You Got Me Poppin Champagne

ALEX'S POV

"What time do we have to go pick up Jasey?" I asked Erin as she dropped onto the couch beside me with a plate of bacon. At least this time her craving was more normal.

"Erm...I don't know...Oh wait, Isobel said they were gonna drop her back, maybe around...fourish?" she answered, chewing the first streak of bacon. I rolled my eyes. She always hated when I ate with my mouth full. Oh well.

"So seen as we have a while..." I trailed off with a devilish smile. Erin rolled her eyes at me.

"Seriously, Alex? You wanna jump in bed again? I'm too tired," she complained, but she still blushed. When was she gonna stop blushing around me? I mean I didn't mind, it was real cute...but I didn't want her feeling self-conscious around me.

I smiled bigger. "Tire you out did I?" I asked with a wink, to which she nearly choked on her meat. I laughed and decided to put her out of her misery. "Relax, I'm not that horny...or at least not yet..." That earned me another roll of the eyes. I swear that's all she did now. Blush and roll her eyes. "No, but seriously, seen as we have a while I was thinking maybe we could go over wedding plans and stuff. We haven't planned anything yet."

She looked up at me briefly and shook her head. "Alex, we have ages yet. I told you I don't want to get married until after the babies are born."

"But why not?" I said with a pout and pleading voice.

"Because I don't wanna go down the aisle looking like an elephant, and then I'll still have to lose the baby weight after they're born...fuck, it's gonna be double the amount with two kids...it'll probably be another year before I'll look decent enough." I stared at her in disbelief. Why would she be thinking like that?

"But Erin, I wanna get married now. I want to marry you as soon as possible, I just want you to be mine."

"I am yours, Alex, you know that."

"Then why don't you seem like you wanna marry me?" I asked quietly, unable to look her in the eyes, even when I felt her stare bore into me.

"Alex..." she started quietly. I risked a glance up to see Erin looking at me with a little bit of hurt in her eyes.

"Well?" I pressed. "Why don't you?"

Erin sighed. "I do want to marry you, you know that. Why would you think I wouldn't?"

"Because every time I bring it up, you just keep telling me we'll talk about it later. I mean if you're having doubts...just tell me. I won't be mad...I just wanna know."

"It's not that I don't want to marry you, it really isn't. It's just that when we do get married, I wanna look perfect. And I won't look perfect until after I've had the twins and lost the baby weight."

"But you ARE perfect...don't you get that? You're perfect for me. Even if you had three heads and green skin, you'd still be perfect. So what if you gain a little weight from the babies, or you walk down the aisle pregnant, you'd still look perfect. Why can't you see that I don't care what you look like? I'm past all that, I told you earlier, the guy who used to care about all that stuff grew up, okay? I'm fucking head over heels for you, do you really think I'd let something as stupid as looks control how much I love you?"

Erin shrugged. "I just don't want anyone to think that you could do better, even though you can-"

"Erin! When am I gonna break through to you? There's no one better for me than you. No other girl made me wanna stay, no other girl made me control how much I'm drinking, no other girl stopped me from wanting to go out partying every night. No other girl made me fall in love like you did. You're about the best it'll ever get for me.,,so who else are you trying to impress?" Her head snapped up at that last question. I raised an eyebrow, letting her know I wasn't gonna give in. Again, she sighed.

"Your friends...your parents...the fans..."

"Okay, well first off, my friends are pretty much all your friends...apart from the ones you haven't met but when you do meet them eventually, they're gonna love you. My parents adore you, I can't talk to them about you without them saying how much they love the fact that I found you and how much they love you, so I'm pretty sure they think you're perfect for me too. And the fans? You know that a lot of them don't really care right? You know how many of them just obsess over Jack and I, or Rian and I...I don't think many ship Zack and I, but you still find the odd few. Others just kind of get a little mad that I'm not gonna be their husband. I mean, hell, you're a fan, you know. You never hated any of my girlfriends, right?" I looked at her and waited for her to meet my eyes. Finally she did. "Well?"

She paused for a moment. "No...I just wanted you to be happy because you'd gotten me through a lot of shit, but I guess you know all that."

I nodded. "Exactly. Pretty much every fan is like that. You know that. Barely any are malicious, and I know I'm not supposed to say it and I'm supposed to love every fan of the band, but if any are actually just assholes and douchebags then I don't really care about them, because those are the people who make us awkward kids feel even more awkward, and-"

"There's no room fro intolerance, it's 2011. grow the fuck up...sorry, couldn't help it. But you started it by quoting your own speech..." Erin said, cutting in with a faint smile, which I laughed at.

"See? If there are fans out there who can't stand the fact that I found someone who makes me happy, well I don't have any room for them at the shows any more. And besides, the fans have known about us since Christmas. I'm pretty sure they're over it. I cam across a page that was dedicated to us the other day...it was like the stuff they do with Rian and Cassadee. I guess they figure seen as we're pretty steady, we're allowed to be called cute and accepted by the fanbase. They get that I love you and nothing's gonna change that. So can we please start planning the wedding?" Our eyes locked, and my own chocolate brown eyes bore into her bright green ones, pleading them to finally accept it, to agree with me, to take a step forward in our future together.

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Fine, but bacon has to be on the list of food at the reception," she said with a smile as she reopened her eyes. I laughed at her and leaned forward to give her a gentle but thorough kiss, which her lips gladly responded to.

"Anything you want," I mumbled against her lips, ecstatic at the fact that we could finally start to move forwards.