Hero's Reward

***All characters are over 18 and are fictional. Any resemblance to any real-life persons or situations is purely coincidental.

.....

DANNY's APARTMENT

"How do I look?" Danny asked.

"Not that bad," said Naomi. "You're healing up much faster than expected."

"Yeah, you definitely look better than you did that night," said Tony. "I really thought it was going to get worse."

"The rest of my body does feel a lot worse," said Danny. "And I guess it could've been worse if you hadn't intervened. I owe you one."

"You got this way because you were trying to help my sister. Trust me, we're square," Tony replied.

Naomi used the front-facing camera on her phone to show Danny how he looked. Despite the reasons for his injuries, his face only had a few bruises. He did have a cut above the left eyebrow, but it wasn't deep enough to require any stitches, so it was only bandaged. His right hand had a few bandages, but he was still able to use it pretty well. He also had bruises on both arms, but nothing serious.

His torso, on the other hand, was a different story. He had several bruised ribs between each side, but he felt lucky they weren't fractured. It hurt when he took deep breaths or moved too much, but other than that, he could walk.

"They should've kept you in the hospital longer," said Naomi. "They could've at least kept you there for a full day, instead of just one night."

"They said I was fine to go home, and I didn't want to stay there any longer than I needed to."

Naomi and her brother Tony were visiting Danny in his apartment. They have visited him three days in a row now to check up on him and see how he is healing. Three nights ago, they had to drive him to the hospital after he helped Naomi out with a creep at a bar and took him back home early that morning. They came by to bring dinner for Danny and check up on him. They both felt they needed to make sure he was alright since helping Naomi was the reason he was in this bad shape.

THREE NIGHTS AGO

They were at Sully's Sports Bar & Grille, celebrating the Miami Heat winning game seven of the Eastern Conference against the Boston Celtics to advance to the NBA finals. Danny, Tony, and Naomi were there with Tony's girlfriend, Nia, and their friends Roy and his girlfriend Emily. The whole bar celebrated the big win, and they taunted the few Celtics fans that were in the bar. It was all in good fun, so they didn't get too mean to those Celtics fans.

Afterwards, they were just hanging out and playing pool. They talked about the game and whatever else they could think of. As they played, Emily pointed out to them all that Naomi was talking to a tall guy with a scrappy beard and a man bun. It seemed more like she was being cornered, and she was giving him a fake smile to be polite.

"I wonder how much longer it will be until I have to go over there," said Tony.

"Don't worry about her, Captain America," said Roy. "She can handle a lot worse than some jackass with a man bun."

Captain America was a nickname given to Tony when he came back from serving with the Marines. Military service got him very jacked, reminding them of the famous superhero. They called him that more as a joke, but he actually loved it.

Eventually, Naomi she found a way to get away from Man-Bun and made her way over to her friends. She surprised Danny when she got very close to him and put her arm around his waist.

"Quickly, put your arm around my shoulder," she whispered.

Danny didn't know what was going on, but he did as she asked.

"Oooh, what's going on here?" Nia asked, excited by what she was seeing between Danny and Namoi.

"I have no idea," Danny replied, feeling very confused.

"You all saw me talking to that douchebag with the man-bun just now, right?" she asked, and everyone confirmed it. "The only way I could get away from him was to say I had a boyfriend, and now Danny has to be him for the rest of the night."

"Good move; that always works," said Emily.

"Did he try anything with you?" Tony asked concerningly.

"Just a bunch of lame pick-up lines," she replied. "He called me a chocolate princess."

Everyone cringed upon hearing that.

"Thanks for being my boyfriend tonight," she said to Danny.

"No problem."

"It took ten years, but you finally got your wish come true," Roy joked, and everyone laughed.

"Ha, ha," said Danny.

They were referring to how it was well known that Danny used to have a thing for Naomi when they first met back in their junior year of high school. He had asked her out a few times in high school, including the prom, and he had asked her out several more times in the years after they graduated. He hadn't asked her again in about four years now because, at some point, he had to learn to stop asking and getting rejected over and over again. But they were all good friends, so it didn't matter if he was with her romantically or not.

BACKSTORY

Naomi and Tony were brother-sister twins and military brats whose Colonel father was always taking them around the country almost every couple of years. They finally settle down In Danny and Roy's hometown, the last city they would ever move to, in the summer before their junior year.

They were glad they got to finally settle down somewhere and were looking forward to some normalcy in their lives, but that normalcy had an awkward start when they found themselves as two out of the ten black kids in their mostly white high school. Not only that, the other eight black kids were in grades below or above them. There were other students from different minorities, but still not by much.

Roy and Danny first met Tony in gym class on his second day of school, when teams were formed in class for basketball and two sides argued over who got to pick Tony for their team. They didn't say it out loud, but their actions were suggesting that they thought Tony would be the best basketball player because he was black.

Danny and Roy were sitting on the bleachers as they watched Roy get stuck in the middle of a very awkward situation. He had a look of despair in his face and was probably thinking, "Why is this happening to me?" so they decided to step in to get him out of it. They walked up to him and introduced themselves, and they both joked with him about what was going on, and he laughed.

"We're about to sneak out and smoke a joint. Want to join us?"

"Hell yeah," Tony replied.

They snuck away, not caring about the outcome of the two teams' arguments over Tony. Roy and Danny had a good spot outside near the gym and behind some bushes where they smoked joints between classes. There, they smoked their joints, and Tony thanked them for getting him away from those jackasses in gym class. He admitted that he was very good at basketball, but he just didn't like that they were fighting over him like that.

As they continued smoking and joking around, they saw a group of four girls their age nearby walking down a path. Danny knew the three other girls but not the fourth one. She was an African-American girl with long curly hair; she wore a skirt that was cut off at the knees and a shirt that, although it didn't show anything, was tight enough to show how big her bust was. She also had the most gorgeous face he had ever seen; he felt like he was looking at a movie star.

"Damn, who's the new girl?" Danny asked. "She is cute."

"Oh, you really think so?" Tony asked with a big chuckle.

As the girl walked by with her friends, she looked over in Danny's direction and waived.

"She waved at me; she likes me," Danny said excitedly with a lovelorn look in his eye. "I have to find out her name."

"Her name is Naomi," said Tony as he laughed some more.

"You know her? Can you introduce me to her?"

Now Tony was laughing hysterically. "That's my sister, dude. And she wasn't waiving at you, she was waiving at me."

Roy started laughing with Tony at Danny's embarrassment. Danny apologized, but Tony said there was no need because he didn't say anything wrong.

"Do you mind if I ask her out?" Danny asked.

"Good luck with that," Tony replied. "She's become very picky lately."

It took more than a month before Danny finally asked Naomi out. They were all hanging out together that whole time, but he couldn't bring himself to ask her until they found themselves alone in the library studying for different tests. They enjoyed blowing off the studying to just joke around and giggling at the librarian, who kept shushing them.

Afterwards, as he walked her out of the library, he finally asked her if she wanted to go to the movies with him. She turned him down but was very polite about it. She said she thought of him too much as a friend to ruin it by dating, and he accepted that answer. But he obviously didn't stop after being turned down just one time. He asked her a few more times during the last two years of high school, including for the senior prom. Each time, she said no and gave him the same excuse of just wanting to be friends.

After graduation, Tony went off to join the Marines, while Danny, Roy, and Naomi went off to different colleges. They always kept in touch and made sure to hang out whenever they were all in town together, especially when Tony was on leave. He still asked her out whenever the opportunity arose and he was sure she would say yes, but she kept turning him down.

He had dated many women during those years; he wasn't going to wait around for Naomi to eventually say yes to him. He had some good, memorable relationships too. In fact, he was glad Naomi said no to him about going to the senior prom because he got to go with Jenny Taylor, the captain of the girls' volleyball team, and they took each other's virginities that night.

He often wondered if there was more of a reason why Naomi kept turning him down. He didn't think just wanting to be friends was the only reason she didn't want to date him. He always felt they would make a good couple because they always got along so well and had fun with each other. And he definitely felt she was attracted to him as much as he was to her. At one point, Roy's longtime girlfriend, Emily, told Roy how a few times Naomi mentioned how cute she thought Danny was, and of course he had to tell Danny about it.

He talked about this with Roy once several years ago in college, and he casually brought up how it may be a race thing. Roy only brought that up because he noticed that most of Naomi's previous boyfriends had been black. Although that does still happen these days, Danny didn't want to think that Naomi didn't want to date because he was white. He did consider that might be the reason when Roy mentioned it, but then he decided it was ludicrous because he never saw anything about Naomi, Tony, or anybody in their family to suggest that race was an issue with them.

Roy's theory was disproven when Danny saw a Facebook post from Naomi with a picture of her and a white guy she was seeing in their second year of college. During those college years, and a few times after graduating, he had seen her date men from other races. He did notice she preferred black men more, but it showed she was open to others as well. Danny felt a kind of relief to know for sure that race was not a reason for Naomi not wanting to date him, and she probably really did want to be just friends.

Then one day, about four years ago, after a bad breakup with a woman he was seeing, he went out with his friends to Sully's Bar & Grille, which at that time had just been open for a few weeks. He was sulking in his apartment for a few days, and they convinced him to go out with them to help him forget about her. It worked as he was having fun drinking and playing pool with his friends while enjoying watching a baseball game of their favorite team beating a rival.

At one point, near the end of the night, he was hanging out with Naomi, showing her how to properly use a pool stick. They were having a good time alone while the others were scattered around. He felt a moment between them, the same kind he felt many times over the years, and considered asking her out again. Then something inside of him just told him to stop torturing himself by getting rejected again and again by this same woman. So, he finally resisted the temptation to ask her out and hasn't since.

BACK TO THREE NIGHTS AGO

At one point, Danny and Naomi decided that she was in the clear with Man-Bun and went their separate ways. They couldn't keep pretending the whole night, after all. While the girls went off on their own, the boys were playing pool.

"So, should Emily and I get ready for the engagement party?" Roy joked as he was taking his shot.

"That's the tenth joke tonight about us; how about something new?" said Danny.

Roy missed his shot, and Danny walked around the pool table looking for his next shot.

"You looked like you enjoyed putting your arm around my sister's shoulder," said Tony. "Aren't you going to ask my her out for the thousandth time?"

"You mean get rejected for the thousandth time? No thank you," said Danny. "Besides, I haven't asked out in years. That's all over now."

"Probably for the best," said Tony. "She's always been very picky."

"I should blame you for all those years of rejection. You could've warned me that it was going to happen."

"I didn't know you were going to be stupid enough to keep asking."

Danny got two more of his balls in the pockets before he missed his next shot and Roy took over. He got his remaining balls and won the game. Danny passed him his pool stick to Roy and stood back to get ready to play the next winner. During that time, Naomi came back and made Danny put her arm around her again.

"Man-Bun is back?" Danny asked.

"Telling him I had a boyfriend doesn't seem to be working anymore," said Naomi.

"The idiot can't seem to take a hint," said Danny.

"Should I step in and say something to him?" Tony asked.

"I can also help if you need it," said Roy.

Danny laughed. "You can only help by holding Tony's jacket and stand back as he deals with it."

Everyone laughed, including Roy.

"Don't worry about it, he'll probably move on to some other woman who will turn him down," she said before turning her attention to Danny. "Although, a real boyfriend would go over there and threaten to kick his ass."

"I'm not your real boyfriend, and I don't know the fake boyfriend rules in this situation," he replied. "But I've got your back nonetheless. He won't bother you as long as I'm around."

"Thank you," she said, giving him a big smile.

As they watched Tony and Roy's pool game, he couldn't help thinking how nice it felt to have his arm around her like that. It was something he used to imagine doing with her; he finally got the chance to do it, but not in the way he had hoped. But there was something nice about playing the protective boyfriend for her against a douchebag who kept bothering her.

Danny looked over at Man-Bun, who was currently being an annoyance to some other woman. He was going to tell Naomi that she was in the clear, but he wanted to keep his arm around her for as long as possible. He wasn't going to ask her out again; he just wanted to enjoy this moment together.

That moment ended when Roy lost the game and it was his turn to play against Tony. He didn't want to let Naomi go, but he couldn't find a good enough excuse to keep being with her like that without making it weird between them. She still stuck around and watched them both play and joke around, and when Nia and Emily came back, she at least had some girls to talk with while they boys continued to play.

About an hour later, Naomi decided she had had enough fun for one night and decided to go home. Danny offered to walk her out, but she said he didn't have to because Man-Bun was nowhere to be seen. They guessed he must've left the bar at some point after being turned down by every woman in the bar tonight.

Danny watched her leave the bar as he stuck around to watch Roy and Tony play each other again. Their girlfriends, Nia and Emily, were also hanging around and cheering them on. A moment later, he saw Man-Bun come out of the bathroom, which explained where he had been for the last several minutes. He saw him go out the front entrance and thought, 'Good riddance.' Then he remembered that Naomi left through the bar not that long ago, and she could still be out there. He wasn't sure if he should check or not to see if that douchebag was going to bother her again, but he eventually decided it was better to be safe than sorry.

He excused himself from the others and left the bar to make sure Naomi had driven off. Just as he was worried about what might happen, he saw Man-Bun bothering Naomi by her car. He apparently took her car keys and held them away from her until she agreed to have a drink with him. Fake boyfriend or not, Danny wasn't going to let this continue and stormed right over to them.

"Just one drink; that's all I'm asking," said Man-Bun.

"And I said I have a boyfriend!" she yelled at him just as Danny approached them. "And here he is to kick your ass if you don't give me my keys back."

"Give her back the keys," Danny said aggressively.

"Make me."

Danny just casually snatched the keys out of Man-Bun's hand and passed them to Naomi. Man-Bun got furious; he was obviously embarrassed that Danny got the keys out of his hand so easily.

"Fuck off," Danny said to him.

"What if I don't?" Man-Bun replied, with a disturbed look in his eyes.

"I should get my brother," said Naomi. She was suddenly worried about what was going to happen. Tony was a marine, so she was sure he could help Danny if things got out of hand.

Danny took another step closer to Man-Bun. "Walk away, right now or--"

That's when Man-Bun sucker punched him right in the stomach and Danny bent forward in pain.

"Or what?" Man-Bun asked very smugly.

That's when Danny got him with got Man-Bun with an uppercut, knocking him backwards onto the ground.

"This is going to be easy," said Danny.

Danny soon regretted that arrogance when Man-Bun quickly got back up and gave him a spin kick across the face. Danny was soon on the ground, wondering what the hell had happened. He got back up and took a defensive stance and tried to hit him, but the guy was too quick for him, and he got hit by an assortment of moves he thought were only seen in the movies. It wasn't long before he was on the ground again.

"What the fuck?" Danny said as he was writhing in pain.

"MMA, bitch," his opponent replied with an evil smile on his face.

Naomi ran off, saying she was getting help. Danny got up again, but Man-Bun just kept hitting him with quick strikes and made him fall to the ground again. Danny tried to get up again, but every time he tried, Man-Bun would punch him and start kicking him on the ground.

As he was being kicked on the ground, he looked up at Man-Bun, laughing at him. The only thing worse than the pain he was feeling was that he got his ass handed to him by this douchebag. Realizing that he did not want to lose to this guy, something came over him as he jumped right back up, giving the guy a massive uppercut. Man-Bun was completely stunned, giving Danny the opportunity to strike back with a series of his own punches. This time, it was Man-Bun who was forced to protect himself from being hit too hard by Danny.

It wasn't long before Man-Bun started striking back, but this time it was a more even-handed stand-up fist fight, and Danny was holding his own against him. The problem was that Man-Bun was still a more professional fighter, so Danny was taking some more serious hits. He was holding his own against Man-Bun, but he wasn't sure how long it would last.

Finally, Tony and Roy stormed out of the bar, with Naomi, Nia, and Emily following them.