A Pride and Prejudice ficlet written for @flashfictionfridayofficial
Fandom: Pride and Prejudice
Relationship: Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy
Rating: Teen
Tags: Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Fluff, Pillow Talk, Implied that they just had sex, Names
Word Count: 436
"Say it again," she breathed into his neck.
"Hmm?" was his only response, muffled, hoarse, and foggy; it made her smile. She was coming to learn that her husband was uncharacteristically inarticulate immediately following his pleasure. It was amusing and charming to see such a competent man utterly undone.
"Say my name," she clarified.
He had said it right as he finished—"Oh Elizabeth, Elizabeth!"—and the joyful sound of it had made her chest ache in the best possible way. She still did not consider herself a terribly sentimental creature in general, but love and marriage had wrought more change upon her than simply changing her last name, and she was not ashamed to let her husband coax such romantic feelings out of her through such seemingly trivial means.
This current pleasing ache around her heart, and its cause, was not new to her. She always thrilled at hearing him call her by her Christian name, ever since that first "dearest, loveliest Elizabeth." It was not only the fact that he was allowed to call her that now, a reminder of their unity as husband and wife, but that he was the only one who called her that. To her family, she had always been Lizzy. To a few of her friends, she was Eliza. But to him and him alone, she was Elizabeth, always Elizabeth.
He treated her name like a treasure, beloved and jealously guarded from everyone else, only his to enjoy. Mrs. Darcy, he called her when they were in the company of others, and she took pleasure in that too, the affectionate tenor of his voice to use her married name, a name he had bestowed upon her. But there was an irresistible intimacy to the fact that as soon as they were alone, it was Elizabeth, always spoken with such warmth of feeling as to make her almost giddy at times.
At the present moment, with the sound fresh in her ears, her heart still racing from her release, and his body heavy and hot atop hers, she was feeling close to giddiness. He raised his head from where he had pressed it into the gracefully sloping valley of her neck and shoulder to look into her face. His cheeks were flushed, his lips parted as he breathed hard, his eyes bright with feeling.
"My Elizabeth," he said, slow and sure, and she sighed as its warmth spread through her.
He smiled at her pleased reaction, raising a hand to nudge her damp hair off her temple, then cup her soft cheek. His eyes held hers. "I love you. Elizabeth."
