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The only thing that greets Geno when he opens his door is the light from over the stove in kitchen spilling out into the hallway and the soft sounds of the television floating in from the den.
He takes his snow covered dress shoes off in the foyer and lines them up next to Kira’s bright blue winter boots and Sid’s sneakers then follows the sound.
The TV is on with the sound turned down low. The DVR menu is taking up the screen while an episode of Friends plays in the background.
The sound of canned laughter echoes off the walls as he walks around to the front of the couch and looks down at his daughter and Sid, sleeping soundly.
Kira’s long brown hair is curling wildly, still damp from her bath and her eyelids flutter as she pushes her face further into the pillow that’s propped up against Sid’s thigh. She’s wearing her favorite footie pajamas with the soft yellow ducks on them and she’s clutching the stuffed penguin she got from Sid for her birthday close to her chest.
Sid is sitting up with his back pressed between the back and the arm of the couch and his head it tipped at a funny angle. It’s clear he didn’t mean to drift off like this. There’s a red stain on the side of his shirt, more than likely spaghetti sauce from dinner. Kira’s going through a phase where that’s all she’ll eat. Both he and Sid are working on it but there’s really only so much they can do in the face of a screaming three year old who is threatening to never eat anything ever again. One of his hands is spread out along her back, like he was trying to keep her from rolling off and the other is holding the remote.
The second Geno’s fingertips touch the remote Sid’s hand is closing reflexively around it and his eyes fly open.
He sits up with a gasp and Geno puts his hand on his shoulder and makes soothing sounds.
“Shh, shh, is okay. Didn’t mean to wake you.”
He blinks a few times and loosens his protective grip on Kira. She’s still sleeping peacefully.
“Geno?”
“Yes. Just get home. You fell asleep in front of the TV and-.”
“What happened to you,” Sid blurts out and Geno winces, stitches pulling across his cheekbone.
He was so overwhelmed with warmth when came in to see his daughter and his nanny sleeping soundly on the couch that he momentarily forgot about the bandages and the bruises and the stiches. Even the sting from the scrapes on his knuckles melted away.
“What happened,” Sid says again, sitting up further and pushing into Geno’s space.
He eases himself back onto the coffee table. “Hockey, Sid. You know, get into fights. No big deal. You didn’t watch?”
“She wanted to watch Spongebob so we watched Spongebob. Did you fight the whole team?”
“Play Columbus, so almost.”
“And they let you go home like this?”
“Patch me up after second, I was fine.”
“You’re actually bleeding.”
“They wanted me to stay late after game but I wanted to get home,” he says softly as he pushes Kira’s hair back from her face.
Sid makes a frustrated sound and knocks their knees together as he stands.
“I’m okay, Sid.”
Sid hauls him up by his elbow and points him in the direction of the half bath just off the kitchen.
Once inside he lets himself be manhandled into sitting on the closed toilet seat and watches as Sid pulls band aids and peroxide and cotton balls out of the closet.
After Kira was born everyone told him that the first thing he had to do was find a nanny. With his schedule and general lack of experience with newborns it was really a no brainer.
Finding Sid, lucking out like that, had been a miracle.
Geno knew from the second Sid stepped into his house and held Kira like she was the most important thing in the whole world that none of their lives would ever be the same.
Kira absolutely adores him and when they head home for the summer she spends most of the trip counting down the days when she can go back to Pittsburgh and see him.
Geno would be a little worried about it except he’s doing the same thing.
One day, years from now, Kira will outgrow the need for a nanny and while that’s not something she’s even aware of yet the thought sits heavy in Geno’s mind. His heart aches in anticipation of the day Sid walks out the door for the last time.
He hisses as Sid presses a damp cotton ball to the scrapes on his hand and tries to pull them back.
Sid has a firm, yet gentle, hold on them and he doesn’t get far.
“Sorry,” he says softly as he puts the cotton down and blows across his skin. Geno’s breath catches in the back of his throat as Sid glances up. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Geno answers back. His voice is a low whisper. It’s really all he can make himself do.
Sid looks back at his hands, his eyelashes splayed out against the top of his cheeks and Geno curls his fingers in towards his palms so they don’t wrap around Sid’s.
They’ve been circling around this forever.
Since Sid not so subtly mentioned something about a guy he used to date and Geno stopped dating altogether.
He wishes they’d just settle into it.
But he also knows what’s holding them both back.
It’s Sid’s desire to remain professional and not openly fall for the man who pays him to take care of his child.
Geno’s trying to fight against the raised eyebrows and murmured ‘dude’s’ from his teammates the first time they saw Sid and Kira together at family skate.
He knows Sid’s his type and he knows how it sounds when he’s on the phone with Tanger who is trying to set him up with a friend of a friend who would be perfect for him while he watches Kira and Sid pretend to drink tea out of the tiny ceramic tea set that Geno’s mother sent over from Russia.
“More important things now,” he says as Sid holds his pinky up and Kira laughs.
“Did they ice this,” Sid asks as he lets his hands go and moves onto the bruise that’s spreading beneath his eye.
“At the arena,” he answers and Sid nods as he presses his lips together in a thin line.
Geno watches the worry line form between his eyebrows as he dabs ointment on the corner of his lip and on the cut above his eyebrow and tries not to recoil as Sid accidentally brushes against the sore spot on his left cheek.
“Is bad,” he asks and Sid looks up from the bandaid he’s unwrapping. They only have bright pink Rapunzel bandaids left but Geno doesn’t mind. Not with Sid standing between his knees and pressing gentle hands to the side of his face. “I look bad.”
“You look okay,” he says with a casual shrug but the worry line is still there and his mouth is tugging down at the corners.
“That’s not how you act when you first see me.”
“I had just woke up. You startled me. Now sit still, I’m trying to make you better.”
If there’s anyone that can fix him it’s Sid.
He has magic powers, or so Kira always tells him.
She’s a very active child. Always running and jumping and more often than not, falling down. Geno figures that one day his daughter will learn that it’s not the end of the world when she scrapes her knee or elbow but until then Sid will scoop her up, dry her tears, and smooth a bandaid over her injury if she actually needs one or not.
It’s amazing to watch, really, the way her lip immediately stops wobbling as soon as Sid turns his attention on her alone. How she’ll stop sniffling and her eyes will be clear by the time he’s sticking the bandaid to her skin.
He’ll press a soft kiss over the center of the bandage and he’ll help her hop down from the counter or couch and she’s tearing off around the house again.
Sid taps the edges of the bandaid down and all Geno can feel is warm fingertips against his cheek and he’s not surprised when Sid leans in and brushes a barely there kiss to the edge of it but it still leaves him breathless.
“Sid,” he says on an exhale and wants to say so much more. Like, I like you so much, I think I love you, I don’t ever want you to leave us.
Instead it’s Sid that breaks the heavy silence when he says “I want to kiss you but your mouth,” and Geno rocks forward and rest his forehead against Sid’s stomach.
The gash in the middle of his bottom lip pulls when he smiles but he can’t help it. Sid cards his fingers through his hair and cups the back of his head.
“So stupid to get in a fight,” Geno admits as he tips his head back. “Never fighting again.”
“Good. Hope you learned your lesson.”
Geno rolls his eyes and wraps his arms around Sid's waist, desperate to keep him close even though Sid has made no effort to move.
“Papa?”
They both turn their heads to see Kira standing in the doorway. She’s still holding onto her penguin and she doesn’t seem curious at all about the embrace she’s found them in.
“Papa, okay?”
She toddles towards them, her pajama covered feet slipping on the tile floor as she reaches out for Geno.
“I’m okay,” he says as he lifts her onto his lap. “Sid fix.”
She makes a sleepy sound and sighs rests her head against his chest.
“Should get you to bed, little girl.”
She mumbles something as her eyes droop and Geno stands up and turns to Sid.
Sid runs a hand over her hair and kisses her forehead.
“Should talk when I come down. Have lots to say.”
“Yeah,” Sid says, “me too.”
Geno’s holding Kira between as Sid stretches up and kisses the corner of Geno’s mouth.
“Did that hurt,” he asks, the worry line back between his eyebrows and Geno shakes his head and bends down to press their foreheads together.
“Feels better already.”