That Night

Chapter Eighteen

After Chuuya left and Ryu and I finished washing our plates from breakfast, we sit on the couch, the TV playing something as background noise, a blanket covering our legs. Our feet mess with each other on the middle cushion, making me giggle every once in a while as I scroll on Ryu's phone.

A text comes through that makes me jump. I glance at the contact briefly, about to hand it to him when I freeze.

"What's wrong Atsu?" Ryu asks, reaching for his phone to see what held my attention.

"Who's Tachi-bae?" I ask.

He rolls his eyes with a small smile, slipping his phone from my hands to set it aside before grabbing my now shaky hands.

"It's nothing to worry about my love. He's just a gay co-worker that insisted to have my number. He has a boyfriend and put himself in my phone. I promise you, nothing is going on between us and, I would never put that as someone's contact name myself." He says, kissing my knuckles.

I nod softly, internally cursing myself for immediately jumping to conclusions.

"Sorry." I apologize.

"Don't be. I should have warned you beforehand although I never imagined he would talk to me again after I rejected him."

"You rejected him?" I ask, now curious.

"Yeah, we hadn't known each other very long and he had liked me for a while. Or so he says. He got upset and didn't talk to me again after that." He laughs, a hint of regret in his voice. "But like I said, he is in a relationship and doing fine."

"Oh." I nod, blushing slightly from my mistake.

He lightly taps my nose with his finger before chuckling. "How about we see what he wants."

I nod, shifting closer to him as he picks his phone back up and unlocks it, opening his messages.

Tachi-bae
yo, I was just wondering if you and your lover would go to a pride parade with me tanizaki gin and higuchi
they all wanted me to ask since I haven't talked to you in a while

"What do you think?" Aku asks.

I think about it for a minute before nodding. "Only if you let me choose the outfits and do your makeup. I promise it won't be too much." I put up a pinkie so he knows I mean it and wait for his to lock with mine.

"Of course, anything for you." He locks his pinkie with mine, responding with a quick 'sure' before pulling me into a kiss.

I laugh, unable to properly kiss him back.

He smiles against my lips, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

"What are you laughing at?" He asks, his smile and slightly confused expression making me laugh a little harder.

I shake my head, interlace my fingers behind his neck, and rest our foreheads together, slowly getting lost into his silver pools. He rests his hands on my sides, stroking them with his thumbs as he stares back into my own.

I don't know how long we stayed that way, but when I finally pulled away and looked down at my hands, he kisses my forehead and strokes my cheek with the back of his hand.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" He murmurs against my head.

"Many many times." I reply, wandering where he was going with this.

"Well, I want you to know, right here, right now, that I want to be with you forever. I know, we've only been together for a little over five months, but I care about you much more deeply than I did before and I don't want to be away from you, as cringy as that sounds. I'm not proposing, not yet, but I want to give you something." He leans back and reaches over the arm of the couch, picking something up off the floor. He brings it between is, making my jaw slacken in shock. "I want to make a promise to you with this ring." He opens the box and reveals a gorgeous silver band with an engraving of the infity sign on the top, three words engraved into the inside.