So this is intended as a direct sequel to "Six Experiments", however, it's not necessary to have read that one before.
I just wanted to give people who didn't feel emotionally okay with reading "Six Experiments" a proposal scene between Hank and Alex.
It's awkward, it's supposed to be pretty awful... but in like, a super endearing sort of way? And I hope that I managed to capture that.
Also, in case you aren't a crazy David Bowie fan like I am, the song is "Be My Wife". I'm always a sucker for David Bowie, but I think that it fits super well in this case!
Finally, finished this just in time for Valentine's Day!
Anyway, as always, my usual proof-reader is still not to be found, so this hasn't been proof-read. Let me know if you spotted any errors so that I can fix them!
"I suppose that we're engaged now," Hank said absently. He randomly drew lines up and down Alex's naked back and arm.
She rested her chin on his breast and looked up at him. "Yes, I suppose that we are," she said after a moment. "But it's funny, because even though I'd never really pictured myself as ever getting married, I'd always just sort of thought that I would…" She trailed off and pressed her lips together. "I don't know. Feel something."
She closed her eyes and turned her head to rest her cheek on his chest again. "But maybe I'm just too emotionally raw from everything recently."
Hank's grip on her tightened. He was afraid of losing her, afraid that she'd walk away, even though she'd agreed to marry him.
Afraid that the things that she'd done had damaged her forever.
"Wait, I know!" Alex said after a moment. "I want a proposal!"
"I did propose," Hank said flattly. He had asked her to marry him and she'd said yes. Was that not a proposal by human standards?
"Yes, but I mean, I want one of those super romantic things with flowers and a nice dinner and candles. The whole nine yards!"
"Alex," Hank said slowly, drawing out her name. "I've known you for a very, very long time. And you have never once been a girl who got swept up in all of that romantic bullshit. It's one of the billion or so reasons why I love you so much. Why do you want all of that?"
"Because nothing about our relationship has been normal, and something tells me that it never will be. I don't want a fancy wedding— I'd sooner die before I put on a stupid whit dress, and I sure as hell don't want to be married inside of a church. But just this one time. Just once, Hank! I want to be completely swept off my feet!"
Tears started to form in her eyes, but she quickly blinked them back. "And besides, after everything that's happened recently, I think that I deserve some normalcy for once."
"Alright," Hank said as he gently stroked her head. "I'll sweep you off your feet." He gently kissed her forehead, and she put her cheek back onto his chest again.
Hank had watched enough romance movies with Alex to understand the basics of what Alex wanted. But what he didn't know was how he could make a romantic marriage proposal personal for the woman who didn't like romance, and scoffed at the mention of Valentine's Day.
(She also scoffed at the romance movies and made fun of them. When Hank had asked her why they kept watching them, she insisted that they were culturally relevant.)
Whenever he was in doubt about some faucet of human life, he would turn to first Alex, and then the internet. The internet was a goldmine of very valuable information. Nobody made fun of him on there for not knowing stuff, because it was frequented by socially awkward people. Not like Hank was socially awkward, but he could pretend to be.
He watched video after video of marriage proposal, and read forums about other people's proposal ideas to their respective partners.
But finally, he came up with a solid plan. He could only hope that Alex liked it.
He was glad that it was a slow day at the DEO— no aliens, at least, although Kara was flying all over the place, putting out literal fires and rescuing cats from trees and such. Nothing that needed the help of the DEO— she was more than able to do that sort of stuff on her own at this point.
Hank slipped out from the base a few hours earlier than usual so that he could set up the scene for his proposal. He stopped by the florist to pick up his order of flowers.
"You must have really messed up big-time, buddy," the man said as he helped Hank load everything into his car.
"No, I'm proposing to her," Hank explained, although he didn't know why.
"With daffodils? Nah man, you need roses. I can sell you some slightly-"
"No, it's quite alright. She isn't a rose kind of person. I think that she'd appreciate these a lot more."
"If you're sure man?"
"Trust me— I know what I'm doing," Hank said as he got into his car. "I hope."
He texted Alex to come over at eight, and to wear a nice dress. He hoped that she'd know exactly what he meant.
She showed up exactly at eight, wearing a little green dress. For a woman who hated showing off her feminine side, she sure did have a lot of dresses.
"Dinner smells delicious," Alex said.
"Thank you. I can only hope that it tastes as delicious as it smells," he said as he gestured for her to sit down at the dining room table.
"Flowers, a table-cloth, and a candle. I'm impressed, J'onn," she said. She kissed him before she sat down.
Hank dished up their plates and carried them both over to the table.
They talked easily about stuff that didn't matter. Work gossip. Kara's love-life. Star Trek.
"This is really nice," Alex said as she set her fork down on the plate.
"Thank you," he said, feeling way more confident than he felt at the moment.
"I mean it. Not just the food, which was amazing as always. But… everything."
"I've only just made dinner," Hank admitted quietly. "I prepared a song for you. Well, not really. You know I can't really sing."
"Okay," Alex said slowly. "I know that you can't sing, but I'm eager to hear your song anyway."
"It's not really my song, though. You know I don't do poetry, either."
"Right," Alex agreed as a huge smile crept across her face.
Hank stood, and gestured that Alex should do the same. Once she stood as well, he lead her over to the sofa, where he gestured for her to sit again. He took a step back, and then nervously cleared his throat. Alex gave him an encouraging smile.
"Sometimes, you get so lonely," he started to sing gently. "Sometimes, you get nowhere. I've lived all over the world, I've left every place."
He got down on one knee in front of Alex and took her hand in his own. "Please be mine. Share my life. Stay with me. Be my wife?" He looked her right in the eye as he said the last line.
Alex pressed her lips together to try to hide her smile, but failed miserably, and burst out laughing a second later. Hank gave her a wounded look before he stood.
"I love you, J'onn, but you are no David Bowie," she finally said after a moment.
"That's not exactly the response that I was looking for," he said with irritation.
"Yes, you're right," Alex said as she stood as well. She wrapped her arms around him and looked him in the eye. "You are the absolute love of my life, and I'd be honored to call you my husband."
He kissed her then, and poured all of the love that he felt for her into that kiss. It felt as though his heart was flying.
Alex finally broke the kiss and offered him a huge smile. "Honestly, where you afraid that I was going to say no? Even after I told you that I wanted to marry you the first time you asked?"
"Honestly? Yes," Hank said. "Especially when you started laughing. You know I'm not great at singing."
"I give you a solid A minus for effort," Alex said gently.
"An A minus? I cooked you dinner!" Hank complained as he lead her over to his bedroom. "And you didn't even see the bedroom yet! I had to pluck all of those stupid daffodils because they don't sell daffodil petals."
"Okay, the dinner was really amazing, and your singing— although leaving a lot to be desired— was a perfect way to properly ask me. But now, my logical side is taking over once again, and I'm just thinking of the mess that the petals would make if we actually had sex on top of them. Not only on the sheets, but also getting all of that flower crap all over us." She wrinkled her nose.
Hank gave her an annoyed look, and then opened the door of his room. "Well, would you at least take a look at it, because I put a lot of effort into it," he said to her.
She stepped into the room ahead of Hank and looked around. "And candles near the window? Seriously? Are you trying to set the entire building on fire?"
"They're not lit!" Hank protested loudly as he went to get a trash-bag for the petals that were spread out over the bed and on the floor that lead up to the bed.
Alex watched with amusement as Hank lifted all of the petals at once using his telekensis and moved them into the trash bag. "There, are you happy?" he asked her as he dropped the bag just outside the bedroom door.
"We just got engaged, so of course I'm happy," Alex said as she walked over to him. "And the bedroom was very nice. I'm sorry for asking you to do all of this, and then picking apart every little thing that you did… You just know that with everything that's happened recently…"
Hank caught her before she could start to spiral down a path of depression all over again. "You agreed that you weren't going to so much as think about that again," he told her gently before he kissed the corner of her mouth.
"Yes," she said with a hint of sorrow in the word. Then, she looked up at him through her lashes and offered him a coy smile. "But I do believe that you were going to help me not think about anything for a while."
"I was," Hank agreed.
Alex pressed on Hank's shoulders until he started to walk backwards. He kept going until he bumped into the foot of the bed. He sank down onto it, pulled Alex onto his lap, and kissed her soundly.
She pulled back slightly so that she could yank her dress up around her waist. Then, she straddled his lap and kissed him again. She broke the kiss a moment later, and she started to quickly undo the buttons on Hank's shirt.
After she'd finished undoing the buttons on his shirt, Hank helped her to pull it off. She pressed on his chest and whispered, "Lie back." Hank moved further up onto the bed and did as he was told.
Alex leaned over him and slowly started to leave a trail of kisses down his chest. Her fingers explored the slight peaks and valleys of his body. When she reached the top of his pants, she moved away from him with one final, lingering kiss to his skin before she went down to his feet. She pulled his shoes and socks off, before he helped her to get his pants and boxers off.
She reached out and grasped his rock-hard cock in both hands and slowly started to move her hands up and down his length. Hank reached up and found the zipper pull on the back of her dress, and undid it while she gave him a hand job. Alex shrugged out of her dress, and pulled one arm out from the sleeve before she put her hand back onto his dick, only to remove her other sleeve. When her dress was pooled around her waist, Hank then reached up and unhooked her bra. Alex repeated the process of removing one strap at a time so that she wouldn't have to stop her administrations on his cock.
He pulled her down for a kiss, and her hands slowed before they finally stopped. He pulled her hands away gently, and held them against his chest.
Hank pulled a condom out from the nightstand with his telekenisis, and then quickly opened it and put it on.
Alex slid her hands up Hank's shoulders, where she pressed down on him slightly as she removed her dress and panties. Then, she sunk down onto his cock with a look of complete and utter bliss on her face.
He held her tightly, but she wrapped her arms and legs around him, too. They looked each other in the eye as they moved against the other slowly.
Alex gasped loudly whenever Hank hit against her cervix. He knew that it brought her an overwhelming amount of pleasure, but the pleasure was also mingled with some pain, so he only did it every couple of thrusts, and pulled back when she seemed about ready to say something.
She closed the minimal distance between them and offered him a wet, open-mouthed kiss. She pulled back slightly and nibbled a bit on his lower lip, which made him give a feral groan of pleasure. He nipped lightly on her own lip, and she offered him a coy smile before she kissed him again.
His fingers entwined in her hair and light scraped against her scalp. Alex's fingers raked down his back. Not enough to hurt, but enough to add another element to Hank's pleasure.
After a while, Alex pulled away from him slightly and leaned backwards on her hands. Hank trailed the hand that rested on her hip down to her clit. He started to circle the nerves with his thumb, knowing that she must have been close.
He didn't like to have his own orgasm until she'd had her own. Say whatever you like about that, but Hank had always felt as though the needs of his lover greatly outweighed his own.
Alex moved closer to him again, although kept enough distance between them for Hank's hand. Her movements started to become more and more erratic.
Finally, her head lolled back and her nails dug into Hank's back. She shuddered violently around him, and the feeling of her spasming pussy around his dick sent him over the edge.
After he came down a bit, he lay back with Alex cradled against him. She tilted her head back and kissed the side of his jaw lightly.
"So, the future Mrs. J'onzz," he said slowly. "Any thoughts of wedding plans?"
"No, but we'll think of something," Alex said as she offered him a small smile. "Mrs. J'onzz. I like that. I like it a lot."
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