There had never been a night sweeter than this one. They'd gotten Robert back, Anthony had gotten what he deserved, and no babies were harmed in the process. To celebrate their victory ride home, Laura cranked on the radio and rolled all of the windows down, proudly blaring music as they drove through the city streets. Digging his phone out of his pocket, Cole dialed Paul's number. He answered a few seconds later, clearly worried about what was happening.

"Are you guys okay? Did Anthony get Robert again? I tried to stop him but he hit me in the stomach and I nearly puked again," Paul rambled.

"Calm down! We got him!"

"You got him?"

"We got him!"

"They got him!" Paul exclaimed. In the background he could hear Kacey cheer with excitement. Cole laughed and looked up at Naomi. She waved her hand to him, ushering him to hand over the phone.

"One sec, Naomi wants to talk to you," he said, leaning forward so that she could take it from him. She brought his phone to her ear and said,

"I pepper sprayed him. Yeah! Pepper sprayed the shit outta him for hitting you." Cole was eagerly eavesdropping to her conversation when he was startled by the sound of crying. Robert wailed for exactly six seconds before Noah rolled his sleeve up and placed the bracelet to the baby's back. There was a high pitched chime to let him know it recognized him as the parent. Noah opened the diaper bag and removed the diaper and bottle. Cole watched as Noah pressed handed off the carrier to Kendall and placed Robert on his back between his knees.

Off went the diaper with the green fabric in the middle. He pressed the diaper with the yellow fabric inside to see if Robert stopped crying but that wasn't it. He wrapped the green diaper back around Robert's waist and put the bottle to his mouth. He smiled with relief and looked up at Cole. "We never picked a middle name for him."

"We should name him after you. What's your middle name?"

"Snow," he sighed. Cole snorted and tried to hide his laughter.

"Snow? Noah Snow Whitaker?"

"My parents are from Alaska. They like that season. Ian's middle name is Winter."

"Oh my god," Cole chuckled. "We're following that tradition. His middle name will be something like... Flurry or something."

"Blizzard," Laura offered from the front seat.

"That's perfect!" Cole said, looking down at Robert. "His full name is Robert De Niro Blizzard Whitaker-Forbes."

"That's a mouthful," said Kendall. Noah couldn't help but smile. At first he hated what Cole had named the baby. It was a girl and Robert wasn't traditionally a girl's name. But with the back story he'd came up with for the baby, Noah had come to love the name. It was the perfect amount of queerness that complimented their untraditional family.

"Robert De Niro Blizzard Whitaker-Forbers," Noah repeated. "I love it."

Rather than stopping by Cole's place where his parents surely would get onto them for being too loud, Laura drove them back to Noah. His dad and step-mom were out of town on their first anniversary and Ian had moved in with a friend. They'd have the whole house to themselves. Once they were parked in the driveway, the group climbed out and headed up the front steps, unable to keep from giggling about nothing in particular. Paul and Kacey would be there in twenty minutes, so in the meantime, Noah volunteered to throw pizzas into the oven. In their attempt to save Robert, they'd all skipped dinner.

Cole probably would have thrown up like Paul had he eaten before their rescue mission. Once the pepperoni pizzas were inside the oven and cooking, Noah returned to the living room to find his friends lounging around, surfing through television shows. He took a seat next to Cole and Robert.

"You sure you don't need a bandage for your hand?" he asked. The cut had stopped bleeding but it still wasn't a very pretty sight.

"I'm sure. I'll be okay. I'm a big boy," Cole said with a smile. Noah mimicked his expression and rolled his eyes. Naomi tried not to ruin their moment but once they were done talking she turned to Noah.

"Do your parents keep anything to drink around here?"

"Yeah, we've got some Coke in the fridge."

"No," she laughed, "I mean something harder." Noah made an 'ahhh' face.

"Not downstairs, no. I'll go get it." He stood up and ran his palm over Robert's head gently. Cole rose as well.

"I'll go with you." Noah shrugged and headed upstairs with the other boy following close behind. They turned into the long hallway and memories flooded back to Cole. He hadn't been over to Noah's house since the night he stumbled inside drunk and bleeding. It had been even longer since he'd been upstairs. He stifled the wave of thoughts that came over him and followed Noah back to his bedroom.

"I keep most of my stuff under my bed," Noah said, dropping to his knees and reaching underneath his bed. Cole's eyes instantly fell on the boy's butt, the dark jeans hugging him in all the right places. It had almost been a year since he'd been in this room. The very room he'd lost his virginity. Cole couldn't help but snicker to himself. It was surreal, like flipping through photographs from years ago. But it had only been months. He felt like a different person now. He wasn't desperate for love. He wasn't getting into bad relationships just to hold the title of Someone's Boyfriend. He chewed on his fingernail and looked around the rest of the room.

It all looked the same, really. Posters of bands Noah was into covered his walls. His underwear drawer was still partially open, as if he'd been in a hurry to cover himself and didn't close it back. While Cole wondered if Noah was still the same boy he'd met back in July, he came to a satisfying conclusion; neither of them were the same. On the outside they were still the same, sure. They both kept most of their wardrobes, and neither had lost their wit, but inside they were different people. Noah wasn't a pushover anymore. He wouldn't stand for what Cole did then, now. And Cole liked that about him. He dared to even venture to use the other L word.

"Aha," Noah exclaimed, pulling out a nearly-full bottle of vodka. "Absolut work for you?" Cole nodded and smiled. He'd only ever had beer and tequila, but there was a first time for everything, especially in this place, of all rooms. Noah hopped up and dusted off his knees. As he reached for the knob on the bedroom door, Cole caught him by the wrist and tugged him near, his other hand wrapping around Noah's shoulder. Without giving himself a moment's hesitation, he kissed Noah deeply, ignoring the aching in his chest. Ignoring the regret he felt from the last time they'd kissed, outside of Quincey's.

Noah pulled back, startled by his actions. He looked over his face in disbelief, uncertain of what to do next. Cole's eyes watered and his mouth parted in shock. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't.... I shouldn't have done that." He shook his head and tried to move around Noah. Instead of letting the other go, he shoved him back against the wall and returned the kiss, his hands lacing through Cole's brown hair. He squeezed his eyes tightly and fulfilled the need to touch him again. His need, his hunger to feel Cole against him.

"Stop crying," Noah whispered against his lips. He brought his thumbs up to the other's eyes and wiped away the warm lines darting down his face.

"I can't."

"Stop crying," he insisted.

"You said you hadn't forgiven me yet. We shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't have kissed you if you weren't okay with it."

"I don't forgive you, no. But I am okay. I'm okay with this, so don't put words in my mouth, please."

"I'm sorry," Cole breathed, sniffing hard.

"Stop crying, and stop saying sorry. Stop thinking. Stop hating yourself. Stop carrying around all of that hurt inside you. Start being okay again, alright?" Noah ordered, his words stern but voice gentle. He stared into Cole's eyes for what felt like hours. He needed to know that Cole wasn't going to do this again. If he kept blaming himself for what he did, they could never move forward, which was really all that Noah wanted. He wanted to learn from the past and grow again; much like they had since they'd stopped talking. The only difference was, he wanted them to grow together.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Noah asked.

"Yeah."

"You left your coat over here when you went home that night. I meant to give it back to you, but every time I thought about it, I didn't.  I kinda wanted to keep it."

"Why? You keep mementos of all the people you sleep with?" Cole wiped his eyes and smiled up at him.

"Well, no, but... My first time was kind of special and I wanted to remember it." Noah watched for his reaction, and when Cole's mouth fell open, he laughed and backed away from the wall he had the other pinned to.

"You acted like you'd slept with tons of people!"

"Key word being 'acted.'"

"So I was yours and you - you were mine?"

"Disgustingly sweet, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Cole laughed, "I feel as sick as Paul does." Noah chuckled once more and opened the cap of the vodka bottle. He took a swig of it and grumbled deep in his throat. The warm, stingy sensation coursed through his body.

"What are we, Cole?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you and me. We're not together like Laura and Kendall. We're not someone's OTP. What does that make us? What are we?" Cole thought for a moment and shrugged. There probably wasn't a single word for the Limbo they were in. It wasn't the Friendzone, nor was it a relationship. They were in the middle, a foot over both lines.

"We're working on it." Cole thought it was a fitting response. They had work to do if they ever wanted to get back together. If they were going to be together, it would take some time to get to the point where they felt comfortable with each other like that. Where they could move past everything. After all, that's what they'd both wanted. Cole throwing a drink in Noah's face had resulted from Cole wanting him to move on from their past almost-relationship. Noah bugging and bullying Cole had resulted from him wanting Cole to face himself, come clean about everything, and move on into what he'd hoped to be something special.

"We're working on it," Noah repeated, handing the bottle over to him. "I say you should drink to that." Cole skeptically brought the bottle to his lips and took a tentative sip, waiting for excruciating pain. That's how his mother had painted vodka to be. To his surprise, there was only a mild discomfort before he started to feel good. He grinned and took another sip. This one hurt more and he coughed a bit. "Slow down there, champ."

"Sorry," he laughed. Noah raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, yeah, stop saying sorry."

"Good boy. Now, let's go downstairs and get those bitches drunk!" Noah opened the door and headed down the stairs with Cole. When they stood at the bottom of the staircase, Cole nudged the boy.

"So, I was your first. You know that means I'm obligated to ask."

"Ask what?"

Cole narrowed his eyes and smirked. "Any regrets?"