Zeb woke up the next morning feeling happier than he'd felt in... Well, longer than he could remember. At first he couldn't remember why he felt so wonderful, but then he looked down and saw Alex peacefully sleeping in his arms and everything for the night before comes flooding back. A warm glow fills his chest as he feels Alex snuggling more comfortably against him in his sleep. Alex was real, and he was here. He was in his bed after they'd spent an amazing night together, and it was almost as if they'd never been apart. Zeb gently nuzzles into Alex's hair, breathing in his scent, trying to convince himself that this was real. He really hoped that Alex wouldn't wake up and decide that last night was a mistake...

Well, if nothing else he'd enjoy this time for as long as he could.

He had almost drifted back off himself when he was jolted awake by the sound of someone pounding on his door, followed by Sabine's voice calling, "Uncle Zeb! Mom said to tell you that breakfast is ready!"

Zeb winces as he feels Alex stirring against him-shit. Why had Sabine had to interrupt the moment? Still, she couldn't have known what was going on meaning it wasn't really her fault so he couldn't be mad at her...

"Down in a minute, Bean!" he answers.

"Okay! Oh, also mom said your date is welcome too. Especially if it's Alex. ...Is it Alex? Did you really find him?"

"I said I'll see you in a minute, Bean," Zeb answers as he sees Alex's eyes blinking open-he needed to focus on him, not Sabine, right now.

"Fine..." Sabine playfully sighs. "I'll see you down there, and I'll be expecting answers!"

Zeb lets out a soft groan-he understood why Sabine was so curious but now wasn't the time for it. Fortunately he could hear her footsteps fading away so he was able to turn his attention to Alex.

"Morning," he says softly, hoping that Alex would remember last night and not think that he was waking up in a stranger's bedroom with another man completely naked.

"Morning,'' Alex answers, looking a bit embarrassed but at least not freaked out.

"You sleep all right?" Zeb asks.

"Better than I've slept in a long time, '' Alex admits. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sleep over-didn't mean to put you in an awkward situation with your family..."

"You didn't," Zeb promises. "And, for the record, they're your family too."

"I-I don't know if they'd consider me family," Alex mumbles.

"Believe me, we all consider everything-at least the good things-that happened in the game as real. I mean, we've only had Ezra for... Two days, almost? And we're already looking into officially adopting him!"

"I can still hardly believe how you found him. And, well, everyone else." Alex shakes his head. "Everything that you told me last night... It's a bit hard to believe."

"I can hardly believe it either," Zeb agrees. "But somehow I feel like this is all happening for a reason, y'know? That we're all meant to be together."

"I don't put a lot of faith in fate or any sort of higher power, but in a way I have to agree with you." Alex tentatively squeezes Zeb's hand, who squeezes back before gently pecking his cheek.

"Come on," Zeb breathes. "Let's get dressed and head down to breakfast before someone else comes looking for us."

"And after that?" Alex asks, sounding nervous. "I mean... Would you be comfortable with us dating, publicly?"

"Of course I would!" Zeb answers. "I-I'd like you to be my boyfriend, if you'd be okay with it? I mean, I know in the game we used 'mate' but that sounds kind of strange out here, so hopefully boyfriend works instead…?"

"I think boyfriend works," Alex agrees with a smile that made Zeb absolutely melt. "And I'd be honored to be yours, if you'll be mine."

"Really?" Zeb breathes, feeling like his heart was filling up like a balloon with happiness.

"Really." Alex tenderly takes his hand and lifts it to his lips, kissing the back of it. "I-I've lost so much time with you, I don't want to waste another moment."

"You are incredible." Zeb could hardly believe that this is happening, and on instinct he pulls Alex closer.

"Careful, Garazeb." Alex gently traces a hand down this chest, causing him to shiver. "There are children in the house."

"You're the one tempting me!" Zeb protests.

"You're pretty tempting yourself, '' Alex answers.

" ...Ashla, I'd do you right now if I didn't think Kanan would have no qualms about walking in on us and telling us to get our asses down to breakfast."

"...Really?"

"Really. Hera has strong feelings about people being on time, and Kanan is the unashamed enforcer of that policy."

"Okay, so getting dressed sounds like a smart idea."

"Probably, yeah..."

"Right." Alex starts to push off the covers, only to pause mid-motion. "...I just realized that I did not come prepared and I don't have any clean clothes or even a comb with me..."

"Good point." Zeb hums thoughtfully, considering the problem. "How would you feel about wearing some of my clothes?"

"Wouldn't they be a bit big for me?"

"...True. But it still might work?"

"I guess it could..."

"You could at least give it a try!"

"You seem to have very strong feelings about this."

"...Is it bad that I'd just really like to see you in my clothes?" Zeb mumbles, feeling embarrassed.

"Oh." Alex blinks in surprise and then a playful smile crosses his face. "In that case, I think that could be arranged."

"Really?" Was Alex really going to indulge him like this?

"Just show me what you want me to wear," Alice chuckles.

Zeb was so flustered that Alex was going along with this that he wasn't even thinking about how to best take advantage of the situation, just picking out a pair of pants and t-shirt at random. The pants were able to stay on with a belt with little difficulty, but the t-shirt's neck was a bit too wide for Alex and kept showing off tempting flashes of skin that were absolutely turning him on-not that he could say that out loud right now.

"I suppose this will do for now," Alex says, looking himself over in the mirror. "Are you sure I don't look silly?"

"You look amazing," Zeb answers earnestly, doing his best to have some self-control.

"Thank you, love." Alex pecks his cheek."Well, I guess I'd better get my walk of shame over with... N-Not that I'm ashamed of being with you! I just meant... With children in the house and all... "

"Alex, I promise no one is going to judge you." Zeb squeezes his hands. "Come down to breakfast with me. You can meet the rest of the family, then maybe I can take you out on a proper date?"

"I do like the sound of that," Alex says with a small smile. "Sunday is one of my days off, I've got someone watching the shop..."

"I'm hearing there's no reason for you not to agree, then," Zeb playfully teases.

"Fine." Alex shakes his head, but there was a sparkle in his eyes. "You've worn me down, Garazeb. You always get your own way, don't you?"

"I always get my man because I'm willing to fight for him-for us," Zeb answers, pecking his cheek.

"You're a ridiculous romantic, you know that?" Alex laughs.

"Oh come on, you know you love it," Zeb teases

"Yes." Alex pecks his cheek back. "Yes I do."

Together they make their way down to breakfast where the others were already sitting around the table.

"There you two are!" Kanan says when he sees them walk in. "I was about to go check on you if you hadn't shown up soon!"

"We're adults, Kanan, that wouldn't have been necessary," Zeb deadpans..

"As the dad of the family, I have to look out for my kids," Kanan answers with a mischievous grin.

"Yer not my dad-I'm older than you, if anyone's the dad between the two of us it's me!" Zeb cries.

"You're no fun," Kanan pouts.

"Boys, behave," Hera says, looking like she needs some caf. "We have a guest, and you should at least be trying to act like adults in front of our actual kids."

"Sorry, Hera." Zeb and Kanan both apologize automatically-they could both talk a good game but everyone knew that Hera was really the one in charge, just like on the Ghost. (Which was probably for the best considering she was admittedly the most mature of the three of them.)

"Thank you." Hera nods, looking satisfied. "Now, let's start that over with proper introductions this time."

"Right," Zeb agrees. "As you all can probably tell, this is Alex. Alex, this is… Well, I guess you've already kind of met everyone. Huh. Well this makes introductions a bit awkward…"

"Alex, why don't you sit down and tell us about yourself out here, and we can tell you a bit about ourselves?" Kanan suggests, actually being serious, to Zeb's great relief.

"O-Oh, I wouldn't be imposing?" Alex asks, sounding a bit nervous.

"Not at all, there's plenty of food and caf for everyone," Hera reassures him.

"I see you still tend to call it caf too," Alex says wryly as Zeb pulls out a chair Hera or someone must have borrowed from the dining room for this-the kitchen table was getting very crowded, they'd probably need to consider moving meals to the dining room if Alex became a regular guest or (Zeb's hope) eventually moved in as well.

"It's a hard habit to break," Hera chuckles. "We've pretty much just given up and started calling all coffee 'caf' around here."

"I wish I was so lucky, but considering the type of shop I own I have to call it coffee or else get strange looks from my customers," Alex sighs.

"Kanan mentioned you owned a shop-can you tell us about it?" Hera asks.

"Well, I suppose so-if you'd really be interested?" Alex answers, looking surprised by her attention.

Zeb smiles to himself as Hera manages to gently cajole Alex into sharing about himself-she was always great at getting people out of their shells. But he couldn't help but notice that as everyone else started joining in on the conversation Ezra was being uncharacteristically quiet (or uncharacteristic for what Zeb knew of him from the game, at least.)

"Hey kiddo, you doing okay?" he asks softly-after the condition he'd found him in he couldn't help but feel a little extra protective of him.

"What?" Ezra looks startled by the question. "O-Oh, yeah, I'm fine!"

"Kid, it's okay," Zeb says gently. "You know you don't have to be nervous around me, right? I'm very happy to have you here, and I'm sorry if me getting distracted by Alex has made you feel uncomfortable in any way."

"What? No!" Ezra cries. "It's fine, I get why you're so excited to have him back in your life! I guess I just… I have a hard time understanding why everyone's so happy to have me here…"

"It's overwhelming, isn't it?" Zeb says softly. "Having people actually care about you when the world's convinced you that you're garbage and no one wants you. Makes it hard to believe that they really care."

"H-How do you know that?"

"Because I've been there."

"...You have?"

"Yep. My parents didn't give a rat's ass about me-never really wanted kids, I was always just a bother to them," Zeb explains. "Then they finally came back here to their hometown from the city-said they wanted to get a fresh start, that things would be better here. But it turned out they were only staying here long enough to drop me off at my grandparents' and never come back."

"That sounds awful," Ezra whispers.

"It was," Zeb agrees. "It took me a while to trust that my grandparents weren't going to leave me too. But they never did-least not until they died, but they couldn't help that. Still, after I lost them I pulled back into myself, afraid to lose anyone else. And then I played the game and met all of you, and somehow I've got a family again. Am I still scared that this is all some cruel joke and one day everyone's going to leave me again? Yeah. But I'm working on trusting people, and I'm here for you if you ever need someone to talk to who at least somewhat knows what you're going through."

"Thank you." Ezra gives him a small, grateful smile. "That means a lot to me…"

"Sure thing, kiddo," Zeb answers, smiling back at him. "Any time."

"Aww, you guys are really sweet together," Kanan says softly in his ear once Ezra had gone back to eating, looking much more cheerful.

"Eh, just happy if I could help in any way," Zeb answers with a shrug. "Kid can use all the support he can get right now."

"I agree. It's nice to see you and Ezra getting along so well."

"What, like we haven't gotten along before?"

"Well, in the game you two were at each other's throats a lot."

"Okay, fair. But I guess things are a little different out here. You lose someone and when you get them back you're too grateful to want to mess things up, y'know?"

"Makes sense, but I still think it's sweet. And I'm totally fine with it provided you're not trying to take my place as his dad," Kanan says playfully.

"Believe me, I'm much happier with being an uncle right now," Zeb answers with a small chuckle. "Maybe someday I'd like to be a dad, but not today. And even when or if that day comes I'd never try to take Ezra and Sabine away from you and Hera."

"Aw." Kanan gently nudges him. "For the record, I think you'd make a great dad, when or if you're ever ready."

"Thanks, Kanan," Zeb answers, trying to tamp down a slight feeling of giddiness that came from the thought of having kids with Alex…

"So, how late are we going to stay here until we go?" Sabine suddenly asks, grabbing his attention.

"Go?" Zeb repeats, not sure what she was talking about.

"This is the first weekend of Ren faire, right?" Sabine answers. "You guys promised we'd go today, but no one's said anything and I'm starting to wonder if we're actually going to go."

"Sabine,' Kanan says a bit warningly. "I know we were planning to go, but with Ezra and Alex here now things might have changed-"

"A Ren faire?" Alex, to Zeb's great surprise, actually looked interested. "I'd heard there's one near here but haven't had the chance to go yet-I wouldn't mind giving it a look."

"Really?" Zeb looks over at him in surprise. "You want to go?"

"Sure, why not?" Alex shrugs and smiles at him. "It sounds interesting, and I wouldn't mind it being our first official date."

"And you wouldn't mind the rest of the family coming along?"

"Garazeb, I'm quite aware that spending time with you usually means the rest of the family is included and I've made my peace with that," Alex tells him wryly. "As long as I get to spend time with you that's all that matters, as long as you're okay with it. I actually wouldn't mind getting to spend some time with everyone and get to know them all again."

"Yeah, that way it's not weird when you move in!" Sabine says enthusiastically.

"I-I'm sorry, move in?" Alex looks over at her in surprise.

"Well, yeah! I mean everyone else has moved in, shouldn't the whole family be together?" Sabine answers.

"I…" Alex had a bit of a cornered rabbit look on his face so Zeb quickly steps in.

"Sabine, I know you're excited to have Alex back-we all are-but we can't assume Alex will drop everything in his life to come live with us."

"Oh…" Sabine looks down at her lap. "Sorry, I guess I got a bit overexcited."

"It's alright," Alex tells her before Zeb can respond. "I'd be lying if I said it doesn't sound nice, but right now I have a flatmate and I can't skip out on him on a whim."

Was it wrong that Zeb felt as disappointed as Sabine looked despite him being the one to tell her that Alex couldn't automatically move in?

"But," Alex continues, "he has a boyfriend, probably soon to be fiance, and he's been hinting at having him moving in with us or finding a new place with more space for three people. I think it might be better for them to have some privacy, though, so when the time comes I'd be willing to rediscuss me moving in here. I-If everyone would be alright with that, that is, I totally understand if not-"

"I'd love that," Zeb breathes, head spinning and his hand automatically encircling Alex's. Alex might actually be moving in?

"I wouldn't say no to that," Kanan muses. "It would be nice to have the whole family together."

"And with all of our crazy schedules it would be good to have more people here to make sure someone can always be here when the kids are home," Hera adds.

"Ezra, what do you think?" Zeb asks, not wanting to make him feel left out.

"I'd like Uncle Alex to be here," Ezra answers with a small smile.

"Uncle Alex?" Alex repeats.

"S-Sorry, I shouldn't have called you that without asking!" Ezra apologizes, looking terrified that he'd done something wrong, making Zeb wonder yet again what horrible things this poor kid had been through. "It's just that we call Zeb 'Uncle Zeb' out here…"

"No, it's fine!" Alex reassures him. "I've never been an uncle before. But I think I'd rather like it, if that's what you'd like to call me."

"Can I call you Uncle Alex too?" Sabine asks eagerly.

"I don't see why not." Alex shakes his head, but Zeb could tell he was enjoying this as much as he was. He had his Alex back-they were a family again-and he was sure he'd never been happier in his entire life.