"Troye? Troye where are you?" I call out as I enter our house. I hear his voice coming from the living room. I walk in and see him sitting on the couch, photo albums surrounding him. I clear a few away and sit next to him, leaning in and kissing his cheek. He grabs my left hand and rubs his thumb over my ring finger. "Hon,, it's been nine years since you put that ring on my finger, when are you going to stop checking that its still there." He finally lifts his eyes from the photos and looks at me, a small smile on his face, "Never, because I'm not making sure its there, I'm making sure that its real. That you actually said yes when I proposed and that this isn't one ridiculously long dream."
I smile and peck him on the lips. I entwine our fingers and look down at the photos around us. "Where did you find all of these?" I ask, flipping through one on the table
. "They were in a box in the attic that I didnt know existed. Among all of these I found some letters addressed to a Mr. Oakley, from a Mr, Mellet. I didn't know that you kept our letters."
"Well, when you were living in Perth, those letters were the only physical piece of us that I had. So of course i kept them." I justify, blushing.
Troye chuckles and surprises me by pressing a long kiss to my lips. "It's cute." He says. "Anyway, Allie's third grade teacher called and said that she needed to bring in pictures of her family, so I was looking for some pictures of us and mom and dad, and Zoe and Alfie." I give him a confused look and he explains, "Well, I obviously found a picture of ALL of her aunts and uncles, but since Zoe and Alfie are her godparents I figured that they should get a few more pictures." I nod and he continues, "So after finding those pictures i was looking through the photo albums and I was reliving a lot of the early days, when we first started dating." I move closer to him and point to the picture that Connor took when we had our kiss is San Fransisco.
Troye smiles at the memory and I take out the picture that we had a tourist take for us on our first date. "I remember that I spent days planning the perfect date for us. I had a whole big plan, but everything went awry and we ended up getting Starbucks at 7 o'clock at night and walking through a park."
"It was the best date ever." Troye assures me. "Second best date." I correct and point to the picture a fan took when Troye proposed to me at VidCon.
"Well, you had originally thought that the proposal was a joke for the fans. It wasn't until we were back in the room did it get through your pretty head that I was serious. But what happened later that night did make it a pretty good date." Troye shoots me a cheeky grin and laughs.
I look at our wedding photo and snort and the amount of people who were a part of it. "I remember at our wedding that we couldn't decided who to make our groomspeople so we just included everyone and the entrances and exits took longer than the actual ceremony."
"I remember that you couldn't decide." Troye pokes me in the side.
"Okay, maybe. But when we were going to adopt Allie you wanted to adopt everyone." I shoot back at him, holding a picture of when Allie came home with us as a toddler.
"Well, they were all just so cute!" Troye moves his hands around spastically to prove his point. We both laugh loudly and Allie pokes her head around the corner, "Daddy? What are you and Daddy laughing about?" She runs over and climbs into my lap.
I show her the picture that I was holding, "Just taking a walk down memory lane."
"Why is there a lane in our living room?" She asks and giggles. Troye tickles her and causes her to screech in delight and wriggle into my arms. I chuckle and kiss the top of her head. Troye and I continue showing her pictures of when we were youtubers. The pictures from the Zalfie wedding and the Phan wedding. Screenshots of old videos that we uploaded. We got all the way to Dan and Phil's daughter Julie graduating highschool when we heard her soft snores. After putting her to bed we put away all of the albums back in the attic, promising to look at the ones we didn't get to another time.
When we got in bed and the light was turned off we were silent for a minute before Troye spoke, "You know what, Tyler?" He asks me, looking straight into my eyes.
"No, I don't think that I know what, Troye."
"I love you." He starts, "We have had our ups and downs, and there were times when we both thought that it would be better for everyone if we just went our separate ways. There were times when we were so close to leaving that the drop of a hat would have caused the world to explode. But we made it, Tyler. We made. I love you so much, and I'm not sure where I would be if that hat had dropped or if one of us hadn't stopped and apologized. The first time I told you I loved you, I meant it with my whole heart. But I love you even more than I did then. There is nothing that I want more than to be in bed with you every night for the rest of my life."
Little tears are running down my cheeks and I pull him into a hug, "I love you to, Troye, so much." I say into his shoulder. He pulls away and slips his ring off of his finger.
He motions for me to do the same thing, and when they are both off, he takes my ring and gives me his. He takes my hands in his, "Do you, Tyler Oakley, take me, Troye Oakley as your husband for eternity?"
I laugh loudly but Troye shushes me so we dont wake Allie. I smile, "I do."
Troye slides the ring back onto my finger. We then switch and I take his hand in mine, "Do you, Troye Mellet, take me, Tyler Mellet, as your husband forever?"
"I do!" He says dramatically as I slide his ring on. Troye sits on the bed and stares at me like he's expecting something. He sighs, "Tyler, we have done this once already, after the rings comes the kiss! Duh!" He smiles and closes his eyes, waiting. I grin and lean in, kissing him like I did on our wedding day,, though this time there isn't an insane amount of screaming and flower petals being pelted at us. Troye gives me another peck on the lips, "Can we skip the wedding reception and go straight to what happens when we get to our hotel?"
"Your wish is my command." I purr in his ear as we roll around, taking a stroll down memory lane.
