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1.
It started with what Henry had assumed was a joke—something incredibly sweet that Alex would do once because he was a helpless romantic and couldn’t help himself.
That was his initial thought, anyway, when he walked into the kitchen to a box of chocolates and a cheesy card that read, “You’re my cup of tea,” on their very first Valentine’s Day together.
Alex stared at him innocently over the brim of his coffee cup as Henry did a double take at the ensemble on their counter.
“What’s this?” Henry asked, chuckling at the card. “Valentine’s Day isn’t for another two weeks.”
“Oh. No, baby. This isn’t for Valentine’s Day,” Alex corrected him, the corners of his mouth quirking up into a dimpled smile. “This is me asking you to be my Valentine.”
Henry gave him an incredulous look. “Darling, you are aware that we’re together, correct? That we share a bed? A house? A dog?”
“Yeah, but what kind of man would I be if I just assumed you’d automatically want to be my Valentine just because we’re already together?”
Henry's eyes softened. He truly had no idea what he’d done to deserve this man.
“Surely not the gentleman who stands before me,” Henry replied, closing the distance between them and settling himself in between Alex’s parted knees, winding his arms around Alex’s neck.
“So?” he asked, peering at Henry through his lashes, dark honey eyes intoxicating.
Henry let out a soft laugh, his lips brushing against Alex’s.
In hindsight, Henry figured he should have seen the signs and perhaps even protested a bit the first time around. But how was he to know the mischievous glint that crossed Alex’s eyes was to be taken seriously? That his boyfriend would somehow manage to interpret a simple “you know the answer is yes, there’s no need to ask” into some sort of competition with himself, the goal seemingly to outdo whatever display he’d conjured up the previous year.
2.
The sound of something hitting the window nearly caused Henry to jump straight out of his seat. He was at the shelter in his office on the fourth floor, finishing editing a speech that he was presenting the following week.
He spun his chair to face the window, not entirely sure what he was expecting to see other than trees and the next building over. Figuring he’d imagined it or that it had just been the building settling, he averted his focus back onto his laptop and continued reading.
Clack .
Henry’s head snapped up again, and he narrowed his eyes at the window as if it was what was personally causing him offence. He waited one second, two, five, and then—
Clack .
A pebble came soaring up and hit the pane of glass.
Henry scrambled out of his chair and over to the window, quickly unlocking the latch and pushing it open, prepared but very reluctantly so, to tell whoever it was off.
He froze when he saw a familiar head of curls and piercing eyes staring back at him.
“Alex?”
Alex waved at him, his smile so wide and bright that it was visible even from where Henry was. Henry watched as he removed something from behind his back— a large, white cardstock sign that he flipped over and held above his head. In bold, red letters, it read:
Be my Valentine?
The crooked pink heart he’d drawn next to it was so endearing that Henry was pretty sure he had just fallen in love all over again.
Alex put the sign down and held up his phone, motioning for Henry to text his answer to him. Henry giggled in a way that resembled a school girl after being texted by their crush as he pulled out his phone and thumbed a message to Alex.
Henry (1:26 PM): You’re a menace and a plague.
Henry (1:26 PM): Yes.
He paused, looked back down at Alex’s reaction and then added—
Henry (1:26 PM): I love you.
Alex smiled at his phone.
Alex (1:27 PM): fucking fantastic.
Alex (1:27 PM): you look really good up there btw
Alex (1:27 PM): the way the sun is hitting your hair rn is giving tangled
“Oh my God, Alex, just get up here,” Henry called, a laugh escaping his throat. He watched as his boyfriend pocketed his phone, dramatically blew him a kiss, and jogged toward the entrance.
3.
Henry awoke at nearly half past seven one Sunday morning to an empty bed, the ambience of tomfoolery thick in the air.
Alex had made it abundantly clear when they first moved in together that he “wouldn’t be caught dead awake earlier than 10 am on a Sunday.” It was his one rule. The only rule ever, in fact, that Alex seemed committed to following no matter the circumstances. So, Henry respected it, usually electing to get up earlier to do some reading, anyway.
But alas, here Henry was on a Sunday morning at half past seven, the spot next to him vacated and already cold, leaving Henry to deduce that his boyfriend had been kidnapped. That would be the only reasonable explanation for his absence.
It wasn’t until he rolled over and was rubbing the remience of sleep from his bleary eyes that he saw it: a single rose on his bedside table, a scribbled note attached.
H,
Had to run a quick errand. Be back soon. Love you.
xo Alex
Henry couldn’t help but grin to himself as he brought the rose up to his nose, taking in its sweet scent.
Something about Alex going out of his way to write a note rather than send a quick text regarding his whereabouts made Henry’s heart swoon.
He stretched, threw on a t-shirt and jeans, and gave David’s head a scratch, not the slightest bit curious as to where Alex could have obtained a single rose at seven in the morning as he descended the stairs with it in hand.
It wasn’t until he was halfway down that he heard faint rustling from the living room. He halted, his eyes wide and heart pounding.
Christ .
A million thoughts flooded his mind, each more unhinged than the next.
Someone was here. But it couldn’t be Alex; he was supposedly out. David was still upstairs. Bea and June each had a key for emergencies, but neither was in the city.
So who was it? What was it? A critter of some sort? A ghost? An intruder?
What if Alex had been kidnapped? What if Henry was next—the rose and note merely a ruse to catch Henry in a vulnerable state?
He was about to dash back up the stairs to grab the baseball bat they kept in their closet so he could yield a weapon–put up some sort of fight at least, but heard a grunt and a distinct, “Ow! Fucking shit!”
“Alex?” Henry called hesitantly—an amateur mistake that usually resulted in someone getting murdered in every horror film ever created, he realized a beat too late. Henry continued his trek down the stairs, slowly, ready and willing to use that one self-defence lesson that Bea had talked him into taking with her when they were kids.
What he saw when he rounded the corner of the staircase into the living room was quite possibly the last thing he expected.
“Er…hello?” he said dumbly, his mouth agape as he took in the sight before him.
Henry ventured a bit further into the living room, not that there was much room to move around, not with what could easily be 500 long-stem roses scattered across the room in various-sized vases.
“Oh!” Alex exclaimed, startling Henry further, popping his head from behind a particularly large arrangement. “You’re awake!”
“I—Christ, Alex.” Henry whirled around, utterly bewildered and not sure he was fully comprehending what he was seeing. It looked as though Alex had stripped every florist within a twenty-mile radius of their supply. “What’s–what am I even looking at? What is this?” Was he missing something? They did have a banquet coming up for one of Henry’s shelters, but he didn’t recall putting Alex in charge of table centrepieces.
Alex peered around comically before his eyes landed back on Henry. “Well, I think they’re roses. Why? Do you see something else?”
Henry huffed out a laugh, leaning in to smell a smaller bouquet on the coffee table.
“Yes, I see them. I’m just trying to figure out why I’m seeing them. Have you decided to quit politics and take up botany?” Henry inquired, brow raised. “With a special interest in… Rosa Rubiginosa, I believe it is? Is this your way of telling me?”
“God, it’s so hot that you just know words like ‘Rosa Rubiginosa,’” Alex replied, shaking his head. “But no, not quite. One morning with these fuckers and their thorns was enough. A room full of stubborn ass congresspeople will be a cakewalk compared to what I went through this morning.” Alex replied, gesturing around the room as he took a step forward.
“What are they for then?” Henry asked, the dark circles forming underneath Alex’s eyes, almost distracting him from the mischievousness that flickered across his face at the question.
“They’re for you.”
“For me ?” Henry’s brows raised high on his forehead. “Why?”
“Well, I was wondering if you’d like to be my Valentine?” Alex shrugged nonchalantly, as if raiding an entire botanical garden’s worth of roses came with the territory of the holiday.
“Your Valent–you did all this to ask me to be your Valentine?” Henry chuckled disbelievingly. “You filled our house with…wait, how many are there?”
“763,” Alex replied matter-of-factly as if the number should have some significance to Henry. When Henry just gave him a puzzled look, he sighed and clarified. “One for every day since our first kiss. When you changed my entire life.”
Oh .
Henry beamed at him, feeling his entire body soften as he closed the distance between them, winding his arms around Alex’s waist.
“I was oscillating between that or one for every day since Rio, the first time I saw your pretty face in the flesh,” Alex continued with a cheeky wink. Henry rolled his eyes affectionately and honestly couldn’t have loved him more if he tried.
He leaned in, pressing his lips to Alex’s, his hand coming up to run his fingers through his curls. Alex smiled winningly into the kiss and matched Henry’s enthusiasm easily.
“So?” Alex asked when they broke apart.
“So.”
“ Will you be my Valentine?”
“Of course I will. You really don’t need to ask me, darling.”
“I want to ask,” Alex corrected. “I love seeing the surprised look on your face when I do nice things for you. Things that you deserve to have. Your cheeks get all red, and you do this thing where you press your lips together to keep yourself from smiling too wide. It’s adorable, but I see through it. I know you secretly love this kind of stuff.”
There was a time when Henry truly believed that he’d never be allowed to have the happiness he had now–that he’d never get to be with someone he truly loved. What he was forced to picture for himself completely contrasted with his current life. Alex knew this, of course, and Henry could only assume this was just one of the ways that he wordlessly tried to compensate for all of those lonely years Henry spent thinking that he would live and die in the confined walls of a castle.
Henry did love it but still felt the need to reiterate to Alex that it wasn’t necessary, that Alex didn’t have to keep going through all of that trouble for him.
Henry pulled Alex’s body to his, resting his chin on his shoulder. “As long as you know it isn’t necessary,” Henry murmured into the material of Alex’s t-shirt.
“Of course, whatever you say, baby,” Alex said, the playfulness in his tone conveying the exact opposite of his words.
4.
Henry slid into the back of the car, a deep, settling breath escaping him as the door shut behind him. He nodded to his driver and allowed his body to go limp against the seat as the car pulled away from the curb, relieved that he was finally on his way home after the stressful day he’d had.
His work at the shelter didn’t usually make him feel this way. Henry felt fulfilled by it and, probably for the first time in his life, felt as though he was genuinely helping people and making a difference. It wasn’t official Crown business nor a performative appearance that he was forced to make on their behalf. It was something that he cared about, and that was just his .
But sometimes, like today, there were days that drained every drop of energy from him. The biggest investor for his and Pez’s newest shelter in Los Angeles was thinking of pulling out, and Henry had spent the better part of two hours talking him off of that ledge. In the end, he had no choice but to, very respectfully, threaten legal action, explaining that any changes made to the original agreement this far along in the process would be a breach of contract. That effectively convinced the investor, but neither party had left the meeting particularly happy.
Needless to say, he didn’t want to see another person for the rest of the night–apart from Alex, who had the unique ability to make him feel better even after the worst of days—even if a lot of what he did was throw out expletives and threaten to “pay visits” for “well-intentioned chats.”
The car halted suddenly, pulling Henry from his thoughts. He peered out the window for the first time since getting in and saw they had stopped next to a park a few blocks from the shelter.
“Oh, you were meant to drop me at home,” Henry told his driver kindly.
The man simply shook his head as he shifted the gear into ‘ park .’
“Uh, I didn’t think I had anything else on my schedule,” Henry said, fumbling to get his phone out of his pocket to confirm.
“I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” his driver told him. “Let’s just say that Mr. Claremont-Diaz has alternative plans for the two of you tonight.” He winked at Henry through the rearview mirror before getting out to open the door.
The words lit up his chest, a probably extremely goofy smile spreading across his face. He knew Alex had no way of knowing that he had a bad day other than the face-palm emoji he’d sent during a lull in his meeting. So, what could his boyfriend possibly have planned that involved such secrecy?
He was led into a secluded field lined with tall trees, the sky wide open overtop of it. Alex stood in the middle of the grass, hands in his pocket and a blanket on the ground behind him. The driver left him with a knowing smile and instructions to call when they needed to be picked up. Henry made a mental note to handsomely increase his holiday bonus.
As he walked towards Alex, the sky above them suddenly illuminated with about a hundred twinkling white lights, forming a message in the darkness.
“You’re the light of my life,” it read. “Be my Valentine?”
“Oh my God,” Henry covered his face with his hand as he approached Alex, who was wearing a very pleased look, a laugh escaping him. “I don’t even know how I didn’t see something like this coming.”
“Me neither,” Alex agreed. “Every February like clockwork, baby.”
“You’re insane,” Henry declared but interlocked their fingers.
“Insane for you ,” Alex mused, not missing a beat. He pulled Henry toward him with their joined hands and spun him so that his back was to Alex’s front, and his arms winded around Henry’s waist. Immediately, all the tension Henry had been harbouring dissipated from his body as he relaxed into Alex’s arms.
“I think I’m doing the Lord’s work with this one,” Alex murmured as he pressed kisses to Henry’s face and down his neck.
“Yeah? How do you figure that?”
“Well. Not everyone can be as thoughtful and creative as I am, so there’s plenty of people who don’t ask their significant other to be their Valentine,” Alex explained. “But now, anyone in the vicinity can claim this as their own. Like just think about it: there could be a couple out walking their dog right now that are on the verge of breaking up; they aren’t making time for each other, and all they do is argue. The only reason they’re still together actually is the dog. But BAM, they see this sick-ass drone show, and one of them thinks, “Oh my God, they must have done this for me!” Their partner doesn’t correct them, of course, because, again, they likely don’t have a romantic bone in their body and never would have come up with this themselves but needed this win nonetheless. And suddenly, their spark is reignited! Because of me! I’m basically a love doctor.”
“And humble about it, too,” Henry quipped, a half laugh, half yelp escaping his lips as Alex prodded his fingers into his hips.
They watched the drones fly into different shapes: A heart. A cupid with an arrow. A multi-tiered cake.
And then the lights flew into a different formation, one that Henry would recognize anywhere. He let out a breathy noise, tears welling in his eyes.
“You once told me that you wished you could see it closer up,” Alex said, with no sign of the playful tone from moments ago. “I know it’s not even remotely the same, but it felt silly to waste this opportunity.”
Henry glanced up at the drones that had created the formation of Orion, his heart so full that it threatened to spill over. He turned in Alex’s arms, burying himself into the comfort of his embrace.
“I love you,” he said into Alex’s neck, inhaling the scent of his perfume that was still lingering there.
“I love you, too,” he replied, hugging Henry closer to his body.
“And yes,” he added. “I’ll be your Valentine.”
He felt the vibrations of Alex’s laugh against his ear, hints of his stubble prickling Henry’s skin.
He pulled back after a few moments, far enough to rest his forehead against Alex’s.
“Is there even a point in telling you that you don’t have to keep doing this?” Henry asked softly, his lips brushing up against Alex’s.
“Probably not,” Alex grinned. “Unless I’m in some kind of coma, this will continue to be a thing. Though, knowing me, I’d probably find a way to do it even then. I’m sure Bea would be willing to help me out. She likes seeing you happy.”
Henry kissed him then, soft and sweet, the twinkling lights continuing their dance among the stars above them.
5.
Henry burst through the double doors into the hallway, phone to his ear and listening to what felt like endless rings.
“Are you fucking crazy?” was Henry’s greeting to his boyfriend the second the call connected.
“No, this is Alex. Who am I speaking with?
“ Please don’t be cute with me right now,” Henry said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Then what else would I be? Cute is my default, baby.”
“I’m serious, Alex. I can't… I’m just… I don’t even understand how you managed to do that .”
“I take it you received my message?” Alex asked, a bit too smug for Henry’s liking.
“Your message ?” he repeated incredulously. “Alex, if you wanted to send a message, you could have called. Sent it through postage, or a fucking carrier pigeon even.” He paused, gathering himself before continuing, a laugh bubbling in his throat and threatening to burst out of him. “ Anything would have been better than that .”
“I mean, sure, if your definition of ‘better’ is ‘boring.’”
“An electric string quartet dressed as cupids?” Henry sighed. A sentence he never thought he’d say. “ Really ?”
“Pretty cool, huh?”
“No,” Henry replied, shaking his head vigorously despite Alex not being able to see him. “Not ‘pretty cool.’ ” He paused for a moment, reconsidering. “Okay, Christ. Fine . I did find it amusing. But the timing was less than ideal considering I happened to be in a meeting at the time.”
“Oh.”
“Yes. ‘ Oh ,’ indeed,” Henry mocked. “One minute I was listening to a man named Bartholomew drone on about windmills and sustainable energy, the next I was being serenaded by an ensemble of cupids whose… garments left very little to the imagination, by the way.”
“Well, in my defence…” Alex started. “Bea did assure me she would handle the when and where of it all, and I just needed to figure out the what. She was in this meeting, I assume? Hopefully, filming it like she promised? ”
And, of course, his sister was in on this.
“So the poor bloke dressed as a heart and wheeling around a giant pop-out cake was also of your elaborate design?” Henry asked, already knowing the answer.
“As was the dance,” Alex added. “They did do the dance, right? I paid extra for that.”
“Oh, they did the dance, alright,” Henry confirmed. “They did the dance so well, in fact, that one of the violinists nearly knocked out the Heart because of how into the two-step segment they got.”
“Shit,” Alex laughed, not even trying to hide his amusement.
“By this point, Gran hadn’t moved in a solid two minutes, and Philip was worried that she’d gone into cardiac arrest,” Henry continued. “He started yelling for help and waving his arms erratically in the air for God knows what reason. But no one could hear him over the music.” He could hear Alex snickering on the other end, and it was taking a great deal of effort for Henry to keep himself from joining in.
“Philip finally took matters into his own hands and ran out into the hall, screaming ‘Help! Help! The Queen needs help!’ with such urgency in his tone that you’d have thought that a masked man was descending from the ceiling by a rope and was trying to abduct the woman.”
Philip had been very disheartened that no one had come sooner, but now that Henry was thinking about it, he was pretty sure Bea had something to do with that, as well.
“Within seconds, members of the staff came rushing in, and one of them collided head-on with the Dancing Heart. The two of them fell into the pop-out cake and landed in a heap on the ground—”
“Well, I’m glad everyone was finally able to witness how easy of a mistake that is to make,” Alex cut in, sounding satisfied, as if this was a point he’d been dying to prove for years.
“—the commotion managed to snap a very much still alive Gran out of whatever state of shock she was experiencing. She stood up from her seat, let out an almighty sigh, cancelled the remainder of today’s meetings and excused herself. But not before muttering something under her breath about Americans and their decorum, of course.”
“Well, I’m glad that there was finally something productive done over there, ” was Alex’s takeaway.
“Alex.”
“Come on, you were serenaded, and I got you out of all your boring ass meetings. It sounds like you should be thanking me twice.”
There was a pause before Alex burst out laughing.
“It’s not funny,” Henry said despite letting one out himself. In all honesty, it was likely the most riveting performance that had ever happened within these walls.
“So. Is that a yes, sweetheart?”
Henry rolled his eyes fondly, biting his lip to keep himself from smiling. He truly had no idea how he’d survived all those years without Alex– years that were spent being chauffeured to meetings on these grounds without an ounce of hope of a life beyond it. Somehow, Alex made those moments distant memories by creating new and much more lively ones.
“Yes, you cretin,” Henry said, the mirth in his voice evident. “Obviously.”
They hung up a couple of minutes later, Henry mentally vowing that one of these years, he’d turn the tides on this little tradition of Alex’s.
+1
“You’re such a sap,” Alex accused as he allowed Henry to drag him through the thickening snow.
“It’s tradition, Alex,” Henry argued. “Stop pretending you aren’t usually the one corralling me to come out here a tenth of a second past midnight.”
Alex laughed, pulling Henry’s body closer to his by the waist as they reached their destination beneath the familiar half-shadows of a snow-covered tree. “Y’know, I think you should have kept the snark in last year, baby.” He leaned down and brushed their noses together, waiting. “Kiss me.”
“Well, if we’re going to be critical, I think it’s safe to say that you should have left the impatience,” Henry fired back.
“Never. Shut up and kiss me,” Alex pouted, just to prove Henry’s point further.
They gazed at each other, the electricity so palpable between them that they could supply light to entire countries. Henry’s heartbeat picked up pace as he let out a settling breath, watching white flakes cling to Alex’s eyelashes. He was so fucking beautiful. Somehow, even more beautiful than he had looked here, in this very spot all those years ago. Being in this place was a reminder of how brave Henry felt that night and that he could continue to be.
“You saved me, you know,” Henry whispered against his lips. “That night when you kissed me back. Even though I ran away, and even though, on the surface, I felt like I’d just ruined everything. I could feel something shift within me. I felt so… alive for the first time in my life.” Alex exhaled shakily, his breath forming a misty cloud between them. “I could go on for years upon years about you and all of the ways you’ve changed me, all the ways that you continue to save me every day. But I am of the belief that we share two parts of the same soul, so if I’m correct in that, you already know that and feel that.”
Alex nodded and smiled before his eyes went wide.
“Fuck off, you’re kidding!” is how he responded to Henry getting down on a knee.
“What part of me looks like I am, darling?” Henry chuckled. “I love you so much. Will you do me the honour of allowing me to show you just how much for the rest of our lives? Will you marry me?”
“Fuck H, I–” Alex shook his head, mouth falling open and a surprised laugh escaping, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. “Of course, I’ll marry you. Holy shit.”
Henry smiled at him through his own tears and slipped the ring on his finger before he was being pulled up and into an all-consuming kiss.
“I can’t believe you beat me to it,” Alex told him once they drifted apart, pressing a kiss to Henry’s forehead. “I had this big elaborate thing planned for Val—for like a couple of weeks from now. Fuck , I should have known you would pull something like this!”
This prompted Henry to say the second set of words he’d been keen to say himself for years now, “I supposed it goes without saying that you’ll be my Valentine, forever?”
“Oh, you fucking dick !” Alex practically yelled, shoving Henry in the shoulder. “Not only did you hijack my idea for this year, but you decide to rub it in by piggybacking off of a masterpiece of my own creation, all of which had been leading up to that very moment!”
“I suppose you’ll just have to come up with something else this year,” Henry shrugged, gripping the lapels of Alex’s jacket, his heart skipping a beat at the thought that Alex was planning to propose in mere weeks from now.
“Oh, baby,” Alex replied, shaking his head. “Do you honestly think I survived all these years without having back-up plans for my back-up plans? You’re dealing with a professional here. You may have been first, but you definitely won’t be the best.”
“This really isn’t a competition—
“Oh, but it is, though,” Alex interjected. “My proposal is going to be the proposal that ends all proposals. And as for Valentine’s Day, I might spend the rest of my life trying to one-up this, but believe me, this year will be like nothing you’ve ever experienced. It’ll be fucking—”
“Christ. Just answer the question, Alex.”
Alex snapped his mouth shut, allowing an affectionate grin to play on his lips as he locked his gaze in with Henry’s.
“Yes,” his fiancee said, eyes swimming with pure ecstasy. “Yes, I’ll be your Valentine.”