Page 8 of Lovesick Titan

“Can I do anything?”

“No,” he snuffled against her shoulder, pulling back with a smile he actually meant, if only because his sister and best friend was always there for him. “This,” he gestured at the boxes, “and pizza will be good. Really. I’m not okay, but I think I can be. So maybe…hamburger, green pepper, olives?”

Stella made an exaggerated disgusted face. “I don’t know if I’m willing to go that far for you.”

Danny laughed.

“There he is.” John came down the stairs next with Joey right behind him. “Ready to get to work?”

“Wait a sec, John. We could get to pizza faster if we had a little,” Joey looked to Danny hopefully, “extrahelp?”

Releasing another chuckle, Danny set his messenger bag on the floor. “I don’t know, Joey. Dad, don’t you have some speech prepared about how manual labor builds character?”

“I do,” John jumped in with a nod and wag of his finger. “I do have a speech about that. What kind of father would I be if I let you useZeusto get off the hook for moving your own belongings?”

“Um, a really cool one?” Joey grinned, then looked at Danny with a bashful shrug. “Assuming you’re okay with that?”

There was so much left unsaid between them, but Joey was giving Danny an olive branch anyway. Maybe it was because Danny was Zeus,someone Joey admired, but the young man also knew there was more to Danny than all the good Zeus had done, more than all the bad Danny had done, more than any single part of him.

“Do I get to choose first pizza?” Danny asked.

“Urg,” Stella groaned, “I wouldn’t agree to that one, Joey.”

But Joey rubbed his hands together like the only thing he’d ever ask for was to see Zeus in action. “Deal.”

Motioning with his arms like parting the Red Sea, Danny said, “Ready?” and when Joey nodded, he lightning jumped the remaining boxes up to the new bedroom as fast as he could, one after the other, then returned for John, Stella, and Joey in turn and deposited each of them on Joey’s bed, which at the moment was nothing but a mattress.

They were all laughing when Danny finally collapsed amongst them, and Joey nudged his arm in gratitude.

“Thatwas awesome.”

“Now about that hamburger, green pepper, and olive pizza…” Danny pulled out his phone.

There were a couple more pieces of furniture left to bring up, some maneuvering that required finesse beyond teleporting, and of course Joey would have to do all of his smaller unpacking himself, but it was nice to have family night without feeling like there was some large part of Danny he couldn’t share—some part of him he couldn’tbe.

His phone vibrated several times while they waited for the pizza to arrive, and he tried to ignore it, tried to focus on being with his family and letting the rest of the world fall away. It was Joey who finally said something.

“It’s okay,” he said the next time Danny’s pants pocket buzzed. “Could be important, right?”

Danny saw the sympathy in Joey’s eyes, the apology for things Danny would never begrudge the young man, not after how he’d reacted in turn. Nodding, he snuck a peek at his phone.

Mal. A few earlier ones were from Andre, but the newest was from Cho.

“Thanks, Joey. I’ll just be a sec.”

Walking out of the room, Danny headed for his own, waiting to pull up the text until he’d shut his door behind him and sat on the edge of the bed. There was nothing spectacular about Danny’s bedroom, justthe bed, mirrored doors on his closet, a nightstand and dresser, and a handful of photographs he found too difficult to look at some days since most of them included his mother or Rick.

Whatever you need to get Ludgate, whenever you’re ready, I’m here.

No pressure about talking or replying to the message or discussing the elephant in the room of whatever this was between them that went so much further than sex. The message simply said that Cho would be there when Danny needed him to face the monster hiding in the shadows—a terrible parody of all those months ago.

Danny looked at the mirrors that made up his closet doors. It would be pointless to try to cover every reflective surface in the house. He’d done his best at Cho’s, but mirrors, reflections, they were everywhere. All Ludgate needed was to know which one to look through. Maybe he didn’t know where Danny lived. Maybe he didn’t know these particular mirrors. Maybe he did. But whatever Danny figured out to stop Ludgate, he couldn’t do it alone.

He texted back,Thanks, and hovered over the dial pad trying to think of more to say, or if he should just call Cho. He wanted to. But he couldn’t tell him the truth over the phone, and the next time he spoke to him, he had to come clean. He had to end it.

A knock at the door barely registered until Joey entered. “Pizza’s here. Danny?” When their gazes met, he stepped inside with downturned eyes as if Danny’s expression laid bare every emotion he was feeling.

“No fires.” Danny held up his phone. “Literal or figurative.”

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