Title: Lucky 13

Chapter title: Adrenalin

Fandom: Ocean's eleven (Ocean's 13, technically)

Pairing: Virgil/Turk (slash)

Rating: M

Chapter Summary:Turk finds himself staring back, finds himself unable to tear his gaze away and he's reminded of the sun, but he won't allow himself to linger on the thought.

Turk's and Virgil's different POV of their time in Mexico.

A/N: This is the first chapter in Lucky 13, which is the fifth story in the Driving me crazy 'Verse (which includes all three movies)

Virgil picks up on the third ring, although Turk can barely hear him through the static.

"Hello? Hello, Turk?" he crackles.

"Yeah, yeah it's me", Turk replies.

Virgil sounds out of breath, he thinks. And excited. He clears his throat. He can hear Virgil's voice crackle through the connection again and tunes back in.

"-Can you he-?…"

"Yeah. Yeah, I hear ya-!"

"Oh, you ca-… What?""

Fucking delay, Turk thinks.

"… So, what's up?" Virgil yells through the noise.

It's really weird, them being so far apart like this. They never really spend much time apart, usually. And even when they do, they've never been this far away from each other before. For some reason, Turk feels like his brother is slipping away from him. Which is a ridiculous thought, and he knows it is. As soon as he's fixed the dice, Virgil's coming right back and they'll be ripping each other's heads off again in no time.

"Turk?… Hello?…"

"Yeah, I'm here! I'm just calling to check in. Danny wants to know why the factory's shut down. What're you doing, Virg?"

There's a static pause, then Virgil says something, but the words are lost in the cracks. Turk tries moving to the other side of the suite, but he knows it's probably pointless, there's nothing wrong with his reception.

"What's that?" he yells, ignoring Saul who hushes him. "I can't hear you, man! What'd you say?"

"He says… ", he tells the others later on.

When Danny tells him to get down there and sort it out, he huffs and rolls his eyes, but if he's completely honest with himself, he's sort of relieved. It's not that he misses Virgil exactly. But it is worrying not knowing what he's doing, or if he's alright. And it's unnerving not to be able to properly check in with him.

When he gets there, he discovers Virgil on a soap box, rallying the crowd. At least he's wearing a hat, Turk thinks and jumps out of the rental. He waves to get Virgil's attention. Once his brother spots him, he taps one of the other workers on the shoulder and they swap places. Virgil squeezes through the small crowd and jogs to meet Turk halfway. He nearly crashes into him, arms flopping about the place, and Turk almost thinks he's about to hug him, but he seems to catch himself and ends up awkwardly patting him on the chest instead. His eyes are bright, crazed, and the sweat is pouring off him. But he's grinning, and Turk gets that it's probably the adrenalin, but part of him likes to think his brother is also happy to see him.

He smiles back.

"What are you doing here", Virgil shouts like it's a happy, but insane surprise.

All Turk can think about is Virgil's hands that are lingering on collarbones, big and warm, long fingers curling over his shoulders, pressing into muscle. Then he pats him one more time, and moves away. Hands go into his back pockets. Turk gets a flash of a thought of them sliding into his own back pockets, and immediately blames it on the heat.

"What are you doing", he shouts back.

"Come on", Virgil says and leads him away from the crowd.

Virgil tells him about the factory, the working conditions and the low wages. He's animated. Turk's never seen him this worked up before. Well, he's seen him upset before, he's seen him splutter, and huff, and yell, and stomp his feet. But he's never seen him passionate like this. It's a good look on him, even though he does seem kind of crazed, but Turk is guessing that's to do with the heat and exhaustion, he wants to ask when's the last time Virgil slept and if he's drinking enough water, but doesn't.

Then Virgil puts his hand on him again, it's just briefly, just rests it on his arm, just where his sleeve ends, to get his attention or emphasize a point, Turk's not sure, but the contact sends a jolt through him and he hopes his brother doesn't feel the goose bumps. If he does, he doesn't show it. He just keeps talking about this new cause. Pinning Turk with his eyes, his wild, passionate eyes. Turk finds himself staring back, finds himself unable to tear his gaze away and he's reminded of the sun, but he won't allow himself to linger on the thought.

"We can really make a difference here, Turk…" Virgil murmurs.

Turk's stomach does a flip, his pulse quickens. Maybe his brother is onto something. Adrenalin is the best part of what they do, it's why they do what they do, when it comes to both driving and conning, so why not rallies as well. He nods.

"Alright", he says. "Let's do it…"

Virgil's face lights up in 60 watt and they run back to the others. Within seconds, Turk's adrenalin is racing, his mind I wheeling, and he should have phoned Danny but he completely forgets. He grabs Virgil by the arm, then pulls him down by the neck, their hats collide, and he yells in his ear, "I have an idea!"

Virgil's new friend, Nestor, comes up with the liquor bottles. Virgil stuffs the pieces of cloth in them, Turk lights the end with his lighter. It's team work. It's exciting. Maybe it's not as sophisticated as the jobs Danny and Rusty pulls, but in a way it's even more gratifying, because it's chaos, it's uncontrolled, it's real danger. When they storm the fence, Turk is more alive than he's ever been in his life, he feels just like Virgil looks, and when the news of the pay raise reaches them, he feels like 4th of July. Virgil turns to him, that insane grin on his face, and he throws his arms around him in a big hug.

He gingerly puts his arms around his waist and hugs him back. Virgil's all warmth and sweat and pounding heart, and muscle, Turk realizes. Way more muscles than he would have thought. Then suddenly those muscles get even harder as his brother tense up. And then he's stepping out of embrace and backing away. Turk quickly retreats his own arms, folds them over his chest to feel less empty and cold. Virgil avoids his gaze.

"You alright?" Turk asks him, and Virgil nods quickly, too quickly.

"Yeah, yeah, fine", he mutters and moves away.

Turk stays where he is, watching as Virgil catches up to Nestor. Watching them hug and walk off together. He feels his high sail back down, the adrenalin, the happiness, whatever it was, it just evaporates and he feels drained. I need a drink water, he thinks. A few of the factory workers clap him on the back as he walks by, he waves at them, but his hearts not in it anymore.

"American!" someone greets him.

"Hey", he says, and high-fives them. "Good job, man… hey, d'you know where I can get something to drink?"

"You want drink? Here! Here!"

The guy waves a bottle of tequila in his face and gestures wildly for him to help himself. Turk tries to thank him and explain that what he really need is water, but the guy seems to think he's being shy and keeps insisting. And a drink, a proper drink, does sound heavenly. So he accepts the bottle, receives another round of claps on his back and he takes a swig.

"Are you alright?", Nestor asks him in Spanish and hands him the cigarette.

Virgil takes a drag and winces as the smoke tears into his lungs, and nods. Nestor searches his face, he looks sceptical, but he doesn't press. Virgil hands him back the cigarette.

"Well, we have a lot to thank you for, my friend…"

"You've just as much to thank yourself for", Virgil replies in his broken Spanish.

Nestor smiles though, so he knows the message went through.

They smoke in silence for a while. Virgil feels like he could confide in Nestor, and he'd really like to, because he doesn't really have any friends, all his friends are more Turk's friends than his. He's the bonus friend that you get for hanging out with Turk. And there's not a single one of them that he feels confident confiding anything to. He could barely talk about the weather with most of them. Nestor isn't like those guys. But somehow he knows he still shouldn't tell him anything, so he doesn't.

Nestor takes a final drag on the cigarette butt and then stomps it out.

"Your friend", he says. "You are close?"

Virgil meets his gaze. And sees the knowing, but kind look in his eyes. He shrugs, then nods, then shakes his head.

"All at once?" Nestor jokes and gives him a wry smile.

"Pretty much."

"You like him", Nestor states then, cutting the bullshit. "He likes you too?"

"No", Virgil says.

"I think he does."

"No way… No… he doesn't even, he's not…"

Nestor studies him for a minute. Virgil shakes his head.

"I think maybe… yes. You should talk to him."

"I can't", Virgil says.

And he wants to tell Nestor exactly why he can't, but he likes Nestor, he likes talking to him, he might even consider him a friend, a real friend, and he doesn't want to ruin that. It was enough of a risk that he'd be put off by the thought of him liking another guy, but if he finds out that him and Turk are brothers… fuck, Virgil thinks. Brothers. I'm so fucked up.

"You should", Nestor insists. "I see the way he looks at you. I think you'd be surprised."

"You don't understand, Nestor… we go way back, we grew up together, I can't just… you know."

Nestor shrugs, then claps him on the shoulder. Virgil knows he disagrees, but being the kind guy that he is, the surprisingly sensitive guy that he is, Nestor drops it and just offers his silent support. Yeah, he's a good friend, Virgil thinks. It feels nice. He's never had this before. Only with Turk, but that's hardly the same.

Lately, Virgil can't even do this with Turk. He can barely bicker with him. Ever since these thoughts started popping up in his head. Ever since he started becoming delusional, because that's what it must be, because every time Turk looks at him now, Virgil starts imagining things, crazy things. Like Turk's looking at him differently, fondly, lovingly, or even worse. That doesn't exactly help things. And Virgil really needs to get over this, too. He's not going to be able to go back to being brothers until he does. And they're not the best of friends, but Turk's all he's got, and besides the idiots he hangs with when they're home in Pavo, Virgil's all Turk has as well.

"Yeah, maybe I do need to talk to him…" he mumbles.

Nestor gives him another smile, a sad one.

He finds his brother outside the factory, drinking with Pablo and Emmanuel. They all cheer at him as he approaches. Virgil smiles tightly and waves back. Nods at the factory workers, and politely shakes his head when Pablo offers him the half-empty tequila bottle.

Turk reaches out and half-pats, half-caress his belly from his seated position on the ground. Virgil smoothly moves out of reach and then grabs his outstretched hand and helps him to his feet. Turk stumbles briefly, but he's fine to walk on his own, which doesn't say much about how drunk he is, since he's far from a light-weight.

"Did you check into a motel yet?" he asks him, and Turk shakes his head. "That's alright, you can stay in mine, I mean we can share…"

"Alright", Turk says and shrugs.

They walk side by side, Turk only stumbling sideways occasionally. Virgil tells himself he's going to talk to him, as soon as they get to the motel, he's going to sit down and have a talk with his brother. But once inside the room, he finds himself stalling. Then Turk struggles out of his shirt and plops down on the bed.

I can't do this, Virgil thinks and shuts himself in the bathroom.

He splashes some cold water on his face. Sees the water bottle that he's left on the side of the sink and brings it out into the room. He puts it down on the bedside table next to where Turk is dozing, then gingerly climbs onto the bed on the other side, careful not to touch.

"You going to sleep?" Turk mumbles.

"Yes", Virgil mutters. "There's some water on the bedside table, you should drink it, or you'll be hungover tomorrow…"

"Oh… thanks, man…"

Virgil just hmphs in reply. He feels his brother's every movement through the bed. He squeezes his eyes shut, willing himself to fall asleep. But he can't.

"We okay?" Turk asks then.

"Go to sleep, Turk…"

End.