WHO: Nina Deforest and Rupert Shield WHEN: Evening of September 24 WHERE: Walking around town, specifically by Dunhaven Park SUMMARY: Questions are popped! WARNINGS: None!
If he’d been a more patient man, he would have waited for the anniversary of their first hiking trip. He would have taken her up that mountain top and asked her the question he’d been dying to ask for weeks -- months, if he was honest -- with the wind whipping her hair and the green and yellow and orange backdrop of the forest behind her.
Rupert was not a patient man.
He did have a romantic soul, much like his counterpart, but he was not patient. They both had wild imaginations; Kili’s got him into more trouble than Rupert’s did, but they were both prone to the same flights of fancy. On the boat ride across the lake to Erebor, Kili spent all of it imagining what he would do or say when he saw Tauriel again. He imagined what he would say to his brother, to his uncle. He knew already that he wouldn’t have been able to bear being apart from her again, and he knew he was ready to face whatever consequences that would carry. Rupert felt similarly.
He’d thought about recreating their first date, of surprising her at work, of making a sign for her dog to carry to her. Ultimately, though, the thing that felt most like them was cooking at her house and taking a walk through town as the sun set.
“We’ve both been living here for over a year now,” he commented, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “It’s gone by quickly.”
"It has, hasn't it?" Nina's agreement came automatically, paired with a smile up at Rupert and a return squeeze of his hand. She personally had a hard time even fathoming where the year had gone. Her decision made on a whim to relocate to the small town had been one of the best she'd made in her thirty-four years. Granted, the dreams were strange and she doubted that she would ever really get used to them, but they were a price she was more than willing to pay for the life she had made for herself, with Rupert at her side.
Following that vein of thought, she continued, "I would be more sad about how fast it's gone by, but I think that the faster a year goes by, the better an indication of just how good a year has been. And," she paused, letting herself drift in closer to his side to press her cheek to his shoulder for just a moment before she straightened up again, "it's been a pretty fantastic year."
“One of the best,” he agreed with a smile. Truthfully, nothing had come close the year he’d had in Dunhaven. That was what his parents didn’t understand. None of the money and privilege in the world could buy what he and his sister had here. It was what Rupert suspected Kili’s kin wouldn’t understand, either.
They were nearing Dunhaven Park now, and the eastern edge of the sky had turned a dusky orange. “I think,” Rupert continued, a sly smile crossing his features, “we should plan a honeymoon in Kenya. To commemorate where and how we met.”
One of Nina's eyebrows arched just slightly at the suggestion, the word honeymoon all too impossible to ignore. As her gaze met Rupert's, she took in that smile on his face and found one of her own mirroring his. Going back to Kenya with him had been a dream of hers since they had said goodbye to one another while still standing on the African soil; she would have wanted to return regardless, but the thought of doing so without him just felt wrong. The notion of going back to celebrate something like a marriage, though? She'd never say no to that.
"I think that could be arranged," Nina replied, tipping her head to one side and still smiling. "I can't think of a more perfect place to go."
“So is that a yes?” Rupert, still grinning, came to a stop and turned to face her, reaching out to grasp her other hand.
As they came to a stop, Nina's head tilted to the side once again, this time almost quizzically. She felt as though she was missing something or was being particularly slow on the uptake, though the smile still lingering on her lips meant that she was enjoying the journey. It didn't seem like that much of a leap as to what it was he was really asking, given the word honeymoon being used, but she still found herself unwilling to assume -- even as she felt a bubble of giddiness rise up in her chest.
"To honeymooning in Kenya with you?" Nina asked, her smile growing as she got to say that word, too. "There's no other answer but yes."
Playfully, Rupert exhaled like he’d been holding his breath in anticipation. “Oh, that’s a relief, else I would have just made a massive fool of myself.” He hadn’t ever been worried, however, not even for a second.
“In all seriousness,” he continued, letting go of one of her hands long enough to reach into his pocket, “I would not be half the man I am today if I hadn’t met you. The moment we found each other again, I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted to be yours for as long as you’d have me. The rest of our lives, hopefully.” In his hand was a ring - a lone diamond surrounded by an intricate braid along the entire band. It was as close to what he imagined Kili would have designed as he could get. “In short, will you marry me?”
It was exactly the question Nina had hoped Rupert might ask, yet hadn't allowed herself to dream it until the very moment the words had left his mouth. She had been thinking about a life with him since before she'd really allowed herself to consider it as a possibility. In Kenya, it had only been a dream about a fellow doctor that she had been so certain could never work. In the time that followed her return home, it had been a missed opportunity. Both felt too close to what she feared for Tauriel. But here, now, in Dunhaven, it was something they could have. It was something she knew they would get.
Nina's free hand popped up to her mouth, her fingers pressing to her smiling lips as she felt her eyes get watery. As a rule, she didn't like to cry. Right then, she didn't care. This was the best sort of cry there could be. Opening her mouth, a breath mixed with a soft laugh escaped as she lifted her hand so her fingers could touch at his jawline. "Yes," Nina agreed, nodding as she started to grin once more. "Yes, of course I will."
There were really no words left that could encapsulate how he felt, so instead, Rupert leaned forward to kiss her, channelling everything else into it. He knew that asking was more of a formality than anything else; he’d known for a long time what her answer would be. But it still meant a lot to know. Hearing it was a salve to the parts of him that were hurt by his parents’ lack of support, and to the parts of him that ached for Kili’s separation from her.
When he pulled back, he looked down to slid the ring upon her finger. It looked like it belonged there. Like it had always been there. At least he thought so. “How’d I do?”
Nina watched as Rupert slipped the ring onto her finger, a warmth starting to spread through her from her heart. It was beautiful, that much was certain, and exactly the sort of ring she could imagine wearing for the rest of her life -- though, that had less to do with the obivous beauty and everything to do with the man that had given it to her.
"Absolutely perfect," she said, her eyes lifting from the ring to Rupert. Raising one of her hands, she cupped his jaw as she pushed herself to her toes, then stole a soft kiss. "You're perfect," she added, her voice quiet as the kiss broke. "I love you, Rupert."
“Well.” It had taken them a remarkably long amount of time to come to these conclusions, and it made Rupert laugh. He wouldn’t have changed a thing in the end (well, except for: he would have told her how he felt about her long before saying good bye), because they’d ended up here anyway.
Rupert leaned in for another quick kiss. “That settles that. Let’s get on home. I bought champagne just for this.” At their feet, her dog whined. “And I think someone’s getting antsy.”
Looking down, Nina met Sam's pouty dog gaze before leaning to scratch him behind the year. It seemed to placate him for the moment, but she knew that he was probably hopeful to head back home and get a treat for being so good on their walk. Turning back to Rupert, she paused to steal one final kiss -- she assumed it was allowed, given that they had just gotten engaged and all -- then took his hand in hers to start the journey back home.
How her life had become so full, Nina wasn't sure. But, somehow fate had dealt her a particularly amazing hand, one that had given her blessing after blessing. She could sit and wonder why she'd gotten that lucky, but that seemed like a waste to her. She'd rather enjoy it.