Hanai didn't really know what made him decide that now would be the best time to do it. It was a heat of the moment decision, his mind a cloud of manic lust and wonder and enjoyment and bliss, and he didn't remember reaching into his trousers to grab that small little velvet box, he didn't remember stopping the trail of kisses he was peppering down Tajima's stomach which lead into the fine trail of black hair that disappeared under the tight band of his underwear, didn't remember sitting up so he was straddling Tajima's hips in between his thighs, didn't remember leaning in towards his face, inching close and closer while he pried open the box with fingers that didn't seem to stop shaking. But he remembered the look on Tajima's face when he whispered those six words; voice quiet and soft and a little hoarse, but full of a fondness that was almost foreign to Hanai's usually gruff demeanor.

"Yuuichirou. Will you marry me?"

And Tajima's deep deep brown eyes that Hanai never once thought twice about, not moments ago clouded and hazy with lust, burst open in shock and Hanai could see stars. He could see hundreds of stars, millions; there were galaxies in Tajima's eyes and he vaguely connected pink and kiss-bitten lips moving, but he could see only the universe.

He was jostled into reality by Tajima's hands, which were gripping Hanai's biceps just a bit too tight to be comfortable. Hanai looked down at his boyfriend, a dazed look in his eyes as he tried to recollect what had happened just moments before. Had he…?

"Azusa. Say that again," Tajima whispered, voice cracking and Hanai wanted to cry, wanted to suck up his words and run because he did not just say that, but he did and it was real and it was really happening so Hanai did the only thing he could think of and blurted the one thing on his mind.

"Marry me."

A tomato red blush had spread to Hanai's cheeks at this point and he oh-so desperately wanted to take it all back; because what if Tajima said no? He could say no and what would happen then? His heart was beating fast, too fast, and he needed Tajima to say something but all he was doing was lying there with the same stupidly gorgeous expression on his face that made Hanai want to ascend into the sky and disappear and he wasn't speaking, wasn't moving. So Hanai grabbed his hand, a little too forceful to be considered romantic, and with a bit of trouble, slipped the ring onto his finger.

"Yuu, marry me. Please."

And Tajima laid motionless and unblinking for about two seconds more; the longest most painful two seconds of Hanai's life, before his face screwed up into the ugliest of expressions and tears leaked from his eyes and down onto the pillow, and pitiful choked noises flew past his lips as he cried. His fingers gripped tight onto Hanai's hand as he was slowly hoisted up into a hug, strong arms wrapping around him and rubbing soothing circles onto his sun-kissed and freckled back as he hiccuped and cried and snotted unforgivingly onto Hanai's shoulder.

Silence draped over the room like a thick blanket, with only Tajima's sobs to fill the void, and Hanai felt like he was going to lose his mind because no one was saying anything and it was too quiet, too quiet and if something was not said in the next second Hanai was going to absolutely lose his mind. He felt his sanity trickling away right at that moment, but then Tajima spoke, at least he thought he spoke because it sounded more like a hiccup or burp or maybe Tajima had choked on a breath because Hanai had no idea what he said.

"What?" He had to ask, because now suspense had taken the place of silence and it was killing him; he needed to know what Tajima had said. He pushed his boyfriend back an inch, using his fingers to nudge Tajima's face into view, wiping the tears and snot off his face and staring down in wonder into those dark, dark brown eyes that held the secrets to the universe within them. "What did you just say?"

Tajima gulped in a few shaky breaths, staring back at Hanai with eyes which were rapidly filling with tears once more and repeated himself.

"I said yes. Yes, I'll marry you."

And the gears whirred sluggishly in Hanai's mind as he tried to comprehend the words that had just been spoken, tried to understand. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

And he lit up like a christmas tree.

Hanai could feel the idiotic grin split his face in two, could feel his face grow hot and he knew his ears were bright red and so was his nose probably because now he was crying, he was crying like he had never cried before. His vision was blurred like mad, worse than when he forgot to wear his glasses or put in his contacts, and despite all this he was happy. Hanai was ecstatic.

"Yes?" he choked out, reaching blindly towards Tajima's face. He cupped his cheeks and blinked away his tears so he could look at his boyfriend-fiance-properly.

Tajima's laughter bubbled out of him, and it sounded like the wind chimes Hanai's mother used to hang up when he was younger during the mild and breezy days of spring. "Yes."

Hanai laughed along with him in his euphoria, he laughed and laughed and this could possibly be the best day of Hanai's life, the one he would keep in his memories forever, the one he would share with his children and grandchildren and take to his grave. Right then and there, Hanai felt like the luckiest man on earth.

He pulled Tajima in closer and pressed a kiss to his lips, long and slow and sweet because he needed to cherish this moment as long as he could. He pulled away and looked into Tajima's eyes full of stars and whispered "I love you," before kissing him again, shuffling around atop the bedsheets until it was Tajima who was straddling Hanai, and it was Tajima pushing Hanai onto his back and kissing him senseless as he poured out an endless stream of "I love you, too"'s against Hanai's lips. And then it was also Tajima who wiggled him out of his pants, and then his boxers, and kissed him over and over again as they fucked each other into the mattress until the birds were chirping.

-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-

The next day Tajima showed everyone at the university the ring, a plain silver band with three small diamonds carved into the center, with the hugest, dorkiest grin on his face as he blabbered on about the way Hanai had proposed: right in the middle of a vain attempt at getting down and dirty. Hanai might have been fine with it if the story was only shared amongst their friends that attended the university with them: Abe, Mihashi, Suyama, and Oki, but Tajima was the blabbermouth in the group. And he told everyone he came across.

Everyone.

Countless times Hanai had to drag a still-speaking Tajima away from a group of girls to save himself the embarrassment of knowing the girl's volleyball club now knew about he and Tajima's nightly endeavors. He was pretty sure the barista at the campus coffee house also got an earful about how Tajima got the ring he wore proudly on his right hand, but Hanai couldn't be too sure. The looks he got from other students as he walked out of the bathroom gave him a clue, perhaps, of what Tajima might have said.

Not only did Tajima tell the entire campus about his engagement, but once Hanai got home from his last class of the day and opened up his laptop, he was bombarded with about fifty notifications from Facebook. Low and behold, once he started scrolling through his feed, he came across a recently changed relationship status.

01:21 - Tajima Yuuichirou went from being "in a relationship" to "engaged".

Hanai couldn't help but smile as he went through the comments thread on the post. It seemed their entire old high school baseball team had seen the post and were commenting their congratulations.

01:24 Sakaeguchi Yuto: Whoa! That's big news, can't believe it! Congratulations! :DD

01:24 Sakaeguchi Yuto: … you're gonna give us the details though, right?

01:33 Izumi Kosuke: YO! Congrats dude, can't believe you actually got engaged to that loser! :P

01:35 Mizutani Fumiki: ohhh my god. oh my god its finally happening wheres my camera holy SHIT!1!

01:50 Nishihiro Shintaro: Can't say I'm surprised, but congratulations :^)

02:00 Hamada Yoshiro: i feel so ancient. help. how are you two already tying the knot but i cant snag a girlfriend? unfair, u guys :P

02:01 Shinooka Chiyo: Uwah! ^_^ happy for you guys!

02:25 Abe Takaya: mihashi wants to know if you want to celebrate some time off campus.

02:26 Abe Takaya: text him or something i'm not a messenger

Hanai also had a hoard of new messages he needed to reply to, all asking about the engagement. There was no way in hell he was going to answer all those, so instead he changed his relationship status as well to match Tajima's and then shut his laptop before the new wave of messages could start appearing.

Looking at the clock, he sighed. Tajima would be home from his last class in about an hour and a half. Too long, Hanai thought, but he could pass the time with the stack of homework he had that was due in the upcoming days.

He hoisted his bookbag up onto his bed and took out his Trigonometry textbook and notebook, planning on figuring out how the hell to solve any of it when the door to his bedroom slammed open, and a very rustled Tajima Yuuichirou stood panting in the doorway. Hanai stared at him in shock, about a million questions forming on his tongue as he watched his fiance discard his bag and kick off his shoes, all the while managing to stare Hanai dead in the eyes.

"Uh," Hanai began, raising a brow as he took in the ruffled look Tajima wore. It looked like he just ran through a tornado; his hair a mess, clothes rumpled, eyes wild. "I thought you had class?"

Tajima nodded, slowly, and Hanai compared it to the look a deer gave you when it was staring into your car headlights. "Yeah, I did. Skipped it, though," he said, his voice low.

"Skipped? Why?" Hanai was growing more and more confused by the second.

Tajima stared at him for a few more moments before a smile crept up on his face, and he cradled his right hand to his chest, toying with the band that sat on his ring finger. His chocolate eyes trailed down to the hand, and his smile widened. "I've been thinking about you all day," he whispered, taking a peek up at Hanai, who was still sat upon the bed, dumbstruck look firmly planted on his face. "Couldn't concentrate in any of my classes… I just wanted to see you." He laughed at this, a mix between a giggle and a snort that Hanai was oh-so fond of. "After history class I couldn't take it anymore… I ran home."

Hanai silently counted the number of blocks their apartment was from campus. There were at least six.

"You ran half a mile… to see me," Hanai repeated slowly, his own smile beginning to form as he motioned Tajima over to the bed. Immediately Tajima had made his way onto the bed, and was making himself comfortable curled up next to Hanai after moving his math textbook out of the way to make room for himself. Hanai scooted down next to Tajima and slung an arm around his waist, pulling him in closer. "Why'd you run half a mile to see me?"

Tajima took a moment to respond, looking down at the ring that he twirled around on his finger. Hanai took this moment to count the freckles dusting across Tajima's nose. There were sixteen, and another three placed in a triangle near the top of Tajima's forehead. Hanai leaned in and kissed every single one, Tajima's grin widening with every chaste peck placed upon his face.

"We're getting married," he whispered, his voice cracking a bit and Hanai feared for a moment that he was going to start crying again, just like last night. But then he looked up at Hanai, with those deep chocolate eyes that held galaxies within them, and not a single tear was in sight, replaced instead with a brightness that could hardly be natural, Hanai thought.

"We're getting married," he repeated, smile getting impossibly wide.

Hanai smiled as well, a fond little grin that tugged the corners of his lips up, and cupped Tajima's cheek in his palm before placing a kiss on his lips.

"Yeah, we're getting married."

-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-

some notes:

hoo boy fanfiction messed up the format of this the first time round sorry bout that. hopefully you can read actual words instead of endless code now!
srry bout the run on sentences and lack of comma usage. i got a little excited.

in this au im thinking tajimer and grumpy-butt have been dating since their second year of high school, and the two are now juniors at university together... they've been together about 4/5 years. im shit at math.
fun facts: hanai is studying to be a highschool history teacher, while tajima is on his way to teaching the little tykes in kindergarten

luv these gay baseball boys

thanks fer reading!