Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was not often that Max managed to wake his roommate up without actively trying to, but every time it did happen, he could count on a pillow getting chucked his way. And it always hit him. Every single time. No matter if he saw it coming or not, even if he tried to dodge, it never missed him. Harrison chalked this phenomenon up to his magical abilities, which Max refused to refute not because he believed him, but because he figured it wasn't worth getting hit again. This time the pillow hitting him in the head was what woke him up—that part was unusual.

"Argh, dude what the fuck?" He threw the offending pillow to the floor with a groan.

"You want a list?" Harrison said as he began to count on his fingers. "You kept missing the snooze button on your stupid alarm clock so it's been going off for at least two full minutes, AND you kept groaning really loudly at it, somehow making it noisier and even more annoying. Also you forgot to put your clothes in the hamper again and I tripped on the pile on the way to the bathroom."

Max looked incredulous. "And?" he said.

"And what?"

"Why didn't you just reach over and turn it off?"

"Because I was trying to sleep!" Harrison shouted.

"Then what's the point of the damn alarm?" Max fired back.

"It's yours, not mine!"

"We're on the same schedule, dumbass!"

" Boys! "

Both of them instantly clammed up upon hearing the faraway voice.

"If you're both awake, then get out here and help with breakfast!"

The pair groaned in unison. "Yes Daniel," they replied simultaneously, with an added mumble of "asshole" tacked on by Max.

Still grumbling under their breath, the boys began their reluctant trek to the kitchen. Surprisingly, David was still in his pajamas, standing over the stove while he juggled a spatula and a carton of eggs. Unsurprisingly, Daniel was already dressed and seated at the table with a cup of coffee and a magazine in hand.

"Good morning boys!" David beamed at them. The off white of his teeth was framed by grainy red shadow around his face. God, seeing him with facial hair never got any less weird, Max thought to himself. "How are my two favorite sons doing?"

"Still weirded out whenever you say that. Where's the coffee pot?" Max made a beeline for the counter where Daniel was pointing to.

"Aw, I mean it though," David reached over quickly and ruffled Max's hair, pulling back just before the boy could slap his arm away. "Would you like an omelette?"

"No thanks." He opened the freezer door and scowled. "Hey, where are the Hot Pockets?"

"We're out," Daniel answered without looking up.

"What? Since when?"

"Two days ago, I think. I told you to write them on the shopping list."

"I thought we had more!"

"There was only one box left the last time we went shopping, remember?" he added. "I offered to get a box of the cheesesteak ones, but you said you'd rather wait because, and I quote, "those taste like someone slapped expired cheese on a turd and then shoved it all in a dinner roll.""

"Language c’mon," David called futilely from the stove.

"I guess an omelette would be alright," Max groaned. "Just don't put provolone in it again."

"I know, American or cheddar only." He set the carton down and plucked two more eggs from it. "Harrison, do you want one too?"

"Yeah, that'd be good." Harrison took his seat on Daniel's right. "Thanks David."

"Kiss-ass," he heard Max mutter. He shoved him toward the counter, earning himself a shove back in the process.

"Hey! Hey! No fighting in the kitchen," Daniel said when he noticed Max's coffee sloshing a little too close to him and his clean dress shirt. "And anyway, you two should do whatever you need to in the bathroom now while David is making breakfast. We don't need a line forming and making everybody late."

"Oh come on." Max rolled his eyes. "Us staying in the bathroom for a while doesn't make us any later than you watering your plants on the way out the door does. And you can do that at literally any time by the way!"

"If you want to keep getting that cherry jam you like so much, then you won't complain about how I keep my plants healthy." Daniel actually sounded slightly offended.

"Fine, I'll shower now then," Max finished downing his coffee and set his mug on the counter.

"How come you get to go first?" Harrison said as Max began walking off.

"Because if you go first then you'll just take a massive dump afterward and then leave me with it."

Harrison looked aghast. "That happened exactly one time!"

"Once is enough!"

"I thought you'd showered already!"

"Okay, one of you just take your turn and be done with it!" Daniel's voice rose above theirs. "Play rock, paper, scissors or something, just decide and then do it already."

The boys scowled at each other, then shook their fists and called the game. Max won with scissors, pumping his fists in the air triumphantly before taking off down the hallway. Harrison walked over to the table and slumped back into his seat. He sat in silence beside Daniel, whose attention had already returned to the magazine he was reading. It was some music magazine, one of several that got crammed into their mailbox fo him every month.

"So," Daniel suddenly piped up again. "Do you have anything going on after school today?"

"Oh, um, I should still have drama today," Harrison grabbed an orange out of the bowl on the table and absentmindedly began to pick at the skin with his fingernails.

"I thought the meeting was cancelled."

"Almost. They got someone to fill in for the teacher at the last minute."

"I'm sure Preston and Nerris will be thrilled about that." Daniel set the magazine down beside the bowl. "I can give you a ride home after you're done. I've got a few make-up tests to do today anyway."

"Yeah, that would be good." It was barely noticeable, but his voice grew a bit smaller. "Sorry for the trouble."

"It's no trouble Harrison, nothing to be sorry for. You live here too now, remember?" Daniel squeezed his shoulder firmly. He looked down and noticed the picked over piece of fruit in his hands. "Here, let me." He took the orange from him and flipped it over so that the knotted cap was on top. In one motion, he plucked it, peeled the remaining skin off, and handed the fruit back to Harrison.

"Oh, thanks," the boy said. He popped a slice in his mouth and offered another one to Daniel, who did the same.

"Could one of you please get forks and plates out?" David said as he flipped a freshly cooked omelette over in the pan.

Daniel got up to take the plates from the cabinet while Harrison grabbed some forks and a fistful of napkins from the counter. Max arrived just as they were finishing setting everything down.

"Bathroom's free." He gestured behind him with one hand while he grabbed his mug off the table with the other.

Harrison nodded quickly at him before heading down the hallway. Max got himself another cup of coffee and took his seat. David announced that the omelettes were done barely a minute later. He carefully set each plate down on the table before falling back into his chair.

"Breakfast is delicious, David," Daniel remarked as he finished swallowing a bite of food. He glanced over at Max, clearing his throat when the boy didn't notice him.

"It's edible," Max finally said with a shrug. It was the closest thing to a compliment that David would get from Max, at least while he was in front of the others. He smiled.

Harrison returned when everyone else was about halfway through their meals. He wolfed his breakfast down quickly as they talked, occasionally chiming in with a word or two between bites. Once everyone had finished eating and cleaning up, the morning became a typical scramble to get dressed and ready for the day. Max was done first, clad in his usual blue hoodie and jeans. He was usually the first one to finish getting ready, so he spent the rest of that morning, as he usually did, playing a handheld game. It was usually either that or knitting, or sneaking in some work on his homework if he hadn’t finished it the night before. He usually did that only if he was desperate though, otherwise he just waited to do it until he got to school; getting away with it was harder when he was living with two teachers, and it they caught him doing it, whatever lecture they decided to give him usually took up the rest of his extra time anyway.

Daniel was the next person to finish, walking briskly toward the kitchen in his crisp dress clothes. He was soon followed by David, who was still buttoning his sleeves as he met him there.

"Hang on, your tie's crooked," Daniel said as he pulled David back by his shoulder. "You have to pull it through the front from above like this, see?" He demonstrated as he redid the knot David had made, then gave it one last tug to secure it before letting go of him.

"Eh heh, I always forget that part." David smiled and leaned in to press a kiss to Daniel's cheek. "Thanks, as always."

"Gross," Max's voice echoed from the other room.

"You can always look away, but go ahead, keep complaining instead," Daniel replied nonchalantly.

He fought back a smirk at the groan that bounced back at him, then pressed a kiss to David’s cheek before taking a small watering can off the counter. As he was filling it beneath the sink, he heard the other man groan.

"Has anyone seen my school bag? I thought I left it in here," David said as he gazed around the room.

"Did you check the office?" Max replied without looking up from his game.

"Ah, good thinking!" He said with a snap of his fingers as he took off toward the office. Max shook his head. David usually lost track of at least one thing every morning. Frankly, he seemed a lot more on top of things at camp, which was really saying something considering that Max had already found him a bit scatterbrained while they were there. David returned to the kitchen in minutes with his bag in hand. He checked the time on his phone before setting it back on the table when he noticed Harrison walk through the doorway. He couldn't wear his old top hat to school most of the time, but he still wore the rest of his magician's garb as much as he could. David always found it more adorable than distinguished, much to his chagrin.

"Everyone ready to go?" David said as he headed for the front door. He took a last glance around the living room and noticed that the couch was empty. "Uh, where's Max?"

" Just a minute! " Max called from the other side of the house. He dashed across the room, stopping just a foot short of David before he slapped something into his hand.

"You forgot your phone," he muttered. "Again."

"Oh," David let out a sheepish chuckle. "Uh, thanks Max."

"I think now we're ready to go," Daniel said. His three roommates nodded as he reached for the door handle. "Alright, everybody out."

He watched them disappear in a line out of the house before shutting the door firmly behind them. As the group was walking, however, David suddenly stopped.

He combed his fingers through his school bag, then looked up, brow furrowed. "Where are my keys?"

Max groaned. "Dammit David!"

Chapter Text

Somehow, Wednesday was both the slowest and the busiest day of the week. On the one hand, everyone had time to spare. Neither of the boys had any extracurricular activities after school on Wednesdays. David's usual after school tutoring sessions were replaced by shorter staff meetings, and Daniel rarely had any violin or fiddle lessons scheduled for that day either, so the whole family was generally free as soon as school let out. For that reason, David and Daniel usually did their grocery shopping on Wednesdays because everyone in the house would be free to help out. That being said, it was not necessarily any easier and certainly wasn’t any less busy when everyone went together.

"Put it back," Daniel said without looking up from his shopping list.

Max flinched as the small box slipped from his fingers, landing in the cart with a sharp, anticlimactic thud. "Wha-? You weren't even looking!"

"We have Pop Tarts at home already."

"But we're almost out."

"We got a larger box last time, remember? There's more than half the pack left."

Max glanced down at the fallen box. "The ones we have aren’t the cherry flavor."

Daniel pointed again to the shelf behind him. "Back on the shelf. And if I find them in the cart again, we're not getting any Hot Pockets either."

Max grumbled, but he still scooped the box out of the cart and shoved it back into its space on the shelf. Normally he would try to sneak them into the cart some other way, but the last few times he tried had failed spectacularly enough to dissuade him. Max hadn't expected Daniel to be particularly crafty when it came to his end of the parenting in their house, but Max learned otherwise in the aftermath of his first few attempts at smuggling out extra snacks. It was difficult to get anything past Daniel to begin with, and even if a contraband item did make to the checkout seemingly undetected, he would just find other ways to make Max suffer for it. Usually he would simply refuse to buy the things that Max put on the shopping list as a way of making up for the costs of the extra items. On one occasion, after Max thought that he'd successfully infiltrated his items in with the rest of the groceries, Daniel actually waited for several days to punish him so that he could short-change him on his allowance. He explained that the money would go toward covering the snack cakes he thought had gone unnoticed. That was another difference between his guardians―unlike David, Daniel was willing to wait when it came to disciplining Max; he would win eventually as far as he was concerned, so he was willing to sacrifice the gratification of catching the boy in the act if it meant his eventual punishment would be effective enough to stop a repeat offense.

Plus he's just a dick, Max thought bitterly as he trudged behind his foster parents.

While Daniel was busy focusing on the list, David was content to work his way through the produce section, blissfully unaware of the glares his partner and their son were trading. Harrison preferred to stick closer to David at times like this, if for no other reason than to keep himself out of the line of fire.

"David, we really don't need that many." Daniel glanced up from his list just long enough to catch his partner freeze.

David already had a sizeable pile of tomatoes tucked into the crook of his arm beside the one that was caught mid-reach in his other hand. David had a proclivity for making spur of the moment purchases whenever he ran errands by himself, which was a big part of why Daniel insisted on shopping as a group as much as possible. In the end though, shopping together largely meant splitting his attention between finding what they actually needed and keeping David from doubling their load of groceries on a whim.

"They're for this great salsa recipe I found yesterday. It would go well with all that fish we still have in the freezer," David said.

"I'm sure it would be, but you have enough there to feed ten people. At least put a few of them back."

"But―but they're on such a good sale!" David insisted, but was met only with silent skepticism. He looked glumly back and forth between Daniel and the pile of tomatoes in his arms, but Daniel remained unmoved. With a resigned sigh, David started replacing the the tomatoes in the crate one by one.

Daniel sighed through his nose. Why again didn't he just do this by himself?

"Oh, Danny!" David perked up again suddenly. "Canned pumpkin is two for one right now. How about we get some, and then sometime this week I can make that soup you like so much?"

Oh, right, that was why. The upside to David's tendency of buying whatever he thought looked good was that shopping gave him ideas for what to cook. Although Daniel and the boys helped out, David was the one in charge of the vast majority of their meals. Not like anybody minded―he was pretty damn good at it. They had already made their way through half the list when Daniel finally noticed how quiet Max and Harrison were being. When he looked behind him out of curiosity, sure enough, the boys were gone. Cursing in a whisper, he parked the cart and started walking along the ends of the aisles. This also happened pretty frequently, and he already knew that he would either find them in one minute or in thirty, without much in-between. Considering that they'd been there for almost an hour already, he was hoping hard for the former.

"-just don't know if I have enough."

Jackpot. He swerved backwards and turned the corner toward the row of freezers.

"I just need three dollars. I've got seven on me right now, so we can still get it if you don't have five."

"I've got lunch money for tomorrow, but I think the rest of my money is at home."

" What? Why'd you leave it there?"

"I thought we'd be stopping at home first before we came here!"

"Argh, damn it," Max muttered as he reopened the freezer door. "It’ll have to wait ‘til next time, I guess."

"What are you looking at?" Daniel watched as both boys flinched and turned around toward him.

"We were coming right back," Harrison said quickly.

"I'm sure. Now what's in your hands Max?" he repeated, hands on his hips.

Max sighed and handed over the box. It was some kind of brownie flavored ice cream, with clusters of nuts and caramel and nuts too, according to the packaging. It was a little expensive, but not very.

"We were putting it back." Max added and reached toward his hand.

"We can still get it," Daniel said, tucking the box under his arm as he started walking away from them. "Now come on back to the cart so we can finish up."

Max blinked. He looked at Harrison, both slightly baffled, then obediently shut the freezer door and followed his trail back to the cart. David was already there when they arrived, having grabbed the rest of the food items they’d needed. He barely questioned the ice cream when Daniel handed it to him, but then again, he was the more lenient one anyway when it came to their budget. Once their food for the week was covered, the rest of the shopping went by quickly. After everything was paid for and piled into the car, they returned home, tired and somewhat regretting not stopping off to deposit their school and work stuff prior to running the errands. As usual, Max insisted on carrying as many bags as was physically possible for him, no matter how difficult they were to maneuver or how many times David insisted they could just run back to the car for the rest instead of taking them all in at once. They made quick work of putting everything away once they were inside, mostly just glad to almost be done.

“Please wait until after dinner at least,” Daniel cocked his head toward Max, who was hunched in front of the fridge. “Come on.”

“Alright,” Max replied without putting up a fight. “I was just putting them away.”

Daniel didn’t say anything else about it, although he was surprised to hear a soft “Thanks” as he returned his attention to the bags that were still on the table.

He smiled a little. “You’re welcome,” he said without looking up as Max passed by him, and he could have sworn he felt a hand ghost past his shoulder on the way out. He was looking forward to dinner tonight.