bea & danny; end of the night.
His nose wrinkled as she jabbed him, with the sort of embarrassed aw shucks self-consciousness of someone whose weakness had been pointed out. “Yeah, I… it’s been a rough few weeks. Or months. Or two years, but who’s counting?”
Danny had needed this. He could feel that ever-present tension seeping out through his pores, banished into shitty music and . He’d wanted to be tough and serious and on-duty, but it just didn’t work. The prospect of one night—one night—to be anyone but Danny Downer had been too tempting.
“And you? You having fun and not playing hostess too much?” he asked. Somewhere in the last couple minutes, his arm had found itself around Bea, hand tucked against her other side.
The longer they sat together the more Bea slumped into Danny’s side, until her arm was thrown across his waist, her cheek resting against his shoulder. She’d always been a touchy person, even more so with those she was comfortable, and Danny was such a fixture in her life that she touched freely and without hesitation.
Nodding against his shoulder, she grinned, “Tired from dancing and drinking but happy. So happy. Floating on a cloud.”
Sitting up abruptly, her grin growing wider, she said. “Did you know bees probably shouldn’t be able to fly but they do the impossible?” Random thoughts like these weren’t uncommon for her but this one was particularly sudden. “You ever feel like that? We shouldn’t be here but we are? We’re just soaring above the rest--” she stopped midsentence, eyes landing on Danny. “I’m going to miss you, you know.”
All the time. It’s a fucking miracle we’re even still alive. The thought was there, but before it could slip loose, she’d switched gears.
If possible, the alcoholic blush deepened even further, and Danny cleared his throat. “It’s just five days, Bea,” he said. “You’ll be fine.”
Brows scrunching in concentration for a moment, she said, “I don’t think we’ve ever spent five days apart before since we met. I mean, maybe during school breaks but even then our parents were always making us hang out. This’ll be… weird. But you’re right, it’s just five days. I’ll survive. I’ll just miss my best friend,” she continued, one of her hands coming up to cup the side of his face as she leaned in with the intention of kissing his cheek. Unfortunately, he’d just shifted again to say something to her—so it missed, landing squarely on his mouth instead.
If he’d been sober, he would have backpedalled and lurched away and littered her with apologies; oops, didn’t mean to do that, sorry, ha ha what a hilarious accident!
But soused up, instead the only thought running through his head was Well, this is actually kinda nice, and remembering the fact that he hadn’t kissed anyone in months (since the last time he drank too much, even—Daniel Kwon had a bad track record when it came to booze). His hand around Bea instinctively drew her closer, just enjoying the moment, like any dumb stupid youth, like any college kid with nothing heavier on his shoulders than his football statistics and upcoming midterms.
Just as natural as every other touch she shared with Danny, this kiss wasn’t any different. It was light and relatively brief and when they broke apart, a soft laugh immediately slipped out of Bea’s mouth. Sometimes when she looked at him she couldn’t tell whether he was the brother she never had or the soulmate she’d been waiting for, and unfortunately kissing him did little to bring clarity to the conflict.
Her hand slid from his face down along the curve of his neck until it stopped and rested gently on his shoulder, her face pulled back enough now to try and catch Danny’s gaze. “Huh. So that didn’t suck.”