Zach smiles and shakes his head and I begin to clean up the table.

"Cody, five minutes," he warns, pulling our shoes from his bag. As I'm lacing up my sneakers, Cody emerges from the play structure.

"That was so fun!" he exclaims as he slips his shoes on. "Are we gonna go to your house now, Shaun?" he asks.

"No, that's tomorrow, Buddy," Zach answers.

"Aww, I thought we could have a sleep-over!" Cody laments. "I wanna nap in the Bat-Cave again." Zach gives me a strange look.

I quietly mouth 'I'm cool with it,' over Cody's head to his uncle.

"Uh, okay Codes, are you sure?" he asks his nephew. "I know sometimes you have nightmares when you wake up not at home."

"Not in the Bat-Cave, I won't," Cody assures back. Yes.

"Okay well, we'll swing by the house to get our stuff, and if you change your mind, that's okay."

We head to the car, and I'm a little giddy at the thought of having them unexpectedly spend the night, and glad that I'd already sent in my revisions so the rest of the night is free. We arrive at Zach's place and they run inside to grab clothes for tomorrow, pajamas, and Zach's phone charger while I get in my car and head home. I arrive about ten minutes before they do and have put my new Cody original on the fridge for display. He notices immediately and beams, quite proud of himself. He's wearing Batman pajamas and is too cute.

We settle down in the living room for a while and I turn on a cartoon for the boy. Within an hour, his head is nodding, and he's about to fall asleep. Zach picks him up and begins carrying him upstairs to the brown bedroom. We tuck him in.

"Sleep well, Cody," Zach whispers.

"Sleep well, Zach. Sleep well Shaun," he replies, yawning.

"Sleep well, Codes," I reply, loving this ritual more and more every time I participate in it.

Zach shuts the door and we creep back downstairs. He'd also changed into his pajamas before coming over, a tank top and pajama bottoms with a variety of comic book characters covering them. He looks so young right now and notices me smiling at him.

"What?" he asks, looking at himself to see what's amiss.

"Nothing, you just look cute in your PJs," I answer.

"Cody wanted us to match for the sleep-over," he responds, shrugging his shoulders.

"I uh, haven't seen you in PJs before. You're usually wearing, um, a lot less when you spend the night," I tease, smiling.

"Shut up," he says, shoving my shoulder. "Tonight I'm staying in this outfit," he confirms, and I wonder if this is some sort of playful dare.

"Okay," I reply, then grab his hip and slide my hand down into the bottoms, pinching his butt. "Yeah, these should be fine," I assess with a leer.

"Ouch! Dude, you pinched my bruise!" he exclaims.

"Oh! The hickey? Sorry Babe," I slip both my hands back inside and rub his ass as I kiss him. We make out as he slips his hands under my sweater and massages my lower back. Before things get too out of hand, I pull back.

"Uh, what are the rules with the Grasshopper in the house?"

"I mean, he could actually probably sleep through anything, but I don't wanna test it out, especially in a place he's not totally familiar with," he begins. "So, maybe a little heavy petting is okay, but nothing we'd have to explain as more than wrestling. Is that cool?"

"Works for me," I reply. It's further than I expected him to go so I'll take it. "I better put some pajamas on as well if this is going to be a proper sleepover," I wiggle my eyes. "Wanna come help me pick them out?" We quietly pad upstairs and I grab a clean tank top and find an old set of PJ bottoms with a retro-style print of cowboys and Indians on them. I show them to Zach, who nods, then pull off my clothes to change.

"You kept it on!" he exclaims when he sees the sheen on my abdomen from his "tattoo" this morning.

"I told you I would," I reply, pulling up the pants and patting the faint remnants of his morning doodle. After a busy day of surfing and more, there's hardly any evidence of it there. He pulls up his shirt to reveal his matching stomach.

"I didn't think it would be this easy to get you out of your clothes!" I enthuse. He pulls his shirt down and sticks his tongue out at me as I laugh. "Are you gonna stay in here or do you want another guest room?" I ask.

"I think if we keep the door open, I'll hear if Codes wakes up," he decides, and I'm glad for it.

"Yeah, and I gotta be up early to go get his surprise, so it might be a non-issue if I do that before he wakes up."

"That's cool," he grabs me for a kiss. We continue kissing as he backs me up to the bed. I sit down and pull myself into the bed and under the covers as he goes to turn off the lights, before crawling in next to me. I kiss his forehead, so happy and at peace in this moment, completely different then my freak-out last night, which I really hadn't thought about too much today. He sighs and it sounds just as content as I feel.

"Why were you surprised I didn't wash away your drawing?" I ask. He's begun his finger movements across my chest but my shirt is in the way. I pull it up to give his hand access to my bare skin, dropping the shirt over his moving arm.

"'Cause I didn't know if you would think that was totally gross," he lazily replies.

"I was surprised you didn't think it was too much," I admit pulling him even closer.

"I think, I think you do strange things to me too," he admits. I swallow and rub his back. "Like, in theory, it's kinda gross, but I dunno, having part of you on me where no one could see or knew it was there was pretty hot, you know? And knowing you had the same thing made it like, a private joke we share. I think that's why I like marking you too. I've never been big on hickies you know, but with you, I just have this need to, uh, brand you or something, does that make sense?"

"Yeah it totally does," I reply. "Maybe it's the whole keeping it a secret that makes us want to silently acknowledge we're together," I surmise. "I've never been turned on by having a guy wear my clothes until you, so that's my, uh, less physical way of branding you," I conclude.

We fall into silence and eventually fall asleep. I wake up several hours later to my alarm going off and Zach curled up against me, hand still under my shirt, over my heart. I grab my phone to silence the alarm, hoping it didn't wake Cody so I can just relish the moment before disturbing the man lying against me. This scenario seems so perfect and natural. Waking up next to the man I love, the kid we love down the hall, plans for the day and a surprise in store. All it needs is a white picket fence to be complete.

I sigh and slowly start to disentangle myself from Zach. He wakes up and his sleepy eyes and lazy smile make my heart pound. I kiss him good morning and force myself out of bed to get dressed. After I change, he rolls out of bed as well and follows me downstairs, turning on the coffee maker as I hunt for my keys. We have impeccable timing because just as I locate my key chain, the door to the Bat-Cave slams.

Cody runs downstairs, excited for the new day.

"How'd you sleep, Buddy?" Zach enquires.

"Good!" his nephew replies.

"You want some cereal?" I offer. "We have Rice Krispies, granola, or I think I saw some of Gabe's Frosted Flakes in the pantry," I elaborate.

"Frosted Flakes, 'cause they're g-r-r-eat!" Zach pulls a bowl down and grabs the box from the cupboard, as I head out to my car. "Where you going, Shaun?" Cody asks.

"Oh I'll be right back Codes," I assure him. "Just gotta run an errand real quick."

"Okay," he allows, and I laugh. I drive to the surf shop and they've got my items ready to go. I thank them again for the super-quick turnaround and head back home, stowing the board and wetsuit on the side of the house along with all the others.

I come back inside and they've changed into board shorts, green ones for Cody, and a pair of mine on Zach. Branded. Any evidence of Zach's ab-tattoo from yesterday is gone. I run upstairs to change into my swim trunks and to wipe off any leftover proof on my own stomach. I head back downstairs to join them, totally excited for Cody's reaction.

"Hey Codes, I'm gonna cover your eyes 'cause Shaun's got a surprise for you," Zach explains. I grab the board and suit to show as Zach pulls his hands away.

Cody opens his eyes as I shout "Now you can go surfing with us!" His jaw drops and he squeals, running to grab me in a hug. I scoop him up loving the joyful look in his eyes that match the look in his uncle's. He's shaking in my arms he's so excited, and I can't help but laugh.

"I'm gonna be a surfer dude like you and Zach and Gabe!" he exclaims. "Let's go now!"

"First you gotta learn the basics, Codes," Uncle Zach chimes in with a laugh. "It's gonna be a while before you're out on the waves. Shaun's the best teacher though, so I'm sure between the two of us you'll be hanging ten in no time." My stomach drops when he says this. I will always want Cody between the two of us.

We take the new board along with a couple others to the private beach and I give Cody his first lesson on paddling out. He's too excited to fully grasp what we're doing, but it's a start. After a while, I call a halt to lessons so we can go swimming in the pool. Cody insists on bringing the wetsuit along and sets it next to his towel and flip flops. We spend a couple hours swimming and splashing and playing in the pool before Zach says it's time to get out.

"Codes, we gotta head home soon," he says in a more somber voice than he's had all day. Jeanne must be on her way back to SP.

"Hey Ankle-Biter, I'm gonna miss you but next time we get together we'll do more surf lessons, okay?" I offer.

"Okay," he replies, looking disappointed his fun is coming to an end.

"We're gonna leave your surf gear at Shaun's, just like I have my board stashed here, okay Buddy?" Zach adds.

"Yeah, that's fine," Cody consents. We get out of the pool to dry off and go inside to change. Cody turns the TV back on to cartoons as he waits for his uncle to change.

I head upstairs to my room with Zach close behind. He shuts the door behind us.

"That was so amazing," he gushes. "Thank you."

"Thank you," I reply with a kiss. "I absolutely love hanging out with the two of you and can't wait for more surf lessons with Codes. I'm grateful to know him." He grabs my face and gives me a hard kiss, and I wrap my arms around him and we continue for a few minutes. He pulls away to change, this time grabbing a pair of my flip flops to wear home.

"I'll call you later about tonight," he promises as he zips his hoodie halfway. "And it's my treat, so maybe I'll get you drunk and have my way with you," he grins.

"I can guarantee you, I'm a sure thing, Babe," I wink. "You gonna spend the night again?" I hopefully ask.

"I told Jeanne I was gonna need some major time with the waves after so much babysitting lately," he smiles. "The kind where I spend the night surfing." He gives me one last kiss before heading out. "Late."

"Late." I agree, eagerly anticipating tonight.