
“Oh, I guess I was a bit distracted...” Date purred into his ear, causing Gotou to flush and a small smile to grace Satonaka’s face.
“But, fair enough,” Date continued, cheerfully accepting the criticism. “You aren’t marrying me for my coffee making skills after all.”
As if to prove the sentence, he nipped playfully at the side of Gotou’s neck and ran one of his hands teasingly along Gotou’s thigh, causing Gotou’s coffee cup to wobble dangerously. Before Gotou could react though, Satonaka struck out with the pen still in her grasp and soundly rapped Date’s wandering digits.
“Hey – no weapons in the bedroom.” Date protested, even as he released Gotou’s leg to grab Satonaka’s wrist and tug her gently to lean against them.
“I decided to remove that part of the vows.” Satonaka clarified as she allowed herself to be repositioned; still balancing her coffee cup as she snuggled into Gotou’s side and leaned her head back against Date’s shoulder.
“So we’re getting married?” Gotou asked, mostly in hopes of clarifying some logistics as to who was marrying whom. Anything else was a moot point as it was clear that 2/3 of this relationship was onboard and, in all honesty, Satonaka was herself a majority vote.
Satonaka hummed, a smug lilt to the tone, and with her free hand reached out to point at the ‘5 years of service’ ring on Gotou’s left hand. She took a nonchalant sip of her coffee, “I’ve put a ring on it.”
“Which isn’t at all fair to me,” Date continued, as he picked up the narrative. Somehow sounding both proud of Satonaka and slightly peeved at her first-place finish.
“That’s not the same thing!” Gotou protested, extracting himself from his partners and twisting as he sat back down so he could look at them straight on; grateful that his coffee cup was now empty as he placed it with a shaking hand on the bedside table. “I am not married to Erika just because she gave me a ring.”
“And you’re the one always harping on about how I need to look at the fine print on contracts”, Date said smugly, curling his arm around Satonaka who was starring unblinkingly at Gotou. Gotou guessed that she looked honestly confused at his objection, most likely because they all knew that even if that wording hadn’t been in the contract he’d originally signed, it would certainly be now (possibly with his signature still wet on the updated version), and that, honestly, he’d go along with it anyways.
If marrying these two impossible people was what allowed him to keep them, then he’d do it handily, with or without a suitably considered plan. But that didn’t mean he wanted to give them all the upper hands in this relationship, since as he was fairly certain he knew intimately where they’d put them and it wouldn’t always be appropriate in public.
“Kougami is not giving me away and I am not wearing white.” Gotou said in a tone that he hoped would brooker no discussion. Looking at the two smug expressions before him though, he accepted that he’d already been outmanoeuvered in at least one of those areas.
“Of course not,” Date assured him, his smile growing as Satonaka leaned towards Gotou, placing her mug down beside his on the table, before she gripped his arm and pulled him towards them. “Kougami’s going to officiate.”