Yantober

The night sky above was filled with stars twinkling away like tiny diamonds. The night sky dark like someone had blown out the sun. The summer night air warm and perfect with a cool breeze. The crickets singing away into the peaceful night as fireflies glowed brightly and danced in the air between the moonlight. The lush gardens full of beautiful flowers filling the air with their sweet scent.

Everything was peaceful and calm. Or it should've been.

So why was your heart beating a million miles a minute? Why was your body frozen to the spot? Why did fear and dread full you so? Simple. It was because of the feeling of a calloused hand holding yours and the cold sting of gold as the metal band was slipped onto your ring finger.

"I-It looks beautiful on you," the man stammered red faced and couldn't bring him to look at your face which was good because he might've seen your horrified expression. Too bashful in the moment. "I-I didn't know what ring you preferred b-but Tengen said hold goes with anything so..I mean it's not the worst choice right?"

The coldness of that ring stung your skin as you could only stare at it in fear. This was the last thing you wanted to happen. Why? Because you had intended to BREAK UP with Obanai today. Your relationship with him was on the verge of being non-existent anyways.

Of course it didn't start out that way at all. In the beginning of it the man had been rather shy if not very polite. You still remembered how the two of you met through you being a healer at the Butterfly Mansion, often helping with fixing his wounds when he walked in and then bidding him goodbye as he walked out. It wasn't really anything special. He understood that it was vital so he made no fuss when he had to take his uniform off for you to treat him. As long as you didn't try to get his bandages off he'd just stay quiet and avert his eyes until you were finished. Standard routine.

In fact he barely spoke a word to you, you felt like you were talking to yourself whenever you tried to engage with him. Little did you know that it was more than just feeling awkward around you. As Shinobu told you bluntly after a recent check up-

"Haven't you ever noticed he's only quiet and shy around you? It's because he has a big crush on you."

Obanai?? Having a crush on you?? That seemed highly unlikely. You assumed he was just awkward stripping in front of a girl even for medical reasons, but now you recalled how much he'd often go red around you. So you decided to test this out the next time you saw him, which was only two days later when he showed up with a nasty gash on his forearm you bandaged up. He stayed quiet as usual only looking at the wall as you wrapped bandages around his arm.

"....Mr. Obanai?" He hummed still looking at the wall. "You're very cute."

What followed was a long pause as the man froze under your grip before his head snapped around to you wide eyed and red faced. "WHAT?!"

"I said you look cute. Would you like to have lunch with me?'

He choked on his own words.

That's how it started but not how it should've been. He was perfectly fine and normal at first. He was very shy and timid In the relationship often not sure how to approach things a lot but did little meaningful gestures like holding the door open for you, shyly asking if he could hold your hand while he was alone, and sometimes he'd bring you small gifts like flowers or a pretty necklace he thought you'd like. You don't know what caused his personality shift all of a sudden. He was super sweet and kind but then it seemed as if something changed within his mind.

"Would you ever be with someone else?"

You paused in pouring him a cup of tea to give him a puzzled look. "What?"

"Just answer my question." His hands were balled into fists already. "I know I'm not the handsomest man in the world. Would you leave me for someone else more.. normal?"

Bewildered you rose a brow. "Iguro, of course not. Cheating is terrible and if I wasn't interested in you I wouldn't be with you now. Why are you asking me this?"

A sigh left his mouth, fists unclenching. "It's nothing."

At the moment you just took it as him being self conscious but it had only gotten steadily worse from there. Obanai had never been a fan of pda before but now he made a display of showing who you were with. It was just shakily holding your hand or sitting very close which you didn't mind but then it became blatant arm around your shoulders to standing in front of you between others basically blocking them with his body to one day he DEMANDED you to hold his arm whenever you two went out together anywhere. This sudden jump in territorial behavior often worsened around Uzui for some strange reason. The Sound Haishira himself seemed bewildered by Obanai's sudden shift.

You chalked it up to him getting more self conscious and relaxed about showing affection now but that quickly changed when the incident happened. It was a small celebration to celebrate Rengoku's birthday. Nothing fancy but a nice distraction from the daily bloodshed. It was there that Uzui after having one too many drinks, had cond up to Obanai and decided to tease him.

"So I heard you got a new lady friend recently?"

"Fuck off, Uzui!!"

"Geez. No need to get mad. I was only asking. You ought to watch that temper of yours or else she might be stolen away-"

Everyone had froze when Obanai with a look of madness on his face took out his sword to brandish it at the equally shocked haishira. "LIKE HELL SHE'D GO WITH YOU!!! YOU BETTER WATCH WHAT YOU FUCKING SAY AROUND ME!!"

You were shocked as well as everyone else present watching the spectacle that was broken up by Sanemi holding a hissing violently thrashing Obanai under his arms and dragging him away from the many eyes staring at him. And you. You were MORTIFIED at what happened. And you needed to have a serious talk with him about this escalation in behavior.. Unfortunately you didn't get a chance to before Obanai was called before Ubuyashiki. No one was really sure what the two spoke about but from then on he became quite the recluse. He shut down, avoided anyone and everyone unless forced or obligated to, and you didn't see him at all for a long, long time.

If was like a weight had been lifted from your shoulders however. You hadn't even noticed how much stress you had become under while in a relationship with Obanai. The constant looking over your shoulders, possessiveness, exculation, and everything else had just accumulated to the point that you hadn't even noticed it until it literally wasn't there. It felt relieving and actually really nice, you felt guilty about feeling that way about your boyfriend but things had gone too far. It was why after a week of debating and hesitation, you finally decided to make a choice.

You were going to break up with Obanai.

It broke your heart but it was better for you both in the long run. The relationship was already officially over after the incident but you had to tell him so no miscommunications happened plus you thought it was the decent thing to do to talk with him face to face. He deserved that much at least. So one day you decided to go find him since he wasn't coming to you anymore. After looking around you stopped a Kakushi walking by to see if they knew where he went.

"Oh. The Serpent Haishira? Yeah. He's over at the training grounds with Sanemi. I wouldn't bother either of those guys if I were you though. They're crazy."

Heading that way you could pick up on the distant sounds of clashing swords and loud grunts. Arriving at the training grounds you found the two said haishira there in the middle of a strainous exercise. Wooden swords clashed against each other as Sanemi charged forward at insane speeds and swing at the Snake Haishira whom side stepped just in time and swung up his own wooden sword towards his face. The swords clacked together rather loudly echoing into the early night. Your body initially froze upon seeing you soon to be ex boyfriend there but swallowed back the urge to run. No. You came here for a purpose and you'd be leaving here after you told him off.

You decided to wait on the sidelines and wait until they were finished with their training session. It lasted about another twenty minutes as you stood there awkwardly watching the spectacule until it ended when Obanai's training sword broke in half, only then did they stop. Catching their breath and talking to one another. It felt like forever with you standing there for him to notice you. Kaburamaru actually noticed you first turning to you before turning to his master that got Obanai to twist his head around and both of you froze upon seeing each other. You thought Obanai would run off with how much he's been avoiding you but instead you were caught off guard when he just started you. Completely abandoning his talk with Sanemi and practically running towards you.

You froze to the spot in surprise as he just jogged up to you for the first time in a few weeks. "Y/n. You came to see me?" He sounded oddly calm, maybe even a big cheerful.

It took a few seconds for you to regain composure before you cleared your throat and nodded. "Y-Yes. We-We need to talk."

"Oh. That's convenient because I have to talk to you about something too. Let's talk in the gardens." He gestured in a direction. "We can have privacy there."

The thought of you being alone with Obanai right now was scary to you, briefly giving a glance to Sanemi whom was curiously watching you two, before nodding reluctantly in the end. "A-Alright. But only for a few minutes."

He nodded in agreement and followed you over to the gardens. The entire time it felt like the mountain of dread was slowly getting back on your shoulders again with each step you both took but eventually you both got there. The spacious garden was decently sized but empty with no one but you, Obanai, and the snake around his neck and crickets as company. No one to help you if Obanai went ballistic. Well no sense in stalling the inevitable. Nip it in the bud as they say. So you took in a deep breath and turned to Obanai-... Only he wasn't next to you anymore. You blinked until you looked down.

And then you froze once again.

There was Obanai, knelt down one knee, one hand clasps in yours tightly, staring up to you intently and full of desire, other hand holding up something small, circular, and shiny in the little moonlight there was a he presented it to you on a metaphorical silver platter.

"Y/n, I've thought about this a lot and how much my last..*ahem* incident and I realized something. I can't bare the idea of anyone taking you away from me and that fear built in me, but I have a solution. One that'll be sure no one comes between us. Y/n, will you marry me?"

You had been too shocked to speak. Frozen to the spot with your jaw dropped and the practiced speech you had been prepared to give him thrown out the window. Unfortunately he took your fearful silence for stunned happiness and proceeded to slip it on you like shackles chaining you to a giant boulder.

"It goes with your eyes...I know this is sudden but I couldn't barely to think of what could happen if someone else had gotten to you first. You're mine."