[TTD] this kiss, this kiss, unstoppable

"No, it was like this--" Danny said as he grabbed Jere by the shoulders and face him straight on and then leaned in toward his best friend, their faces very close together, wondering idly if his breath smelled like nachos.

They had just finished up a huge lunch at a Mexican place but it was in one of those muggle malls with multiple floors and lots of stairs. The boys were currently stopped on a landing on one of the many staircases. These ones didn't move, Danny was sad to find out.

Someone shuffled behind them on the stairs, giggling at Danny's antics, but he didn't mind. He only sent a smile in the person's direction and then glanced back at Jere, still curious, wanting to know his friend's opinion. How in the world Jere had gotten a steady girlfriend (and one that actually existed) was still a mystery, but lately Danny had been using it to his advantage and asking (mostly dumb) questions. Like the one that had come up after a date had gone badly for him last night. "She tilted her head like this, but she was like sideways?" he demonstrated, turning his head so that his year almost touched his shoulder and came in a little closer.

"Weird, right?" he questioned, blinking his eyes at Jeremy before he let out an "ooof!" as someone bumped into him from behind and sent him stumbling toward his best friend.

@Jeremy Edwards

Distracted by the number of shops in the muggle mall that sold the same four things (and one of those things was full-priced jeans torn to shreds?? Jere did not understand fashion.) Jeremy half paid attention to his best friend. As they walked toward the stairs, the redhead had been about to bring up the fact that every window seemed to be displaying the same pair of denim, too, until Danny turned on him. Jeremy did not remember enough of the conversation to understand the context.

He felt Danny’s hands on his shoulders, and the way he was moving in, Jeremy blinked slowly and then remembered. Kissing. They were talking about kissing. Not each other, of course, but rather witches they knew. “Sideways?” Jeremy asked as the powerful scent of jalapenos rocketed toward Danny. And then someone passed them, knocked Danny, pressed him into Jere. Once upon a time, Jeremy had been a pretty decent athlete. He played on the Gryffindor house team for a few years; he was a great Keeper, with reaction times that could rival most other house teams.

Those days were over.

Instead of understanding what was about to happen or doing anything to stop it, Jeremy froze. And then Danny’s lips brushed against his, and Jeremy took a step back. He backed into the stairs behind him and fell on his butt. “Duuuuuuude!” He shouted, wiping at his mouth feverishly as he realized that he’d just kissed Danny Willbond?! on the mouth!? Did this count as cheating? “What the hell man?” While Jeremy wasn’t all that angry, he was shocked.

The moment Jeremy shouted, Danny reacted immediately. "It wasn't me! Someone pushed me!" he said defensively as he swung around to see what little twerp had shoved in to him and was probably running away now. But he didn't see anyone that looked like obvious trouble. The fact that his lips had touched Jere's, even sideways as he had been, was still a shock to his system.

But then he realized: he had just accidentally kissed his best friend. Danny started laughing slowly and then louder, his shoulders shaking as he mimed waving off a dense smell right in front of his face. "Kudos to whatever lip scrub Montse must have you using--" yes, he knew what a lip scrub was, he wasn't a complete heathen (aka it was thanks to Freya being their roomie now. He was learning lots of new things) "--but gotta lay off the jalapenos, mate," he said as he stuck out his hand to help Jere to his feet.

As he pulled him up, Danny couldn't help but wonder at something though. "Did you see what I meant about sideways though? Weird, right?" he asked. He was one-tracked minded if nothing else.

“Yeah, sure!” Jere replied, but he’d been too distracted (a.k.a. high) to see whoever it was that Danny placed the blame on. The redhead struggled to stand back up, shifting the bag of muggle nonsense he’d bought but did not need from one hand to the other, and then faced the stairs again. People pushed past them, and Jeremy shook his head at Danny. They had just kissed, and that was weird, but unfortunately —or fortunately?— this wasn’t the most bizarre thing they had ever done. Honestly, it probably wasn’t even the strangest thing this week. Jere brushed himself off, grabbing Danny’s hand as he stood up, and his mock trauma quickly faded into a laugh.

“Don’t you insult the jalapenos,” Jeremy teased back and then shrugged. “Yeah, sideways makes it kind of confusing. So wait, did you end up kissing her, or did you save your smooth moves just for me?” The redhead laughed again as they started back down the stairs. He heard some girls giggling as they rounded the corner of the not-magical, not-motorized, stairs but Jeremy didn’t think anything of it. Even as the group of girls began following them, he barely noticed. Instead, he waited for Danny to answer as he tried to figure out where the heavenly smell of pretzels, cinnamon, and sugar was coming from. It didn’t matter that he could still taste the nacho cheese and jalapenos; Jere would never turn down a wonderful deep-fried confection.

"Always gotta test my smooth moves on you first, obviously," Danny joked as they started moving again, craning his neck around as a pair of kids ran past with cinnamon pretzel twists wrapped in paper. Mmm, smelled delicious. "But yeah we did kiss and I owled her since she sent me her address but she hasn't written back. Probably kissed her so good she can't think straight, right?" he said with a grin, not really wanting to think of the alternative that was more than likely true: she just didn't want to write him back. Or eve more likely, he hadn't written the 'right' thing. Frey really needed to make him a playbook or something.

"You smell that too?" Danny asked as he saw another girl walk by with pretzels and turned to stare, his mouth watering even though they had just eaten their way through an enormous helping of nachos. Who didn't need a little dessert to go along with a meal though. Pretzels would be perfect. But when he glanced back, he saw a couple of giggly girls (unfortunately looked too young to safely be able to hit on without looking like a complete creep) that were looking at him and Jere.

As soon as he made eye contact with one of them, she took a step forward. 'Are you the guys from Twice Lars?'

"Errr... come again?" Danny asked eloquently as the girls came closer, fanning out to make a half-circle around them. One of the girls was helpfully pointing to her tshirt with a huge smile on her face and Danny squinted at the image. A guy with blondish-brown hair stood back-to-back with a curly red-headed bloke, a title of 'Sweden's National Treasure' emblazoned below them. He slid his gaze to Jeremy, something passed between them, and then he smiled. "Why yes, yes that is us. You've caught us. Who wants an autograph?" he asked in his best (worst) Swedish accent.

Jeremy knew they were being followed, but the smell of pretzels and cinnamon kept him focused. The redhead had nearly failed every exam he ever took, fell asleep at work, and never remembered to pay bills, but he was like a dragon coveting treasure when there was food involved. “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure that was what it was,” he replied to whatever nonsense Danny had cooked up this time and continued to follow the distracting smell. As Danny seemed to join his plight, Jeremy turned with him and realized what he had just heard. “Wait, no, I don’t think that’s how it works man,” Jeremy was pretty sure Danny hadn’t kissed her so good she forgot how to use a quill, but there was a part of him that didn’t want to rain on his best friend’s parade. Especially now that Jeremy was dating someone, he felt all charitable and such.

Turning to face the gaggle that had been following them, Jeremy's eyes landed on the pretzel in one of their hands, but he blinked in response to the question. “The who?” he asked, his grammar skills taking the back seat as his mouth watered for dessert. Jeremy looked at Danny as he spoke again, then back to the shirt one of the girls was sporting, and then back to Danny. What? and then the redhead caught on and smiled. “National treasures, aye,” Jeremy began and then cleared his throat, “I mean, da,” Jeremy was so far from cultured it was offensive as he mistook Sweden for Russia and pretended the wrong accent. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway; neither accent would have been convincing.

“How about you show Lars and Lars where the pretzels ars?” he said, his accent still ridiculous but his determination for desert unchanged. Jeremy gave Danny a side look, smiling as the girls agreed.

"But you don't know for sure sooo.." Danny gave Jere a shrug. Anything was possible, right? And maybe thinking that was the reason why made it less likely that she just wasn't into him like he had a sneaking suspicion.

Despite all of that, he had something more important to give his attention to in the current moment: adoring fans and cinnamon pretzels and of course, the worst accent Danny had ever heard. He turned his head slowly toward Jere, blinking in disbelief, his smile growing wider at the "Swedish" accent Jeremy was currently going for. Apparently the girls were impressed though as they giggled and Danny basked in the glow of their admiration and attention.

"Ah, yes, what a great idea, Lars," he told red-headed 'Lars' as he took a step in the direction of the pretzels that the girls nodded toward. "If you're lucky, you can even buy Lars one," he said with a laugh, although it wasn't clear which Lars he was referring to. They started walking and the girls excited giggles seemed quieter as they went. The whispers between the girls increased and Danny glanced around at them dumbly. 'No, you ask him,' one of them said and Danny peered around to see who had asked. "Ask me what?" Unfortunately, the question felt like a pop quiz that he would inevitably fail because they asked which song on their last album was his favorite and he answered, "The one about the.. meatballs?"

It was met with silence and stares that turned suspicious.

Not minutes later, Danny and Jeremy were left standing in front of the pretzels, sans free pretzels and sans the adoring attention of fans that they didn't deserve. Nevertheless, Danny still put in one more effort. "I swear I'm Lars! Just listen to the new song we're working on!" Danny called after them, making up a song about Swedish meatballs being big and juicy, singing it loudly as they scurried away. He carried on until a mall cop came over with a glinting silver badge on her uniform and asked him to politely knock it off.

Danny sighed and then glanced at Jere. "Let's not tell Frey about the last part. Want a pretzel?" he asked as he pulled out his wallet, his a few muggle bills Freya had exchanged for them at Gringotts.

/end

Nothing good was going to come of this charade, but Jeremy quickly dismissed that feeling in his gut as indigestion and carried on. "Yes, Lars," he concurred with his Russian-Swedish-Terrible accent on full inglorious display. The girls kept giggling, and Jeremy fed off the entire ridiculous situation as much as Danny did. It wasn't fame they had earned, but he'd take it anyway. They led the girls toward the pretzel stand, and it was nearly insight when things started to go downhill fast. The adorning fans asked about the music of Twice Lars, and Jeremy had no idea how to answer. He shrugged, pretending not to understand their silly English words, but Danny answered. And Jeremy laughed. And everything broke.

The looks on their faces changed; they were less like a group of puppies following them around and more like a circle of sharks looking for blood. One tween looked like she might cry, and Jere felt a little bad for that, but Danny's singing drowned out every other thought in his mind. Jeremy joined in just in time for the chorus, but the only part he thought he knew was when Danny repeated Swedish Meatballs four times. And even as they sang at the top of their lungs, Jeremy couldn't help but snicker at the fact that they were singing about balls of any kind.

Upon the security guard's arrival, Jeremy pretended he had no idea who Danny was and tried to slide away. The woman was more clever than that, though, and Jeremy grew quiet. The almost-fans and the mall cop headed off, and Jeremy sighed. "Well, damn," No pretzels. "Buy my pretzel, and I'll keep your love of big juicy balls a secret," He bartered, wiggling his eyebrows at his mate before bursting into laughter and getting in line for the pretzel stand.

It wasn't how they planned the day to go, but when did things ever go as planned for Danjer?

/end