From Here On Out

thirty seven

"The only thing that I can do, is always keep on loving you."

Present Day

"Beatrice Prior, will you marry me?"

It's as if the volume of the world was turned to mute, and all that was left with the pounding thumps of Tobias's nervous heart. Making him wonder if Tris could hear it, but her ears were filled with the sound of her own racing heart.

Tris finally lets the heavy tears she was stuffing back flow free, and staring at her love on one knee in front of her, she lets out a choked sob.

Bending down, Tris kisses Tobias like she never had before. A smile on her face as she stands back up, tears in both of their eyes.

"Yes," She whispers, and the words she says almost feel like a dream instead of her reality. "I'll marry you."

Tobias lets out a small relieved breath, his eyes swimming with tears. Causing his already beautiful blue eyes to look like the perfection of the sea.

"Yes?" He asks, making sure he heard her right and as she nods he take the ring out of the box. Tris can't help but smile more as she looks at the growing smile on Tobias's lips as he holds the ring carefully. The joy etched on his face, the tears of happiness that stream down both of their faces.

Slipping the shimmering diamond onto her finger, it's as if it's an eraser of their past. Because in that moment, nothing they said, nothing they did to each other matters. This is where their life together truly begins, starting new, together.

As Tris gazes down at both her beautiful new ring, sitting perfectly on her ring finger, and her now fiancé... she realizes that this was what he was doing all week.

All this time she was fearing he was drinking again, or something horrible was happening... but instead the opposite. Tobias was preparing for the first step into their life together.

His words from just moments before ringing true; he is a changed man. He still has his demons, but everyone does. Tobias has strength now, Tris is able to see that.

Standing up off the cement of the bridge they stand on, Tobias doesn't take his eyes off Tris. He can't look away from her, feeling as if the moment he does she'll vanish into thin air.

"You said yes," Tobias breathes out in something even softer than a whisper. Tears still swimming in his eyes, and Tris can see know that he thought she'd say no.

"Of course I said yes," She says, cupping his face gently with her hands.  "there isn't anybody I'd want to marry more than you."

As Tobias hears those words, he can't control himself any longer. He pulls Tris into his arms; his to be wife tight in his embrace.

Kissing her slow, it grows into something more. Tobias had truly wondered if she'd say no, he could understand if she did. They were engaged once before, what if she didn't want to go through that again with him.

But on the ride home, getting ready to take Tris out to the bridge they stand at right now, he realized that he can't keep thinking of the what if's. The what if's were going to keep him from things in life he couldn't chance losing.

He had to propose to her, no matter the outcome, he was ready... and so was she.

"I love you." She whispers against his lips, as her hands hold the back of his head. Her ring glowing in the beams of the light post near by.

Tobias smiles against Tris's already smiling lips, "I love you too baby, more than you know."

|     |      |      |

Present Day- The Next Morning

"I should probably call your father," Tobias says, as he enters the kitchen and wraps his arms around his beautiful fiancée. "I was going to ask him before I asked you, but I couldn't wait."

Kissing the skin of her exposed shoulder, Tris smiles. "I think he'd like you calling, even if you have already asked me. I think he missed that last time, even if it didn't go anywhere."

"Yeah well last time," Tobias pauses, thinking back to that moment that he proposed to her the first time around. "was different."

Tris nods agreeing. "I like this time better."

Turning in his arms, her back now resting against the kitchen counter. Holding onto his biceps that look like they don't fully fit under the tight black shirt he wears. "You were doing it for better reasons, and we're both more ready this time."

Tobias nods, wetting his drying lips with a swipe of his tongue. "I did mean it you know, when I asked you to marry me years ago."

"I know." Tris says immediately. placing her hand gently against his cheek.

"But you're right," Tobias says. "last time I wanted to know that you wouldn't leave me. I loved you, and I thought marriage would cause my fears of you leaving to disappear."

"Marriage was the last thing you needed then," Tris tells him, her voice kind and soft.

"Now," Tobias smiles. "it's all I want."

Leaning in, he kisses her slowly. Each kiss with her, reminding him that he gets to kiss this woman every day for the rest of their lives.

"I'm going to go call," Tobias whispers against her lips, pulling back to look in her eyes. "I love you."

Calling up the father of the girl he loves... but has also broken her heart too many times is harder than Tobias thought it would be. Dialing seeming like a lifetime, until he hears the other line pick up.

A ten minute conversation, and all the while Tobias's heart is pounding out of his chest with nerves.

"I see the way her face lights up, the way her eyes get this glimmer when she talks about you." Andrew shares with Tobias. "She loves you, some reasons I may not be able to understand, but at the end of the day if one of those many reasons is because you love her like nobodies ever loved someone before... then I give you my blessing."

That's exactly how he loves Tris, with a love no ones ever seen or felt before. A love bigger than any of them. A love he wants to share with her the rest of their life.

A/N: I love love love this chapter, such a beautiful moment. Lots of GIF's because... why not!