A/N: I wrote this for a challenge on OTH Writers 911 and I won:) Hope you enjoy it. And, for those of you who are reading Always Love the next chapter will be up tomorrow!

Challenge Requirements: The Breakfast in Bed Challenge. Take any canon couple and stick them in bed lounging around. One has made breakfast for the other one and they are just enjoying each other's company and talking. Simple. Light hearted. Fun.
Title: Morning Rituals
Pairing: Nathan/Haley
Rating: PG-13
A/N: This takes place the morning after episode 3.19 I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me.

Haley woke up early on Saturday morning as the sun light streamed in through the blinds and hit her eyes. She yawned and rolled over to bury her face in her pillow while her arm snaked out to reach for her husband. When all she felt under her palm was the bed sheets, she sat up in bed and saw the empty spot beside her. Self-consciously, she lifted the sheet to cover her body, even though there was no one in the room to see her lack of clothing.

"Nathan?" she called.

"I'm in the kitchen."

Wondering what had made her husband get up so early on a morning he didn't have basketball practice and wander into the kitchen of all places, she stood up, taking the sheet with her. Haley picked up one of Nathan's sweatshirts from where it was lying on the back of a chair and put it on, enjoying the scent of his cologne as she pulled it over her head. She loved wearing his clothes, but the one time he had pointed it out she had told him it was because her clothes were neatly put away, while his were within reach. It hadn't escaped her notice that since then, he left more of his shirts out than usual.

Haley put the sheet back on the bed before heading towards the kitchen, brushing a hand through her honey-blond hair to flatten it down. Only one of her feet had left the bedroom when Nathan asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm coming to the kitchen."

A second later Nathan had appeared in front of her. "You have to go back to bed."

Haley frowned. "But -"

"No buts."

"What are you doing in the kitchen?"

"What everyone does in the kitchen, Haley."

Haley folded her arms in front of her chest. "You never go into the kitchen except to take something from the fridge, Nathan."

"Well, today, I'm making you breakfast."

Haley broke out into a grin. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Nathan grinned back at her. "And, to enjoy it fully, you have to be in bed. Okay?"

Haley pretended to think about this. "Okay. But, don't I get a good morning kiss?"

Nathan closed the distance between them with two long strides. "Of course." He bent down and kissed her cheek.

"That wasn't the kind of good morning kiss I meant."

Nathan smirked. "Oh, I see, you meant like this," Nathan said, giving her a peck on the lips.

"I was thinking something more like this." Haley stood on her tip-toes and tangled her fingers in Nathan's short hair, directing his head downward. She gently brushed her lips against his and Nathan, deciding he had held off for long enough, pulled Haley closer and wrapped his arms around her waist, deepening the kiss. His tongue traced her lips lightly before slipping between her teeth and into her mouth. When Haley finally broke away, she did so with a sigh and let her arms hang loosely around his neck. She beamed up at Nathan. "Hi."

"Hello. You look very sexy this morning," Nathan whispered in her ear.

"You look cute!"

"Cute!" Nathan exclaimed. "Well, thank you very much."

"There's nothing wrong with cute, Nathan," Haley reminded him, a smirk playing on her lips.

"Maybe when I'm describing you, but not for me," he grumbled.

Still smiling, Haley asked him, "Would you like to know why you look cute?"

"Yes. Then I know what I can do to stop it."

"Well, the fact that you're shirtless and only in your sweats makes you look very sexy," Haley told her husband.

"But?"

"You have this little patch of flour on your cheek that makes you look so adorable!" Haley pinched his cheek for emphasis.

He quickly started rubbing the flour off his face. "Now you have to go back to bed."

Haley pouted. "No, I want to stay. I'll be good."

Nathan winked at her. "You're always good."

"Nathan!" Haley slapped his shoulder.

"Go to bed! I am making you breakfast which means you are not going to help with any of it, and in order for that to happen, you can't enter the kitchen."

"You keep up with that tone and you'll be back to sexy in no time."

"That's not going to work on me, James. Now go back to bed."

"Yes, sir. And it's Scott, by the way." Haley stood on her tip toes again to give Nathan a quick kiss on the cheek. He slapped her ass in reply and nudged her in the direction of the bedroom. She rolled her eyes at him before going back inside and lying down on the bed. She was still a little sleepy so she crawled back under the covers and decided to just rest until Nathan came in with breakfast. All thoughts of relaxation flew out of her head when she heard a loud clatter coming from the kitchen.

---

Less than half an hour later, Nathan was lying on his back in their bedroom, waiting for Haley. "You know, I can help you if you want," he called out to her. The bedroom door was wide open so they could still hear each other.

"Stay out of my kitchen!"

"You mean 'our' kitchen."

"Our kitchen," she amended, "and you are not coming anywhere near it."

"You do realize that in our apartment there is no door between the living room and the kitchen."

"So?"

"So, how would I know when I am stepping over into the kitchen area? Should we draw a line?" When Haley didn't reply, Nathan wondered momentarily if he should have just shut up instead. "Haley?" This time she answered, by entering the bedroom holding their breakfast on a tray.

"Very funny."

Nathan moved over to the other side of the bed to make space for her; Haley crawled in next to him and put her legs under the covers before setting the tray down on her lap. "You know," Nathan told her, "the point of this morning was for me to make breakfast for you."

"And it was very sweet of you to want to do that for me. But, you nearly broke all our pans in the process -"

"'Nearly' being the key word there."

"Actually, 'broke' was the key word there, Nathan. But, since you could not make breakfast for me, you may feed me."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that's so." Haley handed him a fork and with a smirk on his face Nathan cut a piece of the waffle and fed her. After she swallowed her mouthful, she grinned at him. "That is one very good waffle, if I may so myself."

Nathan tried a piece for himself and agreed. "It is very good."

Haley gave him a brief kiss on the lips. "Well, thank you."

"You could thank me in other ways." Nathan raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Actually, I couldn't."

"Oh, I'm sure you could."

Haley grinned. "No, I can't. At least, not for a few weeks; remember? We aren't having sex -"

"Until after the wedding," Nathan finished for her. "So you really want to do that, huh?"

"I just think it would make our wedding more special. Don't you?" Haley gave him her sweetest smile.

"I guess," he groaned and ate a few more mouthfuls.

"Hey! I thought you were feeding me!"

"Sorry," Nathan said and held up another piece for Haley.

"You better be," she stated before taking the waffle in her mouth.

"Or what? You can't exactly bribe me by holding off sex anymore."

Haley paused as she reached for her glass of juice. "I'll think of something."

Nathan leaned back and stretched before he fed Haley another bite. "Maybe we should do this every morning. It could be our morning ritual," he suggested.

"You're just saying that because I would make the breakfast and you wouldn't have to do anything."

"I'd feed you."

"And that's such strenuous work!"

"It really is," Nathan pouted.

Haley giggled at the look on her husband's face. "We might get our lovely bedspread dirty if we had breakfast in bed every morning. Plus, don't you think you'd get bored?"

"How could I get bored of having you here in bed with me?"

"Aw, how sweet."

"And, if we do get bored," Nathan added, "we can just move the TV in here."

Haley shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because Tim isn't going to be in my bedroom late at night playing video games with you when I want to sleep."

"Good point." Nathan put down the fork in his hands to take a sip of his drink. After he put it on the side table he smirked at Haley. "I guess you'll just have to keep me entertained then."

Haley battered her eyelashes exaggeratedly. "However will I manage that?" she asked in a breathy, high-pitched voice.

"I can think of a few ways." Nathan moved closer to her so that his mouth was hovering over her neck. "Actually there's just one way, with a few variations of it."

"Mmhmm." Haley forgot what she was going to say when Nathan started placing wet, sucking kisses on her neck and one of his hands started traveling under her sweatshirt. "Nath-an!" she shrieked when he started tickling her. "Stop it!" She struggled and kicked him away, and in the process, overturned the tray with their breakfast. "Oh my God!"

Nathan stopped to stare at the mess in front of him. The tray was upside down and the cutlery had fallen off the bed and onto the floor. The plate was lying somewhere near Nathan's feet while the remainder of the last waffle was balancing on the edge of the bed, moments away from reaching the ground. Nathan turned to look at Haley's horrified face. "Well..." he began, "at least, look at the bright side."

"There is a bright side?"

"We both put our glasses on the side table so the juice didn't spill over the bed spread."

"My lovely bed spread!" Haley exclaimed and sat up straighter to examine it.

"There aren't any stains," Nathan pointed out.

"But look at the crumbs over there! This is all your fault!"

"My fault? You're the one who kicked me."

"You're the one with the big idea to have breakfast in bed and then you tickled me! Some morning ritual!" Haley pouted and leaned back in bed, crossing her arms.

Nathan kicked off the covers and crawled over to the end of the bed. He picked up the tray and the plate and put them on the side table next to their glasses. Then he stood and picked up the cutlery and remaining waffle from the floor and put them on the tray. "It's all clean now," he told Haley.

She glared at him. "There are still crumbs."

Nathan sat down on the bed by her legs so that he was facing her. "I'll clean them later. Now, I am going to cheer you up."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

Nathan moved forward so that he could whisper in her ear. "By starting a new morning ritual," He started nibbling on Haley's earlobe, eliciting a gasp from her lips. One of his hands rested on her hip while the other resumed crawling up her sweatshirt. Instead of tickling her, he brushed his palm along the side of her stomach, kneading her skin. While his mouth trailed downward to her neck, his hand continued its exploration up and reached her breasts, which were, thankfully, bra-less.

Haley quickly reached out and put a hand on his elbow. "You can't do that."

Even though Haley couldn't see his face, she heard the grin in his voice. "I just did."

"We're not going to have sex until the wedding, Nathan."

Nathan lifted his head up to meet her brown eyes with his blue ones. "I distinctly remember you saying yesterday that we would start 'tomorrow night'."

"Yesterday's tomorrow is today, Nathan."

"I know that! But, you said 'tomorrow night' which means we don't have to start abstaining until tonight."

Haley raised her eyebrows at him. "Are you sure I said that?"

"I'm sure." Nathan moved the hand that was under her shirt to help convince her. The sigh she emitted suggested it was working.

"Well, if you're sure," Haley said.

"Oh, I am." Nathan nodded firmly and covered her mouth with his. He used the weight of his body to push her lower so that she was lying down on the bed. As he tried to balance on his lower arms Haley suddenly broke away. "What?"

"But there are still crumbs on the bed."

"We will deal with the crumbs later, Haley, after I have properly introduced you to our new morning ritual." He was about to kiss her again when she put a finger on his lips to stop him.

"But we can't do this every morning until after we renew our vows."

"Well, we're going to take a long time then, since I have to show you exactly what you're going to be missing." And before she could protest again, he captured her lips with his and made certain she had nothing to complain about until much later that evening.