Julian was not known for being subtle, far from it in fact. The man thrived on making a show out of the most mundane things, and his pursuit of you was no exception.
With all due fairness, he had started off simple. Flowers arriving at the shop door with a small note of endearment attached, to finding out that someone had mysteriously already paid for your bread on your morning trip to the market. It was standard secret admirer acts that kept you smiling throughout the day despite knowing without a doubt who was doing it.
But Julian simply couldn’t help but escalate in his affection, and if it had been anyone else you may have considered the attention odd or distracting, but there was something about the redhead’s actions that came across as endearing.
You had received another bouquet of flowers that morning, but this one had an entire scroll attached to it, flowing words of affection scribbled all over it. It was practically a short story about your “mysterious” admirer’s feelings towards you, and hastily added on at the end was a pleading request to meet your admirer at a specified address later that night. You couldn’t place where exactly it was he was asking to meet you, but figured with how cautious Julian was (or at least how cautious he tried to be,) it would be okay to meet him at such a late hour.
After locking up the shop for the day, you began your way down the darkened alleys towards where the note had asked you to meet your “admirer”. It had gotten dark quick that day, and you shivered slightly underneath the moonlight that peered over you.
Behind you, you suddenly began to hear hurried footsteps following you. But when you turned to look back, the street behind you was empty, eerily silent as you stared trying to find the source of the footsteps.
Suddenly this late night jaunt seemed not such a great idea. You pulled your coat closer to your body, your feet moving faster as your mind raced with “what-ifs”.
What if your secret admirer hadn’t been Julian?
What if this secret admirer was in fact a blood thirsty murderer?
You felt your legs begin to run as the footsteps behind you grew louder and you squeezed your eyes shut, willing yourself to move faster as you neared the meeting spot. You skidded to a stop, your eyes darting around for the familiar sight of red, but he was nowhere to be found, and instead you felt a hand touch your shoulder gently.
You whirled around, your mouth opening in a scream, your hands flying up to defend yourself as you stared wildly at the person who had stalked you down the street.
“No-No wait! Wait, love, it’s me! It’s only me-OW...ow...ow!”
Your eyes widened in recognition, but you couldn’t stop yourself in time and suddenly your fist connected directly with Julian’s jaw.
“Julian! Oh my god, why didn’t you say something?!” You knelt down, pulling his chin up to see if you had done any actual damage, and he merely smirked up at you as the red mark you left slowly faded away.
“Well, you see... I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“A surprise...” you crossed your arms, eyes narrowing as you looked at him.
Julian straightened himself, brushing dirt off his pants before clearing his throat, as a light blush crept up his cheeks, “Well, I um, I may have been admiring you not so secretly.”
“So I’ve noticed,” you replied, raising an eyebrow, “Not so secretly is an apt way of putting it, Julian.”
“Yes, well, I uh... that is, I... wished to actually surprise you. Romantically, that is. Only, I was worried, you see. It’s dangerous this late at night, so I decided I would escort you here myself, secretly of course so as not to ruin the surprise! Of course now, I uh...ugh, I realize that it was perhaps, a not very well thought out plan.”
He stood there, his one eye darting from the ground back to your face nervously as he waited for your reaction. You stared at him for a moment, before turning around to look at what exactly he had set up - dozens of your favorite flowers were scattered across the alleyway and you could see a bottle of wine hidden among all the bouquets. It was a bit weird, to be sure, and you were almost glad he didn’t get a chance to pull off whatever performance he had planned here. Whatever it may have been, it would’ve aroused attention even at this late of an hour.
“It er, was my intention to have us take a stroll along the beach after I declare my love for you.. With, the wine. It’s very beautiful at night. I thought perhaps we could-”
You didn’t let him finish, and stepped forward, wrapping your arms around his waist and burying your face into his chest with a smile on your face.
“It’s wonderful, Julian. Even if it was a bit ill-thought and poorly planned.” you said, lifting your head to look up at him, “Thank you.”
You felt his chest suddenly grow warm and he looked down at you blushing, for once the Doctor was uncharacteristically at a loss for words.
“For what it’s worth, I love you too.” You said, lifting yourself up to your tiptoes so you could reach his lips, softly kissing him.
He looked shocked for a moment, before relaxing into the kiss, his hands coming up to the back of your head to pull you in for a deeper kiss. When you two finally pulled away, you looked at one another, breathless before he finally cleared his throat to speak.
“I um, I love you too. I love you too, how wonderful it is to finally say that.” He looked at you carefully, bringing a hand to cup your face, bringing a thumb to brush against your cheek, “Young love... isn’t it sweet?”
You giggled, putting your hand on top of his before giving him a quick peck on the cheek, “Thought you didn’t like things sweet, Julian.”
He blushed once more at that, swinging his coat around so it covered you both as he leaned down to kiss you gently, “Well, er... yes, I suppose I did say that didn’t I? W-well, I suppose you’re just the right amount of sweet for me, my love.”
romaincrisis
snowghoul
2087
