For a man who didn’t live with me officially Alex sure spent a lot of time at my apartment. Not that I minded. He’d plucked the key code out of my head the first time he came over and he’s been using it every since. He knows I want him here even if I didn’t explicitly invite him to move in.

Though he didn’t leave much here, it was clear he was still only visiting even with my empty closet and dresser just waiting for him to put stuff in. And even though he spent nearly every night in my bed we still had a minor tussle with me getting out of bed at 4am despite not waking up to a nightmare. Which thank the fuck weren’t happening most night – those nights when Alex stayed.

So I was up, had a nice little yoga routine in the living room, and was on my way to the shower when Alex stirred. He opened his eyes a sliver then rolled over. Instead of hitting the shower like I planned I grabbed a box from the closet and climb in to bed behind Alex. He shifted so I could lay without having to support myself off the edge of the bed with a platform of air. He grunted to acknowledge that I was distrurbing him. I draped my arm over his shoulder and curled up next to him dropping the box several inches from his head in line of sight if he choose to open his beautiful blue eyes. I pressed a kiss to the back of his neck and I felt his whole body shiver. It went straight to my cock. “Are you happy to see me?”

I pressed another kiss to his neck and chuckled, “You know it.”

I didn’t spoon Alex often, he was the one who liked to hold me and I preferred it too, but I loved having him against me. And Alex snuggled deeper into my embrace as I laid my head down on his pillow. I could sleep again, but I spoke softly. “I know it’s not your birthday yet, but I made you something.”

Alex shifted a little and rolled on to his back pulling the box on to his chest. “It’s heavy.”

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

The box was done up with a red ribbon that Mia had to show me how to tie because no matter how many times I did it it looked messy and I wanted it perfect, even though it took seconds for Alex to destroy it and open the box to show the contents inside.

It wasn’t anything big, but the look on Alex’s face when he recognized it in the dim light made it worth the whole countless hours studying Serenity. Made of black onyx was an exact replica (miniaturized) of his baby. “You made this?” He sounded surprised.

“Yeah.” I said.

Alex held it close to his face and looked at all the fine details. The great thing about the elements is making something with precision was easy. Though my father said I only thought it was easy because I knew how to do it. His work with earth wasn’t nearly as pretty as mine could be.

“That’s not all.” I said.

Alex picked up the box and dumped it on to his chest. “A key?”

I smiled, “It’s symbolic. You already have a key to the apartment. You can come and go as you want.” I bit my bottom lip and then continued, “Consider this my official invite to live with me. Like bring your things here live with me.”

Alex rolled over and pressed his lips to my tenderly.

I whispered against his lips as he held me close, “It can be a key chain if you want, but I didn’t attach it, but I can.”

Alex shook his head, “No it’ll go on my desk, over in the corner.”

I laughed, “You have no desk in the corner.”

“I will.” He rolled on top of me and we tumbled out of bed.

Alex groaned as he pulled himself up, “Fuck. Sorry forgot we weren’t in bed proper.”

I lay on the floor look up at Alex, “I’m alright. Nothing that won’t heal. I kinda like this view.”

“Oh really?” Alex asked as he knelt down on the floor over top of me again. I nodded, “Yes…”

This was the first real birthday that I had with Alex. His birthday had always been in the dream. I remembered some of them. The last one with my brothers was a good one, and several others I had remembered. All dressing up and playing a part. But this Halloween we had kids to take out and do the human thing, my brothers were excited. Drake was too, Matt and Faelen really didn’t have much of an idea of what was going on but they went with it. Matt wanted to have a part. The twins agreed with him. So Halloween was going to include a birthday cake for Alex.

But Alex hated his birthday. I was going to endeavor to change that. Because it was the best day in the world – the day he was born. I know I sound like a sap. But I can’t help it. Alex is everything to me. He’s home. I could be anywhere he is and I’d be happy. I’d sure as fuck freak out about the change and I know he’d get annoyed with me, but I would be happy he was there to talk me down. To hold me. To be Alex.

But there’s a problem. What do you get a guy who has everything he wants or just goes out and buys it. And the second problem? How do you keep it secret when he can read your mind.

Special is good and with the twins planning the Halloween party I can just throw in my extras all in the name of the party, no one has to know why – so a cake from Jay won’t look too out of the ordinary.

I racked my brain for quite a while trying to figure out what to do. And I finally came up with a few ideas. But I couldn’t decide.

The first one I spent three or four hours completely studying Serenity. And for those of you who don’t know – Serenity is the name Alex gave his car. She is a 2016 Black Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray fully equipped with leather seats. I’ve never ridden in her. Mostly because I’ve never gone anywhere that required Alex to drive.

She’s gorgeous as far as cars go. But I’m not a car guy. But the lines and and color were great to look at. I spent those hours sketching her in a notebook that I intended to give Alex. There were other things I’d sketched too – mostly dreams I’d been remembering. Images that repeated over and over in my head now that I remembered him for all my life. Memories I could replay like a video.

To make Alex’s birthday special I’m going to stretch it out. Tomorrow is day one of my plan. Nothing major, breakfast, a little present and we’ll go from there. It’s the first day of the celebration of our first real birthday spent together – the first real holiday too. It should be fun.