"I wish I could give you a more romantic date night, babe," Mikey said with a sigh as he poured some hot chocolate from a thermos and offered it to Mabel.

He looked better than he had when he was going through chemo, but clearly his treatment was taking a bit of a toll on him; he looked very peaky, with dark circles under his eyes and a paler skin tone than usual. But Mabel was happy to see that despite it all, he was still her goofy dork boyfriend.

The two kids were sitting out in the hospital courtyard, at sunset, with only the glow of a few candles surrounding them for light. The early winter frost had driven everyone else indoors, but for the chance to get some alone time they had bundled up under several layers of clothes (weak immune systems and all that) and made a picnic with warm drinks and a few cartons of orange chicken.

"Eh, as long as we're together that's romantic enough." Mabel took the golden opportunity of privacy and neither of her grunkles lurking nearby to lean in and kiss him (because of the hot chocolate mustache he had just given himself, obviously).

Mikey blushed in that cute way he would when he didn't have anything else to say, which was always Mabel's cue to freely ramble. She proceeded to do so.

She told him a little about what was going on at school (she hadn't been paying strict attention, for obvious reasons) and a funny story Soos had told her about some difficult customers earlier that week, before finally her ramblings made their way to the donor festival.

"…and we got probably everyone in the entire state of Oregon to show up, so we're definitely going to get a donor soon! Then you can make it up to me for not being able to give me a fancy date even though this one was perfect anyway!"

"I hope so," Mikey murmured.

"Have a little faith! I know so!" She barely stopped herself from waving her hands dramatically, because that would have sent chocolate flying everywhere. "I've been up waaaayyyyyyyyy past my bedtime talking to people on the Internet for three weeks straight! You even trended on Tooter, remember?"

"How could I forget?" He managed to smile, before saying more seriously, "But you know, even if I don't find my exact donor, you've still done something amazing for a bunch of people and-"

"And I'm gonna do something amazing for you too! Just hang in there, okay?"

Mikey just nodded, and after a second, he pulled her into his arms.

"I love you. You know that, right?" he asked, after a minute of just holding her and stroking her hair.

"Of course I know that, who doesn't love me?" Mabel teased. She felt his chest rise and fall as he snorted with laughter. But then, more seriously, she lifted her head a little and whispered, "I love you too."

Mikey kissed the top of her head, and resumed quietly stroking.

"…I just hope I can make everything you've done for me worth your while," he whispered eventually.

Mabel wanted to point out that if he stayed alive that would be good enough for her-but then she looked down at her hand. At the promise ring wrapped snugly around her finger.

Her eyes lit up.

"I know how you can!" She sat up and grabbed Mikey's hands in hers. "Marry me like you promised!"

Mikey's jaw dropped. "Mabel-"

"Forget what Ford says, I don't need a fancy wedding ring with diamonds! This ring is perfect!" She thrust it under his nose. "And I'll bet Stan will give me one of his gold rings for you, I just gotta give him the puppy eyes and tell him it'll make me happier than anything in the world even though we're both technically underage!"

"Mabel-"

"And I can wear the homecoming dress I picked out! I've never even worn it and I can just put a veil on it and maybe include some more flowers on the top part! Soos's wife Melody could help me with it, she's really good at sewing! And we don't need a big celebration, we can go to the courthouse when you're better and just sign the paper! Or-or even have the wedding here in the hospital if you need to stay here a little longer! I don't need anything big, just as long as our families are there and-"

"MABEL!" Mikey bellowed.

"Yeah?" Mabel asked, even though her eyes were already lit up with images of her not-exactly-fairytale fantasy wedding.

Mikey had so much he clearly wanted to say to her, but his mouth suddenly didn't seem able to make words and his pupils were dilating and his skin was turning white in a way that snapped her out of it within seconds.

The next thing she knew he was full on collapsing into her arms.