"Will you be mine?"

She heard him the first time, and every succeeding time thereafter.

"Will you be mine now and forever?"

His voice is still echoing in the turbulence of her mind, intruding at every moment when she least expected.

How could he sound like that?

It wasn't just the words. No. She was no stranger to such words. Another man had asked her a long time ago when she, looking for love, thought to settle for another. She came close. Almost too close. But she couldn't bring herself to take that final step, not when in her heart of hearts she knew. She believed someone out there in the vast expanse of the universe was waiting for her. She just knew it had to be. And though there had been times she felt lonely, she knew she wouldn't, couldn't just settle. Not then, not now ever. Certainly not after there was him.

It was his voice. The way he sounded. The tone carrying with it all the hopes and trepidation she herself feels. It tugged at her heart; it brought about a mist of tears and a long drawn out breath. And his words sounded like they were being torn from his lips, so full were they of ache and yearning.

She shuddered, the voice still a constant presence in her mind, enveloping her in their spoken caress. His voice was enough to render her speechless. So she looked up and met his eyes too. And those liquid pools of honey ensnared her, kept her frozen, caught was she in their current. But she herself didn't want to let go.

Her pulse drummed so loudly in her ears, she could hear each and every heart beat. 

Has my heart even ever just been mine alone?  

She wondered for the thousandths time. She thought of him, the familiar way he would touch her face, the gentle swipe of his lips, the way he would breathe her in when he kissed her...yet she was the one who was always breathless, all molten and liquid fire on the inside.

She has never felt so powerful yet fragile at the same time.

How many times has he held his heart out to her? How could he be so trusting,  just holding his heart on his hands to her, with no preamble, no hesitancy.

Is he not fearful at all? What if....? But I couldn't have broken his heart, not when it meant breaking mine.

She loves him. She knew it the moment he spoke her name. Again, in those tones unmistakable in its intent. She couldn't deny it even if she tried. And she did try to be in denial for awhile, until the threat of losing him brought her full to her senses. 

Isn't this the love I have been waiting for? 

She rememebered thinking this, while she was all restless nerves and wakeful agitation after each time they parted for the day. Then, afterwards more forcefully, selfishly, the thought that followed: I deserve to be happy too.

So she did, slowly opening her heart to him. And he...he was relentless, singleminded in his pursuit of her. 

"I don't want you in pieces. I meant to love you whole. You and all of your perfect imperfections."

The words meant more, because he said them. And she has always been a lover of words; one who read voraciously, who treasured every meaningful phrase for the memories and feelings they evoke; one who wrote poems seen by no one...except him.

It was a one heart-stopping moment; a moment of weakness when she couldn't say the words to him out loud but needed to let him know how she felt. It drove her to share her scribblings and pushed her to bravery. She needed him to know.

And read it he did. Every single one written that poured from her heart onto her pen. They were poems of love, of grief, of unspeakable yearnings. He read them all, with arms around her waist, his lips resting on her shoulders; and his every exhale reaching deep, deep in her core to warm her.

He knew it was a huge step for her to share her most intimate thoughts with him.  And he didn't take this moment lightly. So he read those poems to her, his voice the softest whisper in her ear, tremulous but filled with the surety of their love. He read those same poems, owned the emotions behind the words she wrote, and meant them instead for her...

I think of you every hour, every second of the day without fail like a sickness of the mind.

An unshakeable ague, one that starts from deep within my bones, trailing its cold fingers to my heart.

It grips me in in a vicious vise until my heart cracks a little more each day, for the sheer wanting of you.

And I've wished on enough stars to have wished you a universe; a wish to have you here with me...

Would that I can be yours as you have been always mine, forever unto eternity...

Using her own words that had never been spoken out loud, now they flowed out of his lips, an exhale of feelings long kept bottled up. 

He shattered her walls the way only he could.

Just like him to take her words of misgivings, of melancholy, and turn them around into something else just as poignant and utterly heart-rending by intending them for her instead. 

She loves him more than she ever thought she could love anyone, much to her infinite surprise.

He must know it.

He has to have known it by now, from her words written and actions shown, for she is not one given to effusive verbalizations. He must know he means the world to her...

"Will you be mine as I have been yours?"

The words echo again not just in her mind, shaking her out of her reverie, to hear them now spoken out loud to her. The noise around them silenced itself into the shadows. But it mattered not one whit, for she could only hear him even amidst the din.

He stood facing her, eyes tender, full of love. His voice, still always a yearning, a constant tugging in her heart. 

Could there be any other answer otherwise? 

"Yes. Yours as you are mine."

She flushed, hearing her words come out tremory and breathless, as if she had been holding her breath all this time, waiting to say the words out loud, a long overdue exhale.

And then he kissed her... 

A kiss tempered with undisguised passion; a kiss much long awaited... in front of the altar, in front of their witnesses, to show the world they are finally One.

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a/n: 

I'll be taking a break but needed to share this one shot. It's very angsty; I couldn't help it. It came out different than I planned. 
I apologize for archiving the other stories. I don't like leaving unfinished things and I just can't finish them at the moment. My IG will also be on hold. Thank you to all who's been following my stories and poems all this time.
I appreciate your support. Much love to all.