“Maybe it’d be easier if you were using origami paper?” Mad suggested, thumbing through the pages. 

“Probably.” Mare agreed, putting his elbow on his desk and resting his cheek on his closed hand, watching Mad shuffle through the colored paper, picking out a purple one. “But I figured it was easier to get a thousand pieces of regular paper instead of a thousand pieces of origami paper.”

“Why a thousand?” Mad asked, peeking at the craft’s instructions and beginning to follow it, wondering if he could do it himself. 

“Because there’s a belief that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, you can get a wish,” Mare answered, softly smiling as Mad let his curiosity take over. 

“That’s a lot of paper cranes.” Mad hummed. “What wish are you planning on making? If it’s something we can do ourselves, I’m sure most of us won’t mind helping you.” 

“Well, there’s really only one person that can make sure the wish comes true.” Mare straightened up. 

“Who’s that?” Mad stuck the tip of his tongue out of the corner of his lips, concentrating some more.

“You.” Mare reached into his pocket. “There’s something I want to ask you, and I was going to use my wish to make sure you’d say yes.”

“If this is about lessening my coffee intake, you’ll be wasting a wish.” Mad chuckled, perking up at the finished paper crane in his hand. “Look! I did it!” He had a proud smile as he turned and held out the crane, pausing when he saw Mare holding a small square box. 

“Lucky for you, my wish isn’t about coffee.” Mare used his other hand to open the box and show off a ring: a silver band with amethysts inside. “I want to ask you to marry me.”

“I-” Mad’s eyes went wide with shock, the paper crane falling from his hand. “You want…holy shit, yes!” He broke into a laugh and lunged at Mare, wrapping his arms around his neck in a tight hug. “Yes, yes, yes!” Mad pulled back just enough to dive into a kiss. Mare wasn’t expecting the kiss but was far from complaining as he pulled Mad in closer by his waist. He also wasn’t expecting Mad to pull away again. “I have to tell Anti!” Mad scrambled away, opening the door and running out. There was a brief pause before Mad ran back in, plucked the ring out of the box, and slipped it on. After one more quick kiss, Mad took off again. “Anti! Anti, guess what!” His voice echoed back into the room. 

Mare stayed in his seat and started softly laughing to himself, setting the empty box aside. He picked up the paper crane and set it on the desk as well.