The Gamer Chapter 1441 – Proposal Finale – In the Name of Love [Rave POV] (Patreon)

Rave loved his eyes.

She didn’t use to. She didn’t know when that had shifted. Early on, his eyes had been amusing. He’d been so obviously starved for any girl giving him the time of day, teasing him had been as easy as showing her midriff. So when had that changed? It wasn’t when she started to love him. When had he lost that boyish, adorable awkwardness and exchanged it for the manly, lovable confidence?

Those pools of hazel, the most outstanding point of his face. Attractive, if plain, were the features around them. Despite their common colour, they were anything but plain. As he focused on her with his gaze, Rave shivered in the heat of the day.

He took a step and the lights switched on. In the fading daylight, the technicolour display of dozens of lamps and spotlights was muted. Sun and electricity competed for who could illuminate the twilight more, and with every second passing, the low hanging daystar ceded ground.

Rave loved his lips.

She didn’t use to. She didn’t know when that had shifted. Early on, his lips had often formed stutters. He’d been so obviously unused to talking that he stumbled over his words. That wasn’t the complete picture though. The first time they had talked, he had been confident. It was his strategy that saved their life against that Wall Shadow. How odd it had been to see the same smart guy become shy and reluctant once the danger had passed. When had he lost that stammer and become all of the leader she saw before her today?

They were nothing special. Pinkish lips, a bit on the tanned side, of no particularly intense colour nor interesting shape. Physically there may have been nothing all that great about them, but they were part of him, and that made all the difference. Every ‘I love you’ and every warmth-inducing word that she cared most about came from those lips.

John bridged the distance between them. He almost seemed to hover, so fluid were his motions, so certain his steps. Rave was completely entranced by it. Gaze transfixed by his face, she could only stare until he was right in front of her.

Rave loved his hands.

She didn’t use to. She didn’t know when that had shifted. Early on, his hands had been weak, feeble even. He’d been pale and thin and his untrained heart had left his hand trembling whenever he did something out of his comfort zone. Which had been almost everything. Compared to her, he remained weak, but he was neither frail nor thin. Gradually he had changed. Swiftly early on. More and more without her really thinking about it.

A hand touched the side of her face and she leaned into the touch. ‘Like a cat,’ she thought amusedly about herself, while nuzzling into his palm. The resistance he offered was firm – satisfying. He gently nudged her and she rose onto her toes.

The eyes that beheld her, the lips that sought her, the hand that urged her, she loved all of them. She didn’t know just when he had become this. She knew when she had fallen in love. It was a foolish little thing, perhaps a bit too easy. All she needed was for him to listen when she presented her woes and for him to present her with danger they could survive together. Perhaps she, too, had been starved for attention. Just a different kind.

It didn’t really matter when she had fallen so deeply and completely. Rave dismissed that wonder. To reach down to the bottom of each thought was just too much work when the present was so wonderful and warm. Her lips tingled. Her arms slung around his neck. Their tongues curled, delivering playful little jabs. He smelled of smoke and vanilla, and all the good things in her life.

He broke the kiss long before she was ready.

Another point that left her confused. That serious expression on his face had been the start. No, the avoiding answers as for why he had insisted on inviting her parents had been the start. No, that stammer a week ago had been the start. Everything had been kind of weird this past week. For some confusing reason, she could never quite crack why. No one else seemed to acknowledge it either.

“Jane,” John said in a deep voice that made her shiver.

She did remember when she had fallen in love with his voice. It had been after they had reunited in Germany, when his rising Charisma had changed his vocal cords. A little bit of nudging, and he trained himself to regularly use his baritone. Since then, listening to him had become her favourite pastime.

“Hm?” she remembered to hum, to indicate she was listening. She tilted her head softly. When he softly pried her arms open, she pouted. “No cuddles?” she asked with big eyes. In those dreamy hazel eyes, the guilt rose swiftly and then the impossible happened. He took a step back, and did not give her what she thought she wanted.

Instead, he dropped to one knee.

And immediately her eyes went wide.

Rave covered her open mouth with both hands as an euphoria indescribable rushed through her. It was just barely contained by the slightest sliver that this may have been a joke. ‘No, no, my tiger wouldn’t joke about this,’ she realized. ‘Not here, not like this, not with that face.’

“Jane ‘Rave’ Hollmey,” he said, his voice even despite the nervousness that was obviously under the surface. “We’ve been through too much together in too short a time to put it all into words.” She shifted her weight left to right. It bordered on jumping from one foot onto the other and back again. “You’ve… saved me from so much more than loneliness and… I think this is only the beginning of repaying you?”

“What are you saying, ya idiot?” Rave squeaked out behind her raised hands. There was a lot to be added to that, a lot that needed to be said. That, however, was all she could put together, before her mind melted into her heart.

Because he smiled. He smiled with trembling lips and rapidly blinking eyes. “I don’t know. I wasn’t able to prepare any speech for this that felt adequate,” he confessed with a choked laugh. “Maybe… maybe like this?” He took a deep breath. “If you told me this was only gonna hurt, if you warned me that the fire’s gonna burn, I would walk in, I would let you lead the way, do it all in the name of love.”

The lyrics registered quickly; in her mind and where all thoughts failed, music still found its way. “Would you let me lead you even when… you’re blind?” she responded, singing where he had only spoken. The notes were crooked, distorted by the weight in her chest and the clump in her throat. “In the darkness, in the middle of the night. In the silence, when there’s no one by your side, would you call in the name of love?”

His response changed the lyrics again, moved them from questions to answers, “With you, I would bathe in all the light. I would rise up and come meet you in the sky. I would trust you, when we’re jumping from the heights. I have fallen completely in love.”

“When there’s madness, when there’s poison in your head,” Rave continued the final segment of the song. Her voice was almost steady. “When the sadness leaves you broken in your bed. I will hold you, in the depths of your despair, and it is all in the name of love.”

“You bring me back to life, Jane,” John said in his final moments as her boyfriend. Raising and turning his left hand, he revealed a little box of polished birch. For the first time, her eyes wandered off his face. Gently, he lifted the lid. Rave had to blink rapidly to see what was inside.

In a cushion of red velvet rested what she had coveted for so long. A ring of pure Mithril was the base, silver-white and flawlessly crafted. A thin rim of the metal enveloped a band of Fusionals. The elemental colours within, usually so fragmented, were blended into a stream that matched the technicolour lights around them in their brightness. They streamed on endlessly, circling in an ever-shifting balance around the surface of the ring. All bright colours were present, yet blue and pink dominated. One encapsulated the other, like the blue of her eyes did with the pink lustre around her pupils.

It was simple and smooth in its design. Elegant, without anything sticking out.

It was perfect.

“Will you marry m-“

“Yes!” Rave shouted. With all the bravery she could muster, she clenched her jaw. Eldritch horrors, Raid bosses, otherworldly tyrants, none of those fights had been half the challenge of standing still while he slipped the ring over her finger.

It fit perfectly.

Rave could not hold on any longer. She dropped. She tackled. She sniffed. She blinked. She gazed. She blinked. She sat. She found his face through the blurry curtain. She tasted the salt on his lips. She hugged. She cried. She kissed. She loved. She felt the ring on her finger, warm and snuggly touching the skin.

Then she noted the applause. The whistles, the clapping, the congratulations. A loud pop made her pull back from her tiger and she sat up, looking around in a haze. Her heart was beating and champagne flowed. Hands landed on her waist. Firm hands, wonderful hands, ‘the hands of my fiancé,’ she realized.

She wiped the tears from her eyes. Trembling, rhythmic breaths filled her. She tried to calm and looked down at her John. At her fiancé’s brown eyes. At her fiancé’s lips. “I really don’t deserve you,” he said.

“Shut up, you idiot!” Rave stated and bowed back down. Hands framed his attractive face and then she tasted him all over again. They shared everything. Their warmth, their love, their air, their tears. Until, finally, she had enough of his lips and parted from him on her terms. “Ya do deserve me,” she whispered, laying on him. “You do deserve me… I’ve decided that… you’re way beyond ‘good enough’ for me.”

‘Ba-dum, ba-dum,’ his heart drummed under her ear. The sweetest beat that she had ever heard.

“Jane?” the voice of a fellow haremette pulled her back to reality. She turned her head slowly, a dreamy smile on her face. She found Aclysia kneeling next to them, two glasses of champagne in her hands. “We would like to toast to this wonderful occasion.”

“Yeaaaah.” Rave giggled after the word left her mouth. “Sorry, I’m just aaaall blissed out at the moment. Imma get m-a-r-r-i-e-d, married.” She played with the ring around her finger, turned it around.

“We all share your joy,” Aclysia assured with a broad grin, so atypical on the diligent woman’s face.

‘Of course ya would,’ Rave thought and winked. The maid understood and winked back. ‘Aaaah, secrets, ya gotta love’em.’ With one more kiss, the Gamer’s fiancé stood up and then helped him to his feet. “Ya best stay used to me knocking you off your feet.”

“Of course, I will,” John responded with dreamy certainty. She snorted while looking at him. “What?”

“It’s just that ya look like ya just went to heaven.”

“I did. All of my angels are here.”

Rave had just taken the champagne glass from Aclysia when he said that. The loud laughter that followed sent some of the sparkly alcohol over the rim of the glass. It ran down the back of her hand, until she licked it off with all of the elegance of a cat.

She looked around the room. To her parents. To her dad, who blew his nose into a thoroughly soaked handkerchief. To her mom, who made the effort to smile and nod. She cared about that little gesture. She cared so deeply and she loathed and adored that she was back in her life.

No complicated emotions were had when her eyes drifted onwards. Benjamin and Brenda were arm in arm, looking as proud as parents could look. They gave Rave a deep and thankful nod. ‘As if their son wouldn’t catch someone as awesome as me.’

The evidence of that thought was all around. Aclysia and Eliana stood close, both invested in this even more so than the rest of them. They had a happy sway to every movement, almost rivalling her own. To say that Rave felt like she was wrapped in cotton candy would have been an understatement.

Nathalia. Oh, Nathalia, how much their relationship had changed. From being on her meal plan to being two lovestruck women in a harem together. Now the dragoness bared her teeth only because she smiled so endearingly.

Gnome was all blushes, like usual, the adorable thing. It made Rave want to strut over and pinch her little cheeks. Actually, she did exactly that. ‘If everyone’s waiting for me, might as well have some fun!’ she thought.

“Uwuwuh…?” Gnome babbled adorably, when the first of the harem rolled her soft cheeks under her fingers.

Rave moved on before the cuddle rock could recover. An enthusiastic hug brought her in close to Salamander. “Love you, you weirdo,” the buzzcut said to her, before letting her go.

After Salamander, the hug with Undine felt cold. The touch of her lips was anything but. The goth slime brushed Rave’s hair back and delivered a kiss to her forehead. There were no words, her eyes said everything, as calm as the Caribbean Sea on a warm day.

Sylph babbled so much, Rave couldn’t even listen. Congratulations over congratulations were stopped only because she ruffled the airhead’s hair. Then it was just laughter and grins, as if Rave’s good mood had jumped over to the elemental.

“Ya little minx!” Rave shouted when she caught Momo. “That’s why ya shoved me into the pool!”

“I did what I had to!” Momo defended herself, taking three steps backwards. Desperation in her eyes, she hit the house wall. A merciless tickling was forced upon her, only stopping when the fae maid was at the verge of crying.

“That’s what ya get!” Victorious, Rave stepped away and up to Lydia. “Guess you’re next then,” she whispered to the queen, who hummed knowingly.

“If that was all there was to it.” She smiled and shot their ever attentive man an enigmatic glance. “Finish your round, Jane, I wish to toast to you.”

Rave stepped away with a twirl and grabbed Nia in passing. However odd that must have looked to John’s parents, she danced three long rounds with the pariah, before letting her go. A rare laughter filled the air.

At the end of the last dancing step, she was caught in a hungry kiss. Siena’s tongue wrestled with her own. Back and forth the match went, with no victor in taste, until the shadow spirit suddenly relented. “It is your night,” she whispered.

“It’s always been your night,” Metra added and smacked the feline Lightbearer on the butt. “Been a nerve wracking experience to keep this secret, you know?”

Scandalized (not really) Rave just shook her head and walked away. Scarlett stood, arms crossed, and followed the movements of the first of the harem. “Ya got anything to say to me?”

“Nothing specific,” Scarlett informed her. “…You’re glowing though.”

Rave nodded abruptly. She could feel it all over. A little more joy and she may start actually glowing. ‘Or I’ll explode, who knows? I’d die happy though.’

“My congratulations,” Beatrice said, short and warmly. That was as much as could be expected of the passive maid. The smile was already more emotion than she expressed on most days. Broad and bright.

“It’s been my honour to witness today, Sister,” Lorelei said, the moment Rave’s joyful march brought her over. “No, it’s my purest privilege to still be here.”

“You’ll be here for all of it, Rel,” Rave assured. “I’ll never let ya go. Same goes for you!” She pointed at the gamer girl. Lee blushed at the mere pointer. “Ya harem invading adorable harlot.”

“I-I just wanted to- Why do you bring this up now?!” Lee cried, getting progressively redder.

“Because I love ya! Mwah!” A kiss was sent flying and Lee barely remembered to catch it. “Good girl, put that away for later.”

Nightingale bowed her head in respect. The disguised harpy was getting more gorgeous with each bit of sun that hid behind the horizon. “I’ll remain equally grateful to be accepted into your harem,” she whispered.

“Ya just keep being awesome,” Rave hummed.

“Am I awesome?” Delicia asked, as if she already knew the answer.

“You’re a smug brat – but I’ll forgive ya if ya make me some awesome stuff for the wedding.”

“Deal!” Delicia declared.

Last and by no means least, Hailey greeted Rave with open arms. “Ain’t it a rollercoaster of shattered expectations and kept traditions ‘round ‘ere?” she drawled. John was utterly in love with her voice and Rave got why, even if she didn’t feel quite as strong about it. “One day harem, next day proposal.”

“Ya know how it is, never expect anything normal with us,” Rave laughed and squeezed the curvy country gal. After she let go, she took a step back so she had everyone in her field of view. All of these smiling, wonderful people, even her mother, looking at her and only her.

‘Congratulations,’ the voice of Copernicus rang in her mind. There was so much seriousness in that one word. She would have cuddled the kitty silly if he had been there physically.

With the ring sparkling on the fourth finger of her left hand, she raised the glass. Everyone followed the motion. The sweetness and joy impregnated the air, leaving her warmer than she had been all throughout the pleasant day.

“To us, ya gorgeous gals, and to me, and to my tiger!”

And so she was girlfriend no more.