Holmes Sweet Home

When Devan and Leliana left home, their first order of business was to enjoy each other on their honeymoon before beginning the daunting task of finding a new place to live. His parents gave them a voucher for a two-week stay at a beautiful resort as a wedding gift. The first week, they relaxed and enjoyed each other as husband and wife like newlyweds should. The second week, they scoured the Internet in search of a new place to call home. After searching and searching, they found a growing, new metropolitan area called Newcrest far away from his family, memories, and anything familiar. Leliana took his last name to reduce the possibility of being found. Newcrest sounded like a nice enough place, so they travelled there to check it out. Luck was on their side when they happened to arrive on a Sunday:  the most popular day of the week for open house. They saw a few homes, fell in love with one, and made an offer on the spot. It was bigger than they actually needed, but that only made Leliana more excited about filling it up with little Holmes people.

“I cannot believe we have our own home, Devan,” Leliana gushed. “It’s so beautiful…and large! It sort of reminds me of your parents’ house a bit.”

Devan looked at the details of the house. The covered porch, black and white coloring. He agreed. “Hmmm, yeah. I guess it does kinda have that vibe. I’m glad you’re happy with it.” He smiled because he loved to make her happy and wanted to make sure she stayed happy.

Still looking at the house, she couldn’t help but think about the one remaining goal she had in her life. “You know what would make this house even more perfect?”

She completed the Wonder Child program, completed several aspirations, defied the government and made her escape, got her man, and now this beautiful house. One would think that she would be satisfied with her life, but she was very eager to make headway on her current aspiration. It was the only thing that would make her life complete. However, this particular goal was on Devan’s “to be completed later” list and definitely not on his radar at the moment.

He replied, “You’re here, beautiful. What could be more perfect than that?”

He knew what that look meant. “…whoooa, hold on now.” He laughed nervously.

“Can we just enjoy being married before we bring other people into this,” he asked. “I mean, don’t you wanna stay up late, sleep in, woo hoo in all the bedrooms, and do whatever you want for a little while?”

“Of course,” she said. “I cannot help thinking about our family, Devan! Will it not be lovely to have some cute little people running around who look like us?”

“Oh, sure it will,” he said. “But before they start running, they’re loud and smelly and don’t sleep all night. Does this look like the face of a guy who wants to be awakened in the middle of the night?”

Leliana was disappointed. She thought he would be excited about starting a family. “So…you don’t want to have children?”

“Not at this very moment.” He could tell she misunderstood what he meant and commenced his smooth recovery. “I want to have kids, beautiful. I want you to be happy. But, what I’m trying to say is, there is a time for everything…and right now it’s time for me and you to be together…alone. When that time is over, we can have kids…as many as–we can have a kid…or two.”

His smooth recovery worked, and she was beaming. “Do you promise?”

“Cross my heart!”