the gauntlet discussion

You know, sometimes when people said they wanted to train with you, they would actually show up to the training. Lyca wasn't sure if that's how all people worked, but at the very least that's what she expected of Dan. Like sure, it had been a quick plan they had made when one of them was going into the cafeteria and the other one was going out -- but like why say yes if he didn't want to? She might have been over thinking it, because well, what had happened a few days ago... and maybe he was avoiding her... but that's not something he would do, right?

Lyca had trained without him, more than irritated by his no show. If he didn't want to be around her, that was just fine. She didn't need him around anyways. It's not like she had trusted him with someone super huge, and then he just decided he could bail. It was whatever, it hadn't even meant that much.

And then a few hours later Lyca found herself pounding on his door -- because it hadn't meant anything, right? Only to find out he hadn't been in his room all day, and one of his roommates had seen him flat out running into the woods, yet didn't think it was a cause for concern. ?!?

That's pretty much what brought Lyca to where she was now, walking through the woods, ready to be picked up by some kind of body snatcher or wendigo because it was going to be sunset soon, and she was about to be the girl that thought it was a great idea to go into the scary dark place in the movie. Just great. He probably wasn't even out here. And why was she so hell bent on finding him anyways? So what if he had taken a walk in the woods? Lyca just... why did he cancel on her then.

"If I was a tree hugger, where would I be?" she asked herself, after almost an hour of walking around the same span of trees multiple times. Wait. No fucking way. Lyca looked up, fearing the rumors she had heard. jfc. The things she did for this idiot boy. It's not like she was totally and completely afraid of heights or anything, so that was just fine. But of course, that's where he would be. He hadn't been anywhere near the tree fountain or the wishing well, and what other place in the woods would he be besides in the fucking trees.

Lyca's progress was slow because fear, but she just knew he was up there kissing bark or something. When she finally found him, thank God, she plopped down next to him before she could convince herself to flee back to the ground where it was safe. She might have sat too close, but there was limited space on his particular platform, and even with the scowl on his face, she would sit closer to him than the edge in a heartbeat. "You just had to pick the highest one, didn't you?" she asked, looking over at him.

Jamison. Fucking. Archibuald. Augustus. What kind of name was that anyway? That pompous piece of coal could stick a lit flamethrower up his ass and let it rip for all Dan cared. Why was he even here? He want going to win, and he had a 100% better chance of getting a sugar momma/daddy if he left the Academy. He couldn't run, he couldn't fight, his strategic skills were haphazard at best (Dan knew this from personal experience prancing him), and his sense of element was nonexistent. There was literally no reason for him to be at the Academy, except to show off how much a coward he wasn’t. But that wasn’t going to work. Jamison would fall, Dan just knew it.

You Moss kin on the other hand, not the best track record in the Gauntlet. Once you go in that's three of you who will die to it?

Those words echoed in Dan's head over and over as he'd run away from Jamison. He'd taken off in the direction of the woods, because where else would he go. He’d originally planed on just running until he couldn’t run anymore, but at one point he’d glanced up, and saw the ropes of the canopy layer. Jumping from platforms to ropes and swinging around between trees. It’d taken Dan about five seconds to find the nearest tree and start scaling it. Once he was high enough in the tree to have a solid view to jump, Dan pushed off from the tree and threw himself at the ropes. He’d landed in a mess of them, and he started just swinging and climbing around, working and moving as fast as he could, just so he could get out his anger. No one walked through the clearing as far as he could tell, but even if someone had, he wouldn’t have noticed, he was too focused on jumping to the next branch, the next set of ropes, or seeing just how far he could jump without falling to his death.

Dan lost all sense of time when he was up in the ropes. He had no sense of how long he had been up there, but eventually found himself sitting on the highest platform, staring at the space between his feet. He had one leg bent with his knee up, and he had one arm wrapped around his knee, twirling a leaf between his thumb and forefinger of his right hand. He had his back up against a wooden log, one of the four corners of the small platform, and just stared blankly ahead at the wooden platform, lost in his own thoughts.

Dan barely registred Lyca’s entrance onto the platform. He saw her out of the corner of his vision as she came up onto the platform, and gave her a small wave with his fingers, but didn’t say anything. He continued to stare ahead blankly, even though he knew staring at the leaf or the platform wasn’t going to give him what he wanted.

Okay, so something was definitely wrong. She hadn't been paying much attention to him when she hag originally stepped onto the platform, since, you know, terror, but now that she was sitting down semi-safely she was able to perceive his expression a bit more clearly. She was most certainly only looking at him, since if her eyes strayed anywhere else she would see the ground. She really hadn't thought this through. How in the how was she supposed to get down without looking? Maybe Dan would do her a favor and give her a push -- he seemed like he might be in the kind of mood.

Lyca didn't know what to make of his half-hearted (if that) greeting... it was not something she had ever received from him before. Like she wasn't trying think like a brat, but Dan had always received her in a much more excited manner. The longer she watched him, the more she didn't know what to do. She just sat there cross legged, blank. He was the one that was good at handling other people's stress... he knew to let them hit a punching bag, or to crack jokes at them until they finally gave him a smile. Lyca didn't think either of those approaches were about to work with Dan.

And even though all she could think about was what possibly could be the matter, Lyca knew she shouldn't be that selfish. He was a good friend to her, so she should be one back. Even if all she wanted was confirmation this mood wasn't somehow related to her licking his face, or you know, the other thing she almost did, Lyca had to stop thinking about herself. And how she wanted to death grip his arm right now because the wind was blowing and was the tree shaking or was it just her??

Refusing to let out the hysterical laugh that was building in her chest, Lyca reached for him instead. She slid the leaf away from his fingertips and pulled his hand into her lap, she wasn't sure why she thought that that was the right thing to do, but she wanted him to know she was there, and that wasn't something she felt like she needed to make cliche and say out loud. He seemed to respond to the fact that he was being touched, and Jesus his skin was cold, but he still hadn't really looked at her yet.

"Are you trying to act like Sleeping Beauty so I'll kiss you, Dan? Because really, all you would have to do is ask. I could say no, but I doubt that would be the worst thing that has happened to you today."

Lyca sat beside him in silence. For the first time since could remember, he was glad she just let it sit, without the need to fill up silence unnecessarily. As much as he liked to talk, sometimes silence was necessary. Whether to process a thought or enjoy the view, sometimes it was just.... Nice.

It was a much needed change of pace from what was going on side his head. Snippets of memories, conversations and emotions were fighting for attention and value as they bounced back and forth like balls, ricocheting from one to another, colliding with others to jog different memories, and starting the process all over again. He'd kept them under wraps for so long, yet one comment- one comment- from Jamison and it all came out from the boxes Dan had tucked them away into in his mind. How pathetic.

Lyca cut through his mess of thoughts and pulled his attention back to the moment when she took the lead out of his hand. He didn't resist, just let his hands stop moving. She took one of his hands and just held it in her lap, and Dan was greatful for the contact. He didn't know he needed that.

There it was, her attempt to get him to talk. He had to admit it was a good one, the sides of his mouth twitched upwards in what could have potentially been a smile. Dan took a deep, steady(maybe less than steady) breath, and blew it out through his nose. He raises his free hand rubbed his face with the palm of his hand. "No, it wouldn't be." He said quietly, his hand falling back to his thigh and his gaze dropping with it.

It wasn't exactly the toothy grin that she had come to know and love, but Lyca would take it. It was better than shoving her off the end of the wooden plank and shouting obscenities down at her as she fell, which is one of the many deaths she had envisioned since planting her butt on this death trap. And even though she had grabbed Dan's hand initially for him, it was probably doing her just as much good. He was grounding her, occupying her mind a little bit more so she was paying less attention to their altitude. Grounded. Ha!

Lyca might have playfully bumped his shoulder if they were anywhere else, but since they were up in the trees, she decided to shrug her shoulders in a nonchalant kind of way. "I mean I wouldn't go that far, I hear rejection stings pretty bad. I mean I wouldn't know, since it's never happened to me." Lies. "But maybe you should tell me about it sometime." she added, trying to keep up the playfullness. If she could just coax a genuine smile out of him, she'd consider the climb up the rope worth the burn on her palms and the cardiac arrest she was about to lapse into at any moment. She was fiiiiine.

But still, she didn't ask. She took that play from Dan's book, deciding it was a good one she would probably keep. She had told him when she was ready, so that's what she would let him do. She didn't need to prompt him into it, believe it or not, Lyca was comfortable sitting with him in silence. It wasn't something she expected, you know, because usually she couldn't get him to shut up, but this was surprisingly okay.

Dan just shrugged in answer to Lyca’s teasing remarks. Rejection wouldn’t be the worst. He wasn’t sure if she was talking about the other night, or in general, but it wasn’t like it mattered. At least if you were rejected by someone, you still had your life, and another chance with someone else. “Maybe I will.” He said, more out of a habit of reactions to Lyca than actually replying to her comments.

Silence fell between them again. Dan knew he Lyca was just trying to help and make him feel better, but she was also respect his space to think, which he appreciated. He’d done the same for her, and now she was returning the favor, even though her tense body language had him guessing being this high up in the trees was not her favorite spot at the moment. But it was his. Just as some people had places or things that brought them back to their favorite memories, Dan found that being high up in the trees made him feel as alive has he ever could feel. It was where he’d had his longest and deepest conversations with Charlie and Mars, and it had been where Jimmy had first shown him how to jump from tree to tree when he was six.

Dan sighed, and ran his free hand through his hair, sticky from the sweat he’d worked up earlier. “God, I miss them so much.” He said, his voice breaking. He squeezed Lyca’s hand, trying his best to keep in the tears that were threatening to spill out of his eyes. He thought he was past this, breaking down whenever he actually thought about his brothers. But that hole was still there, and it still hurt as much as it did the day they each came home in bags.

And not for the first time, Dan silently wondered if that would be his fate too.

If Dan thought that rejection wasn't as bad as death, he had never been rejected by Joelle Bronte. Js. She almost laughed at his "I will", knowing that he hadn't meant it, since obviously he wasn't actually paying any attention to what she was saying. If he were, he would never have agreed to detail to her his stories of rejection. That was something that Dan would probably never admit to in a normal state of mind... which only went to prove that he wasn't in one.

Her eyebrows pulled together in concern when he finally clued her in, and she felt sort of stupid for not seeing it before. Because you know, Lyca was selfish -- and she always realized it too late. She just thought people were having the same experience as she was, coming here to prove themselves. And sure, a lot of people had family members that had died here, but maybe some of them, like Dan, actually had liked their siblings? Lyca's brothers had died here too, but she hadn't thought about that once. Not once.

"I know." she sighed, squeezing his hand back. Lyca wasn't going to say she missed hers too, or that she understood how he felt. She just acknowledged he was in pain, because that was about as much as she could offer. She felt bad that she hadn't seen it sooner, or even stopped to think of why Dan had applied here in the first place. Lyca looked around, smiling big for the first time since being up in these hellish trees. "I bet they absolutely loved it up here. I can almost see them racing each other to the top."

Siblings were so strange. There were those here who absolutely hated their siblings. The Raemer twins, Lyca and Nate, among others here at the Academy, and were actively trying to rip each other to pieces. Those siblings couldn’t stand eachother, and probably only talked because they shared a last name, and deeply desired to never see the others. But then there were siblings who were close, like Dan and his brothers had been. They all had had easygoing personalities, with a big house and woods to explore, and never any blatant favoritism from their parents, they’d all been close. They had been each other’s best friends, and never enemies. Ever.

Dan knew he wasn’t the only one here who had lost siblings, but he had lost his best friends in the whole world, and it still hurt. Thankfully, Mars was still alive and well, but after his race in the Gauntlett, he’d gotten married to the daughter of a Guardian, so his time was occupied by her. Which Dan didn’t resent, his sister-in-law was awesome, but it was still hard not having Mars around all the time.

Lyca’s reassuring squeeze and reassuring voice let Dan know that she was there. At her comment, Dan picked his head up and looked around at the tops of the trees. A small smile wormed its way to his lips, and he gave Lyca a small nod. “Yeah, me too.” He said, imagining all the fun the four of them could have had up here. “Mars said he and Charlie used to spend entire days up here, since no one ever comes up this high.” Which was actually pretty high, now that he considered just how high the tops of these trees were. Jimmy had probably spent time up here too, not that anyone would ever have known it.

“Am I being stupid?” He asked suddenly, turning to look at Lyca for the first time since she’d sat down. He knew he was taking a risk, asking her this question. But she’d trusted him with a big secret, and trust had to go both ways, right? “Jimmy was the most skilled of us four, and he…” Dan’s voice caught in his throat, and he couldn’t bring himself to say how his oldest brother had died, lest the tears behind his eyes force their way out. “…And Mars and Charlie were a team, but…” He made a face, trying to maintain some level of control over his emotions. “What if I’m no different?”

Lyca almost breathed out in relief, glad she had taken the right direction in trying to make him feel better. Well, she hadn't been trying to make him feel better, she had just said what had honestly been on her mind, and his smile had been the happy side effect. Because the truth was, Lyca had never really been the console and give advice type. She was the kind of girl people came to when they wanted to have fun, or they wanted to get back at their ex, because that was one of the things that Lyca was good at... revenge, so this was completely out of her territory, but it was Dan, so she was trying not to say the wrong thing, and apparently being herself was good for once.

Her eyes widened, and Lyca's hair fell in front of her face a little bit -- she shifted it away with her free hand, wondering how she was best supposed to answer his question. She could have said that he had her, but she knew that wouldn't be enough. She really didn't think that he was being stupid, he was here for the same reasons as anyone else. Lyca looked down at his hand, not being able to look into his eyes when she started to speak, "I think you have as good of a shot as anyone, Dan. You're pretty great, a lot more than you seem to realize."

Lyca traced patterns on his palm absentmindedly, having flipped his hand over without realizing it as she stared at their hands. Jimmy probably made himself an early target with his skill, he repeatedly won competitions... she had seen it in the records. She wasn't sure how many people knew this, but there was a room in the library with a projector that had like all of the statistics from the Academy since it opened, like all of the competitions. It didn't say what they were, but it showed how people had preformed time-wise on them. She couldn't remember Charlie and Mars' stats, but she could imagine how people would see them as a threat... two Moss'?

"I think whatever happens, it will have been worth it." she decided, finally deciding it was safe enough to look back up at him. "We have to believe we're here for a reason."

It was an unfair question to ask, but Dan just needed something, anything, to affirm that this wasn’t a prideful, suicidal endeavor. Not that Lyca could answer that question for him, but he still needed something. There was no sarcasm in the way that Lyca replied, which struck him harder than he expected. You’re pretty great, a lot more than you seem to realize. He dropped his gaze, suddenly finding it hard to look at her. Instead he looked at their intertwined hands, where Lyca was rubbing patterns over the callouses on his palm. Sure, he was polite and kind and the gentleman his parents had raised him to be. He liked to run around in the woods and crack jokes. But there wasn’t any trait that he had that others didn’t. Except maybe the fact that he walked around with his head on his shoulders instead of up in the clouds, but that was it.

A few beats passed before Lyca offered another response, and he lifted his eyes enough to meet her gaze. Trust, that’s what she was saying. Trust in…the results? Their eventual competition? It was a big leap in the dark, but something about the sincerity in Lyca’s voice made Dan feel marginally better about her response. So he nodded, accepting her comments and letting the topic go.

All of those emotions in Dan’s chest were still right at the brim of overflowing, but the flame of anger he had felt towards Jamison earlier in the day had burnt itself out. Reliving and reprocessing Jimmy and Charlie’s deaths was hard enough without factoring in anger for one idiot mommy’s boy.

There was a lot he still needed to talk about, but even in his current state, Dan knew that Lyca wouldn’t have answers to the thing still bouncing around in his head. So they fell into another silence. Well, there was still that…thing that had happened the other night in the gym, but there was no easy way to bring that up that would not be completely and utterly awkward. So instead, Dan looked out over the horizon. Luca was right, it really was beautiful. They were so high up that they could see off into the distance, forest one way, the Academy buildings and training centers in the other direction. They were at least two hundred feet off the ground, if not more.

“Hold on…how did you get up here?” Dan said, gripping her hand more firmly, as if jolted back to reality at the sudden realization of how high up they were. He knew how he’d swung onto this platform a while ago, but other than swinging onto it, climbing straight up was the only other option. Which meant that she had literally climbed a couple hundred feet up in the air. To get to him. But why….”Shit. I missed training.” He said, referencing the quick meet up plan they had come up with that morning, before he had run into Jamison. She was probably furious with him, hence her willingness to climb up here.

Glad that he hadn't teased her about her answer, Lyca just went along with the subject change. She wasn't good with heavy discussion about feelings, so it was a relief that he was almost as unwilling to talk about it as she was. She had complimented him, and even though she knew he was in a different kind of mood, she figured that would trigger his normal disposition where he fired sass at her or something or accused her of caring or something ridiculous like that. For a moment there, she had thought things had gotten a little tense and she feared he was going to bring up what had happened the other night, but then he started talking about climbing and she was good.

She looked around with him, releasing his hand before she accidentally squeezed it to death. "Can you like, not move around like that?" she asked, letting out some nervous laughter because had that board just creaked or was it just her? How often did maintenance come up here to to make sure the planks were still secure? Probably never. This was how she died. This was it, right here, and all because of Dan. "You know, I wasn't really thinking about how I was doing it, I kind of just climbed the ropes and like the tree a bit? Girl on a mission. I know your pain in the ass would be all the way at the top because why would you make anything easy for me?" she teased, sensing his mood beginning to change for the better.

Lyca pulled her feet closer to her torso, not wanting them anywhere near the edge like Dan had his leg hanging off. Maybe Lyca would be the tree hugger by the end of the night, who knew. "Yeah, you did miss training. That's why I came to find you, I was going to tell you off for ditching me. I thought it was because of-" she paused, her mouth still open from the interrupted speech. "I thought it was because you were pussing out on me, couldn't handle the heat or something." Oh yeah, nice recovery.

“Like what?” Dan asked. He hadn’t moved that much. Sure, he’d thrown his body weight to the side for a moment, and the platform had rocked a bit, but it wasn’t like it was going to suddenly fall out from underneath them. Even if it did, there was a whole mess of ropes that they could catch themselves with. Which Lyca knew, since she’d climbed all the way up here on them. But wow, she must have been really pissed off with him. “I am suddenly glad we are this high up in the air and not on the ground.” Dan remarked, his eyebrows raising slightly. At least up here she couldn’t tackle him to the ground. Well, she could, but they’d mostly likely die in the process.

Even if she hadn’t come to beat him up for missing training, she had come to tell him off. And she thought he’d ditched her. As if he would ever ditch the only person he could call a friend in this place. He’d just as soon voluntarily skip out on training than he would get his nails done with Jamison. That is to say, never. But she thought… Oh. Right. She recovered from almost saying what Dan had been wondering ever since it happened.

“You thought it was because of what happened the other night.” He said, finishing the unfinished thought for her. There were two paths he could take here. He could talk about the thing that had happened between them, and make this whole up in the ropes talk a lot more awkward with no easy way out, or he could talk about what she’d trusted him with. “You trusted me with your secret, and then you thought I bailed because of it.”

"Yeah, that's why I was looking for you." she confirmed, eagerly picking up the save he had just handed out to her on a silver platter. Was she crazy? Had he not even noticed that thing that had almost happened? The longer she thought about it, the more she wondered if she had imagined the whole thing in the first place. She had been way too emotional, and maybe just tired? If he didn't bring it up, there was a good chance that the whole thing had just happened in her head. He had probably just been staring at her wondering what she was thinking -- he hadn't noticed she had glanced at his lips and hesitated before licking his entire face.

Imagine the embarrassment for bringing up a moment that Dan didn't even know existed.

Lyca puffed up her cheeks with air, then blew it out loudly. "Yeah, that would have been a pretty dick move of you, glad that wasn't it. Well, not glad, but ... some kind of positive feeling about us still being friends, not happy about whatever made you so upset." Skillful. So eloquent. She didn't know what her problem was -- something was maybe her incredibly anxious right now, she wasn't sure if it was having to talk about feelings, or being this high up in the air. Probably both.

When Lyca confirmed the reason he offered, Dan just nodded apologetically. So that was the reason, the other thing must... He must have imagined the whole thing. Her hesitation the other night was probably her trying to think of a comeback, and deciding that licking his face was the best comeback. At least that was confirmed. So he could stop thinking about the thing that had almo.... That hasn't happened.

Dan raised an eyebrow at the next jumble of words that came out of her mouth. "Me too...The positive of that you not wanting to push me off this platform ." He said, trying to add a bit of his normal carefree tone back into his voice. It was a pathetic attempt, but it at least the tears that had been threatening to come out began to slowly recede. As for the offset of him being upset and up here in the first place, Dan knew Lyca had questions about what had triggered this breakdown, but he couldn't tell her. She, like most other people their age, had always managed to be neutral in the Moss boys/Jamison rivalry. Dan knew enough not to try and ruin other people's friendships just because of his own personal beef with the jerk.

"Someone asked me how long I expected to survive here, given my family's track record." He said in response to her unasked question. He took a deep breath, calming himself before he could get angry again. "It was stupid, not worth missing training for," he said, trying to minimize Jamison's insult, more for himself than for her, and shrugged it off. "But, you know, here we are." He said, spreading his arms to indicate the tops of the trees around them. Although, he thought, he might want to stop moving, as Lyca looked about two seconds from kicking him off the platform altogether and figure out how to get down by herself.

"There are many things I would push you off this platform for, but ditching me isn't one of them." she replied, not giving him any additional clues. To be honest, there were not a lot of things that Dan could do that would piss Lyca off to the point of pushing him. And really, there wasn't anything at all, come to think of it.. because she wouldn't risk falling off herself just to push him when she could kill him in so many other creative ways.

Lyca was sure there was more to the situation than just that, but she wasn't going to ask for a lot of details. From the sound of it, he had started to move on from the situation, so she wasn't going to make him dwell on it just to satisfy her own curiosity. "Yeah, here we are, in these trees, literally the last place I would come to if I had any kind of choice." she added to his statement, making her irritation for his decorum choice very clear. She might not have complained so much if it were someone else, but Dan knew how she felt about heights -- that's probably why he thought he was safe up here.

She clenched his leg when he moved, then let it go with a deep breath when she realized what she had done. "Sorry. I just. I don't know how I'm supposed to get down, and I really didn't think this through and will you stop moving around?"

Dan smiled sympathetically at Lyca. He’d almost forgotten her hatred of heights. That would explain her paper white face, or why she’d grabbed his leg with the force of someone who could bend metal with a softer grip. “That is one of the reasons I like it up here.” He said. So few people could stand to be up this high, and thus fewer people would be up here. For him, he felt at home up in the heights. The danger of falling to a potential death kept him on his toes, and gave him something to be creative about. How much danger he could put himself in and still stay alive.

But, not everyone shared his appreciation for that lifestyle. Lyca included. Dan put up his hands, to show he had stopped moving. Getting down was super simple. “You really have that little faith in me?” He asked. “Just follow me and do exactly what I do.” He turned his head and pointed to an intertwining mess of ropes that stretched from here to to a lower platform. They were criss-crossed like a large ladder, so it would be easy to climb down at least half of the way. From there, it was just a few swinging ropes down and a straight climb down.

He moved to stand up, a bit slower after Lyca lurched at him again when he moved. “If you want to get down,” He said, “You’re going to have to stand. Or you could just hang on to me and I’ll Tarzan us down.” He added. Not like she would ever go for that, but maybe it would jerk her into at least standing up and following him down the ropes.

Lyca scowled at Dan, making it clear just how amusing she thought his patronizing attitude was. She could get down herself, she had gotten her ass up here in the first place without him, she would be able to reverse... probably? As long as she didn't look down, she supposed it would be possible. But why and the hell was he trying to get her to climb on some ropes when she could just as easily use the tree and be fine? That was mostly how she had gotten up here in the first place, scaling the tree with one of the longer ropes on the back.

"I have absolutely no faith in you." she countered, watching him stand up with a very distrustful expression. Lyca almost grabbed his ankle when he stood, not liking the way the wooden planks lurched. On some level she knew she was being overdramatic, and that she was actually probably way more safe than she felt like she was. Worst case scenario was she fell and then grabbed onto one of the many ropes before she hit the ground. She might sprain a wrist or a shoulder... but could she tell that to her irrational mind, not really.

As much as Lyca hated heights, she hated feeling weak even more. Therefore she didn't stand, but crawled over to where Dan stood and put her feet over the edge. All she needed to do was let herself dangle down until her feet touched the tree trunk. She could totally do that. "You're going to catch me if I slip, right?" she asked, staring at the trunk instead of his face. Anything but his face.

Of course she didn’t have faith in him. Her scowl made that clear as day. Clearly his charm wasn’t going to work up here, not that he needed it to. Dan shrugged “I don’t blame you.” She would be perfectly fine going down, it wasn’t that much more difficult, but he could see how she’d be leery of him jumping and moving around like he was on the ground. Even though that’s how he felt. He was probably going to get some sort of payback for this later, but he could deal with that then. First they had to get down

Lyca slowly made a shift towards the trunk, and Dan gathered her plan. Go back down the way she’d come up. Simple. He almost didn’t catch her question, as she asked it so quietly, and with her face staring at the trunk, the wind almost whisked it away. “‘Course”, he said, his voice a bit softer than he’d intended. Of course he’d catch her. “I can’t afford to loose the best ally I have in this place.” He said in a hasty but hopefully satisfactory explanation.

With Lyca steady and not moving, Dan took his chance and stepped off the platform, falling towards the ropes. He caught himself easily, and twisted himself into a position where he could see her in her way down. He was far enough away from her that she’d have the ability to make it down by herself and not feel like he was helping her down, but still close enough so that if she did slip, he’d be able to catch her, or at least throw a rope to break her fall.

Lyca was warm inside because she was nervous about falling down, not because he wanted to keep her around. As an ally. Ptsssh. She stared down at the trunk for another thirty seconds, before finally willing herself to start sliding down the plank. She was probably going about this all wrong, because if she would just jump, she would land where she wanted -- but sliding off and hoping her depth perception was accurate enough to land her feet where she wanted? Eh. She was shorted than she seemed to let herself believe.

When her feet finally hit the trunk, she threw her hands forward to grab the rope and closed her eyes for a moment while just hanging onto it for dear life. Lyca remained there for a while, questioning why she thought she could do this. She knew she was being ridiculous, but this was hard and it was starting to get darker, and if she didn't pick up the place, she was honestly going to be stuck up here all night if she couldn't see where to put her feet. She didn't even want to think about how she probably seemed to Dan right now; weak, most likely.

Getting over herself, or at least attempting to, Lyca tried to follow Dan's movements down to the next platform. She decided not to slide off the trunk like a child, and just go for it and let her feet drop down -- it was just like walking down a stair, you had to trust that the next step would be there to fall on. And you know what? That was a big mistake. Turns out bark could not but trusted at all, because it broke under her food -- not enough to make he fall, but in her terror ridden state, any unexpected result of her feet hitting the tree was enough to make her lose her balance.

Dan picked his way carefully down the rope ladder, making sure to keep an eye on Lyca. He was making more progress than she was, since slow and steady seemed to be her strategy. So he watched from a few feet below as she climbed down onto the trunk. She seemed to have a steady grip, so Dan let himself drop a couple more feet on the ladder. He wouldn't tell her to her face, but she was looking good, despite how nervous she obviously was.

That is, until she slipped her hold and started to fall. Dan reacted quickly, forcing his body weight to one side to swing the rope ladder towards the trunk of the tree. Using his body weight to steady himself as well as for momentum, Dan reaches out with one arm to snag her around her middle. He felt a harsh tug in his arm and shoulder from catching her entire body weight on one arm, but he pulled her in towards himself, so she could grab onto the rope ladder that he was holding onto.

"Hey, you okay?" Dan asked, slightly breathless as she grabbed onto the rope ladder like a lifeline. She looked ready to loose her lunch, and they still had a long way to go before they were on solid ground again. Maybe this was going to be a little harder than he had originally thought.

Lyca had been pretty sure that she was about to die, so when Dan swooped in -- well, it was unexpected, and it took her a minute to be able to form a coherent sentence, and even then she chose to remain quiet. She just grabbed onto the rope and kept her eyes closed, willing herself not to cry. You're being dramatic, you're being dramatic, get it together, if you cry right now I swear to God. And just bleh. She had one hand on the ladder, and when she started to feel her surrounds instead of her outrageously fast-beating heart, she noticed she had her arm wrapped around his neck (probably tighter than what was comfortable.

And the reason she felt so secure probably had a lot to do with the hand he had kept around her waist. Jfc. Lyca wanted to pull away, but she literally couldn't remember how to move. The most she was able to do was loosen her arm around his neck, and that took most of her concentration and a lot of her willpower. When she finally dared to look at him, she was surprised by how close his face was to hers, and there was a good chance her face was red from a blush, if it hadn't already been flushed with anxiety.

"I uhm, yeah, I'm f-fine." she finally said, realizing she'd been holding her breath. She literally still hadn't moved away from him. Where was she supposed to step where she wouldn't fall? Lyca wanted nothing more than to teleport down to the ground, just so she could run away from him and never have to think about this again. He was probably so disgusted by how vulnerable she was acting -- seeing her face a fear and be a complete wreck because of it. But even knowing all of this, and wanting to stop acting like an idiot, when the wind rustled the trees, she pressed even closer to him.

Thinking you were falling to your death was never a fun experience. Dan had been six the first time he fell out of a tree. When Jimmy swooped in to save him, not unlike the way he’d just grabbed Lyca, Dan remembered clinging onto his brother for a solid ten minutes before he’d even open his eyes. So he just stayed right where he was, solidly attached onto the rope ladder with his feet and one arm, and other arm around Lyca’s waist, giving her the stability and support to be on the rope ladder with him.

There were a couple beats of silence, nothing but the sound of the wind through the trees and the sounds of their quickened breathing. Dan’s heart was poudning, the adrenaline surge rushing through his veins, which was not helped when Lyca turned to look at him, and he realized just how close their faces were. She affirmed that she was at least slightly okay, and even though she relaxed her arm around his neck so to avoid suffocating him, she pressed closer to him.

Dan tightened his grip around her waist slightly as she pressed closer, “You’re okay, I’ve got you.” He told her quietly, just as Jimmy had done when he was six. Dan glanced down, knowing how far they still had to climb down. There wasn’t going to be an easy way to do this after what had just happened. She was going to have to relax and be okay with going down by herself, since there was no way her pride would let Dan get her down to the ground. So, Dan just kept his grip on her firm, waiting patiently for her breathing to normalize itself before he made any suggestions.

Lyca stayed there with a lot of conflicting emotions. She knew that Dan and her were friends or whatever, but she still felt wrong showing him just how afraid she was right now. Like why did she feel so comfortable in his arms right now? If it were someone else that she was up here with, she could feign confidence and get down herself. But she felt completely helpless to his comfort, and she was absolutely disgusted with herself.

"I know, I know." she finally got out, letting a little bit of her irritation seep through. It was hard not to get frustrated with herself, she didn't understand anything she was feeling, and she didn't want to move away from him which made everything even worse. "I'm not trying to be a bitch, I'm just... confused." she admitted, trying to zero in on any of the range of emotions she was feeling right now.

She wanted to look up at him, but Lyca didn't want him to be able to read her face. This was entirely humiliating. She wanted nothing more than to be on the ground so she could run all the way to her dorm and shove her head into her pillow and scream... or so she could see Jo and make these feelings go away because she didn't want them. She released her hand from around his neck, running it down his arm to grab his hand to pull it away from her waist -- Lyca did it slowly, so it might have seemed like it was about to be something else before she finally stepped away from him, and maybe it was so slow because she was still deciding what it was herself.

"I'm going to get down now." she announced, but still didn't make any step to descend the rope.

Confused was one way to describe Dan’s state of mind. Here they were, a couple hundred feet off the ground, him with his arm around her waist, holding her up, and she had her arm wrapped around his neck, and she was pressed into him like he was the only thing keeping her up, despite the fact that she was holding on to the rope as well. . Dan forced himself not to make too much of it. She had told him literally a few days ago that she liked someone who was not him. There was nothing he could read in about this. He was making it up. He had to be. She was terrified of falling, and that was why she was holding onto him so tight. Yeah, that was it.

But…no? That wasn’t it. She was saying that she didn’t meant to be a bitch, she was just…confused. Lyca slowly lifted her arm from around his neck, and ran it down his arm a little too slowly just to be casual. Was this why she was confused, because she had actually meant that thing that almost happened in the gym? Dan never had asked her about how things had gone with Jo, and she’d never offered up any additional information after their talk in the gym. Dan paused, considering his options. He’d always liked Lyca, since she didn’t actually care like some of the other girls he knew, which was always refreshing. But was it worth risking her friendship? She’d been the one to almost kiss him a few days ago…

Fuck it. Dan thought, and leaned forward, closing the small distance between them, and pressed his lips to hers. He had no idea how she would react. She would be perfectly justified in pushing him off the rope ladder and sending him tumbling to the ground. Or cursing him out, he had no idea. He just kissed her.

Lyca didn't push him off the ropes, and she didn't cuss him out either. She kissed him back. As much as it had been unexpected, Lyca realized what was happening quick enough and went along with it. That had been the second time that she had almost kissed him and then just chickened out, so maybe he had finally just gotten sick of waiting for her to make a move. Thank God. Not because she wanted it to happen necessarily, hence the reason she had been hesitating, but because she finally knew that she wasn't crazy. He had those feelings too, and maybe it had just taken him a really emotional day to do something about it, because who knew how long it would have taken Lyca.

She leaned into him, actually letting go of the rope to wrap both of her arms around his neck. Lyca actually trusted the ropes beneath them not to betray their weight, because she had to believe that Dan wouldn't have kissed her if he didn't think they were safe up here... right? Lyca didn't care, she just kissed him back because it felt good and she wanted to. Later she would probably be salty because Jamison was right, but for the moment, she was just happy to be kissing Dan because he was good at it, and because it didn't feel half-bad emotions wise. She didn't want to think about what this meant for their friendship, she just wanted him, and was happy the feeling was mutual.

And maybe Lyca hadn't entirely thought this through because her emotions were literally boiling over the edge, so was this the best time to kiss Dan? She had a lot of feelings barely held under the surface, and this was a mighty fine distraction. So maybe Lyca didn't just kiss him back -- she might have also run a hand down his shoulder and chest, fixing her hand on one of his belt loops to pull herself closer into him. Her other hand might have found itself pulling on his hair, because you know, feelings. Once you let a little out, they all sort of came flooding.

That was certainly not the reaction Dan had been expecting, but when Lyca kissed him back, he didn’t object, and welcomed it. So this wasn’t just a him thing. That was reassuring. She had wanted this too, he hadn’t been reading it wrong. As Lyca leaned into him, he wrapped his arm that had just been around her waist into the rope ladder, so that he could hold the two of them up more securely. Wouldn’t that suck if she trusted him to keep them both upright and he dropped her. So Dan just clung to the rope ladder, just as Lyca seemed to be clinging to him as they kissed.

Dan wasn’t sure what nerve he’d triggered, but Lyca seemed to be letting out a lot into this kiss. Her arms left the rope completely and wrapped around his neck, one of her hands tangling into his hair. Not that he was complaining, it felt a lot better than he thought it would, the whole kissing one of his best friends thing. It felt right, and for the moment, that was all that mattered. Details could be spared. His lips were on hers, and she was kissing him back. Nothing else mattered .

Except….maybe that. Dan’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as her hand ran down his shoulder to his chest down his torso to come to a stop at his belt loop. Dan couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his throat when her fingers hooked around his belt loop and pulled him closer. “Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” He asked teasingly, pulling back just an inch from Lyca’s face. “We are…” He glanced down “About two hundred feet up in the air,” He noted, giving Lyca a smirk. “On a rope.” Not that he really needed to remind her, but if she wanted to make out at the top of a rope ladder, he might as well make sure that’s what she had in mind.

Lyca wasn't all that into Dan pulling away, she almost made a noise of protest but he had begun to put reason back into her head. She was in the air, in a tree, practically laying on top of him. And maybe it wasn't a good idea, but that didn't mean she wanted to stop. Lyca looked down at the ground over his shoulder, pulling away slightly to do so. Oh jesus. It was getting dark! She needed to get down before the sun finished setting, or she was going to be screwed. So as much as she didn't want to stop kissing him, maybe it was an activity they could resume at ground level.

"Yeah, you're a good kisser and everything, but not worth death, sorry to say." she replied, releasing her fingers from his belt loops. Lyca stayed there for another second, surveying just how close they had gotten in the few minutes they had been kissing. Wow. That's what she had been missing out on all those years they had been teasing each other for who they hooked up with instead of just getting with each other? And she had been the one to nickname him Handy Danny. Oops.

She sat up away from him completely, pulling herself up with the ropes. Call her crazy, but she had a little bit of her normal confidence back. "Actually, this has given me an idea." she pulled her shirt over her head from the bottom hem, revealing a generic sports bra underneath. She then wrapped her shirt around one of the longer ropes, glancing back at him, "Do prevent rope burn? I can just slide down, it's honestly my best shot. That's basically how I got up here and my hands are wrecked."

Kissing Lyca was soo much better than anything he’d ever done, but it wasn’t worth death, Dan had to agree with her there. Still, her being almost on top of him wasn’t the worst feeling in the world. Lyca released her hands from his belt loop and from his hair and pulled away slowly from him. As she did, Dan took a glance around. How long had they been up here anyway? He’d been around here since he’d run away from the climbing wall, which was in the morning. That would mean he would have been up here all afternoon since the sun was not starting to set. Wow, that was a lot of time to be up here, he hadn’t realized how long he had been up here.

But Lyca pulled him out of those thoughts as she pulled her shirt over her head. That was just mean. Show off, Dan thought to himself. She’d just made it very obvious what she thought about him, and now she was just teasing him. Avoiding rope burn, sure. That innocent explanation didn’t explain why she was eyeing him like he was food, but if she wanted to play that game, so could Dan. “Yeah, I think that’ll work.” He said with a smirk. It’d be easier than trying to go down the tree, and she probably wouldn’t fall going down that way.

“Let me know if you need me to catch you again,” Dan said, offering Lyca a wink before he stepped off the ladder, and let his body weight fall straight towards the ground. Oh, he wasn’t suicidal, just showing off. She wanted to take off her shirt, he could fall a hundred feet towards the ground, but then grab a rope and swing himself safely down towards the ground. Which is exactly what he did. After free-falling for about three seconds, Dan reached out and grabbed a rope, and used his momentum to swing from rope to rope, letting himself fall a few feet between each of them before flipping off the last one to land solidly on the ground. Sure, he was stupid monkey showing off like he was twelve, but it was fun.

Let me know if you need me to catch you again. Snotty little - oh my god, had he just jumped off the plank?! Lyca looked over the edge, expecting to see him splattered on the ground like a tomato or something. But of course, he wasn't, he was just standing down there looking up at her as if to ask her what was taking her so long. Wasn't he just the most modest thing to ever walk the planet? At least she knew nothing about their friendship was changing -- he was still being a competitive and snarky little brat. But hey, if that's how he wanted to play this whole thing off, she didn't mind one bit. Because if it was a game of sass, Lyca would win.

She tightened her hands around the rope through her shirt, praying it would actually work. Lyca had already gotten a bit of rope burn on her way up, and it wasn't something she was too keen on repeating on the way down, because it would hurt a lot more. She jut hoped this rope reached the bottom (it looked like it might) but if she slid down too fast and it didn't? She would drop the rest of the way down because there was no possible way she could just free fall and reach out and grab a rope like Daniel did. Some people hadn't spent their childhood freely swinging from trees like a cracked out version of Tarzan, they had spent their time surfing, because that was a normal hobby.

"If I live through this, I promise never to steal people's towels from the communal bathroom and hang them on the tree outside ever again." she told herself, before letting the rope carry her weight down to the ground before she could change her mind. If Dan hadn't beaten her down and teased her, she probably would have stayed up there a lot longer. But being that it was a competition, and she had something to prove, well, she got over herself long enough to lift up her feet.

Once his feet were solidly on the ground, Dan just stood, arms crossed, an involuntary grin spread across his face as he looked up and watched Lyca. Now she had no choice but to come down the way she’d said she planned on it. He was on the ground, so she had no reason to stall up in the trees anymore. His judgment proved right, as after a few moments of waiting, Lyca lifted her feet and began to slide down the rope. Her shirt did act as a barrier between her hands and the rope, she had been smart to use that. Dan had callouses on his hands built up from years in the trees, but rope burn could still hurt like hell. Which was probably how Lyca’s hands were feeling if she had really climbed all the way up to get him earlier.

“See? That wasn’t so bad.” Dan said when Lyca’s feet hit the ground and she dropped the rope like a hot potato. “Give it a few more times, and you might even find you like having your head up in the clouds.” He commented, gesturing to the sky. It was nice up there, if you weren’t afraid of heights or falling to your death. But, since both of those had resulted in a bit of making out, he wasn’t complaining about the outcome. At all.

“That is where your head is supposed to be, isn’t it?” He added sarcastically. Up in the air. Flying and tossing about in the wind. Yeah, that wasn’t changing. Or anything else about their friendship, really. Sass, puns, and jokes all around. And if she wanted to kiss him again to shut him up instead of punching him, hey, he wasn’t going to complain.

Head up in the clouds? Was he actually being serious? As if she had enjoyed any single part of that descent, ha! Lyca had to bite down on the inside of her cheek just so she didn't scream, and really, with the air pun? It hadn't even been a good one. It might be ironic that she was so afraid of heights and wind was her element, but like it's not like there wasn't air on the ground, so, haters stick it. "Your head is in the clouds, so when are you going to come back down, because I'm pretty sure you left your brain up there with your good jokes."

She obviously felt better being on the ground, now that she didn't have a crushing weight on her chest. Lyca slipped back on her shirt, then pulled her hair out of the back along with a couple of leaves. She didn't even want to know how long those have been there, she was itching just thinking about it. Lyca glanced at Dan, noting that he looked like he was feeling a lot better too. Good -- now she wouldn't feel so bad about what she was about to do next.

Lyca stepped closer to him, fluttering her eyelashes in that innocent kind of way. She put her hands on his chest slowly, almost as if she was waiting for him to tell her no -- then she bent her head to press her lips into his neck. "Can I?" she asked, sliding her hands down to his pants and hesitating near his zipper. She wasn't sure what he would think she was asking for, but she was wondering what his answer would be. turns out he took too long to reply though, so she just unzipped his pants quickly and gave them a quick tug -- his pants dropped to his ankles, but Lyca was already running back down the path, shouting over her shoulder, "Last one to the dorm has to bring the other pancakes in the morning!"

Left his good jokes up on the platform? Oh, how little faith she had in him. Dan couldn’t be expected to have every single thing come out of his mouth be comedic gold. As much as he wished it could be, there were bound to be a couple duds once in a while. But he just made a face at Lyca, “How rude!” He said, his voice full of fake offense. “I’m pretty sure you left your manners up there too.” He said as she slipped on her shirt and approached him.

He was feeling significantly better, mostly due to Lyca’s distractions and conversation. And this added benefit of physical touch wasn’t a bad thing either. He could definitely get used to this, he thought as Lyca stepped into his personal space and ran her hands over his chest. His hands came up to her sides almost involuntarily, unsure of what she was intending to do. Her hands wandered down back down to his pants, and Dan started to ask “Are you sure…?”, but she’d already tugged them down and took off.

He should’ve seen that coming.

“Hey!” Dan shouted after her, partially laughing, partially yelling as he reached down and pulled up his pants before taking after her, zipping them back up as he ran. “Not fair!” Not that it mattered. She’d gotten him, and he made a mental note not to make that mistake again.