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Laurel was feeling a bit flustered. Should she try to do something with her hair? But that might make her late, and then she'd have to rush and it would ruin whatever she might have done to her hair. She should at least run a brush through it though, make sure it was neat. Were her clothes okay? They felt a little plain, but it was just a picnic. No need for anything fancy that might get a grass stain, not that she owned anything fancy anyway.

"I'm being silly," Laurel announced to her mirror. She knew why she was so jittery. It didn't have anything to do with Flax and the fact that they were now boyfriend and girlfriend. Well, okay, maybe just a little. She was bad at reading people, as evidenced by now much she had missed in Flax's behavior towards her, and she didn't want to mess things up somehow. But that worry was only in a tiny part of her mind that she could easily dismiss. She and Flax had been friends for a while now, and if problems cropped up she was sure they could handle them. Surely being a couple didn't suddenly mean they couldn't get along as they always had.

Nope, what made Laurel nervous was a tiny little thing, resting in her pocket, that felt like it weighed a ton. She was starting to get an idea of how Flax had felt when he asked Laurel out!

Laurel took a deep breath, gave the mirror one last glance, then hurried out of her room. At least the weather looked nice, and that cold she'd had at the beginning of the week was more or less gone. Some sunlight would do her good, and the breeze felt nice. As soon as she spotted Flax sitting on the bench a smile lit up her face and she picked her pace up a bit. "Flax," she called out, waving a giant paw in greeting. She slowed as she neared the bench and plunked down next to the Nixie, leaning slightly against his shoulder in greeting. "Sorry I made you wait."

"Couldn't have been better," Laurel enthused. "That cold was short-lived, and it's gone completely, plus I passed the math and history quizzes yesterday. I got to go to bed happy, then wake up knowing we have the whole day off to spend time together!"

She fidgeted a little in place, wondering if now would be a good time. She had no real flair for romance since she was the type to just go full tilt towards whatever she was aiming at. She probably could have waited for a more strategic moment, but then she'd spend the rest of the day until then fretting, which would probably worry Flax. He was as quick at picking up emotions as Laurel was slow. There was no point in fretting herself to pieces and making Flax worry when they could be spending their time enjoying each other's company!

"I, ah, I got you something. At Hunter's Jubilee. Besides the plushie," she clarified. She'd given that to Flax the same day, but she'd held back the other token she'd gotten for him. Looking back on it she probably should have given it to Flax then, but she'd been worried he might upset him some how by having gone down to the festival without him and didn't want to flood him with gifts and make him feel bad. Since that worry was still there, she probably would have done better to have heaped everything on him all at once.

From out of her pocket Laurel pulled out a small, purple, heart-decorated ring. She blushed a bright crimson as she offered it to Flax. "I have the necklace you gave me, but I never got you anything. I thought you might not like to wear pink all the time, so I picked purple cause it's kind of close to the color of my fur." She had to fight to keep from fidgeting in place. What if it was too corny or common of a gift? They'd been handing them out all over the place, after all, but Laurel hadn't really thought of that at the time. Oh, but what if Flax didn't like it, but pretended to like it so he wouldn't hurt her feelings. Laurel's ears flattened a little on her head and she wished she'd thought things through better beforehand, instead of them all rushing to her now when it was too late to back out.

Laurel blushed a brilliant crimson, which only deepened when Flax kissed her, but it was a blush of pleasure. She was so glad he liked the gift! In a way that cold had been a blessing, since keeping track of her health had helped to distract her from worrying if Fla would like the ring or not and how to go about presenting it. She grinned broadly, features full of relief and happiness as she stood and moved over to the tree with Flax, giving his hand a soft squeeze and running her thumb over the back of his knuckles. "I'm really glad you liked the ring!"

As they reached the tree Laurel took a deep breath, savoring the scents on the soft breeze. It still smelled like winter, but there were the hints of warmth and growth to come. She turned at Flax's request for help and carefully took a corner of the blanket. "Got it," she said, letting it spill out and unfold while she kept hold of her corner, bending down to grab a second corner once the blanket was more open and spreading it out over the grass.

One of the nice things about this spot was there were no inconvenient stones to torment would-be loungers, so they didn't have to worry about that. To keep a stray breeze from carrying off the blanket before they could set up though, Laurel settled on the most likely corner to take off and stretched her legs in front of her to pin down a second corner. Once Flax and the basket joined her, there should be plenty of weight to keep the blanket in place.

"So how was your morning," Laurel asked, eyes following Flax as he set up.

"Ham and turkey, though if I had too pick one I would say I like ham a little bit better," Laurel promptly replied. "You could have just asked," she added with a little giggle, "though I like peanut butter and jelly too. Oh, I like pretty much all kinds of jam, but grape's my favorite flavor." She picked up the sandwich daintily and admired the shape for a moment then took a bite. The fruit helped to wash the peanut butter down slightly, while a sip of lemonaid was able to vanish it entirely. She ate her food in this pattern, occasionally pausing to eat a carrot with some of the dip.

"It's all super tasty," Laurel declared. It might have been simple fair to most, but Laurel saw all the care Flax had put into the meal and that just made it all the better to her.

"What do you want to do when we're done with the meal," Laurel asked after another bite of her sandwich. "Not that I'm in any hurry to move. We could even do some cloud-watching if you'd like. There's some nice places to go walking as well if we feel like moving around a bit. We could probably even wander around town and check out some of the shops since there's no classes today. Also great job with the math test! I knew you could do it," she added, beaming proudly. She had been more than happy to help Flax study after he flunked it the first time, and she'd been quite confident he'd do well on the retake.

"Sure," Laurel agreed. She had mostly finished her food, sandwich and fruit gone and the last few carrots quickly vanishing as well. She was sipping slowly on her lemonade, and was feeling very contentedly lazy as her food settled. "It'll give us a chance to relax after eating, though we should be careful not to fall asleep what with the nice weather and all," she added with a laugh. It was always a real possibility; even though she didn't feel tired right now, one's body usually couldn't help drifting off when the stomach was full and the weather was pleasant.

In response to Flax taking his hand away from her ankle Lauel extended her leg so that it was pressed lightly against his side, the other still crossed beneath her. It was a casual touch, but her grin said she was just as happy to have the contact as he was. "Whenever you're done we can move the blanket. The tree is nice for eating under, but not so nice for cloud watching under."

Laurel accepted Flax's hand, ever mindful of her claws, and pulled herself to her feet with his assistance, giving him a bright smile of thanks. She picked up the basket so that Flax could get the blanket, though since they weren't going very far she placed it by the base of the tree where it would be out of the way.

"That was an awesome lunch, thanks," she said, leaning over to give Flax a peck on the cheek before helping him with moving the blanket. It was much easier to spread to two people, even if the breeze today was pretty light. She settled down, already admiring the much more open view of the sky, and patted the spot next to her in invitation for Flax to sit close before she flopped down on her back, silvery curls going in multiple directions. "I used to cloud watch a lot when I was a freshling, but it's like when you get older the less you think about that kind of stuff," she commented, wondering when the last time she had cloud-watched was. Not for a while.

Laurel giggled. "I was going to say fluffy," she said. She didn't have anything on Imps and since she didn't have a ruff she wasn't quite as fluffy as a Grimm could be, but she still had plenty of fur. She didn't have Flax's way with words, so she wasn't sure how to compare him to a cloud. He wasn't fluffy, nor was he blue or white. She certainly thought he was good-looking, though she couldn't spot any clouds she could call handsome. After all, if she was going to compare him to a cloud she wanted to make sure it was the right cloud.

That train of thought took her to qualities about the skies, and weather in general. "Do you think Skyfish ever swim in clouds," she wondered aloud. She was sure they could get up that high, but would they ever do so? Was it too cold up there for them, or would the lack of prey be a deterrent? She was sure there was lots of space and very few predators to worry about, but honestly she'd never thought about it until now.