Different Shirts
Fandom: Sports Night
Pairing: Dan/Natalie
Rating: PG
Word Count: 744
Notes: For Christine’s first line drabble meme
He watched her through half-closed lids as she walked into the bedroom wearing an over-sized t-shirt. “Thief,” he muttered sleepily, any rancour that might have been in his tone belied by the smile on his lips.
“You want me to take it off?” Natalie teased, crossing to the mirror as she rubbed a towel over her hair, examining with a critical eye how the shirt fell to just above her knees, the faded Baltimore Ravens logo across her mid-section. “Cause I gotta tell you Danny, I think it looks better on me…”
“No argument here,” came the reply she was expecting. “Though if you want to take it off…”
Grinning, Natalie shook her head, damp tendrils of hair flying back and forth. “Nah,” she said. “I like it.”
Dan’s smirk, although tired, was nothing short of salacious, but despite the words, the intent behind them, she knew he’d be asleep by the time she finished brushing her hair. She’d found him asleep on his office couch before they went home that night, and he’d hardly said two words on the way home, most unlike Dan. He did, however, have enough energy to assure her, “So do I,” before his breathing deepened and evened out, sure signs that he’d fallen asleep.
Shaking her head fondly, Natalie returned her gaze to the mirror, taking in both the shirt she was wearing and the smile on her face, and she wondered anew at how things had changed.
This time last year, she was in another man’s bedroom, in another man’s clothes: white dress shirt, blindingly white material, the equally pristine collar stiff against her neck.
This shirt is faded grey cotton, well worn and well washed, falling in soft folds against her skin, comfortable and wonderfully warm, trapping the heat of her body, returning it tenfold.
Different shirts for different men, she thinks.
She loved dressing up in those high heels, but after a while, they began to pinch. And while dress shirts looked good, felt good, they were a lot of effort to maintain. She’d loved Jeremy, loved him more than she’d ever loved any man, but eventually they’d had to admit that they just weren’t suited for one another.
Dan was different. Friends first, they’d fallen into dating without even being aware that that was what they were doing, and it had only been the looks and questions from their friends that had made them assess their behaviour, realise that somewhere – neither of them knew where – their feelings had changed, matured into something more precious than either of them had ever experienced before. It had surprised the hell out of Natalie, because her love life up until then comprised of jerks and Jeremy, men who had pulled her this way and that until she was dizzy. She’d thought that love had to be complicated, had never known that it could be as easy and comfortable as a faded old t-shirt.
“Nat? You ok?”
Dan’s sleepy voice made her jump, and she realised that she’d lost track of time, had just been standing there, staring off into space. “I’m fine,” she told him, dropping her hairbrush onto the dresser as she turned to face him. “Just thinking.”
He nodded, rolling over onto his side, lifting up the covers. “Come to bed,” he mumbled. “It’s lonely over here.”
“Well, we can’t have that now, can we?” she teased, crossing the room and climbing in beside him. Once there, his fingers found the hem of the t-shirt, his intentions obvious, and she surprised herself, and him, by shaking her head. “No… I like it on.”
He blinked, eyes very awake suddenly, but he didn’t argue with her, especially not when she pressed herself against him, laying her head on his shoulder. “OK…” was all he said, and she shrugged with one shoulder.
“I like it on,” she repeated, feeling vaguely silly for making a thing out of it, feeling something else entirely when his hands smoothed down the material, lingering around her hips, his thumbs making sweeping strokes there.
“I like it on you,” he whispered against her hair, and she smiled, completely relaxed.
“Well, that’s good then,” she told him. “Now, go to sleep.”
He chuckled, but he didn’t have to be told twice, was asleep in seconds, his chest rising and falling steadily under her ear.
Natalie would have taken the time to study him, to savour the moment, but seconds later, she was asleep too.