Brisbane

[Margrave]

*Not Too Long Ago

Waking up in the morning, he eased out of bed...not wanting to wake her up quite yet. Waking up with strands of red hair sticking to his face, the freckles on her on her neck hard to distinguish through sleep-blurred eyes. Slipping away from their embrace, he sat upright on the edge of the bed, looking out through the large glass doors that led to his tiny balcony. It was a small luxury in the young-and-hungry section of the local apartment complexes, but he was proud of it, the same way he was proud of the business he ran out of one of the herbal stores cum coffee shops that had gotten so popular with the well-to-do and earth-friendly. He'd started advertising back when he thought his band would take off, and made enough friends on the local scene to do the advertising for several of the more popular local bands, eventually picking up business for a few of the establishments in the area. It was a good job; but not his dream...No, if there was one dream that they both shared, it was opening up a nice, family run restaurant, serving folk dishes from around the world...While most of the recipes came from her travels with the humanitarian mission, he'd kept several from his mother and aunts, meaning a pan-global fusion cafe was in their future...if not their immediate one.

He sat up and moved to the kitchenette...not difficult, seeing as it was in the corner. They'd sacrificed walls for space and ended up with a spacious, comfy one-room apartment, another new and progressive design idea that had gotten popular as younger architects and room designers were give artistic license with the designs. They'd hung up colorful blankets to make walls of sorts, hanging posters and pictures in other places...it was a cluttered, colorful place, and he loved it...even the little Japanese table she'd brought back that he always stubbed his toe on. He did so again today, and heard the faintest titter from under the covers; apparently he had an audience. He grumbled playfully, muttering something about "girls and their tastes", and made his way to the stove.

Ramen was the order of the day; Chicken flavored this time. She preferred Oriental, but she liked chicken okay, and today was his turn to pick. There were enough affordable alternatives to the staple of the college diet, but they both had a guilty pleasure in starchy foods, and it was rather inexpensive...not to mention delicious. He tapped his foot idly, humming to himself as he opened up two Stove-Top packages, dropping their contents in the boiling pot. Gradually, his humming turned to singing, an old song his band had desperately tried to make popular again:

Throw a stone and watch the ripples flow

Moving out across the bay

Like a stone I fall into your eyes

Deep into some mystery.

She snuck up behind him, arms wrapping around his waist, her scratchy sweater rubbing through his thin shirt. "So...where's your pot?" He grinned and reached behind her, mussing her long, curly red hair, turning the handle of the pot around, pretending not to let her distract him. He hummed to himself as she poked him, sticking his nose up slightly just to provoke her.

COLD! was the only thing his mind could process for a split second, a large piece of ice slipping down his spine and falling through his shorts...so she was feeling playful today, was she? He turned and pushed his fingertips lightly into her sides, finding her weak point with ease, with drastic results, a fountain of giggles irrupting from her as she fell back under the threat of continued tickle torture. "No fair, my tickle-spots are one of my five secrets I made you promise never to use against me!" He smirked and her and kissed her on the forehead, the scent of strawberries in her hair. "Well, I'll behave myself better in the future, I promise." She gave him an eye that said he'd better, and walked back into their "Room" to get dressed for her day job, a depressing week-day affair that involved doing administrative paperwork for the White Cross. She'd taken the job to be with him after two years of work throughout the worst disaster regions in the world, and even if she didn't enjoy it, she knew it was vital work...and the fact that it kept her with her beloved was the deal-maker.

She reappeared in the kitchen, sweater and boy-shorts replaced by business-woman-proper. She plopped down behind the table he'd painfully constructed from several incomplete tables from a local swap-meet. It's face was purely older English, stylized swirls and whirls engraved into the top, while the legs were Late Imperial German, striking and angular, warm mahogany meeting cherry oak in a strange-but-not-unpleasant blend of two distinct styles. The bowl that sat on it, however, was pure Dollar Store, bought in bulk with the little money they'd had for such effects. With Ramen, however, it became a portal to pure heaven....both of them giving big grins as they dug in. There was very little small talk, but lots of eye contact; Her parents had told him it was "the secret to a good marriage". While he wasn't sure about that, there certainly wasn't anything bad about those big green eyes, and that look she got when she was thinking about him...well, things didn't get much better. She slurped down the last noodle, gave him a kiss that that tasted of chicken and coke, and rushed out the door, throwing back a promise to call him at lunch to talk about dinner plans for tonight.

He waved at her as she left, smiling...until he was sure she was gone. Then, with a look of utmost seriousness, he made his way back into their room, and took a small box out of his pillow. Holding it in his hands, he opened it with a dreamy smile on his face, and thought of all the possibilities this little black box had.

Inside it were two engagement rings.

Edited August 13, 2009 by Margrave