"Will you marry me, Milan? It would make me the happiest sloth in the universe."
I looked down at him, holding flowers and a ring with a pure black pearl at its center. I saw the hope but also the fear in his eyes and felt my heart begin to burn with the fire of delight. I truly loved him more than anyone and anything else in the entire world.
"I could never be with anyone else, Sid. Of course, I will! Yes!"
He stood, wrapped his claws around me, and placed them in the small of my back.
"I love you more than anything." Sid said, tears in his eyes.
"There's no way I could love you any more than I do now."
He slid the band onto my finger, smiling with flushed cheeks. Manny, Peaches, Ellie, Diego, Shira, Buck, Skrat, Crash, and Eddie all jumped out from behind a tree, unveiling a banner that read, "Sid and Milan forever".
I began tearing up, "Awwwwwe, You guys shouldn't have done this."
I grabbed Sid's hand and pulled my other to my heart, feeling the pulsing beat in my chest. I closed my eyes, warm butterflies fluttering in my core. I was so relaxed.
A bright smile, full of teeth, broke through my lips.
That's when I heard it, the band of animals playing mariachi music. Sid led me through a small crowd that had gathered around and we began dancing.
"Oh, Sid this is wonderful, how did you plan all this?"
"I've been working on it for months. I hashed out the final details while you were playing hockey with Peaches." He replied, shaking his hips.
Tears began to well up within my eyes, "I love you, Sid." I said throwing myself into his embrace.
"I love you, too." He smiled, comforting me.
"Well, I guess we better start planning the wedding then." I blushed, Sid twirling me around him.
*2 WEEKS LATER*
After most of the planning had been completed, Sid and I felt quite drained.
"Darling, I love you, but planning the best day of our lives is beginning to be a bigger challenge than I'd originally anticipated." Sid tried to smile.
"Oh, I know. Between finding a caterer, picking the wedding dress, trying to find a tailor out here, and picking all the little details, I'm burnt out."
"Completely exhausted."
"Same here."
The two of us laid down in our makeshift bed (we still hadn't had the opportunity to buy a house in all the chaos of wedding planning) and high-fived before falling fast asleep.
Not so surprisingly, we were extremely fatigued, however, we were still quite shocked waking up the next morning to find that we'd been asleep for about fourteen hours.
I sat up with a concerned look on my face.
"Hey, what's wrong, my love?" Sid inquired.
"Babe, I think we need to take a break," I sighed, "I mean think about it, we've been planning something we don't have a date for, and we haven't even lived together in a real house. We haven't bought our own place yet, or made our own place, we've been living in a log! I think that it's time we figured out our life together before we figure out how to move onto the next, huge step."
Sid smiled and kissed my head, wrapping his arms around me for comfort, "I think that doing anything with you is a big step. You're the love of my life, I mean, we wouldn't be here had you not chosen to leave the big city to find adventure. You are the reason we met, and if we need to go slower for right now in order to get all the pieces of our puzzle in the right spot, I am 100% here for it."
I sighed a breath of relief, "Who knew that my twin flame would be a sloth? I knew as soon as I looked into your eyes and heard your glorious voice that we were meant to be together. I knew that I'd met the right one from the start."
We laid back down and cuddled for awhile, my head on his chest, his breath matching my heartbeat. We felt so comfortable and happy and loved all at the same time that it was as if the universe always meant for us to meet. It was as if time stopped so we could love each other even more than expected. It was home. We were each others' home.
Sid is the sloth of my dreams, I thought as I drifted back to sleep...
...
