Wow, that took me a lot longer than I thought it would. I had major writer's block, so... please don't hurt me. -.-;;
Foaly walked into work on Tuesday morning carrying his bag of carrots for the day and some random parts of a computer. He stopped by the commander's office to see if he had actually talked to Holly. I seriously doubt that she would actually tell him anything. Hopefully he didn't try to force her to tell him, that might make her attack him. If they did get into a fight, I wonder who would win... I should definately start a pool on that! But how to get them to fight where we could all watch, without them knowing.
He had reached Root's office, so he peeked in. And nearly dropped everything he was carrying out of shock. Julius is smiling! The world isn't going to explode now, is it? Foaly nervously checked to see if his tin foil hat was still on. Root looked up and saw the centaur standing at the door.
"Good morning Foaly. Is there something wrong?"
"Julius, you were smiling!" Foaly said, walking into the room and closing the door. "And you said 'good morning'"
"Is there something wrong with saying 'good morning' to you or something? And I don't think I was smiling."
"You were! What did she do to you? Do you need to see a medic?"
"What are you talking about?"
"How hard did Holly hit you for mentioning her nightmares?"
"She didn't hit me at all. In fact, I got her to tell me about them." Root grinned
"What!? What did she say?"
"That's her business. Now, if you don't mind Foaly, I have to get back to work."
The poor confused centaur picked his stuff up and left the office. It wasn't until he reached the Ops. Booth that he realized that Root hadn't said a thing about him calling him Julius. She must have hit him really hard or something. Foaly reached for the communicator and dialed.
"Short and Diggums PI... Oh hi Foaly." Mulch answered
"Hey Mulch, can I talk to Holly?"
"Uh, sure." Mulch looked around and leaned closer to the screen and whispered, "She's been acting a little strange today... Oh hey Holly, Foaly's on the communicator, he's asking for you." Mulch got up and ran from the room.
"Hi Foaly, what was the deal with him?" Holly came into view.
"No idea. What did you do to Julius?"
"Mulch keeps... What?"
"Holly, he was smiling when I walked into his office, and he said 'good morning' without insulting me!" To Foaly's amazement, Holly grinned, and it looked like her cheeks were turning a light pink
"Holly... are you blushing!?"
"Something must be wrong with your screen. Why do you think I had anything to do with his behavior?"
"Well... he told me that he was going to try to find out what your nightmares are about." he lied, "I warned him not to, I thought you'd hurt him or throw him out of your apartment or something. So what did you do to make him act so... unlike himself?"
"I didn't hurt him or throw him out of my apartment."
"Then what did you do?"
"None of your business." Holly said with a mischievous wink, "I have to go, a customer just walked in. Bye Foaly." She shut off the communicator without waiting for a response.
What is going on with those two!? Foaly wondered to himself, still staring at the blank screen, What if...? Nah, they wouldn't feel that way about eachother... Could they?
Seven months later
Root got up from behind his desk feeling agitated and wandered to the Ops. Booth.
Foaly buzzed him through, "Hello Julius, what can I do for you?"
"Don't call me that, donkey. I need to ask you for a favor."
"Oh sure, just insult me and then ask me to do something for you. That tactic works everytime." his voice was dripping with sarcasm
"Could you hold this for me?" He held out a box to the centaur.
"Ooooo! What's this?" Foaly opened it with out waiting for an answer, "Sorry Julius, it doesn't suit me." he grinned slyly.
"You idiot, it's not for you." Root growled
"Then who is it for? No, don't tell me, I want to guess." Foaly tapped his chin in mock concentration, "It's Frond isn't it?"
"Oh, shut up donkey. You should know."
"So it is Frond! I knew it!"
"Don't make me hurt you."
"You shouldn't bring harm to the genius that saved your life." Foaly scolded him
Root rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Just don't lose it."
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to put it into my 'to lose' pile."
The next day, Holly walked into the apartment, expecting Root to be there already. But he wasn't. Huh, he told me to be sure to come home early on the note he left me this morning... Just then the front door opened and closed
"There you are Julius!" Holly greeted him. Root looked up from locking the door, "and I thought you wanted me home early for a reason."
"Sorry Holly, Foaly held me up." Root dropped the keys on the table next to the door and pulled Holly in for a kiss.
"So why did you want me home early?"
"It's a surprise." Holly punched his chest playfully.
"Oh come on! Tell me!"
"Why don't I just show you." he said smiling
"Fine." she said, trying to sound irritated, but failing.
Root led her back out the door and pulled a cloth out of his pocket, and tied it around her eyes.
"Why do you need to blind fold me?"
"I want you to be surprised."
He took her hand and began to lead her through the streets.
After about ten minutes of the winding route, Holly was convinced that Root was taking her in circles. Finally, they entered a building. There was a scraping sound, like a chair being pulled across the floor.
"Here, sit down, straight behind you." Root said, guiding her gently by the shoulders. As soon as she was seated, Root removed the blind fold. Holly looked around, they were in the restaurant where they had first had dinner together, when Holly had run away to escape Root's questions about her nightmares.
"Hello again!" The same waitress they had had those months ago greeted them cheerfully, "It's good to see you two made up. Did my advice work?" she asked Root
"Uh, yeah." Root replied.
"Good! I'll get you the same things you had last time, unless you'd like something else."
"That'll be fine" They replied
"Advice?" Holly asked Root as soon as the waitress had left the table.
"The waitor you told to tell me that you left told her about all of it, and she came to the table and went off on a tangent about what her boyfriend should have done." he explained, "I can't believe she remembered us. I kind of wish she hadn't."
After they had finished eating and had payed the check, Root began digging through his pockets.
"Julius, what are you doing?"
"Looking for something."
"I can see that, but what are you looking for?"
"Something."
"Stubborn." Holly rolled her eyes at Root.
"D'Arvit! I left it at work." he muttered to himself
"Left what at work?"
"Now who's the stubborn one?"
"You didn't answer my question." Holly replied, grinning. Root chuckled. "So what did you leave at work?"
"Let's go get it, and then maybe I'll let you see it." They got up from the table and started for the LEP holding hands, arguing playfully.
"Why don't you just tell me, it would be much easier than keeping it a secret."
"And why do you think it's important?"
"If it's not important, then why don't you just tell me what it is?"
"It's too much fun having you badger me." he squeezed her hand affectionately.
"So then are you just pretending to be missing some mysterious object?"
"No, I did leave something at work!"
"Then prove it. Tell me what it is and then I'll believe you."
"It's a surprise."
"You are just pretending."
"I'm not!"
"I don't believe you."
"Well that's too bad. Maybe I won't show it to you once I get it."
"Julius-!"
"Holly."
"Stop being so stubborn."
"You're the stubborn one." Root chuckled
"Me? Stubborn?" Holly grinned at him mischeiviously, "Why do you think I'm stubborn?"
"Because you are." They had reached the LEP headquarters, "Could you wait out here, while I go get what I forgot?"
"Then how am I going to know if you actually got anything?"
"Don't worry, I'll show it to you when I come back out."
"Fine." Holly plunked down on a bench outside the door and crossed her arms, pretending to be annoyed. Root walked into the building chuckling again. What is he getting? And why won't he tell me what it is? Holly wondered to herself, Maybe he's just messing with me. Yeah, that's probably it.
Five minutes later, Root came back out and sat next to Holly. "So what is it?" She asked immediately.
"Here you go." he said, handing her a little box. Is he nervous? Why would he be nervous about showing me something he left at work? She looked at him questioningly, but he gestured at the box, "Open it."
Holly looked at the box puzzled, and pulled the top back. In the box was a shiny, silver ring with gold etchings in the shape of a heart. Holly gasped and looked back at Root.
"Holly Short, w-will you marry me?" he asked, nervousness apparent in his eyes.
Holly felt a smile slide across her face, "So this is why you were so secretive." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him lovingly. "I will" she whispered in his ear when they finally pulled apart. Keeping one arm around her, Root took the ring out of the open box and slipped it onto Holly's ring finger.
"It looks great on you, Mrs. Root." he said, stroking her cheek gently.
"I'm not Mrs. Root quite yet." Holly giggled, "But I will be soon." He smiled and leaned in for a tender kiss.
Up in the Ops. Booth, Foaly clapped his hands and danced around in a circle, laughing happily. Unbeknownst to Holly and Root, he had been watching the feed from the camera that was watching the front door and the bench right outside of it. The centaur turned off the feed, shut off the lights, and walked out of the booth humming the wedding march.
So? What did you think? Please review! Pretty please? With magical sugar and sweets on top?