Title: My Home Is Your Home
Author: Chaos
Beta: None, tragically.
Pairings: Danny/Rusty, Danny/Tess
Warnings: Angst I guess? Hints of child abuse and neglect as well as the general criminal activities.
Ratings: M probably.
Spoiler Warnings: Ummm...Danny's relationship.
Disclaimer: Nope. I a set of well-watched DVDs but that's as close as I'll ever get. The title/cut lyrics are from a Faker song, so also not mine.
Summary: Everyone's got to start somewhere.
Author's Note: Um. Not beta'ed. If anyone is willing to look over it for me I would be indebted to you.
Everyone's got to start somewhere. Even the best card sharks and conmen start out playing hearts in their tree houses. Houdini had to begin with cats cradle and art thieves begin with shoplifting.
The infamous Daniel Ocean learnt to manipulate a deck as an amateur magician. But the beginning goes further back than that. For Danny it started with a magic set on his tenth birthday. It was all he had wanted that year and the dollars were tight so it was all that he got. But he milked it for all it was worth. He practised for hours on end. The other children in the neighbourhood were no fun to play with and his parents worked hard, had little time for him in their busy lives. So he built up his skills and by the time he was fourteen he was turning shows anywhere he could in towns that were within half a days bus ride. Hiding everything he made.
When he was eighteen the next door neighbour offered to sell him a car and Danny jumped at the chance. He blew every dollar he had saved on the ride and enough petrol to get him far away, threw his meagre possessions into a suitcase and blew out of town without a backwards look. It was the first car he ever legitimately purchased, with his own money, under his own name. The last one too.
The first town he hit was in the back-end of nowhere and he found himself sleeping in the car because everything was shut. But he had made a start and turning back was not an option Danny Ocean had ever seen. He worked his magic, worked the crowds, learned what caught the fancy of audiences out here and played to his strengths. Then he vanished after he was caught with the mayors son in a most compromising position and never stayed anywhere long enough to get attached to anyone ever again.
Until he met Rusty.
Rusty had found his calling in what he, at the time, thought to be the ultimate peak of thievery. And then Danny caught him, sixteen years old and pulling a neat lift out of the pocket of the ratty old suit with all the necessary add-on's for a magic show. The magician's wary grip caught a fresh burn on the inside of Rusty's wrist. Rusty hissed in surprised pain and Danny reflexively moved his hand. They remained frozen in that tableau for a long moment. Then Rusty released his grip, letting the meagre stash of bills slide back into Danny's pocket. And Danny realised that time wasn't always necessary to become attached to a person.
He stayed in town only one night and, for the very first time in his career, booked a motel room, leaving his car lonely in the lot as he kissed all the marks he could on Rusty's skin to make them better. It was a long night and Danny swore that if he ever met Mr Ryan the man would rue the day.
He wasn't entirely sure what the phrase meant but it made Rusty smile when he said it and at that point, though he hadn't quite realised it yet, Danny would go through hell and back to make Rusty Ryan smile at him in that way. It did strange things to him that he, still only eighteen, didn't understand and wasn't sure he wanted to.
The threat of his father, however, as well as Rusty's other personal associations with the town might have had something to do with the speed with which they departed early the next morning, Rusty happily ensconced in the passenger seat.
Danny would later tease him about the amount the younger boy cost him in sweets and savoury snacks while Rusty swore black and blue that he never asked Danny for a thing. Which was true. He never had to.
The first town they stopped in together Danny pulled five shows every day for a week, trying to support both of them and a motel room. It exhausted him, but Rusty's growing exuberance and the simple joy of having someone else around made it worthwhile.
Until their last day in town when Rusty, unbeknownst to Danny, tailed him to the show. Coming home to find the sixteen year old counting out a pile of pick-pocketed cash made him smile.
And so it went on.
Tired of waiting on charitable contributions Danny would distract the audience with flourishes and sleight of hand while Rusty picked their pockets clean. They were forced to hightail it out of town on more than a few occasions but they agreed that it was worth it to be making enough money to get out of the sticks and into the big cities.
In malls and along beach fronts they found marks with fatter wallets and a taste for the illusory gift of magic. With quick fingers and a gift for sincerity Danny would pull scarves from his sleeves, make flowers appear in his hat and produce doves out of thin air. While Rusty crept among them, quietly working his own tricks and occasionally stopping to watch Danny.
With bigger paydays from a single hit they were able to pick and choose who to mark. And with less suspicion falling on them in the greater anonymity afforded by the size of the cities they were able to stay in one place longer. And although they were careful never to play the same spot twice it also meant they had a lot of extra time on their hands.
They both made new friends and contacts and found new callings. Danny took up gambling for fun and profit and Rusty took up dating as if it was a casual sport. And every night he came home. No matter how pretty the girl or how much alcohol she plied the ever so slightly underage boy with, Rusty always came home. And Danny always waited for him. Rusty never came back to the hotel room under his assumed name to find the car gone and the drawers empty. Danny was always sitting in the meagre light of the florescent bulbs with the ratty old pack of cards from his original magic kit in his hands and a snack waiting.
And so it went on.
Slowly the jobs changed, becoming bigger and making them richer. The hotel rooms got swankier and the marks meaner. The meals became champagne and some of the other girls became other boys.
Sometimes they worked separate jobs and sometimes they worked with other peoples. But they were always the centre of each others worlds. Rusty never came back to find the car gone and Danny never opened the drawers to find them empty. It was always enough.
Until one day it wasn't any more. Until Rusty came back to the posh hotel after a week in Spain with Basher and Danny was gone. He waited half the night until Danny strolled in, completely sober and with the perfect outline of a pair of lips still on his cheek. Her name was Tess and after that everything changed.
They changed.
Rusty never said where were you? He never yelled who is she? It would be impossible to say whether he ever cried himself to sleep at night as he watched Danny drift away.
Until Danny was at home with his wife and Rusty was the one sitting up, shuffling a deck of cards in the half light. For Danny it was enough to have Tess curled up against his side. And for Rusty it was enough to be waiting.
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