Five Out of Five - Why Don't We

"Why are you making me do this?" Daniel asked as he drove with Kira through the LA traffic on their way to the airport. He kept his eyes on the road and he sat up straight and attentive. Meanwhile, Kira was slumped in her seat and leaning against the window. She kept closing her eyes, but she was constantly interrupted by Daniel talking again.

"Because I get anxious about driving to airports," Kira mumbled. She kept her eyes half open and she watched the traffic for a minute.

"No, I mean why me?" Daniel clarified. He slammed on the brakes as someone swerved in front of him and he swore under his breath. Kira barely moved. "You could have taken literally anyone else. But you picked me to drive with you."

"Are you complaining, Daniel?" Kira closed her eyes all the way again.

"Do you think I don't see what you're doing?" Daniel asked. He glanced over at her before quickly looking back at the road. "You think that if I help pick up Jared and his family it'll suddenly make him like me."

"Oh no. You've revealed my evil plan," Kira muttered and she chuckled to herself. She lifted her head and looked over at him. "Would it really be so bad if the two of you finally got along? He's my brother which means he'll be in my life forever. You're one of my best friends and I don't plan on getting rid of you anytime soon. I'm getting a little tired of mediating fights between you two."

"Kira. I'm not the one with the problem. He hates me. That's not going to change over one weekend."

"We could at least try to figure out why he hates you so much," Kira suggested. She sat up straighter in her seat. Then she yawned. "I'm so damn tired."

She'd gotten back to the house with Corbyn around 7 that morning and she was extremely sore from their night in the hotel. As soon as they'd gotten home, they helped the others clean up from the party. All she wanted to do was sleep. She knew she had to pick up Jared's family and then she needed to be awake and attentive to spend time with her nieces and nephews. She wouldn't be able to sleep again until tonight.

"I'm starting to think he doesn't just hate you because you scratched his truck," Kira said. "Five years is too long to hold a grudge over something like that."

"That's because that's not the real reason he hates me," Daniel muttered. Kira looked at him curiously.

"What do you mean? Why does he hate you then?"

Daniel kept his eyes on the road and he wouldn't look at her. He just shook his head.

"Dani," Kira said insistently.

"Just don't worry about it," Daniel whispered. He still wouldn't look at her.

"No, I'm gonna worry about it. If you know why Jared hates you then I want to know so I can fix it," Kira pushed. Daniel remained silent. "Dani, I thought we've been friends long enough that we can always be honest with each other. Please, talk to me. Tell me what the problem is."

He sighed and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

"Daniel-"

"Fine!" Daniel shouted and Kira shut her mouth. He took a deep breath and she waited patiently. "It...it happened back when we were seniors in high school. I was already off touring with the band, but we had breaks every once in a while and I went home to surprise you."

Kira furrowed her brow. She didn't remember that. Daniel had only come home for Christmas that year. That's when they'd gone to David Fisher's party and played seven minutes in heaven. But she didn't remember him ever coming home to surprise her.

"Jared caught me in your room," Daniel said quietly. He took another deep breath and he pressed his lips together as if he didn't want to admit what had happened. She felt tense as she imagined it. Jared definitely wouldn't have reacted well to finding Daniel alone in her room. He barely tolerated it when he was in the room with her. What had he been doing in there anyway? "He saw that I'd put rose petals everywhere and I had my guitar and...He thought I was trying to seduce you and get you into bed or something. He grabbed me and threw me out of the house and said he didn't want me to ever touch his sister. He got the completely wrong idea about what I was doing."