They have been married for almost a year now; eleven months and fifteen days. Him and Mr Graves – Credence still has trouble calling his husband by his given first name, Percival just sounds so... wrong, in a way he can't really describe – live together in a small house in wizarding New York. There's a difference between wizarding New York and no-maj New York, Credence has learned. In the magical world everything is different to what he grew up with. Graves keep arguing that it's better, less weird, but then again he grew up around magic; it's not wonderful and weird and frightening and fantastic to him in the way it is to Credence. Graves, on the other hand, is fascinated by trains and cars and the postal system and other things Credence considers awfully normal.
Graves spends a lot of time at work. The man is a right workaholic, but Credence doesn't mind. After living his whole life in a church supposedly bigger than most homes, but without a shred of privacy, Credence doesn't actually mind being home alone, as long as he knows Graves will make it home in time for dinner.
Most of the time, the man arrives in the nick of time, but he always keeps his promise; he's home in time for dinner and he doesn't (almost always) bring his work home with him. What happened during his day of work is left at the door, just as Credence wants it.
Graves goes to work, comes home, avoids work functions. Rinse and repeat. Credence on the other hand, stays home, sometimes meets with Queenie Goldstein for lunch, practices his magic and reads. Oh, does he read.
As a wedding gift, Newt Scamander gave Credence and Graves a sort of gift card to Flourish and Blotts, a wizarding bookstore in Britain. Once a month they can mail a list of books they want to read (by owl!) to the shop, who then sends back those books (by owl!), both wizarding kind and no-maj books. There's no shortage of books, really.
Credence takes great pleasure in reading things he knows Mary Lou would have greatly disapproved off.
Pride and Prejudice became a favorite fast, because although Graves hotly denies it, Credence can sense a resemblance between his husband and Mr Darcy. It's the pride thing. It's his favorite thing to tease Graves about.
He makes sure to spend a couple of hours each day reading his magic books; the school books. The ones meant to help him master the storm that is raging inside him.
He reads a Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, The Book of Charms and Spells, and studies The Standard Book of Spells series religiously. He practices with the wand Graves bought him, making feathers fly and tries turning his teapot into different animals (though not always with success. Graves had to help him turn it back into a teapot after it became a very fast mouse with the teapot handle still very much a teapot handle on its back).
Queenie often asks, or more often, reads his thoughts and then asks, if he ever feels lonely in the house while Mr Graves is at work. Credence tells her, no, he honestly doesn't. He loves having his own schedule, getting to do what he wants; knowing that he can do whatever he wants and there won't be an interrogation ending in pain once he gets home. He knows Graves trusts him, just as he trusts the man with his life.
That being said, he does spend a lot of time at home, in their living room or the kitchen. Credence can't cook, exactly, that was always on Chastity's and Modesty's list of chores, but he can read well enough to follow a recipe, which is more than Graves. The man can read all right; he has a mind that leaves Credence in awe more often than not, but he has no patience for cooking, preferring to do it the magical way. Credence loves magic, but he wants to eat things he knows where they came from, which usually ends with him making dinner. It might not taste all that good, but at least he knows what's in the stew.
At the beginning of the marriage, Queenie dragged Credence and Graves along with her to different shops, claiming that they had to decorate their house. It's another thing Graves has more or less left entirely up to Credence. He is free to choose almost whatever he wants to decorate their house with (with the exception of that one dresser that Credence loved but Graves hated), which now means that their house is full of soft and warm things. Pillows, blankets, coats draped across chairs, everything Mary Lou never allowed in her home, because apparently it built character to freeze half to death during the winter months.
Before dinner, Graves changes into more comfortable clothes (it's just another dress shirt, but Credence isn't going to argue with that). After dinner he does the dishes whilst Credence does his self imposed homework at the kitchen table. Washing the dishes is one of the few things Graves actually does the no-maj way. After the dishes and homework are done, they move to the living room. There they settle down on the sofa, read for a bit, Credence whatever book he's currently immersed in, Graves the newspapers they are subscribed to (both magical and non-magical ones).
After another couple of hours, it's finally time for bed.
Their bed is Credence's favorite thing, not only because it's the place he spends most time in, most often with Graves nearby, but also because he knows that he can crawl under the covers after yet another day of practicing spells, of getting to know the thing inside of him, of making dinner for when Graves gets home, being clean and warm and loved. And he gets to watch his husband get ready for bed, and there's nothing Credence enjoys more about his new life than that.
Graves has a routine for getting ready for bed. It's one he's had for years, so while Credence brushes his teeth, washes his face and gets ready for bed in a couple of minutes, Graves likes to take his time.
He begins with brushing his teeth, carefully, carefully. He then washes his face, sometimes bathes if he has had a particularly difficult day at work. Then he moves into the bedroom, where Credence is already laying in bed, snuggled up in the warmth. It's one of Graves' favorite sights in the world, he's decided.
So, anyway. After returning to the bedroom, he undresses, which is the part that takes most time, because he has to do it in a particular order. First, his socks. Then dress shirt, and trousers, both folded into perfectly immaculate squares, no creases. After that, it's undershirt and underwear (sometimes, if he knows that's where his night is going. Otherwise he keeps the underwear on, to make sure Credence knows nothing is being asked of him. Credence, Graves realized quickly, needed that sort of assurance to be comfortable with sharing a bed).
After making sure, once again, that there are no creases on any of his folded clothes, he shrugs on his night shirt and climbs into bed, settling down next to his husband. He places his wand underneath his pillow, to have it close by, and makes sure Credence has done the same. Their house is now warded with even more protective, powerful wards than ever, but Graves takes no chances. Especially not when there's a very powerful, valuable obscurus sleeping beside him.
After that, they usually read separately for a while, or Credence reads his favorite parts of whatever book he's reading right at that moment out loud to Graves, before shutting of the lights and cuddling up together in the softest, warmest bed Credence has ever known.
It's a circle Credence doesn't mind repeating at all.