Who: Dani & Ehren. What: Comforting a friend and learning secrets. When: Morning; June 27th, 2019. Where: Dani's apartment, then woods. Rating: Mid - very brief mentions of sex. Status: Complete. Notes: Morning after this and this thread.
It was morning and things were still fresh on Ehren’s mind from the night before. Dorian had spent the night at his place. Nothing had happened, but he needed someone to be with him and he didn’t want Roman coming after him. He knocked loudly on her door, desperate to talk to her about what happened. He couldn’t keep stuff like this from her anymore, he just couldn’t.
“Dani, open up, its Ehren, I need to talk to you.” He yelled into her apartment. He’d probably wake the entire complex, including the girl he’d needed to talk about. “Please, it’s important.” He yelled.
Dani had just stepped out of the shower when Ehren’s voice blared from outside her apartment door. He sounded upset, no, more than upset. Frantic. “I’m coming,” she yelled back as she wiped herself down with the towel just enough so that she was dripping water everywhere and threw on her bathrobe. Then it was a beeline for the door.
“Hey, are you okay?” She asked after swinging open the door. He didn’t look it. “Come on, come in,” she urged him into the apartment, closing and locking the door behind him. “What’s going on?”
He shook his head. “Get dressed, were leaving.” He said, eyeing the camera in the corner of the room. He couldn’t say anything in here or anywhere near any cell phone or camera. He left his own cell phone in his apartment. He was frantic because he was tired of keeping this from her, from someone he considered a really good friend.
“No time to explain, please just get dressed and come with me.” He said, peering out the window to make sure no one was watching them. He knew no one was looking for her but Ehren had a tendency to be very paranoid.
“What?” Dani was confused. “Why do we--” Before she could finish her question Ehren insisted there was no time to explain and started peering out the window as if watching out for something or someone. She’d witnessed Ehren’s paranoia over the years but this was a whole ‘nother beast. This was intense and desperate and frantic. What the hell had happened?
“Okay, okay. Give me a minute.” She went to her room to get dressed, slipping on a basic tank top and skirt, not even bothering to struggle with a bra. “Where are we going? What’s going on?” She asked once she exited her room.
While she got dressed Ehren rooted around her apartment to find her phone. It was sticking out of her purse and he took it out. He couldn’t tell her to leave her phone so he was just going to have to hide it. He placed it inside a drawer in the kitchen and grabbed her hand, leading her outside. “I have a surprise.” Which was true but not the kind of happy surprise she may have been expecting.
“Come on.” He pleaded, pulling her out the door as fast as he could. He’d have to take her to the woods or the beach, somewhere the government couldn't hear them. This was something he needed to get off his chest for a long time and he wasn’t about to wait any longer to tell one of his best friends.
The way Ehren was acting made it painfully obvious that whatever ‘surprise’ he was talking about wasn’t anything good. Dani followed him with little resistance though she was growing increasingly frustrated by his blatant disregard for her questions. Obviously something was up but did he really have to outright ignore her inquires? After a while of being dragged around, Dani stopped. “Ehren. Ehren!” She set her sandaled feet firmly on the ground so he couldn’t pull her. “Tell me what is going on!”
They still had a ways to go and Ehren was definitely flustered and frustrated when she planted her feet. They weren’t even close to the beach or the woods yet. He sighed and looked at her. “I have something I need to tell you…” he said and then leaned in to whisper to her. “...a secret. I can’t tell you here where there are people listening.” He said to her. He was sure this wasn’t making his case for sanity but he had say something and he couldn’t do it here.
“Please, just a little bit further.” He begged, squeezing her hand to show that he was serious. By sometime today she would have found out about him and Meg, and how Ehren ditched her like an asshole. There was more that story that he needed to tell her first before she got to hear it from Meg.
Her brow furrowed. Couldn’t it tell her where people were listening? Like at, say, her apartment? Where he had just dragged her from? Dani let out an aggravated sigh. Being jerked around by her paranoid best friend was not how she wanted to start the day. He wouldn’t stop, though, until she went to wherever it was he deemed safe enough to talk. “Fine! Let’s just go then.” Her irritation was clear.
He was quiet for a while until they finally made it into the woods. It was daylight still so at least he would have a clear view of everything. Finally he let go of her hand and turned to her. It took him minutes before he began to speak, unsure of how to finally say this to her. “Dani, I’m going to tell you this and I need you not to tell Roman.” He began since that was definitely a fear he had.
Ehren took a deep breath and closed his eyes before looking at her. “I can see the future. I didn’t want the government to know because I was afraid of being experimented on or used or whatever. And that meant I couldn’t tell you, which I’m very sorry about.” This wasn’t even the beginning of what he had to say, merely a platform to explain the rest.
Her lips dropped into a frown and brow furrowed as she struggled to process what he had just revealed to her. "Wait, hold up." She raised her hands up slightly, palms facing outwards in a stopping gesture. "What?" It seemed like there was more Ehren wanted to discuss with her but she couldn't move past this massive information bomb he had dropped on her. "What do you mean?"
He had more to say but he could tell that she was struggling with the first part of what he said. “I have visions, whenever I have a panic attack I slip into a vision of the future. I can never tell when it’s going to happen, but it does eventually.” He said. “It started when I was a kid, I saw my mom die and then when I was a teenager she did. Then I saw my dad commit suicide and...well I mean you know what happened there.” He added, finding a rock to sit on, since this seemed like it was going to be a long conversation.
Dani’s head was spinning. Ehren could see the future? It had to be a byproduct of the radiation, right? Like her plant manipulation abilities? But he had seen his mother’s death when he was a child… that was long before the meltdown that caused all these mutations. So then, how did he come about that ability? Was he born with it? Was his mother exposed to something while she was pregnant? Did he come across something during his youth? There were so many questions swirling around in her head.
But those questions didn’t need answers. Not at the moment. Ehren had told her about his ability for a reason. She massaged her temples to ward off the oncoming headache. “So you see the future… why are you telling me this now? Did something happen?”
He looked up at her then, his eyes glazed and then looked down at his clasped palms. “Meg and I went on a date a week or so ago and we got intimate and I slipped into a vision. Then last night, I took her to the arts center to show her the bass and we went back to her apartment, and it happened again.” He didn’t want to say ‘when I came’ because he really didn’t want to make the situation any more awkward than it had already become.
He sighed and buried his head in his hands, groaning as he thought about describing the next part. “Dani, it was her and she was pregnant and I somehow got discovered. I was registered Dani, I can’t be registered, I’ll be held for questioning, they’ll...they’ll do experiments on me.” That wasn’t the only reason this whole thing freaked him out. He was afraid of becoming the pathetic mess he was in his vision. A man who relied on being loved and who just disappointed the ones they loved.
And even more information was dropped on her that she needed to process. Dani took Ehren’s lead and found a rock of her own to sit down on. How the hell was she going to approach this? “Okay, first, calm down,” she told him, figuring that was the best place to start. He was focusing too much on the contents of the vision and it was just getting him more riled. She’d need to nip that in the bud. “Now, let’s forget about the vision for a moment, okay?” Easier said than done, she was sure, but she needed to get the full story so she could figure out what to do. “So the vision happened… then what?”
He looked over at her in disbelief. “What do you mean then what? I ran away, we’ve only been on two dates Dani. I can’t become that person, I’m already a shit show.” He replied, groaning as he thought more about it. Maybe he should tell her that he invited Dorian over after the whole ordeal and made out, but he figured right know he’d take the verbal beating she was going to give him for running away from Meg. He buried his head in his hands and groaned again. “Tell me I’m not the worst person in the world please?” He begged her.
He ran. Of course he did. If he was still this panicked hours after the fact he would've been ten times worse when it happened. She could only imagine how confused Meg was by his reaction because she doubted Ehren told her about his visions. Hell, he only just now told her and they had been best friends for a couple years now.
"You're not the worst person in the world," she reassured. "You just saw something that upset you and you reacted. It happens." She offered him a smile. "But it was just a vision... it's not guaranteed to happen, right?"
He looked up at her and felt some of his anxiety ease. He actually hadn’t really expected her to react this way. What he expected was a guilt trip about how he reacted or some sort of scolding in regards to hurting her friends feelings. “I made sure of it, as long as we’re not together it doesn’t have to happen.” Though most of the time he was completely helpless to do anything.
He stood up and walked over to where she sat, kneeling down in front of her to take her hands in his. “I’m sorry, Dani, I’m sorry I never said anything before. I should have known I could trust you, I just thought it might put you in danger.” Because that wasn’t the only secret he had, but it was the only one he knew wouldn’t hurt her in the end.
“There’s more.” He said to her, wondering how this next part might make him look. She didn’t think he was an asshole now but who knew what she’d think about what was going on with Dorian.
Dani squeezed his hands. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you feel comfortable enough to tell me now.” She freed her hand from his grip and extended her fingers toward his hair, gently combing back some unruly strands. Several questions were springing into her mind, clarification regarding how his abilities worked and what she could do to help him for starters, but he continued. She raised a brow. “There’s more?”
He sighed, pouting like a five year old. A sort of cringe came his features before he opened his mouth to speak and then shutting it again quickly. No, he had to speak his mind. “A guy helped me through a panic attack at the library the other day and I invited him over last night.” The look on his face said ‘was that stupid of me?’ But he continued regardless.
“I don’t know what it is about him and I know it’s probably really bad to kiss someone in the kind of condition I was in last night, but it felt right. So I did it. Nothing else happened but I think I really like him.”
He really liked Meg too but Ehren fucked that one up big time. “He can negate my ability, Dani. I wouldn’t ever have to worry that I’m going to slip into a vision around him.” It occurred to him that it could be his psyche, trying to grasp at some sort of normalcy, but he didn’t want to believe it.
Dani tilted her head slightly. He invited a guy that helped him with a previous panic attack over after what happened with Meg. Okay? It seemed like a logical thing to her so why was he mentioning it with such a look on his face?
And then he mentioned kissing.
“Seriously?” She asked incredulously, not looking at all impressed. Running out on Meg after witnessing a panic induced vision she could understand, a bit shitty but panic attacks could make you do shitty things sometimes. But then to turn right around and kiss a guy? That was just tacky. “So you ran out on Meg with likely no explanation and then kissed someone else right after? And now you're gushing about how much you like him?” Saying it out loud just made it worse. “ I love you Ehren but you do realize just how shitty you sound right now, right?”
She was right, of course she was right, Ehren wasn’t really thinking rationally right now and it’d be best to keep his distance from Dorian until things cooled down a little. “Yeah, I think maybe I’m a shitty person.” He agreed, leaning into her to place his head in her lap. “I don’t know how to do this Dani, I don’t know how to just be normal.” It felt like every decision he made backfired on him.
He moved to sit down at her feet, just happy to finally have someone to tell all these stupid thoughts to. Keeping it inside was probably the worst thing he could. He was a mess and he needed help but there wasn’t much as far as help for him on the island, not if he wanted to ever use his ability again.
"At least you're aware you screwed up." Dani's hand fell on Ehren's head with a gentle plop. "But you're not a shitty person." She lifted his chin. "Most of the time anyway," she added light-heartedly, pinching his cheek for an extra bit of playfulness. If she was too harsh he'd just fall even further into the little pool of misery he was wading in.
"And honestly who here is normal, really?" They were talking about people with superhuman powers after all. "Still, you made a mistake and you need to own up to it. You plan to apologize to Meg for running out, right?"
His cheeks turned red all on their own as she gave him some hard truths. “Yeah I doubt she wants to talk to me right now.” He offered, looking up when she pulled up his chin. “But I think she deserves some kind of explanation. She saw me go into a vision, twice, and I told her they were just panic attacks.” He wrapped his arms around her waist so that he was more comfortable.
“Thank you, for being so understanding, this has been weighing me down for a long time.” He was surprised he’d never had a vision about Dani considering how close they were but maybe that was a good thing. It hurt to see his friends go through awful things in the future.
"Probably not," she agreed. If something like that had happened to her she wouldn't want to talk to the guy either. He still planned to give Meg an explanation though despite that - good. She would have smacked him over the head if he used that as an excuse not to apologize. "Maybe give it a day or two before trying to get in contact with her. When both of you have calmed down a bit."
Dani waved her hand in the air nonchalantly. "Yeah, I know. I'm the most understanding person in the world. For better or for worse." She offered him a smile and softly batted his head. "Now I think maybe you should go get yourself some sleep. You look like death warmed over." She also had to finish getting ready for work; he had interrupted her right in the middle of her routine. "I'll cook us some dinner tonight once I'm back from work. Sound good?"
A soft smile came to his face and he pressed a kiss to her forehead before standing. He wasn’t sure how he got so lucky to have a friend like her but he wasn’t about to give up on the offer of a cooked meal. “You should teach me a few things about cooking.” He mused, grabbing her hand to pull her up from the rock.
He lead her back toward the main part of town, a lightness in his step from having freed himself of his secrets. Maybe it was unfair of him to force her into secrecy but he supposed that’s what friends did. If she had a secret like that he’d take it to the grave.