When Stars Collide - Chapter 4!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Jason thumped his head against the wall for the fifth time. He’d left Damian in the Star Hall to have his questions answered and then went looking for Danny. And looking. And looking. He couldn’t find the man anywhere. Danny said he was heading into work and then came inside. Maybe he was in one of the employee only areas. That would be Jason’s luck. Before leaving the manor, Jason had resolved to find Danny and ask him out. The encounter outside had only cemented his resolve that he wanted this man in his life. Damian had given him a hard time over but he'd found the floundering to be endearing.
Danny was pressed with his back against the wall, breath huffing and heart pounding. There were, of course, much better reasons to be in this position but he was enjoying none of those. Nope. He was hiding.
Jason seemed to be everywhere that Danny needed to be this morning and he could not face that man again. Not after his near-death by embarrassment earlier. So he kept dodging Jason, usually by mere seconds. He felt like he was in a comedy skit. He could practically feel Lady Gotham and Clockwork peeking through the windows at him. Like a sitcom. Like he was a bug in a box. But this was HIS box! The Planetarium was HIS domain. He would not let them meddle with him again.
With Jason hanging around Exploration Hall, Danny headed back to Star Hall, where he was supposed to be stationed today and found Damian deep in conversation with Taryn. They were a good resource for any questions the young stargazer might have. Danny was glad Taryn was staffing Star Hall while he was hiding from the consequences of his own clumsy mistakes.
“Hello, Damian!” Danny called in greeting. “Glad to see you back. I’m sorry about the mess outside. I was running late today and wasn’t as careful as I should have been.” While he couldn’t bear to face Jason, Damian was a student. A patron of the Planetarium. He fell under the ‘job’ umbrella and that role Danny could handle with ease. Just keep it cool and professional.
Damian gave Taryn a quick thank you before turning firmly to Danny. “Mr. Danny, I was hoping to see you again.”
This must be a serious astrological matter. Danny prepared himself mentally for the hard discussion about why Pluto was no longer classified as a planet and how it actually benefited their solar system to have the Dwarf Planet classification. Or maybe the boy needed an explanation on how the space time difference meant that many of the stars they were seeing were already gone, just delayed images of a ball of gas already burnt out. This revolution could cause quite the existential crisis. Danny prepared himself. Cool and professional.
“I’m afraid my brother is horribly besotted with you. I would like you to agree to a date with him so that he will leave me in peace.”
Danny.exe has stopped functioning.
Please wait or reboot.
“I’m sorry. I’m confused.” Danny hedged. Keep it cool. Keep it professional. “Your brother is the one I knocked over this morning, right? I can definitely give him a formal apology for that. And. Um…” Danny didn’t know where to go from there.
“I’m surrounded by morons” Damian mumbled at a level that Danny was sure he wasn’t meant to hear. “Let me clarify. My brother, Jason, is currently looking for you so that he can ask you on a date.” Damian maintained full eye contact for a beat. “Romantically. He has been enamored with you since our field trip last week. I would consider it a personal favor to me if you were to accept.”
“I…Um, well-” Danny dithered.
“I see that you are having trouble speaking again. This seems to be a frequent issue for you. Is it really so difficult to admit aloud when you desire someone?”
“Hey now! I’m very eloquent!” Danny looked around for an escape but found nothing. His face twitched and his fingers spasmed, trying and failing to keep it professional before finally breaking. “I just really don’t know what to do here! First of all, I’m at work and this isn’t a work question and I try really hard to keep just work in my little work box but this is very not work so my brain just doesn't know how to handle all this because I very much want to date your brother. Have you seen him?! Well he’s your brother so you likely don’t look at him that way but let me tell you. He’s hot. Ten of ten. I have been avoiding him the whole time you two ‘ve been in the building because I’m pretty sure I lost all brain function when he was holding me outside.” The words kept spilling from Danny even though Damian started glancing around for his own escape. But NO! He had backed Danny into this proverbial corner and now he got to suffer the consequences of his actions. “Absolutely cannot get rebooted after that, especially since I’m pretty sure Gotham orchestrated it and now you’re trying to play matchmaker too and I don’t want to make a fool of myself with Jason but also I don’t want to make anything awkward for you if it doesn’t workout because you’re great! You ask the best questions and I want to keep that curiosity going because it’s so hard to get people interested in space here in Gotham because of the smog but that’s really been getting better lately which is very nice because I’ve really been hoping that it would clear up and now that I think about that it has resulted in an uptick of people coming to the Planetarium…” Danny trailed off into mumbles about correlations between night time sky visibility and attendance rates and weather patterns.
His eyes unfocused and Damian would swear in an official Bat-Report that his whole body slid out of focus, wasn't corporeal any longer. As if he lost connection with reality as his mind drifted away from the here and now. Damian took a step closer to look at the freckles on his face, which were starting to glow and move, rearranging. With that small step Danny’s head snapped back up and his form snapped back into focus.
“What was I saying?”
“You, um… You were telling me when you would be able to go on a date with Jason.” It may have been underhanded to take advantage of Danny’s lapse awareness but it was a risk Damian was willing to take.
“No!” Danny almost shouted back, “I distinctly remember that I said I CAN’T go on a date with your brother because he’s out of my league and I have no idea how to talk to him when he’s standing in front of me.” The smile that broke out on Damian’s face at that moment was almost maniacal. It distracted Danny enough that he nearly jumped out of his skin when a deep voice resonated from just behind him. “What about if I stand behind you?” Jason asked, “How about Portabello’s this Friday at 6?”
“Yep” Danny squeaked, vibrating with both fear and anticipation. “Sounds good. I’ll be there.”
“Alright then, I’ll meet you there. Come on Damian, B called us. We gotta go.”
Danny turned to watch them go.
And, damn. What a view.
