Clumsy Little Heart

"Zack this is Ellen, my boss. Ellen this is my boyfriend Zack."

He's heard it so many times today but Zack's not sure if the feeling he gets every time it happens is going to fade away any time soon. Being referred to as Martin's boyfriend is something he didn't even know he really wanted, but now that he's got it? Yeah, he'd like it to stick.

"It's nice to meet you Zack. You're all Martin's been talking about lately!" Ellen says after shaking Zack's hand and giving him a friendly smile. She's wearing the same light blue t-shirt as Martin, marking her as a volunteer. The adoption event has been going on for two hours now and already they've managed to find homes for quite a few animals. "I'm glad you decided to spend your Saturday with us."

"Me too," Zack tells her, feeling Martin's hand on his lower back. "I'm glad Martin told me I could help out."

"We could always use some extra help."

She's pulled away by another volunteer then, leaving Zack and Martin alone again at the information table. Martin's got his chair sitting as close to Zack's as possible and normally in this heat, it'd probably be uncomfortable. But being close to Martin is nice so Zack doesn't mind at all.

"So, I'm 'all you talk about' huh?" Zack teases as he absently flips open one of the pamphlets in front of him.

Martin blushes, all too common for him. "Maybe. I mean, you're kind of awesome so, can you blame me?"

"Guess not. But Ellen seems nice. I'm glad your boss likes me."

"Honestly, she's kinda been little bit like a mom to me since I moved here."

Zack feels his heart sink a little bit. He doesn't know exactly what happened between Martin and his parents but he hates that he doesn't have a relationship with them anymore. "Yeah? That's nice. Mom's are nice to have." And he's aware that he sounds like an idiot and that doesn't even make a whole lotta sense, but what else can he say? Sure, he's not the closest to his parents but at least they talk. He has no idea what Martin went through - he's not going to pretend.

They spend the next hour finding a husky/golden retriever mix a good home and almost setting an entire pen of puppies loose but once everything's calm again and they're taking a quick lunch break out by Martin’s car, that's when Martin finds out about Zack's little cat allergy.

"Do you always carry Benadryl with you?" He teases after he pulls the package out of Zack's pocket. How exactly he got his hands into Zack's pockets while they were making out without Zack noticing is a whole other topic entirely.

"Not always. Just when I know I'm going to be around cats. Or when I know I'm seeing you right after you leave the shelter."

"Um. Wait...you're allergic to cats?"

"Yeah. Not that bad but sometimes my eyes get itchy and-"

"So, you willingly put yourself in danger of having an allergic reaction just to hang out with me?"

Zack shrugs, “It’s not that bad. I’d have told you if it was really that serious.”

"Okay...well if you're sure. Don't go near the cats."

"I can do that," Zack promises, and he leans back in to kiss Martin again but the older boy laughs and pushes him back.

"Hold on, I'm not done talking to you yet," he teases, but he grabs Zack's left hand and laces their fingers together. "I was wondering, after the event is over, wanna come back to my place and hang out? Jack just bought a bunch of new X-Box games and we can order pizza or something?"

Zack is quick to say yes but for some reason, there's a little voice in the back of his head telling him it's stupid. He's not an idiot - he knows what happens when you get invited back to someone's house - someone who just so happens to be your boyfriend. But that's the thing - they've only been dating for two weeks. That's kind of soon to do anything past making out...isn't it? John would tell him yes, Alex would tell him no. Matt wouldn't have an opinion and Sierra would tell him to just see how it goes. He's going to trust Sierra on this one. If he's honest with himself, Martin hasn't given him the impression that he'd even want to do anything once they're alone. He is the one who mentioned wanting to take things kind of slow, isn't he?

Martin kisses him again, soft and slow and Zack feels himself blushing at the gentle way he cups his face and he swears, if John was here to witness this, he'd never live it down. But he isn't and they're hidden by cars and trees so nobody should be watching them at all. Martin's tongue presses at his lips and Zack lets him in, fingers curling into his hair at the nape of his neck. He presses up against Martin, making him lean into the car even more and takes the initiative to take this just a little bit further. It's easy to slip his hands up the back of Martin's shirt, fingers pressing gently along his sides and eventually making their way to his spine, tracing every bump and ridge he comes across and Martin sighs, slumps forward so he's leaning more on Zack. Martin's hands rest on his lower back, not daring yet to slide underneath the fabric.

"We should probably get back to our table," Zack states after separating his lips from Martin's, "I mean, as much as I'd love to stay here, I think everyone will be looking for us soon enough."

"Okay," Martin mumbles, pecking his lips one more time "we can continue this later?"

Zack contemplates it for a second. Later. At Martin's house. Possibly in Martin's bedroom. Sounds good to him. "Yeah. Definitely."

Martin only has another hour left of volunteering by the time they get back to their table and relive the girl who took over for them. Martin has Ellen sign some form – something about the volunteering being ‘official’ in case he ever needs hours for a future job or something but Zack wasn’t really paying too much attention. His eyes are focused on the two guys hanging out by the kittens, playing with them through the bars of their cages and he’s not sure if he should head over there and cut them off before they can even start or just let it happen. John and Alex are definitely not going to be the nicest to Martin. Well, John definitely won’t, at least.

Turns out, he’s going to have to just let it happen because apparently, Martin has much better memory than Zack was giving him credit for. “Aren’t those your friends?” he asks, elbowing Zack in the side and pointing across the parking lot. “They look familiar-”

“That’s John and Alex, yes,” Zack sighs, “Hopefully they won’t be too annoying.”

“Are they normally?”

“John isn’t your biggest fan yet,” Zack tells him honestly, “I mean, he just doesn’t know you yet. And Alex is annoying everywhere he goes so.”

Martin seems unfazed by the fact that Zack’s best friend doesn’t like him. “So I should be extra charming?”

“If you want to,” Zack nods as the two friends approach the table, “But that might just make him even more suspicious.”

“Hey!” Alex exclaims when he’s close enough, running the rest of the distance and nearly colliding with the table. He grins at Zack who just rolls his eyes and then looks over at Martin, still grinning and holding his hand out. “I’m Alex. I’m assuming you’re the boyfriend Martin that we’ve been hearing so much about.”

Martin’s about to reach out and shake his hand but John is interrupting, swatting Alex’s hand away and glaring at him. “Don’t shake his hand. As much as I hate to admit it, he’s going to touch Zack for one reason or another and you were just cuddling with a bunch of kittens. Common sense, Alex. God.”

Alex slumps his shoulders, looking dejected as he says, “I forgot. Sorry.”

“It’s not like I’d die,” Zack points out, “But thanks. I’d appreciate not having itchy eyes and a scratchy throat and not having to take Benadryl.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” John says, pulling over an extra chair from a few feet away and sitting down across from them. “Keeping you healthy and alive.”

Martin laughs, sounding a little bit uncomfortable and Zack doesn’t blame him. He sends Zack an apologetic glance, “I probably should have thought of that before going to shake his hand.”

“Dude. It’s a cat allergy!” Zack protests, “Don’t act like I’m some fragile thing – I will survive if I accidentally come into contact with felines.”

“Well, now that that’s settled,” Alex says gleefully plopping himself in John’s lap and wrapping his arms around his neck to keep himself from falling – and to keep John from pushing him off. “We were just here to see if you guys wanted to come to the diner with us when you’re done. Sierra and Matt are on a date and we got bored so.”

Zack glances over at Martin, shaking his head, “Nah, we’re gonna go hang out at Martin’s place, I think.”

Martin nods quickly, “Y-yeah, um. You guys can come if you want to. We were gonna order pizza and play X-Box.”

Zack wants to pinch him, because really why is he inviting his friends? But he can’t because that’d be suspicious and Alex would loudly jump to conclusions and announce to the entire volunteer group that Martina and Zack are going to have sex. So instead, he coughs deliberately and catches John’s gaze and he hopes to God that he’s getting the point across – the point that he totally doesn’t want either of them joining.

But of course, John sucks at reading people and he shrugs and says, “I guess so,” and Zack sighs. He quits. Everything.

*

“I was just being polite! You told me that John wasn’t my biggest fan – sue me for wanting to impress him!”

Zack whines and rests his forehead against Martin’s chest. They’re in Martin and Jack’s kitchen, just gotten home from the adoption event and John and Alex are sitting in the TV room picking out games to play. “I totally wanted to pick up where we left off in the parking lot,” Zack mutters, fingers gripping the back of Martin’s t-shirt. “But now we can’t because we’ve got my overprotective best friend in your TV room who probably won’t even let me sit next to you.”

“Sorry babe,” Martin laughs, reaching up and ruffling Zack’s hair, “Next time, okay? Besides, I should probably get to know your friends a little bit better, shouldn’t I?”

Zack shrugs, “Guess so,” and resists the urge to tell him that once the summer is over, it won’t really matter. But then his eyes land on the back door and he freezes. “There are two really, really big dogs at your back door and they look like they want to eat me.”

The older boy turns halfway in Zack’s arms and gets a glimpse of what he’s talking about. “Oh. That’s just Apollo and Sebastian,” he explains as he pulls away and starts heading for the door. “Trust me, they won’t eat you. Just stay still.”

“Stay still?” That doesn’t sound promising. “How’s that supposed to help?”

He slides the door open and Zack watches as the two beasts burst into the kitchen, barely waiting for there to be enough room to slip past. They jump up at Martin immediately, licking his face and pawing at his skin and Zack thinks that they’re pretty damn close to just ripping his skin off. If it wasn’t already obvious, Zack’s not the biggest fan of big dogs.

“Believe it or not, Sebastian’s only a year old,” Martin says, pushing the dogs down. They quickly notice the other presence in the room and advance on him, sniffing at his feet and wagging their tails. “They like you. I promise.”

“A little warning would have been nice,” Zack complains, hesitantly reaching out and petting the head of the closest dog. “You can’t just spring these animals on me.”

“Oh please. You’ll love them by the end of the month. They’re giant mush balls, they’d never hurt a fly. Not anymore, at least. I’ve trained them well.”

Zack pales. “Excuse me?”

Martin laughs at the look on Zack’s face and Zack can’t help but blush. So sue him – big dogs are intimidating. “Chill out. I’m just saying, I adopted both of them because the shelter deemed them both ‘too wild’ too be put up for adoption. Apparently they came from a family who didn’t know how to train them or deal with big dogs so they just got out of hand. They were misunderstood, and I felt like I could relate to that so I took them. You know?”

“I guess so…they’re really pretty dogs,” Zack admits, retracting his hand and looking back at his boyfriend. “Still, I’m keeping my eye on them. One wrong move…”

“Maybe-”

“If you two want to stop making out and come back in here and play video games, that’d be great, thanks!” Alex shouts, breaking the playful atmosphere and reminding them both that they’re not actually alone and have to go back and socialize.

Zack sends Martin one more glare before pushing the swinging door open and joining his friends in the living room, Martin close behind him.