lucetilogs | Christmas tiiiime

Entry tags:

Christmas tiiiime

Who: Bioshock ~~Family~~ House! (and friends)
What: ITS CHRISTMAS! And they're going to be civil to each other dagnabbit
When: Christmas?
Where: The Bioshocker House!
Summary: Everyone is happy! Food! Presents! Puppies? Proposals! WAIT WAHT?!
Rating: P for words starting with P.

Tree? Check. It's pathetic and almost half the pine-needles are missing from getting dragged into the house.

Ornaments? Check.

Christmas dinner? Well...there's food, at least! Robert and Booker might have raided the supermarket for all the microwaveable and appropriate foods to have for Christmas. There's microwaved chicken, microwaved mashed potatoes, microwaved green beans that are really soggy and smell funny, microwaved rolls, and microwaved ham. Because there should be variety, damnit. There's also a pie sitting in the microwave, waiting. And vanilla ice cream.

Booker wouldn't call it a feast or anything but it's not like there's absolutely nothing to be seen.

They haven't gone all out or anything for the first Christmas they're spending together, nobody here really has the Christmas spirit to do it. Either the Luteces don't remember how to do Christmas or they just don't care - the latter is more likely and Booker hasn't done Christmas in decades so it feels off to even find a tree. Booker doesn't know if Elizabeth ever got to celebrate the holiday in her tower but as far as he's concerned this should be good enough.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So he... hadn't brought her away from the house to kiss her?

Elizabeth was very unsure of what was happening now. One minute Gai had been warming her up very nicely, the next he was pulling her back to the bridge--away from the fountain, she might add--and stopping to watch the snow. Of course, when Gai stopped, Elizabeth did too. And she watched, and swore she could almost hear the snow collecting in their hair it was so quiet. After a minute or so of watching, the weight of the moment got to her and she turned to Gai, looking worried.

"Gai... is everything alright?" He was, in her opinion, acting strangely.

"Everything's perfect," he answered her with complete honesty. More perfect than he could have hoped for, in truth, and for a moment he felt compelled to give silent thanks to whoever or whatever was responsible for the weather within the barrier for this picturesque snowfall.

Nervous though he was, the smile on his face was genuine and held not even the slightest hint of conspiratorial intent, belying the force with which he gripped the ring box in his pocket.

He could do this. He wasn't going to back down now. All he had to do was ask one question... how hard could it really be?

Elizabeth smiled, sensing the honesty in the answer and accepting it as the truth. She comfortably snaked her hand around Gai's elbow and rested her head on his shoulder. She supposed everything was perfect. Family and love and more freedom than she had ever been afforded before.

"I know you must be tired of hearing me say this--" Elizabeth chuckled and brushed at her nose when a snowflake landed on it. "But I'd never dreamed I would ever end up here. Watching the snow, on the ground, while in love."

Gai moved easily to allow this, leaning his own head against her hair and giving another round of silent thanks for the fact that she wasn't looking at his face while he tried to gather his courage together in order to initiate the operation, so to speak. Hardly a romantic way of thinking about it, but when he thought of it in that light, it made it that much easier for him not to let his nerves get the better of him.

He'd planned the entire thing out, written out how he was going to broach the subject and lead into the question itself the same way he would have planned out one of his missions at home. Now, however, in the face of the actual moment, he found that everything he'd come up with just seemed so... trite.

Maybe some things really were better unplanned.

"I could never get tired of hearing that from you any more than I could get tired of experiencing this." A deep breath. "And I want to keep on experiencing things like this with you, now and for the rest of our lives. I want us to be able to watch the snow together like this every winter for however many winters we have, and in several years I want to take our children out to play in it the way we never could."

His heart was hammering, his voice betraying the faintest hint of uncharacteristic nervousness as he spoke.

Edited 2013-12-28 10:38 (UTC)

Elizabeth looked up at Gai, concerned again. She'd gotten a distinct feeling that something was being kept from her after she had returned to Luceti, and she was starting to wonder if it was something having to do with Gai. He talked about wanting to experience things with her, wanting winters like this for the rest of their lives, and Elizabeth had never thought that they wouldn't have that.

Her eyes suddenly focused on the crystals on Gai's face, and she was afraid. She knew the disease was painful, and Gai had mentioned when they'd first met that there was the possibility he could die from it. Suddenly, talking about the things he wanted to do sounded a lot like a list of things he was afraid he wouldn't get to do. Had the disease gotten worse when she was gone?

"Of course we'll do all those things together," Elizabeth said quickly, gripping his elbow a little tighter. "Every winter, every snow, I promise. Together, you and me, and then our family. No matter what happens."

Perhaps that hadn't been the best choice of words, he realized. Elizabeth looked quite concerned, her grip on his arm tighter than it really needed to be for the situation, almost as if she were afraid that he might vanish if she were to let go. While it was true that there was always the possibility that either one of them could be sent home at any time, that hadn't been what he was trying to invoke, and for a moment he wondered if he really hadn't said the wrong thing.

No. He couldn't stop here; couldn't back down now. Whatever she was afraid of, they would face it together. They'd promised each other that much already. This was just making things formal. There was no need to be worried about this, none at all.

But that knowledge didn't do much of anything to make his heart stop pounding in his chest.

"I know. There are a million things I want to do, some of them for the first time. And I want you to be the one by my side throughout all of it. I want to share everything with you, even the parts of me I hate, because I know that you'll accept them-- no, that you'll accept me for what I am. You've given me the greatest gift I could ever ask for, Elizabeth." In his pocket, his hand was gripping the ring box so tightly it had almost gone numb. "But there's one more thing I want to ask of you."

Now he was almost sure that his heartbeat had to be audible. His next movements were more muscle memory from practicing this in front of a mirror than anything else, because he was fairly certain that he didn't have enough conscious motor control left to do this otherwise.

Somehow he found himself down on one knee in front of her anyway despite his lack of awareness of actually performing the movement itself, one hand holding the small black box while the other opened the lid to reveal the ring within. He'd agonized over the design of it for weeks-- he'd known from the start that it had to be something simple, not too elaborate or glittery, yet it also had to be something that was as unique as she was. He'd sketched and then scrapped countless images before at last deciding on the version he'd chosen: sapphire to match her eyes, the triquetras surrounding it mirroring the ones on the rosary necklace he'd given to her for her birthday. A ring that represented both of them.

"Will you marry me?"

The four most terrifying words he'd ever spoken... and yet the four words he'd most wanted to say.

Edited 2013-12-29 07:20 (UTC)

Elizabeth stayed confused and nervous until Gai moved and knelt down in the snow. Then... then what he was saying made perfect sense. There was nothing else he could have been talking about but this, expressing his desire to spend the rest of his life with her could only be followed by him asking her that question.

Her hand pressed over her mouth as Gai produced the box, and her eyes wavered as he opened it. Gai was asking her to be with him for the rest of their lives, like it would be an honor for her to say yes. Yes they had talked about it happening eventually, talked about wanting to have children to raise together, talked about being old together. But it was happening now, that dream was coming true right now. This was happening--she was being proposed to.

It was overwhelming to the point where she couldn't talk for a moment. Then she figured out that it was because her hand was over her mouth, and Elizabeth fixed that by kneeling down and wrapping her arms around Gai's shoulders.

"Yes! Yes! Oh God, it's beautiful, yes I want to marry you!"

Too many thoughts were coming at once, but she didn't care that she was spouting words. Gai would sort them out while she squeezed him.

Elizabeth was free to spout as many words as she wanted for the moment to make up for Gai's inability to remember how they (or, for that matter, speaking in general) worked. His response was also more instinct than anything else, aided by the fact that she'd dropped down to her own knees in front of him and grabbed him in an embrace. The only logical thing to do was to bring his own arms up to pull her close and just hold her tight, breathing in her scent and just ascertaining that all of this was real, that it was all really happening.

But it was real, and Elizabeth was hugging him and then he was laughing breathlessly in disbelief and sheer joy because she'd said yes and if lightning were to somehow strike him dead at this very moment, he could die content.

She wanted to marry him... for the very first time in his life, he wasn't the second choice. He was her first and only choice just as she was his, and now it was a choice made for the rest of their lives.

Any joy he'd ever thought he'd felt before paled in comparison to this.

Gai was far from her second choice. As far as she was concerned, no one else would be her other half. Gai was it, Gai would always be it. There was no choice because they were attached by that red string Gai had mentioned.

"Wait, wait, let me see it again!" Elizabeth pulled away from Gai, but her hands still clung to his coat. Almost as though she could believe what she'd seen before she'd thrown herself at him.

Gai laughed again and brought the hand holding the box back around for her to see. He'd put it on her finger eventually, of course, but until then, she was free to admire it as much as she liked.

"I never was the sort of person to adhere to traditions," he joked, referring to the fact that it was a sapphire rather than a diamond. "Besides, blue is more your color than just a plain diamond."

Elizabeth really didn't know anything about traditions with rings or stones, which ones were traditional or not. She just knew that it was beautiful.

"It has the, the little design on your cross," she said, getting excited at the thought of this ring being designed just for her. Blue, the little designs, it was silver, and even the box was beautiful--

"It's perfect..."

"I designed it to match the cross," he said, carefully lifting the ring out of the box to hold it up so that she could get a better look at it. "I wanted it to be something that represented both of us-- something more personal than just some ring I picked up at the store."

His smile softened, grew a little more loving, if that was even possible. "And I wanted you to think of me every time you look at it."

"I will, of course I will." Elizabeth wasn't going to think of much besides Gai for the next few days. Her fiance Gai. She took another moment to admire the ring, then hurriedly pulled off her glove so Gai could put it on her.

That was all the incentive Gai needed to take her hand and carefully slide it onto her finger-- one of the plus sides of using mission points to have it made was the fact that he could just request that they make it in her ring size, meaning that the fit was perfect.

That accomplished, he sat back on his heels a bit to admire how it looked on her finger. Also perfect, just as he'd imagined it would be. It looked like it belonged there, he realized with a thrill of happiness and definite pride.

And the moment Elizabeth realized it fit perfectly was magical too. Her face lit up when she felt it slide snugly onto her finger. And in her opinion too, it looked like it had always been there. She covered her mouth again and looked up at Gai before launching herself at him again. Just to hold him again and hold onto the moment.

And again he caught her in his arms and just held her tight without a word. All of this still seemed like a dream to him, the man who had spent nearly the entirety of his life knowing that he was a fake, a mistake, always trying so desperately to become the real thing.

Elizabeth had chosen to marry him of her own free will. That, right there, made him feel more complete than he'd ever thought possible.

Elizabeth stayed still in his arms for a moment, replaying the entire scene in her head one more time before pulling back again to dive in for a kiss. That seemed like the second appropriate response to it.

"I have to get you a ring," she managed to say between kisses. But hers was so perfect, how would she think up something that was a combination of both of them that wasn't what was on her finger now? She'd have to think about it.

"You don't have to get me anything," he murmured against her lips. There was more he wanted to say than just that, but kissing was a distraction he wasn't willing to put an end to, not just yet. He wanted to savor this entire moment, keep it going as long as possible. It was perfect, she was perfect, everything was perfect.

"I already have everything I could ever want." And it was the truth. That "yes" was all he needed from her; compared to that, a ring was nothing.

"Maybe you do--" Elizabeth grinned against Gai's lips and split her sentence in half for a kiss. "--but I want to ask you to marry me too. It's the only chance I'll get.

"And when are you going to figure out that when I do something for you, it's half because I want to?" She laughed and shuddered a little from the chill. The snow was melting into her skirt, and truth be told, she really couldn't feel her legs anymore.

Now Gai sobered slightly, the look in his eyes growing soft and sad. Logically, he should have been aware of that by now. Emotionally... old psychological scars were still healing. The process was long and slow and couldn't be rushed, he knew that much, but every now and then (like now) he felt bad that he wasn't able to react the way a normal person would.

"I know," he said, kissing her again. "I just still have a hard time believing that people want to do things for me."

The moment Gai's face clouded, Elizabeth's did as well. She hadn't thought this would be so strange for Gai, she'd thought that it was only normal that she give him a ring as well--to symbolize her love for him. Their relationship had always been equal, Elizabeth had never felt like something won and kept. She wanted a ring for Gai so that he would think of her when he saw it.

Elizabeth ran her fingers over Gai's cheek, trying to soothe away his sad expression. "I'm not 'people' anymore, though. I'm going to love you until the day I die, you can lean on that always, Gai."

He lifted his hand to rest over hers and hold it there and just leaned into her touch, letting his eyes slide shut. He'd spent his entire life trying to prove that he was more than just an imposter, and now that he'd achieved that, it was still a strange, alien feeling to him, one that he didn't always know how to handle.

But that didn't mean that he would ever want to give it up. It just meant that he needed to work on learning to love himself the same way that Elizabeth loved him.

"I'll love you even longer than that-- you can count on that much too."

"Oh I see, it's a contest now," Elizabeth laughed and playfully headbutted Gai before kissing him again.

"No... marriage is a partnership, Gai. You have to let me shoulder as much as what I let you shoulder. And you have to believe that I want to keep you safe and happy as much as you want to keep me safe and happy. Otherwise... I might as well be a very attractive vase, for all the good I would do you."

She smiled lightly and reached with her free hand to find his. "That's the one thing I want before we're married--I want you to feel comfortable relying on me."

When Elizabeth headbutted him, Gai laughed and leaned forward just enough to rub noses with her before her lips were on his in a kiss. "You know me. I never was one to back down from a challenge," he teased her right back when they finally broke for air.

She was right, though, and he knew it. His desire to make sure that he was never unable to protect anyone ever again didn't trump Elizabeth's desire to do the same thing for him. They weren't just protecting each other; they were supporting each other, which was, at its heart, what a marriage really was. A partnership, just like she'd said.

He just had to squash down those overprotective instincts.

"I want to feel comfortable doing that," he said, the corners of his lips lifting back into a smile. "I know it won't be easy, and it will be going against everything I've ever learned about the world, but you deserve a husband who is as comfortable relying on you as you are on him."

Edited 2013-12-31 09:56 (UTC)

"That's what I want," she said, smiling back at him and nodding a little. "I know it will be hard for you, I know you too well to think that you can just make that happen right now. But I never want you to think of me as something fragile, or something to be protected from the world." Hidden away, watched through glass. "I've had enough of that. If you go somewhere dangerous, I want to go with you. If you have to cry, I want it to be on my shoulder. I want you to fight with me, tell me I'm wrong when you think I'm wrong, tell me what little things I do drive you mad. No putting me on a pedestal. No... growing to be afraid of me, no resentment."

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