When Danny stepped off the plane at LAX, after almost eleven hours of mulling over the situation he suddenly found himself in and how he had handled it, he promised himself that he would never steal a thing again. Coming that close to losing his freedom ā something that Danny valued more than anything ā had shaken him more than he had ever thought it would, and he was dead set on never letting it happen again. Nothing good could ever come of it. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take him very long to break this resolution, and it took him even less long to get into trouble again. This time, however, it was a very different kind of trouble.
Danny had always been someone who was very prone to boredom. Back in Ireland, there had been a lot of ways to distract himself. He had grown up there, lived there all his life. He knew the cities and the things one could do there like the back of his hand, and there were plenty of people he could count on to keep him entertained for the night if he couldn't think of anything to do himself, be that by giving themselves a āprojectā or by just hanging out in the local pub or club. In Los Angeles life was a lot different. Even though he didn't doubt there were a lot of things to do and see, the city was too unfamiliar to him and without knowing a single person there he had no idea where to start. After a few weeks of keeping himself somewhat busy by some petty thieving, the boredom caught up with him.
In Dublin, Danny had many connections, people he occasionally grouped together with to do something a little bigger, something that required more planning and man-power than just the regular breaking and entering or pickpocketing. There were never any guns involved, there was never any violence, much less murder, involved. In fact, they never even came in direct contact with the victims of their crimes. By the time the victim would ever find out about the burglary, they were long gone. There were, of course, plenty of criminals around who worked differently and who didn't see the point of waiting until the owner's and employee's had gone home, but Danny steered clear of that brand of thugs. He liked being able to decide what he did and when he did it, and there was no telling whether those kinds of culprits would respect the wishes of an individual, no matter how valuable his skill set could prove to be.
Danny had made the mistake of thinking the reason he had never been involved with such people was thanks to his own good choices, and that it had nothing to do with luck. He made the same mistake in Los Angeles, when he decided to contact some of his old acquaintances to see if they knew anyone in the area who might be interested in working together to do something a little more exciting. He thought that he wouldn't get involved with the wrong people, simply because he was who he was, and that just wouldn't happen. But it did. The men he had been forwarded to were interested in an entirely different kind of thieving, and it was the kind Danny had always despised, the kind that did involve guns. By the time he realised this, though, it was already too late. They were on their way to a gas station to rob it when Danny found out this one was open all night ā¦ and it dawned on him that the gun he had been handed was not meant to be hidden behind his black clothes and used purely as intimidation, ājust in caseā. Despite his usual impulsiveness, he said nothing. The men did not look like people who would agree with him just up and leaving so close before the deed. Unfortunately they seemed to have decided they liked him, and after that night they gave him a call, once in a while, to tell him to join them. It was never a question, and Danny never felt like he had a choice. So far nobody had been physically hurt, but the looks of absolute terror on the faces of the people they robbed was enough to make Danny so guilty it haunted him enough to keep him up at night and taint his mood for days.
This time it had been a 24/7 convenience store. The young man behind the counter had cried and begged for his life, and to Danny's dread it had been his task to keep an eye on the man. As if he would ever hurt him if he tried to get away. Still, he figured the man would be safer with Danny pointing a gun at him instead of one of the other much more aggressive thieves. They struck him as quite trigger-happy, even though he had never actually seen them use a gun. It was the fifth time he had been a part of an armed robbery like this. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened. They were in and out within minutes, leaving behind an empty cash register and a shaken, yet unharmed cashier. It had been too late to go to the pub afterwards, so Danny had spent the rest of the night drinking in his small and messy, yet somehow still empty, apartment until he was drunk and tired enough to finally fall asleep. Luckily it was his day off the next day, and by the time he finally woke up, it was a decent enough time to visit his favourite pub.
It wasn't until Danny saw that Edie wasn't working that night that he realised he had been looking forward to seeing her. It seemed silly to him, to be that disappointed by the absence of a friend, especially when he had seen her just two days ago. But whether it was silly or not, he found himself unable to relax as much as he hoped he would. There was a nagging feeling in his gut and there was no doubt about its cause. It seemed that Danny, despite hating to be dependent on others, needed a friend. Since had moved, he had been perfectly content with being alone. Well, more or less. It seemed that now he had someone he considered a friend, it was hard to ignore how pleasant this was. After ordering a few cold beers in the hope that the feeling would pass and he would be able to spend his evening the way he always had since moving, Danny accepted the annoying truth and decided to drop by Edie's place.
Although he hadn't been there that often, he remembered exactly how to get there. One of the many skills that helped him be the talented thief he was, was the way he had a knack for finding his way around cities. Somehow it was incredibly easy for him to have a good sense of where everything was, even if the area wasn't exactly familiar. Being the map lover she was, Aisling used to tell him he should become a map maker. Danny had never hesitated to make fun of the suggestion, but he had spent many hours making maps of various cities, real ones and imagined ones alike.
Unlike most others living in Los Angeles, Danny didn't have a car, nor any other kind of vehicle that would make it easier to travel from one place to the other. If he needed a car, usually for one of the various illegal hobbies he had, he would either borrow or rent one. In general it wasn't much of a problem, as the coffee shop and pub were both within walking distance, but he occasionally found himself wondering if he shouldn't save up to by himself a motorbike or car. Tonight was one of those nights. The walk to Edie's wasn't very long, but he found himself getting more and more annoyed as the night progressed. Why was it so hard to just sit down and relax after a shitty day like his? By the time he reached Edie's apartment and knocked on the door, he was practically begging the universe that she'd be home. And would have a full liquor cabinet.
āEdie? You in?ā Danny called through the door, knocking again impatiently. If she wasn't in, he'd have half a mind to break into one of her neighbour's home, just to sit down on a comfortable couch and have a drink. Was that really too much to ask?
