Work Text:
You laugh and pull yourself out of Joe’s grasp. “Get off me,” you tell him giggling. You honestly don’t know what’s up with him today. The two of you have spent most of New Years Eve day together at home and he’s flicking from being all over you (in every room in the house) to staring into space and mumbling to himself. At one point he disappeared into the bathroom to have a conversation on the phone with his Dad. His Dad. Who you know really well and who loves you as much as you love him. What’s that all about?
He presses another kiss into your neck before he lets you go. “Do we really have to go tonight?” he asks, with a pout. “Can’t we just stay at home and celebrate ourselves?” He smirks at you. “Got that lovely big bed now, we can make our own fireworks.”
You swat at him. “Joseph,” you say with an edge of warning. “You are bloody insatiable today, what is going on with you? I couldn’t even cook dinner without you standing over me with your chin on my shoulder. Didn’t know pasta was that interesting.”
“I just like touching you, is that so wrong?” He presses a kiss into your cheek.
“No, of course not…” you smile at him. “But like literally… you have felt the need to have some part of your body pressed against me at all times today, you’re touchy but not normally this touchy.”
“I’ll be filming soon,” he tells you with a frown. “I’ll be really busy.”
You stare blankly at him. “You’re going to be filming in London. I’ll be cooking your bloody dinner every night, it’s not like you’re off to an actual war.”
“But I’m going to miss you!”
“You’ll see me like an hour less every day,” you giggle again and throw your arms around him. “My lovely, stupid boyfriend. I love you.”
He kisses the top of your head. “I’m not sure I like that word anymore.” he murmurs.
“What word? Boyfriend?” You look up at him. “Okay, fine, we’re getting old. I’ll start calling you my partner.”
“Yeah,” Joe presses another kiss to your head. “Something like that.” He lets you go and looks you up down. “I love that look on you, by the way.”
“Yeah?” You ask, twirling for him. You’re only going to a small-ish gathering and so you’ve just opted to wear a black dress, the red tights that he bought you on underneath them though, for a pop of colour. “I feel fancy, I’m wearing bloody red tights.”
He chuckles. “And yet, you still haven’t worn the fishnets…”
“Oh,” you smirk. “Don’t you worry, I have plans for them…” You turn your back on him to squirt some Dior Gris perfume onto your neck and pretend that you don’t hear him audibly groan behind you. He groans again behind you and you smirk to yourself. “Calm down, handsome.” You slip your old faithful earrings into your ears, the fancier ones he bought you for Christmas still lying in the box.
He does look handsome tonight though, he’s wearing a gray shirt under a black jumper, black jeans with a belt and both of his chains dangle round his neck - you had suggested he slip an earring into his ear, but he’d informed you he no longer desired to look like a pirate.
“Stop perving on me,” his voice chides you and you childishly poke your tongue out at him, your eyes falling on his glasses lying on his bedside table and you bite back a comment about how you’re surprised he can see. “Anyway, are you ready to go?”
“Yeah,” you grab your little handbag for the night and shove your phone into it. “The Uber will be here any minute, anyway.”
“You head down first, I’ve just…” Joe swallows. “…I’ll just text dickhead and let him know that we’ll be here soon,” he waves a hand at you, almost shooing you out of the room and you frown to yourself as you do as your told. He really is acting fucking weird today, he never normally texts his best friend to let him know you’ve left the house. What gives?
**
“Can you two pack it in?” Joe’s best friend grumbles at the pair of you as he pressed another kiss against your lips. Even being at a party surrounded by your nearest and dearest hadn’t calmed down his need to touch you today and every so often he would just lean in and kiss you softly on the lips. You didn’t hate it. However, your friends were clearly getting fed up with it. “Starting to think I preferred it when you two weren’t together.”
Joe sticks his finger up at his best friend and purposely kisses you again.
“I think it’s cute,” Maisie giggles, leaning against her husband. “They’re back in the honeymoon phase. It’ll pass.”
His best friend grumbles something else, you don’t really hear what he says and you don’t care. You’re happy and Maisie’s right, it’s not been that long since you’ve been back together and it’ll pass.
The day after Maisie’s wedding, you’d stayed true to your word and had text your landlord and informed him that you would not be extending your lease, but would pay him up to the end of it. Once Joe had gotten his keys, you’d fully moved into your lovely little house together.
The past few weeks had been spent decorating and building a lot of furniture inbetween both yours and his busy work schedules. His obviously busier as he’d been auditioning and flying all over the place to conventions. He’d taken you to one recently, in Paris, where he’d also offhandedly referred to his long-term girlfriend during a panel that had caused quite the stir on Twitter, but meant that you could go to premieres and events with him now. Paris had been quite the lovely weekend of hanging around with Jamie Campbell Bower and shagging in a fancy hotel room.
Every time you looked at him these days, your little heart felt full and you were honestly just so sickeningly in love with him that it was actually embarrassing. Luckily for you, he felt the same.
“Ugh, the way she’s looking at him.” Kayleigh giggles, sipping her glass of Prosescco, which only stirred him to kiss you again. “Oh God, they’re off again. Mate,” she looks over at Joe’s best friend. “Make sure your room is locked, yeah.”
Joe opens his mouth to come back with what would no doubt be a sassy comeback, but his best friend cuts in before any sound can come out. “It’s coming on, shut up.” he says. “Alexa, off.” he shouts as he turns the TV over to BBC Two.
A few weeks ago Joe had been invited onto Jules Holland’s annual New Years show and so of course he’d gone and taken you, Kayleigh, another one of his friends with him. Maisie and Oliver had been away so hadn’t been able to go and Maisie was still sulking about it.
“Oh, it’s me!” Kayleigh suddenly giggles, yelling at Joe’s best friend to rewind. And yeah, there you all, sitting at a table towards the front, Joe on the end, his best friend next to him, then you and Kayleigh and your other friend sitting at the other end. The table is already littered with glasses as it had been a while before they’d started filming. You cringe in embarrassment at the sight.
Everyone looks really good -- Joe of course looks amazing, wearing the same jumper he’s wearing tonight. His best friend has scrubbed up clean, so has the other friend and Kayleigh looks absolutely stunning. You, however, are picking something out of your teeth.
“Fucking state of that,” Joe’s best friend grins, side eyeing you and you are tempted to throw your drink at him. “I look hot as fuck though, look at me on my TV debut.”
“Fucking hell,” Joe rubs his temples. “I’m not taking you next year.”
As they bicker, you receive a text from your mother, pointedly telling you that she had spotted you and it was a shame that was what you were doing. You bury your face in Joe’s shoulder.
Most of the next half an hour is spent trying to spot each other, Joe’s best friend gets very excited every time he sees himself and keeps taking pictures of the TV screen. You catch Kayleigh snapping a few of herself too.
There’s also a rather lovely shot of you leaning over his best friend to speak to him, the two of you smiling at each other as you talk that you can imagine is already doing the rounds on Twitter.
It gets close to midnight. Actual midnight, but fake midnight on the program. You remember fake midnight on the program, you’d all been made to dance to Auld Langs Syne and you’d pointedly squeezed yourself inbetween Joe and his friend so that you could hold your boyfriends hand.
You nudge Joe. “Do you want another drink? I’m gonna go and get one before it hits midnight.”
“Nah,” he tells you. “I’ll come out with you though.”
You wonder why he needs to come with you into the kitchen to get a drink, but you don’t argue. You hear Kayleigh -- who you think thinks she’s whispering -- excitedly exclaim “oh god, is this it?” and you wonder what that’s all about, but you shrug it off. You grab the bottle of Prosecco and look down at your watch. Two minutes to midnight. You’d better hurry.
“Hey,” you look up and see Joe standing by the back door, his hand on the handle. “I want to smoke, come out here with me.”
“It’s almost midnight though, we need to be back in there with everyone?” you tell him with a frown.
And then you melt, because he decides to grin at you. “I just want to watch the fireworks with you.” And honestly, who are you to turn that down? And so you follow him outside and shiver in the cold. He doesn’t make any movement to get his cigarettes out. He instead stands next to you, not speaking, just staring up at the sky.
And it must hit midnight, because the first firework of the night rings out above your head. You almost miss the way Joe says your name and you turn to look at him.
And you gasp and take a step back, clapping your hands in front of your mouth as tears fill your eyes.
On his best friends patio, Joe kneels on one knee, looking up at you earnestly, holding out a box, a diamond glinting, lit up by the fireworks.
“I know this is cheesy,” Joe’s voice wavers as he looks at you. “To do it at this time on this day, but I really want us to start this year off in the best way. Last year was both the best and worst year of my life. The best year because of the way things really took off and how lucky and blessed I was with the way Stranger Things panned out, but the worst because I really thought I’d lost you forever and I can’t risk that ever happening again.” you can see tears glinting in his eyes, reflective of the fireworks. “I love you. You are everything to me and if everything ended tomorrow I would be fine with having to go and work in fucking Tesco for the rest of my life if it meant that I could keep you. You are my baby, my heart, my life and my reason for waking up in the morning and there is no greater honour I could have, no greater role I could play than being your husband. What do you say, baby? Shall we make this official? Will you be my wife? Will you marry me?”
You are full on sobbing at this point and you launch yourself at him, knocking him off balance and the two of you tumble into the patio. Both of you are crying but you can’t help but giggle at each other as you manage to arrange yourselves so you’re both kneeling on the patio.
“Yes.” you say, wrapping your arms around his neck, pressing a kiss into his lips as the fireworks continue to go off above your heads. “I want to be your wife.”
His hands are shaking as he takes yours in his, pressing a kiss into it before sliding the diamond ring onto your finger. The two of you take a minute to look at it, before you’re wrapped up in each other, holding each other close and exchanging little kisses as the fireworks go off above your heads.
Neither of you notices your friends all peering out the window, chattering excitedly amongst themselves as his best friend wipes away a stray tear.
“I love you,” you murmur into a kiss.
“I love you too,” he replies. “Fiancée.”