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Danny’s face was flushed as he skidded to a stop next to Thomas. “Yes,” he panted, holding his side. Apparently all of his training camps didn’t prepare him for running up four flights of stairs against the crowds of students trying to get out after their first day back.
“Why didn’t you text me,” Thomas asked, tilting his head at him. “I would have met you downstairs.”
Danny paused then laughed. “I didn’t think of that, honestly. Just proof that you are smarter than me.”
“I’m not smarter than you,” Thomas said, poking Danny’s forehead. “You just get too excited and forget to think things through, ya damn hummingbird.”
Danny’s grin widened as he let Thomas poke him, and Thomas felt himself grin back. He couldn’t really describe how Danny made him feel but it was… comfortable, like he didn’t have to hold back or hide anything, like being embraced for who he was rather than who he pretended to be. “What’s up,” he asked him, wrapping the snake bracelet from his wrist and winding it between his fingers as the noise of the crowd continued to swell around them. The fidget toys had been more useful than he could have ever imagined, particularly at times like these where the sound was vibrating against his ears. The spikes of the dragon pressed into his skin, distracting him from the sound without removing his attention from Danny.
Danny’s eyes darted towards the dragon but he never commented on the fidgets. He never drew attention to any of the weird things Thomas did. “Are you doing anything Friday after school?”
“Uh, no, don’t think so,” Thomas said, frowning. “Were we all suppose to hang out?” He reached for his phone. “I didn’t get a message, I don’t think?”
“N-no,” Danny said quickly and Thomas froze in surprise at the stutter. Danny’s face flushed into a bright pink. “I- uh- I wanted to see if you wanted to see a movie with me.” His face turned a darker shade of red “…Just me.”
Thomas blinked, a growing heat spreading across his cheeks. “O-Oh, u-um, y-y-yeah,” he stammered, silently cursing his inability to speak like a normal person. He had dealt with way scarier things than what he thought might be happening here, and yet it felt as if his heart was trying to escape his chest. “Th-that— af-after school?”
“Yeah,” he said, his face crimson as he bounced from one foot to the other. “I thought we could get something to eat before the movie too. There’s this ramen shop next to the theater that’s pretty good and I know you mentioned getting into Asian food the other day.”
Thomas didn’t correct Danny that it was specifically Korean food that he was learning about after craving oi muchim the day after Seong made him breakfast. He hadn’t talked to any of the guys about what exactly had happened at Seong’s while they were locking Andy in a closet and waiting for Sean to pick them up. Part of their “clean slate” was they collectively agreed that Danny’s birthday party didn’t happen.
“What do you think?”
“Sounds great,” he said, his stomach full of butterflies. “I-I need to double check with my aunts but- y-yeah. I’d like that.”
“Great,” Danny said, positively glowing with his flushed face. “I- uh- I gotta get down to the baseball field right now, but I’ll text you later, okay?”
“Okay,” Thomas agreed. “I- I have an appointment to get to right now but… Yeah, probably by the time you get done, I’ll be done.”
“Great,” Danny said again, back to bouncing on his toes. He looked as if he was going flutter away any second but was actively holding himself there, his eyes locked on Thomas.
Thomas smiled and pointed towards the stairs. “Get going, Mr. Star Player,” he teased. “Before someone takes your place!”
The smile widened again and Thomas felt an odd tingling on his lips before Danny nodded and bolted back up the hall, dodging between stragglers to head back downstairs.
* * *
A smile pulled higher on Seong’s lips as he sensed Thomas look up at him yet again in the last five minutes. “You good over there, Thomas?” he said, glancing up to raise an eyebrow at him.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Seong sat back in his chair to give him his full attention. They were sitting across from each other in one of the private rooms of the public library near Thomas’s school. It was the first time he had seen Thomas since O’Hare’s, and there was already a difference, a confidence forming in Thomas that had been missing back in the cafe. He loved to see it. Loved to see the spark he had caught a glimpse of in those emerald eyes growing into a blaze already. “Sure?”
Thomas’s lip immediately went between his teeth, chewing on it as a flush creeping across his face.
Seong liked seeing that, too, even if it made his mind wander to things he probably shouldn’t think about.
“How…” he faltered, twisting at the strings of his hoodie. “How do you tell if someone is asking you out on a date or if it’s just suppose to be a… friends?”
It felt like someone parked a truck on Seong’s chest as the question hung in the air. He swallowed hard, ignoring the pressure. “I’m… not really the person to ask that,” he admitted, forcing himself to smile, and laughed. “I don’t think-” He paused, trying to think of a single instance. “Yeah, no. I’ve never been asked out on a normal date.” He tilted his head. Who asked you? “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, I- um,” Thomas rubbed at the back of his neck. “Danny asked me to go with him to see a movie Friday and… I’m not really sure if that’s supposed to be a date or- I don’t know. Maybe he’s just finally ungrounded and Mark and Kevin aren’t and he just wants to see a movie with someone.”
“Are Mark and Kevin still grounded?” Seong asked him, raising an eyebrow. “It’s been a month.”
“Marcus is still kind of pissed off that they didn’t notice Andy’s flag show in red,” Thomas explained. “I think he told Ceri and Jessi that it’s one thing to drink while underage, but they can’t be so stupid about it that they put themselves and their friends at risk.” He shrugged. “I think it’s the fact that it could have easily been one of them scares him more than anything. The only reason I’m safe is because you happened to see me and stepped in. If it had been them…”
Seong grimaced, his stomach twisting into a knot. Thomas wasn’t wrong. The fact that Seong had spotted him at all was nothing short of a miracle and because he had been thinking of Thomas daily. “Let’s… focus on something else,” he said, trying to shake the sick feeling that it was only his interest in Thomas that had protected any of them. “So Danny asked you to the movies and you aren’t sure if it’s supposed to be a date or just hanging out?”
