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Laughter echoes through the dark like a gunshot and Daniel flinches, dirt scrunching beneath his sneakers as he lurches backward without thinking. The undergrowth rustles around him like they're laughing, too, leaves crowding in so thick he can't even make out the moon overhead.
"Easy." Finn's voice is soft in his ear, his hand rubbing gently over Daniel's stomach. "I gotcha, kiddo. Don't be scared."
"I'm not scared," Daniel snaps back, and almost immediately regrets it, because what if he sounds whiny? What if Finn gets pissed off and leaves him all alone in the woods? He doesn't know where Sean is, let alone how to get back to the tent.
But Finn doesn't sound mad at all. "Right, my mistake." He carefully tugs Daniel a little closer, deeper into the shadows of their hiding spot, his smell--sweat and weed and dirt and something else, something purely Finn--filling Daniel's nose. "Dan the Man's not scared of shit, is he? Not like the rest of us punks."
He's pressing against Daniel strangely, an unfamiliar body after so long sleeping next to Sean (and to Mushroom, before the blood and the pain and the clearing full of death). He's all hard angles and lumpy clothes, surprisingly warm on the early spring night, his hands fluttering moth-like over Daniel's skin.
And he's definitely poking something into Daniel's back. Or maybe--maybe that's Finn poking into Daniel's back, the way Sean sometimes pokes Daniel in the morning, before starting awake and squirming away with a soft curse. Finn doesn't seem to notice it, though.
"You..." Daniel coughs, squinting into the dark around them, not sure what it is he's looking for. "I don't think you're scared of anything."
"Oh, I'm scared of a lotta things." Finn's voice is soft in his ear, so quiet Daniel has to strain a little to hear it. "These here woods, for one--you're not scared, but I've always been a bit of a fraidy cat. My brothers used to tease me about all the time."
"You have brothers?" Daniel asks. It's hard to imagine Finn coming from somewhere, rather than just springing fully formed out of whatever factory produces impossibly cool people.
"Sure do! We used to play games like this all the times, but I always freaked out when we did it in the woods." Finn bends down, hair tickling Daniel's ear. "They say there are monsters out there, you know." And then he licks Daniel's ear.
Daniel yelps, hearing a branch crack somewhere, but Finn doesn't seem to notice, and thankfully their pursuers don't, either. Finn snickers, and Daniel should be mad, but his ear is all warm and tingly, and he's all warm and tingly, and he can't swallow back a giggle of his own.
"You--you're fucking mean," he says, trying to sound mad, but he can't stop it bubbling towards laughter again. "I'm gonna tell Sean you were mean to me."
"Oh shit," Finn lets out a gasp of mock horror. "Better start saying my prayers now, then. Your big bro plays all cute and innocent, but he doesn't mess around, does he?" He makes a funny rolling motion, rubbing the hard thing up and down Daniel's back. "I bet he's beaten people to shit for laying a finger on you."
Daniel swallows, remembers his aching head and the old man lying on the ground, the blood on Sean's sneakers. He slides a finger along the hem of his raccoon hoodie, surprised by how long it's been since he thought about where they got it.
"You've watched him do it, right?" Finn's voice is strange all of a sudden, in a way Daniel can't put into words--not scary or mean, just weird. "Was it hot?"
And that's...that's not...
(Sean standing over the man with his chest heaving, fists clenched, eyes glinting gold in the flickering light, teeth bared, shining, burning)
"I don't need him to protect me." Daniel crosses his arms over his chest, trying to ignore how fast his heart is beating. "I can look after myself just fine."
"Of course you can," Finn agrees easily. He does that weird rolling motion again, his fingers lacing over Daniel's chest to keep him still. "Fuck, you're his bodyguard now, aintcha? I see the way you look at poor Cass whenever she gets too close, like you wanna rip her throat out. Grrr."
Fuck. He'd hoped no one would notice. Sean certainly hadn't, too busy laughing and blushing as Cassidy made her stupid jokes, and there'd been a terrible voice in Daniel's head screaming break her break her even as he tried to push it away.
"It's not like she can help herself, though, can she?" Finn taps thoughtfully on Daniel's chest, marking the notes of a song Daniel doesn't know. "Everyone can see it, even dicks like Big Joe and Merrill. Your brother's a total smokeshow, Dan..."
Your brother. Your brother. Always with that, about how much better Sean is than him, how much more of everything, and maybe they're right, but he's tired of hearing it, tired of being left behind by the big kids, tired--
"...just like you." Finn's hand ducks into the neck of Daniel's hoodie, fingers so cool Daniel's breath catches as they pet lightly across his chest, over his, his nipples. "The moment I saw you two in the market, I thought you had to be supermodels on the lam or some shit, you're just too damn gorgeous for real life."
Warmth on Daniel's neck as Finn licks his cheek. "Those big shiny eyes and those tight little asses and that hair, Christ, it's even prettier now." He makes a deep sniffing noise, as if he's breathing Daniel in. "You'll break every heart in the fucking world."
His free hand is very suddenly at Daniel's hip, brushing across the front of his jeans. "Too cute to be all on your lonesomes like that." Another sharp poke, and Finn makes a funny sound, low and strained in Daniel's ears. "Who knows where'd you be without a pack to take care of you?"
Finn shouldn't be touching Daniel like this, Daniel knows that, he's seen teachers talk about it at school, about bad touches and tell a trusted adult. But the touch doesn't...doesn't feel bad, it feels good, the hot and squirmy kind of good that Daniel used to get rubbing against his sheets back home, late at night.
And he's strong enough to send Finn flying if he wants to, so really, if he was in danger, wouldn't the power be tearing out to save him like it always does? Not that he doesn't want that, he doesn't want to hurt Finn, it's just--it's weird. So weird.
"Finn--" he chokes out. His voice is gonna get too loud, he'll lead everyone to their hiding place. "Finn, I..."
"Mmm?" Finn rolls his hips again. "Is something wrong, sweetheart? Do you need me to slow down?" There's an almost teasing edge to his voice, and Daniel can hear the unspoken question: Are you scared now?
Daniel grits his teeth. "You're poking me," he whines, shoving back against Finn with all his might. Finn makes another one of his funny noises, hand tightening on Daniel's bare skin.
"Poking you?" he asks, voice shaking ever so slightly. "With what?" His fingers drum lightly on Daniel's body, tender as rain patter. "Doesn't feel like I'm poking you, Dan. You sure it's not just a branch?"
"It's not your fingers!" Daniel bursts out. "It's your--your--" He swallows, face suddenly heating. This is so stupid, he can swear all fucking day long, but cock dances just out of reach, like he really is just a scared little kid. "Your thing."
"My thing, huh? What kind of thing?" Finn sounds like he's smiling when he says it, playful, and it's impossible to tell whether he's making fun of Daniel or whether he thinks Daniel is telling some kind of joke. "This kind of thing?"
And his hand settles over the front of Daniel's jeans, right where...right where...where Daniel can feel his own thing starting to stand up.
There's a ringing in Daniel's ears. There must be people nearby, running and laughing and swearing, but the world feels shrunk down to him and Finn and the all-encompassing shadows pressing in around them, swallowing them up.
"Easy." Finn takes his hand out of Daniel's shirt and rubs his back, slow circles like Sean does when Daniel gets sick. "Breathe in, breathe out." He takes a deep, slow breath to demonstrate, like Sean does. But he's not Sean, but Sean isn't here, but Finn is, but Daniel doesn't know what to do--
"Do you want to stop?" Finn asks, gently. "We can stop, if you're scared. Go get Sean."
That settles it. "I'm fine," Daniel says, forcing himself to take deep, slow breaths, because he isn't scared and he doesn't need Sean. He can be his brother's bodyguard, he can take care of it, he can handle anything
(he isn't helpless anymore, isn't scared, isn't screaming or crazy next to his dead dog or dead dad)
"Good." Finn lifts the hand on Daniel's pants, just for a minute, and there's a wet spitting sound. "That's real good, Daniel, you don't know how long I've been thinking about this." The hand rubbing Daniel's back dips down to squeeze his ass, not enough to hurt, just enough to make every nerve in Daniel's body tingle.
"You don't know how long I've been thinking about you two." Finn's fingers are slick as they push under Daniel's waistband, into his underwear. "It was drivin' me crazy." His fingers wrap around Daniel's, Daniel's cock and it feels--
Daniel make a punched-out noise and Finn hushes him. "Easy." He stops squeezing Daniel's ass to reach up and slide his fingers between Daniel's lips, petting his tongue. "You don't want big brother to come running, do you?" He's tugging Daniel up or lowering himself down, his cock rubbing over Daniel's ass in short, sharp motions.
And he's touching Daniel's cock and it feels good, it feels so good, so warm and gentle and nice. Daniel grinds down into Finn's hand, breathless, shameless, whole body on fire with more more more. He's started sucking Finn's fingers like a lollipop, cheeks frantically puffing around the intrusion.
"Or maybe you want him to see you like this." Finn's movements are coming faster, almost frantic, his body a vast shuddering ocean that swallows everything up. "Want him to know what a desperate little slut you are, huh, Daniel? Get him to draw a pretty picture of us?"
Something in Daniel flinches at the word slut, but then he's thinking about Sean sitting in front of them right now, pencil a blur across the page, looking up at them with those sharp eyes of his determined to get every detail, seeing them and nothing else, seeing Daniel, who he really is, what he's really capable of.
Sean, looking at him like that. Sean, reaching for him, touching him, as gently as Finn is now. Sean...
"Y-yeah," he slurs around Finn's fingers, and Finn lets out a chuckle that turns into a moan, thrusting so hard that Daniel's sure he'd go flying if he wasn't held securely. His fingers are twitching, he can feel dirt swirling around his feet, but thankfully it's too dark for Finn to see.
"He'll love it." Finn's thumb rubs over Daniel's cock and Daniel swears he can see stars, falling out of the sky all around them. "You both will. He doesn't see it yet, but we're gonna be magic together, the three of us, you'll see, shit--
He makes a final funny noise, muffled in Daniel's hair, as his whole body shudders, fingers jerking roughly from Daniel's mouth. His hips snap against Daniel's ass one last time and falls still, quivering, the hardness suddenly melting away.
"What--" Daniel can't draw breath for more than that.
"I just came, precious." Finn's voice is ragged, like he's just been drowned, but he sounds happy. "Came in my goddamn pants just touching you, holy hell." The hand in Daniel's underwear twists once, twice, three times. "And now I'm gonna return the favor--"
And then Daniel's shaking, too, a hot sharp bolt like a boot to the gut, an explosion cutting him clean through. Nearby there's the sound of shattering wood, rocks dragged off their moorings, but he shoves it away as hard as he can, this is his moment, this is himself and Finn and feeling so good it can't possibly be real.
He slumps in on himself, boneless and panting, like after a hard training exercise, but so much more. Finn coos softly in his ear, gently massaging Daniel's twitching skin as Daniel's heartbeat slowly begins to settle.
"Came dry." Finn lifts his head out slowly, turning it before Daniel's face. "You've still got a bit of time before that shit, yeah? Me, I've got in a pretty decent mess in my pants right 'bout now.”
Daniel squirms, guilt curling like a frond in his belly. "Sorry," he whispers. "Sorry, I didn't--"
"Hey, little man, it's okay." Finn strokes his sweaty hair, tucking a lock behind Daniel's ear. "They needed a wash, anyway." He chuckles. "Not like I'm gonna have a lotta time to scrub up when your brother finds out. He's gonna be pissed at me for getting to you first."
"Screw him," Daniel says instantly, unhesitatingly. Sean gets everything first, but this, this is Daniel's (and he doesn't really want to ask what Finn means about Sean wanting to get him "first," about Sean getting him).
Finn just chuckles, hands lifting away so he can wipe them off on his own shirt. "If you say so, kid." His arms wrap lightly around Daniel's chest again, chin resting on top of Daniel's head. "If you say so."
His voice is soft, and close, and warm, and Finn feels soft, and close, and warm. There's a distant tingling feeling running like through Daniel's limbs, like he's about to unravel and fly away, and with Finn holding him, touching him like this, he really thinks he could.
Hannah finds them not long after, cheerily drunk in a way she rarely is, and they end up beating everyone except for Penny. People complain about Finn smelling weird, but he just laughs and says something about falling in the mud.
And Sean has leaves in his hair and fresh tears in his hoodie and Cassidy is playfully ribbing him about apparently getting ridiculously lost. But his eyes are on Daniel, all Daniel. Daniel feels happier to see him than he has in a while.
Before they all turn in for tonight, Finn squeezes his shoulder. "Wanna do some knife practice tomorrow morning?" he asks. "Think there's a hell of a lot more we could teach each other, Dan."
There's the faintest shiver in his gut when Daniel says yes, but it's gone so quickly he can't be sure. He gives Finn one last hug, breathing in a final quick breath of his scent, before rising back to join Daniel.
"So were you scared out there, Superwolf?" Sean teases as they get ready for bed, as Daniel chatters about how much fun he had with Finn and their awesome hiding place.
"Nope!" And it feels right enough when Daniel says it that it must be true.