Rio de Janeiro || Danny & Abby
Abby laughed lightly and shook her head. Running away from Olympus had nearly killed her the last time. So that wasn’t something she was willing to do ever again. Plus the brunette was finally at peace with herself, no need to leave anytime soon. “As someone who’s been left by like everyone recently. I promise to never vanish without saying goodbye first.” Abby really enjoyed how easy things were between the two of them. Like nothing else mattered but them. Even with Will or Quinn or Charlie, or anyone, for that matter there always seemed to be a weight holding them down. But when she was with Danny, she felt so care-free and light. And well, probably how a normal nineteen year old should feel.
Raising a brow as he spoke she took a step back. Of course Danny was going to want revenge on her. She was pretty certain they might’ve talked about that once. But no matter how many steps she took away from him, he caught her with ease and headed out to the water. “No, no, no, no.” She gripped onto his shoulder tightly as he walked further into the water, but it was no use. He wanted revenge, and he was going to get it no matter how many times she pleaded with him. She felt him drop her and she let out a small scream as her body hit the water. At least it felt good? Standing up, she shot a playful glare at Danny and moved her hands up to her hair, quickly pulling it into a pony tail. “You’re evil!” She ran as best as she could in the water towards Danny and jumped on his back trying as hard as she could to push him down into the water.
Danny wheezed as Abby pounced on him. “Evil is as evil does!” He struggled to keep his stance while she straddled his back. The briny sea water had splashed in his face, and into his eyes, rendering him temporarily sightless. He finally gave in, and collapsed into the water, bringing her down with him. They were both fully submerged in the ocean, and the only sound he heard was the water swashing around them. Danny motioned for her to follow as he swam closer to shore. The water was crystal clear, and chilly, even for someone wearing all their clothes.
They reached shallow water, and Danny began to crawl to shore. He sat indian-style in the damp sand, and extended his hand to help his friend closer. He looked out to the horizon for a moment admiring the beautiful setting he was in. The sky was an unreal shade of blue, the ocean turquoise. The clouds were wispy, resembling cotton candy. The air was warm, with a cool breeze every now and then, that stirred the white sand they sat upon, and the trees towered over parts of the beach, draping them in shade from the sun’s light and intensity. Brazil was without a doubt a beautiful country, despite Danny only seeing a fraction of it. He exchanged his attention to Abby. He had been to many beautiful countries such as this, but right at that very moment, even drenched in sea water, Abigail’s beauty could not be matched. He grinned slightly at the thought, without her noticing, and exhaled, “So what now, Ms. Clark? Where does the tour stop next?”
Rio de Janeiro || Danny & Abby
A simple nod was Abby’s way of agreeing with Danny. She really was something else. But Danny meant a lot to her, he’d kind of grown on her pretty quickly after her near death experience in the woods. In fact if she was being totally honest, things started getting confusing around that time. Sure, Matt had saved her life - but Danny had spent more time in the infirmary with her than Matt had. And maybe then it had just been her admiring Danny and wanting to be as good of a friend as she could possibly be to him. But over the past few months those feelings had grown. But one thing was very certain right now. Abby was certain it was impossible for anyone to not fall for Daniel Dukes.
She gladly accepted his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. “A walk sounds great.” She offered up a smile and walked down the beach. Stopping once they reached the water, she used her free hand to take off her flip flops and let out a content sigh as the water washed up onto her feet. It was perfect. Brazil was perfect. She didn’t care if they’d only been there for a few hours, she was already crazy about Brazil. And she definitely didn’t want to go back to Olympus.
At least not right now. Everything felt perfectly normal between her and Danny and she didn’t want to ruin it by going back to Olympus where the drama would find a way to take over. Or he’d come to his senses and realize she wasn’t worth being friends with. Whatever. She just kind of wanted to stay in this moment without talking about anything ever. Because Abby was great at denial. As he spoke, she turned her head from the water to look at him and shook her head. “You aren’t an idiot. I guess we couldn’t avoid it forever. And it’s fine, really. You have nothing to be sorry for. If anything, I should be the one apologizing. I practically ruined our friendship. And that’s something I never wanted to happen.”
Danny smirked at her reply. She was actually apologizing for being honest about her feelings, when he was the one lying about them. “Ruin our friendship? As far as I’m concerned that’s quite impossible. I’m not that easy to get rid of Abby. Unless of course you completely leave town without a trace. Please don’t do that,” he chuckled. Even in that case, Danny probably would have tried to find her. The more he thought about it, the more he fell in love with the idea of them being together. However it was something completely taboo. He hadn’t even told his mother about his feelings, because he knew that he would encourage him to do what was off limits.
They walked on for a bit, and Danny added, “Can I just comment that I love that you actually went through with the kidnapping? Really, bravo. But I’m going to have to exact my revenge.” He turned to her, and scooped her up in his arms. Holding her gently but firmly, he began to walk further into the water. He ignored her screams and pleas, and continued treading through the water laughing. When the water reached his waist, he lowered her into the water, and finally let go. They probably looked ridiculously insane to the other beach goers, but that couldn’t take away from the fun he was having. What could be better than being in Brazil with one of your best friends? “Aw, don’t you look adorable when you’re grumpy and soaked,” he smiled.
Rio de Janeiro || Danny & Abby
Everything was a mess. And by everything, it was really just Abby’s heart. No big deal. She’d been here before a few times. But she wasn’t going to worry about it anymore. It was time for Abby to grow up and handle things like an adult. Besides, Brazil was supposed to be perfect and fun and everything she needed, right? Standing amongst her classmates in Rio de Janeiro didn’t happen every day and Abby wasn’t going to take it for granted. She also wasn’t going to ruin Brazil by thinking about the what if’s or whatever. Nope. She was going to engross herself in the history and the beauty of Brazil or well for today - Rio.
There was only one issue, Mr. Houston wasn’t allowing anyone to go to the beach today. Something about all of them having to work for it. What even. Abby was all about learning and education and what not. But this was Brazil and the beaches of Rio were so close she could almost feel it. She’d been toying with the idea all day about just breaking the rules and running off to the beach maybe do some yoga or go for a swim or pay someone to teach her how to surf. She didn’t care, she just wanted to get away from the learning and see things forherself.
Laughter broke her from her thoughts and she looked up from her spot next to Brooke to find it’s source. She wasn’t an idiot of course, she knew who the laughter was coming from she just couldn’t find them. Bingo. Her eyes met with the group of boys that she cared the most about and she couldn’t help but sigh. With the news of Ade, everyone had been busy trying to cheer Quinn up. It didn’t seem to be working so well from the looks of it. Matt and Will were in a fit of laughter and Danny was just kind of standing there looking a bit, lost.
And that’s when it hit her. So what if Danny didn’t like her like her. They were friends. And friendship was something that meant a lot to her. Turning to Brooke she smirked a little. “Cover for me.” in the few short weeks she’d known Brooke, they’d kind of become partners and crime - sisters even. It was nice. Heading over to the group of guys, she stood on her tip toes to attempt to cover Danny’s eyes with her hands. “Come with me if you want to live.”
She hardly noticed the strange looks she was getting from the other three guys as she moved her hand to Danny’s hand and yanked him away. For awhile, she didn’t speak she just kind of ran and hoped that Danny was in good enough physical shape to keep up with her. Once they reached the beach she stopped and laid down in the sand, a fit of laughter coming out of her mouth. Looking up towards Danny she grinned at him. “How was that for a kidnapping?”
Danny was a wreck. He was just beginning to forgive himself his issues with Quinn and Sandy, then somehow he managed to mess things up with Abby. Abby was his anchor. She kept him from drifting away from himself and doing something completely stupid and wasteful of his life. And he hoped that he was doing half of what she did for him, which was give him a newfound purpose. He could think of a thousand corny, poetic metaphors for his feelings, but it all came down to one simple statement. Danny cared about Abby. He realized in order to prove that, he had been hiding something from everyone, including himself, to preserve their friendship. He liked Abby a lot, but he thought it selfish to risk ruining what they had. Even if he had changed his mind, there was no way Abby would talk to him.
It had been a few days since Abby confessed her feelings for Danny, and he couldn’t stop imagining the moment. The sights of Brazil would not override his brain. He mindlessly pretended to pay attention to the chatter of his roommates. His only close friend in the mix was Quinn, who seemed to be enjoying himself with William and Matthew. He didn’t want to bring Quinn’s Brazil hype down with his own dilemma.. Danny hadn’t even thought about how Matt might react if he knew Danny had feelings for Abby.
Danny was walking along with the group, staring at the ground, when all of a sudden, someone attacked him from behind dragging him away. The perpetrator was light on their feet and rather gentle, leaving him to assume this wasn’t an intentional crime. The kidnapper moved their hand to Danny’s hand, and he finally caught a glimpse of who it was. Their surroundings were blurred from running so quickly, and finally they were on the beach, and Abby submitted herself to the sand, roaring with laughter. Danny just smiled down at her admiringly. How could he be so dumb to think that Abby would let their situation get between the fun trip they had anticipated?
“You are something else, Abigail Clark,” he laughed, while trying to catch his breath. He held his hand out to help her up, “Come on, let’s go for a walk.” He pulled her up, and gripped her hand tight, while he walked her down by the water. Everything felt right again, but he knew at some point he’d have to address what happened. It was a matter of whether he should do it now, and ruin the trip, or do it later and spoil the time they had just spent on the trip. After a few moments of strolling in silence, he compromised with himself, “I hope I’m not an idiot for bringing this up, and we definitely don’t have to talk about anything right now, but I just needed to put it out there, that I’m sorry.”
