"Remind me to never run away again," Twilight said after they were done.
"I want to ask you something."
"What?"
He took her hand and put the ring on it. It was made of 18K white gold with small aquamarine stones embedded around it in intricate patterns, like lacework, and a steel grey diamond in the centre with a smaller fancy grey diamond on either side. No doubt, it was custom-made.
"Marry me?"
"Uh...wait. Oh, I get it," She burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" He raised an eyebrow.
She stopped.
"You were serious?"
"Yeah."
"Oh."
"Is something wrong?"
"I just need to think a bit."
"Ok."
They sat in silence for a little while.
"I just remembered that I never thanked you." He said.
"For what?"
"For staying with me despite everything. Youhei told me about your argument with the pack elders."
"Oh. There's no need to thank me for that, you know."
"Tell me what's wrong."
"Look, as much as I want to be with you, marriage is a big deal. And we haven't even been dating that long."
"Wait. I didn't mean that we should get married now."
"Then what did you mean?"
"You marked me, and since I can't do the same, I wanted to give you some other sign of commitment. How else are guys supposed to know that you're permanently off the market?"
"Do you have any idea how much you scared me? I almost had a heart attack."
"Sorry about that. We'll get married when we're both ready. But that doesn't mean we can't be engaged."
"Cool. Wait, did you give me hot sex just to get me to say yes?" She glared at him.
"No, it was more of a bonus," He laughed nervously.
"Not the most romantic way of proposing, but I'll give you an A for creativity."
"In my defence, I was planning something, but the words just came out. Mind if I try again?"
"Before that, there's something you should know. When we get married, I want to keep my last name. It's mainly because my last name is on my degrees, license, and other legal documents. It might cause a few hiccups later on if the last names don't match."
"Well, the law won't allow us to have different last names after marriage. What were you thinking about that?"
"If we register our marriage under pack laws, it'll still count, even if it won't be in the government's system. When I go back to work, I can always lie and say you took my last name, and I'm sure by the time we do get married, I'll have my PhD, so the titles won't be much of an issue. And when we have kids, they can have a hyphenated last name. They can choose which one to use outside the pack when they're older and get fake IDs for it."
"How long have you thinking about all that?"
"Quite a while. I didn't say anything because the topic of marriage never came up. As I've said, we haven't been dating for long."
"Well, it's a little too late to back out, so may I try again now?"
"Knock yourself out."
He took her hand.
"I know that I already put a ring on it and since we're not getting married, will you be engaged to me?"
"Well, the ring is still on my finger. What do you think?"
"So, it's a yes?"
"As I've said before, it's still on my finger."
"Awesome." He kissed her forehead.
"Did it have to be so over-the-top? People might think that I robbed a jewellery store."
"Trust me, that's as simple as I can get. You don't want to know what my first choice was."
"But what about Yuri?"
"That's what I wanted to tell you before you ran away earlier. My mom called earlier to tell me that the engagement is off."
When Takumi came home, he found Twilight and Toshiro running around like mad people. They hadn't even noticed him coming in. It looked as if they were looking for something.
"What are you guys looking for?"
"I was helping her look for..."
"Look for Oreo. We were playing hide-and-seek with him." She cut him off and put her hands behind her back.
"Isn't that him sleeping on his bed?" Takumi asked.
"Silly us, we must have missed him somehow. He's good, huh? I just remembered I need to check on something... in the kitchen." She left the room.
"She..."
"I already know what she's actually looking for."
Later…
"Snowflake?"
"Yeah." She entered the living room.
"Come here." He patted his lap, gesturing for her to sit on it and she did so.
"What's up?"
"Anything interesting happen today?"
"No," She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Show me your left hand."
"Why?"
"Is there a reason you don't want to?"
"No, just curious."
"I might have something for you."
"Ok?" She hesitantly showed him.
"That's funny. It looks more ringless than usual."
"That's because I took it off before taking a shower," She avoided his gaze.
"At noon?" He asked.
"Why not?"
"Then I guess, this one isn't yours." He held it in front of her.
"Oof, someone's busted," Tis said.
"I wonder whose ring this is."
"Ok fine, I did lose it. Where did you find it?"
"On the bathroom sink. And you didn't tell me that you lost it because?"
"I thought I'd find it."
"Or you were just being stubborn."
"Maybe."