"Assholes," Gideon muttered as he watched three frat boys wreck the snow sculptures in front of the art building. Well, he assumed they were frat boys. One wore a hoody with the Theta Chi letters on it, and to the best of his knowledge fraternity types didn't generally hang around with non-fraternity types.

The elaborate snowmen they were currently destroying had started to appear right after the first real snow of the season—two whole feet!—and he'd been utterly captivated by them. His own snowmen had never been half so cool growing up. Because these weren't just snowmen, they were masterpieces. It sucked major that he'd never been able to catch the artist at work.

And now, coming back late from his student-teaching job in the computer lab, he was witness to the destruction of the sculptures by Stupid Drunken Frat Boys. It wasn't right—whoever had been making them obviously cared a lot. You didn't do stuff like that with snow just for kicks.

"That'll teach him," one of the guys said to his brothers, who laughed and drunkenly agreed with him. He shoved the head off a lovingly made female, and then set to work destroying her body. Various props were knocked off and lost in the snow.

Gideon bit his lip, then decided to hell with it, and called out, "Hey!"

Three heads swiveled to look at him. "What do you want, geek?"

Gideon fought not to roll his eyes. Honestly, did they think that was an insult? Well, they were Greek boys. "What do you think you're doing?"

"None of your business, so get lost."

Whatever Gideon might have said next, never got said. From inside the art building a figure came dashing out, a blur of black as he launched himself at the nearest vandal. "Get away, get away!" But the slender man was no match for the heavier builds and greater strength—not to mention numbers—of the three.

"Fuck this," Gideon muttered. Reaching into his dark green parka, he whipped out his cell phone and scrolled through the saved numbers for campus security. A couple of minutes later he slid it back in his pocket. "Hey, meat-for-brains!" Three heads turned to look at him. "You've got two minutes before security arrives to bust your asses."

"What the fuck ever—" But even as the apparent leader spoke, the headlights of a familiar SUV appeared on the road. The three jerks scrambled, leaving their victim cursing in the snow.

Gideon dashed toward the unfortunate young man. "Hey, man. Are you okay?"

Instead of answering, the other man fumbled in the snow to regain his footing. Gideon gripped his arm and helped him up. On his head, the guy's black watch cap had been knocked askew. He righted it, then began looking around in the snow.

Gideon frowned, confused, until he spotted the black scarf and mittens lying amidst the white. He retrieved them and handed them over, just as two men in campus security jackets approached them. "Who called?"

"Me," Gideon replied.

"What's going on?"

The man in black remained mute, as Gideon set about explaining what had happened.

One of the security officers looked at the young man. "These were your snowmen?"

"Yes," the young man said reluctantly. "Final project."

"Any idea why they might've done this?"

"I pissed them off in class earlier today."

Neither officer seemed terribly surprised, "You know who they were then? I think we have a pretty good idea anyway. The three from Theta Chi, right? At least this time you got a witness."

The young man nodded, and added the professor and class.

"All right. We'll look into it." The officer winked. "Figures it'd be you again, Danny. Now both of you get back to your rooms, it's too cold and too late to be wandering around. Be careful."

"Yes, sir," Gideon and Danny responded.

But then Danny turned back toward the art building, "I left my books and stuff inside," he explained. "Let me get them and I'll head back."

"I'll go with you," Gideon said.

The officers hesitated, then nodded and made their way back to their car. "Alright, but make it quick. I'm serious Danny, don't linger."

Inside, the two young men stamped their boots and shook off what snow had accumulated on their jackets. Then Danny surprised Gideon by unzipping his black ski jacket and hanging it up along with his mittens, scarf and watch cap.

Gideon's mind was torn between "What is he doing?" and "Whoa, damn" He finally settled on the 'Whoa, damn.'

Danny was hot. His hair wasn't the definite yellow of Gideon's, but a dirty wheat blond—and messy as all get out. Most likely the brief fight in the snow and the watch cap had disheveled it. Gideon thought it would be a shame if he ever neatened it; being messy suited Danny.

He was skinny as anything. Suddenly Gideon felt positively overweight, even though he knew he wasn't. The black jeans seemed barely capable of staying on the guy's hips, and even though he wore a red t-shirt over a long-sleeved black T you still could see the shape of his chest. His lips were turned down in a strange sort of pouty frown, and he had one of those faces girls described as "boyish and cute" that sent them into giggles whenever he smiled.

Though it didn't look like Danny was the type to do a lot of smiling. Gideon wasn't sure how he knew, but he would put good money on it.

With his own yellow-blond hair neatly combed, and wearing jeans and a college sweatshirt that were both too big for him, Gideon felt every inch his geeky self next to Danny. "So you're the one who made those snowmen?" He stripped off his own winter gear as he spoke, then followed Danny down the hall to the elevators.

Danny looked at him, as if confused by the question. "Yeah."

"They're awesome."

For reply, Danny just shrugged.

Gideon frowned, but changed the subject. "Shouldn't you get those looked at? Don't they hurt?" he asked, indicating the bruises already beginning to discolor Danny's face. There was one high on his left cheek, and another near his jaw. He reached out to stop him, startled when Danny jerked roughly away.

"I'm fine," Danny said curtly.

"You were just pummeled by three guys. I seriously doubt you're fine."

"Eh. They couldn't really get a good hit in what with the snow and ice and all. Plus I've got lots of practice blocking and dodging." Danny paused, then asked, "Why are you following me?"

"Because I wanted to ask you about the sculptures. That and I seriously doubt the three blockheads have gone home like good little boys."

Danny nodded, mashing the elevator button. "They're probably waiting at the end of the block. They always hide behind the bushes there, because you can't see anyone who's behind them and that's where I have to walk to get home."

"Those guys really don't like you, do they?"

They stepped onto the elevator as it chimed and opened. Danny hit the button for the third floor, "They're morons." The ghost of a smirk flitted across Danny's lips, gone almost before Gideon caught it. "They don't like when I point that out in class. Especially since they can never quite figure out how I do it without actually saying the word moron."

Gideon grinned. "That's great. What in the heck are they doing in your art classes anyway? A project like that, you must be a senior?"

"Junior. I'm not in the class, I help teach it. It's an intro class so there are always tons of non-majors taking it for general credit. The professor was out sick today so..." Danny shrugged.

"So they thought they could get away with bugging you more than usual."

Danny stared at him a moment, and Gideon blinked at how intense and focused his brown eyes were. Like they saw everything. He hoped that wasn't true, because he was pretty sure Danny wouldn't like the direction of his thoughts. He stepped off the elevator as it chimed and opened, long legs carrying him rapidly down the hallway to the classroom where he'd apparently left his things.

Gideon stood watching him a moment, distracted by the view, then scrambled to catch up. "So how long did the sculptures take you? How do you do it? Will you be able to fix them?"

Danny paused in packing up his books to stare at him again. Gideon fought not to squirm—that gaze was really something. "Do you really like them?"

"Hell yeah! I used to try to make snowmen like that all the time as a kid." Gideon grinned. "But I was never much of an artist. Computer geek through and through, me."

"They're not that hard to make," Danny said. "It just takes a long time, especially if the snow isn't quite right. I was really lucky that the first snowfall was perfect. Of course now those asses have completely ruined it." He raked a hand through his already messy hair. He moved to the windows that overlooked the front of the building, looking almost sad as he stared down at the ruins of his project.

"Will it take you long to repair them?"

"The way they went about it, I'll just have to finish the destruction and start all over. They won't look the same if I just fix them." Danny banged his head lightly over and over against the glass. "Bastards."

Gideon made sympathetic noises, recalling all too well the frustration he felt whenever Paige had decided it would be amusing to topple some of his creations. Of course generally he'd asked for it by putting something vile in her dresser or feeding one of her sweaters to Quincy, but it had been depressing all the same.

Danny seemed disinclined to continue speaking. Gideon left him alone, and instead let his gaze wander idly over the room. He'd never really been in the art building beyond attending the occasional lecture held in the large lecture hall on the ground floor.

Several paintings lined the far wall, from bizarre abstract works he rolled his eyes at to some tragic lake thing obviously painted by some emo freshman, a few still life pieces…and he almost missed the one shoved into the corner.

Gideon knew enough about paintings to realize this one still needed some shading and detail work, though at a glance it would probably appear done to most people. It was oddly cute, amidst all the more "serious" subjects being done by the rest of the art students.

It was an outdoor scene, a close-up of the trunk of a large tree, the ends of a rope ladder trailing down to end next to a beat up little red wagon. Whoever had owned the wagon had used it enthusiastically, to judge from the scratches and dents and how little of the red paint remained. Sitting in the wagon was a worn and obviously well loved stuffed tiger. Scattered in and around the wagon were various items—a couple of sandwiches, a compass, some unfilled water balloons... It looked like a child had wandered away for a moment, leaving his toys with plans to return very soon. Gideon looked for and didn't find a name anywhere. Not that he would know the artist, but he would have made note of the name and investigated it later.

Reluctantly he turned away from the painting, figuring he'd ignored Danny long enough—and nearly collided with him. "Gah! Warn a guy when you sneak up behind him."

Danny just looked at him and did not reply, instead asking, "You like that one?"

"Yeah, it's awesome. Reminds me of when my friend Marcus and I used to play outside all the time during the summer. Though my mom killed me whenever I tore my toys up like that."

"My mom never really noticed what I did to the wagon," Danny replied. "Me and Hobbes used to go riding down hills in the forest all the time. I guess she figured it was part and parcel of living where we did."

"Hobbes?"

Danny's cheeks turned pink. "Um. The tiger—his name is Hobbes."

Gideon blinked. "You painted that?" He grinned, "Wow. What else have you done?"

"Umm..." Danny seemed at a loss for words. "Not much," he said quietly, almost bashfully. "Why do you care?"

"Uh...I just think it's neat and all. I used to do this kind of thing all the time as a kid. But I was never very good at it. Computers and stuff are more my thing. I always kinda wished I'd been a better artist."

Danny shrugged, "My dad thinks I should've gone into the sciences. He says I won't get very far doing artsy stuff. But my dad is kinda old-fashioned about that sort of thing."

"My parents are kind of the opposite. Well, my mom anyway. She's a writer; she gets this confused look on her face whenever I try to talk about my classes. But she thinks it's neat that I understand it. My dad always looks lost and says he has to meet someone for golf." Gideon grinned. "My brother and sister just make fun of me, as siblings always do, but I always get revenge."

"You have siblings?"

"Yeah , one brother, one sister, both of them older. My mom says dad makes four children for her to take care of."

That surprised a laugh out of Danny, and Gideon's mind momentarily shut down. Smiles on Danny were lethal to his brain functions. "My mom mutters stuff like that about my dad occasionally. I think she's happier now that we're both out of the house a lot."

Gideon nodded. "I know my mom is relieved we're all starting to lead our own lives now. I'm the last one to go."

"I'm an only child, so I'm the only one they had to get rid of." Danny abruptly turned and headed toward the desk, grabbing something from a drawer before striding to the window. Binoculars, Gideon realized as he caught up.

"What are those for?"

Danny adjusted the view, twisting so that he could look down the street. "I'm checking to see if the meatheads are waiting for me."

"Are they?"

"Yeah, and they look pretty cozy. I think they've figured out that I just hang around until they're gone or I get bored waiting. It's getting to be a contest, really."

Gideon's brows lifted at that. "What's the longest you've waited here?"

Danny lowered the binoculars and looked at him. "During the summer I usually get stuck up here until about two or three. Once they waited until four."

"In the morning?" Gideon asked, stunned.

"Yeah." Danny's look said 'duh.'

"Why don't you just take a different route?"

Danny shrugged. "There is no different route. I live in that house where they hide in the bushes. And there's no real back way, it's up against the wall of another building. I have to go by those bushes to get home, and they jump me every single time."

"So you're just going to stay here all night?" Gideon asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes," Danny replied, voice curt, shoulders hunching defensively.

Gideon made a face. "That's a lousy plan."

"I suppose you have a better idea?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do." Gideon pulled out his phone again, and quickly related the problem to security. He flipped the phone closed and stowed it in his pocket. "See? Much easier?"

Danny didn't say anything, just glared at him and then stalked back across the room to get his things.

"Hey! You could at least say thanks."

"For what? Causing me more problems?" Danny paused in the doorway, looking as if he might say something more, but then just shook his head and vanished.

By the time Gideon was able to follow him, Danny was gone. "Damn it." He fidgeted with his glasses before donning his winter gear and settling his bag on his back. Heaving a sigh, he exited the building and slowly trudged his way back to his apartment.

Rather than go inside, however, he bypassed the window to his place and continued up the fire escape stairs to the roof.

He'd had his own place since first semester sophomore year, after the complaints against him had gotten so bad the college had all but thrown an apartment at him.

At least now he could experiment without upsetting someone. Even if it did get a little too quiet at times.

Gideon jumped the last steps and landed hard on the roof, sneakers scraping in the rocks and grime scattered across it. With easy strides, he crossed the short distance to the opposite side of the roof. A dark green tarp had been spread across the top of the roof there, another tarp laid over what appeared to be a small but bulky object.

Whipping the tarp off revealed that it actually covered several small somethings—toy rockets that had undergone extensive customization. His first month there, Gideon had been paranoid other residents would find them and tamper with his favorite hobby. But by the third or fourth 'incident due to miscalculation' they had all decided it was best to avoid the roof. They'd also decided it was best to avoid Gideon, which was why he took the fire escape coming and going.

No one there to pretend not to see him. At least they didn't harass him like his dorm mates had.

Near the tarp he kept a small box for tools and other miscellany, and from it he pulled a pair of binoculars. Moving to the edge of the roof, he focused them on the Theta Chi house. Though it was going on midnight, there was plenty of light to see by. The campus was never truly dark, especially on Greek Row where the campus officials had seen to it that as many streetlights as possible had been crammed.

Slowly, carefully, he analyzed the house through his binoculars, occasionally murmuring aloud as he worked through calculations and formulae in his head. He'd probably write it all out later, for appearance's sake. People seemed more inclined to believe in his "miscalculations" when they could see his work on paper, even if they had no clue as to what they were looking at.

He was taking a closer look at the chimney when his cell phone went off. He looked away from the chimney to glance briefly at the screen—and grinned as he returned his eyes to the binoculars. He pushed the call button, "Hello?"

"You! You! You—"

"Oh, hey Paige," Gideon said with feigned surprise. "What are you calling so late for?"

"YOU!"

"Me?"

"You hired a stripper for my bridal shower!"

"Me? No. Someone called a stripper?" Gideon said, sounding shocked and horrified. "Was he any good?"

"He was dressed as a storm trooper," Paige shouted.

"Yeah, I had to pay extra for that. Can you believe that's not one of their regular costumes?"

"You're dead Gideon. Eric's mother nearly had a heart attack!"

Gideon fought not to laugh. Paige always made it far too easy. "Really? Then you may want paramedics on stand-by for the wedding."

"What?" Paige shrieked. "What are you going to do at my wedding? Don't you dare do anything, Jas-"

"Gotta go, Paige. Take care. Tell mom and dad hello for me. Love you."

"Just you wait, Gideon. You are so going to pay for this."

"Bye." Gideon shoved his phone in his pocket and laughed delightedly, not caring one whit if he woke someone up. He resumed his analysis of the Theta Chi house, triple checking his calculations before returning the binoculars to the box and grabbing his book bag.

It would be way too suspicious to do anything tonight. But lunchtime the day after tomorrow or so would be perfect. And oh, what a miscalculation it was going to be. He just needed to double-check a couple of things and he'd be all set.

He lived in a corner apartment on the fourth floor of a rickety old five-story building, with easy access to roof, street and apartment thanks to the fire escape. Reaching the window, he undid the lock he'd put on it and dropped his bag through before sliding inside himself and closing the window behind him. And even though he'd left a table lamp on to avoid coming home to complete darkness, it couldn't spare him coming home to an empty apartment. There was Quincy of course—who was currently dozing on the sofa—but it just wasn't the same. Oh well, he'd get used to it eventually.

Immediately to his right as he stood with his back to the window was his desk, made to fit into the corner and half buried by his computer, accessories and various toys and action figures. Crammed between the desk and the door to his bedroom were two bookcases, over laden with textbooks, manuals, games, and comics. More of the same was piled in front of the bookcases and around the desk.

In the corner to his left was his TV, with an old sofa, recliner and coffee table from his mom to make up the living room. A small kitchen was beyond that, the front door with a small closet, and the bathroom and bedroom to make up the rest of his apartment.

Suddenly feeling the exhaustion he'd been fighting, Gideon discarded his parka and dragged himself to the bathroom. After spending nearly half an hour attempting to drown himself in near-scalding water, he felt a bit more revived. A can of soda and several cookies from his mother improved things further, which was a good thing, because no one else was going to pay his rent or for his books and rockets and all the rest. He had programs to write and games to debug, along with way too many papers to grade.

"Hey, dork! You forgot to wash your dishes again."

Danny narrowed his eyes at the Super Jerk at the far end of the hallway. "I did wash them. This morning."

"Well, they're dirty and filling up the sink. I guess maybe they used themselves?"

"I washed them. Go find the jerk who used my stuff and yell at him." Mouth tight with anger, Danny walked toward and then past his housemate—Jeff—just waiting for the jerk to say anything else.

He didn't, and Danny gave a mental sigh of relief as he reached the stairs and headed up toward his room.

"Nice bruises, dork." Jeff called after him.

Danny kept his mouth shut, but made sure to slam his door as hard as possible before locking it behind him. "Asshole," he muttered as he began to strip off his gear, throwing the jacket, gloves and hat in the general vicinity of his closet. He plopped into the small chair in front of his desk and opened his computer, skimming through various emails and grimacing at the one from his professor. He turned to sit sideways in his seat, staring without really seeing the painting he was working on in his room.

For his art major he had two final projects to replace the classes he should be taking but wasn't because he was in an accelerated program. One project was to be done in sculpture—the snowmen that the Assholes First Class has just demolished. He'd have to work double time now to make up for the loss. Especially as he was going to lose even more of his non-existent free time both avoiding them and exacting revenge. Bastards.

His second project was a series of three paintings. The graduating seniors had been assigned the theme of "childhood" for their final projects, so that's what Danny was stuck doing.

Which the other students were bitching about to no end. Danny felt sorry for them. He'd begun actual painting on two of them—the one in the art building and one he worked on here in his room. The art building one was meant to be nostalgic, an image of some of his favorite things growing up: the tree house where they used to hide and water-bomb poor Peter Pan; the wagon that had taken more abuse than a car in a junkyard, and of course Hobbes. He called it, "The Days are Just Packed."

The second painting was meant mostly to be funny, though he wanted people to feel a bit creeped out. It was only just barely begun, mostly just a sketch with some base colors laid in. The image was a close-up of a bed, the sheets and blankets bundled up into a lumpy ball in the top center of the image, with only the barest bit of foot and the tip of a black and orange tail peeking out.

Except for a large pair of yellow-green eyes underneath the bed, and a pool of something wet dripping from an unseen mouth. The eyes and the moonlight slinking in through the crack between curtains were the only things not going to be done in blacks, blues and purples. He was calling this one, "Something Under the Bed is Drooling."

He hadn't started the last yet, because it was going to be the most difficult. So far it was only a rough drawing in his sketchbook, an image of Hobbes and him running helter-skelter through the backyard with masks, flags and a volleyball, using an old croquet set to construct an obstacle course that had only ever made sense to the two of them. This was also the only painting—the only anything—that showed his Hobbes, the way he'd seen the tiger growing up. "It's a Magical World," was its title.

Danny shifted so he was sitting backwards on the chair, propping his chin on arms folded over the back of it, facing the bed and a small figure propped against the pillow. "So Theta Creeps trashed my snowmen. I really wish it was possible to just feed them to you." He was silent a moment, then said, "True. They probably do taste awful. Like beer and fat. Not very appetizing."

Another pause, and then Danny sighed. "It'll take me forever to redo them all. I was almost done! And I've still got my English finals to work on." He buried his head in his arms a minute, and then looked back up at the bed. "I guess I could just do a joint project—but I don't want to. I want to do the snowmen. I liked the snowmen. Those stupid assholes. Lord knows nothing else could get them to do that much exercise outside a trendy gym. Besides..." he hesitated, "that guy really liked them. At least he said he did." He frowned. "It means that maybe if one person besides my professor likes them, then maybe everyone will. And he liked my painting too." Danny's cheeks turned pink. "It was cool. He didn't laugh or anything. I kept waiting for it." A pause. "No. I forgot to ask. And it doesn't matter—I'm going to die tomorrow anyway. Professor McCarthy called in sick, and thanks to tonight's stranger calling security on the Theta Creeps twice, I'm probably not going to be alive after class ends. If I make it through class."

Danny grinned suddenly, and it was all mischief and evil intent. "But hey—I can go down with a fight, right?" He sat up straighter, fisting his hands in anticipation. "They've got a booze fest coming up day after tomorrow. They'll be so wasted and busy tormenting the freshmen they won't notice the destruction to their water and electric until too damn late. I haven't used my power tools once this semester—probably about time I fixed that huh, Hobbes?"

He fell suddenly silent, the gleeful grin fading from his face, head falling back down on his refolded arms. "I'm such a loser."

"Whoa, slippery." Gideon rolled his eyes at himself, re-secured his grip on the uneven bricks, and resumed his slow, careful climb up the back wall of the Theta Chi house. An earlier examination had revealed no easier method by which to reach the roof, unless he wanted to try going inside, which was every kind of stupid. Not least of all because he didn't want anyone to know he'd been there.

It would severely hamper the credibility of his "miscalculations" tomorrow afternoon to get caught today.

But getting caught was about as likely as his being invited inside for a drink. If you weren't at an infamous Theta Chi party, you were hiding somewhere so you could lie later and say you had been. So no one who did happen to see him was likely to say anything. And security had bigger fish to fry than a moron scaling a two-story brick house in the middle of an icy winter night.

Well, 23:27. Not quite the middle of the night. And the party was scheduled to end at 01:00, so he didn't have a whole lot of time to waste. Good thing he only needed a few minutes.

Gideon froze in place as the window beside him rattled and banged, as if someone had fallen or been thrown against it. He waited, sighing softly as the noise ceased, and resumed climbing. Falling now would suck quite a bit, though there was enough snow that he wouldn't really hurt anything. Maybe a few bruises, but he doubted even that.

Still, he let out a long sigh of relief when he finally scrambled up onto the roof. "Halfway there. The things I do to exact revenge, I swear." He hummed the theme to a zombie movie he'd watched over the weekend as he stepped carefully over the slanted roof, up toward the chimney.

His humming faded from song to murmured thoughts as he turned on a flashlight attached to the front of his coat and examined the chimney with eyes and hands. "Hmm…stronger than I had thought it would be. Probably will have to increase…" his voice trailed off as his thoughts raced along, mentally making adjustments to the rockets he planned to use for the venture, altering the calculations he'd made the night before. He paused ah examined the last corner, the left side facing the street. "Bit weaker here…so if I aim…adjust the…hmm…" Satisfied with his findings, Gideon slowly made his way back around the chimney and then slowly down the roof toward the place where he'd originally climbed up.

The sudden slamming open of the back door startled him, just as he was sliding off the edge of the roof to cling to the wall. With a faint cry of surprise, Gideon lost his grip and plummeted down, landing with a hard 'oof.'

On something that definitely was not snow.

Something that talked.

"Get off me!" Danny hissed in outrage, though a tinge of fear lurked beneath it.

Gideon blinked. Blinked again. He pushed himself up on his arms, still hovering over Danny. "What are you doing here?"

"Huh?" Danny stopped struggling to get free, finally realizing who had come crashing down upon him. "What are you doing here?"

"I asked first."

"Nothing."

"You just like to lay in the snow on Theta Chi's lawn?"

Danny glared. "You're the one who knocked me down."

"That's only because—" he was cut off by Danny's hand on his mouth.

Gideon frowned behind the hand, but didn't protest as the sound of voices drew near. He dropped back down, until he was flush against Danny, and they were mostly hidden by the high snow.

Danny's breaths were white puffs of soundless air as they waited unmoving for the two voices to either approach and discover them, or retreat and leave them mercifully undetected.

Not that Gideon thought he'd be able to move even if they were found. Danny's bare hands were still warm, as though he'd either just come outside or recently removed gloves. The fingers were slender, calloused in a way that artists' hands usually weren't. And Danny was really really really close.

Anxious, flustered, Gideon waited as the voices drifted closer, not hearing the slurred words, only listening for the sounds to go away.

Which, at last, they did, as the Drunken Theta Jerk convinced his girlfriend to go back inside. Gideon sighed in relief behind Danny's fingers.

Danny jerked his fingers away like he'd been burned, and Gideon was forcibly reminded as to their positions and scrambled madly to stand.

He'd barely moved away when Danny rose, retrieved a large, black plastic case from the snow and took off like a shot across the backyard and through the hedges that lined the end it, cutting through to a quieter street of student housing.

Gideon dashed after him, both of them moving until they were well away from the Theta Chi house. Panting, Gideon reached out and snagged Danny's wrist—but immediately let go when Danny whirled and tried to jerk away. "Sorry! Just wanted you to stop. Man, you can really book it when you want. I walk fast but damn—I almost had to run to keep up with you. So what were you—" Gideon stopped, and frowned, finally getting a close look at Danny. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing," Danny said sullenly, and turned to continue on down the street. He spun around and jerked away as Gideon again latched onto him—by the upper arm this time. "Leave me alone!"

"Okay. Sorry." Gideon frowned. "I just wondered why you were around the Theta house. Is that why you have more bruises?"

Danny shrugged, and responded in a mutter almost too low to hear. "They got me this morning before class. I was going to get them back tonight." He hefted the case, which was obviously heavy, but said nothing more.

"But why'd they get you? Just because I…oh…" Gideon looked abashed. "They got you because I called security on them twice." He ran a hand awkwardly through his hair and fidgeted with his glasses. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Danny said, looking at Gideon in mild surprise. "They probably would have just found another excuse if you hadn't called. I'm used to it."

"Why do you let them do it?"

Danny stiffened and once more tried to leave.

"Wait! Come on," Gideon sounded desperate and aggravated. "Why do you keep trying to rush off?"

"Why should I stay?" Danny asked, looking and standing utterly confounded.

"Ah…" Gideon looked briefly confused. "Don't you want to know why I was on the roof?"

Danny blinked. "Oh, yeah. Why were you on the roof?"

"Come with me." Gideon grinned. "I'll show you. It's kind hard to explain without being able to show you."

"Umm…"

"Please?" Gideon hoped he didn't sound as desperate as he thought he did. But he couldn't help but think—okay, hope—that Danny might be a kindred spirit. Probably wishful thinking, but it couldn't hurt. Or at least, he was used to the hurt when he proved to be wrong, but someday he was bound to be right, right?

"….Okay. I guess." Danny set the case on the ground and dug in the pockets of his ski jacket and pulled out gloves, which he quickly donned. Retrieving his case, he stood looking at Gideon, brown eyes intent.

"Uh, right," Gideon half-muttered, suddenly remembering he was supposed to be leading the way and not staring at Danny. He crossed the street as a car passed, cutting through yards to reach the main street, where they could walk straight to the back of his apartment building.

Danny followed him in silence, biting his lip in thought as he regarded the lanky figure in front of him. He had the build of someone who spent most of his time in doors, but wasn't a complete vegetable. Which was interesting, because the guy struck him as a computer-type geek. He blinked, suddenly stopping. "Umm…hey."

The other man stopped, and turned. "What's up? We're almost there, promise. It's just a block more."

"What's your name?"

The man laughed, the sound of it especially loud in the dead, cold night air. "Gideon Fox."

"Oh." Why did that name sound familiar?

"Nice to meet you," Gideon beamed. "Now come on—I'm cold."

Danny smiled. "It's not that bad out here."

Face going pink, Gideon muttered, "this way." He hesitated as they finally reached the building but finally headed inside.

He opened the front door and flicked on the lights. "It's not much. And really, what I want to show you is on the roof. I just figured you'd like to set your stuff down."

"Do you have any roommates?" Danny looked around the room, hoping his envy wasn't apparent. "This place is awesome."

Gideon smiled hesitantly. "You think so? It's not much…my mom gave me the furniture and fixed it up so I couldn't 'do too much damage'." He rolled his eyes. "She's still upset about the last time she gave me furniture."

"What happened last time?" Danny asked.

"Uh…" Gideon adjusted his glasses. "I got carried away with an experiment and wound up setting it on fire. That was in high school, when they bought me a new bedroom set. It…" he grinned sheepishly. "The bed's still okay—I've got it now. But the dresser and nightstand didn't make it."

Danny grinned. "Which one did you set on fire?"

"The dresser." Gideon grimaced. "The nightstand was a victim of super glue and Paige's cashmere sweater. She's still mad at me for that one. Even though I give her one for Christmas every year now."

"Paige? A sister?"

"Yeah. A few years older—she's getting married soon." Gideon heaved a long-suffering sigh. "She's more impossible than ever to live with. I hope Eric—her fiancé—is up to the challenge." He grinned. "And resigned to the fact that I'm not going to stop tormenting her."

Danny almost smiled. "Sounds like the way I used to terrorize Peter Pan and Rosalyn."

"Who are they?" Gideon moved away from the entryway, leading Danny to his living room. "Want something to drink?"

"Nah, I'm fine." Danny hesitated, but seeing Gideon strip off his winter gear, gladly followed suit. "Peter Pan's a girl I grew up with. She goes to school up in Clarington."

"The girl's school?" Gideon shuddered. "That place is terrifying."

"That would explain why she fits in so well," Danny said dryly. "She's the Princess of Terror."

"Not the Queen?"

"No—that would be Rosalyn. She was my babysitter growing up." Danny's eyes grew distant, as he relived memories. "We used to do our damnedest to kill each other, I swear. I was terrified of her." He grinned briefly. "And I was definitely the most troublesome child she ever had the misfortune to babysit."

Gideon laughed in delight, collapsing next to Danny on the couch. "That's awesome. Usually Paige or Peter—my brother—got stuck watching me, and that's not as much fun as terrifying a total stranger. Oh—but my friend Marcus has four sisters. We used to terrorize them from time to time."

"Marcus?"

"Yeah, he's my best friend. Going to an IT school on the west coast." He rolled his eyes. "Mostly because his girlfriend is going there for school. But he says he likes it so…" Gideon shrugged.

They fell silent, neither quite sure where to go from there.

"So what did you want to show me?" Danny asked at last.

"Oh! It's up on the roof." Gideon jumped up, glad to have something to do, and grabbed a hooded sweatshirt before heading toward the window. Flinging it open, he grinned back at Danny before clambering out and leading the way up the steps, their footsteps sharp and ringing against the all-but-frozen metal stairs. "This way." He crossed the roof and stopped before the tarp, flinging it back with a flourish.

"Oh, cool!" Danny crowed, dropping to his knees to get a closer look.

Gideon noticed he hadn't bothered to put his jacket back on. "Aren't you cold?"

"Huh?" Danny looked up, not really paying attention. "No." He turned back to the rockets. "They look…different. Did you do something to them?"

"Yeah." Gideon kneeled next to him and launched into an elaborate explanation on his modifications, explaining each aspect of the half dozen rockets. He seemed oblivious to Danny's occasional looks of confusion.

"Wait ," Danny interrupted, shaking his head. "Are you saying you can blow stuff up?"

"Yeah, but it's really not too much stronger than a really good firecracker or something. You know—small stuff. Mostly just for show."

Danny nodded, seeming unfazed. "So how does this relate to Theta Chi?"

"I was going to direct a couple at their chimney. It's already pretty damaged, a couple of good hits and the whole thing will just topple—really someone should have had it taken care of a long time ago."

"That's why you were on the roof?"

"Yeah."

"But…" Danny looked at him, and barely a foot apart Gideon found it more difficult than normal not to just sit and stare. "Why are you doing this?"

Gideon scowled. "To get them back for the snowmen—and those bruises. Especially as those bruises are my fault. I was going to send one rocket but now I think I'll send two. That'll scare the living daylights out of all of them."

Rather than looking pleased, Danny glowered. "You don't have to get my revenge for me."

"Look—it's my fault you got hurt, and I'm taking responsibility. Sort of. Besides I have a long list of transgressions against Theta Chi. I've just never bothered to do anything because it was only stupid small stuff. Now I have a good reason." His stupidly distracting grin returned."Or you could just say it's a good excuse to play with my rockets. The latest modifications need testing."

Danny nodded slowly. "When are you going to do it?"

"Probably around lunchtime tomorrow."

"After lunch—there'll be more people in the house." Danny looked serious for all of three seconds, before he broke out in the grin that had gotten him sent to the principal's office more times than he could count.

Gideon loved it, and rubbed his hands gleefully. "Good point. Do you want to come over here and launch them with me? Or be closer to the house to see the chaos firsthand?"

"I think I'll just come here, and bring my binoculars."

"Cool." Gideon rose. "Now let's go back inside—it's freezing out here."

Danny laughed. "I should be heading home anyway—early classes and I've still got papers to grade."

"Me too. Do you teach a lot of classes?" Gideon swung inside, and closed the window after Danny followed. He dropped onto the couch.

"Most of my course work is independent study," Danny said with a shrugg. "So I help teach the freshmen and sophomore art classes to fill up time and get some extra credits in. Even my English classes are mostly independent study now—the only one that's not is the writing class."

Gideon nodded. "So you're a double Art and English major?"

"Triple," Danny replied, face flushing. "Though it's pretty easy to manage both Art and Art History. What about you?"

"Ah…" Gideon suddenly looked like he wished he was anywhere else in the world, and stared at the wall as he replied, "I'm actually working on my MA right now. I finished my BA's sophomore year. That's why I help teach so many classes."

Danny stared, and all of a sudden the reason Gideon's name was familiar clicked into place. "I've heard of you! My one housemate, Jeff, is always griping about you. You're the, uh…" he fumbled to a halt.

"I know what they call me," Gideon said with a sigh. "I think most of them are still mad about my blowing up the lounge freshman year. They maintain I did it on purpose, even though officially it's an accident."

"You did that?" Danny gaped. "I remember I went to take a look at the place one night, and I couldn't figure out how it was done. Man, the guys in my dorm that year wouldn't shut up about it. You really did that? Did you also start that fire in the cafeteria?"

"Erm…" Gideon was torn between being proud and being mortified. "The cafeteria wasn't me. I just always wound up destroying wherever I was living. And I might have caused some minor damage to one of the labs—though that wasn't entirely my fault." He motioned to the apartment. "That's why I live here. They wanted me out of the way."

Danny frowned, "But what about tomorrow? Won't the rockets get you in trouble?"

"Nah—it'll just be and accident." He winked. "I'm always miscalculating stuff."

"I see," Danny replied.

They both fell silent. Danny slowly climbed to his feet and fetched the case holding his tools. "I guess I should get going. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yep," Gideon said, wishing he could think of a reason for Danny to stay—not that he knew what they'd do, but still. "Want to meet for lunch first?"

"Ah—sure." Danny hoped his cheeks weren't as red as they felt. But no one had ever asked him to lunch before. Least of all a cute mad scientist.

Gideon grinned. "Cool. Then how about at the snack bar? Say 12:30?"

"Okay." Danny paused, undecided, then opened the window and climbed out. "Bye."

On the street, he chanced a glance back—face going hot when Gideon waved at him. Waving hastily in reply, Danny then shoved his hands into his pocket and hastened off.

It was only when he reached his room that he realized he'd left his tool case behind. But he'd be seeing Gideon again soon, he could retrieve it then.

The thought shouldn't make him smile so much. Every time he got his hopes up, they crashed and burned.

But he was still smiling as he crawled into bed and fell asleep drooling on Hobbes.

"How many boards would the Mongols hoard if the Mongol hordes got bored?"

Gideon looked askance at Danny. "What?"

Danny gave him a sheepish smile. "Sorry."

"What was that?"

"Something stupid I came up with as a kid. I say it when I'm thinking sometimes; I didn't mean to say it aloud."

Gideon grinned. "How many boards would the Mongols hoard if the Mongol hordes got bored? That is fun to say. Not a very good tongue-twister though."

"Yeah, that's why I keep it to myself." Danny turned back to his binoculars, cheeks pink.

Gideon watched him for a few moments before raising his own binoculars.

"When do you suppose they'll figure out we did it?" Danny asked. Through the binoculars they watched the mixture of angry, confused and too hung over to care Theta Chi brothers scramble to figure out and fix whatever was wrong with their chimney.

Or what was left of it anyway. The old brick had blown out just the way Gideon had calculated—though Gideon hadn't counted on a portion of the roof going as well. "I think Jerk Wad #1 just found bits of the rockets."

"Yeah, I think you're right…" Danny frowned. "What's he doing with it now?"

Gideon shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe keeping it from Security and Housing? To take matters into their own hands?"

"Do you think they'll pin it on you?"

"Nah," Gideon said breezily. "The Theta Creeps aren't that smart. They'll probably forget all about it after their weekend booze out."

Danny lowered his binoculars. "That was pretty sweet. Where do you get the supplies? I didn't think it was possible for toy rockets to cause that much damage."

Gideon started laughing. "Marcus and I refined the art of Model Rocket Destruction growing up. Between my father and I, it was no wonder the paramedics knew us all by name. They used to send us Christmas cards…"

"I'm impressed. All the times I almost broke my neck going off ridges and crashing into brooks and my parents never had to call the paramedics. Even the one time when my sled wound up in the tree…"

"If your painting is anything to go by," Gideon replied with a wink, "I'd say your wagon and tiger took the brunt of the beatings."

Danny's cheeks went red. "Yeah, Hobbes did need more than a few stitches over the years." He shot his book bag a quick, guilty glance, then shook his head and lifted his binoculars.

Gideon watched him, far more interested in Danny than in the temper-tantrum Theta Chi was throwing. "So what are you doing the rest of the day?"

Danny shrugged, not looking at him. "Probably study some, then paint later tonight."

"Do you like sledding?" Gideon asked.

"Sledding?" Danny couldn't keep the eagerness from his voice, turning to look at Gideon. "Yeah! I used to go to the hill on the other side of Ridge park, until…" he trailed off.

"Until?"

"Until some other guys found the place and took it over." He looked out unhappily at the snow. "It really was a good hill."

"There's a better one about thirty minutes from here, a mile or so past the fairgrounds."

Danny shook his head. "Too far of a walk. I generally stick to places nearby."

"Benefits of a paranoid mother who doesn't like the idea of me being stuck and forced to rely on public transportation when it's time to be home for important dates." Gideon winked again. "Want to go? I caught up on most of my work last night, so if you've got some free time…"

"Uh…sure." Danny gave him a quick smile, seeming horribly uncertain as to whether it was okay to be enthusiastic. "I'll have to go get my things from my room and drop my bag off."

Gideon was putting the tarp over the remaining rockets and stowing his binoculars. "Sure thing. Help me grab my stuff and then we'll go get yours."

"Sure."

Barely able to contain his excitement, Gideon dashed for the stairs and his room.

Several minutes later they were outside Danny's dorm, loading his stuff in the back of Gideon's car.

"Damn," Danny said looking the passenger seat. "Forgot to put my book bag away. Gimme a sec?"

"Yeah, sure." Gideon said, still fighting to fit the sled in just so, barely noticing when Danny ran back toward his room.

Nor did he notice the crunch of tires in the snow until he heard the new arrivals talking. "Nice bag, loser."

"Give it back," Danny said in his 'I'm small but I'll try to take you anyway' voice. "What are we in, grade school?"

"Yeah, I guess we are." The speaker was one of the two who had trashed Danny's snowmen the other night, but his gaze was fastened on Gideon as he turned around. "Only kids play with rockets."

Gideon let out a hiss of dismay.

"You're just pissed because now Security is going to find all the stuff you're not supposed to have." Danny barely danced back out of the way as a second Theta brother made a grab for him.

The first one ignored them and rifled through the front pocket of Danny's book bag, pulling out a paperback and small sketchpad. "What's this?"

"A book," Danny retorted. "I doubt you know how to use it."

"You're probably right," the brother said with a shrug. He dropped it into the slushy muck accumulated at the curb. The sketchbook quickly followed. The he opened the main section of the book bag.

Danny began to look slightly panicked. "Give it back."

"Aw…" the brother grinned and looked at his companion. "Look at what we've got here." He pulled out a small, faded and threadbare stuffed tiger. Its plastic eyes were scratched, most of its soft nose worn away.

"GIVE HIM BACK!" Danny snarled, blindly launching himself at the man holding his book bag and tiger.

Grinning, the Theta dropped the book bag and tossed the tiger to his friend, gleefully getting into a tangle with Danny.

"Oh, shit…" Gideon scrambled to help, cringing inwardly at the idea of getting into a fight. He didn't do so well with direct violence.

The second Theta didn't give him a chance to help, and in what seemed like mere seconds Gideon found himself struggling just to avoid a broken face.

All of a sudden the pummeling and yanking and knocking against snow and muddy ground ceased, and he looked up to blurrily see why it had stopped. He struggled to sit up.

His vision was blurry—where had his glasses gone?—as he looked up and saw the Thetas being hauled away by campus security. "Shit!" Gideon fell back into the snow with a groan. "I'm in such deep shit now." He turned his head to look for Danny, who was little more than a blurry ski jacket with a blonde tip. Gideon frowned, swearing he could hear Danny crying.

The officers helped them to their feet, as roughly as possible. "I hope you lot thought this fight was worth it. Gideon, I thought you were smarter than this."

Danny fought off the burly man helping him and launched himself at the Thetas again. "Give him back to me! Assholes, give him back!" The officer pulled him roughly away and toward a second SUV that had arrived. "Let me go! I want Hobbes!"

Frowning, Gideon squinted and looked around in the snow. "Give me a second, Officer?" he smiled politely at the remaining security guard.

The officer glared at him. "A second for what? You're in enough trouble already, Gideon."

"I need my glasses. I can't see all that great without them."

"And yet you think you can find them?"

Gideon shook his head, "No. I've got a spare set in my car."

"Where?"

"Glove compartment, in a black case."

The guard held out a hand. "Give me your keys."

Gideon handed them over, and waited until the security officer was rifling through his car before rapidly crossing the wrecked field to snatch up the stuffed tiger half buried in the snow. He stuffed it under his parka, ignoring the Thetas glaring at him from inside the SUV. "Can I go with Danny?" he asked when the guard returned with his glasses. "I don't trust the Theta Creeps."

"It takes more than one for a fight," he replied tartly. "I really didn't think fighting in the street was your style, Gideon."

"It's not," Gideon muttered.

"Get in the car," the guard snapped. "And you'd better have a damned good explanation for all this."

Sighing, Gideon obeyed. Climbing into the backseat beside Danny, he waited until they were moving before opening his parka and quietly handing over the stuffed tiger with a smile, attempting to lighten the gloomy, defeated expression on Danny's face. "Hobbes said he didn't much care to be left in the snow, and that he wanted to see you get in trouble."

Danny looked startled, staring from Gideon to the tiger and back again. His face had a 'boys don't cry' expression, before he gave Gideon a smile that was hesitant but happy and sweet, despite their dire circumstances. Gideon had never seen a smile like it. "That sounds like something Hobbes would say."

Dazzled, Gideon spent the trip to the Dean's office staring at Danny, who clung to his tiger like it was all he had to hold onto.

"Somebody, somewhere, loves us very much." Gideon dropped onto his couch, glad to get off his rubbery legs.

Danny remained standing, as if now that he was inside Gideon's apartment, he could not remember how to walk—or even move.

"Seriously. I need to go offer my thanks and a sacrifice to some god, because I didn't think there was anyway I was getting out of that office without a suspension—or expulsion."

Instead of commenting, Danny headed mutely for Gideon's kitchen. Gideon listened curiously to the rattling and fumbling, but was too tired and in too much pain to force himself up off the couch.

Danny reappeared a moment later, sitting next to Gideon and handing him some aspirin.

"Thanks," Gideon swallowed the medicine with the glass of water Danny handed him. "How do you take a beating like that and not say a damned thing? You don't seem to be in pain."

"Practice," Danny said mildly. "Lots and lots of practice." He stared at Hobbes, whom he'd propped in the recliner. "I always got harassed in school—from first grade on up. This one bully harassed me for years before someone finally did something about him." He shrugged. "You learn how to block the worst of it."

Gideon didn't know what to say. "Why didn't anyone ever help you?"

"Because I was a monster. I still am, really. Peter Pan is the only one I get along with back home. Hobbes…" he paused. "Hobbes was my only friend. And I got into fights even with him sometimes." Danny still had not taken his eyes off the tiger, cheeks going pink again.

It was really cute the way he did that. "I can't imagine you won very often, going up against a tiger."

Danny looked at him, startled.

"What?" Gideon grinned. "I've heard of weirder things than getting into fights with a stuffed animal." He rolled his eyes. "At least you didn't help your pet iguana masquerade as a private eye. Seriously, it's no wonder my family thinks I'm mental."

Danny's lips curved in the ghost of a smile. "I bet you didn't lock yourself in your school locker."

Gideon quirked a brow, "I'm impressed. Let's see…I bet you never got chewed out by government officials and the local news station for reporting aliens."

"No, but I'm still living down the noodle incident."

"The noodle incident?" Gideon grinned, eyes bright behind his glasses. "Dare I ask?"

Danny shook his head. "I really don't like to talk about it."

"Fair enough." Gideon yawned and stood up before he could do something stupid. He'd had enough beatings for one day. "Hungry? We can either order pizza or eat the eggplant stroganoff my mother sent me. Please don't pick door number two."

Danny's face scrunched up. "Eggplant stroganoff? Please tell me that's not from '101 Ways to use Eggplant'?"

Gideon's eyes bugged out. "You mean there's someone else who's had to eat that crap?" He dropped back down, hand covering Danny's on the couch. By accident, really. "Is your mom a health nut too?"

"No," Danny laughed, not seeming to notice his hand was being almost sort of held. "Just crazy and a terrible, awful, horrible cook."

Gideon had only kissed three people in his entire life—two girls and one guy. None of them had gone over well, so he'd given it up as something else he'd never be good at. Outside of computers, math, and causing trouble, it didn't seem like he was good for much of anything. But the smile from the SUV was still fresh in his mind and hearing Danny laugh was the last straw.

So Gideon decided that one more stupid thing in a long line of stupid things really couldn't make his day much worse, and leaned forward and pressed a quick, shy kiss to the corner of Danny's mouth. Full on the lips would have been better, but he was sort of panicky.

"Wha…" Danny blinked. His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. "You…did you…?"

Gideon pulled away. "Umm…"

"Why did you do that?" Danny asked, looking so thoroughly confused Gideon wanted to kiss him again and again and again.

"Because I have really been wanting to for a long time," Gideon replied, daring to be honest.

Danny just stared, looking even more confused. "Oh."

Feeling brave—stupid?—again, Gideon leaned forward and repeated the gesture. Of his three previous tries at this, the first girl had given him a polite no, the second girl had laughed, and the one guy had stopped talking to him. Danny wasn't doing any of that. Gideon took it as a positive sign.

When he pulled away, smiling despite the bruises on his face, Danny's entire face was red.

"Okay?" Gideon asked.

Danny replied, "Su-Peter Pan tried that once. Neither one of us liked it much."

Gideon frowned. "Please don't tell me a girl kisses better than I do."

"I don't know. I've only kissed one girl and I just told you we didn't like it."

"So…" Gideon was confused. "Are you telling me to stop or do it again?"

"Definitely not stop. I dunno. Never done this before. I'm a loser remember? There's exactly zero people lining up to kiss the weirdo who spends all his life in the art building and regularly gets beat up by Theta Chumps."

Gideon seriously, seriously doubted there weren't people who would be more than happy to give Danny something new and different to do in the art building. "Well I'm in line."

Danny smiled, though his cheeks were still flushed.

"Do you want to sleep over?" Gideon asked in a rush. "I mean—you could sleep on the couch. And we could go to breakfast in the morning?"

"Uh—sure." Danny bobbed his head as if to emphasize he was agreeing.

"Cool." Gideon bounced up to scrounge up a blanket and pillow and everything before he forgot.

"Do you still want to order pizza?"

Gideon let out what sounded like agreement, as he fought with the contents of his hallway closet.

Danny pulled out his phone. "Know the number?"

"On the fridge," Gideon said, half-tangled in a blanket. "I need to clean this closet, I think."

Danny snickered. "What do you want on your pizza?"

"Pepperoni," Gideon managed, ducking a stray box that had jumped off the shelf to attack him.

Danny wandered back toward the couch as he ordered, glad to have the distraction of ordering food to keep him from wigging out about other things. Without thinking, his fingers strayed to his lips, and he knew he was probably blushing again but he couldn't help it. Pizza ordered, he hung up and dropped down onto the couch, staring at Hobbes across the way.

Movement caught the corner of his eye, and he watched as Quincy idly made his way across the living room. The iguana paused to look at Danny, as if trying to figure out why he was there again. He resumed ambling, slowly climbing up the old recliner. The iguana seemed thoroughly puzzled by the stuffed tiger that had taken his spot, slowly examining the strange item before he seemed to give a sort of shrug and stretched out beside it.

Danny smiled.

"Oh my god…" Peter said faintly, the words half groan, half awe. "He actually found a clone." Beside him, his sister snorted inelegantly. "A clone? Please, Peter. You can't be that dense." Peter looked at her. "Paige, what are you talking about? Do you see them out there? They're exactly alike." He shuddered, rubbing his arms to ward off a sudden chill. "I see them," Paige said. She gave him a look. "The question is, do you?" "Please speak English; one in this family who doesn't is more than enough." Paige rolled her eyes. "If you can't see the obvious, I'm not going to point it out to you. I'm certain they will soon enough. God, you're an idiot." "I am not!" Peter glared at his sister as she turned away. "What in the hell am I missing?" "I'm going shopping," Paige said, ignoring him. "I'll be back around nine." "Don't you have your own house?" Peter groused. Paige gave him a smirk. "Don't you?" "Not while she's pregnant, I don't," Peter muttered beneath his breath. "Bring back pizza." He winced as outside Gideon and his new friend - what was his name? - almost ate fence chasing down a renegade rocket. "And a six pack. Jeez, I thought he was in college now." Paige rolled her eyes again as she grabbed her purse and car keys. "You could just stop watching them." "I can't. It's like watching a train wreck - only worse." "Right," Paige said, shaking her head as she left out the back door. Peter continued to watch his brother and - damn, what was his name? Carl? No. Kevin? Oh! Danny. To watch his brother and Danny continue to make attempts to blow up the backyard. It was eerily like the days of his youth. Thank the lord above he now lived well across town and Gideon had no interest in destroying his backyard. Though he really wished he'd stop calling in during his shows. He watched, chortling, as Gideon tackled his friend to prevent his being creamed by yet another wayward rocket. It was no wonder Gideon had been kicked off campus, if that was what he did indoors. He loved his brother to death, but man. Gideon did not make it easy to live with him. Peter continued to watch, idly sipping at a can of soda, as Gideon and Danny remained on the ground. They must be really worried about that rocket. In the next instant, he was choking on his soda, tears blurring his vision as it burned in his nose. That was not hiding from a rocket. Jeez, Gideon was a Supreme Geek. Where'd he learn to do that? Peter yanked the dining room curtains shut and stalked into the living room. "No damn wonder she was laughing at me…" He clicked on the TV, searching for anything containing scantily clad women to erase unwanted images. Because love his brother as he did, he did not need an image of Gideon making out with his "friend" in the backyard where he and Denise used to make out on the rare occasion the house was empty. Several minutes later, right in the middle of an old rerun of Baywatch, the sound of the back door slamming and two young men laughing broke the happy oblivion Peter had achieved. He couldn't help but notice that they held hands until they reached the living room. "You two should really get a room next time," he said casually. Gideon grinned. "You were watching us so avidly, I thought we'd give you a good show." Peter set his soda down before he hurt himself again. "Yeah, yeah. I didn't know you were causing mass mayhem with your boyfriend. You kinda failed to mention that part." "Boyfriend?" the two said together. Gideon looked at Danny, Danny looked at Gideon. "Uh, yeah. I hear that's what they call it. Unless you're more the fling sort." Gideon blinked. "Never really thought about it. We just…hang out." He looked at Danny, still blinking and looking dazed. Peter realized it was time for him to leave. "Mom and dad will be back around eleven, but Paige will be back around nine." Grabbing his keys from the coffee table, Peter vanished out the back door. He shook his head, wondering how he could have been so damned oblivious. The way those two had looked at each other - Peter knew that look. It guaranteed Danny would be around for a long, long time if Gideon had anything to say about it. He shook his head and grinned as he pulled out of the drive, catching sight of the two men kissing for all they were worth in the middle of the living room.

"Strip zone!"

"What!" Gideon screeched, freezing in place.

Danny grinned, simultaneously ridiculous and threatening in his black eye mask. Utterly appealing in his tight red tank top and perpetually messy hair. He held the volleyball like a weapon. "You have to lose a piece of clothing every round until you find your way out of it."

Gideon glared behind his own mask. "This isn't a strip zone!"

"It is if I say it is."

"Damn it!" Gideon was torn between grinning and groaning. "How did I let you talk me into this?"

Danny smirked. "Quit stalling and lose the shirt."

Gideon sighed and stripped out of his t-shirt. He thought about making a crack about not seeing strip zones in the rule book, but there was no book because there was only one rule:

You're not allowed to play Dannyball the same way twice.

And, of course, Danny had a much better grasp of the general chaos he'd invented.

"Did you have a strip zone when you played with Hobbes?"

Danny paused for a moment, still a bit thrown every time Gideon mentioned Hobbes so casually. Then he laughed. "And why would I want to see that damned tiger naked? No, no."

"What's the score?"

"Master to Newbie. Your play."

Gideon nodded, then started running – two seconds later Danny figured out Gideon was running at him and with a yell started fleeing. Back and forth across the maze of croquets wickets and other maltreated sports equipment, scoring points and losing them, crossing into and out of zones in a storm of chaos that made sense only to Danny.

With a triumphant cry, Gideon tackled Danny, both of them landing with an oomph in the ground – barely missing a misshapen wicket.

"Wow, you actually caught me. Must be gaining some muscle or something, geek boy."

Gideon laughed, wishing it were true. But he was panting rather heavily, and Danny seemed barely affected. "You were just laughing too hard." He reached out to grab the mask that had come loose when he'd tackled Danny. "You lost your mask. I think that's a chastity penalty."

"A what?" Danny looked surprised, which pleased Gideon immensely. Maybe he was getting the hang of this game after all.

"Chastity penalty." He levered himself up. "For the next Z rounds." He sauntered back into the middle of the playing field. "My turn right? Am I still in the strip zone?" Tossing a very pleased-with-myself grin over his shoulder, Gideon toed off his sandals and then his shorts. He picked up the discarded volleyball, tossing it in the air over and over while waiting for Danny.

Danny looked at him. "I never should have taught you this game."

"But I'm having fun!"

"Good, because last one to the power wicket has to jump into the pond!" And he took off like a shot.

"Hey!" Gideon dropped the volleyball and chased after, but this time he was no match – when he reached the red-painted wicket, Danny was standing their waiting like a very smug cat. "No fair."

"All is fair in Dannyball," Danny replied, then wrapped his arms around Gideon's waist and kissed him hard.

"Hey – chastity penalty."

"Power wicket can clear any one penalty of the person who tags it."

Gideon thought for a moment. "You've never done that before?"

"No." Danny looked offended.

"Okay, then."

"Exactly." Danny kissed him again. "And you still have to jump in the pond." A grin. "And you're still in the strip zone."

"How come I'm in the strip zone and you're not?"

Danny laughed. "Because once a zone is entered, it's cleared for all other persons."

"Right. I'm not walking around here naked."

"Then there's going to have to be a penalty," Danny replied, clever fingers tracing Gideon's spine, slick on sweat-damp skin.

Gideon licked Danny's lips, tasting the remains of super blue raspberry bubblegum. "What sort of penalty?"

"You get a choice," Danny said. "You can surrender points to transfer to the make-out zone, sing 'I'm a little teapot' or go with door number three."

"Right," Gideon said cautiously. "What's door number three?"

Danny pretended to think. "Not really sure. But I think it has something to do with lemonade and perhaps my bed."

"Right then." Gideon slipped out of Danny's arms and at the top of his lungs began to sing, 'I'm a little teapot.'

A hand grabbed his wrist and held fast, then Danny was yanked back and pushed into the wall. He gasped in surprise, but quickly fell silent at the grin on Gideon's face.

"Well, well," Gideon said, eyes gleaming with pure mischief as he pinned both of Danny's wrists to the wall, though the grip was light. "What have we have here? Spaceman Spiff with his guard down."

Danny grinned in challenge, suddenly glad they'd decided to attend the stupid costume party. Gideon had been running late, and had said he'd find him here – this wasn't what Danny had expected, but he'd gladly go with it.

Not to mention his boyfriend – he had a boyfriend, and it was sort of scary how happy that thought made him – looked rather good. As in he wanted to jump Gideon and do naughty things good.

Though, he didn't remember Zorgs looking quite like this in the comic book. Then again, he hadn't yet revealed the Zorg Prince. He could probably modify his designs, cause yeah he liked this version.

He'd have to make Gideon wear the costume lots. On most the tight green fabric probably would have looked silly, but Gideon was just enough of an outdoor geek that the fabric molded rather nicely. The Zorg symbol was done in gold, right over his heart, and Gideon had left his hair kinda messy. His face was mostly hidden by a green half-mask.

Danny approved.

He realized suddenly that somewhere in the initial surprise he'd swallowed his triple-mint gum. "Zorg Prince, you're no threat to me."

"Oh, no? I seem to have you right where I want you, filthy Spaceman." Gideon leaned in closer. "None of your tricks will work, this night. Tomorrow, my mother will feast upon your flesh."

"Ha! No Zorg scum will ever defeat me! You are merely fallen into my nefarious trap!"

Keeping a straight face was hard, because they really did sound silly – but not so silly that he wasn't painfully hard, thinking of all the evil, evil things he could do to his Zorg Prince.

Leather pants. It had been a mistake to wear them, except he'd seen the way Gideon looked at his ass when he'd tried them on. The store clerk had giggled at them, god girls always giggled at them – but he'd bought them.

Licking his lips, Danny shoved, sending Gideon back, pinning him to the opposite wall of the hallway. Gideon might like the outdoors, but Danny loved them. Besides, Spaceman Spiff kicked Zorg ass every day of the week. That put an Intrepid Explorer in damned good shape.

"Are you certain you've not fallen into the trap, Spaceman Spiff?" Gideon replied.

Danny smirked and pressed a bit closer, almost gasping as that brought their cocks together. "Positive."

"Interesting raygun, Spiff," Gideon said, and Danny had to lean in to kiss him to keep from laughing. Oh, chocolate. Danny freed Gideon's wrists to wrap his arms around Gideon's neck, tongue sweeping Gideon's mouth, tasting chocolate mingled with Gideon, a fine combination.

Hands were on his ass, fondling it through the tight leather of his pants – entirely too tight, he was never wearing them again, though it was tempting if they got Gideon to act like this – and Danny suddenly realized he was up against the wall again and those hands were not on his ass but the front.

Then the chocolate-flavored kisses were gone, and he would have pouted except Gideon dropped to his knees and started doing evil, evil things to his cock. Danny bit down on his bottom lip, fumbling at the wall with one hand, sinking the other into Gideon's hair.

Oh, man. They were totally in the hallway, and someone else could come upstairs any minute and he'd had no idea Gideon would actually go this far.

The hotness of it would likely kill him, if Gideon's blowjob didn't kill him first.

He clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from screaming as he came, then pulled Gideon to his feet and kissed him hard. There was no trace of chocolate left, but Gideon tasted even better than ever – like sex, like them.

Gideon broke away and grinned. "I think I'm winning, Spaceman."

Danny scoffed. "You've fallen to the hypnotic powers of my raygun."

They stared at each other for a moment, then burst into laughter.

When Gideon tugged, Danny went easily into his arms. "Come back to my evil layer with me, Spaceman?"

Danny reached down and groped, then grinned. "Are you going to force me to do all sorts of evil things?"

"Very evil," Gideon said with a laugh as he dragged Danny away.

"Kill the jerk! Kill the jerk!" Danny shouted at the movie they were watching, snarling in frustration as the dude who was supposed to be likeable but was in fact an asshole survived yet again. "Argh, why do the stupid jerks always win in these things?"

"They're too stupid to die?" Gideon asked with a grin, eyes more on the man pressed against him on the couch than on the zombie movie. He let his free hand wander, fingers tracing random patterns along Danny's ribs and side, the other propping his own head up so he could see both Danny and the movie.

He loved the way Danny squirmed just a bit, trying not to show that it sort of tickled, sort of felt nice, and let his fingers wander down to end of the shirt, only to sneak under it and then back up.

Then Danny did squirm, twisting until he'd trapped Gideon's hand between their bodies. "I'm trying to watch the movie."

"I'm trying to distract you," Gideon said with a grin. "Guess which one of us is winning."

Danny somehow how managed to plant an elbow in Gideon's ribs before turning back so that he was half facing the movie. The problem, Gideon thought, with dating someone as skinny as he was, was that Danny knew all too well how to inflict harm on a bony person.

Like a bony elbow between Gideon's ribs.

"You're so feisty when we watch zombie movies."

Danny smiled, though his eyes were still on the blonde woman - currently primping in a mirror but somehow not noticing the zombie standing right behind her. "That's because these stupid women always save the day despite the fact that they probably get lost in their own house. And they get the guy. Are all straight men that stupid?"

"Maybe they're just that desperate?" Gideon asked absently, nibbling at Danny's ear.

"Stop that," Danny said.

"Make me," Gideon replied, smirking.

Danny twisted to look at him again, leaning up to kiss Gideon hard on the mouth. "I haven't seen this one. How about I bribe you?"

"What sort of bribe are we talking?" Gideon asked, more interested in the way Danny's mouth still tasted like popcorn and bubblegum ice cream.

"Let me finish watching this movie and then we'll watch Star Wars." Danny licked Gideon's lips, and pulled back smirking.

Gideon remembered what happened the last time they'd watched his favorite movies. "Consider me bribed."

"Good," Danny said, and turned back around to watch his zombie movie.

Gideon looked up from the papers he was grading, looking at Danny in aggravation. They'd fallen into their usual weekday routine - he at his desk and Danny on the sofa, both of them grading papers or doing homework.

Except that normally it was relatively quiet; just them and occasionally the radio. This time though…

This time Danny was chewing gum. If he'd done it before, Gideon hadn't noticed. Danny loved gum, chewed it and popped it all the time when they were out. But not usually while they were working.

It was driving him crazy, watching that mouth work as it blew bubbles, popped them, snapped the gum. So not helping him grade freshmen papers. "Would you stop that?"

"Stop what?"

"The gum."

Danny frowned. "What's wrong with my gum?"

"It's distracting," Gideon said, giving him a look.

"Oh." Danny smiled and blew a bubble.

"I have to finish grading these papers, you demon."

"Okay, okay." Danny grinned but swallowed his gum.

Gideon went back to working, barely noticing when Danny got up to go to the kitchen - probably for a soda or something. He looked up several minutes later, needing a break - and was torn between gaping and glaring.

Danny was quite happily licking an ice cream cone - bright pink, bubblegum ice cream, his favorite.

"I don't like you." Gideon settled on glaring.

Danny didn't say a word, merely took a long slow lick of his cone.

Gideon gave up any attempt to go back to studying, standing up and stalking across the room, straddling Danny's legs and bending down to taste the ice cream for himself - from Danny's mouth, what he'd discovered was his favorite way to eat ice cream.

Even bubble-gum flavor, which wasn't really his favorite.

"You're distracting me on purpose," he said, nibbling at Danny's lips for any traces of ice cream.

"Hey," Danny said, pushing him away to lick more ice cream from his cone. "I finished all my homework." His eyes glittered in amusement, as he took another long, slow lick.

"I really don't like you."

"Uh huh," Danny replied, licking his lips.

Gideon groaned. "You are so entirely helping me grade papers later."

"Sure." Danny managed with a laugh, as Gideon dragged him up and to the bedroom.

"And I thought my dad was weird." Gideon stared down the street after the retreating sight of Danny's father racing away on his bicycle, oblivious to the torrents of rain obscuring the world around them. "He's gonna get himself killed."

Danny watched his father with a tolerant, rueful smile. "Me and mom figure if he hasn't killed himself by now, he probably isn't going to. 'Sides, he's ridden through worse. You should see him in early winter - man thinks snow is fun.

"It is fun," Gideon grinned.

"Not for cyclists."

"Cleary for some."

Danny rolled his eyes as they heard shouting at the intersection. "My dad is insane. I bet we're going to get a call about this."

Gideon snickered. "You mean you're not the only troublemaker in the family?"

"I don't think my dad ever noticed that I get my penchant for trouble from him." Danny shuddered, "Thank god that's all I got." He motioned toward the house, careful to keep the blue umbrella he was holding over both of them as he turned. "C'mon, I've still got to kick your ass on level three."

"You just got lucky," Gideon declared. He snaked his arm around Danny's waist, pinching his side and laughing when Danny jerked away from it - right into Gideon, sending them both stumbling off the sidewalk and into the grass.

Gideon collided with a fence and managed to keep them both from the wet ground. He laughed harder at Danny's face, swiping at his now wet hair. "Umbrella boy, you're not doing your job very well."

"So sorry, sir. I tend to falter when I'm molested."

"That wasn't molestation." Gideon leered. "But I can do molestation, if you want."

Danny rolled his eyes, "Not in front of—"

"Danny?!"

Danny winced, "—Satan's house." He looked toward the front door, resigned. "Hey, Peter Pan."

"When did you get home? Why didn't you tell me? Were you going to call or just ignore me? Don't you still have classes? Who's he?" She narrowed her eyes at Gideon, who smiled back and gave a small wave.

"Breathe, woman. Jeez. I got home late last night, we were going to come by later this afternoon."

Peter Pan narrowed her eyes, considering and weighing Danny's words. "It's raining," she said at last.

"You were always so clever, Susy." Danny beamed as she gave him a withering glare.

Gideon tilted his head, examining Danny's oldest friend with curiosity. She was cute. Brown hair cut into a bob, pulled back from her face with little clips. She wore a long khaki skirt and a tiny pink polo. A watch, gold hoops in her ears, a pink and white beaded necklace. School girl cute.

He was almost jealous. Almost, because he was the one with his arm around Danny's waist.

Peter Pan spoke with careful patience. "It is raining. You shouldn't be outside. If you'll stop being a brat, Danny, you and boyfriend are welcome to come inside. Mom just made cookies. Come and stay in the hall while I get you towels." Peter Pan vanished, as if not doubting for a second that her orders would be followed.

Danny sighed. "Come on, let's go." He winked, "Her mom makes really good cookies, so it won't be too awful."

"Why don't you sound convincing?"

"Because," Danny said as they stepped inside and stood in puddles of water in the entryway. "You don't chat with Peter Pan over cookies—you get interrogated."

Gideon sighed. "Just so long as there are cookies."

"Chocolate chip and oatmeal, smart alecks." Peter Pan said from behind them as she threw a bundle of towels and clothes at Danny's head. "There are some old clothes of my dad's in there, too. While yours are drying. Hurry up, before your hot chocolate gets cold." With that Peter Pan turned on her heel and left them alone again the hallway.

Laughing, Gideon began to change out of his wet clothes. "I thought you terrorized her growing up."

"It went both ways, trust me. She was just more subtle about it." Danny sighed as they finished drying off and changing, gathering up the towels in one arm and holding Gideon's hand with the other as he led the way to the living room.

Danny stretched out on top of the lab tables, pillowing his head on his arms, facing the ceiling with eyes closed.

"You're laying on my homework."

"It's comfy." Danny cracked one eye open to look at Gideon.

"Sure it is." Gideon moved closer, standing beside the table, on Danny's left. He pulled his glasses off and scrubbed at his eyes. "Get off, I need to finish going over these labs so we can go home."

"Grade them at home."

Gideon shook his head. "I take them home, I won't get them done and I've got enough to do over the weekend." He sighed softly.

Danny reached up, sliding fingers into Gideon's hair, tugging him down for a kiss.

"Mmm..." Gideon all but melted, arms coming up to rest across whatever of Danny they could reach. "Is that peach?" he asked, referring to the flavor of gum that lingered in his mouth. He licked Danny's lips.

"Was drawing earlier..." Danny kissed him again. "Peaches n' Cream, actually." He squirmed and laughed when Gideon tickled him, but the laughs turned to groans as Gideon's fingers turned less playful.

A metallic crash and muffled laughter startled them apart, both turning bright red.

Danny rolled off the table and curled up on the floor, face buried in his hands.

Gideon grinned sheepishly at the girl in the doorway.

The girl grinned back. "I was looking for the chem labs, but if this is what the biology classes get to do then I think I'm going to switch majors."

Gideon laughed. "It's for student teachers only."

"Oh, good. I start that next year."

Despite the sharp kick to his shin, Gideon laughed all the harder.

Winking, the girl turned and left, pointedly locking the door from the inside as she went.

Danny loved gum. Gideon had seen guys, girls, adults, and kids enthuse and obsess over many things; some were weirder than others and most were far stranger than gum.

Certainly Star Wars and toy rockets had never made him Mr. Popular.

But gum still seemed random. It wasn't that Danny liked or loved gum that boggled Gideon—it was the fact that he was a connisseur. He hadn't known you could be that expert about something that was simply chewed. But it was also perfectly in keeping with Danny that he liked something so completely frivolous.

He had every flavor of gum under the sun. If he didn't have it, he knew where and how to get it. Gideon had seen a few that weren't even in English. There were never fewer than six packs of gum in his bag at any given time and there were days where Gideon had seen twice that.

Not that he had any complaints. Oh, no. It always meant he never knew quite what he was going to get whenever he kissed Danny.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He knew to a point.

Danny chewed sour gum when he was in a bad mood, or stressing out over something. Lemon or sour apple or truly tart triple berry. Wow did that one linger on the tongue.

Angry Danny chewed cinnamon gum like nobody's business. Gideon had once watched him kill an entire twenty-four pack in as many hours, after a student had attempted to steal his ideas and then tried to claim Danny was the one in the wrong.

He preferred fruity stuff when he was working on his art, be it painting or sculpting or other. Fruit punch, strawberry splash, or super watermelon—Gideon's favorite.

Classic bubblegum was study gum, and Danny liked to blow bubbles mercilessly until Gideon went crazy and then he finally stopped. The brat.

Sweet flavors were preferred for mischief, especially cotton candy. Gideon wasn't quite sure what that meant. He wasn't going to argue though.

Weird flavors were normal Danny, in a good mood, doing nothing in particular. Blue raspberry and tuiti fruiti, gums with wild colors, strange names and stranger flavors. Those were always interesting.

But mint. Oh, lord did he love and hate it when Danny chewed mint. Because it was damned difficult to go anywhere near anything mint these days. He was pretty sure he was the only one who knew Danny's gum code and he knew he was the only one who realized that Danny only chewed mint—be it peppermint, spearmint, winto-green or some other variation—when he was horny.

Gideon had given up gum all together. Chewing it wasn't half so interesting as figuring out which flavor in particular Danny had at any given moment.

Sirens weren't really that big a deal.

Okay, they were. They usually meant someone was hurt or dying, that somewhere someone was in pain.

But just as often they were some asshole paramedic going to lunch, or a false alarm that did nothing more than wake him up at seven thirty on a Saturday when he'd been sound asleep curled up against...Danny sat up and blinked.

He was curled up in blankets. That was about it.

Uh-oh.

Throwing off the blankets and climbing out of bed, Danny snatched up whatever clothes he could find first - his frog boxers, an old pair of Gideon's jeans, his own red t-shirt and after a moment of searching he found a matching pair of flip-flops that he couldn't remember who actually owned.

Sirens. On campus. Even still half-asleep and pining for something caffeinated, Danny knew what that meant. Gideon had been mumbling all night about one of his experiments. Yawning, Dannyg snagged a black hoodie with something Star Wars on the back and half-stalked, half-stumbled across campus to the cluster of science buildings in the far north corner. When he finally woke up enough, he noticed the smoke - light gray, thin, nothing to worry about- trickling up into the air from the general vicinity of the chemistry labs.

And sure enough, there was Gideon, rubbing his head and looking sheepish as he explained himself to three professors, two cops, two paramedics and a handful of other PhD students - probably why it had blown up. Contrary to what most people thought, Gideon only blew things up on purpose. But Danny bet he was letting everyone think it was mostly his fault, since they were used to him, and with Gideon they would simply sigh, shake their heads, and ask him to steer clear for a few weeks.

No way would they suspend or expel a man that was every inch of the word brilliant - even in old, stained with what were probably deadly chemicals jeans and a 'got geek?' t-shirt. Gideon brought the university tons of money with his computer and chemistry work, and he was still just a student technically. They'd let him wear whatever he wanted and give him things to blow up just so long as he kept balancing it with all those brilliant, money-making things.

Danny waited off to the side, quietly relieved that beyond what had happened to his hair, Gideon seemed fine. Danny raked a hand through his own hair and then yawned again. He rifled through pockets, desperate for something to chew on. But he'd grabbed Gideon's jeans and hadn't thought to grab anything before-his fingers closed around a familiar-feeling packet and he pulled out what proved to be tropical tuiti-fruiti chewing gum, and remembered when he'd bought it at the gas station and Gideon had stolen it and they'd gotten into other things before he'd managed to steal it back. Popping a piece in his mouth, he waited impatiently for his boyfriend to be set free.

A half hour later everyone finally cleared out, and Danny crossed the field and walked right into Gideon's waiting arms, sleepily accepting a kiss, ignoring the way the lingering students stared at them. "It's a little early to be blowing stuff up. And Saturday. Double penalty."

Gideon laughed. "Sorry. Breakfast?"

"Coffee. Bed. Glad you're okay. Nice hair."

Laughing again, Gideon looped an arm around Danny's shoulders and led them toward a diner down the road, launching into an animated explanation of the experiment that had gone awry, resulting in a small bang, lots of smoke, and Gideon's hair turned bubblegum pink.