Running Towards A Place

My God

Eddie's POV

"Ed...Ed, I've got some fried chicken" I woke to Brandon nudging me gently. As soon as he spoke, the delicious scent of freshly fried chicken wafted up my nose, making me blink my eyes open instantly. "I knew that'd wake you up" he giggled his adorable little laugh and showed his plate of golden chicken fillets.
"You know the way to my heart" I joked, adjusting my position on the sofa.
"How was your nap?" Brandon asked, sitting himself beside me and placing the plate on a cushion between us. It was now 7pm, and I had drifted off at around 3pm so it's safe to say I was catching up on my sleep.
"Good, almost too good" I responded, more concerned about the piece of chicken between my fingers.
"And how's your leg?" He continued, indicating to my strapped up knee. I hadn't paid any attention to it since before I napped so I glanced down at the damage.
"I think the swellings gone down" I answered, taking a good look at it. "Actually yeah, it's gone down loads!" I beamed, noticing the Velcro strap had became loose and the knee itself looked less like an inflated balloon.
"Oh shit, it has!" Brandon agreed with same amount of joy in his voice, as he also investigated, "You're mending Ed!" His wide eyes flicked up to meet mine.
"Oh thank god" I sighed, relieved that I was making progress, albeit small progress, "there's a long way to go but it's progress" I continued, unable to control my relief and excitement.

The following day, Christmas Eve, we were rather busy. I had regained a somewhat normal ish sleep routine and wasn't up and down at strange hours. Brandon and I had made a mental plan for the day, we were going to prep for the big Christmas dinner and make some cookies too then in the evening we were going to have a drive out to look at the lights. All very rom-com-esque but I loved it.

The day passed by too fast for my liking. We had spent the day with good old music pumping through his hifi whilst we concentrated on chopping veg and preparing everything for the Christmas gathering tomorrow. It was very festive. It was nice to be busy and be doing things yet not having too much pressure on my knee, I felt somewhat useful again. Around 7ish after we had eaten, we hopped into Brandon's truck and began our little Christmas lights tour of the surrounding towns. We had Christmas songs crackling through his radio as we passed by the houses. Some were dull and boring others were glowing in all sorts of colours. We drove for around half an hour just admiring the views and listening to the music.
"Let's drive out and look at the stars" Brandon announced, as we passed through the final little town before the desert.
"Sure" I nodded in agreement. The songs still crackled but the lights began to fade. There was something so captivating by the desert at night. After a little while the car came to a stop.
"Let's be teenagers again and sit in the back" he declared, unbuckling his seatbelt, "I have an extra blanket" he said, turning to pull a heavy blanket out from behind his seat. I silently agreed and began to climb out. Without a word he helped me out of the truck and into the back of it. There we sat with our backs against the cool metal, hand in hand gazing at the stars. I'd never seen so many stars, the sight took my breath away.
"It's so pretty" I sighed, reaching a hand up as if I could touch the stars with my finger tips. I imagined I could, pretending I could feel little sparks as I wiggled fingers slightly.
"Not as pretty as you" Brandon replied, I could feel his gaze on me but I kept staring straight up.
" don't be soft" I teased, still pretending to touch the stars.
"I'm being serious, nothing in this world or the next one compares to you" he began, a seriousness to his tone. "I love you darling, and I really believe someone sent you to me because, my God, you're my perfect fit" I felt his hand gently caress my cheek, making me turn my head to face him. "I remember first seeing you, and in all honesty I thought Ron had met some ditzy fan but no, you turned out to be this wacky, beautiful British girl" the corners of his lips curled into an adorable smile. He rummaged in his pocket as he spoke.  "Eddie, we've had a crazy few months and I know people would say don't rush in but darling" he pulled something from his pocket. Wait, was this? Is he? He can't be? " Eddie" he began to stammer, and my heart began to pound. "Ed, w-will you marry me?" He stuttered slightly as the nerves started to take over. The whole world instantly fell away from me. My eyes instantly filled with tears as they fell on the sparkling jewel in the little blue box. I raised a hand to my face, not knowing exactly how to respond.
"Yes!" I basically burst as tears flooded from my eyes and reached out for Brandon. It was a no brainer but it felt so surreal. I thought things like this only happened in fairytales. We cried into the nook of each shoulders as the news settled in, both clearly surprised and overwhelmed by the nights events. When we started to come back down to earth, Brandon took my ring finger and slid the gorgeous jewel onto it. I couldn't decide what I wanted to look at more, the gorgeous sapphire ring on my finger or the handsome face of my husband to be. He then kissed me, this time it felt different, the passion and the emotion of it was unreal. I was kissing Brandon my fiancé, not just Brandon my boyfriend, it felt for real.
"I can't believe you said yes" he admitted as we giddily climbed back into the truck.
"I can't believe you asked me" I returned.
"I know you're the one and we don't have time for waiting about" he explained, reaching out for my hand, his eyes burning with love.

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Brandon's POV

Before I knew it, the words fell out of my mouth.
"Ed, w-will you marry me?" I stuttered, having an out of body experience. I felt like I was living in a dream. It felt like centuries before she answered, but when she did everything just fell into place, like God had fixed it perfectly. For the rest of the evening I couldn't stop my self from smiling. I just had to keep checking the ring on Eddie's finger just to make sure. I couldn't stop looking at her either and she couldn't stop smiling too.

" I can't believe it" Eddie declared as we sat down in front of the TV, freshly baked cookies on a plate between us.
"Me neither" I responded, adjusting my position so I could loop an arm over her shoulders.
"There's so much to think about" she beamed.
"Yeah but let's just enjoy being engaged for now, let's not worry about anything just yet. We're only engaged once y'know" I rambled, feeling a new found confidence and calmness within myself.
"Yes! You're very wise mr flowers" she agreed, picking a cookie from the plate.
"Oh I apologise in advance for my sisters tomorrow by the way, they're not going to stop looking at your hand" I announced, pointing at the shining jewels on her finger.
"It's gorgeous Bran" she responded, admiring it for a moment.
"It was my mom's, Shane was already married when she died so she left it to me" I told her, my eyes fixated on the gem.
"Then I am so honoured to be wearing it, I shall treasure it like I treasure you" she responded, her words so sweet and touching. Tears threatened to fall. I blinked up, my glazed eyes meeting hers. Her small hands, now free of cookie, came to rest on either side of my face. "My love, your mum treasured you with all her heart, I know she did" she began, as if she was speaking to my soul, "just because she doesn't walk this earth anymore doesn't mean she doesn't walk with you" she continued, stirring the butterflies in my stomach, "she's relying on me now to treasure you and I'm so frigging glad about that, you are a treasure Bran" those words broke me down. The tears escaped and cascaded down my cheeks. "I love you more than words can say Brandon" she finished before pulling me into her. Her small arms struggled to wrap around me but I felt safe, I felt loved. She held me together as my emotions overwhelmed me. Kissing my tears away, I knew I made the right decision. "You're always gonna be a momma's boy" she smiled sweetly as I regained my composure and took a cookie from the plate.
"W-well, I have enough momma's love to share between us" I kissed her cheek tenderly as if to personify my statement, "mom would've loved you, y'know, she liked humour and honesty" I told her proudly. I reached out with my free hand to hold Eddie's. This was real.

Waking up on Christmas morning, I felt like a 5 year old again. Unable to contain my excitement, I insistently sat up and dug through the sheets to find Eddie's hand. Yep, still there. Eddie stirred abruptly.
"What the fuck you doin?!" She grumbled, trying to snatch back her hand with the grumpiest expression on her face that I've ever seen. She relaxed when she saw my guilty smile.
"Sorry, I just, I needed to check" I admitted shyly, running a hand through my birds nest of hair and sitting back down cross-legged.
"Hmm" she beamed, pulling the duvet up around her to protect her from the cool air, "merry Christmas to you too" she chuckled, opening her eyes properly to look at me.
"Yeah merry Christmas love" I responded, pulling a spare bit of duvet around my bare torso.
"Come here" Eddie instructed, her voice low and breathy. So I padded across the bed, until I was on all fours, trapping her under the duvet. "Kiss me mister!" She demanded, her sultry eyes locked onto mine, making me swoon. Anything for my lady. I kissed her long and hard and she kissed right back.
"Merry Christmas darlin" I whispered against her plump lips as we finally broke the kiss, both slightly frustrated that we couldn't get carried away yet, as much as we wanted to.
"Merry Christmas, fiancé" she replied with a mischievous grin.
"Why thank you Mrs Flowers to be" I chuckled, reluctantly removing myself from the bed. "Need a hand getting up?" I asked, offering my hand. She obliged and we lazily got ourselves washed and dressed for the day. It was going to be a busy day, with lots of questions for sure.