[frida's] it's all about perspective || danny

"Exactlyyyyyy," Danny said, touching his index finger to his nose as she echoed his sentiments about someone else making his food. Too bad he wasn't rich or couldn't convince Greg to be his home chef. "If only I were rich enough to afford my own home chef," he said dreamily.

As she shook her head, Danny smiled and nodded. He was a bit relieved almost? If she was gorgeous, smart, funny, and a good cook, he knew it would have to have been too good to be true. She would probably meet a fancy, rich Ministry official with a real job not as a mail clerk and be crushing on him in no time flat. Danny stood no chance against that. "My mum is disappointed in my lack of cooking skills to say the least," he told her with a grin. "She tried to teach, but I guess I'm not that great of a student."

He glanced at where she pointed and nodded, starting off in that direction. "Might as well walk you to do the door now that we've come this far," he said with a grin as he turned and walked backwards for a few steps, glancing over his shoulder once to make sure he wasn't going to run into the light post.

Eleanora considered explaining that having a chef or any sort of staff at home to do the cooking wasn’t as exciting as it sounded, especially when it involved all of the other inconveniences that came along with having money but she didn’t want him to get the impression that she was simply an ungrateful spoiled, rich girl and therefore decided to stay silent. But it was nice to have someone to cook on your behalf, especially if they were particularly skilled in it.

“You’ve got plenty of time to learn,” she said with reassurance, finding the thought of a cooking class for two very bad cooks a very appealing idea. Eleanora had always wanted to be good at that kind of stuff but it was difficult to get motivated to do any cooking or cleaning when someone else did it for you so eagerly. “But someone must be doing the cooking at home, is Jeremy a master chef as well?” she teased, “I can’t cook but can find just about any sort of restaurant, I’ve had my fill eating at most of the ones in our area for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” she added.

“Yes, of course, we never know who might be lurking around,” she added, mostly as a joke but certainly didn’t want to discourage him from spending more time chatting with her. “But it’s actually a very quiet neighborhood, all sorts of boring types live here, no house parties or mysteries, you boys live in a flat as well?” she asked curiously.

"Sure, sure," he agreed easily, but then threw her a grin. "Not sure if I'll spend the time on it though. Or be the best student." But then he shook his head as he guffawed. "Jeremy? No, he's worse than me. Greg is a pretty good cook, but he doesn't volunteer to cook for us mere peasants," he added, his tone taking on a more uppity tone. "Finding restaurants is a skill though. We have that in common. Especially when that place has nachos."

He nodded slowly as he swung his little bag of nachos at his side. "Safety first right?" he tacked on lightly, glancing around the neighborhood. It seemed awfully fancy. Like way out of his and Jere's price range. They could barely afford the place they were living at on their Ministry salaries and mostly made rent because of Jere's side hustle selling weed. He slid his gaze to her and wondered if she really was some sort of government spy raking in secret money.

"No house parties?" he gasped. "Are you even living?" he teased. "Yes, a flat that has seen more house parties than I can count. You're welcome anytime since you live in such a 'boring and lifeless' neighborhood," Danny said, grinning.

So there was a Greg, too. If Jeremy was the girlfriend, did Greg play the role of the nurturing mum or the independent teenager in the household? At least this Greg person had some useful skills and something could be said about the fact that he hadn’t been involved in this pranking scheme that Danny was probably still a little convinced that she participated in. “There aren’t many good nacho places on this side of town, I don’t think pub food sits well with the uppity type,” she said with a smile. At least not in her neighborhood they wouldn’t. The street was sprinkled with the occasional artisanal shop and a pub down this way would serve a pint for twice or thrice the amount it was worth. But, the ambiance was nice.

“Do tea parties count?” she offered playfully, “Or what about cricket? I’m rather good at either of those,” she added, having spent her fair share of her childhood learning about the proper way to act at either of those events. Eleanora had never been a fan of tea to begin with, no a big one at least, but was always fond of the little sandwiches and cakes they served on the silver platters. Sometimes she ate more than her own portion and it made her mum upset but Eleanora was much more pleasant when she was pleasantly full. Much like she felt now.

“Well when you and the girlfriend throw a party, let me know, I’ll bring a proper bottle of something alcoholic and come right over,” she offered, stopping at a crosswalk for a moment before moving to the other side of the street. “Or you and your friends are welcomed to come liven this neighborhood up whenever you’d like, a noise complaint or two wouldn’t be so bad,” she added with a smirk.

"They don't know what they're missing out on then," Danny smiled, shaking his head with disappointment. Although.. on second thought, that meant more nachos for him. "I bet if the nachos were set out on little silver trays carried around by waiters, the uppities would try them. Have a secret little addiction for - gasp - nachos," he joked, laughing at his own humor.

He gave her a look and rolled his eyes. "It only counts if KF Ellie has made an appearance at one of these tea parties," he told her, making it up as he went along. He wondered if that meant she wasn't as wild and crazy as him and Jere. Not that that was a bad thing. But maybe she wouldn't be too keen on it. He shrugged that thought away after remembering that she was the one that wanted to meet KF Danny and asked after Perverted Danny too.

Danny grinned at her as she mentioned Jere as his girlfriend again, thinking he couldn't wait to tell his red-headed friend that. Knowing Jere, he'd probably like it though. "Sure, you're welcome anytime. No judgements on our tiny flat though. It's not as nice as your uppity neighbors out here," Danny mentioned with a perked brow. Her parents had to be rich or something to be able to afford this. "Orr yeah, that sounds good too. We'll bring some energy to your boring old neighbors and show them how a real party is done." His hazel eyes gleamed with amusement and excitement. He loved a good party.

“I think you’re right, I’ve seen worst things served on those little silver trays, but it’s always been a don’t ask, don’t tell sort of situation, you just eat it and enjoy it because everyone else is doing the same,” she continued, feeling a little more comfortable with expressing her feelings about her family since he wasn’t ooh-ing and ahh-ing about where she lived or how much money her family had.

“Oh she hasn’t but that’d be a great laugh, the look on my mum’s face would be priceless,” She laughed out loud at the thought, quieting down as they passed next to a neighbor’s house, the older woman giving them a look as she watered the plants outside. Eleanora gave her a polite wave and a small smile before turning to Danny and rolling her eyes, “Mrs. Thomas,” she explained vaguely and quietly. The woman had always given her a bit of a hard time about living alone and had a talent in keeping up with other people’s business, particularly hers. Eleanora could only imagine what the woman would be telling her mum next time she visited.

“I won’t judge,” she promised, “It looks spacious here but I promise it isn’t, one room is exclusively dedicated to my collection of stuffed animals and the other room for my princess outfits,” she said playfully, stopping at the front of her own home before she turned to him. “This is me,” she said, pointing behind her, “Thanks for walking me home, Danny, I’ll make sure to give Janae raving reviews,” she added. Eleanora wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do now, what did adults do on proper adult first dates. Did she invite him in like in the novels? That seemed a little too forward. And even if he came in, would she make him tea and offer him a face mask? Or, eat ice cream? That seemed weird. “And the date,” she continued, “that was fun too,” she said, making up her mind to lean forward to hug him with one arm, figuring that was the safest middle group between too friendly and too desperate.

Danny grinned as she talked about mysterious food on the little silver trays. "Well, invite me next time and we can figure out what food is what. Besides, it's free. Who doesn't like free food, right?" he told her before he realized how forward it sounded. "I mean, only if you want to," he added lightly with a laugh.

"Oof, your mum probably would not approve of KF Ellie, right?" he asked, knowing his mum would give him that patented disappointed/exasperated look if he showed up drunk and hungover to a family dinner. As Ellie waved as a neighbor, Danny glanced up to look at who it was, smiling cordially and lifting his hand in a wave as well. Then he stooped a little to hear her whisper the neighbor's name. Grinning, Danny turned a bit and called out, "Hi Mrs. Thomas!" waving at her with his whole arm before turning and laughing under his breath. That would give her something to talk about.

He gave her a wide-eyed look and side-stepped away from her as she talked about her entire rooms dedicated to just things. But then he laughed and shook his head. "Rich people and their crazy, gotta love it." He stopped short as she did, almost taking a step past her before turning on his heel to glance up at her building with a nod. "Oh, no problem. Yeah, tell your boss all the recon about this prank," he joked with a grin. He was 90% sure he had made a huge mistake at the start of their date, but somehow, Ellie hadn't held that against him?? He wasn't sure how he had gotten so lucky.

Danny felt her pause and as he glanced at her, he wasn't sure what she was thinking. It almost felt.. awkward? Was he supposed to do something to wrap this up? Say something formal? Usually dates for him didn't last this long and normally girls did not want him walking them home (re: the stalking bit) so he was a little unsure and even more unsure because she seemed unsure.

"Yeah, fun. Me too. Had fun," Danny stumbled along, surprised a bit when she came forward to hug him with one arm. He leaned in and wrapped the arm not carrying his nachos around her, getting a whiff of her very pretty shampoo that she must use before he pulled back, smiling at her boyishly. "So I'll see you at Janae's party this weekend?"

“Of course, of course, I’d love to give my mum a bit of a panic attack,” she said in response, pleased that he was already inviting himself to places with her in the future. Even if this romantic setup didn’t work out as intended (though at this point in time, she didn’t want to think too much about what would or wouldn’t become of the two of them) he sounded like a fun person to have around, much more interesting than the arrogant cousins she often had to force herself to be nice to at the family brunches and other fancy soirees the Lovecrafts hosted. “My mum doesn’t approve of much I do, but I think that’s her job as a mum,” she explained, though there was little malice in her voice. There was nothing much she could do about it at this point in her life but pleasing her mother was not on her list of priorities anyway.

Eleanora smiled at Danny’s reaction to Mrs. Thomas, almost certain that the older woman had a surprised look on her face, but not really caring too much to look back and apologize. It served her right, for being nosy in the first place. Eleanora was almost certain that she’d go back into her house and peak through the curtains until Danny left. She really had to get a better place, preferably in a much friendlier part of town. “They’re all crazy, you’re quite right about that,” she added with a grin, “Yes, yes, now you know that Janae is the head of the operation, oh no, I hope they don’t cut me off for revealing that information,” she said dramatically, bringing a hand up to her mouth in mock surprise before she smiled. “You didn’t do too badly for someone that thought this whole date was a prank,” she added, just to reiterate that this indeed had been a real date.

Even though it had been brief, Danny felt warm and comforting when she had hugged him, much like a teddy bear or any other sort of soft toy little kids tended to go for when they needed physical contact. It was then that she realized how much she had missed holding someone like this, then she thought about Rive, and realized it was probably time for her to go home now. But before she got too comfortable, or too weird, she pulled back, already feeling a little embarrassed for hugging him so freely, “Yeah, definitely see you this weekend, save me a song, okay?” smiling as she grabbed her bags of leftovers a little tighter and walked up the steps.

"Be careful, avoid the creeps," she added, turning to wave goodbye again, she smiled to herself, opening her door before quietly shutting it behind her.

[/out]

"Aren't all mums like that though?" he asked with a smile, thinking of his own mum. Ellie had a certain edge to her tone, but Danny wondered if he was just making that up. Hmm. He didn't want to guess aloud, but he wondered if her parents were rich and that's why she could afford a place like this? Maybe her neighbors were spying on her for her mum? The mystery of it all had him intrigued. Then again, he was already thinking about the rager that they could throw in her huge flat.

Danny shrugged nonchalantly, pretending to brush off his shoulder as if boasting. "Don't be so surprised, I'm great at rolling with the punches." It wasn't exactly something to brag about, him being dumb and thinking this wasn't a real date, but still. She had stayed for the entire meal. He couldn't remember the last time a girl hadn't skipped out halfway through, citing some 'emergency'. Oh well.

"You got it," he promised her, already wondering what sort of song they might sing at karaoke together. He took a few steps backwards as he watched her climb her steps, grinning and laughing as she called out to him and then lifted a hand in a wave before watching her slip inside the front door. Danny turned on his heel and started walking back down the block, a smile so big on his face he was sure even Mrs. Thomas would notice. He started whistling under his breath, thinking of how great the dinner had been and how great his date had been. Wow. 1 point to Willbond! He slipped into an alley, grabbed his wand, and apparated home, his smile still flashing in the twilight.

/end