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It was a warm summer's day, and Valkyrie and Militsa were taking Xena for a walk. The air was beautiful, not a cloud in sight, it was the perfect day for what Valkyrie had planned.
Valkyrie and Militsa had been together for 2 years before the subject of marriage was brought up in relation to themselves. And even then, it wasn’t like a “hey do you want us to be married someday?” thing, but more of a “would you ever want to be married to anyone” sort of thing. Militsa had talked and laughed about her childhood fantasy of a fairytale wedding and said that being married sounded nice, although she was less fond of the fairytale thing now that she was older. Valkyrie had nodded and smiled along with her story, laughing at the appropriate parts and then expressed that while she didn’t love the whole “big wedding with all your friends and family”, she would get married if it was what her partner wanted.
Other than that occasion, marriage had been brought up a few more times. But here Valkyrie was, walking through the empty park with Militsa, hand in hand, ring in pocket, Xena between them on a leash. Everything was perfect, Valkyrie had it planned out to a T, there was no way that anything could possibly go wrong.
Knock on wood.
— — —
“Hey Militsa, I have something I want to ask you.”
Militsa’s face became horrified as she said, “Oh god are you going into the Leibniz universe again?”
Valkyrie reassured her that no, she wasn’t going to Dimension X again and guided her to sit down on the edge of the fountain, before she could open her mouth again Militsa spoke, still horrified, “Have you gotten addicted to drugs again?”
“What?! Militsa, no! Besides, those splashes were hardly drugs!”
“Val, they were quite literally drugs… and you were addicted to them.”
Valkyrie shook her head, “Anyway, none of that was what I was going to say.”
Valkyrie reached around her body to get to her coat pocket and pulled out the ring while Militsa wasn’t looking. All of a sudden Single Ladies, by Beyonce, started blasting from Valkyrie’s phone and she jumped up, startled, the ring flying out of her hand and into the water. ‘Oh shit…’ Valkyrie thought as she stared at the ring, wide eyed, at the bottom of the knee deep fountain.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and clicked the answer button, not looking at the caller ID. “Hello?” She said into the receiver.
“Valkyrie, where are you? China has a mission for us again,” came Skulduggery’s voice.
Valkyrie briefly considered climbing into the fountain and lying face down for 15 minutes. Instead she gritted her teeth and said, “Skulduggery, this better not have to do with Darquesse or random portals opening up or vengeful gods or any fucking assassinations. I’m with Militsa. Like I told you I would be.”
If Skulduggery had eyebrows she was sure they would have shot up at that, “Shit Val, I forgot, sorry… any luck?”.
Valkyrie gritted her teeth and turned away from Militsa so she wouldn’t hear when she lowered her voice and said, “I dropped it in the fucking fountain when you called.”
On the other end of the line she could hear Skulduggery suck air through his teeth in what she knew would be a grimace if he had the facial features necessary for such an expression. She rolled her eyes as he apologised again (although secretly there was a bit of a smile on her face too).
“Alright, I suppose I've caused enough trouble huh?” Skulduggery asked and didn’t wait for an answer before responding, “I’ll leave you alone now, good luck!” and with that, he hung up leaving a very annoyed Valkyrie to deal with a fucked up proposal on her own.
Valkyrie moodily stuffed the phone back into her pocket where the box for her ring mocked her mercilessly. “Hey, Val,” she heard Militsa say and her mood immediately brightened again as she looked up to her girlfriend’s smiling face. Valkyrie hummed happily in response.
“I’m going to the bathroom,” she gestured over her shoulder where there was a public toilet in the distance, “Could you take Xena for a bit?” she handed the lead to Val.
“Of course,” Valkyrie replied, “Have fun!” she added as she watched her girlfriend walk away in the distance.
‘Have fun?’ she thought to herself, ‘who the hell tells someone to have fun in the bathroom?’
Once she was sure that Militsa could no longer hear her she turned very seriously to Xena, she set the lead on the ground and stood on it, holding her hand out. “Stay…” she said cautiously as she slowly backed towards the fountain. She kept repeating the word and Xena kept sitting. Valkyrie quickly took her boots and socks off, turned around and stepped into the fountain, thankful she was wearing shorts.
The basin for the fountain was wide and made of stone and had an edge that people could sit on, the fountain itself was bronze and shaped like a fish jumping straight out of the water. Valkyrie was ice cold as the freezing water lapped at her knees. Plus, if she wasn’t careful she would walk straight into the stream of water gushing violently from the fish’ mouth, as it was, she was already being sprayed lightly by it.
Valkyrie swiftly diverted her attention from the stinging water to what was beneath it. She scoured the stone floor for a glimpse of something shiny, which was difficult considering that the water alone was reflecting light back into her eyes and was not made easier by the thin covering of coins on the bottom.
Gasping, she spotted it and stuck her hands under the water grasping it and pulling it out along with a few coins. She pocketed the ring once again (and also the coins she had snatched, after all there was no harm done by taking them right?) and moved the get out of the water, she certainly didn’t want to be in there any longer than she had to be. As she hauled one leg out of the fountain, some water splashed out with it. Xena’s head snapped at the water and she stood up, excited to play. Valkyrie froze, realising her mistake and muttered under her breath, “oh no…” Xena toko this as an invitation and bounded over to the fountain, taking a flying leap off of the edge and splashing happily into the water, covering Valkyrie– poor, wet, horrified Valkyrie– in cold fountain water.
As Xena snapped her mouth excitedly at the waves she had made with her (rather extreme) motions, Valkyrie pulled her other leg out and called out for Xena to come towards her. Xena heard her name and stopped trying to bite the water, instead, tilting her head as she looked intently at her owner.
Cautiously, Valkyrie called Xena’s name again, whistling and patting her legs in an inviting manner. Xena’s mouth broke out in the dog equivalent of a grin and Valkyrie kept cooing at her and encouraging her over. With one last high pitched call of her name Xena’s ears pricked up and she ran towards Valkyrie, hurdling over the edge of the fountain and running into the distance.
“Xena, no!” Valkyrie yelled, panicked as she started sprinting after the dog. Eventually Xena took her past Militsa on her way back, who watched Val run past her, stopped, yelled “Oh my god!” and started running right behind her. Valkyrie and Militsa chased Xena both up, down and then back up a hill before they finally caught up with her, Valkyrie jumping onto Xena’s lead before she could run off again.
Xena looked very pleased with herself while she watched her owners pant to regain their breath. When they finally did, Militsa laughed, snatching the lead off Valkyrie and said, “Val, I really don’t know how you managed to look after her on your own for years before you met me.”
Valkyrie defended herself by saying, “To be fair, this was never a problem in America because my whole house was fenced and I never left it. Besides, she was trained perfectly back then, you just indulge her too much now. She’s spoiled.”
Militsa gasped, covering Xena’s ears and her mouth dropped wide in mock scandal before turning to Xena and saying, “Do I spoil you too much Xena? I don’t think I do. I don’t, do I Xena?” She shook Xena’s head from side to side as the dog tried her very hardest to lick her face from where she was. Valkyrie shook her head fondly at the sight.
The couple sat down on the grass holding hands for a few moments. “Shit!” Valkyrie yelled, suddenly sitting straight up and slamming her hand into her forehead, “I nearly forgot!”
Valkyrie stood up and Miltsa followed suit, looking around confused, trying to figure out what she possibly could have forgotten this time. “Oh yeah,” she realised, “the picnic blanket!”
Valkyrie turned back to her, confusion showing through the scrunched up expression on her face, “What? Oh never mind we’ll get it later.” She waved away the thought from her mind and turned back to Militsa. “That wasn’t what i forgot,” she said, kneeling to the ground and pulling the ring out of her pocket and presenting it to her girlfriend.
“Militsa,” Valkyrie started and watched as Militsa’s face bore a wide grin, “I truly truly love you. And i know this has been a really fucked up day with Xena running away because i dropped the ring in the fountain–”
“You did what?”
“– and then Skulduggery calling…” Valkyrie cut herself off and waved the thoughts away again, her smile stretched wider and wider as she dopily went on, “but God, I love you. The first time I saw you, I swear my heart stopped. love your smile, and the way that you handle yourself around others. Your confidence, your courage and coolheaded-ness. I admired you so much, and I still do. You are just brilliant with Alice and Xena and you’re so kind and you have helped me through so much. When I had to go to Dimension X the thought of you and seeing you again kept me going. I love you so much and I just want to be by your side forever. And if you’d have me I would really love to be your wife.” Valkyrie finished, holding her breath for an answer.
Militsa sucked in her lips, her eyes welled with tears and she impatiently yelled, “so… are you gonna ask or what?” she laughed.
Valkyrie froze then regained her thoughts and said, “oh! I didn’t include it in the speech! Will you marry me, Militsa?”
Militsa hurriedly threw herself on top of Valkyrie, hugging her tightly as she whispered the word “yes” over and over and over again into her fiance’s ear. Militsa pulled back from their embrace, laughing as tears slipped down her cheeks and held her hand out for Valkyrie, who slipped the ring onto Militsa’s ring finger and then hugged her even tighter.
They kissed, clinging to each other for dear life and when they pulled back Militsa whispered, “Should we go back to the picnic then?” Val nodded and they stood up.
“Wait…” Valkyrie’s face dropped, “Where’s Xena?”
Militsa’s face dropped too. She had dropped the lead.
— — —
By the time they had once again rounded up Xena and gotten back to the fountain and their belongings, the sun was setting over the hills and the two women were sweating and had forfeited themselves to the cold water of the fountain, Militsa had hiked up her long skirt and taken off her shoes and now they were both sitting with their feet in the water. Xena was splashing in the water and Valkyrie had a firm grasp of her lead in one hand and was rubbing her fingers over the ring on Militsa’s hand with the other. They were smiling fondly at each other when Beyonce once again blasted from Valkyries phone.
Valkyrie reached into her pocket and pulled out the phone, this time checking the caller ID: it was her Mum.
“Hey Mum,” she spoke into the receiver.
“Hey Ste– sorry, Valkyrie,” came her Mum’s reply, “just checking that you’re still alright to look after Alice tomorrow.”
“Yeah of course.” Valkyrie smiled, an idea forming in her mind, “I can bring my fiance.” she grinned at Militsa who grinned back.
There was silence on the other end of the line followed by, “SHE PROPOSED?!”
Valkyrie startled, moving the phone away from her ear at the volume, “No, Mum, I proposed to Militsa.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to do that?” Oh no her Mum was going to start crying. “Desmond!” she yelled on the other side, “Our daughter proposed! And she didn’t tell us, Desmond!”.
Valkyrie’s eyes widened, she covered the receiver and held the phone close to her chest as she looked guiltily into Militsa’s eyes, “I forgot to tell my parents.”