Cody's eyebrows rose, and he gave a questioning look to Noah.

"It's perfect, right? If you want something that just lets us talk for hours, look no further."

The picture on the box showed dozens of small, colorful pieces of candy surrounding three large slices of cake, each with its own distinct colors.

Cody nodded. It wasn't what he expected, but he had to admit that it would give them a lot—a lot—of time to talk. "Well, you said I can't change my mind, so I guess let's get started."

Noah ripped off the top of the box with glee. He dumped all the pieces out into a massive pile. "Alright, battle plan. We turn all the pieces over and place the edges aside. Then we can put that together and work our way inwards."

And so the colossal undertaking of piecing this puzzle together began. The two boys began to flip pieces over and deconstruct the pile into a more or less flat collection of pieces, all facing upwards. Noah kept every edge piece he found in a different location, but Cody seemed to ignore Noah's stated strategy completely. When they were all facing up and Noah had collected all the edges he could see, they began to actually try putting pieces together. Again, Noah stayed true to his vision of putting the edges together first. Cody, meanwhile, would put any two pieces together he happened to spot. Noah, to his credit, didn't comment on Cody's complete dismissal of his plan, content to let the other work how he wanted. To 'let him cook,' as the kids say.

They worked in a comfortable silence for some minutes before Noah said, "So. You wanted to get to know me. I'm an open book. I only ask that you be open as well."

"Deal," Cody said. He picked up a piece lined with red bars and white stripes. He knew it was part of the slice of red velvet cake, and he had managed to put together a small section of that slice. Right now, it was only three pieces strong, but he figured it'd be easy to build off of it with the right pieces. "So, what's your favorite kind of cake? Red velvet?" He gestured to his pieces.

Noah continued gathering his edge pieces. "Cheesecake. A strawberry cheesecake if I'm feeling extra naughty."

"Pfft," Cody scoffed. "Cheesecake isn't even real cake. It's a pie."

"Please. Cheesecake is only a pie if it's made in a pie crust."

Cody folded his arms. Noah didn't seem to notice. Arguments ran through Cody's mind in a desperate attempt to find a retort, but nothing seemed to stick. "I mean, I guess! But it's certainly different than all the other kinds of cake."

"Right. Culinary categories are often not based on strict definitions but on presentation and history."

"You sure have a lot to say about random things."

"I think it's good to have opinions about a wide variety of things." Noah sorted through a pile of rich, red pieces. They must have been part of the slice of red velvet cake.

Cody found a stray red piece and placed it in Noah's pile. "Isn't that tiring? I can't imagine finding the time to think about all this stuff."

Noah sorted the four corner pieces and began trying to find matches in the side pieces. "I'm thinking all the time. Aren't you? I guess that checks out for you."

Cody looked up, jaw dropped. "Hey, hey! I think a lot!"

"Sure, honey. Anything you say," Noah said.

Cody grinned. He snatched up three pieces and snapped them together. "Could someone who never thinks have done that? That's like, a double combo."

Noah laughed. "Could you be any more nerdy right now?"

"Hey! You wanted to do a puzzle on a first date. On the nerd scale, I'm nowhere close to you."

"Ouch. I've come baring my heart, my cakes, and my candies. You come at me with such hostility."

"I'm just matching the vibe." Cody grinned, cocky.

After not a few minutes, Noah managed to get the frame of the puzzle together. From here, he could move on to the middle. Cody had put together quite a few random pieces, but without a solid game plan, he'd made limited real progress.

"In the spirit of open-book-ness," Noah began, "let's tell secrets."

"Secrets?"

"Secrets. They don't have to be deep or dark, they just have to be secrets." Noah looked across at the other boy, who still seemed unsure. "Don't worry, I'll take the lead."

Noah pressed a piece down and then raised a hand to his chin. "Where to begin… One time, in elementary school, we were doing a field day outside, and I saw a boy sitting on top of an anthill. Unfortunately, I was very angry at him at the time, so I stepped in the ant hill so they would bite him."

Cody winced. "Geez. That's kind of vicious."

Noah laughed, only a little guilty. "Doing things indirectly is a talent of mine. Don't worry. I told him to get up before they actually swarmed him."

"I don't know if I can ever look at you the same way."

"I'm a violent sociopath. You better be careful." Noah gave a playful smile before turning back towards the puzzle. "Now, it's your turn. Doesn't have to be anything big."

"Well…" Cody thought for a long, hard moment. "My mom made me a stuffed emu when I was three that I still sleep with."

Noah didn't look up from the puzzle. "Ah. Embarrassing yet endearing. Good play."

"Huh?! No! It's just the first thing that came to mind!"

Noah nodded his head very sagely. "I see how the game is played. When I was a small child, I got lost in the woods because I found a turtle in our yard and I was convinced it needed to go back home."

"Helping animals instead of using them for revenge. The many sides of Noah. But someone found you, right? Or maybe you were raised by wolves."

"It wasn't exactly the Amazon. I was never too far away from civilization. Eventually, someone saw me, crying, wandering behind their house."

"Fine! If you get a cute one, then I have to have a mean one." Cody returned to his thinking pose, hunched intently over the puzzle. "Ah ha! At my fourth birthday party, I knocked my cousin's tooth out with an etch-a-sketch."

"On purpose?"

"Well… no! He was just standing too close when I was trying to erase it. But it was violent! And there was a lot of blood!"

"If accidentally hurting someone is as mean as you can get, then I'll have to officially declare you a softie."

Cody gasped, filled with mock indignance. "I'm not a softie! I'm super, mega hard!"

Noah looked at Cody, mischief gleaming behind the eyes. "Hard? Why, Cody, it's only the first date."

"Hey, hey! No! That's not what I meant, and you know it!" Cody's face turned neon pink. He redoubled his puzzle-building efforts, determined not to look Noah in the eye.

Noah just snickered and continued alongside him, steadily working towards the completed picture.

Cody found this new silence tense. Not so much uncomfortable as it was… fraught. There was something he needed to know.

This was his opportunity. He might as well come out and say it. They'd already promised honesty. There wasn't going to be a better time.

"So… why did you change your mind about this date thing?"

Noah stopped, a bright green puzzle piece still held in his hand. He looked up and met Cody's gaze. "I really needed someone to help me with this puzzle."

"Oh come on, you can't joke about it. You said you were an open book!"

Noah blinked and ran his thumb across the piece's polished face. "I figure it'll be miserable when you leave either way, but you're here right now. It doesn't have to suck just yet."

Cody ran that through his head, turned it over and around, all the while never taking his gaze away from Noah's dark eyes. "That's a little depressing."

"Indeed it is," Noah said. "What made you decide to tell me?"

"You told me to."

"Besides that. You've gotta have your own reasons."

"I don't know. Because I like you," Cody managed to get out.

Noah placed the bright green piece into another matching piece. "Is everything always so simple for you?"

"Some things are that simple. There's no reason this can't be."

Noah looked into Cody's eyes, searching for something. Some hint about how he was feeling. He couldn't find anything but a sea of honesty. He looked completely genuine. Noah smiled. "Alright. It can be simple."

"Cool. So, tell me about Grace. How'd you get started doing that?"

Noah laughed. "Everybody wants to know about Grace. It allll started at a gay bar."

"You go to gay bars?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know," Cody said. "You just don't seem the type."

Noah gave a skeptical look at the other boy. "I'm a drag queen. I'm exactly the type to go to gay bars."

"Oh, I mean…" Cody backtracked. "I guess I just don't see you enjoying the bar scene."

"Well, I don't drink." Noah pulled his attention back to the slice of spice cake he was attempting to put together. "But the communities in gay bars—that's what I'm really after. You can't get that anywhere else."

"You make friends at bars?"

"Of course I do. I met Izzy at a gay bar." Noah snapped a piece into place. "I went to drag shows for a few months. Watched Drag Race. Figured I wanted to try it. Since then, it's just been sort of a thing I do."

"Did you ever uh," Cody paused, trying to find the best way to put his words together. "Meet guys? At the bar, I mean."

"It's a gay bar. It's mostly men."

"You know what I mean." Cody's face flushed hot, so he diligently looked for pieces on the floor. Anything to keep his eyes off of his "date."

"Ohhh. Cody is asking about my long, sordid romantic history," Noah said, clapping his hands together. "Where to begin? Well, in third grade, there was this cute kid named Duncan. He invited me over to his house. We kissed in his bathroom. But he was a total closet case so he never talked to me about it again. That was anthill boy. He ended up in juvie for a while, and I lost contact. Hope he's doing alright."

"Third grade? Isn't that a little early for kissing boys in the bathroom?"

"Absolutely. In high school, I dated a hockey player for like two weeks. Sweet guy. Nothing going on up top. Since I started college, there've been too many guys to count. Bars, classmates, online stuff. Never anything serious. How about you? Kiss any boys lately?"

Cody let a nervous giggle slip. "Oh, me? I get so many dates. Totally."

"So just Gwen?" Noah arched an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah…" Cody twiddled a puzzle piece in his fingers. "There is this one other girl! She's asked me out so many times, but she's kind of creepy about it."

"You don't need to hype yourself up. I've already bought into the Cody train."

Cody smiled, the tiniest blush grazing his cheeks. "I didn't mean it like that."

"So you've never dated a guy?"

"Not for lack of trying. It's just hard meeting other guys… into guys. I guess."

"I get it, dude. When you're not straight, it's hard to just stumble into things. Guess I'm a bit of an outlier in that department."

Cody fumbled with a piece, desperate for a segue. "So uh, this Duncan kid. Your family ever find out about that?"

"No. Thank God. I'd never hear the end of it. My family's too big to let things go."

"Big how?"

"I'm the youngest of nine kids. When you've got that many people in one house, things just keep circulating. By the time somebody forgets it, someone else remembers it. And on and on it goes ad infinitum."

Cody gave a small frown. "That sucks. I've always been an only child. I can't even imagine. Nine kids."

"I love my siblings, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a lot."

"So you have a good relationship with your family?"

"Smart. Always try to suss out if your potential romantic interests have family issues. It always comes into the relationship sooner or later."

Completely disarmed by that response, Cody's entire body went lax against the plush couch. "I didn't…"

"Kidding, I'm kidding! I've got no serious baggage with the parentals. Except mom won't give me the recipe for her kadhi pakora. Now that's trauma."

"Pakora?"

"Indian food. Speaking of which, delivery?"

"Absolutely."

After hours upon grueling hours interrupted only by a meal of Indian takeout and the occasional bathroom break, it finally happened. Everything slipped into place. At some point during the assembly of any jigsaw puzzle, there comes a cascade, a moment where there is no more searching around for stray pieces. And it happened. Noah snatched up piece after piece, locking them into place. A slice of red velvet cake, completed. A pile of colorful gumdrops, completed. A piece of cheesecake, completed.

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" Noah cheered as he slotted the last piece of the puzzle into its place, a nondescript piece with just the slightest bit of chocolate cake on a single edge. Noah bolted upright, too invigorated to stay down.

Cody, caught up in the moment, leaped up as well. "We did it!"

Noah, on impulse, wrapped his arm around Cody's shoulder and pulled him close. They did it, and it only took just over eight hours. Eight hours of grit, determination, and effort. Eight hours of blood, sweat, and tears. Okay, maybe there wasn't any blood, sweat, or tears, but it felt like there was. They were finally rewarded with a picture of cake and candy.

Still, they were happy! The two boys, jumping and jittering with joy, tightened their side embrace. Cody looked at Noah and saw the wild elation on his face. His almost manic grin. His heavy, tired eyes now wide with adrenaline. Something about that face, exhausted yet ecstatic like a child, made something click for Cody.

He placed a gentle hand on the side of Noah's jaw and, in the heat of the moment, brought their lips together.

It was a warm kiss. Lightning coursed through Cody's veins and crackled over his skin. Or it felt that way, at least.

Noah leaned into the kiss, drawing the two closer together. They continued, hungry, passionate, and burning, exchanging steam.

They came apart with a deep gasp from both of them. "Damn, I love puzzles!" Noah said.

"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry." Cody gave a sheepish grin, a blush filling up his face.

"Please don't apologize. I liked it." Noah squeezed Cody's arms in his hands. They shared a long, intense look. Cody smiled. A soft thing. A gentle thing. Noah was wild-eyed, a huge grin plastered on his face. "We kissed."

"We did."

"Would you like to kiss again?"

"I think so."

And so, they did. And they did, and they did, and they did.

Noah stared deep into Cody's eyes. "Anybody ever tell you that you're beautiful?"

Cody couldn't help but giggle.

As they swam into each other's eyes, Noah noticed the window. Dark, cloudy, lit only by streetlights. "Thank you for talking me into this. It's getting late, though."

Cody frowned. "Uh, yeah! Totally. It was fun."

"I should get to bed. But I was wondering if… you'd like to come with me."

Cody locked eyes with Noah once again, searching for something. "Is that really a good idea?"

Noah gave a crooked smile. It shook Cody. Until now, Noah always seemed so sure. He was always so confident and in control.

Noah sighed. "No, but I'd like to do it anyway."

"Alright then. Let's do it."