// NEED YOU HERE TONIGHT.

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

the scariest day of annie's life had been waking up in the hospital. the shock from it, just the sheer shock, was enough to give it that title. waking up to the blinding lights, and the scent of bleach was so strong that it literally burned her nose and made her want to gag. she felt like the lights were burning her up. the bed sheets were so crisp and unforgiving, annie felt like she was in a morgue. she didn't know what anything was and she hated the monotonus sounds of the beeps that let her know what she already knew - what her body was doing. there was also the sweeping guilt. relief that her baby was gone, guilt that she would ever think that. and then the lingering feelings of missing it, of wanting back what never was. she would never really have a first kid again. she wasn't one of those people that believed that, you know, a fetus was alive and stuff, it was just... things like this messed stuff up like that. and it had been scary. the only thing that kept annie from screaming was denny immediately pulling himself into bed, burying his head against her and just telling her how grateful he was. maybe annie was selfish, but she liked that, that he was so worried and holding her close. annie liked to feel that way completely all the time. she didn't know why she wanted his attention so fully, so badly, so frequently. lack of attention had never bothered annie before.

it was just... annie had never had something that was her's. that sounded weird, it sounded bad. but really, she liked the idea that denny was her's and that she would always have him. she didn't want to share; it was low on her list of things to do. she just wanted all of him, all the time. things were picking up and they needed things, she guessed. maybe jobs. but that didn't really matter to her. just to have denny there with her, just to know that he felt happy with her, that he would pay attention to her all the time. she wans't sure if it asked a lot of him or not, but she liked being with him. annie didn't want anything but that, his arms around her that were warm and just the perfect amount of pressure. he knew her, he knew what she liked and what set her off. he was a quick learner, or maybe they were just always meant to be together. maybe it was some predetermined thing and he was just born with scripts in his mind, memories that taught his body what to do around annie. she wasn't sure if she really believed it, but she didn't mind the idea of it.

she smiled shyly, looking down slightly as his hand slid to the side of her face and he was kissing her again. annie loved kissing denny. she wished it was a sport, or something she could make money off of. really just wishful thinking, though, because she wouldn't want that at all. it was a light thing for them, it was her loving him and feeling good. she remembered when he first kissed her and it had been like a melodramatic shot of adrenaline and she just needed so much after that. and she got it, and she liked it. she moved closer so that their bodies lined up the way she knew they were really good at, and she wrapped her arms around his neck so that she could hold him in that spot. he could pull back so easily, the way he always could. but he never once did. annie liked the way he didn't deny her anything.

when he pulled back annie's hand with the ring moved to the side of his face, and she kept his face near her. she rubbed her thumb lightly against his cheekbone. "good morning," she corrected, and kept smiling. she couldn't think of the last time she had smiled this much. she felt relaxed, she felt easy. annie needed protection to feel like this, the soft stability that was balanced and gave her life a backbone. she wasn't sure how stable anything was, but it felt like it. annie still felt so scared, but it was like suddenly she had swallowed up that fear, somewhere deep inside her, and she was confident about everything. she moved her head to the curve of his neck, so her forehead was resting against his neck. denny's skin was warm and she sighed, kissing his neck. the way that everything was wrapped up just between the two of them was special. the way that she felt like she wasn't missing anything.. she kissed him less lightly. "and i doubt that." she said, referring to how he loved her more.


idk short - idk she's wearing some big ratty t shirt and boyshorts - lyrics from manchester orchestra - la la la

[/quote]

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

I JUST FEEL COMPLETE
when you're by my side ,

There really hadn’t been any span of peace in Denny’s life. At least, not up until recently, and he meant really recently. His head had been filled with indifference, loneliness, rapid depression, and some more indifference throughout his life, but he’d never really found peace until he’d had mornings, nights, and afternoons like this. Peace to Denny didn’t come when he was shifting, though he felt close enough to peace in that frame of mind. Sure, for a little while, shifting granted him the ability to forget that he had human issues, and possibly even to forget that he was a human if he wasn’t a bird. That would clear his mind up and it made him feel whole and good to some extents, but it didn’t fill him with peace and utter tranquility the way that being like this with Annie did. Being a bird meant that something was up – good or bad – and he just needed to think of something else for a little bit. But being close to Annie, being with her in his bed just relaxing like this….. It was something that did give him that peace and tranquility that he didn’t know all too well.

Denny could just close his eyes and pretend that the world didn’t exist – that it was just him and Annie in the universe – and everything would somehow make sense. The sun would still shine and there’d be no famine, no war, no starving – nothing negative would exist if he and Annie were the only two living humans/beings on the planet, since they weren’t completely human. They could be whatever they wanted to be, whenever they wanted to be that – the same thing went for doing something. The world, the universe would be theirs, and Denny liked the thought. The irrational image of him and Annie owning the universe lead to more irrational thoughts; like maybe he could promise Annie the universe, and he’d give it to her if she wanted it. Somewhere in that mind of his that always contradicted its self, Denny knew he could never do that – and that was what prevented him from promising so much. His honesty prevented him from making promises that he couldn’t keep. Knowing that much, Denny smiled through the realization that he had to stick with the promises he’d already made. He could give himself to Annie forever because she was the only one he wanted to give himself to. He could promise her forever because forever without Annie was dark and cut short with the reminder that he did have Annie. He could promise to be a better person for her because that’s what people in love did. They became people that each other wanted to be; it was an inevitable change, and sometimes when people resisted the inevitable, their love crumbled under the necessary change.

That wasnot going to happen with Annie and Denny; he wouldn’t allow it. Before Annie, Denny didn’t know who he’d been. He’d just been a shell that his mother had kept together quite carefully. But as the story went, Annie had come into his life and, little by little, had given him a personality. She’d given him the chance to be the person he should have been in high school – where instead, he’d been indifferent to everything, and he cared for very few things back then. His entire world was built because of Annie; she’d taken bricks and pieces of what was a man and laid them out, though she hadn’t really done much other than that. It had been Denny’s connection to Annie and her way of accepting him that had built up the bricks, and when she finally admitted she loved him, she put the cement up to make permanent who Denny was. He was definitely a better person for her, because of her. Her existence made up so much of him that if something happened to her, he was sure he’d just burst into a million pieces; half of him would be so ashamed that he hadn’t tried to stop whatever it was that did whatever it did to her, and half of him would just be so crushed that she wasn’t where she was right at that moment that he would just….break. But he didn’t like to think about that, because thinking that he was going to loose Annie was almost as bad as actually loosing her. He took the thoughts of that event, whatever it wasn’t, crumpled them up in his mind and formed a trash bin somewhere in the back, dunking those thoughts in to get rid of them forever.

Annie’s hand on his face felt so good, and it brought him back into reality. The ring against his face reminded him that he had to grow a pair and ask her to marry him before the two of them got to thirty, but that little sarcastic remark made him sigh-chuckle. Her correction would have made him do the same thing, so his reaction to his own thought didn’t really make him look too insane, which was good for a light, comfortable morning like this. “Technicalities. Who needs ‘em?” Denny playfully rolled his eyes with his smile still on his face before kissing Annie again. His fingers followed her hers had on his face; he stroked her cheek and subliminally was reminded that he didn’t have a ring to match hers. He thought that was a bit unfair, but the only person to blame that on was himself. He’d only bought one ring for Annie because he hadn’t proposed to her, even though he knew after he’d told her what the ring was for that he actually could have taken that step. When he pulled ever so slightly back again, he popped his lips just for a bit of comedy and said, “But indeed, it’s quite good.” His smile grew against Annie’s lips, and his eyes found hers. Just because he felt like being that cheesy boyfriend he was sort of used to being, he pushed some of her hair behind her ear and kissed her again, only pulling back again to speak again. “You’re extraordinarily beautiful.”

Yeah, he hated using the word ‘beautiful’ because it was such an understatement to him, but he had no other word. Denny couldn’t use gorgeous or pretty or beautiful without some other word to further support what he thought when it came to Annie’s amazing beauty. It just didn’t happen, and if it happened to happen, it was a pure slip of the tongue. He just couldn’t find a word to describe the way he saw Annie – there was no one word to say all of what he felt like he knew. So to reinforce his feelings further, he kissed her again, staying there longer, keeping his thoughts to himself so he didn’t have to interrupt this kiss with words. His hand returned to her cheek, keeping her smooth skin there under his hand because he liked the feel of it. He could smell the potatoes and knew they’d be ready soon, but not too soon. He didn’t have to bring them up because he knew that if he could smell them, so could Annie, so he just kept kissing her because honestly, he’d rather be doing that than anything else. Even eating.


1221 words -- op denny's just wearing some boxers -- i made it all but lyrics go to a day to remember -- bloop even cuter denny is cute

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

his hand rested on her cheek, too, missing a substantial thing that annie's hand possesed. annie didn't like the kind of feeling that she was running out of time. the feeling that she was rushing, that things needed to hurry. she felt like she was about to turn the page to another chapter, like she was just waiting for denny to guide her hand in the process of it. she didn't like feeling like this, like the need to get married was so strong because it wasn't. she guessed she really just wanted to be engaged, like that would be enough for her.

for a minute, annie let herself think about it. she wondered what it would be like to get married. would denny let her be one of those girls who decided to lose weight to fit into their dress? she would want to do that. after that initial thought busted through the floodgates of her mind it wasn't hard for all these other pessimisstic thoughts to worm their way into her mind. they were silly thoughts that she normally wouldn't have given even a first glance at. who would give her away? annie had more or less disowned all of her family. she didn't like the thought of her dad coming back into her life because it would just be awkward. they might as well be strangers. she didn't even know the first thing about going about finding him. and there would be so much planning annie would want to rip her head out. it would be so... grossly domestic. the thought of things like that were an immediate turn off for annie, and they made her want to curl up and push everything away.

but when she thought about it more, the image morphed. that was denny that she would be marrying and suddenly everything was different. it wouldn't be conventional, especially if annie could help it. they had never been conventional, nor had their relationship. annie didn't see any point in starting then. god, she would want to be pretty. she would want to be so absolutely gorgeous. to be blunt, eloping wouldn't do for her. she wanted a spectacle. that seemed so out of place for annie, but it was what she wanted. she wanted the big really pretty, flowy dress that would look perfect on her in all the right places. she wanted it to be pretty, with... well not flowers because that wasn't annie's thing. she liked the flowers from by her old apartment but that wasn't the kind of thing that would work for that. mabye those vines that strangled everything. annie liked those. no matter how she wrapped her mind around it, the center of the image remaind the same. she tried to pull herself back and focus on other things, but her head and her heart immediately rushed to the same image, immediately disregarded everything because in reality only one thing would matter to annie, out of all the meticulous planning and big steps.

because the one constant, the one thing that had always been constant, was denny. that's all that would matter, that's all that did matter. all annie needed was denny. she got chills thinking about being really close. she felt like she wouldn't be close enough to just stand in front of some pastor and wait to kiss him. annie would need to be really close and she would need denver to hold her so tight that she felt like her ribs would collapse. she would be afraid of running, afraid that she would lost control and fall back on what she knew so well. she was so afraid of all of that, but she knew that it really didn't matter. just having denny close to her and looking up at him. god, she could picture his smile and she felt her skin crawl in a good way. she was getting goosebumps thinking about this and now she wanted it to happen with every cell, every molecule, every atom in her body. she just wanted to have denny forever and she wanted to see him smile like he was looking at his whole world. that's what annie wanted to be for him, no matter what. it's what she hoped she already was.

in the present, in his arms, in this bed, annie kissed him again and her body just responded to denny's, and it breathed when his body gave her room to, it moved the way his did, she felt like her skin was rising up to meet his. her mind wandered a bit, and she wrinkled her nose as he pulled away a bit. "what's that smell?" she said lightly, her lips brushing against his as she spoke because that's how close they were. annie didn't mind that at all though. honestly, she could have just found out what the smell was herself but she was too lazy, and even looking into it just smell wise was too much work for her when she was here and her attention was otherwise placed.

annie's mind continued to wander, much in the same direction it had before. she thought about denny's dream a long time ago with kids. her stomach hurt. so close, and she had ruined it. if not for what she had dont after christmas they would be so close. annie shouldn't be sitting like this right now. she should be bigger. she wanted to cringe at the thought. she wanted to apologize to him again. she didn't know what to do now and she felt like she was going to cry. half of annie wanted to say that she could fit the position of wife. she would be so odd, so detatched. it reminded her of this movie where a man had schizophrenia and they did a lobotamy. after that he was so... almost gone. he was there, but spaced. that's how annie would be. it wouldn't be different from now. that was kind of depressing for her to realize, but it would be like this, but with kids - annie would only pay half a mind to them. she'd be too caught up in her own world and denny would have to do all the cleaning and picking up after everyone. annie would try but she wouldn't do very good.

annie refused to believe that, actually. she actually thought she might be good at it, especially with denny's help. she thought she could be good. she could make denny happy. she could be everything that he wanted. she would try, because that's what she did. annie sniffed lightly, and kissed him again. her heart beat slooppily in her chest, loud and awkward. it was a hint to what was going through her head. suddenly annie was very far away, much more than she would like. she pulled back a little annd really crashed her lip's against denny's much harder. she didn't like feeling far away when he was so close and felt so good. her lips moved and her teeth tugged at his bottom lip lightly, and her fingertips brushed his face gently.

for annie, being with denny was different than anyone she had ever been with, even in just a physical sense. everything was so intimate, everything had meaning. there wasn't one move she made, one kiss, one brush against his skin, that didn't have so much love and affection tied to it. it was so new for her, but she was so used to it at the same time. it was familiar because it came with denny. she loved it for the very same reason.


1269 - idk she's wearing some big ratty t shirt and boyshorts - lyrics from manchester orchestra - la la la

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

I JUST FEEL COMPLETE
when you're by my side ,

Denver found it a little odd, but not in a bad way, that Annie had bypassed all that he’d said. He hadn’t expected a verbal reaction to his words, but it just seemed odd to him that he was laying so much out on the table for Annie to indulge in and she was just kissing him instead of indulging. Didn’t most girls like to indulge in the sweet things their boyfriends said? Well, even if that was the actual case, it wasn’t like Annie was like most other girls. She was far from ‘most’ girls. Her life, her reactions, everything about her was just unconventional, which explained a lot about their relationship. Denny didn’t really care about being unconventional though; being this way or not didn’t make two differences to him at all. He adored how different Annie was from other girls, but that didn’t make his surprise any lesser. And it wasn’t a demeaning surprise; he was just a bit stunned that she hadn’t reacted more to the words ‘extraordinarily beautiful’, especially because he’d made it clear that beautiful wasn’t a word he could use to describe what he thought Annie looked like.

He couldn’t keep thinking in that confused matter. It would ruin the morning and utterly turn him off, which was not something he wanted to experience after realizing how neglectful he’d been recently. He wanted to make Annie happy today, even if that happy was by his own standards (i.e., the potatoes heating up in the kitchen). Honestly though, if she was happy, he would be too. But he bet if you asked Annie, she would say the same thing; she’d be happy if he was happy. At least, Denny sort of hoped she would answer in such a manner. She hadn’t responded verbally to his compliments, but then again he wasn’t going to let himself get hanged up over that. He had to stop thinking about that, so he just smiled at her question but didn’t answer at first. He didn’t care to answer because he figured Annie might figure it out on her own, but if she didn’t in a few seconds he’d tell her just to keep this fair. And he meant fair in the sense that he didn’t want to start a riot by not answering her; it would just be rude to ignore Annie’s question even if she didn’t need an answer anyway.

When she said nothing to signal that she knew what he was up to, Denny sighed, but not in an exasperated or agitated tone. He just sighed because he could, to be quite honest. “Making some hash browns for breakfast. Just figured I would since I had them.” Frankly, Denny didn’t have a better explanation. He shrugged a bit, just still smiling because he couldn’t seem to stop. Annie started to seem far off, but he couldn’t really blame her. They were just laying there, not really speaking too often. They had each other, so speaking wasn’t really a top priority. Denny knew he could just lay there with Annie all day, just take in what he had and kiss her and hold her just because she was there. He just stayed quiet because she was staying quiet, and suddenly he didn’t really care if the potatoes burned. He’d just throw them out if they got to that point, even though he did have to admit that burnt hash browns were better than chewy hash browns. Either way, it wasn’t about the potatoes anymore; it was about just being right there with Annie, even if that was a totally cheesy and very romantic-comedy way of putting things.

His hand on her face stroked her cheek again, lightly and slowly just to keep that mood about them. His smile faltered just a bit, only so much that it turned more into a smirk. Her silence almost troubled him, mostly because of the way that she just felt so distant from him. Denny shouldn’t be worrying, as he didn’t really have much room to blame her for that. He’d been distant himself recently, and this should be a punishment, a sort of karma, for his own actions. Still, this looking off as if she wasn’t all there was starting to worry Denver. He wasn’t worried that Annie was thinking about another guy; he wasn’t worried that she was worrying about her past; he was just worried that she was getting caught up in her own thoughts and that, if he pulled her out of those thoughts, she’d just go off on him and storm out of the apartment. He probably deserved that for something he couldn’t remember doing, but he wouldn’t admit that until she was gone. The saying ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone’ didn’t really mean anything to Denny just yet; if Annie walked out on him, he’d give it some relevance to his life. Until then, he was going to take that for granted – at least, the saying – because it didn’t hold any relevance. Annie was right there; what did he have to really worry about? She wasn’t squirming or moving, she was just….thinking, and that much was obvious to Denny.

“Annie,” he said softly, just trying to get her to focus again. It wasn’t about focusing on him per say, it was just about getting her to get out of a place that he was almost scared of. After the last week, Denny didn’t know what was going to happen on a mental level, and he wouldn’t be sure of that for at least a few days. So it wasn’t really that he didn’t trust Annie and her own thoughts, it was just that he didn’t trust his reactions to what those thoughts might be. His thumb traced the top of her cheek bone, then came back down and ran along her jaw a few centimeters in one direction, then another few centimeters in the other. He looked from one eye to the other, then back and again a few times because he found it hard to keep a hold on one eye and look into both at the same time. “What’re you thinking about?” His curious tone was honest, hopefully telling Annie that he wasn’t attacking her, he just wanted to know. He was just wondering what had made her trail like that, even though he hadn’t really noticed that much. Her eyes had just been a big distant, and her body had been a little too stoic for her to be all there at once. Well, when Denny had nothing else to pay attention to, he became a bit too intuitive to Annie, not that he thought she really minded too much.

Denny smiled again and kissed Annie, just to give her a bit more time, just in case she wasn’t ready to talk to him. “You’re beautiful when you think.” What was he even saying? Denny didn’t know; his mind didn’t seen to be working the way that Annie’s looked like it had been just seconds ago. Denny was prone to saying the wrong things when situations like this came around, so he kept his mouth closed and just watched Annie’s eyes. That was the safest thing he could think to do.


1213words -- op denny's just wearing some boxers -- i made it all but lyrics go to a day to remember -- wow this was weak in the content department sorry bb

[ANNABELLE MARIE HURLEY]

his thumb across her cheekbone made her sigh and close her eyes because it was relaxing. it was relaxing to spend a morning just like that, soft and quiet and not demanding. it was a unique change from what they could usually have, which was intense and sometimes scary. it wasn't something you could take lightly. again, though, this wasn't something you could take lightly either. it was a simple gesture, it was a simple morning, but annie could feel the effects of it. she could feel how deep the emotions tied to this ran. annie wasn't scared of that, actually. normally emotions freaked her out, especially her own, especially something like this. she still hda that subconcious feeling of panic, just the small amount that was pushing through her balance. it freaked her out and that added to a bit of panic. sometimes she wished that denny could read her mind so at times like these he could just smooth back her hair and tell her emotions were nothing to be afraid of. emotions had to be one of annie's biggest fears, one of the hardest things for her to deal with. now she knew that she was missing out when she pushed certain emotions away. she was still trying to find an even balance for feelings.

annie, he said. "mm?" she mummered, her eyes still closed. she was kind of not paying attention to anything particular, just floating in the space of her mind and the space between them. her previous train of track had been lost with denny touching her like that, in that light and easy way, and so she didn't exactly know where her head had been moments before. what're you thinking about? annie opened her eyes rather abruptly because now she remembered what she was thinking about and she didn't like that at all. fuck, she thought, sunddenly worrying about what to say. because she knew what she had been thinking about. and it seemed like a taboo subject for them. annie wasn't sure why but she just felt like getting engaged, married, kids... it wasn't a discussion to be had until it was actually happening. maybe that was an unhealthy way to deal with it but annie just felt like it was something she couldn't talk about. she wasn't sure why, but... it just felt like that to her. besides the conversation they'd had on christmas, annie had stayed very far away from the topic of their furture, at least in a sense like that.

so did she lie? she wasn't sure. she went to bite her lip and denny kissed her and she felt some part of her melt. you're beautiful when you think annie smiled and she felt her body heat up because for some reason she suddenly felt so embarassed. that was the word she was looking for, that was the reason she felt as if she couldn't talk about stuff like this. it just felt embarassing for her to talk about stuff like that, it felt embarassing to be caught in the action of thinking about stuff like that. she felt like a little kid imaginging her wedding, or something. she didn't know, she just... annie found it impossible to talk about stuff like this, and it was evident in her body language. she liked all the compliments he was feeding her and that was basically the only thing that kept her from just shutting down on him. she sighed.

"i-i was just..." annie looked down. "fuck." she whispered. she felt like she was drowning in what she could say and what she couldn't. it was too late to shrug it off, it was too late to come up with a convincing lie, and it was really too late to back out of what she was saying. she looked down. "weddings." she mumbled, looking down. she felt the blood rush to her face in a very incriminating blush that was probably heating up his fingers there. annie didn't know what to say from there, even though she had been thinking about everything else that went with weddings, like marriage and kids and all this other stuff. sometimes annie felt like she was hanging by a thread, just waiting for denny to purpose or something. sometimes she hated that feeling because it was a stupid feeling. that feeling led to this idea that this time, this easy time, was limited. as soon as something else was introduced it would be a constant mad-dash of marriage and getting thigns right and kids and parenting and they would float apart. sometimes she wanted that to happen but then she thought about how difficult it would be to have times like this when it was so simple.

she didn't know if times like these were fleeting, but annie was appreciateive of them either way. it was simple and quiet and she didn't need anything but denny holding her close and kissing her and calling her beautiful and she was so content. she hated the way her mind had pushed her into frustration by thinking about things she didn't need to be thinking about. it was irritating for her. and she brought her eyebrows together in frustration, looking down again and trying to avoid looking denny in the eyes because it just sucked to feel so weird like this and she didn't like it at all and it wasn't fair to feel like this when things were supposed to be easy.


918 - idk she's wearing some big ratty t shirt and boyshorts - lyrics from manchester orchestra - la la la

[DENVER CARLOS HURLEY]

I JUST FEEL COMPLETE
when you're by my side ,

Something still wasn’t quite right. Denny didn’t mean to feel like Miss Clavel from that French book about the girl with appendicitis, but Denny just knew that asking hadn’t really settled the conversation. He felt like maybe he’d made it worse, considering the way Annie was reacting. But that was what he’d been trying to avoid. He used to have a habit of making things worse with his words, but he’d noticed that hadn’t been so for a while. He was hoping that was because he was becoming better at choosing his words and phrases carefully, but after this morning he wasn’t so sure. He was starting to doubt his own intelligence, or rather maybe his faith in what he new versus what was real. It was just that he was trying this hard to keep this morning from becoming so sour, when he thought that neglecting that bitterness would be so easy. He was utterly surprised that he had to work to keep his face straight, his words right, and Annie calm when a morning like this should just come so naturally, but he really shouldn’t have been. He’d known nothing with Annie was going to be too easy, except for loving her. His feelings held no hesitance, no regret in the department of being so much about Annie, and he was grateful for at least that.

But when she answered, Denny smiled and looked at her like she had nothing to be ashamed of. His smile wasn’t purposeless though; her blush, the way she was taking on this embarrassment, it was just…..it was something only Denny could appreciate. This definitely wasn’t something he could put into words. He couldn’t say she was beautiful (again) because that was just…… It didn’t add up to the way Denny felt about seeing this. This was something he had never seen in Annie, and he’d seen her in so many different ways before this. But seeing her blush like that……. It brightened her skin and made her look just so ravishing, but that made it sound like Denny was ready to take a bite out of her and turn her into breakfast along with the potatoes. All Denny could do was sit there, or rather lay, and just watch this happen to Annie’s body, watch her feel this thing he’d never seen her feel before. It was cute in a way that Denny couldn’t put words to, but he felt like savoring the moment was more safe than talking about it. He didn’t want Annie to get mad at him for making fun of her embarrassment when he wasn’t making fun of her at all; he really wanted to praise her for feeling that, because it showed that she could trust him with that feeling without totally freaking out and running. That meant a whole lot more than Denny could ever ask for, and above all else he knew just that.

Denny’s hand had stopped, but he hadn’t realized it until Annie was avoiding glancing at him. He sighed a bit again, just because he could really. “Why are you embarrassed to tell me that?” he said with a half-chuckle mantra. He was honestly curious, but he wanted her to know that he wasn’t holding it against her. He wanted her to know he thought it was that cute, without actually saying so. Denny’s hand that wasn’t on her face anymore traveled down to grab her other hand, just to tell her that he wasn’t going to laugh in her face like what she was feeling was a joke. He wanted her to know he was taking this seriously, but not so that the entire morning would be broken and ruined. So his hand on her face continued to rub, and Denny hoped that would get her to look at him again. “Weddings are…..a part of life. ” He shrugged again, really just to support his own statement. Weddings weren’t anything Denny really worried about – not even his own. When he was younger, he hadn’t pictured himself getting married, but then again he’d never pictured himself with a girl like Annie ever before either. Before Annie things hadn’t been about growing old with someone or being in love with someone or getting married and having a life and a family with someone. Denny’s life was now about all of that, but he still didn’t find himself freaking out over moving too fast into all of it.

“Wait,” he said, smirking. It was like he suddenly just caught on – like he’d been missing something just seconds ago that had kept him from understanding what was going on in Annie’s head. But her reaction, her embarrassment, or something about it just made him realize then what wedding she was freaking out over. It was theirs. The wedding that hadn’t been just yet, but Denny knew would be eventually. One day he’d actually get the money to go down to the jewelers again, pick out a fancier, more studded engagement ring, and one for himself to match, go home, get down on one knee, and ask Annie to marry him. At least, that was how Denny had pictured it in his own mind. He saw the tears, the good tears, the emotion, the cheesy and cliché way of going through an engagement offer, and he had to smile through it. He couldn’t think of that situation as a negative one no matter what – except for when the thought of Annie rejecting him came to mind, but those thoughts didn’t last long. Annie wouldn’t do that; she’d told him on Christmas morning that, if he’d asked her to marry him that night, she would have said yes. He had to believe she’d been telling the truth, for his sake and the sake of his faith in this relationship. Either way, he was prepared to marry Annie at any time, it was just about finding the right time.

He sighed and pushed those thoughts away, smirking at Annie still with one hand on her face and the other in her hand. “You’re not embarrassed because you were thinking about our wedding,” he started, in a slightly questioning tone, finishing with, “are you?” His smirk drew longer, into a semi-devilish smile, but only enough to make him look youthful, like he knew what he was getting himself into and he was getting himself into it anyway. To enforce that, Denny planted his lips right where they belonged – on Annie’s – and he smiled still through the kiss. His hand that was in hers slid around her waist and pulled her closer, but the hand on her face never left. When he pulled back lightly, hesitantly, he was still smiling. “That might just be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”


1130 words -- op denny's just wearing some boxers -- i made it all but lyrics go to a day to remember -- oh god i just hope he doesn't throw her off or something i dunno XD