Work Text:
There was something special about Daniel.
Okay, scratch that. There were a lot of special things about Daniel.
For one, he rarely texted, even though he and Chris both had phones. Instead, he usually just showed up—sometimes through the door, sometimes outside the window.
Tonight it was the latter, his arrival announced by the sounds of pine cones rapping against the glass. (He’d had to tell Daniel off for throwing rocks before, and since then he’d avoided anything that could break the window and/or alert Chris’s dad.)
Chris smiled to himself, finishing what he was doing on his drawing before getting up. His door was closed, but he glanced behind him anyway before he opened up the window. Not to his surprise, Daniel was standing a few feet away, pine cones hovering in front of him.
“Hey there, Romeo,” Chris teased. “You really do insist on getting my attention in the most dramatic way possible, huh?”
Daniel chuckled. “You always smile when I do. And it works, doesn’t it?” He walked over, pine cones dropping to the ground, and leaned his arms against the windowsill.
“Only because you’re too insistent to ignore.” Strong words for a boy who basically thought about Daniel 24/7. Chris grabbed his hand, nudging his forehead against Daniel’s shyly. “For the record, though, you’re not the best at being subtle.”
“Oh, I’m not the best at being subtle?” Daniel pulled away to cross his arms.
Uh oh. “Come on, not this again.”
“Because I seem to remember you being pretty obvious like a week ago.”
“It was two weeks ago, actually.” Chris looked away, shaking his head. “And for the record, she was flirting with you.”
“She asked to see a movie!”
“That is a date, Danny!” His boyfriend could be so clueless sometimes.
“Oh, whatever.” Daniel laughed. “You didn’t have to drag me away like that.”
“And what, just let her bring your oblivious ass to the movies so she could kiss you?”
“You might as well have kissed me yourself! It would have been less suspicious!”
Listen, Chris was fairly passive. He didn’t actually have the courage to tell a girl who didn’t even know he and Daniel were dating to fuck off.
But. Maybe Chris did grab his arm and chime in about, “Oh, sorry, he can’t; we’re actually doing stuff that day.” And maybe he said the same thing again when she tried to change the date, so that she would get the point.
She definitely got the point.
He shrugged, unconcerned and a little petty. “I wanted her to know she doesn’t have a chance with you.” He smirked a bit.
“Damn, heartless,” Daniel teased.
Chris chuckled and reached out to grab Daniel’s arm, pulling him closer. “So are you gonna come in?”
“Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to come out here.” Daniel glanced back. “We could hang out in your tree house.”
His tree house? The one made to fit a ten year old? “Are you nuts? That thing is probably a safety hazard by this point.”
“Psh, that thing’s been a safety hazard. And if you fall, I’ll be ready to save you again.” Daniel smiled, his stupid, dangerous, charismatic smile. It was like he knew exactly how to make Chris’s heart go wild.
“Fine,” he agreed, against his better judgment. He found himself agreeing with Daniel’s impulsive, poorly-planned ideas way too often.
He glanced back and went to grab his jacket. (It was actually Daniel’s jacket; Chris stole it because yeah, he was that kinda boyfriend.) Once he has it on, he slid out the window quietly, joining Daniel in the back yard.
“You seriously better not let me fall and break my neck trying to get up there,” Chris said as they walked toward the tree house.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Chris glanced over. “And you better not get hurt either.”
Daniel had a tendency to be a little reckless, which was just a bit hard on his nervous, protective boyfriend.
“I’ll do my best,” he promised.
They stopped as they got there, Chris examining the steps as well as he could with the sun already gone. The wood looked older now. Not to mention Chris was bigger—would it really still be able to hold his weight? He tugged at a few of the steps. They seemed more secure than they looked, at least.
Why do I go through with these things?
“Alright, well, here I go.” He grabbed onto the steps, starting to climb.
Daniel stepped back a bit. “Cool. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine! I’m watching you.”
“I bet you are, perv.”
“Hey!” He laughed. “Not like that... but now that you mention it...”
Chris chuckled and pulled himself up to the top, peering over the edge. “Seems stable enough. Just be careful.”
Daniel winked. “I’m always careful.”
Yeah, right.
Chris kept an eye on him as he climbed, basically holding his breath. In the event that Daniel did fall, there wasn’t actually much Chris could do from up here. But he was ready nonetheless.
“See? No problem.” Daniel dragged himself in, the string of flags brushing the top of his head as he scooted inside. “Shit. This place definitely felt bigger when we were kids,” he said.
Chris nodded. This place was basically overflowing with memories. Some alone, a lot with Daniel. He glanced back at Daniel as one struck him.
“Remember when you used to fly me around up here when my dad wasn’t home?” Chris asked.
He could still remember holding his arms out laughing with Daniel as he hovered around the tree house, cape flapping around behind him. The distance from there to the ground used to seem lethal. Looking at it now, it wasn’t so scary.
Daniel lit up. “Oh yeah! Remember when you’d always get scared that I’d drop you?” He nudged Chris playfully.
Chris scoffed, nudging him back. “Remember when you pretended you were going to?”
“Haha, okay, okay. Fair point.” Daniel leaned back against part of the tree. “We should do that again.” His raised his eyebrows mischievously.
“Absolutely not.”
“Yeah, fair enough.”
Chris let out a little gasp as he was dragged over next to Daniel—magically, of course. “Shit, Danny, thanks for the warning,” he scowled.
Looking happy with himself, Daniel wrapped an arm around him. “Nice of you to join me.”
“Dick,” Chris mumbled, resting his head against Daniel’s shoulder.
Try as he might to be annoyed by Daniel, Chris was absolutely swooning. Even now he couldn’t help grinning to himself, thrilled that Daniel actually liked him back. Powers aside, Daniel was still charming and insanely likable. It was just crazy, because he could probably be dating anyone he wanted, and he was here with Chris.
They were still getting used to it, obviously. The transition from best friends to boyfriends. They still probably called each other “dude” and “bro” way more than most couples. They almost definitely made fun of each other more. But they would adjust.
He realized, emerging from his thoughts, that neither of them had spoken for a minute or two. He headbutted Daniel lightly. “Say something already.”
“Huh? Hey, why me?” Daniel said, eyebrows raised.
“Because you’re the extrovert and I’m nervous,” he giggled.
Daniel let out a chuckle. “Fine, fine. Then I’ll talk.” He let his free hand find Chris’s, meeting his eyes when he finally looked up again. “I really like you,” he said softly.
Wow. Chris bit his lip and tried not to bounce around with glee. “I like you too.”
A few years ago, something like this would have blown his mind. Who would have ever guessed that he would date Daniel?
Daniel stared at him for a few more moments, his gaze making Chris's chest feel all fluttery. Finally he glanced up, looking at one of the other parts of the tree that came up through the tree house.
“Hey, I have an idea.” He shifted around and floated his keys out of his pocket, hovering them in front of the tree. “Can I vandalize your tree house a bit?” he asked, looking at Chris.
“If you draw a dick, I’m breaking up with you,” Chris said.
He laughed. “I’m not, I swear.”
“Fine, go ahead.”
Beaming, Daniel started carving into the wood—albeit somewhat sloppily. He looked more concentrated that usual, which was cute. He'd mentioned that writing with his powers was a lot harder than just picking stuff up, but it was legible, anyway. Chris watched as he wrote out “D+C” on the tree, then drew a heart around it.
It was insanely cliche.
“You’re ridiculous,” Chris laughed. “I love it.”
Daniel grinned at him. “Good.”
They stayed like that for a while, just chilling and looking at each other lovingly. There were a lot of moments when it felt like they might (finally) kiss. And Chris did really wanna kiss him, but he wasn't quite sure he was ready to make the first move.
He’d get around to it at some point. Probably.
“We should get back soon,” he murmured, getting comfortable against Daniel.
“You think?”
“Probably,” he yawned. “You could stay the night. Your grandparents have church tomorrow, right? They won’t notice.”
Daniel nodded a bit. “What about your dad?”
Chris shrugged. “He sleeps in pretty late. Especially when he’s been drinking.”
“Oh.”
Whoops. Maybe he should have left that part out. Daniel had a tendency to worry. “He’s been cool. I just leave him alone when he gets like that, and it usually works out.” Chris rubbed his arm. “But if you’re worried about it, we can sleep at your place.”
“Yeah, we should do that.”
Chris pulled away, colder without Daniel’s body heat to warm him. They made their way back down, all the houses around them totally quiet. It was peaceful.
Well, peaceful until Daniel jumped down from, like, the third step from the top and nearly gave Chris a heart attack.
“Show off,” Chris said, rolling his eyes.
He opened his mouth to say ‘I love you,’ and then closed it before he did. Somehow it felt like it might be too soon, like if he said it now, Daniel might not say it back.
Sort of irrational, all things considered.
Daniel grinned. “Just trying to impress you.”
“It’s not working.” It was so totally working. “Come on.”
“After you,” Daniel invited.
Chris glanced back at his room through the open window. His dad wouldn't notice, surely. If he did, he would probably just yell when Chris got home, so it wouldn't be that bad.
“Hello? You still with me, Chris?” Daniel asked, nudging him out of his thoughts.
“Oh, yeah. My bad.”
Whatever happened, he felt safe with Daniel.
“You ready?” Daniel smiled and grabbed his hand.
Chris nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”