Page 10 of Lovesick Gods

Danny tried to lift his head, to look at Andre and Lynn, but before he could, he felt their arms surround him, and hejustcouldn’tanymore—couldn’t be strong, couldn’t be angry, couldn’t be anything but miserable and lonely even with his friends at his side.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” he whimpered as they held him.

“Danny,” Lynn spoke against his shoulder, “nothing is wrong with you. You’re hurt and frustrated and weighed down by far more than any one person should have to shoulder alone. But you’re not alone. Let us help.”

“Yeah, man,” Andre said, “we’re a team, remember? Tell us what’s going on.”

They’d been a team since night one. Because Danny owed Thanatos for Rick’s death and had been granted powers he refused to let lie dormant. Because Lynn had dedicated her career to police work after a random Elemental attack took her husband years earlier and Thanatos was a reminder of that. Because Andre had come up with far too many ideas about how to turn Danny into a superhero to be left out of the loop.

Slowly, limbs extracting one at a time, they released him. Within the hug, he’d felt grounded and good, but out of it again he just felt hollow.

He closed his eyes and clenched his fists tight. “Lately, no matter what I do, I just want to…hurt someone. Pound someone into the ground until they break and feel as broken as I do.”

“Danny…” Lynn said softly.

“I won’t do that.” He opened his eyes. “I know I don’t really want that, but sometimes I feel like I need to scream and hit something, and there’s no outlet other than patrol. But I can’t risk losing it out there when people’s lives depend on me.” He wished he hadn’t demolished the hospital bed so he had somewhere to sit.

Lynn smiled with endless patience. “Maybe you need to blow off steam another way. Talking about it, telling us what you’refeeling, that’s good, that’s a great start, but you are allowed to take a break.”

“What, take up a hobby?” Danny said humorlessly. “Date? Tried that, failed miserably.”

“Why does it have to be dating?” Andre said. “There are other ways to blow off steam, if you…get what I’m sayin’.”

“Andre,” Lynn wrinkled her nose.

“I don’t mean break some poor girl’s heart,” Andre held up his hands toward her defensively, “I mean mutual understanding that gettin’ busy is all that’s on the table. Everybody happy come morning.”

Danny huffed an abortive laugh. “Maybe, but that’s not reallyme, you know?”

“Hey, Elementals can’t attack every night,” Andre said more seriously. “The rest of the OCPD can handle plenty on their own. We can do movie nights right here in the morgue, relax, and still be on call if something comes up. I miss getting our geek on, man.” He nudged Danny with his shoulder. “Get take-out. Play some GTA heists.”

“I will never understand how you two can fight crime and put away the people whocommitheists,” Lynn said, “and then want to spend your free time pretending to be those same people in a video game.”

“Wanton destruction and escapism are good for the soul, sister,” Andre countered.

This time Danny laughed heartily. “I’d like that,” he said, thinking of all the nights that had differed from Camo, where the big bad had just been some car thief or purse snatcher. Zeus didn’t need to give up his evenings for that.

“It’s a date,” Andre said. “We’ll pick a night this week.”

“For now, just get some rest.” Lynn gripped his shoulder. “Maybe find some time to take off from work coming up, somevacation days if you can. You have a right to stop and breathe, Danny. If you were anyone else…”

“What?”

She sighed as her hand dropped back down between them. “It’s been weeks, Danny, months like this, don’t think we haven’t noticed. At times like these, some people find medication to be helpful.”

“Only my metabolism would burn through anything I took,” Danny finished what she hadn’t said. Having a healing factor wasn’t always a good thing. If he was…unbalanced, how could he find equilibrium again when he had superpowers?

“That doesn’t mean we can’t figure something out,” she said. “Just keep talking to us. Don’t keep us in the dark. Some time off and the right outlets may help. But if they don’t, you should never feel like being miserable is okay or the norm. No one is meant to go through life unhappy.” When her eyebrows downturned in sympathy, Danny knew she spoke from experience not condescension.

Lynn had been in a similar state when she lost her husband, low and miserable like nothing could make life worth smiling over again, and she’d still found a way to crawl her way out.

“Thank you,” Danny said, looking to each of his friends in turn. “I mean it…thanks. Both of you. Maybe I needed this detour with Camo to get my head on straight.”

“Dude,” Andre sneered. “Camo? That sounds seriously lame. It’s Camouflage,” he drew out the ending syllable dramatically, “excuse you. Otherwise, it sounds like Camel, and you better not ever get a supervillain who deserves a name like that.”

“I was thinking Erebus,” Lynn shrugged.

“Oh no,” Andre gave an even more exaggerated sneer. “Did you miss the part where we agreed to veerawayfrom Greek mythology? That shit is getting old.”

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