oneshots || shyland

It's the End of the World (but at least we have each other)

"No, no. I'm okay," He said, voice slightly croaky. "Just a bit of a dry throat. Can you pass me some water?"

Shane quickly pulled the bag off his back and tossed it onto the ground, rifling through it to grab a bottle and handing it to the other boy carefully. Ryland accepted it, washing down about half the bottle before screwing the lid back on.

"See? I'm fine now," He mused. "I'm fine."

Shane gave him a doubtful look but dropped the subject nonetheless. He didn't want to think about the plague, nor did he want to think about either of them getting the plague.

They walked for a few more hours, until the sun had already made its way across the sky and had been replaced with a moon peeking over the vast span of mountains further ahead along with stars, a sight too nice for the situation that the world was in.

"Didn't you say there was supposed to be some place to stay around here?" Shane asked, feet dragging on the dusty ground beneath them. "I don't think I can walk for much longer."

"I... I thought there was supposed to be one, it said on the map." Ryland stopped, swiping the map out of his pocket and unfolding it. "See? Right there."

Shane's eyes scanned over the map, focusing on where the other boy was pointing.

"That guy wouldn't have given us that map if it led us nowhere, right?" Ryland said, almost as if trying to convince himself as well as Shane.

"That guy was insane, Ryland. But, hey, if you really want, we can keep walking for a while longer. If we don't come across anything by then we can just pile our blankets on the ground for a makeshift shelter or something."

After hours passed and the moon had reached the middle of inky sky, the boys decided to finally settle down. The blanket fluttered in their grasp as a warm breeze drifted across the land. They laid it down as nicely as they could before taking a seat on it, pulling a few other worn blankets that they'd snagged along the way out of their bag and wrapped them around themselves.

Shane pulled Ryland into his lap, holding the other boy tightly.

"Do you ever think about what your life would've been like if this hadn't happened?" He asked.

"Yeah. Do you think we'd still be together?"

Shane paused before nodding. "Yeah, at least married."

"You really think so?" Ryland raised a brow, turning to face Shane.

"Definitely. I was..." He trailed off. "I don't think I've told you this before."

Ryland quirked his head, encouraging him.

"I was planning on proposing. It was gonna be on New Years, kind of cheesy, I know, but I had everything planned out perfectly."

"Really?" Ryland's eyes softened. "That... that was only a couple weeks before this happened, wasn't it?"

He nodded. "I had the ring at work because I was afraid you'd find it if I kept it at home." Shane laughed a bit. "Garrett found it and completely flipped out. He was jumping up and down and, well you know how he i- was. How he was."

Ryland squeezed Shane, resting his forehead his. "I love you so much. Through all of this, through every single terrible fucking thing that's happened to us, I still love you just as much as I did before this, if not even more."

Shane pecked the other boy on the lips. "I know." He mumbled. "I love you too, let's get to sleep."

Four days, they'd walked for four days already. They were supposed to have come across the shelter by then, a while ago, actually.