Chapter twenty eight:

Raven and Darling spent the next few days recovering together and they were very much enjoying spending time with each other. Apple and Maddie had both come to spend time with Raven and Darling, they were both happy to see that Raven and Darling were recuperating well, but they knew it would still be sometime until the couple were completely recovered and could return back to normal school life.

Apple was under no illusion that things for Raven had irrevocably changed and that now there was no way that Raven could ever poison her. There was a tiny part of Apple which was upset about this, she was extremely ashamed of feeling this way at all and Apple was working extremely hard to get rid of this shameful part of herself.

She wanted to be a better friend to Raven. Apple could see how happy she was in her new life and role as Darling's princess and n order to help herself become more accustom to the alteration in Raven's destiny Apple had started suggesting titles for their new story. So far the front runners for the name of Darling and Raven's story was the flower princess or the flower love notes.

During this time Raven and Darling had also discussed a more personalised betrothal promise, after much discussion on the subject they eventually settled on what they wanted to say to each other on that day. The couple decided not to tell anyone what they were going to say, so that it would be a surprise for all those attending their betrothal.

Three days after Darling had ordered the ring it arrived by goose mail and was dropped off at the door to her dorm room. Darling was extremely excited to show Raven the ring, so much so that her insides were fluttering with pleasure and with a slight hint of nervousness.

Darling carefully carried the small box which was wrapped in nice thick wrapping paper into the dorm room, she then started to make her way over to the bed, where Raven was sitting up in the bed absorbed in her book.

When she reached the side of the bed, Darling addressed her in a soft voice to gain Raven's attention and hopefully not give her a fright. "Raven my lady princess?"

Instantly Raven marked the page of her book, she looked up at Darling, smiled at her and asked her curiously. "What is it my love?"

"The ring has arrived." Darling told her.

The smile on Raven's face widened, excitement filled her, she looked up at Darling with sparkling eyes and said to her joyfully. "Oh, that's wonderful! I can't wait to see it! I hope it is as beautiful as it looked on the mirror page!"

"As do I." Darling told Raven.

Raven moved over in the bed, she patted the space she had made next to her. Without any hesitation Darling got onto the bed next to Raven. The two took a few moments to make themselves comfortable and once they where Darling settled the wrapped box onto her lap. Carefully she unwrapped the box, once the black paper was off it revealed a lovely silver ring box. "Oh, how pretty!" Raven exclaimed in delight.

Darling nodded in agreement. "It certainly is."

Taking a deep steadying breath Darling opened the box, the ring which was inside, was carefully cushioned between two white cushions and was absolutely exquisite. "Oh wow!" Darling said in a breathy awed voice.

Raven reached out and carefully stroked her fingers over the ring, her eyes were filled with absolute delight. "It's amazing!"

"Do you want to try it on?" Darling inquired of her in a soft voice.

"I most certainly do." Raven told her with a nod, while she held her left hand out towards Darling.

Darling removed the ring from the box, she tenderly took hold of Raven's hand, then slipped the ring onto her engagement finger. They both looked at the ring on her finger, and smiled at each other as it looked wonderful on Raven's finger. "I love it." Raven said joyfully to Darling.

She nodded in agreement to Raven's words. "It suits you perfectly. The flower motif of the ring is a wonderful reference to the way I wooed you."

"I hadn't thought about that, but now you mention it, that is a lovely representation of the way we came together." Raven agreed, while she admired the ring on her finger, Raven eventually looked up from the ring to Darling and said to her. "Now I have the ring on, I really don't want to have to take it off again."

"I can understand that." Darling told her smiling softly at Raven.

Raven let out a deep sigh and said in a reluctant tone voice. "Still, I should take the ring off so you can present it to me at the betrothal ceremony."

Very unenthusiastically Raven takes the ring back off and hands it back to Darling. She accepted the ring back from Raven and carefully put it back in the box. "I am very much looking forwards to being able to present the ring to you. Hopefully I can do so very soon."

Little did Darling know but, while she had been recovering over the past couple of days Raven had been in touch with her father. The two of them had been secretly planning for a formal betrothal to take place between Darling and Raven as soon as their bond was strong enough and Raven was well once more.

There had been several times over the last three days that Raven had come close to telling Darling all about the plans they had been making, but somehow so far, she had resisted this urge. Now though at long last everything was ready and so it was time for Raven to finally tell Darling what she had been up to as well as another piece of news which she hoped would also make Darling happy.

Raven turned a loving glance onto Darling from where she was sitting on the bed next to her and said to Darling. "Actually, I have a couple of things to tell you my Charming lady knight."

"Oh, what is it?" Darling asks her curiously coming over to the bed as she speaks.

"Well the first thing is that my last name has now officially be changed, I am now Raven Good King." Raven told her excitedly.

A huge smile spread over Darling's face as she said in a joyful voice. "Oh my love! That's wonderful news! You must be happy to know you are no longer a Queen."

Raven smiled back at the one she loved and exclaimed in a happy voice. "I'm absolutely ecstatic!"

"Now, I've heard that wonderful news I am even more curious to know what else it is you have to tell me." Darling confessed to Raven her voice soft and intreagued.

"Well, you see over the past few days I've been hexting and m-mailing to my father and we have been organizing something between us." Raven told her with a mischievous look and in her eyes as well as in the tone of her voice.

Seeing this Darling chuckles softly and asks. "Oh really? What have you two been up to?"

The smile on Raven's face grew wider as she answered this question. "Between us we have organised the betrothal ceremony in my home kingdom. All we would need to do is travel there and we would be formally betrothed within a few days."

By the time Raven finished speaking to her, Darling was staring at her wide eyed and with an expression of shock on her face. "You…You…You…" Darling stuttered for a few moments before she managed to calm herself down and say to Raven. "Your father and you have already organized everything for us?"

"Almost everything yes. We just need to set a date so your family and both our kingdoms can be ready celebrate and to decide what we are going to ware for the ceremony." Raven told her with nod and a wide smile on her face.

Darling could hardly believe that Raven had somehow been sorting out the whole betrothal ceremony without her realising what had been going on.

Seeing the way in which Darling was reacting to what she had been doing, Raven was starting to think that maybe this was not the happy surprise which she had hoped her news would be. "I didn't mean to upset you by making all the plans, I thought it would be a happy surprise for you…I'm so sorry Darling…"

Raven's words were cut off by Darling who briefly kissed Raven on the lips, before pulling back and saying to her in a happy and reassuring voice. "I am surprised yes, but not upset by what you have done. In fact, I'm thrilled to know that you have been organizing our betrothal ceremony! It's wonderful to know that we can get betrothed as soon as we are ready to."

Relief flowed through Raven and she let out a sigh. "I am so glad to know that I didn't upset you."

"Oh, my love! I'm thrilled! I'll message my parents to let them know that everything is ready for us to become betrothed as soon as you are well enough to make the journey to your home kingdom and to make sure they are ready to join us at short notice. They know how anxious I have been to make sure that everything between us will be safe and settled." Darling said reassuringly to Raven, before she took both of Raven's hands into hers and addressed her once more. "What do you say to messaging Lizzy about coming to see us, so that she can design outfits for us to ware?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Raven enthused.

Darling released Raven's hands, quickly she picked her mirror phone up from the bedside table and started to type out messages, first to Lizzy and then her mother and father.

"There all done!" Darling announced a short while later.

A chuckle left Raven. "I didn't really think you were going to message them so quickly."

Darling shot her a smile. "I just can't wait to make you mine. I've already told my parents that I intend to marry you as soon as I turn sixteen."

A delicate blush coloured Raven's cheeks while at the same time joy and shock filled her. "I am so pleased to hear you say that. I want you to know that I am also looking forwards to marrying you."

"That is wonderful to know." Darling said to her in a soft loving voice, before she gently kissed Raven on the lips.

Raven hummed in pleasure, she embraced Darling and ran her hands over Darlings back. A sigh of pleasure left Darling as she continued to kiss Raven. Darling gently stroked her hands up Raven's sides, before lifting her hands and running her fingers through Raven's hair.

Darling was loving every moment of kissing Raven, it filled her with huge amounts of pleasure and joy. She hadn't believed before now that kissing your true love could really make you feel so wonderful and complete as all the stories had said it did. Now though Darling knew that the descriptions given by those who had experienced kissing their true love, had in fact been very accurate.

As it always did kissing Darling made Raven feel wonderful inside and she wished kissing her never had to end. Raven was also looking forwards to when they would go further together, but she was more than happy to go slowly with Darling and wait until they were both ready to move forwards in their relationship.

Slowly they broke the kiss, Darling and Raven smiled at each other, Darling lifted one hand to stroke over Raven's cheek and said to her gently. "I love you so much. My heart and soul belong to you and no other."

"I love you with all my heart and soul too." Raven told her as she leant into the hand.

Darling gazed down into Raven's eyes with a clearly loving expression on her face, then she leant in and kissed her again. Instantly Raven murmured with delight, she tugged Darling a little closer to her and deepened the kiss.

Without any hesitation Darling returned the deep kiss, while at the same time she stroked her fingers through Raven's hair and hummed with pleasure.

After kissing like this for some time Darling and Raven broke this kiss, they shared loving smiles and Raven said in a soft loving voice. "Why don't you lay beside me so we can nap together?"

Instantly Darling's eyes lit with delight and she nodded to her. "That sounds like a wonderful idea to me."

Carefully Raven and Darling moved around on the bed, so that eventually they were laying side by side and holding each other in a comfortable embrace. Raven places a kiss to Darling's forehead, she smiled at Raven and then returned this gesture. Raven snuggled closer to Daring, closed her eyes and was soon sleeping peacefully. Darling smiled softly at the sight of Raven sleeping I her arms, she looked so beautiful and Darling had to clamp down hard on the urge to kiss Raven awake. Instead of doing this Darling got herself comfortable in the bed, she closed her eyes and was soon fast asleep herself.

They were woken up a few hours later when Darling's mirror phone pinged. Groggily Darling reached out for the phone, she groped around on the bedside table for a few moments and eventually Darling manged to grab the phone.

She peered at the screen through half open eyes, to find that a message was waiting for her from Lizzy. Yawning slightly Darling addressed Raven. "It's a message from Lizzy…Sorry I should have turned the sound off before we went to sleep."

"It's okay Darling, we all make mistakes." Raven assured her in a sleepy voice. "What does Lizzy have to say about making our outfits for the betrothal?"

"Lizzy is thrilled to be able to do so." Darling told her with a smile.

Raven returned the smile. "That's great to know."

"Shall I hext her back to ask when we she come to see us so we can decide with Lizzy's help what we want to wear?" Darling enquired of Raven.

After thinking about it for a moment, Raven nodded too Darling. "Yes, that would be wonderful."

Darling returned Raven's nod, she sat up in the bed and returned Lizzy's message. A short while later Lizzy answered her, Darling read the message and then said to Raven. "Lizzy says she can come to see us tomorrow to talk to us about what we are looking for. She wants to know what time would be good for us?"

"What do you say to about ten in the morning?" Raven asked Darling.

Darling turned this suggestion over in her head and then nodded to Raven. "Sounds good to me. I'll hext Lizzy and see if that's okay with her too."

Quickly Darling hexted Lizzy, who responded quickly with an affirmative. "Lizzy is happy to come over to see us tomorrow at ten."

"That's great!" Raven enthused, before saying softly to Darling. "Now then, lets snuggle back up."

Darling had no disagreements to that suggestion, so she snuggled back up to Raven. At the same time Raven nuzzled into Darling and let out a contented sigh.