A/N: This is for General AU day for Mahealahey week, and also thanks to my lovely beta, blueisjustpretty on Tumblr! She's the best!
The night Danny and Isaac met, they fell in love.
It was the second week of college, and they didn't even really mean for it to happen. Lydia and Jackson met up with Allison and Scott for dinner, Jackson's roommate Danny tagged along, and so did Scott's roommate, Isaac.
"Hey guys." Scott smiled as he reached the hall. "This is my roommate, Isaac."
"Hi." Danny reached his hand out. "I'm Danny."
"Hi." Isaac couldn't hide a smile as he shook Danny's hand, and when Danny smiled back at him, dimples and all, Isaac cast a gaze punctuated with a blush down at the floor.
Because damn. Danny was the most beautiful person he'd ever seen.
The smile and blush weren't lost on Danny, and all through the meal, he and Isaac stole glances at each other.
When it was over, Danny walked up to Isaac. "Do you want to get a cup of coffee with me?"
"Yeah." Isaac smiled. "I'd like that."
One cup turned into two, and two turned into a walk, and somehow, they wound up sitting on a bench in a park at 2 AM, Danny talking about his medical problems as a child, Isaac speaking openly, candidly as he never had before about his family - about the deaths of his brother and mother, about the emotionally taxing sophomore year of high school when his father was arrested for beating him, and he was pinballed around to several relatives before finally finding a comfortable and safe home with some cousins he hadn't even known he had.
Neither was sure when they started holding hands, but around 6 am, Isaac's head was resting on Danny's shoulder, Danny's arm draped around him, as they watched their first sunrise together.
Isaac was normally so slow to trust, but there was something about Danny that just made him feel safe, comforted, and Danny? Well he wasn't normally one to fall fast and hard, but there was something about Isaac that just knocked him flat on his ass.
"I don't think I've ever told anybody that before," Isaac admitted slowly as he finished an explanation of the moment he had finally reported his father, just as the sun finished rising
It wasn't something he liked to talk about, but here, with Danny, talking it all out actually felt good.
"I'm glad you told me," Danny said softly, turning to face Isaac, putting his hand gently on the other man's cheek before leaning in to kiss him.
Isaac met his kiss, returning it, smiling shyly and blushing furiously as they pulled away.
"I can't believe we stayed up all night," Isaac couldn't help but laugh, burying his face in Danny's chest.
"I can." Danny reached up, ruffling Isaac's hair. "I've never met anyone like you before."
"Me neither." Isaac's blue eye made contact with Danny's brown ones, and that was that.
After that, they were practically inseparable. In the library, you could often find the both of them squished together in one of the cushy armchairs, studying, or on a nice day, lying out on the grass in the quad, Isaac's head resting on Danny's stomach as they both read. On the weekends, they could be found in the dark corner of some frat party Jackson had dragged them too, whispering to each other, and kissing, slow and sporadically between drinks, before finally disappearing for the rest of the night. In the dining halls, they could be found with their friends, sitting at a big table, their chairs pushed so close together that their thighs were pressed against each other, because they were always touching, absolutely always. Even if it was some subtle touch - it was like they were one, connected, meant to be together from the moment they had met.
It didn't surprise anybody when they both opted to stay on campus for the summer, working for professors. They rented a one bedroom apartment together 9 blocks from the university, and maybe it was a little fast to be living together, maybe they were a little young, but it felt good, it felt right.
That summer, Isaac started writing poetry - beautiful, haunting, eloquent poetry about abuse, pain, loss, love, freedom. It came from his heart, his soul, words that he didn't know he had, but Danny encouraged him, and it kept flowing forth.
When they celebrated their one year anniversary, it was like nothing had changed. A year together, and they still had every desire to be close to each other.
Every time Isaac wrote, Danny was close by, fiddling on his computer, doing homework, anything at all, and it was as though Isaac drew inspiration directly from him. He flourished in creative writing classes, and when his poetry professor submitted some of his work for an award, he was shocked to learn that he had won.
That was when Isaac started taking it seriously, thinking about his writing, his poems, as more than just a hobby. He switched his major from history to creative writing with a focus in poetry, and started putting everything that he had into his writing.
It only got better, and they only got closer.
Danny, of course, was always slated as a computer science major, and they would often sit together, Danny writing code while Isaac wrote verse, content in silence, content just to be close.
Meals were still the same. They would sit in the dining hall with their still-growing friend group - what was once merely them, Scott, Allison, Lydia, and Jackson, had grown to include new friends – Stiles, Boyd, Erica, Cora, Ethan, Aiden, Kira, and Malia, and they made time for all of these people, even within the parameters of their extremely close relationship.
On Danny's 20th birthday, Isaac surprised him with post-it note poems all over the apartment when Danny came home from class, each one dedicated to something he liked about Danny, and when the trail of poems led Danny, unsurprisingly to their bedroom, Isaac was waiting, smiling at him.
"I know how long you take to write a poem," Danny said softly, slipping onto the bed next to Isaac. "How long did this take you?"
"It doesn't matter." Isaac nuzzled Danny's neck. "It all just came out of me. The way that I feel about you, Danny...that comes easy to me."
"I love you." Danny said with a smile, pulling Isaac into a deep, passionate kiss.
"I love you, too." Isaac smiled up at him, and it didn't matter at all that Isaac didn't have the money for a tangible gift. Danny collected all of the poems that Isaac wrote that night, and put them in a box on his desk.
They were the most important thing anyone had ever given him.
With their Junior year of college, a unique complication came up. Isaac received an opportunity to go to Paris second semester to study poetry in an elite program - only 15 people were accepted every year from all over the world.
"Paris?" Danny looked at Isaac, biting his lip.
"Paris." Isaac nodded, pacing the apartment nervously.
"Paris, France?"
"Paris, France."
"I didn't even know you applied for this," Danny admitted, and to have that be true was shocking - there was very little one did without the other knowing.
"I know." Isaac sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I just never, ever thought in a million years that I would get in..."
"Well you have to go," Danny stated.
"What?" Isaac looked over at him, honestly surprised to find that Danny didn't look angry.
"You have to go, Isaac..." Danny stood up, smiling as he walked over, putting his hand on Isaac's arm. "This is an amazing opportunity, and you deserve it - your poetry, it's great, Isaac."
"But...what about us?"
"What about us?" Danny laughed. "Babe, I'm not going anywhere. It's only a semester. We'll be okay. I can tell that you want this, so I want it to, okay? And I'll come visit you over spring break. You can show me around."
"Are you sure?" Isaac asked.
"Yeah, Isaac, I'm sure." Danny nodded, pulling Isaac close. "I know it seems like a long time, but it's really not."
"Thank you." Isaac grinned, kissing Danny deeply, excited, and nervous for the new experience.
The months apart were difficult for them, not as a couple, but as individuals. When you spend two years sleeping next to the same person every night, it's hard not to be with them, and the twin bed that Isaac had in the Paris home that hosted him was every bit as lonely as the half empty double bed Danny slept in every night.
Isaac learned, and he wrote, and the skype calls they had lasted often until one or both of them fell asleep, sometimes long after they had stopped speaking, just staring at each other, wishing that they could be in the same place without one losing out on part of their education, but true to his promise, Danny came to visit for Spring break, and it was all worth it to him to see how Isaac was flourishing as a writer.
The party that Danny threw for Isaac when he returned home paled into comparison of anything he'd ever done before, but nothing about the party, or the gifts that awaited Isaac mattered anywhere near as much to him as finally being able to sleep next to Danny in their shitty little Ikea double bed.
Second semester of their senior year was met with a lot of late nights. Isaac was working on finishing up his Senior project - a collection of poems focusing on his personal journey, from the scared little boy who lost his mother too young, to the man that he was now, happy, healthy, fulfilled, and in love. Danny was working on his largest undertaking yet - a computer program that Isaac didn't understand at all, but was apparently some sort of anti-pirating software that parents could install on their kids computers.
It sounded like the kind of thing that would make the entertainment industry celebrate, and simultaneously piss off a generation of teens.
Near the end of the school year, Danny got offered a job at a tech company in Seattle, Washington.
"It's a good job," Danny explained. "I think I should take it - and it's in Seattle, there's art there, tons of places that you would love."
"Yeah?" Isaac smiled, curling up next to Danny in their bed.
"Yeah." Danny nodded. "You could work at a coffee shop, and write poetry all the time."
"That...sounds awesome," Isaac admitted.
"And if we saved right, we could get a big house, maybe a dog..."
"Cat," Isaac stated, smiling at Danny.
"Fine, a cat," Danny gave in. "What do you say?"
"Hmmm..." Isaac snuggled closer to him. "Can we bring our bed?"
"We could get a better one..."
"I like this one," Isaac said stubbornly.
"Then yes." Danny leaned down, kissing Isaac softly. "We can bring our bed."
"Then I'm in." Isaac grinned.
"You know...we could also get married there," Danny said, as though it were the most casual thing ever. "You can do that in Washington."
"What?" Isaac eyes widened, because in the three and a half years that they had been together, neither of them had ever brought up the subject of marriage.
"Do you remember that night we met and fell in love?" Danny asked.
"Yes..." Isaac nodded, because he wasn't sure that he could ever forget that night. They'd stayed up all night, learning about each other, falling in love at sunrise, and three and a half years later, they hadn't back pedaled at all.
Danny leaned over and got out of bed, grabbing something from his desk.
"I bought this the next day." He pushed the box towards Isaac. "It seemed crazy at the time, but now it just seems crazy I didn't give it to you sooner."
Gingerly, Isaac opened the box, gulping as he saw a simple, but elegant silver ring inside.
"You...you want to get married?" Isaac asked.
"Yeah." Danny nodded. "I mean, to you specifically, but yes."
Isaac couldn't help but laugh.
"Really?"
"Isaac, I've been thinking about marrying you since the day I met you."
"Danny," Isaac looked at him pointedly. "That's insane."
"No," Danny shook his head. "It would have been insane back then. Now? We've been tested - we've lived together, we've spent time apart while staying together, you've met my family, I've met yours, we know each other's friends, and you're moving to Seattle with me for a job."
"Well when you say it like that, it's a no brainer." Isaac smiled, letting Danny put the ring on his finger.
As soon as they settled in Seattle, they married quietly, in a park, with just a group of their closest friends, Danny's parents, and the cousins who raised Isaac. Allison went through some class to get ordained, and married them in a simple ceremony.
Isaac's vows, of course, came in the form of a poem, and a gorgeous one at that, while Danny's were stumbled over through teared up eyes, because as long as Danny had been cognoscente of what it meant to be a romantic, he had been one, and here he was, on a beautiful day in a park in Washington, getting married to a gorgeous poet.
Five years later, everything still seemed to fit. They still spent practically all of their time together, the only difference really being that they had their big house, and Danny had been promoted about 6 times since their move, and Isaac, of course, had been published, time and time again.
"Do you remember that night we met and fell in love?" Danny asked, curling against Isaac in their bed - that same, shitty Ikea bed they bought when they were 19.
"Yes..." Isaac looked at him, remembering clearly the last time Danny had said those words, when he had proposed.
"I think we should adopt a little boy."
"Girl," Isaac smiled.
"Fine." Danny nodded. "What do you say?"
"I love you."
"That's not an answer."
Isaac leaned in, kissing Danny softly.
"Yes, it is."
A/N: Alrighty folks, I hope that you enjoyed that...I know it was a little choppy, and it was pure fucking fluff, but I had to write it very, very quickly...and I enjoyed writing it! Happy Mahealahey week!