SN WIP (Homophobic...)
Jan. 27th, 2004 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
out_thereThis is a WIP in evey meaning of the word. Not quite sure where it's going, but it'll get there in the end.
***
Casey frowned as he walked into their office. “Am I homophobic?”
“No.” Dan looked up from his magazine. “Why do you ask?”
Casey flopped into the armchair. “Dana said I was homophobic. I made a comment about one of the hen’s night girls being a bitter lesbian, and she called me homophobic.”
Dan smirked. “You were talking about the one who got her thinking about her six month dating plan, weren’t you?”
“How could you tell?” Casey replied sarcastically. “I wasn’t being homophobic, I was just…”
“Being rude.”
“You think?” Casey asked earnestly.
Dan turned his attention back to his magazine. “Well, also being mean and bitter, but definitely rude.”
“You don’t think I’m homophobic?” It shouldn’t matter, because he wasn’t, but it was annoying him that Dana thought he was.
Dan sighed and turned his page. “You’re not homophobic, Casey.”
“How can you be sure?”
Dan sounded bored. “How can I be sure?”
Casey frowned at Dan. He was being deliberately obtuse. “Yeah.”
“How can I be sure that my best friend and co-worker, the guy that I end up spending nearly 12 hours a day around, isn’t homophobic?” Dan rolled his eyes. “You’re not homophobic, Casey. You’re just mean.”
“Good. Well, not good, but… good.” Casey got up and walked over to the desk, starting today’s script.
“I wouldn’t have been your friend for ten years if you were homophobic,” Dan added as an afterthought.
“Really?”
Dan looked up at him. “You remember Alex and Michael from college, right?”
Casey thought about it. He could vaguely recall Dan introducing them at parties. Honestly. he could only remember that Dan always seemed to have a crowd of friends at college. It used to be enough to make Casey wonder if he’d somehow wasted his college friend-making opportunities. “Vaguely.”
“You didn’t act any differently to them.”
“So because you had gay friends in college, I’m not homophobic?” Casey asked, and Dan gave him a quick look. It was just a split-second of something, just enough to jar Dan’s slightly bored grin for a moment. It was the type of look that Casey would need to rewind, pause and slow-mo to figure out its meaning.
“Did you think any worse of me for knowing them?”
Casey snorted. “No.”
“Did you treat them as anything other than two guys with a limited understanding of sports?”
“No.”
“You’re not homophobic, Casey.”
“Good.”
“Just mean,” Dan added with a teasing grin and turned back to his magazine.
***
Over the next few months, Casey totally forgot about that conversation. Between job fears, the sale of CSC and the Quo Vadimus purchase, everyone was concentrating too much on making their show good to worry about random comments. In fact, he didn’t think about Dan’s comment until months later, after everyone had realised that Calvin Travers really was going to let Isaac run the show the way he wanted, and everyone had started to relax, knowing Sports Night was safe.
It was suppose to be another celebrity challenge, but Dan’s chance to reclaim his manhood, yet again, was thwarted by the helmet going missing. No helmet, no game. No game, but everyone gathered and prepared for a night of lively drinking, resulted in taking shots and playing drinking games. They were in the midst of ‘I Never’, and a game that had started off rather fun, had somehow devolved onto a highly sexual level.
“I never had sex on the subway,” Chris announced. Casey looked around, watching as Kim, Dave and Dan dutifully emptied their shot glasses. It was a good thing that Kim had such a high tolerance for spirits, Casey thought as he watched Dan’s unsteady stance.
“I’ve never slept with a porn star,” Natalie said, beaming when Jeremy didn’t reach for his glass. The only one who did drink was Kim.
Will’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“What was it like?” Chris asked.
“False. Advertising,” Kim pronounced with an exaggerated pout, causing most of the office to laugh. “Who’s next?”
“It’s your turn,” Jeremy replied to her, supporting a rather drunk Natalie at his side.
Kim smiled widely. “I’ve never kissed a girl.” The guys glared at her and one by one, downed their shot.
“That’s not really fair,” Elliot complained. “I mean, it’s kinda targeting the guys.”
“Not necessarily,” Kim replied. “I could have kissed a girl at college, or part of a threesome, or on a dare. I just haven’t.”
Will grinned toothily. “In that case, it’s time for revenge.”
Kim shook her head. “Not so fast. It’s Casey’s turn.”
“It’s still time for revenge,” Will muttered, looking meaningfully at Casey.
Casey got the hint. “In that case, it’s pretty clear what my question will be.” The girls groaned. “I never kissed a guy.”
“Sometimes, you are very petty, Casey.” Dana rolled her eyes, but swallowed another shot anyway. Kim and Natalie clinked their shot glasses together and downed the liquid. Then Natalie leaned forward, and filled up another glass.
“It’s not quantitive,” Jeremy pointed out, slurring slightly. “You only drink once, regardless of how many guys you’ve kissed.”
“This isn’t for me.” Natalie shook her head slowly and smiled a rather drunk grin at Dan. “It’s for Dan.”
“Big mouth,” Dan muttered darkly, but reached across and took the glass from Natalie’s hand. He swallowed it quickly, and then turned to Dana. “Your turn.”
Dana just blinked at him. “Okay… I’ve never… I’ve never been this drunk while playing this game.”
“That really doesn’t count, Dana,” Casey pointed out reasonably.
“Besides, you get drunk on the smell of shots,” Natalie added. “So no-one’s going to drink to that.”
Dana pouted. “Well, I’m going home. It’s…” She trailed off as she squinted at her watch. “What’s the time?”
Casey looked over at the wall-clock. “It’s nearly four.”
“It’s nearly four?”
“Almost,” Casey confirmed.
“In that case, I think everyone should be going home,” Dana declared. “You all need to back here in eight hours for the midday rundown, and some of us will have bad hangovers as it is.”
The crowd was silent. After a moment of thought, Kim asked, “Is anyone sober enough to drive me home?”
Dan blinked. “Casey might be.” Casey shot a quick glance over at Dan’s inoffensive tone. “But he can’t drive us all home. Probably best to chip in for cab fare together.” Will and Chris nodded, and everyone started to work out which direction they were headed, and how many cabs were needed.
***
“You kissed a guy?”
“Casey.” Dan looked up at him wearily. “So not your business.”
“Well, yeah, but…” Casey shrugged and flopped into their armchair.
“Still not your business.” Dan’s keys seemed to clatter a bit too loudly.
“I just… didn’t know.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
He twisted his head around, to look over at the loud keyboard sitting on their desk. “Meaning?”
“Meaning the shocked expression on your face last night pretty much made that clear.” Dan sighed and stopped typing. “If it helps, I wasn’t keeping it from you. I thought you knew.”
Casey’s newspaper crumpled under his tight grip. “Why did you think I’d know?”
Dan shrugged. “Because I introduced you to Alex and Michael. Because I wasn’t trying to hide the fact I was sleeping with them. I thought it was pretty obvious.”
“You were sleeping with them,” Casey repeated woodenly.
Dan laughed. “Okay, you hadn’t realised that, had you?”
Casey spoke slowly, working on autopilot. “No, not yet.”
“Well, now you know,” Dan said and turned back to the keyboard.
***
A few days later, they hadn’t brought it up again, but Casey had to ask. “Do you still sleep with guys?”
“Do I still…?” Dan parroted, looking at Casey I surprise. “You know, this is still none of your business, Casey.”
Casey crossed his arms, and leaned back against their table. “It is my business.”
“How?”
“It’s our show. Calvin might not be Luther Sachs, but this is still something that could kill our ratings pretty quickly.”
Dan grinned. “It could bring us a whole new audience.”
“I’m serious, Dan.”
“Yeah, I know. But it’s still none of your business.”
Casey huffed in impatience. “Do you still do it?”
“No,” Dan said, and Casey felt relieved, until Dan added, “And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
Dan looked at him and pronounced each word carefully. “None of your business.”
“You tell me about the women you date. I tell you about my dates. Why is this not my business?”
“Because it would change the way you behave, Casey.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’d suddenly become self-conscious about comments. The next time you called me a woman, you’d stop yourself and wonder. You’d start to keep an eye on me in interviews, and start editing my script, to make sure that I didn’t come across as vaguely gay.”
“Well, probably…” Casey acknowledged.
“I’m not going to live like that, Casey. I don’t make it obvious. You never realised. I don’t need you watching over me all the time.” Dan shrugged. “Not to mention, you’re not a great liar, Casey.”
“So, what?” Casey asked, confused.
“So, someone would say something, and your reaction would show. That, in itself, would be enough to start rumours.”
“Oh. You could trust me with this, you know.”
Dan smiled. “I really couldn’t. I need to check the tape,” Dan said and walked to the door.
“Okay,” Casey said. “I just… wanted to know…”
Dan stopped with his hand on their door handle, and turned back to face Casey. “I don’t, okay? I’m in sports journalism. I’m not stupid. I know the consequences of this, Casey.”
“Good,” Casey said as Dan walked out. “I just wanted to know.”
***
***
Casey frowned as he walked into their office. “Am I homophobic?”
“No.” Dan looked up from his magazine. “Why do you ask?”
Casey flopped into the armchair. “Dana said I was homophobic. I made a comment about one of the hen’s night girls being a bitter lesbian, and she called me homophobic.”
Dan smirked. “You were talking about the one who got her thinking about her six month dating plan, weren’t you?”
“How could you tell?” Casey replied sarcastically. “I wasn’t being homophobic, I was just…”
“Being rude.”
“You think?” Casey asked earnestly.
Dan turned his attention back to his magazine. “Well, also being mean and bitter, but definitely rude.”
“You don’t think I’m homophobic?” It shouldn’t matter, because he wasn’t, but it was annoying him that Dana thought he was.
Dan sighed and turned his page. “You’re not homophobic, Casey.”
“How can you be sure?”
Dan sounded bored. “How can I be sure?”
Casey frowned at Dan. He was being deliberately obtuse. “Yeah.”
“How can I be sure that my best friend and co-worker, the guy that I end up spending nearly 12 hours a day around, isn’t homophobic?” Dan rolled his eyes. “You’re not homophobic, Casey. You’re just mean.”
“Good. Well, not good, but… good.” Casey got up and walked over to the desk, starting today’s script.
“I wouldn’t have been your friend for ten years if you were homophobic,” Dan added as an afterthought.
“Really?”
Dan looked up at him. “You remember Alex and Michael from college, right?”
Casey thought about it. He could vaguely recall Dan introducing them at parties. Honestly. he could only remember that Dan always seemed to have a crowd of friends at college. It used to be enough to make Casey wonder if he’d somehow wasted his college friend-making opportunities. “Vaguely.”
“You didn’t act any differently to them.”
“So because you had gay friends in college, I’m not homophobic?” Casey asked, and Dan gave him a quick look. It was just a split-second of something, just enough to jar Dan’s slightly bored grin for a moment. It was the type of look that Casey would need to rewind, pause and slow-mo to figure out its meaning.
“Did you think any worse of me for knowing them?”
Casey snorted. “No.”
“Did you treat them as anything other than two guys with a limited understanding of sports?”
“No.”
“You’re not homophobic, Casey.”
“Good.”
“Just mean,” Dan added with a teasing grin and turned back to his magazine.
***
Over the next few months, Casey totally forgot about that conversation. Between job fears, the sale of CSC and the Quo Vadimus purchase, everyone was concentrating too much on making their show good to worry about random comments. In fact, he didn’t think about Dan’s comment until months later, after everyone had realised that Calvin Travers really was going to let Isaac run the show the way he wanted, and everyone had started to relax, knowing Sports Night was safe.
It was suppose to be another celebrity challenge, but Dan’s chance to reclaim his manhood, yet again, was thwarted by the helmet going missing. No helmet, no game. No game, but everyone gathered and prepared for a night of lively drinking, resulted in taking shots and playing drinking games. They were in the midst of ‘I Never’, and a game that had started off rather fun, had somehow devolved onto a highly sexual level.
“I never had sex on the subway,” Chris announced. Casey looked around, watching as Kim, Dave and Dan dutifully emptied their shot glasses. It was a good thing that Kim had such a high tolerance for spirits, Casey thought as he watched Dan’s unsteady stance.
“I’ve never slept with a porn star,” Natalie said, beaming when Jeremy didn’t reach for his glass. The only one who did drink was Kim.
Will’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“What was it like?” Chris asked.
“False. Advertising,” Kim pronounced with an exaggerated pout, causing most of the office to laugh. “Who’s next?”
“It’s your turn,” Jeremy replied to her, supporting a rather drunk Natalie at his side.
Kim smiled widely. “I’ve never kissed a girl.” The guys glared at her and one by one, downed their shot.
“That’s not really fair,” Elliot complained. “I mean, it’s kinda targeting the guys.”
“Not necessarily,” Kim replied. “I could have kissed a girl at college, or part of a threesome, or on a dare. I just haven’t.”
Will grinned toothily. “In that case, it’s time for revenge.”
Kim shook her head. “Not so fast. It’s Casey’s turn.”
“It’s still time for revenge,” Will muttered, looking meaningfully at Casey.
Casey got the hint. “In that case, it’s pretty clear what my question will be.” The girls groaned. “I never kissed a guy.”
“Sometimes, you are very petty, Casey.” Dana rolled her eyes, but swallowed another shot anyway. Kim and Natalie clinked their shot glasses together and downed the liquid. Then Natalie leaned forward, and filled up another glass.
“It’s not quantitive,” Jeremy pointed out, slurring slightly. “You only drink once, regardless of how many guys you’ve kissed.”
“This isn’t for me.” Natalie shook her head slowly and smiled a rather drunk grin at Dan. “It’s for Dan.”
“Big mouth,” Dan muttered darkly, but reached across and took the glass from Natalie’s hand. He swallowed it quickly, and then turned to Dana. “Your turn.”
Dana just blinked at him. “Okay… I’ve never… I’ve never been this drunk while playing this game.”
“That really doesn’t count, Dana,” Casey pointed out reasonably.
“Besides, you get drunk on the smell of shots,” Natalie added. “So no-one’s going to drink to that.”
Dana pouted. “Well, I’m going home. It’s…” She trailed off as she squinted at her watch. “What’s the time?”
Casey looked over at the wall-clock. “It’s nearly four.”
“It’s nearly four?”
“Almost,” Casey confirmed.
“In that case, I think everyone should be going home,” Dana declared. “You all need to back here in eight hours for the midday rundown, and some of us will have bad hangovers as it is.”
The crowd was silent. After a moment of thought, Kim asked, “Is anyone sober enough to drive me home?”
Dan blinked. “Casey might be.” Casey shot a quick glance over at Dan’s inoffensive tone. “But he can’t drive us all home. Probably best to chip in for cab fare together.” Will and Chris nodded, and everyone started to work out which direction they were headed, and how many cabs were needed.
***
“You kissed a guy?”
“Casey.” Dan looked up at him wearily. “So not your business.”
“Well, yeah, but…” Casey shrugged and flopped into their armchair.
“Still not your business.” Dan’s keys seemed to clatter a bit too loudly.
“I just… didn’t know.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
He twisted his head around, to look over at the loud keyboard sitting on their desk. “Meaning?”
“Meaning the shocked expression on your face last night pretty much made that clear.” Dan sighed and stopped typing. “If it helps, I wasn’t keeping it from you. I thought you knew.”
Casey’s newspaper crumpled under his tight grip. “Why did you think I’d know?”
Dan shrugged. “Because I introduced you to Alex and Michael. Because I wasn’t trying to hide the fact I was sleeping with them. I thought it was pretty obvious.”
“You were sleeping with them,” Casey repeated woodenly.
Dan laughed. “Okay, you hadn’t realised that, had you?”
Casey spoke slowly, working on autopilot. “No, not yet.”
“Well, now you know,” Dan said and turned back to the keyboard.
***
A few days later, they hadn’t brought it up again, but Casey had to ask. “Do you still sleep with guys?”
“Do I still…?” Dan parroted, looking at Casey I surprise. “You know, this is still none of your business, Casey.”
Casey crossed his arms, and leaned back against their table. “It is my business.”
“How?”
“It’s our show. Calvin might not be Luther Sachs, but this is still something that could kill our ratings pretty quickly.”
Dan grinned. “It could bring us a whole new audience.”
“I’m serious, Dan.”
“Yeah, I know. But it’s still none of your business.”
Casey huffed in impatience. “Do you still do it?”
“No,” Dan said, and Casey felt relieved, until Dan added, “And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
Dan looked at him and pronounced each word carefully. “None of your business.”
“You tell me about the women you date. I tell you about my dates. Why is this not my business?”
“Because it would change the way you behave, Casey.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’d suddenly become self-conscious about comments. The next time you called me a woman, you’d stop yourself and wonder. You’d start to keep an eye on me in interviews, and start editing my script, to make sure that I didn’t come across as vaguely gay.”
“Well, probably…” Casey acknowledged.
“I’m not going to live like that, Casey. I don’t make it obvious. You never realised. I don’t need you watching over me all the time.” Dan shrugged. “Not to mention, you’re not a great liar, Casey.”
“So, what?” Casey asked, confused.
“So, someone would say something, and your reaction would show. That, in itself, would be enough to start rumours.”
“Oh. You could trust me with this, you know.”
Dan smiled. “I really couldn’t. I need to check the tape,” Dan said and walked to the door.
“Okay,” Casey said. “I just… wanted to know…”
Dan stopped with his hand on their door handle, and turned back to face Casey. “I don’t, okay? I’m in sports journalism. I’m not stupid. I know the consequences of this, Casey.”
“Good,” Casey said as Dan walked out. “I just wanted to know.”
***
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-27 09:14 pm (UTC)I'm editing smut at the moment.
Well, that and... I don't htink the ending's going to be happy for Casey, so I'm putting off writing it until the little voice in the back of my head stops telling me that Dan put his career first. If Dan made that decision years ago, and seems pretty comfortable with it, I don't think he's going to change his mind just because Casey will start obsessing on it (because, you know Casey will).
*sigh*
Damnit, I want the boys to be happy.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-27 09:22 pm (UTC)