Title: A language of their own
Fandom: Ocean's eleven
Pairing: Virgil/Turk (gen, implied slashy feelings)
Rating: PG
Summary: At first you might think they hate each other, and you might wonder why they stick together and why they'd ever even consider working the same jobs, but after a while as you get to know them and you get used to their bickering and banter, you realise there's a whole language to their fighting. Danny POV
A/N: This is the second story in the Driving me crazy 'Verse (which includes all three movies, but this story takes place during the first movie - between We need drivers and Times they are a-changing)
It's a testimony of how well they know each other really. How alike they think, are. Or maybe just how much time they spend together. It must drive them insane, but it's not like it doesn't have an upside too. When they're on a job for instance, when a distraction is needed, they're the best there is because fighting and making a scene, that's like second nature to them. And it helps to add credibility if they're conning someone too, since it comes so natural to them and they play off each other so well.
Of course, they can never really shut it off, which is the downside. Because they can re-enact a typical fight they might have even when they're not actually angry or getting on each others' nerves, in order to draw attention to themselves and cause a diversion, but to hold back from fighting when they are angry or getting on each others' nerves, that's impossible. Even when they're not really all that angry, to not bicker and tease is hard to resist. It's a lifelong habit, yeah, but it's more than that too, it's an addiction.
At first you might think they hate each other, and you might wonder why they stick together and why they'd ever even consider working the same jobs, but after a while as you get to know them and you get used to their bickering and banter, you realise there's a whole language to their fighting, a language built on insults and petty semantics designed to get a rise out of the other, and it's not just about getting under each others' skin, because they're already there, it's about checking in and keeping tabs, about acknowledgement and support, and sometimes even comfort. But you have to take in the big picture to get a feel for it. And you have to pay attention to everything that's wrapped around the words themselves, there's the tone of voice, the body language, the looks, the circumstances, even the speed and rhythm of speech.
Linus doesn't know the Malloy twins well enough to know any of this yet, in fact he barely knows them at all. So when Danny makes him stay behind and he has to sit and listen to them bicker, endlessly, tirelessly, he just wants to bang his head against the inner wall of the van, and he asks himself all those questions that anyone would ask in that same situation, where do they find the energy, why do they work together when they clearly can't stand to be around each other, why did Danny and Rusty hire them of all people, why don't they just go outside and start throwing some fists around and get it over with?
Danny, on the other hand, has known the twins, the Mormon twins as he calls them with just the right amount of irony behind their backs, for several years, has worked with them on a couple of different occasions now, but being the perceptive thief and con artist that he is, it only took him a couple of hours to figure out that there was more to this bickering than your normal sibling rivalry/affection, another couple of days to start to recognise the different shades and levels to their language, and another couple of weeks to come to his third and fourth realisation, both at the same time, the fourth being that the twins themselves hadn't even come to the third yet, and they still haven't.
He hasn't discussed this with Rusty, but he doesn't have to raise the subject to know that Rusty's seen it too, because like with most things, him and Rus have a similar connection to Turk and Virgil, they too know each other inside-out, and he knows what Rusty's going to say before he says it and sometimes before he himself even knows he's going to say it, just like Rusty can read his mind right back at him and most times they don't even bother with words, because frankly what's the point.
"No, come on, don't leave me with these guys!" Linus whines when he stops him from getting out of the van, and he gets it, he really does and in a way he kind of feels for the kid.
He remembers the first job he pulled with Turk and Virgil. He could take it for one hour and twelve minutes, then he told them that if they said another word for the rest of the night he was going to shove one of them up the other's ass, not a very nice or eloquent thing to say, but he was under pressure and pissed off.
Listening to them now, he finds it almost cute, and definitely funny rather than frustrating. And it's not like it ever gets in the way of the work, so he's got no reason to complain. But part of him is growing impatient, watching them tip-toe around each together like they have been recently, seemingly oblivious to the tension grows heavier between them and has now started leaking out and is soaking everyone around them.
And sometimes he just wants to point it out to them, and get it over with, but he knows they'll have to figure it out on their own, otherwise they'll never come to terms with it.
End.