TIME WARP:Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines [Danny]

[Cobalt Weaver]

St. Ives Children's Home; 1975, New Jersey

Cobalt pushed up his glasses and sighed, finally setting down the book that he had spent the better part of the afternoon reading. He hadn’t finished it, but he wasn’t sure that it would do him any good: he didn’t even understand what was going on in it anyways. He scowled at the front cover. Stupid Dickens. He should be easier for a ten-year-old to understand. But Cobalt decided not to mention it, especially since Sister Frances already told him he wouldn’t understand it because he was too young. He hated it when she was right.

Pushing himself off the chair, he stretched and absently wondered where Danny was. Cobalt didn’t spend very many Saturday afternoons by himself anymore, now that he was friends with Danny. While this meant that he didn’t get to struggle through books that were too old for him much anymore, he suddenly had someone to talk to. Someone who liked him. And the concept was so new to him that he still wasn’t used to the novelty. Tripping slightly on the too-long legs of his jeans, Cobalt padded up the stairs to the room he and Danny shared with Mike, who was thankfully away somewhere (Cobalt didn’t really care where). Finally, he peeked into the room to see Danny hunched over the little desk, clearly concentrating on whatever he was working on.

Intrigued, Cobalt crept into the room, minding that his footsteps were silent so as to not disturb his friend. He perched on Danny’s bed and watched with fascination as the brown-haired boy peered over his glasses at the mess of cogs and little parts that lay strewn all over his desk.

“What’re you doing?” Cobalt asked finally, forgetting that Danny might not have seen him come in.

[Danny Silverman]

Danny had the room to himself. It was a strange sensation. He wasn’t sure how he felt about being alone. It didn’t really happen all that much in the orphanage. After all, there were a lot of children crammed into a pretty small space. Danny didn’t mind that much as usually the people who came around to “see” him were really there to bother the small boy, whose thick glasses and model making tended to make him a target for bullying. Less so now that Cobalt had stood up for him. But that was another reason that Danny felt strange, being alone. He had been spending a lot of time with the other boy recently, which was wonderful! Cobalt was a little…prickly, but Danny didn’t mind. Cobalt had stood up for him and besides, he really very nice. Just a little shy. And Danny didn’t mind that at all. Today, however, Cobalt was off reading, and to give himself something to do—Danny wasn’t a big fan of books, although he tried loyally because the nuns said he should—he had gotten out one of his carefully-rationed models and had started to work.

That was what he was focused on when Cobalt entered—a model plane. It was an old WWII fighter, and he was fairly sure it was American. He’d admit that he wasn’t sure which kind of plane it was. He liked models, not necessarily the planes and the history of them. It was a B…something? But the important part was that it was one of the more difficult models Danny had ever worked on, which meant he had his focused face on—brows furrowed, glasses sliding down his nose, and mouth twisted to one side. His tongue might have even been sticking out, but he didn’t notice.

He didn’t hear Cobalt come in. Didn’t even notice until the boy spoke up that there was someone in the room. He let out a soft little yelp and jumped a bit, parts flying out of his hand and across the table. Danny stared at them glumly for a moment, then looked up, and brightened as he saw it was Cobalt. Models could be rebuilt. Besides, nothing had been broken, and he didn’t mind spending the extra time. It was Cobalt.

“Hi!” he said, pushing up his glasses and smiling a little sheepishly. “I didn’t hear you come in. Did you finish the book? And I’m just working on a model. See?” He leaned forward to grab the box and show Cobalt the brightly painted plane on the front, then looked down at his, which looked more like the bottom of a banana. “Well…sort of.”

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt liked watching Danny work. The older boy was so rarely focused, instead opting to be goofy and flighty and cheerful. Except for when he was working on his models. It was interesting to watch the transformation. Cobalt didn’t even think about how odd it was that he was just…sitting on his friend’s bed and watching him work on his model airplanes.

When he was older, he would probably look back on his preteen choices and wonder why he was so creepy.

But when Danny yelled, Cobalt skittered back a few feet, as far as the bed would allow, and watched in dismay as the parts of the airplane flew out of Danny’s hand. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Cobalt apologized, looking up at his friend anxiously, shoulders hunched self-consciously. Great, he’d done it again. He’d ruined Danny’s model plane that he was working on, and why couldn’t Cobalt just make normal decisions and not sneak around like an idiot. The ten-year-old twisted his fingers in embarrassment, staring over at Danny and hoping the other boy wasn’t too upset.

Danny didn’t seem too upset, however. “Hi.” Cobalt greeted back shyly, a little relieved that Danny wasn’t mad at him. “No, I gave up on the book,” He admitted grumpily, “But don’t tell anyone.” He leaned forward to examine the plane that Danny was working on. “…Oh. It looks nice?” Really, it looked a little weird. “How long have you been working on it?”

[Danny Silverman]

Danny’s face took on a puzzled cast as Cobalt skittered back and apologized. “Oh, no, it’s fine!” he hastened to assure the other boy, smiling at him quite happily—in spite of the broken model—as he absently brushed parts into separate piles based on size without even looking at them all that much. He hadn’t done a lot of model building, but he knew enough to do that, and it was good enough for him! “See? Nothing hurt.” And nothing was damaged, as he showed Cobalt by holding up the model. He smiled at the other boy again, then set it down and came over to sit next to Cobalt on the bed.

“I’m sorry you didn’t like it!” he said earnestly, pushing up his glasses to look at Cobalt. “And thanks! I think it looks weird, but they always do.” He seemed to look depressed at that thought, but brightened a little. “Do you want to help me? Together we could get it done pretty fast! Have you ever built a model before? If not, it doesn’t matter. I can teach you!”

Later, Danny would remember just how chatty he was. He still wondered how the Cobalt had managed to put up with it.

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt offered Danny a small smile when the other boy reassured him happily that no harm had been done. That was what he liked most about Danny: he was always okay with whatever Cobalt had done. Danny never gave him weird looks. That was nice. He watched intently as Danny sorted everything out on the desk by size, barely looking at what he was doing. Cobalt was duly impressed. “You’re really good at that,” He commented quietly, nodding at the desk.

Cobalt’s blue eyes widened behind the thin glasses at Danny’s offer to help. “But—but…” Cobalt sputtered, taken aback by such a staggering show of faith, “But I might mess it up. I’m no good at stuff like that.” The worst thing Cobalt could possibly imagine happening would be breaking his new friend’s model airplane. He figured there was only so much the boy was willing to put up with before deciding Cobalt was more annoying than useful.

“Besides, I don’t know how.” Cobalt mumbled, forgetting in his wave of self-consciousness that Danny had offered to help. “I think I would be in the way.” Despite his protestations, however, he eyed the desk strewn with pieces longingly. He wasn’t interested in model making like Danny was, but it was something he didn’t know how to do. Something to learn. And Cobalt wanted to learn everything eventually.

[Danny Silverman]

“Huh?” Danny looked down at the model parts that he’d sorted, then smiled and looked back up at Cobalt. He didn’t often get a lot of compliments. It wasn’t like the kids at the orphanage were the kind to tell him that he did something right. And the nuns told him not to be too proud of his models anyways, which was a shame, because Danny did really like them and wanted to be proud of them. But he also tried to be good. Not proud? Okay. He’d do his best. “Thanks!” he said happily. “I do it a lot.”

In spite of Cobalt’s protests, Danny was already shaking his head. “How do ya know until you try?” he asked practically. “Besides, the only way to get better is to practice! Or, so the nuns say.” And he looked embarrassed again as he pushed up his glasses. “And it kinda makes sense, I guess? I dunno! But I promised you that I’d teach you, remember? When we met? And you said you’d help me learn how to fight.” Danny wasn’t so sure about that now, but he supposed it’d be good to learn. After all, Cobalt couldn’t be there for him all the time, right? “C’mon! I know you’ll be great!” he swept all the parts into the box and then got up to put the box on the floor. “See? We start with the instructions. That’s so you know what you’re doing. Very important, instructions.”

Oh, dear. Danny, teaching? Probably not the best idea.

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt thought Danny should be proud of his talents. Not too proud, of course, because there was Scripture against that and stuff, but Cobalt didn’t see the harm in being a little proud. More like…happy with his talents. That worked better. Too much Catholic justifying made his ten-year-old head spin, so he decided to stop thinking about it, opting instead to give his friend a quiet half-smile. Danny did do this a lot, it was true. And then he liked trying to get Cobalt to play with them afterwards, but Cobalt was usually too worried about breaking them. That would be the worst thing ever.

Cobalt frowned slightly at Danny’s pragmatism. “W-well…I guess that’s true…” He glanced up in surprise when Danny mentioned the deal they made when they first met. “I didn’t even think you remembered that,” the little boy confessed, adjusting his glasses awkwardly and giving Danny another small smile. He hesitated before finally nodding seriously, as though Danny was asking him to do something deadly important. “Okay…” He slid off the bed and onto the floor, crouching over the box, his blue eyes scrutinizing, “Instructions. Right.” He took a deep breath. It was imperative that Cobalt be very, very careful to not ruin Danny’s work.

It was entirely possible that the ten-year-old took things far too seriously.

[Danny Silverman]

Danny did think that Cobalt took things too seriously, but as that was part of why Danny liked Cobalt (well, really, Danny didn’t think he disliked anything about Cobalt, because to leave anything out would have stopped his friend from being, well, him) he didn’t fret about it too much. His goal was to get Cobalt to have more fun, and that included playing with models which may or may not break and getting him to not care about that. And maybe even to build said models. He wasn’t sure that was going to help with the whole playing with thing, though. He still had to work on that.

“I remember!” Danny said, quite proudly. What didn’t he remember about that whole day? It hadn’t started well, but he had liked how it had ended up. Meeting Cobalt was a definite plus, after all! Danny smiled as Cobalt knelt on the ground, then came to kneel next to him.

“Don’ be so serious!” he exclaimed when Cobalt started examining the pieces carefully. “It’s not that hard, and you can fix stuff if you mess up. See? It’s not meant to be hard.” Well, it kind of was, but he didn’t want Cobalt to know that. Especially ‘since it was only the harder ones that were ever donated. “And I don’ mind if it doesn’t look perfect,” he added with a smile at the other boy. “Okay?”

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt thought that Danny didn’t take things seriously enough. He didn’t mind it, although it was something that usually annoyed Cobalt in people. But not Danny. No, it mostly worried him when Danny laughed and threw his feelings around so cavalierly. It seemed like a really quick way to get your feelings hurt. Cobalt decided that Danny just hadn’t figured that out yet. Cobalt figured that it was his job to make sure Danny didn’t get his feelings hurt too bad. It was the least he could do. Danny was so nice.

Cobalt gave Danny another tiny smile as the other boy knelt down next to him. Awkwardly adjusting his glasses, Cobalt scooted over so Danny could have some room. He didn’t go that far, however, and their shoulders still brushed. Danny was a cheering presence, and Cobalt found he couldn’t stay too far away from him: like a moth to a flame or something potentially deadly like that.

He actually did laugh a little when Danny asked him not to be so serious. “I can’t.” He said earnestly, “It’s like there’s something in my brain. It makes me serious.” He ducked his head, still smiling a little before turning back to the task at hand. He listened to what Danny said, his head tilted to the side. “…Okay. So, does it kind of clip on, or are these the kind of models that need glue?”

“It certainly looks hard…” Cobalt muttered, looking at the pieces. Finally, he glanced at his friend, “So why do you build models all the time? You build them all the time.” It wasn’t meant as a criticism (because Cobalt would never dream of criticizing Danny ever), but it was a curiosity. Danny spent a lot of time with his models; Cobalt wanted to know why.

[Danny Silverman]

Had Danny known that Cobalt thought that they were moths and flames, he probably would have been very confused. And then a little hurt. He wasn’t a fire. He was just trying to cheer up Cobalt. It couldn’t make the other boy happy to be so serious all the time. It had to be a rule somewhere. Danny had even caught the nuns laughing more than Cobalt did. That had to be fixed.

“Well then, we’re gonna have to fix that,” Danny said seriously, looking at Cobalt over his glasses. Only he couldn’t stay serious for very long, and his lips soon turned all the way up into a smile, and he giggled. There was really no other word for it. It certainly wasn’t manly enough to be a chuckle or even a laugh. But at least Cobalt was smiling. “Really! You’re way too serious. You need to have fun! Oh! I forgot the glue!” It was one of the models that you glued, which took forever. But as he was doing this with Cobalt, he didn’t mind if it didn’t look perfect. Besides, he always played with these ones anyways. “It’s glue,” he said when he knelt down. “I like that. It makes it stronger. Even if you spill it—that’s why it’s good.” He smiled at Cobalt. “But really! It’s not that hard. You just put it on all the parts.”

And he’d knelt to explain it a bit when Cobalt asked his question. He straightened up, looking thoughtful as he pushed up his glasses, then shrugged. “I dunno. I like seeing that I can…build stuff, you know? That I can make stuff. I like it. Plus, you get to think about the kinda stuff you’re building. It’s…” He frowned. “It’s hard to explain. I dunno. Why do you like reading?”

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt didn’t know the nuns laughed at him, but looking back, he wouldn’t be surprised. He was probably a little funny to watch: this tiny, stunted little boy being so terribly serious at every single thing.

Cobalt gave Danny a shy, crooked smile. “I thought you wanted to be an astronaut, not a brain surgeon.” He picked at the pieces of model airplane on the floor, “But I have fun with you, so th-that’s good.” The boy ducked his head embarrassedly. He hadn’t quite meant to say that, but there it was, and he couldn’t very well take it back. Flustered, Cobalt adjusted his glasses. He watched Danny scramble to get the glue and settled himself crosslegged on the floor. At Danny’s repeated reassurances that this wasn’t so hard, Cobalt raised his eyebrows. He hadn’t quite gotten the hang of only raising one eyebrow, but he knew he’d get it eventually. “Okay…” He picked up a piece that looked like part of a wing, and pressed it against another part, “So it’s like a puzzle, then? Is this right?”

Cobalt listened to Danny struggle to explain why he liked making models so much. In a way, he understood: Danny liked to make things and to spend time and patience putting things together and keeping them together. It was one of the things he liked so much about Danny: everything and everyone was worth his time. Cobalt grinned, nodding slightly, “Makes sense to me.” He looked surprised when Danny asked him why he liked reading. That…was a fair point. He shrugged a little shyly, “I dunno. I…like knowing things? If it was important enough to make into a book, it’s prob’ly important to read about.” And Cobalt liked knowing things.

[Danny Silverman]

“Oh, I do wanna be an astronaut!” he exclaimed. “B-but I’d be a brain surgeon if it made you h-happier. And…oh.” He was blushing now, and it only intensified at Cobalt’s statement. He was embarrassed by it, but judging by the smile, pleased too. He looked down and pushed up his own glasses, shyly, then mumbled, “I have fun with you too.”

And then they were moving on. He wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or disappointed that the moment hadn’t lasted longer, but he decided not to think about it. He was here with Cobalt. That was what was important. And he was teaching him to build models! That was pretty cool too. “It’s a lot like a puzzle, yeah!” he agreed. “But that looks right.” He leaned in to peer at it, then smiled at Cobalt and offered him the glue. “Wanna try putting it together?”

He seemed surprised when Cobalt said he understood, but that was why he liked Cobalt—‘cause he always understood and never seemed to find Danny weird. That and ‘cause he protected other people without thinking about it. That was pretty cool too. “That’s cool,” he said, and meant it. He wished he knew more things. But he was pretty happy with knowing how to make models, and besides! There was plenty of time to learn things when he was all grown up. “What’s your favorite? Book, I mean. And what have ya learned from ‘em? If you…dun mind telling me, of course.”

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt was flabbergasted at Danny’s reply. The idea that Danny would do something for the sole purpose of making Cobalt happier was foreign and the responsibility of this weighed on Cobalt’s ten year old shoulders. It didn’t matter that they weren’t even teenagers yet and it would be a long time before they grew up and got jobs, so things could change. The fact remained that Danny kept offering Cobalt his heart, and Cobalt didn’t have the slightest idea what to do with it. A part of him wanted to tell Danny to keep his heart to himself and stop being so stupid about it. But another part, a selfish and unchristian part of him wanted to keep it. And he didn’t know what was the right thing to do. So instead of saying any of this, Cobalt ducked his head, blushing as well, and murmured, “Thanks, Danny.” He was glad Danny was his friend. He’d just have to work extra hard to deserve it. He didn’t think Danny realized that Cobalt wasn’t as good a person as he was.

“Okay…” Cobalt adjusted his glasses nervously before taking the glue from Danny. With a look of intense concentration on his pinched face (brow furrowed, tongue slightly sticking out from clenched teeth), he carefully applied the glue to the model. Once he was sure that he hadn’t gotten glue anywhere he didn’t want, he pressed the two pieces together. Gingerly, he showed it to Danny. “Is it good?” He asked anxiously.

Cobalt blinked with surprise when Danny asked him about books. Which one was his favorite? “Ummm…” He considered this before brightening, “Oh! I read this new book, before the stupid one I started that was too hard,” He pouted briefly, hating to admit that something was too hard, “It’s called The Phantom Tollbooth. I like it, it’s kinda like…fantasy, only more…real? I don’t know. I liked it because it made you look at things differently.” He shrugged, “I like books that make you look at things differently.” Cobalt glanced up at Danny shyly. He knew Danny didn’t read as much, but he knew Danny was smart, and he wanted to know but he didn’t want to sound mean or that he thought he was smarter than Danny or anything. “W-what do you…like to read?” He asked cautiously.

[Danny Silverman]

Danny lifted his head to smile a bit shyly right back at Cobalt, even though both of them were blushing. He didn’t get why Cobalt was so unwilling to accept the friendship that Danny kept trying to offer. But the boy was shy, he knew, and not used to having someone who really wanted him to like them. He was just going to have to be patient and teach Cobalt that it was okay to have someone who liked him.

“’Course,” he mumbled back, smiling at him as he pushed up his glasses again. Then he leaned over to focus on the model too. He giggled a little at Cobalt’s serious expression—especially at the tongue sticking out—and then peered over to see if it looked right. “Yeah! You do it better than I do! My glue always ends up sticky and everywhere.” He wrinkled his nose, then looked over at him and smiled. “You did good! See? It’s not so hard.”

“Well,” Danny said practically, “you don’ have to read the stupid hard book ever again. Why don’t they make books easier? I don’t like it.” Danny really didn’t read all that much, although he liked some stories. He just liked models better. Books didn’t end up with a result you could hang up or play with, so what was the point? Still, Cobalt liked to read, so he made a real effort.

Sometimes, however, he was a little confused by Cobalt’s pick in books.

“Phantom Tollbooth??” he asked, a little hesitantly. “It sounds kinda scary. It’s not a bad book, right? I mean…one that gives you nightmares? But…” he shifted a little and smiled. “I like the Hardy Boys. I read them a little. And, um.” He screwed his eyes up in thought. “Space books. Yeah. I like space books. I can’t wait ‘till we build homes on the moon! It’ll be great! Promise you’ll come an’ live with me if that ever happens?” Danny’s eyes got very big as he pulled on his best puppy face. “Please?”

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt felt a little thrill of triumph as he looked at the wing he was able to successfully glue together, and Danny’s praise made him feel even better about it. He adjusted his glasses and gave Danny a wide grin, finally looking his age, “This isn’t so hard! I thought I would ruin everything.” He said this with the air of telling Danny a grave confession. He shook blonde hair out of his eyes and squinted back down at the project, “Where should we connect this part?” He gestured to the wing in his hand and then the pile of unfinished plane parts. He was wiggling a little bit in his seat; this was…fun. And doubly so because he was doing this with his best friend in the world.

“Oh, I’m not going to.” Cobalt shook his head firmly, his little-boy features the very picture of distain, “I didn’t wanna read it that bad anyways.” Which was a lie, but as long as he kept telling people that, he might start believing it. Besides, it wasn’t a complete lie: it wasn’t as though he wanted to read it that bad anymore. Maybe it didn’t count as a lie. Cobalt only felt a little guilty. “I dunno, I guess people wanna write books for grown ups.” He shook his head, disappointed in authors everywhere, “I think it’s dumb. If you wanted to tell someone something, why wouldn’t you make it easy for them to understand?”

“No, no.” He assured Danny confidently, “No, it’s not a scary book at all. It’s… an adventure book!” He nodded authoritatively, “The main boy goes on an adventure and then everything ends up okay.” As it should be, in Cobalt’s opinion. He smiled a little when Danny mentioned the Hardy Boys, “Yeah, I read ‘em too. They’re good!” He didn’t mention that he read them a while ago because they got too easy. He thought that might be mean to Danny, which was an unthinkable offence. Besides, Cobalt could never understand Danny’s space books.

Cobalt’s eyes grew round with Danny pleaded with him to go live on the Moon with him. “’Course I’ll live on the moon with you. Who else would I live with?” He adjusted his glasses, suddenly self-conscious. Or maybe he never stopped feeling so, it was hard to tell sometimes. “We…we should still live with each other anyways, even if they don’t make houses on the moon. It—it could be fun! You could be an astronaut and then when you come back from being in space, you could come back and tell me about your adventures.” It was the most Cobalt could offer his friend, but he thought that seemed like the perfect setup he could imagine. It sounded like heaven.