Title: Preparation and Proposal
Characters/Pairings: Nicholas/Danny
Word Count: 3,322
Rating: PG for light swearing, some kissing, and a tame reference to sex
Summary/Warnings: Nicholas has something to ask Danny; fluffy fluffy fluff ensues. Takes place several years in the future, in a lovely AU where gay marriage is legal in the UK. Unbeta'd and my first Hot Fuzz fic so all mistakes are mine. Apologies for any obvious Canadian botching of British words/phrases.

"Oh, Inspector, before you head out, this letter from London came in for you."

Nicholas Angel stopped at the sound of Turner's voice, his hand frozen above the door handle. In the space of a second his world changed. One minute he was thinking about heading home after a long day, having just completed a batch of paperwork following a brawl that had broken out at an afterschool football game. He wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up on the couch with Danny, eat dinner and watch (or was more than likely the case with them, not watch) some bad action flicks, maybe have a nice leisurely shag before falling asleep in each other's arms. Nicholas could think of no better way to spend his evening.

But that letter...it could only be one thing, Nicholas was sure of it, and that changed everything. He had only sent one personalized letter to London in the past several months from the police station. He took a calming breath and turned around, approaching Turner's desk, his eyes focused on the white envelope set on the ledge in front of him. Nicholas picked it up and instantly recognized the logo and return address of the Met. That settled it. This was definitely the letter in response to the letter he had sent them.

Nicholas wasn't the only one who knew what this was all about. Turner for once had not returned his gaze to his book, and Doris, who had been close behind Nicholas on the way out, had stopped along with him and was looking expectantly at him. Nicholas, for his part, merely took the envelope, slipped it into his coat pocket, nodded thanks to Turner, and headed back to the door. He didn't get more than a few feet before Doris called after him, "Inspector? Aren't you gonna open it?"

Nicholas turned around and told them seriously, "Yes. But this is something I have to do on my own."

Half an hour later, Nicholas sat in his parked car outside the cottage. Danny was already home of course; Nicholas had insisted he be let off the paperwork regiment due to taking a sharply kicked football to the back of his head during the brawl. This was after Danny had successfully broken apart two burly footballers from a fight and nearly been knocked out for his troubles. Though Nicholas hated when Danny got injured, he couldn't help feeling pride at what a fantastic police officer his partner had become.

Nicholas eyed the envelope sitting on the car seat next to him. As long as it remained unopened, Nicholas could continue his life as it had always been...or at least, as it had been since moving to Sandford six years ago. Nicholas liked his life now. He had a job he enjoyed and was damn good at, he had the respect of most of the community. He had a lovely house and more friends than he'd had in his entire lifetime before moving to Sandford, even if some of those friends like to call him a twat and enjoyed pulling pranks on him while he was on duty. It was still loads better than his lonely existence in London had ever been.

Most importantly, Nicholas had Danny, his partner, best friend, boyfriend, and other half. Even without all those other things, as long as Nicholas had Danny, he would be happy.

But at the moment, Nicholas would rather face the NWA again ten times over than go in the house and talk to Danny. It seemed ridiculous but it was true. Though Danny didn't know it, tonight he could do far more harm to Nicholas than an entire town full of gun-toting senior citizens ever could.

Nicholas mentally slapped himself and forced himself to focus; not to worry about the potential outcome, but to just make sure his plan went off without a hitch. He grabbed his bag, placed the letter inside, then opened the door and got out of the car. He practically marched up the path before he caught himself and took at few more calming breaths. Finally, he opened the door to the cottage and went in.

Danny was predictably lounging on the couch, the last scenes of Die Hard playing out on the TV screen. They had watched the movie together several times, usually around Christmas, even though Nicholas couldn't see what a Brace Willis action movie had to do with the holiday. But it made Danny happy and that was enough for Nicholas.

"You're home," Danny observed, glancing over his shoulder at the door from his spot on the couch. "What we're you doin' parked outside for so long? Everything alright?"

Nicholas smiled at Danny's concern. He stood behind the couch, reached down a hand and squeezed Danny's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm...fine," Nicholas replied, his voice belying his nerves. Danny noticed and gave his partner a questioning look. "Actually, there's something I need to discuss with you."

Nicholas made his way over to the couch, but rather than joining Danny, he stood in front of him, not fully obstructing the view but getting the point across that this required Danny's full attention. He placed his bag on the coffee table as Danny stopped the movie and turned off the TV. Nicholas kneeled down, opened his bag and pulled a notebook out. Danny was watching him with a confused, nervous expression. Nicholas regretted his choice of words; "need to discuss" was almost as bad as "we have to talk." He offered Danny a small reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, this...isn't something bad," he told the younger man, silently adding I hope. He gestured to the notebook. "I bought this for you."

Nicholas watched as Danny tried to figure out the proper response. From anyone else, a notebook wouldn't be much a gift, but he knew Danny understood the importance of his regulation notebook and what it meant to Nicholas. A notebook from Nicholas was the equivalent of a box of chocolates from a normal boyfriend.

"Awww, Nic'las, you didn't have to," Danny told him. "Still got loads of blank pages in my other notebook. Haven't even drawn on 'em yet." He gave Nicholas a cheeky grin.

"Actually...," Nicholas started, flipping the notebook open to the first page and pointing to the bottom of the paper, "I've done some drawings of my own in this one."

Danny leaned over in anticipation and Nicholas handed him the notebook, hoping his partner would get the idea. Like Danny, he had used the notebook to create a cartoon flipbook, though unlike Danny this cartoon started on the first page (Nicholas had been afraid Danny would open the book before he had a chance to explain and would be spoiled if he saw the last part of the cartoon on the first page; it was a pain to essentially draw the cartoon's animation backwards, but was – Nicholas hoped – worth it).

Also unlike Danny's drawing of criminals being violently exploded, this cartoon featured two rather amateurishly drawn police officers, who by no sheer coincidence, resembled Nicholas and Danny (at least Nicholas hoped that's who they resembled; he was no artist but he'd tried his best to convey that the thin officer with the small smile and minimal amount of blond hair was himself and the slightly larger officer with the dark hair and adorable grin was Danny). On the first page, the two were merely standing together, holding hands. Danny looked up from the page and beamed at Nicholas.

"You did this for me?" he asked.

Nicholas nodded, his eyes shifting between looking at Danny and staring at the notebook. Danny took the hint and flipped the notebook's pages. Nicholas was nowhere near as talented an artist as Danny, but he'd tried his best to depict a simple cartoon: the two police officers started out holding hands, but as the pages flipped the Nicholas figure awkwardly turned to the Danny figure and even more awkwardly got down on one knee (Nicholas had had a hell of a time figuring out how to draw that movement and as a result the entire motion appeared quick and jerky).

An open box with a cartoonishly oversized ring appeared in the Nicholas figure's hand, while the Danny figure's face took on a look of surprise (Nicholas had thought he'd be risking too much to depict Danny as being happy or excited; at the moment the real Danny's face was not far off from the drawing's).

In shaky lettering, the words "MARRY ME?" appeared above the two figures, one small line indicating that the question was coming from the Nicholas figure (the lettering was ostensibly the easiest part of the whole cartoon, but it came out shaky anyway because his hand had been trembling as he wrote the words. Nicholas had intended to include a longer proposal, including several reasons why it made sense financially, and some sappy-yet-true declarations of love, but all Nicholas could manage writing was the simple request).

As Danny had watched the amateur-yet-somehow beautiful scene play before his eyes, Nicholas had reached into his bag for a small box that matched the one in the notebook cartoon. The ring inside was simple, a band of plain silver. Neither men were big on jewellery, save Nicholas' chain, and there was something oddly fitting in giving Danny a simple ring. Much like Nicholas moving to quiet, boring, peaceful Sandford and finding friendship and love (and uncovering a murderous cult), the plain surface of the ring belied the importance and depth underneath.

Danny finally tore his eyes away from the final page of the notebook to find Nicholas in a similar position to the Nicholas in the cartoon, down on one knee and holding a ring box in front of him. He looked absolutely terrified, but he managed a bit of a smile as Danny's eyes caught his own. Nicholas squeezed the box and the lid popped open, displaying the ring inside.

"Marry me?"

The silence that followed was deafening to Nicholas, and seemed to last for hours, though he was vaguely aware that it had realistically been only a few seconds. Danny's face did an odd sort of shift, from bemused to confused to surprised to nearly agog, his gaze going from Nicholas to the box to the notebook and back. Just when Nicholas thought his heart would never beat again, Danny's face did one more shift into quite possibly the biggest smile Nicholas had seen on Danny.

"Yeah," Danny said, his voice barely above a whisper. Nicholas could swear he saw the shining sign of tears in Danny's eyes, which was good as he felt them coming too. He sprang up from his position on the floor and nearly launched himself onto Danny, knocking the younger man back onto the couch and wrapping his arms possessively around him. Nicholas buried his face in Danny's neck and he felt the secure weight of Danny's hands on his back. They stayed like that for a moment, both trying to calm down and blink away tears they didn't want the other to see. Finally Nicholas pulled away from Danny and looked at his partner's face before leaning in for a deep, passionate kiss. Tongues intertwined, happy noises were made, hands gripped tightly onto each other; it was so similar to all the many other times they'd kiss, and yet someone different and special.

They finally parted, and Nicholas slid off of Danny's lap to take a less awkward position on the couch beside him. Without saying a word, as though afraid Danny would change his mind, Nicholas pulled the ring out of the box and gently slipped it onto Danny's finger.

"Have to get you one tomorrow," Danny said softly, gently running one finger over the ring. He looked up at Nicholas with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Let everyone know you're mine just like I'm yours."

Nicholas laughed, the weight of the tension and worry finally leaving him.

"I'm pretty sure everyone in town knows that already," he replied, leaning in to sneak another kiss. They would have gone further had Danny not pulled back suddenly, a worried look on his face.

"But what about your job? The...no-fraternization thing?" he asked, his eyes widening. "I mean, it's one thing us livin' together and all, but this means filling out paper work and makin' things official. Someone's bound to notice that...y'know, upstairs."

Nicholas knew what Danny meant of course. He'd always told him that his superiors at the Met couldn't give a toss if he and Danny dated and moved in together. But he knew that marriage could be one of those things from which complications could arise. He leaned forward and pulled the ominous envelope from his bag, then turned back to Danny.

"I thought about this, and I decided it was only best I inform the Chief of my intentions; I got his reply back today," he told Danny. "I told him if I was not permitted to marry a subordinate officer, then I would like to request a demotion. Or, failing that, I would resign."

Danny gasped, and Nicholas paused, reaching out his hand to give Danny's a reassuring squeeze.

"What'd he say?" Danny asked, eyeing the letter as though it could bite him.

Nicholas shrugged.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I haven't opened it yet."

Danny turned his gaze from the letter to his partner, his eyes boggling.

"But what if he says no?"

"Then he says no, and I resign," Nicholas said honestly. "Danny, you're who I care about. My relationship with you is infinitely more important than my job."

"Yeah, but –," Danny started, but Nicholas held up a hand.

"I made my decision a long time ago, even before...this," and Nicholas ran his thumb over Danny's ring. "I decided if we were ever called out for our relationship and it came down to a choice, I would choose you."

Danny still looked uncertain, but his mouth twitched up into a hesitant smile at Nicholas' words.

"Besides, there are probably plenty of people in Sandford who will employ me," Nicholas added. "I like to think they've warmed up to me since that little incident with the NWA."

That got a soft chuckle out of Danny. Then his eyes drifted back to the letter. Even knowing their relationship was safe regardless of what was in the envelope, its presence still weighed heavily on them. After a beat, Nicholas tore the end off and pulled out the papers inside. Two sheets, on official letterhead. Nicholas didn't know what to make of that. "No" usually didn't take up two pages, but neither did "Yes." He unfolded the papers and read the letter aloud:

"To: Inspector Nicholas Angel, Sandford Police Service

This is in reply to your letter regarding your intention to wed Sergeant Daniel Butterman, whom you acknowledge is currently operating as your subordinate officer in Sandford in the county of Gloucestershire.

I hereby give you and Sgt. Butterman full permission to marry, with no plan for an investigation into any, as you put it, 'inappropriate fraternization or abuse of power by a superior officer to his subordinate.'

I was actually rather surprised to receive you letter, as many of our own officers here in London have no problem engaging in blatant acts of fraternization with no thought of our concern. Still, I am reminded of how much of a stickler you are for rules and regulation, which I commend you on. The Met could use more officers like you, Inspector Angel.

By no means should you be granted a demotion, nor would I advise you to resign as you seem to be very much a beloved figure of the Sandford Police Service. Your work at stopping the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance all those years ago will not soon be forgotten, and your record throughout your career is more than enough proof that you take your job seriously.

Though your desire to be with your partner over your job is commendable, it was not your letter that impressed me so much as the accompanying letters I received the following day from your co-workers. All attested to your professional relationship with Sgt. Butterman while on duty, as well as their belief in your importance as their inspector (I assume the use of the descriptors 'twat', 'git', and 'Inspector Stick-up-his-Arse' are playful nicknames employed by your colleagues). I did find it rather hard to understand one letter from Police Constable Bob Walker; you might want to encourage him in future not to handwrite his letters, though I did manage to make out 'good', 'smart', and 'inspector', so I can only assume he shares the same sentiments as the rest of your team.

I wish you and Sgt. Butterman all the best in your upcoming nuptials; I would not be averse to attending were you to send me an invitation."

Nicholas finished reading the letter, his voice wavering a bit and those damn tears welling up again in his eyes. Danny looked delighted at the news the letter brought, and he turned to Nicholas to share in their joy but paused when he saw his face.

"Hey, what's with the look? It's good news, innit?" Danny asked, wrapping one arm snuggly around Nicholas' shoulders. Nicholas blinked a few times and wiped his eyes, then let out a strange noise that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a sob. He stared at the letter, his eyes scanning over part of it again; then he turned to Danny.

"I-I, um...," Nicholas paused and took a deep breath. He wasn't used to becoming so emotional about anything not directly connected to Danny, and it took him a moment to calm himself down. He tried again. "I told the others...at the station I mean, I told the team about the letter. How I was going to ask you to marry me and I might have to resign or be demoted to do so. I thought it would be fair to let them know, just in case."

He paused, then looked at Danny, his eyes still glistening.

"I didn't ask them to send in any letters of support," he explained. "Not any of them. They...they must have decided to do that as a group after I told them."

Danny beamed at Nicholas.

"Well of course they did, they love ya," he replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Nicholas nodded slowly, finally allowing himself to believe it.

"So everything's alright, or better than alright," Danny continued, taking the letter from Nicholas and setting it on the table, then holding Nicholas' hands in his own. "We got bigger things to think about now."

Nicholas nodded again, his face breaking out into a smile bigger than Danny had ever seen on Nicholas.

"But I think it's only fitting," Nicholas replied, "that we bring in a big cake for everyone tomorrow. In celebration."

Then he leaned towards his boyfriend – no, his fiancé – and kissed him.

THE END

I have no idea if there are actually laws about fraternization between superior officers and their subordinates, but it's come up in fics before so I just went with it. I also don't know who exactly Nicholas would be writing to, but in my mind, he's writing to the Chief Inspector, who became less of a twat after the movie. Again, not sure if the Chief has any jurisdiction over who Nicholas marries, but let's pretend for the sake of my fic.