#also im super proud od my wife for helping write this chapter and not just a couple of sentences this time

[gearprideproject]

Gear Chapter 4

Welcome to pure fluff with a bit of foreshadowing. I don't think there's really anything here but if I missed something let me know! Love you guys!!!

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Femi was nervous as hell. She was about to engage in the most important mission of her life- and she wasn’t even part of Gear! 

She was about to propose to Blair. 

Everybody else was keeping Blair busy with mountains of paperwork and wild goose chases until Femi was ready, so she would have a good few hours to prepare. 

First, she had to secure a location- easily done! She had Wren setting up lights at a gazebo in the park, because it had to be done at dusk. The gazebo had been reserved for them a few months back- Blair had simply thought it was for their anniversary and had forgotten it since. 

Then, the flowers. Femi was currently on her way to pick up a bouquet of plumerias, as well as some rose arrangements to decorate the gazebo with. The roses were red, black, and purple- some of Blair’s favorite colors. The plumerias were white and pink- a couple of Femi’s favorites, so they each had something they liked. 

Before the trip to the gazebo, there would be dinner at a fancy restaurant- Femi had to plan a year in advance, so once the date was set, it couldn’t be changed. Besides, it was Femi’s turn to host date night anyway, so she could say the fancy restaurant was her treat. 

And then came the ring. Femi has browsed jewelry websites for ages before she found the right one- it was made of a black metal, with skull embellishments right beneath the dark red garnet- the main jewel. There were other, smaller garnets around the edges. 

Finally, would be the hardest part- how on earth was she gonna make the transition from the restaurant to the park? It was the night of, and Femi still couldn’t figure it out, when a spark of inspiration hit her- she could say that she had seen a few flowers in the park near a gazebo in the park. 

While Femi was panicking and getting everything together, Carlos was picking Blair’s outfit for the night. He knew Femi was proposing, and that Wren would be in the background recording to make sure everyone in Gear knew that it happened. Luckily for him, his sister had all but forced him into fashion, though he would never admit it. For that night, he picked for her a black, a-line dress that had sheer, lace decorated sleeves. The skirt of it reached down to about mid-calf, so she would be able to look good without looking scandalous. He then got to work on Femi’s look. 

While Carlos was raiding the boss’ closet, Zephyr was making sure that Blair was busy. He’d been having her do inventory with him, because she also needed to know exactly how much was needed of each product- they’d used a lot of stuff in their raid against the Dragonfly Syndicate a few weeks back, and their people were coming back oftentimes with cuts and bruises. The fight over turf was astonishing after a gang was wiped out, honestly. Plus, last time she’d ordered for stuff without doing inventory with him, she’d ordered nowhere near enough- only stuff to treat one person from a non-fatal bullet wound. So, as recompense, she was doing inventory with him. 

Others had also helped with keeping her busy today- from armory inventory to a wild goose chase for some eggnog- not something easily found in the middle of March- she was starting to get ticked. 

“Okay guys. We have done literally everything. We did inventory, we checked on the injured, we went down and talked to the prisoners. We have an outline for the next raid, we have probably overstocked our warehouse with everything. We found eggnog in march. We even got nutmeg to go with it. We are NOT going to get ice cream. You are going to tell me why you want a ridiculous amount of sugary food. The last time we brought in this much half of you guys went into a sugar coma and the other half went crazy. I refuse to let that happen AGAIN. Tell me what is going on RIGHT. NOW.”

Everyone froze up. Blair looked pissed. To be fair they knew they could only stall blair for so long on their own. Thankfully zephyr returned at that moment with a mountain of paperwork for blair to go through.

“Hey blair! I found a ton of paperwork that you have to do! It's super important!”

“Zephyr.” blair stared him down with a cool tone. “Where is carlos? And wren? Ans femi? Why have you been keeping me busy with meaningless tasks all day zephyr?”

Zephyr was paralyzed with fear. He knew that blair was scary but damn did he wish he was not on distraction duty today.

“W-well u-um y-you s-see….”

“Yes?” blairs cold gaze tore through him “something you would like to share?”

“I ... yeah….. Um… I found this paperwork…. And well…. You know… it needs to get done?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you are a terrible liar?”

“No?”

“Well you are. Give me those. I'll have them done in ten minutes. There will be NO ICE CREAM. Am I UNDERSTOOD?”

“Yes ma’am!” everyone replied. Blair grabbed the stack from zephyr before stalking to her office. True to her word she was done in ten minutes. She grinned at zephyr before she said, “play your stalling games all you’d like. It's obvious you guys are up to something. If you need me then don’t bother looking. Just page me alright?” Zephyr looked at her before nodding. Blair grinned before she left.  

Blair was not seen for the next three hours. Everyone was panicking because where could she be? If she finds out about the surprise then everything is doomed! They checked everywhere but it was as if she had vanished!

 Soon enough It was about time for blair to get ready for their date so zephyr paged her. Soon after she reappeared but no one knew where she had been. Zephyr sent her off to ‘go be presentable’ and that ‘carlos already got everything all laid out so just go and be pretty’. Blair found this mildly insulting but she just grinned evilly at him and continued on. Sure enough there was an outfit laid out for her, so she got herself presentable and went to find her girlfriend. Soon blair and femi meet up and it was off to their date!

Naturally they went to the restaurant first. It was a typically high end place that was made for the atmosphere of love. After a candlelit dinner they went on a leisurely walk around the square. Femi was able to get them to the park by talking about the flowers that they had, 

“There were so many pretty flowers and it was all alone, i’m sure it would look amazing under the stars! We just have to go see it blair!” femi exclaimed

“Alright darling” blair said with a slight chuckle. “Whatever makes you happy.”

Noone had missed that blair was now determined to keep femi safe and happy, especially after the incident. Noone would touch her flower again.

“We’re here! Look blair, isn't it pretty?” femi turned to look at blair the light shining in her eyes making her look ethereal. Sometimes blair secretly wondered if femi has any heavenly blood in her, although if she did it would make this a lot more complicated.

“Yeah. very pretty femi.” blair said, although it was clear her attention was not directed at the gazebo.

“Come on blair let's check it out!” femi declared before grabbing blair’s arm and tugging her over. Blair looked at the flowers, is that plumeria? She wondered, but when she turned around she saw femi down on one knee.

“Blair, you’ve been… amazing, throughout the entirety of the time I’ve known you. You are beautiful, and graceful, and so, so kind. You are perfect in every way that I see, and it- you, always make me happy. I love you so much, and never want to be away from you. So that’s why,” she pulled the ring box out of her purse, blushing and smiling, “I ask you, here and now,” Femi opens the ring box, revealing the semi-ornate, black & garnet ring. The smile on her face is a nervous one, and her hands are shaking as she asks, “Will… will you marry me?” blair looks at femi for a whole ten seconds before bursting into one of her rare smiles.

“You beat me to it you beautiful person you. But yeah. I can’t imagine living eternity with anyone else.” 

“Yes! Oh, I was so worried you wouldn’t like it! Wait… did you say I beat you to it?”

“Yeah. I already got a ring and everything but you made the first move… again. One day I'll make the first move.”

“Can I see the ring???” femi asked enthusiastically

“Of course you can it's yours.” replied blair before she pulled out of nowhere a small black ring box. Inside was a beautifully crafted gold rose with a white diamond in the middle.

“Oh blair… it's perfect! I love you so much! Gosh you are just so beautiful i could kiss you here and now!”

“Okay” and they slipped the rings on each other as they fell into a kiss. Back at gear everyone was super glad they had set up the cameras because they got to see this beautiful moment unfold. Everyone was talking about the wedding and just couldn’t wait until that day came. Others, were not so forgiving.

“So femi, you think you can just marry my daughter without permission? Well think again. I wonder why she loves you so much, after all you are just a sad little human. I suppose we will just have to wait and see.”