Cocooned in your duvet as well as two blankets, you rubbed your limbs together, trying to generate more body heat through friction. It was the heart of winter, meaning the air temperature was the coldest it's been in a year; the heater at the foot of the bed making seemingly no difference whatsoever.
Your eyes were tightly shut and you tried your hardest to drift off, although the same couldn't be said for your boyfriend.
Gerard had always been somewhat of an insomniac and sleep very rarely came easily to him. The night hours were usually his most creative hours, and he was finding it increasingly challenging to fall asleep, resulting in him laying on his back and gazing at the ceiling while his fingers drummed melodically.
"You know what?" he started, not even waiting for a response from you before continuing, "There are some bright coloured beetles, like "oh man wait don't eat me, dontcha see I'm poisonous" and birds are like "oh okay sorry guys". And there are some other beetles. Birds eat them very well." Gerard scrunched up his nose as he spoke, hands gesturing wildly as you inwardly groaned, just wanting to get some sleep. But Gerard wasn't done speaking yet. "Evolution! Isn't it unfair? Like, "hey, mother nature, why do you like them more than us?" or "I knew I was born into the wrong family"." He turned onto his side so that he was facing you and propped his head up on one hand. "Are you listening?"
You remained silent and slowly opened your eyes, one by one. "Wanted you to shut up at first but then I got interested," you said groggily.
He giggled before brushing your hair over your shoulder in order to expose your neck and then leaning down to press lots of gentle kisses in the nape. He moved to bury his face in your hair and inhale deeply.
"What are you doing?"
"You hair always smells really good," his muffled voice filtered through to your ears.
You smiled widely. "Go to sleep, Gerard."
"But I can't," he whined, "Can you stay up with me?"
"No, I need and love my sleep."
"And I need and love you."
"I need and love you too," you sighed, giving in to his adorableness.
"I need and love you more."
"I need and love you most."
"That's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible."
"The chances of you loving me more than I love you are."
"Oh yeah? Prove it."
"Marry me."
"What?" you asked in disbelief, not sure whether or not you had heard your boyfriend correctly.
"Marry me," Gerard repeated, a sincere look on his face as he stared lovingly at you.
Since you were in shock, you couldn't seem to form any coherent sentences and instead ended up just staring back at Gerard, blinking rapidly as if trying to wake up from a dream. Gerard reached over to the nightstand on his side of the bed and pulled open the drawer, reaching his hand in to retrieve a small, black velvet box. He opened it to reveal the most splintering, gorgeous ring you had ever seen, earning a gasp from you.
"This isn't exactly how I planned it but... my love, you mean absolutely everything to me. You're my life. I could go on and on about how much I love you and how much you mean to me but I could never truly put into words how I feel about you. So, (Y/N) (Y/L/N), will you marry me?"
You were crying at this point, and just managed to choke out a 'yes', Gerard smiling as he slid the ring onto your finger. Delirious with happiness, you laughed as you rolled the two of you over so that you were on top of Gerard, grabbing and tugging his hair to bring his mouth to yours.
You never ended up going back to sleep.
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Thank you for reading x