Ryan lay on the bed curled around his feather body pillow, crying softly. He'd been that way for about two hours by the time his boyfriend came into their bedroom.

Troy approached the bed with a bit of trepidation; he had no idea why the blond was acting that way. Hell, he should have been dancing in the street given how the elections had just turned out.

"What's the matter, babe?" he asked as he sat on the edge of the bed, looking directly at the young man who had captured his heart when they were in high school.

Ryan reached up to wipe yet another tear away from his bloodshot eyes and blotched face. Instead of saying anything, however, he reached over to the nightstand and grabbed a copy of that morning's newspaper and tossed it unceremoniously in front of the brunet.

Troy looked down and read the bold headline announcing that California had passed a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. All of a sudden, it all made sense.

"Oh, Ry," he said, reaching up to run a hand through his boyfriend's hair.

"I just don't get it," Ryan said in a soft voice, one Troy hadn't heard in quite some time. "I mean, I don't usually care what people have to say about me, and these people weren't even saying it directly about me, but how else am I supposed to feel when 5,376,424 people say that I'm not good enough?"

Troy continued looking at his boyfriend, a sad expression on his face, but he said nothing, knowing that Ryan needed to get this out.

"5,376,424 people just said that me and people like me don't deserve the same rights that other people have just because I love differently than they do," he continued. Tears were beginning to stream down his face in earnest again. "I know I shouldn't be taking this personally, but it's kind of impossible, you know?"

"I know, babe," Troy said.

"I just don't get how people can do this and think it's okay," Ryan said, rolling away from his boyfriend. "It just hurts so much, knowing that other people think I don't matter, that I'm not worth being equal to them."

Troy, no longer wanting to sit by and silently offer support, took advantage of the space Ryan left next to him in their bed and lay down next to him, wrapping his arms around the blond's slim waist and pulling him close.

"I love you," Troy said, fierce determination lacing his voice. "I love you, and no one can ever, ever say that I don't. It sucks that people don't recognize that, but not being able to have that one piece of paper will never lessen what we have. No one, not even 5,376,424 someones, will ever be able to say otherwise."

Ryan slowly turned back to face Troy and offered a watery smile. "I love you," he said.

Troy leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the blond's forehead. "I know," he replied, "and one day, everyone else will know just the same way."

A/N: I don't normally take stances like this on issues, but I couldn't help after I had my own mini-breakdown in class earlier today. This is for the 5,376,424 people in California who voted in favor of Proposition 8. You may unfairly deny people like me their rights to be treated like humans, but you will never be able to legislate, no matter how much you want to, who I love.