Eren closed his eyes, letting himself sink in Mizuki's warm embrace. He felt the tension leave his body and instead he was filled with peace and joy at being reunited with his prince. "I love you." He murmured, his cool breath hitting Mizuki's neck and he felt Mizuki tighten his arms around him.
"I love you and I missed you so much sweetheart." Mizuki replied as he pulled away from the hug and gently held Eren's face in between his palms. He ran his thumb over Eren's freckles making the boy close his eyes in delight and then Eren felt gentle lips press against his forehead, making a content smile appear on his face.
"I missed you too, my love." The endearment left Eren's lips without permission but he couldn't deny he loved the way it sounded. It sounded right. Because Mizuki was his love and will always be his love. And when he saw the light blush coat Mizuki's cheeks he knew he would definitely be using it more often.
"How did you come here?" Mizuki asked as he stared down at Eren. "Your father sent me a letter and told me to come on the day the festival would happen. He said you worked hard on it and that you would be very happy if you got to see me. You were gone too long and I told you I would find you myself if you didn't come to me."
"I'm sorry, baby." Mizuki said softly, purposely using that term of affection knowing it will make his sweetheart melt. "I wanted to come to you the second I left your side but I knew that wasn't possible and you've been working so hard on maintaining your country that I couldn't bring myself to disrupt that. I had to find a good time and place to come see you but nothing was ever working out."
Eren huffed but when Mizuki leaned down and captured his lips in a soft kiss his resolve died and instead he closed his eyes and returned the kiss with twice the passion.
"Dance with me, sweetheart." Mizuki whispered in between kisses and Eren pulled back with confusion. "Dance with you? Here?"
"Yes, sweetheart. We can hear the music from here and I've been thinking of dancing with you all night." Mizuki said and sure enough when Eren focused on the rest of the world for a moment he could hear the faint music ringing in his ears.
"Please, baby?" Mizuki asked much more softly when he saw the hesitation in Eren's glance.
"Fine." Eren muttered as a dark blush coated his cheeks. "But only one, okay?"
Mizuki grinned and he quickly pecked Eren's lips as a thank you before grabbing the boy's wrists and moving them until his arms were wrapped around his neck. He moved his own hands and gently rested his hands against Eren's back and pressed him closer until there was no more space left between them.
Eren peered at Mizuki under his lashes and he felt a smile tug at his lips when he saw the large grin on his love's face. He would never admit it but Eren would do everything to see that smile on Mizuki's face and he would gladly dance a million dances if it was what it took to make it appear.
One dance turned into two, turned into three and soon enough they lost count of how much time has passed since they stood there dancing. Eren had moved to rest his head against Mizuki's shoulder as the taller man slowly swayed them from side to side.
The stars were shining brightly in the sky and the moonlight was hitting them directly. When Eren moved his head away from Mizuki's head to look at him instead, Mizuki was sure that he fell in love all over again.
The way Eren's curls were falling over his forehead, the way his eyes were brimming with happiness, the way the moonlight were making his freckles truly look like stars and the way his lips were curled in the softest smile ever. Everything about the boy made him want to internally scream and outwardly squeeze him in the tightest hug and tell him over and over again how precious he is and how much he loves him.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Eren broke their comfortable silence. "Because you're beautiful."
"Mizuki." Eren groaned. "Stop embarrassing me."
"You know that's one thing I won't ever stop doing." Mizuki teased as they stopped dancing and instead just stood in each other's arms.
"Mizuki." Eren said after a moment of silence.
"Yes sweetheart?"
"I don't want to be away from you." Eren mumbled and Mizuki's expression dropped at the sadness in Eren's voice. "These past few weeks without you were hell. You're all I can think about and it hurts so much to not be able to see you, to hug you whenever I want. I can't-I can't be without you."
"Eren..." Mizuki whispered, but Eren cut him off. "And I know it's unfair of me to want you all to myself. But I can't help but think of just-just taking you away and keeping you with me for the rest of our lives. Sometimes, I wish we never came back from the middle ground. I wish we ran away and went somewhere where no one knows us and where we could be together without all this distance between us."
"I want that too, baby. I want to be with you so bad." Mizuki said as his mind went back to what he has been thinking of for the last few weeks.
"But how are we supposed to be together? I don't think I can be okay with just seeing you once every few weeks. I can't do that." Eren said dejectedly.
"We can." Mizuki said nervously and Eren stared at him with wide eyes.
"But how?" He asked.
"Let's sit, okay? I want to talk to you about a lot of things, sweetheart." Mizuki said as he grabbed Eren's wrist and started walking to the nearest tree.
He sat down with his back against the tree trunk and pulled Eren down until he was sitting sideways on his lap. Eren rested his head in between Mizuki's neck and shoulder blade.
"First of all, I'm so fucking proud of you, Eren." Mizuki started off, his hand stroking Eren's back up and down. "Everything you've been doing for your country is absolutely astounding and you've been doing such a wonderful job."
"Thank you." Eren mumbled, his heart soaring at the praise and at the fact that his work was being acknowledged by the most important person in his life.
"How are you holding up? I heard some people weren't very happy with the new changes." Mizuki asked, his jaw clenching in anger at the thought of the people who tried to hurt Eren.
"I've..been doing fairly okay. I know a lot of people are very angry and some demanded to leave the country permanently which rarely happens here because it's such a hassle to cross over the ocean and the chances of surviving are very low. But I granted them the permission and they are free to leave if they wish." Eren said and Mizuki's eyes widened in surprise, he hadn't expected that.
"Arlen has been very helpful too. He's my royal guard and he's been doing a very good job at making sure no one can reach me." Eren added and Mizuki huffed with a scowl.
"I hate him." He said and Eren rolled his eyes. "You're being ridiculous."
"Am not! That man clearly likes you and I hate that he can protect you and be close to you when I can't." Mizuki mumbled the last part and Eren's expression softened.
"You know I've only ever loved you Mizuki and you're the only one I'll ever love." Eren said and Mizuki felt himself relax as his heart fluttered at the words.
"Me too. You're the only one." He said and Eren hummed contently.
"Will you tell me what you meant earlier?" Eren asked and Mizuki took a deep breath.
"It's a crazy idea and in no shape, way or form do you have to agree to this, okay? I promise I won't be upset if you refuse." Mizuki said and Eren nodded as fear bubbled in his stomach.
"All my life I always knew one thing and that was that when I would grow up I would become King of Rivania. It was the one thing I had to learn to want and had no choice but to accept. I never had any problem with it and I always did what was asked of me whenever it was asked. I would do everything for my family and for my country.
But recently the thing that I want even more than the crown is you. I didn't have to learn to want you or to love you, I just did. Loving you was the easiest thing I've ever done in my entire life and I would give up everything for you." Mizuki said and when he turned to look at Eren he saw tears glistening in his beautiful honey eyes.
"Mizuki...what are you saying?" Eren choked out.
"I'm saying that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Eren. I want to be by your side, always. I want to wake up to you in my arms and be able to kiss you goodnight. I want to live with you." Mizuki told him and then he reached in his pocket for the box that had been on him for days.
"I'm saying." Mizuki started off as he opened the box and showed it to a speechless Eren. "That I want to marry you, baby."
"B-but how?" Eren stumbled over his words as tears clouded his vision. "What a-about the crown? Your family? Rivania? How-I don't- I don't understand."
"Rin has always trained by my side as we grew up. She knows just as much as I do and I know she's always dreamed of doing more with her life. I know she would make a wonderful Queen and I think she can do that. Of course it would take time and we won't be able to finalize all of this for another year or so but I'm willing to try, if you are." Mizuki said nervously as he gauged Eren's reaction.
"It will be hard." Eren finally said something after what felt like hours of him processing all of this.
"I know." Mizuki said.
"The people in Yarisha will take time to accept it." He added.
"I know." Mizuki replied.
"You-you might be in danger if you come stay with me."
"I know."
"It might take more than a year for it to be safe and okay."
"I know."
"You'll have to be Queen of Yarisha."
"I kn-wait what?" Mizuki said and Eren laughed softly as tears trailed down his face.
"Ask me, Mizuki." Eren said and Mizuki grinned as his own eyes welled up with hot tears.
"Will you marry me, sweetheart?"
"Yes I will, my love."
A/n: was gonna end the chapter here but nah let's keep it going.
Mizuki's smile broke over his face as he shakily grabbed the silver band from the box and slid it over Eren's ring finger.
"It's beautiful." Eren said as he looked at the band on his finger. His engagement band.
"What if Rin refuses?" Eren asked after a while of him admiring the ring.
"She won't." Mizuki reassured. "We talked about this before and she said if she could she would become queen but since I'm the firstborn, the crown would be handed to me. But I know she wanted it too but was too selfless to say more about it. She would never fight me over the crown."
"And your dad?" Eren asked.
"I'll have to convince him but I'll do it. I'll do everything to make sure this will work out." Mizuki promised as he missed Eren's head.
"God." Eren breathed out. "I can't believe you just asked me to marry you and I said yes!"
"Of course you would say yes. Have you seen me?" Mizuki joked and Eren laughed.
"It's going to be a long journey before I can officially call you my husband." Eren mumbled.
"It's you and me against the world, sweetheart and I know we can do it." Mizuki said.
"You and me." Eren mumbled back and pressed a soft kiss against Mizuki's jaw.
"Husband." Mizuki suddenly added with a huge smile. "That's-fucking crazy."
"It is. You're completely nuts." Eren said.
"You agreed to it so there must be something wrong with you too." Mizuki said and Eren huffed with annoyance but the happiness was still clearly all over his face.
"I love you."
"I love you more, baby." Mizuki said and pecked his nose.
The two of them stayed sitting against the tree for hours and soon the sun was rising and the birds were coming out of their nests but they didn't move from their spot, too comforted in each other's presence to even think of leaving it.
Hello!
Thoughts ?!!
MY BABIES ARE GETTING FKN MARRIED OML EIDNEIFJ
when I was writing the chapter I just stopped in the middle and went "holy shit Mizuki is gonna propose and Eren is going to say yes."
-till next time <3