Shelter Picspam Part 2
At home, Zach breaks out the Red paint because, yeah, it feels like that.
Not that he needs to - Shaun wins major points with Zach when Shaun invites Zach over for a BBQ and includes Cody.
You can tell that Zach has been doing a lot of cooking for Cody at the diner when Cody tells Shaun that he wants mac and cheese with hot dogs and pancakes with chocolate chips. Shaun has so much damage to undo.
Still, he's ready to go out and get everything Cody asked for with just a quick kiss for a reward but, dammit, Zach skates away.
Later, while Cody sleeps inside, Shaun and Zach have a conversation about family, obligations and choices and how for people like Zach there really is no choice, at all.
Shaun takes a moment to coax a wary Zach into a hug.
Zach tries to slip away again but Shaun's kung fu is strong and gently persistent.
Zach is such a cautious soul ...
... but Shaun proves to be a solid guy to lean on - something Zach has probably never experienced before.
And soon, Zach looks like he's embedded for good.
No surprise, Zach's art kicks in and this time a stencil just isn't enough. The beginnings of a mural ...
... and the finished art complete with a heart and "love" written into it.
What initially drew me to these characters and their story was the metric tonnage of affection and intimacy on display.
Zach both hungry for and overwhelmed by Shaun's affection.
At one point, Zach points out that Shaun will probably be heading back to LA soon. When Shaun brings up the suggestion that Zach come with him (with the added bonus of living close to Cal Arts) Zach can't even let himself consider it a possibility.
Zach puts on his game face which only prompts Shaun to tell him that he's beautiful. No kidding. The most soulful blue eyes ever. These screen captures do not do them justice.
Zach laughs, tells Shaun affectionately to shut up and punches him in the shoulder.
Shaun tells him to learn to take a compliment which sobers Zach a bit but you can see that he believes Shaun and so he returns the cheek caress and simply says, thanks. This scene is played out so naturally and conveys so much intimacy that it's hard to believe that it was ever scripted.
I have a much harder time with the scene that follows where Gabe makes an unannounced visit and interrupts all of this wonderful bridge building between Zach and Shaun. It's played mostly for laughs, and succeeds on that level, with them scrambling out of bed and trying to figure out which piece of discarded clothing belongs to who. What doesn't sit well with me is why are they bothering?
Unless Zach has suddenly taken to parking down the street - where his big early model truck would still stand out in the Land of Lexus - then it's probably in the driveway where Gabe has already seen it. It also seems out of character for Shaun to go along with hiding since hiding implies he's ashamed and I seriously doubt that Shaun is ashamed of Zach or wants Zach to buy into the belief that he should be ashamed of himself or Shaun.
All of that aside, we get Zach hiding in the appropriately named retreat while Shaun holds Gabe in place with a hug as Zach sneaks out.
I think both Shaun and Zach seriously underestimate Gabe who seems to realize something is in the air.
Gabe shows up at the diner ostensibly to invite Zach out for a surfing session and then a party later on but when he points out that he fixed Zach's board back at the Starter Castle and Zach tries to act like he hasn't seen that board in years you can tell by Gabe's "whatever" that he's not buying it. On his way out he gives Zach a quick goose with, "Nice shirt, by the way" when said shirt belongs to Shaun. ::loves Gabe::
In a different t-shirt, that might actually belong to him, Zach gets an earful from Jeanne who has learned from Cody that Zach and Shaun are involved. I can't imagine that Shaun and Zach made out in front of Cody so I'm assuming that the connection between them is so strong that even a preschooler is picking up on it. This throws Jeanne into full-on sabotage mode where she tells Zach that he's reduced himself to a "summer fuck" and "a piece of ass" before she inadvertently asks Zach a valid question: If Zach thinks his relationship with Shaun is OK then why did he feel the need to hide it from her and Gabe and Tori? This is the question that Zach has to answer for himself.
It's good to see Zach fight back a little but with everyone and everything coming down on his head it's all too much for now.
After a party also proves to be too much for Zach he retreats to his car where Shaun joins him. Zach is clearly feeling hemmed in even by the best of intentions and so, of course, this is where Shaun decides to push for Zach to make his move.
With Jeanne's words probably ringing in his head Zach tells Shaun that he's not sure if this is what he wants for good. When that doesn't dissuade Shaun he picks a fight over their class difference and Shaun and Gabe's sense of entitlement. With tears on his face he then tells Shaun not to become all emotional and faggy and then follows that up with, "I'm sick of being your childhood wet dream, Shaun. Find another fucking fantasy" all of which sounds like something he picked up from Jeanne's School of Wildly Inappropriate and Appallingly Dirty Fighting Techniques: The Grad Student Program. It ends with Shaun calling him a coward and Zach kicking him out of the car. :(
:( ...
I get the feeling that Zach works just to get out of the house and it's at the diner that Gabe tries to let Zach know that he knows about him and it doesn't bother him "at all." If anything, Gabe seems more concerned about losing his place as Zach's friend and confidant. He puts his communications major to good use and asks some obviously long burning questions such as, Do guys give better head? They swallow, don't they? and whether or not Zach thinks the guy walking by the window is hot?
Zach isn't prepared to accept Gabe's version of complete acceptance and just wants him to STFU, dude, right before he shows Gabe the door.
Gabe keeps the door open himself long enough to tell Zach that they're still "bros" and to manhandle Zach into a warm hug. I love Gabe.
As if life isn't the meanest roller coaster ride already Zach stands by as his mural is painted over. Whether you like the mural or not it's clearly art and not vandalism and painting over it is just bad-wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start. Booooo!
Quite a bit happens behind the scenes right before Zach gets a voice mail from someone at Cal Arts letting him know that they're happy he reapplied (news to him) and will be sending the portfolio Zach was looking for earlier back to the Ocean Beach address which is, I believe, where Shaun is staying at the Starter Castle. Bless Shaun's sticky fingers and meddling. It looks like Zach is going to Cal Arts, after all.
Or not. Because true to form, this is when Jeanne decides to tell him that she's planning on moving to Oregon with her latest future ex-boyfriend and, news to me, "they don't take kids."
Thank goodness Zach has more people rooting for him than he realized when even Tori tells him that she's known about him for a while and wants him to figure out a way to be with Shaun and go to Cal Arts.
Because sometimes, you just want to spoon with a friend (and avoid your sister), Zach stays with Tori and comes to a decision the next morning that is going to change his life - and Shaun and Cody's - in so many ways that I don't even know where to start the fanfiction.
I was wondering if the walkie-talkies were going to make a reappearance and, sure enough, they do. I also can't help but wonder if poor Shaun has been carrying that thing around for days, leaving it on the bathroom sink when he showers and the bedside table when he sleeps, checking and rechecking the batteries, hoping against hope to hear that static call. Ay, Shaun ... I feel you, man!
Zach, who still knows how to get in and around a gated community more than he should, finally calls him out to the back yard and offers a sincere apology.
"I'm so sorry."
Shaun should make him work for it a little more than he does but, you know how it is, so he lets him off the hook with, "You better be."
Still, Shaun has the good sense to ask, "Why are you here? What changed?"
To which Zach tells him, "I did," and you just can't argue with that, now can you?
After Zach tells Shaun that years ago he turned down a scholarship to Cal Arts to take care of Cody but that he wants to accept it this time he asks Shaun, "Will you help me?" and Shaun's answer is, "Yes. Anything." Shaun's unblinking, unqualified generosity has been remarked upon and worried over in almost every review that I've read. Even Zach gives him a look that says, "Really?" It seems like a huge leap of faith until you factor in that they've known each other for years -although in a more peripheral way - and that their new relationship has probably only reinforced already held good opinions despite Zach's frequent backsliding. (I'm sorry, honey. I had to say it.) Also, factor in that they both seem to be relationship oriented so that when they're in - they're in like ticks. I'm so sorry. Not a very nice analogy but right now I'm more emotional than articulate. Bear with me, OK?
Love Shaun wearing Red again. A siren call if ever there was one - and damn, if it doesn't work! And I love him telling Zach he's so proud of him over and over again. Oh, my heart ...
Despite my faith in them I would, however, have liked a scene where they talked about taking Cody in since at this point I don't believe that Shaun knows Jeanne is leaving for Oregon without her son. I hate to think that Zach just sprung it on him on the drive over to Jeanne's place and then leaned into the swerve. Whatever happened, Zach is completely resolved about who he is and what he's going to do. I love the matter of fact way that he goes back and takes Shaun's hand when Shaun holds back in front of Jeanne.
It's clear that Zach is proud of him, too.
After a brief kerfuffle in which Zach tries to beat the snot out of Jeanne's future ex-boyfriend for cussing at Cody, Jeanne and Zach slowly come to an understanding.
In no uncertain terms Zach tells her that Shaun is a great guy who really cares about him and Cody and if she can't accept them then she needs to stay and take care of Cody herself. She seems to respond very well to Zach's unflinching options and ends up telling him that even if things don't work out with the future ex-boyfriend then Cody should stay with Zach. Admitting that Zach is the only real family that Cody has is something that has been keeping both of them in stasis probably since Cody was born and with that out in the open they can now be closer and move on.
As Jeanne drives off, a small family knits itself together.
At one point when Zach was stating his case to Jeanne he told her that, "Every kid should be so lucky" referring to Shaun and himself and their eagerness to apparently spoil Cody silly. Some time later, a day at the beach, a surfboard and a little dog to play Frisbee with and it's clear that Zach wasn't kidding.
It's also nice to see that Zach has gotten over his issues with public displays of affection. Or maybe he just wants the Frisbee. Either way, Shaun counts it as a win.
A little canoodling while the boy's not looking.
And then ...
... Shaun makes sure to wet his lips for a nice smooch cause that's the way Zach likes it.
Please. Get busy with the fanfiction. I'm begging you!