she's a killer queen

He was trying to resist the urges he had to pull that dress right back off her and carry her to their bed. For everything they went through and every clash, it only made him desire her more. In fact, she was quite attractive when she was mad at him. He liked her power dynamic, for the most part anyway. He could settle for being somewhat submissive to her as long as it didn’t get out of hand. “Mandy, Mandy, Mandy,” he sighed. "Are you ready to leave now, love?" He released her from his hold and took her by the hand, gently kissing the back of it and bowing to her at the same time. "Your carriage and awaits, madame." He loved playing the part of her chauffeur. Sometimes they would roleplay that she was a wealthy woman and he was her driver and they were having a secret affair, and that really turned him on for some unknown reason. He was trying to shove all the thoughts he had of fucking her out of his mind, but they were persistent. He led her down the stairs and to the car, opening the door for her and smiling radiantly the entire time. So they were off to the races, or rather to a party, and finally they’d get to spend some time enjoying each other’s company.

Mandy let him lead her down the stairs and to their car. She sat down in the passenger's side. She wasn't very comfortable letting Danny drive. He didn't even actually have a license. He drove like a maniac and Mandy had to hang on for dear life. She braced herself for the inevitable rough drive.

— "I - I wasn’t crying if that’s what you’re implying. It’s just allergy season and my eyes are watering. Just leave me alone and let me drink.”

"Go back to wherever you came from, McQueen."

"Alright, I’m going to go get ready… You should too, you look like a mess," he said, digging at her without a hint of subtlety. Cruel, she called him. As though she were not cruel herself. He stormed up the stairs, and along the way he shed the designer clothing she had forced him to wear. He practically threw it, in fact. In only his undergarments, he stood in front of the tall mirror in their bedroom. He examined his body, figuring out where he’d have to apply concealer to bruises and scars. Under his own self-scrutinizing, he concluded he looked awful. Nevertheless he changed into his tight jeans, ruffled blue women’s blouse and black buckle-up jacket with quarter sleeves. He looked at himself again, expressing displeasure in his scrawny figure. He slid into the bathroom to do his eyeliner and conceal the markings on his body. With trembling hands, he drew darkness beneath his eyes and smudged it. He stared at himself for a moment. He could hear Mandy coming up the stairs so he quickly hurried through the rest of his grooming routine, teasing up his dull blond hair to reasonable height. He wondered if he looked good enough, but put on his guise of confidence the moment Mandy stepped into the room. "Aren’t I gorgeous?" he said with a cocky smile.

"Zip me up, McQueen."

"So, are you going to cry over spilled tea or can we skip your theatrics and go out to party?" he asked coldly. She’d probably smack him across the face for being so out of line, but that day he wasn’t feeling like sitting through her asinine attempts at reformation. He didn’t understand why she couldn’t be content, why any of his friends couldn’t be content with the way he presented himself. Why did he have to be prim and proper? It seemed like a load of bullshit to him. He’d only known her for a couple months and already she was trying to turn his life around, allegedly for the better. He couldn’t have loathed her nitpicking and manners reminders more than he did already. Somehow they were still a couple. Somehow. 

"Fine, we'll go out to a party. Just... remember your lessons and don't act like a wild animal in front of my friends!"

— Danny looked crestfallen the moment those words left Mandy’s lips. Maxwell had been his ex-boyfriend, and even after they broke up they remained fantastic friends. He thought that the director would have made it big by that point in time, but to hear that he was dead gave him the chills. He found it difficult to swallow, and even more difficult to find the words to say about it. "I… He was…. I’m so sorry to hear that," he said, finding that he was on the verge of crying about it. Worse yet, it seemed that Maxwell had been killed in a very violent manner. "I don’t know quite what to say, I just —" His words stopped abruptly as Mandy cut in to give her last bit of news. She’d had a child? "That’s… lovely, Mandy. Whose is it?" He was still fighting back the tears so he couldn’t truly be happy for her engagement or for her child, but he tried to smile through the sadness.

"Well, I had a DNA test done... He's your son, McQueen. I spent thousands of dollars trying to track you down so that I could tell you but here we are, meeting on the streets." She inhaled sharply. "But what's past is past, you won't be a part of the child's future, but I suppose I should let you know that I gave named him Aleister, after your middle name. Aleister David Brooks." She felt awful for dumping all this information on Danny at once, but she didn't want to stick around to talk to him for too much longer. Their life together was long over, but she had wished to inform him of everything before they parted ways again. "It's been nice, McQueen, but I have to go," she said, turning away. "I've got to shop for a wedding dress."

— His expression changed to one of shock when she mentioned her engagement. Never mind the fact that she’d just insulted him, that was completely normal, but Danny felt something lurch in the pit of his stomach. In the time they’d been apart, she’d gotten engaged, obviously to someone wealthy judging by the furs she was wearing, and he lived mostly on park benches and in homeless shelters. He couldn’t tell what kind of jealousy he was feeling. "W-well, congratulations," he stammered. "Am I invited to the wedding?" He was mostly joking, although in a way he felt entitled to be there. After all he and Mandy had spent so much time together. But since they hadn’t seen each other in two years, he was certain that he wasn’t on the guest list. Mandy was doing very well for herself, he could tell, and his accomplishments paled in comparison.

She shook her head. "That's not the only news I have... You remember Maxwell, correct?" she asked. "Well... He passed away." They had met through their mutual friend, the director. "It wasn't pretty..." She took in a deep breath. "He had homophobic slurs carved into his back when they found him." She could feel her eyes tearing up just a little bit at the very thought of it. "He was just on the wrong side of town with his boyfriend... I was going to walk home with them but... He told me he was going to be fine, and that's the last I ever spoke to him. His boyfriend made it, though, bless his heart, barely got through it." She seemed utterly forlorn. But she had one more thing to tell Danny, one last important thing to get him caught up with her life. "And McQueen... Not two months after you left... I found out I was pregnant..."

— She was calling him things like ‘darling’ and hugging him before he knew what was even happening. Truth be told he was a little bit afraid of Mandy, or rather of Mandy’s wrath. After all it had been her who kicked him out on the streets two years ago and he hadn’t had a steady place to stay since then. "Mandy, I didn’t think I’d ever run into you again," he said. New York City was a big place, after all. "Mike Soverty happened to me. You remember him, that crazy bastard. He tried to kill me, and I mean that, he actually held a gun against my head." He shuddered to recall. "So… How have you been the past two years?" He wondered if he actually wanted to talk to her or if he was just being polite.

Her eyes lit up with confusion. "I thought you loved Mike Soverty," she said. "You know, aside from the fact that he was better than you at everything, including making love to me." Her cheeks were pink as she spoke of her tryst with Mike. Danny'd known about it, there was full understanding between the both of them that they could sleep with other people while they were dating. The trouble was, Danny had done so on Mandy's birthday, and just as Mandy was truly falling for him. So naturally she had to kick him out. "No offense intended, McQueen. So he tried to kill you, did he? Figures he would snap like that." She brushed her hand through her short cut hair. "I've been well. I'm engaged, actually," she said.

— After his near-deadly encounter with Mike Soverty, Danny had spent some time in the hospital. He had only got out just a few days ago. He saw someone from across the street, and they looked familiar. As he crossed, he finally recognized who it was — Mandy, his ex-girlfriend. He froze in the middle of traffic, barely hearing the cars honking at him. He inched forward, almost timidly. "M-Mandy?" he questioned, squinting. He made his way to the other sidewalk where she stood. He could hardly believe his eyes. They hadn’t seen each other in two years.

"So it is you..." She said, almost relieved. "What happened to you, darling?" She looked at the bandages on his face, the bruises peeking through and his arm in a sling. "Heavens above, did you get into a car accident?" She delicately gave him a hug and stepped back to look at him again. He was still as handsome as the day they first met, despite his injuries.