A/N: Just so no one gets confused, this chapter doesn't progress in the story line at all, chronologically speaking. It's just going into detail what happened with Kanone and Eyes and then later with Kanone and Rio, right before Kousuke, Hiyono, and Ryoko ran up to them in the last chapter. You'll see that the end of this chapter is pretty much the same end as the last chappy, and the next one will pick back up with the story.

Last Chapter:

Kanone pulled an object from his coat pocket and looked at Eyes; who was still staring at him, "Eyes I have only one more question to ask you." A slight shift in the other man's cold expression was all he needed to proceed, "Eyes, I know words haven't always meant much to you, but I hope you will take these next ones seriously..."

(and now the exciting conclusion!)

Kanone hesitated for a second, "Eyes...?" "How can I possibly ask him this? And how could he possibly accept? For all I know right now he hates me, well maybe not hate, but as close as Eyes can get to hating me."

Seeing Kanone's hesitation and having the sudden urge to go to sleep Eyes decided to hurry his friend along, "What do you want to say to me, Kanone? It can't be that difficult."

"If only you knew..." Kanone whispered under his breath and then sighed.

Eyes suspected Kanone hadn't meant for him to hear those words, but he had, "Kanone, you've always been the confident one among us, never backing down or taking 'no' for an answer. What could possibly have you so tongue-tied now? It's not like you to show hesitation or weakness, and, personally it's a little disappointing. And a bit frightening as well."

Kanone thought about Eyes' words, "You know Eyes, you're right. And I don't want to disappoint you at a time like this, so here it goes. Eyes, will you marry me?" Kanone produced his possession that he had thus far kept from Eyes' line of vision. It was a small black box with a gold engagement band in it.

Eyes stared at Kanone, no more like glared at him, "You're serious, Kanone?" Eyes asked, half-hoping that this was a joke to lighten the mood that the recent string of events had set. Though the joke would have been in vain, Eyes didn't see any sense in making immature or elaborate (god forbid immature and elaborate) jokes. Which only meant one thing...

"I've never been more serious in my entire life Eyes. I don't know what else to do to show you how much I love you and how much I want to be with you. I can't say anything to show you, so I was hoping this would mean something."

"You honestly think that proposing will win back my trust in you, Kanone? I never in my life thought you could be this foolish."

Kanone looked liked someone had shot him, he felt that same emptiness when he first found Eyes in that warehouse, that feeling of loneliness and helplessness. Kanone somehow managed to choke out a few words, "I...I understand, Eyes. I don't suppose that I expected you to accept...I..." Kanone trailed off. He felt tears threatening to make their presence known by spilling out all over his face. He sniffed quietly, hoping that Eyes didn't notice his sudden weakness. He knew, however that his life long friend had all of his concentration on him, "What else does he expect me to say? And what does this mean? Are we... over?" Kanone didn't dare ask any of these questions, he didn't dare speak. For once in his life, Kanone Hilbert was completely speechless.

Eyes saw Kanone's great turmoil and felt guilty. Of course, he knew he should feel guilty; he had just broken his boyfriend's heart, the one person he cared about more than anyone. And why? For no good reason that Eyes could think of. And yet, despite all of this, Eyes didn't feel near as guilty as he should have; guilt was just one of those emotions that Eyes didn't feel. There were a lot of those, love being another one. He had never been loved before, sure Kanone had always loved him as a sort of older brother type of figure, but never as a lover; Eyes didn't know how to react to this sort of attention. He certainly didn't know how to react to a marriage proposal. Yes, him and Kanone had slept together, but they had both agreed that it was meaningless. Something had changed...but what? Eyes had become jealous, why? Simple. He was in love. It all made sense, why he risked everything for Kanone-- he loved him. It was why he was in the hospital right now.

Eyes sighed at his stupidity, "Kanone?" Eyes broke the never ending silence. Kanone looked up at Eyes, tears still threatening to come out, but not making their appearance as of yet. Eyes sighed at his lover's distraught face, "Kanone...I...I'm sorry." He had done it. Eyes Rutherford had apologized, something he hadn't done for at least 10 years, "What I said, I didn't mean it. I wasn't thinking; but I've thought it over and, Kanone, I love you. I honestly do. I know I've said it before, but I've never given much thought to the words. I haven't given much thought to any words you or anyone else, including myself, have said. And I truly am sorry if I hurt you by something I said. Hurting you is the last thing I would ever want to do." Eyes had been staring at his hands, which he had found oddly fascinating, throughout his speech. He now looked up at Kanone, not knowing what to expect, which made him uneasy. "'I can usually tell what he is thinking, but I don't know if he's going to stay true to his words, and forgive me because he loves me. Or if he's going to take this opportunity to exact revenge by breaking my heart, just like I broke his a few minutes ago." Eyes stared patiently at Kanone, knowing that he was sorting everything out and not wanting to rush him or do anything to scare him off.

Kanone looked at Eyes, wondering if he could really trust his lover's words, "He sounds sincere enough...but like I said before. It's so easy to lie, and no one can tell the truth all the time; some people even avoid it; though Eyes isn't one of those people. He has always been honest with me, I don't see why I should doubt him now." Kanone smiled a strangely honest smile, "Eyes, I have no choice but to forgive you. I told you before that I loved you and nothing would change that. I meant that, I meant everything I said. And there's no reason for me to believe that you are lying to me, and that you don't love me." Kanone decided that enough had been said and he got up to leave, not wanting to push his proposal; Eyes knew it was still up for grabs. Though Kanone knew better than to get his hopes up; he had been betrayed too many times for that to happen.

Eyes watched Kanone walk towards the door before realizing what had just happened, or more specifically what hadn't happened, "Kanone." Eyes called, to get the older man's attention. Kanone stopped and turned, giving Eyes his full attention even though he had his hand on the doorknob. Eyes decided to take the plunge, "Do you still want to marry me?"

Kanone swallowed hard and nodded, not sure if Eyes was just clarifying or accepting. Kanone walked forward and ended up back at Eyes' bedside, sorry that he had ever left, even for that brief moment. "Of course I do, Eyes, you know that."

Eyes did a rare thing then; he smiled. It wasn't a sarcastic smile or a smirk, it was a genuine smile; a relieved smile, "Then it's not too late for me to accept?"

Kanone was the one who stared suspiciously at Eyes now, "You're serious about this?"

Eyes smiled to himself at the irony; how just a few moments ago they were in completely opposite roles, Eyes being the shocked one and Kanone being the one to lay his heart out on the table. "I've never been more serious in my life." And for Eyes, that was an accomplishment, seeing as how so much of his life was seriousness; in fact all of it was.

Kanone had no other choice than to reach over and grab his...fiance and kiss him more passionately than he had ever kissed anyone. Eyes leaned into the kiss and felt Kanone's tongue asking for entrance into his mouth. The pianist complied willingly and allowed Kanone to explore his mouth; this however resulted in a tongue war for dominance. Which, much to Kanone's dismay, Eyes won. "How in the world did that happen, I though for sure I was the dominant one in this relationship. We'll have to talk about that later." Realizing his own thoughts, Kanone smirked, "Well, never mind. I guess that answers my question." Kanone didn't mind being the submissive one, though, not as long as he had his Eyes. He sighed as Eyes deepened the kiss even further, and then...ran out of air. Silently cursing the need for oxygen, Kanone pulled away and gazed into Eyes' cerulean orbs, smiling softly before averting his gaze, his bangs falling to cover his eyes.

"Kanone?" Eyes asked mildly concerned at the sudden change in attitude, he hadn't done anything to hurt the older boy...at least not yet. "Kanone...what's wrong? I...didn't do anything, did I?"

"No, not at all Eyes, I'm just...so relieved that you said yes. You really have no idea how happy this makes me." "'Dear lord, I'm turning into a woman as I speak. Actually speaking is turning me into a woman...damn words!" Kanone turned his face back to Eyes' and smiled once more, and then another thought entered his head.

"Rio." Eyes stated, reading Kanone's mind and his concerned face.

Kanone looked slightly surprised that Eyes could tell exactly what he was thinking, "Yes. I'll go talk to her now. Should I tell her that we're...engaged?"

Eyes eyed Kanone suspiciously, and then realized Kanone had no idea whether to tell the others or not. "Yes, of course. Unless you want no one at our wedding."

Kanone blushed at the mention of the big occasion and then mentally kicked himself, "If you start acting like any more of a woman, you're going to be gossiping with Rio and Ryoko soon and having sleep-overs." Kanone shuddered at the though of an evening of just the three of them. He would seriously kill himself before he ever allowed that to happen.

Right before Kanone left Eyes called out to him, "Oh, and Kanone?" The brown haired boy turned to his lover, "I love you, and I mean that with all of my heart."

"I love you, too, Eyes." Kanone walked away feeling a little too light on his feet, "Dear god I need to masturbate... or beat something up." Kanone thought, that was until he saw Rio.

(A/N: I think that was the longest proposal in the history of fanfic proposals. Anyway back to the story, this beginning of this next part is from the last chapter when Rio sees Kanone coming out of Eyes' room.)

Rio sighed and looked down the hall and saw Kanone emerge from Eyes' room, looking down with his eyes shut. "What happened? Did Eyes not take him back?" Rio ran to Kanone to find out what happened. "Kanone. Kanone!" Rio called. When she reached him, she looked worriedly at him, "Oh, Kanone. I'm so sorry."

Kanone looked up at Rio and for the first time Rio saw he was smiling, "Sorry for what, Rio?"

Rio gasped and realized that Kanone was actually happy, "Oh, Kanone!" She cried again, hugging him, "So Eyes did take you back?"

Kanone looked at Rio and wondered how she even knew about the two, but he dismissed it quickly; Rio was a smart girl and it's not like there hadn't been an abundance of clues, "He did a lot more than that, Rio." Kanone said excitedly.

"What do you mean, Kanone?" When Kanone smirked at her and gave her a I'm-not-gonna-tell-you look she frowned, "Kanone tell me what Eyes did!"

Kanone smirked at her again, loving the look that he knew was going to be on her face when he told her the news, "Okay Rio, I'll tell you." Rio cheered at her easily won victory and waited for the exciting news, "But first," Kanone continued, "You have to get this box out of my hand." Kanone reached in his jacket and took out the box that had had Eyes' ring in it. (I didn't mention this because I forgot, but he gave the ring to Eyes sometime during their discussion.) He then held it high above his head, knowing there was no way Rio would be able to get it. But Kanone didn't care, he was having too much fun.

"What? Kanone, that's not fair. I'm way too short to reach that." Kanone had remarked on several occasions how smart Rio was and how quickly she could put two and two together, now he cursed this ability as she got a mischievous grin across her face, "Kanone, you guys are getting married! There was a ring in that box!"

Kanone looked from the Rio to the box and back again, "But...how did you..." Kanone sighed and put the box back in his jacket, he had decided long ago to give up on figuring out exactly how the others figured things out, "Maybe I just don't give her enough credit. Perhaps that goes for all of them... except Kousuke." Kanone chuckled at this thought-- he definitely didn't gave Kousuke enough credit, maybe too much. Kanone glanced down at Rio and then prepared to answer her barrage of questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Even though she knew all of the answers except the last one, she still asked. She was almost as giddy as Kanone was (Oh yeah, Kanone...giddy...can you imagine? Scary, huh?). That's when Kousuke, Ryoko, and Hiyono ran up to the two, who were hugging for some reason.

Kousuke reached them first, "Kanone, Rio! What's going on?" Kousuke asked, looking mildly concerned.

"Kousuke, I have some news...for all of you actually. Eyes and I...we..." Kanone trailed off, unable to say the words; after all he could only savor their shocked expressions once.

"What is it, Kanone?" Hiyono asked concerned.

Kanone looked up at his friends, and then back down to Rio. She knew what he was doing and gave him a disapproving glare. Kanone sighed and looked back up to his friends and told them the news.