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“You wanna get married?”
They were sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the hundreds of book cases within the labyrinth of the library. Settled in the crook of Roland’s arm with a book in her hand and a beer in his, Angela started at the question. She opened her mouth, then shut it again. Did she hear that right?
Angela suddenly shifted onto her legs and leaned forward, turning her head back to get a look at Roland’s face. His hair was mussed from when she ran her hands through it earlier, and his collared shirt unbuttoned. His cheeks showed red with a clear buzz he was experiencing that had his lids slightly heavier than normal, but he didn’t seem to be completely wasted or anything. His eyes were clear, if albeit fixed in a fearful gaze, the side of his mouth quirked in a nervous smirk. He seemed to tense up at her sudden pulling away from their position, and Angela felt a pang of guilt shoot through her chest as she pursed her lips.
“That’s….I’ve never thought of that,” She murmured. He sucked in a breath and shifted his gaze away, suddenly finding the metal tab on his beer to be utterly fascinating.
“No, haha, I mean yeah, of course, it’s crazy, wouldn’t make sense, it’s, it’s stupid, really, I mean I’m me and you’re you…” He began to mutter, rambling to try and cover his original blurting of such a wild question. Angela watched him keenly, trying to process exactly what he said. It was such a small, quick question, yet it was all encompassing of so many things. He clearly blurted it as a sudden overwhelming thought, but Angela couldn’t help as her mouth quirked into a small smile. “…and we’re, well, here, you know this library and all, I mean, it’s just stupid, ridiculous, really-“
“Yes,” She said. Roland tensed, running a free hand through his hair as his rambling trailed off, and Angela quickly realized she had misspoken. “Or, I mean, no, it’s not…I mean yes, I think it’s quite ridiculous, but….yes.”
Roland paused, his gaze lifting as he met her eyes once more, the true meaning of her words clicking in his head. Angela watched as his pupils dilated, she listened to his heart speed up, his breath stop. She watched him and he watched her, caught in a moment of eternity.
The moment melted as a smile broke out on Roland’s face. His brows furrowed as he was trying to hide his excitement, his shoulders relaxed and he let out a breath, almost a laugh of relief. He quirked one brow up as he asked, “Really?”
“Did you mean it?” Angela responded with a question. Roland pursed his lips, shifting his gaze to the side as he thought it over some more, clearly more seriously than when he was bumbling as a poor save from earlier. He met her eyes once more.
“Well, yeah, actually, kind of,” He responded with a shrug. “I just…we’re sitting here, and you’re in my arms, and it feels good, it feels like…I’m happy. You make me happy. And it’s unconventional; in our situation it really doesn’t make a lot of sense rationally, but I-I look at you, and I feel like I’m getting a second chance at happiness I looked for before, you know? It’s not a huge deal, well it kind of is, but it would be nice. It would be nice. I love you, you know? I wanna do something with that. I want to put into some kind of…title or ritual or whatever, all these feelings about you. I want to be with you,” He tried to explain. Angela smiled at the poor articulation of his feelings, the rambling and the complete, unequivocal honesty Roland was offering to her.
She watched him with wide, curious eyes, carefully observing his vitals and his expression as he shifted through his thoughts. Angela laughed, nodding at him. “I understand you. I’d like that too. Very much, in fact,” She said. Angela then bit her lip and dropped her head—she almost felt embarrassed at how wide her smile had grown. This was ridiculous, really, a truly absurd idea of marriage in their situation. It was a laughably arbitrary idea, and yet, it was the most human thing Roland could ask of her, she thought.
Angela’s shoulders shook as she felt a laugh bubble up suddenly from her chest. She looked up at Roland again, attempting to stifle it. She didn’t want him to think she was laughing at him, but she couldn’t help it. She just felt this warm buzzing inside her head, throughout her whole body, she had no idea how to stop it. Another laugh, and then a giggle, a huff, and then she could no longer keep fighting it as Roland chuckled himself, shifting up to wrap his arms around her.
“What are you laughing about, boss,” he muttered, planting a kiss on her forehead. She shook her head, placing her palm over her mouth as she continued to giggle.
“I-ha- I don’t know I just-“ She continued to giggle, and when he started placing another kiss on her cheek, then on her other, and then all over her neck, she broke out into full laughter. He started laughing as well, continuing to plant kisses all over her jaw and neck as he could. They stayed that way for a while, just laughing and giggling and cuddling on the floor together. It wasn’t until Netzach came wandering through their section looking for a drinking buddy that they began to calm down and float back down to the real world around them.