"I... uh..." Shayna stuttered. Tyan, sitting across the restaurant table, gave her a questioning look. "I..." she blushed, "I'm eighteen now, and..."

"Oh, yeah," he interrupted. "Today's your birthday." He gave one of those smiles that made her melt. He pulled a wrapped present out of his pocket and gave it to her. It was small, about the size of a ring box. "Happy birthday."

Holding her breath she undid the wrapping and opened the velvet-like container, staring within. It was a necklace. She let her breath out, blushed some more, and started laughing. It really was a pretty necklace, after all. She kept laughing as he looked at her, completely confused.

"Do you... um... do you like it?" he queried nervously. He knew she wasn't a big fan of jewelry, but he had still thought she would like its shine.

She smiled broadly, "Yes, yes. Yes I do. It's just..." she giggled, "This box..." she showed him the box it had come in. It really did look like the kind that would hold an engagement ring.

"Oh. I might have but I didn't think-" She cut him off with a hand gesture, taking a similar box out of her purse and handing it to him. Her blush returned, deeper than ever. She suddenly found herself unable to say the words she'd halfway prepared. Looking at her and looking back down at the box, he opened it carefully, the hinges forcing it to pop open once it got to a certain point. Inside was a simple Celtic ring in his size, with two hands clutching a crowned gemstone heart. He looked up at her.

She felt redder than she was, "I..." she wanted to cry from combined excitement and embarrassment, "I was wondering if you'd like to... if you want to marry me."

He slipped the ring onto his finger, forgetting momentarily the tradition that the proposee place it, "Of course I'll marry you. We're already engaged, remember?"

"I... I know... but we've been engaged a long time, and it's kind of an arranged marriage... I just wanted to propose and make it feel more... real. Not to mention, now that I'm old enough I'd like to start planning the wedding soon..." she dropped off, then started, "Oh! And I wasn't sure if you wanted to marry me so I figured I'd propose and-"

This time it was his turn to cut her off, and he did it with a kiss, "I want to marry you."

Reaching out and taking him by complete surprise she hugged him around the neck, which caused him to be pulled down onto the table and knock over both their drinks, not to mention imbed the oil and butter from the breadsticks in his shirt. But she was happy, and he was happy, so it was okay.