He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not {I.S.B Sequel}

Flowers For Your Family

Joshua rolled over in bed, eyes half lidded and his hair in sitting atop his head in a frenzy of bright yellow.

"Tyler?" He asked groggily. He propped himself up on his elbow to peer over his husband's shoulder, only to find the brunette playing with his hands as he lay in bed.

"Hm?" replied Tyler. He did not move or make any attempt to hold eye contact with Joshua.

"Are you okay? You haven't slept and you're keeping me up."

That caused Tyler to glance over his shoulder at Joshua, only to focus on his hands again. "Sorry." he murmured.

That answer didn't satisfy Joshua. Sure, he may be half-asleep, but Tyler wasn't acting like himself.

"Hey..." Joshua whispered, leaning over Tyler's body and placing his hand over his still-fidgeting ones to calm him. He held his lips by Tyler's cheek, slowly breathing. "What's wrong? You can tell me."

"It's nothing, Josh." replied Tyler. He kept trying to play with his fingers, but Joshua's grip tightened ever so slightly, to show him that he was still there, that he wasn't going to sleep until he knew his husband was in good shape.

Lifting his left hand up, Joshua ran his fingers through Tyler's soft brown hair. He knew how much of a stress reliever it was to him.

"I'm not going back to sleep until you tell me, Tyler. I don't want you losing sleep. And I'm sure the forest doesn't either."

As newly appointed Kings of the forest, Tyler and Joshua embraced their subjects and the beauty of the land with open hearts and determination to preserve it.

That had been five years ago. Now, being rulers of thousands, millions, billions of tree spirits, flowers, animals, it had all become day to day life for them. It was a very grueling job, but they did it, with help from ambassadors overseas.

Though the ambassadors were all fairies or sprites of some sort, the world ran smoothly under their watch.

"Listen, Josh, I-" Tyler carefully sat up and shrugged Joshua off, only to be interrupted.

"Daddy?"

A short creak of old door hinges disguised the sound of small feet coming down the hallway towards their room as Asta and her brothers held hands in the dark.

Turning to look, Joshua and Tyler could both see the bright brown head of hair in the sliver of pale moonlight pop up from behind the door shyly.

Tyler sighed. Sitting up, he reached over and turned on the light on his nightstand. "What is it, honey?"

"Gabe an' Will an' me got hungry." Asta mumbled.

This happened often, as dryad children required more food than humans in order to cope with and fuel their developing powers. Dryad children who are heirs to the throne as well have a significantly higher caloric intake.

"I'll make you something." said Joshua, who threw the covers from over his legs. "Come sit with daddy while I get a shirt on."

No longer shy and having gotten what they wanted, all three children ran in and jumped on the bed, cuddling up to their father.

Tyler held William in his lap while Asta and Gabriel flanked him, having buried their heads in his sides.

"Are we still going to talk about what's bothering you?" Joshua asked. He pulled a shirt from the dresser and slid it on, adjusting his pajama pants after.

"I don't think it'll matter. We have that meeting with the mushroom fairies to worry about, anyway." Tyler said rather monotonously. He absentmindedly played with Asta's long hair.