November 26th, 1978
WHO: Berkeley Doge & Amelia Bones
WHAT: :]]]]]]
WHEN: Today, at lunch--SHUT UP, I'M POSTING IT ON NEW YORK TIME
WHERE: The Ministry
Having a private office? Positively the most awesome thing about the job yet.
The funny thing was, Amelia probably wouldn't care about it that much if she were anything like the rest of the people she worked with--but she wasn't. She loved her private office, because she had an amazing boyfriend and when lunchtime came around, it was way easier to have said amazing boyfriend around to do whatever they wanted in said private office and even though they hadn't actually done anything worthy of shutting the blinds, she still did it because it was totally fun to make people wonder.
She kicked her feet up on the desk and leaned back in her chair, smiling across contentedly at Berkeley as she thought this. All the things they were probably imagining she was doing, when in reality her lips had touched nothing more than a turkey sandwich and cup of coffee.
"So tell me... do you miss it, the stalking me down for lunch? Is this all too easy for you, shall I give you a chase once in a while, or are you content?"
Berkeley whipped around from admiring the pictures of Amelia's family to contemplate her question, and then came around the desk to sit by her feet. He flicked at her shoes for a few times, honestly wondering if he was going to miss the stalking. The whole point of being a stalker (he was never the creepy, stare-in-her-bedroom-late-at-night kind of stalker, but) was to gain the stalkee's (stalkee?) affection, and while he'd done that, the chase had been a bit thrilling.
"You know," he started, flicking off the tiniest specks of dirt, "you may have to surprise me some days, keeps the relationship fresh and exciting. Just think," Berk put the palm of his hand on the tip of her shoe and moved her foot in slow circles as he thought about the games they could play (because to Berk, everything could be turned into a game). He grinned wickedly as an idea struck, and his hand stopped the slow motions.
"Pick a random day, and I've got our entire lunch break to find you, and my prize…hm, what should my prize be?" Berk could think of plenty of prizes, but they were a democratic pair, surely Amelia could come up with some suitable awards for his stealth procedures. Hopefully prizes that involved losing clothing, but he was in no rush.
Her brow rose in mock skepticism. "Hold on there, now. You haven't taken into account the possibility of you not finding me at all," she told him, removing her feet from under his hands and pushing closer to him in the chair (ahah no, the rolling chair still wasn't old news). "In such a circumstance, I believe the question would be how do I punish you?"
Looking as if she were thinking very intently about this, Amelia rose out of her chair. Placing her palms flat on the desk on either side of Berk, she leaned forward slightly, rocking back and forth on her heels and biting her lip in thought. "But either way... I'm sure that I could think of something," she drawled. She was literally inches from his face, but didn't drop her act in the slightest until that tiny smirk slipped out onto her lips, just milliseconds before she closed the gap.
She didn't full-out kiss him, no, just pressed her lips against the side of his for a long, lingering moment before pulling back just slightly. Amelia now let him see her smirk, cocky and playful--teasing. She liked to tease him.
He liked when she teased. He did, he couldn't help it. Amelia was one of the few ministry officials he could actually stand being around because while she took her job seriously, but it didn't let it carry over into her personal life. He could make jokes and be odd without getting strange looks (unlike the glares he receives from Dolores, or as Berk likes to call her, Dolly), and even when he does earn a strange look from Amelia, it was never out of malice or whatever else you could feel toward a silly person like Berkeley Doge.
Berk let her go on, eyes watching her lips carefully and smirking himself when he saw a quick smile cross her lips and his hands went to her waist, rapping lightly against her robes. It was a hell of a lot better to actually be able to snog her (not that they'd really snogged yet, but) than to just talk to his brother about how he was going to get her to snog him, and Berk reckoned that the fact that Amelia was initiating said snogging added to the awesome factor of it all.
"I will always be able to find you," he murmured against her lips, though in his mind he wondered if that sounded a bit odd, but decided that it was more romantic than odd, and kissed her again.
She couldn't quite explain why Berk's words made her heart jump like they had done just then. Because while they had felt... weighted, in a sense, it was quite impossible that he could mean them with the breathtaking romance that they came off as. Quite impossible, she thought, mentally shaking herself out of this dizzy little trance he'd so suddenly put her in. They'd been dating for, what, not even two weeks? Yes, far too short a time for words like that, all sane parts of her mind said, and he probably had just spoken without thinking.
Amelia mentally sighed at herself--she was acting like a bloody schoolgirl. He made her think like she was a bloody lovestruck schoolgirl.
She kissed back more ernestly than before, determined to expel any daydreams from her mind (less than two weeks, Mia, you don't get to daydream like that) and she put a hand behind his neck, pulling him against her. "I'll never hide," she responded quietly in-between kisses.
"Would you marry me?"
It started off as just a thought, as if it was just a question without the implications of a proposal, but Berk pulled back and looked at Amelia with an oddly intense gaze, head tilting just slightly as it was clear he was interested in her real answer. Not that he was exactly sure how he was to react to her answer, whether it be negative or positive, but Berk was a man who lived for the moment and took what said moment gave to him. If Amelia said that it was far too early to be thinking about this, then he would nod and agree, because that did make sense, and go back to snogging her without second thought.
If she said that yes, she would, well. Again, he was a man who didn't like to waste any time, and would probably ask her to go off to city hall and elope. Or if it was that 'yes, but not right now,' answer, he would nod and agree. Berk wasn't exactly sure why he was okay with the idea of marrying Amelia, as he'd had girlfriends for much longer than the two had been dating and the thought of marriage had never crossed his mind, so---so the fact that it had was certainly worth taking seriously.
Plus, she got him. And that was definitely saying something.
Okay, now she really did have to be going crazy, because did she--did she seriously just hear him ask that? Did she, Amelia Bones, just hear Berkeley Doge ask her in all seriousness if she would marry him? Like... exchanging-of-vows-til-death-do-you-part-h
usband-and-wife marry? And could he really blame her for the wide-eyed look she was giving him, gaping and searching for something to say to that and looking like a fish out of water probably and holycrapDIDHEJUSTASKHERIFSHEWOULDMARRYHI
M?
There were a million and a half thoughts assaulting her at once and ohhh Merlin she had no idea what she was supposed to say and was he even serious, but oh he did look serious, like he really wanted her to answer that and wait, why was she even thinking about this? Amelia scolded herself, perplexed and in wonder at the fact that she hadn't immediately told him no, because didn't he realize that they had barely even dated, that this was the most stupid and random thing she'd ever been asked, if she would marry her boyfriend of two weeks (less, Mia, less), and bloody hell he had to be insane to imagine she'd even think of it, because of course her answer was going to be nothing but a sound what the hell? and "Yeah."
... Wait, what had that been? She could have sworn she had just heard something escape her lips, like a word, a word that upon saner recollection sounded a lot like an affirmative, like an affirmative that she would indeed marry this crazy boyfriend of hers who went around with the gall of actually asking her such a question and holy fuck. She had just said yes.
She totally wanted to marry him.
Berkeley Doge was rarely surprised. His brother Mycroft was always trying to surprise him with pranks and tricks, and sometimes he did, but Berk always tried his best to hide the surprise. But his eyes widened at her soft response and he searched her face to see if she was joking (because he was sure that she thought he was), but when the incredibly surprised, confused look slid off of Amelia's face and he was left with 'yeah,' Berkeley grinned widely and nodded. Once, twice, three times, and now he was excited because this was the right thing to do, he was going to marry Amelia Bones and they were going to be amazing because that's what happens when you put two amazing people together in holy matrimony---
---fuck, he needed to tell Mycroft.
"Okay," he said, somewhat breathlessly. "Do you---do you want to go now? I think we should go now, we have a little---over half an hour left, I can---you can get Mel, and---I'll get---" Frazzled, he was frazzled, but excited, and his hands wrapped around to her back and pulled her closer and Berk still couldn't kiss her because he just wanted to look and take in the face of his fiancée, his future wife, "I'll get you a ring, I promise."
Even if she hadn't very quickly become overwhelmingly excited by herself, the excitement that Berk was radiating would have been contagious enough to throw her out of her phase of shock. Holy shit, was this really happening? They were--she was getting married! And right now, they were going to go right now in the middle of their lunch shift and get married and just--she almost couldn't breathe! This had to be just... holy shit, no this was the most amazing, unbelievable, insane, greatest moment of her life!
"A ring--oh, fuck yeah, well--whatever, don't even worry about it, it's--now, we need to go right now and--ring later, get married now--" Oh man, she had such a silly grin on her face and was literally bouncing on her heels in excitement. Even if they hadn't been dating very long, well... if he could get her like this, there had to be something right about what they were about to do, right? "Mellie and Mycroft and--let's go, let's go now--"
Finding the only proper way to punctuate her sentence was with a squeal, Mia did just that, and at the same time broke eye contact to throw her arms around him and kiss him hard--but just for a second, because hell, she was going to get to kiss him later, when they were married (nasd;lfkjasdflkashdfa;l) and right now there was no time because they had to go do that, they had to get on this and why were they not going yet? Amelia parted from him reluctantly, taking him by the hand and dragging him towards her office door.
"Come on!"
