Chapter Text
It was 7 am, and Adam woke up to the sound of Ronan’s alarm.
“Oh my god, turn that off” he said, turning in the bed to face his boyfriend. “It’s too early and it’s my birthday, have a little respect” he mumbled in his sleepy voice.
Ronan chuckled and sat up in their bed.
“Well, lucky you, you don’t have to wake up now” Ronan closed the space between their faces and dropped a soft kiss on his boyfriend’s lips.
“hmmm… I’ve got morning breath” Adam said but a soft smile was tugging at his lips.
“And we’ve been together for more than four years, don’t you get that I don’t give a shit about morning breath?” Ronan kissed him again, as if to prove his point. “See?” He dropped another kiss in Adam’s forehead and got out of bed.
“I’ll be back with breakfast” He said and got out of the room.
Adam smiled, rolled over to Ronan’s side of the bed and buried his face on the other boy’s pillow. It smelled so much like Ronan that it had the same calming effect on him, making him feel safe and protected, lulling him to sleep again.
When Adam woke up again, his head was on Ronan’s chest and he could feel hear Ronan’s calm heartbeat; he started to drum his fingers against his boyfriend’s chest at the rhythm of his heartbeat.
“Good morning,” Ronan said, voice warm and slow. “Sleep well?”
“Yeah… missed you this morning though” Adam got impossibly closer to Ronan and smiled against the skin on the other boy’s neck.
“I brought you breakfast” He said as all matters of explanation. “Also I have a surprise.”
Adam’s fingers stopped immediately as he took his face out of the crook of the boy’s neck.
“A surprise?”
“Yup” Ronan said and put a plate full of toast and fruit right in front of Adam. “But first, you have to eat something.”
Adam looked at the plate and then at Ronan.
“Have you had breakfast?” When Ronan said no, Adam smiled.
“Then we should share” Adam moved on the bed so that his back was on Ronan’s chest, and his boyfriend’s arms hugged his waist at the moment.
Two hours later he was smiling, naked, and had just had the orgasm of his life.
Ronan was still panting, his face on his stomach, his lips leaving little kisses on their way to Adam’s own.
Their lips crashed together and Adam smiled.
“Hey, what’s my surprise?” Ronan gave Adam a little kiss and sat down.
“I will say yes to anything you ask me for today, anything.”
“Anything?” Adam’s eyes shined with happiness.
“Anything” Ronan assured.
“So...can we go to the grocery store together? I know it sounds like nothing but I like it when we go together, makes me happy” Adam took Ronan’s hand between his and left kisses on it, merely a brush of lips against skin.
“Of course” Ronan got up and offered his hand to Adam, who took it confidently and got out of bed too.
Hand in hand they walked to their closet and Ronan felt Adam squeezing his fingers a little.
“Can I wear your sweater?” The boy looked at him, his gaze incredibly soft as he murmured a quick yeah.
Adam smiled brightly and took out his favorite sweater of Ronan’s and put it on immediately.
“I like you in my clothes” The boy wrapped his arms on Adam’s waist and gave him a kiss on the lips.
“I like me in your clothes.”
10 a.m
Adam was pushing the shopping cart down the chocolate aisle, Ronan’s discreet hand was on Adam’s trousers’ back pocket, while they walked around the aisles, picking up all the necessary things that Adam wanted.
Adam’s soft blue eyes focused on his boyfriend’s,
“Can we have a picnic date tonight?”
And Ronan, even though he had gotten way better at expressing his feelings, at least to Adam, he would never admit how it made him feel that everything Adam had wanted were things that had to do with him.
“Of course, love” He said and picked up some marshmallows. “Smores?”
Adam nodded and they made their way through the supermarket, sharing private smiles and inside jokes.
Adam was feeling warm inside, melting, he felt he couldn’t get enough of his boyfriend, he just wanted to get into Ronan’s skin and never leave.
They paid and exited the supermarket, the moment they put their things in the BMW’s trunk, Ronan nodded his head towards the cart.
“For old time’s sake?”
“Fuck no” Adam said instantly.
“Adam, please,” He said, taking the boy’s hands on his.
“Ugh fine” Adam climbed and got inside of the cart. “Can we please not end up on the floor this time?”
Ronan shrugged and simply said “Yes.”
12 p.m
Adam had the fuzziest socks ever on, they were green, and warm, Ronan had knitted them two years ago, when he had declared that he was bored and was going to learn to do something useful.
Now half of Adam’s wardrobe was composed of things Ronan had made.
Yes, it is true that it was July, but Adam had always said his feet were always cold, and maybe he just loved the sensation of the wool against his sensitive skin.
Adam sipped his green tea from a mug Opal had made him on father’s day and smiled.
“Ro?”
“Yes, love?” Came his boyfriend’s voice from the kitchen.
“Can you come here a second?”
Before he had even finished the sentence, Ronan was walking in his direction looking like a god in an apron.
He sat down next to Adam’s feet, took them on his hand and put them in his lap.
One of Ronan’s fingers was softly drawing circles in Adam’s calf.
“Can I give you the opportunity to say no?” Adam was biting his lip nervously. “Like, I don’t know, for really important things, like consent and stuff, because I think I need to know that you will be able to say no if you don’t want something.”
Adam’s hand had gone down and took Ronan’s, intertwining their fingers.
“Like, I don’t want you to have sex with me just because I want to.” Adam’s eyes looked soft and vulnerable, while his thumb was running softly across his boyfriend’s knuckles.
“As if I would ever want to not get you naked” Ronan said softly. “Okay, but I get your point and also see why it’s important, I think we would both feel safer if when you feel like the question you’re about to ask is kind of delicate, you can just ask the question ‘or not’ at the end” Ronan smiled and Adam did as well.
“That does make me feel better.”
The paler boy left a soft kiss on Adam’s hand and got up.
“Well then, have you decided what you want to eat or are we just eating cake?”
“No, no, alright, What about chicken and waffles?”
“Your wish is my command” and he disappeared in the kitchen.
4 p.m
Ronan’s head was resting on Adam’s lap.
He was reading out loud while Adam brushed his fingers against his buzzed head, going down ever so slowly until his fingertips met Ronan’s nose, then his bottom lip. They left a soft kiss there and continued their way down the boy’s neck, only to repeat the exact same movements again and again.
Ronan’s voice hugged the latin words like it was made to speak the language, and Adam allowed himself to close his eyes and enjoy the wonder that was his life.
Surripui tibi, dum ludis, mellite Iuventi,
suaviolum dulci dulcius ambrosia.
Adam smiled, recognising the poem the second Ronan had started to recite.
verum id non impune tuli: namque amplius horam
suffixum in summa me memini esse cruce,
dum tibi me purgo nec possum fletibus ullis
tantillum vestrae demere saevitiae.
When Adam’s fingers stopped moving due to their owner’s amusement, one of Ronan’s hands came up and intertwined their fingers together, moving his head to the side just to leave a soft kiss on Adam’s palm.
nam simul id factum est, multis diluta labella
guttis abstersisti omnibus articulis,
ne quicquam nostro contractum ex ore maneret,
tamquam commictae spurca saliva lupae.
Adam closed his eyes again and moved the hand that wasn’t tangled in Ronan’s just under the other boy's t-shirt, leaving it on the warm skin of his stomach.
praeterea infesto miserum me tradere amori
non cessasti omnique excruciare modo,
ut mi ex ambrosia mutatum iam foret illud
suaviolum tristi tristius elleboro.
Adam’s brain was enveloped in a pleasant buzz, full of good and warm feelings, the comfort of having Ronan in his arms and knowing it would stay like that, that he didn’t really have to force himself to feel and live in a hurry because in some days he had to go back to Harvard.
That had ended, and he had never been happier.
quam quoniam poenam misero proponis amori,
numquam iam posthac basia surripiam.
“Have you finished trying to make me fall more in love with you by reading me some homoerotic poetry that just so happens to have been written in latin?”
Ronan looked him in the eyes.
“Is it working?”
“I don’t think I can fall more in love with you,” Adam said swiftly.
Several seconds of silence passed between them, but they were as comfortable as one can get, just because they were in each other’s arms.
“Catullus was a nice guy” He shrugged.
“He sure was, I’m so glad we knew him and went to visit him every thursday night, don’t you think?”
Ronan looked at him with an incredibly serious expression but then started to laugh.
“You idiot, I meant that he wrote great things.”
“I know! I just love your face when you get upset...well I love your face, period.”
Ronan’s facial expression softened as he smiled.
“Is this one of those times where we spend hours telling each other what are the things that we like the most?”
“Could have been, but,” said Adam getting up carefully, “I want to see the sunset while we have our picnic.”
4.30 p.m
“So I was reading this thing while you made coffee this morning…”
Adam said while starting to pack everything into reusable bags and containers.
He prepared himself for the bombshell he was going to drop on Ronan in a few seconds.
Ever since Adam had come back from Harvard they had been crafting a little notebook where they annotated anything they found about lgbt issues. Normally figures that had been clearly queer but couldn’t have said it at their times. It was just something they both enjoyed, being able to relate to someone who had lived years, or even centuries before them, but having that thread that connected their lives, it almost felt like magic.
Also they really liked getting lost in the pages of lost books and webs, and articles that would take them to more articles.
It was sort of their happy place.
“Turns out that there is a poem, in one of the hallways of Pompeii, that was written by a woman, and it was written on the wall, so, basically a graffiti of sorts …” Adam took the two apples Ronan was offering him and put them inside his backpack” but the cool thing is that it was written for another woman.”
Ronan stopped everything he was doing and looked at Adam, straight into his eyes.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” He moved until his body was against Adam’s and Ronan’s lips found their place in the other boy’s freckled cheek.
“That there’s only one poem in the latin world that was written by a woman, for a woman, and we could have lost it because of a fucking volcano? Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying.” Adam said with a soft smile.
“Holy fuck” Ronan whispered, his breath caressing Adam’s neck. “Can I see it?”
“Of course” Adam got out of Ronan’s embrace and walked to their bedroom picking his laptop up from the bed and walking towards the door again.
Wait.
What if…
No.
Yes?
Maybe…
Maybe?
Yes, yes.
Definitely yes.
Adam walked back to his nightstand and opened a drawer. There, safely tucked behind his socks was a small box.
Adam took it in his hand, thumbing the velvety texture with a mixture of nervousness and happiness.
Same sex marriage had been approved just a year ago in the United States, and it was still pretty new to be honest.
But Adam had never wanted anything more since he had wanted Ronan four years ago.
This was just a prolongation of that feeling, completing the circle.
He was so sure that this was what he wanted.
So he took a deep breath and smiled a little.
It’s Ronan, even if he says no, he will still love you the same.
Yeah, I’m doing this.
So he put the tiny box inside of the front pocket of his trousers, and exited the room, the laptop safely in his hands.
When he got to the kitchen counter he put his laptop there and opened the webpage where he had found it.
“Right here” Adam pointed one of his long, elegant fingers to the screen, Ronan took the hand of which the finger was pointing and kissed it slowly.
“Okay, let me see, can you finish the sandwiches? they’re the only thing left besides the chocolate.”
Adam nodded and occupied himself making botch sandwiches.
Oh, if only I could hold your little arms wrapped around my neck
and press kisses to your tender little lips.
Go then, little doll, trust your happiness to the winds.
Believe me, the nature of men is fickle.
And in the moment Ronan started translating out loud, directly from the text in latin, he put the box safely in the side pocket of his backpack.
With a calm sigh he walked to the fridge and took out the chocolate.
Often I would lay awake, lost in the middle of the night,
Thinking to myself: many whom Fortune has lifted up high,
those, suddenly hurled away/abandoned and falling headlong, she then holds to the ground.
So too, after Venus has unexpectedly joined the bodies of lovers,
daylight divides them and...
“She didn’t finish it,” Ronan said, looking bewildered at the laptop screen. “It’s one of the best things I’ve read and she didn’t finish writing it.”
“I mean it is written in a wall, it had to be pretty hard to write in it, besides, we don’t exactly know what was happening at the moment, who knows if this was just moments before the explosion.” Adam said, putting both the sandwiches and the chocolate in Ronan’s basket.
“We have to put her in the notebook, I don’t fucking care that we’re already at the medieval ages.”
Adam smiled as he put his hands on Ronan’s neck and connected their lips.
“I don’t care either.”
6.30 p.m
Strangely, Adam wasn’t feeling nervous at all.
He was oddly calm.
Because he knew that even in the case that Ronan said no, they would still be the same people, who loved each other too fucking much to let something like that ruin that beautiful thing that they had created.
If the answer was yes, Adam’s world would feel even lighter, because there was nothing in the entire world Adam wanted to do more than wear a matching ring with Ronan Lynch, take his hand and hear the rings collapse with one another.
He wanted it too much.
He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Ronan. He didn’t care where, or how, just that he wanted to be with him, with the person that had given him enough self confidence not to doubt every step of the way, just knowing that they could deal with anything if they were together.
His heart felt full as Ronan looked at him.
“Hi” Adam whispered, closing his eyes.
He felt soft kisses along his cheek and opened his eyes slowly.
“You’re gonna miss the sunset.”
Oh.
Yeah.
He incorporated and looked at Ronan, a soft light in his eyes.
“Feed me?” He pouted a bit and gave ronan the bowl of strawberries.
“Sure” Ronan also got up and indicated Adam to open his mouth,
He did so, and the strawberry softly caressed his pink lips, leaving a soft red trail of sugary deliciousness.
Then Ronan’s lips were on his and they were kissing slowly, sweetly, as if they had all the time in the world.
Adam put his forehead in Ronan’s and smiled, kissing his boyfriend again while he slowly and quietly took the box from his backpack and put it on the floor, between them.
He took his lips off of his boyfriend’s and smiled at Ronan’s still closed eyes.
“You can totally say no to this one” Adam started saying, looking directly at Ronan’s eyes when they opened. “But, I would very much like you to say yes.”
Ronan looked at him in confusion and Adam smiled; he took his boyfriend’s hands and kissed them both. “Would you marry me?”
It was barely a whisper, but Adam knew Ronan had heard it, his beautiful blue eyes filling slowly with unshed tears.
“Are you serious?”
Adam bit his lip and put the velvety box in the boy’s hands.
“As serious as I can be,” he whispered.
And Ronan closed his eyes and bent his neck backwards, slowly facing the pinkish sky.
“Thank you” he said, almost inaudible."Thank you so much" he whispered, eyes closed, facing the clouds.
His eyes looked soft when he opened them and looked at his hands.
Then he looked at Adam and opened the box, revealing a simple but elegant gold ring, perfect for Ronan.
“Of course I’ll marry you.”
10 p.m
Ronan was naked, exhausted, and sated.
And engaged. He was fucking engaged to Adam parrish.
His face showed pure wonder as he saw Adam exit their bathroom and get into bed with him, hugging him close.”
“Can I make one last question?” Adam said sleepily.
“Of course” Ronan’s voice sounded broken.
“Okay, can I tell you a secret?”
“Yes”
“There’s no one I would ever choose over you.”
Ronan shuddered and closed the gap between his body and Adam’s.
“Me neither, Adam, me neither.”