Unconditionally

07

-BACK TO AVA'S POINT OF VIEW-

Three. Three days at Dan's and I feel like I'm home. As soon as I woke up it felt as if an anchor that was weighing me down had been lifted off my chest. I look over to his sleeping figure and get up, he cooked me breakfast yesterday and the most I can do is return the favor. He is letting me sleep in his house after all, and eat his food, and take over his living room.

"Woah Ava, you didn't have to cook." Danny's tired voice fills the silence. I was too busy humming a song that was stuck in my head to notice that he woke up, plus I was cooking. "It's the only way I could say thank you." I reply. He chuckles. "You just said it." Making me giggle at his cheesy joke. Suddenly his phone began to ring, and he answered it immediately. While talking on the phone he glanced over at me and smirked, "Yeah, we'll be right there after breakfast!" he says happily. After hanging up he turns his attention to me and my confused expression. "There has been an emergency Grump meeting at the office." He says making me nod my head and go back to cooking.

After eating and getting changed, me in Danny's grey "I'm Not-So-Grump" shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans, and him in his short sleeve flannel and grey skinny jeans, we decided to head out to the office. I wondered what the meeting could be about, maybe Arin wanted Dan to pre-record some more videos, or they wanted me in them. We got there, and the meeting was indeed about me, but nothing about videos or editing, or even my work in general. It was about protecting me, and Dan had come clean about telling Arin everything I had said last night in the car. If Arin knew, then the whole crew knew...even Markiplier was there! "So, what are your guys' plan?" I had asked, and immediately regretted it. "Well, I was doing some research and there was one of the underground bar places you had mentioned out on the left side of town, let's just say an anonymous caller informed the cops and many people were taken to jail last night. The girls were rescued and brought to a rehabilitation center." Barry says, resting his feet on the table and putting his hands behind his back with a smile. "Don't be so happy about it Barry. That's just one of many." I pipe up, making his smile go away. They all turned to me, "Well, how many are there?" Mark asks. I counted in my head, "Like about three of them. Of course, I don't know where they're located like the one from last night, I was always blindfolded when being transferred." I say making Danny kind of wince from the imagination.

After telling them the rest of what I knew, and all of them promising their protection on me, Danny and I went back to his house. As much as I knew we were never going to be a couple, and the fans were mad about that, I couldn't help but notice that we were starting to act like a couple. I was wearing his clothes, taking over his favorite oversized sweaters, living in his home, cooking food like it was nothing, hanging out like we were a... couple. 'wouldn't want them to think we're a couple or something.' My mind wondered down to where I sat, two feet apart from Danny watching another romantic comedy. My eyes panned up to his brown ones which were already staring at me, and I quickly turned away blushing. (how cheesy) "Whatcha thinking about?" he quickly asks. "Nothing. I was gonna ask if you had some popcorn, it'd go great with the movie." I reply, he gets up from his spot and goes in the kitchen.

"Salt or sugar?" he yells from the kitchen after I hear the microwave stop. "What?" I quickly ask, "Salt or sugar?" he yells again. "Salt." I reply. Who the hell puts sugar in their popcorn? (that's just weird, but sorry for judging) He returns with a giant bowl of popcorn, sitting closer to me. I can't help but to wonder if he's going to try some cheesy hands-in-the-popcorn move you see on some cliché love movies. In silence we go back to watching the movie, both getting handfuls of popcorn occasionally, suddenly I felt his hand brush against mine and he looks up at the same time as I do. 'I called it!' I say to myself "Heh, sorry." He says, mouth full of popcorn, making me giggle at him. "Great to ruin the moment Danny." I tease. He swallows the popcorn and gives me a confused look, "What moment?" he asks. I shook my head, still giggling. "Never mind." I muttered and brought my attention back to the movie.

After the movie we sat there in silence until I suggested another movie. "Hey Danny?" I ask as I have a couple cases in my hands. "Hm?" he replies from the couch, I look over at him to see that he's staring at me. I ignore it and hold up the interesting movie, "Why do you have Silent Hill?" I ask with a smile. He chuckles nervously, most likely doesn't want to be reminded of the game or the movie. "After we played it on Game Grumps I wanted to see what the whole fuss was about the movie. Let's just say I couldn't sleep for a month." He says. I ruled that one out, but a movie called the Mandala Effect caught my eye and so I popped it in. (Dan just loves scary stuff, doesn't he?)

The one inch that was between Dan and I were long gone through half of the movie as we were hugging onto each other, screaming at the scary parts and watching it with the lights on. We were both big babies when it came to scary movies I guess. After the movie was over we both sat there, me still in his arms until we both had noticed. I slid back over to my respective side of the couch and started playing with the hem of Dan's sweater. It kind of felt nice to be in someone's arms, held onto tightly like I was loved, to feel the warmth of another human being. "Hey Dan..." I say, not really having anything thought of what to say. "Yeah?" he asks, looking at me expectant to say something. "Goodnight." I said and pulled the blanket over me. "Goodnight Ava." He says. I heard him get up and walk over to the other couch, not bothering to turn off the lights but the TV. He laid down and I'm assuming, went to sleep. What was I going to say to him? Did I like him?

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This chapter has more than 1,150 words! [Because the one before this one was so short] BUT how are you liking this chapter huh? What do you think Ava was going to say?? AND AND AND...what did you think about the scary movie scene?

Also, I really want to know from you guys...Salt or sugar in YOUR popcorn?