Ridiculous: Mattory

22: My Reasons for Defying Reason

A/N: We now take a short break from your regularly scheduled plot for some well-deserved fluff. You're welcome.

Mallory

What?

For a moment, it seems like every function in my body has completely shut down. He couldn't have just said what I thought he just said... but the words Marry me ring crystal clear in my ears.

"What?" My hands shake and I rub them on my thighs, trying to still the nervous trembling. When Matt says nothing, I try again. "What just happened?"

A hysterical laugh escapes him. "I'm either hallucinating vividly or I just asked you to marry me. Either way, I think I've lost my mind."

"Um." I can't help but echo his laugh. "Moving a little quick there, I think."

"Don't you think we've waited long enough?" The way he echos my own words, his voice decidedly huskier than normal, is enough to make a sudden heat pool in my stomach. It's everything I can do to not pick back up right where we left off a few moments ago.

"Yes and no," I finally manage. "We literally just got back together about five minutes ago." I can't help but glance at him sharply. "Or I'm assuming we got back together."

There's a long silence. "Do you want us to have gotten back together?"

"Do you?" I can't help but counter.

Suddenly he's tugging me off the arm of the couch and embracing me once more. "I almost lost you today, Mal," he says. "I don't think I could let go now if I tried."

I chuckle a little and inhale deeply, the smell of him bringing me back to a time when things were simpler between us. "What were you just saying about stopping to think about things rationally before doing anything?"

"Yes. Well. I didn't quite intend to say the whole 'marry me' thing out loud." Though I can't see his face I'm quite certain he's blushing.

"But you were thinking it."

"Had to be thinking it if I said it, didn't I?" He's stalling, talking about what was said but avoiding what it actually meant, and I curl my fingers into the shoulder of his still-damp shirt.

"If you ask me again," I finally say, "I'm going to say yes." He goes deathly still under my hands and it takes every ounce of effort I have to finish, "You know that, right?"

"Do you mean that?" he breathes.

"I told you that I spent the last three weeks thinking about what I wanted with you," I say. "Missing you. Regretting what happened." I take a breath. "Wanting you back more than anything in the world." I shift away to look at him, and instead find myself fitting my mouth to his again. More leisurely, this time, and less demanding than it had been a few minutes ago.

Matt returns it easily—for a few moments, at least. "You're serious," he says. "You'd actually... want to marry me."

"Yeah," I say. "Not right this second, but yeah. Soon. Didn't we have this discussion once already?"

He clears his throat. "A lot has changed since then."

I wince. "Point taken."

"How soon is soon?" he asks after a long moment.

"Soon," I say with a little laugh. "We both seem to agree that we've waited around long enough."

He nods and sighs. "I should... go home. I think we both need sleep," he says reluctantly, but the way he's still holding makes me doubt he's going to let go any time soon.