A stack of mail landed on Mark's keyboard, snapping him out of the end-of-the-work-day reverie he'd been indulging in instead of updating his invoice database. He glanced upwards to see the company receptionist smiling down at him sympathetically. “Just another hour,” she said, pumping her fist. “You've got this.”

“Right,” he said, forcing a smile back. He wasn't sure he did have it, at least not today. Wednesdays were always rough to get through, and this one was particularly rough. Jinyoung had texted him that afternoon to let him know he had a meeting with a placement counselor and wouldn't be able to come over that evening. Since he also couldn't come over Thursday and Friday, that would make it a five day gap since the last time he'd had the privilege of seeing his own boyfriend.

Mark glumly went over his mail. It was mainly more invoices to process, but one letter was from Lou's school. Mark slit it open and scanned the contents. It was a save-the-date notice for Kindergarten graduation 3 months away, and also a reminder that the deadline to send in for extra tickets was coming up. Mark was a little surprised that they were even bothering with “tickets” for something like a Kindergarten graduation, but Lou's class was a rather big one, he supposed. He'd have to call up Allison and discuss the extra ticket issue. She'd probably want to invite her parents, and Mark should at least attempt to invite his own even though they lived several states away. And then there was the matter of whether or not Jackson and Jinyoung should come.

Mark folded up the letter and sighed. Time really was flying. It seemed like just yesterday that Lou was a baby, and now he was almost ready to graduate from Kindergarten. The last few years had been a whirlwind, but a happy one. He'd had so many beautiful memories with Jinyoung and Lou that he could barely count them. He really was a blessed person in so many ways, and even though there were dull and colorless days like this one, he was really happier than he ever was.

Besides, the fact that Lou was graduating from Kindergarten in a few months also meant Jinyoung's second graduation was coming up. He'd gone into a one-year graduate school program after getting his undergraduate degree, deciding it was the best option for him to secure a career. His university offered guaranteed placement in local schools following graduation from the program, so it seemed best of put his trust in the surest bet since the job market was still rough. Mark agreed with him, but he could have done without putting up with Jinyoung's busy school schedule a second time. He was more than ready to settle into a more stable life with his boyfriend, so he was grateful that graduation was on the horizon.

All that was left after that was to ask Jinyoung to move in with him when he graduated.

He probably could have done it earlier. He was 100% sure Jinyoung would say yes to the offer without question, but he wanted it to be a special moment. Jinyoung had been so busy and so run down over the past few months that Mark wanted to do something extra to brighten him up and spoil him. He just had to figure out what, exactly, that would involve. Jinyoung was the date-planner of the two of them, so Mark was a little bit at a loss as to how to execute one that was up to their normal standards. Still, he was sure he would think of something.

Just as he was setting aside the mail, his phone started buzzing on his desk. He grabbed it, checking the caller ID. Though he'd been hoping it was Jinyoung, he wasn't displeased to see it was Allison. Now he wouldn't have to call her later about the tickets, and they could handle it right away.

“Hey, Allie,” he said, taking the call. “You got the letter from Lou's school, too?”

“What letter?” she asked. She sounded unusually distracted.

“The one about Kindergarten graduation?”

“Oh, yeah. That. I received my copy yesterday, and was thinking about calling up my parents. You should be sure to invite yours, too, even if they can't come. I can probably wrangle tickets for both sets of parents if they're all able to come.”

“Don't you think you should invite Jackson, too?”

“Jackson?” Allison squeaked. “Well, um, I was going to get in touch with Lou's teacher about standard procedure with divorced parents...whether partners we're not actually married to yet can come or not. If you're thinking about getting an invite for Jinyoung, I could get back to you on what the teacher says.”

“Please do.”

“Right...” She trailed off. “Actually, that's not the reason I called. I was wondering if you're free after work?”

“Yeah, I was just going to head home.”

“I wouldn't be interrupting anything with Jinyoung?”

“He's in a meeting this evening.”

“I see. In that case, would you mind dropping by my apartment this evening? I wanted to talk to you.”

“Anything important?” Mark asked anxiously. Usually their more serious talks had to do with either Lou or their finances, so being asked over on that pretext always made him anxious.

“No,” she said quickly. “I mean...yes. It's important in a sense. I don't really want to talk about it over the phone, so if you're free to come over...”

“Sure, it'll be no problem.” He glanced at his watch. “I'll be out in forty minutes. See you then.”

“Hope your day wraps up well.”

Mark dropped the call, pursing his lips. He was pretty sure he hadn't been making up how agitated Allison had sounded, and hoped nothing serious was wrong. Allison was the cooler headed one out of the two of them, so if something was wrong with her, it usually wound up being something seriously wrong.

Mark gave another glance at his slowly ticking watch. Even if he didn't get to see Jinyoung, at least something was finally happening.

Lou opened the door almost as soon as Mark knocked. “Daddy, look!” he said, ing a large piece of paper into his hands. “I drew this for you today.”

Mark glanced at the picture, which we he was pretty sure was supposed to be a cow. A stick figure was standing on it with a lasso in hand, and an arrow was pointing to it accompanied by messy print letters saying “DADDY IS A COWBOY”.

“I'm pretty sure your Daddy is a sales manager,” Mark laughed, pinching his son's cheek.

“But that's boring,” Lou said earnestly. “Look, I made one for everyone, too.” He pulled Mark to the kitchen where there were three more drawings on the table: “MOMMY IS A WRITER”— accurate, “JINNY IS A TEACHER”— also soon-to-be-accurate, and “JACKSUN IS A SURFER”— completely inaccurate and also spelled wrong. Mark guessed Lou also found Jackson's real job as contractor boring, or else didn't know what a contractor was.

“Wow, you really made one for everyone,” Mark said, impressed. It had already been two years since Allison had had “the talk” with Lou about her relationship with Jackson, and Mark had also had his talk with his son about Jinyoung more recently. Lou had brought it up first—“Jinny used to be at Mommy's, but now he's not at Mommy's anymore, but always at Daddy's. Does Jinny live here?”— and Mark had answered him as simply as he could that the way Mommy loved Jackson, Mark loved Jinyoung. Lou had thought about it for a little, and decided that since Jinny was like a mommy anyway, it all made sense. With no further ado, he started weaving both Jinyoung and Jackson into his picture offerings and crafts he made at school. In fact, Mark was pretty sure he brought more home for Jinyoung than he did for Mark himself, since he still looked at Jinyoung as his special “buddy.”

“I think his teacher thinks Jackson and Jinyoung are his older brothers, at this point,” Allison said, stepping into the room. “At least I haven't gotten any searching questions about the amount of boyfriends circulating in our little family.” She smiled at Mark. “How are you?”

“Pretty good. And you?”

She waved her hand. “You know me.” She gave Lou's shoulder a gentle nudge. “Lou, do you want to turn on your Muppet movie? Daddy and I will be in to watch in a moment.”

Lou's eyes lit up. He'd been addicted to both Muppets and Cars lately, and either of those two things were all he wanted to watch whenever he was at Mark's. Allison went to the TV room to help him get his DVD in, then popped back into the kitchen to sit down beside Mark.

“Does Jackson even surf?” Mark asked, nodding towards Lou's picture of a pretty ripped looking Jackson scaling a wave.

“I've yet to see it,” Allison said with a small smile. “I've also yet to see you riding on a farm cow, but I suppose I still have some life left to live.”

“Sure do.” Mark tapped his fingers on the table. “So... what's going on?”

Allison quickly started chewing on her lips, a nervous habit. “The thing is, I was out with Jackson this afternoon. We went out for belated Valentine's Day sundaes and a little walk around the park. You know, what I thought was a casual day date before I had to pick up Lou at Kindergarten.”

“Right...” Mark said. He wasn't sure where she was going with this. The two of them didn't make a habit of talking about their dates with their new partners.

“But...well...he...” Allison shifted in her seat.

Mark's eyes widened. “Wait, he didn't break up with you, did he?”

Allison looked appalled. “No! He...kind of...asked me to marry him.”

It was hard for Mark to process her words at first. He'd always known something like that would be around the corner, but it still took some getting used to the idea that his ex-wife would really be tying the knot a second time. But once it did fully register, he was thrilled. He and Jackson had become pretty close friends over the years, and if Allison was going to settle down, Mark 100% wanted it to be with Jackson. He didn't even get too jealous over how close Jackson was with his son, especially since Jackson pretty much had the temperament of a lovable child himself.

“Wow, congratulations, Allison,” Mark said beaming. “I'm really happy for you. So, when did you guys have in mind?”

Allison stared at him for a minute, then ducked her eyes. “Uh, thanks, Mark, but I didn't give him my answer yet.”

“You...what?”

“Didn't I promise to discuss anything like this with you first?”

“Yeah,” Mark said, a little impatiently, “but it's fine by me if you wanted to tell Jackson yes first than talk it out with me afterwards. You know I like Jackson and don't have any complaints. I feel really bad that you left him hanging for my sake.”

“Right...” Allison stared down at her hands. “I know that, but there's still a lot to think of. It will mean really big changes for me and Lou... moving, for one, and also even explaining to Lou what me being married again means in the first place. I can't go into this with a simplistic mindset, especially with a wedding...” She trailed off.

Mark had thought something had looked off about her expression, and now it clicked. She'd gone into their own engagement with enthusiasm and brightness, but the more and more involved she got in planning their wedding, the more depressed she got. Every interference and insistence from her parents had killed it a little for her, to the point where she'd burst into tears just hearing the word 'wedding' up near the end. A happy thing had become miserable by spiraling out of her control and turning into something she hadn't wanted, and she was probably half-terrified of the same thing happening all over again.

“Allie,” Mark said carefully. “You really love Jackson, don't you?”

Allison looked at him surprise, then nodded.

“Then you shouldn't worry about anything else other than saying yes to him. If he makes you happy, he'll get you through anything, and you'll still be happy afterwards. Anyways, since this is your second wedding, you can just tell your parents that you want a simple ceremony this time. They might throw a fit, but it's your wedding. Do what you want.”

Allison smiled softly, exhaling some of her pent up breath. “You know, when he first asked me, I was so happy. I thought I had hit the top of heaven. I've wanted this for so long that it felt like everything was falling into place and nothing could go wrong, but then just as I was about to say 'yes'...I just felt this burst of anxiety. I'm worried that I'll want things to go well so much that everything will just get all messed up again.”

“Again? I hope you're not talking about me.”

“No, not that,” Allison said quickly. “Or at least not you on your own. It's just that... I know Mom and Dad always act like they blame you for what happened, but they really don't. It's me they've always blamed. It was like I had some sacred duty as a woman to hold everything together. And I failed. It doesn't matter to them what was best for me or for you. I walked away when I didn't need to, when you would have stayed with me. And I just feel like they'll be watching for me to make a single step out of place this time, too.” She took a deep breath. “But you're right. I love Jackson. He'd be great for Lou. That's all I should be thinking of. It would be honor to marry such a good man.” Her smile returned fully. “I'll make sure not to keep him waiting.”

“Great.” Mark patted Allison's hand. “And don't worry about it. You know, there are more people out there looking for you to succeed and live happily than to mess up. Way more.”

“Yeah, I know. For you, too.”

Jinyoung was waiting on Mark's stoop when he arrived home. Mark's heart immediately started beating erratically at the unexpected, but very welcome, surprise.

“What happened to your meeting?” Mark asked, leaping out of his car.

“Over. It is pretty late after all. Were you out?”

“I was at Allison's for dinner with her and Lou. I didn't know you were coming.”

“I hadn't been planning on it. I really should actually use the dorm my family is paying for, after all.” He eased himself into Mark's arms, burying his head in the warm collar of Mark's coat. His cheeks were pink from waiting out in the cold. “I wanted to see you.”

“Yeah,” Mark said gently, kissing his forehead. “Me, too. Come on in.”

His apartment wasn't at its cleanest, and he still hadn't unloaded all the dry-goods he'd bought at the grocery earlier in the week. Jinyoung gave a little “you're hopeless” sigh, and immediately began swooping down to retrieve loose socks and neckties while Mark went over to the bookcase to feed Fishy. They were only on their second reincarnation of the lovable goldfish, which he thought was a pretty impressive achievement considering that Jinyoung had thought Fishy the Original would only last a month, if that.

“Ah, we've gotten so domestic,” Jinyoung laughed. “Remember when we used to head straight for the couch before doing our chores?”

“You're not as focused when there are socks on the floor.”

“Too true.” Jinyoung tossed his findings into the hamper, then grabbed Mark and pulled him into the bedroom. He still trailed cinnamon with him wherever he went—Mark had gotten him a replacement cologne bottle for Valentine's Day, among other things—and Mark as always was lost in his haze of sweetness. He loved how the smell now lingered in every corner of his apartment, even when Jinyoung was gone.

“It's not much longer,” Jinyoung murmured, nuzzling into Mark's neck when they were sprawled out on his bed. “I'll graduate and start working soon, and we can always have the evenings with each other.”

“If you have too much of a good thing, maybe you'll start getting tired of it?”

“No. Absolutely not. Not with you.” Jinyoung leaned in, brushing his lips gently against Mark's. “I could live to 100 with this and not get tired. Although that's coming sooner for one of us, Mr. Thirty-Year-Old.”

Mark groaned. “Enough out of you.” He sealed Jinyoung's teasing lips with another kiss, tickling his waist a little in punishment.

Jinyoung giggled and kicked his feet a little, then grimaced. “Ah, they're still sore.”

“Your feet?”

“Yeah. Working with kids all day keeps you on your toes.”

Mark reached down and gave him a gentle massage, letting Jinyoung lean comfortably back on the bed. Maybe that was what he could do as a special treat to propose moving in to Jinyoung—a spa day with lots of TLC for his hardworking boyfriend. If anyone deserved some rest and relaxation, it was him.

“How was everything at Allison's?” Jinyoung asked with a yawn.

“Everything's fine,” Mark said. He would only tell Jinyoung about Allison and Jackson's engagement when Allison officially said yes to it. “We're planning for Lou's Kindergarten graduation.”

“I can't believe he's already going to be entering grade school.”

“You and me both. Oh, and remind me to give you the drawing he made you in class. I left it in the car.”

“Another one? Ah, I'm really getting spoiled. I feel like he's really accepting me.”

“Of course he is. He did that a long time ago. We both did.” Mark crept back up the bed and planted himself on Jinyoung's chest. “You're precious to both of us. That shouldn't even be in question.”

Jinyoung beamed. “Of course not. Sometimes I just have to remind myself that I'm dating a really old man with a son, and all. I'm going down a road most college students don't go.”

“Didn't I say that was enough out of you?” Mark laughed, pinning him down.

“I don't know. Just one little kiss isn't going to be enough to shut me up.”

“Somehow I don't think you're going to shut up even with more than that,” he said, pulling Jinyoung closer. “Something tells me that you're just going to wind up getting louder.”

A/N: I'm so happy to be back with some more C&G. Let's have lots of fun on Markjin's next phase as a couple :p