(no subject)
Title: Innamorati
Author: cutthroatpixie
Character(s) or Pairing(s): Romano/Fem!Spain, Romano/Spain/Fem!Spain, Romano/Fem!Romano/Spain/Fem!Spain, OC!Spamano child
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Human names (except for Romano), last section has the OC!baby
Summary: A look at six different Valentine's Days
Notes: These all take place in the Six in One verse, even though the first three are before Six in One so they haven't met Lovina yet, and the first one is before Antonia and Romano meet Antonio. They're in chronological order, ranging from 3-4 years before Six in One to 6-7 years after (last one is between Tunnel Vision and Party of Five).
It's the first Valentine's Day after Romano and Antonia have started dating and Romano honestly has no idea what to do. All the florists in Valencia have put out their best flowers for the day, hoping to get some extra business, but Romano just can't rationalise spending money on flowers when the ones Antonia and her mother grow in their yard are far better.
He considers just stealing a few out of her yard, but he did that last year, and while she'd found it adorable then, they were a couple now, he had to actually make an effort. Or something. But sweets are out too-- Antonia's left her kitchen window open and the smell of sugar and cinnamon is wafting into Romano's bedroom. Antonia's a better baker than him anyway, she doesn't need his failed attempts at cookies.
Romano would like to say he spent the rest of the day thinking really hard about what to get his girlfriend, he really would, but he wakes up hours later to Antonia waltzing into his room, daisies in one hand and a plate of cinnamon cookies in the other. He has nothing to give her in return.
"Have you been sleeping all day?" Antonia asks, setting her gifts down beside Romano's bed and making herself nice and comfy next to him.
Romano shifts and doesn't apologise when his cold feet brush against Antonia's legs. "No. I've been... preparing."
"Preparing? You haven't even brushed your hair." Antonia runs a hand through Romano's barely-there curls and from the grin on her face, he's guessing she doesn't care that what he's saying is utter bullshit. "You don't need to prepare for anything, I just want to spend the rest of the day with Roma, okay? We'll stay in here and later you can make pizza and we won't share with anyone else."
"But I still have to go get you something," he admits with a blush, avoiding Antonia's face.
"You don't need to leave to get me something."
Romano blinks and then Antonia is kissing him and he really has to make her stop hanging around with that Francine girl so much, she's turning into a pervert.
Then again, so is he, because he's pretty sure he should be giving Antonia a better present than sex and pizza, but he's 16, she's suggesting it, he's 16, and if that's the kind of gift she wants, then damnit that's what she's getting.
---
"Is this thing on? Hello? Roma, I see you! But I can't hear you, is it not working?"
Romano sighs, loudly, though Antonia obviously can't hear it, and starts typing into the message box on the webcam program they're using. Turn your volume up.
"My volume?" Romano watches as Antonia goes off screen for a moment, most likely to look at her computer's speakers, and after a soft click echoes over her microphone she's back. "Did I fix it?"
"I don't know, did you?"
"I did! Hi!"
"Hi."
"How's school going-- oh hold on! Somebody is at the door!" Before Romano can explain to Antonia that he really doesn't have time to stare at her dorm room wall while she chats with whatever friend it is, Antonia's gone, and a second familiar voice is coming over the microphone.
"--said you were sad you couldn't see Romano today, so I thought I'd come over and we could watch movies or something!"
"Ciao, bastard."
Things go quiet for a moment, and then both Antonio and Antonia are in front of the computer screen and Antonio's waving at him, his grin so wide Romano thinks it must hurt. Whatever Romano did to make the moron like him so much, he would really like to know so he can stop doing it. "Hi Romano! Long time no see, when are you going to come visit Antonia again?"
"Never," Romano grumbles. "Not if you're going to be there too."
Antonia pouts. "I thought you were coming next weekend? Since this weekend didn't work out?"
Romano rolls his eyes, resigning himself to the fact that now Antonio knows he'll be there and he'll probably have to spend some time with the other man. "I'm still coming, shut up. Did you get the chocolates I sent?" Antonia gestures over towards something and Antonio reaches off camera, holding up a box of chocolates after a moment or two. "A simple yes would have been fine too. Were you planning on staying or something, asshole?"
Antonio looks behind him, then back at the camera, then over to Antonia. Back at the camera. "Oh! You're talking to me. No no, I can leave if you're busy! You probably want some alone time with your girlfriend, yeah?"
Romano has no idea what's possessed him, though maybe it is the fact that "alone time" never really happens when they're on the webcam anyway. It's too awkward and Antonia's not even really there and... "Whatever, you can stay. Maybe Antonia's roommate will fuck off if she sees you both in here talking to me."
Maybe spending valentine's Day in front of a computer with his girlfriend and a not-quite-friend isn't ideal, especially since they're eating chocolate and he has none (mostly because of that, actually), but it sure beats hanging out with his little brother instead.
---
Romano flops out on his bed, mumbling profanities under his breath and attempting to calm himself down in vain. The downside (one of the very few, in reality, despite how much he complains) to dating two people is that sometimes those two people get all excited trying to surprise you on certain days where you've already made plans to do things, because when it was just you and one other person, you always knew which of you was making the plans.
Romano knew Antonia and Antonio meant well. He knew it wasn't a big deal to cancel his dinner reservations, especially since they'd seemed so excited about whatever it was they'd planned for him. He knew they weren't doing things without him, Antonio just got ideas into his head sometimes and didn't fully think them through, and Antonia got far too excited at the word "surprise" to think clearly about anything that came after. After the minor drama that was the three of them getting together, Romano also knows the two idiots currently pounding on his door (despite the fact that it's not locked and Antonio has a key) want things to go smoothly just as much as he does.
He swings the door open and two bodies come toppling into the room, falling all over one another when he steps aside. "You two staying on the floor all night, or are we going out?"
A chorus of I'm sorrys meet his ears and then abruptly stop when Antonio and Antonia process the fact that he's putting on his shoes and coat, as if he hadn't just been throwing only minutes prior. "I guess we're going out," Antonio says with a laugh, helping Antonia up and brushing himself off before throwing an arm around Romano's shoulders. "You can pick where, it doesn't matter."
The arm that isn't being crushed into Antonio's side is snatched up by Antonia, her bright red nails tapping softly against the skin of his forearm. "And we'll tell you next time we want to surprise you, okay?"
"...Then it wouldn't be a surprise, stupid." Apparently his girlfriend and boyfriend are incapable of walking anywhere without being attached to him, because they don't start moving until he does. "And I already cancelled my reservations, so I guess you two will just have to still give me my surprise."
Romano's no longer the one leading after that, instead he's being dragged off to the restaurant where the three of them had had their first official date, and he doesn't bother pointing out that this "surprise" had been his plan for the evening anyway.
---
Lovina doesn't know how exactly they celebrate Valentine's Day in Spain, but in Italy she and her friends had definitely never exchanged gifts. Her parents always went out, leaving her and her younger sister with a babysitter when they were younger, by themselves when they were a little older, and with instructions to, "..not stay out too late with your... friend, Lovina," when they were a little more older. An American friend of Lovina's had sent her a card and chocolates one year, which was extremely embarrassing and hard to explain to her nosy family until she realised that sending gifts on Valentine's Day to people you were not romantically involved with was normal in America.
But back to the point.
That did not explain why Antonia had shoved a box of chocolate-covered strawberries at her before rushing off to class that morning. Nor did it explain why Antonio had tucked an orange blossom behind her ear when he'd run into her between classes. She thought maybe Romano could explain their odd behaviour, but she doesn't see him until much later, when he's picking Antonia up for a date with him and Antonio. He gives her a box of bon bons and just laughs when she gives him a confused look.
"Don't eat them all, we'll bring you back something to eat!" is the last thing she hears before they leave for their date.
Lovina is seriously never going to understand those three.
---
Lovina's phone rings for the billionth time that morning and she finally decides to pick it up, her voice croaking when she answers with a half-assed, "Pronto."
"Happy Valentine's Day, Lovina!"
Right. That was today. Great. "I don' see what's so happy about it."
"Are you still sick?" Lovina hears somebody else talking in the background and since Antonia is currently in their shower, she's safe to assume it's Romano. "Roma, Lovina's still sick! What do we do?" Lovina holds the phone away from her ear while Antonio shouts his conversation at Romano. She seriously needs to have a conversation with him about phone etiquette.
Antonio's obnoxiously loud voice fades away and is soon replaced by Romano's. "Just go back to sleep, I'll tell the idiot to stop shouting over the phone."
Lovina mumbles a, "Thanks," and for once does as she's told. But only because what she's been told to do is go back to sleep, and who would want to argue with that?
She wakes up a few hours later (judging by the clock on her nightstand, anyway) to the smell of soup and the feel of a cool cloth on her forehead. She peaks an eye open and glances over to find Antonia heating up soup in their sad excuse for a microwave, Antonio messing with their TV, and Romano shoving pills in her face.
"I'm sleeping, asshole."
"No you're not. I bought you medicine, fucking take it."
Lovina glares at him but, again, does as she's told. "Worst Valentine's Day present ever," she says, gagging a little on the pills before Romano hands her a glass of water.
"We got you shit last year, stop complaining." Lovina may secretly appreciate the medicine and the soup, but she definitely does not appreciate how cold Romano's feet are when he decides to steal half her bed.
"If you don't get me anything next year, that is so not going to work again."
Lovina watches as Romano's face shifts from a normal scowl into a thoughtful scowl, and then she's scowling too when he says, "I'll make a pizza and we can all spend the rest of the day in here?" because goddamnit, she's heard that story before.
"I am not having sex with you right now," she says, shoving at his ice-cold feet with her own. "I'm not in the," sneeze, "mood, you're a pervert."
Apparently Romano hasn't heard that story before, even though he was there. "That's not what I meant, damnit! You're all gross, I don't want to have sex with you right now either."
Romano tries to escape, thoroughly embarrassed, but Antonia sneaks up behind him and shoves him back onto the bed. "Tsk tsk, Roma. Lovina's not feeling well and you're being so mean. Cuddle and make her feel better, okay?"
Lovina sneezes again and doesn't bother trying to cover it this time. "Yeah asshole, make me feel better."
Romano doesn't make her feel better. What does make her feel better, just a little, is that the next day all four of them have to stay in and skip class because her cold has quickly spread around.
---
For the second time that week, when Antonio comes into the café after work he's dragging a huge bag of cards and gifts with him. For the first time that week, however, Antonia is also close behind him with her own bag of candy, cards, and scribbled crayon drawings. Romano has no idea why they don't just leave them in the car, but he has no idea why those two do a lot of things they do.
"Antonio get those drawings off my wall." Lovina's become pretty good over the years at snapping at Antonio and Antonia before Romano has to. It's great, seeing as how sometimes he's just too lazy to do it himself.
"But Lovina, they're so cute! Look, Alba drew a picture of all of us!" Antonio holds up one of the many drawings in his bag, as if they all know who Alba is (they do, but that's beside the point). "She even got Alejandro, look look!"
Romano does look, but only because Antonio will just keep on jumping around the shop with the picture and scaring their customers until he does. The crayon drawing looks very much like a photograph Antonio keeps on his desk-- the four of them are sitting inside the coffee shop, Romano holding a sleeping Alejandro-- but in this rendition, they've all been drawn in green, red, yellow, orange, and pink, instead of flesh-coloured, and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! is written across the top in script that most likely the child's mother's and not her own.
"Hah, you're pink," Lovina says. "Hey, where'd I put--"
"He's in your sling." Antonia points at Alejandro, who is indeed sleeping soundly in his little carrier, nuzzled against Lovina's chest, and Romano laughs at the look on Lovina's face.
"...Not the baby, moron. I know where he is. Where'd I put my keys? It's my turn to go home early."
Romano pulls the keys out of his pocket and holds them up. "It's always 'your turn', but whatever."
Antonia steals the keys before Lovina can come over to get them. "Why don't we all just go home? You said it's been a really slow day, let's just close up early."
"We can't just do cl--"
"You can, silly, you own the place." Antonia gestures around at the empty café, as if to further demonstrate her point. "Let's just clean up and go out, we haven't all been out in forever."
The bell above the door chimes and a group of people come in, making a beeline toward the glass box of pastries. "Yeah you do that, Antonia." Romano steals the keys back and hands them to Lovina before going back to his place behind the cash register.
"Please, Roma? After this?"
Romano ignores Antonia's pleading and rings the customers up. Party because Antonia is really annoying, but mostly because he knows Lovina's running home to finish the surprise meal the two of them have been making all day. Antonio and Antonia aren't the only ones who can make surprise plans, after all.
Author: cutthroatpixie
Character(s) or Pairing(s): Romano/Fem!Spain, Romano/Spain/Fem!Spain, Romano/Fem!Romano/Spain/Fem!Spain, OC!Spamano child
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Human names (except for Romano), last section has the OC!baby
Summary: A look at six different Valentine's Days
Notes: These all take place in the Six in One verse, even though the first three are before Six in One so they haven't met Lovina yet, and the first one is before Antonia and Romano meet Antonio. They're in chronological order, ranging from 3-4 years before Six in One to 6-7 years after (last one is between Tunnel Vision and Party of Five).
It's the first Valentine's Day after Romano and Antonia have started dating and Romano honestly has no idea what to do. All the florists in Valencia have put out their best flowers for the day, hoping to get some extra business, but Romano just can't rationalise spending money on flowers when the ones Antonia and her mother grow in their yard are far better.
He considers just stealing a few out of her yard, but he did that last year, and while she'd found it adorable then, they were a couple now, he had to actually make an effort. Or something. But sweets are out too-- Antonia's left her kitchen window open and the smell of sugar and cinnamon is wafting into Romano's bedroom. Antonia's a better baker than him anyway, she doesn't need his failed attempts at cookies.
Romano would like to say he spent the rest of the day thinking really hard about what to get his girlfriend, he really would, but he wakes up hours later to Antonia waltzing into his room, daisies in one hand and a plate of cinnamon cookies in the other. He has nothing to give her in return.
"Have you been sleeping all day?" Antonia asks, setting her gifts down beside Romano's bed and making herself nice and comfy next to him.
Romano shifts and doesn't apologise when his cold feet brush against Antonia's legs. "No. I've been... preparing."
"Preparing? You haven't even brushed your hair." Antonia runs a hand through Romano's barely-there curls and from the grin on her face, he's guessing she doesn't care that what he's saying is utter bullshit. "You don't need to prepare for anything, I just want to spend the rest of the day with Roma, okay? We'll stay in here and later you can make pizza and we won't share with anyone else."
"But I still have to go get you something," he admits with a blush, avoiding Antonia's face.
"You don't need to leave to get me something."
Romano blinks and then Antonia is kissing him and he really has to make her stop hanging around with that Francine girl so much, she's turning into a pervert.
Then again, so is he, because he's pretty sure he should be giving Antonia a better present than sex and pizza, but he's 16, she's suggesting it, he's 16, and if that's the kind of gift she wants, then damnit that's what she's getting.
---
"Is this thing on? Hello? Roma, I see you! But I can't hear you, is it not working?"
Romano sighs, loudly, though Antonia obviously can't hear it, and starts typing into the message box on the webcam program they're using. Turn your volume up.
"My volume?" Romano watches as Antonia goes off screen for a moment, most likely to look at her computer's speakers, and after a soft click echoes over her microphone she's back. "Did I fix it?"
"I don't know, did you?"
"I did! Hi!"
"Hi."
"How's school going-- oh hold on! Somebody is at the door!" Before Romano can explain to Antonia that he really doesn't have time to stare at her dorm room wall while she chats with whatever friend it is, Antonia's gone, and a second familiar voice is coming over the microphone.
"--said you were sad you couldn't see Romano today, so I thought I'd come over and we could watch movies or something!"
"Ciao, bastard."
Things go quiet for a moment, and then both Antonio and Antonia are in front of the computer screen and Antonio's waving at him, his grin so wide Romano thinks it must hurt. Whatever Romano did to make the moron like him so much, he would really like to know so he can stop doing it. "Hi Romano! Long time no see, when are you going to come visit Antonia again?"
"Never," Romano grumbles. "Not if you're going to be there too."
Antonia pouts. "I thought you were coming next weekend? Since this weekend didn't work out?"
Romano rolls his eyes, resigning himself to the fact that now Antonio knows he'll be there and he'll probably have to spend some time with the other man. "I'm still coming, shut up. Did you get the chocolates I sent?" Antonia gestures over towards something and Antonio reaches off camera, holding up a box of chocolates after a moment or two. "A simple yes would have been fine too. Were you planning on staying or something, asshole?"
Antonio looks behind him, then back at the camera, then over to Antonia. Back at the camera. "Oh! You're talking to me. No no, I can leave if you're busy! You probably want some alone time with your girlfriend, yeah?"
Romano has no idea what's possessed him, though maybe it is the fact that "alone time" never really happens when they're on the webcam anyway. It's too awkward and Antonia's not even really there and... "Whatever, you can stay. Maybe Antonia's roommate will fuck off if she sees you both in here talking to me."
Maybe spending valentine's Day in front of a computer with his girlfriend and a not-quite-friend isn't ideal, especially since they're eating chocolate and he has none (mostly because of that, actually), but it sure beats hanging out with his little brother instead.
---
Romano flops out on his bed, mumbling profanities under his breath and attempting to calm himself down in vain. The downside (one of the very few, in reality, despite how much he complains) to dating two people is that sometimes those two people get all excited trying to surprise you on certain days where you've already made plans to do things, because when it was just you and one other person, you always knew which of you was making the plans.
Romano knew Antonia and Antonio meant well. He knew it wasn't a big deal to cancel his dinner reservations, especially since they'd seemed so excited about whatever it was they'd planned for him. He knew they weren't doing things without him, Antonio just got ideas into his head sometimes and didn't fully think them through, and Antonia got far too excited at the word "surprise" to think clearly about anything that came after. After the minor drama that was the three of them getting together, Romano also knows the two idiots currently pounding on his door (despite the fact that it's not locked and Antonio has a key) want things to go smoothly just as much as he does.
He swings the door open and two bodies come toppling into the room, falling all over one another when he steps aside. "You two staying on the floor all night, or are we going out?"
A chorus of I'm sorrys meet his ears and then abruptly stop when Antonio and Antonia process the fact that he's putting on his shoes and coat, as if he hadn't just been throwing only minutes prior. "I guess we're going out," Antonio says with a laugh, helping Antonia up and brushing himself off before throwing an arm around Romano's shoulders. "You can pick where, it doesn't matter."
The arm that isn't being crushed into Antonio's side is snatched up by Antonia, her bright red nails tapping softly against the skin of his forearm. "And we'll tell you next time we want to surprise you, okay?"
"...Then it wouldn't be a surprise, stupid." Apparently his girlfriend and boyfriend are incapable of walking anywhere without being attached to him, because they don't start moving until he does. "And I already cancelled my reservations, so I guess you two will just have to still give me my surprise."
Romano's no longer the one leading after that, instead he's being dragged off to the restaurant where the three of them had had their first official date, and he doesn't bother pointing out that this "surprise" had been his plan for the evening anyway.
---
Lovina doesn't know how exactly they celebrate Valentine's Day in Spain, but in Italy she and her friends had definitely never exchanged gifts. Her parents always went out, leaving her and her younger sister with a babysitter when they were younger, by themselves when they were a little older, and with instructions to, "..not stay out too late with your... friend, Lovina," when they were a little more older. An American friend of Lovina's had sent her a card and chocolates one year, which was extremely embarrassing and hard to explain to her nosy family until she realised that sending gifts on Valentine's Day to people you were not romantically involved with was normal in America.
But back to the point.
That did not explain why Antonia had shoved a box of chocolate-covered strawberries at her before rushing off to class that morning. Nor did it explain why Antonio had tucked an orange blossom behind her ear when he'd run into her between classes. She thought maybe Romano could explain their odd behaviour, but she doesn't see him until much later, when he's picking Antonia up for a date with him and Antonio. He gives her a box of bon bons and just laughs when she gives him a confused look.
"Don't eat them all, we'll bring you back something to eat!" is the last thing she hears before they leave for their date.
Lovina is seriously never going to understand those three.
---
Lovina's phone rings for the billionth time that morning and she finally decides to pick it up, her voice croaking when she answers with a half-assed, "Pronto."
"Happy Valentine's Day, Lovina!"
Right. That was today. Great. "I don' see what's so happy about it."
"Are you still sick?" Lovina hears somebody else talking in the background and since Antonia is currently in their shower, she's safe to assume it's Romano. "Roma, Lovina's still sick! What do we do?" Lovina holds the phone away from her ear while Antonio shouts his conversation at Romano. She seriously needs to have a conversation with him about phone etiquette.
Antonio's obnoxiously loud voice fades away and is soon replaced by Romano's. "Just go back to sleep, I'll tell the idiot to stop shouting over the phone."
Lovina mumbles a, "Thanks," and for once does as she's told. But only because what she's been told to do is go back to sleep, and who would want to argue with that?
She wakes up a few hours later (judging by the clock on her nightstand, anyway) to the smell of soup and the feel of a cool cloth on her forehead. She peaks an eye open and glances over to find Antonia heating up soup in their sad excuse for a microwave, Antonio messing with their TV, and Romano shoving pills in her face.
"I'm sleeping, asshole."
"No you're not. I bought you medicine, fucking take it."
Lovina glares at him but, again, does as she's told. "Worst Valentine's Day present ever," she says, gagging a little on the pills before Romano hands her a glass of water.
"We got you shit last year, stop complaining." Lovina may secretly appreciate the medicine and the soup, but she definitely does not appreciate how cold Romano's feet are when he decides to steal half her bed.
"If you don't get me anything next year, that is so not going to work again."
Lovina watches as Romano's face shifts from a normal scowl into a thoughtful scowl, and then she's scowling too when he says, "I'll make a pizza and we can all spend the rest of the day in here?" because goddamnit, she's heard that story before.
"I am not having sex with you right now," she says, shoving at his ice-cold feet with her own. "I'm not in the," sneeze, "mood, you're a pervert."
Apparently Romano hasn't heard that story before, even though he was there. "That's not what I meant, damnit! You're all gross, I don't want to have sex with you right now either."
Romano tries to escape, thoroughly embarrassed, but Antonia sneaks up behind him and shoves him back onto the bed. "Tsk tsk, Roma. Lovina's not feeling well and you're being so mean. Cuddle and make her feel better, okay?"
Lovina sneezes again and doesn't bother trying to cover it this time. "Yeah asshole, make me feel better."
Romano doesn't make her feel better. What does make her feel better, just a little, is that the next day all four of them have to stay in and skip class because her cold has quickly spread around.
---
For the second time that week, when Antonio comes into the café after work he's dragging a huge bag of cards and gifts with him. For the first time that week, however, Antonia is also close behind him with her own bag of candy, cards, and scribbled crayon drawings. Romano has no idea why they don't just leave them in the car, but he has no idea why those two do a lot of things they do.
"Antonio get those drawings off my wall." Lovina's become pretty good over the years at snapping at Antonio and Antonia before Romano has to. It's great, seeing as how sometimes he's just too lazy to do it himself.
"But Lovina, they're so cute! Look, Alba drew a picture of all of us!" Antonio holds up one of the many drawings in his bag, as if they all know who Alba is (they do, but that's beside the point). "She even got Alejandro, look look!"
Romano does look, but only because Antonio will just keep on jumping around the shop with the picture and scaring their customers until he does. The crayon drawing looks very much like a photograph Antonio keeps on his desk-- the four of them are sitting inside the coffee shop, Romano holding a sleeping Alejandro-- but in this rendition, they've all been drawn in green, red, yellow, orange, and pink, instead of flesh-coloured, and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! is written across the top in script that most likely the child's mother's and not her own.
"Hah, you're pink," Lovina says. "Hey, where'd I put--"
"He's in your sling." Antonia points at Alejandro, who is indeed sleeping soundly in his little carrier, nuzzled against Lovina's chest, and Romano laughs at the look on Lovina's face.
"...Not the baby, moron. I know where he is. Where'd I put my keys? It's my turn to go home early."
Romano pulls the keys out of his pocket and holds them up. "It's always 'your turn', but whatever."
Antonia steals the keys before Lovina can come over to get them. "Why don't we all just go home? You said it's been a really slow day, let's just close up early."
"We can't just do cl--"
"You can, silly, you own the place." Antonia gestures around at the empty café, as if to further demonstrate her point. "Let's just clean up and go out, we haven't all been out in forever."
The bell above the door chimes and a group of people come in, making a beeline toward the glass box of pastries. "Yeah you do that, Antonia." Romano steals the keys back and hands them to Lovina before going back to his place behind the cash register.
"Please, Roma? After this?"
Romano ignores Antonia's pleading and rings the customers up. Party because Antonia is really annoying, but mostly because he knows Lovina's running home to finish the surprise meal the two of them have been making all day. Antonio and Antonia aren't the only ones who can make surprise plans, after all.