Steve got his wish, or close enough. More often than not, he woke up with Danny snuggled against his chest. Steve would rouse the blond with slow kisses, and they'd indulge in some love-making before getting up. At night, they'd come home, fix dinner (or order in, more likely), have some beers, watch some tv, and eventually go to bed together. It was a routine Steve had quickly gotten used to.
Steve couldn't remember the last time Danny had gone to his place for more than a few minutes. At first, he'd slept at his place when he had the kids. That stopped, with Grace at least, the night Danny and Grace had stayed at Steve's until 2 in the morning having a Disney marathon. Steve had gotten Mary's room ready for Grace, and Danny had gone to get sheets for the couch. Grace surprised him when she said, "For heaven's sake, just go sleep with Steve already. It's not like I don't know you two are sleeping together." After his cheeks had returned to their normal color (Danny was sure they'd turned red as a beet at the words that came out of his daughter's mouth), he did just that, and they hadn't gone back to his place since.
It was a little trickier with Charlie. Nights with him were rare, and Danny didn't want to jeopardize them by setting an example Rachel wouldn't approve of. When they did stay at Steve's (which seemed to happen more often than not), Danny would share a room with Charlie. Then, one day when Rachel picked him up at Steve's, Charlie mentioned how much fun he'd had sharing a room with Danno. Rachel had raised an eyebrow. After Grace had taken Charlie to the car, she said what was on her mind. "I would have thought you'd be sharing a room with Steve."
Danny was taken aback, and stammered and stuttered and turned red as a beet again. Rachel had smiled indulgently. "Don't think I don't know about you two. Charlie's old enough to understand about two people who love each other sharing a bed, and young enough not to have hang-ups about whether or not they're both males." After that, there hadn't been any need for Danny to go back to his place at all, really. So he hadn't.
Danny's stuff was all over the house. Clothes were in the closet, and toiletries were in the bathroom, naturally, but it was more than that. His movies were mixed with Steve's. So were his CD's. His books were on Steve's bookshelves. Even his knick-knacks and keepsakes had made their way over to Steve's. Pictures of Grace and Charlie were on the nightstand on his side of the bed, and both their artwork was on the fridge. Pictures of his parents and siblings were in the living room. He'd even brought his favorite painting from his place and hung it on the wall.
The kids had made their presence known as well, and not just in the plethora of Disney movies in Danny's collection. Both had swimsuits at Steve's house, and changes of clothes. Steve had gotten Charlie a stuffed dragon, and it graced the bed in "his" room. When Grace complained the quilt on Mary's (really her) bed was threadbare, Steve had let her choose a new one (and he was very relieved when she chose a plain lavender one; he'd been expecting (and fearing) pink ruffles or My Little Pony). Once that was done, the walls had to match, so Steve, Danny, and Grace had spent a weekend painting it. Then, naturally, they had to do Steve's old room up for Charlie. That had taken another weekend, and the very interesting experience of removing paint from a four-year-old boy.
There was only one thing wrong with this picture. Danny still had a lease on his old place. As far as Steve was concerned, it was just a waste of money. Danny was never there, and it was clear he wasn't going back. So why was he still holding on to it?
Steve voiced the question aloud one Saturday morning. He and Danny were lounging in bed, and the kids were asleep in their rooms down the hall.
"Why don't you move in with me?" Steve asked.
Danny chuckled. "I think I already have. Or hadn't you noticed?"
Steve grinned. "Oh, I've noticed. And I'm glad. But you still have a lease on your old place."
"Are you suggesting I should give it up?"
"Well, yeah," Steve said, as though it were obvious.
Danny gave him a quick kiss. "Good, because it ran out last month, and I didn't renew."
"When were you going to tell me?" Steve asked.
Danny shrugged as much as he was able snuggled into Steve's chest. "Didn't really think about it. It's just so obvious I'm here, you know, it just never really occurred to me we hadn't talked about it. And I guess it didn't really occur to me that we needed to."
Steve returned the kiss, harder, longer, and deeper. "We don't. I want you here, as long as you'll stay."
"How does forever sound?"
Steve layered kisses on the back of Danny's neck, his favorite place, then kissed along his shoulder and down his chest. He paused just before latching onto a nipple. "Sounds good to me."
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A/N: This is the end of this installment. The next installment, "It's a Wedding" (and I'll let you speculate on what that's about ;) ), will be coming shortly, but I want to finish Dragon's Clutch and work on a major Ninja story I have planned (my 100th story on the site!).