A Picnic Proposal

Posted on Thu Feb 26th, 2026 @ 12:01am by Survivor René Rouen & Council Member Vienna Quinn

1,528 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Winter's hope
Location: Homestead fields
Timeline: October 2nd, 2010, Afternoon

René walked with Vienna through the fields of the Homestead. He was thankful for the warm fall day. It was a great day for a picnic and he wanted everything to be perfect today. He glanced at Vienna and gave a gentle squeeze of her hand as they walked to the far corner of the property just above the stream. "You look stunning. I am glad to have a private moment to wish you happy birthday.”

“Thank you” Vienna smiled warmly. “I wanted this to be a special time with you, you have just had your birthday too and I didn’t get to do anything special for it. So this is to celebrate both our birthdays.”

René returned Vienna's smile with one of his own. One smile from her could brighten his day. A few minutes later they reached the far corner of the homestead. He released her hand and set down the picnic basket before laying out the picnic blanket. He took her hands once again and pulled her close. He gently squeezed her hands ashe gave her a light, soft kiss on her lips. "I love spending time with you." He gently brushed her cheek and slid a stray strand of hair back into place for her. "More to the point. I love you." He fought the urge to drop to one knee right then and there. He, instead, released one hand and gestured at the blanket as he still held one hand to assist her down.

Vienna could have yelled the fact that she loved René to the world. “I love you too” she smiled as she settled down onto the picnic blanket. “I could just yell it to the world, but yelling right now isn’t a good idea” she grinned playfully. “It just means the world to me to be here with you.”

René's smile broadened as he opened the picnic basket and began pulling out smaller containers of food and placing them on the blanket. "I feel the same way. I missed you during the scavenging run grandpere and I went on." He took a spoon and opened one of the containers. He had intentionally not packed plates, thinking it would be more romantic to spoon feed one another until he decided to give Vienna what he hoped would be wonderful birthday surprise gifts. He held out a spoonful of creamy potato salad, it hovering just inches from her perfect lips. "My mother's recipe. I hope you like it."

Vienna grinned as she leant slightly forward and politely ate the potato salad off of the spoon. “Mmm…” she smiled. “That’s delicious.”

René smiled. He pulled out the remaining contents of the basket and placed the items on the blanket. He noticed Vienna's curious expression as he pulled out a tape recorder and placed it on the blanket. "We agreed to go to the homecoming dance together. Since we couldn't go to that. I thought I could bring the homecoming dance to us. I figured we could dance to a few songs after we ate."

“I think that sounds lovely” Vienna nodded her eyes twinkling as she looked at him in the light. “So much has changed, I’m just glad we were together when it happened. Let’s eat and then we can enjoy our dance.”

Rene handed Vienna a spoon, expecting they would just tuck in for some potato salad. He held up the container for her to take a scoop and was pleasantly surprised.

“Mmm now it’s your turn” Vienna grinned as she spooned up some potato salad and held it out for him, but with a condition. “You want this? Then I want a kiss first.”

René faked a thoughtful expression. "A kiss for a bite? I think that's a price I am more than than willing to pay." He leaned in, kissed Vienna quickly then just as quickly took a bite from the spoon near his mouth.

Vienna grinned this was turning into a fun game. “Your turn with the spoon” she handed it over with a playful grin.

René returned Vienna's playful grin with one of his own. He held up the spoon off to the side. "The price Mademoiselle is one kiss."

“Ohh is it now?” Vienna leant in for a kiss, making it linger just a little before quickly moving to eat her spoonful.

They spent the next ten minutes trading kisses for bites of potato salad. Each kiss grew longer and deeper as their little game progressed. Finally, René held up the last spoonful of potato salad. "Last bite mon amour (my love)."

“I think I’d like that” Vienna nodded leaning in for a kiss that became a lot longer and more passionate. She finally had to come up for air, taking the last spoonful of potato salad as she did so.

The kiss had left René breathless as well. Truth be told, he hadn't wanted it to stop. It wasn't the first time either. Part of him sensed she hadn’t wanted to stop either. He finally caught his breath and he reached out and pressed the play button on the tape recorder before standing and extending a hand to Vienna. "Care to dance?"

“Dance? I err…I don’t really know how..” Vienna said somewhat embarrassed as she took his hand. “I was going to practice. Get ready for the school prom, but I didn’t get the chance.”

René smiled and shrugged. His hands slipped down to her waist and pulled her close. "That’s okay. Can't say I'm much of a dancer either. He breathed in deeply. His gaze focused on hers. He swayed slowly to the music with her. He swayed cheek to cheek with Vienna...until she made a comment.

Vienna couldn’t help but grin a wry grin as she felt something against her. “Is that something in your pocket or are you just happy to hold me so close?”

Vienna's comment brought him back to reality in that moment. He took a half step back. One hand held her left hand as his other hand dug the felt box from his pocket. "I am always happy to see you, but um...," he dropped to one knee as he brought the box up and popped the lid to reveal a diamond ring that sparkled in the sunlight. "... it's a ring. I...," words failed him for a moment as his heartbeat pounded in his chest.

Vienna stood absolutely gobsmacked and shocked. She hadn’t been expecting René to do this. “You…you’re…” her eyes twinkled with happy tears, as she looked between René and the beautiful ring he was holding.

René found his voice after a second. "Would you marry me?"

Vienna didn’t need asking twice, she practically flung herself into his arms kissing him so passionately that she pushed him down to the ground.

Fortunately, René landed on the blanket. Her response caught him off guard. Though it was an extremely pleasant response. He kissed her back with an equal, possibly even greater, passion. It was several minutes before she paused her kissing long enough to allow him to speak. He smiled up at her. "I take it you're saying yes then."

Vienna nodded. “Yes! Yes! And Yes!!”

Her verbal confirmation sent waves of euphoria through him, as did her renewed kisses. It was another several minutes before he gently pushed her back. He looked up at face and brushed her hair back. He took her hand as his other hand pulled the ring from the box. It took about three attempts before he could finally get the ring on her finger as both of them were trembling from the excitement. He reached up and brushed her hair back into place before gently rubbing her cheek. Her looked into her loving expression and knew his own expression mirrored hers. "I love you."

Vienna looked at the ring on her finger barely believing this was happening. She looked down at René, her eyes meeting his. “I love you too!” She sat for a moment simply taking it all in. “I don’t want this moment to end.”

Rene sat up once Vienna was no longer pinning him to the blanket. He wrapped his arms around her. "Neither do I, but we do need to head back soon." He gave her a grin as he gently rubbed her ring finger. "I am sure you want to tell others."

“You bet I do! I could shout this from the rooftops!” Vienna grinned. “I guess I can finally share a room with you now too.”

René extracted himself from underneath Vienna's legs. He gave a slight shiver. The temperature must've dropped a good ten degrees Celsius in the last hour. He looked up at the sky and saw a mass of rolling clouds moving in from the northeast. "Best to get back now. Looks like a storm is moving in." He took Vienna's hand as the other grabbed the blanket and picnic basket. "We'll talk to the others about room accomodations tonight." He gave a gentle tug to encourage Vienna to hurry back.

END

 

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