Commander Peepers rocked back on his heels and glanced at his watch. "What's taking him so long?" he mumbled. He squinted down at the planet below, eye wandering across the lush purple grasslands until his gaze caught on a vague figure on the horizon. Peepers blinked and the figure was gone. "What the-" he yelped as he was unceremoniously scooped up by a panicked Hater.

"Oh my grop he said yes! He wasn't supposed to say yes! Peepers what do I do?"

Peepers blinked up at his husband, "...what?"

Lord Hater stomped his feet and frantically shook Peepers, "He said yes and I don't know what to do!"

The commander shook himself out and sighed. "There there, sir," he said as he lightly patted Hater's arm, "I need you to say that again, slowly."

"Wander!" Hater snapped, "He said yes when I asked him out." He drew out the last word and let it peter off into a low whine.

"I'm sorry, but isn't that a good thing, sir?"

"Well yeah, but I didn't think he was gonna say yes so I never actually planned a date."

Peepers sputtered, "You asked him out on a date you didn't plan? How does that even work?"

Hater sniffed, "I asked if he wanted to go out with me and he said 'Of course! When are ya gonna pick me up?' and I panicked and told him to be ready at six! But nothing's happening at six!"

"Oh-kay then…" Peepers dragged a hand slowly down his closed eye and hummed in thought, "Six-o-clock, that gives us a little over two hours. I can work with that."

"You can?"

"Of course, sir," the commander nodded proudly, "I'll just have the watchdogs throw together a nice meal and set up a couple movies in the screening room while you go get ready."

Lord Hater breathed out a relieved sigh, "Yeah, okay. Thanks, C. Peeps, you always know what to do." He drew his lover into a short hug.

Peepers cleared his throat, "Oh… you're welcome, sir."


"Alright, sir, the table is set, the first movie is queued up, and Andy is busy interviewing Giuseppe about his new fall line or something so no need to worry about him. All you need to do now is-" Peepers looked around Hater's destroyed bedroom until his eye landed on the skeleton's back sticking out of the closet door as he continued to fling clothes out into the room behind him. "...get dressed, apparently."

The commander inched his way along a relatively clear patch of floor to his distraught husband. "...stupid, ugly, old, to formal, not formal enough, ugh why do I even have that?" Hater murmured to himself, not noticing Peepers. He caught Hater's left wrist as he was throwing out yet another cloak. "Huh?" Hater looked down at his partner, "Oh thank grop. Peepers, you gotta help me out; I've been looking through this stupid closet for hours and I can't find anything to wear for Wander."

Peepers pinched the place where the bridge of his nose would be with one hand while gently rubbing the palm of Hater's hand with the other. "Why don't you just wear what you have on now?" he offered, "You always look good in that cloak."

"But it's a date," Hater whined, "I can't just where the same clothes as always."

"Why not?"

"Because it's not good enough!" Lord Hater snapped.

Commander Peepers sighed and shook his head, "Fine, sir, let's figure something out." He gave Hater a reassuring pat and stepped into the half-barren closet.

"How about this?" he asked after digging around a bit. He held up the black and red satin dress for Hater to see.

Hater eyed the dress, "But it's so… plain."

"Exactly, sir. Sweet, simple, perfect for a first date."

"Uh… what about shoes? I can't just wear my sneakers with that," Hater gestured from his shoes to the garment in Peepers's hands.

"I mean it's floor length so it really doesn't matter," the commander muttered as he turned to search the closet for a pair of shoes. He pulled out a simple pair of red pumps, "Here, nice, simple, matches the dress."

Hater floundered for another problem, "Uh, well, umm… I don't have enough time to do my makeup, so there."

Peepers set the dress and shoes down and squinted up at his husband, "Sir, do you not want to go on this date?"

The skeleton growled, "Of course I do. It's just… He's so great and amazing and handsome and sweet and-"

"Oh my grop, sir. Please tell me you didn't do this when we started dating."

Hater flushed, "I might've."

"Oh, sir," Peepers jumped up on the bed and wrapped his lover in a hug, "It's going to be alright, Hater. I know Wander wants this just as much as you do. You know he loves you, right?"

"Wander loves everyone," Hater grumbled.

"Not the way he loves you, sir. I've seen the way he looks at you; he never looks at anyone else like that," Peepers traced simple patterns in Hater's spine.

Hater laid down on the bed, pulling Peepers around and clutching him to his chest, "But what if he changes his mind? What if he gets tired of me? What if he realizes that I'm not-"

Peepers silenced him with a quick kiss, "That's enough of that. You are the greatest in the galaxy, and I'm not gonna let you forget it."

Lord Hater smiled at him sadly, "What if he… wanders away?"

Peepers looked into his husband's eyes, "I… don't have an answer for that, sir, but I don't think it's going to happen."

"But how do you know?"

"I don't," Commander Peepers took off his helmet and laid the side of his head on Hater's chest, "But I do know this: I didn't fall in love with you on accident. I fell in love with you because you are amazing and you make me happy. And if there's even half a brain in that fuzzy, orange head of his, Wander did, too. Flaws and all, sir, we love you. So much." He felt a silent sob stutter through Hater's bones.

"Thanks, C. Peeps," Hater sniffed, "you always know what to do."

"You're welcome, sir."

"Okay," Hater sat up and wiped his eyes, "let's do this."

Peepers nodded and hopped up to go get Hater's dress. He helped him into the garment, careful not to let it catch on his shoulders or ribs. He dashed back to the closet to find a simpler pair of red gloves. He handed them to Hater and went to grab his helmet. When he turned around, Hater was standing up and carefully inspecting his gloves for wrinkles. "Uh, how do I look?" he asked.

Peepers jumped up and placed a quick kiss on his cheek, "Beautiful, sir."

Notes:

You really do learn a lot about yourself when you accidentally write characters with your exact insecurities/fears

Also, little bonus interaction that didn't make it into the finished fic:

(after Wander and Hater leave the room)

Sylvia: So, how bad did your idiot freak out?

Peepers: His entire room is covered in clothes. Yours?

Sylvia: Started pulling his fur out and chatterin' on about reasons for Hater to reject him.

Peepers: Surprised he could think of any.

Sylvia: Yeah, none of it made sense. Anyway, let's give 'em some space; wanna grab lunch?

Peepers: It's six pm.

Sylvia: Dinner?

Peepers: ...Sure.

Peepers and Sylvia simply should be friends.

I've decided to start putting little questions at the ends of my fics because, why not? So the question for today: do you have a favorite outfit/clothing item? Tell me about it, I love hearing about that kind of stuff! I'll start: I have an old camo jacket I found in the closet after someone that used to live with us moved out. I've had it for a year or so now and sometime fairly early last school year I started making pins to decorate the lapels and it's just sort of gone from there. So far I've got nine homemade pins, one random pineapple pin I think my mother got from the bank a few years back, a little handmade decoration with stone bead on a straight pin (it's dangly and I can move the bead up and down, it's very nice), a Deadpool keychain I got from Universal (it spins), a pop-tab chain, an old cross stitch I did, and a bunch of random safety pins. I wear it almost every day; it's a big comfort item for me and it makes me very happy :)