Author's Note from Mordraugsereg:

This chapter is purely the creation of Boy On Strings. I'm not gonna lie and take credit for something that I didn't do. There is a tiny smidge of a bit in this that came about from my imagination but with his mastery of weaving a tale he reworked into what you are about to read. Enjoy!

Author's Note from Boy_On_Strings:

It's purely my fault that it took so long to come out. Please direct all your hate mail (if you were to have such a thing) towards my inbox. Hope you guys like how it came out though.

Jackson picked at the comforter he was sitting on. Danny watched him, waited for an explanation. It wasn't an easy thing to tell your best friend the secrets you kept hidden from everyone else. The room was hot, sweat trickled down the back of his neck. He watched Danny's finger's drum on the bed. Just a word, all he needed was to say one thing. Once he started he knew he wouldn't be able to stop.

"You want to go down to the pool party?" Danny was giving up, was done waiting for him. "We can just go relax for a bit. If you want to talk later we can. If not that's cool too."

Jackson reached out, caught Danny's wrist before he could stand up. "I don't want to go to the pool party. I want to stay here, with you." Since leaving the tower Jackson hadn't looked Danny in the face, couldn't look into the brown eyes he knew were watching him. He was afraid of what Danny would be able to see.

The trip back to the hotel room had been quick. The shortest leg of the journey had felt like the longest. Reluctantly having entered the elevator to return to Earth, Jackson had kept his fingers entangled in Danny's. He didn't want to lose the comfort that came from the contact, but didn't want to be any closer to the goalie. He didn't want to seem as scared as he felt. The fast paced descent felt like it took forever, more than the fifty eight seconds it had taken from top to bottom. Jackson hadn't realized he'd shut his eyes until the elevator dinged. He opened his eyes at the signal that they'd returned to the ground level.

"We can do whatever you want," Danny said. His friend's voice pulled Jackson from his memories. "We can watch something." Danny didn't move to get off the bed though. He waited.

They'd only turned on the light near the door. In the shadows near the beds everything seemed a little easier. Jackson took a shallow breath. He let go of Danny's wrist. He'd always been able to talk to Danny, he hated that things felt different. He dropped onto his back, covered his face with his forearm.

"I was afraid," Jackson said. Saying the words hurt almost as much as not saying everything else he wanted to. "I was afraid that you'd think I was an idiot."

Danny punched Jackson in the leg. "That never stopped you in the past." He laughed nervously.

Jackson smiled. That was true; Danny had watched him do some monumentally stupid shit through the course of their friendship. This was something different though. He wondered if the nervousness he felt was similar to what Danny experienced before coming out to him. The circumstances were different, but what Jackson was going to talk about was no less serious.

"There's this part of me that thinks that all it will take is just one mistake and I'll lose everything." Jackson bit his lower lip, tried to find the words to make it clear. "I have to be better than everyone else."

"Why?" Danny's question was curious, not judgmental. Danny bumped his foot into Jackson's thigh, tried to reassure him that he was there, that he was listening.

"Because I'm the one who could be sent back. Defective, not good enough, those aren't things that most kids have to worry about."

The bed dipped, Danny settled on his side next to him. He reached out, pulled Jackson's arm away from his face. "That's the kind of thing that every kid worries about."

Jackson turned his head, looked into Danny's brown eyes finally. "Not everyone stands the chance of being sent back to a shelter."

"Your family wouldn't do that to you," Danny said. He didn't look away, kept their gazes locked. "They love you. You know that right?"

Jackson turned his head away. On some level he knew. There was a splinter of doubt though, especially when he thought of the kind of person he was. No one would describe him as anything less than an asshole, well aside from Danny maybe.

People grew up being told the love of a family was unconditional, that their parents would love them no matter what they did. Blood was strong enough to keep families together, even when one member made a mistake. Jackson didn't have a blood tie to anyone, he couldn't make any mistakes.

"Yeah…" Jackson sighed. There was a part of him that knew, but the part of him that was a kid scared of being abandoned wasn't always convinced. Danny wouldn't be able to understand, everyone liked Danny. Not very many people liked Jackson. They liked what Jackson could do for them. If they were his friend they'd be more popular, if they were dating him they'd climb the social ladder.

Danny reached out, grabbed his chin, and forced him to meet his gaze again. "Do you, Jackson? Do you really know?" Danny could always tell when he was lying. Most of the time he'd let Jackson get away with it. This time Danny wasn't letting it go.

Jackson closed his eyes. He remembered spending so many nights awake in bed asking himself that question over and over clutching a report card with a C- on it. He'd been ten years old, terrified that it wasn't good enough. He didn't want to show his foster parents, he didn't want to see the disappointment. He thought he should have tried harder, listened more carefully.

"I know…" He did, but he didn't. There was no way to make it clear to Danny.

Danny let go of Jackson's chin, reached down to take hold of his hand. He pulled the blonde up, wrapped him in a tight hug. Jackson wanted to roll his eyes, wanted to pull away. It was an instinctive natural reaction, to not show any weakness or pain. He didn't pull away, he clutched Danny tighter. Jackson felt like there was something cracking in him. He didn't know if it was good or bad.

"Jackson, they love you," Danny said. He tightened his arms around Jackson's body. "They're not going to send you away. Not because you make mistakes sometimes, not because you're afraid of something. There's more there than you're giving them credit for."

It was just a piece of paper. Something his foster parents had signed. That's all that stood between him and being abandoned. His fear of heights wasn't the disease he had, it was just a symptom. It was another thing he had to hide from everyone so that they wouldn't see how broken he was on the inside. Jackson knew who he was, he was a bully. He was an asshole. A lot of the time he felt like he was entitled to anything he wanted, the truth was it was an act. He wanted so many things because he never knew when he was going to lose one of them.

"They don't have to love me. They just signed a contract, like a business transaction. I'm an investment they made. I have to make sure they get the returns they're looking for," Jackson whispered. He buried his face in Danny's shoulder. Sometimes Danny felt like one of the few people who took Jackson at face value, liked the good and the bad together. Danny liked him with no exchange of currency necessary; Jackson didn't always know what to think about it. He was just grateful for it.

Danny squeezed him tighter. "It's more than that. Who cares if they signed a piece of paper to get you? They made that choice. People who get married sign a piece of paper, they make a choice. You're not a transaction. You're their son."

Not a transaction? Jackson wondered if that were true. He didn't think about it most of the time, not consciously. There was a need deep inside him to be the best. There were different motivations. At the heart it wasn't that Jackson needed to be perfect, he just needed to make sure that no one ever thought of him as not being good enough. From the outside it looked the same. On the inside, in Jackson's heart, the two things were miles apart.

"I'm sorry," Jackson said. "I'm sorry that I wasn't upfront with you about everything."

"I'm sorry too." Danny let him go, pulled back. "I'm sorry for the way I responded. I just wanted you to know, that you don't have to be anyone specific for me. You can just be you, I accept that."

There was more, Jackson could sense it just below the surface. Danny seemed afraid to speak it though. His friend looked away. Jackson knew there was more.

"Why?" Jackson asked. He bumped his knee against Danny's shin.

Danny took a deep breath. "Because I love you. I've been in love with you for a long time. Not because I have to, not because you're perfect. I'm in love with you because you're you. You do it with no apologies; you do what you want when you want. You've never been afraid to be who you are. I admire that. I admire how hard you work to be the best."

Jackson's mouth fell open. He wasn't sure what to say to that. He reached out, turned Danny's face back towards him. "Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I was scared I'd lose you. It was better to have you as a friend than to not have you at all." Danny closed his eyes. "At least as your friend I could be there for you when you needed me. You just never really seemed to need me. You were strong enough to do everything on your own."

Somewhere along the way Danny had gotten behind the curtain. He saw things about Jackson that no one else ever had. Why hadn't Jackson seen this? Why hadn't he done something about it?

"You're the strongest person I know," Jackson said. "There are a million less fucked up guys out there who would be the perfect boyfriend for you."

Jackson was going to say more, but Danny stood up, moved a few steps away from him.

"Yeah," Danny said. "There's that perfect someone out there for everyone right? I'm sure that there's a girl out there that'll be everything you want too."

Jackson looked at the floor. He thought about what he wanted. Someone who knew the kind of person he was, cared about him regardless of that. He wanted someone who wasn't afraid to tell him when he was being a dick. He wanted someone like Danny. He shook his head. He wanted Danny. He wasn't sure if he was gay, he wasn't ready to make a decision like that. What he was ready to do was tell Danny how he felt. He stood up, pulled Danny around to face him.

"You're the person who's got everything that I want," Jackson said.

Danny rolled his eyes, pushed Jackson away. "Yeah everything except breasts."

Jackson reached out, pulled Danny closer by his shirt. Danny had nice pecs, maybe breasts were overrated. He wasn't sure; he knew that he wanted to try. He reached out, wrapped his hand around Danny's neck.

"I don't know about that, you've got a nice chest." Jackson winked, smiled as Danny let out a nervous laugh. "This trip, it's made me realize that you're exactly the type of person I need."

Danny's eyes locked onto him, assessed him. "I don't want to be anyone's warm body. Not even yours, Jackson."

Jackson shook his head. "It's not about that. It's never been about that. Not between you and me." He pulled Danny in, closed his eyes. They were inches apart. He didn't want to push any further. Danny needed to be the one to make the choice. Jackson had gone as far as he could.

A warm hand curled around the back of his neck, brushed up into the back of his hair. Jackson let out a pleased sigh. Danny had done it a million times, but it had never felt like this. Danny's nails scratched lightly at the back of his head.

"Doing this will change everything," Danny said.

He was so close Jackson could feel Danny's breath against his lips. Change didn't have to be scary; it didn't have to be bad. Change could be exactly what they needed.

"That's okay," Jackson said. He wet his lips with his tongue, kept his eyes closed. "Everything's already changed. Now we just need to do something about it."

Jackson felt the space between them closing. Danny's hand tightened in the back of his hair, the other gripped his hip. Strong hands, he'd never realized how large they were. Danny had touched him thousands of times over the years; it had never been like this.

"Fine," Danny whispered. "Let's do something about it."

Danny's lips brushed up against Jackson's. It was soft, tentative. It was sweet, Jackson hadn't known what to expect, but it was good. He reached out, got his hands on Danny's hips, pulled their bodies together. Jackson had always wanted someone to knock down all the walls he'd put up. He'd just never expected it would be Danny.