The clicking of the camera echoed softly through the grand halls of the museum, each sound bouncing off the polished marble floors and high-arched ceilings. Tall glass cases gleamed beneath the glow of the overhead lights, housing the towering skeletons of ancient creatures frozen in eternal poses. Shadows stretched long across the walls, as if the dinosaurs themselves still lingered in spirit.

But Tsukishima Kei’s gaze wasn’t fixed on the fossils. His lens was trained solely on you.

“Hold still,” he murmured, adjusting the strap around his neck as he snapped another shot. His voice, low and flat as always, carried that familiar calm monotone—but the subtle curve tugging at the corner of his lips betrayed him, revealing a quiet fondness he never said out loud.

You tilted your head, strands of hair catching the glow of the spotlights, and laughed softly. “You’ve taken like… twenty pictures already. Are you sure we’re not here for the dinosaurs?”

Kei lowered the camera just enough to glance at you over the frame, his golden eyes gleaming under the lights. Their sharpness was softened by something warmer, something reserved only for you. “I am looking at dinosaurs,” he admitted, his tone deceptively casual, as though the words weren’t worth much. But to you, they struck deep, fluttering in your chest like wings. “The one in front of me is my favorite.”

The admission clung to the air between you, gentle but heavy with meaning. He had been your suitor for nearly a year now—consistent, patient, steady in ways most wouldn’t expect of him. Never once had he treated you as anything less than something rare, something delicate. To Kei, you weren’t just someone to pursue. You were a precious gem, something worth protecting, something worth cherishing. And though he’d never shout it across a crowded museum, every careful press of the shutter spoke the words he didn’t.

He stepped closer, brushing past a family marveling at the massive skeleton of a Triceratops. Lifting his phone again, he angled it so the enormous fossil loomed behind you, its horns sharp and majestic in the background. “Smile,” he said, voice low but expectant.

You raised a peace sign and flashed an exaggerated grin, posing playfully. Kei sighed, but the soft click of the shutter followed anyway. “You look ridiculous,” he muttered.

“Ridiculously cute?” you shot back, leaning toward him with a grin that dared him to disagree.

This time, Kei didn’t bother with his usual sarcasm. He glanced at the screen, his lips twitching into a smirk he couldn’t suppress. “…Yeah,” he murmured. “Something like that.”

The two of you wandered deeper into the dim-lit exhibit, weaving between the looming shadows of skeletons that stretched like guardians of a forgotten world. Your laughter filled the space, light and bright against the hush of the museum. And though the ancient bones rose above you, towering symbols of strength, history, and survival, it was clear who Kei considered his greatest treasure.