Title: ON FIRE

Genre: Jane Austen's „Pride and Prejudice"

Summary: Set after the movie ending (the European version). The musings of Elizabeth Bennet in the kitchen of her family home with Jane at her side.

Author's Note: This one-shot is based on the movie, so it's possible that Elizabeth's character comes across as more emotional and perky than in the original novel or the famed BBC interpretation.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Elizabeth, Jane and Darcy are all the creations of Jane Austen's mind. I am only suffering from an intolerable urge to write after seeing 2005's movie version of "Pride & Prejudice".

With a loud band the door of Mr. Bennet's study was flung open and a whirlwind of coconut curls and soft cotton fabric rushed past, filling the house with a squealing-like sound that reverberated off the walls and glass-windows of the family residence.

The heads of Jane Bennet and her mother turned simultaneously, staring into the direction the noise came from only to see the second-oldest Bennet daughter come bursting into the room, laughing and crying at the same time.

"Lizzy!" Jane called out, worry gripping her heart at seeing the tears streaming down her sister's face. "What happened? Did Papa…?" She reached out to grasp her sister's arm in a gesture of comfort, but stopped short when she saw the brilliant smile that stretched upon her Elizabeth's face.

"He gave us his blessing."

A couple of moments passed as Jane stared at Elizabeth, trying to process what her favourite sister had just told her. What she meant by saying this. Everything was just so sudden, so unexpected that Jane still had trouble sorting the puzzle pieces of a white-dressed Lizzy at the ball with ribbons in her hair, her soft face under their blanket in the candlelight giggling about the newly arrived bachelors, her tear-sparkling gaze last afternoon, just minutes before Mr. Bingley's proposal and her face in this very moment, into one satisfying picture.

The Elizabeth who was standing before her now was almost impossible to recognize. Her eyes bright and shining with unshed tears and her flushed cheeks streaked with those already spilled over. Her beaming smile had overtaken her entire face, making her almost glow perceptibly with happiness, her dark locks spilling out of their braids, framing her ruby-red lips, which looked positively kissed to Jane.

"Oh my Goodness… Lizzy." Jane breathed, bringing a hand to her mouth as tears welled up in her own eyes at seeing her sister like she always dreamed of: young, blissfully happy and head-over-heels in love.

Elizabeth laughed again, a shaky and overly emotional laugh that could only result from having your life turned upside down in the course of a single day and before she could stop herself, she could taste the salty wetness of fresh tears on her lips again. Never in her life had she felt like this: so incandescently and perfectly happy that she thought she would have to burst any moment, unable to keep all the emotion inside.

Jane hastily drew her younger sister into a strong and warm embrace, clutching her tightly to savour a moment and celebrate a day unlike any other in the young life of their sisterhood. "I am so happy for you…" Jane sobbed into Lizzy's shoulder, feeling the warmth radiating from inside her, the warmth only the notion of truly loving someone and being loved in return could bring to a human being.

"Thank you, Jane…"

Breaking from their embrace, Jane gazed at Lizzy and then reached up to brush a tear away from her sister's cheek, smiling at her.

"My Lizzy, I am left marvelling at what he has done to you." Elizabeth smiled again brightly, squeezing her sister's hand. Jane's gaze wandered from Elizabeth around the Bennet's kitchen and eventually strayed out of the window, where the pacing image of an unruly mop of coffee-coloured hair and a brilliant blue coat put a smile upon her face once more. Turning to face Elizabeth again, she spoke: "Now Lizzy, before I let you join our dashing young Mr. Darcy, please, I pray thee tell me how this all came into being. I thought you two loathed each other!"

A blush crept up Elizabeth's neck and cheeks and she turned to watch the young man, walking up and down the barnyard, sending the chickens scurrying away from his leather-booted feet. His shoulders were tense and she knew that he was bursting wit anxiety without even needing to see his face. She could not wait to run outside and tell him the news and wonderful warmth spread throughout her body at the thought of him lifting her into his arms again, never letting go.

"He is the one, Jane. I was just too blind to see it." Elizabeth sighed, her gaze fixed on the figure outside the window. "I think my heart knew it all along, ever since it leapt for the first time I saw him at the Meryton ball. We were both so stubborn, so prideful, so bent on sparring with each other that our minds clouded our hearts' desires.

But oh, Jane. He isn't who I thought him to be, not at all. He's compassionate and so giving, he's caring and loving, considerate and intelligent. He's everything I've ever dared to dream of in a man…"

"Not to mention his handsome features…" Jane smiled and the sisters both giggled.

"Yes, he is. The most handsome men I've ever seen. But oh Jane, he's everything and so much more. He has his flaws, but don't we all have them? He's a good man, he's warm and has a heart of gold and… and…"

"What Lizzy? Tell me."

"When I first danced with him at the Netherfields ball Jane, I knew he was what I've been searching for all along, but I didn't want to admit it to myself. I looked into his eyes, those gorgeous orbs of evening-blue, and I saw our unborn children in them. I looked at him and could see our son, a spitting image of him, but with my brown eyes and I knew that my heart had finally found its home.

I feel like, although my life has already begun 20 years ago, I took my first real breath in his presence. I was too proud to accept my feelings Jane, to proud to admit I wanted to belong to someone, because I always thought wanting to belong to a man would mean I had to give myself up in the process. But it doesn't Jane, it doesn't. He doesn't encage me – his love sets me free. For the first time in my life I feel loved and accepted and cherished for who I am and it's the most liberating feeling in the world.

I love him. I love him so much that my heart feels like it's about to burst from all the happiness it's keeping inside. He's making me feel things I never even dared to dream about. I cannot wait until I wake up for the first time in the morning and to find him sleeping next to me. I cannot get enough of his kisses, of his touch, his voice and the way he looks at me. I feel myself blossoming during our conversations, he is the only man I have ever met with whom I can talk and who understands me and talks back, who doesn't simply accept everything.

I'm on fire when he is around me Jane, I feel like I am burning up inside with the love I feel for him. My heart although only the fifth of a century old, already feels battered and blemished but I give it to him, all of it, for him to keep. I trust him with the most precious thing I have to give and I know he will keep it guarded and safe from harm as good as he can. And I promise the same thing for him in return.

I do not fool myself, Jane. Our relationship won't be a smooth sailing. For that we are both too stubborn, but I know that despite all our quarrels, all our rough times – we will always love each other. Because all the things that drive me crazy about him are the ones I love most at the same time. Although…" at this point Elizabeth gave a small laugh "it's quite difficlt to point which of his qualities I love most. It would be most unfair to praise his keen mind and yet overlook his true heart and beautiful soul.

I just love him, Jane. With all his flaws and all the mistakes he makes, with all his goodness and honesty and intelligence. I love the whole of him, each little piece of the puzzle that, in its entirety, makes my Fitzwilliam Darcy. Mine, to have and to hold. For all eternity."

A single tear escaped Elizabeth's eye as she spoke those last words in a voice that hinted at her own disbelief at the fact that she was engaged to Mr. Darcy. The words of blessing coming from her father may have had reached her eyes, but they yet had to find their way into her heart and mind. Everything was still strangely surreal.

Jane smiled at her sister, her own tears pooling at her lashes. Grasping Lizzy's face in her hand, she pressed a tender kiss on her forehead before leaning her own against it. "My Lizzy, you have finally found your match – and I already believed this day would never come. Now go outside, I'm sure Mr. Darcy has already paced a hole into the muddy earth and you need to tell him the news. You cannot comprehend how happy I am for you."

Elizabeth smiled at her older sister, in gratitude and love, before she gave her one last kiss on the cheek and hurried out of the kitchen. Inside, Jane could hear her footsteps on the heavy wooden floors and the creaking of the door as it was wrenched open with hardly contained excitement.

Jane hurried to the window, just in time to see the figure of Fitzwilliam Darcy whirl around, his blue coat billowing around him. She watched as a smile she had never seen before on him, overtook his face as Elizabeth ran up to him, her face again a beautiful amalgam of glistening tears, rosy cheeks and brilliant, overjoyed smiles.

She flew into his open arms, her own circling around his neck and Jane watched, as the usually cool and reserved Mr. Darcy whirled Elizabeth around in a display of pure and incandescent happiness. She quickly averted her gaze, when the lips of the newly engaged couple met, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

It was most unusual and unconventional for a young couple to embrace openly before marriage, but then again – Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship had never been one for the rules.

Finis.