The sound of laughter drifted up from the street below, making him feel very alone. Not because of the lack of people, there were plenty of them around. Hell, there were more people around than Danny could handle most days. He felt alone because the laughter reminded him of his old life. It reminded him of happier days. Days spent with his family. It reminded him of Kathryn flirting with the neighbor's son while he worked on his car. It reminded him of his mother, laughing at some truly god awful joke that his stepdad had made. He could never tell if his mom actually thought those jokes were funny or if she was just being polite but he remembered the smile she always had. Such a warm and genuine smile. Things may not have been perfect back then but he was happy. They were all happy. But now they were all gone. Joe was dead and his mom and Kathryn...Well, he had no idea where they were. He had looked for them. He [i]still[/i] looked for them whenever he got the chance...But they were gone.

Danny sat up on the bed and stayed there for a second, listening to the sound of laughter before another sound overshadowed it. Yelling from down the hallway. Danny knew exactly who was responsible. A couple he shared the house with. They weren't bad people but they bickered and fought all the time. The only thing Danny liked less than the sound of their arguments was the sound of their headboard banging on the wall during their make up sex. He rolled his eyes as their voices drew nearer and pushed himself up off the bed to slam the door shut so they wouldn't come in. The last thing he wanted was to get involved in their squabble. Courtney liked to move when she got angry so their arguments would take them all over the house. Much to Danny's annoyance.

He wandered over towards the window, across the room that had obviously housed someone younger than himself before the world had gone to hell. From the window he could see two women for the briefest of moments before they passed from his line of sight. They were gone quickly but Danny noted the smiles on their faces as they talked to each other. It was nice to see people smiling these days and heartwarming to know that they could find some kind of happiness. It made him smile too. Right up until he heard something hit a wall. He had a feeling Courtney had thrown something at Mark. Woman had a serious temper.

He closed his eyes and tilted his head towards the ceiling, sighing heavily. He had to get away from these two.

He thought about heading to the back of the house to his workshop but remembered that he was running low on supplies so their was little point. Besides, as long as he was still technically on the same property as them, their was a chance that Courtney and Mark would come wandering in to pester him and if that happened, it increased the chances that he would gently stab one or both of them. So it would have to be option B.

After putting on some clothes and grabbing his gear, he started out of the room, only to be suddenly trapped in the hallway as Mark and Courtney emerged from their room, still arguing about nothing he cared about and seemingly completely unaware of his presence. Danny clenched both his fists up and held them at head height as he closed his eyes and felt his entire body shaking. He fought the urge to punch something and instead thrust his arms between both of his housemates and shoved them aside. As he passed them by, they both shot him a look but were too used to his dismissive and sometimes plain rude ways to be really bothered by it and just returned to their argument.

Leaving idiot one and idiot two behind him, Danny made his way through the kitchen where he encountered Forrest, the fourth member of their dysfunctional little tribe. The entirely more bearable Forrest was was sitting at the kitchen island with a book, an apple and what resembled a half eaten piece of toast. Forrest was an amiable sort. Very likeable but with no real force of will. People tended to walk all over him and Danny was really no different. As he passed, Danny reached over and snatched both the apple and the toast that Forrest was about to take another bite from and headed towards the door.

"Oh come on man!" Forrest protested. "That's just--"

Danny only turned and offered a shrug with the toast in his mouth and an expression that only slightly indicated that he was sorry for his blatant thievery. He was gone before Forrest could offer another complaint. Not that he would bother.[hr]By the time Danny reached the growing crowd that was surrounding the scav convoy, Forrest's toast was gone and the apple was halfway to the same fate. He paused for a moment, watching the people around and crunching the fruit between his teeth and wondering how many others were coming. Truthfully, Danny would prefer to scavenge on his own but the people in charge of Refuge liked to be a lot more organized about it all. Danny wasn't sure how to feel about such a large group. These days, he didn't do well around [i]small[/i] groups of people, never mind [i]large[/i] groups. He'd have to grin and bear it though. Or bear it at least.

Danny pushed his way through the people gathered around the convoy until he reached an enforcer who quickly had Danny's authorisation thrust in his face. Danny didn't even pause long enough for him to really see it but he was well enough known around Refuge as a scavenger these days that he was just allowed through anyway.

Danny didn't go far though. He stopped beside Alex and turned back to look at the crowd again. He offered no kind of greeting to his friend. Instead just taking another bite of Forrest's apple.