2020-02-29 - A Slightly More Modest Proposal

It's a wonderful night, Glimmer induced or not. The flowers and music of Bachelor's Day might have made her ask and induced him to a slightly different answer than he might have given in public, but neither of those things mean the aftermath is any less enjoyable.

They wake up to a quiet morning of light snow, winter still clinging to Gray Harbor. August is curled around Eleanor, reluctantly starting to wake up as daylight filters in through the curtains. He has a vague recollection of his phone chiming a lot, and studiously ignoring it. But rather than get up, he nuzzles Eleanor's neck and sighs. He hasn't felt this good in a while. What had they been serving at the birthday party?

Eleanor is curled up against August, mussed and rumpled from the night's celebration of...wait, what were they celebrating? She stirs in his arms. Sometime during the night she turned her phone to Do Not Disturb because it kept going off with texts and calls. She rolls over to tuck her head under his chin and murmurs sleepily, "Morning."

"Morning," August murmurs back. He kisses the top of Eleanor's head, strokes her back. He's justifying not checking his phone by the fact that Itzhak and Ignacio haven't shown up in his mindspace hammering on the door to be let in. So it can't be some kind of serious emergency. He knows they should get up, shower, start the day, but he isn't feeling it. Not after...

He stills, his hand pausing in the small of Eleanor's back. Was that a dream? He dreamed that, right? It's the sort of thing he'd dream: Eleanor draping herself on a piano to sing a proposal to him. That's pretty dream territory.

He spies parts of his suit strewn about the room: his tie hanging off a chair, his vest on the floor, his shirt draped on a bedpost.

Uhoh.

The sudden stopping of his hand on her back has Eleanor waking up a little more. She'd had the craziest dream that she proposed to August at Hyacinth's birthday party. Wait, they did go to that party right? It was last night? So why are her only memories of it that dream. Unless... Uh oh.

She rolls over and grabs her phone off the nightstand, her touch lighting up the screen which is filled with dozens of texts of 'Saw the good news on Friendzone!', 'Congratulations you two!', 'Did you set a date?', 'Bed, Bath, and Beyond for all your Registry Needs' and more. So many more. The phone slides from her hands to the bed as she makes a sort of strangled squeaking sound.

August watches Eleanor roll over to grab her phone. "Uh, maybe don't--" She makes that noise. "--yeah." He sighs, gathers Eleanor up against him. No need to look at his phone; it's probably full of more of the same. Maybe a few 'WHY DID WE NOT DISCUSS THE RING FIRST' from Thoma.

He's not sure what to say. Anything reassuring will sound wrong. So what does that leave?

Resting his forehead against her back, he admits, "Kind of not how I imagined it," rueful and a little sad.

Eleanor is gathered up and she looks shell shocked. Her eyes are wide as saucers and staring a bit blankly. "Did I really get on top of that piano?" she whispers, mortified. Absolutely mortified that she made an absolute spectacle of herself in front of people they know. "And SING?"

She cringes inwardly at his words and his tone. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Were we drugged? Was it the wine? Did I just ruin everything forever?"

August resumes running his hand down Eleanor's back, this time to calm her. "Think maybe the was some Art in play," he says, wincing. He gives himself a second to curse this stupid town and the Art.

He holds her closer. "No. You didn't ruin everything, and definitely not forever." He manages a laugh. "I just, had this idea, that..." He falls quiet, shakes his head. "It's not important." He kisses her temple. "It's okay, if you're not...ready. For that." He even mostly believes it.

Eleanor rolls over to face him, looking about as upset and hurt as he's ever seen her. With herself, mostly. "Oh dammit. Leap Day. Bachelor's Day. The outdated tradition that it's the one day a woman can propose to a man. Like Sadie Hawkins with proposals instead of dance requests. I should have realized this stupid town would do something with that. I'm so sorry AJ."

She chews her lower lip. "We can just say we were drugged and it didn't count? If you want? I won't hold you to an engagement under the influence of Glimmer. That's just not right." She pauses. "What was the idea you had?" she asks. She can't even look him in the eye until he says that 'not ready' bit.

"Not ready for what? To be engaged to you? To marry you? I realized I wanted to marry you after our first date. It was a disaster of epic proportions, so many things went so wrong, but we got through it together. And rather than run for the hills, you came home with me, made the best of the situation with takeout and movies, and you came back for a second date. I knew there and then that you were someone who would always be there not just for me, but WITH me. If this town and it's crazy or even my own stupidity landed me flat on my face in the slop, you'd give me a hand up, or lie right down in the mud with me."

August huffs a laugh, sets a hand on Eleanor's cheek and rests his forehead against hers. "You, have nothing to apologize for. So don't. It's not just about holding me to it. You shouldn't have to either."

He licks his lips, eyes cast downward as she says all of that. Eventually, he answers her question. "I was going to...I figured I'd be done with my next book by early summer. And then I was going to let you look at the rough draft, so you could see the dedication." He sounds reluctant to be saying all this, almost shy.

Eleanor's expression softens at the revelation of his plan. "That sounds perfect. Fuck this town for ruining it." Then she blinks. "Wait, you were really planning to propose?" Because she honestly didn't think he ever would. She clearly worried he wasn't as 'all in' as she was. Because she's not really great at social cues or anything to do with relationships.

You'd think Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with hers would have been a halfway decent indicator, but she's always thinking nothing in her life can be permanent. "How do you really feel about it? I mean, getting engaged, marriage, kids, all that jazz," she asks, with concern furrowing her brow.

"I was gonna...sort of, edge up to it. Suggest it. Float it as an idea." August risks a glance at her, goes back to looking down between them. He sighs. "Let's face it, Ellie--I'm beat up, I have a laundry list of problems, and I can't stop getting myself into trouble with the Art. That doesn't make for a good husband. At least, not a stable one, and if there's anyone who deserves stability in her life, it's you."

He feels her frown more than he sees it, which induces him to look her in the eyes again. "I don't know how good of a husband or a father I'll ever be. I'm afraid all the things that have happened to me won't make me a good fit for either. But I'd like to try." He smiles, even laughs, though it's edged in sadness. "Which, I know, is an amazing sales pitch."

Eleanor reaches a hand to touch his face, smiling at him with a gentility to her expression. "Those are the exact reasons that will make you an amazing husband and father. You have seen the worst this world can throw at us, and survived it. You fight the good fight, you choose the side of right, you protect the people you love. Just some of the many, many reasons I love you."

She strokes his cheek lightly. "I've seen you with your nieces, I've seen you defend and heal and worry about your friends. That is what makes you, you. The trouble you get into, you get into for good reason. That is exactly the kind of man I want to share my life with."

August lets out a slow breath, turns his head to kiss Eleanor's palm. He's quiet a bit, then, "You know, sometimes I think you'd dating some other guy who looks like me, and occasionally you mix us up." He smiles against her hand, kisses it again, then takes it and moves it to his chest.

"I do want this. I want you. But I also want us to want it, and do it, because we want to. Not because the Art made us do it." He makes a face. "Also I don't have a ring for you. And my book's not done." He gets a thoughtful look. "I guess I could work on those things. And once we've got those, we can ask each other again." He kisses her forehead. "My answer's the same, either way."

Eleanor feels his heartbeat beneath her hand, as she listens to his words. "Agreed. It didn't push me to ask for anything I didn't want, my answer will be yes so don't worry about that," she assures him. "But I can wait til your book is done and you do it the way you wanted to," she murmurs.

Then she groans. "So what do we tell everyone else? This is going to be a damned nightmare."

August brushes some hair from her face. "Doesn't mean we have to tell them anything's off. Weddings take a while to plan if you don't want to be stressed the hell out." He shrugs. "We just tell them we're taking our time to get it all done right. Every last detail. I'd rather we spend three months thinking about what to do and when than run off to a judge at 6pm on a Friday because the stress is killing us." He starts to pull her against him. "And we have to sort out if we want to keep splitting our time. That kind of thing."

Eleanor snuggles up against him. "A Fall wedding would be lovely, now that I can actually be in the woods without having instant heart failure. Thanks to you." It's still a work in progress, but she's made great strides. She can even go on walks with him now and then.

"You know, I don't really mind splitting our time. A lot of couples have a city home and like a lake house or a cabin. I just see it like that. We spend our time where we feel like it, when we feel like it. Nothing wrong with that, right?" At least for now. Kids at some point might require more stability.

"Long as you're okay with it." August rests his chin on the top of Eleanor's head. He still had to get out of the city after a few days, still struggled with hospitals. He'd forever be a work in progress. But maybe that was okay, since she was too.

Tone absent, he agrees, "Fall would be nice." Then he stills. Weddings in Gray Harbor make him think of James and Carmen's wedding. "But, ah, maybe not here." He looks down at her. "Please. Olympic's gorgeous in the Fall, or we could find something in the Seattle area. Maybe on one of the islands." His eyes are pleading with her, as the Gray Harbor native, to not want to get married there.

Eleanor snorts. "No fucking way am I having a wedding in Gray Harbor. No. Fucking. Way." She is 100% with him in that respect. "Wherever you'd like. Someplace outside. Where the sunlight gets all golden in early fall." She has a dreamy tone as she says that.

August relaxes, body easing from a tension he hadn't even realized was coiling up inside him. "Okay. Good. Yeah. Outside, fall." He shifts his head so he can look down at her. "I'll put Xavier and Hannah on it. They're good at that." He smiles faintly. "I hope you want some help getting all of this to come together, because Zelda's been dying to handle wedding details for one of us, and she's been pretty annoyed with Xavier and Hannah for not having one."

That's all he says for a time; he simply lays there looking at her. Then, eventually, "I guess we should get up and have breakfast." He doesn't, despite saying that, make any move to do so.

Eleanor chuckles. "I think I can handle Zelda helping. As long as she doesn't turn it into some enormous affair and put me in a poufy dress with bows and stuff. At least the cake is covered. I won that auction at Christmas from Patisserie Vydal."

She makes a small sound at the notion of getting up and getting breakfast. "Can we just lay here a while longer? I'm so not up to facing all the messages on my phone, or the insanity I know the coffee shop is going to be the moment I walk in."

August laughs, low and quiet. "No, if anything, she'll suggest you do what she did--immediate friends and family only. Real small and private. Everyone else gets photos and an announcement. She didn't even wear a formal wedding dress, and it wasn't white, it was a kind of dark silver, with all these flowers sewn on it." He still doesn't want to touch his phone, so he adds, "I'll dig up the photos to show you."

He relents, makes a low sound. "Okay. A little longer." He reaches down to sun a hand up her calf, to her thigh, and rest it on her hip. "Then we can shower," he murmurs into her hair.

"Mmmmm..." Eleanor murmurs in agreement, nuzzling his neck. "Bohemian, natural, I'm not into the whole polished princess wedding thing. That's for people that haven't faced any obstacles in their entire lives. Besides, I already did Cinderella for Halloween." Another romantic Glimmer situation. "Does it ever seem to you like this town is TRYING to get us married?" Blink.

"Polished princess weddings are expensive, too," August says. He continues stroking her leg, aware that this is a one way ticket to not getting out of bed for a while (unless it's for a very long shower). So what, he's earned it.

He grunts. "Wouldn't surprise me." A soft sigh as something occurs to him. "Unrelated to this, there's a problem in the forest I may have caused, so a group of us are going to go clear it out in a couple of days."

Yeah, they are probably going to get a bit dirtier before they get to the shower. Eleanor plants little kisses along his neck. "Need me as backup in that? Or have your bases covered?"

"I think I've got enough people." August uncurls himself so he can settles himself against Eleanor, guiding her leg to his hip. "I just wanted to make sure you knew what I was up to." He doesn't say the obvious reason why: in case something happens. It's always there, the lurking possibility one or both of them will bite off more than they can chew.

He moves his hand to her back, rumbling appreciatively as she kisses him, ducks his head so he can murmur in her ear. "Now I'm going to wake you up good and proper."

"I'll make sure to have things set up here for when you get back, in case people need help." Or he needs a hot bath to decompress. As he pulls her leg up she grins and purrs. "I like that way you think, August Roen."