Chapter 397 – The return of the Fluffy Monday 5 – The grounded break

Chapter 397 – The return of the Fluffy Monday 5 – The grounded break

“Yay!” Gnome jumped on the spot when her name got pulled. She gave everyone a big, honest smile in a blushing face. Shame did not hold a candle to her evident happiness. She bounced a bit more, the deck vibrating under her weight.

Eliza was opening her mouth, presumably to make a comment that was going to put a blunder to the earth spirits mood. With a pleading glance, John shut her up. At least for the next hour, they could skip making fun of Gnome, no matter how easy it was.

“S-so,” the stone elemental stopped herself and shifted her shoulder embarrassedly, “what are your plans? You always have some of those.”

“Well, our date is going to be a bit more traditional,” John answered, patting her on the head. Her gaze wandered to the ground, but her body perked into the touch. Consciously, she was having a bit of a hard time saying what she really wanted, but her body language always let anyone know what she was really thinking.

“I really, really, really am really, really, really happy right now,” she muttered to herself. That was, of course, another way to find out what she was thinking. She was just the cutest little rock.

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When John said he had planned a traditional date, what he meant was something really stereotypically romantic. Gnome wasn’t the type that talked too much, neither was she one big into competition or anything. Like Aclysia, she was generally the happiest if the people she cared about were happy.

While that was an outstanding quality, particularly in someone who also put in the effort of bettering situations, it also made it somewhat hard to do things for that person. Most things would be answered with ‘You shouldn’t have’.

“You really didn’t need to do this,” Gnome said, which was close enough to what John had guessed. They were having a private dinner with the full set-up. Rose petals were covering the floor and table, the dimmed light had made room for the soft gold of candlelight, and all but on round table, with room just for two to comfortably sit on, had been removed. They had this space to themselves. “I-I don’t even need to eat that much!” the setting alone was enough to make the earth elemental blush.

“I know, which is why I asked for all of it to come in small sizes,” John explained in the slightly singing voice of a man in a supremely good mood and rung a little bell. It was magically connected to another one in the kitchen. He waited a second and then rung a second time. That was the agreed signal, and a few seconds later the waiter entered with a wagon of food, all of it hidden underneath silver domes. The waiter bowed and left them alone again, leaving the food behind. John took his place. “Now, milady,” he continued in a deeper, serious tone, “let me shower you with affection.”

As the bitter-sweetness of the chocolate exploded in her mouth, followed by an elevated juicy taste of something between a cherry and a pumpkin, Gnome couldn’t help but shake her legs and arms in a manner that John was sure gave him diabetes on the spot.

“I have undoubtedly gone through a lot,” he said, “in a very short span of time. However, I think there are a lot of people in the Abyss worse off than me. They have to fight against things on their level more frequently, less apocalyptic but sure to end their world if they don’t face it with the proper respect. Hell, I don’t even think that everyone outside the Abyss has a better life than me. At the heart of it, there is no difference between Herman and a bully who acts like he is your friend to one day steal all your money... but I don’t want to be a downer on this day.”

That addition came after he saw that Gnome was having a hard time concentrating on the flavours unfolding in her mouth over the things she wanted to say to him. John just stuffed a little parfait into her open mouth. “Look, if you want to make sure I am fine, there is a really simple way.” She was halfway caught between making an adorable squeal of tastiness and looking interested, so John just tossed the fork on the nearly empty wagon and gave her a quick peck on her sugar-coated lips. “Just make sure that I am the kind of person that makes you smile when you are with them. And maybe ask me if I am fine every now and again to make sure I am not hiding something I myself don’t know about.”

“I-ithinkicandothat,” Gnome hastily answered after swallowing. “A-as long as you promise to not change too much!”

“I hope I only become better,” he answered. “I want to be the best person I can be, as loving a boyfriend as I can be, wield this power with as much responsibility as is necessary. I will change in some ways. But as you once taught me trust and fortitude, so will I weather those times with you.”

“Then I will stay on your side,” she guaranteed him, “forever.”

“It helps that you are just adorable,” he suddenly switched into a joking tone and grabbed her little cheeks. “Look at you, I could just drown in you and these hazel eyes.”

She turned as red as the little raspberry on top of the miniature cake that she still had to eat. “Uhm, uh, J-john, can I just say one thing? I-i-i-i-I llll-o, uh,” her stuttering made it near inaudible. Her eyes were spinning like a broken measurement display, her twin tails wiggling shamefully as if they had a mind of their own.

“I know,” John told her and kissed her a second time, a deep kiss over several minutes, their heads moving as tongues and lips wrestled. Whether Gnome instinctively just leaned into it or used it as an escape to embarrass herself further, John didn’t know. All he knew was, when they stopped and their foreheads leaned against each other again, hers being burning hot, and he said, “I love you too,” he heard that familiar little mutter. However, for once it sounded like a stand-in for pure blissful happiness rather than shame.

“Uwuwuwuwuwu~”