Log; Ongoing
When: September 20th, afternoon
Rating: G
Characters: Harry Dresden dresden4hire and Sultana Ananova Ariandne crete_goddess
Summary: On the anniversary of them meeting in the City, Harry proposes to Ana.
Log:Harry wasn't nervous. No siree, he wasn't nervous at all. He was terrified. Fear was not an emotion he was unfamiliar with. Between all the faeries, vampires, werewolves, demons, monsters, ghosts, mobsters, angels, and evil wizards he and fear were very well acquainted. Of course, you'd think that after facing things like that the great wizard Harry Dresden would not be afraid of asking his girlfriend a question. Even if it was the question. The big question.
And he wasn't scared because he thought she might say 'no'. In fact, Harry was very sure that she was going to say yes. That's partially what terrified him. It was one thing to know you loved someone and wanted to spend the rest of your life (or time in the City, or whatever) with them and another to actually take steps towards making that happen.
But he was determined to do it. Because he did love Ana and want to spend the rest of his life with her. Which is why he was here now, standing in the doorway of her room fiddling with the ring in his pocket and promising himself he wasn't going to run away screaming in terror like a little girl.
"Ana?" he called out into her room, clearing his throat a bit.
Ananova had been daydreaming at that very moment, standing on her balcony, a shawl wrapped around her arms. It was a rather nice day--cool, a bit overcast. She enjoyed those days, it gave the world a blue glow. And let's face it--it wasn't often one found a particularly quiet moment in the City like this.
Lately, her mind had been wandering more often--with Harry acting so strangely lately. Nearly everyone had said she was being silly--that she worried too much, that he was planning something for the both of them. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, she was certain he had his secrets...it was just so--odd, she knew he was desperately keeping something from her. It put her on edge.
At the moment, she was a million miles away, running through sand. Practicing skill after skill--making new lessons in her head. She needed a few new swords, another hand or three in equipment, the space was always large enough, more quivers needed to be carved that morning--
She jumped at his voice, snapped from her lists. With a smile, she stepped to her balcony doorway.
"Come in, Harry."
"You had better be careful," he teased her, just leaning on the door jamb watching her. "Not much of a warrior princess if you're so lost day dreaming. Someone might sneak up on you."
Harry didn't move from his spot at the door, instead he just enjoyed looking at her and how incredibly gorgeous she was. Only in a place like the City could he meet someone so perfect. Her only flaw was that she was crazy enough to think he was worth her while and he was going to exploit that thing for all it was worth.
"Oho, really. Someone like you?" She crossed her arms, giving him a bemused smile.
Relentless tease. He was always trying to make her laugh...and it worked. It didn't matter how a day had gone, he found it in her. She admired it. How he could find humor in very nearly everything.
"Am I going to have to start laying traps around my door now."
Harry couldn't help but smirk just a bit at her comment. He loved how she could look at him so sternly but there would still be an amused twinkle in her eye or the beginnings of a smile quirking at the corner of her mouth.
"I thought you already had," he said, spreading his arms out a bit. "You've caught yourself a wizard."
Oh, well, of course she had. At times, she wondered just how she had landed herself such a wizard--or even a wizard at all. But she had. And she loved him.
Ana chuckled a little, walking into her room and looking him up and down a bit.
"Oh, dear, it seems I have. Tch. What on earth am I going to do with him."
She tapped her fingertips against her mouth with a thoughtful expression.
"I suppose I can always make you wait on me hand and foot, while waving a palm leaf."
Harry got a very distinct "now or never" feeling. In one quick instant his stomach seemed to try to leap up his throat and out his mouth and his brain felt like it was on the spin cycle. If he wasn't about to drop to his knee and ask her to marry him he'd have fell down anyways because he was so dizzy.
"I think I can help you decide," he told her, a nervous smile playing on his lips.
And with that, he dropped down onto one knee just outside her door. It was the same spot months ago he first realized how much he loved her, when she was cursed to be a vampire and he bled for her. Not just because it was the right thing to do but because he loved her and would have done anything for her.
"Ananova Ariandne," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the box with the ring and opening it. "Will you marry me?"
There was a moment where everything just stopped. Sound, air, her very heart stopped. It took a moment for the words to reach her completely.
Will she what?
Suddenly, everything fit together. The weird behavior, all of his avoidance tactics, acting so shady, the nervous ticks---oh, Gods, what he's been hiding indeed! Ananova felt so silly. She felt silly, and overwhelmed, overjoyed, head-over-heels---
When she was certain she had been staring like an idiot long enough, the Princess willed her legs to move. Somehow, she had made her way to her doorway--and Harry--without falling over.
Everything was spinning.
"...Harry.."
She had never seen a more beautiful ring in her life. Of course, it could have been a dirty pewter band, and she would have thought it was more decadent than the Queen's jewels.
Her hands found his, around the box, and she sank quietly to her knees. Those eyes, those--loving, fathomless eyes. Where she found her love for him. She never wanted to love any other eyes ever again.
"...Yes."
Okay, Harry had been sure that Ana would have said yes. The longer Ananova just stood there staring at him though the less sure he got. His mind was crafting fall back plans, most of which consisted of him running out the door and hiding out in the woods for several months. Which was a ridiculous plan, really. He could just as easily hide in a nice comfortable apartment on the other side of the City.
When she came over to him though and her hand touched his he knew what it meant. He was sure that his entire body was shaking with fear or excitement or who knows what but it was an amazing feeling.
He thought he should say something. Some witty or romantic line like they did in books or stories. Normally his mouth was very, very good and shooting off without checking in with his brain but right now neither of them were coming up with something. So Harry decided he should put his mouth to use in other ways.
Before that though, with a trembling hand he took the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger before wrapping his arms around her and kissing her lovingly.
The second his lips met hers, Ananova melted. Utterly. Was this really, honestly happening? She was kissing Harry. She was kissing Harry, to whom she was now engaged. She was kissing Harry--her future husband. Husband! Oh, there was never a more wondrous word in the human language!!
All at once, Ananova came up for breath and held the side of his face--that chiseled, loving face--and smiled.
"Harry..Harry--you're going to marry me...?"
Ana laughed. She laughed, and she cried.
"I'm going to be your wife--we're getting married??"
She was giddy. Jittery. She was twelve years old all over again.
Harry just held Ananova while she laughed and cried and went through a very wide range of emotions. He certainly wasn't holding her to disguise how badly he was shaking. Or how his arms and legs felt like Jello as soon as the shaking had passed.
"Yes, I'm going to marry you," he reassured her. "Assuming you don't suddenly come to your senses. But you've been out of them for a few months now so I think I'm safe."
She laughed again, and felt like she could burst from it. She kissed his lips, his cheeks, eyes, forehead, chin--laughing, weeping. She could have screamed.
"Never! Never, never--if this is madness, I never wish to be sane again."
"Then that makes two of us," Harry said, chuckling as he stood up and pulled her with him and embraced her tightly, enjoying the feel of her body against his. Which was good, because he was going to be doing it the rest of the time they were together. Soon there would be no more good nights where they parted to their separate rooms. Those hours of sleeping apart had always felt like such wasted time.
"I love you so much, Ana," he said, stroking her hair. "I don't know what I would do if I couldn't be yours."
Ananova clung tightly to her wizard, threatening to never let go again. It felt too right, too warm, too perfect to ever part from him again. And she wouldn't. Never. This cemented it--they were to be together forever now. Or, at least--for as long as they were allowed. Time never seemed so precious before.
It could be the most precious thing in the world when you're so in love.
"I love you, Harry...You will always be mine. And I am yours, utterly yours--" The princess pulled back to look at him again, glowing joy.
"For as long as you will have me...I am yours until the day I die."
"I want you forever," he reassured her, nuzzling the top of her head and she stayed in his arms. It was such a perfect feeling, like he felt complete in the most amazing way. And it was all because of this woman who somehow thought he was worthy of her.
"I've been reading up on the marriage customs of your people," he said, reaching up to run his fingers through her hair. "And I know we can't do a lot of them but I think we could make a lot of them work."
Ananova blinked a few times. Marriage customs. Wedding--oh, good lord, the wedding! A hundred ceremonies and passages ran through her brain...there was no proper -place- here. And what was more, she didn't have a single family member. Well, not one of her own blood, that is.
She stole a glance at the ring on her finger.
Even the proposal would never have been done like this. So many rules. So many customs, so many things she didn't have to think about anymore. Imagine, Harry meeting her father--were he still alive--and trying to convince him to allow it. Leaving him alone with her family for a night--forcing him to convert to their faith. Forty days, and forty nights! She wouldn't be allowed to see him for days.
She turned her eyes back to him...and smiled, lightly petting his cheek.
"Harry, I can't tell you what that means to me...really...that you would go through that trouble for me. That you would--subject yourself to it."
She lightly took his hands and held them, tightly.
"And yes, I would like to keep one or two customs of my own...I would like to ask you, Harry Dresden...if you will let me do it instead."
Harry gave a sigh of relief. Because he was willing to try and make their wedding as traditional for her as possible, but it would have been crazy to try and do so. Also a little nerve wracking on top of the already nerve wracking situation of the wedding.
"Well damn," he muttered. "There goes that dowry of camels I was hoping to get."
Ananova laughed, bringing his hands to her mouth and kissing them, repeatedly. Wonderful, beautiful, amazing man.
"I love you, Harry. We could be married in a grass hut somewhere, and I would be happy. I'm--excited about this--not that I wasn't before, but--I want to learn all about a western ceremony--a Christian one, or whatever it's going to be. I want to be a western bride. Your western bride, Harry. And I will plan you the most beautiful wedding anyone in this world has ever seen."
Harry didn't think there was much to learn about western ceremonies (other than maybe how to match boots and a hat) but maybe that's because he had been to so many. He just hoped that Ananova didn't want an exceptionally long wedding and reception.
Not that Harry just wanted to skip right to the honeymoon. Well, he did but large, social gatherings were just not his style. Especially formal ones. The last wedding he had been to was Billy's, and that had been... interesting.
"You just tell me what you need from me," Harry said, giving her a quick kiss. "Whatever my fiancee wants, she gets."
Ananova giggled, -giggled-, and lightly placed her hands on the sides of his face, grinning. It was all really going to happen. It was going to come true. Ananova was truly going to marry the man she loved, and nothing was going to stand in their way.
She was quite suddenly very thankful for the City, more so than she had been before. If it hadn't been for this turn of fate, she would never be standing here, accepting a proposal from the most magical man in the universe.
"Fiancee...Say it again, Harry--I love that word...I love what it means! Tell me again."
He chuckled and nuzzled her hands, the soft skin feeling especially nice against the scruff of his face. She was so adorable, he could tell she was head over heels about the whole idea. The fact that he could make her that happy was amazing and mind boggling. Leaning down he pressed a kiss to her lips.
"You are... my ex-girlfriend... and current... fiancee."
Another smile, another light mist in her eyes. Oh, that face. Those eyes, that chin, that mouth, that hair, those ears--she memorized every crease, line, shape--
He was so handsome. So sweet. Her Harry.
"And you are my future husband...oh, think, Harry--" She took his hands again with a smile.
"Do you remember the night we first met?"
"You mean the night you took me in off the street?" he asked, smirking just a bit at the memory. It was hardly a magical meeting, he had been living on the streets; a hobo sans stick and sack made out of a handkerchief. He was pretty sure she took him in out of pity.
"I though for sure you'd turn out to be some sort of psychopath," he said, brushing a thumb across her cheek. "Why else would a gorgeous, amazing woman offer to take in a scruffy wizard she's never met than to kill him in his sleep?"
She hit him. And she laughed.
"Oh, hold your tongue, Harry Dresden! Some people happen to have extra room, and are willing to take in a stray or two. Like you." She punctuated 'you' by tapping his shoulder.
"The apartment was so small then--just you, Jolly and I. It wasn't until Rozlin, Claire and Teresa moved in that we had the thought to expand the thing."
Rating: G
Characters: Harry Dresden dresden4hire and Sultana Ananova Ariandne crete_goddess
Summary: On the anniversary of them meeting in the City, Harry proposes to Ana.
Log:Harry wasn't nervous. No siree, he wasn't nervous at all. He was terrified. Fear was not an emotion he was unfamiliar with. Between all the faeries, vampires, werewolves, demons, monsters, ghosts, mobsters, angels, and evil wizards he and fear were very well acquainted. Of course, you'd think that after facing things like that the great wizard Harry Dresden would not be afraid of asking his girlfriend a question. Even if it was the question. The big question.
And he wasn't scared because he thought she might say 'no'. In fact, Harry was very sure that she was going to say yes. That's partially what terrified him. It was one thing to know you loved someone and wanted to spend the rest of your life (or time in the City, or whatever) with them and another to actually take steps towards making that happen.
But he was determined to do it. Because he did love Ana and want to spend the rest of his life with her. Which is why he was here now, standing in the doorway of her room fiddling with the ring in his pocket and promising himself he wasn't going to run away screaming in terror like a little girl.
"Ana?" he called out into her room, clearing his throat a bit.
Ananova had been daydreaming at that very moment, standing on her balcony, a shawl wrapped around her arms. It was a rather nice day--cool, a bit overcast. She enjoyed those days, it gave the world a blue glow. And let's face it--it wasn't often one found a particularly quiet moment in the City like this.
Lately, her mind had been wandering more often--with Harry acting so strangely lately. Nearly everyone had said she was being silly--that she worried too much, that he was planning something for the both of them. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, she was certain he had his secrets...it was just so--odd, she knew he was desperately keeping something from her. It put her on edge.
At the moment, she was a million miles away, running through sand. Practicing skill after skill--making new lessons in her head. She needed a few new swords, another hand or three in equipment, the space was always large enough, more quivers needed to be carved that morning--
She jumped at his voice, snapped from her lists. With a smile, she stepped to her balcony doorway.
"Come in, Harry."
"You had better be careful," he teased her, just leaning on the door jamb watching her. "Not much of a warrior princess if you're so lost day dreaming. Someone might sneak up on you."
Harry didn't move from his spot at the door, instead he just enjoyed looking at her and how incredibly gorgeous she was. Only in a place like the City could he meet someone so perfect. Her only flaw was that she was crazy enough to think he was worth her while and he was going to exploit that thing for all it was worth.
"Oho, really. Someone like you?" She crossed her arms, giving him a bemused smile.
Relentless tease. He was always trying to make her laugh...and it worked. It didn't matter how a day had gone, he found it in her. She admired it. How he could find humor in very nearly everything.
"Am I going to have to start laying traps around my door now."
Harry couldn't help but smirk just a bit at her comment. He loved how she could look at him so sternly but there would still be an amused twinkle in her eye or the beginnings of a smile quirking at the corner of her mouth.
"I thought you already had," he said, spreading his arms out a bit. "You've caught yourself a wizard."
Oh, well, of course she had. At times, she wondered just how she had landed herself such a wizard--or even a wizard at all. But she had. And she loved him.
Ana chuckled a little, walking into her room and looking him up and down a bit.
"Oh, dear, it seems I have. Tch. What on earth am I going to do with him."
She tapped her fingertips against her mouth with a thoughtful expression.
"I suppose I can always make you wait on me hand and foot, while waving a palm leaf."
Harry got a very distinct "now or never" feeling. In one quick instant his stomach seemed to try to leap up his throat and out his mouth and his brain felt like it was on the spin cycle. If he wasn't about to drop to his knee and ask her to marry him he'd have fell down anyways because he was so dizzy.
"I think I can help you decide," he told her, a nervous smile playing on his lips.
And with that, he dropped down onto one knee just outside her door. It was the same spot months ago he first realized how much he loved her, when she was cursed to be a vampire and he bled for her. Not just because it was the right thing to do but because he loved her and would have done anything for her.
"Ananova Ariandne," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the box with the ring and opening it. "Will you marry me?"
There was a moment where everything just stopped. Sound, air, her very heart stopped. It took a moment for the words to reach her completely.
Will she what?
Suddenly, everything fit together. The weird behavior, all of his avoidance tactics, acting so shady, the nervous ticks---oh, Gods, what he's been hiding indeed! Ananova felt so silly. She felt silly, and overwhelmed, overjoyed, head-over-heels---
When she was certain she had been staring like an idiot long enough, the Princess willed her legs to move. Somehow, she had made her way to her doorway--and Harry--without falling over.
Everything was spinning.
"...Harry.."
She had never seen a more beautiful ring in her life. Of course, it could have been a dirty pewter band, and she would have thought it was more decadent than the Queen's jewels.
Her hands found his, around the box, and she sank quietly to her knees. Those eyes, those--loving, fathomless eyes. Where she found her love for him. She never wanted to love any other eyes ever again.
"...Yes."
Okay, Harry had been sure that Ana would have said yes. The longer Ananova just stood there staring at him though the less sure he got. His mind was crafting fall back plans, most of which consisted of him running out the door and hiding out in the woods for several months. Which was a ridiculous plan, really. He could just as easily hide in a nice comfortable apartment on the other side of the City.
When she came over to him though and her hand touched his he knew what it meant. He was sure that his entire body was shaking with fear or excitement or who knows what but it was an amazing feeling.
He thought he should say something. Some witty or romantic line like they did in books or stories. Normally his mouth was very, very good and shooting off without checking in with his brain but right now neither of them were coming up with something. So Harry decided he should put his mouth to use in other ways.
Before that though, with a trembling hand he took the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger before wrapping his arms around her and kissing her lovingly.
The second his lips met hers, Ananova melted. Utterly. Was this really, honestly happening? She was kissing Harry. She was kissing Harry, to whom she was now engaged. She was kissing Harry--her future husband. Husband! Oh, there was never a more wondrous word in the human language!!
All at once, Ananova came up for breath and held the side of his face--that chiseled, loving face--and smiled.
"Harry..Harry--you're going to marry me...?"
Ana laughed. She laughed, and she cried.
"I'm going to be your wife--we're getting married??"
She was giddy. Jittery. She was twelve years old all over again.
Harry just held Ananova while she laughed and cried and went through a very wide range of emotions. He certainly wasn't holding her to disguise how badly he was shaking. Or how his arms and legs felt like Jello as soon as the shaking had passed.
"Yes, I'm going to marry you," he reassured her. "Assuming you don't suddenly come to your senses. But you've been out of them for a few months now so I think I'm safe."
She laughed again, and felt like she could burst from it. She kissed his lips, his cheeks, eyes, forehead, chin--laughing, weeping. She could have screamed.
"Never! Never, never--if this is madness, I never wish to be sane again."
"Then that makes two of us," Harry said, chuckling as he stood up and pulled her with him and embraced her tightly, enjoying the feel of her body against his. Which was good, because he was going to be doing it the rest of the time they were together. Soon there would be no more good nights where they parted to their separate rooms. Those hours of sleeping apart had always felt like such wasted time.
"I love you so much, Ana," he said, stroking her hair. "I don't know what I would do if I couldn't be yours."
Ananova clung tightly to her wizard, threatening to never let go again. It felt too right, too warm, too perfect to ever part from him again. And she wouldn't. Never. This cemented it--they were to be together forever now. Or, at least--for as long as they were allowed. Time never seemed so precious before.
It could be the most precious thing in the world when you're so in love.
"I love you, Harry...You will always be mine. And I am yours, utterly yours--" The princess pulled back to look at him again, glowing joy.
"For as long as you will have me...I am yours until the day I die."
"I want you forever," he reassured her, nuzzling the top of her head and she stayed in his arms. It was such a perfect feeling, like he felt complete in the most amazing way. And it was all because of this woman who somehow thought he was worthy of her.
"I've been reading up on the marriage customs of your people," he said, reaching up to run his fingers through her hair. "And I know we can't do a lot of them but I think we could make a lot of them work."
Ananova blinked a few times. Marriage customs. Wedding--oh, good lord, the wedding! A hundred ceremonies and passages ran through her brain...there was no proper -place- here. And what was more, she didn't have a single family member. Well, not one of her own blood, that is.
She stole a glance at the ring on her finger.
Even the proposal would never have been done like this. So many rules. So many customs, so many things she didn't have to think about anymore. Imagine, Harry meeting her father--were he still alive--and trying to convince him to allow it. Leaving him alone with her family for a night--forcing him to convert to their faith. Forty days, and forty nights! She wouldn't be allowed to see him for days.
She turned her eyes back to him...and smiled, lightly petting his cheek.
"Harry, I can't tell you what that means to me...really...that you would go through that trouble for me. That you would--subject yourself to it."
She lightly took his hands and held them, tightly.
"And yes, I would like to keep one or two customs of my own...I would like to ask you, Harry Dresden...if you will let me do it instead."
Harry gave a sigh of relief. Because he was willing to try and make their wedding as traditional for her as possible, but it would have been crazy to try and do so. Also a little nerve wracking on top of the already nerve wracking situation of the wedding.
"Well damn," he muttered. "There goes that dowry of camels I was hoping to get."
Ananova laughed, bringing his hands to her mouth and kissing them, repeatedly. Wonderful, beautiful, amazing man.
"I love you, Harry. We could be married in a grass hut somewhere, and I would be happy. I'm--excited about this--not that I wasn't before, but--I want to learn all about a western ceremony--a Christian one, or whatever it's going to be. I want to be a western bride. Your western bride, Harry. And I will plan you the most beautiful wedding anyone in this world has ever seen."
Harry didn't think there was much to learn about western ceremonies (other than maybe how to match boots and a hat) but maybe that's because he had been to so many. He just hoped that Ananova didn't want an exceptionally long wedding and reception.
Not that Harry just wanted to skip right to the honeymoon. Well, he did but large, social gatherings were just not his style. Especially formal ones. The last wedding he had been to was Billy's, and that had been... interesting.
"You just tell me what you need from me," Harry said, giving her a quick kiss. "Whatever my fiancee wants, she gets."
Ananova giggled, -giggled-, and lightly placed her hands on the sides of his face, grinning. It was all really going to happen. It was going to come true. Ananova was truly going to marry the man she loved, and nothing was going to stand in their way.
She was quite suddenly very thankful for the City, more so than she had been before. If it hadn't been for this turn of fate, she would never be standing here, accepting a proposal from the most magical man in the universe.
"Fiancee...Say it again, Harry--I love that word...I love what it means! Tell me again."
He chuckled and nuzzled her hands, the soft skin feeling especially nice against the scruff of his face. She was so adorable, he could tell she was head over heels about the whole idea. The fact that he could make her that happy was amazing and mind boggling. Leaning down he pressed a kiss to her lips.
"You are... my ex-girlfriend... and current... fiancee."
Another smile, another light mist in her eyes. Oh, that face. Those eyes, that chin, that mouth, that hair, those ears--she memorized every crease, line, shape--
He was so handsome. So sweet. Her Harry.
"And you are my future husband...oh, think, Harry--" She took his hands again with a smile.
"Do you remember the night we first met?"
"You mean the night you took me in off the street?" he asked, smirking just a bit at the memory. It was hardly a magical meeting, he had been living on the streets; a hobo sans stick and sack made out of a handkerchief. He was pretty sure she took him in out of pity.
"I though for sure you'd turn out to be some sort of psychopath," he said, brushing a thumb across her cheek. "Why else would a gorgeous, amazing woman offer to take in a scruffy wizard she's never met than to kill him in his sleep?"
She hit him. And she laughed.
"Oh, hold your tongue, Harry Dresden! Some people happen to have extra room, and are willing to take in a stray or two. Like you." She punctuated 'you' by tapping his shoulder.
"The apartment was so small then--just you, Jolly and I. It wasn't until Rozlin, Claire and Teresa moved in that we had the thought to expand the thing."