#daniel; threads

When the text came through it wasn’t from an unknown number, just one that Talia hadn’t seen pop up on her phone for awhile. DANIEL (SAT PHONE). She hadn’t gotten a text or call from Daniel since that day, weeks back, when she told him to pack his bag and leave. (How many lives had she lived since then?) She knew, though, what to expect from this specific number, and when she opened the text message, all that greeted her was a string of two numbers. Longitude and latitude.

They had played this game more than a few times before. One of them out in the woods, either for their own hike or on the job, and they would text the other their coordinates to invite them along. It had started as a sort of banter, hide-and-seek game but quickly became a way just to ask the other to join them. It was easier, for Talia at least, to send a string over coordinates to Daniel, rather than admit that she’d wanted to hang out with him. Especially as it became clearer and clearer that they weren’t just friends, however they might both protest.

Talia vaguely recognized the area, at least overall. Obviously in Maine, in Wicked’s Rest, somewhere in the Pines, just past the State Park and into the mountains, she was pretty sure. It was easy enough to find on a map, but she would know it better once she was walking through it. The natural world has always made more sense to her in mud and trees and leaves than in the atlas. So she double-checked her bandages, loaded up on some more painkillers, and got her gear together. 

It wasn’t too far of a hike, but ever since that faceoff with Daiyu and the stab to her gut, Talia hadn’t been much for hiking. She went slow, stopping more than once and by the time she recognized where she was headed, there was sweat dabbing her face and down her back. But Daniel had given her the coordinates for the spot where they had first camped together, where he cooked them steaks and she brought ice cream and whiskey. Where they climbed a tree together to look at the sunset and they both took turns peeking at each other in the golden lighting instead.

As she approached, she heard Tree’s wild, hound bark rise up and Talia couldn’t help the smile that climbed her face. She had missed the puppy. Just as she had missed Daniel. And fuck, but she had missed Daniel during the new moons, and the recovery following full moons, and after long days at work spent listening to Gene whistle cheerily, and while wandering around Mossthorn Bog with Constance. And most of all, when Daiyu’s knife had sunk into her belly. Talia’s first thought had been wanting her father, but once the fog of pain cleared, she had wanted Daniel. Even though he was another ranger with a collection of silver weapons, she had wanted him there to tend to her wounds and pet back her hair and tell her it would be okay.

She spent several minutes with the puppy, scratching through her rusty coat and murmuring soft affections to her, accepting the kisses and excited whines. “I know, baby,” she soothed, getting back to her feet. “But I gotta go see your daddy.” Talia shed her excess gear and left it at the foot of the big sycamore, right next to where Daniel’s supplies were laid. When she peered up the trunk of the tree, she could just make out the shadow of his shape – right where they had sat together before. Talia’s heart flipped. Once again, it was slow-going. She had to ensure she didn’t stretch too far and rip open any stitches, but she was a strong climber anyway. When she made it up to the branch, she saw Daniel had left just enough space for her to sit. She took the branch at a straddle, so she could brace her back against the trunk and take a breath.

And then, there he was. Talia looked up at Daniel, finally, the sunsetting over his face and lighting up his blue eyes. The tousle in his hair and the jacket he was wearing, so similar to the one she was currently wearing. Probably because the one Talia had on had been left behind by Daniel. She had pulled on a lot of his left-behind clothes since he had cleared out of her cabin. She pulled the cuffs of the sleeves over her hands then, tucking into herself. Nervous, now that she was here with him.

“Hey,” was all she could manage, voice soft, light. The complete opposite of how she had spoken to him that last time, brutally demanding he leave. Her eyes wavered but didn’t leave his face, watching, waiting. Hoping.

—

Fresh air—cold and biting into his skin, weaving its way into his bones to shake a chill through his body. But fresh. For the first time in the last month, Daniel left Eve’s home to breathe in the air of the deep woods. He wandered around the Deersprings neighborhood, but he never ventured too far away in case he had some sort of emergency. He was grateful that Eve offered him a place to stay after his incident with the berserker and the ball-tailed cat, but his heart ached to be back in the wilderness—to smell the aroma of pine trees, to hear the crunch of snow under his boots, to listen to the songs of winter birds. Although hunters healed fast, that speedy hunter healing felt like torture as his injuries trapped him indoors, left only to lay around in the guest bed, staring up at the ceiling and questioning his sanity. At the first opportunity to explore the woods on his own, of course Daniel took it. 

Tree ran ahead of him, and he followed her path through the snow. He hummed to himself as he hiked and caught up with his puppy—she was so much larger since he first found her in the woods. “Hey, girl,” he said, leaning down to pet her as she wagged her tail in excitement. He hated that she had been trapped indoors with him, mostly walking around Eve’s neighborhood. Her tail wagged enthusiastically now that she was back in the woods, and she hopped through the snow. He found a stick and threw it for her, and she chased after it, grabbing it and violently shaking her head with the stick in her mouth. Pieces of it broke off from her tight grip and erratic headbanging. Daniel couldn’t stifle his laugh at watching his stupid dog play with a stick. “Here,” he hollered out, tossing another stick for her to chase after. 

Between the walking and stick throwing, Daniel paid little attention to exactly where he wandered through the woods. He knew his way around and felt unworried about getting lost. If anything, he could retrace his and Tree’s steps. He rested his hands on his hips as he looked around a wide open clearing, surrounded by tall trees reaching up towards the sky. His lungs filled with the chilly air as he took in a deep breath. 

A sycamore caught his eye. A familiar sycamore. His chest ached and he bit down on his tongue as he tilted his head upwards, taking in the full majestic height of the tree. Snow clung to some of the branches and glistened under the sunlight. Talia instantly came to mind as he thought about how he brought her to this very spot, for a camping trip that seemed like ages ago but was only a mere six months. Though so much in his life changed in such a brief amount of time. His gaze stayed on the tree. Tree entertained herself as she jumped and rolled around on the snow, running over to bark at him every now and then before finding a stick for entertainment. 

Something came over Daniel, and he couldn’t stop himself from swinging off his backpack and grabbing his satellite phone. He tapped through the menu options, finding Talia’s contact in the list of a very limited number of people. Her name was right below his mother’s. He hovered over his mother’s name for a moment, debating yet again if he should reach out to her for the first time in over five years. He clicked down and selected Talia’s name. He clicked the option to send only his coordinates without a message, and he pressed send. 

Daniel held his breath for a moment as he watched the satellite phone try to send the message. He stayed still, unmoving as the phone searched for the signal. The clearing was the best spot for this, and the blue sky above him didn’t have any clouds to block his message. A couple times, as he waited, he clicked over to the “cancel message” option as he thought about how stupid of an idea this might be. But three minutes passed and the message sent. He couldn’t take it back now. 

Now he had to wait. Wait to see if Talia would come find him, just as she always did after he first joked about her coming to find him during their failed fishing trip (although that wasn’t really that much of a failure, as it finally led them into each other’s arms). He loved their version of hide-and-seek, and he hoped that maybe she missed it just as much as he did—that maybe she missed him just as much as he missed her. He stared at the message on his sat phone, concerned that she might not show up at all. He’d give her a few hours. He had nowhere to be and really didn’t want to go back to Deersprings just yet.

He sat underneath their sycamore for a while, reading one of his books and throwing sticks for Tree. A few times she stopped her playing to curl up next to him and take a quick power nap before running around again. She needed this just as much as he did. After a while of sitting, Daniel looked up at the sycamore’s branches reaching out above him, tempting him to climb. “Don’t go far,” he instructed Tree. He reached up for the first branch, and the familiar bark dug into his rough hands. The first lift caused him to groan as the muscles in his body reacted to being used like this for the first time in weeks. But he pushed through, climbing slowly and carefully up into the tree until he reached the same branch that he and Talia sat on months ago. 

He sat there staring out into the landscape before him. He didn’t know how long he waited until a familiar ache eased its way into his spine and a heat spread through his back. He had never been one to tell specific types of shifters apart, though he felt differences between shifters and beasts, but this feeling was all-too familiar, like the one that resided in his body whenever he was with Talia. Almost as though his senses could tell her apart from other shifters and beasts. An excited bark from Tree confirmed what he already knew. 

He waited. Patiently. His mind raced through every possibility as he listened to Talia cooing over Tree and Tree barking at seeing her friend. He rolled his eyes as he heard her refer to him as Tree’s daddy. He didn’t think she knew about his heightened hearing—it wasn’t like the topic of his ranger abilities ever came up during the months they knew each other. He watched as Talia carefully climbed up the tree and took a spot next to him. 

“Hey, Talia,” he greeted back, feeling almost breathless at the sight of her. Her soft eyes, her long dark tresses, her voice—sweet and smooth like honey. “Nice jacket,” he smirked, immediately recognizing his jacket’s torn pocket on the right chest and the faded spots from years of use. Seeing her for the first time in so long, wearing his jacket that he left at her cabin, brought a warmth into his body that the freezing air could never bite through. 

Daniel kept his gaze on her, unwavering, even as his heart thumped louder and faster. He wanted to say so much to her, to talk with her after everything that happened in her cabin, to apologize again, to tell her so much about what had happened since they last spoke. 

“I’m glad you found me,” he said after a few moments. “I missed you.” 

–

All Talia said back was a shaky, “Hi,” but it felt like the force of a waterfall was rushing over her head. The release of all she had been feeling for so long was that much, and, just like the ice-cold waters of Montana falls, it took her breath for a second. It hadn’t even been a question, when his coordinates came through. Of course she was going to meet him. Even with the betrayal, that final fight, Talia had missed him so much –enough that just saying hello put a fritz in her system– that their reunion was inevitable, no matter how impossible it may have seemed.

He called attention to the fact that she was wearing his jacket and she managed a smile, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Some idiot left it at my house.” Most of the things he had left were returned, through Wyatt, but Talia had held on to some for this express purpose. If only he knew how often she had been wearing his clothes, recently. It had already been common, when they were together: mixed up shirts, and socks, and bandanas. But since he had left, she had been reaching for his clothes more and more, just hoping to catch a trace of his scent lingering. It was only in the last few weeks that she realized his scent had begun to wear off of them, and had panicked with that realization.

Daniel’s heart sped up and she could hear it. And he knew that about her now. Or, he had always known that about her, but it was out in the open. She knew that he knew what she was. She knew what he was. She knew that he killed things like her and he knew that she killed things like him. They were supposed to hate each other, were born to hate each other.

But not him. She couldn’t hate Daniel. She had fucking tried for the past two months to hate him. Even if she would never be able to kill him, like she did with other hunters, she had tried to just muster the same ire that came when she thought of Daiyu (Don’t think of Daiyu and that clusterfuck now, though…) “I’m glad you asked me to find you.” That brought a smile that was genuine if soft to her face. Hesitant but hopeful, like the two of them sitting in that tree together. “I missed you too. I…really missed you.”

God, more and more every day. Talia missed him when she woke to an empty bed and a cabin that didn’t smell like coffee and breakfast. She missed him when she came home from work and he wasn’t already standing at the stove, preparing dinner, but heading for the door so he could give her a kiss hello. She missed him in the silent evenings, when she should have been curled up next to him, reading, or talking through their days, or laughing as Tree played on the floor between them. She missed him, badly, on the new moons and the mornings after the full moons, when he had pretended to believe her lies about flus and bad menstrual cycles and held her and pet her hair back and made her tea and soup and asked what she needed, gave it to her. She missed all of the ways he had filled up the space in her home and her life and she wanted him back. “Mostly, though, I missed Tree,” she teased. 

There wasn’t all that much space between them but Talia reached across it and took his hand in hers. Just held it, feeling the chill from the still-winter air around them and the rough, dug-in callouses. She loved his hands, had from the beginning, told him often. “I’m sorry.” A breeze picked up through the branches and it almost, almost tasted like spring. “For…what I said, when we fought. Or maybe just how I said it.” Was there a world where she had told Daniel she just needed a time-out and then they got back together, later the next day? Hashed it all out civilly and got back together with little more than a wrinkle? Talia wasn’t sure. Further, she wasn’t sure it mattered. 

“Obviously we needed to talk about that shit and…maybe there’s still some stuff there we need to talk about.” But did they? He was a hunter, a ranger, who killed werewolves. She was a werewolf, specifically one who hunted hunters to kill. His sister had been torn to pieces by a shifter. Her sister had been disposed of by hunters. Nothing they said to each other could change any of that.

Maybe, though… Maybe they could still…

“Where… Where have you been staying?” Daniel wasn’t exactly homeless, but in the dead of winter, that camper of his provided little shelter. That’s why he had started staying at the cabin in the first place (was it, though?). Had he found someone else to stay with? She had seen him talking to a few people online that seemed like it could be more than friendly – Kelly, or Regan, or Diana, or Xóchitl. 

—

Daniel couldn’t help but grin wider as she said hi to him again. She seemed flustered and nervous about seeing him for the first time since their fight, and he couldn’t blame her as his own nerves made it hard for him to think of what all he wanted to say—besides just telling her that he loved and missed her. 

He chuckled at her comment. “Okay, but I ain’t a total idiot,” he said. “I noticed real quick that Wyatt didn’t bring me all my clothes. Realized a few things was missing.” A couple of his flannels that he wore a lot never made it back to him, and even some of his old, worn metal t-shirts never reappeared in his belongings. Seeing Talia wearing his jacket led his imagination to wander—wondering if she often wore his clothing around her cabin while they were apart. He sometimes wished he had more of her things during their separation. He had run off with some of her bandanas but not much else. Every time he used the binoculars that she gifted him, it was a way to feel some sort of connection to her. “The jacket looks good on you.” 

Daniel already assumed that she missed him just as much as he did her—his jacket wrapped around her body proved that in his mind—but hearing her confirm it brought him so much relief. A heavy weight lifted off his shoulders as she said she really missed him. He never imagined that he would miss her as much as he did. His days and nights were spent thinking about Talia, longing to reach out to her, to ask her how she was. He had always kept track of the moon phases, but with each full moon and new moon, he wanted to be there for her, to let her know she was safe with him—to let her know she was cared for by him. He almost wondered what would have happened if he had reached out to her sooner than today. Would they have reconciled faster? (Was this even a reconciliation? Were they possibly going to get back together? Fuck, he really hoped they were. He struggled falling asleep without her next to him, and he had fallen back to his old ways of not sleeping.)

“Tree missed you too.” He glanced down at the dog who was now sitting at the bottom of the tree, as if she was on guard duty. “I heard you call me her daddy,” Daniel teased. Maybe this could be one way of breaking more of the ice around the whole ranger situation. At some point Talia would probably need to know all about him. He knew she killed hunters, but he wasn’t sure how much she knew about the different types of hunters and all the abilities they came with. Daniel knew a lot about shifters, especially werewolves (and berserkers), from years of learning everything he could about them for hunting. But how much did her pack know and teach about hunters? Did she have any idea that some rangers had hearing that was probably just like her own? He wanted to ask her all this and more, but he didn’t think right then was the best time for it. “I was always serious whenever I told you that I got excellent hearing.” 

She took his hand in hers, and he wanted to pour out every thought in his head. Tell her how much he missed playing with her hands. How much he missed feeling them against his body. How much he missed taking her hands and pressing kisses against them. The touch, the familiar connection between them, convinced him to move just a bit closer to her. Even though he sat facing her, all he saw was a large gap between them and he longed to be as close as possible to her (within reason as he didn’t want to cross any boundary with her). 

“No, no, I’m sorry,” Daniel responded. He blamed himself for all of it. He didn’t believe she needed to apologize to him for anything. He was the one who knew all along what they both were, yet he continued playing with her feelings. Even before their fight, he stressed about what he was doing with her. After their fight, he thought that maybe he should have told her sooner (but if he told her sooner, would they have ever been able to come back together?). “I’m sorry. I said things I shouldn’t have. And I’m sorry that I hid that from you. I shouldn’t … I’m sorry.” 

He nodded his head in agreement. “I guess we probably do,” he said. At some point, the two of them really would need to talk about the whole ranger and werewolf situation. He wasn’t sure how to go about it, especially knowing that they were both raised to kill each other. Yet here they were, sitting in a tree, holding hands, and gazing into each other’s eyes. Daniel wasn’t sure how much he should share with her about himself—about his moral code, his mother, Maya, his father, his paternal family, or the weird distance he had from his maternal (read: ranger) family? Did any of that even matter to her? But it was all still part of him and who he was, and he wanted her to know these things about him. He wanted to know all about her too.

“Um, my camper, sometimes. Usually staying with different friends, but jumping from place to place.” He shrugged. He wasn’t sure how open he could be with Talia right then—he thought that he could maybe be honest enough with her, now that she knew he was a hunter. “These last few weeks though, I’ve been at the same place. Staying with … someone important to me.” He realized that maybe that implied a different type of relationship. “She’s the little sister of one of my best friends. Well, I guess, someone who was my best friend. He’s … no longer alive …, but she’s like a little sister to me.” 

He reached out to her and pushed back a few strands of her hair behind her ear. “I miss staying with you though. Your cabin is cozy and warm. Out in the woods too.” 

—

Talia pawed at the back of her neck, a sheepish look over her face. She had wondered if Daniel might notice, figured he would, but hoped he would assume she had just…done something therapeutic with the clothes. Girls in movies were always burning their exes’ possessions, or throwing them in a river or something (not that Talia would ever do that latter). Had he assumed that she kept them just to have some piece of him with her? Was she that obvious? “Thanks. You can…have it back, if you want.” She hoped he wouldn’t want it back. Or, more accurately, she hoped it wouldn’t matter if he did. Hoped that they climb down from that tree to go back to her cabin together, to mix their clothes up again. She hoped she wouldn’t have to bury her nose into the collar of some left-behind jacket just to catch the lingering remnants of his scent.

“You are her daddy.” But then his explanation of his hearing hung in the air between them, caught between the ice crystals of their misting breaths. A hunter’s enhanced senses wasn’t news to Talia. Neither was their strength, or their speed, or their healing. She had been told that other abilities could vary from ranger to ranger, so that they had become a sort of bogeyman: some could see in the dark, some had armor-strong skin. Her Uncle Titus had sworn he met one that could change her scent to smell like prey. Talia did want to know where Daniel fell in the mix and… And it was strange that no part of her thought of using it as intel. 

Wouldn’t this be the perfect source? A hunter, a ranger, who was in love with her (was he? Had he really been? Was he still? Could he possibly?) Talia could learn all she ever wanted to know about hunters, straight from the horse’s mouth. And she didn’t care. All she wanted to know was just about Daniel himself, the way she had always wanted to know everything she could about him. “I…know some things,” she said, stilted. “Like the healing and the speed and strength and all. Is there other stuff you can do?”

She fussed a little closer to him as he apologized – thankful that he had. Talia meant her apology and she had known she had, but she had also expected one from Daniel, too. He was right – he shouldn’t have hidden that he was a hunter, that he knew what she was, from her. But he had. And here they were, now. Her fingers traced along the ridges of his hand, neither of them were wearing gloves and their hands were both red and chapped in the cold. It was worth it, to be able to feel his bare skin against hers. “Not right now, though.” She didn’t want to hash out all that they needed to discuss at that moment. Not when she hadn’t seen him in so long. Not when he was looking at her with those sweet eyes and the crisp winter sunlight falling like stained glass over his face. She had questions, just as she was sure he did. But she didn’t care about any of them in that moment. Maybe because it felt like they didn’t matter – or like the answers to them didn’t matter.

She hadn’t had any of the answers the first night without him, and still her body had shook and cried and longed for his – just like so many of the nights after that first one, just like the night before. Just like this morning when she woke up alone. She hadn’t had any of the answers when Daniel’s text had come through and Talia hadn’t been able to leap up and out of the cabin fast enough. She wanted him, no matter what the explanations would be. That much was clear.

Maneuvering carefully, Talia let her legs hang over the branch so she could settle her side against Daniel’s. Her body wanted to sink into his, the way she always had so easily, but she still couldn’t be sure he would be receptive. He had texted her, brought her out here. But… But. So she didn’t settle her head against his shoulder and close her eyes and listen to his heartbeat, like she wanted to. Just pressed their legs together and looked out at the sunset with him, as he told her about staying with different friends. 

He was right to rush to explain further, as Talia’s throat constricted at someone important to me. (She had wondered about the possibility of him moving on entirely. That he might have found someone else, someone less complicated, someone who wasn’t a werewolf, who didn’t kill hunters. He should have done that. That’s what she thought when she saw him talking to Xóchitl online – a nice simple human for him.) Not that she was calmed by the notion that he was staying with someone like a sister to him. Like the sister a shifter had killed. (Was his best friend killed by a shifter too?) Was she a hunter in Wicked’s Rest? God, what if it was someone Talia knew? But she wouldn’t devolve into that paranoia, not right then. 

She thumbed over his knuckles, nodding along. Nosing into his hand when he brushed at her hair. “Come back.” It was strained, and quiet but she had said it and there was no going back. “Maybe it was stupid, you moving in the way you did. Maybe we should have taken it…slower or whatever. And maybe we should hash everything out before just going back to how things were but–” Her bottom lip caught against the heel of his hand and suddenly Talia’s heart was louder than anything in the forest around them. “But I want you back, with me. Please.” That was the most honest she had ever been with him, maybe –more honest even than telling him about her killing hunters– telling him that she wanted him with her. 

“We… We will talk. We have to, I know. We will. But we can do it at home.”

—

“You keep it,” Daniel replied, glancing down at the jacket on her. “I like it on you.” Even if he never found himself at her cabin again, he thought she should at least keep some of his clothing, if she wanted—it seemed like she wanted that. As far as he was concerned, the jacket was hers now. 

He held his breath for a moment as he debated just how much to tell her about his abilities right then. He wanted to tell her everything even as his hunter mindset screamed at him to keep it secret. He shouldn’t give away anything about what he could do which she could later use against him. He even kept most of his abilities hidden from other hunters as they did not need to know any of that about him either. “Yeah, there’s … other stuff,” Daniel said carefully. If any type of relationship (platonic or romantic) were to exist between them, he knew that it needed to be on a level playing field. He shouldn’t continue holding all the information about the two of them with her knowing little about him. 

“Um, like you said, the fast healing and the strength. Maybe not speed, but more like precision and fast reflexes. My senses tell me when there’s a shapeshifter or beast around me. The hearing thing,” he tapped his ear, “is probably about equal to yours.” He paused for a moment as it hit him just how much his body was designed to hunt werewolves—to hunt Talia. “Um, I can sort of see in the dark. Not as good as some hunters. That’s kind of a new thing for me, and it’s still developing more. Um, tougher skin.” Daniel tapped his fingers against the bark as he thought through how to phrase the next part. She knew he killed werewolves like her, but he felt a pit in his stomach. “And, I know you ain’t stupid, but the … the bite mark,” he pressed his right hand against his left shoulder, “um, from a werewolf.” She didn’t need to know the story about that werewolf biting into his shoulder on a waxing gibbous and the stress of worrying if he would die or transform on the full moon. “Ain’t never turned, so guess I’m immune. Not the most useful thing since I ain’t wanting to get bit by a werewolf more than the one time.” Well, except for when Talia used to bite him and leave him covered in marks and bruises. But those bites from a werewolf were under completely different circumstances. 

The simple touch of Talia’s hand against his confirmed just how much Daniel had missed the feeling of her skin against his. He spent most nights since their breakup wishing for her touch again, wishing for her hand in his. He meant every word of his apology, as short of one as it was, but he knew he couldn’t just say I’m sorry over and over again, or else it may lose its meaning. But he meant it—every day and night, his mind was consumed by how he lied to her and how she deserved to hear him apologize to her. “Yeah, we can discuss it all later,” he agreed. He looked up from their hands and to her eyes again. “I mean it, too. I’m sorry.” How she could ever forgive him was beyond him. But he’d much rather discuss things with her at another time, after they had time to be around each other again. Ever since he moved to Wicked’s Rest, they saw each other multiple times a week (although many of those early encounters were just short chats in the state park, but he still counted them in his head), and then it turned into spending multiple hours together and suddenly he was sleeping at her place almost every night. A few days apart were enough to drive him mad, but an entire two months made him miss her presence even more than he ever thought possible. All he wanted was to exist by her side for a while before diving into the difficult conversations. 

Talia moved in closer to him, and while her leg pressed against his was comforting, he longed for so much more. He missed how they fell into each other with their bodies connected. He thought maybe this was how it was though, neither of them wanting to cross the other’s boundary but testing it with little steps. He carefully moved his arm around her waist, tucking her in a little closer against him while his hand rested on her hip. 

Come back. Talia pressed her face into his hand and he felt the fleeting touch of her lip on his palm. He tried to not react rashly. He wanted to look calm and neutral as he thought through her words, but all that happened was the loud beating of his heart and the sudden water pooling at the bottom of his eyes. He rubbed his thumb across her cheek and tilted her head towards him. “I’ll come back,” he said softly. “I don’t care if we’re being stupid by rushing into things again because … because I miss you. I’ve missed you so fucking much.” 

Daniel pulled her closer to him and planted a kiss on the side of her head. He rested his head against hers for a moment as he breathed her into his body. Oh, it was so incredibly stupid of him to move into the cabin of a werewolf who hunted hunters, just as it was incredibly stupid to tell that same werewolf about his hunting abilities. She could harm him now—she knew his strengths and could use those against him. He was so, so incredibly stupid for falling in love with her too, and all he wanted right then was to tell her how much he still loved her. How none of that changed after he left that night. No matter how hard he tried to wash her out of his system, she stuck around in everything he did. And he tried—he tried so hard to erase her from his mind and body. When Kelly appeared in that parking lot, he thought for a moment that sex with an old hookup would get Talia off his mind, but instead all he did was compare Kelly to her. Even flirting and messing around with Diana made him only think about Talia. Random flirting and hooking up led to him comparing everyone to her, no matter how hard he tried not to think about her. 

With his thumb still rubbing along her cheek, he nodded his head in agreement. “We’ll talk at home.” Daniel would talk about whatever she wanted wherever and whenever she wanted. Wherever Talia was, that’s where he found his home now. Right there, in their tree with her by his side was home. In a crappy diner with sticky tables and greasy food was his home as long as she was there, grinning at him from the opposite side of the booth as she plucked a cheese fry from the basket and played footsie with him under the table. On a rock in the middle of the creek as they basked in the sunlight as water swept across their skin. Inside his truck parked off the side of a road while he pressed her into the seat cushions and planted kisses along her neck. On her couch with her fast asleep on top of him and his arms wrapped around her while he listened to her breathe. Anywhere with her was home to him, and if she wanted to go to her cabin to discuss whatever they were doing, he would follow her there. 

The words let’s go lingered on his tongue as he gazed at her. He ran his hand down under her chin and tilted her head up towards him. The last time they sat here together, they were only friends. Perhaps two friends with unknown crushes, but still just friends. Yet Daniel hadn’t been able to stop stealing glances at her as the sunlight lit up her face—as her skin and smile glowed with the setting sun. Maybe the thought of kissing her had popped into his head a couple times that day, but he would never have acted on it then. They hadn’t sat here since, and as he watched the shadows and sunlight dance across her face, he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against her lips. Daniel pulled away and rubbed his thumb against her chin as he forced himself to hold back even more thoughts and feelings that threatened to pour out of him.

“Let’s go,” Daniel whispered. “Ladies first.” 

—

Listening carefully, Talia took in all that Daniel had to tell her about his hunter abilities. It was surreal, in a way, to be sitting so close to a hunter, the thing she had hated for so long, as he listed out all the information she would need to destroy him, while trusting that she wouldn’t. Even stranger to realize that he was right to trust her. Tough skin, but not tough enough to ward off the rash that had come from the goggie. She remembered being impressed at how quickly he had healed, though – a benefit of him being a hunter she now knew. It was lucky Talia had those gloves when they found the creature, if his tougher skin had still suffered. But– No. It wasn’t luck. He had given her his gloves, she remembered. Even knowing what the bristles could do, even knowing that his skin likely wouldn’t be tough enough… 

No, she wasn’t stupid and yes, she had noticed the bite mark. There were plenty of members in her pack who weren’t born wolves – all of them sported similar scars to the one that capped Daniel’s shoulder. Something warred horribly in her chest with that knowledge. On the one hand, being a werewolf was to be considered an honor. Talia had never turned anyone because of that, because they would have to prove themself worthy of it. But that age-old belief came up against the strange unfurling of the idea that they would never be the same. There was no world where Daniel did prove himself worthy, as if he would even want that, and she would turn him so they could be mates as wolves, too. Which was a fucking stupid thought to even have, even for someone as hopelessly romantic as Talia. 

“That’s good,” was all she could think to say in response to his apparent werewolf immunity. And it was. It was safer for Daniel, anyway. Some people didn’t even survive the first transformation after being bitten. And if he was… Was he? He must be. He was a hunter. Of course he was still hunting. A cold weight sunk heavy straight through Talia’s spine. He was still killing shifters. Werewolves, even. Daniel was still a hunter, a ranger, just like she was still a werewolf who killed hunters. And if he was going to be out hunting werewolves (killing her innocent kin), then it would be safer if he couldn’t be turned into one.

(Wasn’t that exactly the conversation they were avoiding having right then? What it would mean to be a ranger who kills shifters and a shifter who kills hunters and to be together.)

And he was a hunter who was still hunting but he wanted to come back. And she was going to let him. Of course she was; the relief that hit her chest was far more powerful than the moment warranted. But she had fucking missed him. And hadn’t expected to ever see him again, if she was being honest. Maybe, in her darkest dreams, had thought they would meet face-to-face, in the woods, some day: her caught unawares and him carrying a gun loaded with silver bullets. But he didn’t want to hunt her. He wanted to come back home with her, because he had missed her too. Her eyes closed as he kissed her head and she kept close. So close. Close enough to feel his heart beating against her, close enough to smell the distinctly Daniel scent of him. And her body remembered being this close to his, it knew it could trust him and relax, it knew it could let him hold her. 

She turned easily, already looking for a kiss when he leaned in for one. It was almost laughably chaste, considering how they had been kissing when things ended. But it was the exact kiss that Talia needed from him. Sweet and soft and speaking so much reassurance through it. She let out a quiet noise when he pulled back, but didn’t do anything more than rest her head against his.

Once they were back on the ground (Talia hoping Daniel hadn’t noticed her wincing through the climb down), Tree lost her mind, cantoring around both of their feet and yipping happily. After a quick pat to the puppy’s head, Talia folded herself into Daniel’s chest. Meeting in the tree had been special, of course. But she was glad to finally get the chance to fold completely into his arms and feel him hold her. Her nose tucked deep into the well of his neck, scenting there obviously. It was so much better than wearing his shirt to bed, or his jacket for the hike. This was the smell of their mornings in bed together, all the times she sunk her face into the crease of his thigh, him using his shampoo to wash her hair. His scent had become her safety in the few short months they had been together, and he had come to mean home for her.

Maybe she should wait, until they were back at home, after they had hashed out the logistics of hunter and shifter, of ranger and werewolf, of Daniel and Talia. She could curl her body close into his, then, and tell him that she loved him. She could explain that she had wanted to say it back immediately, that morning. That she had almost texted him later that day but hadn’t wanted the first time she said it to be a text. That there were so many days in the weeks leading up to him saying it that it had almost slipped out of her. (And she could explain how that maybe contributed to their fight. Daniel’s revelation was the main cause, of course, but the pressure cooker that was their relationship at that point had been dialed up a few degrees, with all the denial they were both treading through.) And all the rest of it would happen but in that moment…

With her face still tucked into his throat, she told him quietly, “I love you. I should have said it, when you did but– It’s still true. I love you.”

—

Talia climbed more slowly and carefully than when they first climbed a tree together, and Daniel couldn’t help but watch her as he followed down after her. He took his own time too, of course, but he knew why he moved more at a slower pace. He needed to know what happened to her, but like most other topics, he guessed that could wait a little longer. He was bound to find out at some point. He knew that much, now. 

They stood there, together, with Tree hopping around them and begging for their attention, but Daniel only focused his gaze on Talia. His eyes followed her movements as she patted the excited puppy. And then she was in his arms, her chest pressed against his, her arms wrapped him, her face pressed into his neck. He closed his eyes as he held her as tightly as possible. He never wanted to let go of her. Never again. Tears pooled behind his closed eyelids, and he squeezed them shut even tighter, not wanting to let one escape. His lungs ached with each breath he drew as he squeezed her tighter in his arms. Loss and grief dug into his flesh and gnawed at his bones for the last two months, and now? Now with her in his arms again? Now he could almost breathe fully again. 

He buried his face in her hair, taking in deep breaths. All he could think about was how he never once stopped loving her throughout their time apart. How he spent his nights wishing for her body close to him again. How he fell back into his old habits of not sleeping at night—how she now haunted his dreams. Talia consumed his senses when he slept, from the taste of her lips in a slow kiss to the sound of her laughter when he said a stupid joke to the scent of her shampoo and body wash as she stood close to him. For years, he hated falling asleep due to his nightmares, but after Talia, he had to deal with the haunting memories of her joy in his sleep. Had to deal with the ache in his body when he woke up and knew that he would never see her crinkle her eyes and grin widely at him as she laughed at his jokes. How he would never hear her call him an idiot and shove his shoulder again. 

But somehow, for some reason unknown to him, she loved him. And she loved him the same night when he said it. 

Thoughts overwhelmed Daniel as she said I love you, and he wasn’t sure how he wanted to respond as all these ideas raced through his mind. He wanted to kiss her hard, he wanted to kiss her gently, he wanted to pin her against the tree and give her every inch of his love, and he wanted … wanted … 

He pulled back just slightly, his arms still wrapped around her, and he looked at her, catching her eye. He needed to see her, needed to see the look on her face after saying those words to him. He still recalled the look on her face when he first said those three words, the moment right before she pressed her lips against his and said nothing in response. Daniel lifted his hand up and combed it through her hair before resting it against her neck. God, he almost wanted to cry. She never told him that she loved him before their breakup, and as he stepped out of her cabin that final time, his body turned numb from the loss of her. He sought out ways to feel something in his body—getting into bar fights to convince someone to take him out back and beat him until he crumpled to the ground. All so he could feel something in his body. Sex with strangers and people he knew gave him some feeling again, but that dull ache stayed in his chest. No amount of sex and beatings healed the loss of Talia. 

But now she told him that she loved him, and that dull ache eased its way out of him. 

He ran his thumb across her chin as a smile etched its way across his face. “I love you too, Talia,” he finally said after a few moments. “I never stopped.” 

He leaned in to kiss her again, but this time harder because he needed to taste her again. He couldn’t keep living off the memories of her mouth. If it wasn’t for the cold air and snow on the ground, he knew he would take this kiss farther, fuck her on the ground again. The idea of taking things slowly drove him crazy, but he knew he had to wait just a bit longer until he could kiss every inch of her body again. He could wait until they returned to her home. (Daniel couldn’t deny how thrilled he was at the prospect of living with her again. That’s all he wanted. That’s all he thought about since he left. He needed to share his space with her again, to have her existing by his side. It didn’t matter to him if she killed hunters. He could … deal with that later. Probably. Or not. He wasn’t sure yet, but all he needed was Talia.)

—

It felt…right. Incredibly so to be bound up in Daniel’s arms and held close. For the first time since he had left, Talia felt that familiar safety and warmth that only he could bring. The support of her friends, like Emilio and Wyatt and others, had been brilliant and nothing short of necessary. But it was different, with Daniel. And wasn’t that the whole point? No matter what she had tried to tell herself, convince herself, really – it was different with Daniel. Everything felt different, when she was with him. She felt different, with him. And now she knew that he felt the same. Now she knew it was because she loved him, and he loved her back.

How many times had she thought about that night, the last night, when he had told her he loved her? Their warm breath mingling, legs tangled under the blankets, and his sleepy confession. While they had been apart, Talia had fantasized and lived in a world, just for a moment, where she didn’t hesitate. Where Daniel murmured that he loved her and she sighed and smiled and kissed him and told him she loved him back. It had to happen the way it did, though. She knew that now. Talia had to rebuff him and he had to tell her his truth and she had to tell him her truth. They had to separate and take that time apart. Only through that could they maybe rebuild into something stronger, together.

Only through that, could they be standing here now, with Daniel telling her that he loved her, still. That he hadn’t stopped. Talia fed up into his kiss, fingers tangled at the back of his hair to keep him close, to keep their kiss deep. God. She loved him. Not only could she say it now, but she could believe it. She didn’t have to deny it to herself the way she had been through the months. She pulled away slowly, the kiss lingering, and she kept close after. Their noses still brushing, her lashes practically kissing his. “Thank you. For… I don’t know. For loving me, maybe. For still loving me, throughout.”

Fall had always been Daniel’s favorite season, yet summer crept its way up the ranking as he thought about how longer, warmer days meant more time spent outdoors with Talia. Summer days with her by his side excited him in a way that he never felt before meeting her. All he could think about was how badly he wanted to be lounging with her somewhere out in nature, just the two of them far away from the chaos of the world around them—a reprieve from the complexities of their relationship as a ranger and a werewolf. 

So a warm day spent by a lake deep within the Seven Peaks sounded like the ideal way to relax together. Hot and sweaty from their hike, Daniel had immediately stripped out of his clothes to only his swimming trunks, and he waded out in the lake before fully diving into the water. As Talia joined him, their swimming turned into splashing each other with water and then playfighting as they dunked each other under the water. Playfighting turned into making out with Daniel wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against him. Having had enough of their time in the water, he tossed her over his shoulder and carried her back to the lakeshore, back to where they had put out a beach towel. He pressed her into the towel as he sunk into her with slow, deep kisses. 

The day was perfect for Daniel. And now, fresh from making love by the lake, they relaxed under the afternoon sun, and he curled up against her and rested his head on her lap. Few things relaxed him more than falling asleep on her lap—even when he thought about the early weeks of their relationship last year, something about his head on her lap and her fingers in his hair calmed him. His senses and years of training told him that he shouldn’t feel so at peace in the presence of a werewolf, yet her gentle touches and soft voice comforted him like nothing else. 

His eyelids grew heavy as he slowly blinked up at Talia. The sunlight cast a halo around her dark, wet hair, and her frizzy curls dried and framed around her face. He reached up to wind a ringlet around his finger. He pulled down and released the curl, and he softly grinned as the curl bounced back up to join the others. His hand drifted down to her neck, against her skin glowing in the bright sunlight, and his hand lazily trailed down her chest to her abdomen. He paused for a moment as he rubbed his thumb across the new scar from Daiyu’s blade, but all Daniel thought about right then was how glad he was to have Talia alive and with him. He tried to not think about his former hunting partner being the one to kill Tabitha or attempting to kill Talia. No, today was another day for the two of them to be at home with each other and the natural world around them. 

Daniel struggled to keep his eyes open as he attempted to fight off sleep, but his eyelids grew heavier and heavier. He turned to look at the lake and watch the gentle waves lap at the shore as they lulled him to sleep. A woodpecker off in the distance tapped a rhythm against a tree. A crow cawed in harmony with the tapping, and a chorus of songbirds joined in as they sang from the surrounding treetops. He saw a fish—a trout, he guessed—quickly jump out of the water. The splash added to the song, and the rippling of the water eased his eyes shut as he drifted off to sleep on Talia’s lap. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d fallen asleep on her lap—she was safe, a place of comfort and love. He peeked open one eye to catch her gaze one more time. A stupid, soft grin spread across his face as he rolled onto his side, now facing her rather than the lake, and sleep finally overtook him. 

—

One of the first signs for Talia that Daniel was meant to be more than just a friend to her was how easier it was to be with him. She was a social person, most times, but being around people was always something that drained her and left her feeling like she needed a day off to just be by herself and recharge. That was never the case with Daniel. She could spend all day, every day with him and not feel the need to run into the woods for a break. In fact, she often wanted him along when she did feel the need for an escape. Being out in the middle of nowhere, just the two of them (or with only Tree joining them), camping or hiking or fishing or just climbing a tree to watch the sunset, had quickly become Talia’s favorite way to reset.

They had gone for a decent hike that morning – nothing too rigorous, but they were both sweating in the warmer weather by the end of it. But they had planned for that and made their destination one of the more secluded lakes dropped throughout the Seven Peaks. The cool water had felt perfect as they dove in and so had splashing around with Daniel like they were kids. And then splashing around with Daniel very much not like kids, as she allowed him to hoist her over his shoulders and settled over her for some good, old-fashioned making out. Talia had always been a fan of how Daniel was able to easily pick her up and move her around – that hadn’t changed even with the knowledge that it was due to his hunter strength. 

And now, his head was in her lap as he dozed off and Talia was absently playing with his hairs. It had dried fluffy and soft from the sweat and the lake water, all grown out (thank god) from the buzzcut he had been sporting during their break-up. Talia loved his curls, and she loved little more than getting to play with them. She let her thumb trace his cheek gently as she felt his body shift, go heavier. Asleep. The smile on her face stayed pinned up as she watched him sleep, summer sun beating against her shoulders and over his chest. 

It wasn’t long before she heard the cries. Some kind of baby in distress. Human, she thought. She wasn’t a mother but there was something instinctual in how her attention swerved toward the sound. Pressure built in her chest and she needed to find whatever it was. Not wanting to wake Daniel just yet, not until she had a better idea of what this was, she eased his head from her lap and onto the towel underneath her. Pressing a kiss to his forehead, she tugged on the shorts she had worn while hiking and made her way toward the sound.

It seemed to be coming from the far edge of the water, around a curve of land that jutted out with trees blocking the view. Talia made sure to make plenty of noise as she moved closer, not wanting to startle anything that might be lurking. But there was only the sounds of the baby crying, louder and louder as she moved. She strayed into the surf of the lake’s shore to get around the bend and the minute her foot touched the water, it struck. Before Talia knew what was happening, her vision flipped and whirled and she was moving through the air and then she hit the ground hard. She shouted for Daniel, for anyone, as she scrambled for something to hold onto. Her hands hit slippery sand, and then weak underbrush. Some of the low plants slowed her descent, but couldn’t stop it entirely as their roots snapped and tore.

Whatever it was had her locked around the middle and she couldn’t twist or turn to get a sight of it. But she could scream. It was all but a howl that she let loose from her, calling for Daniel again and flailing her limbs to splash loudly. Whatever had her, Talia wouldn’t give into it without a fight.

—

For someone who was typically a light sleeper, Daniel didn’t hear the sounds of a crying baby or feel Talia lift his head off her lap and leave. Something about Talia brought him safety and comfort, allowing him to sleep without feeling like he needed to be on guard at all times. The crying baby merely acted as another sound in his dream, nothing of note to the ranger who thought he rested soundly in the arms of his love. 

But Talia’s screams jolted him awake, as he sat up fast and twisted his head back and forth for her. His heart raced as he realized that she was no longer with him, that at some point she left. He jumped up to his feet and ran off in the direction that he heard her screaming—not pausing to think about weapons or what he might need in response to her yelling his name. Small rocks, leaves, and pieces of grass stuck to his feet as he ran barefoot towards her, but he barely registered them as he ran in the direction of her voice, as he called out her name to let her know that he was on his way. At the bend, he spotted her, with something wrapped around her waist and pulling her into the water. 

For just a brief second, Daniel froze. A sick feeling washed over him—one that struck fear in his heart at seeing Talia screaming and being attacked—one that almost made him wretch at the memory of Maya being torn to shreds in front of him as he froze in shock and horror that night. But that split second of terror ended in a flash, and Daniel rushed to her and wrapped his arms around her, to hold her and not let this thing drag her away from him. “I’ve got you,” he said, attempting some sort of calm in his voice even as every inch of him felt terrified—he wasn’t sure, but he thought there was a tremble in his voice. 

Closer to her now, he recognized the long tail wrapped around her torso and the clawed hand holding her. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you,” he repeated. He kept one arm around her while the other tried to yank the ahuizotl’s hand away from her. Instead of releasing her, it wrapped its tail tighter into an anaconda grip. Daniel grimaced. He let go of its hand, instead reaching down into the water to grab onto its tail elsewhere. He refused to let it drag Talia out further away from him and deeper into the water—he just got her in his life; Daniel hadn’t even known her for a year, and he wouldn’t let this beast take her away from him. He wanted more than almost a year with Talia, he wanted decades with her—she deserved to live for more decades. He released his arm from around Talia, instead wrapping both of his hands around the ahuizotl’s tail. He tried to not think about how he let go of her, but he still had the ahuizotl in his grip—she couldn’t go anywhere without him, he thought. With all of his strength, he pulled and dragged the beast towards him, away from where it hid out in the lake. 

His eyes searched the water, refusing to let go of the beast’s tail—letting go would mean the ahuizotl dragging Talia deeper into the lake, would mean him diving and swimming through the lake to find her, would mean him possibly searching the lake for her corpse and … and he couldn’t do that. Not again. He couldn’t recover the body of another loved one. He couldn’t pick up the pieces remaining of Talia. He blinked back whatever tears briefly appeared in his eyes, and he tried to keep the nausea under wraps. Instead he focused on the darkened shape of a creature being dragged through the water towards him. 

Without saying a word, Daniel reached down and grabbed one of the sharp rocks jabbing at his feet, and he dove forward towards the ahuizotl. 

—

Maybe it was seconds, maybe it was hours, Talia couldn’t be sure. Her world narrowed to her fingers trying to gain purchase in the sand and her lungs fighting for air. It was an exhausting cycle, as the creature thrashed her about in the grip of what she thought was its tail. She was plunged under the water and rocketed back up so quickly that she could hardly keep track of when to breathe and when to steel her lungs. Her chest burned and her body was sore from the punishing impact against the water’s surface.

But then, Daniel was there. Even through her own fear, through the water, and the strange musk of the beast, she could smell his reassuring scent. Nearly Pavlovian, she could feel her body relax. Daniel was there. She would be okay. He had her. He repeated that a few times: he had her. She believed him but it was more than that. It was less about faith and more about fact. He was there so he had her. Despite the beast’s best efforts, Talia clung to his shoulders. 

She was aware, vaguely, that Daniel was working at the tail wrapped around her waist, but he must have angered the thing because the grip came tighter. A groan pressed out of her and it gave way to a choked-off wheeze. Her vision blurred and she felt herself go light-headed then dizzy – losing air. “Daniel,” she managed to croak out. Fingers still digging into the tense muscle of his back while he worked at the creature.

He let her go.

He was right to, Talia knew. He had a plan, he knew what he was doing. It was smarter that he let go of her to get a better handle on whatever was pulling her down. It was the kind of decision her pack would have applauded – ignoring the sentimental and the temporary to properly tackle the issue at hand. He was right to. But it was still his hands slipping away from her body. It was still his scent getting further, faded. It was still, suddenly, her alone in the beast’s grasp again. 

The thing flailed and suddenly Talia was in the sand, jarred from the heavy landing. As the beast wailed in the voice of a human baby, she struggled to do more than suffocate or drown. With the thing preoccupied with Daniel, it was holding still enough for Talia to see better. Not a tail – or at least not only a tail. The end of the tail was an awful hand that was wrapped around her. She dug her feet into the ground and used the leverage to pry the claws open. 

Too suddenly, the hand opened. Talia didn’t question it, just dove away from the grasp. She rolled through the gritty shore, scrambling on hands and knees to get far from of beast’s reach. Once she was on both feet, lake water dribbling from her mouth, she could see the full picture. Daniel whaling on the thing with a sharp rock, the beast flailing in the shallows. Blood bloomed in the frothy water and the creature screamed. His hand came up and drove back down again. Another horrid scream.

Maybe it was that the thing sounded like a baby. Maybe it was that she had been stupid enough to put herself in its path. Whatever it was, she heard herself rasping out, “Don’t.” She tripped and slid down to where Daniel was neatly handling whatever the beast was. “Stop. Don’t.” Her hand caught around his elbow, before he could land another blow. “It… It wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

It was still screaming. She could still hear the horror of its pain, echoing.

—

The ahuizotl was fast, but Daniel was faster—filled with rage and adrenaline as his hands wrapped around the beast’s torso. It swiped its claws at him. It snapped at his face and neck. He dragged its body closer to the lakeshore. Its hind legs kicked against his torso, but he pinned them down with his knees. He wrapped his hand around its neck to keep it pinned to the ground. It snarled and splashed in the shallow water as it struggled against his strength. It scratched at him, dragging its claws across his forearm, leaving only superficial cuts along his ranger tough skin. 

With the beast trapped, Daniel smashed the rock into its body, just aiming for anywhere on the creature. It cried out in pain. He struck again. And again. All while the ahuizotl thrashed and screeched from the blows. 

Where Daniel knelt, threads of scarlet and crimson leaked from the beast’s body and pooled into a deep red plume—a stark contrast against the soft tranquil blue of the lake. 

From the corner of his eye, he spotted Talia standing on the lakeshore, no longer in the grasp of its tail. He expected the beast to grab him, to yank him away from it, so he slammed the rock into it again. He refused to allow it a moment of rest. Too long of a pause gave it time to turn the tides on Daniel. 

He swung his arm back for another blow, but something grabbed his elbow—human skin, not the coarse fur of the ahuizotl’s tail. 

Talia’s plea pulled him away from his mission. His mind had focused solely on protecting Talia and killing the beast, so he hadn’t noticed until then how the beast’s blood swirled in the water around him. He lowered his arm, not aiming for another hit just yet. He caught sight of the rock in his hand. Tufts of fur clung to the rock’s jagged sharp edges, and bits of flesh were lodged in the rock’s grooves. He heard the beast whimper and cry in pain. He realized its violent thrashing had shifted into a weak twisting as it attempted to escape. 

Stop. Don’t. She … Talia—she wanted him to stop? 

“It—it wasn’t doing anything wrong?!” He faced her now, though his grip remained on the ahuizotl. Letting go meant it would escape. Letting go meant a final hurrah as it took Daniel’s moment of weakness to drag Talia away from him. He tightened his grip on the beast’s neck. 

He gazed down at the marks left across her body from the beast’s attack. His eyes were cold—not towards Talia (never towards Talia), as he thought about the beast’s attempt to drag her into the depths of the lake, to its den to feast on her flesh. (Though he suddenly realized, as if he somehow forgot that Talia was a werewolf. He knew she was a fighter, a trained killer like him. For all he knew, maybe she could have shifted and killed the beast herself.) But the marks on her reignited his rage and hunger to kill the ahuizotl. “Talia, it wanted to fucking eat you,” he stated coolly, as his eyes met hers. 

The softness and concern in her eyes took him by surprise, though Daniel believed none of that was directed towards him. A lump caught in his throat. He dropped the rock from his hand. The ahuizotl released a weak wail. If he hadn’t left his knives back with their belongings, he would slit its throat to end its suffering—he doubted it would live longer than a day in this condition. 

“Talia, it would—it was going to—it—I can’t …” He reached his hand out to cup her face but drew it back. He wasn’t certain if she wanted his touch—and perhaps not by the hand that wielded the rock. He ran his hand across his face, and he glanced up towards the sky, away from her for a moment. 

He felt himself losing control over his emotions, as tears welled in his eyes. He turned his face away from Talia as he blinked rapidly to fight them off. He couldn’t lose himself again. Not in front of Talia. Daniel couldn’t let her see just how weak he was. He knew how much she valued his strength—how she liked him for his ability to easily lift and carry her, how he took care of her every need as some sort of symbol of his love and devotion, and how he put on a calm and collected exterior in most situations. Daniel’s entire existence was that of a protector, but in moments like this, when that fortitude gave way to fears hidden deep inside him, he knew just how weak and pathetic he was. 

Already Daniel had exhibited too many signs of weaknesses and failures around her. For years, nightmares plagued him, and when they first began sleeping together, she witnessed how he sat up in bed gasping for air with fear plastered across his face. Her gentle and loving touch eased those nightmares away, but now … but now a new cycle had begun in his sleep. One where his sleep showed him images of the berserker tearing him from limb to limb, or another where a fellow ranger busted down Talia’s front door and aimed a hunting rifle, filled with silver bullets, at her as they slept. When he dreamed the second one, he woke with a gasp and jumped out of her bed, prepared to protect Talia from another ranger. He managed—thankfully—to realize it wasn’t real, that no one was in her cabin except the two of them, and he never grabbed one of his hidden guns or knives. Sometimes he returned to bed, sometimes he made a cup of tea, and other times he pulled on his clothes to check the perimeter for any signs of another ranger on the hunt. 

It was a weakness, he determined, to allow nightmares to haunt him like this. And it was a weakness to obsessively check the woods for another ranger. And it was most certainly a weakness to let his emotions make him shed a tear when he should have already killed the ahuizotl. It was a weakness to have fallen asleep on her lap rather than stay wide awake and on guard. 

What use was he as a protector and lover when he let her get struck by an ahuizotl? 

“Talia,” he whispered, as his gaze focused on the mark left by Daiyu, “I can’t … I couldn’t let it kill you. Please. I don’t want to do that again.” Daniel met her eyes now, as he clarified, “I don’t want to search for your remains and pick up whatever pieces of you that I can find. Please. I—I had to do this.” 

—

It was one thing to know a truth in theory, on paper. Daniel was a ranger. He was skilled at killing shifters and beasts, werewolves especially. Talia had admired some level of that skill from him, when they were fighting the goggie. That, though, was different. That was a beast much larger than either of them who wouldn’t have stopped until they were dead. It had looked and felt so much different (maybe because she hadn’t known then, what he was). Seeing him, now, improvised weapon in hand, shoulders heaving with effort as he brought the rock down on the beast again and again and again–

He must have done that to werewolves. Daniel preferred ranged weapons, she knew that much, but she also knew he had been bitten once. He had been up close and personal with at least one shifted wolf and he had lived to tell the tale which meant he plunged a knife between their ribs or clobbered a rock against their skull or dug his hunter-strong hands into the cavity of their abdomen and pulled their intestines out or–

It was something else entirely, to witness Daniel in his element as a ranger. Killing a beast and not stopping. She could smell the sharp scent of blood on the water, the bitter tinge of the ahuizotl’s fear. Daniel’s, too, his adrenaline and hers heavy on the air. He could have stopped long ago. He hadn’t landed two blows before the beast had dropped its hold on Talia. No doubt it would have retreated, rather than face further injury. Daniel hadn’t needed to keep attacking it. Beating it. Hunting it.

“It needs to eat!” she countered when Daniel laid out his logic. Talia hadn’t planned on giving in and allowing the ahuizotl to eat her, but an animal hunting for a meal was hardly a reason to kill. “That’s what it does. It wasn’t–” It wasn’t hunting for sport. How was this animal dragging her into the water any different from Daniel sighting a deer down his shotgun? “That’s all any of us do. Just because its meal happens to be humans doesn’t mean it has any less right to them!” 

Which was the crux of it, for her. Humans – hunters – didn’t have dominion over all other beats just because they were human. Protecting them didn’t mean free reign to eradicate any other species. But – that wasn’t exactly what Daniel had been after, it seemed.  

When the picture came together it was noisy and jagged, sharp glass forming the mosaic. Daniel was a ranger, yes. That’s why he had the ability to kill an ahuizotl with little more than his brute strength and a sharp rock. That’s why he knew what an ahuizotl was, what it was going to do to her. But what Talia had witnessed wasn’t a ranger in his element, hunting a beast. She had seen Daniel, scared and desperate, reliving the death of his sister. The death he had watched happen and had been unable to stop, the death he had had to clean up after, literally. 

“Oh, honey.” Her body ached, from where she had been slammed into the ground, from the adrenaline and the exertion of thrashing around. Lake water dripped through her hair and there were gouges, not too deep but bleeding, where the ahuizotl had taken hold of her. None of that mattered as she stepped toward Daniel and lifted her hand. She thumbed the tears away from his eyes, cradling his face after. “I… I understand.” She did, to a degree. Like so much of what Daniel did at any given point in a day, he had been trying to protect her. 

(But – he could have stopped long ago.)

Reaching down, she cupped his hands in hers, holding them to her chest. “I know you were scared. I was too.” Another minute or so and she wouldn’t have been surprised if her wolf burst out of her skin, to try its luck against the ahuizotl’s grasp. “But…it was just trying to survive. Just like you or me. Just like the wild wolves that take down deer or rabbits. Just like you, shooting a deer for dinner.” Her thumb trailed along his rough knuckles – hands she loved. Hands that washed her hair and slipped between her legs and made her coffee in the morning, cooked her dinner in the evenings, that had mapped out a plan for their garden and helped plant the seeds for it. Hands that wielded a weapon, and hands that killed.

“I don’t want you to have to do that. Not ever again, and especially not for me.” Her lips pressed together, trembling now as the adrenaline left her chilled even in the warm weather. “But I don’t– I can’t watch you kill something that doesn’t have to die. Please.”

—

Daniel clenched his jaw as she jumped to the defense of the beast that had just tried to kill her. How could she just say that? Believe that? After what it had just tried to do to her? “Just because it—” he shook his head in disbelief. Just because it ate humans meant so little to him. He knew how she felt about all these supernatural creatures. During some of their late night conversations, as he sprawled out across the couch with her laying on top of him and his fingers brushing through her hair, they talked on and on about whatever came up, including the supernatural creatures that roamed the area. The way Talia talked about some of the beasts, he suspected that she held some sort of kinship with them, as fellow supernatural beings.

Yet he could not wrap his mind around her words right then. He wanted to raise his voice and shout about how this stupid fucking beast would have dragged her across the lake bed and dug its teeth into her flesh as she screamed and choked on water. He exhaled a deep (and shaky) breath. “I don’t give a shit about that,” he said as calmly as he could. “I’d kill a mountain lion to keep you alive.” 

He wasn’t going to debate with her right then about the whole protecting humanity thing. Daniel wasn’t going to dive into his intricate feelings about hunting—he may have given up hunting shifters, but he still felt like he needed to keep humans safe while exploring the wilderness. If he had to kill an aggressive beast, then that is what he had to do. He didn’t put himself in harm’s way like he used to, when he would go out at night specifically to find something to kill. Nowadays, he tried to find ways to avoid dangerous beasts or subdue them without—

His chest ached as he glanced down at the bloody mess around him. He let go of the ahuizotl, but it didn’t flee, instead staying still as it let out little pained cries. It couldn’t even drag itself away from him. Plenty of times over the years, he had gotten rid of beasts without killing or hurting them. He knew how to scare off an ahuizotl without laying a finger on it. 

He leaned into her touch, closing his eyes as she brushed her thumb across his face. He wasn’t sure why she was comforting him. He wasn’t the one injured. Another sign of weakness. Another reason for Talia to leave him in the future. Daniel wanted to state that he hadn’t been scared—he didn’t get scared, but he recognized that as a lie. Few things scared the ranger who had faced off against giant, deadly beasts since he was a teenager. But the loss of a loved one? That sent waves of terror through his body.

Maybe that fear sent all rational thoughts out of his mind as he focused solely on one mission: kill the threat, deal with the aftermath later. 

He softened as she held his hand. Her words made sense—of course they did. Of course he was similar to the ahuizotl, just hunting down its prey. “But I’m—I’m not … If I have to fight off something to protect you, I will,” Daniel said. “Ain’t gonna just let it kill you. People intervene. Put a stop to things all the time. Ain’t any different than me killing this. I’ll always fight back.” He clenched his jaw and tried to hold back his next thoughts. He didn’t want to fight with her. Not right then. Not when she was injured. He wasn’t going to ask what she would have done if their roles were reversed. 

Daniel only nodded in agreement. He carefully wrapped his arm around Talia’s waist as he helped her walk out of the water. He saw the goosebumps rising across her skin. He looked more carefully at the wounds across her torso from the beast—the beast that she defended even as blood seeped from her and stained her skin. 

“Sit down, honey,” he instructed. He helped her find a comfortable seat on the ground, his hands wrapped around her as he made sure she didn’t stumble or fall. He lowered himself down onto one knee. He held her face in his hands and pressed his forehead against hers. He looked into her soft gray eyes as he rubbed his thumbs across her cheeks. He focused his thoughts not on the fear of losing her, but on her right there in his hands. Safe and sound. Breathing. He steadied his breath, subconsciously syncing their breathing rhythms. “I’m gonna get our stuff. Get you cleaned up.” He pressed a kiss against the top of her head. 

He rose to his feet. He looked back at the ahuizotl that had now dragged itself slightly out of the water. It was suffering and in pain—that much Daniel knew, as an outdoorsman, as a hunter, as a ranger. “I think I have to kill it, Talia. Would rather put it out of its misery.” He had his gun and knives in his pack. He would make it quick. “I’ll be right back.” 

—

It almost made her laugh, Daniel’s intense and insistent desire to protect her. Killing a mountain lion seemed like an overblown thing to claim, but she knew it was true. And she knew, with Daniel, he was likely to win that fight. Just as he was likely to win most fights up against any beast. The ahuizotl on its last gasps was proof of that. He was, in some ways, born to kill things. Born and shaped and made– but, no. Talia had to remind herself that wasn’t so with Daniel. Maybe he was born to do that, yes, but he hadn’t been raised like other hunters (like Daiyu). His mother had kept him from hunters like that, in fact, her own family. 

She had been considering, recently, how Daniel had probably grown up in an environment that was healthier than her pack, even.

“I know,” she told him, her voice soft as the breeze had been earlier that day. When they had just peeled off to this uninhabited lake after their hike, ready to swim and make-out and nap together. Just a sweet, early summer day for the two of them to enjoy each other. And now it was all dipped in blood. Because Daniel would always fight back, to protect her. Hadn’t Talia done much of the same? Not just against hunters and humans, but beasts too? He hadn’t killed this beast with any relish. He didn’t seem to hold any delight in its pain or death. It was all just…survival.

(Though– some traitorous voice at the back of her mind whispered. Though she wondered whether it would be so easy for him to kill another human. A hunter. Would he raise a weapon against Daiyu if she came for Talia? He said he would, over and over, but would it be so easy? Would a death like that mean more to him than the death of the ahuizotl? Could she even expect anything different?)

His breathing slowed, the rhythm piecing together until it was matched to hers. Aware of that, she attended to her breathing, making it slow and steady for him. Let her breathing be a safe place for him to land. She wanted that, wanted to be that for him, and it made something unfurl in her that he wanted it with her. To know that she was the person he looked to in order to calm down… That meant something to her that she couldn’t decode just yet. 

As Daniel trailed off to fetch their things, Talia inspected her wounds. They weren’t so deep, really, and were only bleeding sluggishly now. She could see the shape of the creature’s claws, the little arc they made around the scar from Daiyu’s knife. Her fingers trailed over the broken skin, over the healed mark, over the points of warmth where Daniel’s hand had rested only a moment ago. 

When he returned, knife in hand, Talia rose to meet him. “Don’t.” She eased the knife from his hand and insisted, “Let me, okay? I want to.” Daniel was just as capable of giving it a painful death, she knew. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. No, it was worse than that. He had injured the poor creature because of her. If she killed it, she could square that in her mind. It had been hurt because of her, and it had died because of her. Daniel had started its death and she would finish it. 

Some twisted compartment of her brain that still belonged to her pack liked that. Thought of it like a blood pact, like a marriage vow. What better way to tie two beings together than through the death of a third? (She and Tabitha had killed so many hunters between them.)

But it wasn’t any of those things. She didn’t want it to be. It wasn’t anything more than letting a living thing that was in pain die.

—

The walk back to their belongings wasn’t far, but Daniel’s worry for Talia made it feel impossibly long. He couldn’t turn off that part of his mind that thought something might happen to her in his absence. He made it back to their belongings. He released a deep shaky breath and ran his hand through his hair as he looked at all of their things, exactly where he had left them before running off for Talia. He pulled one of his knives out of his hiking pack, mentally cursing himself for not bringing it with him in the first place. He regretted how poorly he responded to her cries for help. He should have arrived better prepared with a weapon, and then maybe the ahuizotl would be dead, not in pain on its last breaths waiting for someone to end it. 

He slung his pack over his shoulder and grabbed the rest of their belongings. He hurried back to Talia, not wanting to leave her alone for too long. He knew she’d be fine, but then again, would she? She was injured. She had wandered off without waking him up earlier. He didn’t want to leave her on her own for too long, not when he couldn’t be certain that something else wouldn’t try going after her. 

Possibly even someone else, when Daniel really thought about it. He knew the risks of dating a werewolf in a town that was a supernatural and hunter hotspot. He knew not every hunter abided by any sort of code or belief system. And Talia? She was a hunter killer. Not just on accident, but she used to purposefully seek out hunters to kill. He knew multiple hunters would want her dead. Daiyu, included. Daiyu, who he knew and used to hunt with. Daiyu, who he may have considered a friend at one point. 

He breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he saw Talia. Safe and sound. Nothing had her in its grasp; no one had a knife against her throat. She came over to him and slipped the knife out of his hand. He didn’t stop her, even as he told himself that he should have. “Talia …” He sighed and shook his head, not wanting her to be the one to kill the beast. He’s the one who, in a rage, beat it with a rock to the brink of death. He should be the one to finish the kill. (Another weakness. Another piece of evidence stacked up against him if she ever decided he wasn’t worth the trouble.) 

“You ain’t gotta do that,” Daniel said softly. He wrapped his hand around her wrist, holding her for just a moment as he searched her eyes. She was fine—he’d seen worse injuries—but what if the ahuizotl used its last breath to try to kill her? To take her away from him? Unlikely. He knew that. It could barely move. The last thing it was going to do was kill her, when it might instead know she was going to bring it release from the pain. 

“Okay,” he agreed. “Okay.” He let go of her wrist. He reached up to cup her face, rubbing his thumb across her cheek. “Okay.” He turned away from her and set down their belongings. He sat down on the ground and pulled his knees up towards his chest as he kept his gaze focused on her. As he waited in preparation to strike if it dared to hurt her again. 

Upon her return, Daniel reached his hand up to hold hers. He drew her hand to him, and he pressed his lips to her palm. “Come here,” he instructed, patting the ground next to him for her to sit. He wrapped the towel around her and rubbed her shoulders to help her dry off. “Let me see.” He placed his hand on her abdomen as he inspected her wounds more closely. As he noticed the fresh cut right above the scar from Daiyu’s blade. He ran the back of his fingers across her abdomen, up her chest, to her neck. He held her face in his hand as he scanned her face. As he thought about how badly he wanted to see her laughter lines deepen with age, from her giggling and big smiles at his stupid jokes. How he wanted to see her crinkle her eyes at him, with the lines growing more defined over the years. He ran his hand up through her long, dark hair, knowing that he wanted to one day spend his time watching her curly strands turn gray. 

Old age was something he never imagined as a possibility for him, but when Daniel looked at Talia, all he saw were endless possibilities of them spending the rest of their lives together. “I’ll get you cleaned up,” he said gently, as he spun her curls between his fingers. 

—

She knew she didn’t have to, but it felt like her duty now. If for nothing else than to tie the strings of her fate with his even further. He began the kill, she would finish it. And she would do it with the knife Daniel offered her. Talia allowed herself a moment of leaning into his touch, the rough sprawl of his palm against her face, that worn thumb arcing over her cheek. Hands, and work. Hands, and duty. Duty and love. Life and death. She tucked her chin to press a lingering kiss into the center of his palm, and then drew away from him. Toward the ahuizotl.

Daniel had done his damage well – the creature was barely holding on to its last gasps of life. Talia couldn’t help but think back to months ago, her first in-person encounter with Eve. A dead werewolf, caught forever in its fur, curled in on itself in the leaf litter. Here again was a beast that was misunderstood, that would die only because it had acted in its nature. Lake water lapped against the ahuizotl’s fur and it still emitted the forlorn sounds of a baby crying. Quietly, so quietly it could barely be heard over the tide against the shore, Talia told it, “I’m sorry.” 

Then, she wasted no more time. It had suffered enough already, because of her. With one brutal slash of Daniel’s brutally sharp knife, she sliced through the beast’s throat. The deed done, she took a moment. Her hands in its fur, painted over with its blood. Her own blood stained the claws of its tail. She might have died, were it not for Daniel. And while she didn’t want to (Desperately, she didn’t want to. She wanted to live.), Talia thought in her final moment she would have accepted it. As she had told Daniel, it was only looking for a meal. To feed itself, to survive. 

Eventually, she rose – with a grunt of effort, as the gashes over her abdomen twinged. Resting a hand over the new wounds, Talia limped the short distance back to Daniel. It was comforting, she found, to have him there to take care of her. To tell her what to do. As such, she turned herself over to his hands entirely. Let him map the edges of her cuts, the frame of her body, the angle of her face. It wasn’t until his hands were in her hair that she opened her eyes and found his gaze on hers. Steady and full of a love she hadn’t known before meeting him. 

Maybe it was the death of the ahuizotl, or its attack before that, or Daniel’s simple assurance that he would take care of her. Maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever the cause, Talia felt tears pool in her eyes and catch on her lashes. “Okay,” she agreed in an undertone. The moon was transitioning between waning gibbous and its last quarter. That was fitting, she thought. Some part of her wanted to wear the marks of the ahuizotl, wanted to remember this moment. Or- Not wanted, but needed. She should remember this, the death of an innocent creature. The ahuizotl deserved as much.

Shifting on the sand, Talia brought herself closer to Daniel, leaned against his chest. There, huddled in the safety of his body, she felt something inside her shift closer to him as well. They had killed together before – that goggie, most notably, and hunting for food. Something about this death, though, felt different. Or rather, their relationship felt different in the wake of it, as if they had both been anointed by the blood of the ahuizotl and came out on the other side of it, some religion of two. 

Though she was overwhelmed, and emotional, she didn’t want Daniel to mistake it as her holding any anger or fear toward him. Still ensconced, she brought a hand up to grip at his collar and turned her face into his throat. Warm and vulnerable, his pulse beat in her ear. She settled her breathing to match his and then breathed out, “I love you.”

—

Daniel’s eyes never left Talia as she killed the beast. He knew it was dead, yet she remained, and his attention stayed fully on her. Never glancing anywhere else. Just because he saw her use the knife didn’t mean anything. Another one could be waiting in the water or some other creature ready to jump out at her. No, he kept his eyes on her, observing her every movement and how she slowly rose and returned to him. 

All he wanted was to love her and protect her—to keep her safe from the dangers around them. He didn’t want to lose her, and the ahuizotl was a threat. It wanted to feast on her, which he couldn’t allow to happen. Daniel had found his home in her—in her gentle hands, warm embrace, and soft gray eyes. He wasn’t going to bring it up to her—that the beast deserved its death—and instead kept his attention on her, by holding her in his hand and devoting all of himself to her. When her eyes opened, he held them in his gaze, seeing the exhaustion and pain within them. He saw, too, the love she held for him, even as tears pooled in her eyes as she stared back into him. 

“Okay.” He dropped his hand from her hair and turned towards his hiking pack. He pulled out the first aid kit, ready to tend to each of her wounds, to clean her off and bandage her. He sat still for a moment, as if he had forgotten everything he was supposed to do—again—when he heard her scoot closer to him and felt her lean into his chest. Daniel’s arms instinctively wrapped around her, gently to not disturb her wounds. He tucked his face into her neck, settling there for a moment as he breathed her in. He pressed a tender kiss against her shoulder. 

He held her in silence. Her skin pressed against his. Her body aligned with his. He closed his eyes—a mistake, a voice yelled out, before being drowned out by the sound of her breathing and the beating of her heart. But as he closed his eyes, he felt himself connect fully with her. As if they were one and the same. With Talia enclosed in his arms, he viewed his own body as a shield to keep her safe from any danger, from beasts and hunters and anything that would dare harm her. He knew then that she didn’t view him as weak, as she allowed him to envelop her. 

Daniel never thought he was all that great with words or feelings or emotions. What he felt he could barely describe. But he knew he loved her. He knew he loved her more than anyone else. He recognized that something had shifted between the two of them, with both of their hands stained in the blood of the ahuizotl. He wasn’t sure what it was. But he felt it—he felt his intense devotion to her grow stronger. They were more connected to each other now, he decided. More than when they killed the goggie and made love in its blood—he’d describe it as that, looking back on it now. More than when they confessed their love for each other in their great sycamore tree. 

Sometimes he wanted to tell her that he was but a gun, and he knew her distaste for weapons, guns especially. Yet she gently took apart each piece of him, spread out every component, brushed her fingers against his wooden stock, and still chose to love him as she put him back together. Even now when she saw how deadly the weapon was, she still let him hold her in his arms made of steel. He knew she recognized how he quickly switched from resting on her lap to slinging a rock as a weapon. She knew—she had to know—she had to see Daniel for exactly what he was. 

Yet Talia shifted and turned her face into his neck, and Daniel responded by resting his chin on her head, still keeping her tucked into his embrace. He heard the change in her breathing, how she matched it to his, how she further joined him as one. He kissed the top of her head. His hand ran up her back, down her arm, and found her hand. He slipped his fingers in between hers, wrapping their hands together. He wanted to stay like this forever, until only their bones remained, the two of them still tight in their embrace for eternity. Even as the trees and mountains and oceans and earth changed around them, they’d be together. Entangled until the end of time. 

canonically there’s not much about his childhood other than he was born in idaho, grew up in brooklyn, and was a boy scout

he fought in wwii. he was a paratrooper in the war. 

lost his leg after catching some shrapnel at the siege of bastogne

he was peggy carter’s partner in the ssr and later became the west coast security chief of shield

basically all of agent carter is canon for danny boy, but he never was w/ peggy

~~ season seven spoilers to follow ~~

while at area 51 he met the time travelling shield team

based on his timeline he was meant to die after delivering a package to howard stark, but mack and the team faked his death and brought him onto zephyr one

he definitely dives in head first when it comes to working w/ the team and adjusting to living in the future

while the team is trying to prevent the early launch of project insight in ‘76 daniel tells daisy that he’s thinking of leaving the team as things only seem to get worse the further forward in time he goes

after the pair get captured, and daisy is tortured, by nathaniel malick, who gives himself daisy’s powers. he promised daisy that they’d get out of there alive, we are going home agent johnson. you hear me? we’re going home.

after daisy gives him a piece of glass she managed to grab, daniel takes out the guards and carries a half dead daisy out and gets her back to the zephyr

he’s given the option to leave and stay in 1976, but he decides to stay totally not because of daisy

“i’m where i need to be.” sir, your simp is showing

while helping the team on their mission he starts taking care of daisy, you should be resting, 

jemma makes him a new prosthetic leg, bye bye limp and cane. and bless whoever on that plane gave him that blue shirt cause hot damn

he doesn’t remember the events of the time loop but ya boi was busy

slept in a chair while daisy was in the healing pod, keeping an eye on her

died more than once to help daisy

helped fight enoch, more than once

failed miserably at trying to distract enoch

what time is lunch served on this vessel?

has a very lovely heart to heart w/ daisy where he confesses his feelings for her (probably happened more than once)

the kiss!!!!!!!!!

continued his trend of looking after daisy by taking her bag to a bunk for her

it’s not mentioned but it’s probably right across from where danny boy is sleeping

basically he’s all 😍🥰💖😊 anytime he looks at daisy and will help her with whatever she asks

boi maybe out of his time and trying to learn so much but he’s a good agent

instead of deke staying in the alternate timeline, sousa is the one that stays

he has a very emotional goodbye with daisy

another kiss

“promise me you’ll take care of yourself daisy. i wanted to be there to help pick you up but it’s not in the cards... so you all beat feet and save the future.” he smirked back at daisy “you really should consider the q on your utility belt, quake.”

he stayed in the alt timeline for a couple of years, working with what’s left of shield to rebuild. daniel reconnects with a now married peggy, telling her about his adventures with the team. she was instantly able to pick up on his feelings for daisy, sad that he had to say goodbye to her and a chance at happiness.