NOTES: This is a longer chapter than normal— Darcy's POV, kinda flashing back for most of it. VERY FLUFFY— like SO FLUFFY omg. Made me squeal like a little girl. Hope y'all enjoy it as much as I did ❤️

Will post again soon (prbly tomorrow tho). Love y'all! ~Vinny

Fitzwilliam Darcy, on this morning— of ALL mornings— felt more like he was in actual heaven than he ever had in his life.

And that was saying something, because he also woke up with a stuffy nose, a cough, and the pulsing in his forehead warned that a headache would soon be joining the party. It.. appeared he was not immune to colds, after all.

Still. Darcy knew that, if he had the power to go back in time, he wouldn't have changed a thing.

Punctuating this thought, a still-asleep Lizzy Bennet smacked her lips and mumbled something unintelligible into his bare chest. Darcy smiled. His thumb traced the slow indentations of her spine.

Yesterday had been… amazing.

Lizzy Bennet, he had already known, was one of the most gorgeous women alive. And sleeping with her only solidified that thought. She was perfect, in every way. Her freckles reached out like the arms of a galaxy down her neck and to her collarbone. He learned he liked to kiss each one of them, lazily, reverently, as he drifted off to sleep.

But it'd hadn't been just the sex and the intimacy that had appealed to Darcy. He had gotten to spend the whole day doing nothing but being with the girl of his dreams.

After their first interlude, Lizzy had found out he owned a bubble bath, and immediately set about scurrying all over the house to find lavender-scented candles (he didn't have any, but that just made her laugh). When her headache was finally gone and the mild fever went away, they listened to The Essential Frank Sinatra Playlist as a musical compromise, and tried to waltz. Tried, because they kept getting distracted.

For a late-lunch/snack, Lizzy taught him how to make omelettes. He was a terrible cook (hence the burned chicken soup from earlier), so Darcy just filed away that information in his mind and let Lizzy work the kitchen.

They spent the whole day in and out of the bedroom; sometimes watching movies, sometimes sleeping, sometimes 'getting to know each other.'

Towards the end of the day had come Darcy's favorite part, by far.

"C'mon! C'mon! I have to see if you were joking about this or not!"

Darcy had laughed, allowing himself to be pulled along and up the stairs. "Would I lie to you?" He asked, grinning up at Lizzy as she hauled him up the steps.

She scoffed. "About having an honest to God telescope and view deck on YOUR ROOF? Pshhheah. That's, like, majorly suspicious." Lizzy turned around, and poked him in the chest, her warm finger pressing through his undershirt. "I bet you don't even have a telescope— you just want to get in my pants!"

Darcy caught her finger and kissed it. "Always do," he smirked, looking up at her.

Lizzy laughed, and Darcy quickly took the lead on the stairs. "But I actually do have an observation deck. I think you'll really like it."

She sighed as if she was exasperated, but she wasn't. Lizzy had been smiling the whole time, and as they reached the observation deck, Darcy took great delight in watching that smile grow to megawatt proportions.

"Oh.. woah…," Lizzy breathed. She spun around in a slow circle, taking in the rooftop lounge. "This is.. my new favorite place in your house."

"Better than the bedroom?" He grinned.

She swatted his arm. "We finally take the next step, and that's all you think about now!"

"Sorry," Darcy laughed, not sorry at all, "I'm just… in awe that I managed to find someone as perfect as you. I'm… honestly still in shock."

"Awww," Lizzy cooed, snuggling up to him. "You're cute."

"Glad to hear you think so."

Darcy maneuvered them over to one of the plush lounge chairs; the one by the bookshelf with glass doors protecting the novels, not the one by the railing or the one next to the telescope. He laid down, with Lizzy cuddled up on top of one of his arms. It would be numb if he kept it there much longer. But then she yawned like a sleepy kitten, and he knew he would lay there until he died if she asked him to.

"Beach or mountains?" Lizzy whispered to him.

"Mountains," he answered. "You?"

"Beach," she giggled. "Your turn."

Darcy smiled to himself. He was becoming accustomed to Lizzy's strange way of starting conversations. He thought for a minute before asking, "Do you have any reoccurring dreams?"

"Oooooohh, that's a good one," Lizzy approved. "Hm.. When I was little… I had a dream that I ran away to the circus."

He laughed into her shoulder. "What? Always wanted to be a clown, huh?"

"NO," she wrinkled her nose with a smile, "I wanted to be a trapeze artist."

"Really?"

"Really. And for about a year, all I thought about was flying through the air and circus tents and confetti and spinning 'round and 'round."

"But that's not a recurring dream."

"It was!" Lizzy defending, sitting up. "For months, all my dreams happened in circus tents! Every one of them! It only stopped when my dad finally let me take a gymnastics class, and I realized I was completely uncoordinated."

"Aw," Darcy chuckled, moving to kiss the top of her head, "My sweet little klutz."

"Okay, okay," she squirmed away from him, "now what's yours?"

"Achhh, mine's not as fun," he winced.

"Tell me it anyway!"

"I.. I used to dream that I was.. stuck inside a snow globe. And… everyone in the world was on the other side, with their face pressed up to the glass. Just.. watching me. Everything I did." He blinked, and shook his head. "I'm sorry, that was depressing. I should've chosen another question."

"No, no. I.. like learning things like that, about you." Lizzy kissed his cheek softly. "When I said I love every part of you.. I meant it."

Darcy couldn't really say anything to that. He just kissed her with all his might, and hoped she understood.

Lizzy pulled away with a pop, a few seconds later. "Now! Back to the game!"

He chuckled, and covered his face with his elbow. "Fiiine."

"What…," she asked, propping herself up on his chest, "Is your hidden talent?"

"Hidden talent?"

"Yeah, 's what I said."

"Umm," Darcy furrowed his brow, "I don't… think I have one."

Then he snapped his fingers. "Oh, wait! I do!" With an exaggerated smile, he stuck out his tongue, and touched it to the tip of his nose.

Lizzy dissolved into giggles. "You goofball," she whispered, happily.

Darcy, feeling very proud of himself, retracted his tongue and smiled at her. "So? What's your secret ability, Miss Bennet?"

"Well, I dunno if it counts as an ability… but I learned morse code in middle school."

"You did? Still remember it?"

In response, Lizzy drew two lines on his chest, waited, then two dots. A dash then a dot. Then another dash. She kissed the spot where her fingers had been (which was now all tingly from her feather-light menstrations) and giggled.

"What does that mean?" Darcy asked.

"Guess," she whispered teasingly into him.

"Hmmm… 'Hello?'"

"Nope, guess again."

"I Love You?"

"It wasn't that," she kissed him. "Even though I do."

Darcy smiled down at her, eyebrows scrunched together like a coiled spring. "What was it then?"

"M-I-N-T," Lizzy spelled out proudly. Darcy laughed, though he didn't understand.

"Mint?" He echoed, "Why would you write that?"

"Why not?" She challenged.

Darcy shrugged. "I dunno. But why?"

"Because it was the first Morse word I learned. It's easy to spell. And herbs calm me down."

"Mmmm," he hummed, sleepily, peppering kisses along her hairline. "Y'know, you taste like mint. Mint and peach juice."

Lizzy chuckled. "I… have no idea why that is. I mean, you KNOW I love mint, and peaches are okay, but…"

Suddenly, she sat up fast, and nearly toppled them off the plush lounge chair. "LOOK!" She cried, "SHOOTING STAR!"

Darcy followed the outstretched flagpole of her arm to the tip of the horizon, where he managed to catch the last glimpse of a comet, racing away from the waning half moon. His eyes, as they always were, were drawn to Lizzy's face. Her freckles were almost lost to the ebony night, but the glow in those enchanting eyes of hers was still there— shining like the Northern Lights.

"Wow…," Lizzy breathed, as she settled back into him again, "that's crazy. Good luck, innit?"

"Mmm," Darcy affirmed.

After a few minutes of silence, Lizzy's voice, already drenched and lagging with sleep, cut through the blanketing night air. "So? What'd you wish for, Fitzie?"

Darcy just smiled, and kissed her gently. "If I tell you, it won't come true." And he was starting to think, more and more, that he couldn't live with it somehow, someday, being true.

"Now let's get back to bed," Darcy said to her, lifting Lizzy's small body easily off his chest and cradling her.

She squirmed against him, smiling through a haze of sleep. The one word he understood was, 'insatiable.'

"What?! No, not like that," he whispered to her, trying to contain his laughter so she wouldn't wake up, "I meant to SLEEP."

"Suuuuure," Lizzy mumbled, drunkenly giggling herself.

Darcy just shook his head as he carried her down the stairs. He could not stop smiling.

"PSSST. Hey. Are you awake?"

Darcy was shaken out of his reverie by Lizzy's face, kissed with sunlight and blushed with freckles, and he smiled.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm awake."

"Good," she whispered, "because I'm gonna make you breakfast in bed, and I don't want to make you scrambled eggs if you secretly despise and abhor all mentions of scrambled eggs. Or something."

He laughed, deep and low in his chest, then coughed horribly.

Even at Lizzy's concerned look, he couldn't stop chuckling, but he just waved her away. He didn't want to ruin the moment by saying how shit his body felt, especially since Lizzy had only just recovered herself (apart from a still stuffy nose).

Lizzy, for her part, just kissed him lightly, and slipped out of bed. He could hear her padding to the kitchen, and he rolled over to stare at the ceiling. Life was… so good. He had the best girlfriend in the world, who loved him, and he loved her. And even though she was walking away from him now (albeit to make them breakfast), he hoped that one day she would walk towards him, in a straight line, to make them something even greater.

And if he had one wish…

It would be that when she did, Lizzy was wearing white, and carrying a bouquet of mint leaves.