Chapter Text
When Danny came home he immediately noticed something was wrong. Things didn't feel right. Sunglasses on the table and a women's shoe in front of the stairs basically confirmed everything for him. Dammit, Elliot had a girl over. Danny knew it wasn't fair of him to go on dates with Karen while telling Elliot to just stay home and stop hooking up with all his girls, but it had to be this way. With too many people, women especially, coming in and out of the house, someone was bound to notice and report them.
He told the small voice in the back of his head to shut up when it tried to remind him that there was more to this feeling, the one that made his skin crawl, and made his way up the stairs.
Danny burst through the door of their bedroom only to see Elliot quickly cover himself with a pillow and stand in front of the bathroom door.
"Elliot, what the hell is going on in here- Hi, Mrs. Conway- Elli-" he started, until it hit him.
What the fuck?!?
"Mrs. Conway?"
The woman peeked from behind Elliot.
"How are you, Danny?"
How is he?!? Seriously?!?
"Oh, I'm fine, thank you."
Danny's parents raised him to always be polite to his elders, even if all he wanted to do right now was scratch her eyes out. He cursed himself in his head for feeling this weird, wrong way about Elliot hooking up with his mother's best friend, then immediately tried to explain it with the age gap. Yeah, that's why he felt like this, definitely. She was simply just too old for him. Said friend meanwhile finally stopped rambling excuses and made a quick exit. She left and Danny was annoyed. Annoyed at the situation, his feelings, his own best friend. Who was still standing in front of him and about to see Danny's anger burst out.
"She was paying my rent, and I think I owe her for it!"
Owe her what, sex?!
Even the thought sounded wrong in Danny's head, but right now he was too mad to care about any of it. It just wasn’t right.
"Okay, right now I'M paying your rent, so you owe ME."
I didn't mean it like that! Or.. did I? Huh??
They would've probably continued fighting way longer if they hadn't heard Malcolm screaming outside. They both ran outside to witness Mrs. Conway and Malcolm yelling at each other over flowers, ending with the man calling her a bitch. Danny privately agreed with him, especially after today. Mrs. Conway stormed off and Craig led a distraught Malcolm inside, leaving only Danny and Elliot out. Elliot started laughing and Danny wasn't sure if it was at the situation or their landlord being very queer, but it somehow made his stomach turn more than anything else. So, he blew up again. Yelled at Elliot for not taking their deal seriously, for being so careless. Elliot basically ignored him and just blew him a kiss before going upstairs, obviously not bothered at all. Danny made one step towards their bedroom before stopping. No, he needed to get out. Now.
He slammed the front door on the way out to let Elliot know he was leaving and angry. A small part of him kinda hoped Elliot would chase after him but truth be told he really didn't want to talk to him anymore, at least not until he cooled down a little. Danny stood in front of their house for a few minutes, contemplating where he should go. Definitely not to his parents, they wouldn’t get it. He even briefly considered Karen, but he didn't have the strength to play the attentive fiancé he was supposed to be. Then he saw the ruined flowers in front of him and decided. Being neighborly it is.
Danny's knock on the door was answered by a curious Craig, who let him in with an understanding smile.
"It's Danny, dear." he called back to Malcolm inside the house and led Danny to the living room.
"Now what brings you to our lovely home, Danny?" asked Malcolm, bringing in a tray with three full glasses and some snacks.
"Well mostly I just wanted to apologize," at the men's confused glances he continued, "about your flowers, that is. Didn't expect our unwanted guest to cause so much trouble. I swear I'll fix it, pay for new flowers or even plant them, anything!" he rambled, looking down.
They really didn't need to be in their landlords' bad books to add to all this mess.
"Oh Danny darling, it's not your fault. Though I won't refuse a hand when replanting them, Craig here isn't much help with those things."
When Danny lifted his head in surprise, Malcolm was smiling at him kindly.
"Now, I'm sure you didn't come here just to apologize for something that wasn't your fault. Would you like to tell us what's wrong?"
Danny wanted, like really wanted to be able to talk about all this mess he found himself in. But he also knew he couldn't say a thing. He was a man, and men suffer in silence and deal with things on their own. Even if his current thoughts made him less of a man, the looming threat of the army finding out he and Elliot faked it made his throat close up. So he just sat there and stared at his landlords with tears in his eyes, not daring to make a sound.
"Honey.." Malcolm started before Craig jumped right in.
"Is Elliot giving you trouble?"
When Danny didn't answer, just hunched more in on himself, Craig continued.
"Is he.. maybe.. chasing different skirts than just yours?"
The statement made Danny stand up, getting ready to leave. He didn't want to hear about this. Elliot and his ladies weren’t a topic he wanted to discuss, especially not with people who thought they were a couple.
"I don't know what you're talking about." he muttered and started walking towards the door, but another sentence made him stop in his tracks.
"Is it just other boys? Or girls too?"
"I'm sorry?"
Malcolm's question didn't make any sense to Danny, these guys were supposed to think they were gay!
"Your boy, does he chase after girls too?"
Too? What does he mean TOO?
"We're.. we're together." countered Danny weakly.
"And you're an adorable couple, Danny. Malcolm here just meant to ask if Elliot was bisexual, and if what's troubling you is another man or, maybe, a woman. Women are usually a bigger problem."
"Oh please, as if some men are any better."
Before the couple could start bickering Danny spoke up again.
"What does bisexual mean?"
"Well, that depends on who you ask. Some people will tell you nothing like that exists. But the right people know it means you like both. Men AND women."
"Oh ."
A lot of things were happening in Danny's head. It was going to be a mess to go through, but at least some thoughts and feelings started to make a little more sense. He just nodded at the couple and left, needing to figure this out on his own.
When Danny returned back home, it was dark. He spent hours walking around the beach and even the city, trying to sort through his thoughts. The guys gave him a lot to think about, and think he did. He actually had to sit down for a bit, once he connected the dots. Finally putting a name to those thoughts about Elliot and other boys, to all the complicated feelings he hadn't allowed himself to even acknowledge.. He'd broken down crying one moment, the realization that there were people that felt like this making it hard to keep it together. He wasn't alone. Even though there was still a voice in his head, sounding suspiciously like his father, telling him feeling like this was wrong, unnatural even, it wasn't as loud as before. Now there were voices of Craig and Malcolm yelling back at his father, keeping him in check.
The house was dark. To Danny, it didn’t come as a surprise, it was definitely past 2AM and Elliot must’ve gone to bed hours ago. Out of the two of them, Danny was the one who stayed up late. When Elliot didn’t have a date he went to sleep early, always citing something about early birds and morning runs. Danny didn’t understand the appeal but let him be, since his own sleep wasn’t being interrupted.
He locked the door behind him, smiling at the light still being on in their landlords’ house and turned the living room light on. He wasn’t about to trip over something, even though the thought of him tripping and waking Elliot up was kind of tempting. What he didn’t expect, when he turned around, was Elliot himself sitting on the couch in the dark. He let out a scream and touched his chest, trying to calm his heart down.
“Jesus, what are you doing here?! Scared the crap outta me!”
“Well I was waiting for you, loverboy.” Danny rolled his eyes when Elliot put on his ‘gay voice’.
“It’s long after midnight, do you know how worried I’ve been?”
Normally the obviously fake dramatics would get on Danny’s nerves, but after he cleared his head everything felt weirdly calm.
“No, and I don’t really care.”
Elliot’s smile faded a little, but Danny couldn’t find it in himself to care. He started walking towards the stairs, looking back at his friend for a second.
“I’m going to bed.”
Only when he was already lying in bed facing the wall, he felt the other side dip under the weight of Elliot’s body. Neither of them spoke as Danny finally fell asleep.