I stare proudly at the tiny, little tag charm that hangs from my pearl necklace, that Lance bought me while we were in Mo'orea. He has a matching one on the chain around his own neck. He gave them me the night he brought me home from the hospital, eight months ago.
It's a collar for us both that is appropriate for our careers, but still shows our level of commitment to each other. That we belong to each other.
He was so stressed when he offered it to me, because he knows that it should have been done by me. It's alright though, when I had healed, he took his punishment like a good boy.
I smirk at the memory before heading downstairs to join the rest of the celebration. The house is full of Lance's family and his moms friends, as we celebrate her sixty-fifth birthday. We all are happy to spend this time with her.
She lost all her hair from the chemo four months ago, and is coming back in patchy. She's wearing one of my wigs that I normally use in role playing scenes, but she doesn't have to know that. Her cancer hasn't spread, or become worse, so she decided to stop the chemo altogether and enjoy the rest of her life with quality and not quantity.
It was a hard decision for her to make and for Lance to hear, but seeing her so much more active now has made it bearable.
Her eyes and smile are bright, watching her nephews and nieces kids run around and talking with everyone.
I'm up on the back porch looking for Lance, not sure where he is. I walk on over to Beth to ask her about her MIA son.
"Hey mom, did you see where Lance went? I'm pretty sure he said that he would cut the cake." I ask her.
She gives me a odd look, "No... I haven't seen him now in about fifteen or twenty minutes, now that you mention it."
She stands up and looks around herself, but I reassure her, "Don't worry, he's around here somewhere. He probably is just trying to find the cake knife. I'll go check."
I find Lance on his knees in the kitchen behind the bar, explaining why I probably didn't see him when I first walked out. He's talking to himself.
"Lirael, I need to ask you a question." I hear him say.
"Well, if you are looking for the cake cutting knife, it's not there." I laugh, crossing my arms as he jumps.
"Shit, I didn't realize you were in here." He chuckles embarrassed.
I scoff amused, and go to one of the drawers by the sink to pull out the knife. "Here you go, silly. You don't have to get worked up over asking me where stuff is in here. You've only been living here for a month, I don't expect you to know where everything is yet." I smile, handing the knife to him and kiss his cheek, making him blush.
"Yeah, you're right sorry. Thank you, for helping me out." He smiles warmly at me, and motions for me to head out first.
But we both stop and turn as someone walks inside the front door.
We turn and see Big Daddy and Dr. Aman Patil walk in with roses.
"I heard I was invited to some ones birthday!"
"Us too!" Janet, Kim and her husband Tim, and Teresa from work follow behind them. They are quickly followed by Brian, Scott, Jack, Charlotte, her husband Robert, Hadassah and her girlfriend Saoirse.**
I look to Lance who has a giant grin on his face, telling me he knew that they would be coming.
"Welcome, you guys! You're just in time, we were about to go cut the cake." I tell them, ushering them out the back door.
We join everyone else and sing mom happy birthday and cut everyone up a slice of cake.
We are all sitting down and I notice Lance gets a smidge of frosting on the corner of his mouth, so I try to point it out to him.
"Um Lance, you got some frosting right here on your face." I say pointing at my own to mirror where it is.
He misses it entirely, so I lean over to wipe it off.
"Boop" He states, booping my nose with a finger full of frosting.
"AH!" I gasp, jaw dropped at his playful antics. Everyone there starts to laugh, so I gather it off my nose, and flick it right back at him, for it to plop in his eye.
"HAHAHA!" Everyone starts dying of laughter as he wipes his eye out, chuckling to himself.
"Guess I deserved that one." He chuckles.
I stick my tongue out at him as we wipe our faces free of frosting. He leans over and places a chaste kiss on my cheek, making me blush from head to toe.
I look down and away from his gaze that makes my heart flutter and heat rise in my core. Something bright and shiny catches my eye on Aman's wrist and notice a matching one on Big Daddy.
I squeak, covering my mouth, trying to make it sound like I sneezed instead of almost squealing in delight. After I calmed down a moment, I leaned over and complimented it.
"That's a nice new bracelet you have there, Aman. I like it." I nod with coy smile.
Aman's ears change color as he acknowledges it. "Thank you, I'm very fond of it myself." He glances at Big Daddy with a smirk on his face and we leave it at that, being in front of Lance's Vanilla family members.
I glance at Lance who's giving me another one of his heated looks that melt my insides.
I'm going to have to punish him later for those looks.
We're all sitting around having a good time, talking and listening to some music, when Lance takes my hand and pulls me up.
"Dance with me, I like this song." He laughs, pulling me close to him as we start to dance to Frank Sinatra, Fly me to the moon.
"In other words, I love you." He sings along with the music, twirling me and pulling me back closer. The next song comes on and it's James Arthur, Say you won't let go.
He pulls me close and sings it softly to me, as we dance gently swaying to the music.
"I love you, Lirael." Lance whispers, during my favorite part of the song, "I want to live with you even when we're ghosts.." he trails off, and steps back smiling at me.
I smile right back at him, but my jaw drops when he gets down on one knee in front of his family and our friends. I cover my mouth when he pulls out a ring box and he opens it.
"Lirael." He shakes a bit but quickly steadies his hands and clears his throat. "I love you, I never believed I could love someone the way I love you, and be accepted and loved in return. I sometimes think that I'm dreaming, and if that is the case... I hope I never wake up, and if I do wake up I want it to be next to you. Will you do me the honor of being able to wake up and see your face everyday, as my wife?"
I remain quiet, staring into his eyes, a tear escapes from my right eye as I breathlessly croak, "Yes."
Everyone cheers as he slides the ring on to my finger. Rising to kiss me wrapped in his arms, I whisper back to him, "Yes, Lance. I will marry you."
For how my life started out and for many years later, I never thought I deserved a kinky and a happy ever after, but if these walls could talk...
A/N: Thank you everyone who's read my story. I really hope you enjoyed it! I'm actually kind of sad to be finishing this story. But I also loved writing it.
Please let me know what you thought, by comment or review!
Thank you! <3
~Mara~
**Saoirse - is pronounced Sir-Sha {sha not shay}