NYSM •Moments In Time•

Imagine #3 (Rated-R!)

((This is kind of sad and is based off a fanfic I read on Archive of Our Own. Credit to the author, agentsofthemcu who created the story, The Lover. It's a little depressing so TRIGGER WARNING just to be safe. Rated-R!))

Basically, the Horsemen each have their issues and they all go to Daniel for it.

Dylan is drunk and has PTSD thinking about the horrors of nearly drowning in a safe, so when Danny offers his help, he's stuck in Dylan's room, being choked while having sex. For small moments, Dylan will allow him to breathe, but would then continue to drown him from air so Daniel would experience what his boss is feeling.

Next comes Lula, once Jack cheated on her. When she asks for Danny's help, he obliges and she hurts him in ways she wished she could hurt Jack. The Sleight had already lost her trust, and took her wallet, going to clubs and not smelling the same when he came home. All Lula wanted to do was to abuse him so he would physically feel the pain she was feeling emotionally. Instead, she lets it all out on Daniel.

Her boyfriend goes to Danny next, after him and Lula had an argument, trying to figure out his frustrations while sucking Danny off. Jack is the one out of everyone who's used Danny to feel guilty almost right away, even though Danny said it was alright. J. Daniel Atlas was his idol, and he was using him for unwanted needs.

Each time a member of his team does something to him, they all leave his room quietly before he wakes up in the morning cause the guilt is too much to handle. But in the end, Danny doesn't say a word. He helps them with their needs, always silently obliging and bending to their will, but in the end he's left with Dylan's handprint on his neck, Lula's bloody scratches and bruises all over his chest and shoulders, and finally Jack's indents on his hips. He no longer was the arrogant Daniel Atlas who bent to others wills, but after the stunts he pulled in Macau, he's been trying desperately to regain his Horsemen's trust, even though this is a cruel way to do so. Danny was no longer in control, and now does what his friends tell him to do to regain their own pleasure.

Merritt sees what's going on, after all it's part of his job to read the eyes and body language of his fellow Horsemen. He goes to Daniel one night, and immediately the younger man thinks he wants something from him, too, and offers himself to him. To Merritt's devastation, Danny wasn't being himself. Merritt insists he doesn't want anything from Daniel, and instead bandages up Danny's wounds and helps him with his own painful needs.

~~~~~~~~~

Logan was heartbroken that this is what the Horsemen have come to, almost a full year since the show in London and everyone has gone so low and depressed that it'd be near impossible to dig them back out. Logan herself has felt down about nothing in particular, but she no longer has that extra light skip in her step. She's always sad, close to tears each time a personal subject comes up. It was as if the magic was gone from this team, and she'd do anything to get it back, but sometimes...it's way too much effort to get back up.

One morning, she's in the kitchen alone. From the sounds across the hall from her room, she heard Lula and Jack screaming the night before, arguing about something pointless. Halfway into the night, she heard Dylan's footsteps go to the library in order to drink himself away. In the room next to hers, Merritt was assisting Danny, trying to heal wounds that may never leave.

She didn't notice she was crying until Danny's fingers gently touched her wrist, then she quickly wiped them away and stood up straighter to face him.

His face didn't crack from any emotion he might be feeling, and all the while his eyes were studying Logan's body language, and observed how she couldn't look him in the eye. He was stoic, knowing the signs she held just like the other Horsemen before her. She noticed his Adam's Apple bob as he swallowed back the hesitation in his voice,