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Good Morning, Husband

"Wake up," she whispered, as the first hints of sunlight crept through the window, beginning to warm the cool blues that the moon left behind. "Wake up. Do you know what today is?"

This was not Christmas morning, nor a date of scientific importance, nor either of their birthdays, and it was far from the date of their anniversary. On any other June 1st, Mimsy would not have felt nearly this excited, and would have treated it just like any other day. She would not have opened her eyes with a smile to greet the day before sunrise. She would not have bothered Robert if he was still sleeping next to her, because she typically tried to allow him every minute of sleep that he could manage.

But this day was important, because this was the first day of a new month - which meant that it was the day when they were granted four more days of leave to spend off-island. Even that had never been this thrilling, but there were so many things that were changing, so much that was different now, and she found more and more to look forward to.

Like today.

"Robeeert. Good morning, husband," she whispered, right next to his ear, smiling against his cheek. Both of her thin arms snaked around just one of his, strong and sturdy, and she tugged on it with all of her might (which truly wasn't very mighty at all). She fell back onto the bed next to him, having barely moved him an inch.

It became immediately clear that it was both simpler and more productive to hug him at the moment, so she did just that, chin propped up on his shoulder as she watched for him to open his eyes.

Good Morning, Husband

The indicator of consciousness that was his smile encouraged a lopsided grin of her own to meet it. She gently brushed her thumb across the corner of his lips after they left her cheek, as if it really was a test result that she was recording the specifics of.

Above satisfactory. She expected nothing less.

"Wake up," she repeated, in spite of the fact that she made no attempts to break away and get out of bed in the slightest. "Today is the first day of a new month! It is 'as soon as we get leave', as you said, which means..."

An attempt to move was finally made, but only to hold up five splayed fingers. She wiggled them a little to help emphasize her point, and possibly partially because she was far too excited to remain entirely still.

"A ring for every marriage, remember?" A short laugh slipped away into a contented sigh, and she closed her eyes as she savored her own daydream for as long as it lasted - Wonderland, cakes, constellations, trinkets, teapots. "Do you think that it will be as simple to select them as it was in Wonderland? I do hope that we can find some just as fitting, though it might be difficult without the aid of ALICE and alchemical teapots. I feel confident that you will help me to make the right selections, either way!"

Ring for Congratulations!

The path that Mimsy would have taken, had she followed through with the internship at CERN instead of opting to join Deus Ex Machina, would have very easily carried her to physics conferences worldwide. The likelihood that she would have visited Dubai at least once in her journey to discuss her discovery of the Higgs Boson was very high, considering the rapidly expanding research community there, and she could have toured facilities and accepted awards among the best in her field.

That didn't happen, of course. It was a dead dream, and there was no use dwelling on what could never be changed. Especially since she was in India now, albeit for entirely different reasons, fulfilling a dream that she was never brave enough to have.

The disadvantage here, however, was that she had no idea what she was doing now. No amount of her scientific knowledge could help her in this place. It was as if she were in a different world, an alternate universe with rules she had not yet learned, which happened to be filled with so much jewelry.

"Oh," she breathed out, awed (and somewhat disoriented) by the sight of no less than two dozen possibilities. "Should we go to all of them before making our selections? Will one suffice? What do you think would be most suitable for us? Have you imagined anything specific that you will hope to find?"

All of the questions that required any mention or suggestion that he had more experience than she did with rings remained safely in the back of her mind, securely walled off behind a refusal to consider this anything but their own.

This was different. This was better. This was something that no one had ever done before, something entirely unprecedented on a global scale, and every step would be a new victory worth congratulating.

Ring for Congratulations!

Despite her tragic lack of knowledge about Tron as a whole, the set of rings was the first purchase that they made. It was a band infused with a luminescent material named 'moonglow', the jeweler said, and while she doubted the scientific accuracy of this claim, she admittedly liked the sound of that. A blue-green glow was visible as she held the band in her palm, the ring's light defiantly bright within the competing sunlight, glowing even when it seemed that it should logically not have been.

A very solid choice for their first selection, Mimsy thought.

"Can...we wear them now? Will that be okay?" In the instant after they stepped out of the store - and it had been an absolutely arduous task to wait even that long - she hurriedly asked the pair of hopeful questions, gaze turned up towards him, a fog of quiet reverence hanging over her words.

Wearing the ring might not summon confetti or doves or wedding bells all on their own, but her hand had been feeling so noticeably bare since Wonderland. Now that she could fix it with something that mattered, something meaningful like the ring she wore before, she did little to hide her impatience.

Because if she hadn't know better, she would have suspected that the ring in her hand was as 'magical' as the one from Wonderland. Something that was spawned into existence as physical indicators of their marriage, created just for them. The embodiment of their bond made tangible, just for the sake of their happiness.

In this moment, it certainly felt like it.

Ring for Congratulations!

There was scattered applause around them as he slipped the ring onto her finger, praise from tourists and shoppers who believed that they had just witnessed a proposal. One older woman, arms laden with bags, approached them to offer her own congratulations. She paired it with the compliment that they were such a sweet couple, and pressed her hand to her chest as she went on to remark that two people who loved each other as much as they did were just such an inspiring sight.

"Thank you," Mimsy responded, calling upon the importance of the social pleasantries that she had been taught; 'I am sorry that you are lonely' or 'I regret that you feel compelled to intrude upon our life' were a bit too inflammatory to say to a stranger, even if they were the first comments to come to mind.

She admired the ring on her finger as the woman retreated to her presumably meaningless existence, her smile growing wide enough to split into a giggle.

"Congratulations, husband!" She clapped her hands together as she cheered for him, before reaching to gingerly put one hand on either side of his face. This was exhilarating. They were fooling everyone around them into believing that this moment was really as meaningful as she felt like it was, and she thought that it was fantastic in an unprecedented way.

"Let's do it again." Her voice trembled with adrenaline, as did her fingers against his cheeks, and it seemed that the only thing that was still on her whole entire body was the steady stare that never moved from his eyes.