Time Throws Us Along [Closed]

[hallelujahjunction]

Who: Dan and Elle and Stacia, Dan and Bunny
What: Dan addresses the fallout of his conversation with Miguel.
Where:
When: After Christmas
Warnings/Notes: Cocaine? Cocaine. And all the other Dan warnings.

I. Elle and Stacia

Bunny's gone on a mission for a few weeks, one that Dan can't accompany him on, and the only upside Dan can see to that is that he doesn't immediately have to tell Bunny what's bothering him. Instead, he can use their bathroom counter to do lines of cocaine, which is how he spends the evening, getting coked up and smoking his vape and hitching a ride on the sleigh to Amsterdam to party. He comes back late the next morning wearing someone else's clothes, pockets empty and hair glittered, with a hickey on his neck, and goes straight to sleep, all thoughts of dooming his home universe utterly, temporarily banished.

The downside is, of course, that the comedown from a coke binge lasts for days, and the older he gets the less he feels like he's bouncing back and the more he feels like he's crawling back up from a pit. The exhaustion is the worst of it. Dan's used to feeling full of aches and pains and hangover, but such punishing fatigue sneaks up on him, so a few days after his wild night he's sitting in the communal relaxation area, listening to an audiobook on his iPod, nursing a mug of cocoa with one hand and holding some tissue to a nosebleed with the other, when he just slips off into sleep and doesn't wake until someone nudges him.

II. Bunny

By the time Bunny gets back, Dan's ready to have a proper conversation about all this with him. He was hesitant to bring any of it up, because the emotions around saving Dan's family have always been so heightened. Somehow this happy event has also brought them to the worst arguments of their relationship more than once, has exposed every crack they have, every way they see the world and life and death differently. Dan doesn't want to suggest that they should have done anything differently when the last time he floated that idea, they fought so bitterly and painfully that Dan feels it like a wound that never quite heals.

But after talking to the girls about it and having some time and distance, he's leveled himself out (and sterilized all traces of the cocaine out of their bedroom) and prepared his little mental list of all the things he and Bunny need to catch up on. Not out of apology, but just out of gratefulness that Bunny's back, he's sewn together a new flannel for Bunny, gotten some rosepetals and candles and gussied up the bed. And then he's dressed in his coziest pajamas and settled into bed himself, ready for Bunny to come be cuddled up with and groomed and adored upon his return. He perks up when the door cracks open.

"Hey, honey. Welcome back."

Comments

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia opens her mouth to argue back with Elle that what she means is that Miguel may have a reason to be stupid and thus might not need to be physically slammed into a few walls, but then snaps it shut and breathes through her nose. Not the point, she and Elle can argue about who's going to handle the Miguel portion of this problem later. Right now, they're dealing with Dan.

"Yeah, well, I want to put all the werewolves back home in a hamster ball and shake them until the stupid falls out," she says. "Miguel can want things all he likes, and he's welcome to politely explain why messing with our own pasts might be a bad idea, but he's not the boss of this gang of misfits. He made an attempt at being mister bossy-pants, and I declared him team secretary instead."

Dan probably saw Miguel's big information-organizing announcement, but she's not sure if he saw the responses. Given Dan's general Dan-ness, it's entirely possible he buried it under a pillow and did something else until everyone else stopped talking. So, you know, just making things clear for him.

The laugh is a relief, and Stacia smiles into it. She also declines to argue with the logic behind it -- again not the point here.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone wants that kind of pressure on them," she says.

[millenyal_pink]

Elle takes another deep breath and rubs her hand over her face. Stacia visibly holding her tongue reminds her that she should probably do the same.

"Yeah, no one was taking his attempt seriously. We even got backup from people who had worked with him before on why it might not be a good idea. I think he gets that that's not gonna fly here but it may take him a bit to transition and act accordingly, especially if he's used to being the boss."

She has more to say, but none of it would be productive right now. Dan needs to be able to realize that the situation may not be what he thought, Elle and Stacia need to figure out how to deal with Miguel, and Elle needs to keep her shit together long enough to get through all of this.

She takes another deep breath, trying to release some of the tension she's holding in her body (and burying some of her anger deep in her gut to be dealt with Later), and places her hand back on Dan to continue the soft petting she was doing before.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan lets himself be pet and resists the urge to return the gesture, because he worries it might be more uncomfortable for Elle to feel observed in her anger than just politely ignoring how tense she's become.

"He listened to me and accepted that I wouldn't might be cooperating none with his efforts to organize. I told him it was a personal sticking point for me, and honestly, I reckoned he'd push back harder on me, but..." Dan shrugs. He actually addressed this issue directly instead of just dipping and passively objecting. "Maybe y'all prepared him for the potential he'd have a libertarian in his midst when you demoted him to secretary. I don't know. I reckoned we were doing real nice until I mentioned the timeline."

He makes a gesture like something exploding and falling to pieces with one hand.

"I didn't mean to drag y'all into this. It's fine. I'll be fine."

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia blinks in momentary surprise, then grins and pats Dan's hand. Look at that, personal growth! Good job, Dan! "Well, it's not like I'm big on taking orders either: I just take advice and sometimes requests from people I've decided are worth listening to."

Then, since she's already touching his hand, she takes it in both of her own. "To be fair, you didn't drag us into this so much as not try to run when we cornered you while you slept. Which, frankly, would have been a perfectly logical choice. So thank you for letting us help."

[millenyal_pink]

"No one here has any authority over me and if they try to order me around I will simply bite them."

She's only partially joking, but the lightening mood lets some of the tension bleed from her posture.

"That includes you. You didn't drag us into anything."

Sorry, Dan, the reason they're getting involved isn't because of any pressure or obligation-- they just care about you.

[hallelujahjunction]

"I can give information. I can share and cooperate. I just can't fall in line." He gives Stacia's hand a squeeze. He's glad they understand, glad that not only do they understand but that they also feel the same way. None of them feel the capacity to bending the knee to authority; it's not even that they don't want to, but that all three of them feel compelled against just rolling over, like it's something in their constitution.

"And I know better than to run from y'all. You're both faster than me." He laughs, then yawns and sits up, gathering the tissues and his other accoutrements. "Mind accompanying me back to my room and dropping me off? I'm still so tired I might fall asleep in the hallway if I go it alone."

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia giggles because while fleeing would have been an understandable impulse, it certainly wouldn't have been successful overall. Even if they didn't immediately give chase as though he were a squirrel, they would have hunted him down in other ways. But they didn't have to, because Dan politely acquiesced!

"Yeah, sure," she says, standing up herself. "The bed's going to be a comfier place to recover than a chair. You set for snacks and water and stuff?"