Author's Note: Last one ^_^ Thanks so much for following along. Hope you liked them!

xiii.

The first time he asked her to marry him, she fainted.

To be fair, he'd passed it as an offhand suggestion. She was looking at the butterflies, her body outlined in the sun's golden rays with her eyes wide in childlike wonder as one floated on her finger.

Sitting against a grassy hill, he silently watched her, studying the beautiful smile curving her lips as she looked at him and presented her finger. He met her eyes before taking her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles, eliciting a flustered blush from the girl as she shyly ducked her head while the butterfly drifted away.

She stuttered incoherently as he pulled her to him, settling her in his lap. He pressed a kiss to her lips before resting his chin atop her head, leisurely looking off to the kaleidoscope of butterflies as she nestled timidly against him.

Being with her like this, in the peaceful haze of the setting day, he felt content, perfectly at ease. She filled him with an ethereal peace, a sense he wanted to keep perpetually, so without thinking he said, "Let's get married sometime."

She immediately froze against him, and then there was a thud on the grass hill.

When she came to a few moments later, he was leaning over her, eyebrows furrowed as he carefully helped her sit up. She blinked a few times, steadily regaining her composure, but the remembrance of what he had said moments ago sent her collapsing once more. Gray hastily moved to catch her, but she was tackling him before he could, nodding enthusiastically in his chest with tears of happiness streaming down her face.

He stared at her, processing the crying woman clinging to him. Chuckling, he placed a hand atop her head, giving a small grin as Juvia held him tighter.

He'd ask her again, later, with a ring and more proper request. For now he had his answer, and he wouldn't have it any other way.