1Really really super late but I kept getting distracted and hitting road blocks in my thought process while writing this! I'm super sorry I haven't written anything in forever, of anything I've started! But I hope everyone enjoys this fic! If my maths is correct Umi should actually be turning 24 this year if we assume the story of Love Live! takes place in 2010, the year the franchise was started, and what a wonderful almost eight years it's been with these girls! 海未ちゃん、お誕生日おめでとう～！
"P-Paris?"
Honoka's majestic blue orbs shined up at Umi, lit up by Honoka's ever infectious smile as she pulled her phone back.
"Mhmm!" Honoka went back to fiddling with her phone, her fingers dancing across the screen, possibly pulling up some other app. "I got a really huge bonus at work recently and thought, well, you're graduating this year and you've always wanted to go to Europe and I thought hey, to celebrate your birthday and our eight year anniversary, why not go to Paris so I—"
"H-Hold on…" Umi lifted her hand up, asking Honoka to be quiet for just a second. She pulled her own phone out, opening her own bank app to peek at her and Honoka's joint account. "H-How in the world does a bonus at work give us the money to take a trip to Paris, let alone for an entire week? We still have credit card bills to pay off and after that we only barely have the money to pay for my graduation and rent and bills, how—"
Honoka chuckled sheepishly, glancing to the side. "W-Well…" She raised her phone back up to Umi, some chat application open with message logs between Honoka and Maki. "Maki and Eli might have decided to help us out a bit, after the Nishikino family acquired that merger with that hotel company in Italy…"
Umi snatched the phone out of Honoka's hands, scrolling through messages rapidly, trying to find out just how much money Honoka had to ask for. "…You only needed to ask for 100,000 yen? For a week-long trip to Paris?" How much money could that bonus have gotten her?
"Mhmm mhmm!" Honoka snatched her phone back, locking it and placing it on the coffee table beside her. "And it was only for plane tickets! My bonus covers practically everything else—hotel, lunches and dinners, any sightseeing we'd want to do." Honoka twisted around on the couch to reach at the end table on her end, pulling an envelope off the stack of papers and books she'd been using for studying. "I even got us passes for the metro that'll last us the whole week!"
"Incredible…" Umi whispered, looking at the envelope in slight awe. "Where was this responsible Honoka in high school?"
Honoka pouted in response, getting a giggle and a kiss from Umi, before she brightened up again jumping to her feet.
"Anyway, yeah, so I've already got everything planned and booked, all I need to make sure is that you can get that week free!"
"I-I don't know about that, Honoka." Umi looked back at her phone, opening up her calendar. "I've got a couple tests that week and an entire five days of classes being missed just a couple weeks before graduation—"
"It'll be fine!" Honoka interrupted, smiling down at Umi. "Besides, you're top of your class and have been for the last six years, there's no way your professors won't let you take your tests the week before or after you get back!"
"I-I guess?" Honoka wasn't wrong, after all, Umi was sitting at the top of her class with a few other students at her university, and really only dipped under for a couple days whenever she got sick and missed a test. But would they actually let her take her tests early? Could Umi even study enough in time to take them a whole week early?
"Great! Now to make sure I can get that week off of work…"
"Honoka!"
Umi looked out the window of the train she and Honoka were on, Honoka next to her with her head resting on Umi's shoulder and her body snuggled closely into her side. They'd already been in Paris for several days, having arrived on the 10th and flying back on the 17th.
She didn't care for the trains much—they were a bit more comfortable than the ones she normally took back in Tokyo, but they weren't nearly as clean or as smooth a ride. The sites, though, when the metro trains weren't underground the sites were absolutely gorgeous, and similarly the sight seeing she and Honoka had been doing for the last four days had already made this trip worth it.
But that begged the question—why Paris? Umi knew Honoka didn't exactly want to come to Paris, she never showed any interest in it and regardless of how Honoka was Umi didn't really think Honoka would spend over ￥200,000 on an impulse, considering how tight money already was for them.
Umi looked back at Honoka, and gently brought one of her hands up to Honoka's shoulder, jostling her just enough to wake her up. "Hmm…? Umi…?"
"Where is it you said we were getting off at?" Honoka wouldn't tell her pretty much anything about what they were on the train for this time, just that they were going someplace special.
Honoka moaned as she tried to rub the sleepiness from her eyes, gazing up at the route map on the side of the train. Almost within an instant she jumped up, grabbing Umi's arm and pulling her up with her. "This one!" she shouted excitedly, dragging Umi to the doors.
"H-Honoka!" Umi tightly gripped her bag, worried about dropping it without how Honoka was dragging her. "Do you mind telling me where we a—"
Umi couldn't talk, she could barely breathe. At the top of the tunnel, taking up 90% of the skyline and most of Umi's vision, was the Eiffel Tower, its lights lighting up the night almost single handed. Umi had seen the tower before of course, she'd seen it plenty on the metro, but this was the closest she'd ever been to it.
"H-Honoka, what—"
Umi turned to Honoka and her heart stopped. In front of her Honoka was kneeling on one knee, her hand loosely holding onto Umi's and her other reaching into one of her jacket pockets. "H-Honoka…?"
"Umi," Honoka said softly, her eyes soft and looking directly into Umi's. "I love you so much—I've loved you since we were children, I've loved you since we became school idols, of course I've loved you since we started dating. I've loved you for almost twenty years, and the last seven years of that have been the best seven years of my life, even including all of the hardships we've had and I just had to ask…"
Honoka let Umi's hand slip out of her hold, pulling her other hand out of her pocket, exposing a little box in her hand.
"Sonoda Umi, my lifetime best friend and love of my life, the ocean that I find myself lost in almost every day—will you marry me, become my wife and my world forever?"
Umi didn't trust herself enough to talk, she knew tears were staining her face and feared that if she were to try to speak she'd only manage to let out sobs, so she just nodded, reaching her hand out for Honoka to grab again and slide the ring onto her finger.
As soon as Honoka stood back up Umi pulled her into a crushing hug, burying her face into Honoka's shoulder so she could cry into it without alerting anyone in the area, not wanting to worry anyone or ruin the moment. Honoka pulled Umi into a hug and gently pet her hair, not speaking but to say one sentence.
"Happy birthday, Umi."