milliways_bar | (no subject)

Sam looked at him.

Then at the ground.

"Who'd like me?" Her voice sounded very small, and very timid. Very unlike Sam. She didn't look at him.

"Sam, you're...are you crazy? I mean...I sort of almost thought about it once or twice, but I just--I was kind of scared that you wouldn't like me back and that it would mess everything up, so I just tried not to think about it. I think that's why I'm so confused right now--because I sort just...tried not to think about it," he explained, pushing her hair out of her face.

"But that was all me, because...I guess I was kind of scared. That wasn't because of you.

Just like I told you those times before you're smart and funny and fun and a good friend--a great friend. You and Tucker do things that most best friends wouldn't do--that they'd be afraid to do. You go above and beyond the call of best-friendly duty.

And you're just...you're really pretty, Sam. And--and different. You're an individual and stuff and I like that about you--that you just...like what you like even if no one else likes it. I mean, even with the goth thing, you don't even do what most goths do--you're actually cheerful sometimes, for one thing, and that's makes you different from them, too."

She looked at him, dead quiet.

And then -- "When you -- drunk. Yeah." She looked down, then back up, and pressed her palm to his chest gently, feeling his steady heartbeat coming through.

"That," she told him, "is what makes you a hero. Okay? Not the powers or anything like that." She closed her eyes, then opened them. Finding her voice was a little hard. "You're... like -- Danny, you're one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Ever."

Danny shook his head. "Oh come one, no I'm noot," he protested.

"Yes," she said, and kissed him again to prove it. "You are."

That sort of made his heart go all funny and make it hard for him to breathe.

When she broke away, he said, "Yeah, well, uh, ditto. Seriously. Tuck, too, but if I didn't have you..."

"You'd've jumped off a building by now," Sam said, and, since her head was sort of getting tired, rested it on his collarbones and chest gently. "A really, really tall building."

Her head was all warm and stuff. He have rather had her hand there, though.

"So, um, are we dating now? Or something?"

She picked her head up to look at him. "I don't know. Are we?"

"You do realize you're asking that of the king of social ineptitude, right?" Danny asked, raising his eyebrows.

"You do realize that you're talking to the queen of it, right?" She grinned back.

Oh, she was going to have a hard time not grinning for a while.

Danny laughed. "Okay, so...so we're going out. Okay. Um, I can do that, I think."

"Oh, thanks." She raised an eyebrow. "That hard, huh?"

"No!" A pause, and then he reached back and rubbed at his neck. "...Yes. I don't want to mess this up."

Sam's look turned to one of annoyance. "Hey -- here's a thought. What if I screw it up before you do? Or -- heaven forbid -- we don't screw up anything at all?"

"...I'm being paranoid and overthinking everything again, aren't I."

"Yes." She raked her fingernails through his hair. "Honestly, I truly think that you should give up on thinking altogether."

"...Me am Danny. Oog, pretty girl."

"Not that much giving up on thinking." She grinned, and flicked his ear with two fingers. "I promise. Nothing bad will happen until it happens, and we can't really help it until then. So don't worry so much. Okay?"

"So...we're just going to...y'know, go with this," he said with a nod.

That meant he...he really needed to figure things out.

("You like her more than just friends?"

"Well...")

Yes.

When he saw her kissing Gregor, it hurt. And made him angry, so angry.

She was his. His friend, his...his Sam. Not Gregor's Sam. Not anybody else's Sam. His.

("Ugh! She tastes like geek!" "Ugh! He tastes like failure!")

It hadn't just been the spell. It hadn't...it was Dash of all people. DASH. With his stupid jock lips on hers.

("Sam...how could you...how...Hey--get away from her!"

"Danny...I'm so sorry..."

"You and Dash...but we were..." A sigh. "We weren't...were we."

"No. Ember did that. It's just that...this is so hard because part of me...part of me really liked this, and..."

"Ember..."

"Danny? Are you okay?"

"No. I feel like my heart's been ripped out. But I know who I can take it out on!")

Danny looked at her, his thumb rubbing against her cheek.

You moron. You're such a moron. You are clueless. All this time...

On the roof, when I was in the ecto-skeleton, she was going to tell me, and she said she liked Ember's spell, and she's always been there for me, and even when Freak Show had me under his control, I couldn't hurt her, I just couldn't, I can't...

Wow. Just...wow.

It all kind of makes sense...

"Danny?" Her cheeks weren't flushed anymore, but she had the good, quiet feeling in her belly that usually came along with being blissfully happy. Unfortunately... that didn't happen to Sam very often. "You've got that thinking look on your face. The good one, I mean, I think. What's up?"

She was on top of him still. He liked that, but he wanted--he wanted...

Danny wanted to fly. He felt like flying.

So he did.

He couldn't fly very fast as a human, but he could hover.

So...he picked her up and flew, arms around her waist.

This was surprising.

"Whoaaaaa..." Okay, the ground was no longer beneath them. She got the feeling in her spine of being about to fall, but squelched it.

They were...

They were flying. He was taking her flying.

"Wow," she whispered.

"Yeah, um," he muttered sheepishly. "I kind of...felt like it."

"Wow," Sam said again. His arms were around her waist. She rested her hands over his gently. "This... wow, Danny." Her voice was filled to the brim with wonder and... she was just so grateful. "Thank you."