HELLO!
So I have kept my promise and written a new chapter within a week. YAYYY! *confetti* HAPPY EARLY FOURTH OF JULY!
A shoutout to my first two commenters Blue Obsidian Butterfly and cloundshadow! *even more confetti* This chapter was a request from both of them to write more Danley so here it is. Hope you enjoy it!
I have also been wondering if any of you wonderful readers have any requests for story ideas. If so, please comment them! But reviews are always more than welcome.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Now You See Me. My lawyer lost the case. :(
(BTW, I had recently gotten into the Broadway musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. See if you can find the lyric reference. I'll tell you what it is somewhere in the later chapters.)
Another Disclaimer: I don't own A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder or any of their songs. Sadly. *tear*
He was never perfect.
Oh, he tried to seem like he was but really never was anything near perfection.
Henley was on her bed, holding one of the flyers to one of their performances when she was still his assistant. Danny was in the middle (of course) in a stereotypical magician's hat and suit, white gloves introducing the title: "J. Daniel Atlas's Magic Show". It was cheesy, no doubt. She was in the backround, in one of the glittery, crazily small outfits that he made her wear. The red dress had a low neckline, no sleeves, was short up to mid-thigh and had glitter and sequins and feathers everywhere. It was one of her least favorites.
She remembered the show well. It was one of few in which he had afforded a stage with good lighting. It was also the show where he actually made contact with her during the act. And she felt that numbing yet electrifying feeling coursing throughout her body.
The show started out as usual, him introducing himself on the stage (big applause) and she introduced (getting wolf whistles, yet not nearly as much attention).
Halfway through the show, she was walking towards Danny to give him his 'magic wand' to make the confetti burst in the stands. The heels were red and 5 inches high. During practice, she had tripped thousands of times, him never helping her get up, like a gentleman should. On the stage she carefully walked to him. When she was 3 feet within his range about to give him the wand, she tripped.
What she expected was to fall like she normally did, except with a gasp from the audience, disapproving looks from the crowd, utter embarrassment and a sneer from Daniel for ruining the show. This was one of the few moments where she was grateful for his control-freakedness. There wasn't going to be anything screwing up the show. Not this one, not any one.
She was bracing herself for the fall when she felt an arm at the small of her back, the part that had exposed her skin. Henley felt his calloused palm and long, slim fingers wrapped around waist. He did an elegant dip with her and propped her back up. Regaining her senses, she smiled and curtsied and gave him the wand to do his act.
"Thank you, Henley," he had said smoothly, as if nothing had threatened to mess up the show. He went to do whatever the hell he was going to do. She stepped aside to her place in the shadows and watched as Daniel waved the wand to make balloons appear 'out of nowhere'.
Yet she wasn't processing any of this.
She was in her own thoughts.
All she thought about was how he felt against her skin. How natural, how nice, how perfect it had felt.
And why the hell it felt that way.
That was one of the only times she screwed up, yet the only time she had made physical contact with him during that. He had never bothered to help her up after that.
He was arrogant, cocky, but yet she knew that he was indeed very talented. And smart. And how good he was with his hands. And how handsome he was. Henley would never admit it to his face because his head didn't need to get any fatter (for she feared it might float off) but he was indeed very, very good-looking. Most of the time he used that for careless uses.
Usually when she was went out to buy some food, Daniel had already gone out to the bar and had brought home a girl. She always had to peek into the keyhole and do something else until the girl had put on her clothes, given him her number, and had left until she could come in. He had done this with dozens of young women, impressed with his show, bringing them home for cheap sex and never making any contact with them ever again.
The first time she had seen him do it was when she had gone out clothes shopping.
"I'll be back at 8. There's a new boutique down the street and I have to go. Don't worry, all the money is mine, not yours. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone," Henley said to Danny, who was lying on the couch, randomly shuffling cards.
"Okay," he said lazily. "Don't get anything too expensive."
She left and caught a cab and went to the store, Labelle's Clothes. It was a shop that had very fine and soft fabrics, especially silk, and had made plenty of dresses. They were unique because of the modern design perfectly incorporated with the feel of natural wonders. The scent was fresh, something of flowers, when she walked in. One of the dresses that had caught her eye was one of the plainer dresses.
It was sleeveless, but had a straight and not revealing neckline. The top was solid light scarlet and had a light red skirt, getting darker as it neared to the bottom. There were simple flowers on the right corner, varying in a range of sunset colors: gold, tangerine, dark yellow. The skirt went down to her knees and when she touched it, the fabric was as smooth as silk.
She was attracted to the dress because it was so different from the costumes that she had worn for shows. Those clothes were skimpy, glittery, uncomfortable, and were only made for attention. This dress was mild, soft and simple. She loved it.
When she checked the price tag, she gasped. It wasn't as high as she thought it would be. The price was $180.00. A bit more expensive than her other normal clothes, but not obscenely up there. Immediately, she took it off the rack and went into the dressing room. Zipping up the back, she felt how cool yet pleasing feeling it had when it rested against her body and looked at herself in the mirror. Not too bad, she thought to herself. Henley changed back into her regular clothes and bought the dress. Thanking the cashier girl, she took the bag and went home.
She checked her watch. 7:40 "Huh," she thought. "Ah well, finishing early shouldn't be a problem." She took the elevator and went to the apartment that she and Daniel shared, unlocked the door and went inside.
"Danny, I'm ba-" She was cut off by the sight of him and a blonde, both half naked, making out on the couch. She dropped her bag to the floor with a thud against the hardwood floor. They both stopped and turned around. The girl screamed and got off him, frantically covering her body while Daniel sighed and walked towards her, not even bothering to put his shirt back on.
"Henley, I can explain," he said. She looked at him and the girl, disgust written all over her face.
"You know, I kind of already guessed," she said. Leaving him speechless, she crossed her arms and turned to the girl. "Okay. Let me take a shot at this. Danny brought you home after going to the bar and you two decided to hook up two seconds after meeting each other. You two decided to have sex until I barged into your cloud nine." The blonde looked at him horrified and put her dress back on.
In a tiny and high voice she said, "Hey Danny, I'm just going to go now. Here's my number if you ever want to call me again." She quickly scribbled her number with pen on his hand and scurried out of the room, not even bothering to smooth out her hair or cover the hickeys on her neck. Once the door shut, Henley turned to him with a look that meant he was in some deep trouble. He sighed.
"Okay, okay, you caught me," Daniel said with his hand running through his hair. "I have been doing this for a while, if you want to know. Just, next time, look in through the peephole when you're about to come in." She looked at him with a mortified expression on her face. "WHAT THE HELL?" He winced.
"Are you seriously in the spot to make decisions after I caught you and some slut frick fracking after I just bought clothes? Do you even know her name?"
"Ella," he muttered. She glared at him. "When's your next meeting?"
"She means nothing," he said as he washed her number clean off his hand without giving it a second glance.
Henley knew how he never cared about any of the girls he went out with. Dozens of nameless brunettes, blondes, redheads came into their apartment every month, hoping that he would call them back when he never did. Daniel was a super casanova.
But he did have a good side.
He is smart and knows just what to do at the right moments. He is funny in the sarcastic way that he is, always remarking every joke in dry humor that shouldn't be funny but somehow is. Daniel is fit and athletic, making him have all the looks that the women, including Henley, would want their man to be like. His personality is arrogant but has a confidence that drives the team forward. During the heist, he had never lost his faith in their success, had always held that arrogant persona around the FBI and Interpol, getting them where they needed to go. The Four Horsemen had never given each other pep talks but Daniel was always that rock that they all needed, that confidence that was always there telling them that there was absolutely no chance that they would fail or go to jail at all.
Sometimes, his ego can die down enough for him to be sympathetic. And times where his control-freakedness would help.
Henley was sitting on the couch, moaning, holding an ice pack to her left forearm. It had gotten bruised badly during one of her personal practices without Danny as an escape artist. She had driven her arm, while fakely thrashing in her handcuffs, into one of the edges of the closet. It had given her a nasty wound. No blood though, which was good.
"Hey, what's u-Henley what happened to you?" Daniel had made his way into the apartment after going out for an afternoon coffee and saw her gritting her teeth and holding the ice pack to her arm and had deduced enough to know that something had happened when he was gone. Putting the coffee cup offhandedly to the counter, he made his way over to her.
"What the hell happened?"
She sighed and replied, "I bruised my arm during practice today."
"What practice?"
"My escape act practice."
He looked at her in shock. "You know why I don't like your escape act things! Because this happens!"
She glared at him. "No you don't. You just don't like my escape stunts because they don't need you in it and it's way cooler than your stupid card tricks." He glared back her.
"First of all, they're not stupid. Second of all, your acts are not cooler than mine. And finally, I don't care what you think, we have a show in two days and I can't have you showing off that bruise in the show."
"Then get me something that would cover this."
He sighed in exasperation. "We don't have the budget at the moment Henley."
"Well all your stupid costumes don't have any freaking sleeves Daniel! I'm sorry but you will just have to get by without my help. After all, you're the 'main attraction.' You don't need an assistant for every show."
He got up and went to the kitchen. "Fine, but you still need to get better. Funny as it may seem but I do fear for your well-being and I can't have you getting banged up while I'm gone." She stared at his back as he rummaged through the cabinets for some medicine. Never had she imagined that he would be ever taking care of her and actually put effort into it.
Never had she imagined that Danny, the arrogant prat, would waste his precious time taking care of his assistant.
Danny was sometimes a jerk.
He is vain, and he is heartless and yet, she could feel in him a shade of sadness that's barely detectable. It made him humble in a way that made him not seem only like a prick, but an actual decent person. He would never admit to things that he messed up on. Or any faults that he so has.
But he can be caring, sophisticated, elegant, and a gentleman. He is charismatic and confident.
He is far from perfect.
But in Henley's eyes, he's close enough.