Daniel doesn’t hesitate as he shuts the door in his face.

He goes back to the kitchen and begins doing the dishes. His mother’s attention doesn’t deviate from whatever she’s doing as she addresses him,

“Daniel” she says, and her voice is as understanding as it is a warning. Daniel takes a minute before he groans, making his way back to the front door.

“Took you long enough,” Richard says, gazing up at him. Somewhere in between the short time Daniel locked him out of the house, Richard found a suitable seat at the doorsteps. Meaning he expected to be locked out longer, which is a total contradiction to his confident statement earlier. But also meaning that he was willing to wait for as long as it took to be let in, which is equally creepy and admirable. Daniel sighs.

“Don’t worry princess, I won’t comment on your shitty appearance if it makes you so pissy,” Richard prods, standing up and clasping Daniel’s shoulder in a condescending manner. Daniel bats it off and sighs again, seeing Richard stare at the white patch on his shirt, right on his shoulder— contribution of Bethel, who left it there when he was burping her after the first feeding of the day (not counting the night ones)

“It’s all your daughter’s fault”

“I’m sure it is,” and he’s grinning. Fuck, Daniel’s too tired for this.

Daniel lets him in and they’re greeted by Meredith in the hallway, unruly hair, smell of spices and apron saying ‘kiss the chef to get extra meat’ all in one motherly package. Daniel doesn’t know if the apron is supposed to be wore by men, thus making what it says an innuendo. But he guesses he’s only wondering about such silly things in order to get out of his current situation, at least mentally.

Meredith’s smile is bright as she approaches them, she holds a spoon carefully on her hand, the other one gravitating just bellow it to prevent its content from falling on the floor. She feeds it to Richard before he could greet her, and the boy is a bit startled but obediently obliges and accepts it. He takes a moment to taste it, nodding absentmindedly as he considers. Daniel is completely horrified by the display of familiarity.

“A bit more garlic and it's perfect,” he tells her, completely serious when doing so. Meredith is delighted by the answer, although it implies her food is not yet ‘perfect.’

“I knew something was missing,” she murmurs to herself. Daniel can’t believe what he’s seeing, does his mother really not see what kind of person Richard is? Maybe she doesn’t know everything after all.

He crosses his arms in his chest and utters, “You didn’t let me taste it.”

Meredith glares at him, and he can see Richard’s amused expression by the corner of his eye. Fuck why did he say that?

“Forgive my dumb ass son,” she tells Richard. She smiles one of her motherly smiles and Daniel can’t help but notice that Meredith is really happy today. Be it because of Bethel, or because of the chance of having more people to cook for, she’s really and genuinely happy. Enough to make Richard’s presence acceptable to Daniel, as long as it makes Meredith happy like that.

She continues, “Welcome to our humble home, our casa es su casa. I didn’t think you would come so early, but I’m happy to see you.” And that smile is still there. Richard looks at her, almost like he was looking at Bethel the first time he saw her yesterday, and doesn’t exactly smile, but his lip curls.

“I’m sorry about that, but thank you for the invitation. I’m happy to be here, Ms.Wilson”

Daniel’s mother dismissively bats her hand in the air as she makes her way to the kitchen, “please, call me Meredith. Daniel can you show the boy the house and get him to Bethel, his head will come off if he keeps straining his neck like that looking around for her.”

Before Daniel can curse under his breath, his mother shouts from he kitchen, “and take off that shirt, you look like shit for god’s sake.”

Richard snorts.

*

Daniel does as told. He shows Richard the living room first, where Bethel is sleeping, telling him to wait until Bethel wakes up before picking her up. Richard sneers at him and tells him that he won’t let her sleep in a god damn chair— Bethel doesn’t wake up when Richard takes her to her crib in Daniel’s room. The entire tour after that is silent, only Daniel giving the name of each room like Richard doesn’t know what a bathroom is. Perhaps is because both teens know the weirdness of the situation, but neither of them say anything else as they go back to the living room. Daniel makes his way to the couch and gathers all the papers laying around (that essay is really not getting done today) while Richard goes and sits on one of the sofa chairs.

Silence.

Daniel sits on the couch, going through all the papers just for having something to do. He doesn’t know what Richard is doing, he doesn’t dare look his way for some reason, but he guesses that’s irrelevant anyway.

“Are we going to talk about it?” Daniel is the first one to break the silence. His voice doesn’t betray his nerves and he’s glad he seems collected for once. For a minute he believes Richard won’t answer, or that he’ll ask what he’s talking about. But he does neither.

“She’s already here, talking about it won’t solve anything”

Daniel steals a glance his way. Richard is sitting on the grey sofa— almost nonchalantly one would say— one of his long legs is resting on top of the other, his blue eyes looking at something far away out the window and his red hair fumbled just like when he came into the house. He would be extremely good looking, weren’t for the tiny fact that he’s an asshole. One who intimidates others solely because he feels he’s justified to, Daniel knows that much. His eyes go to Richard’s right cheek and the make up is still there, his stomach tightens. Richard’s fingers are tapping the arms rest and Daniel makes himself look away, feeling guilty.

“This isn’t normal Richard” Daniel presses, a bit more aggressively than he planned. Richard breaks eye contact with whatever he was looking at out the window and blue eyes find black. There’s something about his eyes.

The ginger snaps, “You really want to think about that Wilson? What you wishing to have a baby with me says about you or what the same says about me?”

“No”

“Then we don’t have to”

Daniel starts looking through the papers again, in a nervous gesture, and clears his throat, “but you have a girlfriend” he mutters, he doesn’t look up to see Richard’s reaction. Is not hidden knowledge, everyone in school knows Eva Bridget. She’s the hot brunette, the one that can make all the guys salivate just by passing them by, the one who smirks every time Richard throws a harsh insult in Daniel’s way. Everyone knows her, so everyone knows that she’s head over heels for Richard, and that she will make the life of anyone who gets in her way a living hell— like that poor sophomore who had to change schools last year after a group of girls kept jumping her in the bathroom, mysteriously after the girl confessed her feelings to the ginger. The offenders got suspended for a week, but everyone knew Eva was the one behind it. And Daniel is pretty sure that being the other parent to Richards child can be considered getting in the way.

“That’s my fucking business” Richard counters, and a loud cry breaks Daniel’s train of thought for a comeback to that. Because no, it isn’t only Richard’s business anymore, but Bethel woke up and that’s more urgent than any stupid comeback.

Meredith shouts from the kitchen, “boys!”

Richard is already halfway up the stairs and Daniel can’t help but sigh, “We’re at it mom!” He shouts back. He looks down at his dirty shirt and yeah, he looks like shit.

When Daniel arrives Bethel is still crying. She’s still in her crib, to be more exact. Richard couldn’t find it in himself to go and pick her up, it feels like he’s intruding, so he just stands there— wanting to do everything but being able to do nothing. It’s weird because he easily picked her up from the chair and brought her here earlier, and it seems Daniel thinks the same because he spares him a puzzled look before breaking eye contact and picking the wailing Bethel up.

“Shhh,” he coos, rocking her in his arms. “Daddy’s here to see you Beth, do you want him to see you crying? Come on, daddy won’t want to hold you if you’re crying,” Daniel talks to the baby, a soothing voice trying to appease the loud cries. He moves back and forth in what can only be described as the baby dance, and his brown and white hands hold a baby with similar patterns in her skin. A baby that’s Richard’s too.

Richard feels a pressure in his chest, he said daddy? Was he referring to Richard? He was, but Daniel doesn’t seem to be aware of his words, his actions trying to calm Bethel coming automatically. He did have a rough night then.

Bethel calms down significantly but she’s still crying, Daniel smells her diaper and makes a face. He walks towards Richard and hands her to him.

“It’s your turn to learn”

The baby doesn’t appear to be aware of the transfer as Daniel tells Richard what to do to change a diaper, and Richard finds himself fitting into a picture he felt he was intruding in.

*

Daniel grudgingly watches from the couch as Bethel smiles and squeals on Richards lap. Richard’s sitting on the floor, back resting on the sofa he was sitting on previously, and a baby wriggles on his lap. Daniel looks at them in the facade of watching the television in front.

You little traitor, I was the one awake at 3 am trying to feed you and all it takes from him is a diaper change?

Daniel hears Richard trying to muffle a laugh, and he totally said the out loud. Fucking exhaustion.

“I’m obviously the favorite,” the daughter stealer snickers, clearly trying to push Daniel’s buttons. Beth squeals again. The women in this house don’t appreciate Daniel’s existence honestly.

“You’re not, she’s a day old”

“Enough for her to realize who the better parent is”

Richard’s earlier hesitation seemed to have vanished to Neverland then. Daniel doesn’t say anything to that, just hatefully tries to watch some show adorned with a laugh track designed to make it seem funnier than it actually is. How did he find himself in this situation? How in the hell did he end up with a Richard Davis in his living room?

Fuck he can’t stand him. If his mom knew of Richard’s history of bullying, would she kick him out? Would she not let him see Bethel?

He sees as the baby’s chubby arms try getting a toy Richard’s purposely holding out of her reach. She opens and closes her miniature hands as the boy places the toy closer to her, then farther, closer, farther. She smiles again. Richard notices Daniel looking from the corner of his eye and smirks, as if to say ‘see? I told you.’

Daniel breaks eye contact, annoyance prickling his skin, and concentrates on the screen in front. Not like he can do anything about the situation anyway. But as he looses himself in the fake laughs coming from the screen in front, thoughts of ratting out Richard to his mother become nothing. Bethel’s happy squeals resonating in the background.