Sword and Snow

I was about ready to kill Avuri. And Talya, too, damn it.

“Is it…Hm. What I want for our dinner date tomorrow? What else could it be…?” Avuri asked, trying to figure out what my looming question might be.

It had been several hours now since she overheard Talya asking me whether I had asked Avuri ‘the question’ yet, and what her answer was. After I nearly freaked out on her, and quietly yelled at her to be quiet and that no, I hadn’t asked yet, I went back out of the kitchen and dining room to see Avuri coming down the third floor stairs with a big, shit eating grin.

She had immediately accosted me about what Talya was asking about, while the damn spoiler woman herself fled outside. I managed to get Avuri off of me long enough to make it back up the stairs to our bedroom with the drinks where we had planned to settle in for some relaxing reading time.

I had planned on reading through some technique scrolls that Vale thought I might be able to adapt some techniques from, but I was making zero progress under her assault of questions.

And then when she didn’t stop asking me what it was about, I made the mistake of telling her it was a secret, and she’d never guess what my question was. That set off her guessing frenzy, and I immediately regretted my dumbass half-hearted attempt to get her off my back. It just made it all worse.

“What about…Hm…” She trailed off, trying to come up with another question I could be looking to ask, but the big grin on her face was plastered there and hadn’t gone away in over an hour.

Her questions had started off with some pretty good contenders; things like whether I was going to ask about starting Paired Cultivation again, or if I wanted to ask how Avuri was feeling about living here. Then they slowly devolved from there into rather silly or inane questions that obviously wouldn’t be given this much attention.

“My measurements to have some clothing made?” Avuri wondered aloud. “No, I think you already have those. Did I ever give you my shoe measurements if you’re trying to get some shoes or slippers made?” She turned to me as she asked, her taunting, devilish grin still in place.

“I got your foot measurements the last time we went shopping, remember? When we got those matching indoor slippers?” I said, dismissing her question.

“Oh, that’s right. Hm…”

The way that she kept humming in such a sing-song tone was worrying me. I was almost positive that she knew exactly what I wanted to ask, and was just toying with me. While part of me just wanted her to ask “Do you want to ask me to marry you” and just put me out of my misery, another part of me wanted to just ask her already and be done with it.

And that was no way to approach a proposal like this.

I wanted it to be special, or at least get her to swoon a little! And even with spending most of my brain power over the last hour trying to figure out a way to surprise her, the only thing I had come up with was to completely give up asking her today and giving her some nonsense question to throw her off the scent for now.

I sighed, and patted the spot next to me on the bed. “Will you just stop probing and come sit with me?” I asked, exhausted. I even tried to play it up a little.

Avuri smiled, her devilish grin fading into something more warm. “Sure.” She nodded and stood from the plush rocking chair we bought for the room to slip into the bed next to me. I lifted the blanket to let her snuggle in against me, and she laid her head on my shoulder. I chuckled as she looked a little contorted because of our height difference.

“Will you let me read this thing now?” I asked her quietly, trying to foster a calmer mood.

She smiled and snorted out the makings of a laugh. “Yeah, alright.” She responded at the same quieter energy level. I smiled at her, kissed her hair, then settled in to read. Avuri had brought her book over with her, but didn’t lift it from her lap to read, instead seemingly content to just rest on my shoulder.

We spent ten or so minutes in a comfortable silence. Every now and then, the paper sound of a turning page broke the quiet alongside the occasional deeper breath.

The relative quiet calmed me down as I slowly worked my way through the small tome, trying to extract any useful information I could gleam.

“Merri?”

Avuri’s voice was peaceful and full of quiet happiness. I stopped reading and turned to look down at her, meeting her eyes. Her gentle smile widened, crinkling around her eyes.

“Yeah?”

“What did you want to ask me?”

The playful, teasing tone from earlier wasn’t present. Instead, her voice was warm and serene as she looked up at me earnestly. I almost asked her outright on reflex but held myself back and leaned down a little to place a light kiss on her forehead while pulling her toward me for a hug.

“If you don’t tell me now, I’m going to guess again.” She said, but her voice was still calming and relaxed unlike earlier.

I considered whether I wanted to ask her now. Maybe my proposal didn’t need to be a big production or swoon-worthy. Maybe something simple and intimate would work just fine.

Avuri decided not to let me think it through for very long. Before I could think through what I wanted to do or make a decision, she asked her next guess.

“Merri, did you want to ask me to marry you?”

I took a deep breath and sighed. I had had a feeling all night that she knew and was teasing me. And the way she gave this question the seriousness due more or less confirmed that for me.

“Yeah, that’s the one.” I said, with a small wry laugh. I shifted a little in the bed so we were both sitting upright and facing one another.

“I really, truly love you, Ri. Will you marry me?”

She smiled back at me, her entire expression just radiating warmth and love. “Of course I will. And I love you too.” She laughed, though I could see the misting of happy tears in her eyes.

And then she tackled me backward onto the bed with a hug and kiss. It was short lived, however, when she popped back up straight while kneeling on top of me. “We need to go tell everybody!” She said and started trying to scramble off me and the bed.

I let out a big sigh, and she stopped dead, standing beside the bed.

“We…do need to go tell everybody, don’t we?” She asked cautiously.

“We do.” I whined, and collapsed back onto the bed. “I just-”

“-Wanted a minute alone?” Avuri said quietly, a low note of seduction in her voice. I looked down at her just in time to see her bending down to slowly prowl her way over the bed and over me.

That devilish smile from earlier was back as she slowly crawled her way across the bed until her face was directly above mine and she was staring heatedly into my eyes.

“I suppose,” she said, licking her lips, “we don’t have to go talk to them quite yet.”

We finally made our way out of our bedroom and down the stairs almost an hour later. I smiled when Avuri happily marched, swinging her arms back and forth, out of our room and toward the stairs. When we were half way down the stairs when she shouted, “She asked,” in such a sing-song voice that it caught me off guard and I laughed.

Talya and Vale came around the corner from the kitchen with big grins on their faces, and Cierra and Stena weren’t far behind them.

“Finally.” Talya said, a relieved sigh following right behind the words. “It only took forever.”

I glared back at her. “Shut up, you.”

Talya ignored me and smiled at Avuri. “I assume you said ‘Yes’?”

“Duh.” Avuri did a little dance, which was quite possibly the cutest thing I had ever seen her do. “Now you’re all stuck with me.” She said, then moved forward and crouched in front of the girls. “Especially you two,” Avuri said before hugging both girls tightly.

“Mom and Talya told me that you’re going to really be my Momri now?” Cierra asked shyly, but smiling big.

Stena, who had recently seemed to decide we were officially her new parents, smiled just as big. “Momri!”

“Yup! Or at least, I will soon.” Avuri said, and kissed both girls on their cheeks.

“So it all worked out in the end, then. Good.” Vale said with a satisfied nod.

“Yes,” Avuri said, then she shot a playful glare back at me. “But she was three weeks late.”

I chuckled. “I’m sorry. I really did try to stick to my timeline as much as possible.”

“I can confirm that.” Talya said, crossing her arms and leaning against the kitchen door jamb. “She was talking about asking you almost a month ago, but kept getting cold feet. Said she wanted to do something special but couldn’t decide what. And now here we are, three and half weeks later and she’s done literally nothing and just asked. I assume.”

“More or less.” Avuri said, thankfully not talking about how I ‘asked’ in the end. “She was sweet though. Even if she didn’t quite keep to her own timeline.” She made a big show of sighing. “And after I told her I loved her after a month, just like we said I would.”

I laughed at that. “Hey! Saying “I love you” may not be easy necessarily, but it’s certainly easier than a marriage proposal!”

“If you say so.” Avuri shrugged. “Personally, I think you put too much pressure on yourself trying to make it so special. You could’ve just asked me pointblank and gotten your ‘Yes’ so we could start planning.”

I blinked. “Planning?” I asked, tilting my head in question.

“Yes, you lovable idiot, planning.” Avuri said, looking at me like I was insane. “Surely you didn’t think we’d be skipping a wedding?”

I sunk into a crouch and let out something like a strained laugh. “Avuri, I won’t lie. I’ve been so focused on asking you the damn question that planning a wedding was the last thing I was thinking about.”

“Well, you better start thinking about it now, because it’s gonna be a big one.” She grinned. “I’m gonna love it, and you’re gonna hate it, no doubt. But I’m not letting you off easy with this one.”

“Whatever you want, Ri. Just please, don’t torture me too much, yeah?”