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rsadelleTitle: The Popsicle Man
Author: Ruth Sadelle Alderson
Pairing: Chris/Steve (past Steve/Danneel)
Rating: FRAO
Word Count: 3000
Disclaimer: Completely made up.
Summary: "Look! Ice cream!" Kayla tugged at Steve's hand. "Please, Daddy, please can we get some?" AU.
Notes: This started as a writing exercise from my writing group (I had the prompts "look," "full house," and "plant," which became bushes in the end). I eventually realized I wanted to write the beginning and something that's near the end, but not all the intervening parts.
I. Opening
"Look! Ice cream!" Kayla tugged at Steve's hand. "Please, Daddy, please can we get some?"
"Scream!" Noah echoed from his perch on Steve's shoulders, his shout accompanied by excited clapping. It was a good thing Noah didn't quite have the coordination to clap very loudly, or Steve might have lost the hearing in one ear.
Steve looked across the path to the ice cream cart that had attracted Kayla's attention. "Ice cream it is," he said. "Look both ways," he reminded her, looking himself to make sure there weren't any bicyclists or skaters coming down the path toward them.
As soon as they were on the other side of the path, Kayla tore herself away from Steve and hurtled toward the ice cream cart. There wasn't anyone or anything between them and the cart, so Steve just let her run. He could see her, and it would give her time to change her mind a couple of times before he got there.
There was a group of guys in plastic chairs behind the cart. One of them, a burly guy Steve picked out as the guy running the cart, looked up at Kayla's approach, looked past her to Steve, and was apparently satisfied that he didn't have to do anything else just yet because he went back to the cards in his hand.
"Let's see 'em," the bald guy was saying as Steve came close enough to hear them.
"Pair of twos," the guy who made his chair look like a piece of Kayla's doll furniture said, fanning his cards out toward the rest of the group.
The pretty guy next to him groaned. "I can't believe you're betting our money on a pair of twos."
"Especially when I've got a full house," the burly guy said. Like the pretty guy and the big guy, the burly guy had a touch of an accent, but where theirs were lazy drawls, his was a low rumble that sent shivers down Steve's spine. "Jacks over sixes." The guy dumped a pile of chips from a plastic bowl on the grass in the middle of the chairs into a different plastic bowl in front of his chair. He handed his cards to the bald guy and stood. "Deal me out. Howdy," he greeted Steve.
Up close, Steve could see the guy wasn't so much burly as just plain ripped. His dark blue t-shirt stretched tight over lines of muscle Steve would be more than happy to trace with his tongue. He reminded himself he had kids now and couldn't just drag the guy into the bushes. Not that he was sure the guy swung that way, or that there were really enough bushes around to hide them. It was a pretty open park.
Steve smiled back at the guy. "Hi." He swung Noah to the ground so he could see the ice cream pictures at kid level.
Noah promptly pressed his hands to the array of pictures. "Scream!" he yelled again.
The guy working the cart chuckled. And he appreciated kids. If he turned out to be gay and have good taste in music, Steve might have just found the perfect guy.
Steve flashed the guy a grin and crouched down to look at the ice cream choices with the kids. The poker game he'd almost forgotten about was still going on behind the cart, the men's voices filtering around the other sounds of the park.
"Your bet," one of the other Southern guys said.
"Two," the bald guy said.
Kayla leaned against Steve. "Can I have that one?" She pointed at a red thing that was sure to leave stains all over her shirt.
"You can have whichever one you want," Steve promised, only thinking to see what they had on offer after he'd said it. As long as he was letting them have junk food, there wasn't anything there the kids absolutely couldn't have.
"That one," Kayla said firmly.
"Okay." Steve stood again. "We'll take one of the red ones with two sticks, and an ice cream sandwich." Noah was still slapping from one picture to another, and he would be happy with anything.
The guy opened the cart and handed over a popsicle and a sandwich. "Nothing for you?"
Steve shrugged. "The kids can make enough of a mess without me." He handed over a couple of bills and unwrapped the ice cream for the kids.
"Here." The guy held out a popsicle to Steve. "Go on," he said when Steve hesitated. "My treat. You should have one too."
Steve accepted the popsicle. "Thanks." He tore the wrapping off of it and stuck it in his mouth. Its icy sweetness exploded across his tongue.
During this exchange, Kayla had made her way around the cart to watch the card game. Steve scooped up Noah and followed her.
"Hi, kiddo," the big guy said. "You know anything about poker?"
Kayla nodded and pulled her popsicle out of her mouth. "Mommy said never draw to an inside straight."
The big guy laughed, and the pretty guy and the bald guy were also smiling. The hot guy smirked.
"When did she say that?" Steve asked.
Kayla looked up at him. "When Aunt Sophia taught me to play." So much for Danni being the responsible parent. Steve tried not to laugh.
"Aunt Sophia," he said, "of course. Come on." Between Noah and his own red and orange swirled popsicle, he didn't have a free hand for Kayla. "Let's go sit on the bench and let these guys play their game."
Kayla came away easily, and Steve smiled at the assembled group of guys, letting it grow wider when he reached the ripped guy. "Thanks," he said again, and took the kids off to the bench.
***
Chris lowered himself back into his chair. "Deal me back in."
"Cute kids," Jared said.
"Cute dad," Mike smirked.
"Didn't notice," Chris lied.
All three of them laughed at him. "You did the popsicle thing," Jensen pointed out.
So what if he had? The bench the guy had taken his kids to was close enough that Chris could still see the way his mouth looked wrapped around the popsicle. "Done that to a lot of people," Chris said.
"Only people you want to fuck," Jared said cheerfully, and then he shut up about it and dealt the cards.
Chris lost every hand until the guy took his kids and left. Mike laughed until Chris threatened to make him shut up.
Sure he thought the guy was hot, but Chris would probably never see him again, so what was the harm in giving away a popsicle just to see how his lips looked around it? He didn't regret doing it even though it got him teased all day, and he jerked off that night to the memory of the way the guy's cheeks hollowed around the popsicle.
The next day was a Tuesday, which meant Jared, Jensen, and Mike were on the early shift at Seven instead of in the park with him, so it was just Chris behind the cart with his guitar and a book. He kept a weather eye out for customers, so he saw that there was someone coming his way, but he waited until whoever it was was close enough that he could be pretty sure they were coming to his cart before he really looked to see who it was. He couldn't have stopped the smile that spread across his face when he saw it was the guy from the day before even if he'd wanted to.
"Howdy," he greeted the guy.
The guy grinned back at him. "Hi."
"No kids today?" Chris asked.
The guy leaned against the cart, both his forearms folded onto the top of it. They were nice arms, soft instead of defined muscle, knuckles standing out against the length of his fingers.
"They're with their mom," the guy answered. He smiled lazily at Chris, and Chris almost tugged him across the cart to kiss him right then and there. He thought better of it, though.
"No poker today?" the guy asked before Chris could say anything.
"Nah." Chris pushed his hat back on his head and then resettled it. "They all work today."
"Me too," the guy said. "But not until four." He took half a step back and looked down at the pictures along the front of Chris's cart. "What's good?"
Chris shrugged. "Most of it's just frozen sugar water."
"So what's your favorite?" The guy looked back up at Chris. Chris spent a long, long moment just looking into the gray-blue of the guy's eyes before he answered.
"Um. Root beer. Single stick."
There was a smile playing around the guy's lips. "Yeah?"
Chris shrugged, embarrassed to admit to such a kid favorite.
The guy didn't seem to be mocking him, though. "Give me two of those," he said.
Chris pulled them out of the cart and handed them over to the guy in exchange for a couple of dollars. The guy promptly handed one of the popsicles back to Chris.
"My treat." The guy was smiling so hopefully that Chris couldn't say no.
"Thanks." He pulled a second chair off the rack on the cart and unfolded it. "Have a seat."
"Thanks. I'm Steve." Steve sat down, and Chris had to tear his eyes away from the popsicle in Steve's mouth before he could sit down too.
"Chris."
Steve pulled off of his popsicle with a swirl of his tongue. "Nice to meet you."
"Yeah," Chris agreed, his voice coming out a little rougher than he'd intended. He stuck his popsicle into his mouth. Chris had gotten sick of popsicles in the first month or so of selling them, but he still liked the occasional one, and there was nothing like having one with a guy he wanted to fuck.
Steve nodded at Chris's guitar. "You play?"
"Occasional gigs," Chris told him. "I write more though."
"Cool." Steve sucked on his popsicle. "You ever play at Billy's?"
"Once." He kept hoping to get another gig there. "Good crowd."
"The best."
The way Steve was sucking on his popsicle was totally distracting. It was probably Chris's turn to say something.
"So what do you do?" Chris finally asked.
The downside, or upside, depending on perspective, of talking was that it meant Steve's mouth slid all the way off of his popsicle.
"I'm a chef," he said, and Chris stared at him. "At Maison Angelique."
If Chris's mama had seen him, she'd have been telling him to shut his mouth before he caught any more flies. Just the thought of her saying it was enough to make him sit up a little straighter and close his mouth.
"Jared, Jensen, and Mike, the guys who were here yesterday?"
Steve nodded.
"They all work at Seven."
***
II. Settled
Steve clenched his hands together. He had to do something with them. In the chair next to him, Danni had Noah and was petting her hand over his hair and down his shoulder over and over again even though he'd fallen asleep.
Someone crouched down in front of him, and Steve looked from his hands into Chris's face.
"Chris. What are you doing here?"
Chris put his hands over Steve's. "Where else would I be?"
Chris had called, earlier, when Steve hadn't shown up for their date, and Steve had been a little distracted.
"Shit," he'd said. "Chris, I can't. We're at the hospital with Kayla. I don't know how long we'll be here." Before Chris could say anything, one of the nurses had come to find them, and he'd said, "I have to go," and hung up. He hadn't meant it as asking Chris to come, but he was glad he had.
Steve relaxed his hands, only to tighten them again around Chris's. "Thanks," he managed.
Chris let go of one of his hands to put it against Steve's cheek. It was ridiculously romantic, and Steve wanted it to never end.
"It's her appendix," he said. "She's in surgery."
Chris's thumb stroked across Steve's cheek. "She's a tough kid. She'll be fine."
Steve nodded. She had to be fine. And then he remembered he should be making introductions.
"Oh, this is Danneel. Danni, this is Chris."
Chris took the hand away from Steve's cheek to shake Danni's hand.
"The popsicle man," Danni said, and she was smiling as much as she could with their kid in surgery. "I've heard a lot about you."
"I've heard a lot about you, too," Chris said. "Never draw to an inside straight."
Danni's lips twitched up into a real smile. "Right," she said.
"You two need anything?" Chris asked. "Coffee, food, shot of whiskey?"
"No," Danni said, clutching Noah a little closer.
Steve shook his head. The only thing he needed wasn't something Chris could give him.
Chris stood up and reached out to touch Noah - just a gentle cupping of his hand over the back of Noah's head, exactly the kind of thing Steve might have done - before he sat down in the chair next to Steve. Then he took Steve's hand between both of his.
They were there forever before someone came to find them. Kayla was out of surgery. She was going to be fine, they said.
"Here," Chris said, holding out his arms outside Kayla's rooms. "I'll take Noah while you go in to see her."
Danni hesitated for a moment. Steve nodded at her, and she carefully shifted Noah into Chris's arms.
Kayla was out, and she looked tiny and fragile in the giant hospital bed. Steve put his arm around Danni, and they leaned against each other.
"One of us should take Noah home," he murmured.
Danni turned away from staring at their baby to look into Steve's eyes. "I'll stay," she said. Her lips pressed warm against his cheek. "You and Chris take Noah home."
"You sure?" Steve asked.
Danni smiled at him, kind of sad and kind of happy all at the same time. "Yeah, I'm sure."
Steve squeezed her hand. "You'll call me if anything."
"Yeah, of course." Danni shoved at his shoulder. "Go home. Get some sleep."
Steve bent down and whispered his I love yous to Kayla even though she was asleep. Danni was out in the hallway when he came out, doing the same thing with Noah.
"We'll be back first thing," Steve said. He cupped his hand around the back of Danni's head and drew her in to lean against his shoulder for a moment.
She nodded against him, and then went back into Kayla's room.
Steve took Noah from Chris, and Chris demanded Steve's keys in return.
Steve kept turning around, in the car, to look at Noah in the back seat. Not that anyone looking at Kayla could have done anything about her appendix, but he still needed to keep an eye on his kid.
Chris unlocked the door to the house for him, and Steve flipped on lights all the way down the hall to Noah's room. He sat with Noah for a while, just watching him sleep, before he remembered that Chris was there and they'd brought Steve's car so he couldn't even go if he wanted to.
Chris was still standing in the middle of the living room. He looked up when Steve came in.
"I was so scared," he said, "when you said she was in the hospital, and then I thought if I was that scared, how you must feel."
Steve took a step and the first sob tore out of him before he even reached Chris. He cried into Chris's shoulder while Chris held him tight, all that solid muscle devoted to keeping him there. When his sobs gentled into just crying, he tipped his head up and kissed Chris. It wasn't much of a kiss, because he was still crying and gasping, but Chris kissed him back, and then they were biting at each other's mouths and Steve had just enough presence of mind to drag Chris down the hall to his room and lock the door in case Noah woke up.
He fucked Chris fast and hard, Chris on his back spread across Steve's bed, and the two of them clinging to each other.
Steve had barely flopped down on the bed next to Chris afterwards before he had Chris, still sweaty and covered in his own come, on top of him, kissing him breathless all over again.
"I love you," Steve gasped out between kisses.
Chris groaned. "I'm so crazy for you. Steve, you don't even know. I just--" Words seemed to fail him and he set to kissing Steve again.
They stopped kissing after a while, because Steve was starting to come down and it had been a really, really long day.
It was usually Steve insisting they get dressed in case the kids came in, but this time Chris forced him out of bed to pull on pajama pants, and Chris unlocked the door.
***
Something woke Chris up. When he glanced across the bed, the clock showed it was morning. Steve was still asleep. There was a noise. Maybe that was what woke him up. It came again, and Chris recognized it for what it was: Noah.
Chris slipped out of bed and down the hall to Noah's room.
"Hey, kiddo." He lifted Noah up. Having Noah cling to and cuddle with him was just as big a thrill as having Steve say he loved him.
Steve liked to make a lot of waffles at once and keep them in the freezer. Chris had one heated up, drizzled with syrup, and cut up for Noah when Steve came into the kitchen.
Steve picked Noah up and sat back down with Noah on his lap.
"Waffles?" Chris asked, barely resisting the urge to sit in Steve's lap himself.
"Yeah. And coffee." Steve pressed his lips to Noah's temple. "And then we'll go see Kayla."
"At the 'pital," Noah said through a mouthful of waffle.
"Yes, at the hospital," Steve said. "Chew with your mouth closed."
Chris tossed a couple of waffles into the toaster and started the coffeemaker. While he waited for them, he went over and draped his arms over Steve. They were both bare chested and their skin slid and caught against each other.
Later, they left Noah on the couch watching a Tivo'd episode of Sesame Street and shared a quick shower.
"You're everything I want," Chris said. "You and the kids."
Steve put his arms around Chris and his head against Chris's shoulder. "You've got us."
Author: Ruth Sadelle Alderson
Pairing: Chris/Steve (past Steve/Danneel)
Rating: FRAO
Word Count: 3000
Disclaimer: Completely made up.
Summary: "Look! Ice cream!" Kayla tugged at Steve's hand. "Please, Daddy, please can we get some?" AU.
Notes: This started as a writing exercise from my writing group (I had the prompts "look," "full house," and "plant," which became bushes in the end). I eventually realized I wanted to write the beginning and something that's near the end, but not all the intervening parts.
I. Opening
"Look! Ice cream!" Kayla tugged at Steve's hand. "Please, Daddy, please can we get some?"
"Scream!" Noah echoed from his perch on Steve's shoulders, his shout accompanied by excited clapping. It was a good thing Noah didn't quite have the coordination to clap very loudly, or Steve might have lost the hearing in one ear.
Steve looked across the path to the ice cream cart that had attracted Kayla's attention. "Ice cream it is," he said. "Look both ways," he reminded her, looking himself to make sure there weren't any bicyclists or skaters coming down the path toward them.
As soon as they were on the other side of the path, Kayla tore herself away from Steve and hurtled toward the ice cream cart. There wasn't anyone or anything between them and the cart, so Steve just let her run. He could see her, and it would give her time to change her mind a couple of times before he got there.
There was a group of guys in plastic chairs behind the cart. One of them, a burly guy Steve picked out as the guy running the cart, looked up at Kayla's approach, looked past her to Steve, and was apparently satisfied that he didn't have to do anything else just yet because he went back to the cards in his hand.
"Let's see 'em," the bald guy was saying as Steve came close enough to hear them.
"Pair of twos," the guy who made his chair look like a piece of Kayla's doll furniture said, fanning his cards out toward the rest of the group.
The pretty guy next to him groaned. "I can't believe you're betting our money on a pair of twos."
"Especially when I've got a full house," the burly guy said. Like the pretty guy and the big guy, the burly guy had a touch of an accent, but where theirs were lazy drawls, his was a low rumble that sent shivers down Steve's spine. "Jacks over sixes." The guy dumped a pile of chips from a plastic bowl on the grass in the middle of the chairs into a different plastic bowl in front of his chair. He handed his cards to the bald guy and stood. "Deal me out. Howdy," he greeted Steve.
Up close, Steve could see the guy wasn't so much burly as just plain ripped. His dark blue t-shirt stretched tight over lines of muscle Steve would be more than happy to trace with his tongue. He reminded himself he had kids now and couldn't just drag the guy into the bushes. Not that he was sure the guy swung that way, or that there were really enough bushes around to hide them. It was a pretty open park.
Steve smiled back at the guy. "Hi." He swung Noah to the ground so he could see the ice cream pictures at kid level.
Noah promptly pressed his hands to the array of pictures. "Scream!" he yelled again.
The guy working the cart chuckled. And he appreciated kids. If he turned out to be gay and have good taste in music, Steve might have just found the perfect guy.
Steve flashed the guy a grin and crouched down to look at the ice cream choices with the kids. The poker game he'd almost forgotten about was still going on behind the cart, the men's voices filtering around the other sounds of the park.
"Your bet," one of the other Southern guys said.
"Two," the bald guy said.
Kayla leaned against Steve. "Can I have that one?" She pointed at a red thing that was sure to leave stains all over her shirt.
"You can have whichever one you want," Steve promised, only thinking to see what they had on offer after he'd said it. As long as he was letting them have junk food, there wasn't anything there the kids absolutely couldn't have.
"That one," Kayla said firmly.
"Okay." Steve stood again. "We'll take one of the red ones with two sticks, and an ice cream sandwich." Noah was still slapping from one picture to another, and he would be happy with anything.
The guy opened the cart and handed over a popsicle and a sandwich. "Nothing for you?"
Steve shrugged. "The kids can make enough of a mess without me." He handed over a couple of bills and unwrapped the ice cream for the kids.
"Here." The guy held out a popsicle to Steve. "Go on," he said when Steve hesitated. "My treat. You should have one too."
Steve accepted the popsicle. "Thanks." He tore the wrapping off of it and stuck it in his mouth. Its icy sweetness exploded across his tongue.
During this exchange, Kayla had made her way around the cart to watch the card game. Steve scooped up Noah and followed her.
"Hi, kiddo," the big guy said. "You know anything about poker?"
Kayla nodded and pulled her popsicle out of her mouth. "Mommy said never draw to an inside straight."
The big guy laughed, and the pretty guy and the bald guy were also smiling. The hot guy smirked.
"When did she say that?" Steve asked.
Kayla looked up at him. "When Aunt Sophia taught me to play." So much for Danni being the responsible parent. Steve tried not to laugh.
"Aunt Sophia," he said, "of course. Come on." Between Noah and his own red and orange swirled popsicle, he didn't have a free hand for Kayla. "Let's go sit on the bench and let these guys play their game."
Kayla came away easily, and Steve smiled at the assembled group of guys, letting it grow wider when he reached the ripped guy. "Thanks," he said again, and took the kids off to the bench.
***
Chris lowered himself back into his chair. "Deal me back in."
"Cute kids," Jared said.
"Cute dad," Mike smirked.
"Didn't notice," Chris lied.
All three of them laughed at him. "You did the popsicle thing," Jensen pointed out.
So what if he had? The bench the guy had taken his kids to was close enough that Chris could still see the way his mouth looked wrapped around the popsicle. "Done that to a lot of people," Chris said.
"Only people you want to fuck," Jared said cheerfully, and then he shut up about it and dealt the cards.
Chris lost every hand until the guy took his kids and left. Mike laughed until Chris threatened to make him shut up.
Sure he thought the guy was hot, but Chris would probably never see him again, so what was the harm in giving away a popsicle just to see how his lips looked around it? He didn't regret doing it even though it got him teased all day, and he jerked off that night to the memory of the way the guy's cheeks hollowed around the popsicle.
The next day was a Tuesday, which meant Jared, Jensen, and Mike were on the early shift at Seven instead of in the park with him, so it was just Chris behind the cart with his guitar and a book. He kept a weather eye out for customers, so he saw that there was someone coming his way, but he waited until whoever it was was close enough that he could be pretty sure they were coming to his cart before he really looked to see who it was. He couldn't have stopped the smile that spread across his face when he saw it was the guy from the day before even if he'd wanted to.
"Howdy," he greeted the guy.
The guy grinned back at him. "Hi."
"No kids today?" Chris asked.
The guy leaned against the cart, both his forearms folded onto the top of it. They were nice arms, soft instead of defined muscle, knuckles standing out against the length of his fingers.
"They're with their mom," the guy answered. He smiled lazily at Chris, and Chris almost tugged him across the cart to kiss him right then and there. He thought better of it, though.
"No poker today?" the guy asked before Chris could say anything.
"Nah." Chris pushed his hat back on his head and then resettled it. "They all work today."
"Me too," the guy said. "But not until four." He took half a step back and looked down at the pictures along the front of Chris's cart. "What's good?"
Chris shrugged. "Most of it's just frozen sugar water."
"So what's your favorite?" The guy looked back up at Chris. Chris spent a long, long moment just looking into the gray-blue of the guy's eyes before he answered.
"Um. Root beer. Single stick."
There was a smile playing around the guy's lips. "Yeah?"
Chris shrugged, embarrassed to admit to such a kid favorite.
The guy didn't seem to be mocking him, though. "Give me two of those," he said.
Chris pulled them out of the cart and handed them over to the guy in exchange for a couple of dollars. The guy promptly handed one of the popsicles back to Chris.
"My treat." The guy was smiling so hopefully that Chris couldn't say no.
"Thanks." He pulled a second chair off the rack on the cart and unfolded it. "Have a seat."
"Thanks. I'm Steve." Steve sat down, and Chris had to tear his eyes away from the popsicle in Steve's mouth before he could sit down too.
"Chris."
Steve pulled off of his popsicle with a swirl of his tongue. "Nice to meet you."
"Yeah," Chris agreed, his voice coming out a little rougher than he'd intended. He stuck his popsicle into his mouth. Chris had gotten sick of popsicles in the first month or so of selling them, but he still liked the occasional one, and there was nothing like having one with a guy he wanted to fuck.
Steve nodded at Chris's guitar. "You play?"
"Occasional gigs," Chris told him. "I write more though."
"Cool." Steve sucked on his popsicle. "You ever play at Billy's?"
"Once." He kept hoping to get another gig there. "Good crowd."
"The best."
The way Steve was sucking on his popsicle was totally distracting. It was probably Chris's turn to say something.
"So what do you do?" Chris finally asked.
The downside, or upside, depending on perspective, of talking was that it meant Steve's mouth slid all the way off of his popsicle.
"I'm a chef," he said, and Chris stared at him. "At Maison Angelique."
If Chris's mama had seen him, she'd have been telling him to shut his mouth before he caught any more flies. Just the thought of her saying it was enough to make him sit up a little straighter and close his mouth.
"Jared, Jensen, and Mike, the guys who were here yesterday?"
Steve nodded.
"They all work at Seven."
***
II. Settled
Steve clenched his hands together. He had to do something with them. In the chair next to him, Danni had Noah and was petting her hand over his hair and down his shoulder over and over again even though he'd fallen asleep.
Someone crouched down in front of him, and Steve looked from his hands into Chris's face.
"Chris. What are you doing here?"
Chris put his hands over Steve's. "Where else would I be?"
Chris had called, earlier, when Steve hadn't shown up for their date, and Steve had been a little distracted.
"Shit," he'd said. "Chris, I can't. We're at the hospital with Kayla. I don't know how long we'll be here." Before Chris could say anything, one of the nurses had come to find them, and he'd said, "I have to go," and hung up. He hadn't meant it as asking Chris to come, but he was glad he had.
Steve relaxed his hands, only to tighten them again around Chris's. "Thanks," he managed.
Chris let go of one of his hands to put it against Steve's cheek. It was ridiculously romantic, and Steve wanted it to never end.
"It's her appendix," he said. "She's in surgery."
Chris's thumb stroked across Steve's cheek. "She's a tough kid. She'll be fine."
Steve nodded. She had to be fine. And then he remembered he should be making introductions.
"Oh, this is Danneel. Danni, this is Chris."
Chris took the hand away from Steve's cheek to shake Danni's hand.
"The popsicle man," Danni said, and she was smiling as much as she could with their kid in surgery. "I've heard a lot about you."
"I've heard a lot about you, too," Chris said. "Never draw to an inside straight."
Danni's lips twitched up into a real smile. "Right," she said.
"You two need anything?" Chris asked. "Coffee, food, shot of whiskey?"
"No," Danni said, clutching Noah a little closer.
Steve shook his head. The only thing he needed wasn't something Chris could give him.
Chris stood up and reached out to touch Noah - just a gentle cupping of his hand over the back of Noah's head, exactly the kind of thing Steve might have done - before he sat down in the chair next to Steve. Then he took Steve's hand between both of his.
They were there forever before someone came to find them. Kayla was out of surgery. She was going to be fine, they said.
"Here," Chris said, holding out his arms outside Kayla's rooms. "I'll take Noah while you go in to see her."
Danni hesitated for a moment. Steve nodded at her, and she carefully shifted Noah into Chris's arms.
Kayla was out, and she looked tiny and fragile in the giant hospital bed. Steve put his arm around Danni, and they leaned against each other.
"One of us should take Noah home," he murmured.
Danni turned away from staring at their baby to look into Steve's eyes. "I'll stay," she said. Her lips pressed warm against his cheek. "You and Chris take Noah home."
"You sure?" Steve asked.
Danni smiled at him, kind of sad and kind of happy all at the same time. "Yeah, I'm sure."
Steve squeezed her hand. "You'll call me if anything."
"Yeah, of course." Danni shoved at his shoulder. "Go home. Get some sleep."
Steve bent down and whispered his I love yous to Kayla even though she was asleep. Danni was out in the hallway when he came out, doing the same thing with Noah.
"We'll be back first thing," Steve said. He cupped his hand around the back of Danni's head and drew her in to lean against his shoulder for a moment.
She nodded against him, and then went back into Kayla's room.
Steve took Noah from Chris, and Chris demanded Steve's keys in return.
Steve kept turning around, in the car, to look at Noah in the back seat. Not that anyone looking at Kayla could have done anything about her appendix, but he still needed to keep an eye on his kid.
Chris unlocked the door to the house for him, and Steve flipped on lights all the way down the hall to Noah's room. He sat with Noah for a while, just watching him sleep, before he remembered that Chris was there and they'd brought Steve's car so he couldn't even go if he wanted to.
Chris was still standing in the middle of the living room. He looked up when Steve came in.
"I was so scared," he said, "when you said she was in the hospital, and then I thought if I was that scared, how you must feel."
Steve took a step and the first sob tore out of him before he even reached Chris. He cried into Chris's shoulder while Chris held him tight, all that solid muscle devoted to keeping him there. When his sobs gentled into just crying, he tipped his head up and kissed Chris. It wasn't much of a kiss, because he was still crying and gasping, but Chris kissed him back, and then they were biting at each other's mouths and Steve had just enough presence of mind to drag Chris down the hall to his room and lock the door in case Noah woke up.
He fucked Chris fast and hard, Chris on his back spread across Steve's bed, and the two of them clinging to each other.
Steve had barely flopped down on the bed next to Chris afterwards before he had Chris, still sweaty and covered in his own come, on top of him, kissing him breathless all over again.
"I love you," Steve gasped out between kisses.
Chris groaned. "I'm so crazy for you. Steve, you don't even know. I just--" Words seemed to fail him and he set to kissing Steve again.
They stopped kissing after a while, because Steve was starting to come down and it had been a really, really long day.
It was usually Steve insisting they get dressed in case the kids came in, but this time Chris forced him out of bed to pull on pajama pants, and Chris unlocked the door.
***
Something woke Chris up. When he glanced across the bed, the clock showed it was morning. Steve was still asleep. There was a noise. Maybe that was what woke him up. It came again, and Chris recognized it for what it was: Noah.
Chris slipped out of bed and down the hall to Noah's room.
"Hey, kiddo." He lifted Noah up. Having Noah cling to and cuddle with him was just as big a thrill as having Steve say he loved him.
Steve liked to make a lot of waffles at once and keep them in the freezer. Chris had one heated up, drizzled with syrup, and cut up for Noah when Steve came into the kitchen.
Steve picked Noah up and sat back down with Noah on his lap.
"Waffles?" Chris asked, barely resisting the urge to sit in Steve's lap himself.
"Yeah. And coffee." Steve pressed his lips to Noah's temple. "And then we'll go see Kayla."
"At the 'pital," Noah said through a mouthful of waffle.
"Yes, at the hospital," Steve said. "Chew with your mouth closed."
Chris tossed a couple of waffles into the toaster and started the coffeemaker. While he waited for them, he went over and draped his arms over Steve. They were both bare chested and their skin slid and caught against each other.
Later, they left Noah on the couch watching a Tivo'd episode of Sesame Street and shared a quick shower.
"You're everything I want," Chris said. "You and the kids."
Steve put his arms around Chris and his head against Chris's shoulder. "You've got us."