Danny had time, whatever Cho had planned, so he went along willingly and waggled an eyebrow at the thief. “Feeling frisky this morning, Ice Man?”
Cho shot him an amused ‘have patience’ look and laid Danny down on the sofa the way he’d been last night. Then he lifted Danny’s legs and sat at the end with Danny’s feet in his lap.
Confused, Danny frowned before a groan tore past his lips at the first firm press of Cho’s thumbs into the sole of his foot. It hurt but felt so good at the same time. Danny hadn’t received a foot rub in…ever.
“Do you know how much tension people carry in their feet, Sparky? Sore muscles are more than…well, sore muscles.” Smoothing his thumbs over the top of Danny’s foot, he also dug into the sole with his fingertips. His voice was a low, hypnotic hum around him as Danny relaxed into the sofa. “We carry frustration there. Anger. So many varied emotions begging to be released.”
“You into that new age stuff, Cho?” Danny snorted as he glanced down at the man. “Essential oils, organic food…”
“Organic food isn’t new age, kid,” Cho said with chiding amusement. “You won’t find me going to a faith healer any more than to a chiropractor, but I can appreciate the nuances of a good massage.”
Danny groaned again. The way Cho played his fingers over the bottom of Danny’s foot like a piano felt sinfully good. Harsh enough to make him hiss, then soft and soothing to make him moan. Cho chuckled at him and pressed in deeper.
What did he mean by emotions though? Danny wasn’t carrying any emotions in hisfeet. Just because he darted around the city at all hours didn’t mean…
“Ugn…” Danny couldn’t stop the pleased noises from passing his lips as he drifted into that lovely place between awake and dozing, where he could float on a cloud with nothing to disturb his bliss. “Is there anything you’re not good at?”
“Hmm…I’ll let you know if I think of something.”
Danny laughed. The slow, constant pressure of Cho’s thumbs and fingers on his foot was better than any massage he’d ever received. The man really knew how to use his hands, but then, Danny knew that. Cho even worked his way higher, up Danny’s ankle beneath the borrowed sweats, and further up Danny’s calf where he tensed from being ticklish, before moving down and attending to each individual toe.
Then the ball of Danny’s foot, the arch, the heel, thearchagain. When Cho moved to the other foot, something inside of Danny shifted, as if the loosening of his muscles shook something else loose too. It took opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling above for him to realize he was blinking back tears. He touched a hand to his eyes. Why was he crying from a stupid foot rub?
“Letting your guard down has its perils,” Cho said, never ceasing his motions, his voice soft and without judgement.“Sometimes we don’t even know what we’re holding onto until it slips out of us.”
Danny glanced at Cho, but he kept his eyes on Danny’s foot, concentration and sadness on his face that Danny didn’t understand.
“You don’t always have to be okay,” Cho said. “You don’t have to be anything when you’re here. Outside these walls you’re plenty. I don’t need Zeus in my home. In fact, I’d prefer he stay far, far away.” Pausing, he reached up behind him and patted the suit hanging over the sofa with a brief smirk.
Danny choked out another laugh. But he was choking on too much, so much more than laughter, as unforeseen emotions caught in his throat.
“Zeus in my bed, now, that is something to brag about. But I know where the real power is. All the parts I like to see bare, that’s not Zeus. Zeus is your mask. I like what’s under it.”
“You don’t know what’s under it,” Danny said without thinking, because Cho didn’t know, not really, and he wouldn’t want the truth if he ever found out how low Danny had sunk.
“Think you’re such an enigma, huh?” Cho pressed his thumbs into the arch of Danny’s foot again and held them there, applying firm pressure that hurt, but the pain was good, solid. His eyes looked so blue when they met Danny’s gaze. He was flushed and damp with sweat, casually dressed in his own home, attending to Danny when this time Danny had done nothing to earn his keep. “Tell me. What’s so terrible about Danny Grant?”
Danny stared for far too long. At Cho’s eyes. At his face. At his hands ever moving. The words wouldn’t come to him, because there were too many of them, right on the brink of flooding out of him, and he couldn’t,couldn’tlet all of them out at once.
His tears fell more steadily—he couldn’tstopthem—as he slowly drifted his eyes to the ceiling again and focused on the pain more than the pleasure of Cho’s touch.
“I almost snapped a man’s arms last night.”
Cho’s rhythmic rubbing stuttered, but only for a moment.
“He didn’t even do anything. He was trying to break into a store, but it wasn’t a big deal, ya know? No dangerous Elemental. He didn’t have any weapons on him. But I was soangry.” The tears streamed faster down Danny’s face. “I saw Ludgate, the Elemental responsible for these heists, and he…he made me look like afool, and I just…I wanted…somethingto make sense.”
“We all lose our cool occasionally, Sparky.”
Danny shook his head. “It wasn’t the first time. A couple weeks ago I broke a man’s nose. Gave him a concussion. Beat him until he begged for me to stop. If my last hit had connected, I would have killed him. Just like…” What was Dannysaying?
“Like…?” Cho prompted when he trailed.
It was the last thing Danny ever thought he’d confess, especially to Cho, but the words found their way out of him anyway. “The night I killed Thanatos.”
ß
Danny had sent the message to Cho just like they discussed—a call into Haven that would be relayed to Cho describing the time and place for them to meet. Wherewashe? Thanatos had taken control of the power station almost an hour ago, but he had more than just the workers inside held hostage. Danny had received a call to his own desk phone at the precinct from Thanatos himself. He never could have anticipated hearing hismother’svoice on the other line.
