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1. Their life is chaotic, they barely have time to go home - actual home, like Greece and Russia - so the little time they have to relax they go to their home in Monte Carlo. The small apartment they bought together, after they saw that they were spending too many times in the other apartment and the other was useless.
To relax, tonight they decided to watch a movie. Of course it was Stefanos idea, Daniil couldn’t care less for a movie right now, but he would do anything Stef asks him.
Thankfully their couch is big enough for their height, so Daniil laid down while Stefanos was choosing the movie. The Greek put the movie on and changed the audio to Russian, it surprises Daniil, who raises his eyebrow, Stefanos looks at him and shrugs.
“I grew up speaking Russian too,” and he smiles. These small things make Daniil's heart full, and he’s already happy just with it already. He probably won’t pay attention to the whole movie, he didn’t even see the name, but it’s a good opportunity to spend a quiet time with his boyfriend.
He wasn’t expecting, however, for Stefanos to lay down on him. He was expecting him to lay down on the other side of the couch, and he was already happy to have their legs intertwined. But this? This is much better. Stef’s head is on his chest, and he’s all on top of him.
They don’t exchange a word, but Daniil smiles, this is much better, he was planning on maybe massaging Stefanos’ feet, but now he can do a better use of his hand - and while Stefanos won’t realize he’s not looking at the TV.
Daniil starts combing his fingers through Stefanos' hair. He loves his hair, maybe it’s because of his own bad hair, or because he loves everything in Stefanos, but he always had a thing for his hair.
Stefanos sighs, happily, and it makes everything even more perfect. Stefanos likes it. Daniil smiles. He wouldn’t mind watching a movie every day if it means spending time like this.
So he can’t help himself but give Stefanos a kiss on his forehead.
2. Stefanos can already feel the tiredness of the end of the season. His elbow is bothering him, so he and his father decided to slow down a bit, which means he has more free time for himself, which means he will wake up early the same way.
He wakes up without the alarm and realizes that in 30 minutes Daniil will wake up too, he still has his training schedule. Stefanos goes to the bathroom and then to the kitchen to make them coffee and some eggs. By now he knows what Daniil gets before practice.
But he gets distracted with his cellphone, having to answer 50 messages from Petros, who thinks he has nothing better to do at midnight. Daniil will wake up soon and he didn’t even make the coffee. In his rush, he forgot that his elbow is actually hurting and ended up dropping a mug.
The noise probably woke Daniil minutes before his alarm, but it’s not a big deal, Stefanos hopes. He tries to clean the floor the best he can, he listens to Daniil’s alarm, but he doesn’t turn it off. Weird. Even more so that he didn’t wake up to all the noise Stefanos is making in the kitchen.
After five minutes he decides to check what is happening. This is not usual for Daniil, he doesn’t stay in bed for “more five minutes”, like Stef himself does.
“Danya?” He calls as he sees his boyfriend is still in bed. “Babe?”
But nothing, he’s still sleeping. So Stefanos goes to his side of the bed, turns off his alarm, and presses a kiss on his cheek. Yes, he didn’t wake up. And if it happened it’s because he’s too tired.
Stefanos gets it, it’s the end of the season, they travel a lot, they practice a lot, their bodies need a rest. And Daniil needs this rest today. The coffee and eggs plan are off, he won’t wake Daniil up, he won’t go to practice today.
So Stef decides to call Gilles and tell him that. He doesn’t care that when Daniil wakes up he will be mad, the man doesn’t want to miss a day of scheduled practice, but he doesn’t care right now, that’s what is best for him.
“Gilles?” He asks as the other man picks up, just in case.
“ Stefanos? Something happened?” Yes, of course calling was not the better option, he should have texted first to not worry his boyfriend’s coach too much.
“No no.. I mean.. Yes…” he takes a deep breath. “Danya is still sleeping, he’s… he’s too tired, he passed out last night and I made too much noise this morning and still he didn’t wake up, he needs the sleep, so… yeah… he won’t go to the tennis court today,” ok, he got nervous telling Gilles that, he wanted to sound firm, but now he’s not sure if he should get in the middle of Daniil’s tennis.
“ Ok, I talk to him later, thanks for letting me know” , and Gilles is so nice to him.
“Ok,”
And that’s it, it was so easy that Stefanos was surprised. So he decides to skip that breakfast, he gets back to bed, lays down, wraps an arm around Daniil and falls asleep again. It doesn’t matter the time they will wake up. They need to rest.
3. It’s always the same thing when they order food. Daniil knew they should have accepted Julia dinner from yesterday, she always makes more food and Daniil misses that mother food. But Stefanos said no, they can handle their own food. Of course they can’t, they are always too tired to make something for dinner - and they end up going to Stef’s parents or ordering food.
This time he couldn’t escape: he had to choose something. And of course he always chooses wisely, unlike Stefanos, who always orders from the same place, that Thai restaurant from down the street. It’s not like it's bad food, it’s not, Daniil likes it too, but he knows Stef won’t eat everything because he will jump on his food.
It’s always the same. And he always falls for it. It’s useless to tell Stef to order something else, he won’t, he will say that that’s what he likes. And in the end Daniil also ends up eating chicken.
This time he ordered a burger with french fries, and of course extra fries. He didn’t even have to wait, when he opened his package, Stef stole some french fries. Daniil smiles.
In the end they were both sharing their food. And damn, he would do it again and again, because Stef’s face when he puts his finger on Daniil’s plate is the cutest.
4. One thing Stefanos always wanted to do is really stupid, but he read something like that and dreamed to do when he gets a girlfriend. He never got that girlfriend, but he got Daniil, and Daniil made him feel comfortable enough to finally do it.
It’s not like his insecurity was all over, no, he still kept thinking that the Russian wouldn’t like it, that it’s too childish, but Daniil never complained about it in their personal life, it has always been a healthy relationship - unlike many people might think because they do fight a lot on court.
The same way, he wrote that note. It’s a small note saying just I love you , and he put it in Daniil’s tennis bag. He didn’t say anything, and after they got back home at the end of the day, Daniil didn’t say a word either. Maybe he didn’t find it, or maybe he thought it’s so stupid that it’s not worth mentioning.
Stefanos never imagined that it was because he wanted to do the same thing. That night they did what they always do while the Greek was trying to ignore everything. The other day, however, when he opened his tennis bag to get his racquet to start practicing, he found a note. I love you too .
He smiled the whole practice - and if he finally got that backhand return down the line, it has nothing to do with it.
The next day he decides to tease a little, and writes Bullshit Russian ;) <3 . The reply was Small kid ;) <3.
They never talked about it, but after that, everyday, they leave notes to each other when they are together.
5. One thing Daniil realizes from the first time they spent the night together is that Stefanos has nightmares. He often doesn’t wake up, but he moves and sweats a lot, sometimes he even talks. It’s not comfortable to watch, and Daniil wakes up every time. He doesn’t bother Stef, he lets him sleep, but he tries to comfort him the best he can, hugging him closer, kissing him, talking sweet nothings in his ear in French to try to put something else in his mind.
But one night it got worse and Daniil had no idea what to do. Stef was screaming and he couldn’t wake him up. At that moment he regretted not talking about it before, maybe if he had brought this up, Stef would have told him what he dreams about, what are these nightmares, and he could help better.
After some minutes Stefanos wakes up by himself, and for the first time he’s crying. Yes, it was worse than before. Daniil doesn’t waste any time and holds his face, whipping away a tear. Stef looks at him with terrified eyes, but he doesn’t flinch or try to escape, which is a good thing, Daniil thinks.
“It’s ok now, it was a nightmare, you are safe,” he tries to reassure him, he doesn’t know what happened, so he doesn’t know if his words will make sense, but at least he’s trying.
Stefanos nods and makes a movement to close the rest of the distance between them on bed. And Stef holds him tight, really tight. Daniil kisses his forehead.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, I want to be with you,”
“Ok,”
Neither of them sleep for the rest of the night, but it doesn’t matter, as long as Stef feels safe and loved.
+1. It’s really rare to get all their family together, but sometimes they manage. It’s a dream to Julia and Olga to have their son dating. They always knew they would get along, and that their fights were only temporary, that in reality they never hated each other. They know them, they raised them, there’s no way to lie to your own mother.
They love to make these types of dinners, having your big family together, mess all around, people talking about everything at the same time. Elisavet who always says she’s already grown up playing with Elena’s kids - but she will tell you she’s taking care of them. Yulia teasing Pavlos and Petros nonstop, Apostolos and Sergey discussing loudly about something. It was a good environment.
And there were their sons. In the big table they ended up sitting across each other, with their siblings beside them. Both Julia and Olga have a good view of them, and they don’t miss when it happens.
They are happily eating and talking, when Stefanos puts more food in his mouth than he can handle. It’s something he does when he likes the food, Julia explained to Olga later. And right in that moment Daniil looks at him. Stefanos smiles and Daniil smiles too.
They look so cute, so in love, and they are so happy that they are showing their love in a table full of their family. They thought that, maybe, they would be afraid of showing love there, even if all of them are fully supportive.
This, this is exactly what they wanted for their sons, to be happy. And they are happy with each other.