The daycare was far too noisy for Kei's tastes. At least Tadashi went to the same daycare; Kei would never admit it but he far preferred Tadashi's company to being alone, especially in over-crowded situations like daycare was. Tadashi's idle chattering, while still slightly annoying, gave Kei something to focus on other than the screams and too-high-pitched giggles of the other kids. Everything was three octaves too high and twice as loud as it should have been and it was giving Kei a headache. He hated daycare with a burning passion.

After a while, several other kids started gravitating toward the table in the back corner where Kei and Tadashi hung out. Yachi, Kageyama, and Hinata were second graders like Kei and Tadashi; Nishinoya, Tanaka, Ennoshita, Narita, and Kinnoshita were all third graders; and Daichi, Sugawara, Asahi, Shimizu were fourth graders. Kei wasn't exactly sure how all these people had started hanging out with him and Tadashi, but he knew it had something to do with Hinata Shouyou.

Shouyou was a people magnet. Kei supposed it was because he was so bubbly and jubilant, but it was still vexing. Even Kei was drawn to Shouyou, and he typically tried to avoid being social as much as physically possible. Kei had never been a social butterfly like his brother and he liked it that way. He had Tadashi and he had his family; that was all he needed.

But then Shouyou had shown up and brought eleven other people with him. Somehow, Kei didn't mind. They were nice, for the most part – Kageyama was kind of an ass, but so was Kei so he didn't really have room to talk – and they didn't mind that Kei mostly sat silently and drew dinosaurs. Occasionally he did homework, but it was mostly dinosaurs, because dinosaurs were awesome.

Kei didn't really remember much about the daycare beyond that. One conversation stuck with him, though. Somehow or another, the group had ended up talking about marriage. By that point, Shouyou had decided that it was his personal goal to stick with Kei for the rest of their lives. Kei was a little annoyed that Shouyou had resolved to cling to him, of all people, but he found that he couldn't stay mad at Shouyou for very long at all.

"Aren't we a bit young to be talking about marriage?" Suga asked, chuckling a little as he worked idly on his math homework.

Shouyou shook his head emphatically. "Nope! My mom says that it's never too early to start thinking about your future, and getting married is part of your future, right?"

Daichi inclined his head a little. "Fair enough."

"Tobio! Who do you wanna marry when you get older?"

Tobio glanced up at Shouyou for a moment, unimpressed, then shrugged and turned back to the book he was reading. "I dunno. I don't think I want to get married."

Shouyou pouted. "That's no fun, Tobio." Tobio shrugged, clearly not caring all that much if he was boring or not.

"What about you, Kei?" Kei ignored Shouyou's question and continued carefully coloring in the velociraptor picture in front of him.

"Kei," Shouyou whined. When Kei didn't respond, Shouyou pulled the crayon out of Kei's hand and sat on it. "Answer me, Kei!"

"Oi! Give that back, shrimp!"

Shouyou shook his head. "Not until you tell me who you wanna marry."

Kei sighed and gave in. Shouyou was annoyingly stubborn when he wanted to be. "I don't know. I don't really care right now."

A mischievous grin lit Shouyou's face. "Well, if you still don't know by the time we're twenty-five, I'll marry you!"

Kei rolled his eyes again. "Whatever. Give me back my crayon."

At the time, Kei had thought it a joke. But by the time he was nineteen, he knew that even then Shouyou hadn't been kidding. He could remember the moment Shouyou had confessed, stuttering and blushing up a storm. It had been unbearably cute; of course Kei had said yes. He had been crushing hard on Shouyou since he was about fourteen, but he was much too socially awkward to make a move of any sort, so really it was a blessing for Kei.

Their first date had been almost unbearably awkward. Their second, third, and fourth dates had been the same; lots of stuttering and mortified blushing and awkward hand-holding. They got the hang of it eventually, even though it took Kei an entire year to get up the courage to kiss Shouyou on the mouth, even if that had been a spur of the moment decision. Shouyou had been crying, okay? Kei hated watching Shouyou cry, so he had kissed him to try to make him feel better.

It had worked.

Four years later, Kei had proposed. He would deny it until the day he died, but he had been blushing just as much as Shouyou had been by the end of it. And if there had been a few tears involved, well, no one had to know that. It wasn't important, anyway, and Shouyou had been crying, too. They were happy tears, though, so Kei didn't mind it quite as much as any other time Shouyou was crying.

"Do you, Hinata Shouyou, take Tsukishima Kei to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Shouyou was sniffling heavily as he answered, very obviously trying not to cry. Kei squeezed his hand lovingly. "I do."

"Do you, Tsukishima Kei, take Hinata Shouyou to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Shouyou turned to look up at Kei; Kei smiled back. For a moment, Kei looked behind him at the people in the front rows. His parents; his friends from the daycare when Shouyou had first said that he would marry Kei. Kei wondered vaguely if any of them remembered that conversation. One look at Suga's soft and pleased but knowing face told Kei that Suga, at least, remembered.

Kei turned back to the priest with a smile and a deep breath. Shouyou returned the squeeze to Kei's hand; Kei's smile only widened. He nodded. "I do."

The priest nodded. "You may kiss."

Kei turned to Shouyou, leaned down, and did just that. Shouyou was crying, hiccupping happily against Kei's lips. Kei pulled Shouyou closer, ignoring the crowd and kissing Shouyou like his life depended on it.

Kei's heart fluttered in a way that had become pleasantly familiar over the years. He was looking forward to kissing Shouyou every day for the rest of his life.