Standing on the pavement and gazing down the street as he finishes his fag, Lee can't help but to notice the way the grey of the sky descending onto the grey of London town with its stone buildings and asphalt and smog makes it look as though the two blend together. He also thinks that that's such a cliché it annoys him to have noticed it in the first place. But he's well aware that he could instead have noticed a grey kitten, or a white one for that matter, and still found a reason to get annoyed. He's about to record a panel show pilot, which really is a good thing and should be cause, if not for celebration then at least a spring in his step, but as heavy as he feels right now he can barely move his feet.

They're fairly rare these moods of his and more than makes up for them by being extremely jovial in-between, but as of right now with the weather being what it is and Not going out losing ratings at such a speed it's unlikely to get picked up for another series, he's feeling quite gloomy. And yes, he's been offered the role of team captain on this new panel show which, if it gets picked up, would mean he's got a permanent spot on said show. But since he's particularly pessimistic today he's feeling certain that the show won't get picked up, in which case he'll be unemployed once again and back at the stand-up writing board, desperately trying to come up with new jokes even though he feels like shit.

Alright, enough self-pity, he thinks and stomps out his cigarette butt, before starting to make his way towards the Broadcasting House.

Time to put on the cheeky face, he thinks cynically as he walks through the doors, then changes his mind, reasoning that he wouldn't have to be either cheeky or funny until it's time to face the audience. He should probably make the effort to convince the team and the other participants that he'll be a laugh to work with, but being as it is early in the morning he figures he should be able to get away with at least being subdued.

It turns out that he's right, because upon entering the dressing room where a couple of the other comedians are already getting their make-up on, there's clearly not a single morning person in there. In fact, half the people barely notice his arrival, and those who do merely nod in greeting or smile politely. He feels unproportionately relieved by that, for some reason.

A PA appears by his side holding up two paper cups, one with coffee and one with tea. Lee grabs the coffee and nods his thanks. The PA gives him a polite smile as well, although it's a much more stressed version of it, before she scurries off again, tea splashing over the back of her hand.

The make-up bloke comes up to him and starts dabbing away at his face. Lee quickly takes a sip of coffee before tilting his head a little to the side to give the make-up bloke better access to the side of his neck. Why he needs to powder his neck, he'll never understand, but he's a compliant light entertainer, so if his neck needs powdering then fine, he'll tilt his head to the side.

"Thank you", the bloke says sweetly. "You can drink your coffee, it's fine."

"Right, thanks", Lee says and scans the room aimlessly, just to stop himself from staring into the face that is inches from his own.

Halfway through his lazy glance around the room, Lee accidentally locks eyes with David Mitchell, the other team captain, whom he's seen around but never actually talked to before. There is a confused beat in which they maintain eye contact, then Mitchell gives him one of those half nods that says hello and a politely pinched smile.

Lee blinks, feeling extremely embarrassed about having been caught staring. Was I staring?

He nods back and in doing so, upsets the brush thingy that the bloke is dabbing against the side of his face, or washestaring atme?

"Shit, sorry", he says Derek, who merely smirk in reply.

Glancing over at Mitchell again, Lee just catches his gaze flitting away. He was now, Lee thinks. No, probably not. Probably just one of those things. Is he gay? Did someone tell me he was gay? Not that it matters. God, but that's stupid. "Is he gay", what am I like…

"There you go!"

Lee blinks and refocuses again. Smiles back. The bloke is studying his face in a way that Lee can only describe as admiring his handiwork, and he looks quite pleased with it as well. Which is lucky, Lee thinks. Not that he's a very superficial person. Not, per se. I mean to say, there's only so much you can do with what you've got…

Once again, Lee's gaze begins to wander and once again it lands on Mitchell, who is now approaching him.

"I'm Derek, by the way…"

"Lee", he says quickly and offers the guy, Derek, his hand. "Good to meet you, mate."

"Aww you too, darling!" Derek says and shakes his hand before he moves away to deal with the next comedian in need of make-up.

Ugh, stereotype, Lee thinks before he can stop himself, then, too late, No, stop it, he's nice.

"Hello", the unmistakable voice of David Mitchell breaks through his inner monologue. "I'm David…"

Lee quickly accepts his hand and shakes it, oh soft, gentle too

"Alright, I'm Lee Mack"

David half-smiles at him, then the corner of his mouth twitches a little and Lee realises that their handshake has lingered a little too long. He immediately lets go of the other man's hand and pushes his own hand into his pocket, just to be sure. Clearly, he can't trust the thing to behave.

David's smiling again, though so Lee reckons he hasn't made a complete fool of himself, or if he has, David probably won't hold it against him. He doesn't seem like the sort.

Suddenly Lee becomes aware of David looking at him expectantly and realises that he's zoned out again and obviously missed whatever it was that David was saying. He has a quick debate with himself about whether to come clean about it or take a guess and offer some vague reply. In the end he decides to tell David that he'd let his thoughts wander, but quickly assures him that it's nothing personal.

"Just involuntary habit of mine before I've had at least five cups of tea, or coffee", he explains and raises the paper cup a little as if to illustrate what a cup of coffee is.

"I know what you mean", David says.

"He's telling the truth", Derek chimes in, unnecessarily. "The whole time I was trying to talk to him, he was too busy making eyes at you…"

The others chuckle. Lee would be mortified, if he wasn't distracted by the sight of David looking down to hide a subtle blush on his face and smiling, shyly.

"Aww, isn't that adorable!" Derek twitters.

"Alright", David speaks up, all confidence again. "If you want to audition for the show, it's not us you should be directing you gags at."

The others chuckle again, but no-one actually laughs until Lee pipes up and adds, "Derek doesn't gag, do you Derek?"

"Cheeky!" Derek exclaims, even as he giggles.

Lee smiles a little and shrugs apologetically and gets a wink in return. Looking over at David again and noticing that the other man is avoiding his, and actually everyone's eyes, and looking decidedly uncomfortable all of a sudden, his high spirits deflate a bit again. Shit.

"Is there time for a smoke?" he asks the room in general, catching David's head movement in his peripheral as the other man looks at him again.

Someone assures him that there's plenty of time yet and he turns to give David a questioning look.

"Um… Yeah, alright…" David murmurs.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Derek calls after them.

Lee feels his spirits go right up again. He's not sure if it's Derek and his good mood rubbing off on him, or if it's the fact that he just feels at home with these people who he barely knows yet, but Lee really hopes the show will get picked up, because he could really feel at home here.

"He's a laugh, isn't he?" he says to David as they start walking down the corridor. "Derek, I mean."

"Is that the…?"

"Gay bloke with the powder brush, yeah!" Lee quips, then immediately feels like an ass and tries to cover himself by quickly, and futively, correcting himself. "Stereotypical!"

David's eyes widen slightly and he wonders if he might have said the last bit a little too loudly.

"Shit. Sorry…"

"No, that's… it's fine."

He looks a bit nonplussed still, so Lee feels the need to keep explaining himself, or keep digging

"I meant to say 'camp' not 'gay', I mean that's the stereotype for a gay man, you know, not that there's anything wrong with that, being camp I mean, not gay, shit… now who's being stereotypical, Oh hang on, bloke doing makeup, sounds right homosexual to me!... Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to offend you…"

"Why would I be offended?" David asks, holding the patio door open for him.

"Well you… oh, you're not gay, then!"

David looks at him funny again, "Yes, I am, but I don't think I've ever been accused of being camp, though…"

Lee doesn't know what to say to that, really and so simply says "Right."

He's extremely relieved when David cracks up and chuckles, so much so that he finds himself joining in and before he knows it they're bantering like they've been friends, or at least co-workers, for years.

The banter continues throughout the recording of the show, much to the delight of the producers, and it's not until they're about to part ways outside the building that Lee feels himself come down from his performance high. Quite a bit later than he's used to. Normally, as soon as the audience leaves, he powers down like a computer in sleep mode as the adrenalin wears off and he becomes aware of just how exhausted he is.

There's a moment of almost awkwardness when they both just sort of stand there, in what can only be described as stalling, with the inevitablegood-bye hanging unsaid in the air between them. David has got that shy-ish smile on his face again and is looking down at the ground between them. Lee catches himself thinking he looks almost cute somehow. It's amazing how different David can be from his public persona, or rather his performing persona.

Most comedians that Lee's met have all had this personality when they go on stage, that isn't a full-on act, but a heightened or exaggerated version of themselves. But there's something else with David. It's like he's got this shield on when he's on stage, or on camera, or even amongst people, Lee realises, remembering the way David was interacting with people in the dressing room, except for that one moment when he came up to me and he was smiling that smile and

Lee takes a deep breath and bats the train of thought away, it's not like he even knows this person, they just met today. As far as he knows, David, the real David, the David that potters about in the kitchen on the morning or listens to records, the David that his friends and family gets to see, the David his boyfriend gets to see, I wonder if he has a boyfriend…

"Well…" David says, breaking Lee out of his thoughts. "Let's see if we'll be back for another one of these…"

"I really hope so", Lee says honestly and subconsciously noticing the blush on David's face, but thinks nothing off it. "I had a really good time today."

"Yeah, I did too", David says.

"Well, I should be…" Lee gestures vaguely behind him.

"Right", David says quickly. "Yeah, no, me too."

"Right then. Well, it was nice meeting you…" he says and holds his hand out.

"Yes", David says and now he actually does seem like he feels awkward.

They shake hands and go their separate ways. And when Tara asks him later that afternoon how it went, Lee tells her it went brilliantly, that David Mitchell is a brilliant comedian as well as a brilliant person, that the whole team seems brilliant, as was the premise and execution of the show itself.

"Well", Tara says in that awesomely dry way of hers. "Would it be a fair assumption to say that you had a brilliant day, then?"

Then she smiles and gives him a gentle kiss on the cheek, adding "It's great to see you happy again…"

Lee hadn't realised how transparent he's been in these past couple of days, or maybe weeks, but now that he thinks about it, it makes complete sense. He feels completely different from this morning, like a whole other person. Of course, he must have seemed different as well, been different.

As he's lying in his bed later that night, trying but failing to fall asleep, and not really trying either if he's honest with himself, he replays the events of the day in his mind's eye, zapping between moments, trying to catch glimpses of things he knows logically is part of why it felt so right, why he felt so at home, all these little things, like Derek joking and Angus dry comments in rehearsal, but they all flutter about and it's hard to catch a specific one and hold onto it. Instead, they just whirl around inside his head, like snapshots or short clips in one big tumble, most of them swishing by and others lingering of their own accord. Most of them were of David with his animated face during the show, as well as that smile of his when they were alone.

It's great to see you happy again, Tara said. It's great tobehappy again.

And not only happy, but he's also feeling optimistic, about his future, about his career, about Would I lie to you? getting picked up. And in his gut, he already knows it will. The certainty of it flutters around inside of there, tickling the insides of his belly.