Welcome to the final chapter of Men Out Of Time! Don't worry too much, there's allegedly going to be a Dankesy Christmas Fic coming on December 16th as part of my Twelve Days of Christmas Challenge which I will definitely do and definitely won't be too depressed to do like last year. I will definitely do it and it is definitely coming in six days.
Also, there's the fic, The Deke Squad, which theoretically will also have Dankesy but it doesn't yet and also if I actually update that one before the end of the world- I mean before the end of this year, then it will be a miracle. I have a lot of things to write and update sorry.
"I hate this!" Daisy said, throwing up her hands in defeat.
"What's wrong, babe?" Deke asked, glancing over but not getting up from his project.
"You two," she said, crossing her arms, "You drive me insane."
"What? That's not fair. We said we'd stop borrowing your clothes." At the moment, Deke was wearing a pair of her shorts. They did, somehow, look good on him.
"Not that. It's your names. I hate that we all have names that start with D and I hate that you both have last names that start with S. It makes initials so confusing."
"I'm so sorry, you're right, from now on you can exclusively refer to me as Lemons."
"...I have a better idea. What's your middle name, Lemons?"
"Well, I don't technically have a middle name. But recently I've fancied myself a Deke James. James is Bobo's middle name."
"You calling Fitz Bobo will never get old. James… I like it. Now your initials stand out. Hey! Danny Boy!" She waved Daniel in as he walked by.
"What's up?"
"I'm trying to sort out initials. What's your middle name?"
"Oh, uh, Jordan." Daisy let out a groan so loud you could probably hear it in the silent vacuum of space.
"Is something wrong?" Daniel asked, confused.
"Oh don't worry about it, Danny. But I'll be changing my name to Lemons now."
Daniel gave him a look, "Yeah, there's no way you'll be naming our kids."
"What? There are plenty of citruses left. I was thinking Yuzu and Kumquat, maybe for twins."
"Kum what?" Daniel asked, incredulous.
"You're right, Citron is better."
Daniel burst out laughing, "I can't take you seriously like this, Lemons."
"Not a fan of Citron?"
"You're both ridiculous," Daisy said, "if we're going to be having kids together we'll need to put a lot of love into those names."
"I do have an idea," Deke admitted.
"More citrus?" Daniel asked.
"No, a real, genuine idea. If you guys want to hear it…"
"Of course we do, Lemons," Daisy encouraged.
"Skylar," Deke said, "I was thinking about it, after our talk the other night. I think Skylar would be a lovely homage to your past to give someone. And it's gender-neutral."
Daisy was often startled by how thoughtful her boyfriend was, "Deke that's really nice… Although that part of my past was shaky at best."
"It still made you the radiant woman you are, and you should be proud of it," Deke said, taking her hand and kissing it.
"I like it," Sousa agreed, smiling at his partners.
Deke blushed, happy to be of service.
"Well, that's my idea. If we had more than one kid we could name them whatever, just not Owen."
"Isn't that your dad's name?" Daniel asked.
"Exactly. I'm not risking it, having an Owen Johnson-Sousa-Shaw existing in the same timeline and being around the same age as Alya FitzSimmons. It's a necessary precaution."
"Wait, you think that if we named our kid after your dad there's a chance he'd become your dad?" Now Daniel looked confused and disturbed.
"Well, it wouldn't be ideal! But there's certainly a chance. And it's certainly kept me up at night. I mean, the kid wouldn't be biologically mine, so it wouldn't screw up the timeline any more than we already have, but it'd be weird, right? It'd be unnatural. We can't risk it."
"Yeah… Owen is off the table. Let's cross that bridge if we get there," Daisy said, "There are lots of names out there. We'll know the perfect one when we find it. We don't even know if we'll have more than one kid if we're even able to have one kid."
"I think we should have three," Daniel said suddenly, taking a joking tone, "One for each of us."
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Daisy said, rolling her eyes and pressing a kiss to Daniel's cheek. Daniel pulled her close and they shared a deeper kiss before noticing their boyfriend.
Deke was bouncing up and down on his feet, a huge smile on his face.
"Yes, Lemons?" Daisy had to laugh at his infectious excitement.
"It really feels real. Like one day we're going to go back to earth and get married and have kids and live next door to Kora and visit our families at Christmas and-"
Daniel grabbed Deke's shirt and pulled him towards Daisy and him, "Slow down, Lemon Boy."
Deke almost forgot to breathe, caught up in the proximity to the two people he loved the most, "...Okay, slow, yeah."
He lost himself to his partners' kisses but the truth of his statement was enough to pull them back down to earth. This was real, and their future was as beautiful and vast as the cosmos they traveled through now.