Tea Challenge, English Breakfast: Write something set at breakfast
Insane House Competition: eating
365 Prompts: romance
Showtime, "Disappear": "You still matter."
Days of the Month, Z Day: Write about someone whose name or surname starts with a Z
Stickers Challenge: Sugar Quill: Write about someone with a sweet tooth
Character Appreciation: "Obviously"
Word Count: 527
Blaise glances up when Daphne comes into the kitchen. She pauses in the doorway, sniffing the air, a broad smile on her full lips. "Cooking breakfast?" she asks, brows raised curiously.
"Obviously," he laughs, flicking his wand. The pancakes turn feebly. He still hasn't quite mastered cooking spells, but he's getting there.
His girlfriend moves closer. "It's not my birthday," she says.
"It's not," he confirms, casting a quick spell to send the final pancake to the top of the large stack on the table.
"Are you taking my place?" she teases. "Guess I don't matter anymore."
"You still matter," he assures her. "Can't a bloke do something nice for the woman he loves?"
Daphne studies him, her forest green eyes narrowed. She folds her arms over chest before saying, "Not you. You're always up to something." She takes a seat at the table, gesturing at the canister of whipped cream and bottle of chocolate syrup. "You're feeding my sweet tooth. What did you do?"
Blaise rolls his eyes and joins her at the table. Surprising Daphne is never an easy task. She's so clever that he sometimes wonders if the Sorting Hat had considered putting her in Ravenclaw. With a brilliant mind like hers, she would have fit right in.
"Eat your breakfast, Daph."
She doesn't take her eyes off him. Even as she sprays her pancakes with a mountain of whipped cream and drizzles them with enough chocolate syrup to saturate them, her gaze never shifts. Blaise wonders what she expects him to do and why she can't just trust him. If he's honest, it almost ruins the mood.
He tops his own pancakes with butter and decides that is enough. Unlike Daphne, he's always preferred to steer clear of sweets. Honestly, he wouldn't have even made pancakes if not for her.
"Well?"
He snorts and mutters, "Stubborn woman." under his breath, careful to keep his voice low enough that Daphne can't hear him. Louder, he says, "Patience is a virtue."
"And I'm hardly virtuous."
She lets the subject drop and doesn't press him further. Blaise is grateful for the silence. It gives him enough time to clear his head and go over his plan for the hundredth time. He wants this to be perfect. It isn't the way he would like to do it, but Daphne has always preferred low-key and subtle to extravagant.
"Hey, Daph?"
He gets up and closes the distance between them, dropping down on one knee. The silver band trembles in his shaking hands, but he takes a deep breath, and his nerves seem to fade away. It's Daphne, he reminds himself. It's the girl he's been in love with for ten years, his best friend, and his better half. There's no need for fear.
"There's no one in this world I would rather spend my mornings eating pancakes with." It's hardly traditional. His mother would probably have a stroke if she heard him, but Astoria had insisted it was the best opener. "Will you marry me?"
Daphne accepts the wring, a bright smile on her beautiful face. "With a proposal as sweet as that? How can I say no?"