if you leave the light on { d a n j e r }

“God, don’t get me started on Prosper’s whole… romancey... thing,” Freya said slowly, her words running together a bit in her head. “That was like... a first date, too.” She shook her head slightly; of course she was jealous, but it was well-natured. She was happy for her friend(s).

She didn’t notice him pause, but if she had she might have stilled too, and felt that same tug. As it was, however, Freya just raised her eyebrows a bit as she tried to focus on what he was saying. It was getting easier and easier to zone out, to drift off inside her own head – to slide backward, if you will. She found herself thinking about the texture of the sheets, and focusing a bit too much on his hand in her hair.

She did catch most of his typical-Danny-answer though. If she’d been more with it she might have rolled her eyes or something. “Sex after a double course of nachos?” she asked, wrinkling her nose a little. Maybe it was all the cookies, or the slidey feeling, but imagining it made her feel a bit sick. She swallowed against a dry throat and took a deep breath, trying to distract herself. "Are the friends on the date too?" she asked.

"Whaddyou mean?" he asked lazily but curious, a little furrow forming between his brows. Danny knew that Prosper was smooth when it came to romance. One look at him could tell you that. If they were at a pub, he was pretty sure he could dare the Frenchie to get five dates in an hour and the guy could actually do it. Danny or Jeremy would probably walk away with restraining orders. He sighed and turned his head to glance at her, hearing a particular note in her voice that he couldn't quite decipher. Dreamy maybe? "Isn't he your bff's boyfriend though?" he heard himself asking thought he wasn't sure why. He was pretty sure even he had a crush on Prosper at this point so could he really be mad at Freya for the same thing? Did she though..

He caught her expression and gave her a look, shaking his head, before he stopped that quickly, the motion not feeling good. "Don't you say bad things about nachos," he said as if it were sacrilege. Jere would agree with him on that even if Tricky didn't. Her question made him frown again in confusion. Was he normally this confused when he was high? He couldn't remember, but he never felt this confused with Jere or even Greg.

"Whose friends?" he asked dumbly as he tried to figure out what she was asking. Then he remembered he had said and slid his gaze to her, a smile slowly creeping up on his face. "Me and a bunch of girls on a date together? Wow, isn't that the dream. WhatcanIsay," he said, his words tumbling together. "I'm too much for just one girl," he joked, laughing at himself.

“Hmm?” Freya asked, clearly confused. “No, no,” she said. “I mean, sure, the first time I met him when I was, like, fifteen or whatever...” she shook her head. Freya had thought Prosper and all of his friends were so hot. Even Prosper’s brothers – especially the oldest one, but even the one that had been a couple years younger than her at the time, who’d weirdly tried to hit on her despite being far too baby – were all quite handsome.

“No it’s just, the dating,” she clarified. There was a softness in her expression as she continued. “They just seem so happy.” Freya gave a small shrug. She wrinkled her nose more when he defended the nachos. “It’s the sex,” she complained. Well, some people had never had sex while a bit too-drunk on a full stomach and it showed.

“You are a lot,” she agreed, twisting his statement a little and teasing him. She caught his eye for a moment, smiling, but then she looked away. “Aren’t you sleepy?” she asked, rolling onto her back. She felt like she needed space, but she also felt like she just wanted to snuggle right up to him. After a moment, she opened her eyes again. It wasn’t good, being on her back. She rolled over again, facing away and getting comfy. “Don’t stop,” she added, her voice a bit muffled by the pillow, as he stopped playing with her hair.

"Fifteen? When did you go to France?" he asked, confused, yet again. This was why he and Jere's conversation while high was never really all that in depth. He was always losing track of the plot.

Danny shrugged as she mentioned Frenchie and Ari seemed happy. They did seem happy at trivia, but then again so did he and Jere and they weren't dating. He wasn't really the expert on love and relationships even though he did like to pretend like he was. He glanced at Tricky and remembered he had told her the truth about his sex history, his thoughts floating through his mind, questions and curiosity about how she thought of him now annoying him like little gnats. "What about the sex? I love sex," he said yawning, not really understanding what she was complaining about, as he stretched his legs out long in a full body stretch that felt good. Really good. His bed felt really comfy, his pillow really soft, Freya's hair still really silky. He wondered what kind of conditioner she used. Something coconut-y?

"A lot, a lot," he repeated, his chest shaking in a silent laugh as he looked over at her before nodding. He yawned again and this time he heard his jaw crack. "Ow," he said belatedly as he pulled his hand away from her hair to touch the side of his face as he wiggled his jaw, rubbing it as she jostled the bed, getting settled. Looks like they might wake up spooning again after all. He wasn't the slightest bit upset about that even if she did hog his favorite pillow. His eyes traced the line of her shoulder and her back as she complained again making him smile, but he gave in, like always. "Alright, alright, but next time we smoke, you're playing with my hair all night," he mumbled as he scooted a little closer so he didn't have to reach his arm out all the way and kept playing with her curls.

“Stayed with Ari in France,” was Freya’s simple reply, as if there wasn’t much else to add to that, despite the fact that it’d been her first overseas trip and it’d been awesome. “Mhmm,” Freya said, but she didn’t really intend on honouring that agreement. It felt too good to give up this feeling. Sorta like massages, she thought. Freya was a very giving person, in most areas of her life, but there were just a couple of things where she could be more on the selfish side…

When was Jeremy coming home? She could feel how heavy her eyes were now that she was in bed, and he was playing with her hair. She was faaaarrr too comfy to wait much longer.

It wasn’t long before her thoughts became even more vague, and she let the slidey feeling take over. Her focus stayed on the fingertips in her hair, though, and the warmth coming from the body behind her. It was a warm night, but she shifted back a bit – until she could feel his chest against her back – really just happy to snuggle. She curled her legs up just a bit. Her thoughts kept drifting in odd directions until things just sort of closed in on themselves and she drifted off to sleep.

"Oh la la France, ze baguettes are magnifique," he mumbled in his best (worst) French accent. He hadn't even really heard what she had said because she was facing away from him, but he had caught the last word so he went with it. Not like the conversation was winning any awards as it was. Her whining but cuddly, him asking 'what?' the whole time. It did feel nice to let his eyes drift close, his fingers still curled in her hair, but moving slower, much slower.

He felt her shift backwards and it made him still for a brief second but he couldn't catch hold of whatever worry or anxiety he would normally be having. She made him feel warm, in a good way, and he liked feeling her lay next to him, the mattress dipping a little more where their bodies met. He brought his leg up to bend at the knee how he usually feel asleep and it just brushed against her leg, but he just sighed and settled in.

It was still early for him and he hadn't remembered when the last time he went to bed so early like a granny, but he wouldn't move from where he was for anything in the world at the moment. He felt his breaths match up with Freya's even ones and his floaty thoughts hovered around his head, drifting higher and further away before he fell asleep himself.

When Jeremy finally made it home (after stopping for snacks after the fair) the sun was down but his smile was bright enough to light up two city blocks. He fumbled with his keys, nearly dropping the nachos, and then let himself inside the flat. When he got into the apartment he was humming, grinning from ear to ear, and basically just full of energy from the date he'd just had. Especially the good night kiss, it was unexpected but so, so, appreciated. The wizard kicked off his shoes, they headed it far different directions, as he tossed his keys in the little half Quaffle shaped bowl inside the hall. Still caught up in the moment, a lightness to his step, Jeremy twirled as he made his way into the living room. He managed to get tangled up in the beads that were barely still hanging in the archway (leftovers from some party they'd had who knows when, half-broken, a bunch of them twisted into a knot). 

After he'd extracted himself from the mess of beads Jeremy looked on the sofa, no one was around but there was a lot of cookie crumbs around. Like more than the usual amount. And then he sniffed, he could smell it, the remnants of his special herb and saw the pipe sitting idly on the coffee table. Normally he'd be ticked that they went into his room, that they found his super-secret hamper stash, but nothing could bring him down from this high. He was still smiling when he moved past it and toward Danny's room, wondering if Freya was still around.

He knocked on the door once and then opened it loudly, "Brought nachos, you will never believe... well well well what do we have here~?" Jeremy's words started out light and happy, informing his mate of the good news (the nachos) and preparing to brag a bunch (the kiss) but then he saw the two of them on his bed and his tone changed. A little waggle of his eyebrows, a shift of his weight to lean against the door frame, Jeremy waited for a response.

Danny was asleep, his chest moving up and down with his slow, even breaths, his fingers still tangled in Freya's curls before he jolted awake with a bang. He sat up halfway, startled, as he blinked his eyes open, his heart racing at the surprise before he squeezed one eye shut as he saw his roommate standing in the door.

He wasn't quite sure what his friend was saying and there was only one word that he had caught on to. "Did you say nachos?" he asked before he glanced down, Tricky still curled up against him, her golden curls over his pillow. He wondered if she would wake up if he ate nachos right here so he didn't have to move. Or maybe he would just have the nachos later.

He wiped a hand down his face and rubbed at his eyes as he sat up a little more, trying to not jostle the bed as much as possible. "How'd the date go?" he asked, properly looking at his friend for the first time since he had barged in here. He seemed... happy. Danny smiled wider at the thought. "Good then?"

Freya woke to the sound of voices, and the sensation of the mattress shifting a bit. How long had she been asleep for? She opened one eye just a crack, then shut it again when the air outside her eyelids felt too dry to expose her eyeball to. She frowned a little bit, still sleepy and not ready to wake up yet. The voices…? It was Danny, she thought distantly. Danny was in the bed with her.

Okay, attempt two. Freya opened her eyes, squinting a bit this time even though it wasn’t bright. She turned a little, looking at the figure in the doorway. Even without her glasses, there was no way she could mistake his hair. She made a little noise of recognition, and it came out with a little upwards intonation. “Mmm?”

Freya rubbed her eyes with her knuckles, feeling a bit out of it, but faaarrr from the type of out of it she’d felt earlier in the night. Just a bit groggy now... and her mouth tasted like absolute shit. She needed some water. Jeremy was back, she registered somewhere. “Jemmy,” she said, patting the bed so he’d come sit down.

Used to not having his questions answered Jeremy just gave Danny a look, a mix of 'I will ask you again later (if I remember)' and 'suuure your not into Freya at all'. He shook his head a little as Danny moved to sit up some. "I can't leave you two alone for a second can I?" He asked, that same smirk still playing off his freckled face. He meant the cookies and the pot but also the fact that they were snuggled in bed together again. He saw Freya starting to stir and couldn't help but find it a little bit adorable, she wasn't as used to smoking as Danny and he so he assumed she was still a bit groggy.

Jeremy moved into the bedroom and took a seat where Freya had patted, the bag holding the extra large, triple cheese, nachos crinkling as he set it between them all on the sheet. "The date was amazing," he started but he could tell Freya wasn't all the way awake yet. The redhead didn't want to wait but he did want both of them to hear the stories so he paused. Instead he chose to bring up something else.

"Is Greg home? Because there are gluten free, carb free, sugar free, high protein cookie crumbs everywhere..."

He glanced down at Freya as she patted the bed, noting the way her curls looked a little flat on one side, and then pretending to ignore the knowing look at that Jeremy was giving him. "Shutup," he muttered at his friend as he moved his legs over a bit to make room for Jere. They were just napping after smoking a bit. What was wrong with that.

Danny sniffed at the bag his roommate plopped on the bed and peered closer with interest. "Nachos?" he asked as he reached for it, not completely believing his good fortune until he saw the marvelous food in front of him. He reached into the bag and pulled out some cheesy chips that were messy, but delicious, he decided a second later as he popped some in his mouth. "So you didn't scare her off then?" Danny asked with a grin, teasing him, but wanting to hear more about this date.

At his question, his gaze slid to Freya and then back to Jere, trying to look innocent. "Yeah I think he had a snack before he left for the gym," he told Jere, straight-faced, before the laughter bubbled up and made him grin.

Freya moved up a bit against the headboard, but she didn’t really sit. Instead, her chin squished a little second chin against her chest as she rolled onto her back, too much pillow under her head. “Jem I’m so happy for you,” she said, smiling genuinely even as she rubbed one of her eyes more with the back of her hand. She smacked Danny's arm when he asked if the girl had been scared off. At the mention of Greg, Freya frowned a little.

She met Danny’s eye and knew what he was going to say before he even said it. Her frown dissolved as she started laughing a bit too early, the bed shaking a bit from the laughter as Danny answered. “Yeah,” she said, trying to corroborate her friend’s story but not really being very convincing at all. Her words came out in between giggles. “He just – he made a mess – ” She reached for some food, still chuckling. “OH!” she said, a nacho chip halfway to her mouth, “He asked me out?” she told Jeremy, a puzzled look on her face as she glanced at Danny to make sure she hadn’t imagined that part.

Jere looked between his two friends, still unconvinced that there wasn't more to the story of why they were half passed out together in Danny's bed, but let it go because he was too eager to talk about his date to pry more. Maybe later, if he remembered, he'd bring it back up but if they hadn't smoked all of his secret stash him remembering was a big if. Jeremy settled into the bed getting comfortable next to Freya and within reach of the nachos as she smacked Danny on the arm. "No, she liked me, I think," the redhead gushed, a big smile breaking out on his features as he nodded. "Check it out, she got one too," Jeremy told them as he turned his head the other way and showed off the magical face painting that was starting to droop and fade on his cheek.

"And we played some games, won a stuffed kneazle..." Jeremy told them all about the date, giving them more details than they had probably asked for, (or could remember, if they were still high) and then finished the story with the very best moment. "She got called away to work-" he shot Danny a look, half daring him to say something snarky about her wanting to get rid of him, but continued quickly to hopefully cut his mate off at the pass. "And right before she apparated away she kissed me."

Cheeks turning bright red he puffed out his lion chest and smiled again, "We've got another date on the books," and that was kind of the truth too. They were going to go out again soon, he'd have to owl her to nail down the specifics, but Jeremy wasn't worried. He popped one of the nachos into his mouth and chewed it for a split second before Freya's words doubled back in his mind.

"Wait, Greg asked you out?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow, seeking clarification, and watching Danny's face as he waited for the answer. That was certainly news.

Danny grinned wider as Tricky smacked him playfully and had the sudden urge to say more ridiculous things so she would do that again. Wouldn't be too hard, he thought. He said more ridiculous things than things that made sense. It was like his super power. He nodded diligently, confirming Freya's 'Greg made the mess' story and shrugged at his roommate. He wasn't saying anything else on the subject, except maybe to blame things on Greg. Again. Like usual.

He craned his neck to peer at Jere's magical face paint and gave it a dubious look. "Did you pay money for that?" he asked with a laugh, thinking it looked more ridiculous than Jere's normal face, but he did like the smile and happy vibe his friend had. Wow, maybe they were out of their 'can't get a girl' phase?? One thing for sure was that Jere knew him very well and had a joke on the tip of his tongue about her getting 'called away' but then his friend dropped the kiss bomb on them and his eyes widened with surprise. "No, really?" he asked as he automatically reached up for a high five. Even Danny hadn't gotten a kiss on his first date. He wiped a pretend tear from his face as he sniffled and said, "My boy is all grown up. Kissing girls on the first date."

"Another date already? Wow, Edwards. You move fast," he joked as he scooped up another nacho. "Oh! You should bring her to trivia so we can meet her," he mentioned as the idea popped into his head. "You know, just to be sure she's real and all. Let's not forget about the whole Veronica Debacle," he added, referring to the fake girlfriend Jere had had. Or wait. Had that been him? Hmm. Couldn't remember now...

But then Jeremy was talking about Greg and his abs again. Danny's forehead scrunched together as he said, "Yeah, only took him six years to get up the courage to do it," he muttered around a mouthful of nachos, rolling his eyes for effect.

“Stuffed kneazle!” Freya repeated, the aawwww apparent in her expression if not her actual spoken words. After a moment she sat up, then did some reshuffling so she could lie the other way, this time putting her head in Jeremy’s lap, with her feet against the headboard and Danny on her other side. She raised her eyebrows at the mention of a kiss, resisting the urge to look at Danny and exchange glances. Instead, she just shot her hand up right as they high fived, getting right in the middle so it was a three-way thing. Freya laughed, reaching to adjust the nachos, which her quick movement had almost knocked over.

"Another date, wow!" the blonde commented, almost feeling the urge to put her hand up for another high-five. She really wanted to know more about this girl. Was she pretty? Cute? Funny? Smart? "What does she do?" Freya wondered out loud, in response to the bit about her getting called away to work. Who was on call late at night? What kind of job called someone in then?

She smacked Danny's arm again as he made a comment about the girl potentially being fake, but not very hard. She adjusted her hair, laying it out over Jeremy's leg and onto the bed before munching on some more nachos. It felt good to have a different taste in her mouth, though she was still thirsty as hell. After she swallowed, she brushed the crumbs from her lips, not even thinking about Danny's sheets.

"Yeah," she said, glancing between the boys faces above her and feeling a bit unsure.