"Mei, I told you I can cook whatever, you don't have to worry about it!" Yuzu said as she pushed the cart through the soup aisle at the grocery store. Mei walked ahead of her, considering cans of soup.

"You're working just as hard as I am, there's no sense in burdening yourself with all of the housework as well."

"Yeah, but canned soup? I can teach you to make regular soup!"

Mei narrowed her eyes at the subtle dig that she had to be taught anything. "I like the clear instructions."

"I can give you clear instructions!" Yuzu insisted.

"Saying 'a handful of this and that' is not clear instruction." Mei dumped a bunch of cans into the cart with finality. Yuzu chuckled in defeat. Even when Mei was being stubborn, she was still cute. She almost crashed into another shopping cart while thinking about how much she loved her girlfriend of several years and how she wanted to spend the rest of her life with her.

Yuzu patted her pocket, looking for that reassuring box-shaped lump that also inspired an odd mix of dread and excitement and an entire bouquet of feelings that was just so much that Yuzu couldn't even wrap her mind around actually whipping the complicated thing out to ask Mei to marry her and- it wasn't there.

The ring box she had been carrying around for the last few weeks was missing from her pocket.

Her heart stopped beating for five entire seconds.

"Yuzu, you dropped something." Mei was bending down to pick something up.

Was Yuzu stuck in a dream? A nightmare? Where time seemed to be going slow and fast at the same time and her limbs were made of spaghetti and instead of resuming beating her heart just did this weird lurching thing a dozen times in a row like it was drowning and was this what a panic attack felt like? The last time she had felt this paralyzed was when she had accidentally sent Mei nudes-

"You dropped your… Ring box?" Mei held the white velvety box in the palm of her hand. Mei peered at it curiously, then looked back to Yuzu with an eyebrow quirked up in curiosity. In the span of that time Yuzu's hands had found themselves buried in her hair in distress and all the blood had been drained from her body.

"Th-That's that uh, um-" she stammered.

Not caring that Yuzu has been legally dead for about thirty seconds, Mei opened the box without preamble. Yuzu screamed silently in place. Mei seemed to be having a staring contest with the pair of engagement rings that presented themselves to her proudly. Sweat poured out of Yuzu like a waterfall in the meantime.

Mei slowly swallowed. "How long have you had this?"

"Eh?" Yuzu squeaked. "Three… weeks," she breathed hesitantly.

Mei continued staring at the ring and she released the very longest sigh ever from her lips, and that was saying something. "Yes."

Yuzu's brain short-circuited. "What?"

"Yes," Mei said like it was the most obvious thing in the world

Yuzu couldn't take much more of her body trying to fail on her. Her arms flapped to jumpstart her brain. "W-w-wait A MINUTE LET ME ASK THE QUESTION FIRST!" she yelled, pretty much drawing the attention of whoever else wanted soup that evening.

Mei's eyes were shining with tears when she looked at Yuzu again. "Hurry up."

Yuzu was hyperventilating and her head was blank. "Mei, will you… wife? With me?" Yuzu had forgotten how language worked.

"Yes," Mei shot at her impatiently once more.

Yuzu gasped at that, reaching towards Mei to beg her for mercy. "I'm sorry. I screwed this up so bad," she laughed in clear distress. Tears were gathering in her eyes and she reached up to wipe them in embarrassment, but Mei stopped her. She took her hand and kissed it before getting down on one knee. "Eh?" Yuzu said in confusion as Mei presented the rings Yuzu had bought for Mei to Yuzu.

Mei's dark eyes held Yuzu's with the strength and surety of a goddess. "Yes."

"Ehh?!" Yuzu put a hand over her mouth in shock at these unexpected turn of events. She was still crying and didn't know how to stop at this point.

"I will say yes to you a million more times," Mei declared lovingly. "Growing up, I never even imagined that I could ever experience a love like what you've shared with me. You are everything I never knew I needed and I'm so proud to be yours." Mei smiled at her. "Yuzu, please marry me."

Mei's hand and warmth grounded Yuzu's mind to the moment. She took in how serious Mei's face was, and how she'd never seen her more determined or sure of something in her life, and why did Yuzu even hesitate to pop the question? The ring wasn't complicated at all; she just wanted to be with the woman in front of her for the rest of her life. Hands trembling, Yuzu hiccuped, "Yes. Oh my god! Yes, of course I will!" With cans of soup as their witnesses and scattered applause from the other two people around them (who probably wanted them to get out of the way so they could get to their soup.) They quickly slipped the rings on each other's hands. Yuzu grasped Mei's face and pulled her up to kiss her sweetly right there in front of everyone without a care in the world. The kiss lasted for only a moment before they hugged each other tightly, faces buried in each other's necks.

"Were you afraid I would say no?" Mei's voice was muffled in her neck, amused and annoyed and happy somehow rolled together.

"I was just waiting for the perfect moment!" Yuzu replied in embarrassment. In perspective, it all seemed so silly now.

Someone was pushing their cart out of the way so they could squeeze by. "Alright, could you two cool it down already?" the random person grumbled as they reached past their joined heads to get at a can.

Yuzu managed to separate herself from Mei to point at the man. "Don't you dare talk to my wife that way!" she asserted so loudly and confidently, it was almost like she hadn't forgotten how words worked just two minutes ago. She turned back to Mei with an excited grin. "I've always wanted to say that!" She had never seen Mei look at her with such awe and such hunger.

Getting through the checkout lane was torturously slow (and uncomfortable for anyone around the newly engaged couple because of all the awkward sexual tension). They ran to their car hand in hand, cans of soup abandoned in the parking lot in their haste before Mei was shoving Yuzu into the cramped backseat to officially consummate their engagement.

The man who Yuzu had yelled at before was sitting in the car parked next to them and couldn't get his car to start. "Oh no." The car next to him started rocking back and forth. "OH NO."