Everyone who'd met at the restaurant early was helping to get things set up for the rehearsal dinner that was happening that evening, including the to-be bride and groom, so it was quite odd when, in the midst of people moving tables and chairs and decorating the area, Kaito decided that he was going to talk to someone actively trying to help. "Not every day I see you this cleaned up," he started, as he came to stand behind the nicely-dressed woman who owned his heart, her groaning at the sound of his voice. "Oh, come on Maki Roll, you know it's the truth."
"Sure do, but you're supposed to be helping." To drive her point home, Maki swung the chair she was holding around, letting the legs knock into him just below the knees. As he stumbled back, hunching over to rub at the point of contact, she set the chair down with a hmph and crossed her arms over the front of her jacket. "What excuse do you have to be blowing off the job you volunteered us both for?"
"I was going to work, but then I saw you and I just…couldn't get anything done without talking to you." While the part about him being unable to work because he'd seen her was true, he hadn't had any intention to work in the first place. "You're probably the best-looking woman here so far, and I doubt anyone coming later will look better. Why'd you go all out tonight?"
She raised her eyebrows, judging how serious he was with his question, before replying, "It was in the invitation, moron. We've got to look our best today and tomorrow, which is beyond stupid but I'm not the one having the wedding so I don't get an opinion. Get back to work." Just like that, she picked the chair up again, narrowly avoiding hitting his legs with it a second time as she moved it across the room. He watched her as she moved, her obscenely long hair obscuring most of her body but he could still make out the sway in her step, the way her skirt started coming up in the back as she'd bend over, all the little things that he knew she'd kill him for if she knew he was watching.
While he may not have started doing any actual work there before the dinner, he did make sure to keep his distance from her so she didn't get suspicious of his behavior. That changed when they were seated, all of the attendees present and in their assigned spots, and they'd been given the chairs next to each other, across from where the couple whose special day they were to be celebrating were sitting. Since those two spent very little of the meal actually in their seats, instead going around the table talking to guests and explaining what was going to be happening, it meant that Kaito had a lot of opportunities to try talking to Maki once again.
Every time he so much as opened his mouth to consider speaking, she would tell him to shut up and to leave her alone. She was typically cold and rough to deal with, but this was a new low for her behavior, and he wanted to get answers for why that was. "This whole wedding thing is just ridiculous to me," she explained in a low voice, so people sitting near them couldn't hear her words. "They're doing all this extra fanfare, for what? Attention? Money? I doubt there's any benefit to any of this. Just have the ceremony and get it over with."
"It sounds like you're a little jealous or something." The way he said that made her gasp, her foot swinging over and kicking exactly where the chair had hit him before, but he stood by his read on the situation, even with his leg once again throbbing in pain. "I know you don't want the attention on you, but you sound like you're jealous they're getting all this love."
"I am not jealous of them, or of any of this," she snapped in reply. "Weddings are dumb, marriages don't last, I'm only here because you made me come, and I'll only be there tomorrow because they're both my friends. That's the truth, end of discussion."
True to her word, that really was the end of the discussion, as she refused to say anything else to him for the rest of the night, insults when he was making things hard during the rundown of what the following day would look like notwithstanding. She didn't even tell him goodbye or goodnight when she left immediately after the dinner was finished, which was a tell-tale sign that he'd screwed up without meaning to. "All I said was that she's jealous of you guys," he said once all of the guests were gone and it was only him and the honored couple left resetting the room. "It's not normal for Maki Roll to act like that when I point out the truth. She must've forgotten what it's like for me to be right."
"No, I think you're both right and wrong about things." Tapping a finger to his chin as he processed the details of the story, Shuichi saw that Kaito looked almost surprised to have that analysis be given to him. "Think of it this way, it makes sense for Maki to not care for weddings or any of the ceremonial stuff, that's her personal opinion and that's fine. She's not jealous of the reason everyone was here. She's jealous of something else."
"Something that you should just go ahead and give to her, because it's the world's worst-kept secret that you're planning on proposing to her at some point." Laughing as she pushed a table into its place with her hip, Kaede added, "I don't know what's taking you so long, are you trying to see if you can irritate her enough to get some better taste in men?"
"H-hey, who told you that I was ever planning to do anything?" Ignoring the second half of what Kaede had said entirely, Kaito watched as she pointed towards Shuichi, who gave a half-shrug in return. "I never said a word to you about anything like that, did I?"
That elicited a laugh from Shuichi, as he worked to take some of the remaining decorations off of the wall. "You never said anything specific, but you did tell me more or less with some of your behavior. I just happened to pick up what you were implying and I may have talked a bit to Kaede about it, but neither of us actually told Maki, as far as I know."
"My lips have been sealed on the matter with her, don't worry." Miming having her lips zipped shut, it took only a second for Kaede to reopen them as she saw how almost horrified Kaito looked at how easily he'd been read by the two. "She doesn't actually know you're planning anything. I bet she really hopes you are, but as far as knowing you've got something planned? She's totally in the dark."
"That does also mean that, unless she's been looking through your money, she won't know what you've bought for her." Once again Shuichi laughed, this time because what he'd said had nearly sent Kaito backwards into one of the tables. "That one I deduced based on some things you said to me, or rather, questions you asked regarding how to go about buying a ring. Please tell me you at least had some idea of what she'd like before you made that decision, you don't want her hating what she's getting."
"Who said she's getting anything?" It was a useless question, Kaito knew from what he'd just heard from them both that they were more than aware of what he had in his possession and what he intended to do with it, and they were quick to stop what they were doing to both stare at him blankly for a moment. "Okay, okay, so maybe I did take her by a couple places a while back to get her opinion on things, but all she did was complain that jewelry's stupid and that she'd rather die than have to wear it. Didn't stop me from buying her something, I guess you guys figured out."
He wasn't ashamed by having been discovered, but if friends that he didn't see as often as his girlfriend had pieced together what he was planning, there was no guarantee that she hadn't figured it out as well. They might have been right, and that she was impatiently waiting for him to make his move, or maybe he was still right and she was just jealous because she didn't think that anything was coming her way. "It's also obvious that you still don't know how you're going to ask her," Shuichi said, continuing with his analysis of the situation, "and knowing that comes from how you've asked over and over about how I decided how I was going to go about proposing to Kaede."
"I only asked about it a couple times, you can't use that against me!" Now Kaito completely understood how his plans had been unraveled, and he was fairly confident that even though these two knew it, Maki certainly didn't. "I just, y'know, want to make things work out as best as I can because I know how my Maki Roll is, I know she's not going to go for it if it's not perfect for her."
"You might be a bit wrong about that." Kaede had tilted her head, her mouth scrunching up at what she'd just heard, and when Kaito asked her to explain she was beyond eager to do so. "No matter how much you love her, she loves you back at least twice as much. She might act like she's rough around those edges, but the second you even pretend like you're interested in marrying her she's going to accept anything you offer, whether it's a ring or just your hand. I think you're stressing out way too much over how to do this."
Deep down, Kaito knew she was right, but there was something about the idea of taking the easy way out and not giving some grand gesture that rubbed him the wrong way. "I have to do something she'll never forget, just like you had done for you," he replied, watching her face go back to normal for a second before she was deep in thought, trying to come up with a response. "I can't top a proposal behind a grand stage after a concert, but I know I can do better than asking her under the stars, even though that would be pretty sweet."
"The stars would make for a great backdrop, but I…I think I know what you can do to top that being your big thing." Glancing towards Shuichi to exchange a look with him, Kaede focused on Kaito with determination in her eyes. "If you're really serious about wanting to have a memorable proposal, I might have a suggestion, but you'll only have one chance to make it work so you have to be committed."
"If I wasn't committed, do you think I'd have already bought her a ring?"
"That's the spirit!" Kaede put up her fists, striking a bit of a power pose before motioning for both the men to come in closer to her. Naturally Kaito followed her request, because she was trying to help him and he wasn't going to turn the suggestion down without hearing it, but Shuichi didn't seem to fully understand why he needed to be closely involved; that changed after she got the first few words of her idea out into the open, starting with, "So, tomorrow at the wedding…"
By the time she'd finished giving what she thought was the best possible idea for such a short amount of thinking time, Kaito was completely on-board with giving it a shot while Shuichi was already trying to come up with ways to make the chances of success higher. "It might be risky to go into this without giving others advance warning," he explained, when asked as to why he seemed like he was putting too much thought into a plan that only slightly required his involvement. "We don't want someone else stepping in and interfering, do we?"
"Trust me, Shuichi, I think I can make it work without anyone knowing I'm intentionally doing anything. All I need is for Kaito to tell me that when, not if, my part goes to plan, he'll do something about it." That was where she looked at Kaito, her face beaming with pride at what she'd come up with for him, and she waited for him to say anything at all. It was clear that he was mentally making sure he was up for the challenge, it being incredibly short notice but if he was looking for something Maki would never forget, there might not ever be a better chance to make it happen. "What do you say, yes or no? Are you going to propose to her if I make this work?"
"You bet I will," he said, convincing himself that this was exactly what he needed to do. "If you make it happen, I'll ask Maki right then and there to marry me, and if you do make it happen, I'll just haveta come up with some other way to do it. There's no harm in giving something like this a shot, right?" There were problems that he was coming to in his head, specifically the idea that she'd turn down the proposal if it happened as Kaede had detailed it, but he knew bringing that one up would result in the reminder that Maki loved him more than he realized and that she let on. She might have been cold and distant a lot of the time, but if there was one thing that everyone knew about her it was that she had nothing but love for her space-minded boyfriend.
Her boyfriend that was admittedly rather tired of the title and wanted to become something more to her, and this plan was the best chance he had to make that move.
All things considered, the wedding was one of the most well-orchestrated events that Kaito could say he'd ever attended, and that was mostly due to the professional nature of both of the people getting married. One was used to having to put together criminal investigations that needed to go flawlessly, while the other performed concerts all the time that would have damaged her career if they went awry, so with the two of them together there was little chance of anything going wrong. The rehearsal dinner the night before had also helped those who weren't as put-together as the couple, so that everyone was on the same page as to what needed to happen and when.
If there was even one flaw in the whole ceremony, it certainly would have been himself, due to the slowly-creeping panic that started taking over him at about the time the music beginning the wedding had come on. He had to keep his composure and not let it be clear that he was going to be part of something later in the day, which was difficult when he reminded himself over and over that what he was going to do would ultimately result in him having a ceremony like this where he was in the position of the groom, rather than standing at the side with someone else's ring in his pocket. He must've looked like he was starting to sweat, or starting to shake, or even getting a little pale as the worries about what could go wrong with his own plans ran through his mind, distracting him from what he was there doing in the first place.
He did manage to pull himself together for the important parts of the wedding, for the end of the vows and the kissing and all of the cheering, but beyond that he couldn't actually say he'd paid attention to anything that happened up at the altar. Thankfully it wasn't like there weren't going to be a million pictures and videos of the event, all of which would show just how zoned out he was for the duration, but he could at least relive things later if he so wanted. There was always going to be the chance that the day would be marred with a rejection he didn't want, or a failure of a plan being executed, so perhaps it was for the best that he hadn't really been focusing on what was going on.
The reception was where everything was supposed to happen, according to the plan that Kaede had detailed the night before, and he went into it worried that she wasn't going to hold herself to her word. His almost anxious behavior must have been far too noticeable, though, because Maki, unamused and unhappy to be forced to be at such a loud and rowdy celebration, made sure to call him out on it. "You're acting like you're just as disgusted that you're here as I am," she told him the first chance she could without being overheard. "Let's just go, it's not like we'll get to talk with our friends much today anyway."
"I can't leave right now," he replied, scrambling to come up with a reason that didn't give away his true intentions. "Don't ya think they'd be upset if they found out we left without even trying to talk to them? Besides, as best man I guess I've gotta stick around and give some kind of speech later, but I don't know the details about that. Shuichi was kind of vague about what I'm doing, which is bad behavior for a sidekick."
"Whatever, if you're stuck here I guess I'll stay too. No point in leaving you without a date." At no point had Maki's role there that day been meant to be simply Kaito's plus-one, but she'd refused to accept an offer to be in the ceremony itself as part of her apparent disdain for the whole event. That had caused a bit of a wrinkle in the flow of the ceremony, but the couple had plenty of friends to turn to in order to fill the gap Maki had left in rejecting her place; Kaito was fairly certain that she'd grown even more frustrated with everything after seeing how easily she was replaced in it all. "I'll just go stand against the wall or find a table where I can sit, by myself, while you do your social stuff."
"No way, Maki Roll! Wherever you go, I'm going with ya! If that means everyone who wants to talk to me has to find me, that's what it means!" He puffed his chest out, trying to shake off the anxiety that was taking root in his mind, and she stifled a laugh at his awkward behavior. Together they found some open seats close to the table meant for the wedding party whenever everyone was properly gathered, and when they sat down everyone else in the room disappeared from Kaito's mind. The only person who mattered right then was Maki, even if she didn't know it, and he could feel the fear that she didn't feel the same way crawling under his skin. Based on how she was staring at him, her eyes locked somewhere between his unruly hair and his askew tie, it was clear that his fear wasn't justified, but explaining that to himself wasn't possible right then.
This was what love felt like sometimes, being afraid that things weren't going to be okay but also accepting that everything was beyond perfect the way it was. He found himself going breathless looking at her, with her eyes narrowing as she watched him sizing her up the best he could, and right as he decided it was appropriate to reach out and cup her chin, she said, "You know, if you want to look at something beautiful, I bet the bride would love all the attention on her. You're acting starstruck over someone you see on a daily basis."
"Can't help it that you're the most radiant woman I've ever seen. I've spent days staring into the sky and nothing's ever shone as brightly as you." His fingers touching her jaw, he brushed against her a couple times before trying to pull her in close to him, something she resisted every inch that he moved her. "Please, Maki Roll, accept what I'm doin' right now and let me have this."
"In front of everyone in here? You're pathetic." Her words might have been harsh, but she did give in to his wish and moved in closer to him, until their lips were just as locked together as their eyes had been. By the time they split apart, she was more or less in his lap and he was hugging her closer to him than he'd thought he'd get, the feeling of being nearly intertwined there at the table giving him a rush that made the anxious worrying feel so far away from his mind. She was breathless and he didn't want to let go of her, the thought of her going back to her own chair making him want to start kissing on her again, but when she started making moves to get off of him he had no choice but to unwrap himself from around her. "Great, I bet everyone here was staring at us while you got handsy, way to go, idiot."
"I wasn't…hey, you were into it too!" While he was responsible for initiating the kiss, he was not going to let her throw all the blame on his shoulders. "Besides, it doesn't look like people really care about what we're doing. Bet there's other stuff happening that they're more interested in right now."
Whether she believed him or not, he wasn't going to find out because she stood up from her chair in a huff and stormed away from their table, leaving him confused until she came back with her arms crossed over her chest. "There's nothing happening right now, dumbass. The couple's not even in here yet, I bet we just gave everyone a free show because you couldn't keep your hands off of me."
"Promise ya, no one was watching us. And even if they were, it's not like we did anything but a little kissing, and they got to watch even more intense kissing back there during the wedding so I don't see what the problem is." As she took her seat again and scooted it a bit further from his, he could tell that she was beyond unhappy with still being there and his attempt to brighten her day hadn't worked as well as he'd thought it would. "Seriously, Maki Roll, it's all good. If we got too into it, someone would tell us if they saw."
"Or they'll let us hear about it later," she grumbled, turning a cold shoulder towards him. Even though he was bothered at how upset she was about their innocent gesture of their love, he appreciated having the moment where she wasn't looking at him to break his attitude for a second. It was becoming harder and harder to keep positive about the plan that had been created, and he was starting to fear that there was zero chance of anything actually succeeding simply because Maki wasn't in the mood for it. He wasn't going to get the chance to tell Kaede not to go through with things, though, so he either had to disappoint her by not keeping up his end of the deal, or possibly anger Maki further, but the risk he was going to take was something he needed to do.
If anyone had been watching what they'd done, they didn't address it right then, and soon enough the reception was properly beginning, with the guests of honor entering the room and commanding a loud round of cheers and applause. Anything relating back to what they'd been doing at the table quickly fell from Kaito's mind as he was focusing on them and getting back to being at their side to fill his role. There wasn't much for him to do at the time aside from stand around and look pretty, while the bride and groom talked to all their guests individually for a moment; it was while Shuichi was in the middle of talking to someone that Kaede leaned behind him and grabbed Kaito's arm, tugging on it to get his attention. "We told anyone who might get aggressive to back off when the time comes, it should go exactly like we need it to," she said to him, his ears barely picking up what she was saying due to the volume of the voices around them. "But, um, where's Maki?"
"She was at a table by the front when I left her," he replied, standing back tall to look out over everyone else, seeing that she was not anywhere that he'd last seen her. "Uh, that's a problem if she left, isn't it?"
Kaede stood back up as well, not answering but going right back to talking to the guests like her new husband was. That left Kaito stuck between keeping up with them in case he was needed and going to find Maki for himself, and as much as he wanted to make sure that she hadn't completely left the reception, he wasn't going to open himself up to criticisms for being horrible at his role. The whole time he was there walking with them (until the stand-in maid of honor showed up and switched with him), the worry that Maki had gotten tired of the ceremony and his behavior and had left would not leave his mind, but the second he could get away he checked where he'd last seen her thoroughly, before heading straight outside to check there.
The mid-afternoon sun was shining up above the buildings surrounding the one they were in, nearly blinding him when he stepped outside, but exactly as he'd figured he would he found Maki sitting out there, using her hand to shade her eyes from the light. "You can't go missing like that on me, Maki Roll!" he called out at her, not wanting to leave the doorway just in case someone came looking for him next. "We need you back inside, right now!"
"Not interested, thanks," she yelled back, clear anger in her voice. He flinched at how irritated she sounded, but his hands were tied on what he could do there in that moment so he did all he could and called for her to come back again, getting the same response the second time, with an added "Leave me alone before I walk home" for good measure.
"This isn't how today's supposed to go, I know you're not all about these weddings and this super romance-y stuff but we're here for our friends, remember? And ya can't be here for our friends if you're outside!" Sticking his foot in the doorway to keep it open, he moved as far from the door as he could and tried reaching out to her, but as she was across the driveway from where he was there was no chance in the world he'd get his hand on her. "Maki, listen to me, I know that you're worried that we were getting spied on when we were, y'know, kissing in there, but that's nothing to be so mad about!"
He could see her taking in deep breaths before she responded, but right when he thought she would say something she stood up and came towards him, looking irritated beyond explanation and almost like she was done with him. That was proven when she threw the door open and went in around him, without so much as an apology for her short disappearance from the reception. There was an ache in his chest as he followed her in, seeing how she was quick to go back to where they'd been sitting together before, knowing that he wasn't supposed to be sitting with her due to his role. His plan was not going to work out at this rate, and he might've used his one last conversation with Kaede discussing where Maki had gone, not how she'd handle the details of the plan itself.
There hadn't ever been an exact time discussed for when it would happen, so Kaito was left growing more and more anxious over what was going to be taking place until he heard what had been discussed as the key words. That meant getting through his speech to congratulate the newly married couple without spending too much time letting his eyes linger on Maki and her slightly puffed-out cheeks in her upset state, as well as some of the fun celebratory stuff that the couple had planned. She was so unamused with everything going on that he was wary of her sneaking out a second time, which he decided to handle by watching her as much as he could without making it too obvious that he couldn't keep his eyes off of her.
After what felt like an eternity of what would have been a fun experience if it wasn't being spent worrying about so much, Kaito watched Kaede stand up in front of everyone and make the call that every woman in the room who was unmarried needed to go gather in an empty place there in the building. He saw Maki not move an inch, even as everyone else who fit the requirements made their way to the designated area, and as he got up to go tell her to go Kaede waved for him to stay put, and she did the honor herself. The glare he got from Maki as she went to join the others was icy cold, and he was fearful for what look he was going to get from her the next time he saw her.
Normally a bouquet toss would involve all the ladies trying to jump over each other and tackling people out of the way to be the lucky woman to catch the flowers, but between Kaede, Shuichi, and everyone that they'd told about needing to back off from properly participating, there was next to no one who actually made an attempt to get the prize. In fact, thanks to a perfectly-aimed toss, unless someone tried to do a tackle, there was no other option for who was going to catch it than Maki, as the bouquet more or less was targeted right to her unamused arms. "Huh, how about that," Kaede remarked, still using a loud enough voice to get the attention of everyone there. "Guess we know what that means."
"I doubt it means anything except everyone playing nice." Maki's reply was grumbled, and she turned to look at all of the other women, who were trying their best to look like they'd simply missed the toss happening despite having gathered for it. "Here, I'll give it back to the bride and let her try again, and this time maybe you all can make it a challenge?"
"You can, but…" While she'd had her back turned Kaito had made his way over to her and when he spoke she spun around to see him standing there, his nervousness reaching its highest level of the day. "If you do that, you're not taking part in the re-do."
"I'd be fine with that, this whole thing's stupid." Glaring at the flowers for a second, she looked to see the panic in his eyes and noticed that he was fidgeting, his hand in his pocket and all of his usual confidence long gone. "What's wrong with you? You getting worried because I caught the stupid bouquet?"
This was his one chance, this was what had been set up for him, and he responded by shaking his head and removing his hand from his pocket, holding a simple ring in between his fingers that her eyes locked on to. "I wasn't worried about you catching it, I was actually hoping you would so I could finally get around to asking ya about this. You're gonna marry me, aren't you?"
Flashy the proposal was not, but when the only viable weapon she had on her was a bunch of flowers it was a lot less intimidating than it could have been otherwise. She didn't say no, but she also didn't say yes, as her breath left her body while she tried to piece together how things had been set up. That was when the flowers hit his face, and as they fell to the floor she came in towards him, grabbing the ring from his hand and closing her fingers around it. "I'll consider it," she said, looking up at him with a gaze that was half adoration, half pure anger. "But next time, don't crash someone's wedding reception to do this, moron."
It was then, and only then, that he realized that the plan had gone as far as her catching the bouquet and that he might not have been supposed to ask for her hand right there. But the couple he'd just tried overshadowing would forgive him in time, he was sure, especially now that he'd fulfilled what they'd considered the world's worst-kept secret.
A/N: happy birthday Kaito I love you