A/N: This is my first foray back into the world of writing in eons, or so it feels. Please feel free to be honest, but I ask that you be gentle, too, only because I will edit this later on. It's just been sitting in my head for a while screaming to be let loose on the world. So one day I will fix this, I promise. Standard disclaimer applies, I do not own the characters, just the torture I am inflicting.
Prompt: "Love is like war: easy to begin, hard to end." - Proverb
He couldn't remember when it began exactly, or what had started it. He just knew that one day he looked at her, and it was like seeing her for the first time- the light within her begging to be let out, the joy she set before others with her easygoing smile, and the way she'd take the verbal hits about her size and crack a joke of her own- though he could tell the times it cost her. He could see the person she was on the inside: good, wholesome, funny and smart. These random glimpses were what sank him deeper into that mire known as first love. He didn't plan to act on his feelings because she was his best friend and he told himself that was an important friend to have. He just didn't realize how classifying her as such could be used so miserably against him; because, clearly, if he had known, he probably never be in the position to hear how fantastic his brother was. How adorable Ben could be. And the secret side he kept hidden. Or the fact she'd been in love with Ben for years...
Still, Danny kept his mouth shut. He wanted his actions to do the speaking for him. To show her he'd be there when she needed him. That he'd show up even if he had thought he couldn't. That he'd look out for her heart even when she told him not to. That, at the end of the day or week or event - no matter how horrible, he'd be there for her with arms open. Ready to catch her and hold her up until she was able to do so herself. Not because she was weak, but because she did so much for others. Sometimes, though, Danny wondered if she didn't suspect the way he felt about her, what with the way she would pause and shake her head at his actions before telling him how wonderful a friend he was. That she didn't deserve a wonderful friend like him. He didn't always understand why she felt that way, she deserved so much more than him. Way more than his idiot brother, not that he didn't love Ben. Ben just wasn't able to see her the same way, didn't understand that she was not someone to take lightly, someone who already had strong feelings for said brother. Feelings that could be easily... Take advantage of. Not that he wanted to think about his brother like that, it just that thoughts of the two together upset Danny. Not that Danny wanted to believe the worst of his kid brother but the guy's track record worried him.
To Danny, everything about her was amazing. From the way her now slim frame felt in his arms when she hugged him, to her gentle touch on his cheek with a smile. She was special, she was the light his world needed. The feelings she stirred in him, this feeling of being on fire and igniting the stars in his universe... He'd never trade that for anything. Her name was like a prayer to him, one that could set off the simplest reaction in him.
A smile just for her.
Riley.