Danny unlocked the door, letting Jesse, Seth and himself into the apartment. On the way home they'd called Don and told him they were picking up pizza, and asking when he'd be coming home. The brunet had been called in at four thirty that morning, and should've been allowed to come home early, although this obviously wasn't the case.
In the mean time the boys set the table and got out everyone's preferred drink. When the door opened they greeted in unison, "Hey Dad!"
Don smiled. Despite how long they'd been calling him Dad, he still hadn't really gotten used to it. It thrilled him to no end that they'd accepted him so deeply into their lives.
"Hey guys," Don returned, sitting at the table. Danny came up behind him and leaned down to give him a welcome home kiss. The boys, of course, had their usual reaction to their parents kissing. They didn't mind in the slightest, but it was a running joke in the family. The boys had once walked in on a very heated make-out session between their dads.
"What'd you guys have this morning before break?" Danny asked. For the life of him he could never remember their schedule, despite the fact that it was the same for both of them.
"English, Latin, and Biology," Seth answered.
"Any homework?" from Don.
"We always have homework," Jesse laughed. Going to such a high end school, it was expected that they would have homework every night. The surprise half day was a nice change from their normal schedule.
"Well, you both know the rules, homework first, then you can do what you want," Danny reminded them. They each had a laptop, and had a nasty tendency to get distracted when they were supposed to be working on homework.
"We know," the boys replied together.
Amidst the talking they'd managed to devour the pizzas. The dads got up and cleared the table; another long standing tradition. The boys would cook more often than not, and Don and/or Danny would clean up afterwards.
The boys went into their room to work on their homework, while Danny and Don went into the office end of the living room to work on their own homework, both were desperately behind on paperwork. Unsurprisingly, they heard music come on in the twins' room. The pounding beat of Soul on Fire (by HIM for anyone who wants to know) came through the walls. Apparently it was a Love Metal night.
Having years of practice, both men easily tuned the sound out and got started. This was the number one downside to law enforcement, all the paperwork they had to do. They much preferred (in Danny's case) finding and analyzing evidence and (for both of them) catching the bad guys. Nothing beat the rush they got when they got the guy (or girl, for that matter).
After about an hour Danny got up to check on the boys. He knew they'd ask if they needed help, but old habits died hard. He popped his head on to see both boys working diligently. 'Good,' he thought to himself. Many times when he'd go in they'd be at their computers watching stupid videos on youtube, or reading fanfiction for whatever genre they were in the mood for. He was glad they liked to read and write, but couldn't they pick a topic that could be used for school?
"How goes it?" he asked.
Jesse looked up and said, "Why do we have to take Latin? No one speaks it anymore!"
Jesse preferred math and science, whereas Seth excelled at languages and history. They split the rank of first in their gym class, both boys being very athletic. They both played baseball, basketball, and hockey.
"You two picked it, you could've taken a different language," the older blond reasoned.
"Dad's got a point. And besides, it's not that hard," Seth countered.
Jesse sighed in defeat. If it were up to him he wouldn't have to take a foreign language at all, but it looked good on transcripts, and it was kind of cool that he could start speaking a language few other people (outside of school, anyway) understood.
"We're almost done, we just have to do the conversation part. There's three people in it, wanna read the third part?" Seth asked.
"Sure. Just don't complain if I get the pronunciation all wrong. I wasn't as lucky as you guys, I was stuck in public school. No Latin there. Well, besides science," Danny answered.
"You took Spanish, the pronunciation is the same according to Maxie. She's taking both," Jesse argued.
"Alright, alright, let's just get this done with so I can get back to my evil paperwork of doom," Danny said, trying to get the boys to focus. The tactic worked, for after bursting out laughing, they started on the conversation.
Just as they finished Don poked his head in and asked, "I'm craving a sundae, anybody else want one?"
Three loud "me"s rang in the room. Dessert was always the best part of their night, since Don had the world's biggest sweet tooth, and knew how to make anything with lots of sugar in it. He made the absolute best sundaes the twins had ever seen. They were huge, and had just the right amount of toppings.
Soon Don's voice rang from the dining area calling, "They're ready!"
Danny's was comprised of vanilla and chocolate cherry ice cream, with strawberry syrup, sprinkles, and whipped cream. Seth's was the most extravagant of the four, with vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream, nuts, cherries, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, caramel, marshmallow fluff, whipped cream, sprinkles, and chocolate chips. The younger twin was much like Don in the fact that he loved sugar. Jesse, on the other hand, had the tamest of the sundaes. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, caramel, and cherries. Don, last but not least, had a banana split in front of him, with the works.
They started in on their desserts, Danny frequently reminding the boys not to eat too fast in an effort to prevent them from getting sick. It had happened before, and the results had not been pretty.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and soon all that remained was a little bit of melted ice cream in the bottoms of the bowls.
"That was good," Jesse stated.
"Yeah, thanks, Dad," Seth agreed.
The boys took they're dishes into the kitchen and rinsed them out in the sink. Leaving them where they lay, the boys returned to their room. They had a TV with all of their video game systems hooked to it, and they were in the mood to play Guitar Hero 3. No, they weren't spoiled at all… One of the benefits of having very rich grandparents on their mother's side.
"Don't stay up too late!" Don yelled through the door. He said this for two reasons: 1) Teenagers require a lot of sleep, 2) he and Danny didn't want to listen to it when they were trying to go to sleep.
"We won't!" the twins shouted back. And so commenced the sound of GH3 from their room. Luckily, Don and Danny were used to tuning out the noise, and if all else failed, they could fight fire with fire, and turn on the stereo in the living room, although they probably wouldn't since they like majority of the songs in the game. One thing the twins couldn't fault them for was their taste in music, the entire household tended to mesh when it came to the arts.
At ten o'clock the sound of the game stopped, as the boys shut it down to get ready for bed. Their door opened shortly after to reveal the twins in their pajamas (tank tops and boxers), as they headed to the bathroom to brush their teeth. Soon, they reemerged, and went out into the living room to wish their Dads good night.
It wasn't long until Don and Danny got ready for bed themselves. By eleven o'clock, the house was silent save for the gentle snores of the four sleeping guys.
(A/N: Sorry I missed last week, but shit happens, and I'm sure you all understand that.)