Vala sat next to Daniel at his small kitchen table. The rose that he had given her that morning for Valentines Day sat in a glass vase in front of them. Vala watched as Daniel pulled out a small pink box that rattled at the slightest movement.

They're conversation hearts," he told her as he opened the box and poured the small multi-colored hearts onto the table. "They're little candy hearts with words on one side, see?" He showed her a pink one that said "love you" on it and then popped it into Vala's mouth.

She chewed it thoughtfully then smiled at him. "It's good," she said. Some of her experiences with trying Earth food had not been so great, so she was pleased that the little candy hearts were sweet and tasted good.

"Look at what all of them say," Daniel suggested. Vala amused herself flipping each one of the little hearts over to read what they said. She found a few blank ones, and there were a few where the words were smudged, so she separated those from the rest, giving half to Daniel to eat and keeping the other half for herself.

Then Vala turned back to the ones with words and started making little sentences with them, sliding the completed sentences over to Daniel to read. Daniel grinned as he watched her work, laughing along with her if a sentence didn't turn out quite right. He loved how she could find so much pleasure in the simple things like making sentences out of conversation hearts. Vala found one that said "kiss me" and slid it over for Daniel to read. He looked at it and leaned over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and planting a kiss on her cheek.

"Is that why they're called conversation hearts?" Vala giggled. "Yep," said Daniel. "You can have all kinds of conversations with them. Of course, for it to be a real conversation, both people need to take part in it." He slid a heart over to Vala. She read it, and then reread it. The bright pink words stood out in front of the white candy. "Marry me", it said.

Vala looked over to Daniel to see him beside her on one knee, pulling out a small black box from his pocket. He opened it to reveal a shiny diamond ring. "Vala," he said. "Will you marry me?" Vala smiled, her eyes filling with tears.

"Yes, of course!" she said, overwhelmed with happiness. Daniel slipped the ring onto her finger and kissed her lovingly.

"I love you," he told her. "I love you, too," she whispered. "Happy Valentines Day."