A/N: Um, okay, so I know that I REALLY have to explain this one. It's not something I would normally do, at all, but if you give me a minute I'm sure that I can convince you that this is as awesome as it is in my head. X3
So, first of all, lately I've been having a teenage!Watchmen group stuck in my head thanks to Mel-The-Shadow-Lover on DA. She drew this adorable picture of them in these cute yellow-and-black uniforms, and then wrote a fanfic (with unfortunately only two chapters thus far) about it. Which is awesome. And her main pairing is DanWalt, so it makes me happy~
Second of all, my sister is obsessed with Taylor Swift's new song, as is one of my friends. And I'll admit, while I don't usually listen to Taylor's music WHATSOEVER, I like this song a LOT. – Reminds me of 'Girl Next Door' by Saving Jane. Except, luckily, she never mentions in her song that she's a girl, so by borrowing her lyrics for my fic, you'd think a guy might be singing this song instead; which is what my sister and I thought of today when we heard 'You Belong With Me' on the radio in the car.
Earlier, when my friend first discovered this song, she sent me a link to its music video on youtube, and immediately I loved the story in the video. So I'm going to make a parody of it paired with the AU high school idea.
And thus this fic has been born. I swear it's not half as cheesy as it sounds, simply because of my background thoughts for it. Unlike some other people, I'm making this songfic out of purpose, and not because I overly fangirl a slash pairing and like some country-ish love song.
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Warning: includes slash and a semi-unrequited love quadrangle: WalterXDanXLaurieXJon.
Walter Kovacs, a growth-stunted young man of seventeen, lays in his too-cramped bedroom on a lumpy mattress, pleased that his whore of a mother is gone for the night, but not so pleased with the imagery he spots across the alley of his New York apartment into his neighbor's home.
You're on the phone
With your girlfriend,
She's upset;
She's going off about
Something that you said,
'Cause she doesn't get your humor
Like I do.
He watches in perfect silence as his friend Daniel paces the length of his large bedroom, clearly appearing apologetic and nervous. He can tell by the way Daniel bites as his cuticles that he's on the phone with Laurie, a girl he's been seeing for a little over two months, now. But he can tell by the way Laurie looks at Daniel's science club pal, Jon, that she'd rather not be with him. It's only a matter of time before her unappreciative presence is gone completely, and leaves poor Daniel in pieces. Dan is too soft for his own good; too gentle, too caring, too naïve to see that Laurie is using him, and isn't right for him at all.
Currently, Walter can hear as he lifts his window and sticks his head out that Dan apparently made a bad joke, something Laurie mistook for a serious remark. Dan has an odd sense of humor that is a bit dry and a little too quick in it's comings and goings to be noticed as a joke, and sometimes he blows things off that embarrass him or stress him out by joking about it. And Laurie, apparently, doesn't understand this.
But then again, she never understood Dan to begin with; not like Walter did. After all, they were best friends; have been since Dan moved to New York and migrated towards the nerdy and other socially-awkward outcasts.
I'm in the room,
It's a typical Tuesday night;
I'm listening to the kind of music
She doesn't like.
She'll never know your story
Like I do.
Walter sighs to himself and leans back from his window and sits against his bed. The eerie, hardcore rock music that he got Dan interested in plays in the background. It's the sort of thing a cheerleader like Laurie insists that Dan stop playing because it's nothing but electric noise with scattered, deep-throated singing, and not at all like the upbeat dance and pop that she listens to.
He notices that Daniel is off of the phone, and watches as the brunet runs a hand through his hair and turns to the window. He spots Walter, smiles tiredly, and waves.
The redhead shrinks against his bed but offers a timid wave in return, to signal that he can see Dan, too.
Daniel motions to the ground, and scissors his fingers on the palm of his opposite hand. 'Let's take a walk,' the gesture says.
Walter stands and nods, pretending not to care, like he always does. He's known as the quiet, but easily angered and violent type, though he's careful around Daniel since Daniel never does anything wrong. Daniel's pure, in a sense of the term.
Although he was wrong to choose to go out with a girl like Laurie, whom was out of his league in that too-pretty, too-popular way, and whom was clearly falling in love with someone besides him. It was like she was using him as a tool to get to Jon. It was so obvious to Walter, and yet Dan couldn't see it. Maybe because he didn't want to.
But she wears short skirts,
I wear t-shirts;
She's cheer captain,
And I'm on the bleachers…
Walter hastily slips his favorite grey hoodie over his white wife-beater tank and runs a brush through his unruly orange hair as he heads out the door of his bedroom. He races down the steps past all the levels of the apartment building, and just before he reaches the main entrance, steels himself to seem as though he isn't as eager as he actually is. He doesn't want Daniel knowing just how much he relies on the owl-obsessed boy's friendship; in all honesty, it's the only positive relationship Walter has ever had with anyone. And although their relationship is platonic, and seemingly one-sided on Daniel's part, it means more to Walter than he ever dares to let on.
Dan is waiting on the bottommost cement step leading up to Walter's apartment complex, and he stands and smiles when he hears his friend's soft footsteps.
Walter glances down at his Converse high-tops. "Had another spat with Laurie?"
Daniel sighs as they begin to walk down the dirty sidewalk. "Yeah… How'd ya know?"
"Could tell," Walter says simply. He dips his hands into his hoodie pockets and withdraws three individually-wrapped sugar cubes, ones he always carries with him. It's the one sweet (or food in general) he buys with his own money that his mother allows him to have, and somehow, he's gotten addicted to them. He offers one to Daniel, whom politely declines. He unwraps it and pops it into his mouth, crunching automatically on the melting sugar.
Dan sighs for a second time. "I don't know what to do anymore, Walter. I really like Laurie, and I don't want to let her go, but…"
Walking the streets
With you and your worn out jeans,
I can't help thinking,
'This is how it ought to be.'
The redhead nods in understanding. He finishes Dan's sentence. "You're not happy."
Dan glances away, and anxiously picks some of the blue fuzz on the frayed hole in the left knee of his jeans. "No, I'm not happy. I want to be, but I'm beginning to feel like I'm trying too hard." He pauses to smile ironically. "I should've known that karma would come around and bite my ass for breaking the cheerleaders-don't-date-nerds rule."
"Not a nerd, Daniel," Walter corrects, because even though Daniel is interested in Ornithology and spends his lunches in the library, he stands up for himself in fights and doesn't always get good grades in everything.
"Thanks for saying so, man, but you know that's a lie," Dan teases. "And anyway, it's not like I have it in me to say no to people. Even if I'm not happy, I like seeing others happy. And Laurie's happy with me… I think. She might not be right now, but when we go out on dates she seems content enough. So, I dunno, I guess I just have to try harder. Maybe I'm not doing this dating thing right; and it's not like I have much experience to go off of, either."
Or parents to help him figure it out and give advice; Dan's a foster-child, waiting until he's eighteen so that he can live on his own.
They hop over the fence of a nearby park, and stroll in the deserted grass towards a bench under an old oak tree. Daniel sits down first, and then pats beside him as an invitation for Walter to join him. After a minute of debate with himself, Walter complies and makes sure to sit as far away from Daniel as possible. He crosses his arms over his chest. "What now?"
Daniel blows air out form between his pink lips. "I dunno," he says at length. "Maybe I should wait it out, see what Laurie wants to do. If she says she wants to break up, then I will."
"Have some backbone!" Walter growls, "Dump her yourself, don't compromise with her! Not worth it." He adds the last phrase with resentment laced in his tone.
The brunet blinks. "Something wrong, man?" he asks.
"What makes you think so?" Walter retorts a touch too high.
Daniel studies him with a tilt of his head. "It's just… you seem more bitter than usual. Did your mom… uh…"
Walter grunts. "Hnk. None of your business what goes on at house," he snaps. Then he gives a small shrug, as if admitting to something he'd rather not admit to. "But no, didn't hit me again. Don't worry."
Dan smiles gently, and for a second, Walter can't suppress the minute spread of heat under the freckles on his cheeks. Then, the brunet ventures, "Can I have one of those sugar cubes?"
Laughing on a park bench,
Thinking to myself,
'Hey, isn't this easy?'
Half an hour passes, and in the course of it, Dan's spirits are lightened by Walter's gruff quirks, which never fail to make Dan laugh. But the laughs are shallow, and Walter can't help but hear the forced undertone in them, and the lack of warmth in some of Dan's smiles.
And you've got a smile
That could light up this whole town;
I haven't seen it in awhile,
Since she brought you down.
You say you're fine;
I know you better than that.
Hey, what're you doing
With a girl like that?
Before Laurie and Daniel started dating, Daniel used to grin with a warm brightness that could always stir Walter's stomach with squirming caterpillars. But now the owl-obsessed boy doesn't smile like that anymore, not since Laurie became more demanding. She's a bossy girlfriend who wants constant attention, and if it's not given to her, she complains that her boyfriend doesn't care about her any longer, which is never true.
Walter asked Daniel once if he was alright with Laurie's high-maintenance personality, and he said that it's fine, that they're fine, that he's fine. But Walter knew better.
So, in this moment, he rolls a sugar cube around in his mouth and challenges, "Why be with someone like Laurie?"
Daniel freezes, and for an entire moment doesn't at all take the challenge, merely chews on his lower lip and stares at the ground with searching eyes, as if the ground has all the answers. Finally, he mumbles, "Because she came to me first, and I was too shy and flattered to say no."
"And now too scared to say no, like dog with tail between legs."
The other knows that this is true, and abruptly stands to leave, muttering something about a curfew.
He leaves Walter to himself on the park bench, street lamp and pollution-covered stars illuminating his dingy-clothed body. He huffs in nonchalance, although he's vaguely wounded inside.
She wears high heels,
I wear sneakers;
She's cheer captain,
I'm on the bleachers;
Dreaming about the day
When you wake up and find
That what you're looking for
Has been here the whole time…
School is as difficult as ever, but it passes by smoothly. Walter takes each day in stride, and watches slowly as Daniel's and Laurie's romance falls apart, and Laurie moves on to handsome Jon and Daniel sinks into the floor.
Walter finds him one day in the library, not even touching his brown-paper-bag lunch. He stares off into nothing, and looks depressed. Walter comes to sit beside him. "Dan."
The brunet looks up from behind large, Coke-bottle-thick glasses. "Huh? – Oh, hi, Walter. What's up?"
"Was going to ask you same thing," Walter says curtly. He doesn't normally initiate human contact, but this time he nudges Dan's arm with his elbow. "Why looking so down? Not Laurie, is it?"
"Uh… no, no. Not Laurie. Just… a combination of all sorts of things." He fidgets uncomfortably and slides his glasses further up on his nose. "D'ya want my lunch? I'm not hungry, and all I ever see you eat is sugar cubes. That can't be healthy."
Walter shrugs. "Sure." He takes the bag and opens it, pulling out half a sandwich. By the end of the period, he gets Daniel to eat at least the other half, but nothing else. He can't let Daniel starve any more than Daniel can let him starve.
If you could see
That I'm the one
Who understands you;
Been here all along,
So why can't you see,
You belong with me.
The next week becomes increasingly awkward as Dan begins to stutter every so often around Walter, and Walter finds himself occasionally making the smallest of smiles, because Dan is beginning to brighten up and be himself once more.
Standing by and
Waiting at your backdoor;
All this time
How could you not know?
Baby,
You belong with me,
You belong with me.
On one of these nights in particular, Walter gazes up from the alleyway at Daniel's window, and by chance, Dan peers out and looks around, eyes finally landing on the scene below him. He sees Walter, and motions for him to come up to his room. Hiding embarrassment with a grunt, the redhead agrees and turns the corner of the alley to march up the front steps of Daniel's apartment building.
Oh, I remember
You driving to my house
In the middle of the night;
I'm the one who makes you laugh,
When you know you're about to cry;
And I know your favorite songs,
And you tell me about your dreams;
Think I know where you belong,
Think I know it's with me…
Sitting together in Dan's living room, they decide to put on a movie and talk for a while, Daniel doing most of the talking. And he looks as though he's about to break, like the past month has caught up with him all at once, so Walter makes a couple sarcastic comments about the movie and watches as Dan bursts into laughter.
They chat for a while after the movie, and as Daniel's foster-care parents come home, they migrate to his room with sodas in hand and play all of their favorite songs, muttering the lyrics occasionally to one another in between conversations. Then Daniel confesses some of his dreams of the future, one of them being to go into the police force, since it's the closest thing he can do in comparison to all of the comic book heroes he idolizes.
Walter confesses, too, that he wishes to become a detective. He wants to right wrongs, solve cases, and help rid the world of scum one criminal at a time.
And Dan grins that special, warm, bright smile of his, and says that they should become partners. Walter swallows and shoves down the urge to smile at the idea.
Can't you see
That I'm the one
Who understands;
Been here all along,
So why can't you see
You belong with me…
Just before Walter gets up to leave, Daniel yanks on Walter's sleeve and asks if he wants to spend the night since it's Saturday. This is the first time he's ever asked this, and Walter falters for an unblinking second. "Mean it?" he questions.
Daniel nods. "Of 'course!"
Walter narrows his eyes after looking Dan up and down suspiciously (and he notes, too, that Daniel is flushing lightly under the redhead's scrutinizing gaze). "Why?"
The brunet chuckles weakly. "Do I have to have a reason to ask my best friend to sleep over? I mean, I just thought… y'know… that we were having a good time, s-so why end it?"
Walter absorbs this for a moment, and then his rainy-blue colored eyes widen for a millisecond as he realizes exactly what must be going on in his dorky friend's head. He musters a teeny smile on the corner of his mouth. "Hurm. Sure, Daniel; I'll stay."
Have you ever thought,
Just maybe,
You belong with me?