After Liam returned, the trials and tribulations of the first month he spent with his new parents vanished. There were, of course, the normal hardships of being a parent, but Gregg and Angus gladly accepted them.

Months passed, and the road to full custody was relatively smooth. Summer ended, and Liam started his first year of middle school. There was plenty of drama there, but that was to be expected. Gregg was quick to get involved in any bullying Liam faced. After borderline threatening some middle-schoolers and their parents, it nearly ceased entirely.

When December rolled around, and Liam was gifted with Longest Night vacation, it finally happened. Michael came to Gregg and Angus with the final adoption papers. They would be given full custody of Liam, effective immediately.

After they signed the papers, it was finally official. Gregg and Angus would be the ones to give Liam his forever home. They threw a party the next day, despite the fact that Christmas was only a few days later. The presents were already under the tree. Liam knew Santa didn't exist, and it made it easier for Gregg and Angus to not have to stay up all night on Christmas Eve wrapping presents. Mae and Bea came over to join in the celebration.

"Congratulations, guys!", said Mae as they entered.

Everyone sat in the living room. The smell of Longest Night cookies fell upon Mae and Bea.

"Please tell me we get to eat those cookies.", said Mae.

"Yeah. They'll be done in a few minutes. I'll bring some out once they cool off a bit.", said Angus.

"Screw letting them cool! I will burn my mouth for those cookies!"

"No, Mae, you won't.", said Bea.

"…Yeah, I won't. Sorry, big guy, but as good as your cookies are, they aren't worth third degree burns in my mouth."

"It's okay. I would be sad if my cookies burned you anyway.", replied Angus.

"What kind are you making?", asked Bea.

"Right now, I'm making snickerdoodles. I'm going to make gingerbread cookies next."

"Yes! I love snickerdoodles!", cheered Mae.

"You love all cookies, Mae.", said Bea.

"You are correct, Beabea. If the word 'cookies' is involved, I'm going to love it 99 percent of the time."

The timer for the cookies went off.

"Oh, I guess they were closer to being done than I thought. I'll be right back." Angus went out to the kitchen and placed the batch of cookies on top of the stove. Then, he quickly prepared another batch and reset the timer. Once the next batch was in the oven, he set the cookies next to an open window to get them to cool faster.

Once he was back out in the living room, the group fell into casual conversation.

"So, how's college going?", asked Angus.

"Pretty good. Bills are really tight now, but whatever. It'll be worth it.", replied Bea.

"When you graduate, you should give us all free therapy.", said Gregg.

"No, I shouldn't. Therapists aren't supposed to be friends with their patients. It can complicate things."

"Mine's pretty friendly with me."

"They're friendly, but they're not your friend. There's a difference. They obviously have to be friendly. You're supposed to feel comfortable talking to them about your problems, but you wouldn't hang out with them outside of therapy, would you?"

"Probably not.", said Gregg.

"Well, there you go."

"Is college hard?", asked Gregg.

"Compared to all the shit I've dealt with in my life, it's nothing. I'll gladly take lectures and research papers over managerial duties any day."

"I think most things would be better than Possum Springs.", said Gregg.

"Agreed.", said everyone else in unison.

"Was Possum Springs really that bad?", asked Liam.

"Yes, it was.", said Bea.

"It's hard to hate it though.", said Mae.

"Yeah. We've all got some great memories from that place, even if there were a lot of not-so-great ones.", said Gregg.

"I met you.", said Angus, pulling Gregg up to his side.

"And I met you."

They gave each other a light kiss.

"Oh my god, why are you two so adorable?!", groaned Mae, "Bea, kiss me!"

Bea was caught off guard, "What?"

"Kiss me, damn it!" Mae advanced on Bea, locking her lips with hers before she got a chance to respond. Then, Mae pulled back away from her and smiled as if nothing happened. Bea just looked at Mae, shocked but not displeased.

Mae looked up at her, "What? We can't just sit there and let them out-adorable us. Come on, cuddle me."

Mae pushed herself up against Bea, who had no choice but to give in and wrap her arm around her. Gregg and Angus laughed.

"As much as I respect your efforts to be cuter than us, Mae, there's no way you can beat me and my cap'n.", said Gregg.

"I didn't want to do this, but you've given me no choice.", said Mae. Closing her eyes, she leaned even more heavily into Bea, and she gave a slight rumbling sound.

"Mae, what are you doing?", asked Bea, "Are you…?"

"No.", said Gregg, who proceeded to fumble for his phone. He immediately began filming.

"She's not… purring, is she?", asked Angus.

"I'm pretty sure that's what's happening right now.", replied Bea.

"…Well, shit, cap'n. I think we lost.", said Gregg.

"Eh. I still think you're cuter. It's a subjective thing, really.", said Angus.

"Then what was the point of all this?", asked Bea.

"I don't know. Mae's the one who started it."

"It was probably just an excuse for Mae to kiss her.", said Gregg.

"Maybe.", said Mae smugly.

"You could have just asked.", said Bea.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"

"I don't know. I just feel like you'd be embarrassed purring in front of other people."

"Gregg and Angus are our bros. I've done tons of way worse stuff around them."

"That's true.", said Angus.

"Well, damn, you could have at least pretended to not agree with me for a bit. Like, you could've said 'Oh, you weren't that bad, Mae' or something."

"It is true, though.", said Bea.

"I mean, yeah, I used to be kind of an asshole, but still…"

"You're better now, I know."

"Yeah! I'm way better now. I might even be, dare I say it, an adult."

"That might be a bit of a stretch.", said Bea.

"What? Come on. I'm super responsible and stuff now."

"Don't sweat it, Mae. Adults are overrated anyways.", said Gregg.

"Gregg! Whose side are you on here?"

"I'm on your side, dude. I never said not being an adult was a bad thing. I'm definitely not an adult."

"I'd beg to differ.", replied Angus, "There's a difference between being childish and being an adult who's okay with being immature sometimes. You act like an adult when it matters, and the rest of the time, you let yourself act like a kid again, and that's great. If you acted like an adult all the time, it would be boring."

Mae pointed at Angus, "See, he gets it! That's what I mean!"

"I guess I can't disagree with that.", said Bea.

"So, Mae. Do you think you and Bea will ever have kids?", asked Gregg.

"That is a thing that adults do.", said Mae.

"Definitely not now, though.", said Bea, "We're not ready for that yet. Maybe in a few years."

"Speaking of a few, it's been a few minutes since those cookies finished, big guy."

"I know. I'll go get everyone some." Angus made a few trips to get the five people in the room plates of cookies. By the time he'd finished making his trips, Mae had already finished hers, and Gregg was also close.

"You do realize that was the whole tray, right? It'll be a little while before more are done.", said Angus.

"Darn.", replied Mae, regretting her decision to essentially inhale the plate of freshly baked snickerdoodles.

"Tough luck, Maeday.", said Bea as she savored the normal-sized bites she took.

"Angus, can you teach Bea how to bake?", asked Mae.

"No.", replied Bea, "If I learn how to bake, you'll never stop asking me for cookies."

"Sure, I will. I'll be asking you to make other things, too, like cake, brownies, cupcakes-"

"That's still a no, Mae. If you want sweets so bad, learn how to bake yourself."

"I don't have time for that, Bea. You get days off all the time."

"I spend those days studying and doing homework."

"I'm sure it won't kill you to take a little time off.", said Mae.

"If I don't ace all of these classes, the college won't give me my scholarship money. We'd be thousands of dollars in debt."

Mae sighed, "I guess that would be pretty bad."

"Exactly."

"Hey, what are you guys planning on doing for Longest Night?", asked Liam.

"Us? We're just going to visit Mae's parents and stuff.", said Bea.

"We've also gotta visit Casey's parents.", reminded Mae.

"Right. That, too."

"I wish we could come with you.", said Gregg solemnly, "But we've got things planned for Liam that day."

"Like what?", asked Liam.

"That's a surprise. Just be patient for a few days."

Liam huffed and put on a pouty face, though it didn't last long.

"Just tell them we wish them a happy Longest Night."

"We will."

"Um, who is Casey?", asked Liam.

"He was our best friend.", replied Gregg.

The use of the word "was" gave Liam a good idea of what happened, but curiosity pushed him to question more.

"Is he dead?"

"Yeah. He's dead."

"What was he like?"

Gregg looked at Mae, and they both smiled sadly.

"Casey was a great guy. Just an all-around bro to everyone.", said Mae.

"He was always there for us. He was the one who got me to ask Angus out.", said Gregg.

"Hey, I helped, too.", said Mae.

"I know. He was definitely confrontational at times. He got into a lot of fights for me."

"He got into plenty of fights for me, too.", said Mae.

"He was a great skater and a great drummer. He's the one who wrote Die Anywhere Else."

"Oh, yeah. I remember that song.", said Liam.

"It really is ironic, isn't it? He wrote the song about leaving Possum Springs, and he's the only one who didn't get to leave."

"How… How did he die?", asked Liam with hesitation.

There was a moment of silence. No one wanted to talk about it.

Bea spoke up, "Let's just say some bad people didn't think he deserved to live, so they killed him."

"Why? Didn't you say he was a great guy?"

"He was. He got involved in some illegal stuff, though, so they didn't see it that way.", said Angus.

"We're they caught?"

"Yeah. They got what they deserved."

"Let's not think about that.", said Mae, "It's almost Longest Night. We should be talking about all of the good stuff we remember about Casey."

"Yeah, we should.", agreed Gregg.

"So, you said Casey helped you ask Angus out, right?", asked Liam.

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Can you tell me about how you two met?"

Gregg and Angus looked at each other, remembering how they met, how they came to love each other. There was definitely a story there to tell.

"Yeah, we can tell you. It's a long story, though.", warned Angus.

"That's fine.", said Liam.

"Alright then. Once this next batch of cookies is done, we'll tell you the tale of how we met.", said Angus.

And so, that's what they did. The next batch of cookies was set out for everyone to share, and Gregg and Angus shared their story, one that was filled with love and heartbreak, fun and boredom, plenty of joy and oh-so-much pain. Despite all of that, the story had a happy ending. So does this one. What could be happier than getting to truly call a child your own? To these two, the answer is nothing.