Hearts and Hooves Day!

by Phoenix Heart 27

Belle Nuit:(Love [and other things] in Prance)

Belle Nuit:

As Paint Smear bundled up tight to brave the mid-February cold of Paris, His thoughts were on what he had planned for the night. As it was Hearts and Hooves Day, Most (if not all) of Paris was in a major case of “love sickness”. Paint zipped up his coat as he headed out to L'e Café de Chat Brun to check in with the preparations for the surprise dinner he and Ocean had set up for their special someponies. Now being that he was extra busy today with not only keeping Roseblossom distracted, but also making sure that the restaurant was ready and to top it off, he had been called into work to teach a self-defense class that started in an hour. So he had to move it fast!

‘Damn! Damn! Damn! Why today of all days did they have to call me in!’, He thought to himself as he galloped towards the café. He enters to see utter chaos! The entire restaurant is packed to the brim! He has to squeeze past ponies in order to try to find Ocean. When he does, he’s surprised to see Ocean trying to juggle 4 orders and take more at the same time.

“Ocean! What the hell happened to ‘this place will be locked up all day!’?!? It’s a labyrinth in here!”, Paint shouted over the noise.

Ocean tried to crane his neck to look at him but couldn't. He sighed and spoke.

“It was! Until practically most of ze restaurants on this block had run out of space for customers! Then we were back-up! As you can see, it’s a living Tartarus in here! And we’re short staffed! What with Candy Swirl on vacation, Mint-Condition still on maternity leave, Cécile having the holiday off and Rosie, us having to practically beg her to take the day off, we’re now down to: Me, François Candle, Papa and Mama. So...yeah...we’re screwed.”, Ocean said breathless.

Paint groaned before looking at his phone. He still had an hour before needing to be at the studio. What’s a little helping going to hurt?

“Okay O’! Scoot over, I’m coming in to help. But only until 10 to the hour!”, Paint said as he grabbed a spare apron and began to help out.

---

Meanwhile, with Roseblossom…

An alarm went off on a phone and with it, Rose jolted out of the spare bed with a hard landing.

“Ow!”, a tired Roseblossom shouted as she face planted onto the floor of her friend Sabine’s apartment.

The sound did not go unnoticed by Sabine as she jolted out of bed and leapt to the floor to help her friend up.

“What happened?”, Sabine asked.

“My alarm went off and...I wasn’t prepared.”, Rosie responded as she got up.

Sabine laughed as Ro managed to get up and then trip over her shoes at the same time.

“Instead of laughing, would you mind getting some breakfast ready while I go shower?”, Rosie asked as she headed to the bathroom to shower.

“M’kay, but we aren’t eating here for breakfast! We’re leaving in about 20 minutes!”, Sabine yelled through the door, to which her response was a high-pitched whinny and a loud crash.

---

40 minutes later…

Roseblossom, having by now showered, dressed and fixed her mane and tail into wavy ringlets, finally emerged from the bathroom where she was greeted by a semi-pissed off Sabine.

“That was the longest ‘20 minutes’ ever! C’mon now, let’s go try to find you something to wear tonight.”, Sabine grumbled.

“What’s wrong with what I have on now? And again, you brought up tonight with such a ‘way-too-mellow’ tone. What gives? Is there something you’re hiding from me?”, Rosie kept firing off questions as they left the apartment and made their way downtown.

Sabine knew she’d be curious as to why she was being cryptic about today’s plans because secretly, she was in on Paint’s grand plan for the night the entire time. Now that the time had come to execute it, all she had to do was keep Rosie occupied until about 6pm.

“Ooohhh...no reason. I’m simply trying to help out my best friend prepare for a date night is all.”, Sabine replied in a subtle, yet cryptic way.

Rosie muttered something colorful but decided to drop the issue for now as they headed into a shop.

---

A Few Hours Later with Paint…

As he walked out into the dim twilight sun, Paint only had 2 thoughts in his head: A shower and of his beloved marefriend of 3 and a half years. The self-defense class he instructed lasted far longer than he’d hoped it would. It was almost 5pm by the time he finally clocked out and headed for home.

“Shit! I had planned on being home by now! I still gotta shower, change, make sure Toulouse and Claudia are at Madame Citrus’s place for the night and pick up the ‘surprise’ for later! Not to mention get to the restaurant before Rosie does.”, Paint said to himself as he got off the elevator to his floor and practically tore his saddlebags apart looking for his house key. As he got the door unlocked, he was ambushed by two small furry bullets of energy in the form of a silver fox todd and a red fox vixen.

“Okay, okay! I missed you guys too. But I gotta get the two of you to Mme. Citrus now!”, He said to the two vulpines as he gathered their sleeping baskets/food dishes/pre-made food/toy basket and let them climb upon his back as he headed across the hall to his neighbor’s apartment. After dropping them off, he bolted back to his apartment to shower.

---

10 minutes later…

Paint showered and dressed right on time to because it had just then hit 5 o’clock pm. All he had to do next is text Rose to meet him at the café and go pick up his ‘surprise’ for her. So he raced down and out their apartment building, remembering to tell Brick to meet up at the café in an hour as he past by their apartment. As he was leaving the jewelers’ he quickly noticed that the restaurant district had finally calmed down drastically. Using this opportunity, he cautiously walked up to Le Café de Chat Brun to find it completely devoid of customers and looking every bit as sophisticated as he imagined for the night.

“Ocean? I don’t know how you did it, but this place looks better than I could’ve ever imagined!”, Paint said as he found Ocean.

“Merci mon pote!Though...none of this would’ve been possible if it weren’t for a great reason.”, Ocean replied with a smile as he checked the time.

---

An Hour Later...

A slightly tired Brick walked up to the front entrance with an equally tired Roseblossom. Both looking drop dead gorgeous with Brick wearing a loose fitting black long sleeve shirt with matching dress pants, black shined shoes. Rose wearing a medium length aqua dress, yellow flats, blue dress coat and the silver locket Paint got her for her birthday. While they gawked at how amazing the café looked, Ocean took position and stepped up to the front entrance while Paint hid.

“Bonsoir monsieur et miss. Normalement ce soir je serais ton serveur mais ce soir …” He stopped and said directed towards Brick “...Je suis ton rendez-vous pour ce soir.”, Ocean finished with a wink. That made Brick instantly blush and Rose giggle like a school filly.

“While that is fine and wonderful, I wonder where my date is?”, Rose said/asked.

“Well wonder no longer.”, a voice that Rose knew all too well said behind her. She turned and nearly had a magic hiccup fit and fainted as soon as she saw Paint in his navy blue suit and red tie.

‘I have composure….oh fuck it! Damnnn! He looks fine!!! Oh mon dieu I can’t stop staring...am I drooling? I don’t think so? What a surprise!’, Rose thought to herself as soon as she saw him. She had to force her magic to stay calm while she got a good look at her well-dressed coltfriend. She decided to play along and simply go with it. That is until she was lead to a finely dressed table with a lone candle, basket of breadsticks and a single plate of spaghetti and "meatballs". Unable to form actual words, she just let her jaw remain slack until Paint gently closed it.

“I take it you like the little spread I’ve put together?”, He asked.

“Like it? I LOVE it!”, Rosie managed to utter as she was seated.

“I thought so...call it a bit cliché but...hey! I couldn’t help it!”, Paint said as he sat down.

As they sat down to eat and simply enjoy the evening, someone somewhere played a cute bitalian song on a mandolin and accordion. They eventually finished and found themselves taking a lover’s stroll in the park next door. Eventually they stopped underneath an old willow tree.

“Hey, now this tree looks familiar.”, Rose said with a smirk.

“It should. It’s the tree we crashed into one another all those years ago.”, Paint replied.

“I thought so! That’s probably why it’s my favorite tree in the entire park.”, Rose said.

“Hehe yeah….”, Paint started before falling off into thought.

Roseblossom noticed his sudden quiet and decided to ask on it.

“Paint? You okay? You seemed a little too quiet, even for you. Something on your mind love?”, She asked.

‘It’s now or never’, he thought to himself as he silently slipped the small box out of his jacket pocket, out of her line of sight.

“Hmm? Oh, yes love. I’m alright...b-but I do have something...something very important to ask you.”, Paint said, feigning confusion briefly.

“You do?”, Rose asked curiously.

“Yes. Ro, All my life I’ve seen too many good things taken from me before I even got a chance to truly appreciate them. I’ve seen the good in ponies and the bad in others. I was never really sure about anything aside from my art...that is...until I met you.” He paused to take a deep breath before continuing “Rose, when I first met you, I won’t even lie I was instantly head over hooves. I knew you were it for me!” he paused again to hold the small black box in plain view now “So...I guess what I’m trying to ask is...Roseblossom, ma chérie ... veux-tu m'épouser?”, He finished as he opened the box to reveal a small, horn-sized diamond and gold engagement ring.

Rose was so shocked she was left speechless for all of 4 seconds before responding.

"Oh mon dieu - OUI!! Oui oui, un million de fois OUI!! Je t'épouserai!", She all but screamed in happiness as she leapt into his forehooves.

“You said yes? You said yes. YOU SAID 'YES'!!!!Oh Faust! Ye-es!!!”, Paint exclaimed happily as he excitedly spun her around in a circle before sitting them both back down into a slow, deep, passionate, love-filled kiss.