The three fathers begin to enjoy their vacation. When they decide to check out the nude beach, Marcus's body image issues stand in the way of his good time.

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Whether he liked it or not, Eddie always opened his eyes at just after six in the morning. At home, he’d been getting up early to get in some time to hit the books before everyone else in the house got up. One of his ears had flopped over his face in the night and he sighed into it, dreading yet another day of studying. Reaching to his left for his phone, his fingers instead brushed someone’s thin, furry back. Still half-asleep, he peeked out from under his ear to find it was Nick, lying on his stomach, face half-buried in the pillow. His one visible eye was peacefully shut and his breath was slow and even.

It took another few seconds for him to that he wasn’t in his own bed, but a plush California King with a padded headboard and eggshell white sheets. Beyond it was a set of floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over a beautiful view of the ocean. The sky was a peach color with streaks of painted clouds and small figures the size of ants – early-risers like him – walked along the beach, just at the water’s edge as the rising tide licked at their ankles.
Relief washed over him. Eddie actually felt his eyes get misty once he ed that he wasn’t at home. Kicking his legs under the duvet like an excited toddler, he flopped back into the pillows, stretching his arms long and high until his fingers touched the top of the headboard. No studying. No work. No cleaning, no groceries, no errands, no chores. Nothing but sandy beaches and strong drinks.

They’d spent just over six hours in the car, swapping out drivers every stop, and made it to Hideaway Cove just after dark. By the time they’d manged to park and wrangle their luggage into the lobby, the three husbands just wanted to check in and sleep as soon as possible. They could’ve been in an EconoLodge for all they cared. Now, well-rested, Eddie spent a few quiet minutes enjoying the new bed and examining their deluxe suite, which he’d barely even ed in the few minutes before his face hit the pillow last night. Reaching out, he absentmindedly stroked Nick’s back, walking his fingers up and down his shoulder blades, but soon noticed the bed was unexpectedly empty. Eddie sat up with a puzzled frown and noticed the bedroom door was half-open.

Marcus had pulled one of the armchairs toward the window and was sitting far back with one foot on the glass. His back was to Eddie and he seemed to be staring out at the sunrise. He couldn’t blame him – it was a spectacular view – but it wasn’t like Marcus to get up so early, especially on vacation. Taking the chair’s twin from the middle of the room, Eddie dragged it to the window beside him and sat in it.

“Morning,” he said in a soft whisper. Eddie’s smile quickly turned to a concerned frown. Instead of looking out across the ocean, Marcus was staring at his phone in his lap. When he looked up from it, Eddie noticed that his eyes were red and puffy.
“Morning,” Marcus answered, his voice short and breathless.
“What happened?” Eddie moved to stand. “Did something happen?”
“No no no, it’s fine. Sit down.” Marcus motioned Eddie back down and clasped his hands together in his lap. “I just couldn’t sleep. Well, I slept a little, but not much.”
“Why? I thought you were exhausted form the drive.”

“I was. I am. But I woke up around four in the morning and thought, ‘Does Ezra know where the twins’ night light is?’ Then I started thinking about if they slept okay without us, and then I realized this is the farthest away I’ve been from them since they were born. Since before they were born, technically.” Marcus looked down at his phone again, making a practiced motion of flipping it over, checking the screen for a notification, then putting it down again. “…Ezra didn’t message me. You think that’s okay? I thought he’d let me know when the twins went to bed.”

“I think he didn’t message you because it’s six in the morning on a Sunday and they’re all asleep,” Eddie said, slowly.
“Yeah, yeah.” Marcus paused for a heartbeat, then said, “But what if something happened and he couldn’t get to the phone? What if he’s in the ER? Did I tell him about the baby gate at the top of the stairs? What if one of them fell?”
With one leg thumping against the carpet, Marcus sat up, unlocked his phone, and began dialing. “I’m gonna call. I’m just gonna check.”
Eddie reached out and softly grabbed his husband’s wrist before he could dial the number. Marcus pulled against it for a moment before glancing up with a heartbreaking look of despair.
“They are fine, Marcus. It’s been…what, fourteen hours since we last saw them? It hasn’t even been a full day, yet. If anything happened, Ezra would let us know.” His grip shifted from Marcus’s wrist to his hand, which he lifted to his lips to kiss. “If you’re going to stress out like this, we might as well pack up and go home.”

“No.” Marcus shook his head, a lock of long hair falling over his eyes. Thumbing it back, he took a deep, self-soothing breath and gave Eddie’s hand a tight squeeze. “You’re right. You are. I know in my head you are. But when I think about how they’re so far away, without us there, I get…” Marcus couldn’t put his feeling into words, so he hooked his fingers against his chest and made an abstract clawing motion.

“I know what you mean, but I trust Ezra. A lot more than someone scraggly-furred teenager would could have gotten to do it.” Eddie sat back in his chair and shrugged. “Bottom line is: if I’m not worried, then you shouldn’t be, either.”
Marcus smirked. “Yeah…That is saying something.”
“You going back to bed?”
“Nah, I’m too wired. I’m up.”
“Good. I’m making coffee.” Eddie hauled himself out of the chair and headed for the tiny coffee maker on the counter by the door.
Marcus turned in his seat. “Wait, don’t they charge that too the room?”
“Probably. But we’re on vacation, aren’t we?”

With water from the bathroom sink, Eddie filled up the machine’s reservoir and tore open the two servings of coffee included with the room. Marcus became distracted by the view, enjoying the way Eddie’s sleep-shirt bunched up over his stubby tail to expose his tight-fitting boxer briefs. When the coffee was ready, Eddie filled both of the disposable cups and carried them across the room. With a foot, he nudged the two chairs closer together, ed Marcus his coffee, and settled in to watch the sunrise together. They each held their drinks in their outside hands so that the inside ones could remain tightly clasped together.

It was another hour before the two of them heard movement coming from the bedroom and it was another half-hour before Nick actually stumbled out. He blinked like a newborn in the light of the day, rubbing sleep out of his face with the full palm of his hand. Nick was fully nude, his gray fur messy and disheveled before his morning shower.
“What are you doing up so early?” he asked.
“Vibing,” Marcus answered.
“Mm.” Nick grunted with a sleepy nod of approval. “Word.”
He shuffled to the window and leaned on the backs of the chairs, looking out over the oceanfront view. Marcus had a moment of apprehension for a nude Nick standing so close to the window, but ed this wasn’t an uncommon sight at Hideaway Cove. He looked up and the two of them caught eyes, giving each other a warm, up-side down smile. Nick’s nose twitched and his ears stood up straight.
“There’s coffee?”
“There was.”
Nick went to the maker and poured what little was left in the pot into a paper cup. Glancing up, he gasped and set the cup down. “There’s a Keurig!”
“Keurigs are bad for the environment,” said Eddie.
“You’re bad for the environment.”
Nick prepared himself a cup of the hazelnut blend and took his first sip with a long moan of satisfaction deep in his throat. “Oh my God, I needed that so bad.”

“We’ve been here one night and I’m already feeling better,” sighed Eddie.
“You think they’ve still got breakfast going?” Nick gestured for the door with his thumb.
“Probably. It’s not even eight yet.

“Sick, I’m starving. I’ll save a table.” Then, without working, Nick took another sip of his coffee, turned and strode confidently out the door, completely naked. Marcus and Eddie exchanged a glance before the smaller rabbit scrambled over the back of his chair and hurried after him.

“Nick!”
The tall rabbit was halfway down the hall before he stopped at the sound of his name. He gave Marcus a puzzled look, even as he grabbed his wrist to pull him back to the room.
“What?”
“You need to put clothes on!” Marcus hissed under his breath. Fortunately, it was early enough in the morning that most of the guests were asleep, but he wanted to keep it that way.
“I thought this was a clothing optional resort. You’re the one that said so.” Nick allowed Marcus to drag him down the hall, but continued to speak at full volume.”
“Not the whole resort! Only in specific areas!”
“What?” Nick scoffed. “C’mon, that’s bullshit. They should’ve said that on the website.”
“They did! Just get the fuck inside!”

Marcus pushed open the door with his foot and shoved the nude, indignant Nick through it, who rolled his eyes the whole way.
“Then they shouldn’t call it a ‘clothing optional’ resort! They should just call it a ‘resort with clothing optional areas!’”
“I didn’t build the fucking place, those are just the rules.”
Nick blew a raspberry and sipped is coffee as he plodded for the bedroom. “The second my foot touches sand, I’m freeing the boys. I want you to know that.”
Running a hand through his hair, Marcus breathed a deep sigh and met eyes with a very amused Eddie, still seated in his chair.
“Maybe we should have left all the children at home,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows as he sipped his coffee.
In the bedroom, Nick had thrown his suitcase onto the bed and was sorting through his clothes. Marcus took the opposite side of the bed to do the same. After sorting through and setting aside the outfit he wanted to go with, he glanced up at Nick. The rabbit was wearing a pair of tight, lime-green shorts that barely reached the top of his thighs, a pastel pink crop top that exposed his bellybutton, and gold aviator sunglasses.
“Wow,” said Marcus. “Slut.”
“Sure, but is it slutty enough?”
“More than if you weren’t wearing anything at all.”

“Bingo. Oh, that reminds me.” Nick unzipped a pouch on his suitcase and gave Marcus a devious grin as he pulled out a long chain of unopened condoms like a magician pulling a string of handkerchiefs from his pocket. Marcus returned the smile with one of his own, though it faltered as he glanced at the condoms themselves.
“I’m getting so sick of using those,” he grumbled. “As soon as we get home, I’m making an appointment to get my IUD put back in.”
“You keep saying that, I don’t know why you’ve been putting it off for so long.”
“Have you ever gotten an IUD put in? It’s not fun.”
Nick stowed his suitcase at the foot of the bed and skipped happily into the living room, closing the door behind him. Marcus could hear talking outside the room, starting with Eddie’s voice saying, ‘Oh my God.’

On the bed beside his suitcase, Marcus had laid out an outfit not too dissimilar to Nick’s own, though not quite as bold. His red shorts also rode high up his thighs and hugged his ass in just the way he liked. They were an expensive pair of designer swim shorts he’d bought while on tour several years ago and they had remained one of his favorites ever since. He’d also bought a seafoam green tank top that looked appropriately tropical. He was quick to strip out of his sleep clothes and practically jumped into his vacation outfit before hurrying to the standing mirror.
They didn’t fit the way he thought they would. Marcus’s heart sank at the sight of his own reflection, a combination of shame and self-revulsion curdling his insides. He tried tucking in the tank top, pulling the shorts higher, lower, pulling its drawstring tighter, looser. Nothing made it work. It was like bright, flashing arrows were pointing to every part of his body he didn’t like. Stepping out of sight of the mirror, unable to stomach his own reflection for much longer, Marcus undressed, stuffed both articles of clothing into the bottom of his suitcase, and put on a pair of gym shorts and one of Eddie’s t-shirts that hung off of him like a bathrobe.

In the suite’s living room, Eddie was packing a beach bag with towels, bottles of water, extra changes of clothes, and tupperware containers of sliced strawberries he’d brought from home. The big rabbit wore a nondescript bathing suit, a pair of flip flops, and an old college t-shirt so worn that the school’s logo was no longer legible. Recognizing his own shirt on Marcus, he gave a puzzled look.
“Weren’t you getting ready?”
“…I am ready.”
“Oh, I thought you…Well, nevermind. Let’s try to get some breakfast. If we’re fast, maybe we can grab some fruit before they kick us out for Nick’s outfit.”
Marcus laughed and was quietly grateful for Nick’s flamboyant outfit for taking some of the attention away from himself.

The walk from the room to the lobby was punctuated with many ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ and ‘Look at thats.’ The three rabbits had been so exhausted from the drive that they had barely paid any attention when they checked in the night before. Now, with fresh eyes, they were happily marveling at all the luxurious touches that Hideaway Cove had in store. Marcus had been quietly afraid the place might have a seedy reputation, but he realized that was only his own internal prudishness filling in the blanks. The few guests they ed that early in the morning were technically clothed, but wore loose-fitting and easily removable garments like bathrobes and sarongs. All of them seemed to be normal, friendly, average people, which did a lot to put Marcus’s mind at ease.

They made it just under the wire for breakfast, before the hotel staff started packing everything up. Food and non-hotel room coffee was enough to shake the cobwebs out of their heads. Eddie looked more rested than he had in weeks and was laughing louder and more easily than usual. Nick was back to his usual goofy self, quick with the jokes and happy to be the center of attention. Marcus was enjoying himself, to be sure, but there was a nagging tension in his chest that didn’t seem to go away. He was happy to see his husbands happy, but that didn’t stop the uneasiness inside of him.

“What are we doing first?” Eddie asked.
“I think I kind of want to look around the hotel,” Marcus suggested. “I don’t know if I can decide what to do unless I see what our options are.”
“All I know is that if I don’t get in the water soon, I’m gonna shrivel up like a raisin.” Nick sat up in his booth, ears standing high, and looked out the nearby window at the rear of the hotel. “The pool look so nice. And it’s pretty open this morning.”
“Are we sure we want to go swimming this early in the morning?” Marcus asked. He became aware that he was wringing his hands together under the table.
“I think that’d be the best time,” said Eddie. “Not too hot, not too crowded, no kids.”
“Who would bring their kids to a clothing optional resort?” asked Nick.
Eddie shrugged. “I don’t know. Europeans?”
Before any of them could say more, Nick slapped his hand on the table, causing the silverware to clatter on their plates. “What are we even talking about? Obviously we’re doing the nude beach first.”

“W-we are?” Marcus’s ears stood up before he forcibly folded them back down behind his head. Glancing to Eddie, he was surprised to find a bashful smile on his husband’s face.
“Yeah…I’ve been thinking about it since we got here. Let’s go for it.”
“Right away?” Marcus stammered. “Don’t we want to do the pool first? Like you said?”
“No, let’s hit the beach before the sun gets too bad.” Freshly motivated, Nick bent over his plate of unfinished food and began shoveling it into his mouth.
“It’ll be a good way to ease in,” Eddie said to Marcus. “There won’t be as many people in the morning, I’ll bet.”
Marcus felt tense. Unconsciously, he brought one hand to his stomach and pinched it through his shirt. Maybe Eddie was right: if they were going to go, the earlier the better. Hideaway Cove had been his idea, after all, skipping the nude beach would be a waste. Besides, it did say clothing optional. Worst-case scenario, he could always put his clothes back on.
After taking a deep breath, Marcus said, “Alright. Let’s do it.”

Finishing breakfast, the three of them followed the signs to the back deck of the hotel. It was a sprawling, multi-leveled paradise featuring multiple pools, several hot tubs, private cabanas for rent, an artfully-arranged canopy of palm trees, and several bars selling a variety of fruity drinks. They accessed the beach by a set of wooden stairs at the rear and followed a wooden arrow pointing to the clothing-optional section, which was cordoned off from the rest of the beach by a wooden fence.
“How does this work?” Eddie asked. “Do we need to show IDs or something?” He stopped walking and stuck his nose into their beach bag, using one hand to dig around. “I’m pretty sure I have mine…”
“I think we just go right on in,” said Nick. He walked quickly, stripping off his crop-top mid stride. “As long as we get undressed on that side of the wall.”

Pushing open a door in the fence, the three of them were greeted with a secluded slice of beach flanked by a number of blue tents that served as changing rooms. Surprisingly, this half of the beach was even more crowded than the first, though neither were bustling that early in the morning. Marcus paused for a brief moment at seeing the nude sunbathers lying on their towels, clad in nothing but their fur, but he was quick to adjust. It wasn’t their nakedness that turned his insides to knots.
Eddie and Marcus both headed for the nearest changing tent while Nick practically leapt out of his shorts, stripping completely nude aside from his gold sunglasses. “I’ll save a spot!” he called back as he broke out into an excited, long-legged jog across the sand, eager to his new, unclothed brethren.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” said Eddie, a nervous giggle in his throat. There was definitely apprehension in his voice, but it was something akin to standing in line for a roller coaster. It wasn’t the same as the sheer pit of sucking dread in the center of Marcus’s stomach. Eddie glanced back and, knowing Marcus better than anyone, immediately noticed something wrong.

“Are you okay? You don’t have to do this.”
“It’s fine.” Marcus balled his trembling hands into fists. “Everybody else is doing it. It’s half the reason we’re here.”
“That’s no reason to do something you don’t want to do.”
With his eyes turned toward the sand, Marcus said nothing. He chewed on his tongue, wringing one ear in both hands like a wet towel.
“I just…” He paused to swallow. “I didn’t think I’d be so scared.”
“Do you want to go back to the room?” Eddie asked gently.
The idea of sitting in the empty hotel room while his partners enjoyed the beach without him didn’t seem very appealing, either. Tearing his eyes away from his own feet, Marcus stared into the dark interior of the changing tent like the mouth of an enormous, devouring creature.
“…Let me try it,” he said, quietly, and shuffled inside.

Closing the flaps of the tent, Marcus turned and was faced with the most terrifying thing he could imagine: a full-body mirror. There was no room in the tent to step out of its sight. With a deep sigh, Marcus looked away and undressed, dropping his clothes into a small pile on the sand. Steeling himself, he took a deep breath and looked back at his own reflection.
As usual, he didn’t like what he saw. The twins – biologically Eddie’s – had been large at birth and carrying them had left their mark. The skin on Marcus’s stomach was loose and hung in thick folds, a consequence of being stretched too large for too long. His body hadn’t bounced back from the pregnancy as much as he hoped it would and not even his fur could hide the results. Beyond his stomach, his hips had been permanently widened – perhaps only enough for him to notice – and he’d gained a noticeable amount of weight. If he’d simply gotten chubby, that would be one thing, but it was worse than that: he looked like someone that had given birth. It was a feeling that he hadn’t felt since he was a teenager, that wrongness of looking into a mirror to find a girl’s reflection that shouldn’t have been there.

It was his reflex to reach down for his clothes, to throw them back on as soon as possible, but he stopped himself. While prodding a finger into his many ‘problem areas,’ he recalled how many time’s Eddie had expressed these same fears about his own body. It hurt his heart to watch his husband, one of the most handsome men Marcus had ever seen, scowl at himself in the mirror, pinching his love handles and attempting to suck in his stomach. And yet, despite this, Eddie was giddy and excited at this rare opportunity to show himself off to the world. This was just as scary for him as it was for Marcus, and yet he was willing to take the risk.

Heart pounding, breath heavy, he knelt down to the sand, picked up his discarded clothes, and folded them in a neat stack to tuck under his arm. The fear shimmered in his eyes as he took one last look at his reflection, but he turned his back on it and stepped, naked, into the blazing sunlight.
At the same time, Eddie stepped out of the adjacent changing tent, wearing just as little. As they met eyes, Eddie flashed him a bashful smile as he smoothed his chest fur flat. Marcus stared, transfixed. He couldn’t take his eyes off of him. The sight of his naked husband was nothing new, but seeing him glow in the tropical sunlight, the sparkling blue ocean at his back, made Marcus’s breath falter the way it did the first time they’d undressed in front of each other. A sea breeze whistled over the sand and blew through Eddie’s soft, downy fur. Marcus wanted nothing more but to sink into his chest.

“You…” Marcus began, his voice slow, but Eddie spoke first.
“You look really good.”
“S-Same.”
Throwing his clothes into the sand, Marcus crossed the distance between them, grabbed Eddie’s face with both hands, and pulled him into a deep, breath-stealing kiss. He ran his hands through his big husband’s fur, relishing the lack of barriers between them. Eddie leaned into the kiss, cradling Marcus by the shoulders with his broad, gentle hands. Then, suddenly, he stiffened and jerked away, a bashful smile on his face.

“Not now!” Eddie glanced around and covered his waist with his towel. “Everyone can see if I…you know…”
“I don’t even care,” Marcus sighed, snatching for the towel. Eddie jumped back, kicking sand at him.
“It’s a nude beach, not a…not that kind of beach.”
“Ugh. Fine.” Marcus rolled his eyes and extended his hand, shaking it until Eddie took the hint. “But I’m jumping your bones as soon as we get back to the hotel room.”
Confidence rising, the two of them walked across the beach hand-in-hand, their nudity feeling more free and more natural with every step they took. This wasn’t the lurid experience he had expected it to be, though he couldn’t deny the eroticism of sharing it with Nick and Eddie. He was starting to wonder why any beach required clothes in the first place.

About half a mile from the changing tents, Marcus and Eddie found a pile of Nick’s clothes next to his towel stretched out across the sand. The rabbit himself, though, was missing. They dropped their belongings next to the towel and peered up and down the beach. Marcus spotted him emerging from the surf a few minutes later, his fur wet and clinging tightly to his body. Nick’s long, blonde hair looked like a streak of golden paint between his ears and was blinding in the sunlight. Marcus felt his breath catch again and squeezed his thighs together. Unfortunately, Eddie was right. This wasn’t that kind of beach.

“I wish I’d brought my board,” said Nick, collapsing onto his towel and rolling onto his back. “I wanna try nude surfing.”
“You could probably rent one,” Marcus suggested. He sat beside Nick, enjoying the warm sand against his ass.
“Not the same. I’m only used to mine.” Nick opened one eye. “When’s the last time you went surfing?”
“Probably before the twins were born.” Leaning back, Marcus stretched his legs out, burying his toes in the sand. “You think I still could?”
“Sure. Once you got it, you don’t lose it.”
“Hm. Maybe you’re right.” Closing his eyes, Marcus envisioned the last time he’d been atop his board, watching the waves crash around him as he glided to shore. He was interrupted by a prodding at his lips as Eddie slipped one of the sliced strawberries into his mouth from above.

“I only brought one water, so don’t get too dehydrated,” he said.
“It’s okay.” Nick sat up, rolled partially over Marcus, and gave him a sultry look. “I know other ways to stay hydrated.”
“Oh yeah?” Marcus smirked back. “You sure I’m wet enough?”
“Not yet.”
Nick pulled Marcus into a sloppy kiss, his tongue snaking the around the inside of his mouth. He returned the kiss, then pulled away with a loud smack of lips and blew a raspberry. “Blegh. You’re salty.”
“Is it a hot salty?”
Marcus pushed him aside and rolled to his feet, brushing sand from his fur. “Is the water cold?”
“Cold enough.”

At the water’s edge, Marcus jumped as the chilly water lapped at his feet, but as he got used to it, he found its temperature to be the perfect compliment to the warm, sunny day. Swimming nude was especially satisfying.
The three of them spent the morning taking turns between the water and the beach, alternatively warming up in the sun before cooling off in the surf. They rarely talked while on land; the rabbits simply basked together in the light, their stress evaporating along with the seawater in their fur.

After a long quiet moment, Marcus peeked from under his arm to look at the blue, cloudless sky above them. On his right, Eddie had dozed off, one hand resting atop Marcus’s stomach, exactly on top of his stretch marks. Smiling, he entwined their hands together, gave it a squeeze, then dozed off himself.