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It was a rainy Saturday.
Merritt had woken up pretty early that morning, prepared to actually do things, like laundry and dishes. But when he heard the rain steadily tapping against the window, he had grunted and rolled right back into the blankets. It hadn’t rained in weeks, and he was determined to enjoy the occasion.
When he woke up from his dozing a few hours later, his phone told him that it was only nine thirty, and while he contemplated burrowing back in for a bit, he really wanted coffee. Having decided that, he rolled out of bed and stumbled his way to the doorway, rubbing his eyes.
Looking out, he yawned, then blinked. And blinked again. Shaking his head a little, he squinted and tilted his head.
Daniel was sitting at the kitchen table, feet up on an extra chair as he scrolled through some website or another. His hair was mussed and he was squinting a little, as if the screen was too bright. His sweatpants were a little too short, leaving his ankles and bare feet exposed. His t-shirt sat slightly askew on his shoulders, and rode up on his side, showing a strip of bare skin. With his ruffled, messy hair, he looked vulnerable; it gave Merritt a sense of the moment being oddly intimate.
This thing between all of them was kind of new, relegated to coffee shops and movie nights, time split between sharing stories of themselves and working on ideas and logistics for the future shows. Since the shock of realizing that the three younger members of this team actually maybe wanted him, wanted to date him (as juvenile as that sounded), Merritt had settled into finding a place to fit. This threw him for a loop.
Danny had turned his head to look at him, raising his eyebrow when Merritt just stood there staring. Merritt opened his mouth to ask something, like how Danny got in, or why he was even here in the first place, but all that came out was a slightly garbled questioning noise. Danny smirked at that, having realized long ago that early-morning-Merritt was pretty useless until he’d had coffee.
“I was out of eggs at my apartment, figured that you’d probably have some. Jack also stole all of our keys and made copies of them. Did you really not notice?” As he explained himself, Danny moved to pour a cup of coffee from the full pot next to the microwave. Merritt moved helplessly closer, drawn by the warm smell of caffeine and Danny.
Danny pressed the cup into his fingers, waiting until it was halfway to Merritt’s mouth before letting go. He was still smiling now, but it was softer, more fond. Merritt just sipped the hot liquid, looking around the kitchen as he did so. There was a pan in the sink, a couple of eggshells in the trash. The idea that Danny felt comfortable enough with him to just use his kitchen was touching.
Looking back at the man himself, he found that Danny was relaxed against the counter, arms crossed, watching him with an unreadable look on his face. While the two of them weren’t normally the physically affectionate type, the sound of the rain and the early morning stillness blurred any kind of barriers the two of them might have had.
It only took Merritt one step to close in on the younger man, setting his mug down on the counter behind him. Then he dropped his head down on Danny's shoulder, huffing out a breath against his collar bone. After a moment, some of the tension that Danny always carried with him leaked out, and he reached up a hand to rub Merritt’s back slowly. A few seconds later, he leaned his forehead against Merritt’s shoulder, pressing a gentle kiss to the side of his neck.
Merritt smiled, humming in contentment.
They moved after a few minutes, going to the table where Danny resumed his clicking at the computer with a foot propped against Merritt’s thigh. The older man crunched down a bowl of cereal, something Jack had made him buy with a colorful box and large amount of sugar. It was pretty good. Then Danny asked a question about a trick and conversation flowed easily between the two of them, debating the use of this kind of card verses that one, or what Merritt’s limits were in terms of crowd control.
They finished off the pot of coffee, hardly pausing when Jack came in without even using a key, joining the conversation seamlessly. Henley appeared at one point, book in hand as she settled on the couch, interjecting ideas and questions at certain points. At lunch, Jack made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, before curling up on the couch next to Henley and dozing off with his head resting on her thigh, hand curled around her knee. Merritt finally gently shut Danny’s laptop, pulling the younger man over the floor in front of the couch, where Merritt turned on some cop show for background noise. Henley nudged his shoulder with her foot, shifting him gently to the side where she dug her thumbs into his neck, massaging out some knots there. Merritt let out a groan, causing Danny to smirk at him with his eyebrows up. Merritt flipped him off half-heartedly, and Danny just laughed before pressing against his side, head resting on Jack’s leg behind him.
Outside, the rain kept falling down.