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laniew1Part 5 of my AU Martin/Danny.
Read these first or you might be a little lost:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
There is going to be one more short chapter to this, Martin’s insisting on sex and Danny’s not totally opposed to the idea. I’ve tried explaining that I want to keep the rating at PG and they can have all the sex they want in the challenge fic but I don’t think that they believe me.
Or rather Danny believes me and Martin’s kind of wary. I think that’s only because I’m currently torturing him in my challenge fic and he doesn’t like that.
Feedback is always welcome.
SERIES: At First Glance
RATING: PG (for language)
PAIRING: Danny/Martin
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing at all, least of all those contained within.
At First Glance – Part 5
“It’s totally not my fault,” Jessie announced from the doorway. Martin glanced up, knowing that confusion was on his face. Knowing he didn’t care.
It had been a beautiful morning.
“Okay,” he returned cautiously. Just because he was in a good mood was no reason to give Jessie an out if he really should be mad at her.
“I had no idea he was coming into town,” Jessie perched on a chair, nowhere near her normal pose, obviously ready to take flight if Martin tried to kill her. She could run faster than him, but he was more determined and he knew where she lived.
“If I’d known I would have told you, you know that,” she wouldn’t meet his eyes, a classic avoidance technique that he was sure she’d picked up from her father; he unfortunately had learned how to lie while meeting the other person’s eyes.
Although nine times out of ten they could tell he was lying because he blushed, his father had never managed to curb him of that.
And then he realized who exactly Jessie was speaking of and his good mood vanished in a split second, he scowled and he wondered if this was one of those days that he should have used one of his six thousand vacation days and fled town. It might not even have been that hard to get Danny to go with him.
“Where is he?” Martin lowered his voice and didn’t directly name him. His father was like the devil, or the psychotic crazy guy that Michael Keaton had played, only instead of having to say his name three times you only had to say it once and lo and behold he appeared.
Besides there was no sense in tempting the gods too much, with his luck he was in the waiting room harassing Connie and he was going to end up owing her a few vacation days.
“He stopped by the Missing Persons Office,” Jessie said in a hushed voice, valiantly staring at Martin’s computer screen.
Martin choked and wondered what an actual heart attack felt like.
“Please tell me you’re joking, please tell me that this is some strange belated April Fools joke that you concocted to see if I could actually stroke out in my office.”
“Sorry?”
Martin scrubbed at his face, loosened his tie because it felt like it was suffocating him and then lunged for the phone.
Danny. Oh god Danny. He was going to never speak to him again. He was going to realize that Martin had the family from hell and decide that he didn’t want to be part of that.
He was desperately punching in the numbers ignoring the fact that he had Danny’s work number memorized already when Connie appeared in his doorway.
“Martin…”
“Just a second…” Martin cursed when Danny’s line started buzzing a busy signal. Who the hell was he on the phone with when Martin wanted to warn him that his father was wandering around town unsupervised.
“Danny’s on line one,” Connie stated, turning on her heel and vanishing back to her desk her job done.
“Well I’ll just go…” Jessie popped to her feet, waved her hands and bolted as well.
Martin stared at the blinking light, trying to determine what Danny’s frame of mind was on the other end. Realized that he couldn’t actually determine that from the beeping of the little red light and picked up the receiver. Start with an apology, his brain helpfully supplied and he told it to shut up.
“Danny? I’m sorry,” he rushed on. Get the apology out of the way first. Please don’t be angry, I would have warned you and we could have fled the country, he didn’t say that of course. He thought it and hoped Danny could read it in his voice.
“Your father paid me a visit this morning,” Danny’s voice was calm, cool, collected. This morning? That was hours ago… had Danny been fuming silently waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell Martin that it wasn’t worth it.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, because he really had no idea what to say… not without knowing what exactly his father had said and oh god he wouldn’t try to buy Danny off would he? “He didn’t offer you money did he?” and he couldn’t quite hide the alarm in his voice.
“No, I still can't decide if I should be insulted or not. And then I realized that your father probably just shot the guys you dated that he didn’t like so…”
“My father has never shot anybody that I’ve dated,” Martin muttered. Although there had been that one young man that his sister had brought home when she was going through her short lived rebellious phase. The one with the tattoos and piercings in very interesting places. His father hadn’t actually shot him though, he’d pulled his gun and waved it around but there had been no actual discharging of his weapon.
His mother had taken it away from him after the police came.
Besides there had been extenuating circumstances and there had actually been a warrant out for that guys arrest so nobody had questioned that fact too closely.
It that had been the glorious end of his sisters’ rebellious phase. She’d met and married Christopher within six months of that whole fiasco.
“That you know about anyway, he’s probably got a plot already picked out for me if I screw up,” Danny laughed.
“Well, you know… I’m sorry?”
“You already said that Martin,” Danny’s voice was amused now and Martin felt some of his tension dissipate.
“I know… I just… I didn’t know he was here. I would have told you, warned you if I’d known,” he said softly, wishing someone had closed the door on their way out. He just knew that Jessie and Connie, maybe even Donald were hovering just out of sight listening to every word. He wondered if Danny would be able to understand him if he started talking in Pig Latin.
“Yeah I sort of got the impression that this was his check out the new boyfriend before he knows to be on the best behavior thing,” Danny’s voice was still amused and Martin relaxed even more. If he could rush the introduction to his sister Danny might even think his family was semi-normal.
“He can be kind of over protective,” Martin winced. Because massive understatement where his father was concerned for about the last ten years.
“Yeah I think I kind of got that.”
“He didn’t always used to be like this,” Martin offered. “When I was a kid I think it used to surprise him when he came home and realized that he had children.”
It had only been after his mothers death that it had seemingly sunk in to Victor’s head that he had two children that he was now responsible for. Even though they’d neither one been actual children for a few years by that point it hadn’t mattered; Victor had taken to fatherhood like it like it was something he been getting a failing grade on and was determined to redeem himself.
And then Kyle had died and Martin had kind of fallen apart and his father had decided that Martin not only needed to be taken care of, now he needed to be protected as well.
“Martin you’re thinking to much, take a deep breath and relax,” Danny advised. “Are we still on for tonight?”
“Tonight?” Martin’s brow furrowed as he tried to remember what their plans were. “Dinner at my place? You’ll pick up the movie?”
“Good boy,” and there was that low purr that drove Martin insane and if he could have children he would have been offering Danny every single one of them for what that purr promised.
“Martin?” Martin’s eyes widened, his breath hitched, was his father trying to drive him insane?
“Was that?” he could hear Danny querying on the other end.
“Good you’re here,” Victor appeared in the doorway, talk and regal and Martin knew that his father had to be the mailman or something because he could never pull off that forbidding ‘you’re going to do what I say no questions asked’ look if his life depended on it. “I’m taking you out for a late lunch.”
“Um…” Martin glanced down at the watch that he’d found in the bathroom at work that morning and frowned. “It’s almost three.”
“That’s why they call it a late lunch,” Victor smiled and Martin wondered if he should be fearing for his life. Because his ‘you’re going to do what I say no questions asked’ look had morphed into his ‘this is going to hurt you a lot more than its going to hurt me and I’m going to enjoy it’ look. “If that’s your Danny tell him we’ll be down in about ten minutes.”
Martin’s eyebrows flew up and he had a split second to wonder how much of an idiot he looked like before he latched onto the end of that statement and then he could hear Danny clearing his throat on the other end of the phone.
“Yeah, right, I uh did call for a reason… your father; he wants to take us out to lunch.”
******************************************************************************
“You get along with my father,” he’d been repeating it for a while; he probably sounded like an idiot. He’d been saying it so much that Danny had got to the point where he didn’t even agree with him anymore, just rubbed his back and mumbled something that Martin couldn’t understand under his breath.
Probably berating himself for dating such a nutcase.
But Danny… got along with his father. It was a sign of the apocalypse he was sure. Because Danny wasn’t the son of a Senator, or the son of a diplomat or the son of anyone in a position of power. He had no breeding, no family of name, he had nothing that had been part of his fathers criteria for a significant other for his son.
But his father liked him, so unless his father wanted Danny for himself. He shuddered in revulsion at the image that flashed in his mind of Danny and his dad and now he needed to throw up and scrub his brain clean to get rid of that image.
Danny got along with his father.
Half of his friends, just friends hadn’t even gotten along with his father. Jessie didn’t get along with his father that well, Martin didn’t even get along that well with him.
Maybe his father wanted to adopt Danny?
No, Martin frowned, as he replayed the lunch, the long, late lunch from hell in his mind. Victor had been talking Danny up, listing his accomplishments like Danny was some prize stud that he was trying to sell him.
Like he needed to be sold on Danny. He was ready to buy, and he’d even fucking tattoo him ‘Martin’s Property’ if it was required.
Danny got along with his father.
And he’d been so distracted by that fact that he hadn’t even really paid attention to anything else. He sure as hell didn’t know what he’d actually ate.
Danny’s hand was gentle against his back and he just seemed to be propelling Martin to where he thought Martin should be.
They hadn’t let him go back to his office, he’d wanted to especially after the freakiness of watching Victor and Danny gang up on him, both telling him that work would be there tomorrow and no one’s really expecting you back anyway.
It made him wonder exactly what his father had said to Jessie when he’d ducked into her office.
Danny had his keys, unlocking the door and gently pushing him into his apartment. Shutting the door behind them, shrugging out of his coat and turning on lights as he went. In a very short period of time Danny had made himself at home in Martin’s apartment.
“Do you want something to drink?” Danny called from the kitchen and Martin dragged a hand through his hair.
Danny could probably list everything in his fridge and cupboards but still was balking on the sex issue. There was logic there that he didn’t understand.
Danny reappeared with a bottled water in each hand, set them on the coffee table when Martin made no move to take one and then did his graceful flop down onto the sofa. Martin wanted to move like Danny some day. Everything graceful even when it shouldn’t have been.
And now he was looking up at Martin with that bemused expression that he never seemed to lose around him.
“Are we ever having sex?” he blurted it out, and felt his face turn red.
Danny for his part just looked at him, one eyebrow arching and asked, “Don’t you think it’s a little soon?”
“We’ve been dating for a month,” Martin grumbled petulantly, and they had been if he counted the blind date as their first and ignored the fact that it had taken two weeks for him to call between the first and the second.
“And that’s not a little quick?”
“No.”
Martin waited and Danny stared at him, Martin shifted on his feet, Danny stared at him.
“Its just I’d slept with Kyle three dates in and how do we even know we’re, you know, compatible?”
“I don’t think compatibility is going to be an issue, do you?” Danny rolled his eyes.
“Well, no,” Martin allowed.
“Besides isn’t it worth it to take it slow?”
Martin shrugged, because yeah, it was. But he was almost positive that the built up sexual tension was going to kill him.
“Martin…” Danny sighed and leaned forward. Elbows braced on his knees, his eyes soft. “I like you…” and oh god here came the brush off. The reason that Danny and his father had gotten along was because his father had known that Danny was going to dump him.
“Christ someone did a number on your self-esteem didn’t they?” Danny was shaking his head and pushing himself to his feet. Crossing the floor to where Martin was awkwardly shifting again, touching his face softly.
Martin leaned into the touch and hoped Danny didn’t notice, knew from the smirk that he had.
“People like you,” Martin shrugged, managing to not dislodge Danny’s hand cupping his cheek. “They don’t normally look at guys like me.”
“It’s because everyone else is blind,” Danny stated like it was the most logical explanation. “And I’ve seen pictures of Kyle so I know that’s totally wrong.”
“Kyle was like me.”
“What, an idiot?” Danny grinned.
“I’m not an idiot.”
“Of course not,” Danny soothed, the grin on his face not lending any credibility to it. “Martin you’re gorgeous. Anyone in their right mind would be happy to be seen with you, to be with you and trust me I know. We’re taking things slow.”
“There’s slow and then there’s non-existent.”
“We’re taking things slow,” Danny continued as if Martin hadn’t even said a word. “Because we’re going to do this right the first time.”
Martin smiled at him. “My father threatened you didn’t he.” Not a question, he knew his father well enough to know what had probably been said.
“For a guy with a desk job your fathers a scary man.”
“You should have grown up with him.”
******************************************************************************
Read these first or you might be a little lost:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
There is going to be one more short chapter to this, Martin’s insisting on sex and Danny’s not totally opposed to the idea. I’ve tried explaining that I want to keep the rating at PG and they can have all the sex they want in the challenge fic but I don’t think that they believe me.
Or rather Danny believes me and Martin’s kind of wary. I think that’s only because I’m currently torturing him in my challenge fic and he doesn’t like that.
Feedback is always welcome.
SERIES: At First Glance
RATING: PG (for language)
PAIRING: Danny/Martin
Author: Melanie
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing at all, least of all those contained within.
At First Glance – Part 5
“It’s totally not my fault,” Jessie announced from the doorway. Martin glanced up, knowing that confusion was on his face. Knowing he didn’t care.
It had been a beautiful morning.
“Okay,” he returned cautiously. Just because he was in a good mood was no reason to give Jessie an out if he really should be mad at her.
“I had no idea he was coming into town,” Jessie perched on a chair, nowhere near her normal pose, obviously ready to take flight if Martin tried to kill her. She could run faster than him, but he was more determined and he knew where she lived.
“If I’d known I would have told you, you know that,” she wouldn’t meet his eyes, a classic avoidance technique that he was sure she’d picked up from her father; he unfortunately had learned how to lie while meeting the other person’s eyes.
Although nine times out of ten they could tell he was lying because he blushed, his father had never managed to curb him of that.
And then he realized who exactly Jessie was speaking of and his good mood vanished in a split second, he scowled and he wondered if this was one of those days that he should have used one of his six thousand vacation days and fled town. It might not even have been that hard to get Danny to go with him.
“Where is he?” Martin lowered his voice and didn’t directly name him. His father was like the devil, or the psychotic crazy guy that Michael Keaton had played, only instead of having to say his name three times you only had to say it once and lo and behold he appeared.
Besides there was no sense in tempting the gods too much, with his luck he was in the waiting room harassing Connie and he was going to end up owing her a few vacation days.
“He stopped by the Missing Persons Office,” Jessie said in a hushed voice, valiantly staring at Martin’s computer screen.
Martin choked and wondered what an actual heart attack felt like.
“Please tell me you’re joking, please tell me that this is some strange belated April Fools joke that you concocted to see if I could actually stroke out in my office.”
“Sorry?”
Martin scrubbed at his face, loosened his tie because it felt like it was suffocating him and then lunged for the phone.
Danny. Oh god Danny. He was going to never speak to him again. He was going to realize that Martin had the family from hell and decide that he didn’t want to be part of that.
He was desperately punching in the numbers ignoring the fact that he had Danny’s work number memorized already when Connie appeared in his doorway.
“Martin…”
“Just a second…” Martin cursed when Danny’s line started buzzing a busy signal. Who the hell was he on the phone with when Martin wanted to warn him that his father was wandering around town unsupervised.
“Danny’s on line one,” Connie stated, turning on her heel and vanishing back to her desk her job done.
“Well I’ll just go…” Jessie popped to her feet, waved her hands and bolted as well.
Martin stared at the blinking light, trying to determine what Danny’s frame of mind was on the other end. Realized that he couldn’t actually determine that from the beeping of the little red light and picked up the receiver. Start with an apology, his brain helpfully supplied and he told it to shut up.
“Danny? I’m sorry,” he rushed on. Get the apology out of the way first. Please don’t be angry, I would have warned you and we could have fled the country, he didn’t say that of course. He thought it and hoped Danny could read it in his voice.
“Your father paid me a visit this morning,” Danny’s voice was calm, cool, collected. This morning? That was hours ago… had Danny been fuming silently waiting for the perfect opportunity to tell Martin that it wasn’t worth it.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, because he really had no idea what to say… not without knowing what exactly his father had said and oh god he wouldn’t try to buy Danny off would he? “He didn’t offer you money did he?” and he couldn’t quite hide the alarm in his voice.
“No, I still can't decide if I should be insulted or not. And then I realized that your father probably just shot the guys you dated that he didn’t like so…”
“My father has never shot anybody that I’ve dated,” Martin muttered. Although there had been that one young man that his sister had brought home when she was going through her short lived rebellious phase. The one with the tattoos and piercings in very interesting places. His father hadn’t actually shot him though, he’d pulled his gun and waved it around but there had been no actual discharging of his weapon.
His mother had taken it away from him after the police came.
Besides there had been extenuating circumstances and there had actually been a warrant out for that guys arrest so nobody had questioned that fact too closely.
It that had been the glorious end of his sisters’ rebellious phase. She’d met and married Christopher within six months of that whole fiasco.
“That you know about anyway, he’s probably got a plot already picked out for me if I screw up,” Danny laughed.
“Well, you know… I’m sorry?”
“You already said that Martin,” Danny’s voice was amused now and Martin felt some of his tension dissipate.
“I know… I just… I didn’t know he was here. I would have told you, warned you if I’d known,” he said softly, wishing someone had closed the door on their way out. He just knew that Jessie and Connie, maybe even Donald were hovering just out of sight listening to every word. He wondered if Danny would be able to understand him if he started talking in Pig Latin.
“Yeah I sort of got the impression that this was his check out the new boyfriend before he knows to be on the best behavior thing,” Danny’s voice was still amused and Martin relaxed even more. If he could rush the introduction to his sister Danny might even think his family was semi-normal.
“He can be kind of over protective,” Martin winced. Because massive understatement where his father was concerned for about the last ten years.
“Yeah I think I kind of got that.”
“He didn’t always used to be like this,” Martin offered. “When I was a kid I think it used to surprise him when he came home and realized that he had children.”
It had only been after his mothers death that it had seemingly sunk in to Victor’s head that he had two children that he was now responsible for. Even though they’d neither one been actual children for a few years by that point it hadn’t mattered; Victor had taken to fatherhood like it like it was something he been getting a failing grade on and was determined to redeem himself.
And then Kyle had died and Martin had kind of fallen apart and his father had decided that Martin not only needed to be taken care of, now he needed to be protected as well.
“Martin you’re thinking to much, take a deep breath and relax,” Danny advised. “Are we still on for tonight?”
“Tonight?” Martin’s brow furrowed as he tried to remember what their plans were. “Dinner at my place? You’ll pick up the movie?”
“Good boy,” and there was that low purr that drove Martin insane and if he could have children he would have been offering Danny every single one of them for what that purr promised.
“Martin?” Martin’s eyes widened, his breath hitched, was his father trying to drive him insane?
“Was that?” he could hear Danny querying on the other end.
“Good you’re here,” Victor appeared in the doorway, talk and regal and Martin knew that his father had to be the mailman or something because he could never pull off that forbidding ‘you’re going to do what I say no questions asked’ look if his life depended on it. “I’m taking you out for a late lunch.”
“Um…” Martin glanced down at the watch that he’d found in the bathroom at work that morning and frowned. “It’s almost three.”
“That’s why they call it a late lunch,” Victor smiled and Martin wondered if he should be fearing for his life. Because his ‘you’re going to do what I say no questions asked’ look had morphed into his ‘this is going to hurt you a lot more than its going to hurt me and I’m going to enjoy it’ look. “If that’s your Danny tell him we’ll be down in about ten minutes.”
Martin’s eyebrows flew up and he had a split second to wonder how much of an idiot he looked like before he latched onto the end of that statement and then he could hear Danny clearing his throat on the other end of the phone.
“Yeah, right, I uh did call for a reason… your father; he wants to take us out to lunch.”
“You get along with my father,” he’d been repeating it for a while; he probably sounded like an idiot. He’d been saying it so much that Danny had got to the point where he didn’t even agree with him anymore, just rubbed his back and mumbled something that Martin couldn’t understand under his breath.
Probably berating himself for dating such a nutcase.
But Danny… got along with his father. It was a sign of the apocalypse he was sure. Because Danny wasn’t the son of a Senator, or the son of a diplomat or the son of anyone in a position of power. He had no breeding, no family of name, he had nothing that had been part of his fathers criteria for a significant other for his son.
But his father liked him, so unless his father wanted Danny for himself. He shuddered in revulsion at the image that flashed in his mind of Danny and his dad and now he needed to throw up and scrub his brain clean to get rid of that image.
Danny got along with his father.
Half of his friends, just friends hadn’t even gotten along with his father. Jessie didn’t get along with his father that well, Martin didn’t even get along that well with him.
Maybe his father wanted to adopt Danny?
No, Martin frowned, as he replayed the lunch, the long, late lunch from hell in his mind. Victor had been talking Danny up, listing his accomplishments like Danny was some prize stud that he was trying to sell him.
Like he needed to be sold on Danny. He was ready to buy, and he’d even fucking tattoo him ‘Martin’s Property’ if it was required.
Danny got along with his father.
And he’d been so distracted by that fact that he hadn’t even really paid attention to anything else. He sure as hell didn’t know what he’d actually ate.
Danny’s hand was gentle against his back and he just seemed to be propelling Martin to where he thought Martin should be.
They hadn’t let him go back to his office, he’d wanted to especially after the freakiness of watching Victor and Danny gang up on him, both telling him that work would be there tomorrow and no one’s really expecting you back anyway.
It made him wonder exactly what his father had said to Jessie when he’d ducked into her office.
Danny had his keys, unlocking the door and gently pushing him into his apartment. Shutting the door behind them, shrugging out of his coat and turning on lights as he went. In a very short period of time Danny had made himself at home in Martin’s apartment.
“Do you want something to drink?” Danny called from the kitchen and Martin dragged a hand through his hair.
Danny could probably list everything in his fridge and cupboards but still was balking on the sex issue. There was logic there that he didn’t understand.
Danny reappeared with a bottled water in each hand, set them on the coffee table when Martin made no move to take one and then did his graceful flop down onto the sofa. Martin wanted to move like Danny some day. Everything graceful even when it shouldn’t have been.
And now he was looking up at Martin with that bemused expression that he never seemed to lose around him.
“Are we ever having sex?” he blurted it out, and felt his face turn red.
Danny for his part just looked at him, one eyebrow arching and asked, “Don’t you think it’s a little soon?”
“We’ve been dating for a month,” Martin grumbled petulantly, and they had been if he counted the blind date as their first and ignored the fact that it had taken two weeks for him to call between the first and the second.
“And that’s not a little quick?”
“No.”
Martin waited and Danny stared at him, Martin shifted on his feet, Danny stared at him.
“Its just I’d slept with Kyle three dates in and how do we even know we’re, you know, compatible?”
“I don’t think compatibility is going to be an issue, do you?” Danny rolled his eyes.
“Well, no,” Martin allowed.
“Besides isn’t it worth it to take it slow?”
Martin shrugged, because yeah, it was. But he was almost positive that the built up sexual tension was going to kill him.
“Martin…” Danny sighed and leaned forward. Elbows braced on his knees, his eyes soft. “I like you…” and oh god here came the brush off. The reason that Danny and his father had gotten along was because his father had known that Danny was going to dump him.
“Christ someone did a number on your self-esteem didn’t they?” Danny was shaking his head and pushing himself to his feet. Crossing the floor to where Martin was awkwardly shifting again, touching his face softly.
Martin leaned into the touch and hoped Danny didn’t notice, knew from the smirk that he had.
“People like you,” Martin shrugged, managing to not dislodge Danny’s hand cupping his cheek. “They don’t normally look at guys like me.”
“It’s because everyone else is blind,” Danny stated like it was the most logical explanation. “And I’ve seen pictures of Kyle so I know that’s totally wrong.”
“Kyle was like me.”
“What, an idiot?” Danny grinned.
“I’m not an idiot.”
“Of course not,” Danny soothed, the grin on his face not lending any credibility to it. “Martin you’re gorgeous. Anyone in their right mind would be happy to be seen with you, to be with you and trust me I know. We’re taking things slow.”
“There’s slow and then there’s non-existent.”
“We’re taking things slow,” Danny continued as if Martin hadn’t even said a word. “Because we’re going to do this right the first time.”
Martin smiled at him. “My father threatened you didn’t he.” Not a question, he knew his father well enough to know what had probably been said.
“For a guy with a desk job your fathers a scary man.”
“You should have grown up with him.”