Chapter Text
Getting ready for the day.
"Pop-pop, I can't tie my shoes."
"That's alright, Tigger, come here. Do you remember the bunny song?"
"Uh-huh! Criss-crossed the tree…"
"Papa, have you seen my red scrunchy? I can't find it anywhere!"
"Have you checked the bathroom, princess?
"Yes! And it's not there! And I have practice today!"
"Daddy, I want pigtails today!"
"Alright, ladybug. C'mon. Which colour are we doing today?"
"Hm… Purple! With-with the glitter stars!"
It was well known that a house with three children getting ready for the day would always and forever be a mess and mildly stressing, but one would assume that a house with three children and three adults, would run a lot smoother than two of the adults half dressed and the other one still half asleep without the coffee just starting to take effect in his body.
“Daddy, can we have pancakes?” Danny looked down to two pairs of blue eyes, looking pleadingly up to him.
“Pancakes are for the weekend, ladybug.” He replied, smiling softly when a cute little frown appeared on her face.
“Ok. Can I have Cheerios then?” Sophie asked instead, stretching her arms up.
“Of course. Ups-a-daisy.” He lifted her and let her grab the box of her favourite cereals.
Charlie had decided he didn’t want cereals today, so he walked to the other man in the kitchen, who was standing by the fridge. “Pop-pop, I want juice.”
“You got it Tigger.” He lifted him up too, not wanting the boy to get dizzy from having to look up for too long. “Apple or orange?”
“Appe.” Freddie and Danny chuckled at once at Charlie not pronouncing the “l”. It was endearing to no ends.
“Apple, Tigger.” Freddie corrected, gently, Charlie nodding.
“Applle.” He babbled back and well, it was close enough.
“Almost.” He kissed his nose, making him squeal in laughter before sitting him in his booster seat next to Sophie. “There we go. Do you want Cheerios, too?”
“Yes!” Danny grinned at his son and put some of the sticky cereals in his plastic bowl. “Thank you Daddy.”
“You are welcome, squirrel.” Danny mussed his hair up some before flattening it again and walking up to Freddie, who was buttoning up his shirt, much to Danny’s displeasure. “Good morning bear.” He said, going onto his tiptoes to kiss him. “How’d you sleep?”
Freddie smiled at him before giving him another kiss. “Morning sunshine. Like a baby. You and Steve tired me out. Where’s Steve by the way?”
“Helping Grace find her red scrunchy for practice. So you and I are on breakfast duty.”
“Princess, we really gotta do something about these scrunchies.” Steve sighed as he checked the higher shelves in the bathroom.
“I’m sorry Papa.” Grace mumbled, checking in the dirty clothes bin. “I didn’t mean to lose it.”
“That’s alright. How about you and I go to the mall this Saturday and buy a box or a basket where you can keep all of them in your room, huh?”
“Really?”
“Of course. We’ll make a date out of it. And maybe we can get pizza at that place you and Danno love, huh?”
“Yeah! Thanks papa!” She hugged him when she suddenly perked up. “I know where it is!”
“Where?” Steve questioned, following her to her room, watching her pat her bed.
“Aha!” She pulled it from the corner. “I was reading the other day and it was uncomfortable with the hair up so it took it off and put it there.
Well, that sounded like both Danny and Freddie would do, so he couldn’t say anything. Not when he thought it was so cute.
“We can still go buy a box, right?”
“Of course, kiddo. Now let’s go have breakfast, I’m starving and I’m pretty sure Danno made cheesey eggs.”
“I thought you didn’t like Daddy’s eggs.”
Steve grinned at her. “Just don’t tell him I do.”
“You and Pop-pop are bad.”
A little over ten minutes later, Steve and Grace finally appeared, a perfect, smooth ponytail, held together by a red scrunchie.
“Morning Danno, morning Pop-pop.” She said, kissing them both on the cheek.
“Morning Monkey.”
“Morning, princess.”
She sat down on the end of the table after grabbing her muesli and a banana, phone in hand.
“Grace, phone down.” Freddie said, tapping the table and although she huffed, she did as told.
“Good morning love.” Steve said, kissing Danny on the lips, getting a soft ‘Morning babe.’ in return. “Good morning darling.”
“Morning sweetheart.” Freddie grinned at him before accepting the kiss. “There’s more eggs in the pan.”
“Danno make them? Because it’s a pass then.” He said, shooting a teasing grin to his shorter boyfriend.
“Oh, shut up, you schmuck, if you don’t want them, I’m having seconds.” Danny glared at him, making a go at the pan.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” He said, scooping the remaining eggs onto his plate.
“Charlie, where’s your shoe?” Steve asked, looking at his son’s feet: one perfectly tied, the other shoe Lord knew where. “Did you take it off?”
“Nu-uh.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah! I promise!” He said, crossing his little arms over his chest and looking definitely at him. Yeah, Danno’s son, no doubt. “But I can’t go to school now!”
“Oh you can’t go to school, huh?”
“No, you have to wear both shoes, Papa.”
Steve sighed, barely refraining from pinching the bridge of his nose: he needed to ask Clara if her son had been this… sneaky, when he was a child. He had the feeling he already knew the answer. “Don’t you worry, Tigger, you sit here, and I’ll go look find it. Do not lose the other one, you hear me?”
“Yes, Papa.” At least he had the decency to not grin at him.
“Daddy, can I go to Leia’s house after practice?” Grace questioned, stepping into the bathroom, where he was looking for Charlie’s missing shoe.
“We’ll have to call her parents, Monkey. Can you go check if your brother threw the show under the table again, please?”
“But…”
“Grace, please. You are late enough as it is. I promise I’ll call Leia’s mum and ask her before coming to pick up your siblings, ok? And if she says yes , you can go.”
“Okay…”
“But I expect that homework will be done, correct?”
“Yes, Danno.” She smiled and hugged him. “Thank you Danno. You are the best. Love you.”
“And I love you too, Monkey. Do you want to help Pop-pop and I make dinner tomorrow?”
“Yeah! Can we make chicken parm?” Danny nodded at her and she grinned, almost clapping at the mention of her favourite dish. “Yay!”
“Perfect, now, your brother’s shoe, please.” He said, making her roll her eyes.
“Found it!!” Steve yelled, Grace crawling from under the table to watch him take it out of the bottom shelf of the fridge. “Charlie Williams, why was your shoe in the fridge?”
“Uhh… Fairy put it there?” He tried.
“Right. A fairy.” He replied, putting the shoe on his little fit and tying it again. “We’ve talked about this, you need to stop taking your shoes off and hiding them.”
“But I don’t wanna go! I wanna stay with Daddy!”
“Did something happen at school yesterday you didn’t tell us about, Tigger?” Freddie asked, sitting next to him on the sofa, with Sophie on his lap, Grace sitting on his other side because no one messed with her little brother. Or sister. It didn’t matter, if someone bothered them she was ready to throw a fist or two.
He grumbled something under his breath.
“Speak up, Charlie.” Danny said, coming behind them and leaning over the back of the sofa.
“They gave us brococoki. I don’t like brococoki.”
All of them started laughing at that. Well, all of them but Sophie, who was very much agreeing with her brother: broccoli was bad.
“Charlie, broccoli will make you big and strong like pop-pop.” Steve told him, lifting him up.
“Hmmm… Daddy didn’t eat brococoki.”
At least Grace tried to cover her mouth when she started laughing. Danny really had the worst partners ever. Guess who’d have a very nice plate of boiled broccoli tonight for dinner? Not him and the kids, he was making mac&cheese for them.
“Sorry, sorry, sunshine.” Freddie said, still sniggering, as he leaned down to nip at his lips before fully kissing him, ignoring the complaints from their children and smiling when Danny sighed against his lips. “We love you like this, you know that.”
“Yeah love, just playing. You are perfect.” Steve added, giving him a kiss too, cupping his face with a large hand.
“Sweet talkers, both of you.” He replied, but his eyes were shining with amusement and happiness.
“Pop-pop.”
“Yes, pumpkin?” Freddie asked as he put her seatbelt on.
“I need bathroom.”
“Now, Sophie? Why didn’t you say it sooner?” He questioned, undoing the seat belt.
“Get Charlie in, I’ll take her.” Steve said, hoisting her up and rushing into the house. “Pumpkin, you need to tell us before we leave the house, not after.”
“But I didn’t wanna go before!” She protested as her pants were pushed down and she was seated on the toilet.
Steve stepped outside: they had been trying to give both Sophie and Charlie more autonomy when it came to going to the bathroom and small stuff, but they were in a rush right now.
“Hey babe, what are you still doing here?” Danny said, leaning over the baranda only in sleep bottoms now.
“Sophie had to go to the bathroom.” He replied at the same time a tiny voice yelled ‘I’m done Papa’. “Coming pumpkin. And you, Mr. Williams, get down here and give us our goodbye kisses.”
“Seriously, Steven?” But he was already coming down the stairs.
“Very seriously.” He replied from the bathroom, flushing the toilet and coming out with Sophie.
“After making fun of me, you want kisses?” He teased.
“C’mon, Danno. We already apologised.” He whined. Not far from how their kids whined when they didn’t get their way. “And it’s going to be a long day, I need the strength.”
“I thought that was Freddie’s thing.”
“Love…” Danno chuckled before pressing a soft kiss on his lips. “Thank you. I love you.”
“I love you too. Now go, before you are late.” He took Sophie in his arms.
“Yeah, yeah. Bye pumpkin, be good at school.”
“Yeeeeees papa.”
“See you tonight, Danno.”
“Love you, babe. Be careful, don’t come home injured if possible.”
“Will do. Love you, too.”
Freddie grinned when Steve came up to the driver’s window and pulled him into a sweet kiss, Freddie’s hand coming to cup his jaw, thumb stroking his cheek.
“Love you, darling. Be good at work, yeah?”
“Me? That’s my phrase, I’m not the one who came with a black eye once..” Freddie chuckled before pushing for another short kiss. “Love you too, sweetheart.”
Once Sophie was back and secured in her seat, Danny kissed all of his kids and then took a step back, grinning when Freddie looked pointedly at him.
“Bear, you are going to be late.”
"Yeah, Pop-pop, we are going to be late." Grace sniggered, giggling.
“Well, then maybe you should give me my kiss too.” He pointed out, leaning over the window. “I already got Steve’s, I need yours too. I’ll feel like I’m missing something if you don’t.”
Danny smiled at him, both touched and so done with him at the same time, and pressed a loving kiss on his mouth.
“Drive carefully, and don’t let the little monsters drive you mad.”
“And you please use your glasses when you are on your laptop. Love you, sunshine.”
“Love you too, bear. Now go.”