Happy Valentine’s Day, friends! Welcome to a special post that I never thought I’d be writing, but is making me super happy to write. Long story short, I’m ENGAGED!! And we’re getting MARRIED in July!! And the more I think/talk about it, the more happy and excited I feel. So this post is basically me celebrating my person and how grateful I am that we found each other… by finding all the parallels between us and the fictional characters I/we love, the fictional OTPs I appreciate most. Hope you enjoy!
1. We were friends first (and refused to admit we liked each other lol)
Friends to Love is one of my favorite tropes EVER, and l love that I lived it out IRL 😆 My favorite example of this trope is Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, who were twelve when they met and went from “you drool in your sleep” to “As long as we’re together” in about five years (or nine books). They are one of the most ADORABLE fictional couples in existence, especially in the “we kinda like each other but don’t want to acknowledge it” phase. I love how they subconsciously choose each other and make each other better.
This is definitely something that Andrew and I do, and I’m not the only one who thinks so! There are a great many people who “shipped” us before we were together, and one lady in particular who literally exclaimed, “My prayers have been answered!” when I told her we were officially a thing. But before we had romantic feelings for each other, we really were best friends, starting with “let’s exchange cute cat videos on instagram” and going all the way to “let’s get married!”
2. He quite literally rode to my rescue when I needed him most
There are so many examples of this “knight in shining armor” type trope out there, and we love them all, but the one that comes to mind is from a post I saw on Instagram referencing the Percy Jackson show on Disney+. It was saying how Percy’s immediate response to Annabeth being in danger mirrors Poseidon’s response to his mom calling for help, which is unique to the show (and one of the little details that I appreciated, actually).
I immediately thought of this one time when I had been hit-and-run by a guy on my drive home. We weren’t hurt, but I was super shaken, and the first person I called was Andrew. This is how the conversation went:
Him: “Hello?”
Me: *sobs*
Him: “No…” *finds out what’s wrong* *immediately gets in the car*
I so very much appreciated this response from him, and it’s one of the many, many things that I love about him 😸
3. He was super patient with me when I needed time to come around
My all-time favorite fictional couple in the history of the Universe is Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark from the Hunger Games series. And one of the biggest reasons why I love Peeta, specifically, is the way that he has of showing Katniss he loves her without pressuring her to respond. Whether or not his initial “Because she came here with me” confession is real, there are definitely romantic affections between them almost from the beginning. But while Peeta shows Katniss he loves her with actions (e.g., running to her room when she wakes up with nightmares), he almost never mentions his initial confession, or her own feelings for him. For most of the series, he seems pretty content to keep being there for her in whatever way she feels comfortable with, and I LOVE THAT in him! It’s so lovely, I want to melt into a puddle of feels every time I think about it (and Everlark is my Roman Empire so this happens quite frequently lol).
And Andrew did this exact thing for me! About nine months before we *officially* became a thing, he asked me out… and I turned him down! Because at the time, I was convinced that I didn’t want to get married, so what was the point of dating! And then, some things happened, I started to see him in a new light, and the rest is history (thank you to my future mother in law for your awkward-but-necessary hinting lol).
4. Our personalities and strengths balance each other out
This one comes from the MMC himself! He said that, like Flynn Rider “getting kids to decorate (Rapunzel’s) hair,” he has the pragmatic problem-solving personality type, while I’ve got the artistic creativity of Rapunzel. I would like to add that, like Rapunzel, my moods and self-confidence sometimes swing back and forth, especially when I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed, and Andrew is (so far) very patient and reassuring in that. I’m sure there will be times when he needs me to do the same for him, or when he gets annoyed with me, but I appreciate him no matter what ☺️
5. We’re still each other’s best friend
One of my other OTPs is Hiccup and Astrid from the How To Train Your Dragon series. There’s a whole YouTube video about them that I think explains why I love them so much, but basically, they start as friends/allies and stay that way through the whole series! I love how they interact as equals, are able to joke without hurting each other, and how they listen to each other and work together as one unit. Seriously, goals, fam! And I think that my MMC and I have a lot of these traits in common with Hiccstrid.
Bonus!
If you’re still reading this, thank you so much! Here’s a bonus for you to look forward to, hopefully within the next year or two!
I’m writing a book! A series of three books hopefully maybe! And it’s gonna combine a lot of the romantic elements in this post, spread out between two different relationships. I have evolved, I promise, these characters aren’t simply an excuse for me to put myself and my real-life love interest in a half-baked fictional world (I really did do that a couple times lol). Instead, the series is ATLA-meets-Narnia, with elemental magic and an Aslan-inspired character who may or may not be a literal dragon. There are parts of the rough draft of book one that have made me cry because they’re so beautiful, and parts that were hard to write because they draw from some difficult experiences from my past. But I really believe that this story has potential, and I can’t wait to hopefully maybe finish it this year sometime!
Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Valentine’s Day post. Do you have a fictional or real-life OTP you think about constantly? I’d love to know!
Happy fangirling!