Work Text:
Dexter Morgan's eight-year-old little sister, Debra Morgan, was chatting away to him as he was painting her nails. Debra was giving Dexter a play-by-play of everything she and their mother had done today, but Dexter was only half-listening as he painted her nails.
Painting Debra's nails was something that Dexter had gotten very good at to the point that now he had fully taken over the job of painting Debra's nails from their mother Doris Morgan who was watching the two of them with a large smile on her beautiful face from the kitchen as Harry Morgan there father was sitting on the couch watching tv.
Dexter could still remember the first time Debra asked him to paint her nails. She had stood in front of him with her already impressive height, even for an eight-year-old, as she twirled her long dark hair around her finger in a clear sign of her being nervous.
"Hey, Dexter, could you please paint my nails for me? Mom is busy," nervously said his eight-year-old sister as she was holding her nail polish in her hand, and Dexter had easily said yes, not seeing anything wrong with what she was asking of him. This, of course, made a large smile appear on Debra's face as she had quickly grabbed her big brother's arm and started to pull him into her room.
Even though Dexter had done a horrible job of painting her nails the first time, Debra had not seemed to mind, as she had proudly exclaimed that the next time Dexter would do far better, and that was how Dexter had ended up always painting his little sister's nails.
Dexter had no way of explaining it, but he did not like painting his little sister's nails; he loved it. For whatever reason, it relaxed him in a way he could not put into words. Dexter would always chalk it up to the fact that he was making Debra happy, but even Dexter knew it was something else that he could not figure out.
Daxter looked over at the beaming Doris Morgan, his and Debra's mother, as she always seemed to love seeing Dexter painting Debra's nails, something Dexter found strange, but something even stranger to Dexter was Harry's reaction when he had found out that Dexter was doing this for Debra.
Dexter had been hiding in the shadows, eavesdropping on a conversation between Harry and Doris, when he had heard the two of them arguing, something that the two of them rarely did.
Flash back start
"I just don't understand, Harry; what is the big deal? He is just painting her nails, and it makes our daughter happy. What is the big deal?" Doris had whisper-shouted to Harry.
Apparently this had stunned Harry for a bit, as there was a long pause before he responded. "I just don't like it, Doris. Dexter is a boy; he should not be doing these types of things," Harry had weakly said to his angry wife as he was uncomfortable with the idea of his son doing such a girly activity.
"Oh, and I guess Dexter should be doing other manly things like hunting with you," said a very angry Doris, earning a flinch from Harry for the hunting comment.
"Look, Harry, you should be happy that your son is showing interest in something that is not hunting for once in his life. Dexter really does enjoy doing it, and Debra loves it, so I don't care how it makes you feel; you will not stop them," said Doris as Dexter, for the first time, had heard his mother truly put down the law with his father.
Harry seeing how upset his wife was had reluctantly agreed with some grumbling that he would not stop Dexter and Debra from having there fun.
Flash back end
Dexter had just gotten done with painting the last nail a bright red color. "And there we go, all done!" said Dexter. "Thanks, Dexter!" said Debra as she got off the ground with a big smile on her round face in excitement.
Normally this was where Debra would run off to go do whatever she gets up to normally in her day and leave Dexter, but this time Debra looked down at Dexter with a look on her face that clearly said that she wanted to ask Dexter something but was unsure or afraid of asking.
Dexter, with a sigh, says to his little sister, "Just ask me whatever you want, Deb; you don't need to be scared," said Dexter, earning the attention of both Harry and Doris, who looked over at their two kids to see what was going on.
No longer afraid Deb, with a big goofy smile on her face that shows off all of her teeth proudly, asks Dexter if she can paint his nails.
"You can even pick the color!" said Debra with loud excitement in her voice at the idea of her painting her brother's nails.
Before Dexter could say anything, he could hear his father starting to get up and out of his chair, but before Harry could do anything, Doris beat Harry to the kids.
"You know, Dexter, if you don't want to, you don't have to, right?" said Doris to Dexter. With a confused look on his young face, Dexter says to his mother,. "I don't really care, and if it makes Debra happy, I don't mind," stated Dexter.
With a smile on her face, Doris patted Dexter on his head as she said to him, "How sweet, Dexter, but keep in mind you should only do this if it is something you want to do, ok, honey? Don't feel pressured," as Doris said this, Dexter very much so disagreed with her about him having a choice in the matter if the half glare and half puppy-eyed look his little sister was giving him with her large, doe-like hazel eyes from behind their mother's legs was anything to go by.
Doris left her two children as she made her way to an annoyed Harry and guided him away to no doubt argue with him once again.
Dexter's own hazel eyes looked into Debra's begging eyes as he was still holding her nail polish. Dexter flipped the nail polish in his hand as he held it out to Debra. "Sure, just make sure to do a better job than I did for you the first time I did it," said Dexter with a smirk on his face.
With a huff of pretend anger, Debra says to her brother, "You know I have done it before, right, stupid!" snarked out Debra.
Dexter tried to say something in response, but he was shut up by his little sister grabbing him in a bear hug.
"Thanks, Dexter, you are the best big brother even if you are stupid," it felt as if Debra was trying to squeeze him to death, but Dexter found that he did not mind as he let his emotional little sister express her feelings as he rubbed her back.
From that point onwards, Dexter would never mind when Debra would paint his nails, but it never gave him the same happiness or feeling of contentment that he got when he did it for her.
Harry also never said anything to Dexter or Debra about their activities, as no doubt Doris had spoken to Harry and told him off.
It was only years later, after Doris Morgan's death and after Debra had started to grow up, that she had decided that she was too grown up for her big brother to be painting her nails, and to Dexter's shock, he had been disappointed when this had happened, but he did not fight her on it after all. Debra, his little sister, was growing up, and Dexter had to accept it even if he did not like it, and he found that he even missed his sister picking a new color to paint his own nails.