[C] Do Unto Others

Early in the morning, Fleck had slipped out of their shared bed, pressing a kiss to Dick's forehead before he headed down to the kitchen.

His father was already down there, leaning over a massive pot.

Fleck joined in without a word. The two of them did this so often that they didn't need to speak. Fleck could just look at what was going on to know what needed to be done.

Two hours later, Fleck made his way back upstairs to check on his boyfriend. It was eight in the morning now, still sort of early, but late enough for Dick to join the land of the living.

He bent over the bed, stroking Dick's hair from his face gently, and pressing a little kiss to his forehead again. "Wake up, sleeping beauty. Days wasting, and we have things to do."

Dick brows twitched when he heard the gentle voice and felt the kiss against the forehead.

He had been waking up slowly the past hour, zoning in and out. Bleary eyed, he looked up at his boyfriend and blinked slowly. A soft groaning noise came from the back of his throat.

"Is coffee involved?"

His hands slid up Fleck's arms to pull him down half-heartedly to cuddle, expecting him to snuggle up without his encouragement.

Fleck had little choice but to lean down when Dick pulled at him.

Dick didn't do much controlling of his strength when he was half asleep, so a pull like this was certain to unbalance his weaker boyfriend.

He smiled, nuzzling into Dick's cheek, but not laying down to cuddle.

"It can be. C'mon. Pops got a mission for us today, and you cant help me if you're snoozing."

Dick groaned softly, not making too much movement other than lift his chin slightly when his cheek was nuzzled. After a short moment of not feeling his boyfriend's body snuggle up next to him, he opened his eyes fully.

"Mission?"

He let go of Fleck to push himself up slowly. Then stretched his arm out in front of him with his fingers locked.

"Mhmm."

He pitched forwards to press a kiss to Dick's cheek, then ruffle his sleep-mussed hair.

"See you in the kitchen. I'll have a cup of coffee waiting for you."

Dick yawned and nodded.

Once Fleck left the room to make his coffee, he went through his morning routine quickly. Washed his face, brushed his teeth, shoved on some jeans and a button up shirt (a part of his wardrobe seemed to have found a place in Fleck's).

He attempted combing out and neaten up his hair with his fingers. It just seemed to get fluffier. With a sigh, he gave up and threw it up into a ponytail.

No more than ten minutes later and a little more fresh faced, he met Fleck in the kitchen.

"I hope that cup of coffee it waiting."

Fleck was with his father at one of the counters, doling out large spoonfuls of chilli into round Styrofoam containers. There was already a stack of about twenty or so tubs already filled, and a pile of empty containers and lids sat on the counter next to Fleck's hand.

When Dick appeared, Don greeted him cheerfully.

Fleck tilted his head towards the mess table. "Pebbles was eyeing it when I set it down," he warned.

And true enough, Pebbles was stood on the table besides the mug, peering down into the mug, but not moving to drink it. Too hot. She would be patient.

Dick greeted Don back. A little less cheerily from having just woken up, but still with a friendly tone.

At the tilt of Fleck's head, Dick eyed Pepple's. He took it from under her beak and made and appreciative sound as he drank.

After getting his first coffee fix of the morning, he turned his attention to the tubs his boyfriend was filling.

"So, what's the mission?" He asked, standing side by side Fleck, watching what he was doing curiously.

"Giving the homeless in the city some of pa's good home cooking," Fleck answered, pushing the plastic lid onto another filled tub.

"The family does it every month. Cooks up something in the morning and takes it out around town. Last month Jay and Chai did it. THis month it's us."

He nodded towards two stacked plastic crates. "Think you could start stacking the tubs into those crates for me?"

Dick blinked at the two men in surprise.

How didn't he know this before?

"Sure,"

His hand briefly drifting to Fleck's lower back in a familiar touch, his lips turning up into a soft smile. Then he did as he was told and staked the tubs into the crates, falling into the silent routine that the other men were in.

"Thanks, babe." He leaned over to press a kiss to Dick's temple before he pulled away to start stacking.

It took a while, and by the end of it there were almost eighty portions meals all stacked up in the two plastic shopping trolleys.

Don disappeared into the walk-in pantry to grab the napkins and plastic spoons for them, while Fleck busied himself with making a round of hot drinks for them all.

In the short space that Don disappeared and his job was done, his hands fell on Fleck's hips to place a kiss on the centre of his back.

"So, was it purposeful to only tell this morning?"

His voice was soft and teasing, rather than accusing.

"Yupp."

He grinned, patting one of the pale hands on his hip.

"I knew you didn't have anything else planned for today, and I thought it'd be a nice surprise. Who doesn't like going out and helping people? If you answer that in the negative, we're through," he warned, only half serious.

He did find it important that people want to help others. His family had always wanted to help. He couldn't imagine people not wanting to help others.

Dick gently laughed a little and pressed another kiss to Fleck's back.

"Don't worry, I won't. I've helped Giacinto out a number of times. She cooks up food for the homeless pretty often."

He let go of the hips before Don returned and leant on the counter.

"And it is a nice surprise, knowing your family does this - regularly, too."

"Hopefully you didn't help with the cooking part," he teased.

He'd heard a time or two how bad Dick's cooking ability was. He hadn't seen it yet, but he would go by eye witness accounts on this one.

And maybe his curiosity would get the best of him eventually.

Dick raised his eyebrows a little comically.

"Well, there was this one time..."

Which resulted in a pan that couldn't be salvaged and being banned from the kitchen... Again.

But Fleck didn't need to know all that.

"Normally I just helped out like I am doing now."

"I doubt Giacinto even let that out of the kitchen." If she cared for the health of those homeless people, then she didn't.

His lips kicked up and he passed Dick a steaming mug of coffee.

"You're doing a great job. Thank you. And after we've handed out all the chilli, why don't we go for a walk somewhere? Or go sit in a coffee shop and do some sketching."

He wouldn't mind a chill afternoon after spending the morning handing out food.

Dick's lips kicked up, unoffended with the comment. He had come to terms with his bad cooking long ago.

Taking the steaming mug of coffee into his cold hands, he thanked his boyfriend.

"That sounds nice. Maybe we could get coffee to go and sit out instead?" He suggested.

"We can do that. Shove our sketchbooks in one of the crates."

He let his hot chocolate sit for a minute.

Don came in, dropping the large bag of plastic spoons and packs of napkins into the top of one crate.

"I'm going to go attempt to wake the beast," Don declared.

"You're brave. She enjoys lying in." Fleck's lips curled upwards. "Last time you send Jay, he had that split lip for ages."

"Sure, I'll just be a second."

He left the kitchen as Don came back in and he heard the tails of their conversation. He snorted to himself. He had wondered where Jay had got that split lip.

A moment later he returned with both of their sketchbooks and Fleck's pencil case that they could share. He shoved them in the crate that didn't have the bag of spoons and napkins.

Blue eyes wandered over to Fleck.

"Anything else I can do? Or is everything done?"

"Throw on some shoes, and we'll be good to go."

Fleck gripped the handle of both trollies and wheeled them out into the hallway, leaving them there as he opened up the shoe cupboard and went searching for a pair of Dick's shoes, and for his boots. This cupboard was a mess of different peoples shoes.

"Some day we're going to find a system for this," he muttered irritably while he searched for Dick's missing right shoe.

He hated how messy this cupboard was.

Dick was more than happy to let Fleck search through the shoe cupboard for his shoe. He wasn't prepared to even attempt to look through it.

"Someday," he agreed.

It made him cringe just standing there, next to Fleck, thinking about how messy it was. He didn't even bother looking over Fleck's shoulder, busying himself with putting on his other shoe instead.

"But I do remember putting them on the top shelf."

The question remained whether it stayed on the top shelf or fell off when someone else put their shoes in there.

Fleck just shook his head.

No, it'd be too easy if the shoes were where they were supposed to be. No one ever let shoes stay where they're supposed to be.

Eventually he found it, under a pile of shoes that hadn't been used in months, with one of the baby's little booties wedged inside of it.

The shoe cupboard had no logic.

"Next time, you can find the shoes. Or we should start keeping them in my room." That'd make it easier.

Dick laughed and pressed a kiss to Fleck's forehead before he stood back up.

"Nah, I think I will let you handle the shoe cupboard. I'm the guest, remember?"

Although, he definitely didn't consider himself a guest anymore. The past couple of months he was around Fleck's more than he was at the mansion. And he now had a key to the house. It was something that still made him blush, thinking about it.

Fleck's home had very slowly become his home too - even though he didn't officially live here.

He slipped and tied the other shoe on and waited for Fleck to pull his boots. His hand rested on one of the crates handle, ready.

"You stopped being a guest the day your clothes started appearing in the washing basket," Fleck denied with a little snort.

Dick was family now, and family had to deal with that awful shoe cupboard like the rest of them did.

"While we're out I'm gonna grab a shoe rack. We'll start keeping ours in the studio," he decided. A shoe rack was neat, and they didn't have more than a handful of pairs of shoes between them, so it'd work nicely.

He was quick and precise with lacing his own boots, and soon they were on the go.