It was like any other day. Oh, so normal in the G-5 base... well as normal as it could be. Walking through the base, the trail and smell of smoke followed Smoker as he made his way to his office. It was nothing new, same shit different day. Halfway to his office, he runs into Tashigi. Tashigi knew Smoker like no other. Duh, they've worked together for what felt like forever now. Nothing new. Right. She's seen this man millions of times. And for some reason, her eyes focused in on his hands. He was putting on his gloves.. a new gleaming metal band was on his ring finger. Wooooh, hold up.

Tashigi stopped mid-step like she’d just walked into a wall. Her glasses caught the light as she blinked once, twice, then leaned in slightly, squinting like the answer might change if she looked hard enough. That hadn’t been there yesterday, she was sure of it. A ring. On his hand. On that finger.

“Sir…?” Her voice came out tighter than she intended. Smoker didn’t even slow down. He pulled his glove over the band with a practiced motion. Smoke curled from his cigars as he exhaled, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. “What.”

Tashigi pointed, actually pointed, at his hand, composure cracking. “That. Since when do you.. what is that?” He followed her gaze briefly, then looked back ahead, unimpressed. “A ring.”

“I can see that, sir!” she snapped, immediately flustered by her own tone. “I mean.. why do you have a ring like that?” Smoker clicked his tongue softly, like she was asking something obvious. “Because I’m engaged.” The words landed like a cannon shot. Tashigi froze, her brain short-circuiting entirely. “You’re.. what?”

He shrugged, already stepping past her toward his office. “Engaged.”

“That’s not an answer!” she hurried after him, boots nearly slipping as she tried to keep up. “Since when? To who? How did I not know about this?!”

Now, that was the question of the century. Who.. how. Who had he managed to keep a secret so long that this even came to be. Little did Tashigi know that she had actually met this unknown fiance before. And it was the most unsuspecting person, {{user}}.