Zach can all but feel Kiel’s approval radiate from him as they get ready for dinner. It’s enough to make up for his slight lapse in control with the sketchbook earlier. He should have known to be more on guard: kids like Sarah are all too well-versed in picking up on the little things- they have to be to survive. Fortunately the girl does not seem interested in making a scene, but just enjoys the attention from the priest. She seems to like Zach well enough as well, and he shoots her an impish smile during Kiel’s prayer to improve her opinion of him even more.

When the priest has his eyes closed, he crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue, expression melting back into an innocent smile before Kiel is done. Sarah has to bite her lip to keep from giggling, and when he shoots her a wink later on she has to dig into her food to keep her composure. There, now they share an insignificant little ‘secret’ that makes her laugh and paints him in a fun and approachable light. And if he feels a warm glow at the increased brightness of her smiles, he chalks it up to professional pride.

Kiel seems satisfied as well over dinner, and eating and cleaning up is an amicable affair. It wasn’t what he had in mind originally, but he supposes it’s good for the priest to see him act as an adult towards a smaller child. With Sarah in the house, perhaps he loses the ‘little one’ stamp at least for a little while. 

The child has to go to sleep right after dinner, and when she’s sent into ‘his’ room, Zach has to hide a smile at the implications. The priest immediately confirms his hopes with an apologetic tone. While Zach knows this is better than he could have planned, he still keeps a serious look on his face as he nods. When the priest mentions sleeping on the floor, however, he allowed himself to roll his eyes and huff in indignation. 

“Do you really think I’d sleep well knowing I put you out on the floor? If anyone’s used to sleeping on the floor, it would be me.” He makes sure to look Kiel in the eye. [i]’See, I trust you now. Are we not equals?’[/i] Getting the priest to warm up to him was all good and well, but he would need his respect as well if the man was ever going go along with his intentions.

“The bed is plenty big. Believe me, I’ve slept in smaller.” He grins as he goes on, “Slept next to train stations too, so I don’t care if you snore or whatever.” He bumps his shoulder into the priest’s affectionately before making his way to the man’s bedroom. Kiel has shown he cares about his charges’ well-being more than ‘propriety’, so Zach is not worried he’s going to try and talk him out of it. Not when he’s dangling a show of trust in front of him like this. 

“I don’t want to disturb Sarah to get pj’s, so I’m just going to borrow some of yours, ok?” He pulls the door closed just soft enough that it bounces open to a crack again rather than clicking shut, giving him just enough of a space to casually undress in to allow the priest a glance of his now-healed torso. He might be shorter than the other man, but there is no mistaking him for anything other than an adult now that the bruises have faded. 

The pants he finds are too long, but the way they hang low on his hips make up for he has to roll up to sleeves at the bottom. The shirt that goes with it is both too tight across his shoulders and too long in the sleeves, so he just sticks with the shirt he wore for the day. That it just happens to leave a narrow strip of tan skin uncovered every time he moves is a happy coincidence.