I was terrified of our upcoming conversation, but I was also dying of curiosity. The hardest part was over, and now I just had to find out what Kanda's thoughts were on the baby growing inside me. Would he want it like Lenalee claimed, or would I have to fight with him about my decision to not abort it?
I knocked on his door with great trepidation; I didn't want to be doing this on his turf, but I wanted to be doing it in my thin-walled dorm room even less. Yuu kissed me as he let me in, but that did little to ease my nerves. The kiss could have easily been just for the sake of appearances. I was barely able to wait for the door to close completely before my questions started spilling out. "Kanda, about Friday, do you-?"
He cut me off before I could finish the first question. "Moyashi. There's pizza in the kitchen. Let's go sit down and eat while we talk, ok?"
I made a face, but I had to admit that he had a point, so I let him guide me into the other room. I situated myself at the table, but to my surprise, Yuu didn't join me. Instead, he stood beside me for a moment before getting down on one knee. I was immensely confused as to why he would choose to sit on the floor for this conversation, but then he took my left hand in his, and when he spoke, what he was after became painfully clear. "Will you marry me?"
My free hand flew over my mouth as I gaped at him in complete shock. That question was not one I had expected him to ask. "I tell you that I'm pregnant and your reaction is to ask me to marry you?"
He just shrugged, not the least bit put off by my reaction. "I realize that it's normal for couples to live together and not get married until their kids are old enough to go to school, but god, Moyashi, I love you too much to treat you like that. You deserve the very best I can give you. So yes, I want to marry you. I want you to be my wife and I want to raise our child together."
I couldn't help it. I started crying.
And the tears only fell harder as he pulled a little black box out of his pocket. He had a ring. "So what do you say, Moyashi? Can we be a family?"
I don't know if it was hormones or shock or my actual genuine feelings, but there was only one answer to that question. "Yes."
The bright smile that lit up Yuu's face was breathtaking. He truly wasn't proposing out of some old-fashioned sense of responsibility but because he wanted to marry me. He slipped the ring out of the box and slid it gently onto my finger, that smile never leaving his face until after he leaned in and kissed me.
Curious, I turned my attention from him to the ring he had put on my finger. And my mood immediately sobered. I may have only known a little bit about jewelry, but I knew enough to know that that ring was worth more than everything I owned put together. And that kind of pissed me off a little. "Wherever you bought this from, you better return it and get back what you paid for it. I will not hear of you spending money on jewelry while we've got a baby on the way."
Yuu chuckled as he stopped me from pulling the ring off my finger. He clasped my hands in his, pulled me into a tight embrace, and kissed the top of my head. "I only paid to have it cleaned and resized. That ring belonged to my mother."
I found myself crying once again. And once again, I tried to remove the ring from my finger. "I can't possibly accept this. It's far too important for you to waste on me."
A fierce growl kept me from saying anything more. Yuu's grip on my left hand tightened almost painfully as his other hand flicked me in the forehead. "Baka Moyashi. We've been together for two and a half years and you're pregnant with my child. You are far more precious to me than a piece of jewelry."
My stubbornness and self-consciousness wouldn't let me accept the compliment. "But it was your mother's. That gives it sentimental value."
He laughed once as he put a swift end to my arguments. "I've got amnesia, Allison. I don't even remember my mother's name. For me, the sentimental value is in knowing that my wife is wearing my mother's ring."
The comment made me frown. "I see your point, but would she approve of this? Would she approve of you marrying a girl you knocked up?"
Yuu rolled his eyes at me before brushing his hands into my hair. "Look. I told you all the way back when we first got together that I want to be the only man who ever gets to touch you. Your pregnancy is definitely not the only reason I'm proposing. I have wanted to spend the rest of my life with you for a long time now."
He suddenly laughed. "And you know that. And have known it for years. The very first Thanksgiving we spent with my family, you called me out on my plans to marry you, remember?"
I blinked at him in confusion and horror as I recalled the incident that he was referring to. "Right. You told me that even though you'd already made up your mind about marrying me, you weren't going to do anything about it until after I graduated."
He nodded. "Exactly. Getting you pregnant has only changed the timeline, not my feelings."
