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He ignored the death-stare and patted the little kitten that Asher was still holding to his chest. “Look at her, Asher. I saw her and I knew you’d love her. Please don’t be mad.”
Asher did look at her then, properly. He held her close to his nose, she meowed at him, the tiniest little meow, and he snuggled her into his neck. “She is perfect. And I’m not mad.”
Harry leaned in and kissed Asher’s lips. “You get to name her.”
“I do?”
“Of course you do. She’s yours.”
“I’ve never had a pet before.” He pouted and held her out in his hands to get a proper look at her. She was all black with blue eyes, a bit on the small side, but cute as a button. “She’s so little,” he whispered, then held her to his chest again. “Mala.”
“Mala?” Harry wasn’t opposed, he just wasn’t sure he’d heard him correctly.
Asher kissed the top of the kitten’s head. “It means ‘my little one’ in Croatian.”
Harry kissed the top of Asher’s head. “Then it’s perfect.” He got up from the couch and went to the kitchen to finish putting the groceries away. “I bought some kitten food from the shop but I don’t know if it’s the right one. I got some litter as well, so we’ll have to make her a litter box.”
He looked over and Asher was still on his recliner, still holding and snuggling Mala.
“Did you want to feed her?” Harry asked. “She’ll know you’re her dadda if you feed her first.”
Asher walked to the kitchen area, keeping Mala tucked against his chest. “I’m her dadda,” he murmured. “And you’re her papa. Harry, look at how beautiful she is!”
Oh hell. Harry had created a sap.
Asher was absolutely beaming. He took the kitten food and sat at the table with her and began to feed her. She was hungry. “You know,” Asher said, “I should have told Yunho just to go ahead with the fake marriage certificate with the citizen papers. It would have been easier. And then little Mala here would have two daddies for real.”
Harry laughed... until he realised exactly what Asher had said. He turned to stare at him. “What?”
Asher glanced his way but went back to feeding Mala. He shrugged. “He asked me if I wanted that. When he was sorting out the citizenship paperwork. He said he could just throw that in. I thought he was joking. I said I didn’t really think you’d be up for that, so he didn’t include it.”
Harry stood there, the can of beans in his hand forgotten. “Asher...”
He shrugged again. “It’s not like we’re religious people who need to stand before some God to declare anything. I certainly don’t care what the government thinks.”
Harry put the can on the counter and sat in the seat beside him. “Would it be fake, though?”
Asher smiled as he fed Mala another piece of her kitten food. “Well, yeah. As fake as all the other documents we have. I mean, they’re real. But they’re just not obtained legally. So you’d be marrying Joshua.”
“No, I’d be marrying Asher.”
His eyes cut to Harry’s, and he stared for a long moment. “What are you saying?”
He laughed, because God, was he really doing this? “I’m just saying that if Yunho gave us a marriage certificate as part of our paperwork, I wouldn’t have minded. That’s all.” He licked his lips and swallowed. “If you want to get rings so it looks real... or not, I don’t mind either way. And no, personally, I don’t need no government or religious approval. I’d just need to know that you wanted to do it. Then it’d be real to me.”
“Harry,” he whispered.
“It’s just a piece of paper, right?” Harry joked, trying to lighten the mood because he had a sinking feeling that Asher did not want it. “Like money is just numbers.” He gave Mala a quick pat on the head and stood up.
Asher grabbed his hand.
“Not to me,” he whispered. “It’s not just a piece of paper to me.”
Harry sat back down.
“It would be the first legitimate certificate I would have. The first real one. With my name. The real me.” He frowned, teary now. “I don’t exist anywhere on paper. So no, it wouldn’tjustbe a piece of paper. It will be proof that I ever existed. So please don’t say it like that.”
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.” Harry scooted his chair in closer, their knees touching. He slid his hand along Asher’s cheek. “It wouldn’t just be a piece of paper to me either. It would be real, and if you want to make itreallyreal, we can get married for real on Yunho’s beach and he and Lucas would be our witnesses. But I’ll be marrying you. Not Joshua or any other fake name. The real Asher Garin. That’s who I would marry. Our real names on the certificate.”
