For Elio

[latermaybe]

As summer drew to a close, the new semester gearing up and the anniversary of my third year in Darrow approaching, I couldn't help but think back on my conversation with Sihyun at Pride. My reaction to the news of his engagement has nagged at the back of my mind since the Spring. Even more so, I was rattled by my later admission that the planning of a wedding, and the stress and attention it would bring, was something I instinctively shrank from.

It made me quiet and contemplative, and while I could hide such things in the first weeks of the semester, I knew now that Elio would've noticed.

So, tonight, I made tea. I bought a box of pastries we both liked. Our dinner was small, intimate, as it usually was. Comfortable. Content. I was happy, and making a change felt unwise, but I knew we were both waiting for the other to do something. Say something.

And it needed to be me.

Comments

[speakordie]

"Oh my God." I burst out laughing, nose wrinkling as I cover his face with my hand and push him away. "On that note."

Slowly, I pull out of him and crawl off the bed, stumbling a little on jellied legs over to the phone. I pick it up and hold it out, getting my face and his prone, well-fucked body in frame. "This concludes Elio and Oliver's engagement celebration video." I turn the camera around to point it at Oliver, glancing down at the screen to make sure he's in frame and then looking up at his face.

"I love him more than anything, so help me." I end the video and let the phone clatter to the nightstand, then jump onto the bed again, slinging myself across Oliver in a diagonal line and then hold out my hand to admire my ring, sighing contentedly.

[latermaybe]

I laughed, playfully holding my hand up to cover my face, as if a whole lot more of me hadn't already been immortalized on that little device.

I had just enough time to get more comfortable on the bed before he sprawled across me, making a show of gazing at his ring.

Chuckling, I ruffled a hand through his hair, and saying, not for the first time, "It looks good on you."

[speakordie]

"It really does," I agree, butting my head up to his hand like a spoiled cat before rolling off of him to lay at his side, turning to prop my head up on my hand as I rest the other one on his chest, ring shining next to his Star. I feel so happy that I might burst. And more than that, I feel like some missing piece of me has just been slotted back into place after all this time. I never would have guessed that I would want to be married so badly, but then again, I never could have guessed that I would meet him.

"Tomorrow we can go pick out one for you," I say happily, wriggling in even closer to him and pressing a kiss to his bare shoulder. "Brunch first, and then ring shopping."

[latermaybe]

"We'll pick one out while we're both drunk on champagne. That seems like a sound strategy," I teased him, throwing an arm around his waist and hauling him closer.

"Is this brunch happening in public, or are we staying here?"

I didn't hate the idea of going out, but I would never turn down the opportunity for an intimate breakfast, just the two of us.

[speakordie]

“Literally nothing could go wrong.” Oliver strong arms me in closer and I toss a leg over his thigh, smiling at the intimate press of my mostly soft, sticky thigh against his hip.

“Mm, that’s a good question,” I reply, brow furrowing as I think about it. I had pictured us out somewhere when I said it, but the idea of delivery is an appealing one. Perhaps too appealing…

“But do you think we’ll actually get out of bed to go somewhere if we drink mimosas in it?” I ask seriously. “If any syrup or powdered sugar gets on you, our plans are toast.”