WHAT: Carol and Emme celebrate their one-year anniversary with a big step forward WHERE: Solstice Springs cabin WHEN: This morning WARNINGS: Too much fluff?? STATUS: Complete
That was how Carol had gone into her engagement ring venture back in early July. Jewelry was out of her comfort zone to start with, and she’d already given Emme a ring — the Claddagh, custom-altered to include both of their birthstones. She wasn’t particularly concerned with diamonds, which ruled out anything most would consider ‘classic’, and after that, Carol was tapped out.
It was a good thing she had the boys.
Stephen Strange and Tony Stark were hardly the people she’d ever imagined would become her best friends in the world, but it worked. They fit. They were the perfect trio of snark, and Carol lived for the ridiculousness that spilled from their group chat on a near-daily basis. She was grateful she had them both in her life; she wouldn’t, at home, which only made her value them all the more.
And, given they were both married (and pretty damn happily), they were also the perfect duo to help her find a ring for Emme. She was definitely out of her depth, but she wasn’t unprepared. By the time they’d actually gone out, she’d discussed enough to know she wanted something Celtic to complement the Claddagh, maybe one of those magical enchantments like Stephen suggested, but she still hadn’t expected to find anything that day.
She had, in that same little shop where Stephen had found Wanda’s. It felt weirdly meant to be.
Once it was all ready to go, she had Stephen store it in one of those tiny magical pocket dimensions he’d shown her. It was best that way. She had a very specific timeline she wanted to do this on — she really had been thinking about this a lot, for a long time — but she was absolutely awful at hiding anything from Emme. Their apartment was comfortable but small; Emmeline would stumble across it at some point if it wasn’t out of reach.
Wanda had taken over that duty early in August — after the ring had dropped into her hands out of a tiny, glowing orange portal just seconds before Stephen’s name appeared on the disappearance list. That had been a blow, but Carol had powered through because that was what you did around here when someone disappeared. There was no changing it. She just hoped Stephen wasn’t miserable back home with the mysterious purple lady.
Today was finally the day. Carol had whisked Emme off to Solstice Springs again. They’d been here once before, back in early July when the population of Emme’s world had dwindled down to just her and Marlene, and all three of them had loved it. This time, it was just the two of them — much more romantic that way. Marlene had stayed home with Kamala, the new mini superhero Carol had taken in. Emme’s best mate was very aware of what Carol was planning and struggling to keep it to herself. She’d threatened Carol with every jinx she could think of if she screwed this up.
Thankfully, Carol had no intention of screwing anything up. She loved Emme, and she knew Emme loved her back. She was anxious as fuck, but years of playing space police and having to be tough for everyone else had given her the skills she needed to keep that masked for the time being.
She would say yes. Carol knew she was going to say yes.
The springs were the perfect backdrop. Carol liked it here, felt relaxed and calm here. It was peaceful in the same sort of way the house in New Orleans had always been. There was no rush here or there, no urgency to get up and get moving and be active — no more than usual, anyway. Still, she was up with the sun, and she leaned in to press kisses into Emme’s neck not long after waking; they were both such light sleepers, basically incapable of staying down once the other was up.
“Happy Anniversary, baby,” she murmured, nipping along her jaw. “Love you.”
Today marked one year since their first date. They hadn’t become officially official until nearly two months later, but this was what Carol counted. This was the day everything had changed, and she was a sucker for sentimentality.
Drifting into waking to the sounds of Carol’s voice was one of Emme’s favorite things. As her mind began to clear away the cobwebs of sleep, she smiled and curled herself closer to her girlfriend. “Happy Anniversary.”
One year ago she’d said yes to a night of karaoke with a cute blonde and everything about her world had changed. For the better, of course. She couldn’t ever have imagined letting herself be this happy and content with anyone, and yet here she was - cuddling domestically on vacation at a hot springs.
She turned in bed to better face Carol. “Up before the sun again?”
“The sun’s up,” Carol countered — which it was, but only just beginning to crest the horizon, a little bit of a pink-orange glow filtering through the crack in the bedroom’s sheer curtain. Still, it counted. The early riser in her just wouldn’t quit, not after all these years.
She smiled, hand raising to brush some wild strands of dark hair back out of Emme’s face. “How’d you get so pretty?” she asked softly, lips curling into a little smile. Even barely awake and sleep mussed, Emmeline was a vision; she’d thought that since day one and didn’t think she’d ever stop.
“Magic.” It was a silly joke, but she never tired of making it. She smiled goofily at both the compliment and her response to it. Unable to help herself, she leaned in to kiss Carol good morning. “How did you sleep? Did you sleep?” She couldn’t help poking her just a little.
Carol mirrored that goofy grin immediately. She’d heard that joke easily hundreds of times, but she liked that her girl was a bit of a dork. It only added to the appeal, having someone she knew she could be silly with like that.
“I slept,” she assured her. There were nights she went without, when she was just too full of restless energy, but last night hadn’t been one of them. “Those hot springs relaxed me enough, and then you finished me off.” She smirked as she stole another kiss, morning breath be damned.
Emme grinned against the kiss. It had been a tiring evening, if she did say so herself. She pulled out of the kiss just long enough to reply, “And I intend to again, Danvers. Many, many times.”
“I’ll hold you to that, Vance.” Carol let her hand slide into dark hair, looping the locks gently around her fingers. She nipped at Emme’s bottom lip, pressing in closer so their foreheads connected. “I sleep better when I’m satisfied, y’know.”
“Oh I know.” Her arm snaked out to find Carol’s waist and tugged her closer. “And I hope you’re ready to sleep better every night for the rest of your life too.”
“That’s the plan,” Carol agreed with a hum and a little chuckle when she was dragged closer. “Hell of a promise to make, though. Think you can keep up with me that long?”
“I always keep my promises. Wouldn’t have made it if I couldn’t.” She knew Carol’s aging was tricky, but as a witch, Emme was more long-lived than most. And while she would still grow older, she intended to keep up with Carol for as long as possible.
“I know.” One more kiss, this time to Emme’s nose before she put just the slightest distance between them. “Alright, lazy bones, I’m gonna wash up and go get your tea and breakfast started. Join me soon?”
As Carol pulled away, Emme couldn’t help but make a small noise of protest. It was mostly in jest, however. “Bit rich to call me lazy when the sun is barely up.” She stuck out her tongue for good measure, but dutifully swung her legs over the side of the bed to get up.
Twenty minutes later she was washed and dressed and followed her nose to the kitchenette where Carol was finishing up breakfast for them. “Smells amazing, as usual.”
Breakfast was Carol’s specialty, always had been and always would be. She was definitely a ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ subscriber and refused to let herself or Emme (or Marlene or Kamala) go without. She was fairly adept with other meals these days, too, mostly because someone had to be, but breakfast was forever her favorite.
Today’s was particularly special because she’d gone full-on British and thrown together an English breakfast. It was a hell of a meal — lots of components that kept her focus and left her still in the shorts and tank top she called pajamas — and she needed about another ten minutes to finish it out. But it did smell good, she’d agree with that, and the kettle had already whistled to announce their tea was ready.
“Thanks. Should taste just as good as it smells, too,” Carol proclaimed with a wink in her girlfriend’s direction. “Pour the tea for me? And then, if you can be trusted to make sure nothing burns, I’ll take two minutes to put on actual clothes.”
“Rude,” Emmeline sniffed with faux indignation as she went to the cupboard to fetch them tea mugs. “I’m going to let your bacon burn on purpose.”
She gave Carol a nod to signal she could go get dressed. After she disappeared, Emme busied herself with pouring their tea, minding the food, and setting the table. She conjured a large vase full of Gladiolus flowers on the table. She’d just finished arranging everything when Carol reappeared, now fully dressed.
It was a smidge longer than two minutes Carol was gone (closer to five), but she emerged sufficiently clean, hair brushed and down, dressed in something a little less revealing but no less comfortable for their breakfast date. And her eyes absolutely lit up when they landed on the rainbow of gladiolus flowers that had appeared on the little kitchen table.
“Aww, you remembered my favorite.” She grinned and snagged Emmeline for a thank you kiss. “And without burning anything. I’m so impressed, baby.”
“I am a woman of many talents, you’re very lucky.” Emme smirked into the kiss and gave Carol a quick pat on the ass.
Together the two of them dished up their food and sat down with full plates and steaming mugs of tea. Emme’s heart was so full it could burst as she looked across the table at this person who had taken her by surprise in the best possible way. “Cheers to us,” she said, holding up her white ceramic mug to Carol. “And here’s to many more anniversaries.”
“I’m counting on at least a hundred more. Literally,” Carol replied, lifting her matching mug to tap against Emme’s with a quiet clink. “Can’t imagine where I’d be without you, especially after everything lately.”
She hadn’t dwelled in her sadness after losing Stephen, spending most of that energy on watching over Wanda instead. But she couldn’t deny the sting, the invasion of worries and paranoia that one of their names could appear on that list next.
It was another reason she was pushing forward, sticking to her plan to go for it, even with her best friend gone. He hadn’t had any regrets, had lived his Vallo life to the fullest, and Carol intended to do the same.
Emme’s expression softened and she reached across the table to squeeze Carol’s free hand. Losing Stephen had been a devastating loss. Having loved ones disappear unexpectedly was simply a part of life in Vallo, but it never stung any less. “It’s what we do. You pick me up when I’m down, and I do the same for you. I only wish there was more I could do.”
Carol set her mug down beside her plate and brought both hands over to clasp around Emme’s, dipping down to kiss her knuckles. “Your existence is more than enough, baby,” she assured her with a soft smile, giving that hand another squeeze. “But…there may be one more thing I can think of…”
Her right hand slipped away again and reached into the pocket of her leggings. She’d managed to keep herself angled away just right to conceal the ring-sized box when she came out of the bedroom dressed, but there was no hiding it now. She set the box right beside their joined hands, popping the lid open to show the ring inside. She lifted her gaze to Emme’s, eyebrows raising hopefully as she grinned at her, all warmth and love and confidence now that the moment had come.
“Marry me?”
Emme smiled at Carol, fully expecting something dirty, sarcastic, or both to come out of her mouth. So her brain had a bit of a record scratch moment when she saw the small ring box appear. She set her mug of tea down with absolutely zero grace and a bit of the drink splashed over the edge and onto the table top. She looked from the ring, to Carol, and back to the ring again.
After Marley’s appearance, she’d sort of assumed that she and Carol would eventually get married. They practically were already, really. Living together with their cats and wayward teenager. So she was a little taken aback at how surprised she was by the proposal, all things considered.
Shock aside, there was only one possible answer she could give. “Yes, of course!”
“Thank fuck,” Carol breathed. Pure relief crashed through her and the laugh that burst out of her reflected that. The sound was a little surprising, even to her, given how good she’d been feeling about this. But it was one thing to know a ‘yes’ was coming and another thing to hear it actually spoken aloud. Any trace of ‘what ifs’ were erased from her mind in the space of a heartbeat.
She stood up, abandoning her yet-to-be touched food to pull the ring from the box and kneel in front of Emme. She reached for her hand and slid the ring onto her finger, looking up at her girlfriend — no, her fiancée now — wearing a smile so wide it quickly started to make her cheeks ache.
“I love you so much,” she told her, soft and sincere in a way that she really only was with the people she loved most. There was tenderness in her eyes, too, and her heart felt like it had grown ten times bigger in her chest. “You like it? The ring?”
Emmeline’s stomach absolutely dissolved into butterflies as Carol moved to kneel down in front of her. Neither of them were traditional by any standard, but the motion actually made her slightly emotional. She swallowed down a lump in her throat as the ring slid onto her finger. She took it in for a moment; her initial shock had given way enough now that she could take in the details of the ring. It was gorgeous and everything she could have asked for.
“I love you too,” she replied, her voice now thick with restrained emotion. Stubborn tears began to burn at the edges of her vision. “It’s perfect.” She dropped to the ground and pulled Carol in for a fierce kiss. Emme’s hands cupped her cheeks and she broke away long enough to pepper Carol’s entire face with staccato kisses.
Instinctively, Carol wound her arms around Emme’s waist and pulled her in even closer, pressing every possible inch of their bodies together. She returned the kiss with twice the fervor and let out breathless giggles when those lips shifted to her face. Her fingers dug into Emme’s shirt, and she stole another lingering kiss.
“Stephen helped me pick it out,” she murmured when they were forced to breathe again. She reached for Emme’s left hand, tangling their hands together and squeezing. “Got it from the same place he got Wanda’s. It’s a soul bond. No one but you and me can wear it or pick it up.”
She felt her chest tighten at that. Stephen and Wanda had been so much in love, so perfect for one another, but in the end, it hadn’t mattered as Vallo had ripped them apart. Old fears prickled at the back of her neck, worries about what would happen if either of them were ever sent away. She kissed Carol again. The difference between the Emmeline of a year ago versus the Emmeline of today, was that she would have let those fears and the potential for heartbreak hold her back. That wasn’t who she was anymore. Yes, there was always the potential for something awful to happen, but she was no longer going to let that dictate how she lived her life. She loved this woman with every part of herself and wanted to spend all the time they had together. Married.
“You’ll have to show me where it is. I’d love to get your ring there too.”
“Deal.” Carol smiled and kissed Emme again. “We’ll go next week.” She pushed back up onto her feet and lifted Emme up too, pressing their foreheads together. “Guess we should eat, huh? Before breakfast gets cold. That’s a fate almost worse than you burning it,” she teased.
Emme wrinkled her face at Carol’s comments, but it quickly dissolved with her laughter. “I can’t really argue that. Let’s eat, fiancée.”
There it was — exactly the face Carol had expected to see. She followed Emme in laughter, cupped her face in both hands, and kissed her right on the tip of her nose. “Let’s eat, fiancée,” she echoed.