GH Fic: The (Almost) Botched Proposal
Aug. 16th, 2012 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
midorisakuraDisclaimer: I do not own the characters of this work of fiction.
Summary: Ethan and Johnny have been a couple for awhile now. Ethan wants to show Johnny how much he loves him, and he wants to make their relationship a little more official.
A/N: Written for cottoncandy_bingo, the prompt is: grand romantic gesture
Ethan’s palms are sweaty and his heart is beating a mile a minute. There are butterflies in his stomach as he considers what he’s about to do, the commitment he’s about to ask Johnny to make. The commitment he’s already made in his heart.
When he’d told his sister Lulu about his plans, she had asked him if he had any reservations, and he’d said, no. At the time, he hadn’t. He still doesn’t.
But, here he is, standing in the bathroom, staring at his reflection in the mirror, and all he can think is, What am I doing?
His skin looks pasty in the harsh bathroom lights, and his hair just doesn’t seem to want to cooperate. He’s got it tied back in a ponytail, the way Johnny likes it, but there are uncooperative pieces that refuse to be bound and which just don’t want to stay down no matter how much gel he uses. At this point in time his hair’s probably over-gelled.
He runs a shaky hand over his face and touches the velvet box in the breast pocket of the suit he’d borrowed from his father just for this night, and the butterflies in his stomach go crazy. His heart jackhammers in his chest, and he really just wants the night to be over.
Or at least to be able to fast-forward through the dinner he’d spent the past month planning, and get to the part where Johnny says yes and then drags him off to bed before dessert. And, really, his father’s suit won’t be in a fit state for him to return if things go according to plan. Johnny’s never been particularly careful with Ethan’s clothing.
Ethan grips the edge of the bathroom sink and meets his eyes in the mirror. He leans in close to his reflection and forces himself to take a good, hard look. Eyes are supposed to be the windows of our souls, and Ethan hopes that his inability to focus his gaze for more than a few seconds at a time doesn’t mean anything bad about the state of his soul.
What he sees mirrored in his eyes is fear and nervousness, and the thought that, if Johnny doesn’t say yes, his world will fall apart. And he hadn’t realized that he’d banked so much on this night being a success. There is no contingency in place for if things don’t go according to plan, and Ethan isn’t sure he can go through with this. Not without a backup plan in place.
Doubt nibbles at him like a fish only toying with the bait, never intending to actually take a real bite of it, but intent upon having the worm in bits and pieces. Patient. Persevering. Profiting from the fisherman’s stupidity, he fish prevails and swims away, leaving the imprudent fisherman with a baitless hook and no desire to try again.
But Ethan doesn’t want to lose Johnny. He doesn’t want his grand gesture of romance to be nibbled away at until there’s nothing left of it, but a lone hook.
A knock, sharp and resounding, startles him from his reverie, and Ethan meets his eyes in the mirror.
“We can do this,” he whispers aloud to himself, and then he turns away from his reflection and says, “I’m almost finished.”
“Good, because your reservations are for fifteen minutes from now,” Lulu says, “and Dad’s already on the way there with Johnny. You don’t want your date to get there before you, do you?”
Her voice is steely and commanding, and Ethan doesn’t know what he would do without his sister’s support right now.
He’d been nervous confiding in her about Johnny and him. Fearful that she’d be angry, or jealous of his involvement with a man she’d once loved.
And, while it had been awkward for the both of them, she’d looked at him long and hard, her expression thoughtful and simply nodded her acceptance.
“It’s about time Johnny found someone who’ll be good to him,” she’d said, and then smiled and hugged him. “But to be perfectly honest, I’m not really sure which of you to give the ‘shovel’ speech to.”
“Do I have to go in there and drag you out of the bathroom?” Lulu asks, bringing him back to the present.
“No,” Ethan says, scrubbing a hand over his face and patting the suit pocket, making sure that velvet box is still there. “I’m coming.”
“We can do this,” he whispers to his reflection and nods, taking some courage from the fact that he didn’t look away.
He pushes away from the sink, and straightens his tie, or at least tries to. It is crooked and looks like a monkey was trying to strangle him with it. He knows that Johnny’s tie will be perfectly straight, and a lump forms in his throat as he pictures the man sitting in the restaurant, waiting for him.
“Here, let me help you with that,” Lulu says, entering the bathroom and shaking her head at the lost look on Ethan’s face.
She stands on her tip-toes, and with a deft movement of her fingers, the tie is on straight. The butterflies in his stomach settle when Lulu meets his gaze in the mirror, tears of happiness and something more in her eyes, and Ethan is suddenly overcome with gratitude for his sister. He turns and hugs her, whispering, “Thank you,” in her ear.
“You’re welcome,” she says, and then kisses him on the cheek and releases him. “Off you go,” she says, patting him on the butt and pushing him out of the bathroom. “You know how Johnny gets when he’s kept waiting.”
Yeah, Ethan knows how Johnny gets – insecure and hurt – and he hopes that, after tonight, it will finally sink in that Ethan loves him and always will.
When Ethan arrives at the restaurant, he’s happy to see that his father hasn’t left Johnny alone. They’re sitting at the bar, his father’s telling Johnny some elaborate story judging by the gestures that he’s making, and Johnny’s laughing. His eyes are lit up with a joyful mirth that Ethan doesn’t often see, and he looks relaxed.
Ethan takes a moment just to stare at, and admire, the man he loves. His heart lurches in his chest, and the butterflies make themselves known once again. Each of them combating the others for dominance.
Johnny says something that makes his father laugh, and then he twists in his chair and Ethan’s aware of the second that Johnny sees him. The man’s smile changes almost imperceptibly. Gone is the frivolity of laughter. In its place are lust and love and something that Ethan can’t even begin to name. It makes Ethan’s heart do a somersault and it takes his breath away.
“Ah, I see your date made it,” Luke Spencer’s voice rings loud and clear throughout the bar and part of the restaurant, and Ethan can feel the eyes of several patrons on him and Johnny as they walk toward each other.
He’s not sure whether to throttle or hug his father when subdued catcalls and whistles accompany the brief kiss that they share. Johnny grasps his hand, and squeezes it.
“You look nice,” Johnny says, eyeing him sideways, and Ethan wishes that he’d had Lulu do his hair, because he’s certain that by now it looks like a mess.
Johnny looks immaculate, and he’s standing right there beside him, holding his hand and Ethan forgets everything that he and Lulu had so carefully planned for this night. There’s supposed to be flowers and dinner and dessert, and Johnny’s supposed to be at the center of it all.
Ethan knows, somewhere at the back of his mind, that this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen, that there are steps he’s supposed to follow, things he’s supposed to say. He knows that everyone in the bar has stopped whatever it was they were doing before he walked into the room and have turned to watch the two of them with bated breath.
The butterflies in his stomach cavort, and his heart hammers in his chest. He can’t breathe.
Johnny rubs his thumb over Ethan’s knuckles, and then everything fades away, and it’s just him and Johnny in an empty room. Ethan drops to his knees, and a panicked look crosses Johnny’s face. The man tugs at his hand, trying to get him to stand, and he’s casting him a look that says, ‘Not here,’ his eyes going wide.
He realizes his mistake a little too late, and then he almost laughs as it occurs to him what Johnny’s thinking – that he’s lost his mind and is about to blow him in public. He repositions himself so that he’s only on one knee.
Ethan tugs at the velvet box in his pocket, somehow managing to pry it loose with fingers that have gone completely numb. He looks up into Johnny’s face, and there’s something unreadable in the man’s dark eyes, but at least he’s no longer panicking.
Though his heart is pounding so hard that he can hear nothing else, and his mind is telling him that he’s crazy, Ethan pops open the box, revealing a thin, diamond-studded gold band. He holds it up in one hand and takes Johnny’s hand in his other, twining their fingers together.
There’s a lump in his throat which makes speech impossible. Ethan takes a couple of deep breaths, steeling himself for whatever answer might spill from Johnny’s lips when he is able to actually formulate the question that he’s been waiting for an entire month to ask.
When he’s finally capable of speech, Ethan’s mouth supersedes his brain, and his carefully scripted words fly out the window.
“I know this isn’t exactly how you thought this would go,” Ethan says, “and that I’m probably the last person you’d…”
Johnny places a finger on his lips to stop his speech, and really, Ethan can’t blame him because he has no idea where he was going with it and he was rambling. His heart drops, and he knows that he’s messed things up, that this is Johnny’s refusal, and he never even got to actually ask the question.
What he’d wanted to say was, Johnny, you are the only person in the world for me. I am willing to give you my heart and my soul, and all I ask for in return is to wake up in bed next to you for the rest of our natural lives. And then, though it’s sappy and overly sentimental, he’d wanted to say, Johnny, I love you. Will you marry me?
Tears fill his eyes and Ethan didn’t think it was going to end up this way, or that it would hurt this much. His heart feels like it is breaking and he can feel the eyes of everyone in the bar and restaurant on the two of them.
He can’t see anything through the haze of tears which is blinding him, and he just wants to disappear. But then there’s a buzzing in the crowd, and Johnny kneels in front of him. Embarrassed, Ethan looks at the floor. Johnny cups his face in his hands, and then he’s kissing him and murmuring the word, “Yes,” against his lips.
“I’ll marry you,” Johnny says when he ends the kiss, and, dumbfounded, Ethan stares at him.
A smattering of applause erupts from the gathered crowd, and Johnny captures his mouth in another toe-curling kiss which takes his breath away.
Summary: Ethan and Johnny have been a couple for awhile now. Ethan wants to show Johnny how much he loves him, and he wants to make their relationship a little more official.
A/N: Written for cottoncandy_bingo, the prompt is: grand romantic gesture
Ethan’s palms are sweaty and his heart is beating a mile a minute. There are butterflies in his stomach as he considers what he’s about to do, the commitment he’s about to ask Johnny to make. The commitment he’s already made in his heart.
When he’d told his sister Lulu about his plans, she had asked him if he had any reservations, and he’d said, no. At the time, he hadn’t. He still doesn’t.
But, here he is, standing in the bathroom, staring at his reflection in the mirror, and all he can think is, What am I doing?
His skin looks pasty in the harsh bathroom lights, and his hair just doesn’t seem to want to cooperate. He’s got it tied back in a ponytail, the way Johnny likes it, but there are uncooperative pieces that refuse to be bound and which just don’t want to stay down no matter how much gel he uses. At this point in time his hair’s probably over-gelled.
He runs a shaky hand over his face and touches the velvet box in the breast pocket of the suit he’d borrowed from his father just for this night, and the butterflies in his stomach go crazy. His heart jackhammers in his chest, and he really just wants the night to be over.
Or at least to be able to fast-forward through the dinner he’d spent the past month planning, and get to the part where Johnny says yes and then drags him off to bed before dessert. And, really, his father’s suit won’t be in a fit state for him to return if things go according to plan. Johnny’s never been particularly careful with Ethan’s clothing.
Ethan grips the edge of the bathroom sink and meets his eyes in the mirror. He leans in close to his reflection and forces himself to take a good, hard look. Eyes are supposed to be the windows of our souls, and Ethan hopes that his inability to focus his gaze for more than a few seconds at a time doesn’t mean anything bad about the state of his soul.
What he sees mirrored in his eyes is fear and nervousness, and the thought that, if Johnny doesn’t say yes, his world will fall apart. And he hadn’t realized that he’d banked so much on this night being a success. There is no contingency in place for if things don’t go according to plan, and Ethan isn’t sure he can go through with this. Not without a backup plan in place.
Doubt nibbles at him like a fish only toying with the bait, never intending to actually take a real bite of it, but intent upon having the worm in bits and pieces. Patient. Persevering. Profiting from the fisherman’s stupidity, he fish prevails and swims away, leaving the imprudent fisherman with a baitless hook and no desire to try again.
But Ethan doesn’t want to lose Johnny. He doesn’t want his grand gesture of romance to be nibbled away at until there’s nothing left of it, but a lone hook.
A knock, sharp and resounding, startles him from his reverie, and Ethan meets his eyes in the mirror.
“We can do this,” he whispers aloud to himself, and then he turns away from his reflection and says, “I’m almost finished.”
“Good, because your reservations are for fifteen minutes from now,” Lulu says, “and Dad’s already on the way there with Johnny. You don’t want your date to get there before you, do you?”
Her voice is steely and commanding, and Ethan doesn’t know what he would do without his sister’s support right now.
He’d been nervous confiding in her about Johnny and him. Fearful that she’d be angry, or jealous of his involvement with a man she’d once loved.
And, while it had been awkward for the both of them, she’d looked at him long and hard, her expression thoughtful and simply nodded her acceptance.
“It’s about time Johnny found someone who’ll be good to him,” she’d said, and then smiled and hugged him. “But to be perfectly honest, I’m not really sure which of you to give the ‘shovel’ speech to.”
“Do I have to go in there and drag you out of the bathroom?” Lulu asks, bringing him back to the present.
“No,” Ethan says, scrubbing a hand over his face and patting the suit pocket, making sure that velvet box is still there. “I’m coming.”
“We can do this,” he whispers to his reflection and nods, taking some courage from the fact that he didn’t look away.
He pushes away from the sink, and straightens his tie, or at least tries to. It is crooked and looks like a monkey was trying to strangle him with it. He knows that Johnny’s tie will be perfectly straight, and a lump forms in his throat as he pictures the man sitting in the restaurant, waiting for him.
“Here, let me help you with that,” Lulu says, entering the bathroom and shaking her head at the lost look on Ethan’s face.
She stands on her tip-toes, and with a deft movement of her fingers, the tie is on straight. The butterflies in his stomach settle when Lulu meets his gaze in the mirror, tears of happiness and something more in her eyes, and Ethan is suddenly overcome with gratitude for his sister. He turns and hugs her, whispering, “Thank you,” in her ear.
“You’re welcome,” she says, and then kisses him on the cheek and releases him. “Off you go,” she says, patting him on the butt and pushing him out of the bathroom. “You know how Johnny gets when he’s kept waiting.”
Yeah, Ethan knows how Johnny gets – insecure and hurt – and he hopes that, after tonight, it will finally sink in that Ethan loves him and always will.
When Ethan arrives at the restaurant, he’s happy to see that his father hasn’t left Johnny alone. They’re sitting at the bar, his father’s telling Johnny some elaborate story judging by the gestures that he’s making, and Johnny’s laughing. His eyes are lit up with a joyful mirth that Ethan doesn’t often see, and he looks relaxed.
Ethan takes a moment just to stare at, and admire, the man he loves. His heart lurches in his chest, and the butterflies make themselves known once again. Each of them combating the others for dominance.
Johnny says something that makes his father laugh, and then he twists in his chair and Ethan’s aware of the second that Johnny sees him. The man’s smile changes almost imperceptibly. Gone is the frivolity of laughter. In its place are lust and love and something that Ethan can’t even begin to name. It makes Ethan’s heart do a somersault and it takes his breath away.
“Ah, I see your date made it,” Luke Spencer’s voice rings loud and clear throughout the bar and part of the restaurant, and Ethan can feel the eyes of several patrons on him and Johnny as they walk toward each other.
He’s not sure whether to throttle or hug his father when subdued catcalls and whistles accompany the brief kiss that they share. Johnny grasps his hand, and squeezes it.
“You look nice,” Johnny says, eyeing him sideways, and Ethan wishes that he’d had Lulu do his hair, because he’s certain that by now it looks like a mess.
Johnny looks immaculate, and he’s standing right there beside him, holding his hand and Ethan forgets everything that he and Lulu had so carefully planned for this night. There’s supposed to be flowers and dinner and dessert, and Johnny’s supposed to be at the center of it all.
Ethan knows, somewhere at the back of his mind, that this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen, that there are steps he’s supposed to follow, things he’s supposed to say. He knows that everyone in the bar has stopped whatever it was they were doing before he walked into the room and have turned to watch the two of them with bated breath.
The butterflies in his stomach cavort, and his heart hammers in his chest. He can’t breathe.
Johnny rubs his thumb over Ethan’s knuckles, and then everything fades away, and it’s just him and Johnny in an empty room. Ethan drops to his knees, and a panicked look crosses Johnny’s face. The man tugs at his hand, trying to get him to stand, and he’s casting him a look that says, ‘Not here,’ his eyes going wide.
He realizes his mistake a little too late, and then he almost laughs as it occurs to him what Johnny’s thinking – that he’s lost his mind and is about to blow him in public. He repositions himself so that he’s only on one knee.
Ethan tugs at the velvet box in his pocket, somehow managing to pry it loose with fingers that have gone completely numb. He looks up into Johnny’s face, and there’s something unreadable in the man’s dark eyes, but at least he’s no longer panicking.
Though his heart is pounding so hard that he can hear nothing else, and his mind is telling him that he’s crazy, Ethan pops open the box, revealing a thin, diamond-studded gold band. He holds it up in one hand and takes Johnny’s hand in his other, twining their fingers together.
There’s a lump in his throat which makes speech impossible. Ethan takes a couple of deep breaths, steeling himself for whatever answer might spill from Johnny’s lips when he is able to actually formulate the question that he’s been waiting for an entire month to ask.
When he’s finally capable of speech, Ethan’s mouth supersedes his brain, and his carefully scripted words fly out the window.
“I know this isn’t exactly how you thought this would go,” Ethan says, “and that I’m probably the last person you’d…”
Johnny places a finger on his lips to stop his speech, and really, Ethan can’t blame him because he has no idea where he was going with it and he was rambling. His heart drops, and he knows that he’s messed things up, that this is Johnny’s refusal, and he never even got to actually ask the question.
What he’d wanted to say was, Johnny, you are the only person in the world for me. I am willing to give you my heart and my soul, and all I ask for in return is to wake up in bed next to you for the rest of our natural lives. And then, though it’s sappy and overly sentimental, he’d wanted to say, Johnny, I love you. Will you marry me?
Tears fill his eyes and Ethan didn’t think it was going to end up this way, or that it would hurt this much. His heart feels like it is breaking and he can feel the eyes of everyone in the bar and restaurant on the two of them.
He can’t see anything through the haze of tears which is blinding him, and he just wants to disappear. But then there’s a buzzing in the crowd, and Johnny kneels in front of him. Embarrassed, Ethan looks at the floor. Johnny cups his face in his hands, and then he’s kissing him and murmuring the word, “Yes,” against his lips.
“I’ll marry you,” Johnny says when he ends the kiss, and, dumbfounded, Ethan stares at him.
A smattering of applause erupts from the gathered crowd, and Johnny captures his mouth in another toe-curling kiss which takes his breath away.
