Once again, I awoke to the snoring of my wife. I usually woke up earlier than her; I just naturally slept less. I lifted myself off of her chest, and stretched a little. I decided that I'd just make breakfast today. I'm not skilled in the kitchen, but I wanted to try. 

It didn't take long for me to mess up. I turned off the stove and crept back into our room. Sana was still asleep, but...I kind of needed her help. I felt bad for waking her, but what else are you supposed to do when you have pancake batter clogging the part that the fire for the stove comes out of? 

"Babe...I'm sorry..." I gently shook her. 

"Hnng..." She grumbled in her sleep. 

"Baby, please help." I shook her a little more. 

"What...?" She yawned, opening her eyes. 

"We have a problem." I grinned sheepishly. 

"Why does it smell like something's burning?" 

"Because it is. I turned off the stove, but I don't know what to do from here." 

"M'kay. Let's see what you did." She threw on an oversized t-shirt, and climbed out of bed. When we entered the kitchen, she just started laughing. "Babe...What were you even trying to do?" 

"I was trying to do the cool pancake flip that chefs do." 

"How do you get pancake batter on the ceiling, floor and stove?!" She kept laughing. "Leave the pancake flipping to the chefs...my silly wife." I stuck my tongue out at her, but helped her clean up the mess. I cleaned the floor while she cleaned the ceiling and stove. It took about thirty minutes to get the pancake batter out of all of the kitchen appliances...it somehow got into the coffee maker as well. "Well. That was a great first morning as newlyweds." 

"Sorry..." I whined, unable to meet her eyes.

"I'm kidding, Tzu." She giggled, putting her arm around me. "We're gonna have a hilarious newlywed life. It's gonna be great." 

"Thanks, Sana." I kissed her cheek. "For cheering me up and cleaning up this dumb mess." 

"No worries. How about I make breakfast now?" She the stove again, and thankfully, it worked. "Thanks for getting me, by the way. There's a certain way you have to clean up the burners. If you use the wrong chemical, or get anything stuck in there, it'll mess them up...and the house might burn down, too." 

"Really?!" I yelped.

"Fire is a dangerous thing, Tzuyu." She giggled. "But it's fine. When Mina was teaching me how to cook, I always got stuff in the burners. She taught me how to get it out on my own so I didn't have to bother her constantly."

"Phew..." I sighed with relief. "So, are you not planning on putting on pants or shorts or, you know, ?" 

"I'll put on later. I can't leave you alone with fire anymore." 

"Do we have to wear pants now that we're married?"

"Nope." She grinned at me. "I'm glad you hate pants, too."

"They're so restricting!" I complained, kicking my pajama pants onto the ground. It felt nice to let my legs breathe. 

"Silly." She chuckled. "You can't leave clothes lying around the house."

"But we left them on the ground last night."

"We were busy. Now go put those pants away." She shooed me towards our room. I pouted, trying to resist, but her pout was cuter. She won this round. I came back to a plate of pancakes on the table next to a bottle of syrup. "What do married couples do?" She asked, as I sat at the table. I looked at her, confused. Why would she not know- Oh. She only ever had one dad. I put some pancakes on her plate, then put the rest on mine. 

"Well...I'm not sure. My parents just work, then come home and eat. Then they talk for a while and go to bed." I shrugged. "I don't know what newly married couples do." 

"Hmm..." She seemed deep in thought. "Besides the honeymoon, right?" 

"Well, yeah. Oh, what do you think we should do for that?!" I nearly jumped out of my chair at the thoughts of where we could go. "We could go swim with sharks, or go to a ton of haunted places, or an amusement park, or-"

"Romantic." She giggled. "But it does sound like fun." 

"We can do all sorts of stuff!" I squealed. "We could go on a safari or we could go scuba diving or-"

"Calm down, babe. You'll get indigestion." 

"Fine. But still. It's gonna be fun." 

"I know it will. As long as I'm with you, it'll be fun." 

"We have to start planning it after breakfast."

"Yes we will. After breakfast. So eat." She pointed to my plate of nearly untouched pancakes. I began cutting and eating the delicious breakfast food. "But do you know what married couples do right after the honeymoon?" 

"I don't know. I think they just work and live together...and probably have a lot of because there are no children around."

"That sounds so boring..." She whined. 

"Well, I'll be at college in the mornings and afternoons, but I'll be home in the afternoon for whatever."

"What am I supposed to do alone all day?" She whined again.

"I don't know-" I gasped. "Babe. We should get a dog." She screamed, and jumped up. My strange wife ran back into the kitchen with her laptop. She opened up an animal shelter's page. 

"They're nearby. I don't want to just get a puppy, I want to help a dog out of a bad time." She looked at me with puppy dog eyes (yep), but I didn't know why. Who wouldn't want a rescue dog? 

"Baby, of course we'll get a rescue dog. But remember that we can't get the first dog we see. We have to fit well with her." 

"I know." She plopped back on her chair. "But still. Dogs." 

"And we'll get a dog. But honeymoon first. We can't get a dog, then leave it with a babysitter for a week."

"You're right."

When we got back home from our honeymoon, the first thing my wife did when we walked through the door, was get her laptop again, and pull up the shelter's website. I laughed at her, but I was also excited about getting a dog. I always wanted one, but my parents didn't want to deal with it barking. Sana also wanted one, but her dad didn't want to be cleaning up after it. 

But now.

Oh, now we'd have a dog. 

We opened up the shelter's list of adoptable dogs, and read through all of their backstories. One was a pitbull rescued from a fighting ring, but and I really loved it, but...Sana said that she wanted multiple dogs some day. Fine. There was a beagle from a laboratory, who didn't see grass until it was a few years old. She fell in love with it, but it was too small for my taste. I was scared I might hurt it by accident. 

Then...there she was. 

A Border Collie, who was abandoned on the streets. She was only a year old, and the shelter named her Ruby afterher unusual reddish-brown fur. I looked and Sana, and she looked back at me.

Yep. We're getting her. No going back. 

We sent an e-mail to the shelter to see if we could meet Ruby soon. They said that we could come by the shelter tomorrow afternoon to meet her. 

It was love at first sight; we actually took Ruby home that day and played with her in the backyard. We didn't have a food or water bowl for her, or a bed, or toys, or anything, really. But she used our bowls for food and water, and would sleep on our bed tonight. She seemed content with the sticks in the backyard, but we'd go shopping tomorrow to get her some proper supplies. 

The neighbors loved Ruby, too. Nayeon and Jeongyeon's tortoise was a little scared of her, but they only met through the fence. We also got to meet the neighbors, well, neighbor, Jihyo, who lived on the other side of our house. She had a dog, too, and we decided that Ruby and Rosco (Jihyo's Old English Sheepdog) would be playmates. It was a cozy little neighborhood with eccentric neighbors; Sana and I had been mostly inside since we've come here, but I'm sure we'd be out more often to talk to the neighbors and their pets. 

It also seemed like a great place to have a family. With human children, one day. 

But no human babies until I have a job. I still want to work with medicine. And I will. After being employed as a doctor for a while, then we can think about humans. But until then, I think Sana and I had the same idea of adopting as many animals as possible. 

I led Ruby into our room that the three of us shared. She curled up on her massive dog bed (which was for a dog twice her size, but we thought she might want room). Sana was already in bed, since she showered first. We would've showered together, but we actually wanted to get cleaned up. I gently crawled into bed, hoping I wouldn't wake her up if she was sleeping. 

"Have a good day, Tzu?" She mumbled. 

"Yeah." I hummed, and kissed her cheek. 

"I'm too tired for right now...never thought I'd say that."

"Me too. We have forever together, so it's fine if you aren't in the mood. Do you like it here?"

"I like it a lot." She yawned, then pulled me into her arms as if I was a plushie. "The neighbors are nice and their pets are cool. And they know we're married and that you're off-limits."

"And that makes you off-limits to them, too." I chuckled into her chest. I felt her wrap her legs around me. 

"I love you, Tzuyu."

"I love you too."