SN WIP: Homophobic - Part Four
Apr. 26th, 2004 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
out_therePrevious parts here, here and here.
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sajee, could you check if I spelled the Spanish words correctly? And, does anyone know which fic "mandroid" came from. I *know* I didn't think that perfect Sally-description.
***
Casey was trying not to laugh as Alison played with his hair. Dan was sitting beside him, patiently waiting his turn. Dan was also staring at his reflection and muttering under his breath. "I don't see why I can't do it. It makes no sense."
"You can't do it. Just accept the fact."
Dan slid his eyes around to the side, glaring at Casey. "I don't see why not."
"You've spent years proving you can't do it."
Dan sighed, and slumped in his chair. "So I should accept it?"
Casey nodded and Alison's brush skidded through his hair. "Sorry," he said, sitting up straight. Alison rolled her eyes, but didn't rebuke him.
Dan twisted around in his chair. "I don't want to accept it."
"Accept it."
"I don't want to."
"Accept it and move on, Danny."
"No," Dan said, sliding around until his faced the mirror again. "I refuse to accept it."
"You can't do it, Danny. Why won't you accept that?"
"Because you can do it."
Alison's annoyed huff was quiet, but Casey still heard it. Casey snorted, but carefully kept his head still. "So anything I can do, you can do better?"
"Well… not better." Dan grinned. "But certainly as well as you."
"Care to speak a little German, Danny? Or how about some Spanish?"
"Un tequila, pour favor?" Dan said, pretending to lift a glass. "It works."
Casey rolled his eyes. "Now say something else."
"Locos. Senoritas. Senor. Taco." Dan stopped, obviously thinking about it. "Gato. El Pero Fumando."
"Any more random words?"
"No. I think I've exhausted my vocabulary." Dan swung around on the chair, spinning it the full three-sixty degrees, until he was stuck with his reflection again. "What about Yiddish?"
Casey raised an eyebrow. "Can you hold a conversation in Yiddish?"
"Would you believe me if I said yes?" Dan asked hopefully. Casey rolled his eyes again. "Thought not."
"So, we have just established that you cannot, in fact, do everything I can do?" Casey asked as Alison gave him a final brush over and moved to Dan.
"Obviously, I have to have an interest in doing it." Danny closed his mouth obediently as Alison started sponging on foundation.
"I'm not sure whether or not I should be offended," Casey said slowly, knowing that Dan couldn't reply. "I am a well-educated man. I am well-rounded. I have many skills."
Dan rolled his eyes, and Casey continued, "I have many enviable talents. I would have thought there was a wide range of things I can do that you'd want to do. But the only thing that interests you is my ability to move my eyes in separate directions."
This was where Casey had to work hard to keep a straight face. Technically, he couldn't move his eyes in separate directions. He wasn't even sure if that was physically possible, but he knew how to make it appear that way. Someday, he'd let Dan in on the trick, but as long as Dan teased him about his uncool status and his love of gymnastics, Casey felt perfectly justified in keeping the secret. Everyone had a party trick. Casey didn't have to share his.
He'd done it at a party years ago, when everyone was drunk enough to reveal their party tricks. Dan's had been a remarkable control of Spin-the-Bottle. They'd got into a circle to test him, and Dan had been able to accurately spin it at whoever they named. Casey's trick had been to cross his eyes and then move each eye to the side and back.
When Dan asked him how he did it, Casey had been drunk, and still a little stung by Dan's inability to explain the bottle skill. So, he'd said that he'd practiced by staring straight ahead, and slowly developed the ability to move one to the side. Of course, Casey had done no such thing. He'd just found that if you crossed your eyes tightly and then looked to the side, no one could see the first eye move.
Every so often, like today, Dan decided that it was a skill he really wanted to master, and would start spending time staring straight ahead, concentrating on just moving one eye left or right. It resulted in an expression that Natalie called 'emotionally constipate' and Chris called 'psycho gym teacher.' It resulted in the expression that was on Dan's face now.
"Dan, relax your face or your make-up will look blotchy and uneven," Alison chided firmly. Dan sighed and stopped trying to pull the face.
Casey watched him carefully, and could almost see the serious glare of concentration start again. Dan needed to be distracted. "What did you tell Natalie?"
"About…?" Dan asked out of the corner of his mouth.
"About the hickey."
Dan held up three fingers, a gesture that meant 'I'm getting my make-up done, as soon as I can move my face again, I'll reply.' It was a surprisingly useful gesture to know.
Casey stood up, and perched on the make-up counter, watching Alison blend and brush, covering Dan's skin with the layers of potions and powders that made their skin flawless on TV. Casey couldn't help thinking that there was an impressive amount of artifice behind their appearance.
When Alison moved on to Dan's hair, Dan replied. "I caved."
"You shared?" Casey asked, keeping his voice lightly bored.
Dan almost nodded, but stopped himself just in time. "I told her about Claudia."
"The leggy blonde?" Casey grinned, and a small part of him was reassured that Danny had confided in him. Not Natalie, but him. He felt a little bad for being so petty about Dan's friendship, but comforted himself with the thought that he'd keep the secret better than Natalie.
"Legs to the floor, my friend," Dan said with a comical leer.
Casey smirked as he remembered what Dan had said. "Did you tell her about the great sex?"
Dan looked a little shocked. "You think I'd go bragging to Natalie with all the messy details? I'm far more of a gentleman than that, Casey."
Casey snorted. "A gentleman and a scholar?"
"These days, I'm just a gentleman," Dan replied looking up to Alison. Alison nodded, and Dan stood up, fixing his collar in the mirror.
"So there was no bragging about your conquest?" Casey asked, finding the idea a little hard to believe.
"No bragging." Dan grinned and then added, "But there may have been some strong hinting."
"Ah."
***
When he walked around the corner, Casey saw that Natalie was sitting on their anchor desk. "So you've heard about the Flaxen Amazon?" she asked as he sat down at the anchor desk.
Dan was just a few steps behind him. "Casey knows about Claudia."
"I can't believe I gave you tips to making your smug college friend-"
"Michael," Casey supplied helpfully, and Natalie just kept talking.
"-jealous, and you ditched him because a blonde at a bar winked at you," Natalie finished firmly. "You are such a man, Dan Rydell."
"Um…thanks?" Danny replied, equal parts uncertain and amused. Casey sat back and decided to enjoy the 'Natalie-Dan Show.' There was no way he was getting in the middle of those two.
"It wasn't a compliment," Natalie replied snidely.
"Natalie," Dan said beseechingly, "I was just taking your advice to heart."
Natalie eyed him obviously not convinced but willing to hear him out. "Really?"
"The whole idea was to make him jealous about my life, right?" Dan asked, and Natalie nodded. "Things were going badly. He started talking about his new *car*."
"What type of car is it?"
"It's a Porsche, Natalie. The guy owns a Porsche!"
Natalie grimaced. "Not good."
"So, I thought on my feet. I showed him up the best way I could. By talking to a buxom blonde while he was in the bathroom and then leaving with her, giving him the casual 'you understand, right, buddy?' as I left."
"Fair enough," Natalie declared slowly and then narrowed her eyes at Dan. "Buxom?"
Dan smirked. "She was well-endowed."
"I thought you said she was leggy?"
"She was leggy and curvaceous." Dan made some wavy movement with his hands. He was either suggesting a 'curvaceous' woman, or outling an hourglass. "She had quite a body."
"She sounds suspiciously like Sally," Natalie said, and Casey thought she smelled something fishy.
Dan wasn't put out by her disbelief. "She was totally like Sally," Dan said with a cheeky grin. "Except she wasn't that freakishly tall and she wasn't, y'know… a total mandroid."
Casey spluttered and Natalie lifted a hand to her headset. "If you weren't wearing make-up right now, and about to go on camera, I'd kiss you on the cheek, Danny," Natalie said with a happy smile.
"Why?"
"Dana told me to."
"The mandroid comment?"
"You betcha," Natalie replied. "Have a good show, guys."
Casey shook his head, and called out to her as she was halfway across the floor. "Hey, Natalie?"
She turned around and yelled back. "Yeah?"
"Did you need to tell us anything?" Casey asked, gesturing at their scripts.
Natalie flapped a hand dismissively. "Nah. Just wanted to make sure you knew about Claudia."
"Okay, then," Casey said and turned back to his script. Then he looked at Danny. "Curvaceous?"
"It's an apt description."
"Yeah…I just would have thought you'd say 'curvy.'"
Dan grinned. "I'm full of surprises."
***
Natalie bounced over after they pulled out their earpieces. "That was a good show!"
Casey grinned at Dan and dropped his earpiece on the table. "It was indeed." The banter had sparkled, their throws had been smooth; the footage and the voice-overs had been seamlessly inserted. All in all, it had been a great show.
"I'm so relieved. We were expecting it to be bad and we though that maybe, just maybe, it would be okay," Natalie babbled. "But we really hadn't expected it to be good."
Dan looked slightly offended. "You were expecting it to be to be bad?"
"Well, the last show you guys did together died about halfway through, and then you ended up fighting. So, yeah. We were expecting it to be bad."
"We're professionals, Natalie. We know what we're doing," Dan said with an easy smile.
"Not only do we know what we're doing, we do it well," Casey pointed out, grinning at Dan. "We're a *team*."
"We're a team that *rocks*," Dan said happily and high-fived Casey.
Natalie laughed. "Whatever helps you sleep at night." Then, she stepped closer to Dan, and kissed him gently on the cheek. Dan smile.
"What was that for?" Casey whined when it was clear that there was only a kiss for Dan.
"Dana told me to."
"The mandroid comment," Dan supplied helpfully.
Natalie watched Casey closely. "You got a problem with that?"
Casey shook his head. "Heaven forbid I stand in the way of Dan getting kissed by a beautiful girl."
Natalie beamed. "Well, the show tonight was really good…" Natalie said as she walked over to Casey. "I suppose that warrants a kiss, too." Casey bowed his head dutifully and Natalie placed a soft kiss on his cheek. Her perfume smelled of vanilla and strawberries. It almost made him hungry.
Dan laughed at the self-satisfied expression on Casey's face. "You are so immature."
Casey shrugged and followed Dan over to wardrobe. When he looked beside him, he was surprised to see Natalie following them. She walked very quietly. "Anything we can help you with?"
"I want to talk to Dan about kissing beautiful girls," Natalie responded with a grin.
Dan snorted. "You looking for some pointers? Because, if so, I'm happy to give play-by-play instructions as long as I get to see the tape."
She rolled her eyes. "In your dreams, Dan."
Dan grinned. "And Jeremy's too, I suspect."
"I wanted to talk about Claudia."
"Should I step out?" Casey offered politely. The both frowned at him, and he wondered if the resident gossips had forgotten his was there. "Just offering."
"Don't worry about it Casey," Dan said.
Casey shrugged. "Okay." The three of them stopped walking, and stood to one side of the hallway.
"So…" Natalie paused dramatically. "Claudia?" She stretched the first syllable into it's own word.
"I am an open book." Dan spread his hands wide. "What do you want to know?"
"What's her last name?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
Dan shrugged sheepishly. "I was drunk, we barely flirted, and then she came back to my place. We didn't swap medical histories, Natalie."
Natalie's lips pursed. "She was easy?"
"Hey, those are outdated sexual stereotypes. I am all for a woman being sexually empowered." Dan grinned widely. "I appreciate a loose woman."
Natalie smirked. "You also appreciate the charity of strangers."
Casey sniggered and Dan stretched his neck back. "I really can't deny that."
Sighing, Natalie said, "Do you know anything about this girl?"
"I know that blonde isn't her natural hair color."
Natalie narrowed her eyes and once again, Casey got the impression that she didn't quite buy Dan's story. "What's her shoe size?"
"Thirty-nine," Dan replied without hesitation. "And she was wearing these pale pink stilettos. Let me tell you, she had very fine ankles."
"Stilettos? That really says everything, doesn't it?" Natalie asked wearily, and Dan shrugged.
Casey looked from one to the other, and wondered what he'd missed. "Not to sound like an idiot, but what do stilettos say?"
"They say fashionable," Dan said, gesturing enthusiastically. "A woman who's prepared to go through pain for the sake of looking great."
"They say sexually confident," Natalie added. "A woman who looks good and has few objections to a one-night stand."
"If Sally was shorter, she'd wear stilettos," Dan pronounced and Natalie nodded.
"Ah," Casey said, almost wishing he hadn't asked.
"They also say a woman prepared to date a TV celebrity for the said of appearing in publicity photos," Natalie said, looking at Dan.
"They do?" Casey asked, confused. "A pair of shoes says that?" Apparently Dan and Natalie could converse in clothing shorthand. Casey already spoke four languages; he felt no obligation to learn another.
"They do," Dan assured him.
The corners of Natalie's mouth turned down. "Will Claudia be appearing in future publicity photos?"
"I don't think so." Dan leaned back against the wall, and Casey tried to hide his curiosity. He had no idea what excuse Dan would use.
"Why not?" Natalie asked, a strong warning in her tone.
"She came back to my place because she lives with someone."
"She has an annoying roommate?"
"She has an annoying *boyfriend*," Dan replied. "I learned my lesson with Rebecca. No more attached women."
Natalie pushed a strand of hair away from her face, and then gave Dan's arm a quick squeeze. "I'm sorry, Dan."
When Dan smiled bravely, there was a little too much pain behind it for Casey to be comfortable. "Thanks."
"Just remember, she wore stilettos," Natalie said seriously. "She wasn't a big loss."
Dan pulled a face. "I think our priorities are vastly different."
"You'd prefer sex and lack of commitment?" Natalie spoke as if she were pronouncing a death sentence.
"I'm just saying it has its appeals."
"You know one of the appeals it doesn't have?" Natalie asked, and Casey blinked at her phrasing.
"What?"
"Scraping you up from the emotional mess she'll leave you in." Dan started to say something but Natalie kept talking. "Rebecca left, and you were a pile of emotional debris. And she wasn't even living with Steve Sisco, let alone sleeping with him."
Dan blinked slowly and Casey knew she'd hit a tender spot. Dan swallowed and said, "Good point."
"I don't like to bring out the big guns," Natalie said, resting a hand on Dan's shoulder. "But you need somebody to kick your ass once in a while. For your own good."
"Being cruel to be kind?" Danny joked, his eyes tense.
Natalie pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Only because I love you."
Dan's smile was soft. "Thanks, Nat."
"Anytime." She stepped back and looked down at her watch. "I've got to go. Dana will be looking for me." Saying that, she turned on her heel and started trotting back. Dan watched her leave with shadowed eyes.
"Hey!" Casey called out. "How come Dan got a second kiss?"
"For doing a good show," she called over her shoulder.
He turned to Dan, and was glad to see Dan had shaken off the hurt expression. "I think there's a certain favouritism going on in this office."
They started walking to wardrobe again, and Danny's reply was glib. "I think you're right."
Casey's brows rose. "You do?"
"Yeah," Dan said seriously. "I've been kissed by our assistant producer many times, but I don't think I've ever been kissed by our executive producer."
"Dana?"
"I think you're being favoured by the hierarchy," Dan stated. "And I'm being placated by a pretty girl."
"It's always worked before," Casey said as they walked into the changing area.
Dan laughed and moved over to where his jeans and t-shirt were hanging up. "I have an appreciation of aesthetics."
"I've never denied that," Casey said, pulling off his jacket and hanging it on the spare hangers provided. He was pretty sure Monica would come in and re-hang it, but intent had to count for something.
He turned to the wall, and started unbuttoning his shirt. It was the way they always dressed, not facing each other. Dan said he was overly modest, but the real reason was the way Dan put on his pants. For some reason, Dan had trouble balancing on one leg. Whenever he tried to pull his pants on standing up, he'd end up doing this awkward hopping dance, bouncing on one foot as he pulled the other leg up. It reduced Casey to giggles every time.
Casey pulled up his jeans, and was reaching for his polo shirt, when he though of something. "Spin the Bottle."
"What?" Dan's voice was muffled, and when Casey looked over his shoulder, he saw Dan pulling his t-shirt over his head.
"You kissed Dana when you played Spin the Bottle. Back in L.A. that time." If Casey remembered correctly, Dan had managed to kiss all the attractive single women playing.
"Doesn't count," Dan said with a wave of his hand.
Casey watched him doubtfully. "It doesn't?"
"Dana was your section producer. I didn't work for her." Dan started gathering his suit and hanging it up.
Casey shrugged and sat down. "So, I'm still the hierarchy's favourite?"
"Yes, you are."
Casey noticed that Dan was still in socks. He resigned himself to waiting for Dan to methodically loosen all the ties and then tighten them again. Dan had to be the only person Casey had ever met who treated sneakers respectfully. "Will you ever give Claudia a surname?"
Dan shook his head. "I can't."
"You can't?"
"Natalie would recognise it," Dan said, leaning over his laces.
"Why?"
"It'd be Schiffer."
Casey sniggered. "I've got to say, Danny…"
"Yeah?"
"She was quite a loss," Casey said and Dan grinned. "Although, I'm sure that Tim Jeffries will be relieved."
Dan looked up at him. "How do *you* know *that*?"
"I read."
"What? Tabloids?"
"I have to read something at the dentist's." Dan scoffed and moved onto the other shoe.
Casey shifted on the chair, bored. "Hey."
"Yeah?" Dan looked over the shoe in his hand.
"I was wondering, does Michael…" Casey paused, watching Dan's reactions. Dan's smile dimmed a little, but that was the only change. Casey figured he was allowed to keep talking. "Have a girlfriend?"
Dan blinked and then snorted. "No. Michael has no interest in the fairer sex."
"Okay."
Dan went back to tying his shoe, and then looked up, confused. "Why did you ask?"
"It was just the way you spoke about Claudia's boyfriend…"
Dan raised an eyebrow. "And you assumed Michael was living with a girlfriend?"
Casey shrugged. "Well, yeah."
"He doesn't live with his girlfriend, Casey." Dan finished tying his shoes and walked to the door.
Casey stood up, feeling incredibly dense. "Okay, I get it."
"He lives with his boyfriend," Dan said, walking out the door.
***
Dan hit his indicator, and pulled into the spot.
"You're parking?" Casey asked incredulously, blinking at Dan.
"It's a great spot," Dan replied assertively, turning off the engine.
"So you're parking?"
"It's a *great* spot."
"But you don't need to park. You're just dropping me home," Casey pointed out reasonably.
"But it's a great spot," Dan repeated. "It's right in front of your building. Why can't you see it's a great spot?"
Dan was right. It was a great spot. "I can see that it's a great spot."
"So?"
Casey blinked at him. "You don't need to park."
"But it's a great spot." Dan grinned at him. "It's driving karma, Casey."
Casey eyed him doubtfully. "Driving karma?"
"Driving karma. You don't drive in the city, so maybe you don't understand the rules, but trust me on this. It's driving karma."
Casey sighed. "And one of these rules is that you park, even though you don't need to, just because it's a great spot?"
"Yes." Dan smiled and nodded. "If the unseen forces of the road give you a great spot, you have to take it."
"'Unseen forces of the road'? You did just say that, didn't you, Danny?" Casey sniggered.
"If you snub the unseen forces, if you refuse to accept their gifts graciously, they will not gift you again," Dan said seriously.
Casey snorted. "Really?"
"Yep. If you don't accept the parking space in the way that it was meant, if you ignore their generosity, you will find yourself unable to change lanes when you need to. You will find yourself cut off at every turn, and hitting every red light on the way home. It's driving karma."
"I think it's more likely a sign of insanity," Casey said, and Dan glared at him. "But obviously, you're parking."
"I am."
"Do you want to come upstairs and grab a beer? While you show the unseen forces of the road that you appreciate their gifts?"
Dan nodded, and Casey led him up, wondering if he actually had any beer in the fridge. Luckily enough, he found he was down to two bottles.
"Lucky," Dan said when Casey mentioned it. "It's karma."
"You think your driving karma affected the amount of alcohol in my fridge?"
"Don't mock it, Casey." Dan opened his bottle, scowling at Casey. "Karma's a powerful force."
"Apparently it is," Casey said, walking over to the couch.
Dan sat down next to him and grinned. "What time is it?"
Casey glanced at the clock. "It's two-fifteen."
The amused grin stayed on Dan's face. "And we're drinking beers?"
Casey laughed, understanding where Dan was headed with this. "Yes, we are."
"You know what we should be watching?" Dan said, but Casey was already picking up the remote and switching the TV on.
"West Coast Update."
Dan nodded. "West Coast Update."
It was only natural that they'd feel a certain amount of healthy competition with the guys over at WCU. He and Dan weren't the kind of guys to rub it in to Peter and Paul that their show was… well, better. In every sense of the word. Instead, they kept it as a private joke, an easy drinking game. "Puns and clichés, one sip each," Casey said as WCU appeared on the screen.
"You take Peter, I'll take Paul," Dan said, gesturing at the screen with his bottle.
Casey nodded. It wasn't until the second commercial break that he realised the flaw in this plan. "There's a flaw in this plan."
Dan looked over at him. "We only have one beer each?"
"We only have one beer each."
Dan frowned at his bottle. It was more than half-empty already. "What's the fun of a drinking game if you can't get drunk?"
Casey switched off the screen. "Highly limited fun, Danny." Danny glanced across at him, but didn't comment on the awkward rhythm of 'highly limited'. "We need to do something."
"We should talk," Danny decided.
"Talk?"
"Yeah."
"Don't we do that all day?"
"Stop being onerous, Casey. Think of a subject."
Casey grinned. "I'd tell you about my day, but you were there. I'd ask you about what Jeremy said, but I already heard it from Jeremy." Dan nodded, totally unsurprised. "We could discuss the show, and how great it's been for the last three nights, but we were both there."
Danny laughed. "Are you trying to say we spend too much time together?"
"No." Casey shook his head. "I'm saying we're boring conversationalists."
"Well, if we have nothing to talk about, I'm going home," Dan said, but didn't stand up. "Do you think twenty minutes counts as graciously accepting a perfect car space?"
"Probably not," Casey replied, just to stir Dan up.
"Then I'm not leaving yet."
Casey didn't even try to hide his sniggers. "Okay."
Dan lasted just a few moments in silence, and then turned to Casey. "Are you sure there's nothing you want to ask me?"
"How come I have to ask you?"
"Because you're boring. I could come up with an interesting question, and then you'd just suck all of the interesting out of it," Dan said with a cheeky grin. "Then I'd just end up with a boring conversation. If I wanted to be bored, I'd sit here in silence."
"So this is an open forum to ask you a question?"
Dan waved a hand through the air. "Ask away."
Casey settled back on the couch as a question popped into his head. He was pretty sure that wasn't the type of question Dan was talking about. "Any question?"
"Any question." Dan sat up, leaning closer with a triumphant grin. "What is it, Casey? You know there's something you want to ask me."
"Why did you and Michael break up?" Dan just blinked at him, so Casey clarified, "In college. Why did you break up?"
Dan's eyebrows drew together. "I should probably go."
"You said any question," Casey pointed out childishly.
"Yeah, but…" Casey hadn't leeched the interest out of the conversation, but Dan seemed to have just leeched the fun out of it.
"But?"
"I've got no problems telling you," Dan said clearly, looking over at the blank TV screen. "But I think you'll have problems hearing it."
"Tell me," Casey said gently.
"Are you sure this isn't..." Dan trailed off uncertainly. "Are sure it's not going to weird you out?"
"I asked, didn't I?"
Dan scowled. "That doesn't mean you really want to hear the answer."
"I think I can handle it." Casey sighed.
Dan watched him carefully, leaning back on the couch. "Sure?"
"Well, I'm currently thinking of Michael as a Rebecca-alike who doesn't look as good in a dress, but I'm pretty sure." Casey shrugged.
Dan laughed, and his serious expression lightened. "Okay. I... I really liked him."
Casey snorted and put his legs up on the coffee table. "I'm assuming you must have."
"The thing you've got to get is that I *really* liked him." Dan looked down at his hands as he stressed the words. "I really liked him."
"You were serious about him?" Casey asked softly.
"Yeah." Dan swallowed. "I..."
"Really liked him," Casey finished for him and Dan nodded. "How long were you… seeing him?"
"A bit over five months."
"That's pretty long for you in college," Casey said, thinking aloud. "I can remember most girls didn't last more than a couple weeks."
"I really liked him." Dan spoke quietly, as if admitting a secret. Casey suddenly wondered if Dan had ever told anyone else. He didn't want to ask.
"So that would have been, what? Your Junior year?" Casey asked, and Dan nodded. That had also been the year that Dan had been reconsidering his study choices, debating over whether he should focus more on print journalism than television. Casey guessed it had been a year of bad decisions all around.
"Yeah," Dan said, and then fell silent, obviously lost in his own thoughts.
"You know," Casey said slowly, "I don't see the appeal."
"The appeal of what?"
"Of Michael."
"That's probably why you've never slept with him," Dan responded with a quick grin.
"Even if the sex was great, I couldn't put up with someone that..." Casey waved a hand vaguely, searching for the right word. "Smarmy."
"Smarmy?"
Casey nodded. "He's like Gordon, with the lawyer bits taken out." Dan's eyes bulged in surprise and Casey felt a little guilty. "Should I stop criticising your ex-" Casey had no idea what to call it, so he used Dan's word, "-flame now?"
Dan blinked and then said, "Feel free to dislike him."
"Good."
"Good?"
"Because I do. Dislike him," Casey clarified. "He's smarmy and slimy, he made you nervous at the bar and he kept you waiting. Then, he just railroaded you into leaving," Casey finished. "I didn't like him at all."
"Huh." Dan smirked. "Who'd have thought you'd have good taste in guys."
Casey laughed. "Great lot of help that is to me."
Dan looked up at the ceiling, obviously thinking about it. "On the other hand, you like Shane McArnold, and I have it on good authority that he's a twit."
"I *know*." Casey grimaced. "Jeremy has told me many, many times."
"He's right."
"Can we leave Shane McArnold's twit-status alone?"
"Sure." Dan nodded. "After all, I wasn't the one bragging about him asking me out."
Casey groaned. Danny wasn't going to let him forget that, and Danny hadn't even been there at the time. "Let's go back to the topic of Michael's ex-status."
"I don't know, Casey. I'm having more fun with Shane McArnold's twit-status."
Casey let his head fall back on the couch. "I still think Michael's a heel."
"He's a *heel*," Danny repeated, laughing too hard for his words to be easily heard. "Did you actually just call some guy a 'heel?'
"I could have called him a cad, or a knave, or a scoundrel." Casey had to fight to keep a straight face. "I thought heel was more appropriate."
"Why didn't you go all the way to dirty, rotten rascal?" Dan asked, still sniggering.
"That would have been too much," Casey replied seriously, and Dan cracked up. When Danny stopped laughing, Casey continued. "I still don't see the appeal. He seems so selfish."
"Selfish?"
Casey waved a hand in the air. "Self-interested. Self-oriented. Self-obsessed. Like if it wasn't about him, he wouldn't care." For a second he wondered if he was channelling Dan. He was pretty sure Dan had said the same thing about Lisa, once upon a time.
Dan played with his beer bottle. "That *was* the appeal, Casey."
"What?"
"That was the appeal," Dan repeated quietly. "I wasn't… I wasn't as grounded in college. Hell, you were there. You know that."
"Dan-" Casey started to defend Dan, but Dan interrupted him.
"I'm not saying I was a bad student, I just… I couldn't stand being alone. I couldn't stand my own thoughts, because they'd always end up back home." Dan swallowed, and Casey knew what he meant. "The best solution was just to keep busy. To always be doing something."
Casey nodded. "Yeah, I remember."
"I had to be doing something because… I couldn't stand being around other people, either. I'd go to parties, and I'd have to leave early, have to slip out the back, just to get away from the crowds."
Casey hadn't noticed that, he'd just thought that Dan was a busy student. "So you were better one-on-one?"
"Not really." Dan shrugged uncomfortably, turning the bottle in his hands. "Most people made me uncomfortable. I just… couldn't relax. I kept thinking that if I relaxed, I'd say something, I'd let something slip about Sam, and then… Then I'd have to tell them the whole story."
"You told me the whole story," Casey said gently.
"Yeah, but… you understood. I mean, you never…" Dan said slowly, "You never blamed me for it. You never turned around and said it was my fault."
Casey spoke firmly. "No-one would, Dan."
Dan opened his mouth and closed it again. "At the time, back then, it felt like it."
"They wouldn't blame you for it, Dan." Casey was vaguely horrified at the idea, at the thought of Danny in college, certain that it was his fault. He tried very, very hard not to blame Jacob Rydell for it.
Dan's jaw was tense. "Most people, I wasn't comfortable around them. I wasn't comfortable around most of the people I slept with."
"But you were comfortable around Michael?" Casey thought that making Danny comfortable might be enough to redeem Michael. Casey could forgive selfishness and sliminess, if he made Danny feel better.
"Yeah." Dan breathed deeply, and almost smiled. "He didn't care, you know?"
"Ah."
"He was selfish and self-centred, but he really didn't care that much about other people, or about their pasts. He didn't care what I'd been like back in high school, and he really didn't want to know. He was much more focused on who you were now, how you affected his life." Dan's voice was oddly fond.
Casey wasn't sure that was a good thing. "Did you tell him about Sam?"
Dan nodded. "Yeah. I was pretty drunk, and he was in the middle of studying. He literally just shrugged, said 'Whatever.' and put me to bed."
"Didn't he… say anything about it?" Casey asked, concerned. It seemed wrong that someone should hear that and just not react, although Casey himself… Well, when Dan had told him, bucked up by Dutch courage, Casey had been fairly speechless. He hadn't known what to say. But a few days later he'd brought it up again and tried to reassure the self-doubt in Dan's dark eyes. He wasn't sure if he'd succeeded, but he'd tried.
"He never brought it up again." Dan grinned tightly, but his eyes looked relieved. "Neither did I."
"So that was the perfect college relationship? Just not talking about it?" Casey felt hypocritical, but couldn't help the sarcasm in his tone. He was wrong. He couldn't forgive Michael's sleazy selfishness.
"At the time, I wasn't very reliable myself. I'd get… I'd just get stuck. I had to leave parties, or I couldn't go. Not for any real reason, just because I *couldn't*. I was a bad boyfriend."
"So you were a bad boyfriend." Casey shrugged. "Doesn't mean that you should have to put up with someone that selfish."
"He was motivated and a bad time-keeper. He'd miss things and just not show up. And later explain that he got caught up studying, or whatever." Dan took another swallow of beer. "He was too self-involved to *mind* that I was a bad boyfriend. It was a good match."
"And you really liked him?" Casey asked dryly.
Dan nodded. "He was… he was attainable, Casey. He knew my faults, and he knew my history, and he didn't care. He was gorgeous, and he was intelligent and confident. He was interesting and the sex was…" Dan trailed off with a wary look towards Casey.
"Go ahead," Casey said, and really hoped Dan didn't share anything too detailed.
"The sex was great," Dan finished with a grin. "I was really happy."
"Yeah?" Casey asked, although one look at Dan's wistful smile proved he was telling the truth.
"I even considered changing majors."
"That was related to Michael?" Dan nodded. "You were waxing poetic about the appeals of print journalism, of reporting on politics and current events, of shaping the opinion of the nation. How the hell did that relate to Michael?"
"I was thinking of getting out of sports journalism."
Casey knew there was a link he just wasn't getting. "And?"
"And falling in love with a guy is not something that's generally accepted in the sporting professions, Casey."
"Oh." Casey blinked. It was something that you just knew. If you were in sports, you were a straight, manly guy. You didn't go home at night to another guy in your bed. "But you love your job."
Dan rolled his eyes. "Well, duh."
"But you were going to give that up?" Casey asked. For some sleazy, slimy guy who obviously just didn't care, Dan was going to give up Sports Night? It made no sense.
"I didn't know how much I'd love my job. Back then, it was just lots of studying, and thinking that this thing with Michael might end up permanent."
"Would you give it up now?"
"For Michael?"
Casey nodded, suddenly needing to know. "For Michael."
"No." Dan's reply was quick.
"Why not?"
"Because now I know other things."
"What things?" Casey prompted.
"I know that I love Sports Night. I know that I have a great job, and great co-workers, and that I'm a pretty lucky guy to have a job like that."
"Huh."
Dan leaned back on the couch, and added, "I also know about Michael, too."
When Casey looked over, Dan was frowning. "Why did you break up with him?"
"He cheated." Dan's tone was low and hurt.
"He slept with someone else?"
"He slept with quite a few 'someone else's."
Casey sat up. "Yeah?"
"He went through a small crowd," Dan said bitterly. "Apparently, he just wasn't a 'one person guy'," Dan said, making quotation marks in the air with his fingers.
Casey felt the scowl form on his face. "Really?"
"In his defence, he never said he was. I just assumed."
"That doesn't defend him," Casey said tightly.
"You know the worse thing about it?" Dan asked, turning to Casey. "It wasn't just that I felt stupid for taking him seriously, when it was obviously just a bit of fun. It was the number of friends who approached me after we broke up and said that it was good that I wasn't seeing Michael anymore, since they'd heard he slept with so-and-so at this or that party. It seemed like everyone knew except me." Dan looked at him but Casey didn't know what to say. "I felt like such an idiot."
The silence stretched on; Dan staring at his bottle, and Casey trying to figure out what to say. Then, Dan quietly said, "And I just helped him do it to someone else."
"Danny," Casey said softly.
"He mentioned his boyfriend over dinner, and then when he asked me up for a nightcap, I let it happen. I knew what I was doing, Casey, and I let it happen anyway."
"Why?" Casey asked, and then wondered if that was just being cruel. He hadn't meant to.
"Because I missed him." Dan swallowed and set his empty bottle on the coffee table. "I missed that feeling that everything would be fine, just because he said so. And he's still a very attractive man."
"Oh," Casey said, and Dan nodded. "I'm sorry, Danny."
"Sorry you asked?" Dan guessed with a wry grin.
"Sorry he hurt you," Casey replied earnestly.
Dan nodded again, but didn't reply. Instead, he pushed himself off the couch and stood up. "I think that's long enough to graciously accept a gift."
"Probably," Casey said, and then yawned.
Dan grinned. "I'll see myself out."
Casey dragged himself off the couch, wondering when he'd got this tired. "Goodnight, Dan."
"See you tomorrow."
***
sajee, could you check if I spelled the Spanish words correctly? And, does anyone know which fic "mandroid" came from. I *know* I didn't think that perfect Sally-description.***
Casey was trying not to laugh as Alison played with his hair. Dan was sitting beside him, patiently waiting his turn. Dan was also staring at his reflection and muttering under his breath. "I don't see why I can't do it. It makes no sense."
"You can't do it. Just accept the fact."
Dan slid his eyes around to the side, glaring at Casey. "I don't see why not."
"You've spent years proving you can't do it."
Dan sighed, and slumped in his chair. "So I should accept it?"
Casey nodded and Alison's brush skidded through his hair. "Sorry," he said, sitting up straight. Alison rolled her eyes, but didn't rebuke him.
Dan twisted around in his chair. "I don't want to accept it."
"Accept it."
"I don't want to."
"Accept it and move on, Danny."
"No," Dan said, sliding around until his faced the mirror again. "I refuse to accept it."
"You can't do it, Danny. Why won't you accept that?"
"Because you can do it."
Alison's annoyed huff was quiet, but Casey still heard it. Casey snorted, but carefully kept his head still. "So anything I can do, you can do better?"
"Well… not better." Dan grinned. "But certainly as well as you."
"Care to speak a little German, Danny? Or how about some Spanish?"
"Un tequila, pour favor?" Dan said, pretending to lift a glass. "It works."
Casey rolled his eyes. "Now say something else."
"Locos. Senoritas. Senor. Taco." Dan stopped, obviously thinking about it. "Gato. El Pero Fumando."
"Any more random words?"
"No. I think I've exhausted my vocabulary." Dan swung around on the chair, spinning it the full three-sixty degrees, until he was stuck with his reflection again. "What about Yiddish?"
Casey raised an eyebrow. "Can you hold a conversation in Yiddish?"
"Would you believe me if I said yes?" Dan asked hopefully. Casey rolled his eyes again. "Thought not."
"So, we have just established that you cannot, in fact, do everything I can do?" Casey asked as Alison gave him a final brush over and moved to Dan.
"Obviously, I have to have an interest in doing it." Danny closed his mouth obediently as Alison started sponging on foundation.
"I'm not sure whether or not I should be offended," Casey said slowly, knowing that Dan couldn't reply. "I am a well-educated man. I am well-rounded. I have many skills."
Dan rolled his eyes, and Casey continued, "I have many enviable talents. I would have thought there was a wide range of things I can do that you'd want to do. But the only thing that interests you is my ability to move my eyes in separate directions."
This was where Casey had to work hard to keep a straight face. Technically, he couldn't move his eyes in separate directions. He wasn't even sure if that was physically possible, but he knew how to make it appear that way. Someday, he'd let Dan in on the trick, but as long as Dan teased him about his uncool status and his love of gymnastics, Casey felt perfectly justified in keeping the secret. Everyone had a party trick. Casey didn't have to share his.
He'd done it at a party years ago, when everyone was drunk enough to reveal their party tricks. Dan's had been a remarkable control of Spin-the-Bottle. They'd got into a circle to test him, and Dan had been able to accurately spin it at whoever they named. Casey's trick had been to cross his eyes and then move each eye to the side and back.
When Dan asked him how he did it, Casey had been drunk, and still a little stung by Dan's inability to explain the bottle skill. So, he'd said that he'd practiced by staring straight ahead, and slowly developed the ability to move one to the side. Of course, Casey had done no such thing. He'd just found that if you crossed your eyes tightly and then looked to the side, no one could see the first eye move.
Every so often, like today, Dan decided that it was a skill he really wanted to master, and would start spending time staring straight ahead, concentrating on just moving one eye left or right. It resulted in an expression that Natalie called 'emotionally constipate' and Chris called 'psycho gym teacher.' It resulted in the expression that was on Dan's face now.
"Dan, relax your face or your make-up will look blotchy and uneven," Alison chided firmly. Dan sighed and stopped trying to pull the face.
Casey watched him carefully, and could almost see the serious glare of concentration start again. Dan needed to be distracted. "What did you tell Natalie?"
"About…?" Dan asked out of the corner of his mouth.
"About the hickey."
Dan held up three fingers, a gesture that meant 'I'm getting my make-up done, as soon as I can move my face again, I'll reply.' It was a surprisingly useful gesture to know.
Casey stood up, and perched on the make-up counter, watching Alison blend and brush, covering Dan's skin with the layers of potions and powders that made their skin flawless on TV. Casey couldn't help thinking that there was an impressive amount of artifice behind their appearance.
When Alison moved on to Dan's hair, Dan replied. "I caved."
"You shared?" Casey asked, keeping his voice lightly bored.
Dan almost nodded, but stopped himself just in time. "I told her about Claudia."
"The leggy blonde?" Casey grinned, and a small part of him was reassured that Danny had confided in him. Not Natalie, but him. He felt a little bad for being so petty about Dan's friendship, but comforted himself with the thought that he'd keep the secret better than Natalie.
"Legs to the floor, my friend," Dan said with a comical leer.
Casey smirked as he remembered what Dan had said. "Did you tell her about the great sex?"
Dan looked a little shocked. "You think I'd go bragging to Natalie with all the messy details? I'm far more of a gentleman than that, Casey."
Casey snorted. "A gentleman and a scholar?"
"These days, I'm just a gentleman," Dan replied looking up to Alison. Alison nodded, and Dan stood up, fixing his collar in the mirror.
"So there was no bragging about your conquest?" Casey asked, finding the idea a little hard to believe.
"No bragging." Dan grinned and then added, "But there may have been some strong hinting."
"Ah."
***
When he walked around the corner, Casey saw that Natalie was sitting on their anchor desk. "So you've heard about the Flaxen Amazon?" she asked as he sat down at the anchor desk.
Dan was just a few steps behind him. "Casey knows about Claudia."
"I can't believe I gave you tips to making your smug college friend-"
"Michael," Casey supplied helpfully, and Natalie just kept talking.
"-jealous, and you ditched him because a blonde at a bar winked at you," Natalie finished firmly. "You are such a man, Dan Rydell."
"Um…thanks?" Danny replied, equal parts uncertain and amused. Casey sat back and decided to enjoy the 'Natalie-Dan Show.' There was no way he was getting in the middle of those two.
"It wasn't a compliment," Natalie replied snidely.
"Natalie," Dan said beseechingly, "I was just taking your advice to heart."
Natalie eyed him obviously not convinced but willing to hear him out. "Really?"
"The whole idea was to make him jealous about my life, right?" Dan asked, and Natalie nodded. "Things were going badly. He started talking about his new *car*."
"What type of car is it?"
"It's a Porsche, Natalie. The guy owns a Porsche!"
Natalie grimaced. "Not good."
"So, I thought on my feet. I showed him up the best way I could. By talking to a buxom blonde while he was in the bathroom and then leaving with her, giving him the casual 'you understand, right, buddy?' as I left."
"Fair enough," Natalie declared slowly and then narrowed her eyes at Dan. "Buxom?"
Dan smirked. "She was well-endowed."
"I thought you said she was leggy?"
"She was leggy and curvaceous." Dan made some wavy movement with his hands. He was either suggesting a 'curvaceous' woman, or outling an hourglass. "She had quite a body."
"She sounds suspiciously like Sally," Natalie said, and Casey thought she smelled something fishy.
Dan wasn't put out by her disbelief. "She was totally like Sally," Dan said with a cheeky grin. "Except she wasn't that freakishly tall and she wasn't, y'know… a total mandroid."
Casey spluttered and Natalie lifted a hand to her headset. "If you weren't wearing make-up right now, and about to go on camera, I'd kiss you on the cheek, Danny," Natalie said with a happy smile.
"Why?"
"Dana told me to."
"The mandroid comment?"
"You betcha," Natalie replied. "Have a good show, guys."
Casey shook his head, and called out to her as she was halfway across the floor. "Hey, Natalie?"
She turned around and yelled back. "Yeah?"
"Did you need to tell us anything?" Casey asked, gesturing at their scripts.
Natalie flapped a hand dismissively. "Nah. Just wanted to make sure you knew about Claudia."
"Okay, then," Casey said and turned back to his script. Then he looked at Danny. "Curvaceous?"
"It's an apt description."
"Yeah…I just would have thought you'd say 'curvy.'"
Dan grinned. "I'm full of surprises."
***
Natalie bounced over after they pulled out their earpieces. "That was a good show!"
Casey grinned at Dan and dropped his earpiece on the table. "It was indeed." The banter had sparkled, their throws had been smooth; the footage and the voice-overs had been seamlessly inserted. All in all, it had been a great show.
"I'm so relieved. We were expecting it to be bad and we though that maybe, just maybe, it would be okay," Natalie babbled. "But we really hadn't expected it to be good."
Dan looked slightly offended. "You were expecting it to be to be bad?"
"Well, the last show you guys did together died about halfway through, and then you ended up fighting. So, yeah. We were expecting it to be bad."
"We're professionals, Natalie. We know what we're doing," Dan said with an easy smile.
"Not only do we know what we're doing, we do it well," Casey pointed out, grinning at Dan. "We're a *team*."
"We're a team that *rocks*," Dan said happily and high-fived Casey.
Natalie laughed. "Whatever helps you sleep at night." Then, she stepped closer to Dan, and kissed him gently on the cheek. Dan smile.
"What was that for?" Casey whined when it was clear that there was only a kiss for Dan.
"Dana told me to."
"The mandroid comment," Dan supplied helpfully.
Natalie watched Casey closely. "You got a problem with that?"
Casey shook his head. "Heaven forbid I stand in the way of Dan getting kissed by a beautiful girl."
Natalie beamed. "Well, the show tonight was really good…" Natalie said as she walked over to Casey. "I suppose that warrants a kiss, too." Casey bowed his head dutifully and Natalie placed a soft kiss on his cheek. Her perfume smelled of vanilla and strawberries. It almost made him hungry.
Dan laughed at the self-satisfied expression on Casey's face. "You are so immature."
Casey shrugged and followed Dan over to wardrobe. When he looked beside him, he was surprised to see Natalie following them. She walked very quietly. "Anything we can help you with?"
"I want to talk to Dan about kissing beautiful girls," Natalie responded with a grin.
Dan snorted. "You looking for some pointers? Because, if so, I'm happy to give play-by-play instructions as long as I get to see the tape."
She rolled her eyes. "In your dreams, Dan."
Dan grinned. "And Jeremy's too, I suspect."
"I wanted to talk about Claudia."
"Should I step out?" Casey offered politely. The both frowned at him, and he wondered if the resident gossips had forgotten his was there. "Just offering."
"Don't worry about it Casey," Dan said.
Casey shrugged. "Okay." The three of them stopped walking, and stood to one side of the hallway.
"So…" Natalie paused dramatically. "Claudia?" She stretched the first syllable into it's own word.
"I am an open book." Dan spread his hands wide. "What do you want to know?"
"What's her last name?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
Dan shrugged sheepishly. "I was drunk, we barely flirted, and then she came back to my place. We didn't swap medical histories, Natalie."
Natalie's lips pursed. "She was easy?"
"Hey, those are outdated sexual stereotypes. I am all for a woman being sexually empowered." Dan grinned widely. "I appreciate a loose woman."
Natalie smirked. "You also appreciate the charity of strangers."
Casey sniggered and Dan stretched his neck back. "I really can't deny that."
Sighing, Natalie said, "Do you know anything about this girl?"
"I know that blonde isn't her natural hair color."
Natalie narrowed her eyes and once again, Casey got the impression that she didn't quite buy Dan's story. "What's her shoe size?"
"Thirty-nine," Dan replied without hesitation. "And she was wearing these pale pink stilettos. Let me tell you, she had very fine ankles."
"Stilettos? That really says everything, doesn't it?" Natalie asked wearily, and Dan shrugged.
Casey looked from one to the other, and wondered what he'd missed. "Not to sound like an idiot, but what do stilettos say?"
"They say fashionable," Dan said, gesturing enthusiastically. "A woman who's prepared to go through pain for the sake of looking great."
"They say sexually confident," Natalie added. "A woman who looks good and has few objections to a one-night stand."
"If Sally was shorter, she'd wear stilettos," Dan pronounced and Natalie nodded.
"Ah," Casey said, almost wishing he hadn't asked.
"They also say a woman prepared to date a TV celebrity for the said of appearing in publicity photos," Natalie said, looking at Dan.
"They do?" Casey asked, confused. "A pair of shoes says that?" Apparently Dan and Natalie could converse in clothing shorthand. Casey already spoke four languages; he felt no obligation to learn another.
"They do," Dan assured him.
The corners of Natalie's mouth turned down. "Will Claudia be appearing in future publicity photos?"
"I don't think so." Dan leaned back against the wall, and Casey tried to hide his curiosity. He had no idea what excuse Dan would use.
"Why not?" Natalie asked, a strong warning in her tone.
"She came back to my place because she lives with someone."
"She has an annoying roommate?"
"She has an annoying *boyfriend*," Dan replied. "I learned my lesson with Rebecca. No more attached women."
Natalie pushed a strand of hair away from her face, and then gave Dan's arm a quick squeeze. "I'm sorry, Dan."
When Dan smiled bravely, there was a little too much pain behind it for Casey to be comfortable. "Thanks."
"Just remember, she wore stilettos," Natalie said seriously. "She wasn't a big loss."
Dan pulled a face. "I think our priorities are vastly different."
"You'd prefer sex and lack of commitment?" Natalie spoke as if she were pronouncing a death sentence.
"I'm just saying it has its appeals."
"You know one of the appeals it doesn't have?" Natalie asked, and Casey blinked at her phrasing.
"What?"
"Scraping you up from the emotional mess she'll leave you in." Dan started to say something but Natalie kept talking. "Rebecca left, and you were a pile of emotional debris. And she wasn't even living with Steve Sisco, let alone sleeping with him."
Dan blinked slowly and Casey knew she'd hit a tender spot. Dan swallowed and said, "Good point."
"I don't like to bring out the big guns," Natalie said, resting a hand on Dan's shoulder. "But you need somebody to kick your ass once in a while. For your own good."
"Being cruel to be kind?" Danny joked, his eyes tense.
Natalie pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Only because I love you."
Dan's smile was soft. "Thanks, Nat."
"Anytime." She stepped back and looked down at her watch. "I've got to go. Dana will be looking for me." Saying that, she turned on her heel and started trotting back. Dan watched her leave with shadowed eyes.
"Hey!" Casey called out. "How come Dan got a second kiss?"
"For doing a good show," she called over her shoulder.
He turned to Dan, and was glad to see Dan had shaken off the hurt expression. "I think there's a certain favouritism going on in this office."
They started walking to wardrobe again, and Danny's reply was glib. "I think you're right."
Casey's brows rose. "You do?"
"Yeah," Dan said seriously. "I've been kissed by our assistant producer many times, but I don't think I've ever been kissed by our executive producer."
"Dana?"
"I think you're being favoured by the hierarchy," Dan stated. "And I'm being placated by a pretty girl."
"It's always worked before," Casey said as they walked into the changing area.
Dan laughed and moved over to where his jeans and t-shirt were hanging up. "I have an appreciation of aesthetics."
"I've never denied that," Casey said, pulling off his jacket and hanging it on the spare hangers provided. He was pretty sure Monica would come in and re-hang it, but intent had to count for something.
He turned to the wall, and started unbuttoning his shirt. It was the way they always dressed, not facing each other. Dan said he was overly modest, but the real reason was the way Dan put on his pants. For some reason, Dan had trouble balancing on one leg. Whenever he tried to pull his pants on standing up, he'd end up doing this awkward hopping dance, bouncing on one foot as he pulled the other leg up. It reduced Casey to giggles every time.
Casey pulled up his jeans, and was reaching for his polo shirt, when he though of something. "Spin the Bottle."
"What?" Dan's voice was muffled, and when Casey looked over his shoulder, he saw Dan pulling his t-shirt over his head.
"You kissed Dana when you played Spin the Bottle. Back in L.A. that time." If Casey remembered correctly, Dan had managed to kiss all the attractive single women playing.
"Doesn't count," Dan said with a wave of his hand.
Casey watched him doubtfully. "It doesn't?"
"Dana was your section producer. I didn't work for her." Dan started gathering his suit and hanging it up.
Casey shrugged and sat down. "So, I'm still the hierarchy's favourite?"
"Yes, you are."
Casey noticed that Dan was still in socks. He resigned himself to waiting for Dan to methodically loosen all the ties and then tighten them again. Dan had to be the only person Casey had ever met who treated sneakers respectfully. "Will you ever give Claudia a surname?"
Dan shook his head. "I can't."
"You can't?"
"Natalie would recognise it," Dan said, leaning over his laces.
"Why?"
"It'd be Schiffer."
Casey sniggered. "I've got to say, Danny…"
"Yeah?"
"She was quite a loss," Casey said and Dan grinned. "Although, I'm sure that Tim Jeffries will be relieved."
Dan looked up at him. "How do *you* know *that*?"
"I read."
"What? Tabloids?"
"I have to read something at the dentist's." Dan scoffed and moved onto the other shoe.
Casey shifted on the chair, bored. "Hey."
"Yeah?" Dan looked over the shoe in his hand.
"I was wondering, does Michael…" Casey paused, watching Dan's reactions. Dan's smile dimmed a little, but that was the only change. Casey figured he was allowed to keep talking. "Have a girlfriend?"
Dan blinked and then snorted. "No. Michael has no interest in the fairer sex."
"Okay."
Dan went back to tying his shoe, and then looked up, confused. "Why did you ask?"
"It was just the way you spoke about Claudia's boyfriend…"
Dan raised an eyebrow. "And you assumed Michael was living with a girlfriend?"
Casey shrugged. "Well, yeah."
"He doesn't live with his girlfriend, Casey." Dan finished tying his shoes and walked to the door.
Casey stood up, feeling incredibly dense. "Okay, I get it."
"He lives with his boyfriend," Dan said, walking out the door.
***
Dan hit his indicator, and pulled into the spot.
"You're parking?" Casey asked incredulously, blinking at Dan.
"It's a great spot," Dan replied assertively, turning off the engine.
"So you're parking?"
"It's a *great* spot."
"But you don't need to park. You're just dropping me home," Casey pointed out reasonably.
"But it's a great spot," Dan repeated. "It's right in front of your building. Why can't you see it's a great spot?"
Dan was right. It was a great spot. "I can see that it's a great spot."
"So?"
Casey blinked at him. "You don't need to park."
"But it's a great spot." Dan grinned at him. "It's driving karma, Casey."
Casey eyed him doubtfully. "Driving karma?"
"Driving karma. You don't drive in the city, so maybe you don't understand the rules, but trust me on this. It's driving karma."
Casey sighed. "And one of these rules is that you park, even though you don't need to, just because it's a great spot?"
"Yes." Dan smiled and nodded. "If the unseen forces of the road give you a great spot, you have to take it."
"'Unseen forces of the road'? You did just say that, didn't you, Danny?" Casey sniggered.
"If you snub the unseen forces, if you refuse to accept their gifts graciously, they will not gift you again," Dan said seriously.
Casey snorted. "Really?"
"Yep. If you don't accept the parking space in the way that it was meant, if you ignore their generosity, you will find yourself unable to change lanes when you need to. You will find yourself cut off at every turn, and hitting every red light on the way home. It's driving karma."
"I think it's more likely a sign of insanity," Casey said, and Dan glared at him. "But obviously, you're parking."
"I am."
"Do you want to come upstairs and grab a beer? While you show the unseen forces of the road that you appreciate their gifts?"
Dan nodded, and Casey led him up, wondering if he actually had any beer in the fridge. Luckily enough, he found he was down to two bottles.
"Lucky," Dan said when Casey mentioned it. "It's karma."
"You think your driving karma affected the amount of alcohol in my fridge?"
"Don't mock it, Casey." Dan opened his bottle, scowling at Casey. "Karma's a powerful force."
"Apparently it is," Casey said, walking over to the couch.
Dan sat down next to him and grinned. "What time is it?"
Casey glanced at the clock. "It's two-fifteen."
The amused grin stayed on Dan's face. "And we're drinking beers?"
Casey laughed, understanding where Dan was headed with this. "Yes, we are."
"You know what we should be watching?" Dan said, but Casey was already picking up the remote and switching the TV on.
"West Coast Update."
Dan nodded. "West Coast Update."
It was only natural that they'd feel a certain amount of healthy competition with the guys over at WCU. He and Dan weren't the kind of guys to rub it in to Peter and Paul that their show was… well, better. In every sense of the word. Instead, they kept it as a private joke, an easy drinking game. "Puns and clichés, one sip each," Casey said as WCU appeared on the screen.
"You take Peter, I'll take Paul," Dan said, gesturing at the screen with his bottle.
Casey nodded. It wasn't until the second commercial break that he realised the flaw in this plan. "There's a flaw in this plan."
Dan looked over at him. "We only have one beer each?"
"We only have one beer each."
Dan frowned at his bottle. It was more than half-empty already. "What's the fun of a drinking game if you can't get drunk?"
Casey switched off the screen. "Highly limited fun, Danny." Danny glanced across at him, but didn't comment on the awkward rhythm of 'highly limited'. "We need to do something."
"We should talk," Danny decided.
"Talk?"
"Yeah."
"Don't we do that all day?"
"Stop being onerous, Casey. Think of a subject."
Casey grinned. "I'd tell you about my day, but you were there. I'd ask you about what Jeremy said, but I already heard it from Jeremy." Dan nodded, totally unsurprised. "We could discuss the show, and how great it's been for the last three nights, but we were both there."
Danny laughed. "Are you trying to say we spend too much time together?"
"No." Casey shook his head. "I'm saying we're boring conversationalists."
"Well, if we have nothing to talk about, I'm going home," Dan said, but didn't stand up. "Do you think twenty minutes counts as graciously accepting a perfect car space?"
"Probably not," Casey replied, just to stir Dan up.
"Then I'm not leaving yet."
Casey didn't even try to hide his sniggers. "Okay."
Dan lasted just a few moments in silence, and then turned to Casey. "Are you sure there's nothing you want to ask me?"
"How come I have to ask you?"
"Because you're boring. I could come up with an interesting question, and then you'd just suck all of the interesting out of it," Dan said with a cheeky grin. "Then I'd just end up with a boring conversation. If I wanted to be bored, I'd sit here in silence."
"So this is an open forum to ask you a question?"
Dan waved a hand through the air. "Ask away."
Casey settled back on the couch as a question popped into his head. He was pretty sure that wasn't the type of question Dan was talking about. "Any question?"
"Any question." Dan sat up, leaning closer with a triumphant grin. "What is it, Casey? You know there's something you want to ask me."
"Why did you and Michael break up?" Dan just blinked at him, so Casey clarified, "In college. Why did you break up?"
Dan's eyebrows drew together. "I should probably go."
"You said any question," Casey pointed out childishly.
"Yeah, but…" Casey hadn't leeched the interest out of the conversation, but Dan seemed to have just leeched the fun out of it.
"But?"
"I've got no problems telling you," Dan said clearly, looking over at the blank TV screen. "But I think you'll have problems hearing it."
"Tell me," Casey said gently.
"Are you sure this isn't..." Dan trailed off uncertainly. "Are sure it's not going to weird you out?"
"I asked, didn't I?"
Dan scowled. "That doesn't mean you really want to hear the answer."
"I think I can handle it." Casey sighed.
Dan watched him carefully, leaning back on the couch. "Sure?"
"Well, I'm currently thinking of Michael as a Rebecca-alike who doesn't look as good in a dress, but I'm pretty sure." Casey shrugged.
Dan laughed, and his serious expression lightened. "Okay. I... I really liked him."
Casey snorted and put his legs up on the coffee table. "I'm assuming you must have."
"The thing you've got to get is that I *really* liked him." Dan looked down at his hands as he stressed the words. "I really liked him."
"You were serious about him?" Casey asked softly.
"Yeah." Dan swallowed. "I..."
"Really liked him," Casey finished for him and Dan nodded. "How long were you… seeing him?"
"A bit over five months."
"That's pretty long for you in college," Casey said, thinking aloud. "I can remember most girls didn't last more than a couple weeks."
"I really liked him." Dan spoke quietly, as if admitting a secret. Casey suddenly wondered if Dan had ever told anyone else. He didn't want to ask.
"So that would have been, what? Your Junior year?" Casey asked, and Dan nodded. That had also been the year that Dan had been reconsidering his study choices, debating over whether he should focus more on print journalism than television. Casey guessed it had been a year of bad decisions all around.
"Yeah," Dan said, and then fell silent, obviously lost in his own thoughts.
"You know," Casey said slowly, "I don't see the appeal."
"The appeal of what?"
"Of Michael."
"That's probably why you've never slept with him," Dan responded with a quick grin.
"Even if the sex was great, I couldn't put up with someone that..." Casey waved a hand vaguely, searching for the right word. "Smarmy."
"Smarmy?"
Casey nodded. "He's like Gordon, with the lawyer bits taken out." Dan's eyes bulged in surprise and Casey felt a little guilty. "Should I stop criticising your ex-" Casey had no idea what to call it, so he used Dan's word, "-flame now?"
Dan blinked and then said, "Feel free to dislike him."
"Good."
"Good?"
"Because I do. Dislike him," Casey clarified. "He's smarmy and slimy, he made you nervous at the bar and he kept you waiting. Then, he just railroaded you into leaving," Casey finished. "I didn't like him at all."
"Huh." Dan smirked. "Who'd have thought you'd have good taste in guys."
Casey laughed. "Great lot of help that is to me."
Dan looked up at the ceiling, obviously thinking about it. "On the other hand, you like Shane McArnold, and I have it on good authority that he's a twit."
"I *know*." Casey grimaced. "Jeremy has told me many, many times."
"He's right."
"Can we leave Shane McArnold's twit-status alone?"
"Sure." Dan nodded. "After all, I wasn't the one bragging about him asking me out."
Casey groaned. Danny wasn't going to let him forget that, and Danny hadn't even been there at the time. "Let's go back to the topic of Michael's ex-status."
"I don't know, Casey. I'm having more fun with Shane McArnold's twit-status."
Casey let his head fall back on the couch. "I still think Michael's a heel."
"He's a *heel*," Danny repeated, laughing too hard for his words to be easily heard. "Did you actually just call some guy a 'heel?'
"I could have called him a cad, or a knave, or a scoundrel." Casey had to fight to keep a straight face. "I thought heel was more appropriate."
"Why didn't you go all the way to dirty, rotten rascal?" Dan asked, still sniggering.
"That would have been too much," Casey replied seriously, and Dan cracked up. When Danny stopped laughing, Casey continued. "I still don't see the appeal. He seems so selfish."
"Selfish?"
Casey waved a hand in the air. "Self-interested. Self-oriented. Self-obsessed. Like if it wasn't about him, he wouldn't care." For a second he wondered if he was channelling Dan. He was pretty sure Dan had said the same thing about Lisa, once upon a time.
Dan played with his beer bottle. "That *was* the appeal, Casey."
"What?"
"That was the appeal," Dan repeated quietly. "I wasn't… I wasn't as grounded in college. Hell, you were there. You know that."
"Dan-" Casey started to defend Dan, but Dan interrupted him.
"I'm not saying I was a bad student, I just… I couldn't stand being alone. I couldn't stand my own thoughts, because they'd always end up back home." Dan swallowed, and Casey knew what he meant. "The best solution was just to keep busy. To always be doing something."
Casey nodded. "Yeah, I remember."
"I had to be doing something because… I couldn't stand being around other people, either. I'd go to parties, and I'd have to leave early, have to slip out the back, just to get away from the crowds."
Casey hadn't noticed that, he'd just thought that Dan was a busy student. "So you were better one-on-one?"
"Not really." Dan shrugged uncomfortably, turning the bottle in his hands. "Most people made me uncomfortable. I just… couldn't relax. I kept thinking that if I relaxed, I'd say something, I'd let something slip about Sam, and then… Then I'd have to tell them the whole story."
"You told me the whole story," Casey said gently.
"Yeah, but… you understood. I mean, you never…" Dan said slowly, "You never blamed me for it. You never turned around and said it was my fault."
Casey spoke firmly. "No-one would, Dan."
Dan opened his mouth and closed it again. "At the time, back then, it felt like it."
"They wouldn't blame you for it, Dan." Casey was vaguely horrified at the idea, at the thought of Danny in college, certain that it was his fault. He tried very, very hard not to blame Jacob Rydell for it.
Dan's jaw was tense. "Most people, I wasn't comfortable around them. I wasn't comfortable around most of the people I slept with."
"But you were comfortable around Michael?" Casey thought that making Danny comfortable might be enough to redeem Michael. Casey could forgive selfishness and sliminess, if he made Danny feel better.
"Yeah." Dan breathed deeply, and almost smiled. "He didn't care, you know?"
"Ah."
"He was selfish and self-centred, but he really didn't care that much about other people, or about their pasts. He didn't care what I'd been like back in high school, and he really didn't want to know. He was much more focused on who you were now, how you affected his life." Dan's voice was oddly fond.
Casey wasn't sure that was a good thing. "Did you tell him about Sam?"
Dan nodded. "Yeah. I was pretty drunk, and he was in the middle of studying. He literally just shrugged, said 'Whatever.' and put me to bed."
"Didn't he… say anything about it?" Casey asked, concerned. It seemed wrong that someone should hear that and just not react, although Casey himself… Well, when Dan had told him, bucked up by Dutch courage, Casey had been fairly speechless. He hadn't known what to say. But a few days later he'd brought it up again and tried to reassure the self-doubt in Dan's dark eyes. He wasn't sure if he'd succeeded, but he'd tried.
"He never brought it up again." Dan grinned tightly, but his eyes looked relieved. "Neither did I."
"So that was the perfect college relationship? Just not talking about it?" Casey felt hypocritical, but couldn't help the sarcasm in his tone. He was wrong. He couldn't forgive Michael's sleazy selfishness.
"At the time, I wasn't very reliable myself. I'd get… I'd just get stuck. I had to leave parties, or I couldn't go. Not for any real reason, just because I *couldn't*. I was a bad boyfriend."
"So you were a bad boyfriend." Casey shrugged. "Doesn't mean that you should have to put up with someone that selfish."
"He was motivated and a bad time-keeper. He'd miss things and just not show up. And later explain that he got caught up studying, or whatever." Dan took another swallow of beer. "He was too self-involved to *mind* that I was a bad boyfriend. It was a good match."
"And you really liked him?" Casey asked dryly.
Dan nodded. "He was… he was attainable, Casey. He knew my faults, and he knew my history, and he didn't care. He was gorgeous, and he was intelligent and confident. He was interesting and the sex was…" Dan trailed off with a wary look towards Casey.
"Go ahead," Casey said, and really hoped Dan didn't share anything too detailed.
"The sex was great," Dan finished with a grin. "I was really happy."
"Yeah?" Casey asked, although one look at Dan's wistful smile proved he was telling the truth.
"I even considered changing majors."
"That was related to Michael?" Dan nodded. "You were waxing poetic about the appeals of print journalism, of reporting on politics and current events, of shaping the opinion of the nation. How the hell did that relate to Michael?"
"I was thinking of getting out of sports journalism."
Casey knew there was a link he just wasn't getting. "And?"
"And falling in love with a guy is not something that's generally accepted in the sporting professions, Casey."
"Oh." Casey blinked. It was something that you just knew. If you were in sports, you were a straight, manly guy. You didn't go home at night to another guy in your bed. "But you love your job."
Dan rolled his eyes. "Well, duh."
"But you were going to give that up?" Casey asked. For some sleazy, slimy guy who obviously just didn't care, Dan was going to give up Sports Night? It made no sense.
"I didn't know how much I'd love my job. Back then, it was just lots of studying, and thinking that this thing with Michael might end up permanent."
"Would you give it up now?"
"For Michael?"
Casey nodded, suddenly needing to know. "For Michael."
"No." Dan's reply was quick.
"Why not?"
"Because now I know other things."
"What things?" Casey prompted.
"I know that I love Sports Night. I know that I have a great job, and great co-workers, and that I'm a pretty lucky guy to have a job like that."
"Huh."
Dan leaned back on the couch, and added, "I also know about Michael, too."
When Casey looked over, Dan was frowning. "Why did you break up with him?"
"He cheated." Dan's tone was low and hurt.
"He slept with someone else?"
"He slept with quite a few 'someone else's."
Casey sat up. "Yeah?"
"He went through a small crowd," Dan said bitterly. "Apparently, he just wasn't a 'one person guy'," Dan said, making quotation marks in the air with his fingers.
Casey felt the scowl form on his face. "Really?"
"In his defence, he never said he was. I just assumed."
"That doesn't defend him," Casey said tightly.
"You know the worse thing about it?" Dan asked, turning to Casey. "It wasn't just that I felt stupid for taking him seriously, when it was obviously just a bit of fun. It was the number of friends who approached me after we broke up and said that it was good that I wasn't seeing Michael anymore, since they'd heard he slept with so-and-so at this or that party. It seemed like everyone knew except me." Dan looked at him but Casey didn't know what to say. "I felt like such an idiot."
The silence stretched on; Dan staring at his bottle, and Casey trying to figure out what to say. Then, Dan quietly said, "And I just helped him do it to someone else."
"Danny," Casey said softly.
"He mentioned his boyfriend over dinner, and then when he asked me up for a nightcap, I let it happen. I knew what I was doing, Casey, and I let it happen anyway."
"Why?" Casey asked, and then wondered if that was just being cruel. He hadn't meant to.
"Because I missed him." Dan swallowed and set his empty bottle on the coffee table. "I missed that feeling that everything would be fine, just because he said so. And he's still a very attractive man."
"Oh," Casey said, and Dan nodded. "I'm sorry, Danny."
"Sorry you asked?" Dan guessed with a wry grin.
"Sorry he hurt you," Casey replied earnestly.
Dan nodded again, but didn't reply. Instead, he pushed himself off the couch and stood up. "I think that's long enough to graciously accept a gift."
"Probably," Casey said, and then yawned.
Dan grinned. "I'll see myself out."
Casey dragged himself off the couch, wondering when he'd got this tired. "Goodnight, Dan."
"See you tomorrow."
***
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2004-04-25 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-25 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-25 10:28 pm (UTC)(Hugs Casey)
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Date: 2004-04-25 10:33 pm (UTC)Especially not slimy, sleazy exes.
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Date: 2004-04-26 03:39 am (UTC)G
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Date: 2004-04-26 06:20 am (UTC)I haven't had time to actually read this WIP yet (I will, I swear) but I skimmed for spanish and
Un tequila, pour favor? should be 'Un tequila, por favor?' and technically an upside down quesiton mark at the start but I can't find one for the life of me. (Way to punctuate a sentence. Go me!) So, yeah, pretty darn close.
Coooool.
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Date: 2004-04-26 01:59 pm (UTC)Is this something else he picked up in 'Nam? Bless.
Lovely banter between the boys, as ever, and the story's progressing really well, and quite heart-wrenchingly in places. Poor Danny, he's such a wreck. Of course, this is why I love him, but nonetheless, poor Danny.
Hope that Natalie never finds out that Dan told her all those lies or it won't be his trousers he's missing next time, it'll be his cojones. (Another Spanish word for you.)
'Mandroid' was a really rubbish 70s science fiction film. I think.
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Date: 2004-04-26 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-26 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-26 07:44 pm (UTC)Just as well that I posted the next bit and had to link to the last part.
Dan held up three fingers, a gesture that meant 'I'm getting my make-up done, as soon as I can move my face again, I'll reply.' It was a surprisingly useful gesture to know.
Is this something else he picked up in 'Nam? Bless.
*sniggers* The boy picked up a lot of useful information in 'Nam. (On the other hand, should I even ask why he'd have people putting makeup on him in 'Nam...?)
Lovely banter between the boys, as ever, and the story's progressing really well, and quite heart-wrenchingly in places.
Thank you! *beams* Oddly enough, now that I've stopped worrying about hte word count, or trying to make them sleep together, I'm having more fun just writing as much as I write.
Poor Danny, he's such a wreck. Of course, this is why I love him, but nonetheless, poor Danny.
Danny does 'woobie' really well. And emotionally masochistic college-Dan is a natural born woobie. *hugs Danny*
Hope that Natalie never finds out that Dan told her all those lies or it won't be his trousers he's missing next time, it'll be his cojones. (Another Spanish word for you.)
Hee! *scribbles word down for future use* And, no, I'm not planning on Natalie ever finding out. (Hey, she had her chance as confidante, and she let it all slip playing drinking games. I think Danny has every reason not to let her in on this stuff.)
'Mandroid' was a really rubbish 70s science fiction film. I think.
It's also used in Punk and Sabine's SN fic, Junk Novels (http://home.teleport.com/~punkm/junk.txt):
Dan licked his fingers. "Huh. I just hadn't expected that. Last I checked you were straight. Is it me, or are these pretzels inordinately salty?"
"Last you checked?"
"Dude, Sally Sasser, who, I will now take the time to tell you, is a freakishly tall mandroid and not actually sexy at all, not even a 'I fear for my life' sort of sexiness." Dan nodded.
I knew I didn't come up with the phrase myself, but I didn't realise I'd stolen the "freakishly tall" line from them as well. I'm tossing up as to whether I need to think of an original insult, or just drop them a quick email and ask to borrow that perfect description. *shrugs*
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Date: 2004-04-26 09:22 pm (UTC)Hee!
"They wouldn't blame you for it, Dan." Casey was vaguely horrified at the idea, at the thought of Danny in college, certain that it was his fault. He tried very, very hard not to blame Jacob Rydell for it.
Awww, Danny...
Those are my two primary reactions to this awesome piece - laughter at your excellent recreations of the boys' banter, and sympathy for our boy Dan. Protective!Casey is lovely too.
Poor Danny, he's such a wreck. Of course, this is why I love him, but nonetheless, poor Danny.
Danny does 'woobie' really well. And emotionally masochistic college-Dan is a natural born woobie. *hugs Danny*
Cheers to you both; I totally agree. Woobie! Hee. Great word!
I'm off to read part five! Huzzah, can't wait! Great stuff. Thanks so much.
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Date: 2004-04-26 09:52 pm (UTC)Oddly enough, I received your comment for part four before your comment to part five. *blinks at hotmail* There is something funny afoot, I tell you.
It reduced Casey to giggles every time.
Hee!
The idea of it makes me giggle. *g* And I think that Casey, ex-gymnast that he is, would just find it incredible that someone would have trouble balancing on one foot (say, like me *g*).
Those are my two primary reactions to this awesome piece - laughter at your excellent recreations of the boys' banter, and sympathy for our boy Dan. Protective!Casey is lovely too.
Thank you! In that case, I'm doing it right, because those are my two reactions to the show. Laughing at the dialogue, and wanting to just hug the characters and protect them.
Cheers to you both; I totally agree. Woobie! Hee. Great word!
I have no idea which fandom it started in, but woobie is an excellent term for it.
Thank for commenting. I really appreciated the way that you quoted the phrases that worked for you. *beams*