Soft sheets slid against Theo's arm as he rolled onto his back. The room was dim in the weak morning sunlight but still had a bright and airy atmosphere, like beach houses always seemed to. The walls were baby blue, and the plethora of windows were draped in gossamer cream drapes. A collection of seashells spilled across the top of the dresser, above which leaned two nearly identical watercolor paintings of a shark serenely swimming beneath sun-dappled water.

A couple of weeks ago, he and Abel went to a painting night. They each got a canvas and loose instructions from a local artist who seemed more interested in encouraging them to be creative than to follow the reference photo. Theo's artwork turned out to be a bit childlike, but he liked how friendly it made the shark look. Abel's looked pretty much like the reference photo. Abel kept saying he would hang them on the wall, but he also kept forgetting to do so.

Theo rolled his head to the side to look over at him. He usually slept on his belly and splayed out all over their bed. Thank god the bedroom in the bungalow came equipped with a king-sized mattress. One of his arms was shoved beneath his pillow, and his other disappeared off the bed. Not only did he hog the bed—and oftentimes ended up squishing Theo in his sleep (much to Theo's delight)—he also kicked at the sheets. They were pooled low on his waist, crisp white against his tanned back.

Moving slowly and carefully, Theo slipped out of the bed. He stepped into a pair of swim trunks, grabbed his shark from beside his own pillow, and padded out of the bedroom. The hardwood was gritty beneath his bare feet because no matter how hard they tried, sand always got tracked inside. He sat his shark in his usual spot on the windowsill behind the sofa next to their green onion plant so he could look out over the beach.

When Theo was released from the hospital over a year ago—all statements given to the police and his hand surgery scheduled—Abel almost immediately raided his mother's sewing kit. He'd very gently told Theo that he did not know how to sew very well but could probably patch him back together if that was what Theo wanted. His mom had taken one look at the two of them trying to thread a needle at the dining room table, then took over and showed them what to do as she mended the shark herself.

Now, he had a little jagged seam down his back, and his dorsal fin was a bit crooked, but they managed to restuff him just fine. He spent most days sitting in the window with his green onion friend and looking out over the beach.

Theo stuck a finger into the green onion's soil to see if it needed to be watered, then picked it up and held it under the tap while gazing out at the beach. The sun crested the horizon, sending brilliant streaks of red and pink across the sky. Below it glittered the ocean, gentle waves lapping the sand. There was a fisherman down by the piles of a long-gone pier. A couple strolled through the wet sand as they enjoyed the sunrise, footprints gathered up greedily by the waves.

Theo eased open the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the deck. It had a towel rack, creaky wicker furniture, and the beautiful, vining rose plant his mother had planted when he was little. It climbed up the trellis on the side of the deck nearly to the roof, pink flowers buffeted in the constant, salty breeze.

A set of stairs descended from the deck, over the dunes with their hardy grasses and stout, yellow and purple flowers, leading to the beach proper. Theo relished the way that his feet sank in the sand as he strode across it. The water welcomed him, waves lapping eagerly around his ankles.

Nearly every morning, he came out to swim long before Able woke up, with only the company of the rising sun, a few fishermen, some seagulls, and the occasional early-rising tourist. By the time he finished, salt on his tongue and the sun's rays sucking the water droplets from his shoulders as he stood up out of the waves, people had begun to set up on the beach. They laid out towels and set their coolers in the shade of their umbrellas.

Theo climbed up the steps and grabbed a towel from the rack to wipe the water and sand from his skin. He rubbed it over his hair, several shades lighter than his usual nearly black brunette, bleached naturally by the sun. Then he stepped inside and poured himself a glass of orange juice while watching more people set up on the beach.

He and Abel technically owned a decent portion of the beach itself. But they never roped it off, not caring whether people set themselves up in their lot. They did put a private property sign at the end of the deck stairs and sometimes had to rope it off during the busiest months, but it was a fairly quiet beach without a boardwalk or great influx of visitors that some of the larger ones got. There were a couple of hotels across the street, but all the beach-front properties were older vacation homes, bed and breakfasts, or bars and restaurants.

Once he finished his orange juice, Theo pattered back into the bedroom and snickered when he saw that Abel had not moved a muscle. It was probably still too early for him to get up, but the man would never say no to some morning sex, especially if Theo was willing to stay in bed and spend a lazy morning with him when he went back to sleep afterward.

Theo rinsed off in the shower, grabbed the lube, and crawled under the sheets to lay himself across Abel's sleep-warm back. Abel groaned and shifted beneath him, drawing the arm that had been hanging off the bed up to shove it under the pillow with his other one. He turned his face to the other side to escape the little puddle of drool that had collected beneath his open mouth and smacked his lips together. Theo smiled and kissed over the crease lines on his warm cheek. With a breathy moan cracked by sleep, Abel ground his hips down into the mattress.

Theo nipped his earlobe and ground his hips down against the firm swell of Abel's ass.

That got him another groan. And Able squinted an eye open and gazed at him blearily, half-lidded, and with soft heat as he tilted his pelvis back. Theo ducked to nip at his lower lip. His cock, which had been hard from the moment he laid it across Abel's ass, slid into the crevice between his cheeks and they both moaned as Theo rocked his hips and few times.

Theo lifted off and nudged Able's thighs a bit further apart so he could open him slowly with a single lubed finger, then two and three. He rubbed the slick head of his cock against Abel's inner thigh as he did, leaving behind little trails of shiny precum. Able lay sleepy and pliant, thoroughly relaxed even though Theo knew he was achingly hard and leaking into the sheets below his pelvis. When Theo aimed the head of his cock against Abel's rim, however, a hand flew out from beneath the pillows to push him back.

"No, like..." Abel's voice was unfathomably deep and cracked with sleep, sending a zip of arousal down Theo's spine and into his cock to make it twitch. He watched Able shuffle around to lay on his back, knees lifted, and legs parted. Theo lay across him again, this time settling into the embrace of his arms, and eased himself inside while they panted and sighed into each other's mouths.

Able licked the salt that clung to his skin despite his quick shower. Theo buried a hand in Able's curly, dark hair and reached between them with the other to stroke his cock. Able did not take long to spend between them with a grunt, pillow creases still on his sleep-warm skin. Theo pulled out and jerked himself off over Able's thick, spent cock and twitching belly.

As soon as the waves of pleasure melted out of his limbs, Theo collapsed on Able's chest with a happy groan. Able's heavy arms wrapped around his shoulders and held him in place even when Theo squirmed in protest after his heart rate slowed.

"I need to clean us up," he murmured.

"Uh-uh," Abel hugged him closer, their spent cocks slipping against each other. "I'm cuddling with my Teddy Bear."

Theo rolled his eyes and relaxed onto Abel's chest again. The man eventually let him get up for a washcloth, but only after swearing to get back in bed with him. As Theo wiped them off, Able was already drifting back to sleep.

"Do you have work today?" he murmured without even opening his eyes.

"No," Theo tossed the washcloth away and burrowed against Abel's side. "Just a therapy appointment later."

Abel hummed contentedly and gathered him close. Within seconds, he was back to sleep, snoring softly into Theo's hair. Theo smiled as he felt Abel breathing up against him. The morning light had turned golden by now, and he could just about hear people laughing and calling to one another as they spilled out onto the beach. There was no reason to get back out of bed for now, so Theo closed his eyes and let himself drift back off to sleep. 

A/N: 

They lived happily ever after <3

That's it for this short Novella folks. I'm going to be taking a little while off from regular uploads in order to wrap the first draft of the next story I plan to post. As I work on doing that, I will be uploading that first draft for my Ream subscribers. This draft is 100% subject to change, but if you are interested in a sneak peek of that story before I begin uploading it here, my Ream subscription is $5 a month. You also get access to extra chapters and POV switches from Evenfall and Snafu!