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It was an open secret to the Mezalean citizens that their king was in love with the ocean queen.
Everyone had seen the way that their king personally buys prismarine from the neighbouring kingdom despite having dozens of servant that could do it for him; seen his insistence to have the blocks even though Mezalean architecture barely contains prismarine. They've also seen how frequent he skips work to walk along the coast, hoping to get a glimpse of the pink haired lady swimming in the sea.
The Mezalean citizens first thought is was adorable, now they're just sick of his pining.
The solution?
Shove him to a boat and set him off. With luck, they either get a queen or their king dies either from nervousness or drowns somewhere. It was a win win for them.
Joel is gonna die. His heart is pounding so hard he thinks he's gonna get a heart attack. Or maybe he's gonna drown with how the waves are.
Bloody hell, maybe he should go back. Yeah that sounds nice, no need to get himself rejected.
He turns the boat around, ready to row back home when an axolotl stopped his way, its beady eyes judging him. "Shoo, go away stupid axolotl"
The blue axolotl doesn't move, still staring. "Listen Stephanie, I'm gonna call you Stephanie, yeah? I'm going back home, now get out of my way"
Stephanie does move, but instead of moving away from the boat it moves forward. She starts rocking the boat back and forth.
"Wh-What the hell Stephanie?!"
She stops and goes back with her judgemental stare. Joel sighs, "You're not gonna let me go back until I talk to Lizzie, are you?"
The axolotl swims in circles, he thinks that's a yes. He lets out a bigger sigh, to the Ocean Empire it is.
"Lizzie, come to the..." Joel looks around his surrounding, trying to find a more memorable build. "Come to the frog statue" he ended up messaging her.
"Hi Joel!" God, if his heart wasn't already running before then it definitely is now.
"Hey Lizzie, do you..." Bloody hell, he needs to think of something quick. Why didn't he think of a plan before coming here?!
"...want to go on a boat ride with me?" His tone was nonchalant as if he didn't particularly care either way, even though he feels like he's gonna puke for nervousness.
"Sure I like boats" Score!
Now feeling slightly more confident in his prospects, "You can say it's a date"
Lizzie stares at her with a deadpan face, "No that's a boat"
And so with a heart broken from the rejection, he sails them off as Lizzie tours him along her empire.
-----
Sometimes Lizzie worries for her lover. Don't get her wrong, Joel is really sweet, charming, and romantic. Even if he never gave her a coat for their engagement, and instead gave her that weird small gold circlet.
(Ah but the again the small jewellery is really pretty)
Anyway back to Joel, he keeps referring to things as dates. Like that time they had dinner, or when he took her to picnic in a lush cave with an underground lake beside it, the glow from the berries and the squids mimicking starlight (like she said- sweet, charming, and romantic).
And it's silly! After all dates are food, Pearl even sells it.
And she tells this to the other empresses and Jimmy who for some reason is part of girl's night. She expected them to understand how weird Joel was being or laugh at him for mistaking everything as food.
But they don't. Well- Jimmy laughs, fully understanding what Lizzie meant. But everyone else just shares glances.
"Oh dear..."
"Should we tell her"
"Oh my god, poor Joel"
"What? Tell me what?" Lizzie looks at them confusedly; is this another weird land dweller custom that she doesn't know about?
"Umm Lizzie..." Katherine started. "Dates are technically food but if Joel is aking you out on a date it means" then she starts explaining to Lizzie (and to Jimmy, who also didnt understand) what a date exactly was.
Lizzie's face flushed purple. "W-well I didn't know that! Besides why would you name it after a fruit. That's stupid!"
A few of them laugh. "Joel must have been so confused" one of them says.
-----
Lizzie wrings her hands nervously, almost dropping the cake she had (recently she discovered that she didn't need to have a birthday or force everyone as empress to have cake). She knocks on the door before she becomes to scared to do so.
One of Joel's servants opened the door; Matthew or Brian she thinks but she wasn't sure (They all look eerily similar to Joel, it was somewhat creepy). "Ocean Queen?"
"I-is Joel here?"
"Lizzie?" She peaks her head to see the owner of the voice, she quickly noticed how he hid a box away from her sight.
"Are you busy?"
"Yes he-" "Nope not all" she pretends not to see how he glared at the servant.
"So what are we doing?"
"I was thinking another picnic, you know like a date?" She turns purple, thinking back on how embarrassed she was when the other empresses teased her. Still it was worth it, watching a gleam in Joel's eyes.
"That's great!" He sounded excited. "Oh yeah I got you this"
She accepted the gift, eagerly opening it already. With Joel, the gifts were either incredibly romantic or it would be a funny little joke that would always make her laugh.
She opens it. Inside the box was the most beautiful fur coat she's ever seen. She tackles Joel into a hug.
"I love you" she says into the crook of his neck.
"Love you too" he murmurs back.