Elliot decided that the first order of morning business was to set to work, waking a reluctant Winn to help Danny with finalizing his new outfit while Elliot went to find something that would look as decent as it could when paired with that ridiculous hot dog shirt.
Elliot couldn’t help but smile.
He was willing to do anything if it got his mind off of how he woke up, snuggled next to Danny like they were some sort of...of…
Couple, Elliot thought, feeling himself grow entirely too warm.
If he didn’t catch himself, Elliot’s mind would continually drift off to how it felt to have Danny’s arms wrapped around his waist.
The way he woke up with Danny’s head tucked under his chin, the gentle smell of his shampoo being what woke him up in the first place.
The way Danny snored in his sleep.
The way Danny’s nose crinkled when he laughed.
The way-
Elliot tucked his head into the nearest coat rack and let out a muffled scream, drawing the concerned glances of other store-goers.
You’ve got to calm down, dude. Elliot told himself, drawing back with a dramatic inhale of breath.
We get it. You’re smitten or whatever, he frowned, You don’t have to wax all poetic like this is some kind of damned romance novel.
Elliot angrily grabbed for the nearest suit in his size that didn’t seem like it would be hideous with the stupid hot dog shirt.
Moron.
The rest of his shopping adventure went by unceremoniously, Elliot attempting to embody the spirit of chill as best he could.
It was...difficult.
Elliot had never been the calmest spirit.
~
Danny Chae greeted him at the door donning a mask that basically only served to cover his cheekbones. Which normally, Elliot would sarcastically quip was a bit useless, but there was something genuinely unrecognizable about the man that hung in Elliot’s doorway.
The more Elliot looked at him, the more he wasn’t exactly sure why he knew it was Danny, but he was mostly sure that's who it was.
“Cool, huh?” Danny grinned, not quite looking the same, “Would you believe it was Winn’s idea?”
Elliot peeked around Danny’s shoulder to see Winn shrug humbly.
“What...is it?” Elliot asked, reaching up to touch Danny’s face before stopping himself, embarrassingly pushing past Danny into the apartment.
Danny chuckled and closed the door, “Short answer, it’s a magic trick. I’m like, ninety-nine percent sure that’s why I can’t figure out who Inferno is.”
Elliot sighed in relief, The less recognizable you are the better.
“Which is a shame, apparently,” Danny added coyly, “I hear he’s someone’s celebrity crush.”
“For now, at least.” Winn added, drawing a look from both of the boys.
Elliot scoffed, “I used to have bad taste, okay?”
“It was a week ago.” Winn said flatly.
“Times change.” Elliot retorted, stepping back to look at Danny’s costume in it’s entirety, “So is this what we’re going with?”
It was alarmingly beautiful, not that Elliot would admit it, and was without a doubt something Winn had helped with. The outfit seemed very reminiscent of something Elliot would attribute to a mage in a video game, the robe-like shirt loosely armed but tailored to Danny’s body. Deep emerald green with grey touches, the cape somehow being both colors at once. The cape was a nice touch too, the combination of it all reminded Elliot of a comic book he had read once, or at least attempted to. The only difference was that the eastern touches in the outfit were a lot more...justified for Danny.
The only thing Elliot would count as a mark against it would be that between the robe-like top and the cape, it hid something that should be showed off in brightly colored spandex.
He could see Danny’s flush beneath the mask, “What? You don’t like it?”
Elliot tried not to fluster, carefully weighing his words, “You...there’s...uh…”
“Use your words.” Winn said with a smirk.
Elliot glared at her before turning his attention back to Danny, “There’s some...assets you possess that it doesn’t really do much to...show off.”
Winn cackled manically in the background while Danny struggled to maintain his composure.
“You don’t like it because you can’t...see...my...butt?” He asked, furiously red- although for the first time it wasn’t obvious if it were out of embarrassment or the desperate attempt not to laugh.
A bit of both, arguably.
“What?!” Elliot squeaked defensively, “I am entitled to my aesthetic preferences!”
Danny lost composure, breaking out into a fit of giggles, “I’m so flattered.”
Elliot huffed, adjusting his t-shirt as he pretended the maniacal laughter at his expense didn’t affect him, “You should be, I’m picky about my bottoms.”
The group fell silent before the laughter continued, this time much more uproariously.
“I can see how that may have sounded.” Elliot steeled himself, trying not to laugh, I’m not laughing at that, I am an adult, “I like the outfit, let’s move on.”
“I don’t know, I’m a lot more curious about your-” Danny snorted, “picky bottoms.”
"Laugh it up, chuckles." Elliot folded his arms while his face felt like it was caving in on itself as he tried to keep a poker face, “You think you’re cute.”
Danny reached into his sleeve, pulling the bracelet so that he poofed back into his boxers, “Is this better?”
Yes,
“If you want to fly around the city in your skivvies you’re more than welcome to.”
Danny’s eyebrow raised, “Hey, if the public demands it-”
Winn cut between the two of them, hands raised, “Alright. We’re done. This is not a road trip I want to be in the back seat for- if you guys wanna sexy banter you’re gonna have to get a room.”
Danny cleared his throat, “That’s more of a third date sort of thing.”
“Sexy banter or the room?” Winn asked with a grin.
“Why don’t we focus on the interview?” Elliot asked, the obvious hurry in his voice not going unnoticed, “Did we have a location in mind?”
Danny suddenly got serious, as the thought had not occurred to him, “Oh...crap...I didn’t even think about that…”
Elliot scooted closer to Danny to whisper, “Honestly, neither had I until I was trying to get out of this conversation.”
As it occurred to the group that not a single one of them actually had a suggestion as to where they should actually do the interview, it ended up being the topic of discussion for the next several hours.
Eventually, Danny suggested hunting for an abandoned building. That way, if the location was recognizable to any enemies, no one was at risk. And unlike going with a public option, abandoned buildings were much less likely to have other people.
The idea of alone time had set Elliot’s mind down several very inappropriate pathways, but eventually it came back to the topic at hand.
Danny’s phone went off, summoning him to superhero duty.
Elliot walked him to the hallway, trying not to moon pathetically as he watched him walk away.
As he shut the door closed behind himself, Winn propped herself against the counter, her eyes expectant.
“I wonder who his sidekick is...” Elliot asked absently, please don’t try to talk to me about this I know I’m obvious help me I’m dying.
Winn shrugged, “Probably Val.”
Elliot grimaced, “Valerie Sparks being "the Bolt" would be...a little too convenient.”
“But fitting.” Winn offered, “So, are you going to let me ask or did you want to run into your room and listen to show-tunes while you look out of the window and pine?”
“We could opt for neither and just go get burgers or something.” Elliot said with a grimace.
“You’re obviously attracted to each other.” Winn purred.
“Burgers.”
“Who’d have thought I’d see my baby boy, growing up all mature-like, taking a relationship slow.”
“It’s not a relationship.”
“Not yet.”
“Not ever, he probably hates me.” Elliot flopped face forward onto the couch and tried to ignore that it smelled faintly of Danny’s shampoo and Thai food, “Can we just go get food?”
Winn laughed softly, “Sure. I’ll buy if you make sure you tell me who eventually makes the first move.”
Elliot groaned in response, pausing before he sat up, “Deal.”
~
The next few days were much more blissful than Danny or Elliot would ever admit.
Between Danny working and saving things, and Elliot now starting several new shows, they spent every free second together, taking out into the night and early morning to peruse the city for the ideal interview location.
Elliot insisted the lighting be perfect, as it was hard to make his pale skin look good in anything less than ideal fluorescents.
If he were being honest, though, a part of him was dragging it out to make the search last as long as it possibly could.
He had surprised himself by being open and vulnerable, telling Danny every bit of his tragic backstory that he could manage. Not that it was tragic in the conventional way, but Shakespeare would certainly find it entertaining.
Being raised in a podunk town wasn’t the most thrilling part. Neither was his father’s religious occupation nor his high-school years, although his thriving stage career was as compelling as it was short-lived, it didn’t need entirely too much notice. Elliot’s stories began to become much more rich and complex once he reached his college years, relishing in telling the tale of how he met Winn and is now completely banned from two separate towns in Texas. Elliot attempted to skim over the list of his love affairs, if one could call them that, but much to his chagrin Danny seemed genuinely interested.
Bursting into Starlight University as a small-town, tiny, repressed little gay had not been...easy to say the least. Elliot had been so naive in his younger years.
Thankfully, now he was just stupid.
His first foray into sex and dating had been the same fell swoop, an RA named William who was just trying to get over his ex but also make his ex jealous enough that their relationship would rekindle itself.
It was as...fun as it had sounded, and Elliot had taken it tremendously hard. Were it not for his blossoming friendship with Winona West, Elliot was sure -at least at the time- that he would have died of a broken heart.
As Elliot made his way through the story, he realized that a part of him was still this kid who fell way too hard way too fast, he had just...forgotten that part of himself.
There was a time when the trail of lovers that followed William the RA was something Elliot would have felt was felt boast worthy, but now he felt slightly embarrassed. He had never quite recanted them like this, so open and earnestly, and from an outside perspective it had become so clear to him that every one of them was just a way he was trying to piece together a broken heart.
He was over it by the time he graduated, however, and anyone that followed that was just because they were available and Elliot was a man with needs, terrible impulse control, and a slightly broken moral compass.
“So you just left him there, fake number and all?” Danny said with an amused glimmer in his eye, “That’s cold, bro.”
“I’m sure in the long run his wife was glad I did, they ended up working things out.” Elliot deflected, knowing it didn’t help his story all that much.
“Jesus, were all the guys you dated awful?”
Elliot shrugged, “I’m awful. Opposites don’t actually attract.”
“Sometimes they do.” Danny said, unexpectedly sheepish, “Besides. You’re not awful. I wouldn’t be doing this with you if you were.”
Doing what?! Elliot screamed internally, FLIRTING? HANGING OUT? LAUNCHING MY CAREER? ALL OF THE ABOVE?
He had been waiting for Danny to make the first actual move.
Elliot didn’t want to misinterpret anything.
He wanted to know Danny liked him.
He was slowly dying because of it.
Elliot cleared his throat, surveying the room they were standing in as the light from the rising sun made it’s way through dusty office windows.
“You know...this place may actually be perfect.”
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