(Let's) Finish What We Started
Right behind him but it can’t be. It has to be someone else. Or maybe it’s not a joke—maybe Danny’s finally cracked, crumbled under the pressure, the pretense. He’s making it up, he must be—wishful thinking. That’s all it is.
He grits his teeth until they squeak and smart. Kono isn’t by his side anymore; she must have dropped off when he wasn’t paying attention. He turns.
Steve stands behind him, in his dress uniform.
Steve crooks a fleeting smile. His eyes look heartbroken, but the rest of him is lively, spry. Clean-shaven and all sharp edges, he does not look their age. “It’s been a while, huh, buddy? I’m really sorry for your loss. Came to—well, I wanted to pay my respects.”
Oh, and here Danny thought he’d stopped by to get Danny’s stuffed pepper recipe, the one Steve used to say was the best thing he’d ever put in his mouth. His chest churns—anger starts its fine boil in his blood.
“Right,” he manages to bite out. “Well, thanks for coming.” After five years of polite holiday messages, he doesn’t say. After dozens of missed calls that only got returned at times they couldn’t be answered, or with texts offering flimsy excuses. After Steve carefully and determinedly extricated Danny out of his life—their life—of over a decade.
He doesn’t say any of that.
21 chapters, hoping to post 1-2x/week.
Casting suggestions for the original characters (because my brain requires visual cues to make one):
Ben: this version of Randall Park,
Stella: Drea de Matteo (first so brilliantly cast by kho),
Danny’s mother Clara: Jamie Lee Curtis with her The Bear hairdo (just less inclined to raving rants – I’m sorry, I can’t stand Melanie Griffith in that role), and, last but not least,
Alternative casting by @algeriatouchshriek:
Ben: Sendhil Ramamurthy, and
Clara: Brenda Blethyn with an American accent
