It is Ashton's birthday so: War/Tracy AU because reasons.
If there was one person who he could spend the rest of his life with, it'd be her. They were going to living together as soon as they were done fixing up a converted loft - a project born of too much free time rather than too little money for anywhere better. He had the ring in his pocket and the reservation to her favorite restaurant confirmed, and he was ready for this. On the other hand: marriage was an awful idea. His parents had been married; look how that turned out. All good things must come to an end, so why set yourself up for inevitable heartbreak?
He really needed to quit psyching himself out about this and just get in the car already.
They had their ups and downs. It wouldn't be the first time he was half an hour late to dinner. She'd huff and be annoyed when he did show up but they'd have a nice dinner. At worst, she'd accuse him of not even trying again and they'd fight. But then they'd talk, and make up. They always did.
Four hours later, just two words and her heart was in more pieces than her phone screen.
His brother had let him in after the eight hour drive, let him get some sleep before calling him an idiot; even let him stay a week before telling him to get the hell out and go talk to her on the off chance he hadn't thrown away the best thing that had ever happened to him.
She damn near broke her new phone when she got the text; instead, she went right back to her sister's, railing about how did he have the gall to ask her to meet him at "their place" that night, but stealing her favorite dress her sister owned and heading there anyway.
The cheap rug on the dusty floor wasn't bearskin in front of a roaring fire, and he wasn't nude either. But he did have red roses and redder wine, not that either of them really needed the latter after how they'd spent their week. He wasn't trying to be romantic anyway, not really, just break the ice he knew that would form between them as soon as she let herself in if he didn’t do something. It worked too, with her unable to hold in a laugh at the sight of it all as she sat down on a rung of a ladder for lack of a chair.
They had a lot to talk about.