Chapter Text
Danny Hebert
April 19th, 2011
He never used to shave.
The thought strikes him same as it always does when he inspects his face.
He runs his razor under the faucet, washing away the excess cream and discarded whiskers before he brings it back up, his chin tilted just until he can find an angle.
When he was younger, he couldn’t wait to grow a beard. His chin had always been a bit weak and as a kid he thought that was the worst thing in the world.
There wasn't a single photo of Danny Hebert before age 25 where he didn't tilt his head down or find some excuse to scratch his mouth when the camera flashed, his shame hidden behind his hand.
He used to do everything he could to hide that, he didn't used to shave.
But then he got marked.
He almost laughs as the razor glides over his cheek, the old frozen soulmark looking back at him as he pulls the blade away. Thinking about how he got that book on his face always makes him laugh, even if it’s a story that’s not all that worth telling.
He'd met Annette back in college, he was on his way to sleep through English 102 when him and a few… friends walked by a little stall some other students had set up.
Being honest, the crowd he'd been at the time weren’t really his friends. Sure, they joked around, they shared a few classes but they were friends in the same way so many guys have them.
Superficial, distant, the kind of people you shared drinks with because you couldn't share anything else.
The stall hadn't been officially a part of Brockton U; the university tried its best to stay out of cape culture or anything adjacent to that and though the cape the stall had been in support for hadn’t been big at the time, Lustrum was well known enough to get Danny's friend's attention.
That is to say one of the idiots flipped the table.
Danny had already been halfway down the hall when he heard the laughter and he'd been turning when it got cut off with a punch.
Josh or Keith or Chet or whatever his name had been was rolling around on the floor, his hands stuck to his face and trying to stop the red that just kept on gushing.
The other shitheads Danny ‘borrowed’ homework from were too busy laughing to realize the girls they'd upset weren't satisfied with one dickhead on the ground.
Danny couldn't tell you why it escalated so quickly, between four jerks who couldn't squeeze into a fraternity and six women, he'd have expected it to just fizzle out.
But by the time Danny had walked back to the sudden battlefield it had already turned into a full-on brawl.
Honestly, he had been heading over to break it up but being six foot tall with knuckles clenched, he can understand why one of the women stepped to him to him first, her hand tight on his shoulder before giving him one of the meanest right hooks of his life.
It’s funny, if Annette hadn’t marked him right then, chances are the fight would’ve gotten a lot worse. But for all the blood, wounded pride, and retribution in that hallway, it all turned to dust when the corridor went white.
Danny still remembers looking up at the woman that hit him, his cheek swelling and ears ringing, but eyes full of wonder as he marveled at what formed on the woman's knuckles.
An anchor with a fishers knot hoisting it upright.
That had been nearly twenty years ago now, but since then Danny's never left the house without a clean shave.
The book on his face used to move, the pages used to open and flip by quick enough that you couldn’t read the words on the inside. It used to be a brighter color than it is now, a warm brown that looked like her eyes.
It froze the day she died.
It had been an awful feeling. Sat in his office, arguing with some jerk from city hall, it was like someone had pressed a bit of frozen iron to his face.
The aide he'd been yelling at stopped cold and he only moved when Danny had demanded a goddamm mirror.
He knew what happened, of course he did, but that didn't make the gray any easier to look at. She'd left and he didn't get the chance to say goodbye.
Losing her had felt like losing everything for a while but… since then he'd like to think he's figured out how to keep on going.
He puts the razor back in the cabinet and with the door shut, he stands there, looking at himself in the mirror.
Looking at Annette.
“Taylor got marked last week,” he says, smiling a little as he buttons his shirt. “She was at…” he sighs, “a party if you can believe it. I don’t know when she got to be so rebellious either. You probably knew this was going to happen eventually, I remember you'd said something about all the hell she'd raise when she got to be a teen but still.”
He does three more buttons before he looks up.
“It still doesn’t make sense” he laments to the mirror, “She didn’t drink, at least, she said she didn’t drink—thank god— but uh…”
He stops, leaning on the sink as he stares at the frozen book.
“She met her soulmates.” he repeats, snorting to himself. He can almost hear her voice in the mirror. “I know! Mates, plural. She’s got… well, she’s a part of a quintet. Four of them, can you believe that?”
He shakes his head as he leans away from the mirror.
“I remember thinking it was strange when Kurt and Lacey managed to find another Kurt, but… that almost looks normal when you think about a quintet.”
The faucet drips a little and Danny rips off a piece of toilet paper to try and staunch it, it works well enough.
“I still can’t believe it though. A freaking party. Where does she—” his next sigh is dangerously close to a noise of frustration but he pushes it down. “Do you think it’s our fault? We told her we were at a party when we got marked, do you think that’s what made her go out?”
The mirror doesn’t answer him.
“I don’t think they go to Winslow, at least, they shouldn’t, right? Do kids still test each other any more? I remember when you and I were in high school, everyone tried to high five or shake hands with everybody, y'know: ‘just to be sure.’”
His fingers fumble on the last button, his green eyes flicking back to his shirt.
“Parties are better than trying to get slugged I guess. You were the one who told me to lie when she asked how we found each other.”
Danny laughs when he remembers why Annette had told him to lie.
Alan and Zoe learned they were soulmates when that big dope tripped into her, nearly breaking both their legs when they tumbled down the steps in front of their high school. It’s a cute story, but somehow their daughter had interpreted it as ‘jump down every flight of stairs I can find!’ and well, they didn’t want Taylor to try and repeat what got him and Annette togehter.
“What are the odds?” Danny asks the mirror, trying to put math to it. “All four of her soulmates, all at the same party, that's gotta be some kind of miracle, right? Finding just the one is hard, but four?”
He chuckles as he gets the button in right.
Danny had never understood the whole poly thing, sure, he knew it happened, triads and tetrads might not grow on trees, but everyone had a cousin in something like that growing up.
It's a good thing Taylor got all her people in one go though, Kurt and Lacey'd known each other since high school but the way they'd described it, they knew they were missing someone.
“It's like an ache,” Kurt had told him nearly a decade ago now. “It's just gets worse.”
They found their third eventually but it took a blind date to do it and even then it was the date's friend, not the date herself. Poor girl, got all dressed up in that hat and gown but it's her buddy that gets lucky.
It's good Taylor won't have to deal with that ache but thinking that makes Danny think… of the other thing.
The impossible thing.
“There’s uh….” he starts, mouth floundering as he tries to put it into words. He knows Annette can’t really hear him or if she can, she’s too far away to tell him to say it better, but still he pauses.
He needs to say it right.
“She’s…” he tries again, shrugging with his mouth left open. “I’m not sure whether or not I believe it myself just yet but Taylor… she says… she says she’s soulbonded.”
Just like before, he swears he can almost hear her, her sharp snort of disbelief and even knowing it’s all in his head, he still cracks a smile.
“I know, I know, it’s… you would’ve called it fantastical I’m sure, but it’s true. At least, Taylor thinks it’s true.”There’s something about saying it outloud that really puts into focus, something that gets him smiling. “Now, I know what you would’ve said and I’m doing what I can with it. I want to believe it’s true, I do, but I wouldn’t really be her dad if I didn’t— if I didn’t make sure myself. She’s… everyone wants to be that one in a billion, but… we all have to rein in our expectations at some point.”
With his shirt buttoned, Danny wishes he hadn’t put the razor away, at least so he’d have something to fidget with when he looks back at the mirror.
“To be honest… I don’t know which one is worse.” he gulps, his mouth dry. None of the books he’d bought when Taylor was two talked about something as mythical as a soulbond “She’d been gone a whole— an entire damn week and I—” he nearly hisses, “I was scared. I didn’t know where she was, I tried redialing the number maybe two dozen times but it just kept going to voicemail. I know bonds are supposed to take a while to form and if she really is bonded, that’s fine, it’s— it’s basically like trying to catch lightning in a bottle, but we know these things take time.”
His hands find something to do as they grip the edge of the sink. He tries his best to keep his anger down but it comes up all the same, his knuckles turning white as he looks back at the mark on his cheek.
“But what if… what if she wasn’t bonded?”
Just saying it outloud he knows which one is worse.
On the one hand, if the bond’s real, then his little girl would get some kind of power and knowing her, she’d want to do something with that. That’s scary in it’s own way, a nightmare all parents have when they hear about things like the Ward’s program but on the other hand… if she isn’t bonded…
Then that means four strangers took Taylor away for no damn reason.
His knuckles pop as he grips the sink tighter. The anger calls to him like an old friend, hungry and eager, but he denies it. He can spend the rest of the night stewing and worrying but this evening he’s got a job to do.
And he won’t ruin Taylor’s evening just because of a suspicion.
“I… I think it’s going to be okay.” he lies, both to himself and to the mirror. “She’s… I’ve seen the marks. They’re real. She came home two days ago and I saw them, one on each palm, one on the back of her neck and one on the small of her back.”
He swallows what little anger he has left as he steps away from the sink.
“They’re real, they look nice enough though they’re a little strange. Teeth on the back of her neck, a dog’s I think, a purple eye on one hand, and some masks on the other. There’s a skull on her back and all of them move just like ours did but uh…” he coughs, like Annette’s actually there, like he needs to buy himself time. “… they… glow.”
He can almost hear her gasp.
If Annette were really here, she’d try so hard to be cynical, but all that calm academic detatchement would go like dust in the wind if she heard her Taylor’s soulmarks glow.
“I know,” Danny laughs, running a hand through his thinning hair. “I know, I read the same books you did, I know it’s rare enough that it makes a needle in a haystack seem findable. I know… I know you believed in it all, the stuff about those marks being unbreakable. If you were really here, you’d try to tell me that I’m being too hard on people I haven’t met, that that has to cinch it, but… I can’t help it.”
The union man shakes his head, his thoughts whirling into something he can pretend to call rational.
He knows the statistics on soulmates leaving each other for good is next to nothing, he knows that the statistics for glowing marks don’t fucking exist because they— divorce, seperation, things like that don’t happen if you have the glow.
He knows that with all that math, everything should be fine.
But the father in him can’t put stock into that, the numbers don’t paint a picture his mind can agree with.
If Annette were here, she’d try to be the cynic, she’d try to be just as tough as him, she’d grill Taylor’s soulmates just as hard as Danny plans to but she’d be… softer somehow.
Deep down, Annette Hebert would’ve found it romantic.
She would’ve put faith in something Danny never could and even if he himself didn’t get it, he’d at least pretend to until she persuaded him properly.
Life was so much simpler when she was here, all he had to do was walk with her.
“I don’t know if any father has ever had to do the shotgun talk with a quartet before but I’m gonna try it anyway.” he smiles as he looks into the mirror one last time, still expecting to hear her snort when she can’t not find him funny.
It doesn’t twist as bad as it usually does when the room stays silent.
Daniel Hebert gives himself one last lookover. He has a job to do tonight and it be best to look good for it.
Shirt buttoned, pants crisp and ironed, beard shaved. He looks… fine.
Maybe not as intimidating as he might’ve looked a few years ago but hopefully still stern enough to make Taylor’s soulmates wary.
Tucking in his shirt, Danny can hear Taylor moving around in the dining room. Hearing plates clatter, he shakes his head. She’d been doing that before he hopped in the shower and got cleaned up.
That means she’s been fiddling with the silverware and plates for over an hour.
Stepping out into the hall, Danny nearly sighs.
She’s right where he expected her to be, her back to him, one hand placing down a fork that she must’ve picked up and placed half a dozen times by now.
Danny makes sure his steps are loud as he walk over to her but Taylor doesn’t seem to notice him at all.
She just stands there, glaring at the collection of plates she’s assembled.
Danny knows immediately what’s gotten into her. She's already done so much for the night, she’s cleaned, she’s cooked, the house has never looked so great, but still she paces, looking for something to fix.
This evening might mostly be about him getting to know her soulmates, who exactly she’s ‘bonded’ to, but for Taylor it’s more than that.
It’s the first time her soulmates will be seeing her home, the first time they’ll meet her dad. She wants— needs— this to go well.
Honestly, Dannyy shouldn’t be too surprised, Annette would get just as restless, she would never consider a job finsihed until everyone involved in it walked away. Taylor’s probably going to be antsy until her soulmates leave… well, actually, she might be antsy for a little while after too.
That part she got from him.
She reaches for the same fork but stops herself just as Danny steps next to her.
She doesn’t look at him, she just keeps staring at the table, eyes flicking around like there’s still something for her to do.
“You should sit,” her father says, stepping more to her side; closer. ”You’ve already done a lot, you’ll run yourself ragged at this rate.”
She nods and even hums but still she reaches for the fork, lifting it to the plate’s other side before heading for the next chair. Danny’s pretty sure she didn’t actually hear him.
“Taylor,” he repeats, a bit louder this time and now she looks at him, eyes a little wide and words already on her lips, probably to say she’s fine, when Danny continues. “Everything’s going to be fine, okay? I’m sure I’ll like them.”
He tries his best to make the words sound real, but Taylor’s always been able to see through him.
“How did it go for you?” she asks, cutting through the bullshit “When you met mom’s parents?”
Danny can’t help but wince.
Meeting the Rose family was not something he’d force on anyone. They weren’t bad people, at least, he doesn’t think they were, but they were definitely… distant.
Taylor’s face screws up in to something between exasperation, desperation, and frustration.
“It…” he tries to reassure her but his mind lingers on that first meeting. He pushes down the truh as best he can. “They warmed up to me. It just took a while for both of us— them and me— to see eye to eye.”
The words work well enough, Taylor’s shoulders sag just the smallest bit in relief and quietly, Danny’s thankful she doesn’t ask any more questions about Annette’s parents.
He doesn’t want her to know they basically hated him from day one all the way to day right now.
“I just—” his daughter’s lips thin as she stares down at the table. “I just want it to go well, they— they make me—”
The laugh that bubbles up is the same almost manic thing he used to chuckle from time to time. It’s less a laugh and more a sound of overwhelming relief, love, and adoration. A mania of happiness. Of completeness.
He knew the feeling well.
“They make you happy,” Danny says, smiling. “I… I haven’t met them yet but that’s already a pretty good step forward.”
Taylor smiles back at her dad, her throat bobbing, ready to say something when she suddenly turns, whipping around to face the door.
It’s a second later when the doorbell actually rings.