"Did you steal that?" was the first thing Mira asked when Daniel came into the cafeteria.
Well, not exactly came, more like rolled into his shopping cart holding Jay Titanic-style. Pushing the cart was an overly-eager Vasco and following them was a procession made up of BNC members, one of which was holding a large speaker over his shoulder.
"Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you,
That is how I know you go on
Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on~"
Zack bristled with rage when his girlfriend-AhEm! I mean Mira was ignored by all of them in favor of rolling near the food counter. He marched right up to where Daniel was half-crouching awkwardly, trying to balance two food trays without letting go of Jay's waist or getting down from the shopping cart, and smacked him loudly over the back of the head. He stumbled and fell over the counter, bringing his blonde down with him. The pair ended up sprawled over one another in an undignified heap on the floor, although, amazingly, the trays landed perfectly onto the counter without spilling even a single drop.
Later Danny would account this to his eternal amazingness and furiously deny that it had anything to do with sheer dumb luck whatsoever. For now, he just lay beneath his sweet Jay in the most inelegant way humanly possible, simultaneously trying to get up and not push the other boy off him.
"Zack, look what you did!" Vasco scolded the perpetually annoyed male while hauling himself over the counter with ease.
He leaned over the two checking for any injuries. Satisfied with his founding he gave them both what was supposed to be a reassuring smile before reaching and plucking the off the ground. He held them up in the air by the backs of their collars, and Danny finally discovered what it was like to be held like a misbehaving cat. Safe to say, he did not enjoy being literally thrown over the counter, though he forgave his newest minion for carefully reaching over and landing Jay over the counter safely.
"Good job minions!" He proclaimed loudly getting up and brushing the dirt off his clothes.
After careful consideration, he chose to hold his beloved instead of the trays, which he entrusted one of his minions to deliver to their table. Then he climbed back into the cart and readjusted their position back as it was supposed to be.
"Onwards!" He exclaimed pointing towards the assigned 'BNC and crazy cult leader gremlin + occasionally the man who is crazy brave enough to date him' table.
They resumed their journey without anyone in the cafeteria batting an eyelid. This was normal.
"Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on~"
Once was already too much. Twice was beyond cruelty. Thrice...thrice was not meant for the human mind to comprehend.
So when you have to do it a thousand times and then some you become rather desensitized to certain things that could make others writhe.
That's how Daniel found himself looking up at the paling faces of his friends, vaguely aware that his body wasn't supposed to be able to bend that way. There were tears, of course, pleading for him to say awake, to hold on until the ambulance arrived. The worst part though was the reassurances, because both parties knew by that point that they were just wishful thinking.
Like, no Zack, I just got hit by a truck going over 200 km/h, I'm not going to be okay! The bloodied boy tried to voice these words but they only came out as strangled moans, which elicited more sobs and, to his everlasting indignance, shushing.
"Nnnghn hngh!" (Don't shush me!)
"It's going to be okay."
"Mnghnh mnmnth nghgh ghngfngh mnghnghhtt! mnggggg hnghnght mthght." (Vasco, I adore you but I'm literally twisted like play-doh and I think I can feel my bones trying to escape my body and form their own army for world domination!!)
"Shh, just hang on."
Danny shot him a dirty look, though he had to guess which one of his friends the bald white egg shushing him was. Probably Jin, he had always been a little bitch like that. If he squinted the alien-like thing looking down on him was pretty similar to the dumbass.
"Mhnh mgthhhhh-." (Bitch if you shush me one more-)
"Shhh" Zack placed his finger on his lips, before quickly retracting his hand and massaging the bite marks on his pointer with what was supposed to be aggravation. The tears and snot running down his face ruined the image.
Finally, through the constant ringing in his ears, Daniel could distinguish the sound of sirens. People shuffled around him and someone tried to get his attention, but their voice turned to mush in his ears. He threw one last look at his friends and reached towards Jay through the paramedics.
"Mnh nhghn Macarena mngh." (Bae, you need to play Macarena at my funeral!)
And with that, the world went black. Then white, then black again. Then he came upon himself, literally.
"They did a pretty good job with my body, you can't even tell that half of these are missing" He poked at one of his limbs, his translucent finger going right through it. There was no bone, just a metal rod kipping the arm in place.
Danny shuddered and retracted his hand as if he had been burned. No matter how many times he ended up as a ghost it never got less weird touching things. He shrugged and floated upwards, passing through the lid of the casket and angling his body so that he no longer felt like he was lying down. Gravity didn't apply to ghosts, so getting his body to sit straight was really tricky until you got the hang of it.
The venue was pretty packed, with people balling their eyes out. They were all dressed in black and looking at a picture of him smiling that had been propped on a stand near his casket. In the front row was his mother, at whose appearance he cringed.
It never got easier seeing her so utter;y devastated, but that was always the way it went when he died, his bigger body would vanish without a trace, and his smaller one would remain, lifeless. His eyes scanned over the other people at the venue trying to get the image of her dull eyes and sunken cheeks out of his mind.
Next to his mother was his beloved jay. Oh, how he wanted to wrap his arms around the boy and wipe those tears that never stopped rolling down his exquisite face! Instead, he caressed his darling's cheek lovingly, making the boy shudder at the feeling of sudden coldness. He didn't dare linger, unable to bare the heartbreaking sight of his lover's grief.
If Daniel had been drinking he would have done a spit-take right then and there. (Was it disrespectful to spit at your own funeral?)
Nestled between a sobbing Crystal and a mostly-unbothered Kouji was Diego Kang himself, having a whispered conversation with an ashen-faced Gun. The latter must've taken the death of his masterpiece and the subsequent disappearance of Daniel's bigger self as quite the blow. 'He did waste a lot of time training me and seemed very eager to get taller me to be his...something, whatever that was...' the boy mused, making his way across from them and to the audio system. He didn't have time to ponder such things. He was a ghost on a mission.
Possessing humans was rather simple if tiring, but messing around with electronics had always been a favorite of his whenever he ended up as a wandering specter. The speakers, placed strategically in the four corners of the room, simultaneously crackled to life, startling the people in attendance, before:
Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría y cosa buena Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena Hey Macarena, ay
Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría y cosa buena Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena Hey Macarena, ay
Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría y cosa buena Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena Hey Macarena, ay
Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría y cosa buena Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena Hey Macarena, ay
Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría y cosa buena Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena Hey Macarena, ay!
"Wanna know a secret?"
"Daniel, it's 3 AM on a Monday."
The disgruntled groan and pillow over the head didn't seem to deter the overly energetic boy.
"Is that a yes?"
Another agonizing groan and what sounded like him whispering 'don't kill him, you don't have the energy to hide a body' over and over again like a mantra.
"Fuck off!" He pushed the gremlin squatting on his nightstand roughly, ignoring the loud 'oof' he let out.
However, when the sound of a body hitting the floor never came, Zack opened his eyes and turned around. Daniel was hanging precariously on the curtain while his feet still remained partially on the nightstand. Zack blinked, then shoved the other's feet off.
"Ooof" And the sound of the curtain rod hitting something hard then falling onto the floor and someone scrambling around in his failed curtains.
Zack reached for his earplugs and pulled the pillow over his head again. He was not doing this today!
Poke.
Poke.
He swatted the offending hand away with vitriol.
Poke. Poke.
He discreetly reached for the chemistry book beneath the bed and pulled it close to him, ready to strike.
Poke.
Thunk!
After that, the night was quiet, with no more poking.
When Daniel first met Jay he thought he was an angel. Too many time loops to count later, he still thought he was an angel.
Jay was always kind, even when he barely knew him. He was loyal, smart, rich, and beautiful and he could fight! What was there not to love in him?!
Daniel doesn't remember when he first fell in love with the blonde. The hundreds of years that had passed already made things a bit blurry. But he remembered that no matter what time loop he was in Jay had never left his side. And no matter what loop he was in Daniel had never stopped seeking him out and falling in love with the quiet boy all over again.
"Would you stop that!" A painful blow to the ribs brought him out of his daydreaming.
He shot the perpetrator a confused and indignant look, at which Zack only snorted derisively.
"Don't even try to play dumb with me! You were ogling at him again!"
Not knowing how to respond (Because had hadn't been ogling at him, thank you very much, he had been staring admiringly at him from afar!), his gaze once again wandered to the quiet blond. Initially, it had been only to check if he had heard them, but his eyes remained pinned on his fair face. The light fell on him at such an angle that it made it seem as if his skin had turned into pure glittering snow. His hair shifted slightly with the breeze in such a hypnotizing way that the boy couldn't take his eyes off of him even if he wanted to.
Another elbow to his already hurting ribs brought him back to reality.
"Stop it already! It's seriously starting to creep me out!"
It was Daniel's turn to snort. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
"Oh please, as if you don't do the same with Mira."
The bell rang and he got up, leaving a spluttering Zack behind before the boy could get a grip and start throwing threats and glares at him.
"Hey, Jay, wait up! Let's eat lunch together, we don't need to go to the cafeteria if you don't want to." He ran after his beloved with a big smile which the blonde reciprocated.
"I swear, one day those two are going to give me diabetes with how sweet they are!" Mira told her friend playfully before her gaze landed on the boxer and she gave him a friendly wave.
Zack promptly melted into a puddle of goo on the floor, much to everyone else's amusement.
"Hey, stop. I'm not proud of it." Zack was definitely proud of it.
He glanced back at the new transfer hoping to see him cowering and had he been drinking anything he would have done a spit-take right then and there.
Oblivious to the looks he was getting, Daniel, continued flirting with the increasingly reddening blonde. His pickup lines were downright atrocious, but Jay didn't seem to mind it at all.
"Are you French? Because Eiffel for you."
Zack began wondering if this was a fever dream but a quick look at his gobsmacked goon confirmed they were seeing this too.
"Are you a parking ticket? Because you’ve got FINE written all over you."
Zoe quietly despaired in a corner with large crocodile tears running down her face.
"I must be in a museum, because you truly are a work of art."
Zack sneakily pulled out a notebook and began furiously scribbling down notes.
"Are you a time traveler? Cause I see you in my future!"
Daniel was not smirking mischievously at that one, thank you very much.
"Can I follow you where you’re going right now? Because my parents always told me to follow my dreams."
"Does he even have a dad?" someone whispered in the background, genuinely curious.
As expected, there was no reply.
"Do you like Star Wars? Because Yoda only one for me!"
Mira could no longer keep a straight face and face-planted into her desk letting out something that sounded like a mix between a moan of despair and a muffled snort. It came out like the sound of a wounded pterodactyl.
The teacher walked in unnoticed.
"My love for you is like diarrhea, I just can't hold it in."
The teacher promptly walked out and never returned.