They found themselves in a large room handsomely decorated, at the end of which was a large bed furnished with cushions. Alpha poked Satan’s nose and held him close, brushing a strand of white hair away from his face. It felt fine and soft, with a glossy sheen. He buried his face in his chest. Alpha’s skin had a strong and bitter smell but in a pleasant way. "Let's watch some action movie."

Alpha stood up and put in the DVD player and joined Satan back in the bed. He eagerly wrapped his arms around his waist, once again burying his head in his chest. "I appreciate that you cleaned all that mess”, Satan whispered.

At the middle of the movie, Alpha looked down and saw that Satan was half asleep. Under the rays of early morning sunshine his skin gave off a dewy glow. ‘Awee how can someone look so cute while sleeping…’ He could feel his firm torso and the heart that beats within. Running his hand through his hair, he couldn’t quite believe something so amazing finally happened. He gently kissed Satan’s head, his lips forming into a smile. ‘Don’t ever leave me.’

Satan was in his sincere embrace for a couple more hours after the movie ended. Alpha’s chin rested on top of his head. Every now and then he’d look down at his pretty face with a smile. By then he was already awake. He looked up and returned his smile with one even wider.

“The sun has risen long ago and a new day has begun. Time to do something new and creative today.”

“I’m not a morning person”, Satan grumbled, “even thought it’s already noon. I’d rather sit here in bed with a cup of coffee and stare blankly for 20 minutes.”

“Well then I’m off to make you coffee.” Alpha went downstairs to the kitchen. It was badly proportioned and messy since they had no real reason to use it at all except for making coffee. Luckily, they had some fresh coffee beans. He poured the brewed coffee, added a bit of milk and stirred it some more. He could have easily purchased Starbucks and not make any more mess but he wanted to practice his coffee-making skills. Besides he was nearly 30 and didn’t know how to cook, so making coffee was the least he could do. He brought it upstairs and gave it to Satan. He took a sip of the coffee and glanced down at the mug. “You’re getting better at this, soon I shall teach you how to cook, if you promise not to burn the whole house down.”

“You’re such a bully.” Alpha tried not to show that he was hurting inside. What else could he do?

“Oh, you have no idea”, Satan grinned. It was already late, around 2 in the afternoon, and there was nothing else to do but put their clothes on and make breakfast. To be precise, there was nothing else for Satan to do. He was the one responsible for cooking if they felt too lazy to hunt. Today he decided to serve something healthy. He mixed together a cup of whole rolled oats and a cup of milk for Alpha, and chia & yogurt for himself. “Here. To soothe your nerves after being bullied.”

“Thanks, I needed that.” They sat down at the dining table. Alpha sat down right opposite of Satan. He began stuffing his mouth. He totally forgot his manners in that moment. Satan kept staring at him hoarding food in his mouth. He let out a large belch at the end and Satan hadn't even started his bowl of food. He sat properly and straight (lol) in his chair, watching him. He then proceeds to eat, still in kind of a shock. ‘I don’t even k- ‘

“I uh. I guess I was hungry”, Alpha shrugged.

*

One pleasant weekend later they were reminiscing about all of the wonderful memories they’d made. But it dawned on them that if they didn't make some bold moves, their relationship might come to an end. They opened a bottle of fine wine in order to enhance the depth and wisdom of their conversation. Before long, they’d switched from sweet nostalgia to dreaming about their potential future — with a child. The wine was an effective dream enhancer. They let their imaginations loose as they talked about how they could potentially live their lives with a third member of their family. The future took many shapes. Could they still live here? Would anyone even let them adopt a human? Or is there another way to do it? Honestly, it was overwhelming. Their lives three months ahead were like a blank slate. Everything seemed possible! Nothing was certain! Anything could happen! In order to conceptualize their thoughts and concerns, they decided to write down all of their dreams and goals on yellow sticky notes. This mother of all brainstorming sessions took them half an hour. They each wrote down what was important to them, stuff they’d like to achieve, skills they’d like to acquire — in short, what they’d like to do with their lives in the next few years. Next, they organized those dreams in terms of feasibility, urgency, and requirements. (To meet certain goals, they had to accomplish others first.) During this process, they tried to keep things fair. They both got the same number of sticky notes. All goals were open to debate, yet at the same time they tried to figure how to best help each other achieving them going forward! Their aim was to work together as a couple. Step three was to put up an A3 formatted white paper on the wall, draw a timeline – yes, they were going to plan out the next five years of their life! – and arrange their couple goals in a meaningful way to their life’s “game plan”. Their dreams included things like: move to a new home, earn some money (somehow), become parents. In a nutshell, nothing extraordinary — the things young people usually dream of. It was clear that some goals had to be achieved before others. They agreed that pursuing them in a specific order made sense. Then they arranged them accordingly on the timeline.

Planning their future was an ecstatic activity. In fact, doing so was the defining evening for their relationship. They decided to chase their dreams together as a team. Satan has already reached his 30s; Alpha was 28. Little did they know that this shared activity would help them tremendously on the path to their dream life. They had become a dream team!