A short, bittersweet story of friends turned lovers, turned strangers who find their way back together and attempt to get it right. AU: Jax, Tig, Juice, Kozik and Kip are still alive, otherwise basically follows the rest of the show.
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Twenty-Five:
Happy had been gone all day which was something that wasn't unusual, but still put me on edge. I'd been counting down the minutes until he'd been home since he'd been arrested two months previously, still uncomfortable and unnerved that the law enforcement were still treating them like outlaws despite joining the civilians on the 'right side of the tracks'.
When his engine cut off in the driveway I finally let out the huff of tension that had clung to me like a second skin since I'd put Harry to bed a few hours prior and leant back in my chair to look at the stars overhead. I hated being so tense all the time and I would never ask him to step away from the club, not after they'd invited me into their family and not when I knew how badly he loved and needed them, but I was sick of going out of my mind with worry.
They'd finally had their day in court and all of the charges had been dropped with an apology from the judge and some harsh words from their lawyer who basically called the police pricks without saying the world out loud, the money I'd forked out for bail had been returned into my account which I hadn't noticed until Lowen called to confirm I'd received it. Everything was going fine.
I heard the front door shot and the two deadlocks he'd installed click into place before he punched in the code to the alarm he'd made Juice set up to disarm and then rearm it. He was a stickler for our safety and had ignored me when I'd asked him if the whole thing had been a bit of overkill.
He bypassed the bedrooms and the kitchen with the knowledge of where I'd be without me even having to call out and tell him, and the back door opened before it closed softly behind him. "Hey, Free Bird."
I held my half-full beer in my fingertips when I looked over my shoulder at him and felt my blood run cold at the side of his neck. My whole body was a mixture of numb and in adrenaline when I jumped to my feet, ready to smack the stupid grin on his face.
"What the fuck did you do?!" I screamed.
He smirked at me when I dropped the bottle of beer on the back porch, but I didn't even hear it smash pieces in my rush to get to him. "Babe-"
"What did you do?!" I cupped his cheeks in my hand and ran my eyes over every inch of him that was exposed to ensure he hadn't been injured anywhere else. "What happened?"
"I got a tattoo." He chuckled like my panic was amusing to him. He pulled away the gauze to let me see the writing hiding underneath.
Free Bird
Harry
"You got our names tattooed on your neck?" I asked when I pulled away from him to look at his face. "Why did you do that?"
"My chest is covered." He deadpanned. "Could have put it on my cock, but that seemed weird to have my son's name on the thing I shove into his mother every night."
"Happy." I groaned, but a smile still pulled up my lips, relief swarming through my veins to relieve the ice that had been there moments before.
He kissed my forehead. "Sorry to worry you, little girl. Go sit back down, I'll get you another beer."
I didn't know what he was talking about until I looked down at the glass shards covering the deck and the water trickling through the wooden planks. "Oh. Thanks."
Happy returned a few minutes later with the baby monitor he'd set up in Harry's room for the nights that we spent out the back drinking and talking, a pack of cigarettes and a six pack of beer.
I raised an eyebrow at the bundle of items in his arms in question and he smirked. "Celebrating."
"I don't think you getting our names tattooed constitutes celebrating." I teased, tongue stuck out in childlike immaturity when he passed me an open beer. "Or are we celebrating that I didn't have a heart attack when you came home with a bandage on your neck and I'd assumed you'd been hurt?"
"Celebrating that I'm gonna marry you."
I smiled up at him with my beer halfway to my lips. "You've told me that before."
Happy hummed in agreement. "Yeah, but I didn't have a ring than."
I blanched and put my beer down on the table me, staring up at him. "Do you have one now?"
"Yep." He crunched over the broken glass and sat at the table next to me, lighting a cigarette when he got comfortable.
He didn't notice that I was staring at him and, if he did, he completely ignored it, just handed me the cigarette he'd lighten and lit another one for himself. "Happy?"
He tore his brown eyes away from the dark backyard and regarded me with a blank face. "Hmm?"
When I stared him down he broke into a grin and pulled the box from the pocket of his jeans, then slid it over the table so that it rested in front of me. "I'm not gonna ask you because I'm not taking no for an answer. Put it on."
I opened the box to reveal a large diamond in the middle of a white gold band, large enough to make a statement that I was, without a doubt, taken off the market. "Fuck, Hap, this must have cost you a goddamned fortune."
He shook his head without answering which was enough for me to know that I was right, then took another drag of his smoke. "Put it on."
It was a perfect fit which didn't surprise me since Happy seemed to know everything about me, ring sizes included, without even bothering to ask. He knew every inch of my soul.
When it was in place and I held my hand out to look at it from a distance, he grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me forwards so that he could kiss me to leave me breathless and slightly giddy.
"That was the worst proposal ever." I laughed after I'd pulled away from him.
