#p018: cykas

[liliisms]

can you keep a secret?

TAGGING: KJ, Lili @kjapayo Mentions of Gigi and Cole.

LOCATION: Lili and Cole’s engagement party, their apartment.

TIMEFRAME: March 2nd, 2019, late evening.

NOTES: KJ asks Lili for some advice in theme with the party.

KJ was having the best time at Cole and Lili's engagement party. Not only was he getting to celebrate his two best friends, but Gigi had surprised him by coming home a few days earlier than she had told me. And after not seeing her for the majority of almost a month, it had made the entire night better than he had anticipated. Including getting his mind running a mile a minute with ideas of his own, ideas that he didn't know if they were crazy or not, and there was only one person he could talk to about them. Lili and him hadn't been able to spend too much time together tonight, since everyone was trying to see her so once he saw an opening to pull her away from everyone he did just that. "Lils, come here," he gestured, pulling her away from everyone so no one could over hear them. The first thing he did was pull her into a big hug, wrapping his arms around her and smiling softly when he pulled away. "Have I mentioned how happy I am for you? You've been practically glowing all night, and it's pretty awesome to get to watch it."

Lili had stopped herself at two glasses of champagne but the contact high from being around everybody guaranteed she'd be feeling warm and happy all night. She and Cole were truly blessed to have such loving people in their lives. She couldn't believe the turn out of their friends and family, and how everybody wanted to celebrate their upcoming union. After saying goodbye to a guest who was leaving early, Lili felt her arm being tugged and glanced over to see a smiling KJ pull her towards him. "Hey!" She greeted him cheerfully, genuinely pleased to see him. She had been trying to make the rounds so it was hard to talk to everyone for the amount of time she really wanted to. Laughing, Lili squeezed KJ back and patted his cheek affectionately. "Thanks, Kaje. Are you enjoying the party?"

KJ laughed as soon as Lili did, scrunching his nose up as he did so and nodded his head. "I am, yeah! It's surprisingly drama free, thank god. You and Cole don't deserve the drama, so I was hoping no one would start anything," he chuckled, running a hand through his hair. The last thing he had wanted was a repeat of the last big cast get together, so he had crossed his fingers to hope nothing like that happened again. "So.. I wanted to talk to you about something. I know it's a weird time to talk to you about it, but you're the first person I wanna tell and if I don't say it now I might burst and slip something to the wrong person," he rambled until he finally snapped himself out of it, "Do you remember a couple of months ago when I told you about how I told Gigi I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and marry her one day?" KJ wasn't sure if talking to someone about proposing while they were celebrating their own engagement was the right way to do things, but there's no one else he wanted to tell but Lili. And he needed to make sure he wasn't crazy to be thinking about actually doing so.

Lili laughed again. "I honestly would've had a rage blackout if somebody started something." Lili wanted everybody to get along or at least pretend to because her and Cole's families were here and honestly, she was a selfish woman of honor that wanted her and Cole's night to run smoothly. Luckily, everyone seemed to have gotten their drama settled and it was mostly love and laughter being heard throughout their apartment. She leaned in as KJ began to ramble, her eyes widening in amusement. She briefly wondered if KJ had a bit too much to drink but then realized he was just..excited. He was excited about something and with his thick New Zealand accent, that excitement was contagious. Her smile widened and then she let out a gasp and a squeal, her fingers wrapping around his arm to squeeze. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Are you going to propose to Gigi?!"

KJ widened his eyes with another laugh. "That would have been pretty badass to see. You in a rage blackout? We need to make that happen at some point, we just have to find the perfect targets for you to go off on," he said, pretending to think about who it could be. Though he really did hope all of the drama was over with, he knew he was done with getting involve in any more of it. As soon as Lili started reacted, KJ quickly brought his finger to his lips to remind her to be quiet so that no one would hear them. The last thing he wanted was someone to catch wind of this, especially Gigi. "I'm thinking about it, yeah!" he said, the smile on face wide as he spoke, "I always knew I wanted to, but here lately I've thought about it more. And then tonight, seeing how happy she is for you, and seeing how happy you and Cole are, and how happy I was when she got home, just showed me that I think I'm really ready to do it. It's not crazy, right?"

Lili wasn't great at keeping secrets or being subtle (hence why secrets were rarely told to her) so she immediately slapped a hand over her mouth as KJ shushed her. Her movements were slightly exaggerated thanks to the alcohol but her glee was one hundred percent sober. "Kaje, that's so great!" She gushed, her shoulders bunching together before she straightened back up. She loved KJ and Gigi together and she always had, so this made her very happy to hear. They were already the cutest little family and call her a traditionalist, but she wanted to see them become a family in this way as well. "Totally not crazy, are you kidding me? I fully support this and I promise I'll keep my lips sealed." Miming zipping her lips, Lili's eyes were shining as she beamed at KJ. "I'm so happy for you, Kaje. She's going to say yes, I know she will. This is so exciting!"

KJ shook his head with a laugh, looking around to make sure no one was even paying attention to the two of them and seeing Gigi completely distracted on the other side of the apartment. Which was good, because if she saw how excited Lili was looking right now, she'd definitely have questions about what was going on. "I'll probably do it pretty quickly, because you know I'm not good at keeping secrets either. So you won't have to keep it a secret for too long. I just don't want anyone else knowing but you, and probably Bella. I'll tell Bells because I'll need her help on a ring since she knows Gigi best and I'm not exactly a jewelry expert," he laughed, the last thing he wanted was to pick out a ring that Gigi would hate, "I hope so. Her and I have done everything out of order, but it just feels..right. We're going to meet with a realtor soon, and get our own house together in LA. So this just seems like the perfect time, you know?"

Lili clapped her hands in excitement. She felt honored that KJ was trusting her with this..and relieved that he was going to do it soon because Lili would be bursting to tell /everyone/. "Can I tell Cole?" She pleaded. "It's really hard to keep secrets from him and he'll be so happy for you guys too! He can give you proposal tips," she joked. Proposal tips were definitely not a thing but damn it, Lili was tipsy, Lili was happy, Lili wanted to shake KJ and jump up and down that her best friend was getting engaged to the woman he loved. "Maybe out of order but in exactly the right sequence," she smiled at KJ. "Everything's falling into place. I'm sure there'll be roadblocks, there always are but if I'm confident about any couple..it's you guys."

KJ felt the smile on his face grow even wider, the excitement from Lili really rubbing off on him. "Can we make a deal that you only tell him if you absolutely can't hold it in anymore? I really want to surprise everyone if she says yes, so the less people who know the better," he mentioned, especially knowing would want to be able to tell everyone herself. The last thing he wanted is for her to be upset if too many people knew about it before she could tell them. "See, and I'd always say the same thing about you and Cole. Looks like things are working out for all four of us," he grinned, wrapping one arm around Lili to hug her while looking at Gigi across the room once again, "As long as she says yes, that is. Now I have to come up with the best proposal ever, she deserves nothing but the best.”

Lili pouted but nodded. Unfortunately for KJ, Cole would /definitely/ know by at least Sunday because Lili already felt like she couldn't hold it in anymore. He should be grateful she wasn't running across the room to her mom because she also told her mom everything. Leaning into his embrace, Lili smiled and ducked her head. "Yeah, we're a pretty lucky group," she beamed at him. Looking around the room, the love was evident. Everybody here played such an important role in Lili's life and she could feel that they were one big, (dysfunctional) but happy family. "Do you have any ideas yet?"

KJ knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't keep the secret for long, but he just hoped it lasted through the night so that Gigi wouldn't be able to see it on anyone's faces. "We really are. And I've got the actual best friend in the world on top of everything else," he grinned, hugging her once more before letting her go. Lili's question only really had one answer, because it was the only thing that kept popping up in his head when he thought of proposing to her. "I'm going to recreate our first date, when we went camping? I've got a whole plan with Mario Kart and letting her win, but then the screen changing to the words when she's rubbing it in my face that she won," he smiled, biting his lip nervously, "Is that cheesy? It just seems fitting. And Bella told us for Christmas that she'd babysit Lulu so we could go away for a few days, so I figure it's the perfect time to cash in on that."

Lili pressed a kiss to KJ's cheek, smiling. She loved happy KJ. He became like a little kid, hopping around and desperate to show his affection. "That's really cute," she cooed. She didn't think you could do a proposal /wrong/. Each one was geared towards the couple. Many people might find Cole proposing on the top of a mountain as too much - Lili disagreed, it was perfect for them and that's what mattered. If KJ thought that this was what Gigi would like, she had no doubts she would and she couldn't wait to hear the proposal story from Gigi herself. "I love it," she nodded. "I'll do anything I can to help too! It sounds like you've got it covered though."

KJ bounced up and down on his feet when Lili said the idea sounded cute, just needing the confirmation that it wasn't too cheesy or something she thought Gigi would hate. The very last thing he wanted to do was give her a proposal that she didn't like or want to tell people about. "Well, actually, I really want to be able to set it all up without her being there to surprise her with the recreation. So if there's a chance you'd be in LA next weekend and would want to drive her to the campsite, that could help a lot," he shrugged, "You don't have to though! I can easily do it with her there, so it's really not a big deal since I know going to LA is a lot to ask just to drive someone to a campsite."

Lili didn't think she had any set plans so she shook her head vehemently. "Are you kidding me? I'd love to help you out. Count me in as a driver unless something comes up with my schedule." This was so exciting, for Lili to play even a tiny role in making sure her best friend and the woman he wanted to marry had a special proposal. "This is going to be amazing, Kaje. She's going to love it."

KJ smiled, getting even more excited when Lili said she would help him out if she was able to. "That'd be awesome of you, Lils. Plus, seeing you for a few minutes before might calm down the nerves," he laughed, already trying to prepare himself for all of it, "I really hope so." For a moment, he just looked out at everyone until he spotted Cole and nudged Lili towards him. "This is your night, Lils. Go enjoy it, I think I've taken up enough of your time, you should go celebrate with Cole."

Lili had her hands clasped together, looking at KJ with excitement on her face. She wanted to run around and scream that he was doing this but she..didn't. She was sober enough for that. Following his line of vision, Lili chuckled as she saw her fiance. "Alright, alright. You're tired of me, I get it," she pouted dramatically and then leaned forward to hug KJ again. "I'm so happy for you, Kaje. Let me know if you need anything else!" With one more squeeze, she smiled brightly at him and then crossed the room to go into Cole's waiting arms.

KJ laughed with an immediate shake of his head. "Nah, never. But you have celebrating to do, and I have a girlfriend that I've barely seen for most of the last month," he grinned, hugging Lili back immediately, "I will, I promise. Thank you, Lils. And remember, keep it a secret!" It was the last thing he whispered to her before she ran off to Cole, and he instantly started to make his way over to Gigi, somehow feeling even happier than he had a little bit before when she surprised him by coming home.