Apparently I'm just in the stage of grief that necessitates writing super saccharine fluff. Thanks for the reviews lately. As long as you're reading, I guess I'll keep writing.
Walter didn't think he'd ever been more nervous.
Which was ridiculous, obviously. Someone who had stared down death as many times as he had should have nerves of steel. But when it came to saving the world, success or failure was squarely on his shoulders.
Pinning his hopes—his future—on a single word from another person was a significantly different matter.
"God, it's beautiful out here," Paige murmured, sweeping her hair over one shoulder. Her toes curled into the sand and she sighed, a little happy noise she always made when she was watching the sunset. "This was a good idea."
"Mmhmm," he agreed, afraid to say anything more substantial. He compulsively brushed his fingers over his pocket, reassured for the twenty-seventh time that the ring was still there. He'd been carrying it around for a week, waiting for the exact right time. Of course, Scorpion being what it was, that right time was almost invariably shattered by an impending disaster.
He didn't know how she hadn't figured it out. Walter was wound so tightly it might as well have been stamped on his forehead.
"So, uh…" The genius cleared his throat. It had to be now, before their perfect moment was thrown into chaos again. "I-I need to talk to you about something. Something…i-important."
Paige glanced sideways at him, raising an eyebrow. "You're not breaking up with me, are you?"
"No! No." She'd said it teasingly, but given their history, he thought it wise to make that absolutely clear. "Of course not."
"Good." Paige hugged her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them as she looked out at the ocean. "Because there's something I want to talk to you about too."
Waiting was killing him, but he'd already waited five years. What was a few more minutes?
Besides, if something was bothering her, he didn't want that hanging over her head when he proposed. "Okay. You go first."
She nodded, biting the inside of her cheek. "I've been thinking a lot lately. About…about us. Where we're going." Walter's stomach was trying to claw its way out of his body, and he found himself relieved that she'd joked about breaking up earlier, since that made it significantly less likely that was happening now. "I love you so much, Walter. And we've been through so much and I…I know it hasn't always been easy. I'm not sure it's ever been easy. But I know we're supposed to be together. We've never succeeded at being apart."
Paige exhaled, dropping her leg into the sand and angling to face him. She looked almost as nervous as he felt and for the life of him, he had no idea what she was working up to.
"I know what's it's like to not be with you and I don't ever want that again. And I know…" Paige reached out, wrapping both of her hands around his and squeezing them. "I know that I've left before when things got hard. I've gotten better, but I want to show you that I don't plan on leaving again. So…" She swallowed, her smile shaky and hopeful. "Walter, do you want to get married?"
For a long moment, his brain went entirely blank. Paige was looking at him expectantly and his first thought when his faculties returned was that he'd somehow blacked out from anxiety and asked her without realizing it. "Did I say I wanted to get married?"
Her smile faded and she pulled her hands back, and Walter suddenly realized how his words could be—had been—misconstrued. "No, no, no. Paige…" The genius fumbled, reaching into the wrong pocket before his fingers finally closed around the ring and he pulled it out triumphantly. Explanations didn't always come to him in time. Occasionally, he just had to rely on charades. "See?"
Her eyes widened, darting between him and the platinum band he'd asked Happy to make according to his specifications. She looked…well, about as shocked and speechless as he'd been thirty seconds earlier. "Is that…you were…" Paige stared at him. And then she crumbled, bursting into laughter and clasping her hand over her mouth. "Did we really just…?"
A smile broke across Walter's face as he lowered his hand back into his lap. "I guess I didn't need to worry about you saying yes?"
"Likewise." Paige pressed her lips together, her face flushing an adorable shade of pink. "I'm sorry. Did you have a whole speech planned out?"
"It wasn't as good as yours."
"I'd still like to hear it sometime." She scooted forward in the sand, placing her palm on his cheek and looking into his eyes. "Are we actually gonna do this?"
It all hit him at once—that she was agreeing, that she wanted this enough to ask him first, how painfully stunning she looked in the orange light from the falling sun. Walter felt like he was going to pass out, but in the good way that he hadn't quite figured out how to explain yet.
His answer was to lift her hand, sliding the thin band over her finger. It was barely on before Paige crushed her mouth to his, throwing her arms around his neck and nearly knocking him backward.
"Take me home, nerd," she whispered, smiling against his lips. "We've got some celebrating to do."