Daine twisted her hands in the way no one does unless they are about to do something that will make or break their lives. She knocked on the door, and winced. Even a movement that required little effort was weak and shaky. 'You're not a little girl,' she scolded herself. 'Stop acting like you're in trouble. What's the worst he can do?' Even mentally, that question sounded ominous. She knew the worst he could do would not seem much to other people, but to her it would destroy the world. 'Why is he taking so long?'
"Hello?" The light voice belonged to Numair, but he wasn't in the room, as she had expected. She jumped when he touched her shoulder. "Daine, you look as though you're waiting for a death sentence. What's wrong?"
She tried to relax, and smile, but her happy expression came out as a sneering grimace. His carefree air vanished. "Daine, is this the...do you want to..."
Unintentionally, she had made him as nervous as she. "Is this, do I what?"
He turned his gaze to the floor. "Do you want to break up with me? Is this the end?"
Her insides went cold. "You want to break up with me? What's wrong?"
His shadowy eyes widened, and a smile touched the edges of his mouth. "Come inside. I think we're a little confused." Relief filled her as she followed him inside their room. "Why didn't you just come in the room?"
The why was simple. Well, simple to explain to herself. It had seemed romantic. She'd had it all planned. When he answered her knock, she'd propose, then they'd be swept up in a passionate...Numair was snapping his fingers, trying to get her attention. "Daine, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong? What's WRONG? What's right? I come here to ask you to marry me, and then you tell me you want to break up with me? Now tell me what's wrong, because I obviously don't know!"
He seemed taken aback by her outburst. Well, who wouldn't be? All those jumbled up sentences, containing so much information, so many questions, so many...Uh-oh. He had just spoken, and she had no idea what the words that had come out of his mouth were. 'That'll teach you to get caught up in flights of fantasy,' she reprimanded herself.
"Daine? Are you listening to me?"
Easy answer. "Of course I... er, no."
The mage smiled. "Of course I don't want to break up with you."
"Oh." She wished she could think of more to say, but that sound just about summed her feelings up. Then what he had said washed over her. "Huh." Great, just great. She had just told Numair that she wanted to marry him. Goddess, why did her tongue let those words slip out? Now he'd want to run a mile.
"I love you." He pulled her into a tight hug. "I would love to be able to call you my wife."
"What?" Fantastic. An attack of monosyllabism. 'Oh', 'huh' and 'what'. Just the thing to show him how well-educated she was.
"Would you marry me?" He disentangled her arms from his, and knelt on one knee. A small, velvet box appeared in one hand. 'Mages,' she thought with an inner smile. 'No matter what they do, they always have to show off.' While she was trying not to smile, her face must have taken on a stony expression; he stood, shoving the box back into his pocket.
"I'm sorry," he muttered. "I misread the signs. I thought-"
Her arms appeared round his waist. "Let's start from the beginning," she murmured, standing on tiptoes to reach his ear. "I think it sounds like a wonderful idea."
