Lucille "Lucy" Van Pelt and Schroeder
"I can't." a stressed out woman with medium length, half curled black hair called out. "My thesis is due next week. I have no time."
"But we haven't done anything in weeks." a man called from the bedroom. "I'm all dressed and everything. Come on, just a quick dinner." he emerged from the bedroom door frame, in a nice striped dress shirt and slacks.
The woman at the desk next to the box piano turned her brown eyes toward her roommate and boyfriend. "If you're dressed like that, there's no way it's just a quick dinner." her eyes darted back to the work in front of her. "I do need to eat, however. Get some takeout and I'll dine here with you." she shooed him away with her hand. He wrinkled his face in annoyance, but obliged her all the same. He put on his coat and exited the front door of their small apartment.
When Schroeder returned an hour later with Chinese food, Lucy had fallen asleep among her books. "Lucy…" he prodded her in the cheek with a pair of chopsticks. "Hey Luce. I brought your favorite… Wake up you blockhead!"
wham!*
A fist flew out from her small frame. Where she drew so much strength from was a mystery to him. She had pegged him in the nose. He was checking for blood when she came to. "Oh hey, you're back." She gazed at her lifelong love for a moment before realizing she'd fallen asleep. "Rats! I fell asleep." she quickly shuffled through her papers to find out where she had left off. "Okay I've only been out for fifteen minutes. I have about forty minutes to eat with you."
"You have time for me?" Schroeder started sarcastically. "You sure you don't need to call your mother or Rerun? How about giving Linus a minute or even good ol Charlie Brown? You don't want to catch up with Patty or Violet?"
"Shut up, blockhead." she said as she snatched her pair of chopsticks from his hand. "I'm only working this hard so that we can be happy. Concert pianists don't exactly have a steady income." Schroeder took visible offense at that remark. "Plus, the world of psychiatry needs people as beautiful as I am to represent them."
"Good grief." Schroeder smacked his face. "I brought noodles, fried rice, teriyaki chicken and egg rolls."
"Great, I'm starving." they sat down at their small breakfast table. After their meal, they sat on the piano bench and played a duet together. "When we move into a house of our own, I'll buy you the most beautiful grand piano ever. I'll spare no expense."
"It doesn't matter what the piano we have looks like." Schroeder said as he placed his arm around his girl. "As long as you can lean on it, it's more than enough."
She leaned her head on Schroeder's shoulder. "twenty years ago, you wanted me as far away as possible from your toy piano."
"I was playing hard to get." he chuckled to himself. He began playing her favorite song.
"You're so stupid." she said with a light punch to his gut. she closed her eyes to enjoy the music. The hours rolled by as Schroeder played song after song. Lucy had been asleep for a while when he finally carried her small body to the bedroom. He laid her in her usual spot and covered her with a blanket. She stirred for a second to get comfortable. "Happiness is date night with a musician." she mumbled before slipping completely into slumber.