After it had forcibly been made aware to him that Henley and Jack wanted a relationship of all four of them, Merritt made it his mission to discover what it was that was keeping Danny from wanting a relationship.
See, that was the problem. After he'd realized that his affection and advances wouldn't be spurned by two of his soulmates, he had watched the last one and seen that he did want it. Danny did want a relationship with the three of them, even through his claims that soulmates didn't have to mean anything to each other, and he wanted nothing to do with the idea. If his facial expressions and that dark, secretive look in his eyes hadn't proved it, then his response to their kissing did it. Merritt had felt against his own lips how Danny had seemed to hold back, wanting to deepen the kiss and respond favorably, but instead pulling back after a few moments where the kiss didn't move beyond chaste.
He saw in the coming several days, as they continued their plans, how Danny would sometimes look fondly at Jack or Henley when he thought no one was looking. Dare he say it, but Merritt thought that it might be love, rather than just fondness…but after another few moments, his expression would shift into something like loathing – but loathing for himself. He would look down, eyes dark, focusing on whatever he had been doing just beforehand, as though he needed a way to distract himself.
As he continued to watch the younger man, he would notice more things. Such as how he seemed more stressed when one of them would tell some story of their past. Or how when he was nervous, he rubbed his fingers over Merritt's Name on his arm. Or how he would sometimes clench and unclench his fingers when something was out of place, as though he was trying to resist putting it back to rights.
Finally, he decided that what they really needed, the four of them, was some pizza and beer so that they could talk and get to know each other better.
"Hey, Jack!" he called, knocking haphazardly on his door. "We're getting pizza – what do you like?"
Jack opened the door, squinting at him like he was going to pass judgement on him if he said the wrong thing.
"Where's the pizza coming from?" he asked.
"Hm – probably Pizza Hut," Merritt shrugged. "It's just real casual, not like the typical NYC pizzas."
"'Kay, good," Jack seemed relieved. "Not really in the mood for a typical New York pizza. Um – I like pepperoni and pineapple best, but really I could eat anything."
"Nah, you're getting your own pizza, so you pick whatever you like. Henley!" he called, walking into the living room before Jack could respond. "What toppings on your pizza?"
"Pepperoni, ham, sausage, and bacon," she said distractedly, writing something in her notebook before looking up sharply as she realized what he'd asked her. "Are we having that for dinner tonight?"
"Yeah – and beer," Merritt confirmed, and looked at Danny inquiringly. "What'd you want?"
"Erm – chicken, pineapple, and jalapeños," Danny decided, tapping his pen to his lip. "With thin crust."
"Alrighty, I'll just call in the order," Merritt said, pulling out his cell phone.
"Get a thing of Sprite, too," Henley said, looking back down at her notebook.
Merritt snorted as he held the phone up to his ear, waiting for the other end to pick up. "I'll get that when I go to get the beer. Pizza Hut charges an arm and a leg for their sodas." He turned the speaker to his mouth when the other end apparently picked up. "Hi! I'd like four of your medium pizzas…"
Jack plopped down on the couch next to Henley, putting his arm up on the back of it so that it was just behind her.
"So, you're a meat lover?" he said with a crooked grin. "I have to admit, I wasn't expecting that."
Henley snorted and shoved him slightly in the side in a playful manner. "At least I don't like such atrocities as pineapple on my pizza like you and Danny here."
Jack adopted an affronted expression and pressed a hand to his chest. "Atrocity?" he repeated with an exaggerated gasp of offense. "I'll have you know that the real 'atrocity' on pizza is sausage. Honestly, sausage is so nasty that it doesn't belong on anything. Same for ham, but that one's the lesser of two evils."
"You don't like ham or sausage?" Henley gasped, sitting up and abandoning her notebook. "What kind of freak of nature are you?"
Jack laughed and explained, "It's just so…oily. Like with fat. I suppose the taste is okay, but it's made me sick enough times that I steer clear of it."
"Yes, so of course pepperoni is the best option," Henley said sarcastically. "The meat that is so fake that it doesn't even need to be refrigerated."
They argued amicably for a few more minutes before Merritt reappeared, slipping his phone into his pocket as he came in.
"I'm gonna pick up some beer and Sprite – I'll get the pizza on the way back," he reported. "So Danny, Henley – after I walk through that door again, there will be no more planning done for the rest of the night. So get anything you need done tonight before I get it back."
"Yes, sir!" Henley saluted him playfully, in a bantering mood after her teasing argument with Jack.
"Sure, Merritt," Danny said, and immediately turned back to his plans.
When Merritt got back, Jack and Henley both had to drag Danny away from his plans with numerous kisses, and Merritt took the opportunity of his distraction to pick up the papers and move them to the farthest counter from them. At least Danny hadn't appeared too upset when he realized what had happened. He didn't even resist when Merritt dragged his head over for a kiss of his own.
"So, Merritt, this was your plan," Henley said, pulling a piece of pizza out from her own box. "What are we doing while we eat?"
"I was thinking a game of 'Never Have I Ever'," Merritt said with a smirk, popping the top off of his beer. "Good way to get to know each others' dark, hidden secrets."
Jack laughed. "You mean sexual exploits?" he said with a raised eyebrow, biting into his pizza.
"That too," Merritt said airily, before pulling out his own slice of pizza. "Who wants to go first?"
"Wait, I always get mixed up with the rules, since so many people play it differently," Henley said. "Can you explain them again?"
"If you haven't done something, but think someone else might have, you say 'never have I ever…' and then something like 'gone skinny dipping'," Jack explained. "Anyone who has done it puts a finger down."
"The one with the most fingers up when the first person's fingers are all down is the winner," Merritt elaborated, and then smirked. "Or the loser, depending on how you look at it."
"Okay, I have one," Jack said, shoving the last bite of his pizza into his mouth and taking the next slice. "Never have I ever smoked in the high school bathroom."
"You didn't?" Henley was the one to voice her surprise. "But I've seen you smoke before. When did you start smoking?"
He chuckled at her dumbfounded expression. "I was probably about twelve when I first tried smoking, but it's not a habit or an addiction for me. Besides"—he took a swig of his beer—"I never went to high school."
"What?!" Henley choked slightly on her pizza. "But – you're so smart! How could you not have gone to high school?!"
He chuckled again. "I'm street smart," he corrected. "I don't know the Pythagorean Theorem." He shrugged carelessly. "When I was a kid I was tossed around in so many different foster homes that I didn't want to deal with it anymore by the time I was a teenager. So when I was thirteen, I ran away and started living on the streets." He smirked wryly. "That's where I learned how to be quick and unnoticeable, picking up a few magic tricks along the way." Nodding to Danny, he said, "I saw Danny running a Three Card Monte when I was about ten, still in foster care, and I remembered it after I got out. Figured it'd be an easy way to earn money, though it definitely wasn't the safest option when I scammed some bigger people than me out of their money."
"Okay, my turn," Merritt said, and then smirked and continued smugly, "Never have I ever been hit on by someone old enough to be my parent."
"Aww – low blow!" Jack chided with a laugh as they all had to put down a finger. Merritt only laughed and nodded to Danny for him to go.
"Alright…um, never have I ever been to a music concert," he finally decided on. His smile grew smug when Merritt and Henley both had to put a finger down.
"Neither of you have?" Merritt said in surprise. "Why not?"
Both of them shrugged.
"Living on the streets; not a lot of money to spare for a concert," Jack said, then looked at Danny.
"Foster care," Danny explained, looking uncomfortable. Merritt tilted his head slightly. That was only part of the reason, he could tell. There was more to it than that.
Jack smiled sympathetically at Danny. "Foster care sucks," he said feelingly, receiving a wordless nod of agreement from the older man.
"Did either of you go to even one good family?" Henley asked them, looking distressed with the idea of two of her soulmates having such awful childhoods.
"It's not so much that they were bad," Jack said, fiddling with his beer bottle, "It's just that most of them didn't care. Especially if they had real kids. Foster kids are more a source of income, you know?" Danny nodded again, volunteering nothing, but it was enough of an explanation from him.
"There was one family that I really liked," Jack remembered. "I was probably four or five, and they were a couple probably about thirty-ish without kids of their own. I had a birthday there, and they threw a party for me, with cake and presents and everything." His fond smile turned slightly bitter. "But then she got pregnant, so they couldn't deal with me anymore."
"Given away the same as a dog to the pound," Danny murmured, eyes fastened on a piece of pineapple that had fallen off his pizza into the box. Jack nodded tightly, both of them understanding the feeling.
Henley glanced at Merritt before she leaned forward and snagged another piece of pizza from her box. "Okay, my turn," she announced, shaking the room from its edgy mood. "Hm…never have I ever kissed someone of the same sex as me."
"No fair!" Merritt was the one to protest this time, though he was grinning as all three of the boys put a finger down.
"Not even experimenting in college?" Danny questioned curiously, looking at Henley.
She laughed. "Nope," she said honestly. "I knew I'd be ending up with three men, so I didn't feel the need to see if I would like kissing a girl. There wasn't really any point."
"Fair enough," Jack decided. "Okay…never have I ever had a near-death experience."
"Does considering suicide count?" Merritt questioned as carelessly as though he was asking if someone wanted mustard on their sandwich.
"Depends on how far you went to try and get there," Jack said after a moment where he tried to get over the pain at the thought of not knowing Merritt because he'd killed himself.
"Hm – then I'd say I'll keep my finger up," Merritt decided, and looked at the finger that Henley had put down. "What happened for you?"
"I was trying to perfect a flame throwing trick," Henley explained, "Ended up burning my hands some and lit my hair on fire…" she shuddered in remembrance. "I didn't pass out or anything, but if Danny hadn't been the only one there with the presence of mind to grab a fire extinguisher, my scars would be a lot more visible." She smiled thankfully at Danny and took his hand in her own gloved one. Merritt figured the gloves must have been covering the burn scars.
"What about you, Jack?" Merritt asked sardonically, noticing how the youngest had also put a finger down. "You know you're supposed to do one where you don't have to put your own finger down."
Jack shrugged. "Seemed like it'd make for better stories though, and that is the point of this game," he explained, and then went on with his own story. "I pissed off a street gang. They tried killing me, but the guy with the knife had a really bad aim – probably because I'd got him in the eyes when I threw my playing cards at him – and he missed my heart by almost an inch. Got a nasty scar from it, though your Name stayed intact, so that was a plus."
"Hey, I have a scar through his Name, too!" Henley laughed a bit. "Although mine isn't nearly so exciting a story. When I was four I ran into my mom when she was cooking and she accidentally dropped the knife she was holding. I was more concerned about the Name being ruined than I was about bleeding out on the kitchen floor."
"What about you, Danny?" Jack joked. "You have a scar through Merritt's Name also?"
Everyone was surprised when he nodded. At their looks, he explained reluctantly, "One of my foster parents stubbed out his cigarette on it." He didn't explain further, but his words had the effect of sobering the room instantly.
"We aren't drunk enough for this," Merritt declared suddenly after a few moments. "Drink up, guys. It's my turn again. Hm…" he tapped his chin thoughtfully before smirking. "Never have I ever used a fake ID and then forgotten my new name." Jack and Henley put fingers down.
"I'm putting a finger down on pretty much every round!" Henley complained with a laugh, taking another bite of pizza. "Choose some better ones, guys!"
"Okay, my turn," Danny said, wiping his greasy fingers on a napkin and swallowing his pizza. "Never have I ever eaten a whole pizza by myself."
"Danny!" Henley rebuked with a laugh as she had to put another finger down. "I said to pick better ones! I only have four fingers left!"
Danny chuckled and put his hands up. "I assumed that would be one that you'd get to keep a finger for."
"I think I should be offended by that likely sexist comment, but I'm too buzzed to care," Henley decided, and took another gulp of beer. "My turn, though – and you're going down, Atlas. Never have I ever had sex with more than one person at once." Danny and Merritt put their fingers down.
"That'll change for you soon, though!" Merritt laughed with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows. Henley laughed and threw her pizza crust at him.
"Okay, I'll do an easy one," Jack said, brushing his fingers of their crumbs so he could pick up his beer bottle. "Never have I ever ridden a horse."
"Et tu, Jack?!" Henley chided with a laugh, putting a finger down.
"That gives me an idea, though," Merritt inputted, chuckling at her. "Never have I ever pretended to speak a foreign language that I didn't actually know." Only Jack was the one to put a finger down.
"Spill!" Henley insisted, clapping her hands excitedly. "What language, and why?"
"I tried French once, and I think Greek another time," Jack remembered. "Mandarin, too. It was mostly if I was in that part of New York, and I was ordering food or something of the like. I repeated what the person ahead of me said." He shrugged. "It wasn't so much to look like I knew the language, but to practice my mimicry with other languages, to get the inflections right even if I couldn't understand what I was saying." He smirked and raised his beer to his lips. "I got it down after that pretty well."
"Okay – never have I ever eaten at Olive Garden," Danny said. He smiled smugly when all three of them put their fingers down, and took another bite of pizza.
"Olive Garden is the best," Henley said solemnly. "We're all going to go there on a date sometime soon, because to not have tasted the miracle that is Olive Garden is a true crime."
"You know it's not real Italian, right?" Danny raised an eyebrow at her.
"Pizza Hut isn't real pizza, but it's still delicious," she retorted, and took another bite of pizza to illustrate her point. "Okay, my turn. Never have I ever broken a bone."
"Boring!" Merritt booed as the boys all put a finger down.
"But I keep a finger up!" Henley sang, waving her two remaining fingers in the air with a laugh.
"Okay…never have I ever slept with a married person," Jack said with a smirk. He laughed as Henley and Merritt both scowled playfully at him with their remaining one fingers left, while Danny just chuckled, as even with the loss of a finger he had the most at four.
"Never have I ever slept with twins," Merritt announced, and only Danny put a finger down.
"You are both going down," Danny vowed. After a moment of thought, he smirked and said, "Never have I ever hated the name my parents gave me."
"Danny!" Henley screeched with a laugh as both she and Merritt had to put down their last fingers.
"You trying to say their names are too weird to be liked?" Jack teased with a laugh.
"As for me, whenever I had the thought that I didn't like my name, I consoled myself with the thought that at least it wasn't 'Chase'," Merritt said thoughtfully, popping open a new bottle of beer.
"What about mine?" Henley protested. "Unisex names are useless as it is, but Henley?! That's a type of shirt!"
"I think it suits you," Jack suggested, leaning back against the couch.
"Normal name, no opinion," Henley said, pointing a finger at him accusingly.
"I also couldn't help but notice that for any of the sex questions you never put a finger down," Merritt pointed out after swallowing a gulp of beer. "Is your sex life really so boring?"
Jack smirked. "You could say that," he said with a laugh, and casually put his fingers up in a 'V'. "Virgin status, here."
"Aww, Jackie boy!" Henley giggled, throwing her arms around him. "We have so much to teach you!"
Jack laughed and planted a sloppy kiss on her lips. "Looking forward to it," he said in a teasing voice.
Merritt didn't find out what secret Danny was keeping that night, but it was alright for now. He knew it would take some time for some trust to be built, but that was what relationships were all about, after all. He'd waited forty-seven years for a relationship with his soulmates – he could wait for a little longer. Until then, he would continue to observe.
...
Jack's opinions on pizza and arguments with Henley about it perfectly emulates my continuous arguments with my dad and my brother. So I couldn't resist adding it. ;)
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! I love everyone's feedback! Thanks for reading!