#dig!danny

Got bored, wrote some fluff. Yay.

“You’re going to try and make some friends today, right Danny?” His mom dug through his backpack one last time, pulling out a few plastic shovels that had been buried underneath all of his school supplies. Then, she herded her son out the front door and into the car.

“Mhm,” Danny answered, though it was noncommittal and almost silent. He wasn’t one to talk much anyway, so his mother didn’t press any harder.

“Daniel, why don’t you go play on the swings with the other kids?” his teacher said gently, the little boy not even bothering to look up from his work on the ground. “You’re going to get your clothes all dirty digging in the dirt like this.”

Danny didn’t answer and blatantly ignored his teacher, forcing her to coax the boy off the ground. His nails were caked with playground dirt and his palms and jeans were covered in grass stains. For the rest of recess, Danny sat on a swing, staring at his feet that dangled above the mulch, and talked to no one.

At the end of the day, Danny stood outside with the rest of the kids, waiting for his mom to come pick him up outside the school. Teachers scurried around trying to usher kids into the correct cars and make sure parents didn’t get too impatient. Danny stared straight ahead and waited for the familiar car that was coming to retrieve him.

“‘Scuse me,” a little voice said, accompanied by the feeling of something tugging on the jacket Danny had pulled tightly around him, even in the blaring California sun. Danny blinked owlishly, turning his head to the source of the voice, a little boy that must have been at least a grade below him. “I—uh—I can’t find my teacher and I’m gonna get in trouble if I don’t find her.”

Danny offered nothing more than a small hum of acknowledgement before turning his head back tot he line of cars that was steadily appearing and disappearing as children were taken off by their parents.

“Please,” the little boy tried again. “I don’t know what to do.” His voice became shaky and Danny could practically hear the quiver in his lip. A sniffle followed.

After a moment, Danny pulled a hand out of his jacket pocket and offered it to the boy, which he accepted. Then, silently, Danny led him through the crowd of kids and teachers and parents, pointing out teachers that could possibly be the one this boy was looking for.

But the boy didn’t find his teacher, even after the second cycle around the little loop of car riders. Danny paused back at the original place that he’d been standing before this boy had showed up, but kept his hand clasped around the boy’s, who was quickly falling to pieces again.

He wiped a pudgy arm across his face. “I can’t find her,” he whined, the tears free-flowing. “I don’t know what to do.”

Danny squeezed his hand and looked down at the boy. “I’ll wait here with you until your mom comes. What’s your name?”

“Arin,” the boy muttered. He looked up at Danny with an idolizing expression.

“I’m Danny.” He offered a small smile, knowing that Arin was depending on him to be positive. And so that’s what Danny did. He held Arin’s hand and talked to him about dinosaurs and all the bones that were buried deep in the earth. He told Arin all about how he was going to dig to the center of the earth one day, getting Arin excited about the prospect in the process.

Finally, Arin’s mom showed up and Danny walked him over to his car, where Arin immediately began telling his mom all about Danny and how he’d helped him. But Danny stayed silent and only looked at Arin’s mom when he figured it was polite to do so. Then, he went back to his spot on the sidewalk and waited for his own mom to show up.

He said nothing to her as he hopped into his own car to head home, but there was a lighter air about him that even she could feel.

(Based on Dig Dug)

Arin loves to hang out with Danny, even though Danny’s entire goal in life is to dig a hole to the center of the earth. They’ve been working on it nonstop for a while and they’ve hardly dented the surface, but Danny is committed. They may be small, but they’ve got big goals and the adults let them do it because it’s pretty safe and keeps them occupied. Of course, digging with plastic shovels and pails makes it a little difficult.

Honestly, Arin is just glad he’s got a friend that seems to really enjoy his company, and he probably has a little bit of a crush on Danny because of all this, but that’s beside the point. After all, when the cool older kid doesn’t make fun of his cool space helmet like all the other kids he knows, well, that’s an immediate win. And it’s made him a little more confident, too, considering Danny says it’s important to have eye protection if they ever do make it to the center of the earth.

Danny is simply blind to everything, entirely dedicated to his goal of getting to the center of the earth. Arin became his second in command completely by accident, though he’s pleased that it happened. Plus, he’s never really had another friend who didn’t try to pull him away from his work, let alone one that would help him. It’s like a match made in heaven.