It was one of the times the man was not the best at keeping his mask up. And he would feel bad if he cared enough. The moment was going perfectly. It was exactly what he required, in fact, and nothing more. So long as nothing weird happened in the background of the photographs, he would have the moment preserved for her forever, appease his mother’s and friends’ needs to have the moment gushed over in a way that did not require him to talk about it, and most importantly, he would succeed in making Maria happy. This was all for her. For him, yes, as he did enjoy knowing he had done everything perfectly. And that he managed to pull off a fantastic moment for her. Aside from his own ego, however, it was for her.
It was fortunate that he was also used to Maria’s standard inability to grasp positive things immediately and her brain’s habit of shutting down at shock. The slow reaction was accounted for in his itinerary of “should I be worried.” It was deemed that no, the few second pause would be expected and any sooner reaction would be bad. And, as he expected the shock was replaced slowly with a smile that grew. He waited her out contently until she finally spoke aloud. He watched her with humored, warm eyes and a small smirk on his face. And when she finally said yes, it split into a full smile, filled with teeth and dimples.
Blaise stood once he knew she got a look at the ring and took her hand in his before sliding the ring on. This he had guessed, as he never found the time to snoop for a ring. He was not sure if it would be bad to make her think her things were going missing or not, so it was up to guessing and much debate with his mother over the size of the older woman’s rings at Maria’s age. With it slid on, a bit loose but easily fixed in the future, Blaise cupped her cheek with the hand opposite the photographer across the way and pressed a long and chaste kiss against her lips. The smile on Blaise’s face made contact shorter than he had intended, but the man pulled back and looked down at his now fiancé and smiled. “I love you, too the future Mrs. Zabini.”