Work Text:
Dubai, October 2022
Daniel was alone in the movie room, watching TV. Actual, old-fashioned TV, with commercial breaks and everything. He enjoyed a good commercial break every once in a while. There was a certain nostalgia to having to sit and wait for your show to come back on.
Daniel wasn't completely sure what the ad that was currently playing was trying to sell him – either a car or a credit card – but it involved some people looking very much in love while You to Me Are Everything by The Real Thing played over their muted conversation.
Talk about nostalgia.
It took Daniel straight back to 1979, to the roller disco, the same song playing while Daniel genuinely feared for his life.
“Seriously, Armand, I’m going to fall on my face,” Daniel ground out. He couldn’t quite keep the panic from his voice.
Roller discos weren’t his scene, they really weren’t, but there was no denying Armand, and Armand had wanted to try it out.
“You are not,” Armand insisted. He held one of Daniel’s hands while Daniel used his other arm to try and keep his balance. Daniel was very aware of the fact that he looked like a complete idiot.
“You do not,” Armand told him, his voice somehow gentle and stern at the same time.
“Well, you give it a minute.” Because Daniel was going to fall on his face and break his nose and people would run over him and the headline would say, ‘Idiot dies at 26 in freak roller skating accident’.
Armand chuckled. Of course he’d taken to this thing like a duck to water. He’d already gone several laps around the rink before he came back to collect Daniel, who had very obviously been stalling on joining the fray.
Armand allowed Daniel exactly half a wobbly practice lap around the edge of the rink before pulling him into the crowd by his increasingly sweaty hand.
“No no no, Armand.”
“You’re doing fine. You’ll be fine.”
He wasn’t and he wouldn’t be, because they were going in the fucking wrong direction.
About sixty people were all doing their thing counterclockwise and Armand and Daniel were not.
“We’re supposed to go with the flow,” Daniel told Armand, both his panic and his annoyance at Armand rising.
“I’m flowing just fine, thank you very much,” Armand replied loftily, and in hindsight he’d been right; people were moving around them very smoothly, like they didn’t notice them at all. But in the moment, Daniel had not been in the right state of mind to notice that.
“Babe, seriously, we’re going to cause an accident. Or a fight.”
Daniel still felt too wobbly to make his way out of the crowd on his own. Everyone was moving so fast and the lights from the disco ball overhead were pretty disorienting. He felt trapped, and he clung onto Armand’s hand like a lifeline even though Armand was the one who’d gotten him into this mess.
“Daniel, relaaax,” Armand sang at him. Armand loved saying ‘relax’, it was his current favorite word. Saying it made him feel ‘hip’ and modern.
Daniel didn’t care how hip and modern Armand thought he was, Daniel definitely wasn’t relaxed. He was very fucking unrelaxed!
Jesus Christ, this was not how Daniel wanted to die.
“Babe.”
Armand sighed. Daniel couldn’t hear it over the music, but he could see it, because Armand made a big dramatic show of it. “Fine,” the vampire told him like Daniel was being an unreasonable party pooper.
Instead of turning them around, Armand’s face went blank for a second. Then everyone around them turned as one, like they’d been choreographed to do so. Which Daniel supposed they had.
It was creepy. And honestly pretty hot that Armand was that powerful, even if he was using his powers for nonsense like this.
Armand looked at Daniel and wriggled his eyebrows. Daniel rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t stop himself from laughing. It was probably because he felt so relieved; he could finally breathe again.
They moved along with the crowd for a couple of minutes, still holding hands.
Present-day Daniel was vaguely aware of the fact that he must be misremembering when exactly You to Me Are Everything had played during that night, because it was still playing and he knew that the song wasn’t actually that long. But it was fine. He liked this song, liked this memory.
And he really would’ve taken the stars out of the sky for Armand back then, if he could. Actually, forget the stars, Daniel would’ve taken on the sun itself if it meant he’d be able to spend the days with Armand as well as the nights.
Armand smiled at him and Daniel smiled back. This was nice.
Then Armand lifted their hands and twirled Daniel under his arm. But only halfway. And now they were going against the flow again.
Daniel gave Armand a look. “You’re terrible.”
“Am I now?”
“Yeah. Absolutely terrible.”
Armand beamed at him. Daniel shook his head, smiling, as always accepting Armand’s bullshit, and loving him for it.
“You’re actually rather good,” Armand said. He nodded down at Daniel’s feet.
“Huh,” Daniel said, realizing that he wasn’t actually that afraid he would fall anymore. He looked at his feet, too, and promptly tripped. Armand caught him.
In 2022, Armand opened the door to the movie room, ending Daniel’s trip down memory lane.
“I didn’t think you remembered that night,” Armand said as he folded himself into a pretzel on the seat next to Daniel.
“I didn’t think you were supposed to root around in my head without permission,” Daniel replied dryly.
Armand smiled at him. “You were thinking very loudly, my love.”
“You know, one day I’m going to stop accepting that very flimsy excuse.”
Armand hummed and rested his head against Daniel’s shoulder. “Would you like to go roller skating again sometime?”
Daniel put his arm on the back of the loveseat, behind Armand. “So I can fall on my ass and break every bone in my geriatric body? No, thank you.”
“You’d fall on your ass?” Armand asked, like that surprised him.
“Well, duh.” (Daniel could be pretend hip and modern, too.)
“Not your face?”
“No, falling on your face is very pre-pandemic. Falling on your ass is where it’s at these days.”
“I see. Thank you for informing me.”
“No problem.”
Armand looked up at Daniel, his face serious. “I would catch you.”
“I know.”
“Because you to me are everything.”
Daniel snorted. “You’re such a fucking corn ball. But, you know…” He rubbed his thumb along Armand’s cheek. “Ditto.”
Armand smiled at him and kissed him, then put his head down on Daniel’s shoulder again.
“You know, there’s a roller rink in Port Rash – ”
"Baby, no."