Silence. Absolute silence. There wasn't a single noise. Not even one. His eyes round with shock, Tiberius was speechless. Ozone had just asked him the question. Like, the ultimate question. And he was just sitting there, unsure of how to answer it. His head spun wildly as he became lost in his thoughts. Should he say yes or should he say no? Hanging his head, the hawk finally mumbled, "I don't know…"
"You don't know? What do you mean you don't know?" Ozone asked. The hairless feline was grateful that he didn't get punched in the face. But he was sad that he didn't get a definitive answer. Trying to look Tiberius in the eye, he pointed out, "Baby, it's a simple yes or no question."
"I know that! I just don't know how to answer it!" Tiberius retorted. Taking a deep breath, he lowered his gaze again as he murmured, "Part of me wants to say yes but part of me wants to say no." The hawk closed his eyes while he bowed his head in shame. He felt so torn on the inside right now.
"Okay, I get it. You're conflicted. But honey, think about. This could solve our problems," Ozone declared. He hoped that his statement would sway Tiberius towards saying yes. But that didn't do the trick. Looking up at the Sphynx cat, the red tailed hawk first seemed very confused by what he had just heard. Then he exclaimed, "Did you actually think that marriage was going to solve our problems?!"
"Uh… yeah?" Ozone squeaked nervously. He could already feel sweat forming on his face. He might've just blown up his plan to bits. Huffing irritably, Tiberius rubbed his forehead with his wing as he grumbled, "There is no way marriage is gonna solve anything."
"How come?"
"Are you seriously asking me that?!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Ozone, marriage doesn't solve everything, okay?! It takes two people to make a relationship work! And that's kinda hard when only one of us is doing the heavy lifting!"
"But this relationship is working! I love you with all of my heart! That's why I wanna marry you!"
"You're not getting the picture. Look, Ozone, I love you too and I would like to marry you too, I really would. But you need to get your act together. That means stop drinking, stop doing drugs and stop pressuring me to do stuff I don't want to do."
"I don't pressure you to do anything."
"Really? For the past two and a half weeks, you were begging to mate me, to get inside me. You even said those exact words."
"...oh… forgot about that…"
Sighing heavily, Tiberius turned and walked into the shed. Ozone watched him in silence, wondering how he managed to mess this up. He was beginning to think he should've kept his mouth shut. Getting up to his feet, the Sphynx cat quietly entered the shed. Laying down beside his lover, he wrapped his arms around the hawk as he mumbled, "I'm sorry I asked…"
"It's fine, just… let me think about it. Then I'll give you a proper answer," Tiberius replied. Turning his head back to face Ozone, he gently nuzzled the cat. Both of them purred quietly and shared a goodnight kiss before they fell asleep.