Zach knew that he and Shaun and Cody were forever.

He couldn't exactly pinpoint when that had happened - maybe when Jean had called and asked if Cody could stay with them longer. Shaun hadn't just agreed; he'd been relieved. Zach could see it in his face and the lines of tension that dissolved from his body when Zach asked if he minded. Zach wasn't even surprised because he knew Maybe that's when he had figured out that his family was a forever thing.

Or maybe it was before that when Cody had casually told the little girl who moved into the apartment across the hall from them that he had a mommy and two daddies - even though he called them Uncle Zach and Uncle Shaun. Cody knew who he loved and that they loved him to - he knew they belonged together for the long haul.

Or hell, maybe it was way back at the beginning when Shaun had held him and Cody close as they watched Jean drive away - holding his new family together in the very first seconds of its existence. He'd never loved another man - another person - they way he loved Shaun and there he couldn't imagine trying. So, yeah, Zach kind of thought it went without saying that he and Shaun? - they were forever.

He'd never felt any need to make it permanent in any legal or traditional sense. He was gay, not a chick. What he felt and what he knew about what Shaun felt was enough. But Shaun had been gay - well, probably not longer, but aware and open about it longer than Zach and it occurred to Zach that maybe Shaun would like to do things properly.

"You want to get married?" They were close but not quite touching, still cooling off from their earlier lovemaking, in the center of their bed when Zach blurted the question out to the ceiling fan at which he'd been staring.

Shaun's face showed surprise when Zach turned his head to gauge his lover's reaction. Then it split in to that wide genuine grin that Zach had loved before he'd even know what love was, back when he was just a boy spending the time with Gabe and Gabe's big brother. Shaun laughed once, soft but loud in the relative quiet of their room "What?"

Zach smiled back, but his heart was suddenly racing. He'd never asked anyone to marry him before, and 'what?' was not the answer he'd been expecting. "Don't laugh asshole. I just asked you to marry me." Zach's smile probably softened the blow, but that was okay.

Shaun inched closer and pressed a close-mouthed kiss to Zach's smiling mouth. "That's what it sounded like, but I thought maybe you'd screwed up my hearing with that last orgasm."

"Sorry, I should have been more sensitive to your advanced age." Zach tried to look sympathetic.

"Give me a little bit and I'll make you show you I'm still young enough to make you my bitch." Shaun growled, glaring in a way that Zach would never admit to finding adorable.

"Like that's a challenge," Zach said, then he whispered directly into Shaun's ear, "I'm already your bitch."

"And I'm yours," Shaun promised into the space below Zach's ear.

"You want to make that official then?" Zach asked again.

Shaun pulled back to look at him properly. "Is that what you want?"

That wasn't fair. It wasn't supposed to be about him. It was supposed to be about Shaun and giving him what he wanted for a change. But he knew that Shaun wanted an answer, so he tried to give him one. "I want you."

"You have me." And Shaun kissed him again as if to prove it. "And Cody. We're not going anywhere."

Zach fell in love with him all over again for including his - no, their - nephew in that statement. He knew they were forever - all three of them - but it was nice to hear someone else say it. In fact it would be nice to have other people know it as well. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want it." The truth even if Zach hadn't realized it until just recently. "Marry me."

Shaun surged forward and answered with lips and teeth and tongue and finally, when Zach was almost too far gone to hear and understand, with a single word. "Yes."