Watchmen Kink Meme 4: The Fab, Fantastic Four
Rules of the meme:
1. Anonymously post a pairing and prompt you would like to see written. Since this is a kink meme, there is supposted to be a kink involved, but normal well-written prompts should work just as well.
2. Anonymous will respond to your post and write it for you! Art and such is also acceptable/awesome. Multiple people may respond to ( Read more... )
1. Anonymously post a pairing and prompt you would like to see written. Since this is a kink meme, there is supposted to be a kink involved, but normal well-written prompts should work just as well.
2. Anonymous will respond to your post and write it for you! Art and such is also acceptable/awesome. Multiple people may respond to ( Read more... )
Things have been falling into place in Dan’s head. He can see Walter’s exhaustion plainly now that he’s recognized it for what it is, wonders how he’d ever missed it before. He fervently wishes he could convince the other boy to stay over at his house, even occasionally, but the last time he brought it up Walter had ended up storming off, leaving the others staring at Dan in degrees of exasperation ranging from Jon’s mild, taken-aback surprise, to Adrian’s upward-rolled eyes, to Laurie’s scowl, which nearly audibly proclaimed, “Nice going, idiot.”
He wonders how much any of them have guessed about Walter’s new life. None of them have been over to his apartment. Walter claims his mother doesn’t want people over, eyes flicking away from Dan’s in a way that suggests if it’s the truth, it isn’t the whole truth. He doesn’t need to know, not really, not if Walter doesn’t want to tell him, but he does wish there was something he could do.
Summer is drawing closer and somehow he feels as if he’s running out of time, a clock counting down in his head, though to what, he doesn’t know. He should be focusing on school, final projects building up, but instead he finds himself obsessing over Walter, wondering what to do, what to say, that might actually help and not just make him angrier. Without even really knowing he’s doing it, he begins to devote more attention to the notebook, trying to fill in the gaps left by Rorschach’s sudden absence. His pages are still not as long or detailed as Walter’s, but it’s more than he’s done in awhile. Laurie, he notices, steps it up a bit as well, and though they don’t talk about it, he gets the impression she’s just as worried about it as he is.
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He walks around the block once, debating. The treehouse would only be depressing, and he’s not interested in going to Eddie’s. The answer comes to him in a blinding flash of the obvious, and he digs around in his pockets, coming up with enough change for the bus ride to Hollis’. It‘s close enough to walk, but he curls up in the back seat, leaning against the window, and lets his mind drift back to the previous summer when Walter had showed them the entire city through bus windows.
Hollis greets him at the door, just as if he had been expecting him, hands him a root beer and watches him settle in on the couch. He can tell almost immediately that something is wrong, Dan’s face giving away more than the boy knows. Whatever’s bothering him, he doesn’t say anything about it, though he does mutter, looking away, when Hollis asks about school. He doesn’t say a word, just raises his eyebrows and lets his mouth fall into a hard line, at which Dan flushes and becomes very interested in a spot on the carpet.
Hollis softens quickly. He can’t be mad at Dan, not really. He’s a good kid, and clearly his own guilt is enough to push him back onto the right track. A little mild disappointment can’t hurt, though. He relents, making Dan promise he won’t stay long and will do his homework the moment he gets home.
Unpleasantness dealt with, he asks about the Watchmen, whose activities he keeps up on via Dan and Eddie. He honestly enjoys the tales of their adventures. It reminds him simultaneously of his own childhood and of following a particularly good story in serial form, with the added bonus of having it told with a child’s enthusiasm (he figures Eddie counts too, considering he gets just as excited about the stories as Dan does). When his young companion is mum on this subject as well, he begins to feel he has an idea of what’s going on.
“You’re awfully quiet today, Danny,” he says, not wanting to pry but hoping Dan will choose to fill him in. When he only shrugs, nursing his soda, Hollis voices his thoughts. “You know I always like hearing what you kids are up to. Reminds me of my days in the Minutemen.”
Dan seems to perk up slightly at that, so he continues. “Did I ever tell you about the time Silk Spectre and I took down Moloch?” Dan shakes his head, and Hollis smiles. He’s pretty sure he has, actually, but Dan is always eager to hear stories of the old Minutemen game, so he launches into it again. He goes on for awhile, that story blending into the next until he’s telling about one of their missions as a group.
“Hollis?” Dan interrupts, looking thoughtful. “You said the Silhouette -- uh, Ursula… She stopped playing with you guys?”
Bingo. They’re getting closer to the reason for Dan’s melancholy mood, and while he’s not exactly eager to tell the whole story, he figures the boy is old enough to know the truth, almost feels as if he deserves to know.
“Well,” he says slowly, considering, “not exactly. Ursula… We always had this idea she was different from the rest of us, somehow. No one really cared, at least not at first, but it was there. We were getting a little older, almost into high school. Sally and Larry were starting to…feel each other out, I suppose, though they didn’t officially start dating until awhile later.” He pauses, not quite sure how to approach this. “Danny, do you know what a lesbian is?”
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“Well,” Hollis says, “about that time, Ursula told us she thought she might be a lesbian. It took a lot for her to do it, too. These things weren’t as accepted back then, you know. They’re still not, but back then… Well. We were her best friends, and she confided in us.”
Dan nods in fascination. “What happened?”
“We didn’t quite know what to make of it at first. It came as a shock, but…I think for the most part, we took it in stride. I can’t speak for anyone else, but it never made a bit of difference to me. She was our friend; that was all that mattered. The only one who ever seemed really bothered was Larry.”
“Why?” Dan says, mind churning. He tries to imagine how he would feel if one of his friends made such a confession, and can’t see that he would care much either.
“I can’t say for sure, but… Larry always had a bit of a jealous streak. I don’t think he liked the idea of Ursula being around Sally.”
Dan’s brow furrows. “But Sally’s not… I mean, she wasn’t…uh, gay.”
Hollis gives him a sad smile. “I never said it made sense. But it wasn’t long before he was talking about her behind her back, making…disparaging remarks, to put it nicely. Pretty soon he had some of the others going along with it. I don’t think any of us particularly agreed with him, but Sally was smitten with him by that point and probably would have gone along with just about anything he wanted. As for the rest of us, well, I can’t quite explain it, but it’s easy to be influence by your friends at that age. I’m embarrassed to admit I went along with it myself. In the end, we just sort of drifted apart. We never fought, never told her she couldn’t be our friend, but we ostracized her in subtle ways, I’m sure, and eventually it got to where we didn’t talk to her at all.”
Dan remembers what he had thought the very first time Hollis mentioned Ursula. “I can’t even imagine not being friends with Laurie or Adrian or Walter.”
“I would have said the same thing at your age,” Hollis agrees. “To tell you the truth, I can still barely believe we did that. And this may sound silly, but to this day, I regret it. She was our friend, Dan. We should have stood by her.”
Dan nods, chewing hard on his lower lip. He has more than ever to think about, but a part of him already feels lighter, as if the answer to their current problems is somewhere in his mind, and he needs only wait for it to come to the surface. “I should probably get home and start on that homework, huh?”
“I think that’s a good idea, Danny,” Hollis says, smiling. It wasn’t a pleasant story for him to tell, but he’s pretty sure it was a worthwhile one. He walks Dan to the bus stop and waits with him until he climbs on board, their conversation flowing a little easier. Then he heads home and digs a battered phone book out of a drawer, flipping through to the Zs. Dan may well have figured out something important today, but perhaps he’s not the only one who has.
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It takes him a few days of working in between school and homework (which he works hard to catch up on, driven on by the lethal combination of Hollis’ disappointment, his dad’s certain ire at a bad report card, and the nagging voice in his own head), days in which Walter is as distant and surly as ever, which, while it still bothers him, makes him feel slightly less hopeless than it has been. In the end, he’s fairly pleased with the result.
There’s only a couple weeks left of school, and the feeling in Dan and Walter’s sixth-period class is one of restless anticipation. Everyone flies when the final bell rings, especially Walter, and Dan hurries after him. “Hey,” he says, panting ever so slightly as he catches Walter’s arm, “wait up.”
“Have to catch my bus, Daniel.”
“Just…wait. There’ll be another bus.” He doesn’t want to delay his friend getting home, but… “Please.”
Walter stops with a small huff of a sigh, looking at him warily. “What is it?”
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Eyes downcast, Walter mutters, “I know that.” His tone is strangely soft, though, and Dan thinks it may be the first time in weeks, if not months, he’s heard him speak without sounding somewhere between wooden and annoyed.
“Okay,” he says, feeling his face heat. “I… I just wanted to make sure. I don’t know what I’d do if we weren’t friends anymore. And…I made you this.“ Opening his backpack, he carefully pulls out a single sheet of paper. “Made” might be a bit of a stretch, but he couldn’t figure out how to actually build it, so instead he’s made the drawing as detailed and intricate as he possibly could, practicing with the artists’ markers until he’d gotten the shading down perfectly. “It’s a grappling gun. I thought Rorschach could use it. And. Uh. Stuff.” The stream of words dries up and he hands over the paper.
Walter stares at it for several long moments while Dan shifts his weight from foot to foot, suddenly feeling completely ridiculous. It’s stupid and he doesn’t know what he was thinking, giving Walter a stupid drawing like it’s something worthwhile and --
“Thank you, Daniel,” Walter says, looking up at him, surprise in his eyes, emotion in his voice, and Dan blushes hotter despite his relief that his friend seems to genuinely like it. “Should be…very useful, yes.”
Dan grins tentatively. “Okay,” he says, feeling awkward but suddenly very happy. “Uh, sorry if I made you miss your bus.”
“It’s all right,” Walter says, smiling back at him softly, and it’s a wonderful sight. “Will be another bus.”
“Okay. Um. See you tomorrow, then?”
“Tomorrow,” Walter agrees, and they part ways.
The next day, there is a lengthy notebook entry detailing Rorschach’s latest leads, involving a sequence where the grappling gun Nite Owl built for him proves indispensable.
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Thank you for the lovely comment. :)
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And also: BAWWWW, URSULA!! Seriously, Hollis, you need to call her up and ask her how she's doing or something! :<
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There will, however, be a bit more Ursula coming up, sooner than you might think (hell, sooner than I even thought)... :D
Glad you like it, anon, thanks for the comment! :)
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And eee! :DDDDD
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