“Uh…” Danny paused, taking a brief second to clear his throat, “Bar-tending...actually.”

Elliot’s eyebrows raised, “Bar-tending? Can’t exactly say I saw that coming.”

“Why not?” Danny asked, unsure of how to read the statement and his confusion obvious in his expression.

Val leaned forward, frowning in an almost cartoonish exaggeration of what a normal human face should do, “Well you know what they say about assuming things, Ellie.”

“Good thing I said ‘guessed’, then.” Elliot retorted, wondering how she had any friends, let alone two attractive ones.

She had always rubbed him...not quite the wrong way, but certainly not the right way either. He had, for the most part, chalked it up to jealousy. Elliot had a rather awful habit of needing to be the center of attention, especially when around people one could accuse him of being fond of, and Valerie certainly had a way of drawing quite a bit of attention to herself. Granted, there were very specific...physical reasons that certainly drew in Winona’s attention, and Elliot wasn’t jealous of that by any means, he just...wanted to be the only thing anyone paid attention to. Especially if he cared about said people.

He was slowly starting to realize that he may have some rather crippling personality flaws, though if no one else had pointed them out, perhaps they weren’t so bad. Or, in the very least, they weren’t apparent enough anyone was bothered by them.

The four of them sat there talking and eating for what seemed to pass by eerily quickly to Elliot. It struck him as rather strange how quickly their little group had fallen into what was, admittedly, a perfect dynamic. Val and Winn loudly debating the merits of some sort of shoe, Elliot wasn’t sure as he had lost interest in the debate rather quickly, and Danny awkwardly trying to interject himself into the debate, to little avail. Val was certainly the loudest of the group, in both volume and presence, but Winn could certainly hold her own. Winn, unlike Val, had more of a calming presence, but once the debate had sparked all of that was lost.

Elliot and Danny had silently taken the roles of spectators, although they weren’t given much of a choice. But it was nice, and while unconventional, a pretty good way to tell a lot about a person. Danny may not have said much, but the vast array of expressions that contorted his face as he internally responded to Val and Winn's nonsense was entertaining, to say the least.

Elliot felt something nudge his foot, drawing his attention away from Val’s incessant screaming.

He looked over to Danny, who’s furiously heated face seemed almost comical, “S-sorry!”, he nearly squeaked, “I was just trying to get your attention.”

“Well, it worked.” Elliot said with a wink, feeling tremendous enjoyment as he watched his face get somehow redder.

“That’s not...I wasn’t…” Danny flustered, “I just…”

Elliot snickered, “Use your words.”

“I was going to see if you wanted to walk...or whatever.” Danny spat, clearly needing more courage than what he had, “I just...they’re so loud.”

Ah. Elliot thought, He’s either overwhelmed or trying to seduce me….poorly.

Judging by the wincing, Elliot really hoped it was the former.

They slid from the diner booth without even the smallest shred of notice from the girls, who continued to yell wildly at each other. Elliot and his blind date made their way out of the diner and into the chilly city streets, the autumn air turning just cool enough that Elliot was starting to feel mildly inconvenienced by it.

He looked over at Danny as the shorter boy easily kept pace, albeit silently. Elliot couldn’t judge him too harshly, after about five minutes of the girls’ nonsense he was more than ready for the silence.

Elliot had the feeling, however, that his companion was not silent out of that so much as he was clearly nervous. The sadist in him wanted to tease Danny for it, there was no doubt in his mind it would be as easy as it would be fun to watch, but he decided against it.

For starters, he didn’t know Danny well enough to know how he’d react, though he’d wager it would involve a fair amount of fluster. But more importantly, while Elliot was, arguably, not a good person, he was also not horrible.

At least, not “tease the kid with obvious social issues” bad.

Not until he got to know him a bit better, at least.

Elliot looked over at Danny skeptically at the thought, Wait, do I actually want to get to know him? Ew.

“Finally...” Danny said with a dramatic sigh, either that relieved to be out of the diner or compensating for how long he didn’t speak.

“You think that’s bad? I live with it.” Elliot said sharply, crankiness at the weather overriding most of his cognitive functions, “I’m not usually one to kink shame but jesus, their foreplay is intolerable.”

Danny’s face visibly reddened, “I-Is that what that is?”

“That diner is lucky if those two morons don’t get started right there in the booth.” Elliot said with a laugh, “You made a good call with this escaping idea.”

Something about the acknowledgement must have deepened the red in Danny’s face as he quickly averted his gaze, deciding instead to look at the shop windows as they passed by them, leaving Elliot confused as to how on earth he’d embarrassed the boy.

“I may need to strongly reconsider moving in with her.” Danny said with a grin.

“I don’t know why you’d consider it in the first place.” Elliot spat, noticing the slight look of offense on Dan’s face, “Not that I dislike her, Valerie is just…”

Elliot paused, wondering while he was weighing his words so carefully, as that was not something he was known to do.

“Crazy?” Danny offered with a soft smile.

“Nuts.” Elliot concluded, feeling a surge of relief.

There was the slightest feeling of concern beginning to blossom in Elliot as they walked, the soft neon glow of the city street lights did nothing to ease the growing tension bubbling inside of him as they seemed to reflect in an almost obnoxiously perfect way off the lenses of Danny’s glasses.

If he didn’t know any better, Elliot would actually think he was attracted to the short little nerd walking besides him.

Not that he didn’t experience attraction, of course, but that was such a rare and fleeting thing. Elliot required that one not bore him in order to maintain attraction, and most people were suffocatingly boring. And it wasn’t that Daniel Chae was unattractive. He was quite the opposite, in fact. So much so that it was still obvious under several layers of geek. But one could find someone attractive without it being attraction. Attraction, for Elliot, required a great deal of interest.

And something about Daniel Chae piqued his interest, though Elliot wasn’t quite sure what it was.

“If you don’t want to walk, that’s fine by the way…” Danny said, interrupting Elliot’s train of thought, “I just thought we might actually get to know each other like this.”

“What,” Elliot smirked, “A heated debate about the perfect heel length wasn’t accomplishing that? And here I thought I had discovered your deepest secrets a moment ago.”

“Ha! Trust me, there’s not enough time in the world to cover those.” Danny retorted, practically beaming.

“Can’t say I pegged you as a man of mystery.” Elliot said, looking over at Danny suspiciously.

And he hadn’t. He had known Daniel Chae not even an hour and he already knew that every little thought he had, even if he didn’t say it out loud, was evident on his face. It was certainly charming, Elliot would give him that much.

But definitely not mysterious.

“Well if we’re going off of first impressions, you assumed I was a serial killer.” Danny said, a humored twinkle in his eyes, “Not that mine was much better.”

“Of what, me?” Elliot asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. Val showed me pictures and stuff.” he admitted sheepishly, “Which led down the rabbit hole of InfoBYTE articles and all that wonderful crazy stalker... shit,  whyamIstilltalking-”

Oh dear god in heaven, anything but those, Elliot couldn’t keep himself from cringing at the mention of his job title, “Rabbit hole?”

“I have officially read every single one. I even-” Danny quickly stopped himself, “Nevermind. I’m not admitting to this.”

“Well, now you have to!” Elliot grinned, completely unsure if he had ever felt such a bizarre rush of excitement so suddenly.

Danny blushed furiously in response, “I kinda liked a few of them...You’re not bad...or whatever. I actually cared about shit I don’t think I had even heard about until that point.”

A rare blushed crept across Elliot’s cheeks, “Uh...thanks. It’s mostly mindless drivel, so I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be, I just wanted to see if your writing was as vapid as your social media profiles.” Danny said with a laugh, “It was, but surprisingly enjoyable.”

He couldn’t have summed me up better if he had tried, Elliot thought to himself, vapid, yet surprisingly enjoyable was my high-school superlative.

“You thought I looked vapid?” Elliot asked in mock disgust, “Why I never!”

“Dude, you have two pictures that aren’t of yourself.” Danny said flatly, “Maybe not vapid, but definitely narcissistic.”

Elliot shrugged nonchalantly, Danny's admission to stalking him not phasing him in the slightest as he'd spent the last several hours doing the exact same thing, “Guilty as charged.”

“Hey,” Danny said a bit more quietly than he had been speaking, looking away quickly as though the mixture of the complement and eye contact would have broken him, “If I looked like you I’d probably be full of myself too.”

Now Elliot knew something was wrong with him. He wasn’t usually this weak to flattery, but that awkward little offhand comment had actually managed to make him feel something.

He’d dare say he even swooned.

What the hell is wrong with me today? Elliot thought, opening his mouth to speak but was suddenly interrupted by a loud noise just down the street. Sirens whirred on off in the distance.

Danny froze, whipping his cell phone out of his pocket and swiping at the screen furiously, “Shit.” He hissed to himself, shoving the phone into the pocket of his jeans as rapidly as he had taken it out.

“Everything ok?” Elliot asked cautiously, not entirely sure of what was happening.

Danny looked at him, his expression unreadable, “I need to uh...go.”

Smoke filled the city street and Danny’s facial expression grew more worrisome, Elliot felt a wave of confusion wash over him.

“You...have to go?” Elliot asked, “Are you sure you’re alright? Do you live down that way? I can get you a cab faster than-”

“I’m so sorry,” Danny huffed, fidgeting awkwardly as he alternated looking at Elliot and glancing down in the direction of the smoke, “It’s not you, I swear to god. I just.. I have to go.”

“Uh.” Elliot said, his mind blank by this point, “Alright then…”

Danny started, making his way several feet down the sidewalk before quickly backtracking at a sprint, grabbing onto the sleeve of Elliot’s jacket as he made it back, “G-Get my number. From Valerie. I owe you a make-up date. A real one.”

Before Elliot could say anything, Danny held out his fist, Elliot mindlessly returning what may have been the most awkward fist bump he had ever experienced in his life.

Elliot watched as his blind date sprinted away, soon fading into the chaos a few blocks down, a cop car whirring past where he stood on the sidewalk, sirens very much echoing the noise currently in his head.