"It is unfortunate, but the world is going to end today."
So, said some country's president in tears as he spoke in the morning news. It was already noon, and when Reiji opened up the curtain, the sky was pleasantly sunny. "The day is especially bright, so smile Ran-Ran!"
He said to other man who was sitting on the far end of the sofa. "How am I supposed to do that? Today is the freaking doomsday!" he replied.
"Well, because the weather is great and you got to be together with me?" Reiji replied playfully, moving away from the window and giving Ranmaru his best puppy look.
"…idiot."
His only reply was an exasperated sigh.
As was said before, today, the world was going to end. Not by the World War III, zombie apocalypse, epic alien invasion, or some other stuffs that the popular media would like people to believe, but by a giant meteor. Just a plain rock, floating in space, hitting the earth at full speed, and taking everything down with it. It was kind of funny. When he was young, Reiji could never fully comprehend why all of the cool dinosaurs in the picture book that he owned could simply be annihilated by a mere space rock. Now, he was going to experience it on his own.
He doubted that an instant of blinding pain could feel particularly instantaneous. What is an "instant" death anyway? How long is an instant? One second? Ten? The pain of those seconds must had been very awful as his body burned, heart bursted, and lungs collapsed until there was no blood to his brain. Nothing is instant, anyway. Instant noodles took about three minutes, and instant pudding an hour.
He prayed to whatever higher beings that existed out there, that all of this would only turn out to just be one colossal joke. That everything would be all right, and everyone would survive. That there would be a bunch of self-sacrificing gundams, super sentais, special powered teenagers, and magical girls handy to keep the meteor from colliding with the earth. But alas, this was reality, a beautiful but cruel reality.
The JMA predicted that total annihilation (with consideration to different time zones) would be expected by 1.50 P.M. The time on the kitchen clock was now 1.20, so he still had 30 minutes to spend with Ranmaru. He had to make it counted.
When Reiji was lost in his thoughts of childhood memories and big damn heroes moment, Ranmaru on the other hand, began to lose some of his sullenness and stared at him pointedly. "Hey…"
"Eh, sorry Ran-Ran! I was thinking of so many things I want to do and talk with you…it is a pity that the world is ending."
His smile didn't fade, even though there was a tinge of sadness to it now.
"…so that is why I thought that I should treasure this moment with you." He then plopped down the sofa, and risking the return of Ranmaru's sullenness, began to stroke his hair gently. "Since it is such a waste, let's talk about positive things! For me, I am happy that we are going to end our lives together! No, don't get me wrong. If we live a long life, there would be a chance that you might not love me anymore right? Well, the possibility is not 0% -"
Before Reiji could finish his sentence, a dull thud echoed around the apartment. The sound of Ranmaru's fist connecting with Reiji's head. "Stop rambling, you idiot!"
And then in a quiet voice, "…I get it, okay."
There was quite a distance between them now, thanks to all of the shoving and punching with credits due to Ranmaru. When he was pondering about the feasibility and prospects of an early death before attempting a second try, it was Ranmaru's turn to scoot closer.
It might as well be his last piece of good luck, aside from the privilege of spending the end with Ranmaru, of course. Just yesterday, everyone gathered in the Shining Agency for the end of the world party. True to his name and reputation, Shining refused to go out with nothing less than a (colossal) bang. That meant, a copious amount of booze, liberal helpings of food, series of impromptu performances, fireworks, and other such things. Dragged away by his sunny disposition and positive outlook, everyone's spirits began to lift up bit by bit. At the end of the party, there was even Raging Ootori along with the members of Heavens coming for the after party. It was truly a cheerful night and when the booze began to loosen the participants' tongues and moral constraints, there were a lot of black mail worthy moments to capitalize on. But then again, it was the end of the world. Now or never, and what not.
It was also worth mentioning that Haruka alone, had managed to get a love confession from 13 different people. She really was like the heroine from a particularly overzealous otome game developer that threw all of the chase able guys at one main event. The ensuing fights were also quite amusing to look at and bet on (before being broken up by Shining, one of life's many disappointments). With a glass of liquor in his right hand and a sleeping Ranmaru leaning on his shoulder, Reiji spent his last night before the end of the world.
"The end of the world should be spent with family and loved ones!"
…but boss, wasn't the phrase supposed to be used for Christmas? So here they were, sitting on the sofa of their shared apartment just 20 minutes short of the end. They rented this apartment since about half a year ago, after 3 years of dating, and 1 full year of intense lobbying from Reiji's side. It couldn't be helped, really. Reiji was the type of person that would get fired up the more he was pushed away.
Nevertheless, he was glad that all of the efforts had finally paid off in the form of a blushing Ranmaru smacking him in the face with a real estate brochure. He almost kissed him right there and then, but the rational concern for public scandals tied him down. Now, he could honestly say that he didn't give a damn about what other people thought about them. He would shout out his love to Ranmaru from the highest building in the center of the world just because he could, but the deadline was a bit tight right now…
It was like a dream that he could spend time together with him in such close proximity on a daily basis. When he was still living alone in a studio apartment, he never really cared about taking regular meals and other bothersome things like the general hygiene. But ever since living together, even mundane activities like eating dinner, doing chores, and saying the daily greetings became something precious to him. He guessed that a big part of the enjoyment was all due to the presence of Ranmaru, his colleague, friend, and lover.
Speaking of Ranmaru, love didn't hit Reiji with much fanfare. The realization didn't hit him like a car crash, he didn't feel his heart leaping out of his chest (well sometimes), nor experienced a sudden fit of uncontrollable blushing that was common in so many of his sister's shoujo manga stash. Instead, he just felt his heart going "oh, there you are."
Perhaps, the best way he could express it would be to liken it to that of the winter's snow, piling up softly. Step by step, he began to notice Ranmaru's good traits, like how Ranmaru had a strong sense of duty and was one of the hardest working people that Reiji knew. Or how behind the ore-sama hungry idol-type persona that he used in the public, Ranmaru was actually a huge tsundere that was easy to tease. Naturally, Reiji punched all of his buttons with much glee, stopping short of the breaking point, and offering home-cooked dishes as a token of peace. The bottom line was that, Reiji liked spending time with Ranmaru, even though he didn't know why or when he started feeling like that.
Have you ever just looked at someone and thought, "I really love you"? They are just talking or humming or watching a movie or reading a book or laughing or something, and there is something about them in that moment — their body is alive, there is a light in their eyes, something — that makes you think, "I just really love you." It is a weird sensation to think like this, but it is also pretty awesome that we can feel this way about another being.
The moment when he was sick and felt Ranmaru's kindness and sparkles practically radiated from the simple text message that he had received, Reiji knew that he got it bad.
The little things about Ranmaru charmed him, and it was fine even if he didn't tell him everything. After all, this was not a dating simulation game where the main character learned first about his (or her) love interest's secret past before falling in love. Even if there was something that he didn't know, he would always continue to love Ranmaru.
The more the secrets, the more there were other sides of Ranmaru that would charm him again in the future, right? So in the end, there were still even more to love. If everything were to be laid bare in a moment, all of the remaining interests would surely vanish. And that would be horrible, because the worst thing about getting close to someone was the thought that at any point, they could lose complete interest in you. So, it would be better to just understand each other slowly.
Even if Reiji was the type to fall hard, he wanted to savor every moment together with him. A person's years would keep on getting shorter in proportion to their age, the older someone, the smaller their fractions of time would be, making their years seemed short. So, he had to make the most of it.
"Ran-Ran, since today is the special last episode, I am going to say 'I love you' many times until you are sick of it! So please, please…say that you love me too."
The enthusiastic tone that he had used at the start of the speech began to grow even more quiet, until it was a little more that a whisper. He wanted to know if Ranmaru loved him, maybe that was all that he ever wanted from him, not love itself, but the knowledge that it was there, like new batteries in the emergency flashlight. Since today is special, it is okay to hope, right?
After that, silence began to reign over the apartment. Before this, Reiji had never thought that the usual stretch of silence between them was due to awkwardness (well, maybe so for the first year), but because they were genuinely comfortable with each other's presence. Somebody loved you if they didn't mind the quiet. He did his thing while Ranmaru did his, and they interacted in between. isn't it just perfect?
At first, he thought that it was perfectly normal to want interact as much as possible with the person he loved. If I like you, I constantly want to talk to you. I want to know how your day went and what you did. I want to be able to talk to you, because talking to you makes me happy. If I see you, I'll run up to you and give you a hug because your company is the best! However, as time passed, Reiji slowly began to appreciate the silence…but not this.
The atmosphere was not heavy because of the impending doom of mankind, but was more due to Reiji's sudden outburst and anguished declaration of love. Even though he has managed to avoid the sins of pride and prejudice that kept Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy apart, he was still not fully immune to their tropes.
Trying desperately to change the topic, Reiji then steeled himself and said "Ran-"
…before being abruptly cut by Ranmaru who shouted at the top of his lungs, "I love you too YOU IDIOT."
The confession, although suspiciously inaudible at the most crucial bit, seemed to drain every last ounce of Ranmaru's MP, his face blazed in a worrying shade of red. It was…really cute of him, extremely so. Resisting the urge to do some activities that while unquestionably romantic, were rather…questionable in nature, Reiji then simply grinned and said, "Thank you, Ran-Ran!"
"…shut up."
"Since the mood is right, would you also mind taking this from me?"
Out of his pocket, Reiji then produced a small velvet box. Inside it was a simple gold band. "This is an engagement ring! It is pointless to have money now, so I have closed my bank account to buy this."
Jumping from one minefield to another…boss, I also like to live a little dangerously. If no one came from the future (or the alternate universe) to stop him from doing something, then how bad of a decision could it really be? If this one also failed, there would always be some food bribery to turn to. One important lesson on dating a tsundere, would to always have back up plans the length of the alphabets. He still have plenty of tricks behind his sleeve, but he hoped that this one would not crash and burn. That this one would be the first and the last.
"It is more impactful to give it today, right? I wonder what kind of place our honey moon destination would be? Even if tomorrow doesn't exist, I am sure that the road there would be bright."
Waiting for another punch or stream of abusive languages that didn't come, Reiji instead found himself in a tight hug, and everything was perfect. Never ask a happy man where he wanted to go, because he just really didn't want to go anywhere. Even if the world was ending and they were all going to die, Ranmaru was there by his side, as his partner.
Happy ending didn't exist. Endings were the saddest part, so it would be better to just have a happy middle and a very happy start. But maybe happy endings do exist after all, he thought in the middle of Ranmaru's embrace.
The sky was rapidly darkening, and taking one final look at Ranmaru, Reiji then said, "Finally, it is time. I am glad to have met you, be in a relationship, and stay together with you until the end…thank you, I will search for you for sure, so please don't forget about me."
This is but a temporary farewell, I am never planning to let you go.
Then, there was the sound of a large crash and everything turned to dust.