Fic: First of Many Parties, Zach/Shaun
Oct. 25th, 2009 06:56 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
pjvilar.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
shelter_dinerTitle: First of Many Parties
Characters/Pairing: Zach/Shaun, Cody
Word Count: 2,196
Rating/Warnings: R for language and sensual nudity.
Notes: Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
shelter_diner ’s Halloween Fest 09. Zach’s POV. Set about four months after the movie in late October.
Prompt: Zach paints the windows with pumpkins and witches and black cats, and then Shaun helps him wash off the paint he got on himself.
Prompted by:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spikedluv
Betaed by: The fantastic, brilliant, and really thoroughjustaotherwitch . Thank you!
Disclaimer: Characters not mine, they belong to Jonah Markowitz. No harm meant, no money made.
Feedback: So appreciated.
Zach stuck down the end of the masking tape and examined his work; the tape was more or less even across the length of the front windows, around Cody’s height. This was good. Cody wouldn’t have to reach over his head while standing on the stepladder.
“What will you put above the tape?” Cody asked as Zach climbed down. Bits of masking tape were stuck to one knee of Zach’s jeans.
“Well, that’ll be the sky. You want some ghosts up there?”
“Yeah. And bats!”
“That’s great, buddy. Ghosts and bats. And maybe a few clouds. Good?”
“Good.” Cody nodded his head in affirmation, approving the plan.
“Okay, let’s get our brushes.”
After about an hour and a half, a row of silly, spooky witches – with a couple of warlocks thrown in, to be fair – had appeared on the window. Across their bodies was a blank, unfurled banner. Cody handled the pointy hats all by himself, with Zach’s hand holding him firmly in place on the stepladder. Then he filled in each orange pumpkin and the leaves scattered on the ground as Zach made the outlines.
“What do you think, Codes?”
“It’s awesome.”
“It sure is. Good work, kiddo.” Zach smiled and dipped some paper towels in the bowl of water laid out on the floor, which was well papered with taped-down old newspaper and littered with supplies. He gently wiped Cody’s hands of most of the paint and got the worst of the spots on his art clothes.
“Do you need a snack?”
“Maybe. . . an apple?”
“Okay. Go get it off the counter and then go knock on Shaun’s office door. You can eat it in there while he starts your bath. I’ll finish this up. Okay?”
“Okay. Thanks, Zach!”
“You’re welcome, buddy. Try not to get Shaun covered in paint,” he called after Cody as he ran down the hall with his apple. Zach sat down on top of the newspaper with his arms wrapped around his knees, and looked over the painting, getting a feel for what to do next. He heard gleeful shouting and giggling from the office.
Zach stretched, got up, and went into the kitchen to get a glass of water off the sink tap. He made sure to keep his paint-stained hand wrapped in a paper towel. As he left the room, he nearly ran headfirst into Shaun.
“Ahh! Another paint monster!” Shaun cried. Cody’s laughter echoed down the hallway. “They’re everywhere!” Shaun circled around Zach to get to the refrigerator. Zach noted that his boyfriend still looked a little spacey, part of his normal readjustment to real life after spending time at his laptop .
“I’m getting him some cheese, too. That’s okay, right?” Shaun asked quietly.
Zach looked at him pointedly.
Shaun met his gaze and answered his own question. “Yes, it’s okay, and I don’t have to ask your permission. If I ever really fuck up, you’ll let me know.”
“And you’re doing great with him. You forgot that part.”
Shaun smiled and nodded. “Got it.” He quickly sliced some cheddar cheese onto a small plate and ran back down the hall with it, shouting “Time to feed the paint monster!”
Zach waited in the doorway for another minute to make sure they were staying in the office for now. Then he went back into the living room with his glass of water to start lettering the banner with a backwards “Happy Halloween” that could be seen from the street.
* * *
By bedtime, he still wasn’t done, and had gotten so paint soaked he’d had to wave good night and blow them each a kiss from the doorway. He stayed there for a bit to watch them after they’d turned away from him to start reading. Even though he was getting heavier to carry, Cody looked so tiny like this, tucked into Zach’s old paint-covered bed with new sheets and a red and blue patchwork quilt. Every now and then the shadows in Cody’s bedroom would shift as headlights from a car slid down the street far below.
Shaun sat next to the bed on a beanbag chair, beginning a dramatic narration of Where The Wild Things Are. He rested one hand on Cody’s chest as he read. Cody laid his own small hand on top. It was one thing they’d discovered that helped Cody fall asleep a little easier now that he had his own bedroom. Zach smiled softly. So much had changed, and for the good. He had to force himself to walk away and go back to the mural.
There wasn’t much left to do. He got up on the stepladder and dotted in the last of the stars for a night sky and added three white ghosts swirling around in the clouds. Then he switched brushes and put in two black bats descending from each upper corner.
It was quiet except for the whirring of the industrial fan he’d borrowed from the building superintendent. It was strange to work in silence, without the laughter, loud music, and buzz of conversation he’d gotten used to at his school studio.
Zach got down off the ladder and stepped back again, then decided the lower corners looked empty. He added a couple of black cats to keep the witches and warlocks company. He was adding a last curl to one of their tails when Shaun rapped gently on the wall behind him.
“How are you doing?” Shaun leaned against the doorway with his hand on his chin, taking in the mural.
“It’s done. Just have to clean up.”
“It looks amazing. You’re gonna tape another banner over that tomorrow?”
“Yeah, so the ‘Happy Halloween’ part reads from in here, too. It’s on butcher paper. This should be dry in the morning. I’ll tack it to the window frame.”
“Very cool.”
Zach put the brush down on the newspaper, so as not to get paint anywhere, and sat beside it. “Is he asleep?”
“Yeah, for about ten minutes now. I sat with him to make sure.”
“Thanks.”
“He is so excited about Saturday,” Shaun said with an enchanted expression.
“He’s never had a real party with other kids before.”
“Well, now he gets his first Halloween party. First of many parties.”
“Yeah. And trick or treating.” A mental to-do list for the remainder of the week began to unspool in Zach’s mind: food shopping, candy, finishing Cody’s alien costume, mulled cider for the parents, more decorating, and on and on. He blinked hard and decided to put it away for now. “Tomorrow can we talk about what else we need to do?”
“Of course.” Shaun squatted down next to Zach and looked for a place to touch him, but Zach was still pretty covered with wet, black paint. Shaun gave up and patted Zach on the head. They both laughed.
“Listen, let me clean this up,” Shaun said. “You’re one tired paint monster.”
“Okay. Thanks. I’ll take a shower.” Zach checked himself over for anything clean to touch Shaun with and wound up rubbing Shaun’s cheek with his left elbow. Shaun ran his thumb over it and kissed it lightly.
“Sounds good.”
* * *
“Hey.” About twenty minutes had gone by and Zach still hadn’t turned the shower on. Shaun knocked lightly on the bathroom door. “Everything’s done. I think I got all the paint out of the brushes.”
”Thanks.”
“You okay in there?”
“Yeah. I’m--“ Zach unlocked the door so Shaun could come in. His paint-covered clothes were inside out and rolled up neatly on the floor, held together by his belt. He was stooped over the sink, examining his hands, completely naked. Shaun’s face brightened.
“Well, hello.”
“I can’t get this stuff out from under my nails. I’ve been scrubbing, like, forever.”
Shaun stepped all the way into the bathroom and closed the door. He opened the mirrored cabinet above the sink and took down a nailbrush.
“Here.” He gestured for Zach to sit on the edge of the bathtub. Shaun ran the brush under the running water, then across the bar of soap Zach had left in the sink. Shaun crouched down on the floor and took Zach’s hands, still stained orange and black, in his. Zach had the urge to resist, to say it was fine, but he knew that was useless when Shaun had made up his mind to take care of him. Plus, it felt so good that Shaun even wanted to.
“It’s like the eraser.” Shaun took a washcloth off the towel rack and laid it across his knees, then began to gently rub Zach’s fingers and nails with the brush.
“What eraser?”
“Like what you told Cody about the eraser. You want to press hard, but if you do it lightly, you get the best results. Go easy.” As if for emphasis, Shaun softly wiped Zach’s hands free of soapsuds and watery paint, then started in on his cuticles.
“Ah, you’ve been eavesdropping on the art lessons.”
“Of course I have. I love watching you with him. You two are quite a pair.”
“I was thinking the same thing when you were reading to him.”
“Yeah?” Shaun looked up at Zach with a hopeful smile.
“Yeah. It’s good.” Zach grinned. Shaun ran the washcloth over Zach’s fingers again. They were nearly clean.
“Ah. Master reveals great truth. The path of least resistance is the true way. Student will remember that in future.”
“Master only repeated Butterfly’s own words. Butterfly had truth all along. Remember that as well.” Shaun ducked his head down to get a look under Zach’s nails and sighed. “Look, are you freaking out? You don’t usually worry about paint on your hands. It’s sort of your natural state.”
“I just want Halloween to be nice for him.”
“Nice or perfect?”
“Argh.” Zach took the washcloth from Shaun and finished drying his hands, looking down. Shaun put the brush on the sink’s edge, turned off the water and sat back down at Zach’s feet. Zach sheepishly nodded his head. “Okay, yeah.”
“Babe. He’s happy. You made that big, fantastic mural with him and that’s what he’s going to remember. It doesn’t matter if you’re covered in paint or I screw up the cider – which I won’t because I’m a culinary genius, by the way. It doesn’t need to be perfect.”
Zach sighed and moved down to the floor to sit on top of the black bathmat. He stretched his legs out so they lay across Shaun’s, liking the look of his nakedness against the denim of Shaun’s jeans. He reached out his now-clean hands to Shaun, who took them in his own.
“You’re right. God, I think I’m turning into my mom. Holidays, you know? She went all out.”
“Hmm. Have you missed that?”
“More than I realized.”
“Well, I never really had that. So I love that I get that with you. But let’s go easy.” Shaun brought Zach’s hands to his lips and kissed them, then patted Zach’s leg so he could get up from the floor. He drew back the striped shower curtain and got the water going.
“Come on,” Shaun held his hand out, helping Zach up from the floor, and guided him into the shower. Zach could feel the soreness in his back and arms as he rose from the floor and let Shaun help him in. The hot water soothed him as it ran down his head and face.
“Hey,” Zach said, “did you get any work done?”
“I did. Thanks for giving me the time. I’m getting in the swing of it. Feels good.”
Zach got the soap from the soap dish and started working on his feet and legs. “Anything I can see yet?”
“Not yet. But soon. I promise.”
“Good. I’m excited to see it.”
The shower curtain flailed and rustled a bit and there was Shaun, now naked as well, coming in to join him.
“Well, hello to you, too,” said Zach, rinsing off.
“Here,” said Shaun, holding out his hand for the soap. Zach gave an embarrassed smile, but still handed it over.
“This is very silly,” Zach said.
“Actually, it’s really not.”
Zach leaned against the wall and put his arms up above his head. Shaun ran the soap over the loofah sponge he’d picked up and put the soap back in its dish. He ran the sponge in slow circles across Zach’s wet skin, carefully removing paint from Zach’s arms and shoulders while applying enough pressure to help relieve the soreness.
“This is good,” said Zach.
“Good,” said Shaun. He rang out the sponge and helped rinse Zach off. Then he stepped closer and pulled Zach gently to him, so he was washing Zach’s back while holding him in an embrace.
“This is good,” Zach said again, leaning his head against Shaun’s neck. He meant the hot water on his sore body. He meant the feel of Shaun gently massaging his back with the sponge. He meant all of it: being in love, raising Cody, having a partner. All the hard work and all the comfort at the end of the day. All of it.
Author: pjvilar
Fandom: ShelterpjvilarCharacters/Pairing: Zach/Shaun, Cody
Word Count: 2,196
Rating/Warnings: R for language and sensual nudity.
Notes: Written for
shelter_diner ’s Halloween Fest 09. Zach’s POV. Set about four months after the movie in late October.Prompt: Zach paints the windows with pumpkins and witches and black cats, and then Shaun helps him wash off the paint he got on himself.
Prompted by:
spikedluv Betaed by: The fantastic, brilliant, and really thorough
justaotherwitch . Thank you!Disclaimer: Characters not mine, they belong to Jonah Markowitz. No harm meant, no money made.
Feedback: So appreciated.
Zach stuck down the end of the masking tape and examined his work; the tape was more or less even across the length of the front windows, around Cody’s height. This was good. Cody wouldn’t have to reach over his head while standing on the stepladder.
“What will you put above the tape?” Cody asked as Zach climbed down. Bits of masking tape were stuck to one knee of Zach’s jeans.
“Well, that’ll be the sky. You want some ghosts up there?”
“Yeah. And bats!”
“That’s great, buddy. Ghosts and bats. And maybe a few clouds. Good?”
“Good.” Cody nodded his head in affirmation, approving the plan.
“Okay, let’s get our brushes.”
After about an hour and a half, a row of silly, spooky witches – with a couple of warlocks thrown in, to be fair – had appeared on the window. Across their bodies was a blank, unfurled banner. Cody handled the pointy hats all by himself, with Zach’s hand holding him firmly in place on the stepladder. Then he filled in each orange pumpkin and the leaves scattered on the ground as Zach made the outlines.
“What do you think, Codes?”
“It’s awesome.”
“It sure is. Good work, kiddo.” Zach smiled and dipped some paper towels in the bowl of water laid out on the floor, which was well papered with taped-down old newspaper and littered with supplies. He gently wiped Cody’s hands of most of the paint and got the worst of the spots on his art clothes.
“Do you need a snack?”
“Maybe. . . an apple?”
“Okay. Go get it off the counter and then go knock on Shaun’s office door. You can eat it in there while he starts your bath. I’ll finish this up. Okay?”
“Okay. Thanks, Zach!”
“You’re welcome, buddy. Try not to get Shaun covered in paint,” he called after Cody as he ran down the hall with his apple. Zach sat down on top of the newspaper with his arms wrapped around his knees, and looked over the painting, getting a feel for what to do next. He heard gleeful shouting and giggling from the office.
Zach stretched, got up, and went into the kitchen to get a glass of water off the sink tap. He made sure to keep his paint-stained hand wrapped in a paper towel. As he left the room, he nearly ran headfirst into Shaun.
“Ahh! Another paint monster!” Shaun cried. Cody’s laughter echoed down the hallway. “They’re everywhere!” Shaun circled around Zach to get to the refrigerator. Zach noted that his boyfriend still looked a little spacey, part of his normal readjustment to real life after spending time at his laptop .
“I’m getting him some cheese, too. That’s okay, right?” Shaun asked quietly.
Zach looked at him pointedly.
Shaun met his gaze and answered his own question. “Yes, it’s okay, and I don’t have to ask your permission. If I ever really fuck up, you’ll let me know.”
“And you’re doing great with him. You forgot that part.”
Shaun smiled and nodded. “Got it.” He quickly sliced some cheddar cheese onto a small plate and ran back down the hall with it, shouting “Time to feed the paint monster!”
Zach waited in the doorway for another minute to make sure they were staying in the office for now. Then he went back into the living room with his glass of water to start lettering the banner with a backwards “Happy Halloween” that could be seen from the street.
* * *
By bedtime, he still wasn’t done, and had gotten so paint soaked he’d had to wave good night and blow them each a kiss from the doorway. He stayed there for a bit to watch them after they’d turned away from him to start reading. Even though he was getting heavier to carry, Cody looked so tiny like this, tucked into Zach’s old paint-covered bed with new sheets and a red and blue patchwork quilt. Every now and then the shadows in Cody’s bedroom would shift as headlights from a car slid down the street far below.
Shaun sat next to the bed on a beanbag chair, beginning a dramatic narration of Where The Wild Things Are. He rested one hand on Cody’s chest as he read. Cody laid his own small hand on top. It was one thing they’d discovered that helped Cody fall asleep a little easier now that he had his own bedroom. Zach smiled softly. So much had changed, and for the good. He had to force himself to walk away and go back to the mural.
There wasn’t much left to do. He got up on the stepladder and dotted in the last of the stars for a night sky and added three white ghosts swirling around in the clouds. Then he switched brushes and put in two black bats descending from each upper corner.
It was quiet except for the whirring of the industrial fan he’d borrowed from the building superintendent. It was strange to work in silence, without the laughter, loud music, and buzz of conversation he’d gotten used to at his school studio.
Zach got down off the ladder and stepped back again, then decided the lower corners looked empty. He added a couple of black cats to keep the witches and warlocks company. He was adding a last curl to one of their tails when Shaun rapped gently on the wall behind him.
“How are you doing?” Shaun leaned against the doorway with his hand on his chin, taking in the mural.
“It’s done. Just have to clean up.”
“It looks amazing. You’re gonna tape another banner over that tomorrow?”
“Yeah, so the ‘Happy Halloween’ part reads from in here, too. It’s on butcher paper. This should be dry in the morning. I’ll tack it to the window frame.”
“Very cool.”
Zach put the brush down on the newspaper, so as not to get paint anywhere, and sat beside it. “Is he asleep?”
“Yeah, for about ten minutes now. I sat with him to make sure.”
“Thanks.”
“He is so excited about Saturday,” Shaun said with an enchanted expression.
“He’s never had a real party with other kids before.”
“Well, now he gets his first Halloween party. First of many parties.”
“Yeah. And trick or treating.” A mental to-do list for the remainder of the week began to unspool in Zach’s mind: food shopping, candy, finishing Cody’s alien costume, mulled cider for the parents, more decorating, and on and on. He blinked hard and decided to put it away for now. “Tomorrow can we talk about what else we need to do?”
“Of course.” Shaun squatted down next to Zach and looked for a place to touch him, but Zach was still pretty covered with wet, black paint. Shaun gave up and patted Zach on the head. They both laughed.
“Listen, let me clean this up,” Shaun said. “You’re one tired paint monster.”
“Okay. Thanks. I’ll take a shower.” Zach checked himself over for anything clean to touch Shaun with and wound up rubbing Shaun’s cheek with his left elbow. Shaun ran his thumb over it and kissed it lightly.
“Sounds good.”
* * *
“Hey.” About twenty minutes had gone by and Zach still hadn’t turned the shower on. Shaun knocked lightly on the bathroom door. “Everything’s done. I think I got all the paint out of the brushes.”
”Thanks.”
“You okay in there?”
“Yeah. I’m--“ Zach unlocked the door so Shaun could come in. His paint-covered clothes were inside out and rolled up neatly on the floor, held together by his belt. He was stooped over the sink, examining his hands, completely naked. Shaun’s face brightened.
“Well, hello.”
“I can’t get this stuff out from under my nails. I’ve been scrubbing, like, forever.”
Shaun stepped all the way into the bathroom and closed the door. He opened the mirrored cabinet above the sink and took down a nailbrush.
“Here.” He gestured for Zach to sit on the edge of the bathtub. Shaun ran the brush under the running water, then across the bar of soap Zach had left in the sink. Shaun crouched down on the floor and took Zach’s hands, still stained orange and black, in his. Zach had the urge to resist, to say it was fine, but he knew that was useless when Shaun had made up his mind to take care of him. Plus, it felt so good that Shaun even wanted to.
“It’s like the eraser.” Shaun took a washcloth off the towel rack and laid it across his knees, then began to gently rub Zach’s fingers and nails with the brush.
“What eraser?”
“Like what you told Cody about the eraser. You want to press hard, but if you do it lightly, you get the best results. Go easy.” As if for emphasis, Shaun softly wiped Zach’s hands free of soapsuds and watery paint, then started in on his cuticles.
“Ah, you’ve been eavesdropping on the art lessons.”
“Of course I have. I love watching you with him. You two are quite a pair.”
“I was thinking the same thing when you were reading to him.”
“Yeah?” Shaun looked up at Zach with a hopeful smile.
“Yeah. It’s good.” Zach grinned. Shaun ran the washcloth over Zach’s fingers again. They were nearly clean.
“Ah. Master reveals great truth. The path of least resistance is the true way. Student will remember that in future.”
“Master only repeated Butterfly’s own words. Butterfly had truth all along. Remember that as well.” Shaun ducked his head down to get a look under Zach’s nails and sighed. “Look, are you freaking out? You don’t usually worry about paint on your hands. It’s sort of your natural state.”
“I just want Halloween to be nice for him.”
“Nice or perfect?”
“Argh.” Zach took the washcloth from Shaun and finished drying his hands, looking down. Shaun put the brush on the sink’s edge, turned off the water and sat back down at Zach’s feet. Zach sheepishly nodded his head. “Okay, yeah.”
“Babe. He’s happy. You made that big, fantastic mural with him and that’s what he’s going to remember. It doesn’t matter if you’re covered in paint or I screw up the cider – which I won’t because I’m a culinary genius, by the way. It doesn’t need to be perfect.”
Zach sighed and moved down to the floor to sit on top of the black bathmat. He stretched his legs out so they lay across Shaun’s, liking the look of his nakedness against the denim of Shaun’s jeans. He reached out his now-clean hands to Shaun, who took them in his own.
“You’re right. God, I think I’m turning into my mom. Holidays, you know? She went all out.”
“Hmm. Have you missed that?”
“More than I realized.”
“Well, I never really had that. So I love that I get that with you. But let’s go easy.” Shaun brought Zach’s hands to his lips and kissed them, then patted Zach’s leg so he could get up from the floor. He drew back the striped shower curtain and got the water going.
“Come on,” Shaun held his hand out, helping Zach up from the floor, and guided him into the shower. Zach could feel the soreness in his back and arms as he rose from the floor and let Shaun help him in. The hot water soothed him as it ran down his head and face.
“Hey,” Zach said, “did you get any work done?”
“I did. Thanks for giving me the time. I’m getting in the swing of it. Feels good.”
Zach got the soap from the soap dish and started working on his feet and legs. “Anything I can see yet?”
“Not yet. But soon. I promise.”
“Good. I’m excited to see it.”
The shower curtain flailed and rustled a bit and there was Shaun, now naked as well, coming in to join him.
“Well, hello to you, too,” said Zach, rinsing off.
“Here,” said Shaun, holding out his hand for the soap. Zach gave an embarrassed smile, but still handed it over.
“This is very silly,” Zach said.
“Actually, it’s really not.”
Zach leaned against the wall and put his arms up above his head. Shaun ran the soap over the loofah sponge he’d picked up and put the soap back in its dish. He ran the sponge in slow circles across Zach’s wet skin, carefully removing paint from Zach’s arms and shoulders while applying enough pressure to help relieve the soreness.
“This is good,” said Zach.
“Good,” said Shaun. He rang out the sponge and helped rinse Zach off. Then he stepped closer and pulled Zach gently to him, so he was washing Zach’s back while holding him in an embrace.
“This is good,” Zach said again, leaning his head against Shaun’s neck. He meant the hot water on his sore body. He meant the feel of Shaun gently massaging his back with the sponge. He meant all of it: being in love, raising Cody, having a partner. All the hard work and all the comfort at the end of the day. All of it.
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