Gunpowder

The moon was high in the sky by the time Poppy returned home from work. Axis had gotten home only around an hour earlier, had taken France for his walk, and was therefor not at the house at the time.

It felt like any normal day, except for one thing: it was the day Poppy had been waiting for since two years ago, when the two roommates officially declared themselves girlfriends. It was the day in which she had planned to propose.

The former technician, now military hacker and informant, took the ring out of the cupboard in which she had been hiding it. The ring itself was quite simple, being no more than a simple piece of gold engraved with some miscellaneous sketches. The best part of it was the diamond Libra symbol attached to the top of the ring. She had an identical one for herself, which had an Aries sign on it.

Snapping the blue ring box closed, she took a deep breath and stuffed it into her sweatshirt pocket. She knew that her girlfriend had taken the cat out for a walk, evident by the fact that the animal that always greeted her at the door was absent that particular day. A sigh escaped her and she pulled out one of the thick wooden chairs from the small kitchen table, setting her weight in its seat. She fumbled with her pocket for a moment before taking out her phone, which was white in color.

A stream of notifications lit up up the screen, mostly about random sales at stores she had literally never been to or heard of. One in particular sparked her interest, however. It was a text message from a contact she had saved, but almost never notified.

Abbet had messaged her around an hour ago, sending a picture with a short caption. The picture seemed to be a self-taken picture of her in very nice attire, along with a man that had his hand lovingly placed on her head. The caption read, “Birch, my boyfriend.”

Despite her past with the woman, and therefor distaste for her, Poppy’s face lit up with a smile when she saw the photo. She remembered the last time she had seen Abbet: the trial. She had been deemed not guilty on lines of self defense, which was a relief.

It had been two years since the woman had arrived in the rebel city of Kawden, carried in by a medical helicopter after suffering from a serious car crash. She remembered the days in which she had feared and even hated the very people attempting to help her, but such feelings subsided when Axis had taken her in. At first, their friendship, if one could even call it that, was founded on mutual fear more than anything. But soon it had blossomed into something much bigger than a friendship. The affection between them only grew and grew after they had moved into a home together.

And this day was the make-or-break moment for their relationship. If Axis accepted the ring Poppy was to give her, then the two would officially be together for the rest of their lives. If she denied the ring, the relationship was likely to fall apart.

This stressed Poppy, but she truly wanted to take the next step in their relationship. Their unlikely relationship that never would have happened if Oak had not been terrible at navigation.

…...........................

Axis found herself nearly being pulled to the ground by the large, chunky, black and white feline she had on a leash before her. She always underestimated the animal’s strength when out on a walk, and nearly had a heart attack every time it began to strain and run.

This time, the marbled creature seemed to have been excited by a little pug running towards him. Most cats in this situation would have hissed and ran, but not France. If anything, he acted more like a dog than a cat. The thing ran right up to the wrinkled canine, meowing excitedly while a low purr rumbled in its throat. The animals collided, turned into a mass of fluff and legs, before rearranging themselves. France licked his dog counterpart on the nose, nuzzling its face aggressively.

Axis wasn’t too interested in all this, as she saw it almost every day. France had many canine friends around the neighborhood, ranging from a giant mastif named Kilt, to a tiny boston terrier named Tea. This pug specifically was new to her, but she was not too worried about it. What caught her intrest was the voices ringing through the air, calling out a name as if calling to someone.

“Latte! Latte!” they called. It seemed to be three voices, two male and one female, all coming from children probably around the age of nine. Soon, the bodies the voices belonged to were visible. Axis’s prediction had been right: There were two boys in a sort of triangular formation behind a slightly older girl.

The pug’s ears perked, and it dashed off in the direction of the kids. It jumped into the arms of a boy with dark hair in a bowl cut wearing a blue sweatshirt that was a few sizes too big for him. The little scrunched dog licked his face, messing up his haircut, though he didn’t seem to mind.

“So sorry for the inconvience,” the girl, who seemed to be the leader of the group, apologized, “Our dog here got off his leash. Did our animal injure yours?”

“No, no, not at all.

“Axis! Axis!” she was confused at this sudden bout of chanting from the two boys in the back. The other boy, standing next to the one holding the dog, was wearing a fluorescent orange T-shirt and baggy shorts. He flipped his blonde spiked hair up and kept chanting.

“Sorry about them too. They are my little brothers, John and Dave. I’m Rose, by the way.”

“Don’t you recognize her?” John, the boy in blue, asked his older sister.

“No, I don’t. She is our neighbor and you must leave her alone.”

“But she’s Axis! The bravest police officer ever!”

“I may be an officer, boy. But there are many greater than me,”

“But you tamed a wild loyal!”

“Whatever could you speak of?” Axis inquired, butting into the conversation.

“That other woman, she lives with you!”

“You mean Poppy? She may have been a loyal once, but was in no way wild. She is my girlfriend, and soon to be my wife, at least I hope,” Axis responded, trying to keep malice out of her voice. Her girlfriend was thought of as some sort of animal by many, and she felt protective of her. The marriage thing, that was a different story.

She had gotten a ring for her girlfriend, and was planning to give it to her that night when she returned from work. Sadly, the cat had been begging for a walk ever since she had gotten home, and so she obliged, because when she didn’t take him out, he would leave her a “little present” on her bed.

“But I thought the loyals were like, savage brutes!” the boy exclaimed, breaking her out of her trance.

“Of course they aren’t. They are people like you or me,” she responded, looking down to see France scratching at the boy’s legs and meowing at his dog. The policewoman leaned over and swooped the animal up into her grasp.

“They’re the enemy though,”

“Not all of them. There are many loyals living in this city, boy. They were simply born into a bad situation. We rescued them.”

Rose shoved John back in line, as he was beginning to get ahead of her. She took the dog, whom Axis assumed was the Latte they were calling for, clipped a leash to the collar it wore, and silenty said “goodbye” to Axis with a quick head nod. She mirror the gesture, letting France jump to the concrete sidewalk. He immediately raced forwards in pursuit of Latte, but was held back by his leash. He eventually gave up and heeled with Axis.

The policewoman, slipping the loop at the end of the leash over her wrist, stuck her hand in her pocket and fumbled around for a moment. The fabric pouch was mostly filled with junk like candy wrappers, recipts, and all manner of stuff she had shoved in there. At last, she felt what she was looking for: a small, velvety blue box that contained the ring she intended to give to her girlfriend later that night. It made a soft little click when she opened it to reveal the golden ring inside.

The ring looked normal for the most part, except for the two cat ears sticking out from the top. The shiny metal was also engraved with a cat tail, which was striped with tabby markings. She had clearly been been thoughtful choosing it, for it even had a small poppy flower engraved into its surface.

The woman suddenly felt as if others were watching, probably some nosy neighbor, and snapped the box closed, stuffing it back in her pocket. France was obviously eager to get moving anyways.

As they walked home, or rather, as France led her home, she kept going over in her head what exactly she would say to Poppy. She didn’t want to do the simple, “will you marry me?” It seemed too cliched, and cliched was exactly what her household wasn’t.

She pondered and pondered, hardly noticing the passing of time or space, until a plan began to form in her head. She could only hope that France would cooperate.

….............

It was always an exciting moment for Poppy when the front door opened, for it always meant seeing her girlfriend after a long day of work. But today was different. She was nervous, and, instead of running to greet her girlfriend at the door, fumbled around the kitchen, attempting to make herself look busy. She found herself scrubbing a single plate over and over again with a washcloth, wincing every time the wet rag screeched against the plate’s white plastic surface.

Despite her attempts to look busy, her ears were still clearly perked up. She heard the loud noise that the un-oiled hinges made, and the terse pitter patter of paws teps. What she didn’t hear, however, was the sound of her name, which her girlfriend always called out when she came through the door. What she did hear was some slightly disconcering quiet muttering, and a little squeaking nose, as if something small and hinged was closing.

“Welcome home!” Poppy called out at last, breaking the silence.

No answer. She shook it off as some kind of bathroom emergency or something and put the wet dish she held away, placing it in the cupboard and picking up another.

All while cleaning the cutlery and tableware, she heard a slight stumbling noise. She shrugged it off once more, and, once she finished her cleaning, sat down at the table to check the news on her phone. She was just about to read an article on a pack of hyenas attacking a local pizza resturant when she heard Axis’s voice calling her name.

“Poppy!” Axis called, “Could you come to the stairs please!”

Poppy was perplexed about why her girlfriend would want her to do this, but obliged anyways. She stuffed her phone back in her pocket and, slowly and apprehensively, made her way to the bottom of the stairs.

She was not prepared for what was there.

Sprawling down either side of the white shag-carpeted steps was a string of Halloween-colored lights. The two heads of the rails, which were flat platforms, were also decked out with lights. France sat on one of the platforms, a necklace around his fluffy chest that hung all the way down to the wood below him. His mouth was dirty with what looked like the aftermath of him versus a can of wet cat food.

Axis was leaned up against the other railing head, her face more flushed than a ripe tomato.

“Hey,” she said, giving a wave, “I-I, well I have something for yo-”

“I have something for you too,” Poppy cut her off. She saw it as a perfect oppurtunity, and dug in her pocket for her ring. To her surprise, Axis seemed to be digging in her pocket for something too. As she pulled out her ring, encased in its little red velvet box, her girlfriend pulled out a box identical to hers, except for the fact that it was blue in color.

The two of them spoke at the same time, Axis saying the word, “Poppy,” and Poppy saying the word, “Axis,”

And then, they spoke in unison, “Will you marry me?”

“I will”