Smother the Flame in Your Heart // Danny x Sam

Part II

Pairing: Danny Wagner x Sam Kiszka

Word Count: ~4100

Warnings: nothing in this one;)

A/N: Sorry for the delay. My "real job" keeps getting in the way lol. But we're making great progress here regardless...hope you enjoy <3

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He knew it was stupid beyond stupid, but Sam couldn't get Danny out of his mind. He couldn't stop trying to reach out. He kept thinking about how sweetly Danny spoke to him, kissed him, held him, and Sam could only think about wanting more of that. Halloween felt like a dream, not a nightmare, and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Danny certainly hadn't, Sam thought to himself while he reached up to touch his neck. More than a week had passed and there was hardly any physical evidence that anything had happened that night at all.

Sam, pacing the porch, called Danny's phone yet again; no answer. When the automated voice urged him to leave a message, he said, "Hey, Danny–guess who? Yeah, I know. Guess I'm crazy. But I really wanna see you again, dude. Don't leave me hanging." When he disconnected, he held fiercely onto the hope that that would finally be the message that earned him a response.

Josh broke Sam out of his focus, sauntering out from the front door. "Aren't you freezing?" he asked, and Sam looked down at his bare arms and bare feet. Then Josh tutted and said, "Why do I even ask?" He paused his steps across the porch, eyes slightly narrowing with curious suspicion at his brother. "Who were you talking to?"

"No one," Sam said, slipping his phone into his pocket. "Where are you going?"

"Grocery run," Josh said, jingling his keys. He cocked his head to the side as Sam stood there, restless, chewing on his lip. "You wanna come?"

Sam had absolutely nothing better to do.

Just a few miles away, Danny was pacing his living room, listening to the voicemail. Just hearing Sam's voice lit a flame inside his heart; Sam saying his name was like some far-off call that reached into his soul. Well, if he had one–he wasn't so sure he did. If Danny did have a soul, he'd been trying to save it. He hadn't had a drop of blood since Halloween and he felt restless too, like a caged animal except it was he himself who was keeping him locked in. He couldn't go out. If he went out, he'd just lose it all over again and have to deal with the shame once more. He didn't have the energy.

But he also didn't have the strength to keep away from Sam for much longer, Danny knew that, too. He hadn't stopped thinking about him hardly at all, feeling so engrossed in his own memories of being able to touch Sam, to kiss him, to hear him speak in real time. But when he thought about the horror in Sam's eyes as Danny assaulted him and the bruises he'd left on his body, Danny recoiled, alone and tight with that shame that made him feel so evil.

He felt at a loss. He sat down on the couch and dropped his phone to the side, staring out the window. It was unusually bright outside, the sun not giving way to what would undoubtedly soon become dreary, late-autumn days, and the shimmer of light through the blinds enticed him to get up and make that exit. The overwhelming compulsion to get up and go almost overtook him but instead, Danny picked his phone back up and replayed the voicemail.

It was pointless for Sam to keep checking his phone but he kept doing it while he trailed behind Josh, who was pushing a cart and perusing the grocery store aisles. Sam really wanted to tell his brothers about Danny but that also seemed pointless when he knew he wouldn't be able to tell them the whole story. Nothing deterred Josh though, who began pestering Sam about what was up with him as soon as they were bringing everything back to the car.

"God, just drop it," Sam said with a huff, squirming away from Josh, who was physically, in addition to verbally, accosting him from the driver's seat. Sam slapped the frantic little hands away, regretting he'd let Josh pry at all.