closed; forward-dated to 3/14

[arf]

🧙 WHO: Taichi & Hikaru
⚔️️ WHAT: White Day
🕒 WHEN: March 14th (this is forward dated)
🗺️ WHERE: Their apartment!
⚠️ WARNINGS: No real warnings. They're gooey gross couple romance and they cannot be stopped. But it should be relatively innocent besides smooches and handholding.

[ Valentine's Day was wonderful and Taichi had thought long and hard about how he was going to pay that back on White Day. But after everything that had happened with the siege of New Camelot, and Hikaru staying by his side and refusing to leave if Taichi didn't... The actor already knew how he felt about Hikaru, but it really made him realize just how deeply he cared for him. White Day had to be perfect.

Which is probably a disconnect with what most people would think of when instead of some kind of big fancy date, Taichi had moved all of the furniture off to the side of their living room before Hikaru woke up and brought out dozens of origami flowers stacked in a basket as if they were freshly cut, along with a bunch of paper on the side on top of a picnic blanket. There is a cup already made of whatever brand of coffee Hikaru normally drinks.

Overall, it's not exactly Taichi's usual explosive over-the-top attempt to impress him... but Taichi's confident today is going to be good. When Hikaru comes out of his slumber and finishes up his morning hygiene stuff, Taichi will greet him from the floor with a smile. ]

Good morning, Hikaru~

Comments

[irritated]

[It's hard to impress Hikaru and yet for Taichi, it's actually easier than he knows. Any time Taichi makes any effort towards Hikaru, he's just happy to have someone try to hard for him. If it were anybody else, Hikaru would have nothing but critique.

But when he comes out of their room and sees Taichi, sees the work he put into this moment right now, he's surprised for only a moment. He'd know Taichi would be planning something, what with White Day happening, but he hadn't know what. Had almost expected something similar to what Hikaru did for Valentines. Not this.

He goes to sit down in front of Taichi, taking the coffee.]

Morning, Taichi.

[arf]

'Morning, Hikaru!

[ He perks up when he sees him. Taichi seems a little perkier than normal right now, if a little fidgety. Maybe he just had too much coffee. ] Juza-san's out already so we've got the apartment to ourselves all day! Wanna guess what we're doing?

[irritated]

[Hikaru notices how fidgety Taichi is and he does wonder. Excitement? Nerves? He's got no idea. But it isn't like Taichi ever hides how he's feeling or is very good at it.]

Well, either we're doing origami or I'm watching you do hyper origami. [He takes a drink from his coffee and hums. Taichi didn't do too badly on this front.]

I'd prefer the former, being honest.

[arf]

Hehe, nope. Well, sort of. What I want to do is called Ori★bana! [ To indicate the star, the second syllable of "Ori" is higher pitched and there is a pause before he finishes the word. ]

I made a bunch of flowers for you to work with, and anything you don't have, I'll make with my hyper origami... and you can arrange them with ikebana, so what we make today, we're making together.

[irritated]

[Hikaru can hear the star in there, knowing his boyfriend's style by now. Cute and he's snickering into his cup.]

Well, I've never arranged with origami so there's that. Think you can make me a vase or a bowl? Of some type. If this is a group project then I guess we're not going for minimalist exactly, huh?

[Which kind of goes against the point of ikebana but it's fine. This is for them after all.]

[arf]

Sure! Hm...

[ He said vase or bowl, so Taichi takes a second to think and then rapidly- yet somehow skillfully- folds up three options: a tall vase in white, a larger bowl vase with a white and blue watercolor patterned paper, and a more advanced but still simple tall one-- done in black, since that's cooler right? ]

Ikebana is simple right? So one of these...? [ There are other vases that have like a bajillion folds that get really intricate, but that doesn't feel in the spirit of what they're doing. ]

[irritated]

[Hikaru wouldn't say it's not a gift that Taichi can be this quick at origami. He can appreciate what Taichi can do. Mostly because he thinks it's kind of adorable than being impressed but it's still something he looks at fondly.

He smiles and picks the bowl.] Little more room this way. Wanna make me a sunflower? Usually not one I'd go for in my arrangements but this is one we're doing together, right? Passionate love seems like a good choice.

[arf]

That's what a sunflower means? That's so cool. What does a pansy mean?

[ He's already got a yellow, green, and brown papers in hand and is working on it. When he gets to the stem, he makes it about a foot and a half long. Hikaru can trim it if he needs it shorter, as if it were a real flower. ]

[irritated]

Depends on the color but mostly just "remember me", you give it in hopes of staying on someone's mind.

[Hikaru does trim it and works on positioning it.] Make me balloon flowers? In white. Color doesn't make a difference in meaning but purple doesn't go with yellow as well. Too loud. It means endless love and honesty.

[arf]

Hehe, that's perfect for me.

[ Goes right in line with popularity. But Taichi doesn't go on about popularity like he normally might. His mind is focused on the next flower. Oh... That's a good one. Chance! Taichi starts folding, making a couple, carefully folded so that they're in the bud form and Hikaru will have to open the petals to get them normally. Into one of them, he sneaks a ring. He swallows and hands the flowers to Hikaru. There's no going back now. Time to wait for him to open them. ]

[irritated]

[Hikaru doesn't open the flower right away as he tries different positioning for the sunflower. He's focused on that until he's finally paying attention to the flower that Taichi made. When he sees it's closed, he blinks. Why would he have wanted a closed flower? He smiles and opens it up, thinking Taichi was just trying to be annoying.

But then he sees the ring. It doesn't hit him exactly what this is and he pulls it out, showing it to Taichi.]

Is this a White Day gift?

[arf]

Not exactly.

[ It is white day and it is a gift, but that's not the purpose. Taichi moves himself so he's on one knee beside Hikaru.]

If you need flowers, I can fold them for you. If you need an extra hand sewing, my fingers are yours. I want to be the one you go to sleep with every night and you're the first thing I see every morning. I may not be as talented as a Hitachiin is supposed to be, but I will always find my own way to support you in everything we do.

[ He takes a deep breath before he continues to calm his nerves. There are a hundred reasons to say no to him, aren't there? It's wouldn't be the first time he was left hanging if Hikaru did... ]

The first day we met, I took your hand and we ran. Now, I want to take your hand in a different way. I want to marry you, Hikaru.

[irritated]

[As soon as Hikaru sees Taichi on his knee, he knows what he's doing. But still, he listens to every word as it pierces his heart, as it makes his heart thunder. Hikaru hadn't been expecting it and that's obvious from how wide his eyes are as Taichi speaks.

There are a hundred reasons to say no. They're from different worlds and what's the point in saying forever when they may not have that? He's seen that with how he's lost Zuko and Aurora. They're still young but that doesn't matter to Hikaru. His mother had gotten married young too.

And really, the other reasons don't matter either. Maybe they don't have forever but Hikaru doesn't care. He loves Taichi and he wants as much time as possible. Even if that means one of them is gone tomorrow, at least they both know today just where they stand.

He nods dumbly and then realizes Taichi would probably like to hear something.]

Yes. Yes I'll marry you. Wait. [He's handing Taichi the ring and laughing, face red.] You have to do it proper, right? You have to put it on my finger.

[arf]

[ Taichi is literally holding his breath while Hikaru thinks, which results in him gasping for air after Hikaru asks him to put the ring on his finger. He was never going to breathe again if Hikaru said no, so he can't help but laugh softly out of happiness when the answer is positive.

The fact is, Taichi no longer wants to see himself without Hikaru. He loves acting, he wants to be popular, but the only person he wants to love like this is Hikaru. But whatever they do, he can figure out acting. As long as he's still himself, he'll find a way to act. The idea of living without Hikaru... He doesn't even want to imagine it. That's not something he can find a way to do on his own. He's already asked around and he's honestly considering whether or not it's ok to bother a goddess with something like this... But he needed to tell Hikaru that he wanted to be together forever first. Make sure he felt the same way. Make sure they were in this together. And Hikaru said yes.

Taichi wipes a nervous tear from his eyes and nods, taking the ring back. It's nothing ornate, but it's a good quality titanium band. ]

If you don't like the ring we can get something else. I thought something simple would go with any outfit, so you wouldn't have to worry about matching. And we can pick out the wedding rings together!

[ He properly holds Hikaru's hand and carefully puts the ring on his finger. He borrowed one of Hikaru's to get it sized, so it should fit. ]

I love you, Hikaru.

[irritated]

[When Hikaru had lost Kaoru, it was the hardest thing he's ever been through. Even though, even as he's adapted, he would still say there's this pain inside of him that he doesn't think is going away. Almost like grief which is ridiculous because Kaoru isn't dead. But he's away from Hikaru and that's all that matters.

Yet, as he shared a bed with Taichi, shared his day to day with the other, he'd begun to realize that if Kaoru were to come here...he wasn't sure if he'd really want to give up Taichi being so present in his life. Would he want to stop sharing a bed with him because Kaoru was back? Would he want to stop living with him and sharing their space like this? The answer was no. He didn't want to give that up. It was something he wasn't quite comfortable with and sometimes, was happy he didn't have to face the facts that maybe he had found someone just as important as Kaoru...more important in some ways.

Kaoru was his number one and Hikaru didn't think that would change but he didn't think Kaoru was his only number one anymore. Not in every way. Taichi had taken that spot too.

And now as he looks at the ring on his finger, agreeing to the idea that he would share his life with Taichi and everything else, he knows what this means. It's bittersweet but when he listens to how excited Taichi is, he knows he's never going to regret loving Taichi.]

I love it. [He takes Taichi's hand and presses a kiss to it.] I love you.

[arf]

[ Taichi stands up as Hikaru kisses his hand, raising their hands up between them so he can kiss Hikaru's hand back. Then his lips. ]

I love you too. So, so much.

[ And then he tenses up and stands on his toes, squeezing Hikaru's hand and smiling brightly. ]

You said yes~! You're my fiance!

[irritated]

Did you think I'd say no?

[He sounds amused but after everything they've been through. After Hikaru literally walked away when he asked him out and told him he thought aliens made him gay?

Well. There's a fair reason for Taichi to have worried.]

[arf]

Well, you're really smart, so I figured you'd get stuck overthinking stuff like you do sometimes. There are a lot of challenges we're going to have to face! I thought about it a lot and have like, plans and stuff and prepared arguments!

[ He's spoken to a goddess of love about finding ways to make sure he can commute between worlds, ok, he's got Plans. ]

[irritated]

I don't overthink that much. Kaoru does it way more than me. [Still, he does take a second to think about what he should say.]

I...guess it's just...remember when I asked you out? How you said we had each other right here and now? Everybody's just left. Kaoru is gone, Zuko's gone, Aurora-chan. If I were to go away or you next, then I'd want us to have this moment right now. For you to know that if I had my choice to marry someone, it'd be you.

[Ah, that's a little embarrassing to say out loud so he's blushing. By now, he would have thought he'd be better about this but sometimes it's still crazy how he can be this open with Taichi and feel okay about it.]

You know?