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There’s something about the rhythm of waves. Crashing, rushing, in a loop, over and over again.
The erratic predictability of nature’s most wonderful, terrifying creation.
Just like the wide open expanse of nothingness she stares up into. She’s seen it all, and yet seen none of it. They’d spent years among those same stars that blinked down at her, exploring every inch they could reach, and yet it wasn’t enough.
Daisy’s eyes flick across the sky, so inky black and captivating.
Sand tickles the back of her legs and coats her hair. Her hand idly plays with a stray shell. The air smells like smoke and salt. Thick with memories.
Soft footsteps on the sand pull her out of her musings, and she sits up onto her elbows. Daniel’s familiar figure takes his spot on the blanket next to her and his arm loops around her shoulders as he presses a kiss to her temple.
“We should probably get going,” she sighs. It’s more of a question than anything, hoping he denies it and insists they stay forever.
“Getting tired?” he counters with a question.
It had been an enormously long day. And yet, Daisy could have lived it a thousand more times. After her guest lecture in May’s class at the Coulson Academy, it had been endless meetings and reconnecting with old friends, new acquaintances, and reliving the past in one way or another. Her heart is full, but her eyes fight to stay open.
“Be honest with you, I could sleep right now, right here.”
Daniel grins, his strong arms pulling her further upward until they’re sitting hip to hip on the soft blanket, her head automatically falling onto his shoulder.
“That’s an option,” he says with a smile. “But there’s a SHIELD-issued hotel bed calling our names.”
“Scratchy sheets and squeaky springs. Sounds inviting,” she deadpans.
“It’s an upgrade from that hostel situation on Tryallea,” he reminds her, and she snorts at the memory.
“I told Kora we should have stayed on the Zephyr.”
Daniel’s head kips backward and he stares up at the stars as the memories come flooding back. “Me too,” he adds. “Maybe a hundred times. What was that about stubbornness running in the family?”
“Not us!” she insists, as she always does. “Stubborn?!”
And just like every other time, he quietly laughs to himself, probably regretting the day he sat firmly at her bedside in the Zephyr with his brand-new prosthetic leg as the ship jumped unexpectedly into the future, launching both of them into the greatest adventure of their lives.
If only she could jump back to that time and give that scared, exhausted, beaten, grieving version of herself a hug and a pep talk and a vision of this future.
This beautiful future on a beach, with the infinite stars gleaming above her and the infinite future sitting right beside her.
What feels like minutes of silence pass, comfortably. She’s at peace.
“Daisy.” His voice is strangely husky, emotion-filled and raw.
She hums a silent question into his shoulder, wondering where this change of mood came from so quickly.
He takes in a deep breath, and it catches halfway. He takes a firm hold of her hand and runs his thumb across her knuckles. Slowly, thoughtfully.
“Are you okay?” she whispers, not wanting to interrupt whatever he’s about to say, but feeling the uncertainty radiating off of him.
At that, he visibly relaxes. “Yes, no, I’m –” he chuckles nervously. Then, with a sudden surge of confidence he shifts his body so that he’s holding both her hands and all at once she feels every single emotion that a human being can experience. She’s acutely aware of her own heartbeat, which somehow she feels in her elbows and wrists.
It’s too dark to see Daniel’s face exceptionally well, but she has it all memorized anyway. She knows that earnest, hopeful expression better than the back of her hand.
“I’ve just been waiting for the right time,” he begins, and suddenly she wishes time would freeze and she could absorb more of these details. The way the north star shines twinkling down like a beacon. The roaring, rushing of the endless ocean. The chatter of wildlife in the grass. The warmth of Daniel’s hands in hers. The brush of her hair across her neck as the breeze picks it up. The smell of salt and wood smoke and Daniel’s day-old cologne.
He continues, and she’s hanging on every word.
“But there’s never really . . . the perfect time to do this, is there?”
“Daniel–”
He squeezes her hands, and she swallows back the lump in her throat. Just lets him talk.
“Daisy, I love you. You saved me back in the fifties and you just never were able to stop saving me since then. You are . . . easily the most amazing, beautiful, powerful, kindest, most unbelievably stubborn woman I’ve ever met.”
At that, she allows herself a breathless laugh and fights back all the giddy joyous energy that’s bubbling up in her chest. “I mean, stubborn is relative.”
He laughs, the most gorgeous sound she knows. “Case in point, Quake.”
The birds seem to laugh along with them.
“My point is,” he continues, still smiling like a smitten schoolboy and gripping her hands like they’re his lifeline. “We’ve been across time, the whole world, the galaxy and back, and you’ve been my constant the whole time. I don’t want it any other way. You’ve become more than I could have ever imagined. My partner, my best friend, my entire life. We’ve lived lifetimes already, and . . . call me an old-fashioned square, but there’s no way I can imagine the rest of this life without you right there by my side . . . as my wife.”
At that word, the floodgates open and there’s no saving the composure she once had. She’s up on her knees, throwing her arms around his neck, kissing every inch of his face, his lips, feeling her very heart jump into her throat, tears streaming uncontrollably.
And he’s embracing her, laughing and crying along with her, cradling her and breathing in the charged air between them. “Dais– I haven’t even asked you yet!”
She cups his face in her hands, losing herself in the depths of his dark eyes which glistened with the reflection of a million stars. “Then ask,” she breathes. “But the answer is yes.”
Like a whisper on the wind, a moment lost forever and yet locked in her memory for the rest of time, with tears staining his cheeks and jaw, he asks her humbly, hopefully, and earnestly.
“Daisy Johnson, will you marry me?”
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Steady and constant, Polaris blinks and flutters above.
Reflecting the little infinite moment of joy for the world to see.
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