Healing Hearts

When The Morning Comes

A.N: Here is the proposal day! Also, there will be a fluffy epilogue! However, only the AO3 version under Russian Royalty RPF will have the wedding night scenes included.

September 20, 1921

(Louis Mountbatten's POV)

I laid on our shared bed within my quarters, thinking about everything that had transpired. So much had happened!

Two years had passed since our vacation at Nice. We courted for sometime, taking various trips around the Dominions. We visited New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore before returning to England. We ate together, traveled together, and did a great deal of merry things together.

I knew Maria loved me, and I loved her as much. I remembered the looks we shared. I remembered the chaste nights with us sleeping together. Just two young, scarred souls resting together. Still, we felt hesitant about a certain issue. Holy matrimony.

Certainly, I could not read her mind, and neither could she for mine. I felt uncertain if she was truly ready for it. But I knew that I could not wait forever, and perhaps she did as well. Before any of us would lose each other, one of us needed to take it.

I also harbored a dark blue sapphire ring forged in fine silver. And it was waiting for that special day... the twentieth of September during 1921. Our second anniversary as a courting couple... or something more.

If I were honest with myself, something screamed at me to take that final step.

I slid myself off my bed with sluggish movements, wiggling my limbs from the tangle of blankets. I stood up, glancing back at her. She stirred under the blankets, moaning softly. It was a beautiful sound. Hearing my love slowly waking to another morning was a great comfort to me.

Her light brown, silky tresses of hair crown her fair face. She was no longer a Grand Duchess of Russia, but she was now one for my heart. A Lord for his noble Lady, and a Lady meant to be with him. She held my heart, and I could not fathom a wonderful life without her.

With one glance out the window, I saw that the sun had risen higher up. Oh dear. Did we sleep far too much? Perhaps my planned special surprise for her would have to arrive later.

I began to rustle through various derelict clothes for my special suit: a black tuxedo with a tie as crimson as the Union Jack. And it rested limp in my hands, awaiting the moment. And so I wore it, along with my well contrasting rock gray pants.

Gray for a stone solid foundation underneath our relationship: integrity and trust.

Red for romantic passion.

Black for strength.

The sound of rustling bedsheets and blankets drew my attention to where she rested. My gray eyes trace a path from my polished leather shoes, over the wooden floorboards, and up the silky covers to her figure... and gray met deep blues. Her big saucer eyes seemed larger and endearing... quite adorable!

"Louis... where will we go today?"

"Somewhere rather typical for us."

Maria slowly sat up, letting the bedcovers fall from her figure. She yawned, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh... I am terribly weary... And, very famished."

"No worries, breakfast should be ready."

She leaves our now unkempt bed, heading to me. Her lace-edged nightgown covers her like some mythical nature nymph of the Greek myths of old. Truly stunning. Even as a young girl, she left me breathless.