Chapter Text
There’s someone knocking on his front door. At 6:45 AM. On a fucking sunday.
A few years ago he would have been ready to go to work since 5:30 am even on a sunday, although a few years ago he didn’t have a reason to stay in bed until noon. But that was then, right now the only thing he wants is to go back to sleep. Whoever is outside will have to come back at a decent hour, and after he has his morning coffee.
And everything is working just fine. He’s almost ignoring that annoying noise at the door that’s driving him crazy, but he can’t ignore a dog looking at him with pleading eyes.
"Go away, Hudson" he mumbles.
Clearly the dog doesn’t understand a word he’s saying, because one second later he’s sitting on his side of the bed. On him.
"Oh, for the love of-."
He manages to get out of the bed without kicking out the dog, and as soon as he’s out of the picture Hudson takes his place right beside her and falls asleep. And she says he doesn’t hate him, that he’s imagining things. Sure.
Well, now that he has been kicked out his own bed he could go and see what all the fuss out there is about. Although this better be important or he’s gonna shoot whoever is at the other side of the door.
Red’s smiling face is the first thing he sees when he opens.
"Go and put a t-shirt on Donald, no one wants to see you naked."
Ressler frowns and makes his best effort to not slam the door in his face.
"Whatever you want, the answer is no."
Red’s smile grows bigger and he tries to get inside the house, completly ignoring what he just said. And okay, after so many years he can put up with Red ignoring him when they’re working, he has been doing it since the first day, but he’s not gonna ignore him in his own house. Fuck no. To the hell with the good manners, he’s gonna slam the door in his face, God knows he deserves it.
But before he can close the door, Red stops it with one hand. Ressler is surprised for a second and has to admit that he’s stronger than he looks, especially for a man of his age.
"Come on, Donald. That’s not the way you treat your father-in-law."
"You’re not my father-" He tries to protest, but shuts up when he hears a noise on the stairs.
"What’s going on?" asks Liz coming down with Hudson right behind her.
As soon as he sees her Ressler gets angrier with Red, if that’s even possible. He has been doing everything on his power to let her sleep a few hours more. They have had an awful case this week and he knows she needs to rest, but now she’s awake because Red couldn’t wait until a normal hour to start knocking at their door.
"Good morning, sweetheart. How are you this fine morning?" says Red cheerfully.
"What are you doing here?"
"I tried to call you. We have a case."
"Her phone is in silence. It’s sunday, we were trying to sleep."
"Of course you were trying to sleep, Donald."
Red looks at him with a knowing smile and Ressler’s frown gets deeper. Did he just-?
"What case?" demands Liz.
"I’ll tell you everything as soon as your guardian dog lets me in."
Liz looks at Ressler. His knuckles are white for all the strength he’s using to hold the door, and he’s so mad she’s sure he’s seeing red now (no pun intended, of course).
"Don?"
Ressler takes a deep breath, shakes his head with defeat, and steps away from the door.
"You’re gonna like this case Lizzie." Red says once he puts a foot inside the house. "It’s full with international people and profiling. Maybe you should call Agent Malik, her friends at the CIA are gonna love it."
"I’m gonna get changed." Declares Ressler while Red goes to the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee like always. He’s gonna let Liz deal with this for now, it’s easier to get Red’s information in one conversation if he’s not around to make fun of him.
Liz strokes his arm when he passes by her side, gives him a small kiss and mutters an "I’m sorry". Ressler smiles at her. It’s not her fault that their plans for the sunday are now ruined, Red just appears to know whenever he has to show up to piss him off.
He’s half way to their bedroom when Red’s voice echoes in all the house.
"This kitchen smells like smoke. Did Donald burned the dinner last night?"