FicWad

A/n- These late night shifts are really doing quite the good effort in helping me write. Thanks to “Nikol” who helped with this chapter, and also helped frame the previous one. I really don’t know what else to say I don’t actually remember a lot of this…I wrote it so damn fast.

Reviews…People who don’t review will be coughed on and will get sick. HA!

*

The problem with the ‘Go Talk to Brendon’ plan was that suddenly, Brendon couldn’t be found at all. Dani had set off to find him, but came up empty-handed. She resigned to the fact that she would have to wait until their next stop, but after arriving at the venue a few hours later, it seemed that both Brendon and Ryan had performed a disappearing act. This worried Danielle, but Nikol assure her that if they were going to be kicked off the tour it would have happened already, which made Dani smile a bit.
The show that night began with its usual flair and fun – although Dani was far tenser than she usually was. The only time she really interacted with Brendon on stage was during their dance, and boy was that awkward. The moves that one had been fun and semi-flirtatious were now disjointed and distant. When Dani swept off stage she was a wreck. This annoyed Nikol to no end; this was her best friend after all, so she started to hatch a plan. While she was on stage herself, she took advantage of one of her moves that landed her close to Ryan. While in his vicinity, she made a show of leaning close to him, and after dropping a wink to the crowd (who probably wouldn’t see it), she closed the space between them and faked a kiss on his cheek.
While doing this, she quickly whispered, “Meet me in the costume room after the set,” then swirled away before he could reply.
Ryan watched her go with a brow arched, nearly missing the next set of chords in his surprise.
She didn’t give anything else away during the rest of her performance. In fact, she kept to the routine this time, shocking the boys a bit. Spencer even asked her what was up at the end of the set that night.
She flippantly replied, “I’m preoccupied Spence, you know how it is, no?” before she grinned, and disappeared into the unused costume room.
While she waited, she perched, amazingly agile, on the top of a truck, giggling lightly in anticipation. Her slender fingers curled through her hair as Ryan walked in ten minutes later, looking around in confusion.
“I thought you didn’t hear me. I was worried,” she said, smiling at him as he turned and smiled back.
“Oh no…I did…trust me. Now what is this about, Nik?” he asked, not looking any less confused.
“Well…Brendon and Dani need to talk. This isn’t going to work unless they do. I propose a bit of a…co-op between us, what do you say?” she smiled mischievously, amazed at her comfort around him. But then again, once she had spent a night pouring her heart and mind out to someone, she always found it easier to talk to the, so her ease made sense.
“Alright. I assume you have a plan already?” he questioned her, also noticing how casual she was around him now. It made him smile.
“I do,” she motioned for him to set next to her, and waited until he obliged before she began to lay out the plan she had to trick them into getting to talk. Admittedly, it was a cheap and overused plan, but it would work, she knew it.
*
The opportunity to put said plan into action didn’t happen for a couple more days. This unfortunately left Dani in a poor disposition with all of her surroundings, which make Nikol anxious.
Finally, a few days later, there was time for the band to hit a restaurant before the inevitable descent back to the road. They wound up at a Danny’s, and much to Dani’s surprise, Nikol and Ryan took off to sit at a booth around the corner and out of sight. Brendon, Spencer, Jon and some of the male performers claimed a table on one side of the room, while Danielle ended up with Tracy and a few other dancers, trying not to show how upset she was by Nikol’s disappearance. This seating arrangement however was not going to stay that way very long, but neither Brendon nor Danielle were aware of this.
Once they had finished eating, Nikol excused herself and made her way over to where the boys were sitting. She crouched down to Brendon’s level and whispered to him that Ryan wanted to speak with him. He consented and followed Nikol back to an empty table.
“I’m sure he’ll be right back, probably ran to the bathroom,” she explained before sneaking off.
When he had seen the pair start back, Ryan had stood, bee lining for the bathroom, which led him past Dani. He stopped short and leaned over.
“Hey Dani, Nikol wants you, come on,” he said with a nod of his head in the direction of the booth. She stood slowly, slightly confused, but followed him. She rounded the corner and saw what was waiting for her.
Quickly, she turned to walk away, but Nikol was standing behind her. Her friend slowly shook her head and turned her around to face the table.
Dani heaved a big sign and headed towards the table, where she lowered herself onto the cushion across from him awkwardly.
Happy to see their part of the mission accomplished, Ryan and Nikol walked around the corner and stopped once they knew they were out of sight. They stood close to the wall to listen in on the conversation, so entertained by having pulled off such an easy con that they almost didn’t notice their arms brushing against the others.
*
The pair sat with unease across from each other trying to figure out what to say.
Danielle finally gave in and was the first one to break the tense silence that had settled over them like a storm cloud.
“I think we were set up.”
Brendon laughed nervously, “Oh definitely. I am never underestimating those two again.”
Dani gave a half smile and a pause hung in the air, “So…”
“So…”
“About the other night, I’m sorry. Obviously I crossed some sort of line or the past few days would have been different.”
Brendon looked at her strangely, “You’re apologising? Dani, I kissed you. Why the hell would you apologise?”
Dani gave him a blank look, “Probably because you have refused to talk to me for the last three days.”
“You never even tried to talk to me, Dani,” he was on the defensive now.
“Because you’re either never around or never alone and this isn’t exactly a group discussion.”
The only response this got from him was a flush to his cheeks and his eyes dropping to the tabletop, unable to meet hers.
“So you’re not even going to try to deny it?” Dani questioned, unable to mask how upset this made her.
“What would be the point of that?”
“Why though? Why wouldn’t you even want to talk to me about this? Do you know how confused I’ve been these last few days?”
“And how do you think I’ve felt, Danielle? I crossed a line I wasn’t supposed to cross. I acted on feelings that I have and probably ruined our entire professional relationship and I don’t know what to do about it,” he looked up at Dani who was wearing an expression of shock, but she didn’t look inclined to speak anytime soon.
He sighed and reached across the table to rest his hands on top of hers, then looked into her surprised eyes and continued, “Look, I really like you. Enough that I would be willing to break the ‘road rule’ that says don’t date the talent, but it’s not entirely up to me. You have to understand that having anything to do with me is going to put a person in a spotlight that they might not appreciate. That’s why I didn’t push this; I don’t want to put you in any situation that would make you uncomfortable because it wouldn’t be beneficial here. So my silence and avoidance hasn’t been selfish, it’s more protective if you can believe that.”
Somewhere during this surprising speech Dani’s face had allowed a smile to stretch across it and a blush to stain her cheeks.
“You mean to tell me that you haven’t been speaking to me this whole time to protect me from your fame and the spotlight?”
“Yes,” Brendon said with slight hesitation.
There was a pause, and then Dani was overcome with laughter. She removed one of her hands from under Brendon’s, trying to hide her hysterics, while he looked on, confused and intrigued. After a minute she was able to compose herself and she reclaimed Brendon’s hand before she started to speak.
“What did you think I expected? I didn’t come on this tour for peace and quiet. I came to perform and I expected some kind of press exposure whether I wanted it or not. Why would I expect anything less if I was to be with you? If I wasn’t willing to deal with this I would have slapped you in the face to get you to back off without a second thought. I have absolutely no problem with who you are and what that means. So thanks for trying to protect me, but I think I can handle it.”
Brendon blinked a few times before responding, “Well that make me feel like something of an idiot.”
“That wasn’t my intent but you were acting a bit foolish.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“You tell me. Did you mean it when you kissed me?”
“Of course I did. I may have been acting on impulse, but to be honest I’ve wanted to do that for awhile now.”
“For the record, this is turning into one of the strangest conversations I’ve ever taken part of, but where do you want to go from here?”
“Wherever this takes us I guess. I never really thought about it. I always figured no one normal would ever want to be involved with me because of all of my baggage.”
“Well, for one, I’m far from normal, so your theory might still be correct, but I’m rather attracted to all of your baggage. I’m willing to find out where this is headed if you’re willing to deal with a crazy person.”
“I think I could live with that, seeing as how my sanity stayed behind in the womb.”
Dani smiled and then sobered a second later, “I do have one more really serious question.”
“And what’s that?” he sounded worried.
“Will you just fucking kiss me again?”
He was happy to oblige.
*
Nikol and Ryan had listened to the entire conversation, trying not to laugh out loud at how incredibly awkward they acted toward one another through the whole thing. When they finally decided their mission had been accomplished (due to the silence that had come after Danielle’s last request) they made their way over to where the other band members were looking at him oddly, trying to figure out what they were up to.
When faced with this question Nikol coyly answered, “Oh…you’ll see.”
Sure enough, a few minutes later Danielle and Brendon rounded the corner holding hands and wearing idiotic smiles.
Jon spoke first, “Well it’s about fucking time! If you two had danced around each other any longer I was going to lock you in a room together until you came out married.”
“Well that’s a nice sentiment, but we’d rather take this at out own pace,” Danielle responded as they sat down at the now conjoined tables. The others looked at them oddly.
“What?” Brendon asked.
Spencer answered, “We were supposed to be on the road five minutes ago. The only reason we didn’t come get you was because we were afraid of what we would see. So let’s not get comfortable, let’s get the hell out of here.”
The group stood reluctantly and headed for the door, Jon stopping at the cashier to charge the meals to their expense account.
The group headed off as one toward the buses (which were parked in the dirt lot conveniently next to the restaurant), all of them except for Dani and Brendon who were lagging, realising that they would have to part ways once they reached their transportation. This was something that neither of them were too fond of having just crossed the bridge that had been hanging between them.
Unfortunately they couldn’t delay for too long without seeming overly suspicious. All too soon they reached the performer’s bus and exchanged a fervent goodbye before Brendon watched Dani ascend the stairs and reluctantly headed towards his own bus.
The first sounds Dani heard as she climbed on the all-too-small bus that was for the ‘talent’ only was the cat calls and goading remarks of her friends.
“Oh go stuff yourselves,” she said in a not entirely angry fashion before grabbing Nikol’s arm, fully prepared to lecture and thank her for what she’d done at the restaurant.