The potential threat of eviction and unemployment acted as a buffer for the rest of the week, and except for a minor prank here and there, Don and Danny coexisted in the same apartment quite peacefully for a time. Don even went so far as to assist Danny in removing the teddy bear posters plastering his bedroom.
Danny took one last look around the apartment that had been his home for two years. Everything had been moved out and Danny was just making one last run through it to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. Satisfied that nothing had been left behind, he closed the door behind him and locked it. Running up the steps, he almost ran right into Kourtney. She seemed to have been waiting for him as her eyes lit up when he came into view.
"Hi," she said shyly.
"Hi," he replied, wondering why, after these two years, she was suddenly so shy.
"One of your helpers told me you were moving out."
"Yep. It didn't seem possible to stay in that mess."
"Of course." She was rocking back and forth on her feet and Danny noticed, for the first time, that she had her hands behind her back.
"Are you hiding something back there?" he smiled. Then, faking a look of fright, he asked, "It's not your boyfriend, is it?"
She laughed. "No, not my boyfriend." She suddenly blushed, and he wondered if he had embarrassed her by asking her what she was hiding. Before he had a chance to change the subject, she continued, "Actually, it's a going away present for you. Your friend told me you liked them, which I thought was a little strange at first, but I think it actually suits you." Bringing it out from behind her back, she thrust the bag into his hands. Immediately, she winced, "Sorry. I don't know why I'm so nervous. I guess it's because I—it's just that I—" she seemed to be stumbling over what she wanted to say. She bit her lower lip and finally got out the rest. "I'm gonna miss you. As my neighbor, of course." She looked to be on the verge of fleeing his presence.
Trying to disperse the awkward tension, he flashed her one of his winning smiles. "If it means anything to you, I'll miss you, too." You have no idea how much I'm going to miss looking at you. Opening his arms, he asked, "Hug between friends?" She nodded and leaned forward, but he suddenly pulled back. Looking up and down the street, he looked back at her, "Coast is clear."
Laughing again, she melted against him. He savored the scent of her lilac body mist, wondering if he was ever going to smell that on her again. Eventually, the hug had to end, and they pulled apart. Gesturing to the bag in his hands, he asked, "Do you want me to open this now or later?"
Blushing fiercely, she vigorously shook her head. "Maybe when you get to wherever you're staying tonight?"
"Works for me." Recollecting the key in his hand, he said, "I guess I better go turn this in. Maybe I'll see you around."
She smiled. "Maybe."
::~*~::
Danny ran a hand over the light stubble covering his lower face as he tried to suppress a yawn. He'd just finished up on shift a few hours before and had thought that starting the process of shopping would be a good idea, at least so he could get an idea of what the cost was going to run him. He'd spent four hours just looking at coffee tables and dining room tables and he was utterly lost. He'd had no idea they could come in so many different shapes and sizes, colors and prices. Why did people have to make things so complicated?
His musings were interrupted by the sound of girls laughing in the hallway outside the door. Heaving himself to his feet, he made his way to the door with the thought in mind to chastise the girls into silence at this late hour. Upon opening the door, however, he was greeted by two little girls passing by wearing shocking pink outfits that looked horrifyingly familiar. Without uttering a word, he slammed the door closed, completely forgetting the late hour. He wondered if they would make any connection between him and the outfits Don had borrowed. He quickly pushed the thought out of mind, believing the girls to be too young to have that kind of mental capacity.
A knock sounded on the other side of the door. "Mr. Messer!" Danny grimaced, before opening the door again. The girls stood at the door, smiling up at him without any cares in the world. He couldn't help smiling back at them, but it quickly turned into a frown when they started talking again. "Wanna play Barbies with us?"
His eyes widened in shock. Stammering out a negative reply, he closed the door on the girls, feeling only slight remorse at shutting the door in their faces. Collapsing onto the couch, he wrapped the sheets he had purchased for the couch around him and shut his eyes against the night.
::~*~::
"Danny! Are you in there?" a woman's voice shouted thru the apartment door, accompanied by some loud banging. Danny rolled over to face the back of the couch, pulling the pillow tighter over his head and groaning in protest at being woken up in such an abominable fashion. The voice sounded familiar, but in his foggy, half-asleep state of mind, he couldn't place it.
"I'm coming in! You better be decent!" the voice continued and Danny's eyes flew open as he heard the jangle of keys. Leaping off the couch, he threw himself through the open door to the bathroom, slamming it behind him just as the front door to the apartment opened. "Don't think I didn't see that, Daniel Messer! We were supposed to meet an hour ago! Let's go!"
Danny quickly rifled thru the hamper in the bathroom, searching for pants that were somewhat clean. All of his clean clothes were out in the living area and no way was he going back out there in just his boxers. Sniffing several, he finally found a pair that passed inspection and quickly pulled them on. Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky with a shirt, but he figured since he was half-dressed, it wouldn't be quite so awkward.
::~*~::
Stella dropped her purse on the kitchen counter and set the two cups of coffee next to it. Pulling one loose of the carrying tray, she sipped it slowly, wincing as the too hot liquid burned her mouth. Checking her watch, she sighed loudly, hoping it was loud enough to carry into the bathroom where her prey was lurking. He had asked for her assistance in furniture shopping, so she had decided to play the part of the good friend and devote her morning off to the cause, but now she was starting to regret it. She had to be at the lab for her shift in two hours, and Danny was just now rolling out of bed. If it wasn't for the fact that Danny had just signed a lease on a new apartment which he would be moving into at the end of the week, she would have shouted at him to forget it.
Another glance at her watch was interrupted by the bathroom door opening and the man of the hour appearing. Rolling her eyes, she said, "Danny, I'm so not your type."
He returned a cheeky grin as he pulled a white T-shirt over his head and tucked his wallet into his back pocket. "You thought I dressed up just for you? Please."
Stella nodded her head towards the untouched coffee cup. "Let's go. I'm on a time crunch now."
Danny looked longingly at the refrigerator before following Stella out the door. His stomach rumbled in outrage.
::~*~::
While it was Danny's furniture they were shopping for, he ended up following Stella and the salesman around the furniture warehouse like a lost puppy. He answered questions when absolutely necessary, but didn't volunteer any information. He could tell both Stella and the salesman were getting annoyed with him, but he didn't really care about the wood grains and dyes or whether the table was round, square, or rectangular. It was a dining room table, for goodness sake! You were supposed to eat off of it and that was that! Who cares what it looks like?
"And over here, an excellent addition to any bachelor pad," the salesman droned, pointing to number nineteen or maybe number twenty-nine on the list of potentials that they had already seen. Danny resisted the urge to point out that the last five sets had been "an excellent addition to any bachelor pad." Unlike every other set they had come across, Danny's interest was piqued by this one. The glass and black wrought iron look was very sleek and modern and Danny could actually see himself dining at such a table.
"I'll take it," he said. The salesman, already looking around the showroom for yet another set to showcase, spun around so fast, he almost gave himself whiplash. Without waiting for his customer to second guess his choice, he snatched the ticket from the table and practically ran away from the duo.
Danny had noticed the look of relief that had crossed Stella's face when he'd made his decision. "Worried that I'd make you late?"
"Not at all. I'd have left your sorry butt here in order to make it to the lab on time, and let you figure out your own way home."
"Ouch!" he feigned a look of hurt, before settling into his natural persona. "Dining room is handled. Care to give the bedroom a quick shot?" He waggled his eyebrows at her, knowing full well she'd leave him writhing on the floor before giving that idea any consideration.
Pointing an accusing finger at him, she replied, "You're on your own for that one, Messer."
::~*~::
Conducting the transaction itself went much quicker than the browsing had, helped along by Stella's insistent fingernail drumming and constant watch checking. She definitely had the persona that shouted to the world that she was not to be messed with today and the salesman seemed to be quite terrified of her because of it. Every time she went to check her watch, the man seemed to jump in fright and typed a little bit faster, but the computer seemed quite stubborn in going at its own pace.
Fifteen minutes later, Danny and Stella exited the building. His new dining room table was set to be delivered two days after he moved into his new place, which Danny found himself getting more and more excited about as the days went by. He'd only been in his basement apartment for two years, but he was like a little kid at Christmas when he thought about having full-size windows again with a view and sunshine. By the time they got to the car, Danny was practically skipping and Stella was looking less like a power-woman and more like an embarrassed mother.
"Change of plans," she said, starting up the car and pulling into the flow of traffic. Danny raised an eyebrow. "I have fifteen minutes to get to work and dropping you back off at Don's would take me too far out of the way. Wanna come in early?"
Technically, Stella didn't have the authorization to allow him to come in early, but Danny knew she wouldn't have offered if Mac wouldn't have been okay with it. Still, he wasn't really in the working mood...
"I'll go with you to the lab, but I may just crash on the break room couch."
A sly smile stole across Stella's face. "Don keeping you up at night?"
Danny rolled his eyes as he watched the cars and pedestrians passing outside. "His latest was creating a fake dating profile on the same site as me. I suppose you can guess where it went from there. He let it go for a week, before setting up a mock date in which I met 'Jane' at a bar last night. It was pretty lame, but I suppose your threat to him, and by extension, me, made us tone it down for the time being. That's not to say I won't have my own parting shot when I move out this weekend." He grinned at his own faint reflection in the mirror. Unfortunately, the taxi cab driver in the next car wasted no time in showing revulsion on his face and Danny quickly looked away, chuckling in spite of himself. "To Don's credit, he made a very believable woman, though. Too bad for him..."
Stella looked suspiciously over at Danny as they sat at the red light, though whatever was presently occupying his mind, he chose not to share. He only continued smiling with the twinkle of a manic gleam in his eye. Stella turned her eyes back to the road, but offered a quick prayer for Don's sanity.