#valenweek

Lovely hates surprises. 

They always have. Ever since they were a child, they would cry or sulk at every single surprise birthday party thrown for them or glare at any gift they weren’t expecting no matter how badly they had wanted it. Not knowing what to expect always took away any control they felt over the situation.

Now, Lovely wouldn’t consider themself a control freak or anything, they’ve just always hated things that were sprung on them with no prior warning. They were a creature of habit and routine, any divergence from their normal always gave them a little bit of anxiety. Not as much as before, it was a lot worse when they were younger, but surprises still caused them to falter more than they’d like. 

But despite how much they hate surprises, Lovely loves their boyfriend more. And Vincent loves surprising them. 

He was also extremely considerate. Vincent knows they hate being in the unknown so he never springs anything on them entirely. He always tells them at least a few hours before the actual surprise and he always asks if they're okay with it, somehow never giving away the actual surprise but still managing to make them comfortable with whatever he had in mind. 

Texts that read, ‘I have a little surprise for when you get home if that’s okay’

Giggling whispers in their ear, ‘I planned something, wanna guess where?’

It’s usually small things, little trinkets that remind him of them or dates on non-special occasions. Gestures he made with the prettiest smile on his face. Gestures that were no doubt small to him but only served to make Lovely fall more in love with him. 

But occasionally, on events that Vincent insisted on emphasizing on calendars with big overlined red hearts, the surprises got bigger. Like the car he got them for their birthday. Or the entire vacation he planned without their knowledge for their anniversary. 

And maybe it’s the fact that Lovely has come to expect big things from him on days that were important to the two, or maybe it’s the fact that Vincent has always been their exception, but even the bigger surprises from him didn’t make them feel like they were about to throw up. They’re pretty sure he could surprise them entirely with no warning and their fight or flight wouldn’t be as active as if it were from anyone else.

Which is exactly how they ended up here. Their inability to say no to their boyfriend was the bane of their existence. Literally.

Vincent had just come to sit with them on the couch, telling them about the date he was planning for Valentine’s Day that he intended to keep secret. They would love it, he said. And they were inclined to believe him wholeheartedly. It just made them a little uneasy not knowing what to expect. 

“Vince..,” Lovely draws out, letting anxiety bleed into their tone. 

Vincent rests his hand on their cheek giving them a sympathetic smile, “It’s nothing big, I swear. We’re staying home.” 

They lean into his hand, pouting slightly, “Do I get a hint at least?” 

“Hmm, a hint?” Vincent hums, caressing their skin softly, “Just a little one.”

Lovely raises an eyebrow curiously. His smile widens into a grin, “Movies and chocolate-covered pretzels.” 

Vincent laughs at the way Lovely’s eyes visibly light up, a smile finally making its way back onto their face. They quickly try to hide it, mostly failing at keeping a straight face. 

“Do you promise?” 

He drops his hand from their face to rest across his chest, “Cross my heart.” 

Lovely finally matches his grin freely with a light sigh, “Fine. I guess your surprise might not be too bad.” 

Vincent breathes another laugh before his face falls a little, “Are.. you sure you’re okay with me surprising you? I’ve been doing it a lot more recently and I can tell you the details if it’s overwhelming. I won’t be upset.”

Lovely blinks, “Yeah, I’m okay. I trust you.” 

They really weren’t that anxious, not as much as they felt they could be. It was mostly the initial idea of a surprise that had them put off for a moment. The unease didn’t last long, because Vincent always put them at ease, no matter how badly their body wanted them to panic. And well, they’d be damned if they were the one to wipe the excited smile off his face. 

 “I’d tell you if I was uncomfortable,” They add, lifting their arm to brush his hair out of the way so they could press a kiss to his forehead. 

Vincent doesn’t let them pull all the way back, pulling them closer to kiss their lips. Lovely kisses him back, draping their arms around his shoulders. He breaks the kiss to rest his forehead against theirs. 

“Do you promise?”  

Lovely smiles, “Cross my heart.” 

Now it was 3 minutes until Valentine’s Day and Lovely was already regretting their prior decision to let Vincent surprise them with this. Mainly because said surprise was outside and he insisted on blindfolding them. 

“Why?”

“Because, Lovely, I want you to see it exactly at midnight at its fullest.”

They glance at the clock, 2 minutes and 50 seconds, and back at their boyfriend. They playfully roll their eyes, “You’re so dramatic, you know that? I can just close my eyes.”

Vincent scoffs, “Yeah, like you won’t get impatient and peak.” 

Lovely narrows their eyes, “Would not.”

“Would too.”

“Would not.”

“Would too.” 

“Would not.” They say definitively. 

“Fine,” Vincent sighs heavily, dropping the sleeping mask on the kitchen counter, “let’s compromise, shall we? I’ll just cover your eyes.”

Lovely hesitates but they give in, of course, they do. The day they said no to him is the day hell freezes over.

“Vince, if you let me fall I’m punching you in the face. Immediately.” 

Vincent huffs with a small grin, keeping his hands over Lovely’s eyes as he carefully leads them outside. “I’m not gonna let you fall, relax.” He reassures them, “What good would these vampiric reflexes be if I couldn’t catch my clumsy Lovely, hm?” 

“I am not clumsy!” Lovely reaches behind them to smack his arm, “You wouldn’t need to catch me if I wasn’t in this predicament— Vincent!” They yelp as they lose their footing due to the small ledge and their turning to assault him, holding onto his arm tightly.

“Not clumsy, huh?” Vincent laughs as he readjusts his grip on them to hold their torso, “Should I have carried you instead?”

“It’s not funny asshole,” Lovely pouts, squeezing his arm more than necessary. 

Vincent apologetically kisses the back of their head, “Sorry, sorry. I forgot to warn you about that.” 

“Forgot?!”

“In my defence, I didn’t expect you to turn and hit me!”

“What happened to your vampiric reflexes, huh—”

“We’re here! And it’s midnight.” He smiles, ignoring them as he removes his hands from them altogether, “You can look now.” 

“Finally,” Lovely sighs dramatically, opening their eyes again, “The pretzels better be good..”

They trail off as their eyes readjust to being open again, focusing on the display in front of them. 

There in a semi-secluded section of their backyard was a thick duvet laid on the grass with pillows everywhere, fairy lights and candles also placed around neatly. In front of the duvet, there was a blank white tapestry hung on a tree branch, providing the background for the projection of a projector connected to Vincent’s laptop to be visible. In a corner, Lovely could see the presents the two had gotten for each other, waiting to be opened. And of course, in the direct centre sat an unhealthy amount of the couple’s favourite snacks. Including chocolate-covered pretzels. 

Lovely stood there in a daze, taking everything in as their mind raced, almost missing Vincent’s next words.

“—a lot, but I thought you’d like this since you like the quieter dates at home more than going out, so. Do you like it?” He asks quietly from behind them, sounding mildly anxious.

Lovely makes a noncommittal noise in the back of their throat as they bury their face into their hands to hide the sudden onslaught of tears cascading down their cheeks. 

They hear Vincent laugh kind of nervously and he moves to stand in front of them. He gently pries their hands from their face, “Hey, what’s wrong? Do you hate it?” He jokes, smiling, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. 

Hate it, he says, when Lovely’s never felt more loved in their entire life. What an idiot honestly. It’s the day after his death-day, which was a little harder for him this year, and yet he’s still thinking entirely about making Lovely happy. He’s so annoying. 

“You’re so annoying,” Lovely sniffles, dropping their head on his shoulder, “I love it, you idiot.” 

They feel him sigh in relief more than they hear it, humming as he pulls them into his arms. 

“Crybaby.” Vincent says softly, smiling as he rubs their back, “I love you.” 

“I love you too..” Lovely mumbles wetly, voice cracking, “And shut up, you cry more than me.”  

Vincent makes a playfully affronted noise, “Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do not.”

“Do too, idiot.”

“Do not.” Vincent pulls back slightly to hold Lovely’s face, wiping their tears away, “Don’t cry. I don’t like it when you cry.”

Lovely finally smiles, “Even when I’m happy?”

“Even when you’re happy.”

They laugh even though their eyes are still wet, “Whatever you say, V.” 

The two meet for a short kiss that Vincent emphasizes with a soft ‘mwah’ just because he knows it’ll make Lovely laugh, beaming when they do.   

“Alright, let’s go.” He takes their hand and leads them over to the duvet, guiding them to sit down first and not letting go when he sits down himself even as he leans away from them to tap away at his laptop. 

Lovely watches the large projected image of the screen in front of them curiously.   

“Okay,” Vincent says, squeezing their fingers lightly to let them know he’ll be finished in a moment, “I picked a few movies that we can check out, we’ll probably get to all of them if we stay out here long enough but I wanted to start with-” 

“Who said you were picking the movie?” They scoff impishly, gently running their thumb over his knuckles.  

Vincent looks over his shoulder to make eye contact with them, face blank for a moment before a laugh pushes past his throat, “Lovely, I love you so much, but you… kind of…” He trails off, voice lowering in volume as he looks back to the laptop screen, “...have shit taste in movies.”

Lovely deadpans, “Say that to my face, Solaire.” 

Vincent laughs even louder, “It doesn’t make sense to me either, bébé, your TV show recommendations are superior!”

They pull their hand away from his just to see him spin all the way around with a pout on his face. 

“Lovely…” He whines even though he’s smiling, reaching out for them with both hands, “I’m sorry!” 

“You are not.” Lovely huffs a laugh, keeping themself out of reach, “So mean to me.” 

“I’m not even wrong! You wanted to watch Batman & Robin last week!” Vincent shuffles closer to try and get them back within arms reach.

“It’s a good movie, don’t even!” 

Vincent rolls his eyes, “It’s awful and you know it.” 

“Is not- let me go!” Lovely squirms when Vincent manages to pull their whole body back toward him. 

He gives another laugh, “Is too."

The two wrestle with each other for a moment, giggling as Lovely pretends to try and escape from Vincent’s hold. It ends when they somehow end up rolling on top of him, straddling his hips as they pant lightly, looking down at him. 

Vincent rests his hands on their hips, whispering breathlessly, “Hi there.” 

“Hi.” Lovely whispers back, “I win.”

“Did you now?” He hums, slowly tracing shapes into their skin with his thumb, “Because I’m still picking the movie.” 

Lovely rests their palms on his chest, “No, you’re not.” 

“Yes, I am.”

There’s a brief moment of silence as the two simply breathe, gazing into the other’s eyes. Until—

“Rock, paper, scissors?” They say in unison, grinning at each other

And ultimately, Lovely wins. This is entirely due to the fact that Vincent—in all the years they’ve known him—has never not picked paper. And contrary to the fact that Vincent thinks he’s slick, Lovely knows this is on purpose because they always pick scissors. But maybe they are no better, because they pretend not to notice only so they get to see the little not-so-hidden smile on his face whenever they rejoice over winning. 

So here they lay, watching a movie Lovely has wanted to see for a while. The same movie they’re pretty sure Vincent has given a one-star review on IMDb. But the love of their life lays next to them, looking perfectly fine with it simply because they were right next to him. Even if he spends more time watching Lovely than the movie itself. 

Once the credits roll and Lovely sets up the speaker to play their shared playlist, they both sit facing each other, ready to exchange presents. 

“Can I go first?” Lovely asks, the gift they have for him sitting on their lap. 

“Of course.” Vincent nods and sets what he has for them to the side. 

They smile, depositing the thing onto their boyfriend’s lap, “There’s the actual gift and I wrote you a letter, so open that first. The gift isn’t extravagant or anything since you said I wasn’t allowed to spend a lot of money this year so-”

Vincent snorts, picking up the envelope, “Yeah, ‘cause you rented out a mansion for my birthday.”

“Yeah, well- you got me a car for mine and you don’t have a spending cap.” Lovely sputters. 

“And you got me a new Macbook unprompted not even two months ago? And new headphones?”

“Okay, we get it.” Lovely rolls their eyes pettily, “Open the damn letter.”

Vincent laughs lightly and complies, carefully tearing the seal of the envelope off, “You and your impulsive spending habits.”

He pulls out and unfolds the— now that they’re looking at it— quite lengthy handwritten letter, immediately starting to read it. And it is at this exact moment that Lovely realizes the humiliation that comes from watching someone read what you’ve written for them. And although it was intended for him, having Vincent read an intimate expression of their love for him for the first time in front of them is mortifying. 

In complete honesty, there is nothing in the letter that he doesn’t already know, because the two are incredibly transparent in their feelings towards each other. But it’s an entirely different thing for Lovely to write out how they feel when they and Vincent have both resorted to using actions rather than words for the majority of their relationship. 

Still, they’ve since come to accept the discomfort they would have to go through in order for Vincent to have a written representation of their feelings for him. 

Lovely’s not the best writer in the world, they loathe to put words on a page because they’ve long since accepted that they’re no good at it. There are probably spelling and grammar mistakes, their sentences go on for far too long, and they definitely didn’t write anything good enough to even begin to describe the way their heart tries to crawl out of their chest whenever he smiles at them. They’ve written and re-written the letter so many times they could probably recite it by heart at this point, which means they’re acutely aware of the poor writing and every mistake. But he deserves the effort, even if it’s shit. 

And that’s why they willingly sat through the pain of finding the words and the cramps in their hand from holding their pen too tightly. And why they willingly sit through the disquiet of watching Vincent’s eyes move across the page they’d all but bled into. 

Lovely is pulled out of their thoughts at the choked cry they hear coming from their boyfriend. Allowing themself to come back into the present moment despite not realizing they had zoned out in the first place, they let out a bemused laugh. 

“It’s not that bad, is it?” They tease slightly, brushing their palm across Vincent’s knee. 

He barely acknowledges them or the tears that hurry down his face. Sniffling, he ignores them in favour of finishing the letter. Lovely doesn’t take offence, continuing to run their hand up and down his thigh while they wait for him. 

Once Vincent does finish reading, he doesn’t waste time and he pulls Lovely into a hug. Lovely allows themself to be pulled, settling in his lap and wrapping their arms around his neck as he cries near-silently into their neck. 

“It was beautiful, Lovely.” He whispers against their skin, voice wet, “I love you so much…”

They laugh, rubbing his shoulder blade affectionately, “I love you too. I’m glad you like it, I worked on it for a while.”

He grumbles more barely audible and tear-soaked praises, holding them tighter. The two remain in that position for a moment until Lovely pushes Vincent back far enough to cup his cheeks. 

“Hey, crybaby.” They whisper. 

Vincent blinks the tears from his eyes, “Hi.”

“You’re a hypocrite, hm?” Lovely says as they wipe his tears, “Don’t cry, okay? I don’t like it when you cry.”

Vincent is silent for a moment before he gives a small grin, “Even when I’m happy?”

Lovely presses a kiss to the tip of his nose, “Even when you’re happy.”

Vincent leans back in to kiss them back on the lips, a soft peck. 

They grin and lift themself off his lap, “Okay, open the actual present now.”

He nods and picks up his gift, obviously, some kind of fabric that was wrapped in pink heart-patterned paper.

“Whatever could it be?” He quips dryly, and Lovely scoffs. He unwraps it just as gently as he did the envelope and pulls out two matching couple’s hoodies in red and white of high quality out of the wrapping paper, the red one having Lovely’s initials on the sleeve and the white one having Vincent’s. He laughs, “Aw, these are cute. The red one’s mine, right?”

Lovely nods with a smile, “Of course, it’s your favourite colour. It’s also in your size.”

“Gotta make sure, you know?” Vincent leans over to kiss them again, “Thank you, baby.”

They kiss him back, smile widening, “You’re welcome. I had to add to the ever-growing collection of matching outfits we have.” 

Vincent chuckles and thanks them once more with another kiss. 

“Okay, your turn!” He says after pulling back, turning to get Lovely’s gift, “Mine is also pretty simple but I’m fairly certain you’ll like it.”

Lovely takes the small box from him, “I’ll love whatever you got me, Vince, I always do. This setup was already enough.”

Vincent takes their hand and kisses their knuckles, “You deserve the best, which is why you have me.” He ends with a goofy grin.

Lovely shakes their head at him and they begin to peel away the red wrapping paper from the little box, quickly revealing a Pandora necklace box and they immediately smile adoringly, “Vince… have you been stalking my wishlist?”

“Depends.” Vincent shrugs, grinning again, “Triple Stone Heart Collier in silver?”

They laugh, “You’re so sweet. It’s perfect, thank you so much. I love you.”

“You’re perfect. I love you too.”

Lovely giggles and practically throws themself at him. They knock the wind out of him as he falls back onto the comforter, laughing with them. Vincent wraps his arms around their torso and kisses their temple once Lovely shifts slightly to rest their head on his chest. 

“Every Valentine’s Day with you is better than the last.” They say softly, “I’m glad I get to spend forever with you.”

Vincent’s breath hitches at the sudden confession but he recovers quickly, “I’m glad I get to spend forever with you too, Lovely. I’m so incredibly lucky to have you in my life now and for every Valentine’s Day to come.”

Lovely lifts their head off his chest to kiss him again, the two getting lost in the heaven that is the other’s lips. 

They break apart more than a minute later and Lovely goes back to laying their head on Vincent’s chest, both relishing in the comfortable silence as they hold each other under the stars. 

After a moment, Vincent speaks again, kind of absentmindedly, as he observes the night sky above him, “Hey, it’s Ursa Major.”

Lovely merely hums in mild interest, “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Did you know that it’s one of the biggest constellations in the sky? And also one of the most well-known, but that’s mostly because of the big dipper, which is right… there.” One of his hands unwraps from Lovely to point up to where the constellation supposedly is. 

Lovely lazily tries to sit up from their position on top of him to see what he's pointing at. They are almost immediately stopped by Vincent’s other hand returning to their body, stopping them from moving, “Hey, where are you going?” 

They could have broken out of his hold if they wanted to, but they don’t struggle. They huff, “Trying to see what you’re talking about, silly.”

Vincent kisses their cheek, “I’ll describe it to you, you just relax.” 

“Fine.” Lovely makes a noise that’s akin to approval when he starts rubbing their back.

“Anyways, what was I saying?” Vincent continues, ”Oh yeah. There’s so much more to Ursa Major. Like how, in Greek mythology, it’s associated with the story of Callisto and Zeus because…”

As Vincent spins himself into a tangent about the stars and the stories associated with them, Lovely can’t find it in themself to pay too much attention to the actual words he’s saying. They can only really focus on the rumble of his chest as he speaks and his touch. Which is fine, Vincent was the one to say that he enjoys talking them to sleep. That is, after teasing them for finding his voice relaxing. But that’s fine too, because it’s him.    

Vampires don’t need to sleep, not really, but Lovely figures that Vincent has once again changed how their body is meant to function because they can’t quite help the way their eyes droop in abrupt exhaustion. Maybe it has something to do with the claim that being with someone you love makes it easier to fall asleep. Lovely was never one to believe things like that before Vincent, but maybe there was some truth to it when just leaning against him always had them yawning. 

Or maybe it’s as simple as this; as long as there is blood in their veins, no matter whose, he will always be loved by them. He is theirs until the end of time.

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vincent and lovely are like kuroken to me- *gets shot*

having conflicting headcanons is so hard because yes, i think vincent lets lovely win rock paper scissors every time. but also yes, i think they’re literally the same person so they pick the same options each time and it goes on forever. what's a girl to do ykw?

fun fact, there are a lot of my headcanons in this but without the explanations on why i have them just because i didn’t know how to incorporate them seamlessly. for example and most importantly, vincent and lovely both hate strawberries, so they have chocolate-covered pretzels instead! it's their favourite shared snack