This Boat is Not a Home

Let's get one thing clear: Danny Mahealani was not in love with Isaac Lahey. For a long time, he didn't even notice him. He wasn't really noteworthy, just a quiet kid who sat at the back of the classroom, his head kept low. He wasn't particularly good at lacrosse, but he wasn't really bad either, which was probably part of the reason he didn't really show up on Danny's radar for a long while.

Until suddenly he was really good. Like, really good. Who was this kid and where had he been hiding that talent? And then he started to stand out a little more, started showing up to classes late, started causing trouble with Erica (and speaking of, where had that complete personality change come from). Then he was hanging out a lot with Scott, who, come to think of it, had a miraculous outburst of amazing lacrosse skill just a few months before. Huh.

And don't think Danny didn't notice that even Jackson had recently become much better (which was saying a lot), and they were all spending a weird amount of time together, along with Allison, and Stiles, and Lydia, and Erica and Boyd. And if that wasn't a really bizarre grouping, he didn't know what was.

And whatever the reason for their sudden kinship was, they were intentionally leaving Danny out of it, would suddenly clam up the moment he got near, stop talking and quickly, but not so discretely change the subject to something arbitrary and awkward.

And it really didn't take him long to figure it out, because he's a lot smarter than just about everyone in the school, when he puts his mind to something, it's not hard to find a solution. And, let's face it, Scott McCall cannot keep a secret if his life depended on it, so when Danny confronted him with all the evidence he'd gathered, it only took about two minutes to break him.

"Werewolves?" Danny repeated. Scott offered him an apologetic shrug. Danny blinked a few times, wondering if maybe Scott was on drugs or something. That might explain the sudden increase is athletic ability, but sadly, werewolves kind of made sense. More sense than drugs, and just what had his life come to that werewolves made sense over seemingly rational possibilities? What was that thing about reality being stranger than fiction?

We seem to be getting off track here, where were we? Oh, right.

Danny was not in love with Isaac.

In fact, the first time Isaac kissed him, he was kind of mad. Really angry, in fact.

"I'm not the testing ground for every guy in this school who's a little curious!" he exclaimed, then walked away, leaving a very shocked Isaac standing alone in the school gym. And, okay, he probably would have been a lot nicer about it if it hadn't been for that incident with Greenberg last week, but seriously!

"I'm not…" Isaac said the next time they saw each other. He struggled to find the words he wanted to say. "I'm not curious. I probably shouldn't have kissed you like that, but I'm not curious. I know exactly what I want. You're not my first choice, but it looks to me like you aren't getting the one you want either, so… yeah." It was Isaac's turn to leave Danny, and hell if he wasn't confused, he didn't know what he was.

The next day at lunch, he sat down with the rest of the pack and maybe gained a little clarity. It still boggled the mind, their odd little group, made up of popular kids and social lepers alike, and a much sense as they absolutely didn't make, they somehow kind of made perfect sense.

Danny looked over at Isaac, but didn't say anything, because what did one say to the boy who he barely knew, and couldn't quite figure out? But Isaac wasn't paying much attention to Danny, nor anyone else at the table. He was boredly picking at his food, occasionally commenting on whatever the current argument was with little enthusiasm. And then Scott made a silly comment that made Allison laugh, and Isaac would look up at them as they giggled and behaved in an overly affectionate manner and right then, Danny totally got it. He looked to Jackson and Lydia, who were similarly coupled, but not quite so nauseating, but nonetheless 100 percent painful to watch, and it made absolute, perfect sense.

Because Isaac felt for Scott the way Danny felt for Jackson. They were in the exact same boat. In love with a boy who was in love with a girl. And Danny knew what it was like in that boat. That boat sucked, in the worst way possible. That was the lonely boat, the boat that seemed to be lost at sea forever, with no way out. Except to abandon ship and hope that somewhere along the swim back to mainland, someone would find you and pull you in, offer you a warm blanket and a ride home.

So, Danny wasn't Isaac's first choice, and Isaac wasn't Danny's first choice, but neither was half bad for second best.

As it turned out, Danny kind of liked Isaac. He liked his fluffy hair, and the way he smiled, and the way his eyes fluttered closed when he was content. Isaac was wildly different from Jackson, and wildly different from pretty much every guy he'd dated (which were mostly carbon copies of Jackson anyway), and maybe that was a good thing. Maybe that was the best thing.

And maybe, somewhere along the way, sometime after their first kiss, and their second, sometime after high school graduation, after his first year away from college, but in the summer before sophomore year, before things got real serious, when the wind was blowing through bright green trees and nothing particularly terrifying was looming over them, he realized something that never really occurred to him before.

"I love you."