Chapter Text
Daniel lived a boring life, it was one like no other, he was just there. He went to work and came back home, repeat. There was nothing special, he meant it, he had no family to come home to, only his cats which he loved a lot but they were no human. He had lost connection with his family ever since he had said that maybe he didn’t like girls. He hadn’t thought his family to be homophobic or anything like that but his life always seemed to amaze him.
He was lucky they didn’t do anything bad to him like trying to kill him or hurt him in any physical way. But what they did do was disown him and kick him out of the house at the ripe age of 16. Well, they didn’t do that immediately, his family tolerated him for a few months but at the cost of hearing them whisper about him and call him slurs. If he had to say anything about it, he would say it was better being disowned than having your heart crushed each time you heard your loved ones talk bad about you.
He would say that those days were one of the hardest moments of his life, he was homeless and lived under bridges. He had to move places a lot, he couldn’t stay in one place for more than a week. Then it was even harder to find a job, no one wanted to accept him for whatever reason he didn’t bother to remember. But that was all in the past, so why not leave everything that happened in the past in the past.
But anyway after finding stability he moved to Canada leaving everything bad that happened in the United Kingdom. He started a whole new life in Canada, rebuilding everything he had, making sure what was done in the UK stayed there. He didn’t have the time to bother with those bad memories. They were better off dead but you know life, nothing ever stays dead, there will always be a day that those old wounds you’ve stitched one too many times will reopen.
But back to his current life, he worked in a general type of office, sorting emails and stuff like that. His life wasn’t much of fun and games, instead his days were filled with drinking black coffee, filling out papers and staring at computers with a shrimp posture. Sure he had friends and he loved them a lot but they were all a bunch of extroverts that liked to talk for hours and go to events. He wasn’t much of that, he got shy way too quickly, he would stammer and looked like a pathetic child asking their parents for sweets when they know that they would say no. But other than that his life was pretty normal, nothing ever really happened to him at all.
Well that was until wednesday…
It started as a normal day, he had his black coffee and worked on his usual email sorting and paperwork. That’s how most of the early morning went. Soon he had his lunch, he had it with one of his friends who wouldn’t stop talking. If anything his friend John was doing more talking than eating, but before he could get lost in his brain John nudged and showed him his phone.
‘’I know you are not much of a partying person but you have to go to this one, please, you really need to get a social life.’’ John pleaded, his eyes forming puppy eyes as if he was a toddler trying to get something.
‘’Do I have to? I’m living a pretty great quiet life.’’ Daniel groaned, looking at John dead in the eye, those puppy eyes don’t work on him.
John raised an eyebrow, ‘’Pretty great? yeah going to work and going home everyday sounds like a lot of fun, you barely even go to the mall! come one live a little, I will go with you if that helps.’’ He said, looking back up at Daniel trying to decipher what is happening in that head of his.
John wasn’t technically wrong, he would only go to the store when he absolutely needed it which was kinda rare since it was only him that lived in his tiny house and he would buy plenty of supplies for his cats. Daniel looked up at John, it would be quite mean if he refused when John had offered to go with him. Daniel sighed, he would go for once, there was no harm going to a party once in a while.
‘’Fine, I will go but I will only stay for a few hours, got it?’’ Daniel asked, he watched as John’s eyes lit up at his agreement as he nodded his head eagerly.
‘’Yeah! Of course Danny! as long as I get to see you live a little.’’ John exclaimed a big smile spreading across his face as he hugged Daniel tightly, ruffling Daniel’s green hair, messing it up from its perfect position. Daniel smiled slightly, he enjoyed being hugged, he hugged John back he loved his friends a little too much but who cares they let him in and he was allowed to appreciate them for it.
****
The party was that night, which he had failed to see, he thought it wasn’t until the next day until he reread the invitation. So now he was in a hurry, getting ready quickly because John was coming to pick him up in thirty minutes. He took the quickest shower he has ever taken in his whole life, he changed into some faded black jeans and a button up shirt as well throwing on a vest and quickly putting on his boots before going out. There was John barely pulling up into the driveway of his house. Daniel sighed, finally getting to catch his breath from all the running around in his house trying to get everything done.
John pulled down the window smiling at him, ‘’Hey, Danny! didn’t think you would actually agree to do this, you usually say no in the last minute but surprisingly you did not do that this one.’’ John said teasingly as he locked the car doors, Daniel rolled his eyes as he got in the front seat thinking against sitting in the back.
‘’Well, you see I don’t have much to do anyway so be grateful I didn’t cancel.’’ Daniel remarked, huffing as he crossed his arms. But a smile broke his scowl as he saw John chuckle and slightly shake his head.
‘’You are quite the person, aren’t ya?’’ John said as he finally got the motor running backing out of the driveway and back into the road.
Daniel playfully punched John’s arm, but let the comment go, where they were going was quite far, one hour and forty minutes to be exact. He wondered where this person’s house was for it to be this far away. But he didn’t mind because he got to nap, that’s what he usually did on long trips.
He watched as everything passed them slowly getting lulled into sleep, it was kinda like counting ships but instead he was watching every building and tree they passed. That weirdly always pulled him into sleep but it’s not like he was complaining as long as he got to sleep. His eyes slowly dropped and he fell into a dreamless pit, John was about to say something but as he looked to his side Daniel was already snoring. John chuckled, as his eyes directed back onto the road. Daniel was one interesting person, John could admit that.
He didn’t get how he enjoyed being alone in his house all the time, but Daniel was his own person and people like different things so whatever Danny liked he was going to respect that. But he wasn’t wrong when he said that Daniel needed to go out more and gain a social life. He wasn’t always going to be available, Daniel needed someone who he could put his whole trust on. But for now he would gladly be his anchor for as long as he can, for as long as he was alive and he meant it.
Finally they got to the house, it was a pretty big house, not a mansion more like a big two story house. The person who was hosting was apparently a firefighter and he was hosting this because it was his 27th birthday. He was a close friend with one of John’s friends, he had met this guy once but that’s it. John was pretty sure that Daniel didn’t know this guy so it was his job to introduce him to the firefighter. If John remembered right this guy’s name was Henry, John shook off his thoughts and nudged Daniel awake from his slumber.
‘’Hey, Danny! we are officially here!’’ John exclaimed as he shook Daniel even harder, Daniel groaned as he woke up slowly from his slumber.
He looked up at John with bleary eyes, ‘’We are already here? It only felt like it took 20 minutes.’’ Daniel said with a tired voice as he sat up and stretched slightly, he rubbed eyes trying to get his vision to clear again.
‘’Yeah, you slept the whole way here anyway so that’s why it was fast.’’ John said, handing Daniel his glasses that had toppled off his face.
Daniel took them and put them back on, his vision clearing immediately, he got out of the car and closed the door. He turned to face the house and saw the size of the house, his jaw practically fell to the ground. He has never seen a house this big, yeah, of course there were houses bigger than this two story house but this house was fairly big.
John walked to his side, ‘’It is quite big, isn’t?’’ John remarked as he started walking to the house entrance. Daniel shook his thoughts away and hurried to catch up to John who was already at the front door.
John knocked on the door and this big looking man opened the door, he was handsome, Daniel has never seen a person this handsome. He felt his face heat up, he had barely seen the guy and he was already blushing! He was pathetic when it came to men…
The handsome man gave them a friendly smile as he let them in, ‘’Hi! Nice to meet you, lemme guess you guys are Jesse’s friends, right?’’ The handsome man asked, John nodded at him as he shook his hand.
‘’Yeah we are! you must be Henry right?’’ John asked, smiling at him, the guy Daniel supposed Henry nodded at him. ‘’Yep, you are John and you are?’’ Henry asked him, his hand outstretched to Daniel.
‘’Oh, um, I’m Daniel.’’ Daniel responded, his face heating up more as he shook Henry’s hand, ugh! Why was he so awkward!? He was never going to get a partner like this!
Daniel’s face heated up even more, where did partner come from? Henry gave him a confused look but still smiled either way. ‘’Nice to meet you, Daniel." Henry greeted him, nodding his way.
‘’N–nice to meet you too, Henry.’’ Daniel squeaked, looking away trying his hardest to not stare at Henry’s muscles or his beautiful grey-green eyes. But his gay ass was not listening as he glanced back at Henry, admiring his figure and beautiful body and—
John nudged him, giving him the look before tilting his head to the side signaling to follow him to wherever Henry was taking them too. Henry led them outside where the party was being hosted at. Right there was Jesse with a bottle of beer talking to their other friend Jaime, Jesse looked up at them and smiled. He got out of his seat and went to greet them, Jaime following right behind him.
‘’Heyyyy Johnny and Danny!’’ Jesse drawled, clearly drunk as he put an arm around his shoulder. ‘’I didn’t expect to see you here, Dan.’’ Jesse said, ruffling Daniel’s hair.
“Yeah! I didn’t expect to see you here Dan, you barely go to parties.’’ Jaimes exclaimed as she hugged him luckily not drunk, when Jaime was drunk she was whole another person you would never like to meet if you are on her bad side.
Daniel smiled up at them, ‘’Yeah well, John ever here managed to convince me plus I wanted to go out too, so here I am!’’ Daniel exclaimed, taking a seat next to John on the table that Jaime and Jesse were sitting on.
There weren't many people at the party, only about 20 people which wasn’t much and Daniel was very glad because he hated crowded places. He also hated the loudness so that’s another reason why he didn’t go to parties often. Though every time he went to a party he made sure that he carried in his bag a pair of headphones, a book, a journal, and water. He always made sure he never forgot those things because if he did he would actually die.
He looked around and the outside was very pretty, it had lights hung up to light up the place, it also had a very pretty patio. It was made out of wood, a really dark brown with a few cushioned seats. A few people he didn’t know sat there talking to each other with shots in their hands.
Daniel was surprised that Henry had managed to get a break, firefighters work 48/96 hours which is quite a lot. Henry must’ve asked for a few days of break really early to be able to host this. But it wasn’t his place to be thinking about that so instead he focused on whatever his friends were talking about. As he faced them he noticed that they were looking at him intently like they were waiting for him to answer something he did not know of.
‘’Why are you guys looking at me like that?’’ Daniel asked, raising an eyebrow at them as he waited for one of them to answer his question.
The group broke into a fit of giggles, he wished he got the joke but no one seemed to answer his question. Finally after the fit of giggles faded, Jesse answered his question, ‘’We heard from Johnny boy here that you have a crush on Henryyyy.’’ Jesse said, dragging out Henry’s name, Jesse fell into another fit of giggles as he stared up at Daniel.
Daniel stared at them dumbfounded, ‘’What!? I do not have a crush on Henry!’’ Daniel exclaimed but his face betrayed him as he felt his cheeks warm up. He looked up at John with a look of betrayal, he thought they made a pact about not spilling about crushes.
‘’Rightttt.’’ Jesse, Jaime, and John said at the same time, clearly not believing a single thing he said. He was really bad at lying so he wasn’t surprised at this point, Daniel rolled his eyes and huffed. He took a quick sip of his Fanta not wanting to get drunk that soon, especially not with a handsome man here. He didn’t want to seem like a fool, when he was drunk he seemed to be more gigglier and social and stuff like that but most of all he was embarrassing, he knows how he acts because his friends show him videos of him drunk.
Then, Henry strode to their table with a big smile on his face, he took a seat right next to Daniel leaning on the table very close to Daniel. ‘’So what are we talking about here?’’ Henry asked, looking at them with a big smile. All of his friends gave Daniel the look before going on to answer Henry’s question. Daniel flushed pink, the world was against him today, wasn’t it?