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Ah, Valentines day.
To most, a day of joy, love, peace. A common thing to unite us all, the passion we feel for each other. Being able to commit to your feelings may be liberating to some. Others may see it as just an excuse to give gifts and love people more than they usually do.
To some, a day of sorrow, depression, and grievance. How could people find such love? It seemed impossible to these people. Being unable to love, find someone to love, or recognise their feelings may make people feel claustrophobic, stuck, unsure of what to do. Others may see it as an excuse to hate themselves for not being loveable, unable to be loved.
You can guess which category Hyperlaser fell under.
He tread the endless mountains of Blackrock. He was on a mission, called out to hunt a kid who had called Subspace; "stinky and queer." Whatever that meant. He didn't care, he was just glad he could have a distraction from all this lovey dovey stuff.
Blackrock was never know for its traditions. However, during Valentine's Day it was like a whole different faction. Streets were bustling with couples, lovers, qpps, all of it. They did numerous activities, such as ice skating, going to the fair, and proposing on the bridge that separated 2 large snowy mountains.
Hyperlaser couldn't help but think how cliché it was. They did the same thing, every year. Not to mention you can do all of those things any of the time. You don't need a special day to tell you what to do. The lakes are always frozen over, the fair is always open, and the bridge is always there! Why only on the 14th? It simply made no sense to him.
His boots crunched on the snow below him, shivering slightly from the dampness that engulfed the lower parts of his body. It was even worse having to carry his massive railgun around. Why did Subspace have to send him on this treck? He's such a child it's sometimes shocking.
As Hyperlaser was walking through the snow, he caught a glimpse of something in the corner of his eye. He turned around and he saw what seemed to be a bird flying towards him. This frightened him as the only birds that live in Blackrock are pitch black crows, noticeable from a mile away due to their unique patterns. Why was this bird here? He pulled out his railgun instinctively and aimed for the fowl precisely.
As he looked closer to aim better, he saw it wasn't just any bird.
It was Katanas owl.
He let his gun down onto the snow, gently getting up from his knee. He soon realised the fowl was flying straight towards him. He scrambled around, lifting out one of his arms for the bird to land on. It raised its talons and wings as it prepared to drop onto Hyperlasers arm. It swiftly took landing, pushing Hyperlaser back a bit in the process. It watched Hyperlaser with its black, beady eyes and hoo'd. Hyperlaser was in awe of the bird, despite having seen it multiple times.
His eyes quickly drifted to the little scroll of paper on its leg. He always knew Katana was an oldie but not this bad. Someone's gotta tell him phones exist now.
He reached out his other arm to the birds talon, using his middle and index fingers to fiddle with the little knot on it. After a little while and some drama later, he finally untied the knot. Letting the thin, red rope drop to the snow alongside his railgun. He caught the little scroll before it fell, awesome reflexes.
The owl hopped off his fore arm and onto the railgun, picking up the red rope and fiddling with it in its beak. Hyperlaser carefully unraveled the scroll, making sure not to damage it. On the piece of paper, it had Katanas handwriting in a fountain pen.
It read:
"Dear Hyperlaser,
I hear today is a national day of love, Valk and Dom have started a phestival for this occasion. I would like to spend this night with you.
If you accept, please meet me at the Ranged royal; 10:30pm, in your phestive outfit.
Please do not be late.
-Yours sincerely, Katana. "
Just reading that letter made Hyperlasers face flush with colour. Katana wanted to spend the night with him? Him?
He folded the piece of paper and shoved it in his pocket, keeping it close to him. He couldn't believe it, Katana wanting to spend the night with him was insane. He swore he felt his heart flutter at the thought. Even though the two had been an item for a while now, Hyperlaser still felt like he had a teenage crush on him. Every time he was around Katana he would get all blushy, hot, and his palms would start sweating like crazy. Sometimes it was unbelievable how head over heels Hyperlaser was for this man. He sighed softly, internally screaming from joy. He felt like a rabid beast gnawing and shaking at the bars of its enclosure from the thought of being with Katana tonight.
Though he was quickly brought back to reality by the noise of flapping wings. Katanas owl had taken flight and starting moving into the horizon. A tremor ran through Hyperlasers nerves as he was brought back to the snowy mountains. He sighed shakily, kneeling down and picking up his railgun. The little red rope from Katana fell to the cold, icy floor.
Hyperlaser stood up, smiling under his helmet. He began to start walking again, his boots crunching through the snow. His body was on the earth but his head was in the clouds. He almost dropped his rifle multiple times due to his mind slipping to the note Katana sent. He was totally freezing his ass off right now. Yet, despite the cold biting at his hands and lower body, he still felt a warmth in his core.
It was safe to say he couldn't wait for tonight.
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"10:30pm... where is he?" Katana thought, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently.
Katana was never the patient type, nor the tardy type either. So it's safe to say he was a little upset when Hyperlaser didn't arrive at 10:30 on the dot. But Katana couldn't be mad at him, he just loved him too much.
While Katana was never really the lovey-dovey type, he still felt as if he were head over heels for Hyperlaser.
The two had only known each other from Phights. And even then they barely knew each other. It was only when the duo started going to bar's together that Katana started to grow feelings. Majority was the fact that Hyperlaser was extremely kind to him, something he hadn't experienced prior to them meeting.
He was always shunned away by most for switching factions. He was often upset that nobody took the time to understand his intentions with moving. He doesn't blame them much, though. Its basically frowned upon to do such things.
But when he told Hyperlaser that he moved factions, Hyperlaser accepted him. It was surprising to see someone as accepting considering the stigma around doing such things. Hyperlaser said that he didn't blame Katana, especially since he moved from a place that is known for... sketchy situations.
From then on Katana felt something bloom between the pair.
At first, he was in denial. He had always hated the idea of being in love. He thought it was cheesy and overrated. Plus, he never found any interest in the girls from his school. To him love was simply a social construct made so that way people didn't feel alone.
Then, he was really in denial and even started to distance himself from Hyperlaser because he didn't want to catch feelings. More importantly he didn't want to catch feelings for a man. He's already hated for moving factions, now imagine being gay? That was a risk he wasn't ready to take.
But eventually, he grew to accept himself, love himself, and love Hyperlaser along the way.
Speaking of which, Hyperlaser had finally arrived.
He was wearing his Seraphim outfit (SeraphLaser), fitted with 3 eyes in a row on his helmet, 2 sets of wings, a collar with a broken chain attached to it, and a robe that d. It was the only other choice other than a witch.
Katana was wearing his Krampus outfit (KrampTana), which had puffy neck fluff (for comfort) decorated with yellow bells, no shirt except for a thin piece of fabric that ran vertically down his chest, fuzzy boots that looked like fur, and a mid-length tail with bells at the bottom of it.
The pair stood in annoyingly loud silence, even with the background ambiance they swear they could hear each others breaths.
"What did you have planned?" Hyperlaser breaks the silence, catching Katana off guard. If he were to be honest, he had nothing planned at all. Well, he had plans but had no plans to lead up to those plans, you know?
Katana awkwardly cleared his throat, "uh, well, you see." He paused, pondering things they could do as quickly as the cogs in his head could turn. He came up with something random on the spot, "would you like to go ice-skating with me?" He blurted out, what a stupid idea.
Hyperlaser giggled a little bit, "do you even know how to ice-skate?" He asks, trying to hold back his laughter.
"Wow," he scoffs. "What makes you think I'm not good at ice-skating?" He laughs, pretending like he's offended. Internally he's laughing is ass off because he's horrible at ice-skating. In fact, he had never even done ice-skating in his entire life. The Lost Temple isn't exactly known for it's cold climate, so who could blame him?
"Well... I mean like..." Hyperlaser flails his arms around flamboyantly, not having a straight answer. He just assumed if Katana went on the ice it would break from underneath him because of how muscular he is.
"So are we gonna go or not?" Hyperlaser chuckles, nudging Katana in the arm slightly. Katana is internally panicking. Half because he had no idea how to ice-skate and he assumed it'd end up like Jack frosts origin story. Other half because Hyperlaser just touched him. Half real panic half gay panic.
"Yeah, I heard there was a popular ice-skating rink in the middle of crossroads. I don't really understand why they have it though, its artificial. Imagine how much money the greedy losers (Dom and Valk) would get from that amirite?" Katana rambles for a little bit. He's never been the biggest fan of capitalism. He knows that water can freeze over naturally but the deities wished to make their own artificial one? It simply made no sense why people went to it at all. Though, in order to avoid a literal crime scene, Katana knew he had to go to the fake one.
"We could always go to a real frozen over lake-"
"No it's okay!" Katana cuts off Hyperlaser in the middle of his sentence. He quirks one of his three eyes up, then squints with all of them.
"You can't skate, can you?" Hyperlaser questions, exposing Katana right then and there. Katana backs up a bit as Hyperlaser has gotten closer to him, pointing a finger at Katanas exposed chest. A miracle he hasn't gotten frostbite yet.
Katana sighs, "no, I can not ice skate." He confesses solemnly, letting his head fall down. Hyperlaser laughs quietly at this act. Katana raises his head quickly, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Why is this funny. Stop your laughing, this is not humorous." He scowls, upset that his partner would find it funny. He was sure Hyperlaser wouldn't find it funny if he were laughing at him now would he?
"Sorry, Katana. We can go ice-skating, at the artificial one." Hyperlaser giggles, putting his hand in Katanas to reassure him.
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A good walk and some bux later, the two were on the ice.
Katana was holding onto the guard rail for dear life as he slowly shuffled along the ice. Some little demons were laughing at him for being a literal grown man and still having to hold onto the rail. He couldn't care though, he was more focused on not falling down and making even more of a fool of himself.
Hyperlaser, however, was probably the most graceful person on the ice. He looked like a professional figure skater. He was doing twirls, drifts, multi-spins, and even backflips. He was so graceful that it felt like a light was glowing from him.
Katana watched in awe as Hyperlaser did some more moves, then skated over to Katana. He stopped near the rail, hands behind his back.
"Having some trouble there, Tana'?" He cocked his head to the side in a snobby, almost teasing manner.
Katana growled, "yes Hyperlaser. I am having some trouble.." He retorted sarcastically.
"Here," Hyperlaser reached out his hand for Katana to take. He was reluctant to let go of the rail at first, but eventually after some hesitation he took one of his hands into Hyperlasers.
"Good, now the other." Hyperlaser extended his other hand for Katana to take. He was wearing a mask but you could tell how horrified this man was of letting go. He was even slightly trembling from the fear.
He took a deep breath to calm himself, then hurriedly brought his hand to Hyperlasers. He was shaking like a wet cat at this point, his bells jingling slightly from the anxiety in him. Hyperlaser laughed a little at this, but made sure not to mock Katana for it.
"Now, you want to be gliding across the ice, not walking." Hyperlaser said, pushing with his legs to go backwards. Katana tried to follow, pushing his foot to the side like he saw the rest of the people doing earlier.
"You're doing great, Katana," Hyperlaser reassured. Katana was smiling a massive smile from under his mask, feeling extremely accomplished. Not only that, but Hyperlasers praise was making him feel not stupid for a second.
Out of nowhere, Hyperlaser let go and drifted to the side. Panic set in on Katana as he just stood like a statue, hoping and praying to the swords above that he would lose momentum and stop. But it didn't seem like that would happen any time soon.
Katana snapped his head around, "Hyperlaser. Help. Help me. Help." Katana begged him as he was treading behind slowly, snickering while he watched Katana plead with him.
It dawned on him that Hyperlaser was not going to help, and the guard rail was coming up quickly. His instinct took over and he braced for impact. His legs trembled and his eyes were glued shut, holding his arms out in front of him in a defensive manner.
Thankfully, Hyperlaser had a last minute lapse in judgement.
He grabbed Katana from his back, taking his hips. He helped Katana come to a quick halt just before he hit the guard rail. Hyperlaser ran his hands on the hips of his panicking boyfriend in an attempt to soothe him.
"I got you, don't worry." Hyperlaser cooed, hugging Katana from behind. His heart was racing a million times per second and his hands were shaking from pure horror. He was unsure if this was a dream or not.
Hyperlaser would be lying if he said he didn't feel bad for what he just put Katana through. He took his hand off his partners hip and onto one of his shaky hands. He slid his fingers in between Katanas, making him blush a little and calm down.
He stopped panicking and just stood there for a bit.
"Hyperlaser, I want to get off the ice." He spoke softly, but his words were still laced in terror. Hyperlaser frowned slightly and helped to guide Katana to the ice.
The truth is, Katana wasn't actually afraid anymore. Instead, he had a plan.
For the past 2 months he had been planning a proposal to Hyperlaser, the right time just hadn't come up yet. He knew Hyperlaser thought Valentines stuff was cliche, but he knew it was the only perfect time.
Hyperlaser got Katana off the ice, thats when he made his move. He had stepped up onto the ledge so he was on the concrete instead of the ice. Hyperlaser was still on the ice, helping Katana out.
"Hyperlaser," Katana started, turning around on the concrete to face him.
"Yes?" Hyperlaser asked, holding his hands behind his back in the same manner as before, except this time a lot more sincere than the cockiness from before.
Katana then slowly fell to one knee, making Hyperlaser extremely confused on what was happening. He sighed and pulled out a little blue box from in his pocket that he somehow had, pulling it up to meet eye level with him.
"You are my love, my one love, my forever love. You mean the world to me and more, and I'm not quite sure I show it all the time.." He opened the little box, exposing a gold ring with small diamonds on it.
"I've lived half my life, and I'd like to spend the rest of it with you, and only you; hopefully for eternity. Will you marry me?" He smiled from underneath his mask, feeling like this was a little corny.
Hyperlasers lip quivered and his hand twitched. He was feeling so many emotions right now. But love was overwhelming them all.
"Yes." He croaked out, running into Katanas arms.
Maybe Valentines wasn't so bad.
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