“Yes, and I ordered the sweet and sour shrimp and five spice beef as well. I’ve forgone the squid, as neither of us had seemed to enjoy that. I have additional fortune cookies too and some whipped cream to top it off. I love those.”
Laurent poured them both wine into crystal glasses, and Beast once again felt completely out of place. He never drank wine. But he obviously would now.
“Sounds like a plan. Are we... giving each other Christmas presents a day early?” he asked in the end and sniffed his wine.
“We could. I guess. If you’d like to. But isn’t that against tradition?”
And Laurent was very much into traditions.
Beast shrugged and smiled, thinking of the antique mirror he’d bought for Laurent. It had a lovely carving on the frame and would surely be a great fit for his room. “I believe we should make our own traditions.”
Laurent pulled back from the bowl of egg-fried noodles. “So maybe… gifts before dinner after all?” He seemed strangely nervous in the way he folded his hands in his lap.
Beast smiled at him with encouragement. He might have found the root of the problem. With Laurent not having much in terms of his own money, he was possibly embarrassed of not being able to buy gifts that equaled Beast’s in monetary value. Beast didn’t care about such things, and he’d make sure to let Laurent know he didn’t need to keep to his odd nineteenth century hangups.
“Sounds like a plan. But mine’s in the office.”
Laurent got up abruptly. “I’ll go first then.” He took a deep breath, circled the table, and then got down to one knee.
For a moment Beast thought that Laurent was about to reach under the table where he could have hidden his present, but Laurent looked up instead, pulling out something small out of the pocket of his suit.
Beast looked at the little box clad in navy fabric, but his brain didn’t add up the situation until Laurent opened it, revealing a thick ring made of platinum, with a small ruby set amidst artistically distributed ‘cracks’ in the metal.
He had no idea what to do. Out of all the situations he could have imagined, this one wouldn’t have even made the list of possibilities, and yet there Laurent was, presenting Beast with a ring, while kneeling by a table set with porcelain meant for special occasions.
It was making Beast’s mind sizzle as if it was about to combust.
“Kai, will you do me the honor of becoming my husband?” Laurent asked, but his tense posture and hitched breath told Beast just how nervous Laurent was.
He, Beast of the Kings of Hell MC, a man who many feared, and who was sometimes so unwanted, was being asked for his hand in marriage.
It was ridiculous.
If he was with anyone else, he might have wondered whether he wasn’t being pranked, but Laurent would never joke about family matters. And of course, he was proposing in a suit and offered Beast a ring with the most expensive of precious stones. How in the world could he have afforded that? Beast would ask him. But not now. Absolutely not now.
“Laurent... I didn’t expect this so soon.” To be fair, he didn’t expect a marriage proposal at all. Ever. But if he had, he wouldn’t have imagined Laurent taking the first step, all things considered.
The sheer terror in Laurent’s big brown eyes made Beast want to take his words back and form the sentence differently. “Oh. I… I didn’t know there was a time imposed on the matter. I’ve done my best to research these things.” He closed the box with the ring and slowly got up looking like a man crushed to pieces.
Beast rose so fast his chair fell to the floor, but he didn’t care to pick it up and pulled Laurent closer. “No. No, there isn’t... not really. I’m sorry. You just... surprised me.”
Laurent gently punched Beast’s chest with the box still in his fist. “Why would you say that then if there is no specified time in which one is to propose?”
Beast wanted to scream. “Because... usually it takes longer, but that’s not a rule. I just think... all my life I thought I would never be married.”
At least Laurent wasn’t trying to pull away. “I don’t want to wait. What is there to wait for? I’ve found the man I want to share my life with, and I would like to make it official.” He hugged the ring to his chest. “There’s only so much I have to offer, but with this ring I promise that I will love you, that I will always be loyal, and stay at your side. And if you weren’t sure about my intentions, I wanted to prove that I don’t just take, and that I can save up for the things that matter.”