They were angry.

Correction, they were angry with him and Fox had absolutely no idea why. Another correction ㅡ he did know why, but he wasn't going to back down about it.

It was for their safety, after all. To quiet that constant thrum of 'what if' in the back of his head that always attached itself to his thoughts of them. That something would go wrong, that he'd lose them ㅡ and there wouldn't be a damn thing he could do about it.

So he'd told them what he wanted, and they'd balked. Told him that it felt more like he didn't trust them to keep themselves safe, that he was babying them.

He wasn't, or he wasn't trying to ㅡ but their irritation incited his own anger, and one thing had lead to another, snowballing into an argument ㅡ and he'd snapped.

"Shut up and marry me!"

It wasn't until they were staring at him in stunned silence that Fox registered what he'd just said.

Oh. Well.