Chapter Text
Three hesitant knocks were heard at the door, Phainon didn’t look up from his work. He had been swamped with paperwork the moment Cyrene left the store in his care, instead choosing to focus on strictly the coffee shop portion and her boyfriend that she still refused to introduce him to. Cyrene was still there that day, and Mydei was busy with an appointment.
“What is it Cyrene?” He tried to not sound tired when he asked, but he was irritated over the
Then he heard the unmistakable sound of bangles clinking together, which made him look up with excitement. “OHMYGODMYDEIIMISSEDYOU!” He jumped up from his seat and his arms were around Mydei in seconds, the tiredness suddenly gone from his shoulders, and lifted his boyfriend up. “How’d your appointment go? Is everything set?” He spun Mydei around and buried his face into Mydei’s neck.
“Hey, hey!” Mydei was laughing, and he struggled only slightly in Phainon’s arms. “Put me down, I don’t want to drop the cakes! I worked so hard on them!”
Phainon pulled his face back to look at the radiant man he held in his arms. “You made me cake? REALLY?” He couldn’t believe his luck, Mydei was the best cook in the world, no other food could compare. “Youve been so busy, when did you even get the chance do?”
“I finished them just before I started coming over here, you dork,” Mydei nudged his nose against Phainon’s, smiling from ear to ear. “If you put me down, I’ll let you try them.”
Phainon squeezed Mydei gently, peppering him with soft kisses before letting him down in the only other chair in the manager’s office, and then dragged his own chair closer to Mydei’s, and swiped the entire pile of paperwork he had just been going through off his desk so he could see what delightful things Mydei had brought for him.
“Soooooooo~” He picked up Mydei’s hand to kiss it, smiling, “what did my beautiful boyfriend bring me today?” He could barely contain his excitement. Anytime that Mydei effort spent on him was something that he adored, honesty, any time he spent with Mydei meant the world to him.
He watched intently as Mydei set down the beautiful black box that was tied with a familiar blue ribbon, and grew more excited watching as the beautiful hands that belonged to the man he loved untied the ribbon and pulled out a small fork in front of Phainon. “This one,” a dark chocolate cake on a small golden plate, intricate red and gold decorations clearly placed with intention, was set in front of him, “is dark chocolate and raspberry.”
Phainon nodded, it looked so amazing.
“And this one,” the hands striped with intricate red lines pulled out a second cake that sat on a silver plate. The cake itself was white, and had designs done with blue and silver with detail done to match the first, “is a type of cake you really don’t have in Okhema, but it’s a flavour that tastes of milk and honey with a pomegranate filling. It’s a recipe that Gorgo’s mom taught her way back when.” Mydei smiled gently as he described that cake.
The meaning of the cakes wasn’t lost on Phainon, he knew Mydei entirely too well at that point. The dance they shared three years ago on the night they stole Mydei away from his life as a princess would forever be burned into his memory. The suit was kept in a place of honor in his room upstairs, the capelet hung from a specially designed hook on the wall. The decorations matched the cloak exactly. He looked at the two cakes, carefully deciding which he would rather try first, but the moment he went to pick up the fork, Mydei reached into the box once more.
“Then I have this one for you to try,” he set down a third cake that was on a white plate, it didn’t have a design or anything special to it, but it had been placed intentionally between the other two, “Gorgo made this one, and she said that she wanted you to try it, and she didn’t give me the chance to object.” Phainon was enraptured by Mydei’s smile.
He knew how Gorgo was, after all, she is why that blue ribbon was even on that box in the first place, but he couldn’t help the excitement as he picked up the fork. “Which one should I try first?”
“It’s your call, love,” He looked at Mydei’s face for a hint of what he should do. “I just know that you’ll like all of them.” He saw Mydei stare intently at the cake in the middle before he had clutched his hands nervously in his lap, which is where he then focused his attention. “They are special and all have their own meaning,” He saw Mydei’s skin flush. “I’ll tell you after you try them though.”
Phainon raised an eyebrow at Mydei’s sudden shyness, something he hadn’t really seen since the week he brought Mydei here. He went directly where Mydei had hinted; the center cake, and was rewarded with the distinct feeling -and sound of- metal on something that was distinctly not cake. “I’m pretty sure that’s not cake, Mydei.” He looked at his boyfriend.
Mydei shrugged, trying to have a cool composure, but he was clearly flustered. “Gorgo was the one who made it, so I have no idea.” Phainon saw Mydei hold back a smile.
“Let’s see,” He picked up the ‘cake’ gently and noticed that it had been very carefully covered with fondant that was intentionally loose enough to lift off of whatever was underneath it, so he lifted the sugary sheet off carefully, milking the moment for all it was worth. What he found actually made him gasp with shock, a delicately carved wooden box that bore the seal of Mydei’s royal lineage. He looked up at Mydei quickly, “But-” he started to feel his pulse quicken. Surely Mydei and he haven't been thinking the exact same thing. That would have been crazy. Today of all days?
Mydei reached out for the box, “Here let me see,” he seemed like he genuinely didn’t know what secret Gorgo had prepared. ”These puzzle boxes tend to have a trick to them, I last saw one when I got one from her as a young girl.”
Phainon handed over the intricate little thing, “Yeah, here.” His heart beating faster as he watched Mydei carefully look the box over in his hands, a look of concentration on his face as he turned some impossibly hidden pieces, and then dropped the box on the floor. “Oh, let me-”
Mydei was faster though, picking up the box while kneeling on the ground, he fiddled with it a little more before opening it towards Phainon.
Phainon felt his face turn bright red as Mydei looked him straight in the eyes.
“Would you, Phainon of Aede Eliysae, give me the honor of marrying me?”
“Yes! Yes of course!” He reached down to grab Mydei’s face, tears forming in his eyes, and kissed him. “Of course I do, I would never want to spend my life with anyone else, you know that, my beautiful prince!”
They laughed together, both of them crying from the excitement.
Mydei grabbed hold of Phainon’s hand and gently slid the ring onto his finger and moved to hug him. “I’m so fucking glad~”
When he looked at the ring clearly, it carried the gorgeous masculinity that he had come to associate with his now fiancee; it sported interlaced yellow and white gold and sported two gemstones, one the deep red of Mydei’s Igkor Lymu and the other was no doubt the same stone as the kind Mydei had in the necklace and earrings he currently wore. The metal had been crafted so finely that he swore only magic could have created it.
He paused for a moment and laughed inwardly. “Why propose here of all places?”
“Do I need a reason?”
“No, but it would be nice to know.”
“It's because I love it here!” Mydei’s smile was everything.
“I have so many questions,"
“And you have me for the rest of your life, love.”
“Oh shit. Cyrene’s gonna kill me.”
“What for?”
“She wanted to get married first!”
“Too bad.” Mydei while trying to not laugh, a snort of laughter escaped anyway. “Agalea and Gorgo are the ones who scare me, if I’m gonna be honest.”
“Why?” Phainon had apparently decided to take a bite of the chocolate cake, and also talked with his mouth full, damn was the cake delicious, it reminded him of the night he bought Mydei Kokopo IV.
“Swallow before talking, dork.” Mydei laughed some more. “Gorgo wants it to be this whole big thing, and Agalea wants me to be in something that goes ‘swoosh’.” Mydei twirled slightly as if trying to describe a skirt or dress.
“But she knows that's not your jam. Why would she do such a thing to my prince?” Phainon responded, knowing full well that the red dress still hung in Mydei’s closet and looked even better on him now. He finished off the chocolate cake. It was divine.
“Tradition, really. She looked it up and started talking with Gorgo, and they started getting all… weird about it.” Mydei sighed with frustration. “With Aglaea here I now basically have two moms who both want me to have a spectacular gala instead of a small family and friends thing like I would prefer."
“We could always elope like Gorgo and Krateros did,” Phainon suggested, not knowing if he was being sincere or not as he dug his fork into the white cake, a pink jam spilling from its center.
“I would be so, so dead.” Mydei visibly shivered. “Cyrene would kill you just as bad as the chewing out I would get from Gorgo and my righteously-self-appointed-second-mom Agalea.”
Phainon cackled. Mydei wasn’t wrong. “Fair enough.” Taking a bite and swallowing before continuing. “Hot damn that’s good cake, what did you say was in this?”
“It’s a local specialty from Castrum Kremnos,” Mydei smiled, compersion overtaking him in the moment. “It’s honey, pomegranate, and goat’s milk as the main flavour. It’s a family recipe from a long time ago apparently.”
“It’s amazing, is what it is!” Phainon swayed in place savoring the flavour and the look into a piece of Mydei’s culture. “So the other thing-” he pointed the fork at Mydei.
“Yes?”
He rolled his chair back and rummaged through his desk, “I was,” ‘not there…’ he placed a stack of books on the desk, ‘here?’ then crawled under it, “going to,” ‘where did it go?’ He rummaged some more and found what he had been looking for underneath a pile of boxes of staples. “A-HAAIAHVDSDSDGIGSI” He slammed his head on the underside of his desk, hard. “Anaxa likes to hide everything, I swear.” He popped up from under the desk more slowly this time to prevent further injury. “I was going to ask you if you would marry me.” He laughed, hand rubbing where he had hit his head.
Mydei’s jaw dropped. “I-I feel bad now,” the blonde looked incredibly flustered.
“Now,” Phainon now knelt in front of Mydei and held the black box with a red ribbon up to Mydei. “Would you, Mydei, Crown Prince of Castrum Kremnos, do me the honor of following me to the ends of the Earth, to live with me and fight with me and cry with me and make a world for ourselves where no one can separate us?”
Phainon knew the answer, clearly, but waited for Mydei to respond, and when he could only nod, it was more than enough. Phainon placed the ring on Mydei’s finger. It suspiciously matched the one Mydei had given him moments before, apparently they had gone to the same jeweler.
“I will never leave you.” He wrapped his arms tightly around Mydei, holding him as he cried from genuine happiness. He buried his face in Mydei’s neck again, cherishing every second with the man he had lived through billions of years to stand next to. “I love you so much,” his voice was muffled by the pink sweater, but it didn’t matter. Mydei knew what he said.
“I love you too,” Mydei kissed the sun on Phainon’s neck and they stood like that for that precious moment.
And the world was just the two of them.
And it was perfect.