LaFontaine was cursing themselves before the day had even begun. It was ridiculous, it was cheesy, it was way too much and she would hate it. Too public. Also, too usual. Perry loved normal, but they would never fall to such ordinary ways.
No, they couldn't propose to Perry in the park. Even if it was the park where they'd spent their childhood together.
So, on the day they had planned to do it, the anniversary of them first meeting - they chickened out. Big time. They hid the ring in their latest experiment just so they wouldn't be carrying it around in their pocket. They might get tempted.
Instead, they got up extra early, untangled themselves from their girlfriend's sleepy arms, and sneaked into the kitchen to make her panc - no, they couldn't make pancakes. They were only allowed to cook foods requiring heat when Perry was around to babysit them. But it was her favourite breakfast food, with cream and blueberries, so they closed the door to keep the smell from waking her, and went on with their entire focus and concentration set on making these pancakes perfectly.
When she entered the kitchen an hour later, hair a mess and eyes wide with worry, LaF was just putting the dirty dishes away, pancakes proudly displayed on the table next to two sets of plates and the cream and berries. "Perr, look! I actually didn't burn anything!"
Perry blinked, making sure she wasn't dreaming, before chuckling happily. "You did. I'm so proud of you."
"Hey, I worked hard on this! Happy anniversary. Friend-versary."
Perry smiled widely and kissed them good morning and hugged them extra tight. "Thank you. Happy anniversary."
As they ate, the first couple of minutes were full of conversation. How they'd met, how far they'd come since, and how they'd celebrated in the past years. They couldn't do any of it today. They were adults now, with things like work and time and appearances stopping them from having a dance party in the park like when they were eight.
So after a brief occurence by the door including both of them wanting to kiss instead of seeing Perry leave for work, LaFontaine was alone in the house, having the day off and being extremely disappointed by it. This day was supposed to be spent with Perry and nothing else.
To distract themselves, they sat down for another experiment with an unknown substance. They weren't completely sure of what it was going to do yet, so they wore their gloves and lab coat and goggles. They looked every part a mad scientist, stirring in the vials and taking notes.
The one thing they had forgotten was to put something on the table to prevent any hypothetical mess, but they'd be careful, it'd be okay.
Or so they thought, until a drop of liquid spilled onto the dark wood table and the small spot spat and whizzed and the dark brown wood surface turned into a lighter brown shade.
Shit, it was a small stain but Perry would kill them all the same. In her opinion the table would be destroyed for all eternity. And beyond.
They needed a way to break the news softly, and their eyes fell on the box with the ring, that they'd placed on the windowsill. Ah, yes.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Perry got home from work, tired but mostly cheerful still. It was their anniversary after all, and she wouldn't be surprised if LaF had done something extravagant for her to honour the day. She unlocked the door to find the house quiet, save for a slurping sound in the kitchen. This was bad news, bad. "LaF?" What had they done now? She usually preferred them out of the kitchen, to be honeest.
"Perr!" They came rushing out of it, worry clear on their face and hair a mess (in the attractive way, she thought to herself) and dressed in one of their shirts and bow ties, and they looked rather dashing, something she would have noticed if they hadn't been dashing from her favourite room in the house. "Perr, I'm sorry, there's this..."
"This what?" she took her coat off and counted to ten in her head. They'd been practising, she had to stay calm or she'd get more worked up than she had to be. It was hard, though. "What did you do?"
"There's a mess on the kitchen table that I can't get off."
Oh, well at least it wasn't any essential cooking tool like the oven, that would have been a true disaster. She entered the kitchen to see a disgusting, goop-ey blue substance covering all of the wooden surface. She sighed and went to get her cleaning utensils.
She scrubbed and scrubbed, and it gradually disappeared. She didn't know why LaFontaine wasn't helping - they were running around the house in some sort of nervous frenzy that was normally hers - but if she knew them right (and she did) they were feeling bad for doing this on their anniversary and was trying to figure out a way to apologize.
That was when she saw - what was that? A letter? It looked like a 'w'.
Another minute of scrubbing, and she saw a whole word. 'Will'.
After an hour, she was standing in front of a table with a sentence on it.
Will you marry me?
LaFontaine was suddenly on one knee in front of her, a box with something round and shiny reached out towards her.
"Marry me?"
It took a full minute. LaFontaine was panicking, when they finally heard the whispered answer.
"Of course I will, LaFontaine."