Proposal
Mr. Nix owns Keys to the Kingdom and its characters. I am not Mr. Nix.
Leaf was still getting used to her new status as the equivalent of a Piper's Child. She felt like she had more energy, even though she wasn't eating as much as she would outside the House. She seemed stronger, too, more tireless. She supposed it was the effects of the Keys Arthur had used to save her life. Leaf still remembered all too well the icy cold river in the Secondary Realms…
Arthur interrupted Leaf's reminiscence by entering her small but bright room in Monday's Dayroom without knocking.
Leaf smiled in spite of herself. Arthur may have been the Rightful Heir of the Architect, Master of the Lower House, the Middle House, The Upper House, Lord of the Far Reaches, Duke of the…the—she could never remember all his titles—but he had notoriously poor manners. To her, Arthur was just the boy she loved like a brother.
Or maybe a bit less like a brother and more like a soul mate…
Leaf shook off these hopeless thoughts as she grinned at Arthur. But Arthur didn't flash his easygoing smile back. Instead, he looked nervous and—was it possible?—slightly apprehensive.
"Um, Leaf…can I talk to you seriously for a moment?" Arthur stammered out.
Leaf nodded and gestured toward the one chair in the room. She herself sat upon her bed, pushing away embarrassing thoughts about what that might signify.
Arthur took a deep breath with the air of a man about to jump off the high dive.
"Leaf, you know how Dame Primus is about tradition. Always in times of peace, there have been an equal number of men and women ruling the House…four male Trustees and three female Trustees plus the Architect, until She left. Dame Primus thinks that one of the reasons why the Trustees fell was that the males and females weren't balanced. She is insisting that since she is a block of text and is therefore genderless, I must find myself a female partner to balance out my, and I quote, 'natural male aggressiveness'."
Leaf giggled at that. It was just the thing Dame Primus would say.
"Leaf," said Arthur quietly, "do you understand what I am asking of you?" And suddenly, Arthur was not the weird, asthmatic kid whose life she had saved, but the handsome, powerful Denizen whose eyes were the first things she saw when he pulled her back from the brink of the Void. She nodded.
Arthur smiled at her at last, and a weight seemed to lift from his shoulders. He stood, pulled her to her feet, and embraced her.
"I love you, Leaf," he said. "More than you know."