]+Hush+[
By Chronic Guardian
For Amulet Misty...
*thatcameoutwrong...*
...But in a totally friendshipping/platonic sort of way!
*wipes forehead*
It had taken a while, but years of working odd jobs along with a stabilizing artistic career had finally paid off. Neku smiled to himself as he put the final bits into the fund and matched it up with his plan.
Ceremonies were expensive things. Frankly, he'd prefer a courthouse affair, perhaps with Eri and Beat as witnesses. Er... maybe Rhyme. Beat had a heart of gold, but even after years of knowing him Neku still had a hard time figuring out what the guy would remember.
Anyway, the main portion of the fund was dedicated to plans for after that. An elaborate European getaway with biking and shopping and everything else Shiki deserved. That's were he really wanted it to show: in the time they'd be spending together alone.
It was going to be perfect.
He'd asked her parents already, who had consented without hesitation. Now all that was left was the proposal. He'd planned that out too. Alone, of course. Well... almost alone. Maybe the guy down at Ramen Don helped a little, and Rhyme might have listened to it under the tired guise of "I have this friend who's planning this thing". It was going to be set up like just another thrifty date through the park and then wham, a perfect moment of dawning realization as he set the final move in motion.
The only catch was making sure he didn't screw it up now.
He picked her up around five and by six they'd had a nice, cheap, filling dinner and headed off to the park for a soothing, quiet, unsuspecting walk. Neku made sure to lead, bringing them to the fountain where they both threw in a coin and knelt down to make a wish.
He didn't close his eyes for long, just enough to think, for all that is good and holy, don't let Joshua interfere. Although it wasn't frequent, the Composer of Shibuya did have a habit of popping up every now and then just to show a smirk and ghost away the moment he was discovered. Usually long enough to distract Neku from some integral element of the current activity. Tonight didn't have room in the schedule for distractions though. Opening his eyes again, Neku sucked in a bracing breath.
As he tried to swivel on his knees to face her instead of the fountain, turning the motion into an awkward scoot as his suddenly sweaty knees caught on the pavement, he realized he'd forgotten which pocket he'd put the ring in. Sure, it was a western tradition, but Shiki really wanted one. He'd caught her staring at it in the store when they were window shopping recently. Yes, it had set his plans back a little, but for her it was worth it.
For her, anything was worth it.
His hands quickly patted through his right front pocket, then his left. Nothing.
Neku's heart jumped into his lungs, freezing the flow of air to his brain, as Shiki opened her eyes and started getting to her feet while he still knelt there, ringless. An image of the woven gold band inlaid with gemstones lying on his dresser top back at his flat flashed through his mind, but he quickly ignored the rising panic and unceremoniously cleared his throat.
"Um... Shiki?" Crap, his voice was shaking. Why was it shaking now? He could do this without the ring. Of course he could. Rings weren't even traditional here.
She turned, surprise lighting up her face when she saw he wasn't up on his feet yet. "Oh, Neku!" Gosh... she looked so cute when she was surprised... "Is something wrong?"
Yes. "No," he told her, looking down before realizing how important this was and forcing himself to look at her instead. "I... I just-um..." He mentally punched himself. He'd written the script for himself months ago and rehearsed it in the mirror every morning since then. So why the heck was he forgetting it now?
"Yes...?"
Well... anything was better than nothing at this point.
"I was just wondering... would you...um... wanna get married?"
"..." She froze.
Scratch that. He looked down at his hands, clenched white on his knees. Nothing would've been way better than that.
"I mean... Hold on, can I start over?"
He winced. What kind of amazing girl like Shiki went for a guy who needed to start over a marriage proposal?
"Ah... crap," he muttered under his breath. "Look, Shiki, I just... I think we... we're a good match. Eri thinks so."
She also thinks Rhyme would be cute with Joshua, but that's not the point.
Shaking off the self contradiction he pressed on with a rising voice, as if volume would justify him. "I...I promise I can take care of you. My jobs are stabilizing and I have a place for us. And...Umm, you know, I really like you... and... yeah."
Shoot... he should've just waited for her to ask and then he could've played it cool like he knew what he was doing. Of course it would've been better if she started it.
"Neku?"
"Huh?" He looked up at her, trying without success to still his trembling limbs. He probably looked pathetic right now. At the back of his mind he wondered if Rhyme had seen through his flimsily veiled talks and was hiding in the bushes laughing. He could swear he heard something like that right about now.
He felt Shiki's arms wrapping around him. "Were you listening?"
"...No." Aaaand strike two.
She laughed. Sort of. It kind of got mixed up with the tears now falling on his chest. "You're gonna have to work on that, silly. I said yes already."
"...You did?" When the heck had that happened?
"The first time was a whisper though," she admitted, hugging him close. "And by the second time you were already trying to shout your way out."
"...And the third time?"
"Was just now."
"Oh... That's good." Mentally, he made a note to give his eloquent script a respectful burial when he returned home.
"Did you think I'd say no?"
"...No."
"Besides just think about the wedding! It'll be wonderful!"
"The... wedding?" Oh, crap. Rewind and freeze. "Umm... about that... I was thinking..."
He accidentally let his eyes wander over to hers. Immediately, he was whisked away to five years ago when he'd seen her real eyes for the first time. That vibrant, strong, joyfulness of just being alive; but also of just being with him again. That pure, innocent trust that he wouldn't turn away from who she was. In that moment, he knew there'd be no hope of pushing the courthouse option.
"...I haven't put aside much for the occasion," he finished lamely, before quickly adding, "But I can make it happen for a small party, I guess. I mean, I already figured you'd want Eri and Rhyme to come..." As necessary witnesses. As guests we have to pay for I guess that's goodbye to the wine tour.
"And Beat too, right? He'd never let us hear the end of it if we did it without him."
"Of course he wouldn't." The big softie... For once Neku hoped the guy's macho image would get in the way. Not to mention that Joshua would probably show up uninvited... again. There went the bike rentals.
"Plus our parents,—" The hotel range became one star smaller.
"—And Mr. H,—" Their honeymoon trip became one day shorter.
"—And Mr. Doi from Ramen Don, and some relatives of mine,—" And their meals would have to be a little lighter.
"—And we'll have a cake—" Which meant there wouldn't be one when they went to the patisserie.
"—In a church! That would just be... I mean... it would really mean a lot to me if—"
"With a wedding dress too, right?" Europe was quickly changing into Hokkaido.
"Eri can make the wedding dress with me! It's gonna be beautiful!"
"Oh... right." Thank God for Eri. Suddenly Neku felt much happier about inviting her.
"Can we do that, Neku?"
He gave a weak smile and hugged her back. "Yeah, I think I can make it work."
On the brighter side though: She'd said yes. And that was enough to hush all the rest of his worries as he went home that night and drew up new plans just for her.
Author's Note:
Taadaa! That's right! I'm secretly a hopeless *homeless?* romantic. I'm going to go ahead and blame that on my six sisters, namely the one who is immediately my junior but FullMentalPanic and Fahiru aren't exempt either. Is it wrong for guys to be romantics? I mean, I don't always ship. But when I do, I ship hard.
As stated above, this fic was written for the birthday of one of the most legendary NeShiki writers out there: Amulet Misty! If you're a fan of NeShiki and haven't heard of her, then you're missing out. Conveniently, it also doubles as my proof to myself that I really can do NeShiki since there is a profound lack of it so far in Hybrid, my other TWEWY fic (What can I say? Neku and Shiki are barely even in the same scene together throughout the "Players" arc).
As for subject matter, I'm sure somebody else has gotten to this before me (I never said I was a creative romantic...), but I hope you liked it anyway. I don't really know anything about modern wedding traditions in japan, and I'll be the first to admit I don't understand the fluff/drabble genre in general, but I wanted to do something for my friend and I couldn't come up with anything subtle and cutesy for the life of me. Here's to you, Misty. Ever grow and be successful as you tell the world your stories.
Oh, and as a side note, yes there are churches in Japan according to my 2005-'06 Periplus Tokyo travel map. *Outdated resource materials for the lazy!*
Anyway, thanks again for reading! Drop a review if you were smiling by the end or, better yet, go and review either Stitched Graffiti or Sanctuary.
But I dither. Sayonara friends! May we meet again sometime. Read, Review, and be merry, for tomorrow we write.
Regards,
-CG
03/27/14 Update: Special thanks to Avientei for the constructive criticism. It was slight, but it certainly made a difference.