Sorry about before, a little glitch, fixed and everything. And for the wait . . . Plus, this chapter is longer--way way longer than the other. HopefullyI dont too out of character on this one, but it is a fanfiction you know . . .

Recap:

Murrue walked right up to Mu, grinning as always, and gave him a very hard and very loud smack on the cheek. He kept his head turned away, eyes wide as he went to place his hand on his sore face.

He certainly wasn't expecting that.

"That is for asking me to marry you, you jerk!" She softly cried, amber eyes beginning to well up with a trace of tears. "And this—" She moved her hands closer to his face and he instinctively shirked away, but she caught his chin and brought it down for a kiss: deep and invigorating where her true feelings shone through. For once, all Mu could do was stand there.

"—is for asking me to marry you, you jerk!" She finished; though still tearing up, he knew it wasn't something to worry about at that moment.

He stared at her with a mixture of shock, awe, love and emotions that didn't even have names to them. They all swirled around in his eyes and she blushed.

"I-I just had to do that, t-to know . . . I-I'm sorry," Murrue fell in on herself, sheepishly making her way over to the door.

"Hey, you can't do that and leave," he mused, walking up to her, catching her with the dressing room door half open. "What about my turn?" He went to kiss her, smiling when she accepted. With a soft push against the door with his foot, it slowly closed shut, leaving them alone in the room again.

"I hate you for making me care about you so much."

"And that means what, again?"

"I love you, Mu LaFlaga," she whispered into his ear when it was over.

"Well, that's good to hear. I love you, Ms. Murrue." She smiled:

"Do you really?"

Mu's eyebrows arched at her specific choice of question; he shifted his hold on her, arms wrapping farther around her waist. He held her closer, smiling.

"I do . . ." His eyes arched, waiting for her approval. When she shook her head, Mu nearly crumbled. Except, what he got was even better.

"No, no! Not yet . . ." She leaned back putting her weight on his wrapped around hands. Murrue looked up into his eyes and childishly pouted. "You don't say it yet"

"Oh? Well, then when do you want me to say it?" Mu almost whined back, challenging her rare childish demeanor. Almost immediately, Murrue straightened up while still using his arms for support.

She never wanted to let him go even if it all turned out to be just a dream. It was like it suddenly became real to her.

"You'll know." Her vague answer echoed in the small room as she went to kiss him again. When she moved away, Mu had to keep in a laugh. He had just realized how smudged her makeup was—meaning it was all over his face as well—and either she didn't notice or just didn't care.

"So . . ." Mu started, surprising Murrue; she thought the conversation was over. That, and his hands had slid their way up from her waist, making their way purposefully to her shoulders over the thin, ivory silk. ". . . so, we're in love with each other, right?"

She didn't let her sudden confusion get in their way by getting the best of her.

"Yes."

Now his hands were making their way slowly down her bare arms, softly running over her smoothness. Even his eyes were caught by the movement. Their intense blue, slowly but surely, moved from her arms to her rapturous face over and over again.

"And . . . are we getting married . . . today?" His hands had stopped, coupling around her wrists, as he anchored his gaze onto hers.

"Yes, we are," Murrue replied, inward smile growing when she saw he almost let out a sigh of relief. It struck her memory. "But . . ."

His breath stopped in his throat when her hands tightened beneath his.

"'But'?" She couldn't place it, but his voice seemed to almost move slightly higher than before. Even then, neither could keep their smiles away.

"I had this really interesting conversation yesterday about us—Well, it wasn't really a conversation . . . but I kinda wish it was."

"With who?" Mu cocked his head.

"Kira."

"Kira?" Her amber eyes flicked up. She couldn't miss it; his voice definitely went up that time.

"Is there an echo? I said Kira." She turned partly away, both sternly and playfully. "Anyway, we had this almost 'question and answer' session about today—details and such—and then he said something I found strange."

"Strange?"

This time she just glared. Mu was not usually the one to repeat others.

"Yes . . . He said, 'I'm glad to see Mu worked it all out.' I was confused because any details about the wedding would be between you and me. What did you need to work out, Mu . . . ?—"

"Flowers!" He burst out the first word that came to mind. Looking back on it, he was sure he said it so quickly that if he was hungry he would have said 'Cheese!' or something without second thinking it before it left his mouth. Of course, his outburst did not lower her suspicion at all. "I accidentally ordered yellow roses instead of red . . . and . . . ah, yeah."

He went to flash a reassuring smile but Murrue already had her head turned away, focusing her brown eyes on the floor, not to mention she'd pushed her way from his suddenly limp arms.

"Even today . . ." she started. Mu quickly moved his hand to her face in fear.

He didn't know what to say. He couldn't tell her that he, of all people, second guessed his own proposal. And he sure as Hell couldn't let her know he still felt that way—that the fear was still largely there and he knew he could never 'work it out.' Murrue was going through the same thing he was—or he at least he thought. Anyway, when it came to the fear itself . . . he had to show the same confidence she showed in him.

They'd get through it. But he still couldn't tell her.

"Murrue . . ." Was all he could get out and all she could take. His tone and his eyes she felt rip through her. Surely not the emotion you would feel on your wedding day. To both their shock, he went on. He had difficulty getting words out evenly or getting them out at all.

Any trace of a laugh was gone.

"I . . . I was . . . scared. Scared of . . . of . . . I was . . ."

A hurried knock on the dressing room door was all Mu needed to eagerly slip away. When he did, though, it felt like he shouldn't have moved at all and have stayed blubbering up nothing in front of Murrue like a child.

Then again, he'd already ruined everything in a few moments, how far deeper could he possibly dig himself?

Mu made a noise when the knock came again, to assure the person outside he was there, before actually moving his feet to make it happen. As he walked away from her, he licked his dry lips, the fragrantly sweet-sour taste of her lipstick washing over him.

Doubling back, Mu hastily grabbed a tissue from the box on the vanity. Murrue watched as he dropped one of the thin slips unnoticed to the stone floor. She stared blankly at it as he roughly wiped the invading makeup away from his face with the other.

The door opened just enough for Mu to poke his now lipstick-free face out the room.

"Mu!" It was that small guy at the door. The one who's just like a rat and never stops moving at weddings because if people miss cues and stuff it's their fault. Mu flashed a smile even though there was nothing backing it up.

"Yes . . . ?"

"Have you seen the bride? Murrue's not in her dressing room and we don't know where to look and the wedding's in five minutes!" The man squeaked in one hurried breath. Without glancing behind him and into his room, Mu casually replied.

"Have you looked in the bathroom?"

"Bathroom? Bathroom! Good, good . . . check the bathrooms . . ." He quickly ran off down the hall and Mu couldn't help but quiver a smile at the look of the small man running off going over details in his mind.

Mu slowly shut the door in front of him, but before he looked back into the room, he felt a light almost angelic pressure to his back. He spun to find his dressing room empty, a side door quietly closing, and a single tissue wafting to the floor from where it had recently slid off the table.

Too confused and stunned to think anything at the moment, even question where Murrue went or break down if she left at his inability to answer her, Mu just lazily drifted over and picked the thin napkin and held it open in his hand. Before he saw it, he had started to realize the pain that had started to form, but when he noticed the two hastily scribbled letters, written with great difficulty, all that pain washed away leaving only giddy confusion.

'O K'

It was her beautiful script.

Maybe she didn't understand it and maybe she did or thought she did, the point was she was going to marry him anyway.

She was going to marry him anyway.

Mu grinned as the tissue crumpled easily in his hand. Man, how I'm going to kill that kid if he ever makes me go through that again . . .

---

It was happening.

There they were.

There was no going back . . .

But neither wanted to.

All throughout the service, they stole glances from one another: Mu, marveling in the untouched beauty that was Murrue and even if they ripped his heart out and let him die, he imagined he could die happy as long as he saw her that way; and Murrue kept looking Mu over, especially his left hand that she saw was unnoticeably shaking, and all-in-all he looked like a cute little boy just on ten, shy and excited.

'I love you,' she mouthed to him, eyes brimming with her words. Murrue worked hard to keep from letting even a giggle escape, which was hard because she imagined her cheeks were already a bright red.

'Do you really?'He mouthed back. She grinned, knowing exactly what he was making her do.

"I do."

She worked hard trying to remember every detail of that one important moment, but she was too busy trying to engrave it into her memories, she didn't hear the man's last words before Mu eagerly kissed her, even though to everybody else, he went slow.

It was a blur, everything, from walking back down the aisle to being outside with the flying rose petals of every color streaming down on them to the applause and well-whishes that followed them into the waiting car.

The door shut behind them and the closed off back seat was remarkably quiet. The car lurched forward slowly and Murrue couldn't help but nuzzle herself closer into her new husband as if to make sure he was still there, this wasn't a dream. His hand ran over her thick hair lovingly in return, eyes not able to stray far from her restful face.

Unsurprisingly, he was the first to break the peaceful, lulling silence.

"You know," he sighed, knowing, playful smile appearing on his tanned face, "I wish we didn't have to go to this damn reception and we could skip straight to tonight . . . A whole week with 'nothing to do' . . ."

Mu's eyes flicked down to see her reaction, meeting with an adorable smile flourished with slight pink around her cheeks, tawny eyes flashing. She softly pushed herself up to kiss him, missing his mouth and landing an affectionate, velvety one on his cheek.

"Yep," she smiled, tone, quiet and childish. "Especially since you're already going to be a father . . ."

He immediately straightened out, shocked blue eyes looking pleadingly into hers, voice barely over a whisper.

"What!"