Work Text:
Ding dong.
“Emil, could you get that?” Marta's muffled voice called to the blonde, who was curled up with a book on their sofa. She had completely taken over their shared room, and had shut herself up in there the whole day. She'd made it clear that he was absolutely forbidden to come anywhere near their door, so it was easy enough to guess that she was doing some last minute Valentine’s preparation. She did the same thing at Christmas, and on his birthday... anytime she had an excuse to get him a gift.
“Sure, Marta." He responded with a smile, even knowing she wouldn't be able to see it. He closed his book and made his way quickly to the door. A turn of the handle led him to find Zelos and Lloyd on his doorstep, grinning knowingly at him. He blinked twice at them. They should know he was intending to spend the day with Marta, as was their usual tradition on holidays. “Zelos, Lloyd? Did you need something?”
“Whoa, way to be cold, man!” The redhead exclaimed, throwing his arm around Emil and inviting himself in. “Can’t a guy just want to hang out with two of his best buds, nowadays? Sheesh!”
“Sorry to drop in like this, Emil.” Lloyd spoke, entering the house with a nod.
“So, where’s the lady of the house?” Zelos' grin widened, his arm still hanging from Emil’s neck.
Emil gestured down the hallway toward their room. “Marta’s been in there all day.”
At the mention of her name, Marta peeked her head out of the room and lit up with a smile when she noticed who was here. “Oh! Zelos, Lloyd, whatever could you be doing here?” She asked, as if it weren't perfectly clear by her tone that she knew exactly what they were doing here.
In an effort to take the suspicion off of Marta, Zelos cleared his throat and spoke again. “Well, you see, Marta dear, we were hoping we might borrow Emil for a bit.”
“Oh, sorry Zelos, Marta and I were actually going to—“ the blonde tried to refuse, but was cut off by the ‘lady of the house’ as Zelos so dubbed her.
“That’s fine with me!”
“M-Marta?”
“It’ll only be for a little while, right? Besides, I don’t want to keep you cooped up here all day—go out and have some fun! Just not too much fun, okay?”
“W-wait, but Marta, I thought—“
“Well, the lady has spoken!” Zelos announced, dragging the helpless Emil away and out the door.
Emil's heart suffered a pang at how easily Marta was willing to let him go; they always spent Valentine’s Day together, yet Marta almost seemed like she wanted him gone... But that couldn't be, right?
As Emil and Zelos left, Lloyd stayed behind to speak with Marta, who came skipping out to greet him.
“Thank you again for doing this." She chimed. "You’ll only have to distract him for an hour or two, and then I should have everything all set! You sure Colette is okay with you being gone for so long?”
“No problem, Marta!" He beamed right back at her. "Colette was actually excited about it, she was trying to find ways she could help out, too.”
“Sounds like Colette, all right!” Marta gave a giggle as she waved goodbye to Lloyd, who was headed out the door.
“Oh, and don’t worry. I’ll make sure Zelos doesn’t get Emil into any trouble or anything.”
“Thanks, Lloyd, I’m counting on you!”
As the door closed, Marta spun on her heels and dashed toward the kitchen. She had just finished wrapping his gift, a brand new scarf he’d been eyeing every time they went into town together. All that was left was dinner and dessert. She had everything planned out—she’d prepare all of his favorites, and they’d have dinner by candlelight, and then they’d have some heart-shaped cookies for dessert. It was the perfect plan!
The idea struck her two weeks ago—around the same time her flower-adorned head was swimming with the countless cheesy romance movies she had watched in honor of Valentine’s Day finally being around the corner. Making dinner was a no-brainer, after all, it was kind of a Valentine’s Day must. Though she had one problem: her cooking. While she certainly had improved since she met Emil, she was a far cry from taking over nightly dinner duties. No, that was Emil’s job—they decided that when they moved in together. Still, in her mind, that made it all the more perfect. She was determined to surprise him with a delicious, romantic Valentine’s feast, no matter how hard she had to work to pull it off.
It wasn’t as though Marta wasn’t born a bad cook, really, she just never had anyone to teach her; though it seemed like it would take a miracle to help her advance so far in the time she had left until Valentine’s day. Luckily for her, two of the world’s most frequent saviors knew their way around a kitchen-- and the heroes of world regeneration had a history with pulling off miracles. Upon hearing her master plan, Regal most humbly offered to help her as best he could, and Genis was more than happy to leave his post as his sister’s chocolate test-subject. With some proper instruction and lots and lots of practice, Marta actually managed to create some pretty tasty dishes. By the time they were through, Regal and Genis were both satisfied with their tutoring—at the very least, they were satisfied that she wouldn’t poison Emil.
Emil, of course, had to be kept entirely in the dark for all of this. She wished she could have spent the whole day with him, but she was sure the surprise was worth it. She had to be resolute! She spent two weeks practicing for today, after all, she couldn’t let it all go to waste! --Even though she really felt like telling him and blowing the whole surprise when she saw the sadness in his eyes as he left. She mentally apologized a thousand times to him.
About an hour and a half had passed and she was just about finished. She whipped out cookie dough at the speed of light and had her little creations in the oven before she even knew it. Of course, she followed the recipe approved by Genis and Regal every step of the way.
Emil would be home soon, and dinner was nearly served—everything was going perfectly! She skipped out of the kitchen to grab his present and set it up on the table. Her carefully chosen gift was in a pure white rectangular box, with pink ribbons tied neatly around it. She placed the gift in the center of their dining table and hopped into the kitchen to sniff the wonderful smells—the wonderful smells? Where were the wonderful smells? The only thing she smelled was the scent of burning flour—and then it hit her like a slap in the face, which is coincidentally exactly what she wanted to give herself the second she realized what she had done.
“The cookies!” She shrieked, grabbing a pair of oven mitts and throwing the oven door open. She grabbed the tray out and slammed it down onto the counter—
They were black. Pure black. Burnt so well they would probably make Efreet proud. It was over, it was all over. There was nowhere near enough time to make new cookies. No—she still had dinner to fall back on! She could still salvage this!
She pushed the cookie tray to the side and focused on the meal she had made. She pulled out some utensils and gave everything a taste but it… it was all wrong! It tasted awful! She flung out her recipe and went over every ingredient she added—she had added everything hadn’t she? She checked over everything and found she'd added everything exactly as the recipe called for it... Then what could it be?
Oh, no...! She paled at the thought that struck her like a blow. She spun one of her ingredient jars around, and sure enough, she'd accidentally grabbed the sugar instead of the salt! All her strength left her body in an instant. She wandered lifelessly into the dining room and flopped helplessly into a chair, her forehead slamming unceremoniously onto the table. How could she have made such a critical error at this point? Maybe she really was fated to be a horrible cook after all.
And then, the worst of all—she heard the door open, and then close. Zelos and Lloyd had done everything she asked of them, but she still couldn’t pull it off in the end. Emil was home and she had no romantic dinner to impress him with.
She heard Emil call her name but she just couldn’t bring herself to reply—now his footsteps were coming closer, and—yep. He found her. Time to face the music.
“Marta! What’s wrong?” He rushed over as soon as he saw her, kneeling down in an effort to be eyelevel with her.
She couldn’t look at him-- she couldn’t even bring herself to answer him; instead, she threw her arm out, pointing towards the kitchen. Then, her arm fell as lifeless as she felt onto the table.
Emil hesitantly walked over towards the kitchen, his nose instantly taking note of the burnt cookies before he even saw them. Once he saw the tray and the abandoned dishes, he was able to put the pieces together. He couldn’t help but smile at her effort—he could tell she tried her hardest, even if it didn’t turn out well. He walked back to her and kneeled again before her. “So, earlier, all of that was—“
“I asked them to help me keep you busy so I could surprise you.”
“Marta, look at me.” He placed his hand on her knee. “Marta.”
“No! I couldn’t even—I couldn’t even do something as simple as making dinner! I practiced so hard but it still came out awful.”
“Marta.” He repeated, his voice gentle and kind—the tone of voice he knew full well she couldn’t say no to. She turned her head, which was still on the table, to look at him, her eyes filled to the brim with despair. She felt like bursting into tears seeing how worried he was over her—he always did everything for her, but she couldn’t even do this one simple thing for him.
“Oh, Marta.” His eyes softened as he gazed at her. “I’ve never had anyone who would do this for me before, you know that, right? Just knowing that you would go so far for me… That makes me happier than anything else.”
She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes—and oh, oh, she really didn’t want to cry, but she just couldn’t help it...! She nearly leaped off her chair, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. It was a given that he embraced her with the same tenderness. He let her tears fall onto his shoulder, and they stayed there together for some time, just holding each other.
“Sorry, I got your scarf all wet.” Marta sniffled, a couple last tears falling from her eyes.
“It’s okay.” He loosened his hold on her so he could wipe the stray teardrops away.
“Oh, but, I do have this.” Marta finally broke their hug, grabbing the gift she had left on the table and settling down next to him again. “Here, open it.”
“Alright.” He gave her a smile as he took the box from her. He opened it slowly, carefully removing the ribbons on the package (he knew Marta liked to save them if they were in good enough condition). Then, he opened the box and his eyes instantly lit up at its contents. He took off his old scarf immediately and wrapped the new one around his neck. “Marta, this is—“
“D-do you like it?” She eagerly questioned, though she could pretty much knew the answer already.
“I love it.” He bent over, ignoring the pink tint in his cheeks, and allowed his lips to grace her cheek. It was Valentine’s Day, after all, he might as well try to be a little romantic. Marta did like that kind of thing.
Marta’s cheeks were even redder than Emil’s—just when had that timid boy she used to know gotten so bold? Before she knew it, he had stood up and grabbed a little white box of his own. She took it in her hands and eyed the lovely wrapping; it was even better than the wrapping job on her gift, though she hated to admit it. She opened it up and a bright smile found its way onto her face within moments. Inside the box was a beautiful flower charm, nearly identical to the flowers she wore in her hair, attached to a long silver necklace. “Oh, Emil! Its beautiful!” She exclaimed, her eyes practically begging him for help putting it on.
“Here, I’ll help you put it on.” He gently took the necklace from the box, and lowered it onto her neck, fastening it as carefully as he could so he didn’t pull her hair.
“Emil, it’s perfect. Thank you!” She beamed at him, returning his earlier gesture by leaving a light kiss on his cheek.
"You know... we do still need to eat." He mused, and extended his hand to her. "Why don't we make something together this time?"
She accepted his hand in a heartbeat, and followed his lead to make a quick dinner for the two of them. The kitchen was full of lively laughter and love, and along the way the two had the brilliant idea of turning it into a carpet-picnic. Marta set up all of the candles and set down the blankets, and Emil placed all the food... It wasn’t exactly how their night was supposed to go, but it was a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner with the boy she loved more than anyone else, so she couldn’t complain in the slightest.