She snatches the tiny object from my hand and begins to inspect it as one would a highly complicated passage from a book.
"It's rather small, isn't it?" Ah, such a harsh tone in her voice. Shouldn't you be speechless with some unsaid emotion?
"That's a stupid thing to say. There's no reason for me to be."
Years of this sort of abuse have strengthened my will. It takes much more to break my ego nowadays. Let it never be said that I didn't benefit from her company. I watch her with only a small amount of dread as she turns it this way and that, muttering what improvements could be made and looking over every inch with her glittering eyes. She holds it up to the light to get a better view.
"It's rather bright…for such a small thing," she says softly. Even her expression has lessened in intensity. Ha, that's progress! And why do you keep mentioning the size? I'm not made of money!
The only indication that she placed her fists on her hips is a slight blur of her arms. "That's a penalty for speaking to your Brigade leader that way!" She's ignoring my protests that I've spent almost all my money on dinner tonight. "You should have thought of that before!"
Damn it. I really needed that money too.
Her irritation is slow to leave as she continues to stare at the item in the center of her palm. As she continues to look, I notice that she's no longer checking for quality, but rather staring in…is that disbelief? Consider myself shocked. And now she looks up and she's smiling at me! How many emotions does this woman go through in a minute?
"Despite your insolence, I'm going to accept your offer." She slips the ring on her finger. "Feel lucky. I wouldn't be this forgiving in any other situation."
I'm sure.
"Hey!" She lightly punches me on the arm; lightly in the sense that only a slight bruise will be visible tomorrow. I barely have time to react when she proceeds to hug me around the middle. There's absolutely no way to prove me otherwise that she is not insane.
But I don't think I could have it any other way. Sadly.
She's going to be a part of the rest of my life now. I think I'm ready to face the consequences. But she didn't have to keep talking about the ring like that. It's a fairly good one that I picked out myself, thank you very much.
She grins up at me. "A girl has to check things over first. It's the twenty-first century, Kyon. This isn't some sappy medieval court story, it's a modern romance!" Then she kisses me and I stop thinking.
It's times like this where I know being married to Haruhi won't be as bad as Taniguchi makes it out to be.
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This was written under a friends prompt "modern romance". It's one of the first Haruhi fics I've ever done so feel free to leave feedback. I only seek to get better through practice.