The Prank

At first Trish and Linda talked about the people they'd meet at the party while Danny sat in the back seat, but as they got closer they discussed the game plan, Danny making sure to practise his feminine voice as he discussed things.

The plan had evolved somewhat due to the success of Danny’s appearance, but Danny’s stomach had butterflies as they approached the house. He'd never dressed femininely like this in public before, but he had two women for support and was determined to make this work.

"You got this?" Linda twisted her neck to look at Danny in the back seat.

Danny smiled and put his best voice forward, "I got it honey!"

Linda smiled in return and left the car. Danny and Trish waited in the car until they got her text.

Walking into the cold air, Danny shivered acutely aware of his bare arms and barely covered legs. He focused on getting through the front door and into warmth, passing by many costumed people as he did so, some of whom glanced in his direction. Trish was shortly behind him as he entered the hallway, and through an open door to their right they could see the spacious living room. It was filled with people in all sorts of costumes, including one Batman who had his back to them as he was talking to a goth witch in front of him. The witch was Linda.

Linda gave a quick glance over the Batman’s shoulder, locking eyes with Danny for a brief moment before returning her attention to the Batman.

"...anyway, leaving that aside for now, someone I’m close to said you’re really insistent on seeing them in a waitress uniform of a certain sports themed restaurant chain…?" Danny gulped, it was almost his moment. He stood in the doorway while Trish stepped back, able to see things but not as visible from the living room.

Steve took a moment to respond to Linda's sudden topic change, but seemed to give sudden interest "Oh… right Patricia told you?"

“Hmmmm, I heard you were very insistent. What is it with you and that uniform anyway?” Linda said a bit louder, having a few people nearby pay slightly more attention.

Steve looked side to side, black cape swaying, “Oh, I’m not ashamed of it. Anyone in a Hooters uniform looks hot. Simple as that.”

Danny took the opportunity to step forward into the room. Some of the people looking at Steve now looked at him, sensing something was up. Steve was still too focused on Linda to look behind him and see Danny.

"And you would really like seeing someone dressed like that?”

“Yeah, that’s why I suggested it to Trish, I think she’d look good.”

Danny stepped forward, almost within arm’s reach of the hanging cape.

“Well, we were talking about it, and since you were *so* enthusiastic about seeing someone dressed as a Hooters waitress, we thought you needed to be rewarded."

Even from behind and covered partly by a black cape, Danny could see Steve's body language change in interest. "Oh really?"

"Yep, turn around."

Steve did and his eyes bugged out. He gave Danny a good look up and down, “Well hello! I thought you’d be someone else, but hello beautiful, I'm Steve." With enthusiasm he pulled of his Batman cowl in one moment, all attention on the newcomer.

Steve’s unbridled interest and attention almost threw Danny off, but he kept his composure. "Hello, and welcome to Hooters." Danny piped up in his feminine voice. “Can I take your order?"

"Oh," Steve responded, clearly enamoured, "It’ll be hard to decide, I see a lot of things I like.”

“Well you can just take your time.”

“I’m loving this service already.”

"Anything for our best customer." Danny flicked his hair playfully. “Now would you like thighs… or breasts?" Danny said gesturing at his own body to really tease Steve..

“Oh, both of those are so good.” Steve licked his lips. “The real question is, are you on the menu?”

“Think you can handle all of me?”

“I’ve got the appetite. Not to mention I like spicy stuff and you are by far the hottest thing on the menu.”

Danny chuckled, finding the line so silly it was funny, and also trying to mask that he’d run out of prepared lines.

Steven took Danny’s ebbing laughter to speak a tiny bit more seriously. “Tell me, did you really put this costume on just for me?”

“For you and you only,” Danny pressed his open palms against Steve’s chest, which right now was just foam sculpted chest armour, and looked into his eyes

“I don’t even know your name.”

“Yes you do,” Danny said playfully.

"Please, remind me."

Danny held the moment, looking into Steve’s eyes, seeing the curiosity there. Danny held it for a moment longer, then dropped his voice and put it bluntly. "It's me, Danny."

"DANNY!!!!" Steve's yell ripped through the room and triggered a huge outpouring of laughter as he stepped back in shock. Even those who hadn't quite been following joined it, noticing the utterly indescribable look on Steve’s face.

Danny doubled over in laughter having seen the reaction first hand. Linda laughed too, and so did Trish as the angel stepped into the room.. The look on Steve's face was priceless. Like a lightning bolt has shocked every bit of complacency out of him and he was barely grasping what was going on.

"What...?"

"Trish told me how much you wanted someone in a Hooters uniform so here I am!” laughed Danny, then resumed his feminine voice “Still wanna see the menu?"

The laughter surged again, a whole room of colourful costumed people all gleefully taking in their amusement at Steve's reaction. Steve stood still, his expression firming up… he looked like he was about to say something, but then he just turned about face and stormed out of there. Not even paying attention to Tris.

"Hey, Steve, relax, it's just a..." but Steve disappeared into the crowd and Danny trailed off.

Trish arrived by his side in great spirits and still laughing. "Thank you so much Danny, that was amazing. The expression on his face? Ah, so great to have him on the backfoot for once. Thank you Danny, you did brilliantly."

"Thanks," Danny replied, appreciating the compliment. "I’m amazed it went so smoothly."

“All down to good preparation,” Linda joined in, “And a pretty decent performance by yourself.” Danny smiled, maybe he was getting on Linda’s good side after all. “Not to mention I think the mission is accomplished. I don’t think he’ll be able to bring up Hooters again without thinking of this.”

“Same for me I think,” smiled Trish, “remembering how utterly overwhelmed Steve looked by having one of his own ‘jokes’ turned on him.” Trish exhaled and smiled as if a shadow had finally passed over her. “He’ll have some nerve if he ever asks a woman to dress up as a Hooters waitress ever again.”

"Damn straight," Linda joined it, "If he wants to have a Hooters girl and he turns one down who's right in front of him, he's only himself to blame."

Danny was a bit more quiet, looking at the door Steve had left through. Some hesitancy entered his voice. "We didn't go too far did we? That was quite a reaction?"

"Oh, Steve did that to me all the time, give him time to cool off and he'll be fine.."

Danny nodded and turned his attention back to his friends. Soon people were coming up to Danny and congratulating him on an epic prank. "I seriously thought you were a chick when you entered the room." "Great costume." "Steve definitely had that coming. You should have just gone out with him and not revealed your name until you were having sex". He responded as best as he could, happy to have been a part of something that people were excited about, and made sure to share credit with Trish and Linda.

One person interrupted Danny’s reply to ask him to speak in his feminine voice, and gave lots of compliments when he did so. Danny started to feel uncomfortable speaking in his regular voice while dressed like this and asked his friends whether it looked weird. Trish told him to do whatever he was most comfortable with, while Linda said he might as well practise the voice more. Danny decided to keep aiming for that feminine voice, at least while he was still in costume. It was part of the performance after all.

Conversation continued about the prank and soon moved on to talk about other pranks. Soon some former jock was talking about the "epic prank" that his team had played on a neighbouring college. It involved animals and actions that seemed too illegal to be publicly talking about. Danny got a drink and was happy to sit at the periphery, listening along. Even with talk of the event fading, he could feel the fun and surprise the event had brought to everyone, and was glad to have helped that happen.