A/N: Originally written due to an anon coming at me for not writing enough m/f fics or some nonsense like that. I don't appreciate people coming at me like that. I wrote this out of spite, and truly it is my favorite thing I've written in a while.

It's a serious fic, I promise. I just took some liberties with it to get back at anon.

It's 11:47 am on Sunday when Natalia starts to think about herself.

Who is she, exactly? An identity crisis at twenty-nine after spending two centuries in a freezer doesn't seem too strange. She's shed a lot of her old identity, some of it willingly and some of it not so much. Who is she now, at this point in time? A few answers pop up in her mind, coming to her easily enough. Natalia Wong, former vault dweller from Vault 111, Sentinel of the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel, destroyer of the Institute, Courser killer, crackshot with a laser rifle, girlfriend and possibly future wife of Elder Arthur Maxson.

That last part sticks with her a little bit.

Wife. With the way things are going with Arthur, that seems like a highly likely possibility. It wouldn't surprise Natalia if she was presented with a ring, or whatever they use these days to propose. Would Arthur get her a ring? He certainly had the means to have one made. Would it be more like making a pact, knowing how formal the Brotherhood is about these kinds of things? Marriage already is a sort of agreement, after all, and Natalia doesn't put it past the Brotherhood to have made proposal by the Elder into some sort of huge official endeavor with rules and regulations. Natalia wouldn't care about dealing with all of that, but...

Wife.

She's not so sure about being Maxson's wife.

Maybe it is the weird amount of rules that are bound to be around the whole process. She's fine with being Sentinel Natalia Wong, but somehow being Elder Maxson's wife is not a title she finds herself exactly wanting to carry. Which is ridiculous, she tells herself, because she loves Arthur.

But the word stabs itself in her brain, and she can't seem to quite shake it loose. Her discomfort grows, and Natalia wonders why one word could cause her so much annoyance.

Arthur has never really thought of himself being anyone's husband, he realizes at 1:19 pm on Monday.

Maybe it's because he's young. Certainly, there is a pressure on him to marry and continue his bloodline, but nobody seems to be in too much of a rush over it yet. He's still got a great deal of years in his future, hopefully more if life is good to him. At twenty-five, he still has plenty of time to find a suitable partner who can bear children for him.

Maybe that someone is Natalia?

He hopes so, at least. He wants it to be her, even though he knows that his respect for her wishes to avoid pregnancy at all cost will definitely cause problems. Perhaps she'll change her mind in the future, or perhaps he'll find a way to still have children and stay married to Natalia. Arthur understands her unwillingness. He wouldn't object to never having children of his own, but the Brotherhood has expectations for him; take the position of High Elder, get married, have children.

They're not actually very high expectations, if he's honest.

Still, if he's going to be marrying anyone, Arthur would very much want it to be Natalia. He loves her. Maybe he's too young at the moment to properly judge how their relationship will progress. But he'll be twenty-six soon, and the sooner he gets the whole marriage deal out of the way the less he has to put up with from the other Elders. It would be nice to live with less breathing down his neck.

But... husband. Arthur Maxson, a husband. That's not something he can really see himself being. Eventually, he'll have to be one though. It's not as if the Brotherhood would let him get away with being a bachelor his whole life. Being a husband, he thinks, and frowns to himself at his desk. He wouldn't be a very good husband.

The damned word is still stuck in Natalia's head at 8:52 pm on Tuesday.

What's wrong with being a wife, she asks herself, when she's entirely willing to be someone's girlfriend? She and Arthur have been together for roughly five years now. They're entirely serious about their relationship. All it's lacking is some sort of official recognition, and, to be quite honest, Natalia would enjoy the security of that. If the Brotherhood acknowledges that she and Arthur are a pair, that she is with Arthur and Arthur is with her, Natalia has nothing to worry about. She would never have to worry about being pushed aside for an arranged marriage or a breach of code. Natalia has never exactly sought the Brotherhood's approval with anything before, but Arthur is another matter altogether. She'll play by the rules for his sake. Which says quite a lot when the most notable thing that the Brotherhood generally considers about Sentinel Wong is her near-overuse of her freedom from the chain of command that comes with being a Sentinel.

(Natalia swears up and down that she's heard Kells yell at his soldiers that they're not the Sentinel, they don't get to make up their own damn rules.)

If she's so willing to play by the Brotherhood's bullshit rules for Arthur, then why can't she be willing enough to be his wife? It isn't anything to do with feeling inferior to him or something. Maybe the Brotherhood might try to do that to her, but she knows who she is. She's a Sentinel, a trusted soldier of the Elder, and getting married to said Elder would not change a single thing. Natalia had never been a kind of homemaker wife who thrived on domesticity before the war, she certainly isn't now, and Arthur accepted that. He would never let anyone force Natalia into a role she didn't want, right?

Still. Wife. Maybe it's the knowledge that her idea of a wife is different from everyone else's idea of a wife, but Natalia doesn't want to be Arthur's wife.

12:38 pm on Wednesday marks the halfway point of the week, which Arthur has summarily wasted by having all of his thoughts consumed by whether he should propose to Natalia or not.

He's been equal parts psyching himself up for the actual proposal and reassuring himself that yes, he wants to be Natalia's husband. He's been avoiding that word in his head though. Yes, he loves her. Yes, he wants to marry her. As long as his mind stays on those two statements, he's fine. The fluttering in his chest is a good one, an excited one, a slightly apprehensive one maybe, but it's not a doubtful one.

And the issue seems to go back and forth, anyway. Yesterday he thought of being able to call himself Natalia's husband, and he had smiled to himself. The finality of it, the way the word sounded in his mouth, it seemed to fit. And yet today he finds himself avoiding it at all cost.

What the hell is wrong with him?

There's a ring in his desk, protected in a beautiful wooden case lined with soft fur that had come from all the way from California. It's silver rather than gold, the smallest of rebellions against convention that Arthur knows that Natalia would appreciate, and besides, she likes silver better. Something about matching her armor and her Sentinel flight suit, if he remembers correctly. There's no stone, just a silver band with an engraving inside.

He'll have his own ring too, once they get married. A matching one with a matching engraving, silver as well. He'll be her husband.

And there's that ugly discomfort again, curling in the pit of Arthur's stomach. Maybe it's the thought that the Brotherhood will try to reach into their relationship once she's married to him, but Arthur doesn't want to be Natalia's husband.

Natalia wakes up at 6:13 am on Thursday and immediately closes her eyes as she spots her old wedding ring lying on the nightstand, gold glinting at her in the early morning sun.

Arthur shoves the drawer of his desk closed a little too hard at 10:55 pm on Friday, sending the box with the ring inside to tumble around rather noisily before he gets up in a huff.

It's exactly 2:00 am on Saturday when Natalia and Arthur both turn to each other in bed.

"You go first," they say simultaneously, already knowing that there's a conversation to be had. Neither of them have gotten any sleep this past week, and tonight is no exception. Natalia raises an eyebrow, indicating that Arthur should speak, and Arthur's brow furrows, indicating that Natalia should speak.

"I want to hear what you have to say first before I do," he explains. "It might be dependent on what you say."

"Same for me, actually," Natalia replies.

"Nata, go ahead."

"No, it's... well okay, it's not really anything. I was just thinking about something weird."

"Has something been bothering you?"

"Not exactly. But you have something to say too, right?"

Arthur gives her a look, one of those "this isn't the end of this conversation, it's just a pause" kind that he tends to give her a lot.

"Natalia, you know that I love you, right?"

"Well, yes, of course I do."

"And you know that I care about you, and no matter what the Brotherhood may say about you or our relationship that I-"

"You sound like you're trying to break up with me, Jesus Christ."

"...that's actually quite the opposite of what I'm trying to do. Natalia, I want to get married."

"You've said that before, along with 'but I don't know when would be a good time to do so.'"

Arthur turns his face into the pillow, a sort of faceplant in exasperation.

"Nata, you know that I'm no good at timing. It's two in the morning. I'm asking you now. This is my proposal. I want you to be my wife."

Wife. That word again. Natalia stares at Arthur; she's not shocked at all at this proposal. She knows that it was coming. But... god, no, wife. Girlfriend, she can do. Wife? No. Her stomach turns, and Natalia ducks her head to avert her eyes.

"I..."

"Natalia?"

The bed creaks as Arthur shifts to move closer to Natalia. She immediately grabs the front of his shirt, pulling him in, her head still curled in to keep from looking Arthur in the eye.

"Are you alright?"

"Arthur," she sobs against his chest, "I don't want to be your wife."

Arthur goes very still against her for a moment, before his arms wrap around her shoulders and he hugs her tightly against him.

"That's... that's alright. I'm sorry. I should have- I thought, because of what we spoke of before-"

"No! Arthur, wait, you don't understand-"

"Natalia, if you're not-"

Natalia pulls back, both hands planted on Arthur's chest. Tears streak down her cheeks, and she blinks to clear her eyes.

"Listen to me, you don't understand. I want to marry you. I want to be married to you. I want that. But- god, I hear the word 'wife' and my brain starts screaming at me and I hate myself all over again."

"It's okay if you're not ready," Arthur says, concern in his voice, and Natalia wants to smack her head against the headboard because he still doesn't get it.

"No, this has nothing to do with my first husband or Shaun or any of that. It's just- wives are women, Arthur, and half the time I don't even know if I'm a woman-"

Natalia lets out a frustrated huff and buries her face into the pillow. Arthur hears a muffled scream, and gently places his hand on her shoulder.

"...is that what's been bothering you lately?" he asks quietly. Natalia nods, face still shoved into her pillow.

Arthur is quiet again for a moment. And then he chuckles softly, shifting closer to take Natalia's hand in his.

"And now you're making fun of me." The sound is a little muffled, but Arthur can still make out Natalia's words.

"I promise I'm not."

"You're laughing at me."

"I'm not laughing at you."

"You're laughing at what I said."

"Natalia, I'm not going to laugh at someone who just admitted to struggling with something that I do too."

That certainly gets her attention. Her head turns just enough so that she can look at Arthur through one eye, and he pulls her hand up to his lips to press a quick kiss to her knuckles.

"I've been convincing myself all week that I'm comfortable with being your husband," he starts to explain. "And some days are much easier than others to do that. I could be fine with it one day, and then the next day wonder if I could somehow get away with only ever being referred to as your spouse."

"...you never told me you were struggling with that."

"And you never did either."

"Well, it wasn't really a problem until recently."

"And it wasn't a thought I had put much consideration into either until recently."

Natalia's gaze flickers away from Arthur for a moment before she rolls back onto her side.

"You're sure you still want to marry me?" she asks.

"I am. And you?"

"Well, I mean... I'll be your spouse any day of the week. So yeah. I'm sure I still want to marry you."

Arthur smiles and Natalia scoots closer to him so that he can pull her into a hug. She tucks her head under his chin, sighing softly.

"How do you feel about having a wife?" Arthur asks, his voice suddenly a little quieter.

"I dunno. What does she look like?"

"Very dark brown hair, blue eyes, an undercut, a big scar across her cheek. Sometimes she'd rather be your husband or your spouse, though."

"She sounds pretty. What's her name?"

Arthur kisses the top of Natalia's head.

"No idea yet."

"Well, it's now... a quarter past two in the morning, so I guess deciding that should happen when we're all a little more awake."

They both quiet after that, having finally put their respective concerns to rest; Arthur reminds himself to give Natalia the ring first thing in the morning, but there's one more thing that's bothering him.

"Nata. Were you... uncomfortable with being my girlfriend?"

"No. I was perfectly fine with that. Which is why I don't know why wife is such a damn problem for me."

"Alright. Will you promise to tell me if something bothers you like this again?"

"It wasn't really a problem until now."

"Natalia."

"I will, I will. The same goes for you."

"Of course."

At 8:27 am on Saturday, Natalia opens her eyes to find Arthur in front of her, a ring between his fingers.

"I know you like silver better than gold," he says, and Natalia smiles.

"That's not real silver, is it?"

"Unfortunately no, but it is titanium."

"Goddamn. You cut that out of a vertibird just for me?"

Arthur laughs and leans in to kiss Natalia before slipping the ring onto her finger. It fits just a little bit loose, but stays put.

"We're gonna get married. I'm gonna be your spouse," she giggles, and kisses Arthur. "God, I'm gonna be your spouse, and you're gonna be my spouse, and- I'm so excited."

"I love you, Natalia," Arthur says, resting his forehead against hers.

"I love you too."