Chapter Text
In 1961, Gherman Titov, Russian Cosmonaut, became the second man to orbit the earth, and the youngest at months away from his twenty sixth birthday. He orbits Earth seventeen times, for a total of just under twenty-four hours. He returned to Earth, and never again returned to space.
Max celebrated his twenty-fifth birthday four months before he went into space aboard the Taurus I, and beat Titov’s record. Now, four years later, he’s lost track of when his birthday is, because he’s lost track of the days. He only knows that it has been four years, he’ll be nearing his 30th birthday, and he has a lot of birthdays to catch up on. At home. With his family.
Now, Max isn’t going to be the youngest person in space forever. Hell, someday Daniel figures that babies will be conceived and born in space, and you couldn’t really get any younger than that. For now, though, above a smiling picture of Max, the newspaper headline reads HISTORY’S YOUNGEST ASTRONAUT TO RETURN ABOARD TAURUS I! And there are at least one hundred copies of it posted all over the tattoo shop, alongside headlines featuring each of the Taurus crew members. After all, it was a party! No alcohol, because alcohol and tattoos don’t mix, but still a party! Charles had baked all manner of space decorated pastries, Antonio had curated a playlist of all space themed music, and Esteban and Daniel were cranking out space themed flash tattoos for fifteen bucks a piece. They’d done stars and astronauts and little space shuttles, planets and martians and crescent moons. They’d even scheduled a few larger pieces, though, admittedly, Daniel had scheduled those for a few months out. The last thing he wanted when Max got home was to constantly be running out to do tattoos. He loved it, but he’d had plenty of doing it for the past four years and not enough of his space bound husband. For a little while, he just wanted to exist with Max again. And he wanted to exist with Max and Jessie, because he knew the two of them would get on like a house on fire. And–, and–
“Danny, you’re doing it again,” chided Charles, handing him a chocolate cupcake with galaxy colored frosting. Which Daniel had a hard time seeing because his vision had gone all misty again. He had, in all honesty, cried a lot over the last two weeks. Happy crying, mostly, because he wouldn’t really have to do the sad crying much anymore. Because Max would be back the day after tomorrow. Yeah, NASA would have to keep the astronauts under observation for a bit, run some tests, update their flu shots or something, but day after tomorrow, he would see Max walk off that damn shuttle. Max would finally get to hold his daughter, and– “Stop that!” Charles reprimanded again, sounding more amused than upset as he took the cupcake and jammed it into Daniel’s mouth. “No crying! We’re having a party!” And then the Monégasque ruffled Daniel’s hair and went to put out more cupcakes. Honestly, he was going to have to thank Sebastian for falling in love with Charles because Daniel wasn’t sure what he’d do without him at this point. With any of them. The families of the astronauts of Taurus I had themselves become a family, bonding together through the shared link of their loved ones out there in space making history.
And honestly? He wasn’t sure he would’ve gotten through it all if not for the Space Spouse club (nevermind that technically Charles and Esteban weren’t spouses and Daniel did tease them about it until one day the gentle tease had made Charles almost cry. He stopped teasing them after that). It hadn’t taken them all long after the launch to come together, and since then, well, it was really going to suck if Max ended up hating the other astronauts because Jessie now had a whole gaggle of god parents that weren’t just going to disappear when the shuttle came back. Sure, some of them might go home for a bit, but they’d all figured out early that the one thing their husbands all shared was an endless ambition for that speckled void. No, they’d come back, back to NASA, back to space.
Speaking of Jessie, though, she had been– quiet. Oh, all through the party she was alright, playing some Disney farming game on the switch with one of Kevin’s kids, but she was quiet on the way home. Not the tired kind of quiet, either, though she had to be tired. It had been a long day. “You ok, baby girl?” Daniel asked, holding her hand as they made their way together into the house. “I was expecting to hear about your newest adventure with Elsa? You guys find the last two crests yet?” Elsa was Jessie’s favorite, and some mission in the game was to find the different element crests. Jessie had told him all about it, excited to run around a fictional world with her favorite character.
He stopped at the tiny tug on his hand, the signal that she was now rooted in place. He expected to see her distracted by something. Instead, Daniel watched as his little girl’s eyes filled with tears. And it wasn’t just ‘it's been a long day and way past bedtime’ tears. No, these were honest to goodness stressed about something tears. He knelt, still holding her hand, making sure to be on her level. “What’s wrong baby girl?”
“What if papa–” she sniffled, and for a moment Daniel’s mind filled with all of the worst case scenarios. Because how do you comfort a little girl if she asks if her astronaut father chooses to stay in space? If something goes wrong and they’re stuck out there? Or– no. He wasn’t going to think about the worst worst case scenario, because the whole mission had been risky and he wasn’t going to think about how inherently dangerous landing a space shuttle was. “--what if papa doesn’t like me?”
Oh. Oh, that was a lot easier to handle. That wasn't an existential dread of never getting Max back. That was a kid being nervous about meeting a father she’d technically never truly interacted with. Daniel smiled, but was sure not to laugh, and sat in the driveway, pulling Jessie into his lap and then pointing toward the stars. “Your papa is up there, but, yeah, day after tomorrow he’ll be down here. He’s going to be down here, and he’s going to cry when he sees you.” She started to protest, but received a tickle to her sides. “He’s going to cry because he is going to be so happy to see you. And I know he is going to love you, because he already does. He’s been up in space all this time, but that doesn’t change that he loves you. And right now he is probably looking down at earth, counting down the minutes until he’s home with us.”
A couple more sniffles, but Daniel could see that her eyes were riveted to the stars. Fuck, she looked so much like Max. Had that same sense of awe whenever the heavens were bright. It scared him sometimes, that she would inherit Max’s need for the stars, too. He would
support her if she did, but the thought of them both going, of being the first father/daughter duo to go to space, terrified him. That he might be left here without either of them. If she wanted to go, he wouldn’t stop her, but for now he did hold her just a little tighter. “You promise?” she asked, but he could hear that her fears were already dissipating. After all, Daniel had never lied to her before.
“I promise.”
**********************
There was a room on the shuttle. The official name was the Baseline Gravitational Maintenance Antechamber. It was designed so the astronauts could remain at least somewhat accustomed to earth levels of gravity, so their muscles wouldn’t atrophy and they wouldn’t need months of physical therapy when they returned home. All well and good, but they weren’t about to keep calling it the Baseline Gravitational Maintenance Antechamber for four years. Too much of a mouth full. One day Kimi had said he was taking his turn in Home Room, and, well, it stuck. They were all required to spend an allotted amount of time in Home Room, especially now that their return was so close.
Max hated Home Room.
Honestly, especially now! He could be in the cockpit, practicing the landing sequence, going over the navigation and calculations again! Never mind that he’d barely left the cockpit since his conversation with Daniel and Jessie, since finding out that there were only two weeks left to their mission. Yeah, before Danie, before Jessie, he could’ve happily spent the rest of his life in space, content to never return to the ground that held nothing for him. Now, well, being in Home Room was a waste of his time, and it just made him feel jittery.
“If you don’t stay in here, NASA is going to keep you longer for observation,” Valtteri was the one to point it out, the Finn sitting so calmly that Max had been convinced he was asleep. Max, on the other hand, was tapping his fingers against his leg, and his leg was bouncing up and down. Very annoying when Valtteri was just trying to take a nap because his own boyfriend was having the same jittery energy as their youngest crew mate. As much as Valtteri loved Lewis, it was still exhausting. “You want to talk about whatever is making you try to shake the bolts out of the ship?”
“I should be out there!” Max burst, gesturing out toward the cockpit. Valtteri, eyes still closed, only raised a single eyebrow. Annoying. “I should be rechecking the calculations for the landing, going over the process with Lewis. I should be–” But now Valtteri opened his eyes, and was just…looking. And Max, well, ok maybe Max needed to express this to someone because it certainly wasn’t going to be Daniel. He would never, ever mention this to Daniel. “What if she doesn’t like me?”
He didn’t need to explain, didn’t need to name her. The crew was familiar with Jessie and the circumstances of her birth, how Max had missed it. But perhaps only Sebastian was aware of just how nervous Max was about meeting her, and that was only because Seb was the one he was around the most. “The fuck are you talking about?” Valtteri asked, peering a little too closely for Max’s comfort. Not that he’d moved from the other side of Home Room, but just that his gaze was a little too intense. Like he saw too much.
“I’m not an idiot. I know Daniel is the fun one in our relationship.” Daniel was the one with the easy smile and ready laughter, the one that everyone liked, the one that made Max fall in love with him with just a floral shirt and bubbles of laughter. Max, on the other hand, was very much aware that he was hard to approach, that people preferred not to spend too much time in his sour company. Sure, being around Daniel had helped to loosen him up, but he often found that his tendency toward single-minded focus tended to scare people away. It was a stroke of luck that Daniel didn’t mind it, or at least knew how to handle it. “So she’s been with fun dad Daniel for the past four years, and now she’s just going to be happy with me? I don’t think so.”
"You're her dad." He said it matter of factly, like Max needed to be reminded of this. Maybe he did. That was his daughter down there, and he'd never even gotten to hold her. Daniel had sent video of her first steps, her first words, but Max hadn't been there for it. Would Jessie resent him someday for that? Did Daniel resent him for leaving him to raise their daughter alone? For putting his own dreams above– "Stop that." Valtteri's hard voice jerked him out of the spiral of his thoughts, and now Max could hear how quickly his breaths were coming, close to panic. Valtteri's voice was always so neutral, his face, too. Neither was now. He almost looked angry. "Daniel loves you, he understands." Because he'd seen enough of the Australian's messages to know that Daniel loved Max like Max loved space, like he loved Daniel. "And Jessie is going to love you, too. You may be a wet blanket," the Finn's face softened, giving away the tease, "but I figure she couldn't ask for a better pair of dads."
Max's breathing had calmed now, and he nodded mutely. He didn't know if Valterri was right, but maybe he could have faith. If he was going to have faith in anything, it would be Daniel.
An alarm went off, indicating his mandated time in Home Room was over, and Max was scampering back to the cockpit before the beeping had even finished it's course. He was followed by the sound of Valtteri's soft, amused laughter.
****************
NASA had released several interviews with the astronauts the day before Taraus I was set to land. They had been shot the week previous, and each astronaut was asked what he was most looking forward to when they got home, what food they wanted first, if there was anything they wanted to do when they arrived home.
Daniel felt like Max's face was going to be burned into the TV, that was how many times he and Jessie had watched the interview. Where did Max want to go? Home. No but other than home? Why would he want to go somewhere other than home? (Lewis was the one asking the questions, and he sighed as Max looked confused) Ok, after you spend time at home? The zoo. To see the polar bears with his husband and the lions with his daughter. What food is he looking forward to having? Cheese sandwiches badly cut into the shape of polar bears. (This time it was Lewis that looked confused, and Daniel was going to have to ask why specifically a polar bear). What was he most looking forward to? Here Max grinned, one of those big, heart stopping grins that made Daniel a little weak in the knees even after six years, and turned around the screen of computer next to him. There was displayed a picture of Daniel and Jessie together, both of them blowing a kiss to Max. And Max looked so fond and so proud as he answered, "I'm most looking forward to meeting my daughter an–"
The "and" was cut off, and Daniel wondered what the other part of the answer was. Something apparently NASA didn't want on national and international news apparently. He was going to ask about that too.
There were others interviews, too. Interviews with the Space Spouse club. Charles in his bakery and Daniel and Esteban at the shop. With the other astronauts. A particular favorite moment of Daniel's came in Valtteri's interview. Lewis had asked him what he planned on doing when he got home, and the Finn had, in that steady, level way he had, answered that he planned on proposing to his boyfriend. The slightly stunned look on Lewis' face might have been mistaken for shock over Valtteri having a boyfriend to anyone who didn't know that Valtteri had just told his boyfriend about the upcoming proposal. Lewis' shocked expression made Valtteri smile, though, and eventually Lewis had smiled back and said he was sure Valtteri's boyfriend would say yes.
And of course they interviewed family, parents and siblings of the astronauts. Daniel's knuckles had gone white as he gripped the remote tightly enough to make the plastic groan when Jos' face appeared on the screen. He'd still never met the elder Verstappen. He hadn't come to their wedding, had never come to meet Jessie even after it was clear she was biologically his granddaughter, hadn't even shown up to the Taurus launch. As far as Daniel knew, he'd never even sent Max a message during the mission. And there he was on the news, basking in all of Max's success, in accomplishments that he'd had nothing to do with. Sure, Jos had been the one to first spur Max toward space, but it had been Max that had reached that goal long after Jos had cut ties with him for being with another man. Daniel wanted to punch him, break his nose at the very least. But he was sure they weren't going to meet.
That is, up until the next day when they were standing next to each other on the observation deck.
************
He has gone through everything a thousand times, trained for landing before they'd ever left the ground. He could do this. He was Max Verstappen-Ricciardo, and he was the best fucking pilot NASA had. Otherwise they wouldn't have sent him up here, wouldn't have trusted him like this. He was damn good and he was going to get all of them home. He was going to meet his daughter.
"If you try to land us like that, you're going to snap the controls." It's Sebastian that observes, though Max would say he was focused while Seb was making it sound like he was tense.
Max wasn't tense. He wasn't nervous. "I'm excited." And oh boy they'd been together for four years and that was the most honest and eager Sebastian had ever heard him. They were at Time of Ignition -4.5 hours. Though technically early by about half an hour, he and Sebastian were already running tests, Max ensuring all vital landing equipment was still in good order from when he'd checked yesterday, Sebastian conducting radio checks with Houston. Max could hear Checo's voice giving updates on weather conditions and….sports scores? “You can’t wait another four hours to find out who won the F1 championship?”
Sebastian, grinning, shrugged. “Charles and I have a bet going. I have to know if I owe him twenty euro.” But Max could see it, the excitement that was moving through him just as it was moving through Max. It was gripping all of them, the reality that, in only a few hours, they would be home. Their loved ones would be there to meet them, and, yeah, they knew they were going to have to stay with NASA for a bit until they were medically cleared, but they were going to be home. Sebastian would see Charles. Max would see Daniel, meet Jessie.
At Time of Ignition -4 hours, the work really started. Configurations for landing were locked into the computers, checked by Max, Lewis, and Houston. Everything cleared. Hydraulics and landing gear were checked.
TIG -3 hours, Lewis had replaced Sebastian at the comms. “Houston, this is Taurus I, requesting Go for reentry and landing.”
Though it was Lewis speaking, though they knew the response Houston would give, all eight astronauts held their breath, waiting for the response. They’d been, on some level, waiting for it for the past four years, all of them excited to go to space but missing home almost as soon as they’d left. Comms switched back on, and CAPCOM spoke, “Taurus I, we are go for landing. Engage Ops 3 at this time.”
“Roger that, CAPCOM. Engaging Ops 3.” Lewis’ voice was everything professional, but they could feel the squeeze of tension easing slightly. The captain nodded to Max, his signal to carry out the necessary inputs to tell the computer to begin managing for reentry and landing. He nodded to Lewis when it was done. “Ops 3 engaged. Standing by for permission for deorbit burn.”
There wouldn’t be permission for that for another two hours. Two more hours of waiting, of minimal tasks while they waited for Taurus to be in the right position to deorbit. They all changed, putting back on the orange jumpsuits none of them had touched in four years. They’d come back to earth in the same outfits they’d left in, which Valtteri was teasing Lewis about. It felt like the longest two hours of Max’s life, even longer than the morning before his wedding.
But it ended, the comms crackling back to life, CAPCOM announcing, “Taurus, you have permission to start Deorbit Burn.” Time of Ignition. The shuttle was maneuvered perfectly, textbook reentry position. Now, they were burning excess fuel, pushing the shuttle out of orbit and onto a crash course to earth. Of course, Max was very good at his job, and there would be no crash. There was no turning back now, though. Time and gravity would take them home no matter what any of them did now.
The Time of Ignition countdown became Landing -30 minutes. Though the whole crew was there, strapped in, this was Max’s arena. He could hear CAPCOM giving them updates, his responses clinical and precise. Anything could go wrong and he might only have seconds to react. Into the atmosphere they glided, the wing flaps and rudder becoming useful again as air pressure increased, and Max used them to guide the shuttle into a series of curves, banking to cut the energy, the speed, they carried. He could dimly recall that, somewhere, they would be filmed, the sonic boom recorded somewhere that he could watch it later if he wanted.
Landing -5 minutes, and now Lewis shared the controls. They worked in perfect tandem, movements synchronized in a ballet where a wrong step meant the loss of eight lives. But there was no wrong step. They could see the runway now, they were lined up. Landing gear deployed and locked into place.
Touchdown.
********************************
A clap of thunder over blue skies, like Zues announcing the return of heroes. It was the sonic boom. Sergio had made sure they all knew what to expect, like a seminar on noises and sights of shuttle landing. Just so no one freaked out over something completely normal like a sonic boom. Jessie still covered her ears, but Daniel was quick to remind her that it just meant papa was going to be home soon. He then ignored the slight sound of disgust that came from Jos’ direction. He was holding onto Jessie, balancing her on his hip, her arms around his neck, tightening as the wheels of the shuttle made contact with the ground.
“Start the countdown, baby girl.” And Jessie nodded seriously, hitting start on the stopwatch they’d brought. The last stage of landing, waiting twenty minutes for the crew to shut down the shuttle, for it to cool and for noxious fumes to blow away. And then the doors would be opened, and Max would be home.
********************************
“Houston, this is Taurus I, requesting permission to return to Earth.” Lewis was grinning, lips swollen from how enthusiastically he’d been kissing Valtteri. The rest of them had been cheering, because, well, Valtteri hadn’t lied in his interview. As soon as they’d started shut down procedures, Lewis had turned to see Valtteri on one knee, ring on his palm. Damn sappy romantic fool had gotten the ring before they’d left Earth, had it the whole time. And he didn’t want the proposal to be something for the media. Didn’t want questions about when or who. Lewis had accepted immediately, and it was a good thing Max could do the shut down on his own because Lewis was absolutely no help after that.
“Taurus I, permission granted.” It was Sergio now, and Max could tell he was grinning, too. “Welcome home.”
They hadn’t talked about who would leave first. Lewis was the captain, Max assumed it would be him, didn’t quite know what to do when seven pairs of hands pushed him to the door. “You’re going out first,” Kimi announced, tone leaving no room for argument. “Go meet her.”
Damn, they were going to make him cry before he even got out the door. Nodding, he turned to the door, pressed the button, and squinted into the Texas sunlight. There wasn’t time to process it all, not the smell of grass from either side of the runway, not the warmth of the sun on his skin. Home Room had done enough that they could walk off the shuttle on their own power, but Max knew it wouldn’t last long. If he stopped to appreciate the light and the warmth and the smell, he’d have to get carried out before he saw– his father.
Not Daniel. Not Jessie. The first person his gaze landed on was his damn father. Later, seeing the footage of the landing, he would see the sour look on his face in that moment, the disappointment, and then the rapid change to excitement, to desperation. Because, as his foot made contact with solid ground for the first time in four years, he saw him.
Daniel was there, holding their daughter, in the same damn Hawaiian shirt, the one he’d been wearing the first night Max had been drunk in a bar and had grabbed him and kissed him and started this whole crazy life they had. And Max was so so grateful for Home Room in that moment, because if it wasn’t for those sessions, he wouldn’t have had the strength even for the shuffle he was doing toward Daniel, ignoring his father completely. And Daniel felt guilty about it later, that the first moment Max was back wasn’t given to Jessie, but Max was in that dumb orange jumpsuit and Daniel had just missed him so damn much that he wasn’t at all upset when they collided and it was like that night in the bar all over again, like their wedding all over again. Because that was how Max kissed when he had too many emotions to handle. He grabbed each side of Daniel’s face, kissed him rough and hard and desperate. It wasn’t like Daniel was calm about it either, though, his free hand, the one not supporting their daughter, slipping up into Max’s hair, keeping him close. Trying to convince himself that this was real. That Max was really home. They were both crying, tears mixing into a kiss that the news footage had probably needed to cut away from almost immediately.
When they did pull apart, though, Max felt like he was still floating, tethered to earth only by Daniel’s hand in his hair and by the two small arms that had encircled his neck while he’d been kissing his husband. “Jessie.” Her name was a sob, a happy one, and Max swore in that moment that whoever had designed Home Room, whoever had decided they needed to use it so much, he was going to kiss their feet. Because of Home Room, he could reach out, he could take her from Daniel (though he was grateful his husband kept his arm beneath Max’s, just to make sure), and hold his daughter for the first time. The news crews did make sure to get footage of this moment, of Max and Jessie Verstappen-Ricciardo holding desperately to one another, crying and laughing, Max peppering little kisses to her hair, her face. It was love at first sight, just like Daniel had promised.
Finally, Max had to sit, was still crying as Daniel helped him sit on the pavement of the runway. Around him there were other reunions, and Max could see Sebastian tightly embraced by someone he could only assume was Charles. Fernando was folded up in the arms of a much taller man. Kevin and Romain were with their wives, Romain in a similar state as Max with his children. Kimi was already halfway down the runway, holding the hand of his husband, Antonio. Lewis and Valtteri had walked off the shuttle hand in hand, engagement rings twinkling in the sunlight.
They were home. They were together at last.
***********************
It was a week before NASA let the astronauts go home. A week of Daniel and Jessie being able to visit but not being able to stay. The Space Spouse club made plans, plans for getting together, but later. In a couple months. For now, they all just wanted to spend time with their astronauts. A week, and now Max was holding Jessie’s hand as Daniel unlocked the door of their home. Whatever remaining tension Max had was rapidly bled out of him, finally totally at ease at home. With his family.
There was no bedtime that night, the three of them falling asleep on the couch, Max laying with his head on Daniel’s lap and Jessie on top of Max. They’d had cheese sandwiches for dinner, cut into different animal shapes because Daniel had finally asked Max about that interview question. Cheese sandwich cut in the shape of a polar bear. Because Daniel hadn’t really been a great cook at that point. He could do better now, had learned a few things when he had Jessie relying on him, but they had plenty of time to talk about what Daniel could and couldn’t cook.
First night back, and Max startled awake at around two in the morning. He couldn’t remember where he was at first, what the weight on his chest was, the light snoring above him. He looked up, and wanted to cry. Home. That’s right, he was home. Daniel was there, lightly snoring, still sitting up but leaned back, looking very uncomfortable and absolutely like he’d been the last one to fall asleep, had been unwilling to move and risk disturbing husband and daughter. Slowly, ever so gently, Max reached up, his fingertips sliding over Daniel’s nose, his cheek, his jaw, hovering over his lips as Daniel startled away, nearly swallowing Max’s fingers. Max could remember him sleeping like the dead, something else that was new, that had changed. He’d been prepared for things to have changed, was already enjoying the task of finding them, cataloging the differences that four years had made. It didn’t really matter, in the end, if a few things had changed, because the best thing hadn’t changed. Daniel still loved him, evidenced by the ring he’d slipped back onto Max’s finger before they’d even left the shuttle runway. And if Daniel still loved him then the sky could be purple and the oceans could be made of tomato soup and all would still be right in Max’s world.
Still hovering near sleep, Daniel smiled, leaning forward to kiss the fingertips Max had been using to trace him. “Hey there, Maxy.” His voice was rougher from the sleep, the sort of rough that, had Jessie not been there, would’ve made Max eager for them to both be undressed. For now, though, it just made him feel all warm inside, soft and gentle. Daniel stretched as much as he could, and then carded his fingers into Max’s hair, so far being unable to pass up an opportunity to touch his returned husband. “How about we all go ahead and go to bed?”
It sounded sublime, sleeping in their bed again, Daniel there when he fell asleep and when he woke up. And yet his arms circled Jessie, holding her close. He wasn’t ready to let her go yet, to be without her. Daniel only smiled, soft and understanding. “We have a big bed, Max. All three of us can fit.” And, yeah, Max had forgotten about that, how large their bed was. It had been four years, and even before that it wasn’t like they usually used all the space on their bed. “And she’s a heavy sleeper. We could run her around the neighborhood and she’d barely notice.”
So, Max nodded, wrapped his arms more securely around their daughter, and lifted her up. Daniel was right, of course he was, and Jessie just gave a little sigh that sounded a lot like, “Love you, papa,” before she was once again out like a light.
Over the next few days, they would settle into a new sort of normal. Max would cry when Jessie told him that she loved him in Dutch, and when she proved her fluency by telling him about her favorite foods to have for breakfast. Daniel would panic upon hearing the breaking of glass, only to run into the kitchen and find Max swearing about gravity because he’d briefly forgotten about it and just assumed the glass would stay in the air when he let go. Max would get to sample all of Daniel’s new cooking skills. They would receive a wedding invitation from Sebastian and Charles, and one from Fernando and Esteban. And one from Valtteri and Lewis. (They had a lot of weddings to go to in the future).
For that night, though, their little family of three all bundled into that big bed, Daniel’s arm thrown over Jessie, his hand resting on Max’s waist. Max sighed, deep and loud as Daniel pulled the comforter over the three of them, sealing them up. Sleeping in space was nothing compared to this, to the comfort and security of being with his family, sinking into the plush mattress while Daniel’s fingers traced nonsensical patterns into his skin where his shirt had ridden up. Daniel hissed, though, when Max placed his feet on top of Daniel’s, and he was quick to remove them. He didn’t want to make his husband uncomfortable, not on the first night anyway.
“Max Emilian Verstappen-Ricciardo,” Daniel sighed, his fingers briefly digging into Max’s skin. Yes, Max’s toes were, as always, like ten perfectly chilled ice cubes. Yes, Daniel had missed it terribly. “If you don’t put your ice pop feet back on mine, I’m divorcing you.” And Max had laughed, put his feet back, and Daniel got the best night of sleep he’d gotten in the past four years.