Work Text:
Karl walked along the boardwalk, looking around wildly, in awe of his surroundings. In the two months since he had moved, he had not gotten the chance to explore much of California. As he inhaled another whiff of funnel cake, Karl silently thanked his new job for giving him an hour lunch break, and for being located a mere five-minute walk from Venice Beach.
He came upon a bench that looked out over the water. He sat down and began to unravel the plastic wrap on his sandwich. He tried to ignore the smell of hot dogs and pretzels, but the more he smelled, the the less appealing his turkey and cheese sandwich looked. Karl was just about to make his way over to the hot dog cart when he heard the first few chords of a familiar song. Karl’s head whipped around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. His eyes fell upon a young brunette, leaning along a brick wall, guitar in hand, eyes shut. The kid opened his mouth and the first words hit Karl’s ears. A huge smile broke out on his face and he sat back down to watch the boy perform.
Your eyes are red when tears are shed
The world you must have crossed, you said
You don’t know me, you don’t even care
You don’t know me, and you don’t wear my chains
As the boy reached to hit the higher notes, Karl found himself floored. This kid had an incredible voice. Far better than any street performer he had ever heard. Karl watched his every move and found himself in awe of how effortless it all seemed. The boy still had his eyes closed and seemed as if he wasn’t performing for anyone but himself.
I’ll get out of California
I’m tired of the weather
I think I’ll get a lover
I’ll fly ‘em out to Spain
Karl smiled at the line about California.
Before long, a small group had surrounded the boy, and the guitar case at his feet was overflowing with bills. As the final notes sounded, and the last words rang out, he was met with a chorus of applause. His eyes opened, revealing two bright brown orbs, clearly surprised. He blushed bright red and fumbled around, Karl recognized it as an attempt at a bow.
As the crowd moved along, the boy began strumming again. Karl sat and listened to the boy play several more songs. He finally stood up when he realized what time it was. He walked over to the boy, and dropped a ten in the guitar case, then he began to walk back along the boardwalk. He made up his mind to come down here for every lunch break.
Both Karl, and the boy with the guitar showed up the next day. Karl showed up with money in his pockets and no sandwich to be seen. He watched the boy until his lunch break was over, and again gave him a ten dollar bill as he left. This pattern continued for another week an a half, before the boy stopped him one afternoon.
“Hey. Umm…. I just wanted to say thanks.” The boy was clearly nervous. He was blushing and not looking Karl in the eyes. “You know, for…” He gestured at the money Karl had just placed.
Karl, feeling confident, stuck out his hand. The younger man rushed to shake it. “I’m Karl. And you deserve so much more than ten dollars. You really have a gift.”
“Oh. Thank you so much. Really that means the world to me.” The boy blushed even brighter. “I’m Danny by the way.”
“Is Danny the name you are going to go by when you get famous?”
“Ha. I don’t know. If that day ever comes I think it will be a miracle.”
“Well when that day comes, because I know it will, don’t forget to come back here every once and a while. Keep yourself grounded.”
“Of course.”
Karl gave Danny a big smile, before he began walking back to work. The smile on his face didn’t fade throughout the day and even into the night. Karl’s mind kept drifting back to Danny. He wasn’t going to lie, Danny was hot. Karl had noticed that immediately. But he was completely unprepared for him to be adorable and sweet too. It was almost unfair how cute Danny was. Karl shook his head for the tenth time, trying to focus on the work in front of him.
The next day Karl invited Danny over to sit with him. They talked about the weather and boring things at first. It was pretty awkward actually. Danny was so nervous that he hardly spoke, and Karl was so bored he didn’t want to talk. But once the topic of cats was brought up, they were both completely engaged. They talked for easily twenty minutes about their own cats, and another twenty minutes about all the cats they wanted. After their conversation, Karl came to the conclusion that even though Danny was younger than him, Danny fit all the qualifications to be considered an old crazy cat lady.
The two exchanged numbers, and before Karl went back to work, he watched amusedly as a blush spread across Danny’s face when he saw the heart emoji Karl had put after his own name.
They talked constantly. Karl had never talked this much to another human being in his life. It was kind of scary, but also kind of wonderful. He learned so much about Danny and visa versa. Danny learned that Karl had been emotionally detached for far too long. Something that the younger boy mentioned quite a lot. And Karl learned that Danny had an amazing relationship with his mom.
If Karl had been taken aback before, then he was completely blown away by how his feelings for Danny grew. Karl was helpless to stop them. Not that he really wanted to. He was hopelessly infatuated with Danny. Finally one day Karl had made up his mind. He had enough of the back and forth flirting and he intended to do something about it. He took his lunch break earlier than usual so he could beat Danny to his spot.
Danny arrived just a few minutes after Karl had made the final touches. He walked over to the place he usually would perform, but stopped dead in his tracks when he read the words written on the wall in chalk.
Now you know me, now you care. Will you be my boyfriend?
He had thought his wording was clever. Karl had changed the words to the song that Danny played when they first saw each other so that they made more sense.
Karl’s heart beat loudly in his chest as he saw Danny slowly turn around. He held out a bouquet of flowers as Danny approached him, but the boy hardly glanced at them before he was pulling Karl into a bruising kiss. When the two finally pulled back for air, Karl smiled and leaned his forehead against Danny’s. “I’ll take that as a yes.“