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Yellow light poured through the windows of the bedroom, giving the room a warm glow. It was peaceful and surprisingly cozy for it being a day in mid-February.
Last night upon Pete’s “special birthday request” Davy had read to him in bed, although he would’ve been happy to do it on a normal day anyway, and they had fallen asleep together. Davy’s arms wrapped around Peter, and Peter’s head laid on the smaller man’s chest.
In the morning, Davy sat awake silently, Peter still sleeping half-on-top of him. He would usually be up by now but he didn’t want to disturb Pete, and was enjoying the warmth of being huddled together. Plus Peter looked cute where he laid, his mop of hair messy over his face, and Davy wouldn’t even dream of moving him.
He would also usually be grumpy in the morning, but waking up with Peter squashed that feeling quickly.
After a little while Peter was lulled awake by the gentle rise and fall of Davy’s chest below his head, and his hand tracing lines up and down his back.
Well, that and Micky snoring across the room from them, laid on top of an also-awake Mike, who is stroking the other’s hair absentmindedly.
Peter chuckles sleepily at the scene and closes his eyes again, not quite ready to open them just yet.
“You awake Peter?”
Davy asks softly and moves his hand up from Peter’s back to stroke his hair, subconsciously mirroring Mike. Peter hums and nods, nuzzling his head against the other’s chest.
Mike perks up across the room and smiles at the both of them as Micky stirs and ceases his snoring, groaning softly as he also begins to slowly wake up.
Eventually Peter and Micky wake up fully, but everyone stays where they are for a little while longer before having to get up and pull away from each other’s warmth, figuring they could lay in late today as they didn’t have any plans for this year’s valentines day. It had been a hectic start of the year and they all agreed they would prefer staying in today rather than going out to a restaurant for their date like they had last year.
Finally, once they were all ready, they climbed out of their beds and all filed down the spiral stairs to do whatever it was each of them needed to do to start their day.
For Davy and Mike, first things-first was brushing their hair back into place while Micky and Peter brushed their teeth, which they would be doing next. And everyone had had a shower at some point the previous evening so, given that they didn’t plan on going out today, they all felt they could wait until later to shower again.
—
Mike is standing over the stovetop, bacon and eggs sizzling away in the pans in front of him as Micky and Peter chat at the table. Everyone is still in their pyjamas.
“Are you sure you don't want any help with breakfast?”
Davy asks, for maybe the third time now, as he stands beside Mike, brushing a kiss against Mike’s pyjama sleeve as he speaks, and leaning his head against his shoulder.
Davy had already done his bit to help, setting the table, getting butter out for toast, and getting orange juice out of the fridge, but Mike almost always cooked, and Davy felt a little bad not lending a hand, even if Mike had insisted he was fine doing it himself.
“I told you, I’m alright. You just sit with the others, babe. Food’s almost done now anyway.”
Mike sighs in amusement at Davy’s persistence and leans his cheek against the top of his head reassuringly.
“Alright, alright.”
Davy scrunches his face up a little and pulls away from Mike, agreeing to join the others at the table after a moment.
Not long after this exchange Mike brings everyone's full plates to the table, two at a time, and then a plate stacked with toast, before finally taking off his apron and joining them at the table. Smiles spread across hungry faces as they looked at the food in front of them, picking up their cutlery, buttering their toast, and singing Mike their praises as they did so.
“This looks great Mike”
Davy clasps his hands together briefly in hungry anticipation before he starts eating.
“Boy I’m starving, thanks Mike!”
Pete gives a wholesome grin, squinting his eyes and nodding along as the others also give their thanks.
“Gosh-a-roony Mike, this is good!”
Micky adds rather cartoonishly, already shoving a forkful of food into his mouth.
Mike smiles at each of their responses, hanging his head slightly, and chuckling in amusement at Micky before responding,
“Well thanks guys. You’re welcome.”
They all return his smile.
Davy starts pouring orange juice into everyone’s cups, and Micky jumps up quickly once he realises that he wants ketchup, almost making Davy spill the juice. He apologises when he sits back down, ketchup bottle in hand, and Davy laughs it off because he didn’t spill it so it was no big deal.
At some point early into the meal, three of the guys had started an exchange of food, trading and passing items from plate to plate. Although Mike had made sure to make an even-amount of food, everyone seemed to have different appetites today.
Davy only really wanted a piece or two of bacon, and one slice of toast, so he forfeited his extras to Micky because he knew he would eat it all, with room to spare. And Peter wanted more toast than bacon, so he switched some with Micky.
Mike was content with what he had, but was glad to see the others working out their ideal portions with each other. So he just sat silently watching the ordeal with a fond smile as he ate what he already had on his plate.
They all continued chatting on-and-off between bites of food about what was on their minds - other than Micky who kept accidentally speaking with his mouth full.
Peter was thanking Davy for reading to him last night, and thanking everyone again for his birthday yesterday. Micky was talking about how well he slept and how comfortable he was, which made Mike smirk to himself because he had a bit of a struggle trying to stay asleep with Micky sprawled out over him, frequently twisting and turning on top of him throughout the night as he slept.
He made a little joke about it, to which Micky protested, but of course it didn’t bother Mike, not really, actually not at all. He always slept better when he was with one, or more, of the other guys than he ever could on his own anyway.
—
After they chatted, and laughed, and teased each other a bit more, they finished their food and Peter got up, piling up everyone’s dishes and taking them to the sink-
“Thanks Pete”
Micky mumbled as he was chewing through his last mouthful of food.
-Mike followed after Peter, grabbing whatever he couldn’t carry and adding it to the sink to be washed.
“Anyone still hungry?”
Mike asks, turning back towards the table, gesturing to Davy with a nod of his head.
“Oh, right!”
Davy jumps up,
“Mike and I bought strawberries and cream yesterday when we were shopping, can’t believe I almost forgot..”
Peter had already grabbed them all bowls and spoons and re-set the table before anyone could answer. But he knew they could all still eat, without a doubt. Because they had gotten out of bed much later than usual, they were hungrier than usual.
“..So, you’re all up for dessert then?”
A rhetorical question, Peter had already answered for everyone with his actions, so Davy hurried off to go and fetch said-”dessert” from the fridge.
Davy brings the cream to the table but takes the strawberries to the sink to wash them before meticulously cutting all of their stems off in a way that made the berries resemble little heart shapes. Not intentional at first, but became a cute accident once he had noticed.
The others patiently waited, all seated back at the table after silently agreeing that they would all very much enjoy some strawberries and cream, even after having eaten.
Once he had cut all of them up, Davy brought the now-heart-shaped berries over in a bowl to serve everyone their surprise round-two of the meal. They all filled their bowls, taking note of the cute heart shaped fruit, and they started eating together again, more quietly this time.
At some point Mike seemed to have remembered something important, mumbling to himself,
“Flowers”
“Flowers?”
Peter tilts his head, and Mike clears his throat before responding,
“I uhm, i bought you guys flowers”
Pete’s mouth opened into a surprised smile, Micky and Davy sharing similarly pleased smiles. Mike looked shy all of a sudden as they all turned to look at him.
“Let me- I’m gonna go get ‘em”
Mike stands, the others are watching him with soft expressions as he takes off out to their sundeck, grabbing the vase of flowers from where he had hidden them outside. When he brings them back inside he hesitates for a second before putting the vase in the middle of the table, presenting the flower arrangement to the others with a sweet, albeit still shy, smile.
They all smile fondly back up at Mike as he stands by his chair. The flowers are bright and fragrant, they’re really pretty. Davy immediately leans in to smell them, and Micky admires them too. Peter reaches to gently run his thumb along one of the flowers’ petals.
“They’re beautiful Michael”
Peter speaks softly, the others agreeing with little hums.
Mike’s cheeks get warm as he watches the others admire his gift, bringing a hand up to cup his own cheek. Peter giggles at Mike’s bashfulness and admires him for a while instead.
Eventually Mike clears his throat again and speaks,
“I got some in each of our favourite colours, 4 for each of us.”
He points to the flowers as he explains, sitting back in his chair and quietly tapping his fingers on the table.
“Thanks Mike, they really are pretty”
Micky speaks softly like Peter had,
“They’re wonderful”
Davy jumps in, and he and Micky must have had the same thought because they both reach for each of Mike’s hands to hold gently.
The warmth in Mike’s face deepens and he can't help his smile widening on his face.
“Wait!”
Peter suddenly jumps up, the others look at him.
“What's up Pete?”
Mike is the first to ask.
“Gifts!”
Is all he says in reply, a big smile on his face. He squeaks to himself out of excitement as he remembers and he runs off up the spiral stairs to retrieve said-gifts from where he was hiding them under his bed.
The others looked on with confusion at first, fondly smiling to themselves as they unknowingly shared the same, affectionate thought “Oh, Peter”
He rushed back down the stairs seconds later at the same speed he had gone up them moments before, now with the gifts in his hand.
“What’s all this?”
Davy asked with a chuckle and Mike and Micky shared looks.
At the beginning of the month Peter had secretly been working on little cards for everyone, making them when they weren’t home, or were occupied with something else. And after Mike had presented everyone with his lovely flower arrangement it reminded Pete of those cards.
He presented them to everyone, handing them out one by one,
“Well we’re exchanging gifts, and I made you cards, see?”
He stands with a proud smile.
The others look down at the charming hand-made valentines cards in their hands and study them with soft expressions, taking their time to appreciate all of the details of Peter’s drawings that cover the front and insides of the cards. They’re each unique, full of life and character, and endlessly endearing.
Once they had all looked over their own they started examining each others’, pointing out little details, oohing and awing.
“Pete, these are amazing!”
Micky speaks, standing to be at Pete’s level. The others stand too, joining them.
“You really think so? I spent all week drawing them for you”
He bounces on his feet, proud and giddy over the compliment.
“Of course Peter, these are lovely”
Davy chimes in and Mike nods, adding,
“They really look great, babe”
Peter makes a sound of delight and smiles somehow even bigger than he had been.
“Now I’m a little embarrassed I-”
Micky chuckles awkwardly after a short silence and gestures towards the interchanged gifts between them, pausing for moment before continuing,
“I made something for you guys too but I- Well it’s not gonna be as good as Pete’s cards”
“You don’t need to feel embarrassed, babe”
Mike speaks softly, quietly, and Peter and Davy look at him and then at Micky, nodding.
“Right,”
Davy starts, shaking his head lightly and reaching for Mick’s hand, his voice is soft and reassuring like Mike’s was.
“And besides, I should be the one embarrassed, I haven’t given out any gifts yet”
He jokes, trying to encourage him. It seems to work because it makes Micky crack a smile and straighten his posture a little.
“Alright, I’ll go get them then”
Mick’s mood seems better already as he, like Peter had before, rushes up the stairs to retrieve his gifts from where he had hidden them in his dresser drawer.
The others couldn’t help but smile fondly as he came back downstairs with a paper bag, and they looked on at him curiously as they waited for him to say something. He sort of just stands there for a moment before making a face that says “Oh, right!”, and moving past the others to set the bag on the table. They turn to face him and he gently rummages through the bag, pulling out a handful of cards of his own. He hesitates again for a moment and then just hands over the cards, quiet.
The others wait a beat to see if he is going to say anything and he doesn’t so they look down at their cards in unison. They’re store bought, each different, personal somehow, cute. But when they open them they see a small collection of photographs pinned inside with paperclips, around a dozen each.
“Some pictures I took over the last couple of months”
Micky finally speaks up, leaning towards the other three men and pointing down at the photographs as they all look through them with shifting, joyful expressions.
“I mean i took them for you, they’re not just random photos”
He felt the need to clarify.
“Micky…”
Peter gasped, positively, and trailed off just as soon as he started, focussed on the photos again as he continued to look through them and Micky smiled to himself. He wasn’t feeling so embarrassed anymore, they all seemed to like his photographs.
They all have different collections, no two photos the same, and all of the pictures they have were specifically taken with them in mind; things they like, things that reminded Micky of them, things he thinks they would find cute or amusing, et cetera. And he felt that them looking through the photographs in silence meant they were really enjoying them, appreciating them.
There were a few photos in each of their cards of Micky himself, a bit on the suggestive side but nothing too raunchy. He thought it might be a little fun to include them, why not, it’s valentines day. And when they got to those photos he felt like he could tell by the noticeable shifts in their faces, and it made him giggle.
“Micky-”
Davy echoed Peter accidentally as he came across his personal pictures of Micky, looking up at him with a faux-serious expression. Micky gave him a cheeky smile and a shrug, and the others caught it too as they looked up from their photos when they were finished looking.
“So what did you think?”
Micky speaks after a small silence, almost bouncing on his toes waiting for a response from them on his gift.
“Tasteful”
Davy chimes back in, raising his eyebrows, teasing. Micky feigns innocence to tease him back and is about to make some jokey remark before Mike speaks up,
“Really great photos, Mick. I’m serious. Thank you”
“Yeah Mick, wow! I mean these are seriously groovy!”
Peter adds, sincere, tilting his head back down to flick through them all again.
“They really are good Micky, I was just teasing before”
Davy adds last with a genuine smile.
“Oh, so you didn’t like the other pictures?”
He bats his eyelashes and frowns dramatically, teasing him one last time.
“Hey man, those photos are great too, don’t get it twisted”
Davy replies fast, poking a finger into Micky’s chest, trying to maintain a serious face but failing and ending up chuckling instead, Micky can’t help but mirror him, and Mike rolls his eyes at them both fondly.
“I-I really dig them too!”
Peter jumps in, not intending to join in on the teasing, he just also really likes those photos.
Mike does too, but he doesn’t say it outright, he knows Micky knows.
After the chuckling subsides and a gentle shoulder-nudge or two were exchanged, they carefully put their photographs back in their cards and set them in a neat pile on the table next to their other gifts. Peter had started gathering their dishes to take to the sink like he had before.
“Well hold on a minute, i got you all gifts too”
Davy pushes his lips into a pout, not actually upset at all, and Pete puts down what he was carrying.
“Oops, sorry Davy!”
“It’s alright Peter”
Davy quickly replies, smiling softly and dropping the upset act.
“Right, I’ll go get them then, just a sec”
And he goes off first to the downstairs bedroom, coming back out with something dangling out of his hand. He stops to grab a bag out of the fridge and then he comes back to the others, hand behind his back now, holding out only the bag first, inviting them to pull out what was inside.
Peter reached into the paper bag and pulled out the heart-shaped-box of chocolates inside.
“Oo, chocolates?”
“Fancy chocolates”
Davy emphasises, not that he would actually care if they couldn't tell the difference.
“Well, how much did this set you back?”
Mike asked as he took a peek into the box, they definitely looked fancy. Davy only shook his head in response as if to say “Don’t ask”, and Mike raised his hands in mock-defeat.
“Anyway, we can try those later, more importantly, here’s my other gift”
Davy brings his arm around from behind his back, 4 bead necklaces dangling from his hand. He presents them with an open-mouth smile,
“Ta-da! New beads, in all our favourite colours! I made them for us so we can match”
Peter quickly puts the box of chocolates behind him on the gift-pile on the table and holds out his hand, but Davy gestures for him to lean down instead so he can put it straight on him. Peter grins and obliges, immediately looking down at it and running his fingers along the beads once it was on. After Peter, the others bend down so Davy can put their new beads on too, and afterwards he puts on his own.
“Ah? Now we all have a new matching set”
Davy admires them in their new beads, it looks silly over their pyjamas but he still thinks they look nice in them.
“I like ‘em! Now we can match whenever, we don’t even have to wear the same outfits”
Micky smiles, fiddling with his own beads and then turning to Peter as they inspect each other’s.
“Thanks Davy”
Mike spoke quietly, giving him a nod, Davy nodded back. Mike doesn’t really wear beads, they're not his thing, but Davy really didn’t like the idea of leaving Mike out of the gift, it wouldn’t be right. Besides, there was the odd occasion where Mike would wear beads, if his outfit suited it.
So they had a silent agreement that Mike wasn’t obligated to wear them often, Davy knew he wouldn’t have wanted to and there were no hard feelings there.
Micky and Peter had finished looking at each other’s necklaces now and had turned to Davy first to further compare.
Once they had finished playing around a little, singing their praises of each other’s gifts, and looking through them all again, the dishes were finally gathered and placed with the others in the sink, by Micky this time.
Mike and Peter join him at the sink and they start washing, drying and putting away all of the plates, bowls, and cutlery, whilst Davy moves the gifts, neatly putting them on top of one of the kitchen cabinets for now so he could wipe down the table.
—
After brunch, a gift exchange, and a little clean up, they had all opted to get changed out of their pyjamas and Peter was proudly flaunting his new beads already. They didn’t change into anything fancy or formal, just some comfortable clothes they could continue to lounge in around the house for the rest of the day, which is what they had been doing for an hour or two.
Davy was up fiddling around with the radio, tuning into one of his usual choices of music station. The song that had been playing previously faded out, and the DJ introduced the next song as it ramped up to the lyrics. Davy smiles and turns up the volume a little.
“When a man loves a woman~”
His smile turns into a light chuckle as he contemplates the lyrics and looks at the guys, who are all quietly sitting around the pad. Peter was reading on the couch, Mike sitting by him and reading over his shoulder, Micky was laid back on the lounge chair tossing upward and catching a little rubber ball to occupy himself.
He watches them all for a moment before finally calling over the closest to dance.
“Join me for a dance?”
He teases, emphasising an eloquent british accent that isn't quite his own, as he reaches for Micky’s hand.
“Davy-”
Micky huffs but doesn’t protest, dropping the ball beside himself and masking an amused smile as Davy takes his hand gently and pulls him up from where he was laying.
“It’s Valentines day”
Davy says with a cheeky grin and takes his other hand, guiding him to the open floor space. Micky smiles in a fondly-annoyed sort of way, and rolls his eyes.
“Care to join us?”
Mick adds as they walk, mimicking Davy’s previously put-on accent, in part to tease him, as he tilts his head to the side slightly and raises his eyebrows at Mike and Peter, who had already ditched the book to watch them at this point.
Peter nods enthusiastically and jumps up almost immediately, grabbing Mike by the arm and pulling him to his feet.
“Well hold on a minute-”
Mike half-laughs out, and stumbles a little beside Peter.
Davy and Micky are already slow dancing, watching with excited grins as Peter drags Mike over to join them, and assuming the same position that they are in, or trying to anyway.
Pete pokes his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrates, pulling Mike by the waist so that they are closer together, eventually managing to mimic Mick and Davy’s position, barely.
Now Mick and Davy are watching Mike and Peter as they try, and fail, to find their footing. Neither of them are particularly skilled dancers and it shows. So they give it a minute, partly because watching them stumble over each other’s feet was endlessly adorable, and then they intervene.
“Alright, ah, how about we switch partners?”
Davy offers with a warm chuckle and holds out a hand for Mike to take, Micky offers his hand to Peter, nodding to encourage him.
Mike gets visibly embarrassed and he and Peter separate.
“This is why i don’t dance”
He mumbles, and Davy pays it no mind, instead taking his hands gently and stepping away from the other couple.
“First thing, hands”
Davy starts, pulling Mike closer toward himself and showing him where each of their hands go.
A few feet away Micky is doing more-or-less the same thing with Peter, though with noticeably more flair. Peter was somehow being dipped already and they were both giggling away. Davy rolls his eyes and smiles.
They're cute, and it’s clearly working for them, but Mike needed something slower and more precise to learn so he didn’t get flustered or frustrated.
“Watch my feet, alright? We’ll do it really slowly so it's easier”
So they took a slower, more composed approach. Davy spoke minimally, only when he needed to, and softly too, seeing as Micky and Peter were, at times, making enough noise for the four of them.
They continued, and as they did Mike seemed to be finding it easier, perhaps even more enjoyable, Davy hoped so anyway.
“Right, yep- yeah! Now just step like that when I do this and see how easy it is?”
Davy continues to guide Mike through the dance, getting him confident in his foot placement so they're not tripping over one another like he and Peter were before.
When he looks up at Mike to give him a proud smile, Mike is sucking in his bottom lip and furrowing his eyebrows in this deeply concentrated expression.
Davy almost squeaks because it’s so endearing, he has to bite his own lip to suppress the noise and not distract the taller man. He manages to compose himself and they continue slow dancing, actually a little slower than usual, just guiding Mike through it. He picks it up without too much difficulty and pretty soon they're in a rhythm of their own now.
Davy looks back up at Mike and this time he is looking back at him, he seems more confident in his movements.
“Youre a natural, see?”
Davy whispers and Mike laughs out of his nose,
“Sure, babe”
He replies, equally quiet, bashful but not embarrassed.
Peter and Micky seemed to have calmed down now, dancing at around the same pace as Mike and Davy, no longer chaotic and energetic. It was quiet now, other than the love songs playing through the radio.
The next song finishes and Davy gets a tap on the shoulder.
“Hey, what’s up Pete?”
He turns around and he and Mike stop their dancing for a moment. Peter has his ever-sweet little smile on his face, Micky is still hanging off of his arm, leaning his cheek on Peter’s shoulder.
“I was thinking, since Mike and I know what we’re doing a little better now, we could switch back?”
Davy looks up at Mike and he nods,
“Sure Pete, but I ain't gonna be doing all that fancy stuff Mick was up to”
Peter laughs at that and takes Mike’s arm, Micky slinking off of him and planting himself in front of Davy with a mischievous grin.
Peter and Mike held each other gently, swaying calmly and, with what they were taught in this short time-frame, slow dancing as best as they could. They silently danced at a slow pace, their own pace, to the love songs that continued to play on the radio. Dancing to songs whose lyrics would never quite describe the unique relationship that these four boys have. Unique, surely strange, but they truly wouldn’t change it, not for anything.
Davy tilts his head and squints a little as he looks up at Micky and their hands settle on each other. Micky, almost immediately tries to be funny and pulls Davy in by the waist, leaning him backwards and raising his eyebrows at him, that same grin still on his face.
“What are you trying, Dolenz?”
Davy flirts, stifling a laugh, and Micky lifts him so he’s upright again, shrugging his shoulders and replying,
“Not trying, doing”
Micky smiles and leans down a little, touching Davy’s nose with his own. The shorter man tilts his chin up and, now wearing the same grin as the other, leans up to kiss him. Micky pulls away after a few seconds and starts peppering quick kisses all over Davy’s face, making him throw his head back laughing.
Now they were taking their turn messing around and giggling all over each other instead of dancing like they were supposed to be.
Peter was smiling at the scene the other two were making, and Mike let out a chuckle as he glanced at them a few times, though still trying his best to concentrate. They had wanted to dance quietly together, calmly, but despite it, they were delighting in the out-of-control giggles coming from the pair just a few steps from them.
Peter had gotten distracted, now giggling himself, and tripped over his own - or honestly maybe Mike’s - feet. Mike caught him and now he was laughing too. Mike helped Peter steady himself and softly kissed his knuckles as he held his hand. Peter turned his attention back to Mike, throwing his arms over his shoulders and moving in slowly. When Mike didn’t move, Peter kissed him gently on the lips, trying to stifle the giggles still bubbling in his chest, and then they kissed again.
It was infectious, both pairs giggling and holding each other a little awkwardly, kissing softly between laughs, not even dancing anymore as the radio just becomes background noise. No one even has to speak but they all share the same thought, they’re glad they stayed at home together today.