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You gripped Dark’s hand hard as he led you towards his surprise. It was Valentine’s Day and he had insisted that you wore a blindfold whilst he took you to what he had planned, and you had trusted him enough to do so. Now, you weren’t so sure. It wasn’t like you didn’t trust Dark to take you to somewhere safe and keep you from injuring yourself, however you weren’t exactly a big fan of not being able to see your surroundings and having to rely on Dark to navigate said surroundings.
As you were holding onto his hand, you reached out to grab his shoulder to make sure he was still just in front of you. He was. This action drew a small chuckle from him as he looked back at you to make sure you were okay and didn’t need help with anything.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Well that would ruin the surprise if I told you, would it not? You will just have to wait until we arrive.”
You sighed. That was the third time he had given that response as an answer to your question. It was making you nervous, not knowing where you were, but you didn’t want to tarnish all of the hard work that he must have put into the surprise by asking to remove the blindfold before you arrived at the destination.
What you did know was that the ground was soft, so you must have been in a grassy area. There were twigs and sticks on the ground too, as you had felt them crunch beneath your feet as the two of you walked along, accompanied also by the sound of crunching leaves and bird song. A few times, Dark would have to carefully guide, or carry you, over a tree root that was protruding from the ground as you walked, leading you to believe you were not in a field as you had originally thought, but a kind of wooded area. The walk by that point had been long, but so had the drive to get there, so you assumed that you weren’t too close to home, seeing as there were also no densely wooded areas near your home either.
“Can I at least know how much longer we’re gonna be walking for? My legs are getting tired.”
Again, you heard a soft chuckle escape from his lips. He was finding your complaints entertaining. He knew that you didn’t actually mind the walk that much, and that you were merely complaining in an attempt to get him to remove the blindfold early, however he still gave you a serious response.
“Not much longer now, my dear. I can see the location from here in fact.”
That gave you a sense of relief. Not much longer until you could take that damned blindfold off. Your arms were also getting tired at that point as well as your legs. With one hand, you were holding onto Dark as you walked, and with the other you were holding onto the gift bag that held Dark’s Valentine’s Day gift. Now that you had long enough to think on your trek, you were beginning to think that your small gift wasn’t enough to equal the effort that Dark had put into what he had planned.
Suddenly, he stopped, causing you to bump into him and squeal from surprise.
“My apologies for stopping so quickly, darling, but we have arrived. Would you like to remove the blindfold now?”
“Would I like to? Okay now you’re just being stupid, of course I want to, it’s getting sweaty and gross.”
Once again, you made him chuckle with your witty retort. Pulling at the knot he had tied at the back of your head to secure the blindfold, the fabric slowly fell from your eyes and you held it in your hand at your side as you finally took in your new surroundings.
It was beautiful. You stood, staring in amazement with your mouth agape and at a loss for words. Dark had found a small clearing in the woods, surrounded by a circle of tall pine trees, between each a string of white bunting had been tied with fairy lights winding along the string. The clearing was covered in all sorts of flowers: poppies, lily of the valley, roses, azalea. You were almost certain that he had planted some of them himself, with your favourite flowers all being present and accounted for as you scanned through each one. In the middle of all of this natural beauty, Dark had placed a white picnic blanket, with a classic picnic basket sat atop it and the whole thing being surrounded by small candles.
You were truly taken aback by it. It looked like it could have been taken straight for a painting. Dark reached over and placed his hand on the underside of your shin, closing your mouth which you hadn’t realised was still agape.
“I assume you like it then?”
“I love it! I take back that thing about you being stupid, you’re amazing! I think this might be the most romantic thing someone has ever done for me.”
Dark offered you his arm, and you gladly took it as he guided you towards the picnic blanket, motioning for you to sit. You did so and he soon followed.
“Why thank you, my dear, you have truly restored my honour by taking back calling me stupid. How gracious of you. Seriously though, you’re worth it, my love, I’d do this for you every day if that is what you desired.”
You placed the gift bag between the two of you, continuing to gawk at all the effort he had put into his surprise as he began to pull the food he had prepared from the picnic basket. Now your gift really felt like it wasn’t enough compared to everything Dark had done for you. You looked over and watched as he unpacked the food from the basket, noticing that each food he placed on the blanket was one of your favourites. He really was a catch. He’d even brought along many dips for the two of you to use, which included multiple kinds of chocolate to dip things in. He really was a catch. He always paid attention when you spoke about your interests, your dreams, your likes and dislikes, and this was clear proof of it.
You pulled the gift bag onto your lap as he removed the last of the food from the picnic basket, now organising everything so that you could easily grab your favourite foods without much effort.
“What would you like to eat first, darling?”
Holding the bag by its handles, you held it out to him at arm's length, turning your head away as you watched for his reaction from the corner of your eye.
“I want you to open this first. You’ve done all this for me so you deserve at least a little something in return. I can get you more if you don’t think it’s enough for all the effort you’ve put into this.”
He took the bag from your hands, pushing your arms down and turning your face towards him with his forefinger and softly kissing you. You neatly placed your hands in your lap and smiled at his kiss.
“Anything you get for me is enough. I am sure that I will treasure whatever it is that you have gotten for me.”
Slowly, he opened the gift bag as you nervously watched him do so. Watching people open gifts was always a nerve-wracking experience. It was impossible to predict how they were going to react, and there was always the possibility that their reaction wouldn’t be as enthusiastic as you had imagined when purchasing the gift. Something could always go wrong, but it never seemed to do so with Dark. He always enjoyed every gift you get for him, yet the paranoia still somehow remained.
He placed the scrap of tissue paper that you had used to cover his gift beside him and pulled out a small black box with gold trimmings from the bag. Just as carefully as he removed the box from the bag, he opened the box itself peering inside of it.
Inside the box was a ring and a matching pair of cufflinks. You knew that he never took off his ring with the red gemstone, however he would sometimes wear other rings alongside it on his other hand or on another finger, and whenever he did so he would always match it with a pair of cufflinks with a similar design. The designs were always similar though; they never truly matched. This pair did though. There was a moon and stars design permeating both the ring and the cufflinks, and they had both been from the same set, so they went together perfectly and would make great accessories for Dark’s coordinated outfits.
Closing the box and putting it down beside him, Dark grabbed your hands and held them, gently squeezing them as he kissed you again with a grin on his face.
“This is more than enough of a gift, darling. It is a very thoughtful and beautiful gift, and I will be sure to use them as much as possible. I will wear them now actually.”
Letting go of your hands, you watched him as he removed the cufflinks he had been wearing and replaced them with the ones from the box as well as putting on the ring before holding your hands again.
“I really do love them. Thank you so much for these.”
“It’s only because I love you so much. Happy Valentine’s Day, Dark.”
“I love you too, shall we eat now, my love?”
“We shall.”