Authors Note: A bit of a short one, but I was in the writing mood tonight and felt like doing a oneshot with our favorite Colonel and his good friend, Sir John! The next oneshot will either be a big one, him confessing his feelings towards Marianne, or perhaps one from this very night in Marianne's point of view. We shall see where the plot bunnies take me! Don't forget to review!

It was a cold and dreary day at Delaford, fire roaring and warming the large room that Colonel Brandon sat in, comfortably sat at his chair with a book propped in his hand gently, almost reverently, as his dear old friend, Sir John, sat closer to the fire's warmth. He chatted away, conversation straying anywhere to the dogs, which were barking at something at that moment outside, at a wild animal, no doubt, eager to hunt, to his new favorite topic, the Dashwood's. Particularly the middle sister, Marianne Dashwood. The man was one of the first (and hopefully, one of the only ones.) who had noticed his...affectionate feelings, towards Miss Marianne, and he wasn't afraid to push Brandon towards her. He wanted nothing more than to see him express his feelings towards the girl, and would stop at nothing until he saw her walking down the aisle towards him. The Colonel, being a very private man, even with his close friend, attempted to laugh it off in the beginning, but it honestly did make him uneasy. The last thing he wanted was for Marianne to find out about his feelings and, in return, feel obligated to him in some way and feel stuck with him. He had been a great help to her family and Mr. Ferrars, Elinor's future husband, and he knew that Mrs. Dashwood was already pushing her middle daughter to acknowledge him. But if Marianne ever became something more to him than a friend, he wanted it to be her decision. Out of her own free will and desire.

He leafed through his book, growing more used to Sir John's ramblings on the Dashwood's now so that he was able to nearly ignore him and focus on Donne instead, without so much as an uncomfortable blush on his face. "Marianne would make a wonderful wife." He caught the tail end of Sir John's rant, glancing up at him with a chuckle. "I'm sure." He replied easily, finally finding the page he had been searching for. He had planned on visiting the cottage in the morning, as he usually did a couple days of the week to visit with Marianne and read to her, and had wanted to find his favorite works to read to her. Regardless of where their meetings would lead, he cherished the time spent with her. She was quickly becoming one of his closest friends, next to Sir John himself. She was an unusual type of woman, stuck on the idea of being equals with him, which he enjoyed. She spoke to him like a friend, without restraint. In the recent weeks, he found that she was opening up more and more, coming out of a shell that he hadn't even realized she'd been wearing. While she had always been exuberant and outgoing, she now spoke to him on different matters. She discussed important things with him, family trials, her dreams, wishes for her future, even her deepest thoughts. The only thing she hadn't talked to him about was her heart, and precisely how it felt about him.

"Although she is a bit different than what I imagined for you." He continued, rising from his chair and standing in front of the fire with hands stretched towards it. "Different? How so?" Colonel Brandon placed a bookmark between the pages before closing the book and placing it on the table to his right, elbows now propped on the arms of his chair. He had given up on reading quietly, now that his friend was on the topic of Marianne.

"She's different than other women! Surely, you see that! The girl is...is wild. Like a bird flying from a cage. She doesn't care for propriety, not truly, and only wishes to follow her heart. What other women do you see chasing storms and speeding off in carriages?" All this said, John had a smile on his face. He loved the girl as well, although not in the same way Brandon did, he saw why the man had fallen in love so quickly. It was not often that you came across a woman like Marianne Dashwood. Most men, like Willoughby, saw her and wished to catch her, to put her in a cage to be their own pet. Colonel Brandon only wished to be there and fly alongside her, to be her friend, her companion, her confidante, her..her husband. He cringed at the idea of her being caged, of her personality being quenched by a foolish man who wanted nothing more than a pet. Her wild personality is what made him love her so.

"Different indeed." Brandon murmured. "I only hope she see's that I do not wish to cage her." He admitted, finally looking into Sir John's face.

"Ah! The private Colonel Brandon opens up to his friend at last!" He exclaimed happily, feigning shock. "Keep doing what you're doing, Brandon. I hate to say it, but taking the slow approach seems to be working. She needn't be rushed after that scoundrel Willoughby. She's learning quickly now."

"Learning quickly?"

"Surely, you see the change in her?" When Christopher was silent, Sir John rolled his eyes and put his face in his hands dramatically before meeting the younger man's eyes once more. "Christopher, you must be blind. Her eyes practically follow you everywhere you go. They turn sad when you leave, they light up when you are present. She finds any and every excuse to be near you, and she begs you to read to her every time you visit! She finds any reason she can for you to stay longer! I'm quite surprised she hasn't taken matters into her own hands and proposed to you herself!" Colonel Brandon was taken aback, shocked at first until he truly thought over Sir John's words. He had seen her look at him in such a peculiar way when they went riding with Margaret, and she had seemed to be ever so slightly..clingy to him lately, not that he minded. He had simply assumed that her emotions were tossed all over the place with the thoughts of Elinor leaving home soon, and hadn't ever thought that, perhaps, his feelings were returned.

"You have respected her and taken things as slow as you possibly could've, Brandon, but it's time for you to tell her how you feel. I guarantee you, the feelings are mutual."

"I..are you sure, John?" The Colonel had marched into battle, suffered many trials in life, experienced great pain, but nothing had left him so unsure. Could he risk the precious friendship he had with Marianne and tell her how he loved her? The passion that he felt for her? "What if I tell her how I feel and I ruin our friendship?" He felt as if he was eighteen again, unsure of himself completely. He'd never been overly shy, and he always had enough confidence in himself. Even though he was a much quieter and private man than Willoughby, he was not completely hopeless when it came to relationships and people, but Marianne made him feel clueless.

"That's a risk you must choose to take. I think the better question would be, could you stand seeing her with another man? Being held, loved, cherished, protected by another man?" His heart felt like someone had it in their hands and squeezed the life out of it just at the thought. "You have to tell her."

"I will then. Tomorrow." God help me, he thought, Donne the furthest thing from his mind.