Will you accept my proposal?
I long to tell you I love you everyday for eternity, but I do not want that love to be a burden if it is not accepted.
Yours truly, Derbie Briggs
He considered it a rough draft, hands shaking and ink stained as he stared at it. 
For the first time in a while, Derbie painfully missed his parents; he'd be grateful for them to review his letter and tell him if it was worthy or not. He did plan to have Alaric review it, but although his eldest sibling was his guardian, he lacked any experience with Courtship at all, let alone a proposal. Like Derbie, Alaric could only refer to the details vaguely reminisced about when married couples waxed on about their experiences. His own parents had been honest enough about how they'd fallen in love; after being married already. 
His parents had an arranged marriage, his father Braden was a year younger and not supposed to inherit the Countship; until his sister Alyssa Briggs accepted a proposal to marry Duke Hatsune. Since that elevated Braden to eventually be a Count, a marriage was quickly arranged to the only daughter of the Fidalgo Marquis, Elisabet Fidalgo. It made both the Hatsunes and Fidalgos his cousins, but hadn't ensured any particular familiarity between the families. Derbie had heard both parents admit the beginning of their marriage was strained, as they were literal strangers at the time and his father had only just Debuted, let alone established his role as Heir. But as time, and proximity, worked its magic they started to slowly fall in love. And then they went spelunking down into it; their passion for each other evident in the eight children they'd had in nine years. Derbie was fairly certain the only reason he didn't have even more siblings was only due to their desire to explore the world and not just each other. 
Thinking of it that way, Derbie realized his parents wouldn't have had any great input to offer on his proposal either, despite the breadth of their love for each other now. At the very start of their 온라인카지노게임, there had been no love, that had come long after the Letter of Proposal was written and a Letter of Betrothal returned. His mother had been married at 20 and his father 19, but it took almost three years before Alaric had been born; a long time to build the foundations of a life long love 온라인카지노게임. 
Maybe he was rushing his proposal to Ban, but Derbie wanted to share that experience his parents had; the gift of loving your partner more each day than you had the day before. And he was lucky enough to already be in love with Ban, so he could only imagine how rich and entwined their love 온라인카지노게임 would grow to become over a lifetime. 
Emboldened by that, Derbie picked the rough draft up and quickly headed to the office where Alaric lingered over his own documents. The Opera had ended at sunset, and the time it'd taken to escort Ban home, then come agonize over his proposal meant Derbie was knocking at midnight. And yet Alaric looked energetic and glad of the interruption. 
"Is that what I think it is?" Alaric's eyes flicked down to the scratched up letter in Derbie's ink stained fingers. 
"My pitiful attempt to convince Ban to take me as her husband," Derbie confirmed, handing it over for Alaric to review. "It's nowhere near ready yet, but this is my first attempt."
Alaric seemed to take as much seriousness to review this scribbled letter as he did any Formal document, and somehow that helped settle Derbie's nerves. It wasn't a long proposal, but his brother took a fair bit of time to read and process without giving any kind of feedback for Derbie to overreact to. He just had to sit and wait.
"This is good," Alaric finally spoke, "once you rewrite it on a clean page, I believe it'll almost be ready to send."
"Almost? What's wrong with it?' Derbie reached for his letter, as if he could spot what Alaric meant.
Alaric gave him an deeply amused look, tinged with a constantly tested patience that needed a respite, "as I said, the letter is good. But if you're going to send a proposal, it's not only the letter you want to send that's going to be expected, is it?" and although Derbie prided himself on not being dim, he didn't understand; a fact that must be visible as Alaric started to laugh at him. "You also need to pick out an engagement ring Derbie."
That was the tradition, either the Suitor proposing would buy a new ring to suit the style of the betroth, or they would send a ring selected from their family jewels. Somehow, Derbie had forgotten all about that aspect of a proposal. 
"Oh," was all he could manage to say as his brother continued to lovingly laugh at him. But now that he'd been reminded, Derbie knew exactly which option suited his needs better. "Alaric, do you think our parents would mind if I picked from the rings our family has?"
Alaric finally stopped laughing at him, a happy smile still on his handsome face, "Derbie, they'd be thrilled. In fact, mother would insist you pick from amongst her rings." That helped Derbie settle even more. 
"I'm going to propose to Lady Ban Ruma, using one of mother's rings," he managed to say it out loud without sounding unsettled at all. 
"Yes, you are," Alaric agreed. "I'm so proud of you Derbie, no matter what response you get. You told me you wanted to try and find love, and you have. And now you get to propose to the person you love, who will in all likelihood accept both your love and your proposal." His brother almost sounded wistful, and Derbie had to wonder if he had more romantic experience than initially believed. "You're a good man Derbie, and I know you'll make Lady Ban a good husband."
It felt strange to receive his brother's regard like that, not because Alaric ever withheld compliments but because for the first time Derbie noticed his brother almost envied him. "You'll find love too Alaric," Derbie didn't hesitate to assure him, "it's just that you've been so busy taking care of the rest of us that you've never gotten the chance to focus on finding your own person to love." Derbie had been giving his attention to his Courtship, but even he had noticed the strange dynamic between Alaric and Lady Aayina Ram. What he hadn't noticed was anything between Blair and Earl Wignell until they showed up at the Opera tonight. 
"I'm not worried about that at this time," Alaric waved it off, as if an unpleasant smell. "Right now I want to focus on you all, especially keeping an eye on Hida after everything she's been through."
Derbie almost snorted at Alaric; they were all worried about Hida and Farran, but he also knew Hida had been back to training in the backyard the day after she'd been stitched up. His baby sister was tougher than all of them combined, "I heard Farran joke about shearing her hair as short as Hida's so they could set a new trend, but Hida told her not to be dramatic on her behalf."
"As if that makes me less worried about them," Alaric sighed. "Thank you for being the easy sibling right now Derbie."
"I'm the easy one?" Derbie was surprised, he always assumed that would be Edwina, or maybe Gavin. 
Alaric grinned at him, looking more like his big brother again and less like the interim Count, "you are. Blair had pulled an about turn in regards to Courting, going from avoiding it at all costs to potentially being Countess Wignell at the end of the Season; all without ever discussing it with me. Calvin is easy going but I can't help but notice how he and Danilo are a bonded pair that hadn't realized its not just friendship any longer. Edwina is seeking a Master a year before she Debuts, and although I am proud of her I can't even begin to understand her talent. Farran's pen pal in Cador is a Duke with ties to his King, and I know she's tried to apply to the Exchange between our Kingdoms even though she still hasn't asked for my permission yet. Gavin and Eniola are pushing all the boundaries with their sweetheart status, and its come to light that Fabrizio climbed up the rope Gavin used to sneak out. And we all know Hida's most recent happenings."
Derbie nodded, "I am the easy one right now, and I'm trying to propose."
They laughed together, and Derbie left to rewrite his proposal while Alaric fetched mother's rings so he could pick one to send with the letter.