[j&j's b-day bash] small talk || danny

“Sorry, I’m so sorry,” Eleanora exclaimed apologetically as she attempted to squeeze herself past a group of people, almost spilling her drink onto somebody’s dress when she tripped over her untied shoelaces. The party was in high gear now, the music turned up loudly as someone belted out the lyrics to a song she had heard before. They all sounded pretty good, she realized, but she had also had several drinks by now, and by that point, everything was starting to feel fuzzy and warm in her head. Eleanora had made her way around the room, trying her best to catch up with a couple of people rather than focusing her attention completely on any particularly handsome face.

“Excuse me,” she continued, stopping for a moment to pace herself and deciding to take a much more generous sip from her cocktail this time before she actually did cause a party foul on any one of the numerous guests. Finally making it to the other side of the room with her drink and her dignity intact, she looked over to the stage, giggling to herself as the next person took the stage, probably way too drunk for their own good and on the verge of making a big fool out of themselves. Eleanora had even seen Danny and who she had assumed to be Jeremy go up, causing quite a spectacle that had some of the guests in stitches.

Eleanora had not yet been brave enough to go up on her own but suddenly remembering that Danny had more or less promised her a song, she made her way over to him, leaning into his personal space (probably more than necessary) before she smiled. “Hi there,” she said with a wide smile, “Am I still getting that song or are you all sung out?” she asked, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as standing still felt a little difficult considering how much she had already had to drink. But she could manage a song…maybe.

@Danny Willbond

Danny was in rare form tonight. It had been a great party so far, surrounded by so many friends, plus karaoke? What was not to love? He and Jere had wowed the crowd with a romantic duet, typically sung by a girl and a guy, but Danny had taken the higher girl part (after fighting with Jere over it) and they had absolutely crushed it. Plus, they had signed Greg up for the most ridiculous teeny-bopper song they could find in the book, laughing when he heard his name called looking all confused, and then watching stunned as Greg went up there, knowing every word and sang pretty well, getting the whole crowd behind him on it. Of course, the dude could totally mess up their prank. But even Danny had been a fanboy of Greg in that moment.

Many beers and a few shots later, Danny was holding a beer bottle in each hand, laughing at something Jere had said before he glanced down to see Ellie scooting her way closer. He grinned at her, all white teeth flashing, as he lifted up his beers at her in greeting. "Heyyy superspy," he called out with a laugh as he hugged one arm around her to say hello. He was feeling good and carefree and happy and he was always a little more affectionate after he had been drinking. He was excited that she had come over. He had wanted to talk to her more especially after their date had ended well.. or at least he thought it did considering he had thought the whole date was a prank for the first half of it. But he kept saying in his head 'I need one more beer' before I go talk to her and that had turned into a couple of beers plus shots. It was a good thing she mentioned wanting to meet Kitchen Floor Danny because he was already half way there.

"I promised you a song, you'll get a song," he told her with a nod, trying to hold up two fingers in a scout promise before he almost let one bottle slip out of his hand, catching it sloppily as some of it spilled onto his shirt. "Whoops," he laughed as he brushed it off and then shrugged. Not the first time that had happened. Not the worst thing that had ever happened when he was drunk. He nodded toward the karaoke booth. "C'mon we gotta pick our song," he said before leading her in that direction.

Eleanora was slightly grateful that Danny seemed to be taking full advantage of the open bar as she had, not completely drunk just yet but well on her way to getting there if she kept asking for double the alcohol and half the mixer for all of her drinks. She wasn’t completely unaware of what was going on but rather, felt energized and down for anything, a couple of more drinks in and she would probably start telling him all her secrets He hugged her and she briefly returned the affectionate gesture back, glad that he was just as friendly drunk as he had been on their date. She probably wouldn't be as cool as she had acted then, but hopefully, her stages of drunkenness wouldn't scare him off. It was just a matter of seeing what level she could get to before she felt too sleepy and nodded off.

“Fantastic,” she said in return, glad he had actually remembered or was doing a good job of pretending he had. She giggled when he almost dropped the bottle, “Be careful,” she warned playfully, “they’ll toss you out if you start breaking stuff,” she warned, but there was no malice in her tone but rather, amusement. In fact, Eleanora was slightly impressed that he had managed to catch the bottle at all when she was having a hard time standing in one place without feeling a little wobbly. Drinking the rest of her beverage in one go, she nodded, following him towards the karaoke booth.

“I’m really bad at this,” she confessed, giggling as she spoke, “But whatever, let’s do a hard song, and you have to dance, it’s no fun if we don’t do a dance,” she added, her list of demands getting a little longer as she continued thinking about how much fun they were about to have on that stage. It was hard to feel embarrassed now, especially when she was dragging Danny along with her. Reaching the catalog of songs, she turned to him, “Have any special requests?”

Danny was happy to see that she was enjoying herself too. Especially after she had dropped the little truth bomb on him about Perverted Ellie and Kitchen Floor Ellie when she got drunk. He was very excited to meet both of those Ellies. Drunk Danny would probably get along well with Perverted Ellie and that thought made him smile goofily at her.

His hazel eyes lit up with drunken amusement. "They will? Who? That one? I think I can take 'im," he said boldly, eyeing up the bouncer who was six inches taller and 100 lbs heavier with lots of bulging arm muscles. It was clear who would win in that fight, but Danny still laughed at his own joke. Not to brag or anything, but drunk Danny thought of himself as a real A+ comedian. He almost wanted to start breaking stuff on purpose just to be able to tell the anecdote later of 'that one time I fought with a bouncer and got kicked out of a bar.' What a story that would be.

"No, you're notttt," Danny denied as she mentioned she was bad at karaoke. How could someone be bad at it. "You just get up there and shout a bunch of words into the microphone, 't's not hard," he told her with a smile. Sure, someone had told him once that there was a bit more nuance to it than that, but who the hell cares. "You want me to dance?" he repeated with a laugh as he turned and shook his bum at her a bit, glancing at her over his shoulder as he hopped a half-step closer. "Like this right?" He looked like a fool and yet he felt like he was one step away from people throwing money at him for his moves. He gave up on it though a moment later, shooting her an amused look before settling down one of his bottles and pulling the karaoke catalog closer to him. "Hmmm. What should we go with? You want a ballad? Or like a rock song?" he asked with a glance down at her as he flipped through the pages.

Eleanora looked over at the bouncer as Danny pointed in his direction, before looking back at Danny and bursting out in laughter. “I’d stay away from him if I were you,” she added, “you seem more like a lover, not a fighter,” she suggested. Not that Eleanora would have encouraged violence even if Danny had been as big as the man standing on the other side but this was just a fight she didn’t think he’d win. At least not in his current state. But if it came to that, she was almost certain she could charm herself out of it, unless of course they were both kicked out and had to do their karaoke duet outdoors.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, even my good looks can’t cover that up,” she insisted with a grin, her cheeks feeling particularly flushed from the alcohol and the heat from inside of the karaoke bar. Eleanora was saying whatever came to mind at the time, not bothering to wonder whether he found it conceited of her to say, at least it was partially true. She was not the best singer in the world. “Then I’ll take backup and you take lead vocals,” she suggested, laughing as she watched him dance, extremely tempted to smack his bum but interrupted when someone bumped into her as they passed by. “Are you providing that sort of entertainment here too? I think you forgot your costume at home,” she teased.

Leaning in to take a closer look at the catalog she wondered, “Ohh rock sounds fun!” she suggested, “What was that group you really like? I listened to them on the radio recently, can probably pretend to know a song or two,” she suggested. She couldn’t quite remember the name of the group right then but she had vaguely practiced.

He laughed along with her, not taking offense to her warning in the least. He wasn't that drunk that he thought he could take on that guy for real, at least not yet. He waggled his brows at her though. "I'm definitely more of a lover," he told her with a badly delivered wink. he was much more smooth in his mind, but he was about four beers too late for coherent flirting so this was all he had.

"I'm not so sure about that," he said with a shake of his head as she mentioned her good looks not being able to cover up her lack of karaoke skills. After talking with Jeremy and Janae, he knew that the blind date had been real and not a prank like he had first thought when he had seen how pretty she was. But still. He knew she was way out of his league and for very obvious reasons. All he had to do was look at her to see why. "Alright, alright," he agreed, not wanting to push her too much considering he thought she was a little hesitant already to get up on stage with him. He didn't want to scare her off completely (aka the title of his autobiography).

Danny looked at her affronted and shook his head as if he were flipping his long hair over his shoulder dramatically. "If you mean my stripping outfit, I will have you know that it's very good money," he told her matter-of-factly, feigning false offense at her teasing. "Besides, you'd be lucky to get a full performance," he said as he smacked his own butt as if that ended the argument, slurring a bit of his words. Yep, definitely drunk.

He felt her leaning into his shoulder to take a look at the book and he smiled, thinking she felt nice against him, even in such an innocent touch kind of way. But her next comment had him gasping in surprise, turning to look at her with excitement. "Weird Sisters? You wanna do a Weird Sisters song with me? Oh! How about 'Do the Hippogriff'?" he asked excitedly before he used one of his beer bottles as a fake mic and started singing part of the chorus for her. "'Can you dance like a hippogriff?'-- and then you would come in with the-- 'Na na na ma ma ny na na ny na'" He grinned at her, his brows perked. "Wanna do that one?"  Now that she had mentioned the Weird Sisters, he really wanted to sing it with her. Plus she had remembered his favorite group. Could this girl get any better?

“I might be a super spy but I’ve got my weaknesses, I wasn’t trained for this challenge,” she offered, finding the idea of the spy alter ego only interesting after he had mentioned it on their date. Eleanora was not sure if Danny had gotten to the bottom of the entire debate on whether it had been a fake date or not but if he was still confused she could only hope that she could be a little more convincing than she might have been last time. A few more shots and Pervert Ellie would make an appearance, so until then, she had to make sure to read the room, even if it was hazy and all looked really funny. But for now, all Eleanora could focus on was how fun it would be to get on that stage with Danny. She could think about all the other stuff later, after she was in a few more drinks.

“Is it?” she bit her lip, trying to keep herself from laughing at the way he said something so funny in such a serious manner. “Then let’s hope I get lucky, yeah?” she added, giving him back a wink of her own at the thought. She was only half-joking, of course, and it was then that she realized that Pervert Ellie was already starting to make an appearance. It must have been those shots she had done earlier, at the time she hadn’t felt them at all but now all of a sudden she felt a little drunker than she had before.

She nodded enthusiastically, partially driven to it by the look of excitement on his face. “Yeah that’s the one on the radio,” she agreed with him. Eleanora had heard it enough to know the tune and though she wasn’t quite sure about the lyrics, she’d just figure them out as they went along. If Danny knew the song, she could probably mumble into the microphone and get away with it. At this point in the party, everyone was probably drunk enough to handle the noise and the ridiculousness that was soon to follow. When he started singing, Eleanora couldn’t help but dance, remembering the tune quiet clearly as he sang the song, shaking her body and waving her hair around like she assumed one would at a rock concert. She had gone to a Banshee concert before but hadn’t been drinking and therefore had refrained from doing any dancing. “Yeah, yeah, let’s go for it!” she said enthusiastically, bouncing a little on the ball of her feet to get herself excited for their performance.

“We’re going to be awesome up there,” she said excitedly, reaching up to give him a high five as she watched the group that was currently performing wrap up.

"I'm always hoping I get lucky," he told her trying to be smooth with a waggle of his brows, encouraged by her returned wink, but he was probably slurring too many of his words to be actually cool. Still, this was a better development than most of his fledgling relationships. She hadn't slapped him yet or given him the "you're weird, I'm outtie" look yet. Progress!

Danny grinned widely as she started to dance as he sung the chorus, appreciating with bright eyes how her hair bounced on her shoulders and the skirt of her dress brushed against her legs. He stopped singing for a moment as he forgot some of the words suddenly and it took a moment for him to nod at her enthusiastic agreement. Get it together, Willbond!

He glanced at the DJ and wrote the name of their song and their names down on the little slip of paper before handing it over to him with a smile, watching as the last group wrapped up. The DJ motioned to them that they were next and Danny nodded his thanks before he turned to Ellie, dropping one hand on her shoulder heavily. "We're gonna be great, alright? We got this. We're pros! They're probably gonna offer us a record contract or something. Got it?" he said, hyping her up, his words getting louder before he turned and chugged one of his beers, leaving the other on the table and bounding up on the stage as the DJ introduced them as "KF Danny and KF Ellie, whatever that means".

Danny grinned at her as he offered his hand down to her and pulled her up on the stage, whooping it up as he pointed out to the crowd with a giant smile on his face.

At least they were on the same page for now, Eleanora decided, figuring that if they were both hoping to get lucky something might happen to ensure that they both left the party even happier than they were now. But that was just the haziness talking, and thankfully, even though it was still a little hazy there were parts of her that sort of had a filter intact. She could only hope that she hadn’t said that out loud, that would’ve been embarrassing for sure. Eleanora watched enthusiastically as he went over to the DJ booth, unsure if the butterflies in her stomach were nervousness or excitement or a mixture of both.

Eleanora nodded in appreciation to his pep talk, “We’re going to be amazing,” she said in response, figuring that if she said it enough she would believe it. And she did, especially at this point in the night when the drinks had made her fearless and excited to do just about anything, her ability to be silly further facilitated by an equally goofy partner in crime. “A record deal!?” she asked, her eyebrows rising in surprised at the though but she gave him two thumbs up, “Yeah! Let’s get that record deal,” she continued, giggling when the DJ called them up, reaching for his hand and practically skipping onto the stage with his help.

When the DJ handed them a pair of microphones, Eleanora almost dropped hers, laughing at herself and her speedy catch before tapping on the microphone to check whether it was on. “Hello everyone!” she said, “Are you all ready for some good ol’ rock n’ roll!?” she practically shouted, “Well KF Danny and KF Ellie are here to give it to you!” she added, rocking her head as the beginning riffs of the song started, moving closer to Danny before the song started.

"Get ready for fame and fortune!" he told her, grinning like a drunken fool before they took the stage. He perked his brows at her, looking over at her to see if she was ready. But damn. She was shouting into the microphone, addressing the crowd, introducing their band name, and stunning him with the performance quality. Wow! Jere was no longer his go to karaoke jam partner. KF Ellie had taken the top spot and they hadn't even started singing yet. Danny strummed on his air guitar before he pointed at the DJ to cue him (he was pretty sure the guy had rolled his eyes and started the track anyway) but who cares. The KFs were taking the stage!

He grabbed his microphone and turned to face Ellie as the opening line of the first verse started. Singing loudly, off tune but on rhythm, Danny sang. "Move your body like a hairy troll. Learning to rock n roll," then he pointed at her for the next line, nodding toward the little area at the front of the stage that had the lyrics charmed to rise up in case someone forgot them. As Ellie sang the next line about a spinning elf, Danny spun on his heel, catching himself with a hand on his arm as he got a little dizzy.

He was late for the next line of the song. "Boogie down like a unicorn! No stoppin' til the break of dawnnnn," and then pointed at her again for the next line, putting his hands up in the air like an ogre who just didn't acre as she sang those words. Then he jumped and turned towards her, his eyes on hers, his smile infectious as he shouted-sang the first line of the chorus and then stuck his microphone in her face for the na na na part.

Merlin, he loved this song!

Being on stage was giving her an excitement rush, though she concluded that it also had much to do with the nervous butterflies that were fluttering around in her stomach. Either way, Eleanora felt as it made the most sense to make as much noise as possible, somehow finding it more comforting to overexaggerate and dance around like a crazy person rather than try to somehow perform in a way that would impress her mates, or better yet, Danny. She started dancing around as Danny began to sing, her mind somehow making sense of all the hip-shaking, feet shuffling, and hand waving that was going on.

Hearing her cue, she jumped in, "Spin around like a crazy elf—” she paused momentarily to spin around in turn, ”Dancin’ by himself! she continued, waving her arms in the air as she attempted to get the crowd involved. Eleanora realized that her cheeks were starting to hurt from how much she had been smiling and guessed they were properly flushed with all the moving around that she had been doing. When he went into the second verse, Eleanora brought a hand up to her forehead to imitate a unicorn’s horn, wiggling around in what she assumed unicorns danced like when nobody was looking.

”Put your hands up in the air, like an ogre, who just don’t care!” at this point she was doing more yelling into the microphone rather than actual singing but it made sense considering that to her ears it sounded very similar to what the singer had done on the radio. When he brought the microphone to her face, she grinned, “Na na na ma ma ny na na ny na,” she sang, moving her fingers along the beat of the music to count the number of na’s, ma’s, and ny’s she needed to sing before he moved on to the next line in the song.

Eleanora bumped her shoulder into his, giggling as she tried to keep up with her lines but finding the entire situation amusing. 

Danny was excited and impressed and happy to see that Ellie was willing to cut loose and have fun just as much as he was. There were always some girls that got up on the karaoke stage that were afraid to get into it, holding themselves back because of reasons Danny didn't quite understand. But he always appreciated the people that went all out.

And he did every time.

He was glad to see that Ellie was just as dedicated to entertaining the crowd as he was. The bass beat through his sneakers and they dived together into the second verse, Danny singing his lines in the back and forth rhythm they had set up before turning to shake his booty at the crowd as she sang 'shake your booty like a boggart' and then stomped his feet like a leprechaun like the lyrics called for. He was at the edge of the stage playing it up to the people around the stage and then he was back with Ellie turning his back to her to jam on his air guitar. Normally Jere was his go to karaoke partner but considering Ellie was this great and she was much cuter than Jere, he was reconsidering his choice.

The song ended with a bang, the crowd applauded, and Danny grabbed Ellie's hand holding it up before swinging it down to bow, screaming into the mic that they'd be around all night for a reprise. With that, the DJ shooed them off the stage and Danny hopped down with a grin before turning to her, his adrenaline still buzzing. "That was amazing! You were great!" he said before he wrapped his arms around her in a quick hug. He pulled back and said, "Want a drink? I'm thirsty."

By the time the song ended, Eleanora’s nervous jitters had all but disappeared. She held on to his hand tightly as they bowed in front of the crowd, the response they had gotten from the crowd very positive indeed. Danny had made the entire experience much more pleasant than she might have thought if she would have gone on her own, though Eleanora knew she’d definitely need a lot more alcohol to even begin to consider such an option. Now that she knew Danny was not only into nachos but also singing, the young witch could come up with a few more date options on her own if the opportunity to hang out ever came up again.

Eleanora smiled at his compliment, the words making her feel a little warmer than the alcohol had already done, giving him a short, gracious nod in response, “Only because I had the greatest partner ever[,” she replied, the tone of voice a little higher and probably a tad louder than necessary. “I’m calling dibs on you for at least one song for every karaoke outing from now on,” she added, leaning into the hug. For a moment she thought how nice he’d be to cuddle with but thankfully the embarrassing words had stayed in her head where they rightfully belonged, for now at least. But Eleanora had always enjoyed the physical closeness, whether it be from a boyfriend or even from her friends. She was the type to hold hands with her best girlfriends while out or wear her boyfriend’s sweaters just to feel closer.

“Yeah, it’s time for a refill,” she nodded towards the bar, reaching for his hand as she led them in that direction. She was entering the lovey-dovey Ellie stage, and this sort of hand-holding would be on the menu for a while. At least until his friends or her friends teased them for it. “Are you in a cocktail mood or are we going for straight shots now?” she asked curiously. “Because if we are going for shots, let me tell you about this beautiful thing called tequila,” she added with a grin. Eleanora had only been introduced to it recently and it was practically death when you woke up from it the next morning but pretty tasty with the right sort of chasers.

"Stop it, you're gonna make me blush," he joked as she complimented him, even though he was reveling in it. On second thought. "Nevermind, you can keep telling me all the great things about myself," Danny added a second later, grinning with a playful smile. "Only one song though?" he asked with perked brows as he looked down at her and then shook his head. "You might be replacing my other girlfriend as best karaoke partner," he said laughing with a glance at Jere who was chatting with some of their other friends.

He glanced down at her smaller hand in his as he followed along behind her, a smile growing on his face. As they got to the bar, Danny leaned against it and chuckled at her question. "Shots!" he said even before she had stopped talking, looking down at her with a boyish smile. Leaning across the bar and shouting a little, his ears still ringing with the karaoke music, he ordered two tequila shots and then slid some money across counter. "I have a feeling we're going to meet KF Ellie soon," he said with a grin and prospective glance before he turned and gave a thanks to the bartender.

Giving her one of the shot glasses, his fingers brushing against hers, he held up his glass to her. "What should we toast to?"  he asked as he gazed at her over, noticing how bright her eyes seemed. Had he noticed that before? It was a little distracting.

Even as he said it, it was hard for Eleanora to believe that Danny was in any way full of himself or arrogant for that matter. “I’ll have to think really hard to find some compliments,” she said jokingly, beaming a little when he mentioned that he’d be willing to replace his girlfriend with her as karaoke partner. “Better let him know that I’m coming for his place,” she added dramatically, though only half-jokingly. She actually really did like Danny, even if this was the second time they were spending time together in this way. And she wanted to think he liked her too, even if he hadn’t explicitly said it. But then again, Eleanora had had plenty to drink and it was always easy to confuse reality with illusion when your inhibitions were down.

“Let’s hope you can handle her, can’t be held responsible for anything I do or say after a few of these,” she retorted with an overzealous wink, warning him for both of their sakes. The more Eleanora drank, the more she would do and say, and for the sake of avoiding the awkwardness of the next morning apology slash letter she would probably send him telling him she had a great time (she certainly intended to tell him that) she wanted to give herself a little insurance beforehand. Not that Danny seemed the judging type, to be honest.

Eleanora smiled a little as their hands touched only slightly, holding up her glass to his as she thought about what they could toast to. “To a night of shots and plenty of shenanigans!” she offered proudly, giggling outright before downing the shot of tequila in one go, feeling a little warm from the alcohol and setting her glass down a little harder than she intended. Taking the lime and salt that they had been offered on a couple of plates, she put the slice between her teeth, making a face at how sour it was. Picking up another piece, she offered it to him. “Another, another!” she chanted excitedly, looking over at the bartender and encouraging him to keep them coming.