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He was so busy with school and lacrosse that the invasion of red and pink hearts into the school Monday morning caught him by surprise. A banner for the Valentine's semi-formal was spread across the main hallway of school. Decorations on classrooms and throughout the administration office. The pep squad had a table by the entrance to school where they were raising money by delivering cards, roses, candy, and balloons for Valentines Day. He wanted to think it was stupid, but really it just made him feel lonely. Danny had never had a boyfriend on Valentines Day.
He'd had boyfriends since junior high, just none of them seemed to happen on Valentine's day. He wished for once he would have somebody to send him a card or a flower and just as much, someone he could send one to. He usually got a few from friends and the girls crushing on the non-threatening gay guy, but in a way they made him feel worse. Didn't he deserve the love of a guy who he could love back? Would he ever have a man to make romantic gestures toward him?
He inhaled deeply and put a smile on his face. He was happy Danny, always smiling. People like to be around happy people. The more his heart clenched, the bigger he smiled. Today he put on a really big smile. He had ten more days until Valentine's Day. Ten more days of this and his face might actually break.
Last period comes around and members of pep squad arrive with cards, flowers, and a balloon. They start calling out names and handing out gifts. They call his name. Three cards and the balloon are his, the most of anyone. The guys razz him. He takes the cards and the ribbing and heads back to his desk. The balloon is from Janelle, one of the cheerleaders he knows. "To my fave shopping partner. Love ya!" He hates the idea of carrying the balloon around, he wishes he could pop it or at least let the air out, but if Janelle saw that she'd be crushed. He would seriously turn into the Grinch that Stole Valentine's Day if that happened. He'll have to take it to his car before practice, he won't be able to tolerate the teasing he'll get if he takes it into the locker room.
The first two cards were from girls, one from a pal and another that read 'if you weren't gay...' He wants to crumple it, but waits. The third card is different. The handwriting is not bubbly and girly. It's more masculine and angular and the message is definitely different. It reads: 'I see your face fall when you think no one's looking. I wish I could put a smile on your face.' The note throws him a bit. Someone sees that? He didn't think anyone noticed. Some girls have bad handwriting, but Danny got the distinct feeling that this note was from a guy. Was there really a guy at school that watched him that closely? As he walked through the hallways to his car after class, he scanned the crowd to see if he could catch someone watching him, but no one seemed to hold his gaze. Who could the mystery person be?
The second day of gifts came and this time he got a red rose. The note just said 'You have the most beautiful eyes' in that same scrawled handwriting. The note from the third day's rose said 'I never noticed dimples before yours.' The fourth day's rose said 'If you were my guy I would do everything I could to make you smile.' The fifth day's said 'If I was your guy, I would hold you in my arms and never want to let go.'
'If I was your guy' confirmed his suspicion that his secret admirer was definitely a guy. The suspense was starting to get to him. He tried to run through lists of every guy in school in his mind. Maybe this weekend he could write a program that would collate all of the data? Jackson would definitely give him crap for that one. After class he saw one of the guys from the pep squad in the hall and stopped him.
"Hey Lance, I've been getting these roses and the guy doesn't sign his name. Do you know who is sending these?"
Lance's eyes grew wide with excitement. "We have no idea. Sometimes the notes and money appear in April's locker and sometimes they just appear at our table. It's been driving us crazy! You have any idea?"
Danny shook his head. He didn't have any leads at all. Someone was putting a lot of effort into sending him these flowers and remaining anonymous. The amount of effort this guy was putting forth was a little impressive. At their post-school/pre-game food binge, his distraction was getting noticed by Jackson, who preferred to be the center of attention.
"Are you even listening to me?
"Yeah, of course." Danny had let his fries get cold and he hated cold fries. He usually ate them first.
"What was I just talking about?"
Danny winced. "Uh...your Porche?"
Jackson gave him his trademark scowl. "What has you so distracted?"
Danny told him about the gifts and notes and as expected Jackson just rolled his eyes. "So now you've got a crush on a guy you don't even know because he sends you flowers? This is worse than your junior high Internet date."
Danny wanted to protest, but he knew the best move was to let Jackson have his dig at him and let the subject drop. The junior high date had been Danny's first. He ended up being an older guy who had used his pictures from his teens. Jackson had played wingman and pulled him out of there before the guy could make excuses. After that Danny required all the guys he met online to video chat with him before they met.
They met the team bus and rode it to the away game. He tried to stay focused, but at least one ball got past him because he was thinking of his mystery man. Jackson chastised him repeatedly with "Head in the game Danny! Head in the game!" Jackson and Scott McCall did most of the scoring, with Isaac Lahey really starting to become a strong player with a lot of assists. He didn't feel like going to the victory party afterward so when they got back to school he went straight home. Lying in bed, he hugged his pillow and tried to imagine what his mystery guy might look like. He could be ugly or creepy, but Danny wanted to imagine this guy to be cute, or at least average. He was a little taller as Danny imagined the guy's arms around him like he'd written in his note.
On Saturday he put all of the flowers and notes together, reading them all. He pulled out last year's yearbook and tried to make sense of it all. He thought of all of the interactions he'd had with guys at school. Guy's who jokingly flirted with him, guys who he thought might not be completely joking, and guys who he'd let experiment with him sexually when he was feeling particularly lonely. He began to doubt it was any of those guys. Why wouldn't they just approach him again? It felt as though maybe it was someone he hadn't been approached by in the past.
He then thought about Stiles. Stiles had once asked Danny if he thought he was attractive. And he and McCall had been at the Jungle that night he was drugged. Could Stiles be his mystery guy? Stiles was cute in a boyish way, not like the more handsome manly types he usually found himself attracted to. Instead of being smooth and self-assured, he's awkward and goofy, but maybe...that was alright. He'd struck out time and again with the confident swaggering guys, the ones always looking for the next conquest. Maybe what he needed was a guy with less game and more focus on him? But...he and Stiles Stilinski? Weirder things happen in this town.
On Monday morning he interrogated April at the pep squad table, but she had no more information than Lance had given him on Friday. The whole table was abuzz about his secret admirer and that afternoon when he received two roses in class the pep squad announced that they were from his mystery man. The whole room filled with cheers and laughter. Embarrassed, he slunk back to his desk. When he read the notes one said 'I hope it wasn't me causing you to be so distracted at the game" and the other said 'I love to watch you move on the field'.
That sounded like it was someone who was at the game. Someone in the stands or someone on the team? There weren't a lot of people who went to away games so that narrowed down the number of people. The evidence was starting to support his Stiles theory. It seemed a bit crazy, but out of all of the options it made the most sense. He approached Stiles after practice. "Hey Stiles..."
"Hey!" Stiles spun around knocking both his and Scott's gear to the ground. He ran his fingers through his hair as if he'd meant to do all that. "Wassup Danny?"
"Did you..." He didn't want to sound crazy. "Have you been...sending me things?"
"No. Wait...what kind of things?"
"Nothing...it's nothing."
If it was Stiles then he was a better liar that Danny thought him capable of. He hit the showers and headed to his car. When he threw his backpack in the passenger seat of his car, a note poked out from one of the pockets. All the note said was: 'It's not Stiles.'
It wasn't Stiles, but he had gone straight from the locker room to his car and passed no one, so he knew it was someone on the team. That narrowed it down to twenty guys on first and second string. It wasn't Stiles and it wasn't Jackson because even if he was suddenly interested in him, Jackson would not put this much effort into it. As far as he could tell all of the guys on the team were straight. Except Avery and he wasn't the type to send sweet secret messages, he sent drunken texts at 1am that Danny now routinely ignored. He wanted to just tell Avery that after the first few times it's not really "experimenting" anymore.
The next day he got two roses, one said 'I hope you don't think the note in your backpack was creepy. I don't want you think I'm creepy.' and the other said 'Stiles has eyes for someone else, while I only have eyes for you.' This made Danny smile. He whispered to himself "I don't think you're creepy." Valentine's was in two more days and he wondered if his mystery man would ever reveal himself. He felt his heart completely invested in his mystery man. It seemed stupid to feel this way over some notes and flowers, but what if he never found out?
At practice he studied every guy on the team, trying to pick up on any little nuance in their behavior toward him, any lingering glances or postures toward him. Could it be McCall? He had really blossomed into a good looking guy, but he still seemed to be focused on Allison despite their breakup. Avery gave him a sideways glance and a smile as he adjusted his package, not exactly the romantic type that sends flowers. Oh god, Greenberg? That would be seriously messed up.
The next day two more roses and two more messages. They notes said "Would you hold my hand during a movie?" and "I'm afraid you won't like me the way I like you." By now it seems that everyone in school knows about his secret admirer and some of the guys from the team keep trying to steal the notes to read them. At practice he was so out of it that the coach benched him and put in the second string goalie in. That was fine by Danny, because it gave him time to study the rest of the team, not that time helped him figure out who it was.
Valentine's Day arrives and the last of the gifts are distributed by the pep squad. The notes from last two roses read "Are you going to the dance?" and "Would you dance with me under the moonlight?" Danny wasn't planning on going to the dance, but now he can't think of doing anything but. How does he let his mystery man know? It hits him while the coach is chewing them out before the last practice of the week. He knows the guy is on the team and the team is all assembled. After the coach finishes his last rant, Danny stands up on the bench. Everyone's eyes are on him.
"What. Are. You. Doing?" asks Jackson through gritted teeth. Danny takes a deep breath and dives in.
"The answers are yes and yes."
The team bursts into laughter and Danny realizes how this must look. He's redfaced, but sure that he got his message across. The coach pulls him down.
"You're not going crazy now are you Danny? I count on you to be my sane one. The one I can rely on to be reasonable when the rest of these goons become idiots. It hasn't been too much pressure has it? Have all of my expectations made you crack? I need you to not be crazy."
Danny assured the coach he was fine and did his best to prove it during practice. Jackson made sure to tell him that he was being a "psycho". He wondered how his mystery guy would approach him at the dance, but there was a note waiting for him in his gear after he got back from the showers. '10pm. Science wing courtyard.'
The Valentine's dance was held the day after Valentine's Day because it was a Friday and the lacrosse team had an away game the previous Friday. Lahey was shining with the assists and even made a goal himself. Jackson seemed to be fighting with Scott McCall again and the coach had to knock their helmets together a few times in order to get them to cooperate. Danny did what he could to keep the other team from scoring and McCall made a last minute score to break the tie and win the game.
Danny took his time getting ready, making sure his hair and suit were perfect. By the time he finished, the rest of the team had already made it to the dance. He arrived, shook hands and exchanged hugs with people. He began to doubt if his guy was going to show. What if it was just an elaborate prank? Maybe he would go psycho then. He watched couples dancing and sneaking off to corners to make out. Some of the girls pulled him out to the dance floor, but his heart wasn't in it.
At 9:50pm Danny slipped out of the dance and made his way out to the science wing courtyard. The air was a bit cold and it was fairly dark, but he could still see the lights from the gym and hear the music. The fountain was off and the water in it was still. He worried that his early arrival might scare off his mystery man, but he didn't want to chance missing him. He found himself looking down at his shoes for just a moment when the moon came out from behind the clouds and filled the courtyard with light. He looked up and someone was standing there. He couldn't make out his face because the moonlight cast him in silhouette, but he seemed a bit taller than Danny and his hair was short and curly.
"I didn't think you'd come."
"Of course," said Danny. "I said I would."
"I'm glad. I'm sorry for all this...mystery. I'm not ready to be, ya know, public."
The figure stepped toward him and the moonlight reflected off of the windows and the fountain illuminated his face.
"Lahey? Isaac?"
"Disappointed? You were hoping for someone else?"
"No, not at all. I'm glad. Really glad." He smiled. Why didn't he think of Isaac Lahey? "I'm just glad it's not Greenberg." They both laugh. "I'm not disappointed at all."
Isaac smiled and Danny felt any tightness in his chest melt like chocolate in a warm hand. Isaac pulled four roses from behind his back and handed them to Danny. "Four?" asks Danny. "An even dozen," says Isaac. Danny took the roses in one hand and reaches the other up and places it on Isaac's chest. He just wanted to touch him to make sure he was real. Isaac put his hand over Danny's and their fingers intertwined. Electric. He felt both relaxed and excited.
"This is really..." Isaac trailed off. His face flushed pink.
"Nice," says Danny. "Great actually."
Isaac's eyes locked on his and they hold there for a long time without saying anything. The music from the gym shifts gears to a slow song. The smile on Isaac's face grew to fill it.
"Can I have this dance?"
Danny moved into Isaac's body, who put his other hand on Danny's waist. His cheek brushed Isaac's and he felt his skin tingle at the touch. He rested his head on Isaac's shoulder and they began to sway. Danny finds himself smiling uncontrollably, not to hide the clenching in his heart, but because it was overflowing.
"You want me to lead?" whispered Isaac in his ear.
"This time."