Work Text:
‘’That’s a dumb plan.’’
‘’Your face is dumb’’
‘’Harsh.’’
They were in the living room, with Cordelia frustrated as she scraps another paper with a cheap drawing on it. They were playing pictionary, though that had quickly shifted away from following the actual rules to them simply drawing whatever came to mind. They were both lacking artistic skill, though Marvin only being slightly better due to his more stable hands, so the abundance of scribbles and doodles on the floor was overwhelming at this point.
Their recent topic was however an interesting one, and Cordelia found herself putting more effort into her artwork as she doodled. Her back was starting to hurt, since her lower body was positioned comfortably on the couch while the rest was hanging off as she was drawing with the floor as her support. Marvin wasn’t doing much better either, laying in a similar position but having placed a chair as his table.
‘’How about a choreographed dance?’’ Cordelia pipes up after a moment, making Marvin snort. He lets out a howl once he sees the picture she presents along with it, and she rolls her eyes. ‘’I put a lot of effort into this one, you asshole .’’ she grumbles, looking down at the wide array of stickwomen that she had drawn.
An important thing to point out was the opened bottle of gin on the table beside them, along with ingredients that were supposedly going to be used to make martinis on the kitchen counter. They had completely ignored that thought however once they started this game, and they found it more fun to draw when they were intoxicated rather than sober.
Cordelia wasn’t too drunk, though she was far from being sober as well, meaning that curse words and insults would stream out of her mouth every few minutes or so. Marvin on the other hand was on his seventh gulp from the bottle, and he always found it hilarious when she curses, since it was such a treat she rarely showed to the world. They were unlikely friends, but friends nonetheless.
‘’I’m pretty sure Charlotte would break up with you if you pulled something like that.’’
‘’I mean, it would be an amazing story to tell though.’’ Cordelia giggles, just the mere thought of Charlotte looking ahead at dancers with disgust making her laugh. It would certainly be unforgettable as well, but Marvin was right. Charlotte would more likely hate that memory than be fond of it, since she always appreciated when their business was only theirs. Cordelia understood that, but it made it harder to properly come up with a plan that would seem accurate to her girlfriends specific tastes.
‘’Alright, what’s your plan, boy genius?’’ she asks him and places the drawing among the rest of the pile on the floor. Marvin closes his eyes for a moment, pursing his lips as he is deep thought about what to answer. She raises an eyebrow, not having expected him to act so serious, then he opens his eyes.
“Do it after you’ve had sex.”
“You’re a horrible person.” She laughs, rolling her eyes as he joins her again. Of course he wouldn’t be of help in a situation like this. “Thank god you didn’t draw that.” She giggles, nudging his legs with hers. He lets out a hum and looks at his blank paper.
“I don’t think I’m sober enough to draw scissors.” He mutters, now staring at the pair of scissors on the coffee table that they had used to divide the papers. Cordelia nearly fell off the couch at hearing that, and her face was ten shades darker than before.
“Jesus Christ.” She lets out through a choked yelp, planting her forehead on the floor and having to keep her balance steady by using both hands to stabilize her wobbling body. Marvin wheezes at her reaction, his own head nearly crashing down on the chair. It was safe to say that that only made them fall into another fit of hysteria, leaving them breathless.
The rest of the hour was much like the first two, and more scraps of paper were made as more ideas filled their head. None of them so far seemed to be of Cordelia’s liking, however, mostly since she knew that they were all fantasies that would never be brought up again. She also knew that there was something all these ideas lacked, the question was however what it could be other than Charlotte’s own opinion. She couldn’t ask her about this, at least not now.
It was fun to however see how Marvin struggled to come up with anything that was remotely romantic, though his best suggestion so far was a quiet dinner. It was up for consideration until there was a knock at the door, which made them both quiet down and stare at the hallway.
‘’Someone’s at the door.’’ Marvins states, and Cordelia rolls onto her back, staring with an intensity unmatched. Neither were going to get up and actually open the door, since they were both waiting for the other to make a first move and handle the situation. There was a slight silence, before another knock was heard. This time however, it sounded more familiar and close to a tune Cordelia recognized.
‘’It’s definitely Char.’’ She tells him, and he nods. A second later, Marvin was shouting for whoever was outside the door to come in, since none of them had yet to get up. They were both too indulged in this game to actually leave it at this point.
Thankfully, Cordelia had been correct, and in stepped her girlfriend. She was still wearing her coat, meaning that she had just gotten home in time for dinner, and that she was only in here to make sure that Cordelia was alright. The blonde instantly lights up as Charlotte gets closer, and both individuals on the couch greet her rather loudly.
The doctor wasn’t much surprised by the state she saw her neighbor and girlfriend in. It wasn’t unusual for Marvin and Cordelia to hang out when they’re extremely bored, and the alcohol was usually there as a way to ease the conversations. They didn’t have much to talk about until the alcohol was in use. Even if she was used to this sight, it didn’t mean that she didn’t have a few complaints about it.
‘’Honey, that’s bad for your back.’’ Charlotte lightly scolds, grabbing Cordelia’s outstretched hands to make the blonde properly sit up on the couch. ‘’And I assume I don’t have to tell you that as well.’’ She glances at Marvin, who frowns but still sits up straighter under her glare.
‘’I call favoritism.’’ He says, fixing his clothes and posture at the same time.
‘’Obviously.’’ Charlotte rolls her eyes, making Cordelia giggle and stick her tongue out at Marvin. Marvin only flips her off in return, earning a feigned dramatic gasp from the blonde before she returns her attention back to her amused lover.
‘’How was work, baby?’’ She asks her, bringing the brunette closer by enveloping their hands together. She tried to get Charlotte to sit besides her on the couch, though her girlfriend stayed standing as she shrugged.
‘’Pretty much the usual, nothing out of the ordinary.’’ she answers, closing her eyes for a moment. Cordelia tilts her head, giving her hand a gentle squeeze which makes Charlotte look at her again with a smile. ‘’Only a few deaths today, which is always a positive.’’
‘’Your ordinary is very alarming.’’ Marvin points out, earning a nod from Cordelia. Never one to complain about her girlfriend's job, since she knows it brings Charlotte joy to help people, Cordelia could only stand to the side and not speak a verbal word about her concerns, though she could show them. She knows that Charlotte can handle it, she can handle most things pretty well, but she was still concerned. Not to mention the fact that Cordelia would often compare their two jobs' drastic differences, but that was a discussion for another time.
‘’Can’t agree nor disagree.’’Charlotte sighs, letting go of Cordelia’s hand to grab the empty bottle of gin to throw away. Cordelia only lets out a whine at her action, though she knows that as soon as she was done she would be back by her side.
‘’What are you guys even doing?’’ She asks, looking at the papers scattered across the living room floor. It looked like a real mess, and half of the artworks made no sense at this point, so Charlotte was more than clueless to what could possibly be happening other than that her girlfriend and neighbor weren’t precisely in their right minds.
‘’Cordelia is trying to figure out the best way to propose to you.’’ Marvin slips out nonchalantly, then covers his mouth with both hands and looks at the wall, horrified. Cordelia had the same reaction, though her face instantly flickers right to her lovers in front of them. Her mind had already started to race, and she could feel how quickly the world decided to stand still around them. She was most certainly not on their high of hysteria anymore.
‘’Oh--’’ Charlotte breathes out, her movements coming to a stop as she was picking up the empty bottle, and Cordelia wanted to kill someone, preferably the man sitting besides her on the couch. Her girlfriend's reaction, one of pure shock and speechlessness, was one she had never truly seen before, and that could never be a good sign.
There were only a few times that Cordelia had seen something similar to Charlotte being speechless, and they usually had something to do with the blonde herself. She remembers the first time, when Cordelia had asked Charlotte to be her girlfriend after a not so fortunate evening, though that day had still ended in the best way possible. She supposes that it could be a positive reaction, though the slightest hope about that fades away once Charlotte seems to finally return from her moment.
‘’Im just… I am going to leave you guys to it...’’ Charlotte says, mostly to herself though, and Cordelia felt her heart fall at the sound of her voice. It wasn’t the confident voice that her lover usually had, it was a more hesitant one, a distant one, that she never used. Cordelia quickly tried to stop her, though her words and mouth decided not to work.
‘’Charlotte- No, these were-’’
‘’I'll talk to you at home.’’ Charlotte answers slowly, interrupting her from her fumbling and giving her a small smile before it drops, and Cordelia feels the panic start rising as she wordlessly looks at her lover leaving the apartment. Her mouth hangs open when the door closes, and she lets out a shuddering breath.
Fuck .
‘’ Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck- ’’ She lets out, and as soon as she hears her own home’s door close, she turns to man who might have just ruined her entire relationship.‘’You fucking bitch.’’ Cordelia curses under her breath, kicking Marvin’s side harder than she needed to, though Marvin did deserve that at this moment, and many moments before as well.
‘’I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to let that slip!’’ Marvin apologizes, and Cordelia was glad that he knew he had messed up to a certain degree to sound distressed about it. ‘’And hey! Now that it’s out, you can just talk to her about it!’’ He adds, and his hopeful voice made it all somewhat worse for Cordelia.
‘’These were hypotheticals!’’ Cordelia nearly yells, startling them both awake from their moment. ‘’Charlotte doesn’t care about marriage! She always complains about it and finds it binding, and you know how she is with logic!’’ She continues once Marvin was quiet, his sheepish smile dropping to another frown when he understands the actual depth of this situation. ‘’Oh my god, what if she’s planning on breaking up with me? This is definitely not what she wants in our relationship, and she might think I’m binding her to this relationship- What if she thinks i'm only doing this because of her job?’’
‘’Cordelia, shut up !’’ Marvin’s voice finally breaks through her rant, and the blonde had just now noticed how close he had gotten to her. His hands were firmly planted on her shoulders, and he seemed to be a lot more sober than he was just moments ago. She was glad that he was taking this seriously now, though still greatly upset at him due to his slip up. ‘’You know damn well Charlotte isn’t going to react like that, and-’’
‘’Do I know that?’’ She interrupts him, pushing his hands off her and standing up from the couch. ‘’We’ve never really talked about marriage, mostly because Charlotte hates thinking about these sorts of hypotheticals. She doesn’t think it’s worth all the thoughts, especially when we CAN’T get married.’’ She cries out, and she couldn’t stress the word ‘’can’t’’ more than she already had, needing to let out some frustration from her system.
She was pacing back and forth for a moment, her fists clenched around the hem of her sweater as she tried to take deep gulps of air into her lungs. She could feel a wave of nausea getting close because of her stress hitting her so suddenly, which was why she had to stop. Her mind was still racing, and her body needed to keep on moving, but she kept herself still as she thought about Charlotte.
‘’Im sorry.’’ Marvin could only say in return, frowning. ‘’And I apologize for not being able to comfort you right now.’’ He adds, and she nods slowly after letting out a long sigh.
‘’It’s okay.’’ She returns, her mind unable to formulate anything reassuring to tell him when all she could think of was Charlotte. Charlotte. Charlotte . ’’I think I should go now…’’ She tells him, nodding along with her statement. She didn’t want to go, but stretching this on for longer would potentially hurt her even more. Besides, despite them being in a bad stance right now, Cordelia still wanted to be close to her lover.
He gives her a tighter hug then usual before she leaves, and Cordelia appreciates that. It was Marvin’s way of saying that he was sorry, and that he would comfort her in the best way he could when she needed him again, though she couldn’t help but think that it wouldn’t be enough. It certainly wouldn’t be enough if she was going to lose the one person who kept her grounded. She doesn’t say another word to him, only flashes him a quick smile before leaving his apartment.
The walk to her own apartment felt like it took ages, and she opened the door after pepping herself quickly outside of it. It felt like every single thing she did at that point made so much more noise than usual, and cringed internally when she accidentally dropped her keys to the floor when she was going to place them on the cabinet there.
She finds Charlotte in their bedroom, since the door and light was open, and the doctor was sitting on the bed taking off her earring to place them in her jewelry box. Cordelia’s eyes so greedily flicker to the small box, catching sight of the few rings that Charlotte possessed and wore every now and then, before she winces at the storming thoughts coming into her head. What the hell was she doing?
Her gaze goes hastily back to meet Charlotte’s, and she is once again met by an expression she couldn’t read. In all of their five years together, Cordelia had prided herself in learning how to read and understand Charlotte’s lack of emotions, but now it felt like they were back in the beginning when she was just figuring things out.
‘’So...’’ Cordelia starts awkwardly, her hands fiddling nervously with each other as she couldn’t help but look away. Charlotte shifts awkwardly on the bed, closing the box silently.
‘’So…’’ Charlotte repeats after her, tilting her head like she was waiting for Cordelia to continue.
‘’Listen, baby.’’ She starts, getting close to her though still leaving enough space between them, since she couldn’t bring herself to be any closer. She gulps down the lump in her throat before speaking again. ‘’Marvin was really drunk, and we were just making fun of marriage proposals we’ve seen on tv, so just ignore what he said.’’ She shortly explains, seemingly finding that as the second best excuse.
‘’It’s nothing like he implied.’’ She adds quickly, feeling regret rise up her throat instantly after she had let that out. Charlotte seemed to ponder about what she had just said, leaning back to properly assess this, and it was almost as if the doctor was interrogating her.
‘’Are you lying to me just so we won’t have this conversation?’’ Charlotte finally asks her, her face still just as neutral, and Cordelia wrinkles her nose. She knows it was an awful and pitiful lie, but she still didn’t expect to be called out like this. She bites her lip, looking away again.
‘’Yes.’’ She answers truthfully, unable to lie when confronted, especially by Charlotte. She stands there, shifting her weight from leg to leg anxiously before sighing. ‘’Are you mad at me?’’ She decides to ask her, slowly sitting down next to her on the bed. Their legs were just slightly grazing against each other, but it still felt like there was a long distance between them.
‘’No, not at all-’’ Charlotte immediately responds, and she sounds so genuine that it calms Cordelia’s nerves down a lot more than she had expected. She smiles gently at Charlotte, and the brunette returns it with less certainty. ‘’I’m just… so conflicted.’’ That was never a good sign, Cordelia instantly notes and she sits up straighter.
Knowing that Charlotte was at a loss for words and unable to process a situation was always nerve wracking, especially when Cordelia often relied on Charlotte to be the one who brings the information to the table. Today was certainly an abstract day compared to the rest, and as much as Cordelia loved to have a day filled with new things, this one seemed to only be going south.
‘’I’m … Torn apart about … everything.’’ Charlotte elaborates, her voice unsure and nearly trembling, and Cordelia fears that she has somewhat broken Charlotte. She could only nod, sinking in on herself now instead. She was awaiting a rejection at this point, and she could only hope that Charlotte would get along to the point faster.
‘’You know me better than anyone on this planet. You know how much I hate hoping. It’s like pouting in advance. It’s such an absurdity to me, to just sit there and hope for something that won’t happen to eventually happen.’’ She puts it, cinacly letting out a huff of laughter at her metaphor. She waves it off figuratively, turning her body towards Cordelia though . ‘’All of this, especially that question, has never been in any way something I wanted because of that. Hell , I would do anything to avoid being close to a wedding all together.’’ She stops, wrinkling her nose for a moment before letting out a deep breath of air.
‘’Yet somehow- Some- fucking- how-’’ Charlotte says, her voice coming down from her rant as she arrives at the conclusion Cordelia dreaded to hear. The brunette looks up, their eyes finally officially meeting for more than a glance, and Charlotte looked so defeated at that moment, and Cordelia wanted to just engulf her into a tight hug and tell her to forget about all of this. That it was a mistake to bring it up, that their relationship was already more than enough to her as it is, but before a single word can leave her mouth, Charlotte finished her sentence.
‘’You always manage to make all these facts unimportant.’’
Cordelia blinks.
‘’W-what?’’ Cordelia hesitantly asks, her heart beating. Did she misunderstand this, or was Charlotte-
‘’I want to marry you.’’
Her shoulders tense up while she looks at Charlotte with disbelief. Her eyes were certainly getting wider as each second passed, and those words were the last thing she had expected to hear right now.
‘’Are you s-’’
‘’Yes.’’ Charlotte interrupts her, nodding and grabbing Cordelia’s hands in her palms. Cordelia felt her breath hitch, and her eyes were becoming glassy. ‘’Yes, I am more than sure.’’ She says, her smile full of affection and admiration. ‘’I want to do it all with you. I want to buy stupidly expensive rings that match, I want to spend hours deciding what type of napkins we should use at the reception, I want to be bankrupt after we've spent all of our money on just one event.’’ She continues, her voice catching in her throat as she lightly laughs along. It all sounded so beautiful to Cordelia, so beautiful that she nearly couldn’t believe her words.
‘’I want to go on a vacation to someplace warm, heck maybe even cold, and take so many pictures there. I want to fill out a whole album with just you in it on a day I can properly say is ours.’’ She takes a hand away from their grasp and gently places it on the blonde’s cheeks. ‘’I want to marry you, Cordelia. And only you.’’
That was enough confirmation for Cordelia, more than enough, as she finally reaches for Charlotte. Her arms instantly go around her neck, surprising the doctor and toppling them over on the bed. Charlotte couldn’t even get a word out before she was too busy kissing Cordelia. Even at days where Charlotte was uncertain, she always caught Cordelia.
The blonde was at this point peppering Charlotte’s face with kisses, making the brunette laugh loudly and with so much ecstasy in her voice, and it was almost as if the world around them didn’t matter anymore. Just like Charlotte had stated earlier, but it was reversed. Charlotte made none of the facts in the world matter to her as well, especially when all she needed in this gloomy world was her lover.
‘’You kinda scared me when you walked out.’’ Cordelia laughs, more tears springing up as she felt so relieved that there had been nothing to be scared about. She felt how Charlotte’s hands stopped stroking her back, and she looked curiously up at her lover. Ghostly blue eyes met dimly tinted brown ones, and Cordelia’s smile was lost as she saw that Charlotte’s was gone-
‘’I'm so sorry about that, that was really selfish of me to do and-’’
‘’Nono!’’ Cordelia stops her immediately, shaking her head and leaning back to look at Charlotte’s face better. The fact that her lover, the woman she loved so dearly, had also been crying made her only fall in love more. Those bounts of emotions that Charlotte would show every now and then always made her realize how important she was to the doctor, and that always kept her certain of their love. ‘’It was sprung onto you from nowhere, I would have been more freaked out if you said yes then and there.’’ She lets out a slight laugh, and Charlotte chuckles with her.
It was lighthearted and just enough, and Cordelia gently shifted to a more comfortable position, now with a wider smile and content in her eyes. She felt a wave of pure joy wash over her, her legs giddily tangling together with Charlottes, and she could only fall in love all over again with the women in her arms.
‘’I want to properly propose to you.’’ She mumbles out after a long beat has passed. She rests her head on top of Charlotte’s chest, her hands lightly trailing up and down her side ,
‘’Then you better do it in the best way you see fitting.’’ Charlotte laughs, her head planted firmly on Cordelia’s shoulder. The blonde lets out a huff of air at that, knowing that Charlotte was possibly referring to getting help from their neighbor. It was amusing to know that even if Charlotte didn’t know about Marvin’s plans, she still somewhat expected the worst from him and his capabilities of being romantic. It was very accurate as well.
‘’Bet.’’ Cordelia answers softly with a large smile, ideas already storming back in her head. Now that she has gotten the positive and knows that Charlotte wouldn’t mind a proposal, her mind would only be set on one thing until she could finally achieve it.
She wanted to marry Charlotte.
She was damn well going to marry Charlotte.