Work Text:
Usually when you’ve been dating someone for a while, you don’t get excited about going out with them. But when your partner has been away on a business trip for a while and comes back in time for your date night, you get a little excited. Especially since Reiner was told that Bert had a surprise.
Bert had been away on a trip to Spain for nearly two weeks and was now finally coming home later that afternoon. Reiner had been sitting at his desk, going through his students papers when he got a text telling him that Bert was on a plane back and for him to get ready to go out.
There was not so much of a hint of where they were going to and all he was told was to dress nicely but nothing fancy or anything. Immediately Reiner thought they were heading to their favourite restaurant since it was just a local family run restaurant.
It didn’t matter where they were going, Reiner was just happy to see him again and spend a little time together. Even though Bert was a higher up in a business company, he didn’t leave the country all that often so this was rare for him. Both of their jobs were long hours but both of them did all they could to get home and at least have dinner together.
Sometimes that couldn’t happen which was why they had these dedicated nights once a month for just the two of them. They hadn’t missed it once and even though Bert had been out of the country, date night was still on.
Reiner nearly ran out of his office when he got the message which was the fastest he had moved in quite a while. No one stopped him since they were well aware that Reiner’s partner was out of the country. They were just glad he was coming home so they didn’t need to deal with the sad break room chats while Reiner ate his feelings.
Reiner drove home quickly while trying not to break any traffic laws and went into his house to get ready. He changed out of his outfit that he wore to school and changed into something more comfortable. As he was pulling his clothes on, he knew he was going to have to size up his clothes soon. That wasn’t a massive concern though as he adjusted his shirt and walked to the living room to wait for Bert to get home.
Sitting on the couch, twiddling his thumbs made him really feel like a highschooler waiting for his date to pick him up for prom and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Bert had texted him about an hour ago, so he should be home any second now. Reiner bit his lip and kept looking at his phone when he heard a car roll up outside the house. He sprung up and looked outside the window to check if that was Bert. The car was waiting outside of their house but it wasn’t the car that Bert had taken to the airport.
Reiner frowned but walked out of the house, locking up, and moved towards the taxi that seemed to be waiting for him. “Are you here to pick me up?” He asked and looked around the street.
“Are you Reiner? Mr Hoover asked for me to pick you up. You can get in the taxi and I’ll take you to him.” The driver said and unlocked the door to let Reiner get in the back.
Even though he felt a little more anxious about this he was beginning to get more excited and texted Bert to say that he was in the taxi. “So… are you allowed to tell me where we’re going?” Reiner asked even though he felt like he wouldn’t get a proper answer.
The driver smiled. “We’re going a little further into Frankfurt.”
Reiner nodded and waited the short little drive before they passed a sign for Lohrpark which Reiner spotted and smiled. He could tell what they were going to do but he didn’t want to spoil it for himself.
The driver parked alongside the grass and unlocked the door to let Reiner get out. Reiner clambered out of the seat and looked around. He’d walked through this part sometimes when he needed a small breather.
He couldn’t spot Bert but on the ground he noticed a little trail of roses leading up the stairs of the park and he chuckled to himself. “What a sap…”
Picking up the roses one by one, he made it to the top of the stairs with a whole bouquet of roses in his hand. After walking up a couple flights of stairs he had to take a breath and continued on the trail of roses.
It led him through a short line of trees before he reached a clearing and saw Bert sitting under a weeping willow tree with a picnic blanket under it. Reiner held onto the flowers and quickly walked over to the tree that Bert was sitting under.
“Hello handsome.” He smiled and engulfed him in a hug which caught Bert off guard and he fell back onto the blanket with Reiner landing on top of him gently. “I missed you…” He stayed there for a little while before he sat up, worried that he was crushing the man below him.
Bert smiled softly and sat up as well. “I missed you too. How have you been, darling? I set up a little picnic for the two of us.” He reached over and brought out your typical picnic basket. There was already some food out on the blanket including some wine in a chiller.
Reiner kissed him and started to help him bring out some of the food. “So romantic, aren’t you?” There were little sandwiches, an assortment of fruit, a cheese board and then some sweets as well. “When did you have the time to set all of this up?”
Bert hummed and laid out some plates. “Let’s just say that I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while and I thought that this was the perfect time to have our picnic.” Bert kissed Reiner’s head and shoved a strawberry into his mouth.
Reiner took it and nipped on Bert’s fingers and he pulled away and chewed on the strawberry. “How am I going to one up you after this?” He sighed and picked up one of the sandwiches.
“I don’t know… I think I might have you beat for this.” Bert popped open the bottle of champagne and poured the two of them glasses. “That’s not a bad thing, though. Our dates don’t always have to be better than the last. All I want to do is spend some time with my lovely boyfriend after being away for 2 weeks. Is that so much to ask for?” Bert moved behind Reiner and wrapped a hand around his plush waist.
“No… that’s not too much to ask for.” He slowly leaned back against him while finishing off another sandwich. “So… anything interesting happen during your trip?” Reiner turned back to look at him.
Bert thought for a second before smiling and shaking his head. “I guess the usual mishaps with my name. I swear everyone says it differently just to bother me.” He groaned and leaned back as he remembered something. “That… Eren guy from the branch all the way in Brussels. I think he made it his mission to call me something different every single time he met me.”
Reiner sat up more and turned to look at the other man. “I wanna hear them. You must’ve heard it all before.”
Bert nodded. “Right, so there was: Bertoto, Berolt, Berty, some of the time it was just a mumble and my favourite was Berryolt.”
Reiner tried to hold in his laughter, he did but that was a new one. “Y-You’re joking right! There’s no way! Didn’t he just call you Bert?” It was a full belly laugh which had his stomach bouncing with his laughter which had Bert quickly glancing down.
“Eventually he did. But it took almost the full first week for him to even do it!” He laughed along with his cheeks getting a little flushed. “He was a nice guy. If not a little too passionate about his job and his German was a little strange.”
“It’s probably his second language. If he’s stationed in Brussels he either speaks French or Flemish.” Reiner explained while putting a strawberry into Bert’s mouth.
“That explains it. He was with someone else from the same branch and I thought they were speaking German but it was probably Flemish.” Bert mumbled while munching on the strawberry.
The two of them sat in silence for a little while taking turns feeding each other something. It was a well known fact that if you couldn’t sit with someone in a comfortable silence you didn’t know them well enough.
At some point Reiner had gotten between Bert’s legs as the taller leaned against the tree. They had almost finished the bottle of wine that had been in the basket. “Did you go shopping while you were there? I’m surprised you aren’t burned or did you spend most of your time indoors.”
Bert nodded. “Yeah, actually. Most of it was just business meetings and then we finally got to go out later at night. We went out for dinner a few times and it was pretty cheap. The food was a lot better there than here.” Bert closed his eyes as he remembered the food that he ate. “We got one day off. Last day before we left.”
“Get me anything pretty?” Reiner teased while batting his eyelashes and pouting. “I’m kidding. You know you don’t have to get me anything.”
“Actually… I did.” Bert got to his feet and walked over to the basket. “Nothing too major but It reminded me of you and I thought it was cute.”
Reiner smiled and blushed gently. “Aw… You really didn’t need to get me anything. I’ll love it no matter what.”
Bert dug around in the basket before bringing out some material. “Ironic that I found a scarf in Spain and I thought it would suit you.” He held it up and it was a woollen scarf. It had clearly been lovingly handmade with dark blue thread.
Reiner smiled and took the scarf. “It’s so soft…” He closed his eyes and brought the scarf to his face to feel it. “Thank you Bert.” He chuckled and pulled the scarf away while opening his eyes.
“And one more thing…” Bert mumbled and Reiner opened his eyes to see Bert on one knee in front of him with a ring. “Just a… small little ring.”
“Y-you…” Reiner smiled and dropped the scarf.
“Will you marry me?”
“You’re such a sap… of course I’ll marry you.” He ran to him and kissed him passionately while Bert slipped a ring on his finger. “Now I’ll never beat this…”
“Well, you can plan the wedding and I think that’ll have a good shot at beating this.”
Reiner punched his shoulder before kissing him again. “You really went the full course for this.”
“I had to. It’s what you deserve. I think we should pack up and head back home. It’s getting a little dark. I’ll call the taxi.” Bert kissed Reiner’s nose and wrapped the scarf around his neck.
“Alright I’ll start packing up, fiancé.”
“Thank you very much, fiancé.”
“Ugh that was horrible.” Reiner fake gagged. “I don’t think I’ll be calling you that.”
“Yeah I agree. That was really cringy.” He shivered and pulled out his phone. “Let’s just forget that happened and get home.”
“Yeah. Let’s just get home so I can call my mum and tell her that I’m now engaged. Annie needs to know too. I got engaged first!” Reiner cried out and ran off to finish packing up.
Bert just watched with a small smile. “I can’t believe you’re mine now.” He chuckled and got to phoning a taxi.