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rsadelleMaster Post - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
"We should talk about fall classes," Sarah says one day when they're sitting around a table in Huntsman with notebooks and laptops spread around them. "Unless we don't want to stay a study group next year."
"Of course we do," Caleb says.
"Yes," Danny agrees.
"My grades say yes," Hunter says.
"Good. Then let's talk about classes." Sarah turns her laptop around so they can all see the advising page up on her screen, and they click through to the Business Fundamentals page.
"We should probably take STAT 102 while we're still fresh from 101," Danny says.
"We have to take accounting before we can take finance," Hunter says.
"That leaves marketing or management as our third one," Caleb says, "unless we only want to do two of them next semester."
"Three," Hunter says. "I want to get the basics out of the way."
"I vote for management," Sarah says, "if it fits our schedule."
"Either one is fine with me," Danny says, and Caleb and Hunter both shrug their agreement.
They only have three options for Societal Responsibility classes, and they all look at them without speaking.
"They all sound boring," Hunter finally says.
"We could start with Corporate Responsibility," Caleb says. "It might be a little more interesting. Case studies sounds promising."
"They're probably going to be boring case studies," Hunter says.
"But probably better than the introductory class," Sarah says.
"That's my vote," Danny says. "That or the BEPP one."
"Let's do the ethics one first," Caleb says. "We can take the BEPP one next semester."
They each pick a class and pull up the fall schedule to see how they can fit everything together.
"Nothing at eight," Hunter says.
"Agreed," Caleb says.
"Me too," Sarah says. "Are you going to want to keep Tuesday and Thursday mornings free?" she asks Danny.
"Yes," Danny says, "if we can make that work."
Hunter rolls his eyes. "I can't believe we're picking a schedule based on the mornings your boyfriend is at your place."
"You don't want eight a.m. classes anyway," Danny says. "It's not that much of an adjustment."
"We'd do the same for you," Caleb says, "if you were dating anyone."
Sarah makes a face at him that seems to say she doesn't necessarily agree, but she doesn't say anything.
Hunter sighs heavily. The rest of them ignore him and Sarah asks, "What about other classes? When else do we need to keep free?"
Caleb is the only one of them with a definite choice for a fifth class so far, so they set that time aside and build a schedule around it. Their best idea for a schedule has them taking a nine-thirty class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"Is that going to be okay for you?" Sarah asks Danny, frowning at the schedule.
Danny says, "Yes." It'll still give him a little time with Claude on those mornings, even if it's not as much as Claude would probably like.
"Is it going to be okay for Claude?" Caleb asks.
"Yes," Danny says. "He knows this is important to me, and that still gives us some time in the morning."
"Please don't tell us about it," Hunter says.
"I'm not going to," Danny says with a smirk. "I don't want you to feel bad that you don't have as great a sex life as I do."
Sarah laughs, Caleb snickers, and Hunter looks like he doesn't know what he's supposed to do. His face eventually settles into something between a grimace and a small smile.
"I get laid plenty," Hunter says.
"And that is something I really don't want to know about," Sarah says.
"You wish you knew about it," Hunter says.
"Really, really don't." Sarah wrinkles her nose. "I've hooked up with frat guys like you. It's nothing to write home about."
Hunter scowls at her and Caleb laughs at both of them. Danny can't help the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Sarah and Hunter's occasional low-level mutual dislike is entertaining when it doesn't escalate.
Sarah pokes Caleb in the arm. "What about you? Do you not kiss and tell or are you not hooking up?"
"Not hooking up," Caleb says.
"One of my frat brothers is gay," Hunter says.
Caleb laughs. "I don't know if 'frat brother' is an endorsement."
"Definitely not," Sarah says.
Caleb shrugs. "I'm not in a hurry. I'll just keep living vicariously through Danny's love story for the ages."
"I wouldn't call it that," Danny says.
"I would," Sarah says. "Someday you're going to stop pretending he's not your boyfriend and -"
Danny's face must be giving something away, because she stops there.
"What?" Hunter asks, looking between them.
"He's your boyfriend," Sarah says.
"He's my boyfriend," Danny agrees.
"Wow," Caleb says. "I didn't think you were ever going to realize that."
"Does he know he's your boyfriend?" Hunter asks.
"Yes," Danny says. "We talked about it. You were all right." It's not that painful to admit that, but Claude is probably going to laugh at him when Danny tells him about this later.
"Congratulations on finally making it official," Sarah says. "Who brought it up?"
"He did," Danny says.
Even Hunter laughs at him for that one. "I can't believe your ten years younger boyfriend is more emotionally mature than you."
"He's not that young," Danny says. "He's almost thirty."
"And you're almost forty," Sarah says. "Why didn't you ever bring it up?"
Danny looks to Caleb for help, but Caleb's looking at him with the same intense curiosity as Hunter and Sarah.
"We're your friends," Caleb says. "You can't get out of talking to us about your love life."
Danny sighs. He could put them off - he spent enough of his life not fully answering questions the press asked him to know how - but they are his friends and they're going to have a different perspective than anyone else he knows who he can talk to about it. "There wasn't any reason to bring it up," he says. "What we had was already working for us."
"If he brought it up," Caleb says, "something must have changed."
Danny shrugs. "He's almost thirty. He's maturing." Then he thinks about it, about what was different about this road trip. "And I told him I was going to miss him before he left for his road trip."
"You've never told him that before?" Sarah asks.
Danny thinks about it for a second. "Not really. Not straight out like that. Usually I just chirp him when he asks if I'm going to miss him."
"Wow," Hunter says. "You're really bad at relationships."
"Really bad," Sarah says. "How were you married long enough to have kids?"
"I'm not that bad," Danny says, sidestepping the question about his marriage. "We were just hooking up, and we're used to chirping each other."
"If you're official," Caleb says, "you're going to have to do better than that."
*
Claude's out of town the day Danny has that conversation with his study group, but he thinks about it, and decides to do something about it when Claude gets back.
Cameron's with Sylvie, and Danny's fallen into the habit of just ordering in for dinner when he's the only one home. He goes grocery shopping on his way home from school on the day after Claude gets back into town too late to have come over to Danny's, and he texts Claude to tell him to come over for dinner tonight.
I could have plans already, Claude texts back.
You'd cancel them to see your boyfriend, Danny sends. It's still strange to refer to himself that way, but he'll get used to it soon enough.
You think a lot of yourself, Claude sends. He also says he'll be there later, so Danny doesn't bother to respond to that one.
Instead, he works on his homework and takes a nap. After his nap, he takes out his copy of the recipe binder Mitchell gave him and gets to work. It's his first try at cooking by himself, but he has instructions and Mitchell walked them through it step by step, so it can't go too badly.
He hasn't burned anything yet when Claude lets himself into the house and comes into the kitchen. Claude stops at the edge of the kitchen and just stares at him.
"Are you cooking?"
"Yes." Danny makes sure nothing's going to suffer if he leaves it for a minute and goes over to Claude. "That was the point of the cooking lessons." He kisses Claude thoroughly. "I missed you."
"I missed you too," Claude says. He looks over Danny's shoulder at the rest of the kitchen. "You've never cooked for me before."
"I never knew how to cook before." Danny presses another kiss to Claude's cheek and lets go of him to go make sure he's not ruining dinner.
Claude sits down on one of the stools at the island and watches him. "What did I miss while I was gone? Besides you deciding to cook."
There isn't really anything Danny needs to do about the food at the moment, so he leans on the other side of the island. "I told my study group you're my boyfriend."
"Ooh, big step," Claude teases.
"They think you're more emotionally mature than I am," Danny says, "since you're the one who brought it up."
Claude laughs, just like Danny thought he would. "They're probably the only people in the world who think that."
"Probably," Danny says, "but they have a point. I haven't been very good at talking about this."
Claude slides off his stool and comes around the counter to Danny. "You've been very good at doing it though." He puts his arms around Danny and kisses him. "You're here for me, you make space for me in your life, we have amazing sex."
Danny grins at him. "Still working on the rest of that top twenty."
Claude laughs. "We'll get there."
"You're good at this too," Danny says. "And not just because you talk about it. Have I thanked you for how supportive you've been about my school?"
"A little." Claude leers at him. "I can think of more ways you can thank me."
Danny laughs and kisses Claude before he pushes him away to check on the food. "After we eat."
"We could eat later," Claude says.
"I cooked for you," Danny says. "We're going to eat it while it's still hot." He turns around to find Claude watching him with an intensity that's not just desire.
"Did you cook for me because you're trying to be a better boyfriend?"
"Yes," Danny says. "My study group pointed out that I should be better if we're official."
"Danny," Claude says, his whole face softening. "You're already good. You don't have to do anything else."
"I want to," Danny says. He busies himself with getting plates down and putting food on them. "It was okay when we were just hooking up, but relationships take effort. I've made that mistake before."
Claude lets him put the plates on the table, but he stops Danny before he can go back for utensils and drinks. "Thank you for making dinner." Claude rests his hands on Danny's hips and kisses him lightly. "I've known you for a long time. We've lived together. We've roomed together. We've been hooking up for years. We're not going to screw this up."
That kind of declaration deserves a reward, and Danny pulls Claude in and kisses him deep and thorough.
"You can still make me dinner whenever you want," Claude says after.
Danny laughs and pulls away to get them glasses of wine. "Wait until you taste it before you say that."
They sit down at the table and dig into their food.
"It's good," Claude says. "And you didn't burn anything."
"I paid attention when Mitchell was here."
Claude grins at him. "This turned out to be an even better present for me than I thought it was going to be."
"Don't expect it all the time," Danny says.
Claude laughs. "I won't. I know you don't like cooking that much."
Claude's right that he doesn't really like it, but it's not as bad now that he knows what he's doing.
"I don't hate it," Danny says. "I can cook sometimes."
Claude leans across the table and kisses him. "I'll cook for you sometime too. Midterms in the fall or something."
Danny smiles at him, pure, simple happiness at the promise. Then he grimaces. "My study group is going to make so much fun of me."
Claude laughs. "You should never have told them anything if you didn't want them to comment."
Danny smirks at him. "I'm going to talk to Scott. We'll see how you like it then."
Claude shrugs. "I have a pretty great boyfriend. I don't care if they all chirp me about it."
Danny sighs. "You really are more emotionally mature about this than I am."
Claude laughs and says, "I've dated more recently than you have. You're just out of practice."
That might be true, and Danny leaves the serious conversation there and asks about Claude's road trip.
Claude helps clean up after dinner, and that's familiar enough that they move around each other easily.
"So," Claude says after the dishes are in the dishwasher and the counters have been wiped down, "you were talking about thanking me."
Danny laughs and kisses him. "Yes," he says. "What kind of thank-you do you want?"
"I have the day off tomorrow." Claude gets a hand between them and gropes Danny through his jeans. "You could fuck me."
Danny pushes into Claude's touch. "Bed, kitchen, or couch?" he asks.
Claude groans and he tightens his hand and drops his head to Danny's shoulder. "Kitchen," he says. He mouths at Danny's neck. "You offered. You can't take it back."
"I'm not going to." Danny tips Claude's head up and kisses him, pulling him close and licking deep into his mouth. He gets both hands on Claude's ass, can feel Claude hard against him.
They make out for a long time. For all that they're both turned on, it's still easy and slow, and five years of hooking up really has made them good at doing this together.
"Danny," Claude mumbles into Danny's mouth after a while, "fuck me."
Danny surges against him and kisses him harder for a long moment before he pulls away. "Stay there," he says. He locks the front door and all but runs up the stairs to his room to grab lube and a condom. When he gets back down to the kitchen, Claude has already shut the blinds and taken off his clothes.
Claude's leaning against the counter, looking even more naked in a place where Danny's used to seeing him clothed, with one hand wrapped around his cock.
Danny looks him up and down, taking in all of his pale skin and hard muscle. Then he walks slowly across the room and leans in close without actually touching Claude. He puts the lube and condom down on the counter and says, "I want to suck you."
Claude groans. "I won't last if you do."
"Just for a minute," Danny says. He steps back and goes to his knees. He takes Claude into his mouth, tasting him, feeling how hard he is. He puts one hand over his own cock, teasing himself as much as he's teasing Claude. He looks up at Claude, and Claude groans out his name and tangles his hands in Danny's hair.
"Enough," Claude gasps after a minute. "Fuck me."
Danny draws his mouth off slowly, licking all along the length of Claude's cock and over the head as he goes. He stands up and kisses Claude. He tries to keep it slow, but Claude kisses back eager and fast, licking his own taste out of Danny's mouth.
Danny tears away with a gasp. "Turn around," he says, moving back and guiding Claude around to face the counter.
Claude folds himself over the counter. It makes a perfect curve out of his ass, one Danny has to run his hand over. He leaves Claude there and looks at him, at the muscle in his ass and thighs, the flat expanse of his back, while he strips quickly. He leans over Claude while he picks up the lube, pressing close, chest to Claude's back, cock nestled in the crease of Claude's ass.
"Danny," Claude moans. "Just fuck me."
Danny kisses his shoulder. "You have no patience." Danny doesn't have much either, but he needs a second to get the lube open and make himself step back so he can open Claude up.
"Not when you tease me," Claude says. He makes a noise, a whine, mostly, when Danny moves back, and sighs when Danny circles a lubed finger around his hole. It's a tease, and he's doing it on purpose, and he waits until Claude is rocking his hips back before he pushes his finger into him.
Claude's moan echoes off the countertop. Danny bends over him and kisses his back, stretching so he can kiss the back of his neck, and gives him a second finger. Claude is gorgeous, desperate and wanting, and only Danny's now.
Danny's not sure he can wait much longer. He mouths at Claude's shoulder. "Are you ready?"
"Yes." Claude arches into Danny's touch, and whines when Danny takes his fingers out.
There's a dish towel on the counter, and Danny uses it to wipe lube off his fingers so he can tear the condom open. He can barely stand to touch himself to put it on, almost too much for him to keep from coming before he gets into Claude.
He squeezes more lube onto his cock, hissing as he strokes himself once to spread it around, and then he holds Claude open and pushes just the head of his cock into him.
"Danny." Claude's voice sounds half broken, and he pushes back against Danny, taking more of Danny's cock into himself.
Danny stops holding back and thrusts all the way into Claude.
"Yes!" Claude's shout echoes around the kitchen.
"Claude," Danny groans. "Fuck, Claude." He pulls back and thrusts in again, and Claude pushes back to meet him. Danny's not gentle with him, doesn't have to be, and Claude moves with him, pushing into every thrust, swearing and moaning and gasping Danny's name.
Claude has both hands on the counter, using them for leverage, so Danny takes one hand off of Claude's hips and wraps it around his cock instead. Claude lets out a long, drawn-out moan and meets Danny's movements with more force.
Danny doesn't even try to jerk him off, just keeps his hand around Claude's cock and lets his thrusts push Claude's cock into his hand. He's not going to be able to fuck Claude for much longer without coming, and he tightens his hand around Claude, fucks into him hard and fast, gets himself together enough to rub his thumb over the head of Claude's cock.
Claude comes with a shout. Danny keeps his hand on Claude's cock for a little longer, until he knows Claude is going to be too sensitive for it, and then he lets go, holds onto both of Claude's hips, and fucks into him with sharp thrusts. He's the only one who gets to fuck Claude like this, and Claude is the only one who gets this from him.
Danny folds over Claude as he comes, hips still moving restlessly until it's too much and he pulls out, strips off the condom, bends over Claude for real, chest to Claude's back.
Claude turns his head, and Danny kisses him, sloppy and off-center.
Claude doesn't try to move other than that, so they stay there, awkward though it is, and trade kisses for long minutes.
"That had to be the best sex of your life," Claude says. "It was definitely the best sex of mine."
Danny chuckles and kisses Claude's neck. "Yes," he says. "You're closer and closer to taking up all of the top twenty."
Claude grins at him. "I'm going to get more than that. Top thirty. Fifty. Hundred."
Danny pats his ass. "I think you'll be able to do that." He finally pulls back to let Claude stand.
"I don't think I can walk," Claude says.
Danny frowns at him. "Are you okay?" He cups Claude's hip.
"I'm not hurt," Claude says. "That was the best sex of my life. It took a lot out of me."
Danny kisses him, winding his arms around Claude. "Where am I on your top twenty?"
Claude hums into his mouth. "You have all of the top thirty."
"Yeah?" Danny grins at him. "I'm going to get your top hundred too."
Claude grins back. "It's all yours."
Danny kisses him quickly. "Do you want to go upstairs? I'll clean up in here."
"Mmm, okay." Claude's hands slide over Danny's skin as he moves around him. "Hurry up."
"I will," Danny promises. "You won't have to sleep alone after sex." He grabs cleaning supplies out of the cabinet under the sink.
"Why do you have so many stairs?" Claude calls a minute later.
Danny just laughs at him and wipes down the counter. It doesn't take long, and then he puts everything away and scoops up their clothes in one jumbled pile. He turns out lights on his way upstairs, and drops their clothes on the floor in the bedroom. They can sort them out in the morning.
He pauses to kiss Claude, who's already in bed waiting for him, and goes through to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He turns out the lights and joins Claude in bed, and then he kisses Claude again, longer, Claude turning into him and tangling them up together.
"I like this boyfriend thing," Claude says.
"Me too," Danny says. It's not that they've never made out while curled together in bed before, but it's different now. They're both trying harder, and it means something more than just that they like sex and touch. It means they're together, a unit in a way Danny hasn't been with anyone else in a long time.
*
"It's your birthday tomorrow," Sarah says to Caleb as she slides into the chair on the other side of Danny.
"How do you know that?"
"Facebook." Sarah leans over Danny so she can look at Caleb. "What are you doing for it?"
Caleb shrugs. "Nothing."
"You have to do something." Sarah looks from Caleb to Danny to Hunter, who is pretending not to listen to them on the other side of Caleb. "We should do something."
"You don't need to do that," Caleb says.
"Come on," Sarah says. "I'm not doing anything tomorrow night, and Wednesdays aren't really a hot night of activity for frat boy over there."
Hunter rolls his eyes, but says, "I don't have plans."
Sarah turns to Danny. "What about you?"
"Cameron's with his mom and Claude's out of town," Danny says.
"See?" Sarah says. "Perfect."
"You don't have to," Caleb says, but he doesn't protest again when Sarah says, "We want to."
Sarah turns to Danny again. "You can pick us up, right?"
"Yes," Danny says, and then class is called to order and they have to pay attention to the lecture for an hour and a half.
The minute they're done, Sarah says, "Pick us up at six-thirty. Caleb and I will figure out what we're doing." She loops her arm through Caleb's. Caleb throws a startled look at her, but lets himself be dragged off, leaving Danny and Hunter to shrug at each other before going their separate ways.
Claude laughs when Danny tells him about it later, Danny lying on the couch in the living room and Claude in a hotel room in Tampa Bay.
"She's a force of nature."
"Yes, she is," Danny agrees. "His parents aren't going to call him tomorrow, are they?"
"Probably not," Claude says. "Not everyone is as great a dad as you are. He'll have all of you, though, so he won't be alone."
"I miss you," Danny says. It's not exactly a continuation of the conversation, but he misses having Claude be there for these kinds of conversations, when he can lean against Claude and have the physical comfort of his touch too.
"I miss you too," Claude says, his voice dipping low and warm. Then, lighter, "Want to have phone sex?"
The sudden shift in mood startles Danny into a laugh. "That's not why I called you."
"Maybe it's why I picked up the phone," Claude says.
"You would have anyway," Danny says, still laughing.
"Yes," Claude admits. "But I'm still serious about the phone sex."
"Yeah," Danny says after a moment, "okay." He doesn't have to be anywhere, and if Claude has time for it, so does he.
They jerk off together, and while it's not the same as having Claude there with him, it's still good.
"This boyfriend thing has advantages," Claude says after, when Danny's still catching his breath. "You agreed to that faster than I thought you would."
"Mmm," Danny says. "It was good."
"Yes, it was," Claude says. "And now I have to take a shower before Hartsy drags me off to dinner."
Danny huffs out a laugh. "Okay."
"Tell Caleb I said happy birthday."
"I will. I'll call you tomorrow."
Danny doesn't bother with a shower, just cleans himself up and gets dressed again before figuring out what to eat for dinner. The house is lonely and too big when he's there by himself, so he's glad to pick up Caleb, Hunter, and Sarah for dinner on Wednesday.
Caleb gets the front seat, but Sarah is the one to tell Danny where they're going.
"Caleb wanted burgers," Sarah says to Hunter's look. "This place is supposed to have the best burgers in Philly."
"They do," Danny says, and he listens in on Sarah and Hunter's mild bickering while he drives. It could be annoying, but they mostly seem to be doing it for the sport of it, and Caleb is smiling, so it's obviously not ruining his birthday.
The place isn't very busy, so they get shown right to a table, and they take a couple of minutes to read over their menus.
"I want fries and potato skins," Sarah says after a minute. "Does that seem like too much potato?"
"I'll eat some of the potato skins," Hunter says.
Sarah smiles at him, and when their waitress comes to take their orders - burgers and fries for all four of them - she also orders potato skins for the four of them to share.
Once the waitress leaves, Sarah reaches into her purse and comes up with an envelope she hands across the table to Caleb. "Happy birthday."
Danny pulls out the envelope he stashed in his jacket, and Hunter also has one he hands over.
Caleb blinks at all three of them, then starts with Sarah's. He laughs at the card, then passes it around while he tucks the gift card with an Amazon logo on it into the envelope. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Sarah says. "You should totally buy something fun with that."
"I will," Caleb promises before he opens the next envelope. He quirks a smile at Hunter before he passes around the card with a mostly naked man on the front. "Thanks."
Hunter grins at him.
Caleb opens the envelope from Danny last. He reads the card, and bites his lip while he tucks the gift card Danny bought him into the envelope with the one from Sarah. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Danny says. "And Claude says happy birthday too."
Caleb and Sarah both dissolve into giggles that leave Danny and Hunter looking at each other, on the outside of the joke.
"It took less time than we thought it would for you to bring him up," Sarah explains after a minute.
Danny laughs a little. "I won't do it again," he says. "But he really did say that."
"Well, tell him thanks," Caleb says, "and that it made this way more fun for us."
"I will," Danny says, and he will, even though it will mean Claude laughing at him too.
They pass the cards back around so Caleb can tuck them away before their waitress brings their potato skins and they all have greasy fingers.
"These are so good," Sarah says. "I don't even regret having them and fries."
They all agree with her, and the burgers are just as good. They don't talk much until they're all winding down and picking at the last of the potato skins and fries.
"I thought we should go to a gay bar too," Sarah says, "but Caleb said no."
"We're underage," Caleb says.
"All-ages club then," Sarah says. "There has to be something around here."
"On a Wednesday night?" Hunter points out. "Nothing good."
"Do we have other plans?" Danny asks.
"Movie, if everyone wants to go," Caleb says.
Danny and Sarah agree, and Hunter, predictably, demands to know which movie before he says yes.
Danny pays for dinner while they're working that out and checking on when the movie starts, and then they pull on their coats and head for the movie theater.
The movie turns out to be fun, and something all four of them enjoy. They stand around in the lobby afterwards talking about it until Sarah says, "We should go have dessert since we didn't get Caleb a cake."
"Ice cream," Hunter suggests.
"It's too cold for ice cream," Sarah says.
"That's because you're from California," Caleb says. "It's never too cold for ice cream."
"We can to go the Franklin Fountain," Danny says. "They have ice cream and warmer things in the winter."
None of them have been there yet, so Danny drives them over there and they stand back out of other people's way while they look at the menu. It's not hugely busy, but there are always people in there, even on a Wednesday night.
Danny, Caleb, and Hunter get ice cream, Sarah orders pie, and they sit down around a table that's so small they have to be careful not to kick each other.
"So," Sarah says after a minute of focus on their dessert, "how does this stack up as a birthday?"
Caleb smiles at her, and then at Danny and Hunter too. "Pretty good," he says. "I thought it was going to be terrible, but," he shrugs, "it didn't turn out that bad. My brother called earlier. I don't think my parents knew he was doing it."
Hunter winces and thumps Caleb on the shoulder. "Well, we're here even if your parents aren't." After a moment when Caleb, Danny, and Sarah all look at him, he says, "I don't know why you think I can't do this stuff. I keep telling you my best friend's gay. I know how to be an ally. Plus I'm in a frat. We know all about brotherhood."
"That would not be my first thought about frats," Sarah says.
Caleb laughs and leans over to catch Hunter in a quick, one-armed hug. "I never expect it from you," he says, "but thank you."
Hunter nods at him, and then Sarah asks someone from the table next to them to take a picture with her phone. They squeeze in together and smile. Sarah shows them all the picture - all four of them smiling around a table full of half-eaten desserts - and then sends it to them.
Danny drives Sarah, Caleb, and Hunter back to campus after they finish their desserts, and gets out of the car to hug everyone. He hugs Caleb for an extra long time, not that Caleb seems to mind.
Danny checks his messages before he drives home. He sets the picture of the four of them as his lock screen, replacing a picture of Cameron pulling faces, and he has a text from Claude asking how his evening was. Claude only texted him fifteen minutes ago, so Danny sets his phone into the car's dock and calls him.
"Caleb's parents are the shittiest parents," Danny says as soon as the call connects. It's not what he meant to say, but he can't keep it inside anymore.
"I know," Claude says. "Did you give him a good birthday anyway?"
"Yes," Danny says. "He said it was better than he thought it would be." He tells Claude the highlights - without giving away the end of the movie, which Claude says he still wants to see - and promises to send him the picture of the four of them at the Franklin Fountain.
Claude laughs most at Danny's recounting of what happened when he passed on Claude's birthday wishes to Caleb. "I know you can't stop talking about me," he says.
"Your ego," Danny says with a chuckle, "is getting out of control."
"My ego," Claude says, "is completely justified. If I weren't so good, I wouldn't have a hot older boyfriend waiting for me at home."
Danny just laughs at that, since he can't really deny it, and asks Claude about his road trip so far.
"Go to bed," Danny says when Claude's voice starts to slow in a way he knows means Claude is tired.
"I really wanted to talk you into phone sex," Claude says.
"That only works when you can stay awake for it. I'll call you tomorrow."
"Looking forward to it," Claude says. "Good night."
"Good night," Danny says with a smile. He reaches out to disconnect the call and drives the rest of the way home in contented silence.
*
Danny wakes up on a Saturday when he wasn't planning on doing much to the sound of muffled cursing coming from across the room.
"What are you doing?"
Claude looks over his shoulder at Danny. "Packing," he says, "so I can come back to bed before I have to be at the rink. Do you know where my other pajama pants are? The blue ones?"
"In the dryer, I think. I did laundry yesterday."
Claude leaves the room and comes back a little later with the entire laundry basket full of clothes that he proceeds to put away. The pajama pants go in his bag, and the rest of it gets folded away into drawers or hung up in the closet.
Claude puts a few more things in his bag and zips a suit into his hanging bag. He looks around for a minute, then leaves his things there and gets back into bed with Danny.
Danny kisses him for a minute, before the whole morning catches up with him and he pulls back to blink at Claude. "You were packing."
"Yes," Claude says slowly.
"You have enough stuff here to pack. And you put away the laundry."
"You would have just left it in the dryer until you needed something." It's not an entirely unfair assertion.
Danny blinks at Claude again. He's supposed to be better about talking about this, and even though he hasn't thought about it before this, it makes sense to ask, "Do you want to move in?"
Now it's Claude's turn to blink at him. "Do you want me to move in?"
Danny stops to think before he answers. He's supposed to be putting effort into this relationship now, not just letting them drift along. "Yes," he says. "I like having you here. You mostly live here anyway."
Claude kisses him long and slow. "Yes," he says. "I want to move in." After a moment, he adds, "You should probably make sure it's okay with Cameron."
"The boys loved it when you lived here before," Danny says. "I'm sure it'll be fine."
"He was nine," Claude says, but he's smiling as he does.
"He doesn't mind that you mostly live here already," Danny says. "I'll talk to him." He wriggles closer to Claude. "How much time do you have? Can we stop talking about my kid now?"
Claude laughs and grabs Danny's ass. "We have some time."
*
Claude leaves mid-morning to get to the rink on time. Danny walks downstairs with him and spends a couple of minutes kissing him goodbye at the door, and then goes back upstairs to take a shower and put on real clothes. There's a note from Cameron that he went out with some friends, so Danny doesn't see him until he comes home just about the time Danny's thinking about doing something for dinner.
"What do you think?" he asks Cameron. "Cook or not?"
"Cook," Cameron says. He's the one who sorts through what's in the fridge and decides what they're going to make.
Danny lets him be in charge and cuts things up and stirs as directed. He waits until they're sitting down at the table to eat to bring up Claude.
"Would it be okay with you if Claude moved in with us again?"
Cameron seems wholly unconcerned as he takes a bite of his broccoli. "Doesn't he already live here?"
"Mostly," Danny admits. "But if he lived here officially?"
"Yeah, sure," Cameron says. "I like having him around."
"He's going to be staying in my room," Danny says. Not that he wants to talk to his son about his sex life, or that they haven't kissed in front of him before, but Cameron should know exactly what he's agreeing to.
"Yeah, Dad," Cameron says. "I know he's your partner, or whatever."
It would have been hard for Cameron to miss that Danny and Claude are something, but it's the first time anyone's referred to them that way. It makes it sound more serious than "boyfriend."
"Okay," Danny says after too long a moment. "Thank you."
*
Danny texts Claude after dinner, telling him to call when he's free, and settles down to find a hockey game to watch. He worked on his homework earlier, leaving him with a Saturday night with nothing to do until his boyfriend calls. With that thought in mind, he also pours himself a glass of wine. If he's going to embody the cliche, he might as well go all out.
He's on his second glass of wine when Claude calls, sounding bright and happy and a little tipsy himself.
"I talked to Cameron," Danny says after he tells Claude all he's doing is watching a game while waiting for his call and Claude laughs at him. "He's okay with you moving in."
"Good," Claude says, "since you already asked me to."
"Good," Danny says, "since you already mostly live here." He twists the stem of his wine glass in his fingers. "What are you going to tell people about your living arrangements?"
"Oh," Claude says. "Is that why you've been drinking?"
"No," Danny says with a laugh. "But we should talk about it."
"I'll tell people who already know about us that I'm moving in with my boyfriend."
Danny smiles. He likes hearing that descriptor from Claude. "What about the people who don't know?"
"I don't know," Claude says with a sigh. "Do you mean what am I going to tell the Courier-Post about where I live?"
"Yes," Danny says. He puts down his wine glass and turns off the TV. "We should talk about that."
Claude hmms for a second, then asks, "Are we always going to have serious conversations over the phone when I'm on the road?"
Danny winces. "We've had a lot of them when we're together."
"Okay," Claude says. "Are we going to have this one when I'm on the road, or when I'm back home?"
"It can wait," Danny says. They do have to talk about it, but they don't have to talk about it right now.
"I want to be able to see you," Claude says. "And touch you and kiss you."
"Okay," Danny says.
"So we'll talk about it when I'm home," Claude says. Then he laughs. "You realize I'm still the emotionally mature one in this relationship."
Danny laughs with him. "I brought it up."
"Yeah," Claude says, "when you'd been drinking and we're a thousand miles apart."
Danny groans. "Stop it. You're worse than my study group."
Claude laughs. "I'm better than your study group. They wouldn't offer you drunken phone sex."
Danny makes a face even though Claude can't see it. "I hope not."
"Forget about your study group," Claude says. "That was a hint."
"A very unsubtle one." Danny downs the last of his wine and leaves the glass on the coffee table. "Two minutes," he says. "I have to go upstairs."
"Mmm," Claude says. "And I don't have to wait at all. I can start stripping right now."
Danny almost trips on the stairs as Claude tells him the details as he does just that.
*
Claude comes straight to Danny's from the airport, which Danny knows because Claude crawls into bed with him in the middle of the night on Friday.
"Shh," Claude says. "Sorry." He kisses Danny, and it's enough for Danny to fall right back into sleep.
Danny wakes up in the morning thinking it might have been a dream until he registers the warmth of a second person in bed with him. Claude is, unsurprisingly, still asleep. Danny presses a kiss to his hair and gets up.
He's in the kitchen sipping coffee and making eggs when Claude joins him, still in pajamas but tasting like mint, so he at least brushed his teeth before he came downstairs.
"It's a Saturday," Claude says. "Why are you out of bed?"
"I was awake." Danny turns to kiss him again. "Do you want breakfast?"
"Yes." Claude slumps over a cup of coffee at the island while Danny makes enough food for two.
Danny sits next to him at the island, and they eat in comfortable silence.
Claude pushes his plate away when it's empty and turns in his chair to face Danny. "Okay," he says, "I'm here, I'm awake now. Let's talk."
Danny pushes his plate away and turns his coffee cup in his hands. "What are you going to tell people?"
"What do you want to tell people?" Claude asks. He takes the coffee cup away from Danny and holds his hands. "I can always say I own a condo in Cherry Hill."
Danny smiles briefly. Claude's learned how to lie without lying over the years. "You can," he says. "Do you want to?"
Claude leans forward and rests his forehead against Danny's. "I'm not going to tell anyone anything you're not comfortable with. I can tell them I own the condo, I can tell them I moved in with you because it's some kind of superstition, or I can tell them I moved in with you because you're my boyfriend."
Danny closes his eyes. "They're going to make so many assumptions if you do that."
Claude cups his hand around the back of Danny's neck. "I don't have to tell them that. Or we don't have to tell them details."
Danny opens his eyes and looks at Claude. They're so close there's no hiding from each other, and he can see that Claude means it, that he'll go whichever way Danny wants him to.
Danny tilts his head and kisses Claude. "You can tell them the truth if you want to," he says. He squeezes Claude's hand. "Things have changed since we started doing this. It probably won't be as big a deal, and I can warn the boys."
Claude laughs. "It'll be a big deal." He nips at Danny's lips. "But manageable. And I won't bring it up unless they ask about it. It might not come up at all." He kisses Danny for real, using the hand still around the back of Danny's neck to direct him just where he wants him.
Danny returns the kiss with enthusiasm, more relaxed now that they've made a decision. "It's Saturday morning," he says. "Want to go back to bed?"
"Yes." Claude tugs at Danny's hand to make him stand up faster. "We haven't had sex in so long."
Danny laughs. "We had phone sex twice this week."
"It's not the same." Claude kisses him, then turns away and rushes Danny up the stairs, Claude impatient and Danny laughing the whole way.
*
Hunter looks disgruntled at their decision to have lunch on campus, but Danny's pretty sure he doesn't care that much, and he ends up with a lunch he digs into without complaint.
He looks disgruntled again when Sarah says, "No school conversation," when he tries to bring up their discussion from BEPP recitation. "Everything is school," Sarah continues on. "I need to think about something else right now."
"I bet Danny has something not about school going on," Caleb says, and all three of them stare at Danny.
Danny shrugs.
"Come on," Caleb says. "We've all noticed how you look. What's up?"
They're going to find out soon enough anyway. "Claude's moving in," he says. "Officially. He mostly lives with us already."
"Congratulations," Sarah says after a second. "His idea or yours?"
"Mine," Danny says. "Mostly. I asked him to move in, but he'd pretty much moved in on his own."
"At least you're talking about it," Sarah says after she laughs at him.
"Very mature," Caleb says.
"Very boring," Hunter says, and he shrugs when Sarah and Caleb glare at him. "Sorry, but it is. You're already an old married couple. We don't need to know more about that."
Danny thinks about refuting it - he doesn't find being with Claude boring, any more than he found marriage to Sylvie particularly boring - but decides he doesn't really want to tell them the details of his sex life and just shrugs instead. "It works for us."
"I think it's romantic, if kind of slow," Caleb says. "Five years of hooking up and you're finally figuring out you want to be together."
"No," Danny say. "It was never like this before." The looks all three of them give him suggest they don't believe him, even though it is the truth. It's less that they figured out they want to be together and more that they grew into wanting to be together. It's like that now, though, so Danny lets it go without trying to convince Sarah, Caleb, and Hunter of the truth of how it happened.
*
"What do you even have to move?" Cameron asks when they try to figure out a day they can fully move Claude into the house. "You already live here."
"I have things that aren't here," Claude says.
"Like the clothes you never wear?"
Claude laughs at the chirp. Danny shakes his head and asks, "Are you bringing furniture?"
Claude rubs the back of his head. "My dresser, I guess. We pretty much have everything else."
"Is there anything else you want to bring?" Danny asks. "We can make room if there is."
"We already have a bed," Claude says. He and Danny both ignore the face Cameron makes. "And a couch and a ping pong table. A better ping pong table than mine. And like, dishes and stuff." He shrugs. "I guess there isn't that much stuff to bring. I'll just leave most of it there for Gregs."
"So just your stuff," Danny says. "Think we can do that in an afternoon?"
"Yes," Claude says. "I'll go over there before and pack some stuff up too."
Danny looks at the calendar he has open. "You might get out of this," he says to Cameron, and to Claude, "You're not home on weekends for the next month."
Claude sighs and leans against his shoulder to look at the calendar with him. "You going to be able to do it midweek? I can get some of the boys to help instead."
Danny looks at the calendar and thinks about what he has coming up. "How about next Wednesday? If you can pack up some of your stuff before then, I'll bring lunch after class, and then we can move."
"Yeah," Claude says, "I can do that." He leans in and presses a kiss to Danny's cheek.
Danny smiles at him and ignores Cameron's long-suffering sigh while he puts it on his calendar.
*
What do you want? Danny texts Claude as he leaves his stats class. He had to explain to Caleb, Hunter, and Sarah why he couldn't have lunch with them today, and that resulted in a lot of mock cooing that he put up with because they're his friends and their chirping is distinctly subpar compared to what he experienced in a lifetime of playing hockey.
For everything to magically move itself, Claude sends back.
Danny laughs and sends him, You could have hired movers.
Not enough stuff to make it worth it, Claude sends, and then, Grilled cheese?
Danny probably could have guessed that would be what he wanted. For John-Michael too?
Burger, Claude says, so Danny gets a couple of grilled cheese, a burger, some fries and a side order of the veggie medley in case one of them wants to pretend to eat vegetables with their lunch, and takes it all over to Claude's.
John-Michael lets Danny in and takes one of the bags of food from him.
"Thanks, man," John-Michael says, and then he yells, "G, your boyfriend is here," as they go up the stairs.
Claude meets them at the top of the stairs, ignoring John-Michael and leaning in to kiss Danny. He looks tired and his hair is a mess, so Danny kisses him back gently and smoothes his hand over Claude's hair.
Claude sighs and leans against him for a moment. "I'm never moving again."
Danny kisses his forehead. "I'm not throwing you out, so you don't have to. You'll feel better after lunch."
Claude throws him a bright smile that seems out of proportion until Danny thinks about the fact that he just said this is permanent. Well, he is supposed to be working on talking about it; that probably counts.
They sit on the couch to eat, with whatever John-Michael was watching still playing on TV.
"You're going to rot your brain," Claude says.
John-Michael flips him off and says, "I ate the end of the ketchup yesterday."
Danny laughs and hands Claude the extra ketchup he got with the food before Claude can complain about it. Claude smiles at him and dips the corner of his grilled cheese in it.
Claude's much more relaxed by the time they're done with lunch, and they take turns washing their hands before Danny follows him to his bedroom to see what the state of the move looks like.
His room is a mess. There are a couple of boxes and two suitcases neatly stacked by the door, but there are also another couple of open boxes and a duffel in the middle of the room with a few things in them and a lot more lying around.
"I hate moving," Claude says, looking around at it.
Danny sighs. "Let's pack this up. It's probably not as bad as it looks."
Claude turns toward him and kisses him. "We could take a break."
"I thought lunch was the break."
"More of a break." Claude kisses his way down Danny's neck. "One last time here."
There haven't been that many times here to begin with, but the way Claude's nipping at his neck makes him want to have one last one. He tugs Claude up and kisses him hard. "What about John-Michael?"
Claude steps away from him to close and lock the door. "You'll just have to be quiet."
It doesn't seem like it should be that hard to do, but Claude nips at his jaw and sucks at his neck when he comes back to Danny, and it's a lot harder than it should be to keep from moaning.
"I really want to blow you," Claude says.
That takes Danny from interested to all the way hard, and he squeezes Claude tight. "I'm not going to say no to that."
Claude grins at him. "Good." He presses a swift kiss to Danny's lips, and then gets on his knees. He doesn't waste any time getting Danny's pants open and his cock out, and then Danny has to press a fist to his mouth to keep from being too loud when Claude licks him from root to tip.
Claude licks him for a while, long enough that Danny reaches down and threads his fingers into Claude's hair, silently asking for more.
Claude smirks up at him before he takes Danny all the way into his mouth. Then Danny really does have to fight not to be loud. Claude has so much practice now, and he's using all that skill and determination to make it so good for Danny. Not being able to be loud is hot too, in its own way. Not something he wants to do all the time, but right now it's good.
Claude moves on his cock, a gentle back and forth that combines with how he's sucking Danny to make it too good to last much longer. Danny's still fighting not to make too much noise when he comes, but he's not sure how well he manages it.
Claude licks him clean and stands up. Danny leans into him and kisses his jaw. He can feel how hard Claude is against his hip, and he nudges him toward the bed.
"I'm not doing this on my knees when we still have to move," he says.
Claude turns them as they move, and pushes Danny down to sit on the edge of the bed. Danny spreads his knees apart enough for Claude to stand between them.
Claude swears when Danny takes his cock out, and Danny taps his hip. "Quiet."
Claude bites his lip and nods, and Danny sucks him down. Claude isn't exactly loud, but he makes noise, bitten off moans and pleas for more, probably not loud enough to carry through the walls.
Danny makes it quick anyway, sucking hard and using his tongue. Claude is loud when he comes, a strangled shout that he cuts off after a second. Danny swallows him down and squeezes his hip.
Claude groans as he draws his cock out of Danny's mouth, and stumbles to the side to fall onto the bed. "Do we really still have to move now?"
"Yes." Danny lies down next to him. "This is the best day in your schedule for it."
Claude rolls over and puts his head on Danny's shoulder. "I'm tired now."
Danny strokes his hair. "You should have thought of that before. This was your idea."
"I know." Claude turns his face into Danny's neck and presses a kiss to his skin. "Okay," he says after a minute, "let's do this." He gets up first, and Danny stands up a moment later, tucking himself back into his pants.
Claude hasn't packed everything yet, so Danny goes into the bathroom and rinses his mouth out with mouthwash; he doesn't mind Claude coming in his mouth, but he doesn't want to taste it for the rest of the day.
"Do you want me to help pack or carry things down to the car?"
Claude looks around his room, making a face at it. "Pack," he says. "We'll carry everything down later."
"Is everything going?"
"Except the furniture."
Packing isn't as hard as Claude's dislike of moving made it sound. Danny fills boxes and tapes them shut, uses his ever-present Sharpie to label them with an approximate description of the contents. They're done in about an hour, Claude throwing the last of his stuff into a box that he tapes shut and labels "all the other shit."
Claude unlocks and opens the door, and they each take a box to carry downstairs.
John-Michael looks over the back of the couch at them as they pass by.
"You could help," Claude says as he goes down the stairs.
"Not if your room smells like jizz," John-Michael calls after them. "You couldn't wait a couple of hours?"
"It's my house," Claude calls back. "I can do what I want in there."
"Only for a few more hours," John-Michael yells after them as Danny and Claude go out the door.
"Is there anyone we know who doesn't talk about our sex life?" Danny asks.
"The boys," Claude says. "At least not to us."
Danny makes a face and unlocks his car. "Please don't talk about the kids and sex in the same sentence."
Claude laughs. "I thought you'd be over that by now. It's been long enough."
"It will never be long enough," Danny says.
Claude keeps laughing, and stops Danny just inside the condo to kiss him.
"Are you moving or making out?" John-Michael asks. He has a box in his arms.
Danny pulls away from Claude. "Moving. That can go in my car." He points John-Michael in the right direction and goes up the stairs.
With the three of them, it takes very little time to get Claude's boxes and suitcases into Danny and Claude's cars. They go inside after the last trip, and Claude hugs John-Michael.
"I know you're going to miss me."
"You're never here," John-Michael says, futilely trying to squirm out of Claude's hold. "And I'm going to see you at practice tomorrow."
Claude looks over at Danny. "Was I ever this ungrateful about living with you?"
"Ew, gross." John-Michael twists away from Claude. "I'm not sleeping with you."
"I wasn't sleeping with Danny then," Claude says.
"He wasn't," Danny confirms.
"Whatever," John-Michael says. He mock scowls at them. "Get out of my house."
"So ungrateful," Claude says. He ruffles John-Michael's hair and tells him he'll see him tomorrow, and then he and Danny separate into their own cars to drive over to the house.
With just two of them, it takes longer to get everything into the house than it did to get it out of Claude's condo, but it's not that much later that there's a stack of boxes in the entryway and two more, plus a couple of suitcases, in the bedroom.
"What do you want me to unpack?" Danny asks.
Claude groans. "Do we have to unpack? Can't it wait?"
"Nope." Danny kisses his jaw. "It'll never get done, then."
Claude makes a face at him. "What do you want to unpack?"
"I'll start with the bedroom," Danny says. He already made space for Claude's clothes in the closet, but this way he can make more if he needs to.
"You're going to trust me down here?"
"It's your house too."
Claude draws him close and kisses him deeply, then pushes him away. "Go before I decide to take advantage of you and me and an empty house instead."
Danny laughs. "We'll have plenty of opportunities for that."
Clothes are easiest to start with. Danny separates out Claude's suits from his more casual clothes, puts stacks of Claude's Flyers shirts into drawers, fills a small drawer with socks, hangs Claude's ties on the tie rack with his. It won't matter if Claude ends up wearing Danny's ties instead of his own, not that it's likely to happen; they don't even own the same style of tie.
The closet is big enough that it looks full but not overstuffed with both of their clothes filling it up. Danny takes the empty boxes out of it and closes the door. There are already signs of Claude all over the bedroom, but knowing all of Claude's clothes are in the closet makes it feel even more like it belongs to the two of them.
He unpacks the rest of what Claude brought upstairs, including his "all the other shit" box, and takes the stack of flattened boxes downstairs. Danny leaves the boxes in a stack in the entryway and goes into the living room where Claude and Cameron are having what looks like a very serious conversation about video game organization.
"What do you think?" Claude asks Danny.
Danny holds up his hands and takes a step backwards. "That's for the two of you to work out."
"That means he doesn't want to look like he's playing favorites," Cameron says.
"I know," Claude says. "Rock-paper-scissors?"
Danny backs all the way out of the room - there's no way he's getting involved in that - and takes boxes out to the recycling bin. Claude has the last two unpacked boxes in the living room, so Danny leaves him to it and sits down at the dining room table with the reading he really should do today.
Claude and Cameron must come to some kind of compromise, because Cameron wanders into the kitchen for a snack after a little bit, and Claude comes in a little later and bends over to kiss the top of Danny's head.
Danny looks up from his reading. "Done unpacking?"
"Yes. I live here now." Claude says it calmly, but a smile spreads over his face.
Danny smiles back at him and pulls him down for a kiss.
"Too bad the house isn't empty now," Claude says.
Danny laughs and pushes him back. "I have to do at least some of this reading."
"Okay." Claude kisses his temple. "I'm going to make dinner."
"Do you want some help?"
"No, I've got it."
Danny goes back to his reading. He can hear the sounds of Claude cooking, but it fades into an easy, comfortable background noise.
*
Hunter does a double-take when he sits down next to Danny in BEPP on Thursday morning. "Did you get laid last night and this morning?" he asks. "You're all." He waves a hand at Danny, like he's supposed to know what that means.
Danny did, in fact, get laid last night and this morning, but he's not going to tell Hunter that part of it. "Claude moved in yesterday."
Hunter groans. "You were bad enough before. You're going to be insufferable now."
"I don't see what you have against him being happy," Sarah says. "One of us should be getting laid at every opportunity."
"I get laid." Hunter's protest is just a little too loud, and it carries beyond the four of them.
Caleb's the first one to laugh, a smothered chuckle that sets Sarah off, then Danny can't resist it either, and even Hunter gives up a reluctant smile.
Class gets called to order, which means no one says anything about Danny's sex life for an hour and forty-five minutes. It's a brief reprieve, though, because as they're gathering up their things before they leave, Sarah says, "I'm glad you're getting laid."
Danny's surprised into a laugh. "Thank you," he says. "I'll tell Claude you approve."
"You can tell him I approve too," Caleb says. "You look happy."
Danny smiles at him. "I am."
"Insufferable," Hunter said, but he looked more tolerant than annoyed.
Danny chuckles. "I'll see you tomorrow," he says, and he waves at the three of them as he heads for his business ethics class.
Claude's already left for the rink by the time Danny gets home, so Danny sends him a text to tell him that his study group approves of him moving in, and to wish him luck.
You don't need luck when you're this good, Claude sends back.
Danny laughs and sets his phone aside to focus on his homework.
*
"What's with you?" Sarah asks Caleb when he's the last one to arrive at their table in Huntsman.
Caleb falls heavily into a chair. "Apartment hunting." He puts his head down on his arms.
"Why are you apartment hunting?" Hunter asks like it's a completely foreign concept.
Caleb rolls his head to one side. "I can't stay in the dorms for the summer, and I can't go home." He looks even more exhausted saying that.
Danny wants nothing more than to make it better for him.
"You'll find something," Sarah says. She pats Caleb's shoulder. "I'll ask around, see if anyone I know is looking for a roommate for the summer."
"Me too," Hunter says. "Maybe some of my frat brothers who don't live at the house."
Caleb sits up and smiles at them. "Thanks. It can't be very expensive. My scholarship isn't going to cover summer housing and my job isn't going to give me full-time hours."
"It'll work out," Danny says. He has some ideas about how to make it work out, but he'll have to talk to Claude and the boys first.
*
Claude's out of town and gets home late, so Danny doesn't get a chance to talk to him until Claude gets home from the rink while Danny's working on his homework the next day. Claude moves Danny's books away from him to make space for himself on the couch, and leans in to kiss Danny.
Danny smiles into the kiss and doesn't let go of Claude when they pull apart a little.
"I'm glad you're home," Danny says.
Claude's smile gets even brighter. "Me too."
Danny lets go of Claude enough that they're not held quite so close together. There's probably another way to approach this, but he dives right in. "I want to invite Caleb to live with us."
Claude laughs and kisses him. "I told you so. I knew you couldn't resist the rookie in need."
Danny can't even be annoyed, because Claude was right all along, and he does appreciate that Claude knows him so well.
"You were right," Danny says. "What do you think?"
"Sure," Claude says. "He needs a family." He kisses Danny's temple. "And we can be a good example for him. Show him he can still have a boring, stable relationship."
Danny laughs. "We're not that boring." He kisses Claude. "Thank you."
"I love that you want to help him," Claude says. "I wouldn't want you to change." He puts his arm around Danny and settles back against the couch. "Have you talked to the boys yet?"
"No." Danny leans into Claude's shoulder. He can take a break before he has to get back to some of his homework. "I wanted to make sure it was okay with you first."
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Claude says. "They're used to you taking in rookies."
*
Danny talks to Cameron first, over dinner.
"Caleb doesn't have a place to live over the summer," he says. "I was thinking we could let him come live with us."
"Just for the summer?" Cameron asks.
"At least for the summer," Danny says. "More if he wants to stay with us."
Cameron shrugs. "Yeah, sure. Caleb's cool."
"Thank you," Danny says. "I'm going to talk to your brothers about it tomorrow, so please don't mention it to them until I get a chance to do that."
"Okay," Cameron says, seemingly not bothered by any of it.
Danny looks at Claude, who is very clearly trying not to laugh at him for his caution. Claude's grin deepens, and then he leans over and kisses Danny's cheek.
"Told you so," he murmurs.
*
Because of the time difference, Danny talks to Caelan next, catching him around dinner time in California. They text a lot, but it's been a couple of days since they last talked, so they spend some time catching up before Danny brings up Caleb.
"I want to invite Caleb, one of my friends from school, to live with us, at least for the summer. His parents kicked him out because he's gay, and he can't stay in the dorms for the summer."
"I wanted to talk to you about this summer," Caelan says. "Alexis and I are thinking about spending part of it here anyway."
"Oh," Danny says. That was not the turn he expected this conversation to take. "How much of it?"
"Like, half of it, maybe," Caelan says. "We want to come home and everything, but we also have friends here, not just people from school, and it's where we live now."
"Okay," Danny says. "I know I'd like you to come home and we're going to Florida in July, but you're adults now, and if you want to spend some of the summer there, it's okay with me. You'll have to talk to your mom too."
"I talked to her a couple of days ago," Caelan says, "and Alexis's parents are cool with it."
Danny expects Alexis's parents are less than cool with it - unless they've discovered they like having her out of the house - but at least he's not going to have to be involved in trying to talk them into letting Alexis do what she wants.
"Okay," Danny says. "Let me know when you're going to be here."
"Yeah, of course," Caelan says. "And you should switch my room with the guest room so Caleb doesn't have to be next to you and Claude, since he'll be there the whole summer and I won't."
This is now the most embarrassing conversation Danny has had with Caelan since Caelan and Alexis started dating and Danny put down ground rules about what they could and could not do in the house.
"That's a good idea," Danny admits. "Do you want to wait until you're here to move your stuff?"
"No," Caelan says. "I brought a lot of stuff with me. You can just pile my stuff in the guest room, and I'll do something with it when I get there."
"We'll do that," Danny says. "Thank you for thinking of it."
Danny can practically hear Caelan's shrug when he says, "Yeah, no problem."
Part 7
"We should talk about fall classes," Sarah says one day when they're sitting around a table in Huntsman with notebooks and laptops spread around them. "Unless we don't want to stay a study group next year."
"Of course we do," Caleb says.
"Yes," Danny agrees.
"My grades say yes," Hunter says.
"Good. Then let's talk about classes." Sarah turns her laptop around so they can all see the advising page up on her screen, and they click through to the Business Fundamentals page.
"We should probably take STAT 102 while we're still fresh from 101," Danny says.
"We have to take accounting before we can take finance," Hunter says.
"That leaves marketing or management as our third one," Caleb says, "unless we only want to do two of them next semester."
"Three," Hunter says. "I want to get the basics out of the way."
"I vote for management," Sarah says, "if it fits our schedule."
"Either one is fine with me," Danny says, and Caleb and Hunter both shrug their agreement.
They only have three options for Societal Responsibility classes, and they all look at them without speaking.
"They all sound boring," Hunter finally says.
"We could start with Corporate Responsibility," Caleb says. "It might be a little more interesting. Case studies sounds promising."
"They're probably going to be boring case studies," Hunter says.
"But probably better than the introductory class," Sarah says.
"That's my vote," Danny says. "That or the BEPP one."
"Let's do the ethics one first," Caleb says. "We can take the BEPP one next semester."
They each pick a class and pull up the fall schedule to see how they can fit everything together.
"Nothing at eight," Hunter says.
"Agreed," Caleb says.
"Me too," Sarah says. "Are you going to want to keep Tuesday and Thursday mornings free?" she asks Danny.
"Yes," Danny says, "if we can make that work."
Hunter rolls his eyes. "I can't believe we're picking a schedule based on the mornings your boyfriend is at your place."
"You don't want eight a.m. classes anyway," Danny says. "It's not that much of an adjustment."
"We'd do the same for you," Caleb says, "if you were dating anyone."
Sarah makes a face at him that seems to say she doesn't necessarily agree, but she doesn't say anything.
Hunter sighs heavily. The rest of them ignore him and Sarah asks, "What about other classes? When else do we need to keep free?"
Caleb is the only one of them with a definite choice for a fifth class so far, so they set that time aside and build a schedule around it. Their best idea for a schedule has them taking a nine-thirty class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"Is that going to be okay for you?" Sarah asks Danny, frowning at the schedule.
Danny says, "Yes." It'll still give him a little time with Claude on those mornings, even if it's not as much as Claude would probably like.
"Is it going to be okay for Claude?" Caleb asks.
"Yes," Danny says. "He knows this is important to me, and that still gives us some time in the morning."
"Please don't tell us about it," Hunter says.
"I'm not going to," Danny says with a smirk. "I don't want you to feel bad that you don't have as great a sex life as I do."
Sarah laughs, Caleb snickers, and Hunter looks like he doesn't know what he's supposed to do. His face eventually settles into something between a grimace and a small smile.
"I get laid plenty," Hunter says.
"And that is something I really don't want to know about," Sarah says.
"You wish you knew about it," Hunter says.
"Really, really don't." Sarah wrinkles her nose. "I've hooked up with frat guys like you. It's nothing to write home about."
Hunter scowls at her and Caleb laughs at both of them. Danny can't help the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Sarah and Hunter's occasional low-level mutual dislike is entertaining when it doesn't escalate.
Sarah pokes Caleb in the arm. "What about you? Do you not kiss and tell or are you not hooking up?"
"Not hooking up," Caleb says.
"One of my frat brothers is gay," Hunter says.
Caleb laughs. "I don't know if 'frat brother' is an endorsement."
"Definitely not," Sarah says.
Caleb shrugs. "I'm not in a hurry. I'll just keep living vicariously through Danny's love story for the ages."
"I wouldn't call it that," Danny says.
"I would," Sarah says. "Someday you're going to stop pretending he's not your boyfriend and -"
Danny's face must be giving something away, because she stops there.
"What?" Hunter asks, looking between them.
"He's your boyfriend," Sarah says.
"He's my boyfriend," Danny agrees.
"Wow," Caleb says. "I didn't think you were ever going to realize that."
"Does he know he's your boyfriend?" Hunter asks.
"Yes," Danny says. "We talked about it. You were all right." It's not that painful to admit that, but Claude is probably going to laugh at him when Danny tells him about this later.
"Congratulations on finally making it official," Sarah says. "Who brought it up?"
"He did," Danny says.
Even Hunter laughs at him for that one. "I can't believe your ten years younger boyfriend is more emotionally mature than you."
"He's not that young," Danny says. "He's almost thirty."
"And you're almost forty," Sarah says. "Why didn't you ever bring it up?"
Danny looks to Caleb for help, but Caleb's looking at him with the same intense curiosity as Hunter and Sarah.
"We're your friends," Caleb says. "You can't get out of talking to us about your love life."
Danny sighs. He could put them off - he spent enough of his life not fully answering questions the press asked him to know how - but they are his friends and they're going to have a different perspective than anyone else he knows who he can talk to about it. "There wasn't any reason to bring it up," he says. "What we had was already working for us."
"If he brought it up," Caleb says, "something must have changed."
Danny shrugs. "He's almost thirty. He's maturing." Then he thinks about it, about what was different about this road trip. "And I told him I was going to miss him before he left for his road trip."
"You've never told him that before?" Sarah asks.
Danny thinks about it for a second. "Not really. Not straight out like that. Usually I just chirp him when he asks if I'm going to miss him."
"Wow," Hunter says. "You're really bad at relationships."
"Really bad," Sarah says. "How were you married long enough to have kids?"
"I'm not that bad," Danny says, sidestepping the question about his marriage. "We were just hooking up, and we're used to chirping each other."
"If you're official," Caleb says, "you're going to have to do better than that."
*
Claude's out of town the day Danny has that conversation with his study group, but he thinks about it, and decides to do something about it when Claude gets back.
Cameron's with Sylvie, and Danny's fallen into the habit of just ordering in for dinner when he's the only one home. He goes grocery shopping on his way home from school on the day after Claude gets back into town too late to have come over to Danny's, and he texts Claude to tell him to come over for dinner tonight.
I could have plans already, Claude texts back.
You'd cancel them to see your boyfriend, Danny sends. It's still strange to refer to himself that way, but he'll get used to it soon enough.
You think a lot of yourself, Claude sends. He also says he'll be there later, so Danny doesn't bother to respond to that one.
Instead, he works on his homework and takes a nap. After his nap, he takes out his copy of the recipe binder Mitchell gave him and gets to work. It's his first try at cooking by himself, but he has instructions and Mitchell walked them through it step by step, so it can't go too badly.
He hasn't burned anything yet when Claude lets himself into the house and comes into the kitchen. Claude stops at the edge of the kitchen and just stares at him.
"Are you cooking?"
"Yes." Danny makes sure nothing's going to suffer if he leaves it for a minute and goes over to Claude. "That was the point of the cooking lessons." He kisses Claude thoroughly. "I missed you."
"I missed you too," Claude says. He looks over Danny's shoulder at the rest of the kitchen. "You've never cooked for me before."
"I never knew how to cook before." Danny presses another kiss to Claude's cheek and lets go of him to go make sure he's not ruining dinner.
Claude sits down on one of the stools at the island and watches him. "What did I miss while I was gone? Besides you deciding to cook."
There isn't really anything Danny needs to do about the food at the moment, so he leans on the other side of the island. "I told my study group you're my boyfriend."
"Ooh, big step," Claude teases.
"They think you're more emotionally mature than I am," Danny says, "since you're the one who brought it up."
Claude laughs, just like Danny thought he would. "They're probably the only people in the world who think that."
"Probably," Danny says, "but they have a point. I haven't been very good at talking about this."
Claude slides off his stool and comes around the counter to Danny. "You've been very good at doing it though." He puts his arms around Danny and kisses him. "You're here for me, you make space for me in your life, we have amazing sex."
Danny grins at him. "Still working on the rest of that top twenty."
Claude laughs. "We'll get there."
"You're good at this too," Danny says. "And not just because you talk about it. Have I thanked you for how supportive you've been about my school?"
"A little." Claude leers at him. "I can think of more ways you can thank me."
Danny laughs and kisses Claude before he pushes him away to check on the food. "After we eat."
"We could eat later," Claude says.
"I cooked for you," Danny says. "We're going to eat it while it's still hot." He turns around to find Claude watching him with an intensity that's not just desire.
"Did you cook for me because you're trying to be a better boyfriend?"
"Yes," Danny says. "My study group pointed out that I should be better if we're official."
"Danny," Claude says, his whole face softening. "You're already good. You don't have to do anything else."
"I want to," Danny says. He busies himself with getting plates down and putting food on them. "It was okay when we were just hooking up, but relationships take effort. I've made that mistake before."
Claude lets him put the plates on the table, but he stops Danny before he can go back for utensils and drinks. "Thank you for making dinner." Claude rests his hands on Danny's hips and kisses him lightly. "I've known you for a long time. We've lived together. We've roomed together. We've been hooking up for years. We're not going to screw this up."
That kind of declaration deserves a reward, and Danny pulls Claude in and kisses him deep and thorough.
"You can still make me dinner whenever you want," Claude says after.
Danny laughs and pulls away to get them glasses of wine. "Wait until you taste it before you say that."
They sit down at the table and dig into their food.
"It's good," Claude says. "And you didn't burn anything."
"I paid attention when Mitchell was here."
Claude grins at him. "This turned out to be an even better present for me than I thought it was going to be."
"Don't expect it all the time," Danny says.
Claude laughs. "I won't. I know you don't like cooking that much."
Claude's right that he doesn't really like it, but it's not as bad now that he knows what he's doing.
"I don't hate it," Danny says. "I can cook sometimes."
Claude leans across the table and kisses him. "I'll cook for you sometime too. Midterms in the fall or something."
Danny smiles at him, pure, simple happiness at the promise. Then he grimaces. "My study group is going to make so much fun of me."
Claude laughs. "You should never have told them anything if you didn't want them to comment."
Danny smirks at him. "I'm going to talk to Scott. We'll see how you like it then."
Claude shrugs. "I have a pretty great boyfriend. I don't care if they all chirp me about it."
Danny sighs. "You really are more emotionally mature about this than I am."
Claude laughs and says, "I've dated more recently than you have. You're just out of practice."
That might be true, and Danny leaves the serious conversation there and asks about Claude's road trip.
Claude helps clean up after dinner, and that's familiar enough that they move around each other easily.
"So," Claude says after the dishes are in the dishwasher and the counters have been wiped down, "you were talking about thanking me."
Danny laughs and kisses him. "Yes," he says. "What kind of thank-you do you want?"
"I have the day off tomorrow." Claude gets a hand between them and gropes Danny through his jeans. "You could fuck me."
Danny pushes into Claude's touch. "Bed, kitchen, or couch?" he asks.
Claude groans and he tightens his hand and drops his head to Danny's shoulder. "Kitchen," he says. He mouths at Danny's neck. "You offered. You can't take it back."
"I'm not going to." Danny tips Claude's head up and kisses him, pulling him close and licking deep into his mouth. He gets both hands on Claude's ass, can feel Claude hard against him.
They make out for a long time. For all that they're both turned on, it's still easy and slow, and five years of hooking up really has made them good at doing this together.
"Danny," Claude mumbles into Danny's mouth after a while, "fuck me."
Danny surges against him and kisses him harder for a long moment before he pulls away. "Stay there," he says. He locks the front door and all but runs up the stairs to his room to grab lube and a condom. When he gets back down to the kitchen, Claude has already shut the blinds and taken off his clothes.
Claude's leaning against the counter, looking even more naked in a place where Danny's used to seeing him clothed, with one hand wrapped around his cock.
Danny looks him up and down, taking in all of his pale skin and hard muscle. Then he walks slowly across the room and leans in close without actually touching Claude. He puts the lube and condom down on the counter and says, "I want to suck you."
Claude groans. "I won't last if you do."
"Just for a minute," Danny says. He steps back and goes to his knees. He takes Claude into his mouth, tasting him, feeling how hard he is. He puts one hand over his own cock, teasing himself as much as he's teasing Claude. He looks up at Claude, and Claude groans out his name and tangles his hands in Danny's hair.
"Enough," Claude gasps after a minute. "Fuck me."
Danny draws his mouth off slowly, licking all along the length of Claude's cock and over the head as he goes. He stands up and kisses Claude. He tries to keep it slow, but Claude kisses back eager and fast, licking his own taste out of Danny's mouth.
Danny tears away with a gasp. "Turn around," he says, moving back and guiding Claude around to face the counter.
Claude folds himself over the counter. It makes a perfect curve out of his ass, one Danny has to run his hand over. He leaves Claude there and looks at him, at the muscle in his ass and thighs, the flat expanse of his back, while he strips quickly. He leans over Claude while he picks up the lube, pressing close, chest to Claude's back, cock nestled in the crease of Claude's ass.
"Danny," Claude moans. "Just fuck me."
Danny kisses his shoulder. "You have no patience." Danny doesn't have much either, but he needs a second to get the lube open and make himself step back so he can open Claude up.
"Not when you tease me," Claude says. He makes a noise, a whine, mostly, when Danny moves back, and sighs when Danny circles a lubed finger around his hole. It's a tease, and he's doing it on purpose, and he waits until Claude is rocking his hips back before he pushes his finger into him.
Claude's moan echoes off the countertop. Danny bends over him and kisses his back, stretching so he can kiss the back of his neck, and gives him a second finger. Claude is gorgeous, desperate and wanting, and only Danny's now.
Danny's not sure he can wait much longer. He mouths at Claude's shoulder. "Are you ready?"
"Yes." Claude arches into Danny's touch, and whines when Danny takes his fingers out.
There's a dish towel on the counter, and Danny uses it to wipe lube off his fingers so he can tear the condom open. He can barely stand to touch himself to put it on, almost too much for him to keep from coming before he gets into Claude.
He squeezes more lube onto his cock, hissing as he strokes himself once to spread it around, and then he holds Claude open and pushes just the head of his cock into him.
"Danny." Claude's voice sounds half broken, and he pushes back against Danny, taking more of Danny's cock into himself.
Danny stops holding back and thrusts all the way into Claude.
"Yes!" Claude's shout echoes around the kitchen.
"Claude," Danny groans. "Fuck, Claude." He pulls back and thrusts in again, and Claude pushes back to meet him. Danny's not gentle with him, doesn't have to be, and Claude moves with him, pushing into every thrust, swearing and moaning and gasping Danny's name.
Claude has both hands on the counter, using them for leverage, so Danny takes one hand off of Claude's hips and wraps it around his cock instead. Claude lets out a long, drawn-out moan and meets Danny's movements with more force.
Danny doesn't even try to jerk him off, just keeps his hand around Claude's cock and lets his thrusts push Claude's cock into his hand. He's not going to be able to fuck Claude for much longer without coming, and he tightens his hand around Claude, fucks into him hard and fast, gets himself together enough to rub his thumb over the head of Claude's cock.
Claude comes with a shout. Danny keeps his hand on Claude's cock for a little longer, until he knows Claude is going to be too sensitive for it, and then he lets go, holds onto both of Claude's hips, and fucks into him with sharp thrusts. He's the only one who gets to fuck Claude like this, and Claude is the only one who gets this from him.
Danny folds over Claude as he comes, hips still moving restlessly until it's too much and he pulls out, strips off the condom, bends over Claude for real, chest to Claude's back.
Claude turns his head, and Danny kisses him, sloppy and off-center.
Claude doesn't try to move other than that, so they stay there, awkward though it is, and trade kisses for long minutes.
"That had to be the best sex of your life," Claude says. "It was definitely the best sex of mine."
Danny chuckles and kisses Claude's neck. "Yes," he says. "You're closer and closer to taking up all of the top twenty."
Claude grins at him. "I'm going to get more than that. Top thirty. Fifty. Hundred."
Danny pats his ass. "I think you'll be able to do that." He finally pulls back to let Claude stand.
"I don't think I can walk," Claude says.
Danny frowns at him. "Are you okay?" He cups Claude's hip.
"I'm not hurt," Claude says. "That was the best sex of my life. It took a lot out of me."
Danny kisses him, winding his arms around Claude. "Where am I on your top twenty?"
Claude hums into his mouth. "You have all of the top thirty."
"Yeah?" Danny grins at him. "I'm going to get your top hundred too."
Claude grins back. "It's all yours."
Danny kisses him quickly. "Do you want to go upstairs? I'll clean up in here."
"Mmm, okay." Claude's hands slide over Danny's skin as he moves around him. "Hurry up."
"I will," Danny promises. "You won't have to sleep alone after sex." He grabs cleaning supplies out of the cabinet under the sink.
"Why do you have so many stairs?" Claude calls a minute later.
Danny just laughs at him and wipes down the counter. It doesn't take long, and then he puts everything away and scoops up their clothes in one jumbled pile. He turns out lights on his way upstairs, and drops their clothes on the floor in the bedroom. They can sort them out in the morning.
He pauses to kiss Claude, who's already in bed waiting for him, and goes through to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He turns out the lights and joins Claude in bed, and then he kisses Claude again, longer, Claude turning into him and tangling them up together.
"I like this boyfriend thing," Claude says.
"Me too," Danny says. It's not that they've never made out while curled together in bed before, but it's different now. They're both trying harder, and it means something more than just that they like sex and touch. It means they're together, a unit in a way Danny hasn't been with anyone else in a long time.
*
"It's your birthday tomorrow," Sarah says to Caleb as she slides into the chair on the other side of Danny.
"How do you know that?"
"Facebook." Sarah leans over Danny so she can look at Caleb. "What are you doing for it?"
Caleb shrugs. "Nothing."
"You have to do something." Sarah looks from Caleb to Danny to Hunter, who is pretending not to listen to them on the other side of Caleb. "We should do something."
"You don't need to do that," Caleb says.
"Come on," Sarah says. "I'm not doing anything tomorrow night, and Wednesdays aren't really a hot night of activity for frat boy over there."
Hunter rolls his eyes, but says, "I don't have plans."
Sarah turns to Danny. "What about you?"
"Cameron's with his mom and Claude's out of town," Danny says.
"See?" Sarah says. "Perfect."
"You don't have to," Caleb says, but he doesn't protest again when Sarah says, "We want to."
Sarah turns to Danny again. "You can pick us up, right?"
"Yes," Danny says, and then class is called to order and they have to pay attention to the lecture for an hour and a half.
The minute they're done, Sarah says, "Pick us up at six-thirty. Caleb and I will figure out what we're doing." She loops her arm through Caleb's. Caleb throws a startled look at her, but lets himself be dragged off, leaving Danny and Hunter to shrug at each other before going their separate ways.
Claude laughs when Danny tells him about it later, Danny lying on the couch in the living room and Claude in a hotel room in Tampa Bay.
"She's a force of nature."
"Yes, she is," Danny agrees. "His parents aren't going to call him tomorrow, are they?"
"Probably not," Claude says. "Not everyone is as great a dad as you are. He'll have all of you, though, so he won't be alone."
"I miss you," Danny says. It's not exactly a continuation of the conversation, but he misses having Claude be there for these kinds of conversations, when he can lean against Claude and have the physical comfort of his touch too.
"I miss you too," Claude says, his voice dipping low and warm. Then, lighter, "Want to have phone sex?"
The sudden shift in mood startles Danny into a laugh. "That's not why I called you."
"Maybe it's why I picked up the phone," Claude says.
"You would have anyway," Danny says, still laughing.
"Yes," Claude admits. "But I'm still serious about the phone sex."
"Yeah," Danny says after a moment, "okay." He doesn't have to be anywhere, and if Claude has time for it, so does he.
They jerk off together, and while it's not the same as having Claude there with him, it's still good.
"This boyfriend thing has advantages," Claude says after, when Danny's still catching his breath. "You agreed to that faster than I thought you would."
"Mmm," Danny says. "It was good."
"Yes, it was," Claude says. "And now I have to take a shower before Hartsy drags me off to dinner."
Danny huffs out a laugh. "Okay."
"Tell Caleb I said happy birthday."
"I will. I'll call you tomorrow."
Danny doesn't bother with a shower, just cleans himself up and gets dressed again before figuring out what to eat for dinner. The house is lonely and too big when he's there by himself, so he's glad to pick up Caleb, Hunter, and Sarah for dinner on Wednesday.
Caleb gets the front seat, but Sarah is the one to tell Danny where they're going.
"Caleb wanted burgers," Sarah says to Hunter's look. "This place is supposed to have the best burgers in Philly."
"They do," Danny says, and he listens in on Sarah and Hunter's mild bickering while he drives. It could be annoying, but they mostly seem to be doing it for the sport of it, and Caleb is smiling, so it's obviously not ruining his birthday.
The place isn't very busy, so they get shown right to a table, and they take a couple of minutes to read over their menus.
"I want fries and potato skins," Sarah says after a minute. "Does that seem like too much potato?"
"I'll eat some of the potato skins," Hunter says.
Sarah smiles at him, and when their waitress comes to take their orders - burgers and fries for all four of them - she also orders potato skins for the four of them to share.
Once the waitress leaves, Sarah reaches into her purse and comes up with an envelope she hands across the table to Caleb. "Happy birthday."
Danny pulls out the envelope he stashed in his jacket, and Hunter also has one he hands over.
Caleb blinks at all three of them, then starts with Sarah's. He laughs at the card, then passes it around while he tucks the gift card with an Amazon logo on it into the envelope. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Sarah says. "You should totally buy something fun with that."
"I will," Caleb promises before he opens the next envelope. He quirks a smile at Hunter before he passes around the card with a mostly naked man on the front. "Thanks."
Hunter grins at him.
Caleb opens the envelope from Danny last. He reads the card, and bites his lip while he tucks the gift card Danny bought him into the envelope with the one from Sarah. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Danny says. "And Claude says happy birthday too."
Caleb and Sarah both dissolve into giggles that leave Danny and Hunter looking at each other, on the outside of the joke.
"It took less time than we thought it would for you to bring him up," Sarah explains after a minute.
Danny laughs a little. "I won't do it again," he says. "But he really did say that."
"Well, tell him thanks," Caleb says, "and that it made this way more fun for us."
"I will," Danny says, and he will, even though it will mean Claude laughing at him too.
They pass the cards back around so Caleb can tuck them away before their waitress brings their potato skins and they all have greasy fingers.
"These are so good," Sarah says. "I don't even regret having them and fries."
They all agree with her, and the burgers are just as good. They don't talk much until they're all winding down and picking at the last of the potato skins and fries.
"I thought we should go to a gay bar too," Sarah says, "but Caleb said no."
"We're underage," Caleb says.
"All-ages club then," Sarah says. "There has to be something around here."
"On a Wednesday night?" Hunter points out. "Nothing good."
"Do we have other plans?" Danny asks.
"Movie, if everyone wants to go," Caleb says.
Danny and Sarah agree, and Hunter, predictably, demands to know which movie before he says yes.
Danny pays for dinner while they're working that out and checking on when the movie starts, and then they pull on their coats and head for the movie theater.
The movie turns out to be fun, and something all four of them enjoy. They stand around in the lobby afterwards talking about it until Sarah says, "We should go have dessert since we didn't get Caleb a cake."
"Ice cream," Hunter suggests.
"It's too cold for ice cream," Sarah says.
"That's because you're from California," Caleb says. "It's never too cold for ice cream."
"We can to go the Franklin Fountain," Danny says. "They have ice cream and warmer things in the winter."
None of them have been there yet, so Danny drives them over there and they stand back out of other people's way while they look at the menu. It's not hugely busy, but there are always people in there, even on a Wednesday night.
Danny, Caleb, and Hunter get ice cream, Sarah orders pie, and they sit down around a table that's so small they have to be careful not to kick each other.
"So," Sarah says after a minute of focus on their dessert, "how does this stack up as a birthday?"
Caleb smiles at her, and then at Danny and Hunter too. "Pretty good," he says. "I thought it was going to be terrible, but," he shrugs, "it didn't turn out that bad. My brother called earlier. I don't think my parents knew he was doing it."
Hunter winces and thumps Caleb on the shoulder. "Well, we're here even if your parents aren't." After a moment when Caleb, Danny, and Sarah all look at him, he says, "I don't know why you think I can't do this stuff. I keep telling you my best friend's gay. I know how to be an ally. Plus I'm in a frat. We know all about brotherhood."
"That would not be my first thought about frats," Sarah says.
Caleb laughs and leans over to catch Hunter in a quick, one-armed hug. "I never expect it from you," he says, "but thank you."
Hunter nods at him, and then Sarah asks someone from the table next to them to take a picture with her phone. They squeeze in together and smile. Sarah shows them all the picture - all four of them smiling around a table full of half-eaten desserts - and then sends it to them.
Danny drives Sarah, Caleb, and Hunter back to campus after they finish their desserts, and gets out of the car to hug everyone. He hugs Caleb for an extra long time, not that Caleb seems to mind.
Danny checks his messages before he drives home. He sets the picture of the four of them as his lock screen, replacing a picture of Cameron pulling faces, and he has a text from Claude asking how his evening was. Claude only texted him fifteen minutes ago, so Danny sets his phone into the car's dock and calls him.
"Caleb's parents are the shittiest parents," Danny says as soon as the call connects. It's not what he meant to say, but he can't keep it inside anymore.
"I know," Claude says. "Did you give him a good birthday anyway?"
"Yes," Danny says. "He said it was better than he thought it would be." He tells Claude the highlights - without giving away the end of the movie, which Claude says he still wants to see - and promises to send him the picture of the four of them at the Franklin Fountain.
Claude laughs most at Danny's recounting of what happened when he passed on Claude's birthday wishes to Caleb. "I know you can't stop talking about me," he says.
"Your ego," Danny says with a chuckle, "is getting out of control."
"My ego," Claude says, "is completely justified. If I weren't so good, I wouldn't have a hot older boyfriend waiting for me at home."
Danny just laughs at that, since he can't really deny it, and asks Claude about his road trip so far.
"Go to bed," Danny says when Claude's voice starts to slow in a way he knows means Claude is tired.
"I really wanted to talk you into phone sex," Claude says.
"That only works when you can stay awake for it. I'll call you tomorrow."
"Looking forward to it," Claude says. "Good night."
"Good night," Danny says with a smile. He reaches out to disconnect the call and drives the rest of the way home in contented silence.
*
Danny wakes up on a Saturday when he wasn't planning on doing much to the sound of muffled cursing coming from across the room.
"What are you doing?"
Claude looks over his shoulder at Danny. "Packing," he says, "so I can come back to bed before I have to be at the rink. Do you know where my other pajama pants are? The blue ones?"
"In the dryer, I think. I did laundry yesterday."
Claude leaves the room and comes back a little later with the entire laundry basket full of clothes that he proceeds to put away. The pajama pants go in his bag, and the rest of it gets folded away into drawers or hung up in the closet.
Claude puts a few more things in his bag and zips a suit into his hanging bag. He looks around for a minute, then leaves his things there and gets back into bed with Danny.
Danny kisses him for a minute, before the whole morning catches up with him and he pulls back to blink at Claude. "You were packing."
"Yes," Claude says slowly.
"You have enough stuff here to pack. And you put away the laundry."
"You would have just left it in the dryer until you needed something." It's not an entirely unfair assertion.
Danny blinks at Claude again. He's supposed to be better about talking about this, and even though he hasn't thought about it before this, it makes sense to ask, "Do you want to move in?"
Now it's Claude's turn to blink at him. "Do you want me to move in?"
Danny stops to think before he answers. He's supposed to be putting effort into this relationship now, not just letting them drift along. "Yes," he says. "I like having you here. You mostly live here anyway."
Claude kisses him long and slow. "Yes," he says. "I want to move in." After a moment, he adds, "You should probably make sure it's okay with Cameron."
"The boys loved it when you lived here before," Danny says. "I'm sure it'll be fine."
"He was nine," Claude says, but he's smiling as he does.
"He doesn't mind that you mostly live here already," Danny says. "I'll talk to him." He wriggles closer to Claude. "How much time do you have? Can we stop talking about my kid now?"
Claude laughs and grabs Danny's ass. "We have some time."
*
Claude leaves mid-morning to get to the rink on time. Danny walks downstairs with him and spends a couple of minutes kissing him goodbye at the door, and then goes back upstairs to take a shower and put on real clothes. There's a note from Cameron that he went out with some friends, so Danny doesn't see him until he comes home just about the time Danny's thinking about doing something for dinner.
"What do you think?" he asks Cameron. "Cook or not?"
"Cook," Cameron says. He's the one who sorts through what's in the fridge and decides what they're going to make.
Danny lets him be in charge and cuts things up and stirs as directed. He waits until they're sitting down at the table to eat to bring up Claude.
"Would it be okay with you if Claude moved in with us again?"
Cameron seems wholly unconcerned as he takes a bite of his broccoli. "Doesn't he already live here?"
"Mostly," Danny admits. "But if he lived here officially?"
"Yeah, sure," Cameron says. "I like having him around."
"He's going to be staying in my room," Danny says. Not that he wants to talk to his son about his sex life, or that they haven't kissed in front of him before, but Cameron should know exactly what he's agreeing to.
"Yeah, Dad," Cameron says. "I know he's your partner, or whatever."
It would have been hard for Cameron to miss that Danny and Claude are something, but it's the first time anyone's referred to them that way. It makes it sound more serious than "boyfriend."
"Okay," Danny says after too long a moment. "Thank you."
*
Danny texts Claude after dinner, telling him to call when he's free, and settles down to find a hockey game to watch. He worked on his homework earlier, leaving him with a Saturday night with nothing to do until his boyfriend calls. With that thought in mind, he also pours himself a glass of wine. If he's going to embody the cliche, he might as well go all out.
He's on his second glass of wine when Claude calls, sounding bright and happy and a little tipsy himself.
"I talked to Cameron," Danny says after he tells Claude all he's doing is watching a game while waiting for his call and Claude laughs at him. "He's okay with you moving in."
"Good," Claude says, "since you already asked me to."
"Good," Danny says, "since you already mostly live here." He twists the stem of his wine glass in his fingers. "What are you going to tell people about your living arrangements?"
"Oh," Claude says. "Is that why you've been drinking?"
"No," Danny says with a laugh. "But we should talk about it."
"I'll tell people who already know about us that I'm moving in with my boyfriend."
Danny smiles. He likes hearing that descriptor from Claude. "What about the people who don't know?"
"I don't know," Claude says with a sigh. "Do you mean what am I going to tell the Courier-Post about where I live?"
"Yes," Danny says. He puts down his wine glass and turns off the TV. "We should talk about that."
Claude hmms for a second, then asks, "Are we always going to have serious conversations over the phone when I'm on the road?"
Danny winces. "We've had a lot of them when we're together."
"Okay," Claude says. "Are we going to have this one when I'm on the road, or when I'm back home?"
"It can wait," Danny says. They do have to talk about it, but they don't have to talk about it right now.
"I want to be able to see you," Claude says. "And touch you and kiss you."
"Okay," Danny says.
"So we'll talk about it when I'm home," Claude says. Then he laughs. "You realize I'm still the emotionally mature one in this relationship."
Danny laughs with him. "I brought it up."
"Yeah," Claude says, "when you'd been drinking and we're a thousand miles apart."
Danny groans. "Stop it. You're worse than my study group."
Claude laughs. "I'm better than your study group. They wouldn't offer you drunken phone sex."
Danny makes a face even though Claude can't see it. "I hope not."
"Forget about your study group," Claude says. "That was a hint."
"A very unsubtle one." Danny downs the last of his wine and leaves the glass on the coffee table. "Two minutes," he says. "I have to go upstairs."
"Mmm," Claude says. "And I don't have to wait at all. I can start stripping right now."
Danny almost trips on the stairs as Claude tells him the details as he does just that.
*
Claude comes straight to Danny's from the airport, which Danny knows because Claude crawls into bed with him in the middle of the night on Friday.
"Shh," Claude says. "Sorry." He kisses Danny, and it's enough for Danny to fall right back into sleep.
Danny wakes up in the morning thinking it might have been a dream until he registers the warmth of a second person in bed with him. Claude is, unsurprisingly, still asleep. Danny presses a kiss to his hair and gets up.
He's in the kitchen sipping coffee and making eggs when Claude joins him, still in pajamas but tasting like mint, so he at least brushed his teeth before he came downstairs.
"It's a Saturday," Claude says. "Why are you out of bed?"
"I was awake." Danny turns to kiss him again. "Do you want breakfast?"
"Yes." Claude slumps over a cup of coffee at the island while Danny makes enough food for two.
Danny sits next to him at the island, and they eat in comfortable silence.
Claude pushes his plate away when it's empty and turns in his chair to face Danny. "Okay," he says, "I'm here, I'm awake now. Let's talk."
Danny pushes his plate away and turns his coffee cup in his hands. "What are you going to tell people?"
"What do you want to tell people?" Claude asks. He takes the coffee cup away from Danny and holds his hands. "I can always say I own a condo in Cherry Hill."
Danny smiles briefly. Claude's learned how to lie without lying over the years. "You can," he says. "Do you want to?"
Claude leans forward and rests his forehead against Danny's. "I'm not going to tell anyone anything you're not comfortable with. I can tell them I own the condo, I can tell them I moved in with you because it's some kind of superstition, or I can tell them I moved in with you because you're my boyfriend."
Danny closes his eyes. "They're going to make so many assumptions if you do that."
Claude cups his hand around the back of Danny's neck. "I don't have to tell them that. Or we don't have to tell them details."
Danny opens his eyes and looks at Claude. They're so close there's no hiding from each other, and he can see that Claude means it, that he'll go whichever way Danny wants him to.
Danny tilts his head and kisses Claude. "You can tell them the truth if you want to," he says. He squeezes Claude's hand. "Things have changed since we started doing this. It probably won't be as big a deal, and I can warn the boys."
Claude laughs. "It'll be a big deal." He nips at Danny's lips. "But manageable. And I won't bring it up unless they ask about it. It might not come up at all." He kisses Danny for real, using the hand still around the back of Danny's neck to direct him just where he wants him.
Danny returns the kiss with enthusiasm, more relaxed now that they've made a decision. "It's Saturday morning," he says. "Want to go back to bed?"
"Yes." Claude tugs at Danny's hand to make him stand up faster. "We haven't had sex in so long."
Danny laughs. "We had phone sex twice this week."
"It's not the same." Claude kisses him, then turns away and rushes Danny up the stairs, Claude impatient and Danny laughing the whole way.
*
Hunter looks disgruntled at their decision to have lunch on campus, but Danny's pretty sure he doesn't care that much, and he ends up with a lunch he digs into without complaint.
He looks disgruntled again when Sarah says, "No school conversation," when he tries to bring up their discussion from BEPP recitation. "Everything is school," Sarah continues on. "I need to think about something else right now."
"I bet Danny has something not about school going on," Caleb says, and all three of them stare at Danny.
Danny shrugs.
"Come on," Caleb says. "We've all noticed how you look. What's up?"
They're going to find out soon enough anyway. "Claude's moving in," he says. "Officially. He mostly lives with us already."
"Congratulations," Sarah says after a second. "His idea or yours?"
"Mine," Danny says. "Mostly. I asked him to move in, but he'd pretty much moved in on his own."
"At least you're talking about it," Sarah says after she laughs at him.
"Very mature," Caleb says.
"Very boring," Hunter says, and he shrugs when Sarah and Caleb glare at him. "Sorry, but it is. You're already an old married couple. We don't need to know more about that."
Danny thinks about refuting it - he doesn't find being with Claude boring, any more than he found marriage to Sylvie particularly boring - but decides he doesn't really want to tell them the details of his sex life and just shrugs instead. "It works for us."
"I think it's romantic, if kind of slow," Caleb says. "Five years of hooking up and you're finally figuring out you want to be together."
"No," Danny say. "It was never like this before." The looks all three of them give him suggest they don't believe him, even though it is the truth. It's less that they figured out they want to be together and more that they grew into wanting to be together. It's like that now, though, so Danny lets it go without trying to convince Sarah, Caleb, and Hunter of the truth of how it happened.
*
"What do you even have to move?" Cameron asks when they try to figure out a day they can fully move Claude into the house. "You already live here."
"I have things that aren't here," Claude says.
"Like the clothes you never wear?"
Claude laughs at the chirp. Danny shakes his head and asks, "Are you bringing furniture?"
Claude rubs the back of his head. "My dresser, I guess. We pretty much have everything else."
"Is there anything else you want to bring?" Danny asks. "We can make room if there is."
"We already have a bed," Claude says. He and Danny both ignore the face Cameron makes. "And a couch and a ping pong table. A better ping pong table than mine. And like, dishes and stuff." He shrugs. "I guess there isn't that much stuff to bring. I'll just leave most of it there for Gregs."
"So just your stuff," Danny says. "Think we can do that in an afternoon?"
"Yes," Claude says. "I'll go over there before and pack some stuff up too."
Danny looks at the calendar he has open. "You might get out of this," he says to Cameron, and to Claude, "You're not home on weekends for the next month."
Claude sighs and leans against his shoulder to look at the calendar with him. "You going to be able to do it midweek? I can get some of the boys to help instead."
Danny looks at the calendar and thinks about what he has coming up. "How about next Wednesday? If you can pack up some of your stuff before then, I'll bring lunch after class, and then we can move."
"Yeah," Claude says, "I can do that." He leans in and presses a kiss to Danny's cheek.
Danny smiles at him and ignores Cameron's long-suffering sigh while he puts it on his calendar.
*
What do you want? Danny texts Claude as he leaves his stats class. He had to explain to Caleb, Hunter, and Sarah why he couldn't have lunch with them today, and that resulted in a lot of mock cooing that he put up with because they're his friends and their chirping is distinctly subpar compared to what he experienced in a lifetime of playing hockey.
For everything to magically move itself, Claude sends back.
Danny laughs and sends him, You could have hired movers.
Not enough stuff to make it worth it, Claude sends, and then, Grilled cheese?
Danny probably could have guessed that would be what he wanted. For John-Michael too?
Burger, Claude says, so Danny gets a couple of grilled cheese, a burger, some fries and a side order of the veggie medley in case one of them wants to pretend to eat vegetables with their lunch, and takes it all over to Claude's.
John-Michael lets Danny in and takes one of the bags of food from him.
"Thanks, man," John-Michael says, and then he yells, "G, your boyfriend is here," as they go up the stairs.
Claude meets them at the top of the stairs, ignoring John-Michael and leaning in to kiss Danny. He looks tired and his hair is a mess, so Danny kisses him back gently and smoothes his hand over Claude's hair.
Claude sighs and leans against him for a moment. "I'm never moving again."
Danny kisses his forehead. "I'm not throwing you out, so you don't have to. You'll feel better after lunch."
Claude throws him a bright smile that seems out of proportion until Danny thinks about the fact that he just said this is permanent. Well, he is supposed to be working on talking about it; that probably counts.
They sit on the couch to eat, with whatever John-Michael was watching still playing on TV.
"You're going to rot your brain," Claude says.
John-Michael flips him off and says, "I ate the end of the ketchup yesterday."
Danny laughs and hands Claude the extra ketchup he got with the food before Claude can complain about it. Claude smiles at him and dips the corner of his grilled cheese in it.
Claude's much more relaxed by the time they're done with lunch, and they take turns washing their hands before Danny follows him to his bedroom to see what the state of the move looks like.
His room is a mess. There are a couple of boxes and two suitcases neatly stacked by the door, but there are also another couple of open boxes and a duffel in the middle of the room with a few things in them and a lot more lying around.
"I hate moving," Claude says, looking around at it.
Danny sighs. "Let's pack this up. It's probably not as bad as it looks."
Claude turns toward him and kisses him. "We could take a break."
"I thought lunch was the break."
"More of a break." Claude kisses his way down Danny's neck. "One last time here."
There haven't been that many times here to begin with, but the way Claude's nipping at his neck makes him want to have one last one. He tugs Claude up and kisses him hard. "What about John-Michael?"
Claude steps away from him to close and lock the door. "You'll just have to be quiet."
It doesn't seem like it should be that hard to do, but Claude nips at his jaw and sucks at his neck when he comes back to Danny, and it's a lot harder than it should be to keep from moaning.
"I really want to blow you," Claude says.
That takes Danny from interested to all the way hard, and he squeezes Claude tight. "I'm not going to say no to that."
Claude grins at him. "Good." He presses a swift kiss to Danny's lips, and then gets on his knees. He doesn't waste any time getting Danny's pants open and his cock out, and then Danny has to press a fist to his mouth to keep from being too loud when Claude licks him from root to tip.
Claude licks him for a while, long enough that Danny reaches down and threads his fingers into Claude's hair, silently asking for more.
Claude smirks up at him before he takes Danny all the way into his mouth. Then Danny really does have to fight not to be loud. Claude has so much practice now, and he's using all that skill and determination to make it so good for Danny. Not being able to be loud is hot too, in its own way. Not something he wants to do all the time, but right now it's good.
Claude moves on his cock, a gentle back and forth that combines with how he's sucking Danny to make it too good to last much longer. Danny's still fighting not to make too much noise when he comes, but he's not sure how well he manages it.
Claude licks him clean and stands up. Danny leans into him and kisses his jaw. He can feel how hard Claude is against his hip, and he nudges him toward the bed.
"I'm not doing this on my knees when we still have to move," he says.
Claude turns them as they move, and pushes Danny down to sit on the edge of the bed. Danny spreads his knees apart enough for Claude to stand between them.
Claude swears when Danny takes his cock out, and Danny taps his hip. "Quiet."
Claude bites his lip and nods, and Danny sucks him down. Claude isn't exactly loud, but he makes noise, bitten off moans and pleas for more, probably not loud enough to carry through the walls.
Danny makes it quick anyway, sucking hard and using his tongue. Claude is loud when he comes, a strangled shout that he cuts off after a second. Danny swallows him down and squeezes his hip.
Claude groans as he draws his cock out of Danny's mouth, and stumbles to the side to fall onto the bed. "Do we really still have to move now?"
"Yes." Danny lies down next to him. "This is the best day in your schedule for it."
Claude rolls over and puts his head on Danny's shoulder. "I'm tired now."
Danny strokes his hair. "You should have thought of that before. This was your idea."
"I know." Claude turns his face into Danny's neck and presses a kiss to his skin. "Okay," he says after a minute, "let's do this." He gets up first, and Danny stands up a moment later, tucking himself back into his pants.
Claude hasn't packed everything yet, so Danny goes into the bathroom and rinses his mouth out with mouthwash; he doesn't mind Claude coming in his mouth, but he doesn't want to taste it for the rest of the day.
"Do you want me to help pack or carry things down to the car?"
Claude looks around his room, making a face at it. "Pack," he says. "We'll carry everything down later."
"Is everything going?"
"Except the furniture."
Packing isn't as hard as Claude's dislike of moving made it sound. Danny fills boxes and tapes them shut, uses his ever-present Sharpie to label them with an approximate description of the contents. They're done in about an hour, Claude throwing the last of his stuff into a box that he tapes shut and labels "all the other shit."
Claude unlocks and opens the door, and they each take a box to carry downstairs.
John-Michael looks over the back of the couch at them as they pass by.
"You could help," Claude says as he goes down the stairs.
"Not if your room smells like jizz," John-Michael calls after them. "You couldn't wait a couple of hours?"
"It's my house," Claude calls back. "I can do what I want in there."
"Only for a few more hours," John-Michael yells after them as Danny and Claude go out the door.
"Is there anyone we know who doesn't talk about our sex life?" Danny asks.
"The boys," Claude says. "At least not to us."
Danny makes a face and unlocks his car. "Please don't talk about the kids and sex in the same sentence."
Claude laughs. "I thought you'd be over that by now. It's been long enough."
"It will never be long enough," Danny says.
Claude keeps laughing, and stops Danny just inside the condo to kiss him.
"Are you moving or making out?" John-Michael asks. He has a box in his arms.
Danny pulls away from Claude. "Moving. That can go in my car." He points John-Michael in the right direction and goes up the stairs.
With the three of them, it takes very little time to get Claude's boxes and suitcases into Danny and Claude's cars. They go inside after the last trip, and Claude hugs John-Michael.
"I know you're going to miss me."
"You're never here," John-Michael says, futilely trying to squirm out of Claude's hold. "And I'm going to see you at practice tomorrow."
Claude looks over at Danny. "Was I ever this ungrateful about living with you?"
"Ew, gross." John-Michael twists away from Claude. "I'm not sleeping with you."
"I wasn't sleeping with Danny then," Claude says.
"He wasn't," Danny confirms.
"Whatever," John-Michael says. He mock scowls at them. "Get out of my house."
"So ungrateful," Claude says. He ruffles John-Michael's hair and tells him he'll see him tomorrow, and then he and Danny separate into their own cars to drive over to the house.
With just two of them, it takes longer to get everything into the house than it did to get it out of Claude's condo, but it's not that much later that there's a stack of boxes in the entryway and two more, plus a couple of suitcases, in the bedroom.
"What do you want me to unpack?" Danny asks.
Claude groans. "Do we have to unpack? Can't it wait?"
"Nope." Danny kisses his jaw. "It'll never get done, then."
Claude makes a face at him. "What do you want to unpack?"
"I'll start with the bedroom," Danny says. He already made space for Claude's clothes in the closet, but this way he can make more if he needs to.
"You're going to trust me down here?"
"It's your house too."
Claude draws him close and kisses him deeply, then pushes him away. "Go before I decide to take advantage of you and me and an empty house instead."
Danny laughs. "We'll have plenty of opportunities for that."
Clothes are easiest to start with. Danny separates out Claude's suits from his more casual clothes, puts stacks of Claude's Flyers shirts into drawers, fills a small drawer with socks, hangs Claude's ties on the tie rack with his. It won't matter if Claude ends up wearing Danny's ties instead of his own, not that it's likely to happen; they don't even own the same style of tie.
The closet is big enough that it looks full but not overstuffed with both of their clothes filling it up. Danny takes the empty boxes out of it and closes the door. There are already signs of Claude all over the bedroom, but knowing all of Claude's clothes are in the closet makes it feel even more like it belongs to the two of them.
He unpacks the rest of what Claude brought upstairs, including his "all the other shit" box, and takes the stack of flattened boxes downstairs. Danny leaves the boxes in a stack in the entryway and goes into the living room where Claude and Cameron are having what looks like a very serious conversation about video game organization.
"What do you think?" Claude asks Danny.
Danny holds up his hands and takes a step backwards. "That's for the two of you to work out."
"That means he doesn't want to look like he's playing favorites," Cameron says.
"I know," Claude says. "Rock-paper-scissors?"
Danny backs all the way out of the room - there's no way he's getting involved in that - and takes boxes out to the recycling bin. Claude has the last two unpacked boxes in the living room, so Danny leaves him to it and sits down at the dining room table with the reading he really should do today.
Claude and Cameron must come to some kind of compromise, because Cameron wanders into the kitchen for a snack after a little bit, and Claude comes in a little later and bends over to kiss the top of Danny's head.
Danny looks up from his reading. "Done unpacking?"
"Yes. I live here now." Claude says it calmly, but a smile spreads over his face.
Danny smiles back at him and pulls him down for a kiss.
"Too bad the house isn't empty now," Claude says.
Danny laughs and pushes him back. "I have to do at least some of this reading."
"Okay." Claude kisses his temple. "I'm going to make dinner."
"Do you want some help?"
"No, I've got it."
Danny goes back to his reading. He can hear the sounds of Claude cooking, but it fades into an easy, comfortable background noise.
*
Hunter does a double-take when he sits down next to Danny in BEPP on Thursday morning. "Did you get laid last night and this morning?" he asks. "You're all." He waves a hand at Danny, like he's supposed to know what that means.
Danny did, in fact, get laid last night and this morning, but he's not going to tell Hunter that part of it. "Claude moved in yesterday."
Hunter groans. "You were bad enough before. You're going to be insufferable now."
"I don't see what you have against him being happy," Sarah says. "One of us should be getting laid at every opportunity."
"I get laid." Hunter's protest is just a little too loud, and it carries beyond the four of them.
Caleb's the first one to laugh, a smothered chuckle that sets Sarah off, then Danny can't resist it either, and even Hunter gives up a reluctant smile.
Class gets called to order, which means no one says anything about Danny's sex life for an hour and forty-five minutes. It's a brief reprieve, though, because as they're gathering up their things before they leave, Sarah says, "I'm glad you're getting laid."
Danny's surprised into a laugh. "Thank you," he says. "I'll tell Claude you approve."
"You can tell him I approve too," Caleb says. "You look happy."
Danny smiles at him. "I am."
"Insufferable," Hunter said, but he looked more tolerant than annoyed.
Danny chuckles. "I'll see you tomorrow," he says, and he waves at the three of them as he heads for his business ethics class.
Claude's already left for the rink by the time Danny gets home, so Danny sends him a text to tell him that his study group approves of him moving in, and to wish him luck.
You don't need luck when you're this good, Claude sends back.
Danny laughs and sets his phone aside to focus on his homework.
*
"What's with you?" Sarah asks Caleb when he's the last one to arrive at their table in Huntsman.
Caleb falls heavily into a chair. "Apartment hunting." He puts his head down on his arms.
"Why are you apartment hunting?" Hunter asks like it's a completely foreign concept.
Caleb rolls his head to one side. "I can't stay in the dorms for the summer, and I can't go home." He looks even more exhausted saying that.
Danny wants nothing more than to make it better for him.
"You'll find something," Sarah says. She pats Caleb's shoulder. "I'll ask around, see if anyone I know is looking for a roommate for the summer."
"Me too," Hunter says. "Maybe some of my frat brothers who don't live at the house."
Caleb sits up and smiles at them. "Thanks. It can't be very expensive. My scholarship isn't going to cover summer housing and my job isn't going to give me full-time hours."
"It'll work out," Danny says. He has some ideas about how to make it work out, but he'll have to talk to Claude and the boys first.
*
Claude's out of town and gets home late, so Danny doesn't get a chance to talk to him until Claude gets home from the rink while Danny's working on his homework the next day. Claude moves Danny's books away from him to make space for himself on the couch, and leans in to kiss Danny.
Danny smiles into the kiss and doesn't let go of Claude when they pull apart a little.
"I'm glad you're home," Danny says.
Claude's smile gets even brighter. "Me too."
Danny lets go of Claude enough that they're not held quite so close together. There's probably another way to approach this, but he dives right in. "I want to invite Caleb to live with us."
Claude laughs and kisses him. "I told you so. I knew you couldn't resist the rookie in need."
Danny can't even be annoyed, because Claude was right all along, and he does appreciate that Claude knows him so well.
"You were right," Danny says. "What do you think?"
"Sure," Claude says. "He needs a family." He kisses Danny's temple. "And we can be a good example for him. Show him he can still have a boring, stable relationship."
Danny laughs. "We're not that boring." He kisses Claude. "Thank you."
"I love that you want to help him," Claude says. "I wouldn't want you to change." He puts his arm around Danny and settles back against the couch. "Have you talked to the boys yet?"
"No." Danny leans into Claude's shoulder. He can take a break before he has to get back to some of his homework. "I wanted to make sure it was okay with you first."
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Claude says. "They're used to you taking in rookies."
*
Danny talks to Cameron first, over dinner.
"Caleb doesn't have a place to live over the summer," he says. "I was thinking we could let him come live with us."
"Just for the summer?" Cameron asks.
"At least for the summer," Danny says. "More if he wants to stay with us."
Cameron shrugs. "Yeah, sure. Caleb's cool."
"Thank you," Danny says. "I'm going to talk to your brothers about it tomorrow, so please don't mention it to them until I get a chance to do that."
"Okay," Cameron says, seemingly not bothered by any of it.
Danny looks at Claude, who is very clearly trying not to laugh at him for his caution. Claude's grin deepens, and then he leans over and kisses Danny's cheek.
"Told you so," he murmurs.
*
Because of the time difference, Danny talks to Caelan next, catching him around dinner time in California. They text a lot, but it's been a couple of days since they last talked, so they spend some time catching up before Danny brings up Caleb.
"I want to invite Caleb, one of my friends from school, to live with us, at least for the summer. His parents kicked him out because he's gay, and he can't stay in the dorms for the summer."
"I wanted to talk to you about this summer," Caelan says. "Alexis and I are thinking about spending part of it here anyway."
"Oh," Danny says. That was not the turn he expected this conversation to take. "How much of it?"
"Like, half of it, maybe," Caelan says. "We want to come home and everything, but we also have friends here, not just people from school, and it's where we live now."
"Okay," Danny says. "I know I'd like you to come home and we're going to Florida in July, but you're adults now, and if you want to spend some of the summer there, it's okay with me. You'll have to talk to your mom too."
"I talked to her a couple of days ago," Caelan says, "and Alexis's parents are cool with it."
Danny expects Alexis's parents are less than cool with it - unless they've discovered they like having her out of the house - but at least he's not going to have to be involved in trying to talk them into letting Alexis do what she wants.
"Okay," Danny says. "Let me know when you're going to be here."
"Yeah, of course," Caelan says. "And you should switch my room with the guest room so Caleb doesn't have to be next to you and Claude, since he'll be there the whole summer and I won't."
This is now the most embarrassing conversation Danny has had with Caelan since Caelan and Alexis started dating and Danny put down ground rules about what they could and could not do in the house.
"That's a good idea," Danny admits. "Do you want to wait until you're here to move your stuff?"
"No," Caelan says. "I brought a lot of stuff with me. You can just pile my stuff in the guest room, and I'll do something with it when I get there."
"We'll do that," Danny says. "Thank you for thinking of it."
Danny can practically hear Caelan's shrug when he says, "Yeah, no problem."
Part 7