#0 reasoning 0 persuasion jock who's madly madly in love w/his weird goth bf

[hirokiyuu]

42. Sol/Dys 😳

42. things you said when you asked me to marry you

"I mean, we don't have to or anything," says Sol; his thumb is tapping relentlessly on the back of Dys's hand and he's not meeting Dys's eyes, still staring out at the forest below with his other hand rubbing at the back of his neck. "Just, um. Y'know. I thought it might be nice?"

It takes him two swallows to push the word out of his mouth: "Nice," Dys repeats, voice cracking.

"I mean, yeah!" Sol's gone a little red, biting a bit at the corner of his mouth in an expression that's half a smile. "Like I said, we don't have to, and I don't wanna make you feel like, caged or trapped or anything, either. And like, I am crazy in love with you, and you love me too --" Dys can't help it, he has to squeeze Sol's hand for that one, and in return Sol's grin sparks a little more brilliant than before, "--so.... I dunno, I thought it'd be cool?"

"Cool."

"This went so much better in my head," says Sol. Finally he looks over at Dys, smile rueful. "Like, I swear, I was gonna sound super romantic and like, really sell you on it, y'know? You were gonna swoon and everything."

Somehow that startles a laugh out of Dys. "I was not going to swoon, no matter what you said."

"You could've! Like, maybe I would've said something that'd totally knock you off your feet, and you'd totally swoon right into my arms."

"That was never going to happen, babe."

It's Sol's turn to laugh now. At some point he's leaned in close enough they're touching from shoulder to hip; he hooks an ankle around Dys's and gives Dys's hand a squeeze. "Hey, I can be romantic," he says, voice low, and he's still smiling but it's small and private, for Dys and Dys alone. "I took you to the very first secret place we ever shared to do this, isn't that romantic?"

Dys blinks, looks around. Somehow he hadn't even realized. "You...." he starts to say, before he gives up and presses his face in Sol's shoulder to hide whatever dumb expression he's making.

"See?" Even without looking he knows exactly what expression Sol's making, too pleased in a way that makes his eyes crinkle. "I'm romantic."

"Shut the fuck up."

Sol does, thank fuck, but not before pressing a kiss to the top of Dys's head that makes Dys shudder like he's eighteen still.

They sit there for a while, legs dangling over the cliff, hands intertwined, before Dys finally manages, "Let me think about it. The... the thing you mentioned."

He can't bring himself to say it. The word's too big to fit in his mouth, even as it ping-pongs wildly in his skull, the fact that Sol wants to.... "Okay," says Sol, squeezing Dys's hand. "Take your time. And like I said, if you don't want to, that's fine. But...."

"You want to."

"...Yeah."

Not a surprise. Sol's kind of always been that way, daydreaming about knights and princesses and happily-ever-afters. No wonder, then, that he wants.... "Okay," says Dys, quietly, tilting his head so he can look out at Vertumna once more, at the first place he ever felt at home, before Sol. "I'll let you know."

In return Sol just squeezes Dys's hand again, tilts his own head to rest on Dys's, and like that they set and watch the horizon.