savetheearth | I STILL HEAR YOUR VOICE WHEN YOU SLEEP NEXT TO ME

1 minute!

Fifty-two seconds later, Walter is heading out his front door. After a brisk powerwalk down the driveway he climbs into Danny's passenger's seat. He doesn't seem to have dressed up. Or down. Sweater vests kind of sit in the middle of the spectrum.

"Hey...!" Walter immediately starts fiddling with his phone. GPS. "I've got some directions here. And before you ask, no, I'm not spoiling the surprise."

Danny raises an eyebrow when Walter mentions a surprise.

"I didn't realize it was supposed to be special. Should I blindfold myself while we drive there?" he says jokingly.

"You'll understand once we get there. Which needs to be soon so we don't lose the reservation."

The GPS is getting set into one of the cupholders. Walter flashes Danny a grin before buckling up.

"Reservation? Wow, we're really going all out, aren't we?"

Danny starts following the GPS instructions, not sure quite where it's leading them, but following it quite faithfully all the way there.

"For you? Only the best."

He has to work really hard to stifle a giggle. And he fails, though it's a valiant attempt.

The rest of the ride is spent in giddy anticipation, and when they pull into a White Castle parking lot he makes a grand sweeping gesture, because yes, this is it. The GPS did not steer Danny wrong.

Once he pulls into the lot and sets the car in park, Danny leans forward and smacks the driver's seat. "White Castle? You have got to be kidding me, Walter." As incredulous as he sounds, there's still a huge grin plastered on his face.

"I didn't know they even took reservations!" He can't help but laugh at the absurdity.

"They do! ...tonight."

A quick knowing look before he gets out of the car and leads the way into the restaurant. Which is packed, but that's not the most notable feature. There's a) a hostess there to greet them and b) pink and red tablecloths, candles, and balloons festooning the whole dining room. It's... beautiful(ly tacky).

While Danny is taking this in, Walter confirms their reservation with the hostess and they're led to their table.

Danny is stunned into silence for the most part, looking at every part of the restaurant with an awed grin.

He follows behind as they're led to a table, sat down, and given menus--actual menus!--with a promise from the hostess that she'll be back to take their order.

The menu is pink and has all the usual White Castle fare listed...in romantic cursive. Danny shakes his head in laughter.

"I can't believe it. How did you even know about this?"

"Well, I... I saw some ads, and then I looked into it, and... and this has been going on for awhile. The White Castle Valentine's thing, I mean. I thought you'd like it. So I called for a table, and actually managed to get one."

Walter is still smiling. Legit glee.

"I don't get to say this often, but... I got lucky. Really, really lucky."

"Lucky?" Danny laugh-scoffs. "How crowded does this place get on Valentine's Day?"

The hostess comes back with a small notepad and asks if they'd like any drinks. Danny can't help but laugh at how formal the whole affair is, but then gets himself under control.

"Coke, please."

After ordering his own coke, Walter just gestures at the rest of the dining room. It's been steadily filling up. Anyone without a reservation is being directed to the drive-thru.

Their cokes arrive in standard White Castle cups, but the hostess drops off some plastic champagne flutes. This branch is going above and beyond.

"Are you ready to order?" he asks as he dumps some of the coke into a glass. Spirit of the holiday and all that.

Danny nods. He turns to the waitress and says, "I'll have the cheeseburger sliders."

As she writes down the order, Danny pours out his own Coke into the champagne flute, laughing softly and shaking his head all the while. This is a level of absurdity he never thought his life would reach.

"I'm surprised they didn't call it--I don't know, lightly seared beef tartare served on a soft bun bed." Or at least, he thinks that's what burgers would be called in fancy food terminology.

After snickering at Danny's world-class slider description, Walter orders the chicken and cheese variety, because he is a rebel and likes to live dangerously.

"There's only so much they're willing to do. I mean..." he grabs one of the candles. One of the faintly glowing, battery powered candles. "You get what you pay for and all that. Still, it's..."

He holds up his Coke-filled flute. "It's been great, so. Cheers?"

Danny grins and holds up his own flute. "Cheers."

He clinks his "glass" (really, it's just plastic) against Walter's, but immediately regrets it when the soda fizzes up and begins pouring over the top of the flute. Danny immediately brings it to his mouth to try and sip the fizz down to acceptable levels.

"You..."

The fizz is dribbling all over the place. Walter grabs a few napkins and wipes the table down. And then, once Danny is done with damage control, he dabs at the mini foam mustache collecting on his face.

"Dork."

At first, Danny leans away a little bit to give Walter space to mop up the table, but when he goes to dab the fizz off Danny's mouth, he ends up leaning in.

When it's all done and Walter removes the napkin, Danny is grinning widely.

"Look, how was I supposed to know it would do that? Nobody ever clinks Coke together in a champagne glass!"

"And they say I have problems with common sense."

Walter only realizes that he hasn't stopped leaning in when the waitress arrives with their tray of sliders. He leans back and hopes the food is distracting enough because a tiny blackish blush has crept across his face. It's still weird and he's still self-conscious.

Danny leans back as well and has a matching blush spread across his face--although his is red. He's more or less used to Walter's, though--he's seen it enough times to know it's not some kind of sickness, but rather just the way he blushes. Much like how his own is green in ghost form. He's become comfortable with it, so this isn't much more of a stretch, although Walter seems significantly less okay with it.

Danny picks up a slider. "You know...if you want, I could smear ketchup all over your face. Would that help?"

That's ridiculous, but also kind of sweet. In a weird. incredibly goofy way. Walter shakes his head and sets a hand on his cheek, balacing with his elbow on the table. The blush hasn't gotten any better, but he feels better, and it shows in the way he's looking at Danny.

"I'd like to see you try."

He goes for one of the sliders, but also grabs a mustard packet and waves it a few times. Defensive weaponry.

Danny smirks and sets down his slider. He was going to eat it, but this is a two hand job. He grabs a ketchup packet, opens it up, and squirts some out on his fingertip.

"Watch me."

He reaches out with the finger to try and smear some of the ketchup on the tip of Walter's nose.

He succeeds, but only because Walter didn't expect him to actually go through with it. He intercepts the hand way too late, and all it really accomplishes is smearing the ketchup Rudolph splotch to his cheek. He seems shocked for a few seconds but it quickly fades as he squeezes Danny's hand.

"Oh. You are going to regret that."

His slider has been abandoned. He points the packet at Danny and gives it a squeeze. It becomes immediately apparent that that was the wrong way to go about this condiment war. It explodes, sending mustard flying in all directions.

Danny braces himself and puts his hands up in front of him to block his face. Still, some of the mustard splatters onto his face...and glops of it even land in his champagne flute of Coke.

He peeks out of one eye at the mess, laughing a little.

"So much for fancy dinner, huh?"

Mustard is clinging to his glasses. And tragically, some has stained his sweater vest. But it's not like he doesn't have more where that one came from.

"I don't know, I still feel pretty fancy. And I hear that mustard really enhances the subtle flavor of Coke."

He tries wiping the gunk off his glasses, but it's pretty ineffective. Oh well.

Danny leans into the table, arms crossed in front of his plate. "Well, then I guess it's a good thing I like mustard."

He grins and takes a bite of his mustard-spattered slider.

Walter flashes a super dorky thumbs-up before going after his sandwiches. The waitress returns shortly into their meal, wielding a Polaroid camera. There's a pause as she takes in their ketchup/mustard stained appearance, but she recovers quickly and asks them if they'd like a commemorative photo.

"I'm up for it if you are."

He even winks. It's a squintywink and it is accompanied by more blushing. He might not be a redhead anymore but he is still subject to some of the stereotypes.

Danny laughs at the wink. What a huge dork. But, he supposes, he's a dork too because his response is, "Let's do it."

He leans in for the photo and even tries to wrap his arm around Walter's shoulder to get them closer together in frame.

There's an annoying table in the way, but it's not too hard for Walter to scoot around that and return the gesture.

To. Get them both in the frame. Yes. They need to be as close as humanly possible. Close enough to bonk faces together for a second.

This just means that Danny is getting a little ketchup on his face to go with all that mustard. One "Cheese!" later, they're the proud owners of a Polaroid picture.

Danny holds the Polaroid in his hands for a few moments, breathless, before he starts laughing.

"I've never actually seen one of these before, these are so old!"

He turns his head to Walter, still only a few inches from him. "Are we gonna frame it? Stick it up on one of our walls to 'immortalize the moment'?"

Walter sets a hand on the back of Danny's and presses gently, tilting the photo a little to eliminate some of the glare.

"Of course. And I vote wall."

A brief pause, during which he never moves his hand or steps away. Who gets to take the photo home?

"...it's all yours, if you want it."

Danny blinks in surprise. "I...I could. Are you sure you don't want it? It's an awfully dorky looking photo."

"Well, maybe a little. We -- it's cute!"

That just kind of spilled out. Maximum blushing.

"But it's -- it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

Danny can't help but grin at Walter's blush, now partially hidden by the condiment mess they've caused.

"Yeah, but..." Danny looks down at the photo, then gently sets it down on the table. "Maybe you don't have to."

He pulls out his phone and with his other hand pulls Walter closer by the shoulder so their faces are practically touching (okay, so they're actually touching). He holds out the phone as far as he can and takes a photo of it.

"There! I'll get this printed and then we can both have a copy of the photo."

"It's great...!"

It's a little hard to collect his thoughts right now. Static in his brain. One thing he does know is that he can't really deny what he's been suspecting anymore. Not with the constant butterflies.

"Danny --"

But what is he supposed to do about it? He dips a little closer, almost unconsciously, but pulls away at the last second, squeezing his fists and smiling along with Danny.

"We should... finish dinner."

Danny can't help but stare into Walter's eyes, from the moment he takes the photo and shows it to him to the moment that he speaks again and...suggests finishing their food. Danny almost forgot about it (somehow, even with condiments all over his face), and he looks down at it in genuine surprise.

"Oh! Oh, heh, right...yeah...Dinner. Yeah, let's. Do that."

He begins eating his (now soggy with mustard and ketchup) sliders, trying not to be too obvious about the fact that he can't tear his eyes away from Walter.

Walter is trying to spend the rest of the meal focused on his sliders, but he's finding that difficult. The first few times he looks up and Danny's looking right at him, well, he can shrug that off as coincidence. After that, when he lifts his gaze and meets the stare without looking away... ...not that easy to rationalize.

Maybe he shouldn't have ducked away before. Maybe...

The waitress interrupts that train of thought with the check. Which he pounces on immediately, slapping his hand on it and dragging it his way.

"Everything here is on me, okay? A-and before you complain, you drove."

When the check came, Danny lifted his hand to pick up the check himself, but freezes when Walter instead nabs it. He tries opening his mouth to object, but is cut off there too. He gives up after that, though, because he he really doesn't want to start an argument now of all times.

So he holds his arms up in a mock surrender. "Alright, alright, I'm officially leaving it." Then a grin twitches at the corners of his mouth. "But I'm taking the next one."

"The -- next one? ...okay, fair enough"

There's going to be a next one? And that wasn't a joke?? He's all fumbly as he browses through his wallet before throwing down some cash (and a huge tip, because math is too complicated right now).

"Are you ready to head out?" After a quick look down, he realizes that he's overlooked their "dessert" -- a pair of Hershey's Kisses, left with the check. "...or do you want your Kiss first?"

"M-my--what?" Danny blushes as he stands up, staring at Walter in surprise for a moment. But then he looks down and notices the two chocolates on the check. Oh.

"Oh."

He pauses for a moment, then says, "Yeah, actually, I do."

He picks up one of the candies, unwraps it, and pops it in his mouth. Then he grabs the second one and stretches it out to Walter, offering him a Kiss.

Walter stares at the chocolate in Danny's hand for the longest time. He sets a hand under Danny's and places his other hand on top, poised to grab the Kiss. But... he stops, pausing for awhile before he pushes against Danny's hand, folding his fingers around the candy.

His heart is about to beat out of his chest, and his logical mind is telling him to wait for the Perfect Moment. But Perfect Moments are hard to come by. Sometimes you just have to go with your heart. Even if your heart is telling you to go for it in a public fast food restaurant.

So he squeezes Danny's hand, leans in, and plants a real kiss on his lips. It's going to last as long as Danny allows, or until Walter's jelly-legs give out. Whatever comes first.

Danny is only slightly taken aback by the kiss, but recovers quickly. He leans into it and clasps Walter's hand with both of his. This isn't what he expected to be doing on his Valentine's Day this year (or ever, really), but now that it's happening...he can't deny that he loves this.

He lets it linger and enjoys the moment...and finally breaks it. He's got the widest grin on his face and he can't tear his eyes away from Walter. At least, not until their waitress comes up again and hands them another Polaroid, one she apparently took of them in the moment because it's showing the two of them with their faces mashed together.

"Congratulations," she says kindly.

The reality of the situation smacks Walter as soon as they part, and his legs actually fail him. Luckily, there's a table to hold onto. And a Danny. He's distrubuting the weight between both, because nobody needs to end up on the floor today.

"W...wow."

He wishes he had something better to say, but words are escaping him. He smiles, a wave of giddiness overtaking him. The arrival of the Polaroid gives him something to focus on, which he does, while laughing. His eyes are bright and a little shiny.

This is real life. There's photographic evidence.

I STILL HEAR YOUR VOICE WHEN YOU SLEEP NEXT TO ME

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