Snippet #2812153

Dhani never minded parties, but this wasn’t the sort of party he was accustomed to. Add the guilt of having yelled at Kieran and ruined their entire purpose of being there, the general awkwardness of being all by yourself in the middle of a big fancy party, and the embarrassment of… Whatever was going on with Atticus; he honestly just wanted to go home. Aaron’s voice in his ear, saying Kieran had left, only made it worse. He felt responsible for the way things had happened. Maybe he could have worked harder on staying with Kieran, or found her sooner, or been gentler.

Then he got the text. Initially, he decided on just ignoring the text. He felt justified in that, after what he’d seen and been through. He noticed security popping up around the room, too. Dhani wondered if a day would come when an influx of security guards didn’t make him feel nervous. Probably not. Another text, also from Atticus. A part of him really didn’t want to talk to Att. He needed to leave, that much was true, but he needed to walk out the door and head straight home. There was no explanation that would make all of this okay, so Dhani didn’t see much of a point in letting Att try.

And yet, there was another part of Dhani that started looking for Att the moment he stepped outside. He wanted Atticus to explain that it was nothing, just a big misunderstanding. He was feeling guilty, upset, angry. He just wanted something about the night to be okay. So he found Att, walked over; he wasn’t sure what to say, but he was pretty sure he should say something. In the end, all he said was, “Hey.”

Att spotted Dhani the minute he stepped outside the building, but he hung back, wanting to talk somewhat out of sight. There was a moment when he thought Dhani was just going to keep walking, just ignore him, a moment that troubled Atticus more than he wanted to admit. He didn’t know why Dhani had gotten under his skin in the way he had.

But then Dhani turned and made his way over to Att, and he could breathe a sigh of relief. “Hey,” he said. “You look great.” The compliment slipped out easily, even though he hadn’t really intended on saying it. “So… Red Witch told me about her little visit to your apartment. I’m so sorry about that, I… genuinely have no idea how she found out and she had absolutely no right to do it,” he said. “She… she didn’t hurt you or anything, did she?”

Dhani smiled at the compliment, and nodded in lieu of thanks. Normally, it would have been great to hear, but he wasn’t so sure he really wanted to hear it. Then Atticus brought up Red Witch breaking into his apartment. Dhani shook his head, “No. Nobody was hurt. She just broke my coffee pot, threatened my neighbor. Standard stuff.” Dhani crossed his arms over his chest, closing himself off. “Red Witch doesn’t scare me, I’m pretty used to being threatened. Besides, I think I understand it now.”

Att wasn’t even surprised to hear that Lucy had caused a little destruction in the course of her visit, but was at least relieved to hear nobody had been hurt. Att just raised an eyebrow as Dhani said he wasn’t scared of her. He was one of the very few people who weren’t, and Att wouldn’t have blamed him. But then again, Dhani was a hero. People like Lucy were probably nothing new, and besides, increased healing didn’t exactly play well with blood manipulation.

There was a moment when Att wasn’t sure why Dhani said he understood it. But of course, they’d appeared the perfect couple all evening, and she’d even kissed him. Why wouldn’t anyone believe them? He just sighed, shaking his head.

“Dhani, that was an act. I swear. She went too far, it was supposed to just be the dance and if anyone asked, we were engaged. That was all, that was all I agreed to. There’s nothing going on. We’re just friends.”

He wanted to just completely believe Atticus; it would have been really easy. Truth or not, it didn’t matter, because it was what he wanted to hear. And, obviously, it made perfect sense. But Dhani had had enough negative life experiences to be a little wary. Still, he nodded. “Okay,” He didn’t sound the most convinced, but Dhani knew that Atticus hadn’t owed him any explanations or anything in the first place.

Dhani sighed, relaxing his shoulders as he did. He didn’t realize how tense he’d been until then. “The dance really was impressive.” They had clearly put a lot of work into it. It had at least gone better than Dhani’s distraction. But Att had said that Red Witch took it too far. Dhani looked over Atticus for a moment, carefully considering that. “You okay?” He paused, then quickly added, “These things are a lot, even without someone springing something new and changing up your plans.”

The awkwardness of the moment hung between them, even as Dhani nodded. God, why couldn’t things just be straightforward for once? But Dhani’s compliment about the dance managed to earn a smile from Att, even despite that. “Thanks. You probably don’t want to know about the amount of times I dropped her,” he said, laughing a little.

He just shrugged as Dhani asked if he was okay. “I… just been one of those nights, I guess. The kiss was… weird,” he said, managing a half smile. “God, the mission was the easy part. I can handle stuff like that in my sleep, I’ve been doing it all my life. But... things didn’t exactly go to plan, and the only reason things didn’t end up worse is because we got lucky. And having what should be two entirely separate parts of your life come smashing into each other, it’s just… messy.” He shook his head a little. “Sorry, I just… Yeah, I’m fine.” It felt like a lie, even though it was mostly true. He felt like he was still “on duty” and that meant showing as few weaknesses as possible. And if you showed weakness, you covered it up as soon as you could.

Dhani would be lying if he said the mental image of Atticus dropping Red Witch didn’t make him smile. She’d broken his window, and generally made his life more difficult than it had to be, so there was a part of him that did want to hear about Att dropping her.

He listened intently as Atticus spoke, briefly recapping the night and how it affected him. Dhani understood it, or, some of it. He felt his heart break a little when Att said he’d been doing things like this all his life. Dhani had to wonder what kind of life he’d lived for that to be his experience. He wasn’t about to ask, but it was certainly going to be on his mind. He shook his head when Atticus apologised, “No, I understand.” He didn’t think the night had gone as planned for anyone. A part of Dhani wanted to reassure Atticus that it was okay; it was okay to make mistakes, or be vulnerable. Whatever he needed to hear. But Dhani didn’t know what Atticus needed, and it didn’t seem like the right time, anyway.

He glanced over his shoulder, almost as if he were expecting someone. He felt so awkward, he almost wished that someone had been there. “I’m pretty conspicuous,” As far as excuses went, it wasn’t the best one, but it was true, “Probably shouldn’t hang around too long.”

The awkwardness was still lingering, practically tangible in the air between them. It felt so wrong, but Att didn’t know what he could do about it. Maybe things were just going to be like this now. It was probably never going to work anyway. They’d just been naive.

He nodded as Dhani said he was a bit conspicuous. “Yeah, we should… probably get going,” he said. “Do you need a ride home?” He asked. “Red Witch left me with the limo so may as well get my money’s worth out of it.”

Dhani hadn’t even checked to see if Kieran had left him stranded (and even if she had, it wasn’t as if he was without options), but something about Atticus offering him a ride home had Dhani feeling… something. Excited, maybe. He should say no, though. He could get home on his own, and Att was probably just offering to be nice. “I, uh,”

But as he looked at Atticus, Dhani realized that he really would like nothing more, which just made things that much more complicated. “Thank you,” He offered a soft smile, “But you don’t have to go out of your way or anything. Very gentlemanly of you, though.” The last thing Dhani wanted was to be in the way, or be inconvenient. He’d made enough of a mess that evening with his fight with Kieran.

God, that night in the bar, Att was pretty sure neither of them had envisaged them ending up like this, the silence feeling weighted with… what? The history between them? Everything that had just happened? What they (or, at least, Att) wanted, but knew was a bad decision? Part of him almost regretted offering now, maybe things would have been more straightforward then.

Dhani’s remark about the offer being gentlemanly made Att smile, and he shrugged a little. “Well, you know me, the perfect image of a gentleman,” he joked. “And I’m pretty sure your place is en route anyway. But there’s no pressure, if you’d rather get a taxi, that’s totally fine, I won’t be offended,” he said with a slight laugh. “Just doing the gentlemanly thing.”

As Att spoke, Dhani couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing. He liked Att, a lot more than he ever expected to. He was so used to ending things before they really started, but here he was with a guy that knew everything that he was, could understand how demanding his life really was. “You know,” He paused mid-sentence; Att really had him rethinking everything he thought he knew. Of course, he’d always logically known that villains were people, but it was so easy to file them away, count them off, forget that they, too, had a different life under the mask. Maybe it was a little hypocritical, but it wasn’t anything he’d spent any length of time thinking about until he saw Atticus in that warehouse.

But what was he supposed to say? He’d always told himself that when he found someone that could understand what he did, that he wouldn’t let him slip through his fingers. Maybe he said that because he’d thought it would never happen. Or that the guy would be a hero, or a reporter… or something.

“It’s been a shitty night. I’d love for something to just feel normal,” Dhani shrugged, “Ish.” He smiled at Att, “I’d like a ride, yes.” There were a lot of things he’d like from Att.