Chapter two: The Showman & The Sleight: Part II
Word Count: 3, 070
It took exactly five days for Daniel to grow accustomed to Jack being a constant presence in his life. Not only did he grow accustomed to his presence; he was really enjoying it. The a few years' younger man had a way of understanding him that no one else had. He was unique in that way. And in so many other ways. Because Daniel was sure that no one had ever affected him the way Jack had. And though Daniel didn't tell Jack he realized quickly that there were few things he wouldn't do for him. Jack made his heart beat quicker and the smile he often had to force came more naturally when Jack was around.
That fifth day was no different compared to any other day. Daniel woke up. He saw Jack sleeping on the couch with one arm hanging outside and the other covering his eyes. It had happened more than once that he walked in at some point during the night. The first time it happened, Daniel had frowned and asked Jack if the door was unlocked.
Jack laughed but shook his head.
"How did you get in?"
"Nothing is ever locked."
Daniel's heart felt a bit lighter. Like it did when Jack called him Danny. Like it did when Jack did a lot of things.
He walked to the kitchen and began preparing breakfast. It had become a habit to make breakfast for both even if he didn't know when Jack would be up. Daniel probably wouldn't be in the apartment when that happened but that didn't really matter. The coffee machine was a recent addition. There had never been a reason for him to own one since Daniel didn't drink coffee. But Jack did. And that was reason enough. That was also the reason that his fridge contained different kind of foods that Daniel had never bought before. He didn't eat them. But Jack did.
There were exactly two people in this world that could get J. Daniel Atlas to tell the truth. And one of those people were no longer alive. Jack Wilder was the other. Daniel didn't know why or what it was about Jack that made him completely unable to answer any question he had with anything other than the truth. He imagined it was his eyes. Jack as a person could be described as a chameleon but the most versatile part of him were his eyes. They could go from childish, to sensual to trusting in a matter of seconds. And when he looked at Daniel with that special expression that for some reason made it feel as if daggers were being pushed through his heart and when he said Danny; all Daniel could do was tell the truth no matter if he wanted to or not.
He smiled and were pushed back to only a few days earlier.
Daniel was cooking and Jack was going to prove to him that even the great J. Daniel Atlas could get mugged. It didn't matter if he was good at magic or not. One of these days he was going to show up at his show and the deck of cards he always carried with him would be mysteriously missing together with his wallet and phone; and he would never get it back again.
Daniel just laughed at him. "I'd notice as soon as something was missing. And I'd search the entire city until I found my things again."
"That's just weird." Jack said from behind him where he tossed a card between his hands. "No one cares that much about their stuff. Only if you're in a movie. But even then, the characters always have this supposedly really sad story when that not so nice wristwatch was their fathers and they promised that they would take care of it for him until he came back." He pretended to wipe a tear away.
"Yeah well, I'm not normal. I thought you'd figured that out by now."
Jack glanced at the different vegetables that were put up in the counter next to Danny and then on the stove. He had noticed that something was different about Danny. It was hard not to. It didn't matter what it was or where he was, Danny would move things around so that whatever it was were standing in the – according to him – correct order; from smallest to largest. He noticed the smallest of details. Like when Jack had run into the couch once and it had moved a few centimeters. Danny moved it back again and that was it but what amazed Jack was the fact that he had noticed it as soon as he stepped inside the apartment.
And some nights Danny didn't sleep. Jack didn't know what he was doing during those nights. He could only hear the vague sounds of mumbling – not loud enough to be irritating – and the shuffling of cards.
"Yeah well," Jack spoke eventually and took a step forward removing any distance between the two. "Normal is boring."
He leaned over Daniel's shoulder and sniffed while he leaned his hand on Danny's right shoulder. It felt like there was an internal struggle inside of Danny at that moment. His body became stiff and for a moment he didn't breathe but at the same time Jack could see the trace of a smile. One of those genuine smiles.
"Smells nice." He said and returned to his place a little bit behind Danny. "Were you planning on going out today?"
Danny nodded. "Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Do you need your wallet back?" Jack watched as Danny felt his pockets for the wallet that he always carried with him. Then he turned around and Jack raised his hand with his wallet in it. "I told you so."
The memory made Daniel laugh. Just like a lot of others. Jack really did become a huge part of his world in the five days that had gone by. Partly because there was very little in Daniel's life other than magic prior to Jack. And magic he did pretty well meaning that he could make room for something else if he wanted to. He just didn't want to before or maybe he hadn't met the right person.
"You could never do what I do on a daily basis." Jack said as he sat on the other side of the couch with a bowl of popcorn in his arms. Every now and again he would toss one up and catch it with his mouth.
Daniel smiled at him. "Why do you say that?"
"Because Atlas, you need to be in control all the time. You can't be in control at all times if you're going to do what I do. It can get you quite far but at some point; you're going to have to let go of that control and start acting impulsively."
Daniel sighed. He disliked – no, he hated – admitting his weaknesses and he rarely – no, he never – did it. Unless the person confronting him about it was Jack or that one other person he could never lie to. "I see your point. There are some things you do that I could never do. But I will let you know that I am very good at blending in with a crowd." – Jack smirked. – "Not as good as you are. But I'm good."
"How come?"
Danny's face turned cold and stiff. "Years of involuntarily practice."
Jack nodded. "You'll have to show me."
Danny smiled. "Yeah."
So, that's what he did. He waited around the apartment until Jack walked out and then he followed him. For most of the time Daniel was nowhere near being caught and he only almost lost Jack twice. It was about lunch when Danny was going to reveal himself. But when Jack took a turn down a familiar road he changed his mind. Soon enough that familiar graveyard appeared in his vision and Danny watched Jack walk down the paths until he stopped in front of a stone. Danny hesitated for a few minutes before he followed him. He was just a few steps away from Jack when the young man spoke.
"I knew you were following me." He laughed. "You're good Danny, but I'm better."
"Who's this?"
"This is my mother." Jack turned sideways so that he was watching Danny. "She died in a car accident. My dad left when I was a kid and we've never heard from him since then so when she died I was sent into foster care. It sucked. Anyway, I come back here every now and again to tell her what's been going on. I tell her about my magic and how life is going overall. It's strangely comforting."
In that moment, Daniel saw something he had never seen in Jack's eyes before: sadness. Not the kind of sadness that went away with a hug or a promise that things would get better. But genuine sadness and hurt.
Danny nodded and took a deep breath. "I like talking to my brother because it feels like he's still here."
"You had a brother?"
Danny nodded. "A twin, D. Jason Atlas. He's about two or three rows away from here in that direction. He died when we were about nineteen years old."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry about your mom." Danny smiled. "I'm going to leave the two of you alone. I'm going to talk to my brother. I haven't been here in a while."
"Thanks Danny."
Daniel didn't respond. He gave Jack a smile and a nod before walking down the path that he knew would lead him to his brother. Jason had always been their parents favorite. Not that it meant very much. He was as much of a victim as Daniel was. He didn't carry any less bruises on his body than Daniel nor was he given any more appreciation. No, his parents showed that they favored him by giving him attention. Looking back Daniel realized that being given attention by those people were worse than being ignored. The name Jason meant a person who heals. But his brother never did heal. And Daniel's parents never forgave him for not saving Jason. Just like they never forgave him for being a freak. Because that's what they believed that he was. In their eyes, there were no other explanation.
"Hey brother, I have some questions for you. I really wish you could be here and answer me because I'm confused as per usual." Daniel kneeled in front of the stone and removed some of the moss. "It's about love. Or maybe it's about having a crush I don't know what you want to call it. This particular emotion seems to have a lot of names and based on what society says it's really important which one you use. You were always better at stuff like that. You were better at being social overall. That's why I figured you could help me. Because I don't know what to do with this. I know what to do with sexual attraction. But love is something completely different. You would know what to do. I wish you were here to tell me what to do like you used to do when we were kids."
"The great Danny Atlas used to be pushed around by his brother?" Jack sat down next to him. "So, this is Jason Atlas. I'm assuming he looked just like you?"
"Technically yeah." Daniel laughed. "But if he was here he'd tell you that he was the more handsome one. It shouldn't be correct but it was. There was something special about him; I don't know what."
"There's something special about you too, Danny." Jack said with a smile. "You just can't tell because you're so used to it. It's like when you live in the same place your entire life. You get used to all the things around you and sometimes people need to remind you of the beauty of your home."
"You're very smart." Daniel smiled. "So, what did you talk to your mother about this time?"
Jack shrugged. "Everything and nothing. Complicated things and easy things. Just things I needed to get off my chest. She was a very good listener. No matter what was bugging me she always listened to me as if my problem was the most important thing in the world and she wanted nothing more than to solve it. She always gave good advice too. I can still imagine what she'd look like if she was here and what she'd tell me to do." He took a deep breath. "I think she'd like you."
Daniel laughed. "I doubt it. It may have escaped your attention Wilder but people tend to dislike me."
"I like you." Jack said easily.
Daniel ignored the way his heart skipped a beat. "I guess that makes you unique."
"Is that a good unique or a bad unique?"
Without missing a beat Daniel answered. "A good unique. Definitely."
Daniel was pulled from the memory when he felt something hot on his stomach. He took a quick step back and pulled his shirt of. "Oh fuck." He muttered.
It wasn't a big burn nor was it the worst kind of pain he had ever experienced before but it hurt enough for Daniel to feel that he had the right to complain about it. He didn't think about the two scars that went vertically from his wrists about ten centimeters upwards along both his arms. They became – like his three tattoos – a part of him. Occasionally when he was in the shower or when he was getting dressed Daniel would see them – the tattoos and the scars – and he would be reminded of things that happened a very long time ago. Of the things, he had in some ways left behind and in some ways still carried with him like a shadow that followed his every step. Daniel stood in front of the sink. He took water on a towel and put it on his stomach where a red mark had already appeared. It wasn't that big.
"Danny, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Daniel turned around. Not thinking. "I just managed to burn myself on my stomach when I was making breakfast. Seriously, on my stomach. How does one even do that? Well, obviously, I knew how to do that since I just did."
When Jack didn't say anything, Daniel looked up from his stomach. The red mark wasn't hurting anymore. He was about to say something funny or at least sarcastic when he saw what Jack was looking at and he crossed his arms over his chest so that Jack could no longer see the scars.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare. I just didn't expect that. I didn't expect you…"
Daniel laughed. "Yeah well, most people don't. I don't let people see them. The last time I did was by accident and I was told that they were probably tattooed on my skin because there was no way in hell that god's gift to magicians all over the world would do that to himself."
Jack took a step forward but stopped when Danny raised his hand.
"Can you just stop." His voice quivered and underneath the tiny, stiff smile there was uncertainty and something that Jack had never seen before: vulnerability. So, Jack stopped.
Jack leaned against the counter. A few meters separated them but it felt like much more. "When did you do that to yourself?"
"I was fifteen the first time. The second time I had just turned twenty." Daniel felt his shoulder bend downwards and just like when he was a kid that familiar fear appeared in his chest. The fear that Jack would call him stupid and tell him that he was exaggerating. He knew that wouldn't happen. But that didn't stop him from being afraid of it. "My brother found me the first time. It was before he got sick. The second time it was said to be a miracle. One of my neighbor had a bad feeling and decided to walk into my apartment and she found me in the bedroom. Apparently, I got to the hospital just in time."
"Why?"
Danny shrugged and spoke the first words that came to mind. "Because I didn't know what else to do. When I was fifteen I couldn't control anything. Everything that happened was spontaneously planned by my parents and things changed all the time. I hated it and I still hate it When I was twenty I had just lost the only person in the world who had always been there for me. I couldn't imagine a situation where I didn't feel horrible and I decided that I was done with it all. I didn't want to do this anymore."
"Why are you telling me this?"
Daniel laughed. "I am going to regret answering that question. But I'm telling you because I can't lie to you. I don't know why but when you ask me something I tell you the truth without thinking about it."
Jack smiled. "That's good to know. Because I need you to tell me if you ever feel like that again."
Daniel rolled his eyes. "Because the world of magic can't cope without J. Daniel Atlas?"
Jack shook his head. "No, but I probably wouldn't cope without you Danny. You can't tell but you are so much more than your magic. You said that there was something about your brother, something special, but you didn't know what it was. Well, you have something special about you too."
"Is that why people tend to dislike me and accuse me of pushing them away?"
Jack shrugged. "I think that not even you understand what it is you have that is so special. And I think that whatever it is scares people."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
Danny tilted his head slightly to the right. "Are you scared of me? Do you dislike me?"
Jack shook his head. "No, Danny. I happen to like you very much. And that is why I am going to hug you. If you're okay with that?"
Danny didn't like hugging people. But Jack weren't people. He was Jack. "Yeah, I'm okay with that."
The distance which had felt so much bigger than it really was vanished in mere seconds and Jack put his arms around Daniel's waist. Danny leaned his head onto Jack's shoulder and allowed a feeling of comfort to spread in his body. He had never felt so content with another person before. Only magic had made him feel this kind of sensation. It didn't surprise Danny that he got the same feelings from hugging Jack as he did from performing and perfecting magic. In so many ways Jack was magic. And he didn't even know it.