Ryland had finally given into Shane. After a few more months of Shane pestering him to get a dog, he finally caved in. They got a Labrador and, of course, named him Uno. He was a little hard to handle at first; always ripping apart pillows and chewing on anything his could get his teeth on. But after a year, he finally learned to behave.
Shane and Uno instantly became best friends, and to Ryland's surprise he took a liking to Uno too. Ryland was never a dog person- or an animal person in general. He thought animals were cute, but he never wanted to have one as a pet. He preferred dogs over any other animal, but he still didn't particularly like them, but somehow Uno had managed to change his mind. And now he couldn't picture his life without him. They had become a little family.
One of their favourite things to do with the 'little trouble maker', as Shane would call him, was go up to the flower meadow. Uno loved running around the open land, tearing the flowers out with his teeth and eating them. He seemed so at peace there, much like his dad's.
Uno was at his training class today so it gave the boys some time off to do whatever they pleased, but all they did was sit on the roof of their garage. Even in their mid-twenties they still enjoyed to sit on roofs of buildings and watch the sunset- so really, nothing much had changed during adulthood.
"Ry?" Shane said, turning his eyes away from the lavender sky to focus them on the even more beautiful sight next to him. "Uh huh?" Ryland hummed, looking at Shane and smiling slightly. "You know a few years ago we spoke about getting married, um, have you, you know, thought about it since then?" Shane stumbled out. It had been more than five years since that drunken conversation and they had still not brought it up. But that didn't mean they didn't ever think about it.
"A few times, yeah." Ryland answered. Ever since they moved into this house it had been on Ryland's mind to propose to Shane. He knew he wanted to marry Shane, absolutely, there was no one else for him, he just didn't know when to do it. He needed to make sure they were both ready. And it seemed like they were both now ready for the next step. Why else would Shane have brought it up?
"Have you?" He asked, reaching over to hold Shane's hand. "Yeah. It would be nice to marry you. I would like to call you my husband." Shane blushed, turning his gaze away from Ryland and back up to the sky. "It would be nice to come home to not just my boyfriend, but my husband. It just sounds right, you know?"
"I know." Ryland nodded, smiling to himself. "It would be nice to call you my husband, too. It would be like we're proper adults who have their lives together, then." Ryland joked, causing them both to laugh. "All we would need then is a child and then we'd be sorted." Shane added.
Shane had been thinking about children for a while now. He wasn't ready for one quite yet, maybe in a couple of years, but he knew he wanted one. He wanted a family with Ryland. It was something he had always wanted. Even as a child.
"How many kids would you want?" Ryland asked. Ryland had also been thinking about starting a family. And thankfully he was in the same boat as Shane; wanting to wait a few more years before introducing a child into their lives.
"Only one. I don't think I could handle more than that. Especially now that we've had some experience with Uno, it's kinda like a glimpse into parenthood. And it's hard enough to look after a dog, and children are way harder than a dog, so one seems like the best option. Because I definitely want at least one baby with you. How many would you want?"
"Only one or two, like you said, kids are harder than dogs so having more than two seems insane. But you know, it also depends on our financial sate. But I would hope to have at least one."
They continued to chat about marriage and children till the sun had completely set and it was time to pick up Uno from his training class. The conversation was forgotten about then as all their attention went onto the needy puppy bouncing around their feet.
Now all they needed to complete their family was a little kid bouncing around their feet, too.
