It was still a bit chilly outside of course, but the sun shone brightly and Dan was cozy within his buttoned-up coat. The air today, on a milder winter's day, felt like frozen lace on the skin, delicate and cold and the sky was actually kind of blue instead of washed in gray. Every breath he took gave heat to the air in the form of white puffs, but he was feeling good about getting sunshine. Sometimes you just needed that Vitamin D, that brought a glow to everything.
So, it seemed like a good day to walk some shelter dogs - or shelter unicorns, or Pokémon, or whatever was available. Dan was fine with dogs though, and without fail there was always going to be a pitbull or several who needed some attention - since most people seemed to care about the more conventionally cute dogs, fluffy ones, rather than the breed with a bad rap.
Maybe he was just great at giving chances to down-on-their luck creatures, because it had happened to him before. Billy had taken a chance on him and he’d managed to turn his life around - now he was here, still repaying his debt, and he’d selected a dumb blockhead to walk for the afternoon and get him a hot dog, that was the plan. From one of the carts nearby, dotted in the nearest park.
Oh, and it was a date too. With Allison. She’d never had a pet before so he thought this might be interesting - pet for a day, no commitment? Or she could hate it and prefer the glamour of Hollywood, where movie stars carried their dogs in their purses for prime pap photos.
Sniffsniffsniff. Smokey, the pitbull who was utterly terrifying while he stuck his face into a bush to smell it, clearly seemed to be happy about getting some exercise. “It’s tempting to just adopt him, but - “ Dan trailed off. He’d only recently moved into Sabrina’s place and he wasn’t sure she’d be into that. Azzie definitely wouldn’t be.
Allison hadn’t had a pet before and she’d really only interacted with a few animals on shows. None of them ever stuck around and she’d never really thought about the idea of having a pet. So today’s outing was different from what she was used to. They definitely didn’t have such unusual pets back home. Not that she was aware of anyway.
She’d gone for a dog that was a little more beginner level. One of the better walkers according to the shelter. He was an older dog but Allison didn’t really mind. It seemed sad to think about the older dogs in the shelters still, but maybe someone would come in looking for one or at least feel for the dog and adopt it. She was pretty sure his name was Joe. She wasn’t sure who had given it to him, but someone clearly had.
She glanced over at Dan while Joe did his own sniffing, peeing on a patch of grass after a lot of circling. She wasn’t sure what grass made the cut and which ones didn’t. What was the selection process? I assume it’s something to do with the cat you just got? She wasn’t sure if Azzie would like dogs or not, but from what she knew, cats could be picky about that. Dogs, too. I feel for Joe and the other older dogs. I could at least get used to walking the shelter animals more often. You could get your dog fix that way.
Dan chuckled ruefully. “Yeah, I think Azzie needs to feel like the Queen of the Castle,” he said. “She’s good with Salem but a dog would just be too much for her.” Probably too much for the house too - the idiot creature would get into the jars that held demons inside, and then literal, actual Hell would break loose on the island. He didn’t think that’d be great for anyone involved.
“This seems like a good way to get the dog fix though,” he agreed. The shelter had a program where you just signed out which dogs you wanted to spend a day with, they got to experience something else besides cage bars and a cold floor, and it probably boosted their mood - if he knew anything about dog moods, which he didn’t.
Smokey was a pretty decent leash walker - he was younger than Joe, so a little more rambunctious, but Dan had a firm grip on him. Mostly Smokey just wanted to sniff everything - really stimulate those senses, he guessed, since the shelter was probably pretty boring. So he aimed Smokey toward the hot dog cart, since it was about snack time. One hand wrapped the leash around it a couple times, the other reached for Allison’s free hand, lacing their fingers.
“I wanted to talk to you about something?” he hedged, which was a lot better than ‘we need to talk.’ A phrase like that always heralded doom and clanging alarm bells.
At least she knows what she wants and you’re aware of it. She smiled a little as she watched Smokey. At least he seemed happy where he was, which was nice. She had a feeling Claire would have been excited about this, but then she’d probably want a dog and Allison would have to navigate that. But she was happy to have this moment to walk a dog and be outside and feel kind of normal for a second.
Her smile grew as he laced their fingers together and she lightly squeezed. Talk about something. She studied him for a moment trying to get a read on him and the mood. Okay. What did you want to talk about?
“Nothing bad,” Dan promised, pausing to free his legs from where Smokey had done some kinda happy dance, wrapping around him and getting the leash tangled - he probably smelled the hot dogs which, in that case, Dan didn’t blame him for being excited. “I have a friend who - “
Right. Anders. How the fuck should he describe Anders? He wasn’t sure if ‘Eldritch abomination’ was correct, especially because he didn’t really know what that meant. All he knew was that he’d gotten himself into some shit, was stubborn about getting out of it, but was still a decent person. A good person.
Whose decisions had been...questionable. “He’s a healer, he uses magic,” Dan continued. “I asked if he could heal your throat and he said he could, if we wanted to meet with him and you can give him more detail about things.”
Allison stilled for a long moment. Healing. Someone who could heal her. She felt a lot of emotions at once. It was kind of terrifying to want something so much, but she tried to control her expressions. It didn’t really work, but she tried anyway. She’d never really considered that someone could heal her. And even if she had, she didn’t know anyone well enough to ask.
Really? She finally focused her attention back on Dan after a very long moment of staring into space and trying to think through things. He could do that? And...and then… She was too anxious to even think about how she could maybe talk again. Like if she wanted it too much, it wouldn’t happen. She’d been carefully attending to her throat, changing the dressing, staring at it in the mirror and hoping that she wasn’t missing that it looked worse than it was. So far, it didn’t seem that way.
And you trust him? Because that was the most important part. If Dan trusted him, then she would.
Dan stilled too; he tightened his grip on the leash with one hand, in case Smokey got any bright ideas about running off, though the other came up and touched Allison’s cheek, thumb sweeping up over the bone - she had pretty cheekbones (they could chop wood they were so sharp), no wonder the camera had loved her.
“Yeah, I do,” he confirmed. Maybe others didn’t, and in addition to that, Dan knew what Anders had done - but he also knew what Anders did before the cathedral explosion too. How he’d set up a clinic to treat people who couldn’t afford to pay to be healed. How much he truly wanted to help and make a difference, even if that all spiraled out of his control and turned tragic in the end, in part because he seemed to feel like nobody believed in him (and there was some truth to the phrase ‘revolution devours its children’) - things hadn’t turned tragic here yet though, and Dan held out hope that they wouldn’t.
On the flip side, it was also true that if this ended up hurting Allison, when Dan was putting trust into him, Anders would see what his berserker rage was like and spoiler: It wasn’t pretty. But he didn’t think it would come to that.
“Is it something you want?” he asked, just to be sure.
She was grateful for the small hint of affection, happy to take comfort in it for that moment. Okay. If you trust him, I will too. Because she knew Dan enough to know that he had a good head on his shoulders. Maybe they’d both fucked up over the years, but she trusted Dan’s opinion. He was a good person and the people around him were probably good people, too. At least moderately okay people. No one was perfect.
I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything more. The thought was quiet because she’d seen what wanting things had gotten them all, what wanting them had become for her. The kind of wanting it that makes you worry it won’t work somehow. Because what if the universe just wanted that for her? What it that was her punishment for everything that she’d done. Years of taking advantage of her powers, nearly using them on Vanya again. All of it. Now she was silent.
Do I need to do anything? I guess that’s more of a question for him, but I don’t know if he said anything about it.
“If it doesn’t work, then we tried - and maybe some other kind of magic will be the key. It’s - this whole island is powered by magic,” Dan said. “I think it’ll work out.” He knew it would - and he’d keep thinking positively about it too.
He leaned in to close the miniscule distance between them and kissed her; when he did, he felt full of electricity and when he whispered don’t worry, I’ve got you, it was as if the thought passed through a static charge. Sometimes people compared kissing to fireworks but it surprisingly wasn’t that, which seemed too cliché - it was more like a myriad of shades, what would happen if you set a watercolor ablaze. “You don’t need to do anything,” he added, once he’d pulled back slightly. Not out of Allison’s space, only enough to use words out loud. “Just let me know when you want to meet with him.”
They’d go from there. He didn’t know what magical healing entailed, but hopefully it wasn’t too complicated.
She hoped he was right because to have it be a possibility and for it not to work would definitely be upsetting. She was just anxious. But at least Dan was there to pick up the positivity slack.
Allison felt a warmth in her chest when he kissed her. It was a pleasant sensation and she found that she liked that she could hear his voice in his head in that moment. The words both relaxed her and endeared Dan to her even more. She opened her eyes slowly, looking up at him. It seemed kind of ridiculous how much she liked him. She hadn’t expected it. She felt like she just stumbled into both a friendship and into dating. But she was glad she had. I’m not terribly busy, so I can work around schedules if necessary. She pulled her hair over one shoulder. Thank you. For thinking of me. And this.
She gave him a quick smile, leaning up to give him another kiss. I think you’re even more cute now.
Dan chuckled into that kiss, warm and throaty, sliding an arm around Allison’s waist. “No need to thank me,” he murmured. “I think of you pretty often.” He was curious as to what would happen next - obviously, he couldn’t ask ‘so how do you think you’ll handle having your powers back?’ because it was difficult to gauge something without it...actually having occurred. But he knew that she had been addicted to the ease those powers provided, probably in both her personal and professional life. She’d never been taught otherwise, especially since her father seemed to encourage using those powers for personal gain.
Still, the ease of being able to control minds and make the puppets dance was like a drug - heady all on its own - and Dan knew what that was like. He’d be Allison’s sponsor if necessary.
“What’s this about you still thinking I’m cute - shit,” he laughed, the breath whooshed out of him as he stumbled and knocked right into Allison, since Smokey saw a squirrel or something and darted forward. He also got them tangled up again, so Dan bent to try to extricate them from the leash trap. Joe was just sitting there, all polite. He envied that. “Okay, okay - hot dog time. I can take a hint.”
It was nice to be thought of. She was also glad to know she wasn’t the only one. As for the after, it would be difficult. She’d been doing that for a while. But she knew that if it was available to her, it would be something that was on her mind. But she would do everything in her power to keep control of it. That was why she was going to train and get better control of her physical abilities. She’d have to trust herself and the people around her.
I’m always going to think you’re cute, so you should probably get used to it. She felt a jolt of surprise as Dan bumped into her, but she had to laugh. Just a little. It was like being in a cliche romance movie. She shook her head a little as they got untangled.
Hot dog time or he just wants us to find love. She snorted, lightly pulling on Joe’s leash to get him to walk forward. I’ve been in movies like that before. Very interesting to know it’s like real life sometimes.
To his credit, Dan didn’t have a heart attack at the words ‘find love.’ He supposed it was possible - he just never had it happen to him before. Had never felt anything resembling that, not for another person - not romantically, anyway. He’d loved his mother and he’d loved Billy, platonically, he’d been Dan’s best friend - but that whole thing, that ‘can’t fight it, fire in the walls,’ floaty and foam and in his bloodstream stuff? No. Not yet.
Never say never, though.
“Life imitates art, sometimes,” he pointed out, approaching the cart and ordering two hot dogs - hold the buns. Kind of an odd request but maybe not too odd since lots of people probably brought their pups here.
He gave Smokey one of the weiners and the pitbull eagerly scarfed it up, nom nom nom. His happiness was so pure, it was difficult not to smile at the sight. “If you think I’m cute, you should definitely kiss me again - while the dog’s distracted,” Dan suggested.
Allison knew it, but she wasn’t sure that she could entirely call it love because it was built on a lie, on something she’d done. She loved her daughter with everything in her heart. She also loved her stupid siblings. But she was happy where she was right now. Liking someone wasn’t new. Lord knew she’d liked Luther. Maybe loved him. But she couldn’t now. Not like that. Not after everything with Vanya. But Dan was nice. She was enjoying the dates and spending time with him.
Sometimes. Never experienced a real life meet-cute when I’m already on a date, though. She laughed soundlessly at the concept. She stayed quiet when they got to the hot dog cart, smiling a little. She took the other hot dog, holding it out to Joe. He took it gently, moving off to the side to lie down as he chewed on his hot dog, happily content.
Allison pressed her lips together in an effort not to laugh at Dan. It did earn him another kiss, however. But to be fair, she’d wanted to kiss him again anyway.
Hot Dog Cart Guy was probably rolling his eyes at them, but Dan didn’t care. He kissed Allison in return, sugary sweet - he wasn’t about to punch into her mouth with his tongue in public. Sometimes he had manners, a far cry from the days when - well, he did not.
“First time for everything,” he pointed out, with a little smirk. “Okay, let’s - see what else these two want to sniff.”
For Smokey, it was probably everything. Joe was just such a good boy, Dan was convinced that he was really a wise old oracle in a dog’s body (he had to be like, fifty years old - he was so grey on the muzzle and probably missing teeth) but. It was a nice day, so they’d continue on.
And then probably end up adopting the old geezer dog later.