Danny cursed as his shirt ripped.

"Danny!" Sam exclaimed from behind him in affronted tones. He quickly stood from the bench and turned to face her, his face flushing. She was staring at him with wide eyes, still holding open the glass door of the restaurant. Tucker, still inside the lobby, was trying to peer around her.

"Sorry," Danny said sheepishly, "I- um." He held out the bottom of his shirt, revealing a rip that was over four inches long. "It tore."

Sam sighed and stepped away from the door, finally letting Tucker through. He gaped at the sight of Danny's shirt. "Geeze, how'd you do that?" Tucker asked. Sam elbowed him with a glare. "What?"

"First explanation first, second explanation second," she snapped. A few years ago, Danny would have thought she was angry with him and Tucker; but he had learned to read people better as he aged, and he was pretty sure that she was really just worried.

Danny pasted on a clueless and entirely fake smile. "Would you like to sit?" he asked, gesturing towards the bench he had just vacated. Sam sat, scowling. Tucker shook his head, choosing instead to lean against the wall. Danny opened his mouth to speak, but shut it again. A bright color caught his eye, and he turned his head to see a sky alight with sunset colors. "Isn't the sky nice tonight?" he hedged nervously.

Tucker raised an eyebrow, and Sam rubbed at the bridge of her nose as if fighting a headache. Danny's fake smile dropped away, and he lowered his gaze to the concrete at his feet, studying the bits and pieces of gravel and trash in the cracks. How to start? "I… uh, you probably want me to tell you what happened just now, huh?"

When they didn't answer, he glanced up at them from under his lashes. They were staring at him impassively, waiting. "Yeah, so… um… did I ever mention that English is my second language?" he asked, knowing perfectly well that he hadn't. There was no answer, and he shivered in the chill of their silence. He knew this was a bad idea.

"My nanny was, y'know, an outsider- traveler- person from another country- whatever, and she only spoke Spanish- um, and Japanese, 'cause she lived there for four years, but mostly Spanish because she was from Spain. So I mostly just learned a mixed up Spanish thing with a bit of Japanese thrown in and an English word here and there, and then I still only spent time with Jazz and-" He stopped short and looked up at them again, still not lifting his head. The two were staring at him, faces blank with shock.

He took a deep breath and continued, much calmer this time. "My parents were busy with their inventions, so mostly I only got to talk to my nanny and the other kids she watched. They all spoke the same Spanish-Japanese-English gibberish that I did, so it wasn't until she died that I realized that most people spoke English. I learned a little bit, but I was four and basically learning a foreign language, so it was just-"

He cut himself off, and then started again. "It was slow. But the point is, English was my second language, and it tends to get all mixed up in my head when I'm nervous. That's what just happened, because I'm really, really nervous about this whole thing. I- bad stuff happened back then, and I really don't want to go back and I'm- I'm really freaked out, alright?"

He stood silently for a long moment, admiring the orange glow of the sunset and trying not to think about the reactions of his friends. When no screaming seemed forthcoming, he headed for the doors. "The food's probably come by now," he muttered.

The incident wasn't mentioned for the rest of the evening.