No music for this one...just having to make my little brother’s lunch. It’s inspiring, I tell you. But not inspiring enough to give me a good name for a daycare center. (Happy Faces Daycare Center...remember, I wrote this at six in the morning. I should be getting ready for school...but I’m not. Lucky you.)

Warning: References to sex. And peanut butter, but not in the same sentence.

--

The last thing Joseph expected to see when he stepped into the kitchen of Happy Faces Daycare Center Friday afternoon was Caden–although that was one this he should’ve been prepared for, seeing as Caden worked there–making peanut butter sandwiches. He could smell them before he saw them, really; peanut butter was hard to miss.

“Caden?” Joseph sidled up to the teen in question, who didn’t even so much as glance at him, instead concentrating on not getting peanut butter on the red hoodie he wore. “Did you have my child a few years back and not tell me about it?”

Caden rolled his eyes, pulling another slice of bread from the bag and slapping it unceremoniously over top of the first. “No, Seph. Lev forgot to make her cousin lunch this morning and dropped him off at daycare without it. I had to go to make him lunch so he wouldn’t start crying...” he sighed, resting his gray-gold gaze on the ceiling in thought. “Do you know how hard it is to shut up a room full of hysteric five-year-olds?”

Joseph chuckled at the thought; Caden had a way with anyone and anything, children especially. The daycare he worked at sheltered twenty-six children, all of whom adored him. “No, and I hope I never have to. So who’s there with them now?”

Caden pushed open the pantry door, looking for miscellaneous items to add to the black Transformers lunchbox on the counter. “Lev is, hopefully,” he replied, bending over to retrieve a juice box–Joseph resisted the urge to smack him–and an apple. “Can little kids eat apples?”

“I don’t know,” Joseph said, shrugging. “You’re the expert, Cadie.”

“Don’t call me that,” Caden reprimanded, looking at Joseph for the first time since he’d come in. Joseph grinned at his half-irritated, half-pleased expression. “Ever since you and Lev came in with me that day, they’ve started calling me Miss Cadie. Apparently everyone and anyone who kisses boys is, in their minds, a girl.”

“Miss Cadie, huh?” Joseph asked, draping an arm around Caden’s shoulders. He huffed but didn’t move away, still packing whatever he could find into the lunchbox. Joseph could feel the redhead’s muscles shifting fluidly under his arm. “I think I like that name.”

“Shut up, Seph. You’re just lucky they haven’t nicknamed you Miss Josie,” he replied, elbowing Joseph as he closed up the lunchbox. Joseph rolled his eyes, following Caden as he went to wash his hands (he was flicked with water for his trouble).

“Well, apparently since I’m the boy in this relationship...” Joseph trailed off. Caden turned to him incredulously, fixing his boyfriend with a half-amused glare. “I wouldn’t get a nickname.”

“You’re a jerk,” Caden said affectionately, pushing Joseph in the chest. Joseph, never one to pass up an opportunity, grabbed Caden’s wrists, pulled him close, and kissed him.

Caden squeaked in surprise, a sound that Joseph was used to, his eyes flying open for a moment before slowly sliding shut. The squeak segued into a low moan, another sound Joseph was used to, and then changed into a whine as Joseph broke off.

The blond surveyed Caden for a moment; eyes clouded, face flushed, panting slightly. He grinned then, tipping Caden’s chin up with a finger, and said, “You really do look like a girl.”

“What am I supposed to look like?” Caden snapped irritably, crossing his arms and looking away. He was blushing now, refusing to meet Joseph’s eyes in a way the blond found adorable.

“Don’t be mean, Miss Cadie,” Joseph teased. And when Caden looked up, clearly about to bite off another retort, he kissed him again. This time, Caden bit his lip, still annoyed at the ‘Miss Cadie’ barb, but let Joseph kiss him thoroughly.

“Hey, guys, Denver’s—” Levaya’s familiar voice cut off midsentence, followed by gasps from several children. Joseph lifted his head, looking to the side. Caden, arms around Joseph’s neck, froze. Levaya, followed by an entourage of twelve or so children, shifted to throw a gesture at them that made Caden hope none of the kids picked up on her habits.

“Uhm...hi?” Joseph offered, straightening up, his fingers still hooked through Caden’s belt loops.

“I made lunch,” Caden put in weakly, blushing bright red. Levaya smirked mischievously, resting her hand atop the head of a child Joseph knew to be her cousin, Denver. They had the same black hair and probably would have the same brown eyes if she hadn’t been wearing her blue contacts.

“Looks like you were making something else, too,” Levaya said, stifling laughter. Denver looked up at her, wide-eyed.

“Are Joseph and Miss Cadie gettin’ married?” he asked excitedly, eyes shining. Levaya’s eyes widened for a moment before she turned away, resting her forehead against the wall and turning pink from holding back her mirth.

“Miss Cadie’s gettin’ married?” called another child, and soon Caden was blushing the darkest shade of red anyone had ever seen. Joseph pressed his lips together, ignoring the twinge in his lip where Caden had bitten him, grinning widely. Levaya doubled over, squeezing her eyes shut.

“Are ya, Miss Cadie? Are you in looooove?” Denver tugged at Caden’s leg, chubby fingers fisting in the denim. “Are you in love with Mister Joseph?”

Caden only buried his face in his hands, unable to blush any harder, and muttered something against his fingers. Denver didn’t seem satisfied with this reply, and poked Caden in the leg to show this.

“What did you say, Miss Cadie?” The toddler inquired, put out when Caden shook his head. In return Denver shook his leg to attract his attention; Joseph knelt down to pull at Caden’s belt, his face awfully close to Caden’s hips.

“Yeah, Miss Cadie, what did you say?” he parroted, genuinely interested. Or as interested in that particular subject as he could be from this position, really.

Caden squeaked and broke free of their hold, turning to face the refrigerator. Joseph smirked, standing up and prodding him in the shoulder. Caden just shook his head violently, mumbling something that Joseph didn’t quite catch.

“What?” Joseph asked, leaning in. Caden’s fingers twitched.

“Fine!” Caden whirled around, dropping his hands from his face and using one to point at Joseph. “You want to know what I said?”

“Yeeaaahhh,” Joseph said cautiously, nodding.

“Sure, I’ll marry this idiot! I’ll live with him for the rest of my natural life and we’ll have three really, really, really annoying kids that look exactly like him and six dogs, and every day I’ll wake up to his stupid gorgeous face and then when I’m sitting by myself at home with three kids that I shouldn’t have been able to have and six dogs that I probably didn’t want, I’ll look back on this day and say ‘Jeez, Caden, how’d you get yourself into this mess?’ And then, of course, it’s because once again I got caught kissing that horndog I call my boyfriend!” Caden’s voice went up an octave and he looked completely furious as he completed the longest run-on sentence of his life. “I mean, could this have gotten any more obvious? For all you care, I could’ve dropped to my knees and given him a blow...oops.”

He clapped both of his hands over his mouth, eyes wide and face red.

Joseph gaped. If Caden was being serious he wouldn’t have stopped when Levaya came in..

Damn, he was right. Joseph was a horndog (what else was new?).

“Okay, children, time to go outside. No, we don’t need to line up, just go...good.” Levaya shepherded their charges outside through the back door and slammed it shut. When she came back into the kitchen her expression was shocked.

“You’re really gonna have three kids?”

“Shut up, Lev! That wasn’t what I meant,” Caden mumbled, leaning back against the fridge.

“What, you don’t want to marry me?” Joseph whined, pouting. “I thought you loved me!”

“I do, Seph, it’s just that I was mad...I’m sorry.” Caden sighed, lowering his hands. “I didn’t mean it.”

“Aww, Cadie!” Joseph latched onto Caden’s waist, grinning madly. “It’s okay; how about we get a move on with those beautiful children of ours? That should take your mind of off things.”

“Shut up, Seph.” He elbowed the blond gently, pushing him away.

“Cadie?” Levaya called, tilting her head. Caden and Joseph looked up at her, shrinking back at the mischievous gleam in her eyes.

“Would you really have given him a blowjob?”