Blood Blockade Battlefront; Like Kids in the Schoolyard Again

[alchemist_alice]

Title: Like Kids in the Schoolyard Again
Fandom: Blood Blockade Battlefront
Prompt: Domestic Bliss
Medium: Fic
Size: 2673 Words
Rating: T
Warnings: Cursing and implied sexual content.
Summary/Preview: On the rare day that Daniel gets off from work, he spends a majority of it with his husband's housekeeper and comes to realize just how lucky they are to have her around. When his husband does return home from work, he starts teasing Daniel for getting soft on him and offering their housekeeper a ride home after Daniel discovered her car was in disrepair.
Notes: Possible spoilers for Season 2 of Blood Blockade Battlefront. I know other people like to see these two in angsty situations, but I just want them to be happy. :)

Daniel has a hard time letting Steven out of bed this morning.

As his husband yawns beside him and gingerly pulls the blankets away from himself, he tries his best not to wake Daniel, who is sleeping entangled in the sheets right next to him. Feeling his weight leave the mattress, though, Daniel latches onto the hem of his boxers and gives them a yank for good measure.

"Morning," Steven bids him with a little smile, pressing a knee into the mattress so as to bend down for a kiss. "You enjoy your day off, okay? Mrs. Vedett should be by soon, so don't flip out if you hear noises in the kitchen or living room."

Muttering, Daniel raises himself up just enough to throw an arm around Steven's neck and drag him down to the mattress again, coiling his legs around him also. Steven's eyes widen a little as his husband jerks his face forward into a deeper kiss than before, pushing past his teeth with his tongue and snorting when Steven gags from the morning breath effect.

"May I please get ready for work now?" Steven pleads, smiling wryly at him. "If I stay in this position any longer then I'm afraid I'll have to defile you."

One of Daniel's brows arch into his forehead. "That wasn't what I had in mind," he grunts and releases his husband. "It's just hotter than Satan's balls in here and you're always a few degrees lower than the average body temp is supposed to be, so..."

Steven's grin flops into a lopsided frown. "Is that all I'm good for?"

"Quit pouting," Daniel chides him and staggers out of bed, feet getting caught in some of the sheets. "I didn't marry your dumb ass just because I like cuddling with you."

"Well," Steven persists, pursing his lips and throwing his arms around Daniel from behind, "why, then?"

Rolling his eyes, Daniel turns to look over his shoulder at him. "I guess I found you kinda cute for a money-grubbing, vigilante scumbag. Maybe."

Flashing another grin at him, Steven nuzzles into the side of his neck and continues, "And?"

"You're so damned self-destructive that someone has to look out for you." Daniel reaches into Steven's hair and strokes his scalp a little before pulling back on the dark, fluffy locks with a growl. "It's also preferable to worrying about you constantly, so it's helped with my blood pressure."

"If you quit smoking then your blood pressure would drop dramatically, love," Steven murmurs into his ear, tickling him a bit and prompting a shiver. "I know, I know. You hate when I harp about it, but it bothers me sometimes."

Wriggling out of his husband's octopus-like embrace, Daniel shimmies into his joggers and eyeballs him with a huff, "Okay, fine. I'll quit smoking if you can lay off the caffeine."

Steven jerks a little in place. "Look, we've been over this before and my job is very demanding. Sometimes I need an upper to help with the workload and caffeine is a much safer alternative than --"

"It causes blood pressure issues the same as nicotine," Daniel interjects. "I guess it doesn't matter, though. We have to cope somehow."

"I'm sorry," Steven apologizes with a scratch of the back of his neck, eyes lowered. "Heh. We're still arguing over trivial shit like this even though we're married now."

Daniel turns with a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth but not quite spreading his lips thin. "Isn't that why people get married? To justify all the petty crap they fought about beforehand?"

"Speaking of, do you want to share the shower with me?" offers Steven with his eyebrows waggling.

"Not a chance. I need my back and legs to function today because I have errands to run," Daniel says with a grin, noticing how his husband deflates a little at his response. Shaking his head with a chuckle, he walks over and pecks Steven on the cheek. "A consolation prize."

Steven whimpers a little but his husband pays him no heed, simply digging a towel out of the closet and dropping it into his arms. With a weak pout, Steven mopes into the bathroom and shuts the door behind him to start the shower. Daniel hears the front door click and open, and he peers around the bedroom door frame to spot Mrs. Vedett, their housekeeper, walking in.

"Mornin'," he calls to her, waving.

The Beyondian woman pauses a moment and laughs. "Good morning, Lieutenant."

"Steven's in the shower," Daniel tells her after he slips into a t-shirt and exits the bedroom to take her coat. "I think he left a list or something on the fridge, though. I'm not familiar enough with his daily routine to know what kinda housework he has you do, so..."

"It's all right," Mrs. Vedett bids him with a warm smile. "I haven't gotten used to seeing you here so regularly, so it's throwing me for a loop as well!"

Daniel saunters into the living room and retrieves a pack of cigarettes from the coffee table along with his lighter, settling onto the couch afterwards. He lights one and takes a drag, pawing around the cushions until he finds the remote and flips the local news on.

"I have some errands to run later on," he says to Mrs. Vedett as she's slipping into her apron. "You'll be alone in the apartment for a while, so is that okay?"

"Of course, sir," she reassures him, tying the strings in the back of her apron into a firm knot. "I'll have dinner ready before you return."

Daniel snaps his fingers in remembrance. "That's right, you get off early today. Almost forgot."

"I apologize for getting here so late today, but my car broke down last night," she explains, lowering her head a little. "I'll have to apologize to Mr. Starphase when he exits the shower also."

Turning to look over the couch's back at her, Daniel asks, "How did you get here?"

"A taxi," she replies while slipping her rubber gloves on and loading the dishwasher.

Daniel bites down on his cigarette and watches her flit around the kitchen for a few minutes while that unsettling lump thumps into the pit of his stomach. It's none of my business, he tells himself, but then again he can't just allow her to call a cab tonight, can he? Biting into his bottom lip, he mutes the TV and turns to converse a little more with her.

"How are the sprouts?"

Mrs. Vedett looks up from her task and beams back at him. "They love the capsule toys you gave me Saturday. My daughter, especially."

Daniel smiles a little at last. "I thought she'd like 'em best."

"You're going to spoil my children rotten with all of these gifts, Lieutenant," Mrs. Vedett teases him, wiping down the counters as she speaks. "Mr. Starphase never mentioned you liking children."

"Eh, well," Daniel mutters and takes his cigarette out of his mouth momentarily, "they kinda grow on you after a while. Your kids remind me of my brother, actually, when we were growing up."

Mrs. Vedett chuckles and wrings her sponge in the sink. "Well, if your brother was hyperactive and over-imaginative then I suppose he could be compared to my children."

"We were both little brats," Daniel says with a chuckle afterwards. "I don't know how our parents put up with us sometimes."

"It does take a great deal of patience," admits Mrs. Vedett, "but it's worth it, right?"

Daniel cocks his head at an angle. "Uh, I don't follow."

"You have to have a lot of patience to court a man like Mr. Starphase," she whispers, peering down the hallway towards the master bedroom. "He isn't a bad person but his people skills are a little lacking; he's always been the solitary type and I worried for the longest time about him."

Replacing his cigarette, Daniel takes another drag and exhales with a softer smile than before. "Steven's lucky to have someone like you looking after him."

"Damn right I am," cuts in Steven, emerging from their bedroom in his usual suit and tie ensemble for the office. He strides down the hallway and into the kitchen, right behind Mrs. Vedett. "In fact, she's my number one lady."

"Really, Mr. Starphase, you're a married man now," Mrs. Vedett scolds him with a laugh, shaking her head as he lifts her gloved hand to kiss the back of it as he winks at her. "Here. I just brewed a fresh pot of coffee and filled your thermos."

Steven takes the thermos offered to him and takes a little half-bow as a way of showing gratitude. "Good luck with the lout, Vedett. If he misbehaves, I promise to punish him properly when I come home tonight."

When Steven strolls across the room and over to the couch, he's regarded with a snort as he bends down. Daniel looks up and the man is only a few inches from the top of his head, staring at him expectantly. Angling his mouth to one side, Daniel finally poses the inevitable question, "What?"

"You know what," Steven presses, closing his eyes and smiling. "I need my daily dose of vitamin Daniel to start my day off right."

"Cornball," Daniel grumbles and cranes his neck to reach Steven for a quick kiss on the cheek. "Get outta here already or you'll be late."

Steven exhales in a dreamy sigh. "See you tonight."

"Uh-huh," Daniel drones and flips through the channels. "Try not to get killed out there."

"Thanks for babysitting, Vedett!" Steven calls as he closes the door behind him, deftly dodging a shoe thrown in his direction. Daniel growls under his breath and flops onto the couch again, but hearing Mrs. Vedett chuckle behind him as she continues with her work abates his aggravation just a little.

As the morning slowly drags into the afternoon and that into the evening, Daniel returns home after having run his errands to find Mrs. Vedett finishing up her own work around the apartment. The smell of clean laundry guilts him into extinguishing his cigarette before he even walks through the door, not wanting to ruin her hard work. He ambles into the kitchen to put some groceries away and waits until she turns her back to him to slip something from a brown bag into his coat pocket instead.

"I'm all through," she announces, turning to smile at him and take off her apron. "Please tell Mr. Starphase that I folded the load of laundry he left in the dryer and laid it out on his bed for him."

"Do you need a lift home?" Daniel offers at length, waiting until she pulls her phone out of her coat to hail a cab. "It's late and I don't feel right lettin' a lady catch a cab this time of night."

Mrs. Vedett blinks a few times. "Are you sure it won't be an inconvenience to you?"

Daniel smiles. "Course not. I'll sleep easier knowing you got home safely."

"That's very kind of you," Mrs. Vedett follows him into the hallway and to the elevator. "I appreciate it."

They exit the large building and head into the secured parking lot to Daniel's car, which isn't much of a looker considering his salary, but Mrs. Vedett is nothing if not grateful to him and says nothing about the messy state of affairs inside.

"Uh, sorry. I've had nothing but double shifts for the past week, so I've been living out of my car almost," Daniel mutters as he clears the passenger seat of fast food wrappers and bags, tossing them into the backseat instead. "I keep meaning to clean the damn thing out, too."

Mrs. Vedett laughs a little and clasps her hands in her lap after she takes her seat. "It's understandable. You're a very busy man."

"You should hear what Steven has to say about it," kids Daniel, grinning back at her as he fasten his seat belt and starts the car. "Sometimes I think he does it just to annoy me."

"Probably," admits Mrs. Vedett as they pull put of the apartment complex, "but I doubt there's malicious intent. Mr. Starphase is just a little playful sometimes."

Daniel snorts, "More like always."

"But only around those he's closest to and cares for," adds Mrs. Vedett, meeting his gaze between their seats momentarily. "I know he cares a great deal for you, Lieutenant, so consider yourself a lucky man."

"He's the lucky one," Daniel spouts and turns the corner. "He's had you helping him every step of the way and I'm glad for that. Eases my mind a little."

Mrs. Vedett regards him with a tilt of her head.

"We're both lucky to have you with us, actually. Our jobs don't allow much time for things like housework and the place would be a sty without you," Daniel continues, stopping at an intersection after the light turns. He looks back at her and finishes, "So, thanks for all that you do."

A warmth envelops Mrs. Vedett and she's smiling brighter than before as Daniel pulls up to the curb of her apartment building. As she gathers her purse and other bag, Daniel slips something out of his pocket and offers it to her.

"I don't know if your kids can have sweets this late, but there was a sale at the deli."

Two lollipops wrapped in bright foil catch the light of a streetlamp and glint off of Mrs. Vedett's eyes, lighting her face even more. She graciously accepts them and bobs her head. "I'm sure they'll enjoy them during lunch at school tomorrow. Thank you, Lieutenant."

"Have a good night," Daniel bids her as she exits the car. "Tell the sprouts I said hi."

"I will," Mrs. Vedett chirps and closes the door behind her, climbing the stairs but stopping at the top landing to wave at him. "Goodnight."

Daniel waves back to her and pulls away from the curb to head home. After he arrives and parks his car in its usual spot, he catches a glimpse of his husband's car in the spot adjacent to his. With his heart thumping just a little, he heads up the elevator and back to their apartment.

"Babe, is that you?" calls Steven from the kitchen.

"Yeah," Daniel answers him as he closes the door and locks it behind him. "I was just giving Mrs. Vedett a ride home."

The dishes stop clinking together and Steven pokes his head around the corner, curious. "Oh?"

"She meant to tell you that she was late this morning 'cause her car broke down last night." Daniel walks past him to the fridge, rifling through it for the dinner that Mrs. Vedett prepared earlier for them. "Why the hell are you grinning like an idiot?"

"Because you're such a sweetheart," Steven sings, passing him to take their plates from the fridge and pop them into the microwave. "There's no use denying it, either."

Daniel thins his lips into a tight line and pours himself a cup of coffee. "So, what? You're saying I've gone soft or something?"

"You've always been a softy," Steven whispers as he takes their plates and heads into the living room. "It just takes the right kind of person to bring it out."

"Oh yeah?" Daniel plops beside him with two cups of coffee in hand. "Well, you aren't as frigid as you always pretend to be, Tin Man."

Steven chuckles and throws his arm around his husband's shoulders, drawing him close to his side. "I have you and Mrs. Vedett to thank for that."

"She's a keeper," Daniel admits with a laugh. "We're lucky to have her."

Exhausted but chipper, Steven tilts his head to press a his lips to Daniel's for a minute, lingering. He pulls away with a wet pop and bumps foreheads with the other man with a smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. "She is at that."