*Beep beep beep*
The sound of an alarm going off wakes the blond-haired woman sleeping in a queen size bed. Shuffling around under the covers the woman tries to find her way out from under them, driven by the sound of the alarm going off.
"Uggh." The woman says, finally free from the bedding. "Why are you set this early?" She asks, picking up the alarm clock from the nightstand next to her side of the bed.
"Because," A voice coming from the doorway into the bedroom draws the blond woman's attention. "I wanted you to have enough time to enjoy your birthday breakfast in bed." A woman with short red hair walks into the room holding a wooden tray with a full spread of breakfast food.
"Marie, you didn't." The blond woman asks as the tray is set down in front of her.
"You said you wanted breakfast in bed for your birthday." Marie kisses the blond woman on the cheek. "So here you go. Happy birthday, Nazz."
"Marie." Nazz blushes, "I thought you got that I was joking."
Marie walks around to the other side of the bed. "Oh I know you were, but who am I to not take an opportunity to spoil my Princess." She sits down on the bed and opens the drawer on her nightstand and takes out a small gift-wrapped package.
"Happy birthday," Marie says again as she holds the gift out to Nazz.
Nazz takes the gift from Marie. "You are really trying for that world's best girlfriend award this year, aren't you?" Nazz asks as he carefully opens the gift.
"I won't let Beckie beat me this year." Marie holds her clenched fist up. "She outdid me last year with the homemade Christmas cookies, but this year I'll get her."
Nazz laughs at her girlfriend's joke. "Just don't set their house on fire." She opens the box inside of the gift wrap, revealing a bracelet made of woven twine with three gems in it, two of them are Marie and her birthstones with a heart-shaped gem between the two birthstones.
"Aww, Marie." Nazz takes the bracelet out of the box. "I love it, thank you." She leans over and kisses Marie.
Marie smiles at her girlfriend, "Glad you like it." She stands up from the bed. "Now enjoy your breakfast, I'm going to clean up the kitchen."
Nazz smiles as she sets the bracelet down and turns to her food. She picks up her fork, eager to try the pancakes Marie made, just as something jumps onto the bed.
Looking up, Nazz sees that it is the pair of cats Marie and her own. "Oh, good morning Thelma, good morning Louise," Nazz says as the cats move across the bed. They are a pair of sisters that Marie and Nazz have owned for years now, and are inseparable.
Nazz pets Thelma as Louise lay down on Marie's side of the bed. Petting her cat, Nazz looks around the room, taking it all in.
Marie and her moved into this two-bedroom apartment over five years ago, and they have accumulated quite a lot of memorabilia through the years. Above the bed they hung their PRIDE flags they got when they went to a PRIDE fair. Marie got a picture of a silver 1967 Ford Shelby Mustang GT 500 Fastback framed and it hangs on the wall next to their double wide dresser. They have a bookshelf of books and nicknacks. And on the wall next to Nazz's side of the bed is full of framed pictures the two women have taken over the years of their relationship. Some are from as far back as when they were in high school, one is of Nazz at her college graduation, and one Marie took of the Now Leaving Peach Creek sign when they moved to Lemon Brook.
Nazz lets out a happy sigh, they have made this apartment a home, and she loves everything about it.
Once finished with her breakfast, and petting the two cats for a bit, Nazz gets up out of bed and carries the tray out of the bedroom. Across from their bedroom is the bathroom, and next to their bedroom is the second bedroom that Nazz and Marie use as an office/rec room. Hanging on the walls of the short hallway leading from the bedrooms and bathroom are a few paintings Marie made years ago when she took an evening painting class when she was looking to broaden her hobbies. In the end, Marie didn't enjoy painting enough, but Nazz still kept the abstract paintings Marie made and had them framed. Nazz has been supportive of Marie's journey to find hobbies, growing up she didn't have time for anything fun, so now as an adult, Marie is exploring different hobbies. Her current and longest-running hobby is playing bass guitar, and Marie has a talent for it. She was even in a garage band up until a few months ago when the band disbanded due to various reasons. Nazz hopes that Marie will find a new group of people to play with again, she enjoyed going to the shows and watching Marie perform.
"Thank you again, Marie," Nazz says as she walks into their kitchen where Marie is finishing up cleaning up the mess she made.
Nazz kisses Marie on the cheek as she sets the tray down and moves to put the dirty dishes into the sink, but is stopped by Marie.
"Leave those for me, you go get ready for work," Marie says, taking the plate from Nazz.
"You sure? You've done way more than you need to." Nazz wanted to help with the dishes, but Marie made it very clear that she was going to do it.
Marie uses her free hand to gently push Nazz out of the kitchen, "I am spoiling you on your birthday, all manual labor is forbidden."
Nazz lets out a quick laugh. "Alright, you win." She accepts Marie's stubbornness.
After showering and getting dressed Marie and Nazz are walking down the street to the bus stop near their apartment. The two women walking down the street still look like a mismatched couple, but not as severely as they were in high school. Marie has stopped dying her hair, letting her natural red show, and she is no longer ripping the sleeves off of her shirts. She is still a punk rocker at heart, she's just grown as a person to not need to show it so much. Nazz's fashion choices have grown more professional over the years, she wears button-up shirts, preferring short-sleeved ones, and well-kept blue jeans.
Nazz has a car, she got it while in college, but driving and finding parking in the city is not worth the hassle, so her car tends to sit in the garage under their apartment building most of the time.
"What time are you going into the shop today?" Nazz asks as the two women walk hand in hand.
Marie looks at the old leather-strapped wristwatch her mother gave her when she moved to the city. "I have to leave in about an hour, Tony let me come in later today so I could make you breakfast."
While Nazz was going through college, Marie put herself through trade school and has been working at an auto shop since shortly after they moved to the city.
"You have the world's chillest boss," Nazz says as they stop at the bus stop sign.
Marie looks down the street for the bus. "That I do," They got to the stop with just a few minutes to spare. "He was willing to give me the whole day off, but you're working and I wanna get that SUV finished today."
"What was wrong with it again?" Nazz asks.
"Well the noise was coming from the gears in the transmission grinding, and it looks like someone tried adding water to the radiator fluid. So a standard case of an idiot wanting to do everything themselves."
"You seem to get a lot of those."
"They keep me employed so I can't really complain." Marie shrugs and the bus draws near.
Nazz leans towards Marie and gives her a quick kiss. "Have a good day, Darlin."
Marie smiles. "You too, and enjoy your birthday at work, Princess." She quickly kisses Nazz on the cheek just as the bus door opens.
Marie watched the bus drive off for a brief moment before turning to return to the apartment, already missing her girlfriend's company.
Once inside the apartment, Marie drops her keys into the clay bowl next to the door. "Thelma, Louise, Mamma's back from walking your other mom to the bus." She says to the two cats somewhere in the apartment.
Marie lets out a peaceful sigh, she too loves the apartment Nazz and her have made into a home. Drying and storing the dishes she washed earlier she hums a song that's been stuck in her head all morning.
As she puts the last dish away, she starts to think about the song she's been humming. "Hmm." She says as trying to guess the notes of the song.
With a mixture of determination and curiosity, Marie leaves the kitchen and enters the spare room to find her bass guitar.
The room is slightly smaller than their bedroom, an older loveseat sofa sits against one wall, a desk with Nazz's computer on it across from it, and sitting in a stand next to the desk is Marie's forest green bass guitar.
Marie picks up her bass and sits down on the couch while slipping the strap over her head in one fluid motion. She flips the switch on the small amp next to the couch as the cats walk into the room. She plucks a few strings and adjusts the knobs at the top of the neck before taking a deep and slow breath.
She closes her eyes as she lets her breath out, focusing herself, before going straight to playing.
She plays a few notes before shaking her head, adjusting her fingers, and trying again and again until she finds the right notes and starts playing the song that was stuck in her head. She plays the song from start to finish nodding along as she plays, happy with how it sounds.
Once finished with the song, Marie switches over to playing some riffs she knows or just letting her fingers guide themselves over the strings. Playing her bass is something Marie is not only good at but something she really enjoys.
Thelma and Louise lay on the floor watching Marie, their tales swaying together. "What do you gals think?" Marie asks, leaning back on the couch. "Think I have what it takes to find another band to play with?"
Louise looks up at Marie and meows at her. "Yeah, I am good at the bass."
Thelma rolls onto her back and meows. "I know it would suck to get shot down, but that's life."
Thelma paws at Louise's face and purs. "I could talk to Jessi and Kyle, we'd only need a singer and another guitarist if we tried to reform Sandworms, though we'd have to come up with a different name." Marie sits upright and looks at her watch, she needs to start getting ready to leave herself.
Standing up, Marie walks over to the hard leather case she has for her guitar and opens it. On the inside cover of the case, she has a few polaroid pictures attached to it. One of her and her former band at their first open mic night at a bar, one that the band took as a moc album cover, and one that is just Marie and Nazz. In all of them Marie has on her "stage outfit", which is just a black tank top with the band's name on the back, a pair of blue denim shorts cut off mid-thigh, and on her right wrist a bunch of different "punk" bracelets she's accumulated over the years. In the picture of Marie and Nazz, Nazz has on a white t-shirt that she wrote "Sandworm's #1 fan" on it with black marker. The picture of Marie and Nazz together is Marie's favorite of the three. Nazz almost couldn't make it to that show, but when she showed up and surprised Marrie, Nazz told her; "I'll always do whatever I can to support you".
Nazz telling Marie that just a year ago gave her the answer to a question that had been floating in her head for months before that night.
Once her bass is secured in the case, Marie opens the small storage compartment in the case. The compartment has spare strings in it, her tuner, and a few cleaning products for her guitar, but under all of that is a small velvet box. She knows Nazz has no reason to ever go into the case, so it is the perfect place to hide the little box.
Later that morning, Marie is in the small locker room of the auto shop changing into her work overalls. Working in and around cars all day will leave anyone covered in dirt, grime, and engine grease, so Marie has no option but to wear the overalls. Once changed and out into the shop, Marie uses a bandanna to tie back and keep the bangs of her red hair out of her face.
"Morning Marie," An older man with short salt and pepper hair says as he wipes his hand clean with a rag. "How'd the missis like her breakfast."
"Morning Tony," Marie responds. "She loved it, tell Molly thanks for the recipe." From nearly day one, Tony has referred to Nazz and Marie's missis, he does that with everyone that works in the shop, including the other two women that work in the shop's office.
"Will do," Tony says with a wave as Marie walks past. "Let me know if ya need any help with that SUV, the owner called and wants it back ASAP."
"Mkay, I got most of the transmission put back together the other day, so I should have it done in a few days."
The SUV Marie has been working on has a lot of things she considers wrong with it, it has oversized rims, way too much chrome, and a custom plate that reads; "#1 BOSS", but that is not what she is getting paid to fix so she is left to only moc the owners choices with her fellow mechanics.
With music playing through a BlueTooth speaker sitting in her toolbox, Marie is under the SUV tightening bolts.
"Excuse me, where is the man working on my vehicle?" A voice comes from behind the SUV.
Marie uses her feet to roll her mechanic's creeper and out from under the SUV. "Can I help ya?" She asks, looking up at a man in an overpriced suit.
"Yes, you can direct me to the mechanic that is working on my vehicle." The man says, adjusting his tie.
Marie stands up from the mechanic's creeper. "I'm the mechanic working on your car." She wipes her hands clean with a rag.
"A woman mechanic?" The man scuffs. "Very funny. Where is the actual man I am paying to fix my vehicle." It was a statement, not a question, and it triggered Marie's Kanker ways instantly.
"Look Gramps, you might not like it, but I am the mechanic trying to fix this POS that you've not been taking care of." Marie glares at the man as she talks. "If you don't like it, then you can pay to tow it somewhere else."
"How dare you speak to ME like that." The man is visibly shocked. "Do you not know that the customer is always right?!" He demands.
All Marie does is point to the wall next to the garage's office, where in bright orange letters Tony has written; "Unless you're a mechanical engineer, you don't know more than my mechanics and are probably wrong."
"Now, I'll be nice and maybe not charge you more for finishing this job if you play nice and ask me, politely, what you wanted to ask." A younger Marie would have ripped into the man, yelling and threatening violence, but she has grown over the years, and Nazz has influenced her as well, so she no longer has that kind of anger in her.
This leaves the man red-faced angry but speechless.
When she was still a kid, Nazz never thought teaching is where she would find herself after college. What started as a part-time tutoring job one summer snowballed and eventually led her to where she is now, watching a classroom full of third graders solve the math problems she's written on the whiteboard. Nazz loves being a teacher, it's been a fulfilling five years of working at Lemon Brook Public Elementary, and she can already see herself there for a very long time. This is her third year of teaching on her own at Lemon Brook Public Elementary, so she's had time to add a few personal items to the room. A picture of her college graduation, one of Marie's paintings, a hanging plant that her mother gave her when she got the job at the school, and a picture of Marie and her dressed up at a fancy restaurant for their tenth anniversary they celebrated last year.
When the kids were taken to the cafeteria for lunch, Nazz took this opportunity to take some paperwork to the school office and make photocopies while she was at it.
Nazz hums to herself as she operates the copying machine, she happens to be humming the same song that Marie had stuck in her head that morning.
"Ah, Ms. Van Bartonschmeer, I was hoping to find you out of your classroom."
Nazz turns around to find an older man with salt and pepper hair dressed in a button-up shirt and blue tie holding a folded-up piece of paper.
"Good afternoon, Principle Pattrick." Nazz smiled at her boss. "What can I do for you?"
"I received this letter this morning from a parent of one of your students." He holds the letter out to Nazz, who takes it and opens it, and starts reading.
"Dear Principal Pattrick.
It has been brought to my attention that little Suzzie's teacher, Ms. Van Bartonschmeer, does not partake in traditional relationship practices. Now I understand that in these times it is more common for adults to choose alternative partners than the norm, but I do not believe that children should be learning about these kinds of relationships. I am asking you to address this concern promptly, I am an active member of the PTA and School Board, and will be bringing this topic up to them if I do not hear from you.
Mrs. Carien."
Nazz rereads the letter, trying to wrap her head around what she just read. "So, Suzzies mom doesn't like that I'm queer, am dating another woman, and she thinks I'm teaching the kids about being queer." She looks up at Principle Pattrick. "What the heck is this all about?"
Principle Pattrick pinches the brim of his nose. "I called Mrs. Carien after I read her letter, hoping to better understand. According to her, you were telling the students about how you date women and that homosexuality is normal."
Nazz is shocked and appalled, "Principal Pattrick…" She can guess what incident brought this on. "If she is talking about what I think she is, when the kids were making Valentine's Day cards for their parents, one of the kids asked if I had a valentine and I told them about having a girlfriend. I told them the truth, that some boys grow up to like boys, and that some girls grow up to like girls, and that some like both. I wasn't telling them they have to become queer, I was being truthful and honest with my students like I always am."
"I understand that Ms. Van Bartonschmeer, but Mrs. Carien expressed… concern, that her daughter is being taught things that go against their family's traditional Christian beliefs."
This strikes a nerve with Nazz, "traditional Christian beliefs? She's been divorced twice, and had Suzzie out of wedlock." Being with Marie for as long as she has given her a little bit of her own "Kanker-style rage". "She's just a homophobic hypocrite trying to force her beliefs onto others."
"Calm down, Ms. Van Bartonschmeer." Principal Pattrick says worried that Nazz could get properly angry and start yelling. "This is not about you or her and how many partners you've had-"
"Marie and I have been together for over ten years, since high school." Nazz cuts him off.
"Ms. Van Bartonschmeer." Principal Pattrick is getting angry himself now. "It doesn't matter, school policy is to not discuss our personal lives with the children. Please refrain from bringing this topic, or one similar to it, up in your classroom in front of the children again. I will notify Mrs. Carien that it won't happen again. And if it does, then we will be having a very different conversation." With that, Principle Pattrick turns on his heels, leaving Nazz where she stands, stunned and speechless.
"She's not just a princess locked in a tower, she's my shield maiden on this battlefield we call life." Marie sings to herself as she walks down the street gently swinging her grocery bags. "Together we'll show this world who we are, two souls destined to be side by side, forever and ever and ever." The song is one that she'd written along with her former bandmates. People that have heard it played at their shows thought it was a song about female Vikings finding love on the battlefield, but Marie had written the lyrics to be about Nazz and herself. And walking home from the grocery store with the ingredients to cook a birthday dinner that was sure to impress Nazz, Nazz is all Marie can think about.
"I'm home," Marie says as she opens the door to the apartment. "I stopped by the store after work, I hope you're ready for the best birthday…" Marie trails off when she sees Nazz sitting on the couch, her shoes still on, with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.
In one single motion, Marie drops the bags onto the floor and kicks the door closed with one foot. "Nazz, what's wrong?" Marie asks, hurrying over to her girlfriend sitting on the couch. As she gets closer, she sees that Nazz's eyes are red from crying. "Did something happen at school?"
Marie sits down next to Nazz, who immediately embraces her, burying her face into Marie's chest.
A younger Marie would have demanded to know who hurt Nazz, so she could hurt them herself for the pain her girlfriend suffered, but Marie is older now, and she knows that that wouldn't get her anywhere or anything. "Shhh shhh, it's ok, Nazz." She says holding Nazz in her arms. "I'm here, just tell me what happened."
After a moment of Nazz just taking in the warmth and comfort Marie gave her, she tells her about what the principal told her, and how emotionally devastated she felt from it. "I thought we'd made it past this stuff, that we don't have to keep who we are a quiet fact, that I can tell a bunch of eight-year-olds I'm dating another woman without it being any kind of deal." Nazz wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. "I never not want to be able to tell people about you, about us, but some people are being so loud just to try and stop it, I don't know what to do Marie." Nazz inhales, trying to stop her nose from running.
Marie kisses Nazz on the forehead and then gets up. "I'm so sorry that you have to go through that, Nazz." She walks over to their dining table and grabs a few napkins for Nazz. "No one has the right to stop you from expressing yourself, from telling people about us." She sits back down and hands Nazz the napkins.
Nazz blows her nose. "I know, but I don't know what to do, this woman seems to have it in her head that she can dictate what I can and can't tell my students."
Try as she might, Marie hasn't been able to raise Nazz's mood. She wants to tell her that this parent is a sad fat old hag that probably mistakes her bellybutton for a different hole, but that will only get a laugh out of Nazz, if anything. She wants to tell Nazz something that would reassure her that she can always be free to say she's queer and in love with Marie, but she can't find the right words. And then it hits her.
Marie stands up from the couch. "I'll be right back." She says, walking away from Nazz and into the spare bedroom.
Nazz hears the sound of Maire opening her bass case and gets curious as to what Marie could be doing, but Marie returns just a moment later with a hand behind her back.
"Remember what you told me, when I asked you how you knew you loved me?" Marie asks as she sits down next to Nazz again, after hiding something in her back pocket. "You told me you knew you loved me when you found the switchblade in a care package."
"Yeah, it was seeing how much you cared about me and wanting to make sure I was safe," Nazz adds, wiping some tears away with a napkin.
"Well, I had a moment like that myself, a moment of understanding." Marie fidgets and chooses her words as carefully as she could. "So when we were back in Peach Creek a few months ago, and I went to see my Ma and sisters I had to ask them a very important question."
"Question, what question?" Nazz is very confused.
"I had to ask them if it was ok, to add another to the Kankers." Marie feels her palms getting sweaty as she builds up to her hastily made plan.
"Marie, I'm so confused. What are you talking about?"
"I was planning on saving this until I found the right moment but, I love you Nazz, with everything I am. No one can ever put what we have into a closet to hide it away and leave it unspoken. I want the world to know I love you, and I want to say I love you for the rest of my life." Marie moves off of the couch and kneels on the carpet in front of Nazz, whose eyes grow wide as she starts to figure out what is happening. "I want to wake up next to you every day, to grow old together," Marie takes the little box she had hidden in her bass case from her back pocket and opens it. "Nazz, will you marry me?"
For the second time that day, Nazz is stunned speechless. "Marie…" She looks from the small box containing a silver ring with a small red gem set into it, to her girlfriend's face which is covered in anxiety. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you too." She smiles at Marie.
"Is that a yes?" Marie asks, needing to hear Nazz's answer.
"Yes," Nazz says as tears of joy start to form. "Yes, I'll marry you," she says before jumping at her now fiancée, kissing her, as they both fall to the floor.
Marie and Nazz have kissed more times than could ever be counted, but this has to be the most excitement and joy-filled kiss they have ever shared.
"I'm not getting the tattoo," Nazz says once the kiss was broken.
"What?" Marie asks, tucking hair behind her ear.
Nazz rolls off of Marie and leans against the couch, "The "Kanker 4 Life" tattoo you and your sisters have, I'm not getting one." She says, pointing at Marie's right shoulder.
"Oh." Marie laughs as she sits up. "You have to be born a Kanker to earn the tat."
On May's eighteenth birthday, the three Kanker sisters all went off and got matching tattoos on their right arms that say; "Kanker 4 Life". The three sisters were starting to do more and more things on their own after graduation and they worried that they would drift apart as time went on. So they decided to get the tattoos to always have something permanent connecting them.
Marie leans over and kisses Nazz quickly, "I should get working on dinner, don't want the stuff I got going bad."
Nazz smiles, she is still very upset about what happened that day with Principle Pattrick, but the joy of Marie proposing to her has pushed those thoughts to the back burner for the time being. "Do you want some help?" She asks as Marie stands.
Marie shakes her head and offers Nazz a hand to help her up. "It would take away from the whole making you a special dinner for your birthday, wouldn't it?"
Nazz pulls herself up with Marie's help, "But I want to help, plus you made me breakfast already. I think I've been spoiled enough today."
Later, after a dinner of baked tilapia, sauteed red potatoes, and a spinach and kale salad, Marie and Nazz are washing the dishes together as the cats eat their wet food for dinner.
"I think I'm going to call the Teachers Union tomorrow," Nazz says as she hands off a washed plate to Marie to rinse.
"About Principle Pattrick being an assclown jerk?" Marie asks, rinsing the plates.
Nazz snorts a quick laugh at what Marie called her boss, "Yes, but also because it's not going to be the last time that me being queer is going to be a "problem" now that we're engaged." Nazz air quotes herself before her cheeks grow red. Just saying the words; "we're engaged" excites her and gives her the warm and fuzzies as if she were still a grade school kid.
"Oh yeah, I can already hear that pissing and moaning Suzzie's mom is going to be doing when she finds out."
Nazz looked down at the frying pan in her hand, Marie used it to make a dinner that Nazz could taste the love put into it. "Man, fuck that aging cunt." She says. "She can fuck off all the way back to the forties. We're going to get married and have an amazing life together full of friends and family that love us for who we are."
"Damn, you're already becoming like a Kanker already." Marie is shocked at how vulgar Nazz just was.
"What?" Nazz asks, looking confused. "She started it, and I'll end it."
Marie laughs. "Yep, I've definitely been a bad influence on you."
Nazz leans over and kisses Marie on the cheek. "And I wouldn't change it for anything."
AN: This one is rather short, but I didn't want to spend too much time creating details that wouldn't be said if you were telling friends the story of how your fiancée proposed.