Love Bites

Part Three

You had fallen out pretty hard after the events of the prior night only to wake to something that stuck a ping of fear through you. As you turned over you came across the empty side of Dan's bed. It was almost a strange feeling of a one night stand you'd only ever experienced a handful of times, but you had been left in his bed and not vice versa.

Your eyes drifted looking for any signs of where he could possibly be. Dan usually was good with leaving something or anything to assure you he hadn't gone far. It was a moment of sitting up to search when you heard steps coming from the kitchen into the living room.

"No, no, I can come in man it's cool. I just gotta drop her off and be right there." Dan was on the phone with Arin you assumed. It must had been a day where the random come ups of further series ideas had sprung motivating his hard-working friend to drop a line not wanting to lose the moment. You scooted towards the end of the bed after stretching to see Dan coming towards his room looking at you. His expression was neutral, but was explained why when you saw he had been put on hold. He held up a finger asking you to hold on a moment which caused you to take back the idea to just get ready to go. Instead, you tucked your legs under you waiting patiently. You were trying very hard to avoid the alarms sounding in your head telling you he was going to have a talk about all of this now that it was morning.

You had thrown a blanket around you getting almost comfy again when Dan let Arin go. He sighed as he shoved his phone in his back pocket. When his eyes met yours he looked as though he was hurting some. You automatically did reach out for him to take your hand, when he does you pull a little to crawl back on the bed sitting across from you. He remains holding your hand as he tilts his head looking to you.

"How'd you sleep?' Dan asks trying to keep himself intact. What you hadn't known was that he had been up for a bit. Wracking his mind over all of this. It was overwhelming him, but he was trying his best to keep that down until he could discuss more with Arin maybe later.

"Fine, actually, you?" you look him over again seeing him once again thinking about something. His mind was always going no matter what was going on in his life. You blinked at him waiting while he occasionally rubbed his thumb over your knuckles as if he held a worry stone.

"I-I slept fine, uh too? I mean once I fell asleep again. Thank you by the way for being here, for saving me, ya know was super-amazing that you didn't like freak out. I really need that for those moments; someone who can be there to just hold me." Dan smiled only a little of his usual crooked grin. You scooted forward some testing to see what was too much too soon still. Dan watched you invade a little of his space before you stopped only knowing for yourself you'd be comfortable where you were. Your knees were a few inches from his as you reached to take his other hand with a small smile yourself.

"I'm glad you think that. It yeah is scary, but I've heard about your worse ones. I mean, I'm always gonna be a call or text away Danny. You know that, hell, you've already called me after a few before. So you're welcome for sort of doing what I could ya know?" you shrugged trying to play it in the middle. Your sincerity was leaning more towards the idea of a girlfriend-context rather than a friend. You watched Dan's gaze drop again with a big sigh before he looked up as he nodded.

"Yeah, was great. I like, I totally find it comforting that I can call you and you're there. Thank you back, really hun, for just, for being you. I like you, still, trust me." Dan smiled up at your face watching your cheeks color some. Your entire person was holding on to his words and you hated every second of it. He hadn't made a move to kiss you again, he hadn't seemed too excited about all this like before, maybe you had made a mistake with the events last night. "I do um, I wanted us ya know to get up and chill and talk like I said last night, but um, I'm sure you heard that sadly those plans are gonna have to wait. I figured ya know, maybe we'll both be getting the chance to think more? I mean time away is fine right? Cause we did agree this was big, so I mean, if you're still wanting to?" Dan was offering the ball towards your court which had you easing up only a little. You nodded as confident as you could, trying to process what this meant. Dan for once was going to have to be trusted in a different sense you were only used to with guys that were a definite interest. It was the action almost as if you had passed him a note in school and now were going to have to wait till the end of the day for a reply. Dan reached to brush a strand of hair back while you both smiled only a little wider at the other.