I guess it's pretty easy to tell what this little fic is about from it's title. I really need to get better a title generation. It's a bit corny. But it serves it's purpose.
I wrote this as another little bit of fun, started it straight after I finished Lamplight. It's another one-shot, though I'm very tempted to do another one based on the wedding. T
Ha ha! That would be funny.
Anyway, lots of people write Dom and Letty really mushy (not that that's a bad thing, everyone needs Dom/Letty mush!) but sometimes I just think, Dom and Letty are too fiery, too explosive, too furious to go about such things as their relationship and a proposal in such a lovey-dovey way. But that's just my opinion, I really do like fics where they are all goo-goo eyed but I wanted to get their angry sides down in this little one-shot.
Right, so…tell me what you think? I kinda lost it towards the end, there's a lot more detail at the beginning but…it's all good fun and I may go back and re-do the bits I'm not happy with sometime. Oh yeah, and I'm working on the next chapter for the Road is Long...finally! Sorry 'bout that, i needed to find my inspiration again.
Okay, enjoy.
Happy Reading.
Gem
Xxx
A Furious Proposal.
Letty sighed for the tenth time in as many minutes, drumming her slender, tanned fingers, that were remarkably free from oil stains for a change, upon the table top. Her dark gaze skimmed over the other diners in the restaurant, mostly couples smiling and laughing and feeding each other little titbits of shrimp or asparagus. It made her want to puke.
What was she doing here? Mia had booked a table at her favourite restaurant, "Cha Cha Cha's", for nine o'clock, in an attempt to get Letty and Dom talking again, to get them to straighten things out. Letty had agreed, against all of her better judgement, just to shut Mia up from harping on about how sorry Dom was and how he deserved a second chance. How the last heist wasn't really his fault, even though they both knew that it mostly was.
And so there she was. Sat in the warm, overcrowded restaurant, that she had no idea why Mia liked so much, receiving stares and strange looks from the other customers and even the staff. Twice a waiter had come up to her, asking if she was ready to order and twice she'd told him that he was jumping the gun, she was waiting for someone. She was waiting for Dom. And where was Dom? Late, that's where he was. Fucking late. Typical.
She rolled her eyes and twisted her left wrist so that she could see the dial on her watch. Twenty past nine. She should have known better than to get her hopes up that Dom had changed, that he would actually show. Dominic Toretto had always been self absorbed and that wasn't about to change anytime soon. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, didn't they say?
Letty stood with an irate huff, snatching at her purse and pushing her chair away from the table with a squealing of wooden legs against the tiled floor. She bent down to retrieve her bag from where it was caught about her chair leg, shaking her head in disappointment. Some things never changed, were never meant to change.
"Sorry I'm late."
Letty paused at the sound of his voice, not even daring to look up in case she was simply imagining things in her furious state and that he would spirit away at any second. He'd actually turned up? Wonders would never cease!
Slowly, just in case her ears where deceiving her, Letty let her eyes wander to his smart, polished shoes, upwards to his black suit pants which were baggier than a normal suit, pooling about his ankles and shoes, the cuffs of the legs almost, but not quite, dragging on the floor. Her brown, disbelieving eyes travelled further, following the sharp crease that had been ironed into the front of his trouser legs, to the startling blue dress shirt, the top two buttons left open so that his tanned, hairless chest could be partially seen. He'd actually dressed up for the occasion, but there was no doubt that it was mostly Mia's doing. She had obviously spent her entire evening washing, drying and ironing his outfit so that he would make a good impression.
Finally, she allowed her eyes to slide up to his face, though she had to take a deep breath and swallow hard before she could do so. His dark eyes reflected the many flickering candles that where dotted about the small restaurant, though they held another, strange glint, an emotion that Letty had never before seen in Dominic Toretto. What was that? Was he nervous? Dom never got nervous, though the way he shuffled under her silent gaze and cleared his throat slightly made her begin to suspect that he was definitely edgy. That almost made her laugh. Any other time and she would have. Never in her life had Letty thought that she would ever see him squirm under the gaze of a woman, where he was usually so comfortable. That bitter thought made her grit her teeth and swallow again, her eyes turning cold and drawing an anxious, worried glance from Dom.
"Ah, you weren't…you weren't about to…uh, leave…were you?" he asked and the low, fearful tone of his voice made Letty's heart skip a beat painfully. She cleared her own throat, pushing her feelings back down, and raising her chin so that she looked him square in the face, her lips purse slightly.
"I thought you weren't coming." she replied, a little more coldly than she had meant to and Dom's arching ebony eyebrows drew together in panic, as if he thought that she was about to run from him. His body leaned forwards a little, his hands making unconscious moves towards her as if he was going to reach out and grab her to keep her in one place but he shook his head, like he was clearing it, and instead gestured to their table.
Silence panned out around them, the noise of the other diner's chatter drowned out completely as they considered each other. Finally, Letty nodded slightly moving to pull out her chair and resume her previous place, though she kept her purse and bag on her lap, just in case she needed to get out fast. Just seeing Dom again, even though it had been merely a few days that they had been apart, just being so close to him, breathing the same air made her skin tingle like her body was trying to turn itself inside out. Her stomach felt as if she had just driven over the crest of a hill at a hundred and fifty miles an hour, the same feeling of nervousness, of weightlessness as gravity tugged just behind the navel, trying to bring driver and car back to the ground.
His eyes scanned over her body much as hers had searched over his moments before, though Letty pretended not to notice, sipping instead at her glass of water, feigning aloofness.
"You look beautiful." he announced suddenly, as if he had only just set eyes upon her. She heard the breath catch in his throat as he spoke and glanced down at herself, swallowing the gulp of water that had stilled in her mouth at his words, glass still in hand.
Despite all of her misgivings she had allowed Mia to pick out her outfit for the evening, just as Dom evidently had. She even knew that Mia was scheming to try and get them back together, that the younger girl was picking clothing that was similar to the ensemble she had worn when she and Dom had first gotten together, in an attempt to rekindle their romance, remind them why they loved each other and get them to put an end to their stupid fight. And while her mind had screamed at her to put an end to Mia's little charade, to her delusions that somehow she and Dom could sort things out, Letty just didn't have the heart to destroy the hopes of the woman who had become her like her little sister. And perhaps, somewhere deep down, if Letty was truthful, she still had the same hopes, that somehow Dom had changed, that they had both changed.
She sighed raising her glance from her deep purple halter-neck top, made from a sheer, silky material that shimmered in the suddenly heady restaurant air, combined with a pair of black, three-quarter-length trousers, back to Dom, running her eyes over him again.
"Thanks." she said simply and the powerful man that sat before her let out a visible sigh of relief that she had actually replied, that she wasn't going to scream and yell at him as she had upon their last meeting in the garage the previous day. "You don't look too bad yourself."
Dom smiled at her comment though it didn't reach his eyes, still holding the sadness at the frigidness that had sprung up between them, pushing them apart. "Thanks." he responded and again silence fell around them, weaving uncomfortably around the pair.
It was Letty who broke the silence first with a sigh of impatience as she placed her bag and purse down onto the table with a dull slap. "Look, Dom. We both know we're here for a reason, to make Mia happy, so…lets just get it over and done with, a'ight? I gotta get home. My cousin locks the door at eleven and I don't wanna sleep in my car again." she said, ire heating her words and she crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
Dom's dark eyebrows twitched downwards into a faint frown at the reminder that Letty had taken refuge from him at her older cousins house, the pride that she knew all too well kicking in but instead of matching her words with harsher ones of his own, he just nodded, reaching for the menu and waving over the waiter that had been hovering around Letty since she had entered the building half an hour previously.
"Are you ready to order, Sir? Madam?" the tall, thin, slightly balding man queried, his pale blue eyes flashing between the two as they decided upon their meals. He had obviously worked in the restaurant long enough and served sufficient couples to know that something was not right between them and that there was likely to be 'fireworks' if he didn't keep a close watch on them.
"I'll just have the chicken." Letty responded swiftly, handing her menu back to him and sipping at her water again.
"Sir?" he raised his eyebrows at Dom, carefully taking in the younger man's size and strength.
"Yeah, ah, the chicken sounds good. Thank you." Dom gave a small smile following Letty's example and handing over his own menu.
"Would you like anything to drink? Dessert perhaps?" the waiter smiled at her wary of her irritated face.
"We'll have the house red. Red wine's still your favourite, right, Lett?" Dom asked hopefully, swinging his head around to glance at her and she felt herself losing control of the situation. "Yes. Definitely the red." Dom was using his authoritative tone, second guessing her. Sure, red wine was her favourite but the way he was assuming that he knew her so well, it was almost like he was forcing her into it and it made her temper flare. He knew all too well that she could never refuse him anything, not that he ever gave her the chance to, and he had used that to his advantage many a time in their past. She wouldn't do it anymore. Wouldn't allow him to do it anymore.
"No." Letty responded even as the waiter scribbled down the demand for the house red wine into his order pad. Both of the men glanced up at her and she frowned.
"Come on, Letty, have a drink with me? Just the one?" Dom pleaded, another of his tactics that he had used to persuade Letty to do what he wanted her to do. She shook her head forcefully.
"I'm fine with water." she directed her comment to the waiter instead of Dom and the grey-haired man smiled at her and nodded though he looked slightly perturbed at their constant change of demands.
"Is that all?" he asked, looking down his nose as he scrawled on the pad their table number and Dom opened his mouth to order them a dessert but Letty injected with a hasty "no thank you". She watched the waiter scurry away to the kitchen where their meal was to be created, feeling Dom's eye scorching into her, questioningly, almost demandingly. She knew how long it would take him before he could hold on no longer and his angry words would pour forth. She knew to the exact second. Five, four, three, two, one…
"Letty, come on. Don't be like this."
Bingo. He was so predictable. Like clockwork.
"Like what, Dom? I don't want a drink, that's all." she replied, busying herself with rummaging through her bag. She knew he was getting angry but she didn't care. She was through letting him walk all over her. She'd put up with him and his shit for the past nine years, she had been starting to notice that it didn't have to be that way. She had moved out of the Fort and in with her cousin, Paolo, only for a couple of days…then Mia had set up this little rendezvous. And foolishly Letty had agreed.
"So this is how it's gonna be?" he demanded, letting his annoyance colour his voice finally, slapping his hands palm down onto the tabletop lightly and causing Letty to glance up from her task.
Her frown deepened and she shook her head before replying. "Jesus Christ, Dom! I don't want a fucking drink, so drop the little manipulation act! Who d'you think you are? Fucking Hitler!" she hissed, slamming her bag back onto the table, almost mirroring the gesture he had made with his hands. "You always do this." she sighed, a little more calmly though shaking her head furiously again.
"Do what?" he challenged, indignantly, his hands curling into loose fists, subconsciously and Letty rolled her eyes with a sneer.
"Try and bully me into doing stuff! You do it all the time, Dom! You did it with the fucking heists!" Letty paused to draw a breath sitting back in her hard backed chair and crossing one leg over the other in a very lady-like and un-Letty-like gesticulation.
"Me? Bully?" Dom scoffed, mimicking Letty, sitting back in his own seat and dragging his hands towards him across the table, letting them fall into his lap with a dull thwack. "You're talkin' crazy, girl."
"You've just done it to me now with the shitting wine!" Letty snarled, raising her eyebrows at him in disbelief and then sending a furtive glance about her at the people who were beginning to stare in their direction. She huffed, her warm breath fanning out across the small, round table and hitting Dom in the face. "You know what, Dom? I've realised something." she snapped, pressing down onto the table and pushing herself from her seat. "I don't need this shit. I don't have to deal with this shit anymore." she shoved her purse into her bag, not allowing her gaze to move back to Dom's for fear that he would say something, do something to change her mind. "Tell Mia that it was a nice thought, but we're never going to work. Neither of us is gonna change anytime soon."
She turned to leave but Dom's hand struck out, encompassing hers and tugging lightly, gently almost, his thumb running in small circles over the soft, smooth skin of the inside of her wrist. She did look up at him then and felt her knees go weak at the pitiful look in his soft brown eyes as they gazed at her with panic in their depths.
"I'm sorry, Letty. Just…don't go. I didn't mean to get angry." he sighed as she slowly turned around to look down at him. He scrubbed a large hand over his clean shaven head, resting his elbows on their table. "You're right. If you don't want to drink, you don't have to."
Letty reluctantly resumed her place and gave a world weary sigh, rubbing at her own neck beneath her usually curly hair, though that night she had spent a good hour and a half straightening it…for him.
"It's not about the wine, Dom." she replied, closing her eyes and moving her hand to scrub at her temples as if a raging headache pounded behind them.
He was silent for a long time and she knew that he had not a clue what she was talking about. Dom only listened to what he wanted to hear. "Come on, Letty." he said finally, irritation again beginning to tint his low voice. "You gonna tell me what's wrong, what's up between us instead of speaking in riddles? First it's about the wine and then it's not? What's the deal with that?"
Letty fought hard but could not stop the fuming growl that escaped the captivity of her mouth through her clenched teeth and her dark eyes snapped open. "This is the fucking problem, Dom!" she growled out at little louder than she had intended. "We never communicate properly. I say one thing and you hear another and vice versa!" her hands were gesturing wildly between them as she spat out her words, every single one becoming louder as she continued. She watched the fury, the male pride, contort his handsome face into a deeper frown and shook her head for the umpteenth time, her mouth slightly open in complete incredulity. "We barely managed when we loved each other."
Dom's fury-stricken face turned pale and anxious at her words. "What do you mean 'when we loved each other'?" he barked out, his voice also rising in volume and Letty stood again suddenly in a swift motion, followed closely by him.
"I never know if you love me, Dom!" she very nearly shouted. "You never show it! And you sure as shit never say it!" she ran a shaky hand through her shadowy hair before lowering her tone and narrowing her eyes, mindless of the entire restaurant as all eyes turned towards her and Dom. "I don't know if you love me anymore!" furious tears shivered in her brown eyes, though she would never allow them to fall and she spun on her heel, intending to leave Dom standing there. Alone.
Instead she felt her entire body jerking around to face him, his fingers digging hard into her upper arm while his other hands jabbed a finger at her face for emphasis of just how livid he actually was.
"Don't you dare say I don't love you, Letty! Don't you fucking dare!" he seethed, teeth clenched almost as tightly as Letty's were. He gave her a shake for good measure before releasing her and waiting for her reply.
Letty scoffed, tossing her ebony head back. "Oh, I dare, Toretto. I fucking dare!" a false grin twisted her pretty lips up and away, revealing her startling white teeth mockingly and Dom gave an unintelligible roar, reaching into his pocket and then slamming his hand down on the table, eliciting a loud crack of wood against something hard and making Letty's unfinished water wobble, dangerously close to spilling. Their eyes remained locked for long minutes until Letty glanced down at where Dom's hand lay still.
"If I didn't love you, why the fuck would I come here tonight to ask you to marry me?" he thundered, drawing his hand away to reveal an engagement ring that made the breath catch in Letty's throat. "Besides," he continued, still incensed, still yelling so loud that even the kitchen staff had come out to witness the spectacle. "I don't know if you love me!"
Letty snarled and stabbed her finger mercilessly into Dom's chest, taking pleasure when he winced slightly. "If I didn't love you, why the fuck would I say yes?" she bellowed back, snatching up the ring and jamming it onto her wedding ring finger.
"Fine!" Dom growled. "We still love each other!"
"Fine!" Letty roared in return. "We do!"
For a long moment the entire restaurant held their collective breath, all other conversation forgotten, as the volatile couple frowned at each other gasping for oxygen after their shouting match, not knowing if they were about to kill each other. Then they were moving in unison, Letty grasping desperately at the front of Dom's shirt to pull him towards her and Dom crushing her to him as hard as he could, their mouths seeking each other out and joining in a frantic, fiery kiss that was filled with so much passion, desperation and longing that they didn't notice the waiter approaching them nervously.
"Sir? Madam? Ah…please could you…that is to say…would you mind terribly taking your…fraternization outside? We have…ah…customers who are complaining about the extensive use of foul language and…ahem…frivolous emotions."
Letty and Dom tore their lips away from each other, again short of breath though for a very different reason, grinning from ear to ear.
"Here." Dom panted, thrusting a fist full of dollars at the disapproving waiter who looked a little flustered but took the money. "Cancel our order and keep the change." he grabbed Letty's arm, who was chuckling to herself and attempting to steady her breathing in the same instant unsuccessfully, allowing herself to be dragged from the hot restaurant into the cooling night air.
"You just gave that dude and eighty dollar tip…you do know that, right?" she sniggered but Dom simply shrugged, curling his arm more tightly about her waist.
"I don't care if I gave him and eight hundred dollar tip. You said yes. That's all that matters to me." he paused, twisting the engagement ring around Letty's finger and raising it to eyelevel clasped in his own. "You meant it, right?"
Letty rolled her eyes and mock-scowled at him, punching him lightly on the arm. "You better believe it." and then she beamed wide, like she hadn't in the four days that they had been apart. Like she hadn't in years as they headed for Dom's car.
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Please read and review! Thankies!