A/N: Hello again, and sorry for the long wait. I have been so uninspired, but I went back and was reading some of the wonderful comments that you all were so kind enough to grace me with, and I wanted to give you something, even though I don't really think this is my best work (personally, I thought the last chapter was better, but I hope you'll read anyways). If you are at all interested in the process I used to get to this fic, or some of my thoughts about it, see the A/N at the bottom! Thanks for reading!

Title: Hands Down

Inspiration: Dashboard Confessional

Rating: T

Genre: Romance, Angsty-Fluff

Summary: I finally knew that even if she hadn't been sure, even if I had been wrong, I would have taken her certainty, her kiss, and even her destruction, if that were what she wanted.

Warning: Light sexual situations, but nothing particularly descriptive.

Hands Down

I glanced in the mirror and straightened my collar. I could remember the last time I had done this, and I didn't remember feeling like I might jump out of my skin beforehand.

Maybe it was because before, I had known the goal, and I had known that I would be successful in that goal. I was committed but not invested.

Maybe it was because it wasn't the first time.

Maybe it was because before, the answer wouldn't determine my life.

Before, it couldn't possibly have been my destruction.

And I knew it could be now.

I took a deep breath, and turned to stunning blue eyes, feeling my lips quirk up and her breath enter my mouth as I pulled her against me and kissed her.

Breathe in for luck,

Breathe in so deep,

This air is blessed,

You share with me.

And it was already getting out of control. In the vacant calm of the apartment the night went wild, and I could feel her grip at my just straightened collar.

I so wanted to get there. To do this right. But as I pulled back, I caught a glance of a garter under her short dress, and before I knew what was happening, I was unzipping the back of it.
I could feel her pounding against me.

Hear her breath catching and beginning to hasten.

I attempted to stop my body from pushing her into the bed, but before I could think straight, she was underneath me and my hand was running up her leg to play with the tempting piece of fabric wrapped around her thigh. I felt my heart thudding so loud in my chest that I thought she would pull back in alarm, worried that I was having a heart attack instead of just gearing up to restrain myself for the sake of the pounding in my front pocket.

This night is wild,

So calm and dull,

These hearts they race,

From self-control.

One of her legs wrapped around my waist, and I felt smooth, satiny skin beneath my finger tips that made me want to lose myself in her and forget that my sanity was about to break, because I didn't yet know.

And that was the problem.

This wasn't just a question. Wasn't just an answer. I knew intellectually that question could wait, that really, it was nothing at all, but I wanted it. So bad. I wanted it in the way that I wanted her, which hovered at all consuming. I felt like I couldn't breathe until I found out, couldn't turn the 'reason' switch back on until I knew.

But I was too busy letting my mind stay lost as she touched me.

Your legs are smooth,

As they graze mine,

We're doing fine,

We're doing nothing

At all.

When our lips met again, I thought that I was dying because my voice was silent, but I couldn't bear to tear my mouth off of hers long enough to speak. I was drowning in hope and opportunity and silence, and I wanted her to kill me just so that she wouldn't ever stop kissing me like that.

Her lips were soft and pliant, and she was slipping her tongue into my mouth and nibbling on my lower lip.

It was so blatantly clear that I belonged to her. She captivated my mind and made me dumb with desire and longing and so much fucking hope.

She could so easily destroy my very being, and instead of being terrified, I wanted to give it to her to destroy. I wanted her to break me, bury me, do whatever she wanted with me.

I wanted to be hers like nobody ever had before.

My hopes are so high

That your kiss might kill me,

So won't you kill me,

So I die happy.

My heart is yours

To fill or burst,

To break or bury,

Or wear as jewelry,

Whichever you prefer.

I finally managed to pull back and rolled to the side, facing her. She stared into my eyes, and I saw that hers were a deep azure, filled with heat and longing, and I wondered if mine reflected submission, because I felt like she already owned me.

The words were quiet.

I barely choked them out, as I pulled the box from my pants pocket, took her hand, and pressed it into her palm.

"Stephanie," I whispered, like it was something wrong, like someone could hear, like I was scared that she would hear, "Marry me?"

Her breath caught, my heart stopped, and she pressed gently lips to mine.

I wrapped an arm around her waist and felt as though nothing existed outside this room, this bed, or her eyes. Everything else was just winding abyss; my future didn't lie out there. It was firmly centered in the woman in my arms.

The smile that broke across her calm face started my breath again.

"Obviously," was her soft reply, and I pulled her to me until there wasn't a millimeter between us.

"Babe," I breathed, opening the box, hearing her gasp, and slipping smooth metal onto her finger.

The words are hushed

Let's not get busted,

Just lay entwined here,

Undiscovered.

I knew there would be questions later. Questions about why I hadn't told anybody I was asking, when the wedding would be, why I was settling down. There would be the usual ribbing from the guys about our sex life, and there would be my denial to discuss it because the idea of anyone else ever as close to her as I got sent me out of my mind.

And because I didn't get it anymore.
At one point in my life, I had enjoyed sharing stories of my lovers. Or, more accurately, my conquests, because that's all they had ever been. Now, the same stupid questions just seemed juvenile, irrelevant, invasive even, because what I shared with Stephanie was so out of this world that there were no words to describe it, and no desire in me to share it with anyone else.

Yes, I knew there would be questions. But for now, the only question I cared about had an answer, and before me I saw my future unfold. For the first time in my life, I knew with absolute certainty that happiness was going to be the main part of that future, that light would forever grace my life, and that the adventures before me were not unspeakable, but spectacular.

Safe in here from all the stupid questions:

"Hey did you get some?"
Man that is so dumb.

We were silent. Silent as I stripped her of her clothing so she laid in my arms bare but for my diamond on her finger. Silent as I too lost ever shred of fabric, somehow managing to stay near, close all the time, because any idea of getting any farther from her seemed completely unthinkable.
And we were just so damn close when I finally sunk into her and felt her body accommodate and close around me, like it knew that I belonged there just as much as she did. Her lips parted and her eyes locked on mine again as my hands swept up her sides and laced with her fingers.

I hardly had to move. Her lips were drugging me, her eyes were hypnotizing me, and her body was driving me out of my mind. By the time she was moaning against me, I couldn't distinguish her little cries from my own groans, and when she whimpered and arched her back, I knew my sanity was lost forever.

Stay quiet,
Stay near,

Stay close

They can't hear.

So we can get some.

As we came down, and she wrapped around me, I thought back to my nerves. My fear.

I found it so raw but simultaneously so inconsequential in the face of forever.

Forever, she could kill me with her kiss, tear apart my darkness, remind me of how her light radiated onto me, so I too must shine as she did.

She could break me with her laugh and her tears, and I would always welcome it, because she would break me all over again with her body, force me to shatter for her in a way no other woman ever had.

She could bury me for forever in her sensuous curves and riotous curls and pouty smile, and I would happily suffocate just to crawl under her skin.

Her kiss clawed into my heart, and I knew as she moved her hand against my face that the ring pressing into my skin was the very representation of her wearing it on display for all to see. She would forever wear my heart like a trophy, jewelry flashed gaudily to tell the world to whom I belonged.

And I would want her to.

My hopes are so high

That your kiss might kill me,

So won't you kill me,

So I die happy.

My heart is yours

To fill or burst,

To break or bury,

Or wear as jewelry,

Whichever you prefer.

I couldn't remember ever feeling happier in my entire life. A better day had never existed. The soft notes of jazz drifted in from the living room, and the light glowed from the soft stars out the window reflecting off of puddles on the ground. I inhaled the scent of her hair as she unwound it from her clenching fingers, and I twirled it in my own, knowing that I would never tire of the way they wrapped around me like she did.

It was silent again, but for our breathing and the hum of the music in the background.

And it struck me as odd, to have so much profound silence when my ears couldn't stop ringing. When I couldn't stop hearing her say that one, singular, perfect word over and over again.

Hands down

This is the best day I can

Ever remember,

I'll always remember,

The sound of the stereo,

Dim of the soft lights,

The scent of your hair

That you twirled in your fingers.

She turned in my arms, and a soft groan caught in her throat as she plied her body against mine and told me we were late for our reservation at the restaurant, the restaurant where I was going to ask her to be my life.

I had wanted to do it right. To give her every bit of what she deserved.

I realized too late that a restaurant never could have possibly been the appropriate place to tell her that she was where I belonged.

Thankfully, she had come through, just as she always did. Without me even knowing it, she had guided me into skipping my mistake. Because there was no way that proposing to her the same way every other man did would have been good enough for her. Or me.

I was a selfish creature. I didn't want to share her with anyone else. I was glad nobody had been around to witness her eyes get wide and her uncharacteristically calm demeanor, which convinced me of her certainty more than her answer.

There was so much extravagant romance in the world. So many grand gestures that sounded great in theory but fell short because they were in place of deep, profound connection. And I realized now that all I had to do was look over at her during the most boring and insignificant of moments and ask, because together, we made calm crackle.

And the time on the clock,

When we realized it's so late,

And you kissed me like you meant it.

Soft lips plied against mine in defeat at our missed reservation, and I knew then that in her kiss, she communicated every bit of conviction that she felt for our future together.

I finally understood then that the shake in my hand and the turning in my gut as I stood in front of the door had nothing to do with believing she would say no. It had everything to do with making sure that she wanted me with every fiber of her being, just the way I wanted her.

I had always believed it, but my darkness had clawed at my insides and taunted me, finding holes, convincing me that this was an impossibility that I was deluding myself into believing.

But I believed her. I believed that she meant it. I believed that she wanted me with her whole soul.

More than that, I finally knew that even if she hadn't been sure, even if I had been wrong, I would have taken her certainty, her kiss, and even her destruction, if that were what she wanted.

I knew that I would spend forever wrapped up in all of it, because she did mean it. And I welcomed my future with a mind that dizzied at the intensity of her beaming light, guiding me into a certain forever.

And I knew,

That you meant it,

That you meant it.

Crazy A/N: 1. I have pretty much abandoned randomly picking my songs. I was looking through my iTunes library, and I suddenly remembered this song and how romantic I always found it. I decided to use it even though it hadn't randomly appeared.

2. As a result, Ranger is kind of out of character. I think this is my most true song fic ever- the story pretty much follows the song (which is why the lyrics are every few paragraphs). The song isn't really how I usually see Ranger, but I tried to make it work.

3. While I followed the song lyrics to write this, I cut out about a stanza and a half that is just as sweet as the rest of the song, but that has him walking her home. I wanted them to stay in bed together, and I thought that part of the song applied to a first date better (incidentally, I started writing this as a first date, but it began morphing in the direction of a proposal, and then I heard the line about wearing his heart as jewelry, and I thought it applied really nicely to an engagement ring).

4. Sorry for the long ramble, but PLEASE REVIEW. As I said before, they were what inspired me to post something again. I have a few things on my computer that I haven't posted, mostly because I don't think they are really 'post-worthy,' but I enjoy reading them on occasion. I might post them at some point, but I'm not sure yet. I tend to think that posting pieces as opposed to corny or overly-dramatic stories illustrates better writing, but I also understand that people want you to produce lots of things.

Thank you for reading!