(Log) Danilo+Rhea: I'm sorry about all the things I said to you

[beneficially]

Here's a Rhea apologizing to a Danilo for all the tsun. \o\



One night of Bones marathons, followed by a day of House (everybody lies- she could relate to that) followed by...well, she'd lost track after the third fascinatingly realistic operation. Her room had felt stifling, and it was more an urge to get out than any real amassing of courage that took her her feet on their journey from her room to the local town and back to Freyr court.

One hand on the bag in her hand, she knocked on the door with the other. Then stood back impatiently, before stepping forward to knock again, and then looked around furtively.

Dammit, did she really want to reveal herself this quickly? She was still a little iffy about being here, her stomach churning like some faulty washing machine. Maybe she could get his brother in the beanie to do this for her? ...No, no, she must do this. She had to this herself.

Deep breaths, Rhea.

"Hey, hey. Pizza delivery."

Dan was browsing through some photography websites when there was a sudden knock at the door. He turned and got out of his chair when he heard Rhea's voice, and blinked.

He hadn't seen her since their trip to Scotland--it had been him, Lucas, and Rhea in his car, taking a road trip for the weekend while getting back Rhea's books from that one bar in Scotland (why she left them there, he hadn't asked). Despite his warning that she should take medication for her carsickness, she had not listened, and suffered the whole way through before Lucas finally convinced her to take some. Then, she had fallen into a deep sleep, making them wait for hours before they could turn back...

That was the story, or how it played out in Danilo's head anyway. But holding a grudge was cheap, wasn't it? He sighed. For all he knew, Rhea just didn't want to listen to him, or have much to do with him. He briefly wondered why she was visiting in the first place before opening the door with a small smile.

"Pizza delivery? For me?"

"I lied. It is a burger. Well, two burgers. I couldn't afford pizza," she dead panned, holding the bag out to him.

Take the bag. Take it please take it and don't make her explain herself.

"I thought you might...like it. There is a vegetarian option if you want."

Dan's eyes widened as he stared at the bag in front of him for a while, before he slowly moved his hand to take it.

"Right. ...Thanks," he managed to say, blinking out of surprise. He couldn't help adding, "Did I ask you to buy them for me...?" with his eyebrow slightly raised, his mind trying to recall if he had.

She bristled. "Hey, I just figured- everyone likes burgers, right?" She pressed her chin against her chest, bottom lip jutting out a little, shoulders up. Looking anywhere but his face, arm still holding the burger bag out.

Don't make her say it.

His hand finally reached the bag and he gently took it out of her hands, still staring at her face. He took a step outside and looked around the hall, seeing the doors of his brothers' rooms unopened, the hallway rather quiet.

"I don't think you bought these for them," said Dan, a little playfully.

She jumped back at his words. "N- maybe not."

Okay, now she looked like a petty criminal, freshly caught. "You can give them to them if you want."

She was doing a very good job of trying to disappear into her shirt. Chin into her collar, then hands very slowly shrinking into her sleeves.

"Don't worry, I'll eat them myself," he said, stepping back into the room and opening the door wide. "I was hungry anyway."

He motioned with his hand for her to come in, if she wished.

...Come in and probably be made a fool of, or stay outside and look incredibly suspicious and probably be made a fool of?

She took a step through the doorway, then stopped as though unsure of what to do.

Dan tilted his head at her, having already seated himself on the chair.

"The room's not going to kill you," he said, opening the bag and looking inside at the free food.

"I'm not worried about the room," she muttered under her breath leaning against the wall, looking uncomfortable.

Now what? She stared at her shoes. "...I got cheeseburgers. There is a veggie burger at the bottom. Some chips too."

So there were three burgers, chips, and a drink in the bag, too. He absentmindedly took out a burger and the drink, gesturing for Rhea to walk over and grab her own share.

"There's only one drink. Did you want water?"

A shrug, "No I don't--"

Another shrug and she took it awkwardly. "Water is fine."

He took a water bottle from the small refrigerator he kept in his room and tossed it in her direction, taking a bite into the cheeseburger.

"This is good," he said, after swallowing. "Where's it from?"

"Shop. Place. Yeah. A shop place."

She walked to the spare chair and sat down, knees together, elbows in and stared at the burger.

She was hungry but...eating in the same room as this guy was kind of- well, eating in front of anyone she didn't know too well was sort of- kind of embarrassing.

Hunger vs embarrassment. Which would win out?

Hunger.

The burger was surprisingly delicious.

"I guess it's new in town. I haven't had this before." Dan shrugged after he finished his third bite.

After he finished, he took out the chips, holding them out to Rhea to share. As he ate one, he mumbled, "So what's the real reason?"

Rhea took a handful of chips and lifted to lid off of her burger and went about meticulously constructing a reconstruction of a roofless woodhut on her burger, before squashing it all down with the burger top.

This would be quite the conundrum. It seemed that plus her construction, the burger was bigger than her mouth. She attempted some complicated calculations, and then just squashed it down and took a bite. Delicious.

"What?" She asked, pretending not to have heard him.

Dan placed the chips on his desk again after she had carefully built her momentary perfect burger, and briefly drummed his fingers against the arm of his chair before repeating his question again.

"What's the real reason for this visit?" He asked, shrugging.

"What, I can't- I mean, I just figured...I. It would be nice to bring some burgers over."

Yes, that would do for now. Maybe if she stuffed her mouth full of burger he wouldn't talk to her.

Dan let out a small laugh before leaning his head in her direction.

"I don't know about that," he replied. "You seemed pretty angry last time I saw you."

"I wasn't angry," she said without thinking about it. "Not with you," she clarified through a mouthful of burger.

A moment later, she put it down. "I wasn't- look, wasn't angry."

"Really?" He asked. "You were pretty grumpy about it."

"Gru- I'm not grumpy."

She put the burger down to give him a look. "Aren't you supposed to be eating?"

He shrugged again, munching on a few chips before he spoke. "I finished my share. I'm waiting for you tell me what you came here to say."

Too late, she had already stuffed the entire burger into her mouth.

HA try to get words out of her now, Sunny D!

Victory!

He regarded her with an amused look. He silently spun in his chair and after wiping his hands on a napkin, continued his web surfing of photography websites with ease. He could wait.

Victory, victory- well, not really.

After managing to swallow it, she found herself staring at his back in silence, her elbows on her knees. "Are you waiting for me to say it?"

"Sure," he said, still not turning around. He could tell she was feeling bad about a number of things that happened--him having helped her when she was drunk, the whole Scotland fiasco...

With a smile on his face that she couldn't see, he clicked to enlarge another professional photo, in which people were casually talking to each other at a coffee shop.

She rubbed her head, unsure of what to say. "Look, I'm-..."

He was actually going to make her say it, wasn't he? Oh boy.

"I'm uh-..." How did she put this? She sighed and stood up, walked over to his chair. She put one hand on the back of it to get his attention, and hung her head in a display of apology.

"Look, I'm- I'm really sorry for what I put you through."

His grin grew wider as he turned to face her, reaching out a hand to flick her nose in a joking, brotherly manner.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" He said, though he wasn't all that particularly angry in the first place. Apologizing was a way of voicing what she felt, which she didn't to do too often, he thought. "Apology accepted."

She put a hand to her nose automatically. "H-hey..."

She shrugged. "Look, I just- shouldn't have-" another shrug, slightly more desperate than the last. "...Yeah."

Dan leaned back in his chair, his expression relaxed. "Don't worry about it too much. I'm not mad at you."

"You sure?"

She shuffled her feet on the ground. She hadn't thought he would.

"Well," he tilted his head, pondering, "what would you do for me if I told you I was angry?" He weighed his options, then with a bright smile, told her, "Buy me free food for a week?"

"I- don't know. Is that what you'd want? I'd-...probably just ask what I could do to make up for it."

She walked back to her own chair and fell back into it, taking a long swig of her water.

He paused at that, blinking. "I'm kidding. The apology's enough."

Dan stood and grabbed the now empty bag and threw it in the trashcan. He stretched for a bit, having sat and researched for a while before Rhea arrived. "Let's go."

She started at that, standing hesitantly. "What? Where are we going?"

"I know this one shop in town," said Dan, keeping the tone casual. "I think it'll be interesting to see what you have to say about it."

He was thinking of the antique shop in Countshire Town, the place where they sold little artifacts and famous instances and figures in history made into decorations.

"Okay," might as well, right? "Should I ask where, or is it a surprise?"

Her heart was still pounding in her chest, but she was doing better now. Much calmer.

A surprise? "Maybe. You'll see."

Once they arrived in town, Dan maneuvered his way through the people to get to the antique shop. He walked up to the door and held it open for Rhea with a broad smile on his face.

"Oh," she said, not sure of what to say. "Oh."

She gave him a side-ways look over her shoulder. "This is where Wang works. Do you come here too?"

At that piece of new information, Dan tilted his head slightly and pondered what to say for a little while.

"Sometimes. You think he'll be mad I came here with you?"

"Huh?" She hadn't even thought of that. "Would you be, if it was your girlfriend and someone else?"

She gave a quick glance around to see if she could spot him. "I don't think he's working right now..."

Would he be upset? Oh god he was going to be really upset and break up with her and and and-...she took a step away, and put her head in her hands, trying to calm down.

"No, but that's me," said Dan, turning to look at Rhea and blinking at her reaction.

He put a hand on her hand. "We could go somewhere else. I was just wondering what you liked here, knowing you were into these things and all."

"I like it! I- uh..." she rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "I mean - ancient history is my preferred field and most of this stuff - the furthest back you would get is the 19th century! But some of it is kind of -..." she stopped, to pick up a vase. "Look, it's really intricate, and - um, well, pretty!"

She put it down in favour of a set of tin soldiers. "I mean, look at these things- they're so cool."

At that, Dan picked up a tin soldier from the set as well, turning it this way and that to get a closer look. He imagined little children playing with them, making battle noises as they advanced the small figurines.

A bemused look appeared in Dan's eyes. "Yeah. They are pretty neat."

Rhea had crouched down and was making battle noises under her breath as she lifted one tiny soldier in each hand. At his words though, she stopped, coughing guiltily. "Yeah- yeah, I guess."

She put them back and stood up, adjusting her shirt. "Yeah. Um, is there anything here you like?"

He held back the urge to laugh. Rhea had just managed to apologize to him, something that must have been difficult for her, and he didn't want to make it seem as though he was taking her lightly.

He walked to the back of the store where they held music boxes and old record players, gesturing to them when they were near. "I always liked these."

"Really? What's the attraction?" She walked over to stare intently at them, leaning down to poke one of them. "I would have thought you would be more interested in ancient cameras, things like that."

He turned to the music box available for display and twisted the small handle, watching the man and the woman spin slowly.

"I like older cameras, too," he added, "but this brings back memories. My mother used to show them to us." Dan's voice became a little quieter at the thought of childhood--the way all four sons would gather around in curiosity, tiny Amanda in her mother's arms and laughing, their eyes fixed on the ornate music box and their ears absorbing the tune.

"Oh, cool," she said peering at them. They did look cute. "Did she collect them, or something?"

"Sort of. She loved looking at them in shops." He stayed gazing at the music box for a while until the song stopped, then stood to his full height again.

"I should buy one for her next time she visits England."

"Yeah, I bet she'd like that." Rhea shrugged her shoulders again, for about the hundredth time since they'd met. "It would be nice, bring back memories or something."

She crouched down again, picking up a couple to examine the detailed wooden boxes. "These are pretty. I've never actually seen these wooden ones up close- ah, my older sister had a really cheap plastic one when she was little, though."

"A sister?" Dan asked, crouching down next to her to peer at the wooden music boxes, too. "I never heard about this."

"She's older," Rhea shrugged. "A lot older. Twelve years."

She stood, putting her hands behind her head, pouting a little in a display of pure teenage disillusionment. "We don't really get on. She's always telling me what to do, and that my choices are stupid. It's like having a mother."

"I guess it's a little different from you and your brothers, huh?" She cocked her head, giving Dan another sideways look.

"We're all barely apart in age." Dan gave a pause. "My brothers, anyway. I'm the oldest of them all by sheer minutes," he added playfully, thinking of his twin Diego.

"Amanda must know how you feel to an extent. We're not that much older, but she's the baby of the family, so we tend to get..." He fished for the word and not finding any that suited it better, continued, "overprotective."

"I wouldn't say 'over protective'" She searched for the right words for a second. "Maybe monomaniacal, maniacal, bossy..." she was pouting slightly, listing off the traits.

She twisted in her spot on the heel of her shoe. "But wow, there's...five of you, right? Must have been tough for your parents to raise you all."

"Five is right. Most people are surprised to hear it." Dan reached for one of the smallest music boxes he could find from his spot and placed it on the palm of his hand carefully as though he were holding a jewel.

"Our parents weren't always there, especially our father. He was away on business a lot. But," he gave a little shrug, imitating the one Rhea had been giving him all day, "we had each other for company."

"That must have been nice," she nodded, resisting the urge to shrug back. "My sister moved out when I was six, so I've mostly been by myself since then."

She stared at the ceiling instead. She'd spent a lot of time back stage at her father's plays, or bothering the production teams while her mother filmed. The idea of siblings being around each other all the time was alien to her.

"Must have been nice. My nephews are really close in age, and they're always hanging around each other, so I guess it's pretty common?"

"I don't know about siblings depending on each other so much from when they were little because their parents were away so much." There was a brief sadness in Dan's voice, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had seeped into the conversation. "But we hung out a lot together."

There was a short moment of silence before Dan's head snapped up. He slapped his knee with his palm, telling her, "Me and Diego taught Lucas how to bike!" There was a grin on his face now, a bit childish for a 26-year-old.

"How to bike?" She asked, eyebrows raised, slight surprise in her voice. It must have been a happy memory for them.

Dan gave a sheepish smile. "Yeah. He fell over a lot and cried. Still learned, though."

"Poor Lucas. That's about normal, though, isn't it?" At least, she thought it was. "I heard a lot of kids don't like learning, because of it."

Dan nodded and stood up, a bit too quickly and in the wrong direction. He ended up bumping his head against one of the display cases and rubbed his forehead a bit clumsily.

She stood back a little, pushing her hands into her pockets, resisting the urge to laugh. "That looked painful. You alright?"

She turned to look at some of the other things on display. "Are you going to pick anything up for your brothers?" Truth be told, she was a little jealous of his close relationship with his younger siblings. But then, her being jealous of Dan wasn't really anything new.

Dan scrunched his nose and narrowed his eyebrows to deal with the pain, closing his eyes for a bit. "I'm fine," he managed to say after some seconds, "I'm okay."

He looked around the store with a 'hmm,' then shook his head. "I can come with them next time."

Then he swept his hand toward the door. "Where to?"

"I don't mind." She started to shrug again, but managed to catch herself. "So long as it isn't the bookstore. Wanna head back?"

"All right. We'll call this a short outing." Dan walked to the door and held it open again for Rhea to go through first--a habit of his and his brothers alike.

"Thank you, Dan," she was gracious as she stepped out first.

He followed out after her, their steps heading toward the dorms again.

"You surprised me today," he told her honestly.

"Did I?" She turned to look at him. "Well, how? Pleasantly, unpleasantly, shock, mild, is it something you'll go to the police with, that kind of shock?"

She wasn't being serious, but her face and voice remained dead pan.

Dan pondered the question with the same grin he had when she had apologized to him. "I just thought you'd leave things how they were. I always thought you never liked me much."

"We got off on the wrong foot. I felt you pushed me a little further than I should have been pushed, but you..." another shrug; it was a nervous tic, and currently the only tell that she was feeling a little uncomfortable. "You turned out to be better than I thought. You didn't deserve to be treated the way I was treating you."

Truth required truth in return, after all, no matter how annoying it was to admit it out loud.

He listened, and when she finished talking, reached over and ruffled her hair (even more so than usual).

She skipped away, looking surprised, and obviously confused - a cat somebody had just flicked water at. She touched her head, regretting her decision to not tie her hair back to make it ruffle proof. She should have known he'd do that. She should have taken precautions!

"Let's just get back to the uni."

Dan laughed and quickened his pace, using his tall height and long arm to pat her head before he nodded and said, "So the mini adventure ends!"

"I guess," sigh.

She paused at the entrance to the campus. "I guess I'll see you later."

He waved her goodbye when their directions split. "See you, Rhea."

He hadn't called her by her first name in... he didn't know how long, or if he ever had. But she wasn't Miss Grumpy--not that much at the moment.

"Goodbye, Sunny D," she said waving as she walked away, without looking back. He wasn't Mr. Lira or Lira or "YOU" right now.

Looked like they'd both changed, at least a little.