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Henrietta. If you had told Adam 5 years ago that he would be coming back this way, he would have laughed in your face.
Instead, he’s smiling as he takes the exit towards Singer’s Falls, one hand tracing the ring in his pocket.
Ronan.
Opal.
Home.
He finds them sitting on the grass behind the house, Opal chatting animatedly. The moon hangs brightly in the sky, but both of them are oblivious to the world around them.
Ronan smiles at something she says and strokes a hand down her hair.
Opal gives him an offended look.
She must hear his steps because the hooved girl’s head then turns towards Adam.
“Adam!” Opal shrieks, running towards him. Her momentum allows him to swing her around, just off her feet.
“Kiddo!” he exclaims jokingly, a word which she has amusingly mixed feelings about.
He sets her down with a little bounce and kisses her on the head, feeling lips against the back of his own neck as Ronan wraps his arms around him from behind.
“Parrish.”
“I’m going to check on the kittens,” Opal announces knowingly, skipping off towards one of the barns.
Sometimes Adam worries that girl is psychic.
Adam turns in Ronan’s arms, immediately seeking his lips. It’s slow and honey-sweet, soft like the look he had given Opal before Adam had been seen. It’s everything that Adam associates with summer. Sleepy kisses, easy mornings, climbing through sun-touched trees, freckles on Opal’s skin. Ronan’s eyes, Ronan’s hands, Ronan’s smile, Ronan’s kiss, Ronan.
“Marry me,” Adam says.
Ronan stills.
“Adam,” he begins breathlessly.
“I’m serious.” Adam kneels, pulls out the ring. He's nervous and just a bit breathless. “Ronan Lynch. I love you. Make me the happiest I’ve been. Marry me. Please.”
“I’m Catholic,” Ronan warns, so quietly it’s almost a whisper. “I don’t believe in divorce.”
Adam takes Ronan’s hand, presses a kiss to his fingers. “I want forever, Ronan.”
“Yes,” Ronan whispers. Then, louder, “Yes, yes, yes.”
He laughs exuberantly. “Adam, we’re getting married. We’re -”
Adam cuts him off with a kiss.
“Yes,” he agrees, grinning. “Yes, we’re getting married.”
“Let me see the ring,” Ronan demands.
“It’s from a meteorite,” Adam explains, speaking of the metallic inlay.
“Isn’t that expensive?” Ronan asks as Adam presses an absent-minded kiss behind his jaw.
“Trust me, it’s around two dozen times less expensive than a diamond,” Adam says. “And far more interesting.”
“Well?” Ronan asks, demanding again. “Put it on!”
They’re both holding their breath as it slides onto Ronan’s finger.
“Oh, I forgot.” Adam slides it back off.
“Adam,” Ronan says, exasperated.
“It’s engraved.”
Ronan takes the ring and holds it up close to his face.
'Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.'
Ronan laughs. And laughs, and laughs, and laughs; and slowly drops to the ground, almost dropping the ring. His laughs start to sound slightly wet.
Adam drops to his knees beside him, pressing his lips into Ronan’s hair. “I love you.”
“I love you too, oh my God.”
Adam presses his lips to Ronan’s head again and again until Ronan catches his jaw with one hand and angles his own head up into a kiss. It feels like it goes on for days. Love and tenderness and all the things he would never have expected Ronan to show, all those years ago.
Adam slides the ring back onto his finger and presses a kiss to his palm. “Come on.”
He laces their fingers together and pulls Ronan into the house, Ronan following with a knowing smirk that’s softened by shining eyes. Then there’s the lock on the bedroom door and Ronan tumbling onto the bed with a soft laugh. There’s hands in hair and Adam’s mouth on Ronan’s knee. There’s the kiss Ronan presses to his ring finger, a kiss that feels almost more intimate than anything else they do.
Ronan watches him through sleepy eyes, after.
“Did you mean to propose?”
Adam blushes but doesn’t break eye contact. “Not right then.”
Ronan’s thumb sweeps back and forth over his ring finger. “I’m glad you did. “
He kisses Adam’s fingers.
Adam smiles lazily and twines their fingers together.
“Good.”
“I’ll dream you a ring,” Ronan promises as his eyes start to drift shut. Adam kisses him briefly, one last time before sleep.
“Go to sleep, Ronan.”
Ronan sleeps, and he dreams with a smile.