Steve snorted at the first one. A little slow, uncertainly testing, when he let his fingers drift back into Danny's hair.
Follow, slowly, in the same direction he'd run them once already. Dragging them slowly through Danny's utterly messed up hair, still a little stuck from product all pulled apart, except here and there. Causing Steve to stop halfway through, twisting a piece with too much between his pointer finger and thumb, loosening the grip of adhesive holding it all together.
He's doing that when Danny looks at him, and maybe it's excuse enough not to drop his eyes and catch him. Like he can actually see anything more than the wisp of a shadow of that hair between his fingers as he's releasing it. Anything more than all the rest of the darkness. "That's probably for the best."
Even rhetorical, it meant less questions if people were taking things for granted. Even if the idea people were imagining Danny with some mystery woman still made Steve's skin snap like it tightened on his muscles. Not now. But in the occasional mention in person. That still came even though it had become pretty widely settled Steve was dead set that if Danny didn't want to talk about it, then he was following his partners lead.
Which might have been just as much lie as truth. It was complicated.
But convenient, too.
It didn't hurt that no one expected Steve to have anyone stashed anywhere.
Not after the last two years. Certainly not Danny. Like he'd just harped on. He wasn't like that. He didn't have the time or drive or need or whatever it was that drove people. That wasn't simply duty. It wasn't something people expected of him. There wasn't a single reason for there to be. But something about that, the reaffirming from a completely different direction of his earlier thought, makes him slide his fingers.
A little wider against Danny's head, a little firmer drag of finger tips against his scalp. Like, he didn't even know, some incredibly stupid proof that he was here. Still here. Right now in this moment. No matter how much everything said he shouldn't be, or wouldn't be long.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2012-12-12 01:52 am (UTC)Follow, slowly, in the same direction he'd run them once already. Dragging them slowly through Danny's utterly messed up hair, still a little stuck from product all pulled apart, except here and there. Causing Steve to stop halfway through, twisting a piece with too much between his pointer finger and thumb, loosening the grip of adhesive holding it all together.
He's doing that when Danny looks at him, and maybe it's excuse enough not to drop his eyes and catch him. Like he can actually see anything more than the wisp of a shadow of that hair between his fingers as he's releasing it. Anything more than all the rest of the darkness. "That's probably for the best."
Even rhetorical, it meant less questions if people were taking things for granted. Even if the idea people were imagining Danny with some mystery woman still made Steve's skin snap like it tightened on his muscles. Not now. But in the occasional mention in person. That still came even though it had become pretty widely settled Steve was dead set that if Danny didn't want to talk about it, then he was following his partners lead.
Which might have been just as much lie as truth. It was complicated.
But convenient, too.
It didn't hurt that no one expected Steve to have anyone stashed anywhere.
Not after the last two years. Certainly not Danny. Like he'd just harped on. He wasn't like that. He didn't have the time or drive or need or whatever it was that drove people. That wasn't simply duty. It wasn't something people expected of him. There wasn't a single reason for there to be. But something about that, the reaffirming from a completely different direction of his earlier thought, makes him slide his fingers.
A little wider against Danny's head, a little firmer drag of finger tips against his scalp. Like, he didn't even know, some incredibly stupid proof that he was here. Still here. Right now in this moment. No matter how much everything said he shouldn't be, or wouldn't be long.