Author’s Notes | the first in my proposal series with Mads. mads’s engagement ring here.
❛ pairing | mads larsen/reader
❛ word count | 1511
❛ genre | fluffy one shot.
❛ summary | he has it all planned out. if only you’ll slow down and enjoy it with him.
❛ warnings | fluff and babies, nothing especially triggering.
Being from a poor upbringing, Mads never had the good life. He recalled distantly getting handidowns and going to soup kitchens for food, yeah. He never really remembered having the good life. That was why this… this was important to him.
For men like Tom the price of getting into Tivoli wasn’t that much. God, it was only a hundred and fifty a piece to get in-- but his real treat would have been getting the ticket for five hundred and thirty five. Both of which were pretty pennies that he did not have.
Not when he was saving up for this. The small box still burned a hole in his pocket. He knew that you insisted, insisted you didn’t need a ring. Somewhere in the back of his head though; his mind was buzzing with the ache to get you that ring you wanted. It... it was too much. So he bought a simple band with a lovely diamond. Then they would tell you how you would need a man with a bigger wallet like Tom and all over again he would feel like the greatest piece of shit in Copenhagen.
“(Y/N), I’ve got the tickets, hurry!” He ran ahead of you, jauntily surging forward.
“I’m coming!” You call after him.
Mads hops back over to you, ignoring the way that his ring burned a hole in the pocket of his pitch black hoodie which matched his lazy black jeans stuffed into black boots. You’re the picture perfect opposite of him in a bright red and matching white scarf. Mads always feels the heat when people look at you. An innocent thing all wrapped up with a no good thug like him. Exchanging the tickets along a high lit up arch and entering Tivoli’s red brick floors, its unreal. Though the sun is beginning to set, he knows that you’re looking at the green and white-- or rose gold ornaments hanging over head.
“What are you thinking about?” You lean up on your tippy toes, kissing the blotchy tattoo across his neck. His cheeks heat-- caught.
“Uh.” He looks down, “No nothing-- just… didn’t you want to see the gardens?”
You tilt your head, skeptical clearly. He hopes you’re not onto him. This isn’t your first Christmas together but certainly Mads has been much more mushy than his usual! Mads runs his pale pink tongue over his lips hoping that you’ll be none the wiser to his antics.
“And Brink Nordic for an ornament for baby’s first Christmas.” You tap your flat stomach. Mads gives a small laugh, looking over to your flat stomach.
“Right I-- I forgot I’m going to be a far.” Mads rubs the back of his neck as if to say oops. “Condoms shouldn’t break so easy!”
You bop him when you realize that an older woman glances over to Mads’ egregious statement. “That’s why you get one that fits!” You exclaim while seeing him off to another area. A stall selling Churros was your main choice. When Mads was hungry-- he talked stupid.
Man.
He wished he could just throw this ring at you and blurt out just what he wanted to say. You’re beautiful, I love you, please marry me! Mads stands awkwardly as you look through the ornaments. The front counter woman had a hawkeye on him the whole time as she probably should have anyway.
“Do you think it’ll be a boy?” You hold up some gender conforming blue-- blue-- blue ornament. Then a pinkish one. “Or a girl?”
He looks between the two rather boredly. Then with a shrug he looks to a red one. Mads might not always be the so deemed brightest by his family, but he also wasn’t stupid. Why buy something if you didn’t know if it would work?
“Why not the middle?” He motions to a cute silver and red bell. There was an area to personalize the bell on the front as well. If he could get someone to engrave it after they figured out what to call the baby.
“Hm.” You pause. “I guess you’re right.”
Great. Now that it was out of the way all Mads wanted to do was to rush you to the gardens and propose in the only way he knew how-- awkwardly. The sight alone would make any woman day dreamy. You certainly were when you stepped out of that little stall, taking a spin in the middle of the street with a flutter of your bright red top.
“Oh, there is a symphony Mads!”
No! He wants to say. There was no way that he was having this opportunity ripped out of his fingers but there he went. The symphony was a large one playing Yul tunes that he grew up hearing on the radio. Even some like Tchaikovsky or whatever that made him nod off more than once. Only to leap back awake when you smacked him on his thigh, feigning that yes, of course! He was awake the whole time. How could you doubt him?
“Uh… you want to maybe go to the gardens now?” He suggests with a small, meek smile on his lips. This could be the best opportunity! He would take you to the gardens, get on one knee with the sun beginning to set and--
“I’m hungry!” You whine so that he almost hears his own stomach whining too. “Your baby is hungry too.”
There went that.
“We can take our food by the gardens.” He suggests while you both step out of the symphony area. For such a pregnant woman-- you were terribly fast. There was no winning with you.
“But it’ll be cold.” You say.
The high today was a stunning one degrees celsius and it felt even colder than that. Mads stops just short of the newest place to eat, lips puffing out into a frown. It was beginning to seem like e really wouldn’t be able to propose the way he wanted!
“Mads?” You turn about, rubbing your stomach while looking to him curiously. He always wanted to eat. “Why don’t you want to eat?”
“I... just wanted…” He sighs, giving up the jig entirely and lowering himself onto one knee in the middle of the brick road. Mads digs into his pocket, seeking out the box with a modest ring that say inside. It wasn’t much-- because Mads had little to speak for. He could only promise you so much. He never wanted to promise more than he could offer.
Just the thought that one day… maybe he could offer more.
“I just wanted to propose.”
Above him, he expects some sobbing but in place of that, you boop him over the head with your knuckles as if to motion him to get up.Mads had always been the one to say that he was too poor for marriage or laugh at how would he even be able to afford the license. Maybe in some ways he was just saying that so you wouldn’t get your hopes up.
“Mads, quit messing around.” You flush softly, tugging on his honey coloured bun. “It’s not nice to tease that way.”
“But I’m not!” Magnus says, popping open the box. A sole skinny band of something probably plated with rose gold stabilizes a man made diamond that sits in the middle. The thought strikes him that maybe you didn’t thought it wasn’t worth it to marry him with this dinky thing. He wouldn’t blame you either.
“You’re serious?” You choke out. The realization that he was quite serious seems to set in and he clears his throat.
“I don’t have much...” Mads clears his throat gently, trying to shove down the ball that was lodged in his throat. This wasn’t coming at all like what he had on paper. “But if… if you say yes, I can give you all my heart and… I can cook?”
Oh god, someone shut him up. His cheeks burn hotly with those gathered around staring at the couple. You were going to say no and he was going to be so embarrassed! His eyes prick with tears, anxiously looking to you.
“Of course I’ll marry you!” You shrill past tears that mirror his suddenly.
“Yes?” Mads shrills.
“Yes!”
Mads hops up, bounding in place excitedly. He hears ‘congratulations!’ and ‘yay!’ to the side as he bounces about, winding his arms around your waist to twirl you in the cool air. Over and over again until you have to slap his shoulder to make him stop. He plops you back on the ground, bounding excitedly as he shows you the ring.
“It’s beautiful Mads.” You take it from him, slipping it on before a thought hits you. You shove it back at him, wiggling your fingers for incentive so that he would do it. He looks confused, eyes widening like a lost puppy.
