docholligay:

simplymindspace:

“…good enough…”

“Hm?”

“Oh-uh. The ring. Is it good enough?”

She hadn’t said anything, initially, just laid the box on
the table, pushed it across the table to Minako, and lit a cigarette.  The table vibrated as she bounced her leg
against the floor, and she looked off, fiddling with the her watch an smoothing
the hairs at the back of her neck, not meeting Minako’s eye.

Suddenly,  Haruka’s nervous,
quiet energy made sense—Mina hadn’t been able to quite put her finger on what
had her so keyed up, as they sat in the cool, dark corner of the bar, and had,
for a moment, worried something was wrong.

She picked up the box, identifying it as having come from a
bespoke jeweler, and opened it with a satisfying click, taking a sip of her
drink. Even in the dark of the bar, it glittered, elegant, tiny, perfect stones
set like stars in the firmament of gold. The inside had a half-hidden
inscription, which Mina guessed was, ‘I love you,’ and imagined how long it had
taken Haruka to come up with just those three simple words.

Mina gave a low whistle. “Nice.” She tapped Haruka’s leg
with her foot, and was rewarded with a brief glance from Haruka. “Finally, huh?”

“Well, I mean she hasn’t said yes yet, but I,” she took a
deep drag of her cigarette, “I’m gonna ask.”

Mina set the ring back down in front of her. “It’s
beautiful, buddy.”

“We’ve been together a long time.”

“I know.”

Haruka looked down at the ring in front of her, puffing nervously,
tucking the same imagined hair behind her ear, leg still bouncing.

Mina leaned forward and put her hand on Haruka’s. “She’ll
say yes. You know that, right?”

Haruka did not say anything, but nodded quickly, still
looking down at the ring, turning it so it sparkled in the small catchments of
light.

Mina took another sip of her drink. It was enough,
sometimes, to simply sit with Haruka in her nervousness and excitement, to be
some sort of anchor while her mind flitted about, and Mina was more than happy
to be that for her. Mina uld only imagine how long she’d spent considering
every plan, every moment, and she was sure that soon enough she’d have to
listen to the plans for her proposal, and then the engagement party, and then
the wedding. It was sweet, in its own way, the way Haruka tried to pretend her
gusto was for Michiru’s sake—It was perhaps physically possible that Michiru
could care less about the trappings of marriage, but Mina wasn’t sure how—and it
gave Haruka an outlet for her feelings, so often covered.

A mumble came from the opposite side of the table. “..good enough..”

Mina turned back to face her. “Hm?”

“Oh, um,” Haruka looked up at her and then quickly looked
back down. “The ring. Is it good enough?”

“Ruka, it’s gorgeous.”

“It’s just,” she ran her thumb across the stones, then took
another drag, and snuffed out the cigarette. “she’s so elegant, and beautiful,
and classy, and,” she set down the ring and knocked another cigarette out of
the pack, Mina raising an eyebrow as she lit it, “I mean it’s nice, but Michiru
could get a better one. What if she decides she doesn’t like it?”

Mina shrugged. “She’ll buy a new one.”

She regretted it immediately, as Haruka’s face fell, and
Mina suddenly realized they were only talking about the ring in the shallowest
sense.

“Ruka.” She scooted in the chair. “I think, that if Michiru
wanted a different ring, a ring made by a European jeweler, a ring made out of
royal jewels, whatever, she could have it. Michiru has had…” she waved her hand
dramatically, “years to find a different ring, and no small amount of jewelers
trying to sell one to her, but I think that this is the ring that she wants,
because god knows if Michiru didn’t want a ring, all of us would kn—Haruka can
I please stop with this ridiculous extended metaphor for your poor self-esteem?”

Haruka sighed. “She’s everything. She’s a princess. And I’m…me.”

Mina leaned forward and pointed with the edge of her glass.  “First of all, you’re great. Second of all, she
loves you. She’s loved you forever. I doubt Michiru’s sincerity 95% of the
time, and that other 5% is when she talks about you, and when she looks at you,
and when she touches you. She loves you.”

Haruka smiled. “Yeah?”

“Buddy, if I thought she didn’t, I’d be the first to tell
you. She wants you.”

She grinned and clutched the ring to her chest. “I was
thinking of doing it at the aquarium. I had this idea, where I would draw
little hearts–”

“Ah yes, back to our regularly scheduled gayness”