Kotori Tsukumo (nee Mizuki) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
longingfreesia) wrote2020-01-08 09:10 pm
longingfreesia) wrote2020-01-08 09:10 pm
Story + Entry
[Story] Proposal
Yuma and Kotori had spent the last few days staying at Yuma's old family home in Heartland City along with his sister, gran and his parents, who had come to visit from the Astral World. It had been a nice, relaxing time for them, being surrounded by family which was something they both felt they needed.
In the late afternoon, on New Year's Eve, Yuma had insisted on going on a walk with Kotori. This wasn't really anything out of the ordinary, as the two enjoyed taking walks together. What was unusual was that Kotori eventually found Yuma taking her towards the steps that lead up towards the Duel Lodge, which were located in the mountains near the city.
This had turned into a much bigger walk than she had expected and she felt glad she'd put on warm clothing, as the more they walked upwards and the more the daylight faded, the more the temperature dropped. Small flakes of snow began to fall slightly, adding to the small patches that were already on the ground.
Once they reached near to where the Lodge was, Yuma lead Kotori to a smaller path through some foliage, coming out into a clearing that was on the edge of the mountain. Yuma moved ahead a little bit, some excitement in his step, to check something out, before waving Kotori over.
"Yuma. Why did you bring me all the way up here?" Kotori questioned with curiosity.
"To show you this!" Yuma declared, as he pointed to the distance past the mountain edge. Stepping forward, Kotori looked at what he was pointing at.
It was a perfect view of Heartland, which was now lit up in an array of colours against the dark backdrop of the night sky.
"It's beautiful!" Kotori exclaimed.
"Yeah. My dad told me about this place. He said he took mom up here once. I thought it'd be something awesome I could show you too!"
Kotori gave him a sweet smile. "Thank you for showing me this."
The two admired the beauty of the lit up city together quietly for a moment, until Yuma decided to break the silence.
"Actually, there's another reason I wanted to bring you up here."
Kotori glanced at him curiously, noting there was a slight hint of nervousness in his voice. "Another reason?"
"Yeah! It's just something I wanted to a--" Yuma placed his hand into his coat pocket, but broke the sentence off when he struggled to find what he was looking for there. "Wait... where is it? I'm sure I put it in here!"
"Where's... what? Did you lose something?"
Pulling the pocket out, Yuma found a large hole in it. The moment he did the colour drained from his face.
"Where'd this hole come from?!"
"It's okay. I'm sure we can find what what was in your pocket--"
"No!" Kotori jumped at Yuma's sudden reply, which made Yuma begin to stumble over his words. "I-I mean... it's fine! I'm sure it was still in my pocket just before we reached the Duel Lodge. I'll just go back quickly to check if it's there! Just... wait here for a moment, I'll be right back!"
With that, he quickly left before Kotori could even reply to him. Whatever it was, he sure didn't seem to want her to help him find it.
Giving out a sigh, Kotori walked over to the log of a fallen tree. Brushing snow off it, she sat down, ready to wait for Yuma to return.
As she waited, her eyes caught sight of something on the ground not too far from her. Curiously, she jumped off the log and walked over to it, picking it up.
It was a small jewellery box.
"What's this doing here...?" she wondered to herself as she opened the lid. She gasped as she saw a beautiful silver ring, decorated with three diamonds, sitting inside it. As she stared at it, her mind put two and two together.
As she did, Yuma appeared back into the clearing.
"Well, it's not anywhere back there and--" he stopped his sentence when he looked at Kotori, holding the small jewellery box in her hands.
"Was this what you had lost?" she questioned.
She'd never seen Yuma look so dejected so fast before. He slapped a hand to his face before walking over to the log and slumping into a sitting position on it.
"Oh man. I messed this up so bad!" he exclaimed as he placed his head in his hands. "I wanted to make this a super nice surprise for you and I just messed it up."
Frowning sadly at how hard Yuma was being on himself, Kotori quietly walked over and sat beside him.
"I really appreciate that you went to all this trouble. Besides, you didn't know the hole was in your pocket."
"I know! But... I managed to keep it safe ever since my parents gave it to me, but then I lose it at such an important moment!" he gave out a sigh. "I just wanted to make this really special for you."
Kotori glanced down at the ring in the box. "Your parents gave this to you?"
"Ah. Yeah. We found it in a box of their old stuff earlier in the year when they last visited. It's the engagement ring my dad gave to my mom, but they decided to give it to me and told me to give it to you when I felt ready to."
Kotori smiled softly. It was such a nice gesture of his parents to entrust an item like this to them, something that had to have been incredibly important to them also.
She also felt a little bit of relief that Yuma hadn't bought the ring himself, considering that they weren't currently in a good spot financially to be buying something as expensive as that.
"But I guess it doesn't really matter now."
Kotori glanced back up at Yuma as he muttered those words. He was really taking this hard.
Closing the lid of the box, Kotori gently took Yuma's hand and placed the box into it, before jumping off the log.
"Well that doesn't sound like the Yuma I know." she told him. "Besides, you haven't even asked me yet. Kattobing, right?"
She gave him a reassuring smile. Yuma realised that she was giving him another chance at this, even if the surprise wasn't there anymore.
With a smile now on his own face, he stood up and gently took Kotori's hand in his own.
"You know, when we first started dating and stuff, I had absolutely no clue on what I was supposed to do. All that kinda stuff was super foreign to me, but you were always really patient with it. You let me learn, experience and become comfortable with things at my own pace. In fact, you're a lot like that with everything you help me with and I really appreciate it.
And no matter what we go through, it just makes me love you, support you and stand by you even more.
It's said life is an adventure and it's one I really want to experience with you, every step of the way.
And that's something I'm absolutely sure of." He paused for a moment, taking in a breath to prepare himself.
"Kotori. Will you marry me?"
Even though the surprise was no longer there, Kotori still felt a shiver of excitement at hearing those words. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as she paused for a moment to think of a response.
"Things have been pretty rough for me over the last year. The last few years, really... but no matter what, you were always there by my side. You looked after me when my powers first emerged and made sure I got the right help for them. You chased after me into a mountain wilderness even though I said horrible things and hurt you. Even after all that and all the stress you've been through with it, you're still here, supporting me. It's something I'm incredibly grateful to have.
I'm not sure I would have gotten through all that if it wasn't for you.
I'd be so happy to marry you, Yuma."
Giving a big grin at her response, Yuma briefly let go of her hand to open the box and take out the ring, but looking back at her hands he paused...
...he couldn't exactly remember which hand or finger the ring even went on.
Seeing his confused expression, Kotori let out a light laugh, before holding out her left hand and wiggling her ring finger to let him know which one the ring should go on.
Yuma gave her a grateful smile, before gently taking hold of her hand and slipping the ring onto her finger.
Kotori couldn't help but admire it for a moment and was amazed that a ring, that had originally belonged to someone else, fit her perfectly. Looking back at Yuma, she gradually pulled him into a kiss that he was happy to accept. After it broke, they stood in silence for a moment, with their foreheads touching, just enjoying the moment together.
After a while, Yuma broke the silence.
"Do you want to start heading back at all?"
Kotori thought for a moment, while looking out at the view of Heartland City. She then took Yuma's hand and lead him back to the log, which she sat down on. When Yuma sat beside her, she cuddled up to him and placed her head on his shoulder.
"Let's look at this together for a bit longer."
Smiling contently, Yuma rested his head against hers.
"Alright."
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Last year was a really tough year. I'm still picking up the pieces of it and doing my best to get back to normality. It may take a while to do, and there's things I may always struggle a little with, but... that doesn't mean I don't have things I can look forward to.
It may end up being some time away, but, this year began with the knowledge that one day, I'm going to get to marry my best friend and it makes me really happy.
[There is a picture of Kotori's hand in the post. There is very obviously an engagement ring on her finger.*]
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Congratulations, Miss Mizuki.
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Have you been doing okay?
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The therapy appointments have really been helping a lot and I'll be starting some practise sessions with my abilities in my demon form at SAI this week.
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... Always remember that if you need any help, at least on the medical side of things, I'm always available to give you assistance.
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Thank you, Souha-san. I really appreciate that a lot.
I definitely won't keep things to myself anymore, if anything ever changes and come to you straight away if I have any worries.
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Oh, wow, congratulations! That ring is beautiful!
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Thank you so much, Yuzu!
It really is, isn't it. The ring actually belonged to Yuma's parents originally, so it kind of makes it extra special as a sort of keepsake too.
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Did Tsukumo actually propose to you?
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Yes. He did.
In his own... Yuma-like way.
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For some reason I'm having a lot of difficulty imagining this.
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Congratulations.
I'm really happy for the both of you.
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Congratulations to the both of you!!
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