Fic: Coming Home Rated G
Title: Coming Home
Rating: G
Pairing: McShep
Word count: 1,474
Spoilers/Warnings: Gratuitous use of black in the kitchen. And lots of layout explanation.
Summary: Rodney huffed and rolled his eyes. John just looked at him and smiled. “And maybe even a family.” He said, knowing beyond any shadow of doubt that ‘family’ was the word the real estate woman used in her speech with every other couple she showed the house to. He decided that he’d be gracious and give her a chance to not have to make up a new, politically correct, speech on the fly.
Disclaimer: Sadly, neither Stargate Atlantis nor her characters belong to me. If they did, the show would never have been nor would it ever be cancelled. We may have to move it to Cinemax though.
A/N: This is the first in what will be a series of stories. And may actually become a ‘verse in itself… perhaps to be known as the Home ‘Verse or something like that.
“It’s a beautiful home.” The real estate woman said as she stood on the sidewalk with John and Rodney. “A great place to start a…” she looked from John to Rodney then back again before her eyes slid down to their clasped hands, obviously noticing that they were both men and together, “a life together.” She finished.
Rodney huffed and rolled his eyes. John just looked at him and smiled. “And maybe even a family.” He said, knowing beyond any shadow of doubt that ‘family’ was the word the real estate woman used in her speech with every other couple she showed the house to. He decided that he’d be gracious and give her a chance to not have to make up a new, politically correct, speech on the fly.
John and Rodney turned and looked up at their prospective home. It was a two story house, not huge but certainly not tiny. The front porch had a wooden railing around it and it wrapped around to the side of the house, the porch and steps were also wooden. There were a few hanging plants dangling from the ceiling of the porch and a few window boxes hooked onto the railings. There were two low bushes on either side of the steps. The yard was flat and the grass had been mowed recently. There was a two car garage with a basketball hoop attached above the door.
“Shall we go in?” The woman asked sweetly.
“Absolutely.” John replied.
They walked up to the porch, the door was cherry oak and had a large oval of glass in the center with gold patterns weaved over it. There were large picture windows on either side of the door, John could appreciate that, he loved when a house was filled with light. He reached up at flicked the bottom of one of the hanging plants. “These would have to go. I’m no gardener and you are just entirely too busy to take time out to water flowers.” He said and bumped his shoulder against Rodney.
The woman unlocked the front door and they walked into the living room. It was large with wooden floors. The walls were painted a startlingly bright white with base boards and crown molding that matched the floor perfectly, which also matched the cherry oak color of the front door. There were window seats beneath the picture windows and John could picture Rodney sitting on one of them with some journal or another, he smiled at the image. There was a fireplace on the right hand wall and a staircase on the left hand side of the room that was closed in by another wall. Squares were cut out of the wall that closed the staircase in and they were just big enough for some of John’s Star Wars action figures and maybe a few of Rodney’s smaller things. There was a hallway leading toward the back of the house and the real estate woman led them down it. There was a kitchen on the left, there was a half wall separating it from the hallway. The floor was shiny black vinyl; counters lined the left hand wall, with cabinets above them, the counter tops were also shiny and black, as were the cabinet doors. On the back wall was a black electric stove with a flat top. In the corner was a black double door refrigerator and set under one of the counters was a dishwasher, also black. There was a row of windows on the right hand wall that looked out into the back yard. There was an island in the center of the room with a rack hanging down from the ceiling.
“This is the perfect kitchen for you John, not a splash of color anywhere.” Rodney said with a slight laugh.
“I am the one who does most of the cooking anyway, why shouldn’t the kitchen reflect my personality?” John joked.
Across the hall was a dining room. It was completely bare; the walls matched the walls in the living room as did the hard wood floor. There were windows to their left looking out at the back yard and on the back wall looking out at the neighbor’s house.
As they walked back down the hall to the living room, John noticed a door set in the wall that closed in under the staircase.
“What’s in there?” He asked.
“That is your half bath.” The woman said and opened the door.
The room was tiny and the ceiling was slanted with the angle of the steps. There was a toilet and a sink, an oval mirror over the sink that didn’t have a medicine cabinet behind it, and a small ring for a hand towel to the side of the mirror. The floor was white tile; the walls were white with vines of violets painted at the top as a border.
The woman took them upstairs. There were four doors, the first on the left was the bathroom, it looked exactly like the small bathroom downstairs, except it also had a bathtub, a medicine cabinet and a linen closet. The other door on the left was a small room with pale blue walls and fluffy carpet that matched. The two windows on the back wall looked out at the back yard and from this height John and Rodney could see just how big the yard was. There was sliding glass doors on the right hand wall that opened to a small closet. There was a white ceiling fan in the center of the white ceiling, and there was a ceramic airplane attached to the pull chain. John tapped the plane with his finger and made it spin.
“Figures you could appreciate that.” Rodney smiled.
“The previous owners of the home had a small boy; I believe this was his bedroom.”
“Good room for a boy.” John said and smiled slyly at Rodney.
They went back out to the hallway and to the door at the back of the hallway. It led into another room, slightly bigger than the blue room. It was painted a lavender color that kind of hurt Rodney’s eyes, the carpet was white and just as fluffy as the blue carpet had been. The windows in this room looked out toward the neighbor’s house. The closet had a regular door and had a full length mirror hanging on the back. It was a walk-in closet with shelves along the right hand wall.
“This room I believe belonged to their teenage daughter.” The woman supplied.
The only door on the right hand side of the hallway led into the master bedroom. The walls were a warm cream color and the carpet was beige and not nearly as fluffy as the others were. There was a private bathroom attached to this room, and there was a sunken tub that Rodney completely fell in love with. There was a double sink and a long mirror. There was a linen closet and a narrow window set high on the wall. The bathtub and toilet were white. The floor was black tile.
“If we buy this house, it’ll be because of that bathtub.” Rodney stated.
“And the kitchen.” John added.
The real estate woman smiled and said, “this is beginning to sound promising. Not many of my clients actually liked the dark kitchen.”
In the bedroom there were two large windows that looked out on the street. There was a sliding glass door that led out to the balcony that served as the roof of the porch and sliding mirrors that led into another walk-in closet.
They were led out the back door at the end of the downstairs hallway and onto a large wooden deck that was actually the rest of the wraparound porch. The yard was big with a wooden shed that looked like a barn at the back. In the center of the yard there was a swing set, to the side of that was a jungle gym with an enormous slide and a sandbox under it.
John took a moment to picture a small child running around, sliding and playing in the sand box. He imagined Rodney pushing the kid on the swing while he made dinner on the grill.
John smiled when he felt Rodney’s arms wrap around his waist. He looked at him and pulled him closer. He kissed him lightly on the mouth and smiled. “So,” he said, “what do you think?”
“I think I’m in love.” Rodney replied with another gentle kiss.
John smiled, “yeah, me too. But I was talking about the house.”
Rodney laughed lightly and nodded, “it’s beautiful, and it fits us perfectly.”
John nodded in return, he turned toward the woman whose name he’d never gotten and smiled. “We’ll take it.” He said.
The End