Engaged Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed Don't Say Fiancé: ''We Stick With Human...It's the Best Word''

Couple said they also hope to pass on their passion for their animals to their future children

By Alyssa Toomey Mar 02, 2015 8:47 PMTags
Watch: Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder on Their Love for Animals

It's been nearly two months since E! News confirmed that Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed are engaged, but according to the husband and wife to be, the couple isn't quite accustomed to the term fiancé. 

"We have all kinds of words," Reed, who looked stunning in a sexy black ensemble teamed with fierce green pointed toe pumps, dished to E! News at the third annual Noble Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. over the weekend, which she attended with her Vampire Diares beau

"We have lots of words," Somerhalder chimed in with a smile. 

"We stick with human," the Twilight beauty said before the 36-year-old stud confirmed, "It's the best word."

PHOTOS: Stars and their beloved pets

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"He's my human," Reed, 26, added with a giant grin. 

During their chat, the attractive couple, who owns numerous pets together, gushed over their shared love of animals and pointed to their parents as the source of inspiration for their passion. 

"I wish I could take credit for it," Reed, who was honored for her work with the Wildlife Waystation, a non-profit animal sanctuary, and the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, shared. "I'm being acknowledged tonight for the work I did, but I can't take credit for it. Most of it is my mother. I have a mother who brought me up with the understand that everything deserves a home and love and food and shelter." 

Somerhalder echoed his girlfriend's sentiments, gushing "she said it best" and noting, "if you think about a world without an environment and a world without animals it would be a very, very desolate scary place." 

VIDEO: Nikki Reed says "life is good" for her and Ian

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Asked whether the two hope to pass on their passion for animals to their future children, Somerhalder replied, "One would hope that anyone who has this passion, who is here in this place, would instill in their own children or of the like a very similar ideology." 

Somerhalder and Reed got engaged about six months after they first started dating. The duo has adopted several animals together, including a horse and a cat, since coupling up. 

"He's the best," the actress previously gushed to E! News of her fiancé. "He's the most thoughtful human being on the planet." 

As for whether their pets are good practice for future kids? 

"I think animals are great training for that," she admitted, "You certainly learn how to clean up after yourself and pick up a lot of poop."

PHOTOS: Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder's romance rewind