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They'd been back home about a week, and Ike honestly spent most of it asleep or otherwise in bed. He was riding high on the fact they'd saved the world as a team unseen in the literal entire history of the continent - beorc, laguz and branded coming together to give their creator the middle finger and move forward with their lives. He had Ragnell and Alondite hanging on his walls, a reminder of his father's sacrifice and how he had people to protect and the means to protect them.
He also... and this was odd to think... had a fiancé.
It wasn't odd to think that he'd proposed to Soren and Soren had accepted. That wasn't it. The oddity was putting a label on their relationship. 'Boyfriends' felt way too informal for what they had, so he tended to refer to Soren as his 'partner' to others and 'lover' in private, and after seeing the whole picture in the Tower he upgraded Soren to his 'soulmate' to anyone who asked. It made Soren blush terribly whenever he did, but he never protested. But even that was sort of nebulous. Fiancé was completely accurate. His fiancé. Soren was his fiancé. It was a lovely thought.
The issue was that he had gone about it all wrong. Soren deserved better than "being informally asked after sex with no ring." But Soren was, from all appearances, perfectly content with the way things had gone down. In fact when Ike asked him if he wanted a big or small wedding, he'd gotten so red and tongue-tied that Ike had to kiss him.
But he deserved better.
But he was happy with the way things are.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
He should leave it. Right? He should leave it as is. Well, he definitely needed rings. Matching rings for the two of them. He knew his parents' collection of jewelry was with Mist, maybe he could look for inspiration.
"Hey Mist," he asked her, finding her washing laundry outside, "where's the jewelry box from Dad?"
His sister dropped the pants she was washing and screamed. Actually screamed. But with a bright smile on her face. "YOU'RE GONNA POP THE QUESTION!?!"
"Shhhhhhhhh!" Ike held up his hands. "Calm down! I already did!"
She was so expressive that it was adorable and hilarious, and she immediately went from "yay!" to "what?!" "You did what?! Tell me eeeeeverything!" She ran over to him, grabbed his hands with her wrinkled wet ones, dragged him to a tree, and pushed him to sit down. She'd definitely gotten a lot stronger. She dropped to her knees in front of him, giving him her sparkly undivided attention.
Oh geez. He debated on how to properly say this without being too embarrassing. "So, uh, after the Tower, we uh, talked a bit in our tent... bonded a bit... and I asked. He said yes."
Her face fell. She stared at him in silence for a good two minutes as if waiting for him to add any details. "That's it?"
"Yeah."
"Ohhhhhhhhhh sweet goddesses. Ike. Ike, my beloved, delightful, incredibly stupid older brother. Ike, my family, I love you, you know that? You're amazing, and such a moron I could strangle you with that stupid sweatband."
"Hey! It's lucky!"
She ignored him, burying her fingers into her hair and continuing on her rant, "Ike, Isaac Bryce Greil, I cannot believe what I just heard. Soren has stood by your side for years, led your lost ass through not one but TWO world wars, he micromanages your entire life and runs your mercenary company for you, he is the love of your life, and you proposed on a whim, after sex and with no ring?"
"Well when you say it like that, it sounds bad," he admitted somewhat petulantly.
"That's because it IS bad! I mean, what if you guys have kids? What're you gonna tell THEM? 'Oh your father and I got engaged after we banged and I didn't even have a ring'?? Is THAT the story you want to tell your kids?!?!?"
"No," he said meekly, shrinking from her extremely loud shaming.
She leaned over and took his shoulders in her hands. He flinched. "I'm going to fix it. We can work together! First we'll fix this DISASTER of a proposal, and then we'll plan the wedding! Ooooo I have so many ideas! Okay, first, let's go check out the jewelry Dad left. There's rings in there and maybe you'll find inspiration." She dragged him to his feet and started the trek back inside.
"That was literally what I was coming here for, so quit making me sound like the world's worst partner," Ike mildly protested.
She ignored him, going straight to her bedroom. She shared it with Mia, and the latter wasn't there thankfully. Mist went to her dresser and got a simple carved box off the top. Ike now could remember his dad working the box out of some wood shortly before they left Gallia, long ago. It was depressing to know he'd forgotten so much, but he could be relieved he got some sweet memories back at least. Mist sat on her bed with the box on her lap, and Ike sat next to her as she opened it up.
Knowing what he knew now, he was fairly sure that his priestess mother and renowned warrior father had started out with a lot more jewelry pieces between them, and likely sold them as they went on the run. There wasn't much left in the box - a few smaller pendants, a bracelet, and old rings that he didn't think had any significance. He had an 'ah-ha' moment. "Oh, right, the wedding and engagement rings are on Urvan. Hang on." He got up and quickly walked down the hall to knock on the Deputy Commander's quarters.
Shortly after, the door opened. Titania had her hair down and was dressed casually, on her desk evidence of how she was writing letters. "Yes, Ike?"
"Can I see Urvan?" he asked. It was nice to see her relaxed. She raised an eyebrow at him, so he explained, "There are rings on the hilt."
"Ah, yes, I took those off," she said, changing course to her own dresser and pulling off a small chain with four rings. "I didn't want to lose them in combat." Plus it was probably very awkward to have evidence of your unrequited love's successful marriage right in front of you. "I completely forgot to give them back to you afterwards, sorry."
"No worries," he said, taking them. "Thanks." He turned to go back to Mist's room.
"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" Titania asked him with a teasing lilt.
Ike blushed a little awkwardly, not wanting another dressing-down. "Yeah, probably. Thanks." He walked a little faster, ignoring her "it's about time!" behind him. He sat with Mist again, holding the rings in his hand. "Here they are."
He took a good look. There were four total - two silver bands with a garnet and sapphire embedded, and two golden bands with no other adornments. "I think the ones with gems were their wedding rings," Mist recalled. "They're so pretty!"
"Is it tacky to just use their wedding rings as engagement rings?" Ike asked, not sure about the etiquette of any of this. "They are pretty."
"Nope! That makes them heirloom jewelry. Are you going to use the others for your wedding?"
"Nah, I can commission something. I'm lazy, but not THAT lazy." Mist said nothing, but she didn’t need to. “You can have the engagement rings in case you decide to get married too someday, how’s that?” At this point Ike could admit he wasn’t even sure if Mist had a romantic partner, or if she even wanted one. He’d kept an eye on her over the years, of course, and seen her get close to Boyd, Rolf, Jill and Lethe, but never that close. “Do you feel better now that I have actual rings?”
“No,” said Mist, “and I won’t feel better until you propose properly!”
“Why do I have to propose, anyway? Soren could propose to me. Even if I believed that men and women had certain roles, which I don’t, we’re both men.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. He was testing her patience today, that was for sure. “You’re my brother. It’s expected and understandable for me to make you do the right thing.” Oh yeah, good point. “And, listen. I know Soren keeps his cards close to his chest and has no problem browbeating people twice his size and ordering everyone around, but I see how he still gets flustered when you’re nice to him. If you rely on him to propose to you, you’ll never get married.”
That made Ike a little sad. “Yeah… maybe someday. Remind me in a few years I should make him sweep me off my feet.”
Mist smiled softly. “You think you’ll be married that long, huh?”
He scoffed. “I know it. So, okay, fine. What are you thinking I should do?”
“First of all, a spring wedding is a must, so we have to move fast. But flowers, flowers everywhere - in the arch, lining the aisles, in your hair, in his hair, the bouquet!”
“Mist.”
“And you’re both famous, so it’s gotta be a huge wedding, so probably a potluck or else we can’t afford it. I’ll grant you permission to accept food as wedding gifts, because I have met you before. And I KNOW we have some beautiful white robes and tunics and such that we’ve never used, so we can definitely get some gorgeous wedding outfits out of those.”
“Mist!”
“What?”
He sighed, fondly. “The proposal. What are you thinking I should do about the proposal.” She looked a little disappointed. “And not for nothing, but do you really think Soren or I won’t want to plan our own wedding?”
“You won’t,” she said with confidence. “But yes, the proposal! We need the arch for that, a big beautiful decorative arch.” Rather than question where they would get such a thing, he let her continue. “And it should come after a big romantic day out. But a subtle one because we want it to be a surprise, of course! We know he’s going to say yes, so the details of it all can be a surprise for him. I will get to see him shocked and delighted!”
“You will get to see him shocked and delighted?” Ike echoed.
“Of course! Everyone will! Because this arch will be hiding everyone behind it and we’ll all come out applauding when he says yes!”
Ike groaned in dismay. “Mist. Way to not know your target audience. He would hate that.”
She paused. Ike could clearly see her remember this was about Soren and not herself. “Oh yeah.”
“‘Oh yeah.’ He ruffled her hair like he did when they were kids, making her yelp and dodge away from him. “Thanks for the kick in the pants I needed, but I’ll take it from here.”
“You’ll figure out my ideas are the best!” she said petulantly, and he chuckled as he left.
“Please don’t do what she was suggesting.” Titania was leaning up against the opposite wall, chuckling. “He really would hate anything public.”
“Eavesdropping?” he asked with an accusatory eyebrow raise.
“Yes,” she said honestly. “I like a good bit of gossip as much as anyone. While I don’t presume to think I know better than you about what he would like, I don’t mind being a sounding board.”
He sighed in relief. “That sounds great, thanks.” He followed her back to her room and plopped down in a chair. She sat back at her desk, leaning on it relaxed. “So I’m of two minds about it. I both want to make a big gesture and like, do something practical for him, or just like make him a really good dessert and ask that way at dinner, just more casual and relaxed.”
She tilted her head in thought. “Neither is wrong. He strikes me as a secret romantic, so if you asked him he would say just do dinner but would deep down appreciate something more grand even as he told you it would be too much. But if you just warmly told him at the right time that you love him and proposed in the moment, I feel he might like that just as much.”
“Helpful, but not helpful,” Ike admitted. “Maybe that’s my cue to think about it for awhile.”
“Good idea. It’s been a week since we got back, so I imagine all of our brains are still in fight mode. That would be a recipe for disaster if you decided to go around Tellius punching people on his behalf.”
He considered it. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea as a gift-”
“It is a terrible idea as a gift,” she interrupted him with a gentle smile. “Relax, Ike. Mist had one thing right - you know he’s going to say yes, so there’s no rush.” She got up and walked over, ruffling his hair. Unlike Mist, he didn’t dodge. “Good luck, and congratulations.”
“Thanks, Titania.” What he needed to do, he decided as he walked away from her room, was try to get Soren to tell him what he would like without blowing the surprise. Buuuuuut, what if the others had ideas that were semi-decent? And to be honest, he was downright curious about what some would say.
So he decided to ask everyone.
The first was, obviously, Titania, because he just turned around and went back to her room. “What would be an ideal proposal for you?”
She was back at her desk writing, but she chuckled as she turned to face him again. “I can’t imagine it would be helpful…”
“Humor me.” He walked to her desk and grabbed some parchment, ready to write down what she said.
She thought about it. And thought about it. And thought about it. Ike was worried she might have somehow fallen asleep with her eyes open when she said, “I have no idea.”
“None at all?” That was surprising.
“Yes…. I guess some flowers and a nice dinner date would be good?”
“Way to sound like an old lady,” he teased.
She glared at him with mock anger. “Shoo, you.”
He chuckled and left, writing down ‘dinner date with flowers.’
The next person he ran into was Gatrie, who was buffing out all the armor. Ike inwardly braced himself as he asked the same question.
Gatrie was delighted. “Oh, I will of course be sure to provide a beautiful spread of assorted cheeses and desserts for my lovely lady-”
“No,” Ike interrupted. “Someone is proposing to you in this scenario.”
“Oh. But… but I’m the man. I should be the one proposing.”
“We’re bringing your thinking forward a century or two,” he replied, having known this was going to happen, “So pretend some pretty girl is proposing to you.”
He blushed, which was weird, and it seemed like his eyes became heart-shaped. He clasped his hands in front of his chest and shifted from foot to foot as he gushed, “Oh! How, how romantic! Of course I would say yes! She wouldn’t even have to do a thing - swept me off my feet by being delightful!”
This wasn’t helpful, and Ike sighed. “Okay, pretend that woman is Astrid,” Gatrie immediately stopped looking so love-struck, “so she actually has to work for it.”
He huffed, arms crossed. His dejected reaction to Astrid hooking up with Makalov of all people was the stuff of legends. Finally he said, “Nope, she wouldn’t have to do anything either.”
Ike sighed again. “Thanks, Gatrie.” About as useful as expected - as in, not at all. He still wrote down ‘exist.’
To his dismay he found Shinon next, but he still felt compelled to ask.
Shinon didn’t stop shooting at targets with a new bow he’d carved as he said, “I dunno, sharing a good bottle of whiskey and a night in would be nice, I guess. Ain’t too picky.”
“Wholesome,” Ike said, pleasantly surprised that Shinon hadn’t said something disingenuously awful like “go on a murder spree” or made it an insult -
“You mannin’ up and askin’ Soren finally? You little shits are made for each other. Good thing you’re gay so you don’t reproduce.”
“Aaaaaand there it is. Couldn’t answer one question in good faith, could you?”
“Nope.” He put down his bow to work on adjusting it.
“And I bet if we have kids they’ll be your favorite people,” he said as he left, not bothering to write anything.
“Not if they’re anything like either of you!”
Boyd and Rolf were cleaning out the gardens when Ike asked his question to them.
“I’m a man, I’m gonna be the one asking!” Boyd declared with a flex of his arms. “And I don’t like dudes so no other dude would ask me. No offense.”
“Why would I be offended…? You know what, I don’t care.”
“Boyd’s dream proposal is someone giving him belly rubs and ear scratches-“ at this point Rolf started talking louder and more quickly while dodging his older brother’s attempts to pull him into a headlock “- giving him smooches and telling him he’s a GOOD BOY!” Rolf took off at a sprint, Boyd in hot pursuit.
Ike looked at his sad little parchment list and decided to write this down anyway… until he realized he had no idea what to write, because what even was that?
Oscar was next, because Ike was hungry and he needed to nab a snack.
“Interesting question,” Oscar said as he put something in the hearth.
“Let me guess, your ideal proposal is someone making a grand speech declaring you their most beloved person and sworn enemy!!! And the only way to satisfy your most fearsome rivalry would be to accept their request for your hand in most glorious matrimony!!!!!”
Oscar stopped cooking and glared at Ike, who felt no shame and just smiled sweetly back at him.
At length, he deeply sighed. “You’re not wrong.”
“Thought so,” Ike said with a grin.
Next he found Mia and Mist practicing their sword fighting with some ease and relaxation to it, which made him happy to see. It was good they weren’t all associating fighting with just bad things, after all. He felt a little bad interrupting to ask his question.
Immediately Mist was upset. “Why are you asking Mia and not me?!”
“You gave me a very specific walkthrough of your preferred proposal earlier today!” he shot back.
“Nooooo, that was for you to ask Soren!” she retorted with a whole lot less force.
“And Mia, you’re not allowed to say a duel at dawn,” Ike informed her.
She scoffed. “Of course not. I want a fondue table with a lot of fruit and chocolate to dip in my chocolate. A bottle of wine and a cute ring would be nice too.”
Ike wanted to hug her. “Finally something useful, thank you!” he said as he wrote it down.
“I was very helpful!” Mist argued.
“You were not!”
Last was Rhys, and Ike had no idea what to expect, and yet he wasn’t surprised when Rhys seemed to glow with a serene holy aura as he said, “Oh, I would be happy with whatever was given to me, the Goddess leads us with a grand plan, you know, just follow what you believe is best.”
Ike sighed. He felt like he did that a lot today. “Rhys, I stabbed the Goddess last week.”
“Oh yeah.” He at least stopped the Holy Priest Act. “She’s not going to guide you anywhere good, that’s for sure.”
“Considering she’s dead, that’s a given.”
“Anyway, I think I would like something cozy, you know? A warm candlelit dinner for two, something homemade…”. He looked wistfully into the air at nothing, clearly thinking. “… and maybe some performative dancing would be quite lovely…”
Ike didn’t write this down either. He also didn’t ask for any clarification.
All right, Ike had a plan. Dinner, alcohol, chocolate and flowers had been a recurring theme and were ideas as good as any. But since he hadn’t checked on him in a while, Ike went to find Soren who was, as per usual, in his office. In contrast to the majority of the fort, Soren’s office was back to pre-war conditions, having been the focus of a lot of Soren’s personal time. He was there with a client, who was obviously very irritated. Ike hung back to see if he needed to intervene. “But I’m a paying customer!”
“And we aren’t accepting those right now,” Soren said in his ‘my patience is barely hanging on by a thread at this point’ voice. “We have more money than we need and we literally got back from a war last week. We aren’t taking any jobs.”
“But,” the man had no idea what to do with this information, clearly, “I want you to.”
Soren deeply sighed and pushed his chair back from his desk, walking around to the client and putting his arm around the man’s shoulders in a rather companionable way. “Let me show you something.” He walked them over to a closet, opening it. It was empty. “Here they are.”
“What?” the client asked, visibly confused.
“My fucks,” Soren said plainly. “As you can see, I am out. I have none to give you.”
The client was silent for about a minute. “You’re kind of a jerk.”
“I’ve heard that once or twice. You’re on the waitlist, so come back in a month.”
The client stormed out, and Ike resisted a laugh. Classic Soren. Soren was about to say something to him, but then Ike blurted out "Marry me.” Soren immediately flushed. "Sorry, I mean - I've been thinking of a better proposal but, um. Here." He fished out the rings. "Mist is going to kill me, but." He went on one knee. Soren's face was redder than his Brand. "Soren, will you marry me, please?"
"Wait, because I sassed a client?" Soren asked with a tiny, strained voice. "I do that all the time?"
“You’re really rewarding him for being a jerk?” the aforementioned client demanded.
"Yeah, but that kind of - I mean, it kind of drives home why I love you? You're hilarious and gorgeous and a genius and my soulmate. This time I have rings, so it's better, right? I mean I don’t have chocolate or rivalry declarations or dance moves, but I have rings! We can tell our future kids that I proposed because you were so beautiful and funny I had no choice." He offered the rings up. "Pick one and I'll take the other."
Soren threw his hands up as if to make things slow down. "You are saying a lot of words with not a lot of meanings."
"Long story. Do you like the rings? I can get different ones."
Soren picked up one which had a smaller band. "You could give me nothing and I would be happy. I was happy. I am happy."
Ike smiled brightly and took the ring, sliding it onto Soren's left ring finger. It fit perfectly. "I know, but you deserve better than just me existing.” He put the other ring on his own finger. "There. Much better."
Soren knelt in front of him, taking the ring off Ike’s finger and putting it back on. "There. Even better." He was so shy and cute and Ike had to kiss him, holding his left hand in his own.
“Okay, that is actually kind of adorable, I’m not mad anymore,” said the client, who let himself out.
They kissed slowly and sweetly, sealing the deal, before Soren said, "Now what was that about Mist and kids and… dancing?"
"Don't worry about it." And they didn't.