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The blaring music was slowly dwindling to a trickle of sound as they stepped as far away as possible from the wedding reception. Later, Mizuki would apologize to Sakazaki for ditching his party; but really, he was probably too busy gazing starry-eyed as his fiancée, now wife.
"Are you sure there are no dangerous animals around? It's like we're deep in the woods now..." Mizuki muttered, sneaking glances around themselves, not wanting to be surprised by any bears or something like that.
The hand holding on to his own squeezed it and Mizuki looked forward. Sei had turned his head to give him an amused grin, one that would usually be accompanied by a roll of his eyes. Maybe Mizuki had missed it, too lost in his wandering glances.
"These aren't even proper woods."
"Tall grass and a bunch of trees as far as the eye can see is my definition of woods."
"Idiot, it's- woah!"
A thin, low-hanging branch had smacked at the side of Sei's head in his distraction while telling Mizuki off. The red-haired man doubled up laughing; Sei looked shocked, and then betrayed.
"I'm- I'm sorry! I swear I didn't see it! I would've told you, Sei... Oh my God, your face..."
When Mizuki peeked up with a teary eye, Sei was staring down at him sullenly. Ultimately, he tugged at Mizuki's hand to keep walking.
During the whole commotion, their hands hadn't disentangled from one another.
"Like I said, we're not in the woods. It's not big enough for that... See, here we are."
They had emerged at the other side of the seemingly endless lines of trees they had been traversing. In hindsight, it couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes of walk, but when one is afraid of wild animals jumping them, time seems to stretch indefinitely.
Sei stepped ahead of Mizuki, who slowly took in the scenery. After navigating the darkness underneath the treetops, the openness of the starry sky before him was blinding, overwhelming. They were on top of a hill, facing plains of green grass turned silver as the round, big moon hung high in the night sky.
And under it, again, Sei turned to look at him, brilliant dark-brown eyes expectant. Always forward, always checking behind him. Always waiting.
Something squeezed painfully in Mizuki's chest. Must've seriously disrupted the circulation of blood in my body, Mizuki thought, not a worry for any possible lasting effects to his health because, whatever they were, they'd be worth it.
"Beautiful, right?" Sei asked, cheeky.
"Beautiful," Mizuki confirmed in a beat, and went to stand by Sei's side. "I'm guessing you've been wandering around here. I've never seen this place before."
Sei looked up with a light smile. His eyes, like black holes, seemed to have pulled the stars down from the sky. But no, that wasn't right; they didn't have that kind of destructive power. The light didn't break and disappear in Sei's eyes.
Mizuki heard once about a giant mirror, one that went for miles and miles. Sounded like a thing of legends, but it was apparently very real and natural; it was a salt flat, the largest in the world and it was in a far away country. It was recognized internationally to be one of the most beautiful places to visit in Earth, and there were tours there and everything.
In Sei's eyes, so dark any time of the day they looked black, the stars shone as bright as they shone in the sky above them. Those eyes were the smallest mirrors no one knew about. No one but Mizuki, who merely stared at Sei's profile, like the first, lone witness to a shooting star. In the whole wide world, it was a wonder for his knowledge alone.
And for that, he was grateful and humbled.
A high ping startled the two of them out of their respective thoughts. As Mizuki looked on, Sei fished his phone out of his trousers' pocket and turned it on.
Sei snorted. "Koujaku is complaining about us ditching the reception."
"Oh yeah, I think he broke up with his girlfriend last weekend," Mizuki remembered while Sei typed a reply. "He's been moping a bit too much, it's pissing me off a bit. Like he's not gonna show up with another one in two weeks' time."
Sei's phone ringed again, and just as soon he was firing off another response to Koujaku. After a slightly longer pause, another message came in. Sei burst into laughter as he checked it, eyes squeezing shut.
"What is it?" Mizuki grinned at how tickled Sei was.
"I said... we wanted to make our own getaway and that he wouldn't understand it-"
"Wow."
"He just answered with 'huh', then I asked if he wanted a video of our romantic dance to warm his heart. He said 'I'm leaving'."
Mizuki sputtered before laughing freely, face turned up to the stars. Regaining his breath, he sighed, "You're a devil".
"Now I really want to record this video-"
"God, I thought you told me you wouldn't drink."
"And I didn't. Now get your phone, your camera is better than mine."
Sei was fiddling with something in his phone, and Mizuki rolled his eyes but relented to his beloved's demands. Ill-informed people usually pointed Aoba as the lively twin out of the two, since he was the younger and, undeniably, more adventurous one. However, Sei could be a force to be reckoned with; capricious, sarcastic to the point of being indecipherable at times, bratty and unstoppable in his teasing.
That was how they ended up slow-dancing to a sickeningly sweet playlist rattling from Sei's phone, Mizuki's phone propped up precariously against a nearby rock to record them. Sei loudly sang along to the lyrics he knew (and as hard as he tried to sound annoying, his voice was still lovely), their feet stumbling and stomping over one another as they made over-exaggerated steps that surely didn't exist in any type of dance (their dress shoes were abandoned somewhere next to their phones, their bare feet shifting together in beautiful disharmony on the grass).
"There's a bunch of junk in your hair," Mizuki laughed at some point. They were just swaying to-and-fro at this point, too tired from their earlier shenanigans, like dandelions beaten around by the breeze.
"Huh?" Sei's hand fumbled over his hair and his palm returned to his perusing gaze with pieces of leaves in it. Mizuki laughed again at his slight grimace.
"I think it's from that branch."
Sei sighed, more of a huff of exhaustion. "I must look like a mess. We should get Aoba and go home so I can shower and make sure no 'dangerous animals' sneaked into my hair as well."
Another laugh pushed its way out of Mizuki, chest shaking with mirth and then swelling like a hot air balloon as Sei wiped the sweat off his forehead, his black hair plastering to his face, so brilliant and brighter for the sly smile it showed Mizuki.
Sei raised the sleeve of his white dress shirt to clean the sweat from Mizuki's forehead as well. What was initially a disastrous imitation of a waltz had seamlessly transitioned into something more intimate and carefree, Sei's hands resting around Mizuki's neck and the redhead's hands on Sei's hips.
Mizuki was sure he meant to tease Sei back, but it was all lost on him before disheveled black hair and pale skin flushed pink. The fond curve of his lips was unstoppable.
"You look perfect."
It was louder than he intended it to be, but lower than a murmur, enough to go unheard even by him.
Still, Sei seemed to have heard. He said nothing.
A song Mizuki hadn't listened to in years invaded his ears when he returned to his room. In the bed, his husband who he had left sleeping was now reclining on the pillows, very awake and watching something on Mizuki's phone.
Sei looked up as he entered, the faint glow from the screen outlining his features. For a moment Mizuki simply stared from the half-open door, eyes wider the slightest bit. Then, he slid the door closed the rest of the way and moved towards the bed.
"Now you won't sleep the entire night. I should've seen this coming," Mizuki said, but he was smiling softly.
"I can paint to kill time." The screen blacked out and Sei let the phone slip to his lap, following his husband with his eyes.
Mizuki climbed into bed, pushing back the covers. "Not today. Aoba and Noiz are sleeping in your studio. It got too late."
"Oh..." Sei breathed out, eyes travelling down to the phone in his lap. Mizuki held back a laugh; he looked troubled. Sei was used to resorting to painting when his routine was thrown off, after all.
Before Mizuki could lie down and settle in bed, Sei spoke up again.
"Then let's talk."
Mizuki blinked in surprise, slightly taken aback. Sei was more the type to appreciate comfortable silences rather than trying to fill it with purposeless chatter.
... Maybe it wasn't purposeless, though. Mizuki glanced at the phone in Sei's lap, nestled in his hands. He grinned encouragingly at his fiancé of long years and husband of a few hours.
"Alright, let's."
Sei peered at Mizuki from his peripheral vision. The redhead was making himself comfortable, leaning against the pillows and his arm flush with Sei's.
"Your phone now... is not the same as then."
Mizuki nodded, not needing Sei to elaborate on what time period he was referring to. From the moment he entered the room and listened to that song, he knew exactly what Sei was watching on his phone, and could feel the smell of grass in his nostrils like he was back in that night, fourteen years ago.
"It's not," Mizuki at last answered audibly. "But I made sure to never lose that video."
Sei turned to regard Mizuki fully, tilting his head. "We never did show it to Koujaku, did we."
Mizuki laughed, secretly surprised Sei remembered that detail. Much had been lost along the way. "No. Looked like you had forgotten, and I didn't feel like reminding you."
"I don't know if I forgot. But I started thinking of it, some time ago. I didn't expect you to still have it."
"It was an important memory to me for a long time, as well as a form to torture myself."
Sei's eyes widened, breath giving a small stutter. Mizuki wormed his arm under Sei's, wrapping their hands together under the weight of his phone.
"You wouldn't remember it. This video, it was the day before you were hospitalized. It was the last time we were together like that, before they decided to ship you off to Germany to take care of the tumor and I... I-"
"Mizuki."
Sei's hand turned to interlace fingers with Mizuki's, squeezing. And just as Mizuki was about to be swallowed up by those dark, guilty memories, it was Sei calling his attention, anchoring him to the present, as he always did.
"That night... I thought of how I wanted to ask your hand properly. We were both of age, but I wanted to wait a bit longer." Mizuki laughed, drier than he intended to, and scrubbed a hand up his face. "If I knew where I'd be in the next year or so I was expecting to 'wait'..."
"We're married now, Mizuki," Sei said, soft like his voice always was but firm with certainty. Wanting to reassure Mizuki, who still couldn't help a joyful grin at hearing their new reality spelled out in no unclear words.
"We are, finally." Mizuki scooped up Sei's hand, pressing a kiss to his golden wedding ring. His own ring glittered faintly in the dim lighting of the room.
"I'm happy. You are happy, right?"
Mizuki halted at the sudden insecurity seeping into Sei's voice. He shuffled in the bed, sitting on his folded legs and fully turned towards Sei, cradling his husband's hands in the warmth of his own.
"I am, Sei. I'm so happy."
Sei paused. "... I can't dance with you like that anymore."
Mizuki reared back, taking in a sharp inhale. Sei didn't wait for an answer.
"I'm sure... you must have watched this video a million times. The Sei in that video... He's fun, and could dance with you for hours. I can remember things that happened, but I can't remember... anymore... how I thought at that time." Sei stopped, but Mizuki knew he was just putting his thoughts in order. Despite how much he wanted to disabuse Sei of these traitorous doubts immediately, he waited patiently.
"I don't know anymore, why we were in that place. Why I suggested this video. Why... I made you promise to marry me, that day when we were kids. These memories... sometimes it feels like I'm watching the life of a stranger."
Mizuki bit his lip. Every word, they were hitting hard, and he felt his breathing shallow. For so long, Sei never told him he felt like that. Mizuki knew well the differences between the Sei he promised to marry in Midorijima and the Sei he got to know again in a hospital bed in Germany. Even then, he never imagined his beloved felt like this.
But once again, Sei surprised him, showing his previously harrowed gaze now melted into fondness, so clear and boundless in the lines of his eyes and smile.
"We still kept the most important thing in common, though, the old Sei and I. In every one of these memories, I know I loved you like I do now."
Mizuki was still, mouth half-open. Then, he let out a hoarse laugh that sounded more like a gasp, and the dam broke.
"That's why I get scared sometimes," Sei continued, and his voice was trembling already, because while Mizuki was the crybaby out of the two of them, Sei was always quick to follow, unable to watch unmoved. And right now, thick rivulets of tears were sliding down Mizuki's red cheeks. "I'm scared... because I think you waited a long time for that perfect Sei. You never made me feel like less. But you missed him, and you... deserved to marry him."
"Okay, I'm not listening to this nonsense anymore!" Mizuki declared, pulling Sei into a hug because his husband was breaking already, beautiful face sopping wet and now pressing into Mizuki's sweater. Sei hiccupped, stifled, and Mizuki went on to speak while planting a kiss on Sei's hair between one word and another. "Don't think of this ever again, alright? I've waited to see you, no other Sei. You've been my dream forever."
Mizuki pulled away to properly look into Sei's eyes, hands on his cheeks, and there were his mirrors; showing his own tear-drenched face the same way he could see Sei's. Mizuki's thumb caressed his cheek, absentminded.
"Sei, you are different from that time, I know; I changed as well. Even if the way you changed is different from the way I did, we would never end this journey the same people we were in the beginning. It hasn't been easy; we had to relearn how to work around each other. I never had to relearn how to love you, though."
Mizuki stopped to lay a chaste but lasting kiss onto Sei's lips. Then, with noses bumping and lips brushing as he spoke, Mizuki proceeded in a whisper.
"I can't miss you if I have you. I don't want you to dance with me, and I don't want you to have the same personality as before. Now, I want to watch you thumb through Captive Princess for the millionth time, to see you complete that new painting and wake up with you in this bed every morning. And since it seems like you forgot, let me remind you..."
Sei simply blinked as Mizuki used the sleeve of his sweater to carefully wipe his husband's tears. Finished his task, he grinned.
"You look perfect. No, you are perfect, Sei. That night, and tonight as well."
Unable to find an answer, red flooded Sei's face quickly and he dipped his head, obviously trying to hide if he couldn't run. Mizuki laughed and kissed the crown of Sei's head.
"I want to sleep now," Sei announced suddenly.
"Already? I thought you would burn the midnight oil tonight."
Sei shook his head. "I want tomorrow to come sooner. I have a lot to do."
"Is that so?" Mizuki hummed with a smile playing in his lips.
"The yukata is bothering me, so I'm going to change."
Mizuki raised his brows. He forgot; while he had already changed into sweats, Sei was still wearing the yukata they wore during their small reception.
While he helped Sei change (he was awfully willing to accept help tonight, and Mizuki was glad for it), the black-haired man hummed one of the songs from their video under his breath.
"Do you want me to delete it? The video. I wouldn't mind it," Mizuki asked, earnest. He could bid it goodbye without a second thought now. However, Sei shook his head, eyes clear of any possible resentment.
"It's a precious memory to me as well. I'm happy you still have it."
After they had settled down in bed, they ended up re-watching the video together. They filled in for one another's faulty memory, remembering the words that fit in their moving lips under the racket of the songs playing in the background.
When they were finished, peach-pink from laughing at their shenanigans and the ridiculous dialogues they thought up, Mizuki placed his phone on the bedside table and Sei snuggled between his arms.
"You look perfect," Sei whispered, audible even with his face tucked into Mizuki's chest. His hands were tightly clutching the front of the redhead's sweater. "Then... that night, I wanted to say it."
Recovered from the surprise, Mizuki gave a last, sleepy smile and enveloped Sei in his arms, nose buried in his soft hair. And no more words were necessary.