Should I ask out my best friend

I really don't know what to do here, can anyone please help me? A female point of view may prove to be more useful. Before I start here's basic info about me; I'm at Uni in Oxford, she is in London and maybe be going to Cardiff next year, we're both 19. I have Aspergers. I have known my friend since we started GCSE's, she was struggling with here work and I helped here out, since then she has become probably my closest friend, we were very close friends throughout school. I was really shy at school and she had a boyfriend at the time, so I never did ask her out. Now a few years later she has been I believe single for a couple of months, we speak occasionally on Facebook but I have not seen her for months, we still are very good friends. We both have very similar interests, she constantly says how intelligent I am and when I told I sent a valentines card to someone else, she said she wished someone sent her one, (I would've sent her one but I didn't know where she lived, and I didn't know how I feel about her). We both love comics, games and geeky stuff. We are close and talk about anything, I feel as though I can say anything to her and she won't judge me. The problem is this, should I ask her out, how should I do it if I were to do so? Should I still have her as a friend? I am fine with doing that. I really value her as a friend, but I am confused over what I should do. And to be honest I have never really had a serious girlfriend before, (though I'm not sure that would be a problem) what would you do?

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