a man's home is his castle (Andre)

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Andrew had paid for the house. Three hundred thousand dollars, in cash. He couldn't help it; the entire family loved it. Andrew would do anything to make his family happy. There were some complications, however. Apparently the stuff was worth more than the money he had paid to get it moved. He found out that afternoon that his house was cleaned out and the movers had ditched the vans.

He felt like an idiot. He hadn't told his husband or daughters that their stuff was gone forever. He just couldn't do it. But he had been distracted all day. He had been fighting tears. What was Andre going to say?

After dinner, Andrew needed silence. He loved his kids, but he was about ready to cry. He gave Natasha the car keys that she wasn't supposed to have until after spring break and told the girls to go see a movie. Excitedly, they left.

Andrew stood on the balcony overlooking the front yard, just staring into space. He heard the car pulling in when Andre came home from work. And any other day, he would rush downstairs to kiss him and greet him. But not today. Today, he was too upset.

[Andre Simpson]

Andre pulled into the driveway. It was very rare that he ever made it home before dinner, or during it. It was pretty commonplace for him not to be there during dinner hours. And since he was hitting work again head-on, he had to leave behind the few days of sleep, online poker and simultaneous music listening and movie watching. It felt good to be back though. Even small vacations were hard for Andre to take without being drawn back into work. He couldn't relax for a long time. It just wasn't in him to do it. He gave time to himself now and again, and those moments were really his and far and few between. The rest of the free-time which was limited most of the time, was given to his family. He tried to spread it out evenly between job and home, but he couldn't accomplish it quite. He hadn't gotten home too late, and entered the house quietly. It was silent when he walked in, but as large as the place is, there could be things going on that he wouldn't necessarily hear from the entryway. "Anyone around?" He called out, and if anyone was, Natasha should be. After all, she wasn't supposed to be off anywhere. At the very least, he typically saw Andrew when he came home, but even he was MIA.

Finally, he walked up and towards the balcony where he noticed Andrew. Something was wrong. He knew it immediately. He didn't have to say a word and he knew it. His arms folded over his chest and he slowly approached from behind, perplexed by what could be going on. "What's wrong?" Andre didn't even beat around the bush, but he never did. Not unless he was trying to jump into an awkward conversation that he would much rather run away from. This wasn't one of those cases (thank god). He hated anything awkward and it usually just made him avoid-y.

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Andrew's hands gripped the rail on the balcony. He heard his husband's voice and his throat filled with a huge lump. He looked up at the night sky. He could feel the tears flooding the edges of his eyes. The tears that he had managed to fight off all day. What's wrong, he had asked. Andrew knew that he would never take nothing for an answer. It wasn't in Andrew's habit to lie, anyways.

He finally looked at him, and that is when he started crying, Slowly, he slid down to a sitting position against the balcony rail. Once the tears started, it was like the floodgates had been opened. He sobbed uncontrollably. He couldn't speak. If he said anything, Andre wouldn't be able to understand him. He dropped his arms at either side and closed his eyes. It had been a long time since he had cried like this. But Andrew wasn't a guy who thought he couldn't cry, either. He always expressed his emotions very openly. It was what taught Natasha that it was okay to be emotional.

[Andre Simpson]

Andre couldn't fathom what might have happened to cause that. He knew that he was upset; that much was obvious long before he even saw him. But when he him start to cry, his eyes narrowed more with confusion. Gently, he stepped closer and crouched down beside him, his hand going to his shoulder. "What's going on? Did something happen to the girls?" It was always his first worry when anything went wrong. Probably because his kids were usually on the forefront of his mind somewhere. He concerned himself an awful lot with their well-being and while they were both good kids, he always thought that something might happen to them. But, if that had been, he was sure Andrew would have contacted him. He might have been tough to get a hold of when he was at work, but it wasn't impossible and if the phone rang enough, he was bound to pick it up, assuming it was an emergency.

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Andrew shook his head slowly. No, the girls were fine. It was nothing to do with the girls. In fact, he still had to tell them too. He looked up into Andre's eyes and swallowed. "I-I'm sorry." That was all that he could say. How could he be so careless?

He knew that Andre was going to expect a reason for the apology. Bending his knees and resting his arms on them, he dug his head into his hands. "It's gone. All gone." Well, except for the little stuff they had brought with them, of course. He knew that Andre couldn't possibly know what it was. But he was too upset to muster up much more than he did.

[Andre Simpson]

Sorry? Sorry for what? Andre didn't look like the fog had cleared at all when he apologized. His eyes kept searching his face, as if it would give him some sign of what happened. But, it didn't. Nothing came. And if it wasn't the kids, then he couldn't think of anything that was worth that kind of hurt. Well, actually, he could. And he knew that his husband was more emotional than he was. Tears came rarely for Andre. And when he was upset, he had a tendency to shut himself off somewhere nice and dark where no one could get to him. And talking to him when he was piqued with that kind of emotion was usually a bad idea. He would grow silent, stoic and often times sarcastic and cynical towards the world. It was a complete turn from his normal personality. And there weren't too many that had the chance to witness it.

His explanation barely helped. What was gone? Putting both hands to his shoulders, he shook his head. "What's gone? What happened?" He knew it was hard to talk, but he wanted to know. For a detective, he was doing a terrible job at putitng together pieces of the puzzle. But, he'd give himself a break, because frankly, there weren't many pieces to put together so it wasn't like a complete puzzle. And, while he was brilliant in crime solving and getting into people's heads, there were moments in his personal life where he was absolutely oblivious. It was one of his quirks. And that mostly had to do with understanding what the people he cared about were feeling. It was easy to assume with people he didn't know, because there were few consequences. Something like this had consequences if he jumped the gun.

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"Everything." Andrew closed his eyes and bowed his head. He was trying to calm down, at least enough to tell him. He was acting like a child who didn't want to tell his parents something. He didn't want to disappoint Andre. But at this point, he had no choice. It wasn't like he could just buy everything they had owned and act like nothing was wrong. They had the money, yes. But Andrew had no way of knowing if he missed something.

Finally, when he was calm enough, he looked at his husband once more. "I-I hired Tony's cousin and his friends to bring everything out here." Tony had been his secretary. He was a good kid, but apparently his cousin wasn't. "I didn't do a background check. I trusted him and-" he broke off as tears came to his eyes again. He had managed to stop long enough to start to tell him, and now he started up again. Andrew covered his face with his hands as he cried once more.

[Andre Simpson]

Everything? It was hard to imagine that everything was gone. As far as Andre was concerned, everything they needed was right within reach. Of course, he had always had a certain ease when it came to getting over certain things. Sure, he loved the luxuries they had; there were times when he was nothing more than a big kid wanting to play with the latest toy. But, when it came down to it, he could have sufficed with very little. Listening to Andrew, he tried to get a picture of what happened, and although he didn't finish, he was able to conjure one up easily. Furrowing his brow, the detective frowned. There was always a risk when it came to relying on people. Frankly, Andre didn't trust a lot of random workers. He was sure that anyone would do what they could for a quick dollar. Moving from his place in front of him, Andre slid next to Andrew and pulled the other man into his arms from the side. "Hey, it's all right. It's just stuff... We can replace it." He insisted gently. He had every right to be upset. Even Andre was a little pissed that someone had the nerve, but he wasn't going to act on those emotions. He was more concerned about Andrew.

"Come on," he said gently, "I can track them down and shoot 'em if you want." It was a small attempt at a tease. Not that he wouldn't mind giving the thieves a scare, but that was a little impossible and wouldn't get anything accomplished. They had the money to replace what they had, and he was sure that the girls wouldn't be too heartbroken. They might be upset, but they had been living in Toronto without their things for a while, so he was sure it wouldn't be too traumatic. Besides, they were teenage girls and the idea of shopping for new things would probably take the pain away. If there was one thing he learned about raising teenage daughters was that malls cured quite a number of things.

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Andrew rested his head against his husband's chest. "I-I was in such a hurry." All he had wanted to do was be with Andre. It had been done very selfishly. And right now, he hated himself for it. "I'm so stupid" he whispered.

Andrew finally calmed down after a few minutes. He sat up again, wiping his eyes. But he didn't leave his husband's embrace. Instead, he sat back and looked in his eyes. His own were red from crying. "I'm sorry. Maybe if you had been there, this wouldn't have happened" and that was the cold, honest truth. Andre was smarter than him. He would have done his research.

[Andre Simpson]

"No, not stupid. I'm glad you hurried. I'd rather have you here than our things." And that was true. Andre wasn't exactly looking forward to spending that long of a time away from Andrew. He wanted him there as soon as possible, but knew he had to wait. And when he didn't have to, he was glad for it. Sure, he might have lost a huge expense, but at least he was there... And it wasn't as if they were hurting for cash. Oh no, not at all. He kept shaking his head, not believing him for a second. Of course, Andre was incredibly careful when it came to anything he owned, but it was to the point where he'd probably wind up unsatisfied and would try to do it all himself. He was the do-it-himself kind of guy.

"No, it'd have been messier. Half of our stuff would end up broken and scattered somewhere between California and the border, because I'd insist on doing it myself, and we both know where that ends up." He said gently, trying to make him feel a little better. He believed that could probably happen too. It wasn't that Andre was clumsy or unable to do something without messing it up. He could be very thorough and knew how to take care of things. But, there were times when he tried to take on more than humanly possible.

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Andrew listened to him and cracked a smile. "yeah..." He could only imagine Andre trying to move everything on his own. The thought of it made him chuckle. He looked at him again and kissed him. "You're not mad?" that was what he had been afraid of. He could handle the expenses. He just didn't want Andre angry with him.

Andrew had been ready to beg for forgiveness. There were some things that as the head, Andre's word was law. Andrew had accepted his husband's headship long ago. Of course, there were issues that Andrew would decide on without asking his husband. But most things, especially like this, it was Andre's reaction to that Andrew feared.