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The snow crunched under Lumine’s boots as she and Venti made their way through the forest. Venti, who is leading her by the hand, guides her to a clearing in the middle of the snow draped woods. He lets go of her hand and whirls around to face her.
‘You can open your eyes now~!” Venti bends down in front of her and gently brushes the bangs out of Lumine’s eyes before standing back up and taking a few paces back.
She flutters her eyes open and gasps as her gloved hands move to cover her mouth. Her cheeks glow red and she smiles brightly, her eyes filling with light and wonder. The snow looks bright and fluffy, undisturbed by the world around it. A singular pine log lays horizontally upon the ground with small mushrooms growing at the sides with moss growing in the middle of the log.
Lumine squeals and jumps to hug Venti. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you so much!” She kisses his chubby cheeks relentlessly.
“You're very welcome my windbloo- AH!” The two tumble to the ground and lie for a moment before bursting out into laughter.
They brush off the snow from their outfits and walk over to the log. Venti uses his arm to push the blanket of snow off it while Lumine sets down their bags.
While Venti isn’t looking, she takes a bit of snow and shapes it into a ball. She makes sure he’s distracted right before she chucks it. The snowball hits his mid back and he quickly turns around.
With a face with mischief written all over it, he fashions a snowball of his own and throws it at Lumine. She responds by laughing and making a new one.
“So you're declaring war? So be it, Snowball fight!”
With that declaration in place, the battle between the couple commences. What followed was a cascade of laughter and taunts, prompting the fight to continue for a few minutes.
The battle ends when Lumine manages to catch Venti off guard and pelt him with snowballs as quickly as she can.
“I surrender! I surrender!” Venti cries out in a desperate attempt to convince her to let up her assault.
She laughs playfully and stops her ambush. “All right then. Want some help?”
“No, I'm fine.” He then tries to get up, but keeps falling back down into the snow.
“Oh you.” She sighs. “Grab my hand, you dummy.”
Venti reluctantly grabs her hand and Lumine quickly pulls him back up. He loses his balance for a split second and falls into her arms. She tightly wraps her arms around Venti and he does the same.
“I love you Venti.”
“I love you too, Lumine.”
They lean closer to each other's faces and their lips meet in a tender and long kiss. His arms pull her even closer to him and she leans even more into the tight embrace. They pull away and gaze half lidded into each other's eyes, completely unaware of the world around them.
At this moment, the world is just the two of them. Nothing more, nothing less.
The two continue spending time together in the woods, from conversing, to making a snowman together. The responsibilities and burdens the two carry melt away and the space it once held is overridden by feeling of pure warmth and affection.
As the sky turns a bright orange hue and the clouds are now a pale pink, Venti and Lumine are sitting on the very log they cleared off hours ago. As the laughter and energy fade from the conversation, Lumine pulls out some homemade chocolate and cookies wrapped in a clear plastic bag tied together with an ornate pale green ribbon.
She hands it to Venti and smiles warmly, her voice dripping with pure love and gratitude. “Thank you for everything, happy Valentine’s Day my dear archon.”
He softens his eyes and smiles. “Thank you, my shooting star.”
He takes out a star shaped sugar cookie and bites into it, the sweet flavor causes him to smile and his eyes to sparkle. “This is amazing! I never knew you were such a good baker!”
She chuckles and pokes his cheek while he chews, resulting in a small squeak. Venti always reminded her of a chipmunk because of how much chub he has on his face. “Thank you, I worked so hard to find a recipe I thought you would like. I defaulted to my mothers old recipe.”
“All that effort certainly paid off, the fruits of your labor have been accepted as a sufficient offering. Ehe~!”
Venti puts the gift in his bag and stands up, he turns to Lumine for a second. “Wait here a second ok my love?”
Confused, she complies but tilts her head, a habit she formed a long time ago. Venti runs behind a tree and in a flash of teal light, reappears from behind the tree and runs back to Lumine.
She gasps and just stares at him for a second. His once tall stature is now replaced by a now much more considerably shorter version of him. White, majestic wings stem from his back and his outfit now consists of a white robe with teal accents at the bottom. His snow boots are now colored black and his hands are more akin to a paw due to the stubbier fingers.
His braids are now glowing a light teal and his eyes are glowing as well. Lumine stares in awe for a few moments, taking in all the minute details of her lover's new form.
He then grabs her hand and holds it with both of his, holding it with pure adoration and devotion. Venti then gets on one knee and reluctantly removes one of his hands from hers and reaches into his pocket. He delays pulling his hand out and gazes into her eyes.
“Lumine, we’ve been through hell and back together. From dealing with harsh criticism from others, to life or death situations, we’ve been through it all. Ever since the fall, all I’ve wanted to do was give you the world, if I couldn’t do that, then I would give you my heart.” His voice gets more emotional as he goes on, his heart pounding in his chest all the while.
“You’ve not just accepted my heart, but gave me yours in exchange. And now, I want to offer my life to you.”
Venti pulls out a small ornately decorated box, to which he carefully opens to reveal a gold ring with silver accents with a small, yet shiny diamond in the middle.
“I love you, will you marry me?”
Lumine smiles warmly as she cups his face. “Yes, I will my little wisp.”
Venti slips the ring onto her finger and stands back up. He sits in her lap as she pets him a little, his smaller size making it a lot easier for her to spoil him like this.
“Say, how tall are you in this form?” She asks.
He ponders the question for a second before answering. “About 4’11 give or take.”
“Awww! You're so short like this!” She coos.
“I’m not that short, in any case since this form is a combination of my wisp, archon, and human forms, I’m shorter than half of my other forms.”
“You're still really cute like this though.”
He laughs a small bit. “I know, I’m your cute fiancée now~”
“If this is what the future holds for us,” she says with excitement, “then I can’t wait.”
“Me too.” He replies as he dozes off in her arms.
Lumine sighs lovingly as she stands up, holding him gently. She takes their bags and begins to walk home, her lover fast asleep in her arms. All the while thinking to herself, ‘this is the best Valentine's day I’ve ever had.’