bakerstreet | winter is a lingering season

"Looks like mostly sports pages, events and scores, couple names circled." He crouches to read them. "Um... horses I think?" He peels up one of the papers, the pages having obviously gotten wet and then dried hard again. "Some writing in the margins but I can't read Russian."

He stands again. "Gambling stash out?"

"Sounds like it."

It makes sense. They wouldn't linger too long in one place, avoiding police and people they might owe money to. Matt puts his glove back on. "I don't think we need to stick around. Let's get out of here."

Danny's already trying to figure out how they're going to get back to that opening in the roof since the doors are all chained from the outside. Not that a door can really hold him, but he doesn't need to add anymore damage to a building that he's probably going to end up secretly footing the bill to restore anyway.

The rafters might hold, but even those seem a little dubious.

"Do you want me to boost you back there?"

In theory, there's got to be a way to get in and out that isn't a hole in the roof. How did the squatters get in? Matt presses his mouth into a line and tries to listen for the sound of wind coming through - but all he hears is the wind howling above the roof.

There's probably a window that's unlocked. Better to go to the roof.

"I'm fine." Because isn't Matt always fine? He steps on a pew and reaches up to the support beams. Finding one that feels more sound than the others, but when he pulls himself up, with the intention of swinging up to get through, it cracks under the pressure and he drops back to his feet.

"Fine. Get over here."

Danny stands, watching him with a hard frown. Secure in the fact that Matt can't hear the frown, so he doesn't have to try so hard to hide it.

When his partner's attempt to scramble back up fail he finally steps over, moving around the debris left behind from his graceful entry, though instead of offering Matt a way up, he reaches to take his hand.

"Hey." he lets his voice soften, running his hand up the thick fabric of the other man's sleeve. "Come on man, you've been like this all night."

Matt's head tilts a little, turned in the direction of Danny's voice. He's glad that the mask covers most of his face, that all Danny can see is the lower half, because expressions are harder to read that way. Or so Matt's been told.

He doesn't want to say that it's hard to try and rebuild things with Danny. They'd had their moments, sure, but it's not the same. Matt is pretty sure that things won't ever quite be the same, and that's his fault, but that doesn't mean he likes to face it.

"It's nothing." Sometimes people just have bad days. Hopefully Danny leaves it at that.

Danny doesn't just let things go though, which is more than half the reason they're still partners despite everything, even though no, it isn't quite the same. No amount of tape or glue in the world was really going to fix what had been broken.

He sets his jaw and peers upward again, at the falling snow and night sky. "Did I do something?" Not that he wants to push, but sometimes it takes a little.

"No." And that's the truth, at least. Danny's never done anything. But this isn't really a good time to say it's not you, it's me.

But the pointlessness of the outing also doesn't make Matt feel that great. He thinks about other things he could be doing, thinks about what made him come out here. The answer, is of course, Danny. Matt realizes he's not really doing anything to help. The worse he is, the bigger that rift between them is going to get.

"I'm not having a good day." Work is pretty shitty right now. At least Matt has that to use as an excuse.

He finally nods slowly, making a soft sound in the back of his throat before he moves to shift his stance and offer his hands out, fingers laced together so Matt has a place to put his boot. He doesn't quite have the strength Luke does for this sort of thing, but he can probably get Matt back to that hole in the roof with little trouble.

All right, then. Matt chalks that up to another loss and that doesn't do anything to improve his mood.

He presses a hand to Danny's shoulder for balance, and, yes, he's heavier but this way he can help Danny up after. Anyway, he doesn't need a big boost. The lift he gets is enough to let him get his grip on the edge of the hole, and, fortunately, it's strong enough that he can pull himself through, messing up the fine layer of snow. Matt turns around to reach down, offering his hand to help pull his partner out.

"I lost a big case," he explains, because Danny likes that, right? He likes when Matt opens up. "I was too arrogant. I can't get it out of my head."

He lingers for a moment, even while Matt waits with his hand down for him, and it's enough of a distance that he has to back up a few steps to give himself some leverage to jump and catch his friend's hand, pulling himself up to grip the rafter so he can bat Matt go and climb up the rest of the way on his own.

"I didn't know you were working on a big case." He finally says, sitting on the edge of the opening where there's a sturdy support beam, not minding in the least that it leaves him sitting in the snow.

"I'm a lawyer. I figured you probably didn't want to hear about it every time I had a new client." Sometimes he tells Danny, especially if it requires a little night work, but for the most part it doesn't seem important.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm pushing for an appeal but who knows how long that can take."

"Aw Matty it does matter, I've had you out with me all week cleaning this up-- you could have been working on your case. I didn't even think." This time he can't hide the frown in his voice.

He shouldn't have pestered him so much to come along. "Sorry man, I got this-- you gotta focus on the important stuff." Like his real life, for one, the one he'd tried so hard to salvage and now Danny was going to ruin it for him all over again.

"It wasn't because of this," Matt says, quick to say it because he can hear it in Danny's voice and regret only suits one of them. "I thought I had it in the bag. They found a loophole that I didn't think they would. That's my fault."

Matt tries to crack a smile. He doesn't want Danny to feel upset. "This is good. It gives me something else to focus on."

He doesn't really believe that humoring smile, but Matt's just as good at pretending as he is, so Danny doesn't say anything about it, just curls his fingers in the snow and lets his legs hang down from the jagged opening in the roof.

"Tell me at least, so I don't distract you." He feels like he asks this too much, always wheedling at Matt to open up to him, to ask him for help or tell him when things were wrong. Though he could always kind of tell Matt was reluctant to do so.

"You've never been a distraction."

Danny had always motivated Matt, if anything else. Or made Matt at least feel like he could be a better person, or do better things. He was at his best with Danny. Things had just gotten out of hand.

"It's too cold out here."

Danny huffs out a little laugh, breath rising up in the cold air as if to prove just how right Matt was.

"I guess it is." He moves to stand again, a little more careful now that he knows the roof is weaker in places, reaching to touch Matt's cheek. His palm is damp from the melted snow, but still surprisingly warm despite it.

"Go on home, Matty."

He reaches for Danny, maybe under the guise of keeping him from falling through the roof again, but drops his hand. He does turn his head, nosing into Danny's palm despite the hard edge of his mask.

"Do you want to go for dinner some time?"

"Maybe." He smiles, ducking his head a little. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"If you think we're at a good point for a date."

Matt's not sure. They didn't do this the first time around. He's just trying to show Danny that he's serious, though it's hard to look serious when Danny's obvious smile makes him smile, too.

"Or we could just be friends. Or we don't have to do anything at all."

He touches his fingers against Matt's lips to hush him before he gets another 'or' in.

"We can have dinner, I know a few places you might like." As if he hadn't taken Matt out before and knew all of the other man's favorites.

"When are you free?"

Matt doesn't really care where they go. They could end up eating burgers somewhere and he'd be just fine with that.

"Tomorrow, next week, next month, whenever you call me, I'll make the time." He lets his hand drop, resting against the armored plate across Matt's chest.

"But not tonight. Tonight you should go home and take a hot shower and not worry about court cases or old churches or turf wars."

Matt figures, well, he's maybe on a lucky roll so ...

"Can I give you a kiss good night? Just here." He presses a gloved hand to Danny's face, brushing a thumb across his cheek.

He chuckles again, tipping his head against the rough pads of Matt's glove. And maybe he's been shying away from more than a little affection. Or maybe that's why every time he meets up or tags along with Matt they're in costume.

But. "I don't think it could hurt."

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