It was Valentine's day, and Sips was going to do it right. He'd never admit it but he loved the holidays now that he had Sjin around, he wanted to celebrate them all even though he had to try and maintain his cool guy persona. He'd had so many Christmases and Valentine's Days and Thanksgivings pass by without someone to share it with and had almost completely put them out of his mind to avoid the loneliness. But now it was like being a little kid again and rediscovering all these special days, he'd celebrate the hell out of Lief Ericson Day if he could get away with it. And today they didn't have an obligation to go help out the girl guides so he had Sjin all to himself. He'd thought about what to do and decided on the classic, roses on the bed, candlelit dinner, sure he'd never heard of anyone doing that in real life but it's gotta be so traditional for a reason!

Amazingly, Sjin had remembered what day it was, usually he was too caught up in whatever they were working on to really keep track of things like that. He'd woken Sips up with kisses and tender words and Sips had happily reciprocated with some deliciously not-so-tender words and action of his own, and neither one of them had complained when the sun was high in the sky by the time they were dressed and ready to get back to work. Sips had to hide his smile as he told Sjin to "stop being so goddamn adorable already, geeze" as the architect laughed and flew off to do a little more decorating of the hydrofacility. And the ding-dong didn't even know that Sips had even more planned. "God, I really am the most awesome boyfriend that's ever lived aren't I" Sips smugly thought to himself as he hopped the perimeter fence in search of some fresh roses.

He hadn't expected to go far but he'd only found purple and yellow flowers near the compound, and he wasn't going to half ass this, nothing but red roses would do, Sjin deserved the best. Finally he spotted some at the edge of a cave entrance and ran over, bending down to pick them. When he heard the telltale hissing he only had time to turn around, instinctively twisting his body and stepping backwards, forgetting that there was a hole behind him, and say "Fu-" before the creeper exploded, sending his already falling body down the hole with violent force, coming to a crunching halt on the cobblestone. As Sips lay blinking up at the sky and processing the pain spreading across his body he realized that not bothering to put on his nanosuit this morning was definitely a bad idea.

He started to try and sit up, shaking at the thought of how close that'd been, if he hadn't been already falling backwards when the creeper exploded he would have taken it full on and he might not have made it. He felt boiling anger at himself rising up like bile, that he'd been so careless and could have disappeared like that, with Sjin not even knowing what had happened. Then he realized that it was pretty dark down here and lying around wounded and unarmoured was another very very bad idea. He stumbled to his feet cursing, just as a skeleton emerged from the shadows and readied it's bow, and he franticly scrabbled up out of the cave, arrows coming much too close for comfort. Back in the sunlight and finding the coast clear Sips sank against a tree with a sigh, running his hands over his torn shirt to check just how bad the damage was. His arms were a little singed and scraped as was the front of his chest, but not too bad. The real problem was on his back, where he'd landed so hard on the cobblestone. He didn't think anything was broken but it was gonna be a hell of a bruise, and from the blood that stained his hands there must be some pretty deep cuts. There was no way he'd be able to bandage them himself, but there was no way he could tell Sjin either. Today was supposed to be perfect, Sips could see in his head clearly the ashen face Sjin would have if he learned how close he'd come to losing Sips. And that wouldn't do at all. He'd just have to sneak into the house, put on his nanosuit to hide the damage, and play it cool. And find some new roses he thought ruefully, looking down to the charred stems he was still holding in his hand.