Archive of Our Own

Danny hasn’t always been The Daniel Ocean people know now. Daniel Ocean isn’t even his name, really, it’s a persona he’s had to built up, but very few people know that. It’s the name he gave himself at seventeen, when he took his sister, who wasn’t really his sister and ran.

When all you’ve known from your parents is a life of crime, you don’t just know crime intimately, but also CPS.

However, at eighteen they stop looking for you, but not for the girl you ran with. The girl they think you took out of more than brotherly love.

So he tells her his name is Danny Ocean now and she is free to take that name as well. Debbie Ocean, he picked his first name to match hers, the last because they both have always wanted to see the sea. And he gives her a kiss on the forehead and makes her promise to come look for him once she’s out the system.

He gets on the bus to Vegas and tries not to look back to see her waving at him form the bus stop, afraid he won’t be able to let go.

‘Vegas is a thief’s paradise’ he’s heard it often enough from his dad and with the skills he has, he manages just fine for himself that first year.

By the time he’s nineteen, Las Vegas’ pockets and tourists are his bitch and he is dreaming of bigger things, which is never the best combination. He knows that hustling a casino is beyond his level right now, but Las Vegas is full of other businesses ready for a con, or a heist. Though not a lot can be a one man show.

Still, Danny gets good at talking himself into the hotel rooms of wealthy ladies or convincing museums he’s just an interested student from the local college.

Life is good and Daniel Ocean is a rising name.

It’s a year later, when he’s on one of his cons, that he runs into Rusty, quite literally. He is exiting a hotel, having freed a lovely woman of her jewelry when a running kid bowls him over – the kid is, granted, not much younger than Danny is, but Danny is presenting himself as mature, so kid it is – and both go flying to the ground in a blur of red and black.

“Shit,” he hears the kid curse as he scrambles up and with the commotion in the background, it isn’t difficult to recognize a foot chase.

Without thinking Danny hauls the kid to his feet and pushes him to an alley, saying: “Take a right, bakery will hide you,” before he clutches his arm and starts yelling: “That punk hit me! Hey, officer, officer, I’d like to make a report.”

Danny knows it’s stupid to engage with the police after a successful getaway, but he’s been there and it’s a bit of an honor thing, like a thief’s code. The police aren’t happy with his yelling, so he takes just long enough to let the kid get away, before he goes: “Alright, alright, I’ll take it to the station,” watching in amusement as the officers go the wrong way.

He then walks the other direction, taking the long way around, wondering if the kid heeded his advice or if he’ll be gone when he gets to the bakery.

When he gets there, he sees a red shirt, then he recognizes the flash of blonde he’d seen. The kid has a lithe physique and a thin face, the blonde doesn’t seem dyed and it’s a bit unruly. He now also notices that the red shirt is a salsa shirt.

He sighs.

Then he makes his way over to the kid, who is eating a chocolate cookie, not at all looking like he has just escaped the cops. Danny drops in the seat next to him and says: “Not a very inconspicuous outfit, now is it.”

“It’s Vegas, you can be naked and still inconspicuous,” the kid shoots back as he leans back in his chair. “What isn’t inconspicuous is helping random people get away from the cops. What do you want?”

Ah, the healthy mistrust of someone who walks on the other side of the law. Danny shrugs, then smirks: “Call it honor amongst thieves.”

The kid gives him a scrutinizing look. Danny doesn’t really blame him, in his suit he doesn’t look much like a thief, which had been exactly the point of the outfit. He rolls his eyes and lifts his jacket, showing a pocket of jewelry. The display makes the kid grin.

“Rusty,” the kid holds out his hand in introduction, though Danny is pretty sure it’s not his real name.

“Danny, Danny Ocean,” he shakes the hand, giving the name he picked for himself. For the first time, introducing himself with it doesn’t make him feel like a fraud.

“Well, thanks for the assist, Mr. Ocean,” Rusty tells him. “I would say I didn’t need it, but I think I’d be rocking a pair of stylish handcuffs, if you hadn’t distracted them.”

“No problem and please, if you call me Mr. Ocean, I’m gonna cry,” Danny says. “I’m just twenty, you know.”

That earns him another scrutinizing look from Rusty, who makes a face as he goes: “Huh. Really?”

“Yes, really,” Danny says, a bit annoyed. “But looking twenty doesn’t get you invited into fancy hotel rooms.”

“Ah, a conman,” Rusty smirks, as if somehow being a pickpocket is better.

Danny holds up the wallet Rusty had stolen and says: “I like to say jack of all trades.”

Rusty snatches the wallet back, sending him a glare, before checking its contents. Nothing is missing. He huffs: “Whatever. It’s only temporary anyway.”

And that sounds like a lie. Danny raises a brow and asks: “How so? Looked to me like it wasn’t your first rodeo.”

“Just a few more months,” Rusty shrugs, looking away in a manner that doesn’t say liar, but more not bearing to look at someone as you tell them something. “I almost have enough for a car and when I’m eighteen, I’m out of this joint.”

God, only seventeen. Sure, Danny called him kid in his head and, sure, he’d known immediately that Rusty’s life isn’t sunflowers and rainbows, much like his own at that age, but that doesn’t make it any easier to see on someone else.

He’s reminded of Debbie, still in another city. She was his right hand when needed, no one suspected a little girl to have such clever and sticky fingers and she knew how to play the clueless kid act well.

She also relied on him. He helped.

“While I respect pickpocketing as a viable career, no matter how temporary, there are some cons made for two,” Danny finds himself offering. “I can give you my contact information, maybe we can help each other out sometime?”

Rusty eyes him suspiciously, but Danny is used to ignoring that as he scribbles down his number on a napkin he stole from the hotel he’d just been at.

Despite his suspicion, Rusty takes the napkin. He finishes his cookie and claps him on the back, thanking him for the save, before leaving Danny to pay for his treat. If he’s honest, he’s not even that mad about it.

Then he doesn’t hear from Rusty for months. He thinks it was a fluke that the kid turned eighteen and skipped town like said he would. That’s okay, Danny doesn’t mind, he has moved into casino’s and onto more elaborate cons, being more wealthy for it.

So, he’s quite surprised when he picks up the phone one morning and hears his voice. “Hey, I don’t know if you remember me. It’s Rusty. Is this Danny? Danny Ocean?”

“Yeah, that’s me and I remember you,” Danny replies. “To what do I owe the honor?”

“I just nearly got cheated out of all my money,” Rusty tells him. “Some guy bought me breakfast and gave me some cryptic advise about getting backup before fucking off, thought I might try and listen to my elders for a change.”

At this point Danny hasn’t met Reuben yet and it would be about a year and half before he does, then five more before he and Rusty realize they both know him.

“I’m not old,” Danny points out.

“But you are older,” Rusty shoots back. “So, you got a job?”

Danny remembers the rich asshole with a painting collection that he’s been eyeing, but hasn’t been able to get close to alone and smirks. “Yeah, I have something in mind.”

“Great, because my dad kicked me out and I don’t have enough for a motel right now,” Rusty tells him cheerfully, though Danny hears the undercurrent when he talks about his father clearly. “I’ve been told that the leader is responsible for accommodation.”

At that, Danny rolls his eyes, but any father that has his son pickpocketing just to get away, is bad news and his small apartment is quite lonely anyway. Maybe a roommate will be fun. Still, he doesn’t let that show, but instead sighs: “Just meet me at the bakery again.”

“Alright,” Rusty says. “See you there,” then hangs up.

When he gets to the bakery Rusty is already there, looking more pathetic than last time. He’s dressed nicely enough for a casino, even though his dress shirt is purple of all things, but he’s even thinner as he again eats a cookie. There are bruises under his eyes from lack of sleep and his lip is split. He smiles and waves when he sees Danny, greeting him with: “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Hi, before we get into business, I need to know what happened,” Danny says, sitting down. This will be the first time he’s run something with someone else and he wants it to run smoothly. He doesn’t admit to himself that he’s worried about Rusty.

Rusty gives him a surprise look that quickly morphs into something petulant as he looks away. “It’s none of your business,” he bites.

“It is,” Danny counters, “because it’s not just going to be your ass, but mine as well. And if there is shit and the police know about it, then I need to know about it.”

“Then don’t worry,” Rusty laughs bitterly. “The police are clueless. Dad would kill himself before involving a cop.”

“Rusty,” Danny warns, unsure if he even has the authority to ask. It isn’t like volunteering information is common in this business. So, he backtracks a bit: “I just want to know if someone is going to drive by my apartment and shoot you. Or me, for keeping you there.”

The fact that Rusty seriously thinks about it for a moment is slightly worrying, but then he shakes his head. “Nah, we’ll be fine.”

“Alright,” Danny decides not to push, then says, “How do you feel about being a hotshot painter right out of art school?”

Rusty grins. “I think I can work with that.”

“Good. Now, finish your cookie, we need to get to work,” Danny says. “Hope you have all your stuff nearby.”

“All’s in my car which is parked a bit off in a place that is technically not illegal,” Rusty tells him, stuffing the last bit of his cookie in his mouth.

Briefly Danny wonders what the hell he’s gotten himself into. Then he smiles and claps Rusty on his back as he drops a few bills on the table, before he walks out, not looking back to check if Rusty follows. He’s pulled enough cons to know that you don’t look back.

Sure enough, Rusty is there next to him when he’s outside. Rusty starts walking in a direction and Danny follows Rusty. They end up in front of the most beat up red convertible he has ever seen. He turns to Rusty and raises a brow, unable to help himself. “Really?”

“I don’t see your car,” Rusty shoots back immediately, mildly offended.

“I get cars that fit the con,” Danny tells him. “And my car broke down yesterday.”

“Hah,” Rusty laughs, getting behind the wheel. He leans over to the passenger side, where Danny is still standing and smirks. “Tell you what, you give me a roof, I give you a ride for free until you’ve got your car back.”

Danny rolls his eyes, but gets into the car anyway. “Really? Just until I get my car back? Then I have to pay? Kinda rude, taxi-man.”

Rusty laughs, head thrown back, as he speeds away from the curb and Danny feels like this is going to be the start of something, though he doesn’t know what yet.

Getting to the apartment, the confident Rusty becomes a bit more muted. Danny has gathered some things about Rusty’s home life, things he knows from himself. So, he doesn’t try and acknowledge what Rusty doesn’t want to talk about. Instead he toes off his shoes, flops down on a chair and goes: “Rules: no parties thrown here, try picking up after yourself and wash your dishes after you’ve used them. Do that and you’re solid.”

Having rules is a way to know what’s expected and it puts Rusty more at ease, sliding into the chair opposite of him as he looks around.

The apartment isn’t big. Danny could afford better, but that would be more suspicious on paper for the name that he used. There is a bathroom, a kichen-livingroom and two bedrooms, though one has become more his planning room.

Rusty inspects it all carefully, face giving away nothing. Danny can already see the beginnings of a great conman. He doesn’t comment on anything in the apartment, instead asking: “So, what’s the con?”

“I haven’t worked out all the details yet,” Danny answers, getting up to grab the blueprints, “but we have a target and a plan.”

“Well, then you’re in luck,” Rusty grins, suave confident act coming back. “I have a great eye for detail.”

Internally Danny thinks, ‘seeing is believing,’ but he launches into his explanation without a comment about it.

It’s a simple con, Danny goes in convinces the guy Rusty is the newest, hottest and best painter there is. Guy will want a painting from Rusty, Rusty plays the peculiar artist that wants to paint something personal and deep, getting into the guy’s home. They get all they need to get in and take a few paintings.

Danny deliberately chose a guy a town over so that they wouldn’t have to leave Vegas just yet.

As it turns out, Rusty’s confidence surrounding his eye for detail wasn’t unfounded. Where Danny sees big pictures and angles, Rusty sees patterns, moments, blue prints.

They make a pretty great team.

Danny finds himself actually liking the kid – I am not a kid, Mr. Ocean, don’t call me that again – and his habits. He’s not much of a snacker himself, but sharing chips that Rusty has squirreled away somewhere is nice. Rusty is also funny, their sense of humor aligning in a way that makes the waiting on the job bearable.

The job takes six weeks in total, in that time Rusty takes over his guestroom with gusto, claiming it’s to get into character. Rusty tells Danny he thinks they can pawn off the paintings to the guy that got him off the hook at El Rancho.

Danny hasn’t gotten his car fixed yet and waits outside a too expensive to be real house while Rusty rings the bell and gets let inside. He tries not to worry too much about the other, who had carved out a little place in his heart, and tries not to be hurt by Rusty telling him he looked too smooth to be trusted and it was better to go in alone.

An hour later Rusty returns outside with a grin so big it’s almost a con, yet on the edge of can’t be faked. He is holding the money for their paintings.

They ride that high together until the next morning when Danny finds Rusty looking at his room with the look of a guy about to get hung, holding a bag like he’s about to start packing. He startles when Danny asks: “What the hell are you doing?”

“I- uh.” Danny doesn’t think he’s ever seen Rusty stumble before, not even when they first met. “I mean, the con is over,” Rusty shrugs. “You’re not really responsible for accommodation anymore, now.”

And fucking hell, Rusty really thinks Danny is about to kick him out, like he didn’t have a blast these past few weeks, like the loneliness hadn’t been eating at him slightly, like he wouldn’t help someone going through a struggle he knew.

But Rusty is as prideful as he was, still is if he’s honest, so he’s not telling him that. He just crosses his arms and leans against the wall, saying: “And I was promised a free ride in exchange for a roof until I got my car back.”

It takes Rusty a moment to get the implication, before he’s grinning. He shakes his head, almost to himself, before he replies: “You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Ocean.”

Rusty stays. Danny doesn’t get his car fixed.

Over the course of a year they become a dynamic duo known in circles most citizens try to stay away from. The click they’ve had from the start morphs into a deep friendship where they literally finish each other’s sentences.

His apartment (more their apartment now) is under his birth name, but Rusty never mentions that he knows it. Just like Danny never calls him Robert, because he knows how Rusty hates it, how he always remembers his father bellowing that name angrily.

They’re two misfits that fit together. They don’t run all their cons together, but they’ll offer input and are always ready to jump in, should it be necessary.

Rusty’s father gets arrested and Rusty sheds the last bit of weight, finally accepting Vegas as a playground instead of a game of hide and seek.

It’s also in that year that Danny meets Reuben. Reuben recognizes him from the car after the very first con he pulled with Rusty, though he doesn’t mention it. He strokes his ego by telling him he’s heard of him and cons him into taking a few goddamned lessons or he’s going to get caught before he knows it.

First thing he teaches Danny how to spot when he’s being conned.

He never mentions that he also knows Rusty, just refers to him as ‘ya little partner’ while training them both separately. He can already see their potential and is ready to pawn them off.

“I can get you on a crew in a job outside Las Vegas. Having a city is great, but if you don’t want to get caught, you have to keep moving,” he tells Danny.

“And how do I know which types I can trust?” Danny shoots back. “I have my man here, there’s a lot of backstabbing in this world.”

“I’ll get you ya first job with another crew,” Reuben promises him. “All trustworthy types. You can even take ya little partner with you,” like he hadn’t already planned on sending Rusty right along with Danny. Honestly, he thought he taught the kid better.

“Alright,” Danny agrees, it is time to leave anyway. “But we’re pulling one last job here before that, we can contact you once we’re gone.”

And that is a deal.

Danny comes home to their apartment that evening and announces: “Start packing, Rus. We’re pulling that bank job and skipping town.”

Rusty puts down the pizza he was about to put in his mouth and quirks a brow. “I thought-”

“I know.”

“But then why-”

“Things changes. So you-”

“Of course.” And like that they’re in.

Rusty still wants to know why suddenly Danny changed his mind about leaving town when Rusty has always been pro-leaving and Danny kept them there. So, Danny tells Rusty about Debbie. The first and only person he tells. Tess will never even know he has a sister, even as she takes the last name Danny made up for Debbie. Yet another lie in their marriage.

“I told her I’d be in Vegas,” he says. “That I’d wait there for her when she got out. She is nineteen now, like you. She could have found me. It’s hard, but not impossible to find Danny Ocean in a city like this and she knew who to ask. I don’t think she’s coming.”

“Another Ocean,” Rusty whistles. “Her loss, though. And if she knows who to ask, she knows how to find you somewhere else, right?”

“Exactly,” Danny agrees. “So, one last hurrah in Vegas.”

“And then we blow this joint,” Rusty grins the grin Danny now knows is real. Never seen it on a con and it’s his favourite because of it.

So, they rob a bank, a proper heist that has their blood pumping, as they drive West, out of the desert in Rusty’s crappy car. They have to ditch it, a sad goodbye, before boosting a nicer car and driving it across state line until they dump it and crash at a hotel.

Danny calls Reuben in the morning, who sends them over to LA, where they meet Saul. Now, Saul is a big name, just over 60 and running cons since he was a youngster. There is no bigger name than Saul and Saul can teach them all the grifting tricks Reuben couldn’t.

When Reuben called Saul to send them his way, he had said: “We’re creating monsters together, Saul, it’s always good to have a monster owe ya.”

The two take their life of crime to another level with Saul and his crew. They become city hoppers, making cons so elaborate that they have to skip town after. No more week to month build up, but months of prep with bigger pay.

It’s also the first time they scatter after a con.

At that point Danny and Rusty have been running together for two years, so it’s strange to get into different cars after a job. Weird to not see each other everyday. But they get used to it, it’s part of the life and both know they’ll see each other again in weeks or months, if it was a big and rough con.

While they’re apart, Rusty has sex with another guy for the first time. It’s something he has always known about himself and never acted on. He doesn’t tell Danny, one of the few secrets between them.

Danny meets Frank Catton when trying to gave a break after a big heist. He’s in Atlantic City – gambling and hustling a bit, granted, but that’s minor leagues now – when the dealer at the table tries to turn it back on him.

He gives the guy, who is a few years older than him, curious eyes and a raised brow, indicating that he is seeing his play. In turn, the man who’s name tag reads Frank, winks at him and smirks, before taking his chips back for the house.

Later, Frank will slide into his bar and hand him a few chips. When Danny asks: “Why?” Frank smiles mysteriously: “Because the house always wins, but the house don’t always watch their winnings.”

“You pulling a con on a casino?” Danny asks, a bit surprised and impressed.

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Frank informs him. “Especially not to people without a name.”

“Danny,” Danny holds out his hand, because he is intrigued now. “Danny Ocean.”

“Really? Danny Ocean.” Apparently Danny is not the only one who is intrigued, because Danny is becoming a name – working under Saul, being recommended by Reuben, with a lot of wins and no arrests under his name – that is pretty impressive.

“Sure am,” Danny smirks, this is the first time his name has gotten that reaction.

Together they make the pockets of the casino a bit lighter and when they need an extra man next time, Danny has someone to call.

Of course, they don’t just run with Saul, they do for a while, but then they branch out. Danny and Rusty are still a perfect planning team and with Frank as an extra man and Saul with a lot of recommendations if necessary, they make the USA unsafe for any good Samaritan.

Slowly they garner more arrests, though no convictions, as their heists and cons get so elaborate that they have to leave the country for the first time.

Frank relaxes in Dubai, Danny enjoys Italy, while Rusty decides to see what England is all about.

When they all return to the USA for a new job, Rusty shows up with another guy, grinning at Danny as he take the lollipop out his mouth and says: “Remember-”

“You didn’t,” Danny immediately catches on.

“Oh yeah,” Rusty nods and sucks on the lollipop again.

“Oi, what the ‘ell are you lot goin’ on about?” the guy asks as Frank shakes his head: “You’ll get used to that. I’m Frank Catton.”

“Basher Tarr,” Basher introduces himself.

The newest addition to their little crew, which is gaining a name as they soak themselves loose from Saul. He’s still a friend and mentor and they’ll come when called and vise versa, but you don’t get big by doing to same over and over again. And Danny and Rusty have decided long ago, they’re going to be the biggest.

Rusty has just turned 24, something he and Danny celebrated together by freeing a few artifacts from a museum when Rusty meets Debbie Ocean.

She shows up at a safe house where they’re lying low after the birthday job, reminiscent of old times in Vegas, a place they haven’t been much in the past five years. And it’s Rusty that opens the door for her.

“You Rusty Ryan?” she asks, quirking a brow, not looking very impressed.

Meanwhile, Rusty is trying to figure out how a cop could have found them and why she isn’t arresting him right then and there and why the hell she isn’t more impressed with him. He leans against the door frame, hoping that Danny will have the time to jump out of the window so that he can come bust him out later, as he replies: “Depends on who’s asking.”

“Debbie. Debbie Ocean,” she answers and Rusty knows that if he didn’t have such a good poker face, he’d be picking his jaw up from the floor.

“Well, then, come in,” he lets her pass and grabs his bag of chips as he yells: “Danny, you have a visitor.”

“Who the hell is visiting me here?” Danny asks, as he comes walking into the room, stopping when he sees Debbie. For a second his poker face falls away and his eyes grow wide with surprise, delight and a bit of hurt. He looks younger than Rusty knows him, before the walls close up again and he asks: “How did you find me?”

“Reuben send me your way,” Debbie says. So, she’s been through Vegas to find him, where he’d promised to be.

“You know Reuben?” Rusty turns to him and the surprise doesn’t sound like a con.

“Wait, you know Reuben too?” Danny shoots back. “How do you know Reuben?”

“He’s the guy we sold the painting too after our first job,” Rusty tells him. “We went to his house together, how did you not tell me you knew him too.”

“He had moved by then,” Danny answers.

“So he just-”

“I think he did.”

“That son of a bitch.” Rusty shakes his head, both of them sharing a look as they imagine Reuben having a laugh at their expense, waiting for them to figure it out. “He probably has a bet going with Saul.”

“Oh, totally,” Danny agrees and Rusty is glad the tension has left his shoulders when he turns back to Debbie, who has been watching them with bemused eyes. “But you know Reuben?”

“I do,” Debbie nods. “He’s the one you ask when you want to find someone it our circles in Vegas, though I can’t call this Vegas exactly.”

Rusty wants to defend Danny, but he knows it’s not his place, so he drops on the couch and keeps to the background as he eats his chips.

Danny rubs his forehead, then goes: “I waited for you. You were nineteen when I skipped town and you had never contacted me. Why didn’t you come find me?”

“Because I knew exactly what sort of life you were living,” Debbie tells him. “Because I had a boyfriend and I thought I was going to settle down and live a normal life. That didn’t work out for me, obviously. And Debbie Ocean tends to open different doors as a name than Debbie Smith.”

“You had a boyfriend?”

“Really? Immediately jumping on the protective brother train?”

“I’m allowed to asks after you never came. What sort of boy would keep you away?”

“One I dumped, because I know better now. His life and my life, not compatible. But even if you were there, I wouldn’t have asked you.”

“Why not,” Danny sounds truly hurt by that.

“Because you have no taste, Danny,” Debbie tells him, sounding very kind for the insult she just delivered and Rusty can’t help but snort as he says: “I like her.”

Danny looks between them a suspicious look coming on his face as he does. Then he points at them both before going: “No, nu-uh, I see what’s happening here and I say no. You two are not allowed to team up on me.”

“Why not?” Rusty asks, just to be a dick.

“Yeah, isn’t it nice when people you love get along,” Debbie adds and Rusty laughs, head thrown back ignoring a weird feeling in his chest.

“I hate you both,” Danny informs her.

“Come on, Danny,” Rusty grins. “We can work with her, it’ll be fun. We have that job.”

“No, absolutely not.”

“Oh no, that is a hell yeah.” Rusty turns back to Debbie, before Danny can stop him and asks: “How do you feel about playing a dead girl?”

“You guys pulling a Cuban Sandwich somewhere?” she immediately replies. “Sick.”

Rusty turns back to Danny, who is still glaring at them both. Luckily for Debbie, Rusty has learned all Danny’s buttons and how to push them. “Come on, Danny. You know it’ll be fun. It’s a simple con and then you guys can catch up. Besides, I’d love to get to know more about awkward teen Danny. You wouldn’t deprive me of that, would you?”

“Why would I not?” Danny asks. “I don’t need you to have more ammo against me.”

“But you know awkward teen Rusty,” Rusty points out. “Besides, Reuben wouldn't have send her here unless he thought it was a good idea. You know Reuben is rarely wrong.”

He knows by the look on Danny’s face that he has him, but Danny can’t just let him get away with all of that without repercussions. Balance must be maintained. “You’re right, Reuben isn’t just wrong. He used to call you my little partner, you know.”

“No, he didn’t.”

“Ask him.”

Rusty never does, because he’ll know what the answer will be. Instead, he huffs and refocuses the attention on Debbie.

The heist the three of them pull is great. It’s good fun and good money. When they part ways, both Danny and Debbie, as well as Rusty, have each other’s numbers and ways to contact them. It’s always good to have people to call and Rusty can see how glad Danny is to have her back in his life.

Before she leaves, Danny says: “You don’t have to go. Me and Rusty have a pretty good gig going on, we can give you pointers, take you on jobs. Why are you going again?”

“I wanna make a name for myself,” she tells him. “I had a blast, but working with you will always mean I’m your sister. You know I don’t want to live in a shadow again.”

Rusty watches as Danny sighs, then pulls her into a hug. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he warns her seriously yet jokingly. “You know I’m not a good enough cook to make you cookies when you’re in the clink.”

Then they part ways and it’s just Danny and Rusty again. It’s a bit like an inevitability at this point, but Rusty doesn’t mind. It’s nice to have someone like Danny at his back and he can’t say he understands Debbie as he watches her leave.

It’s ‘89, a year later, that their life gets another upheaval. It’s surprising how one can get used to running from the cops and traveling the country – sometimes the world even – pulling heists that seem like they should be in a movie.

Surprising how the ordinary things can trip you up.

Rusty hangs up the phone and turns to Danny, who has a face like he already knows. Still, he needs to say it, needs to make it real. “My dad died.”

Danny takes a deep breath. He has never asked about Rusty’s dad, but you pick up on certain things and if the man hadn’t been in jail while they were still in Vegas (the only reason Danny had felt comfortable in staying a bit longer to wait for Debbie) then Danny would have ensured something had happened to the man.

But now he is dead.

He is dead and looking at Rusty, Danny can see he doesn’t know how to feel about it. It’s strange, their lives are built on confidence schemes, but now both are unsure about their next move, something that can get you killed or arrested in their line of work.

The silence drags on. It’s not the first weird silence between them, however, they always pick up on it and fill it immediately, so this is the first that drags on for longer than a second or two.

Danny then decides that something has to be done. His life is full of taking risks and doing the unexpected, so he opens his arms and pulls Rusty in. He holds him tightly, ignoring how Rusty stiffens before he relaxes, then starts to cry.

They’ve never been huggers. Neither of them. There are high fives, falling asleep in the same bed or on the couch together, they are claps on the back, arms thrown over shoulders, elbows brushing together as they walk, thighs flush as they sit, but never hugs.

He can’t say he hates the development, even if he hates how Rusty shakes, small sad sobs leaving him unsteady as he cries for a man that has haunted him for as long as he’ been alive.

Rusty’s emotions are all over the place. He feels as if he’s about to shake apart and only Danny’s strong arms are keeping him steady. He hates how he can’t seem to focus. How Danny feels safe. How he wants to disappear. How he hopes Danny will keep holding him.

If he weren’t so torn about the nightmare that had followed him for so long suddenly being gone, the confusion about being sad for the death he had wished for since before he could remember, something would have been knocked loose then.

Instead they go back to Vegas for the first time in six years. They don’t go to the funeral, Rusty doesn’t collect his inheritance. Instead they crash at Reuben’s, get shitfaced and laugh about Reuben fooling them for all those years, before agreeing to do him a favor that ends worse than it could – and should – have.

It feels more like coming home than expected.

After that it’s different in a good way. There are more easy touches, Danny steals fries from Rusty and Rusty lets him. They share rooms more, letting one bed get taken over by plans, crashing on the other.

They have a bond that can’t be broken. It’s deep and intimate in the way that most partnerships aren’t. The crews they run with are always surprised by their conversations that are never finished or inside jokes and comments that only they get.

There are rumors, of course, but not where either of them can hear. The world isn’t ready to acknowledge that sort of thing and if those two don’t say or show, then it’s not meant to be spoken off and they’ve got enough of a reputation that no one tries.

Basher and Frank know better, but they never correct anyone. They have eyes and while they won’t interfere, they won’t discourage either. Happiness is fickle in their line of work and if this works, they’re not going to be the ones that ruin it.

So, things move along as they have always have.

The year Danny turns 30 marks a decade of friendship. They celebrate by taking a few of their favorite pieces from the Louvre, not to sell, but to keep in the apartment they got together in their favourite country with the least extradition treaties. The place where they can go when things go wrong.

Rusty had been allowed to decorate, it feels a lot like their first place.

Sitting on the balcony in the sun, legs on the balustrade and wine glass in hand, Danny beside him as they laugh, Rusty feels on top of the world. He looks over at Danny, who is looking at him and he grins.

“This is-” he starts, not even bothering to finish.

“It is, Rus, it is,” Danny agrees, because he knows. Because Danny always knows and Rusty loves that about him, about them.

They’ve always had each other and they don’t need anyone else. They can take anyone they want and for the first time in a while Rusty starts to believe that Danny isn’t going anywhere, that this is permanent.

Naturally a year later it all falls apart, crumbles down around him. Though Rusty will never tell Danny that, finding himself dramatic, despite getting crushed.

It’s ‘92 and they’re in Chicago working a job. It’s an easy one, they claim they’re checking security, get all the entrances, access codes, etcetera and come back a little later to rob them blind. It’s surprising how little people check when you tell them you’re from the security company.

They’re in the bar of the hotel. The two are responsible for the con not the robbery, so the faces won’t be connected if seen. Their part is almost done and they’re having a drink when a pretty redhead slides into the seat next to Danny.

Rusty knows that Danny isn’t above indulging while on the job. Rusty has always rolled his eyes at him and played wingman. Waving Danny away when he asks why Rusty doesn’t, trying to ignore the shame of finding a man when they’ve scattered, as he lies to Danny that he is more professional than Danny is, the playful insult hiding the deceit.

The young woman is beyond beautiful and Rusty knows that if he swung for different team that he would be all over her. So, he is just waiting on Danny to make a move.

“What’s a lady like you doing in a place like this?” Danny smiles his most suave smile at her, buying her a drink. “Sorry, I’m Danny, I got a bit distracted by your beauty.”

“Oh, uhm, ah, I’m- I’m Tess,” she is flustered, but recovers bravely. “I’m an art curator,” she tells him. “Chicago is one of the biggest art cities in the USA.”

“Wow, you must see a lot of art then,” Danny replies impressed and Rusty frowns a bit at how genuine it sounds. “You have a favorite art movement?”

She lights up at the question and Danny uses all his knowledge from their many heists to wow her, instead of using his other tricks as Rusty listens along with a heavy feeling in his heart he can’t place.

By the time she leaves, Danny has a date and is looking all sorts of smug, while Rusty is trying to shake of the weird feeling. He jokes: “Well, congratulations on your job as security system inspector, Mr. Ocean. For however long that lasts at least.”

“I don’t know,” Danny muses, eyes still glued to her back as she disappears into the crowd. “Might last a while.”

It doesn’t help get rid of the weird feeling in Rusty’s chest at all. Instead, he is suddenly confronted with the idea that he could loose Danny to a girl just like that. The close bond he thought could never fade, usurped by Tess.

An ugly feeling burns in his chest.

Jealousy.

Rusty is surprised when he identifies the feeling. He always thought that wasn’t a feeling he felt, yet here he is. This random woman on a con brought it out where Debbie couldn’t, even though Debbie was the person Rusty prepared himself to feel jealous of.

She had always sounded like she was the most important person in Danny’s life and he could see how much they meant to each other when she returned. But Danny had never given her more attention than Rusty.

He never had with anyone.

Then it hits him that he has never felt jealousy before with Debbie or Danny’s other flings, because he never saw them as competition. Danny never saw girls as something more than temporary fun, while Debbie- fuck, Debbie just held a position he never wanted.

The latter hits him the hardest, because he had always known that he could never take Debbie’s place if she came back. He and Danny had always been partners and that sibling sense had just never grown between them. Loving Debbie is for Danny like loving Vegas, a love born of history, forcibly maintained, because he wouldn’t be him without it.

She might be his sister, but deep down Rusty has always known that he is the most important person in Danny’s life. And that’s now suddenly at risk.

So, sitting there at the bar in a hotel somewhere in a city that is like a hundred others, Rusty is unexpectedly confronted with the fact that he is in love with his best friend. A friend, who for the first time hasn’t noticed the weird silence that fell between them, because he’s busy with a girl they have just met.

There Rusty realizes he is probably fucked in the worst way.

He hasn’t even dared to tell Danny he’s gay and if he does now, Danny will look back and piece together all the pieces Rusty is only just seeing and figure out that Rusty is not only gay, but also in love with him.

Rusty decides that Danny can never know, that this must be pushed down and far away out of reach of their friendship. He can’t loose Danny.

A Danny, who is far away, imaging life with Tess, who seems smart and kind and all Danny dreamed about having growing up. She is the epitome of normal and Danny wants a touch of that life, a bit of the world he has always drifted alongside of, but never integrated into. Not noticing Rusty having a minor breakdown next to him.

Still, Rusty is a professional conman, so he puts on his best poker face, not sure he’s happy that Danny is too distracted to notice it, and pulls of the con without a hitch.

After they’re done, Danny tells Rusty he’s sticking around a bit longer and Rusty tries not to let it show that he hates that idea as he makes a crack about not having to worry Danny will die of blue balls between now and the next con, because there has to be a next con.

And there is, Danny doesn’t suddenly drop out of the game to play the best boyfriend Rusty has ever seen (information he wishes he didn’t have). But over the next two years his numbers go down as he loves and deceives Tess.

Meanwhile Rusty throws himself into work. Reuben and Saul both give him suspicious looks, but they’re in the game long enough not to ask. Does that until he has his emotions under control and he isn’t throwing himself into the gay scene with a fervor that makes it seem like love can get fucked away.

He gets a tattoo, a small piece that Danny doesn’t know intimately.

It doesn’t help.

It’s strange to have to share Danny’s time and attention, but he can’t be too mad about it, because Tess is literally perfect. She’s kind, attentive and successful, not to mention beautiful. She shouldn’t be real with how perfect she is and Rusty hates himself over the fact that he comforts himself that only he knows the real Danny.

That he knows the name his parents gave him. That he knows he has a sister, even if she isn’t a sister. That he knows the business trips aren’t just business. That Danny has more friends than Tess can ever know. That only Rusty can make him snort undignified. That they have an apartment together they can run to. That she can’t finish his sentences. That there are bits of Danny that only exist for Rusty.

He doesn’t date anymore, can’t get over Danny. Danny who still runs the smoothest jobs with him, who will smile that specific smile, who unknowingly gives Rusty enough to fan the flame that has been burning for years now.

1994 and the criminal world is shocked with the news that Danny Ocean is getting married to a normal oblivious girl.

Rusty makes it through the wedding, nearly blackout drunk, though he makes sure to hide it as he stuffs his face with wedding food, before dragging Frank to Europe for a half thought-out con that wouldn’t have gone the way it did if Danny had been there.

Frank smartly runs, Rusty stays and tries to make the connection with a cop of all people, as if he can ever love a woman, love someone other than Danny. Still, he tries to convince himself that his heart isn’t traipsing around America with an easy smirk, a sharp suit and a thousand lies.

He clings to Isabel as if she can be his answers and brags to Danny over the phone as he stays away, because the phone doesn’t show the tears in his eyes.

When he has to run, he doesn’t feel heartbreak, but lets Danny take him on a heartbreak recovery heist and pretends it’s ‘91 again and neither have heard the name Tess.

And for a while they live on like that.

Danny doesn’t do as many jobs and plays house with Tess. Rusty fills his life with work, clinging to the jobs they still do together. His attempts to move on are futile and he begins to come to terms with the fact that he’s only ever going to have a friendship, but that the friendship will never leave. That he will always be important to Danny.

However, even perfect can crack and after five years together, three of marriage, Tess notices the lies Danny can never explain without it all falling down like dominoes.

Rusty tries to hate himself for how relieved he is.

He does hate himself for it when Danny falls apart alongside his marriage. He never wanted to see his friend like that and Danny is off his game, pulling a heist alone. He asks Rusty to help move the masks and Rusty says no, tells him to dump them and not be an idiot.

Danny doesn’t listen to Rusty and for the first time Daniel Ocean is arrested and convicted for his crimes.

If Rusty thought having to share with Tess was a lot, not having Danny at all nearly breaks him and he has no one to turn to about it.

Homophobia is growing and Rusty doesn’t know anyone safe. The only person he might trust is Danny, but Danny is away and Rusty has to wait four years before he can see him again, only having letters that are highly regulated as a way to communicate.

He’s in the middle of a spiral. Harlem is the place to be if one wants to get lost in masses of bodies that mean nothing and alcohol that will make him forget. Suddenly he’s face to face with Debbie, who looks at him in his drunken skinny glory with pity and disappointment, before dragging him out of there as she tells him: “Danny will never forgive me, if you croak before he gets out.”

She forces him to eat a taco, the first time in a while he’s had a meal that isn’t bar peanuts, which should have been an indicator it has been getting out of hand.

Rusty feels exposed in his leather pants, with just a sheer top. He has never been able to say the word and suddenly he’s dragged out into the open of the New York sky along with his secrets and he doesn’t know what to do. Between bites he asks: “How did you find me?”

“It was a chance encounter actually,” Debbie informs him. “I’m taking a break.”

“You’re-” he doesn’t finish the sentence, unable to voice it.

“Yeah,” Debbie says easily, like she isn’t being crushed by shame or guilt and Rusty admires and envies her for it. The easy acceptance she has for herself.

“Oh,” is all he says, however. He can’t think of anything else as he wonders how life would be if he had the same courage. He might be a confidence man, but confidence and courage are very different things.

Debbie looks at him again and he suddenly feels like she’s seeing him for the first time again. Her eyes grow wide for a second, before they turn soft. They fill with understanding and pity, then she’s next to him, pulling him into her arms as she sighs: “God, Rusty.”

Nine years after the last time, Rusty falls apart in the arms of an Ocean.

In a shitty dinner in the middle of a shady part of New York, everything comes out. The years of yearning, the hurt of not being chosen, the shame of enjoying Danny’s touch and company without telling him, the loneliness now that Danny is away, the hollow aching that won’t leave.

And Debbie only listens, makes the right noises, drags him to her apartment, holds his bangs out his face as he pukes and tucks him in when he passes out.

The next morning, Debbie is there with water, orange juice and painkillers. She tells him they’re going on a trip. She doesn’t tell him to get over Danny, instead she takes him along highlights of their youth and they share stories about him, while she encourages him to look further.

He doesn’t find anyone, but she helps settle the loneliness as he moves away from more complex heists and starts a one man show, not feeling like working in a crew anymore.

Rusty is pretty sure he wouldn’t have made it without Debbie.

Meanwhile, Danny is alone with a small cell and the underbelly as company. Tess doesn’t write him and all he has to cling to the outside is a few cards from Debbie and the letters from Rusty.

He is beyond grateful for the anchor and his heart aches when he gets a polariod of the two in Vegas, big smiles both in sunglasses. On the bottom Rusty has written: In a twist of faith, I’m keeping an Ocean out of trouble in Vegas

In Debbie’s handwriting it just reads: liar

It’s his most prized possession and he looks at it on the hard days, wondering why he ever gave them up for a life he had always known he couldn't have. Danny Ocean isn’t made for a white picket fence, the one con he couldn't pull and he should have known better than to try.

Yet, his heart aches for Tess, whom he still loves. She is perfect and all he could ever want and she was worth it.

Though, that’s hard to remember in prison, when respect is the only way to survive along with favors and Danny is getting good at favors.

It’s in prison that Danny discovers that he might not be completely straight. He gives a blow job for extra cigarettes, which are better than currency in this place, and finds that he doesn’t mind it. That it’s quite nice to give a hand job. Finds himself staring at the hard lines of masculine jaws.

All of it’s quite a mess in his brain. With little to do in his tiny cell, he finds him combing through his entire life to find places where it happened before. Like a detective of himself, looking if there were clues, if he should have figured it out earlier.

He doesn’t know what to do with himself when he finds Rusty in most of his memories. The touches, the smiles, the sharing beds, running together, living the high life as they race down a highway in Rusty’s shitty convertible, his head thrown back with laughter, throat on display. Gets a bit hot under the collar when he remembers the crop top craze in the eighties that Rusty jumped on with glee.

Danny isn’t well at handling the information, because as he’s said before, he loves Tess. He isn’t over her, what she represented, what she meant to him.

Still as he paces his room, he isn’t sure who he misses more, Rusty or Tess, and he hates the confusion swirling around inside. He tries to focus on Tess, the normal life she gave him, the thing he lost. Tries to loose himself in revenge, because it’s the safest thing he knows. The thing that will keep him sane.

He’s always been the best conman, so he cons himself, the hardest mark yet. He convinces himself that Rusty has always been just a friend, that he wants Tess back.

It’s the best job to date.

When he gets out, it’s a new millennium and he believes it when he tells himself that it doesn’t hurt that no one is waiting for him.

Debbie is unreachable and he goes to find Frank. He’s the closest, that’s it.

It’s logical.

(Frank knows where Rusty is.)

Danny finds him teaching snot nosed tv stars poker. A small swindle, nothing like Rusty is supposed to be doing. He’s meant for grander things, they both are. They promised each other they would be the greatest and Danny has the plan to get them there.

Yet, he can’t help but acknowledge how good Rusty looks in his element, all he’s missing is some food and it’s almost ‘82 again, them together hustling in the casinos of Vegas. He’s wearing a ridiculous baby blue silk shirt with a matching tie and Danny hates how good he looks in it.

Rusty on the other hand has a near heart attack when he returns to the table and finds Danny sitting there. He’s sharply dressed putting on his best Daniel Ocean. He’s older than last time, but no less handsome and all the feelings he had managed to bury flood to the surface.

He knows today is the day Danny gets out, but he hadn’t dared to meet him. Their letters had been full of friendship in prison, but Rusty knows he’s the reason Tess started doubting Danny, because it was always Rusty who called and he knows it’s his refusal to help move the masks that got Danny in prison.

And maybe he’s been scared that Danny resents him for it.

But here he is, looking larger than life as usual, sitting at his shitty backroom poker table. He gives a smug little look as one of Rusty’s own players introduces him, like Rusty doesn’t know him better than he knows himself.

Neither man knows what to expect of the reunion after the longest time apart since they met. The barbs they trade are a bit sharper than usual, but Rusty has always been weak for Danny’s charms and bluffs. And Danny has never quite managed to be unaffected by Rusty at work.

So, when Danny gives him that look, he just knows he has a plan, a good hand and that he is going to say yes, so might as well. Rusty tells the tv stars that Danny is bluffing, Danny convinces everyone to keep raising the stakes.

When they walk out, they’re both richer for it as they split the winnings and it’s just like old times again.

Rusty drives them to a diner, because if he’s going to get sucked back into Danny’s crazy (he does it with pleasure, but that’s his business), he’s going to need something to eat or drink.

The low light does nothing to make Danny less attractive and if Rusty hasn’t had nearly a decade of living with it without it being noticed, he’d be fucked. However, he hasn’t had practice in saying no to Danny, so soon he is agreeing to the craziest scheme yet.

They set to planning immediately and Rusty realizes just what sort of insanity he has agreed to. He asks for a reason. Rusty thought Danny would be on his way to win Tess back or ease back into it, but not this. So why?

Danny gives him a speech in return. It sounds like something he’ll tell someone, who they’re trying to recruit together. A pretty tale made to be convincing, not an explanation. Rusty knows there is some truth in it and the only reason he lets it go, is because he knows he’ll get the real reason soon enough. He can trust that at least.

So, Rusty goes.

Together they get Reuben’s funding, both long enough in the game to trick him now. They make a plan and built all the parts, recruiting the team to fit them. However, it’s only once Rusty managed to convince Saul this is a good idea that Danny tells him.

“Terry Benedict is Tess’ new boyfriend,” he says when they’re alone at Reuben’s, who has retired for the evening.

While Rusty suspected something like this was up, it still hits him hard and he takes a moment to recover, before he turns to Danny with a raised brow.

“I know vengeance jobs never work out well,” Danny replies to the look. “But that is because they’re usually spur of the moment. I’ve been working on this for four years, the plan is solid. I know it is. I asked you to look at it, because if it sucked you would see it.”

The flattery doesn’t work, but it does help. And Rusty knows that Danny is right. Their plan might be insane, but it isn’t impossible. Tess being there just complicates it a bit. He sighs and Danny grins, the asshole knows he has him.

Still, like he said, Tess complicates it a bit and he can’t walk through the plan again with Danny looking at him like that. So, he turns on the tv and slumps down, not seeing the boxing match that is playing as he calculates new risk points.

Danny lets him, understanding what he’s doing as he waits in a silence that it isn’t uncomfortable, just familiar.

Danny watches Rusty’s back in the well fitted shirt. The line of his shoulders is something he knows well, but has never appreciated before. There has been a low burning attraction ever since prison, ever since he saw Rusty again.

He knows that if he were to give into it, it would grow into something consuming, but what he and Rusty have is enough. He can’t risk that when he’s already putting the risk on Tess. It has become a favored strategy to focus on her to forget about Rusty, because those thoughts are dangerous and there is enough other danger in his life already. He can’t handle not getting Tess back and loosing Rusty in the same year. He’s pretty sure it will break him.

Luckily he’s saved from getting lost in the spiral by Rusty’s back shifting ever so slightly. Checking in again, he says: “Saul makes ten. Ten ought to do it, don’t you think?”

Rusty remains silent, but that’s not unusual.

“You think we need one more?”

More silence.

“You think we need one more.”

It’s the years they’ve known each other, two decades now, that gives the silence meaning, that tells Danny all he needs to know about what Rusty is thinking. That right now ten is perfect, but if he’s spotted by Tess, they’re fucked. They need a back up.

“Alright, we’ll get one more.”

The moment Danny returns with Linus, Rusty grins at him and tells him how they’re gonna con the kid and minimize the risk. It’s one of the many reasons he loves Rusty.

Once they start the con, it’s like a re-calibrate button has been pushed. It’s what they have always done, they’re in their element and there is no room for questioning or focusing on anything but all the moving parts they’re delegating.

They share a room, falling onto the same bed in exhaustion each evening. Danny wakes up pressed close to Rusty, which settles something in him. Rusty makes a questioning noise that shouldn’t be adorable when Danny presses his head against his arm. All Danny can do is mutter: “Clink,” but Rusty never needed more than a word from him.

He’s spend four years with the littlest amount of contact possible and he craves it now. But he has also spend four years looking over his shoulder.

But Rusty he can trust. Rusty won’t hurt him. Rusty gets it.

It’s ‘89 reversed with Rusty holding him as he threatens to fall apart. The final push to who they used to be. The high fives, falling asleep in the same bed or on the couch together, claps on the back, arms thrown over shoulders, elbows brushing together as they walk and thighs flush as they sit.

They’re Rusty and Danny, the two biggest names back on one of the biggest cons that will get them into the books of the criminal underworld as legends.

The con runs smoothly. Danny’s heart somersaults when he sees Tess again, Rusty’s contracts painfully when he does. It kicks Danny back into her full throttle and he is glad to leave the conflict around Rusty behind him, as Rusty looks from the sidelines and plays wingman.

Truly the status quo returned.

But it’s worth it to have Danny back. To see him in his element and see him win so magnificently with so much charm and finesse.

He’s going to have it all again and a small ugly part of Rusty almost doesn’t tell Tess to go watch tv, to not let her see Benedict’s betrayal that will lead her back to Danny. Back to the place Rusty wants to have. But he has never been able to deny Danny happiness and he knows Tess can make him happy in a way he can’t.

It’s a happy ending despite it all. They walk away with $14.832.432,64 each and when Danny gets out of prison six months later Tess is waiting for him in the car.

Rusty, of course, is waiting for him first. They shaved his hair when he got there and it hasn’t grown out right yet, but he looks alive and well and that’s all Rusty wanted to know.

He still remembers Danny last time he got out, still feels guilty about not waiting for him. This is the redo they both need. Danny is in a much better mindset and Rusty knows he’s leaving him in good hands after he steals a small moment for himself. He’s always been a thief.

While driving off, Rusty pretends he can’t hear the happy reunion in the back seat. It feels a bit like the end of a movie, but it’s life, not a movie. They got away with the money, now they have to live with it and not get caught.

The entire crew has agreed not to meet up for jobs for a year. There’s six months of that left, but all of them have new ventures, now having the funds to do so.

Rusty throws himself into the hotel business. He is failing at it, but it gives him something else to be upset about. He doesn’t go to see Danny, a punishment for breaking the one year rule to check in on him when he got out.

Also, because he doesn’t want to see him and Tess. He has been through a lot and he’s fine, but he doesn’t think he can handle Tess be happy with Danny like he wants to be, now with the whole truth between them as they rebuilt their lives.

He doesn’t find someone else, but lives on normally for two years, which he is incredibly proud of honestly.

Naturally when his car is blown up that changes a bit.

It’s his favorite, a convertible the exact model he owned when he was 18. He watches it go up in flame as he tries to slow his heartbeat unsuccessfully.

He doesn’t turn back to the mess in his already failing hotel. Instead he walks to the closest diner and gets a basket of fries that he eats as he rings the person he wants to hear the most. His hands are still shaking as he calls a familiar number, putting on a casual voice as he asks: “I just got an interesting call.”

“I a visit,” Danny answers and the heartbeat that has calmed a bit, immediately picks up again.

“A visit?” he repeats, the ‘are you okay?’ obvious.

“Besides the threatening and an upset Tess, peachy,” Danny says. “You?”

“He blew up my favorite car,” Rusty manages to turn his genuine upset into petulance, but that shit doesn’t fool Danny. “I think it’s still smoking.”

“Holy shit, Rus,” Danny sounds so concerned and compassionate, understanding and kind.

And Rusty breaks, because he has missed this, missed Danny and he wants to cry, because he just lost his car and he’s all alone in a city where his one plan is putting him into the ground, not tasting his fries, as he watches people pass.

He just feels so small.

He releases a shaky breath and swallows a few times. Then chews on another fry while Danny waits patiently, his steady breathing keeping him tethered.

“I’m fine.” He obviously isn’t, but Danny gets that he doesn’t want to talk about it. “We should probably check in with everyone.”

“Yeah,” Danny agrees. “You’ll call-”

“And you-”

“Course.”

“Meet up at-”

“Alright.”

They both hang up and Rusty tries not to feel the loss. It’s stupid, he knows that. But Danny seems so far away and seeing him again is daunting. He loves being friends with Danny, knows it’ll never be more, he just hates that he can never move on, that he will be worse off than the last time they spoke.

He doesn’t want Danny’s pity. He doesn’t want that look. He doesn’t want to listen to Tess and Danny being happy together, always the unasked question of why Rusty hasn’t settled down yet. He doesn’t want any of it.

Rusty gives himself time to eat his fries, sitting on the curb of a too busy street. Then he gets up. He has people to contact and something stupid to do.

The whole crew comes together and it’s very different from last time. There is an air of desperation and defeat. No con will rectify the fact that Benedict knows who they are and will undermine them where possible.

They’re supposed to complete a Herculean task and everyone knows it. It’s not an impossible heist that they’re pulling off with the thrill of success around them, but it’s a race against the clock and the clock is on a bomb.

But it’s also completely the same.

A decade exactly might have passed, but Rusty is again dragging his friends to a random city in Europe to force something that won’t work in the hope he’ll forget that Danny and Tess are happy together and he can’t have that same happiness.

He knows it’s stupid before he does it, but he does it anyway. It makes their life more difficult, puts everyone at risk.

It’s enough to keep his mind busy.

In the end, their con goes exactly as planned, though Linus getting Tess was a bit of a surprise that Rusty hadn’t counted on.

She looks as beautiful and perfect as ever. She’s absolutely not happy with them, but other than that she is exactly how she has always been. And Rusty resents her for cutting into the little time he and Danny have together without her.

He knows that isn’t fair to Danny, however. He owes him more than that. So, he turns away when they’ve been bailed out, leaves the two to get things sorted with Toulour, ignoring how he and Danny would usually do that together, and returns to Isabel.

Things with Isabel fall apart within months. She loves arresting people too much and Rusty can’t love her more to forgive what he does.

When Danny calls, he tells him that Isabel is great and that he’s doing a Europe tour of cons right now to stay close to her. It’s a bold faced lie and it’s says a lot about their distance these past few years that Danny doesn’t pick up on it.

Rusty does stay in Europe and though distance makes the hard grow fonder, memories also fade with time.

The love he has for Danny will never leave, but it becomes something he carries, something he lives with. It’s a dull ache that becomes a part of him and as time passes, he thinks that this is it. He and Danny are fading out of each other’s lives.

In 2006 they’ve known one another for 25 years, but they haven’t done more than speak over the phone in two. It’s much better than when Danny was in prison, better than after the Benedict Job and while his hearts aches for what he’s loosing, he’s happy Danny gets to have the dream with Tess. He deserves it.

As Rusty is trying to find peace with himself in Europe, Danny’s marriage falls apart again. Bitterly he thinks back to the parole hearing he had years ago, but he lets her walk and doesn’t try to get her back this time.

He calls Rusty, wanting to tell him, but Rusty sounds happy and settled with Isabel, like Danny always told him to do and he can’t bring himself to say the words.

Last time, he nearly dragged Rusty to prison with him and subsequently found out he’s a bit in love with the man. Back then he pushed those feelings away, pursued Tess, told Rusty find someone. He made his bets, just gambled wrong. It happens.

Danny refuses to drag Rusty down again, because Tess left him and the feelings he had been suppressing for his best friend have surfaced like they had always been just below the water.

Rusty is happy with Isabel and Danny can live with not having him, just his friendship. Danny loves risks, but some are not worth it and he isn’t sacrificing 25 years of friendship on a small chance he can be a homewrecker.

Instead he tells Rusty of something stupid Tess hasn’t done and doesn’t realize he breaks Rusty’s heart all over again as he is fed a lie about Isabel that breaks his.

They almost break their friendship over this, though neither will realize until later.

Then Reuben suffers a heart attack and they don’t even have to contact everyone to know they’ll come to Vegas for another job together. He meets Rusty on an airport on the East coast and they get into a private jet together to go to Vegas directly.

Vegas and Reuben are intrinsically tied together in their history and minds. Reuben pushed them together, got them into Saul’s crew, taught them how to hustle at casinos and circumvent the precautions put in place.

The city and Reuben are their home.

They rarely return to it nowadays, but Rusty grew up there and Danny lived there for four years. It is the place where they met, where they did their first cons. Las Vegas is their birthplace and Reuben was there to deliver them.

It doesn’t feel real that he might not be there forever. Reuben is the godfather of Vegas. He’s the guy you talk to. He’s the guy you know.

He’s as much a fixture as The Strip is.

Reuben has always felt immortal to them. A naive thought born from being bright eyed when they encountered the omnipresent being that is Reuben. Someone you get so used to being there that the thought of them not being there seems impossible to the mind.

Their flight takes 13 hours. The first few moments are awkward as hell, both men wanting to embrace each other, neither thinking it’s their place to do so.

Rusty feels the need to ask something about Tess, doesn’t notice the answer is a deflection.

They settle in as the plane takes off. One of the few awkward silences that drags on in their long friendship. Then Danny breaks and says: “I still can’t believe it took us five years to realize we both knew Reuben.”

“I’m still not over the fact that he called me your little partner,” Rusty grins, a fond memory coming up.

“You never asked to confirm,” Danny points out.

“I’d rather avoid the humiliation, thanks,” Rusty replies sarcastically. “I know your face well enough that you weren’t fucking with me.”

“Last I heard it’s still your contact name in Debbie’s phone,” Danny smirks.

“I truly hate her.”

“I thought you liked her.”

“That was before she was mean.”

“She has always been mean.”

“Fair enough.”

It breaks the thin wall of ice that had formed between them. It is now both that want to enjoy this closeness while it lasts, neither having someone to return to. So there are littler inhibitions to bask in the company as they drag up old memories of their time in Vegas and the jobs with Reuben.

When there is a lull in conversation, Rusty softly says: “It just seems impossible that something happened to him, you know.”

“I should have warned him better about Bank,” Danny laments.

“Reuben shouldn’t have been so stubborn,” Rusty protests that.

Danny sends him an unimpressed look, before pointedly commenting: “It’s one of the traits he has passed onto you.”

“Taught you the same,” Rusty counters.

They fall silent again, this time it’s contemplative. Rusty thinks of Reuben in El Rancho putting a hand on his shoulder and pulling him away. He was about to bet the last bit of money he had, hoping it would double so that he could afford a motel with a shower. He was skinny, probably looked a mess.

“You don’t wanna do that, kid,” Reuben said, before dragging him out of there and putting a hot meal into him, before explaining to him how he had been about to get played.

When Rusty had asked him why he did this for him, Reuben had smiled cryptically and said: “An extra pair of eyes is a lot in this world. Get some back up, learn to spot the cons. I’ll think you’ll do great.” He handed Rusty a business card. “Come find me if you have something interesting.”

It had reminded Rusty of the other guy that pulled him out of trouble and gave him a cookie for his trouble.

Without Reuben there would be no Rusty and Danny.

It hits him all over again. His life without Danny probably would have ended a long time ago and it would have been so much worse. Danny and Reuben together gave him a family, a real family. The idea of loosing it is too much.

He never thought he would have friends or family whose funerals he would want to go to when he was younger. The concept suddenly too close for comfort. But it isn’t until Danny calls, “Rus? Rus,” that he realizes he’s close to tears, nibbling on the edge of the coffee cup he has finished a while ago.

Rusty blinks a few times, but it doesn’t help. He isn’t sure if he wants to scream, break out in sobs or tuck it all away until he’s numb.

He isn’t given a choice, because Danny hands him a piece of gum so that he’ll have something to focus on, before pulling him into his chair and holding him close. And it takes Rusty a second to realize Danny is already crying too.

That marks the third time in their entire friendship that they’ve held each other, this time both are sobbing for a life that might still be saved, but certainly will be avenged.

The entire situation has brought them back to the early eighties when the other was all they had, the only one they could trust. When money didn’t flow like it did now and cons were a necessity rather than a fun habit.

They sleep on the shitty airplane bed together, straightening up in silence before landing.

Linus is waiting on them in the airport with not enough news about Reuben. He asks after Tess and Isabel. Danny tells him the same lie he told Rusty, Rusty doesn’t even bother to answer.

Riding to the hospital takes excruciatingly long and both practically jump out of the car and run into the hospital, a confused Linus behind them.

Everyone has a history with Reuben, he’s been at the heart of the con game for too long for them not to, but not everyone has the history Danny and Rusty have with him. The only one trumping them being Saul, who ran with Reuben before they were even born.

Seeing Reuben lying there, ignites something in them. Both forget about the girlfriend and wife they supposedly have as they dive into the con with gusto, ensuring that Bank will never recover dignity nor reputation.

They don’t care what it takes. They grovel to Benedict, terrorize a man who has done nothing, start and end a rebellion at a factory, pull the biggest stunt in con-history.

And Reuben recovers, Reuben gets to witness. It’s all worth it to see him grin like that, a shark they had forgotten was behind the old age.

As they pull the con, Rusty and Danny circle each other like the past ten years have never happened. Like Danny was never caught, like they never stopped.

They’re on top of their game, minds melting more than ever before as they work nonstop. Frank notices and gives Basher a look, who smirks back. They don’t communicate silently like Danny and Rusty do, but the message is clear: ‘They’re back.’

It’s been- well, probably since the Benedict Job, that either of them had this much fun on a con. The love both held for their discipline returning when working alongside the one that had made it into their livelihood.

Rusty suggests donating Benedict’s share to charity and Danny grins in a way Rusty knows he can’t fake, a sense of satisfaction blooming in his chest.

The crush (it is much more than a crush, he knows that) he has on Danny had returned full force from the second he saw him again, but he doesn’t care. He is never doing the distance thing again, because life without Danny in it isn’t worth it.

He’s faking a breakup with Isabel soon and asking Danny to take him on a heartbreak heist again, like old times.

Meanwhile Danny confirms his feelings for Rusty once more. He thought they had been a fluke, the loneliness of prison getting to him, then Tess leaving him again, but it really isn’t. He only knows he is in too deep when it’s too late.

They’re at the craps table, about to roll a bunch of snake eyes. They’re both leaning on a different side, sweeping the crowd up in their success, making them all bet on snake eyes as well. He looks up and catches Rusty, grinning broadly, high fiving people, completely in his element. Their eyes meet and for a split second there is a real smirk on his face, a look of true happiness and Danny can feel his heart literally skip a beat.

He suddenly knows he sold his heart the moment a punk pickpocket wearing a red salsa shirt of all things bowled him over, then made him pay for a cookie.

Danny doesn’t mind too much.

However, a job like this means scattering in the wind when it’s done. Bank might not be able to prove they did this, but he could probably tie them to other things. Reuben stays in Vegas, of course, he is too established not to and too good to be pinned after all these years.

Everyone else though… Well, there are some downsides to pulling heists like these with friends and that includes leaving again. Mentally, however, Danny plans a way to run into Rusty at some point soon.

No one tells anyone where they’re going. They all fly to different airports where a lot of connections fly from and then they’ll be off to whatever mystery destination suits them best at the moment they buy a ticket.

So, they say goodbye at the airport. They keep it short, because short goodbyes hurt less. Still it aches as Rusty watches Danny walk away again. And Danny fights not to look back.

Yet, they’ve always had a strong case of ‘great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ’ and with them back in the groove again, fully as they had always been, this is more true than ever. Because both fly in different directions, then book a new flight to the exact same place.

Rusty opens the door of the apartment he and Danny bought all those years ago as a safe haven in one of the few countries they haven’t committed a crime in. He drops his suitcase in the hall and stretches, toeing off his shoes as he gets himself a glass of whiskey, only to stop when one glass is missing, turning to note the open balcony door.

He pours himself a glass, since in this place it’s unlikely to be an enemy, very little people know about it and even less can get in. Then makes his way to the balcony.

Poking his head out the door, he spots Danny with his own glass of whiskey and he can’t help the surprise that creeps into his eyebrows. It’s not often that Danny manages to surprise him.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, because he’s pretty sure Danny has a wife to get back to.

Danny startles a bit, having let down his guard in this place. He turns back and there is something in his eyes that Rusty can’t place, something he has seen before, but only as a background tint, never so prominent. Danny blinks and it’s gone.

“I’m hiding after a job. What are you doing here?” Danny counters and it’s completely true but looks like a lie.

Perhaps he’s having a bit of a break before going back to Tess, because he doesn’t want to lead Benedict back to her, Rusty thinks. But he isn’t complaining, so he drops on the chair next to Danny and looks at the slowly fading sun. He grabs the chips he squirreled away last time and smirks at Danny as he says: “The same.”

“Amsterdam too wet?” Danny asks.

Rusty hasn’t been in the Netherlands since 2005 and it takes him a second to figure out what Danny is going on about. He takes a sip and stares at the horizon, replying: “Something like that.”

Later, Rusty isn’t sure why he said it like that. Even people who don’t know him as well as Danny would find that reply suspicious and if he didn’t want to bother Danny with it, he shouldn’t have said it like that.

Maybe he wants Danny to ask. Maybe he’s tired of hiding. Maybe he needs a reaction from Danny, something that tells him he’s still there. Maybe he’s scared of Danny leaving again. Maybe he doesn’t have a justification.

“Are you okay, Rus?” Danny asks and when Rusty turns his eyes on him, Danny looks at him with a frown that is both inquiring and concerned.

“Me and Isabel broke up,” the words are out before Rusty can think about them.

After a beat Danny says: “Oh, I’m sorry,” with an inflection Rusty can’t place.

“Don’t be,” Rusty replies, deciding to fuck it. He’s been lying long enough, but lying to Danny has never been who he is and he’s tired of it. “I was just using her.”

The words seem to surprise Danny as if he truly thought Rusty loved Isabel. He frowns like he doesn’t understand. And hell, he probably doesn’t. “Why?”

Rusty sighs and looks at the fading sun again, because Danny is glowing in the sunset, eyes matching the whiskey in his glass. He’s too beautiful and if he keeps look he’ll either do something stupid or loose his nerve. So, he doesn’t look as he whispers: “I’m gay,” like it’s a sin, like it’s a confession, like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It’s silent and Rusty still doesn’t turn to Danny, he keeps a fist tight around his glass and nervously eats his chips.

Danny is both surprised and not at all, but his mind keeps replaying the words as he looks at Rusty, who is looking like a statue, posed like an anguished hero. Rusty is gay, Rusty could love him, Rusty is looking terrified.

He is moving before he knows it, his own emotions forgotten as he remembers the boy he met. He gathers him up and kisses his forehead as he says: “Thanks for telling me.”

Rusty is shocked by the reaction, tensing up before melting into the embrace. This has nothing to do with his love for Danny, just the relief that his friend is still there, that he hasn’t ruined it all.

That he doesn’t have to hide anymore. That he can start accepting himself.

Without his permission tears start to form in his eyes. He struggles against them, but they start to fall anyway. He cries for himself, for all the years he lost, for all the times he has had to deflect, obfuscate and lie, for all the times he didn’t feel safe, for the acceptance he had always craved and now has.

Through it all, Danny holds him. He squeezes him tight and doesn’t say a word, letting Rusty work through the wave of emotions without interfering beyond being an anchor.

When he’s done crying, he sits for another second, before roughly wiping his eyes. He chuckles wetly and says: “Wow, sorry, immediately proving stereotypes of being an emotional wuss.”

“Hey, don’t do that,” Danny tells him kindly. And Rusty understands that he means to say that it’s okay, that Rusty doesn’t have to make a joke about it, that he has earned the right to cry and that Danny isn’t judging.

“Sorry,” he smiles.

Danny nearly gets the breath knocked out of him when Rusty smiles. His hair is mused, he still looks a bit muted, but his eyes crinkle and the tilt of his lips feels like coming home. He is warm on Danny’s lap, Danny's arms still loosely looped around his slender waist. The sun paints him golden and Danny thinks he can live in that moment forever.

“When did you-?” he asks, suddenly curious.

Rusty looks away eyes lost in the memories, before he shrugs: “Always known, I think, but first time I acted on it was around ‘84, I suppose.”

All those years and Danny never knew. It’s weird for a moment that he missed such a big thing about the person he knew everything about, but it makes sense when he thinks of Rusty never flirting on jobs except when it’s necessary, how he never had a relation beyond Isabel, how he always looked bored around the strippers.

“Sorry you never felt like you could tell me,” Danny says, because that’s the only reason he couldn’t have known.

“Don’t be sorry,” Rusty says. “It was more my own shit that prevented me from telling you.”

“So when you and Debbie went on that trip?” Danny asks, connecting his lesbian sister with what Rusty is telling him.

“You know about Debbie?”

“Yeah. I was there for her puberty,” Danny points out. “Though she told me later that the boyfriend that kept her confirmed it more.”

“Oh,” Rust says, then takes a beat. “Yeah, by the way. She pulled me out a rough patch.”

“I’m glad she did.”

“Me too.”

They’re quiet again. Rusty finally realizes he’s still in Danny lap, the roller-coaster that was the past few minutes distracting him before now.

Danny has a front row seat to how he blushes, a pretty flush painting his cheeks that has Danny falling deeper. Rusty never blushes on cons, has too good a poker face for that, but not here, not where they’re safe.

“Ah, uhm, sorry about that,” he splutters as he detangles himself. Self deprecatingly he jokes: “Tess probably won’t like me pawing at her man like that.”

And suddenly Danny decides he’s done with giving Rusty his space, trying to let him go. When he’s not there, Rusty needs to be pulled out of a rough patch, when he doesn’t communicate Rusty thinks it’s okay to have to hide parts of himself.

So, he holds tight and doesn’t let Rusty get up, which makes Rusty squeak in a way he’ll deny later.

“What are you-”

“Tess left me again,” Danny says.

Rusty forgets about his escape attempt to gape. He looks shocked at the news and then like he expect Danny to burst out crying or drop the act of not being affected by it. He asks: “When did that happen?”

“Last year.”

“Why didn’t you tell me, you idiot!”

“You seemed to have your life in order, I didn’t want to bother you.”

They realize that both have been pretending to have everything work out and suddenly it’s the funniest thing ever.

Rusty breaks first, laughing and clutching at Danny’s shoulders so he won’t fall as he throws his head back like he did in the car that first time. Danny snorts as well, hiding his face in the crook of Rusty’s neck, finally having let go of the picket fence he was never made for.

It takes them a long time to control the giggles. When they’re done they’re both flushed, faces close to each other.

Danny breathes and takes in Rusty’s blue eyes that have always felt the most like home. The most important person in his life has always been there in front of him and he has just been an idiot about it.

Daniel Ocean takes risks. It’s his livelihood. His bread and butter. He is the best gambler there is and the risks he takes pay off.

Rusty might be the biggest risk he has ever taken.

“I realized something in prison,” he breathes in the space between them, softly and conspiratorially like it’s a secret only for Rusty to hear. “It’s why she left.”

“What did you realize?” For the first time Rusty has no clue what Danny is thinking. The air between them is heavy and the interpretation he’s making seems impossible, so he just holds his breath and waits.

Rusty fills in the blanks for Danny’s plans, he’ll move when he has the blue prints in front of him instead of a vague outline.

“I realized that I play for more than one team,” Danny confesses, the first time he has acknowledged it out loud. “Tess realized she has to share my heart with someone else. That even though she knows what I do, doesn’t mean she gets to control it.”

Danny watches as Rusty puzzles together what he is saying. There is nothing more beautiful than Rusty figuring out a problem, something he doesn’t get yet.

He sees when it clicks. Disbelieving hope flits through Rusty’s eyes, then delight, before it’s replaced by suspicion and a defeated sadness.

Danny hates that look on Rusty.

In that moment, he decides he has played enough, that this isn’t a con and that there shouldn’t be things left to interpretation. He makes his grip on Rusty’s hips firmer and looks in his eyes intently as he says: “She had to share with you and we both knew that you were always going to be more important.”

Deep down Rusty has always known that he couldn’t loose his place as the most important person in Danny’s life that easily, but hearing it again makes the blood rush past his ears. He is more important than Tess. Tess left Danny because Danny loves him more.

Holy shit, Danny is in love with him.

Rusty snaps back when he hears Danny chuckle. The man is firm and warm beneath him, they are close and Rusty can see the amusement in his eyes as he says: “See you caught up.”

Whatever Rusty was about to say in reply (which wasn’t going to be much, since his brain is blue screening a bit) is cut off with Danny’s lips on his.

He has known he’s in love with Danny for fifteen years already, so it takes him a moment to comprehend that this is really happening and not one of many fantasies.

When he does, he kisses back eagerly. Danny’s lips are soft and a bit chapped, he tastes like whiskey and airplane food.

It’s perfect.

Eventually they have to part to breathe in and Rusty can feel his cheeks hurt from smiling. This is what they were always meant to be. The conclusion to a story. An inevitability.

The years they’ve spend before this, haven’t been a waste, just a build up to this moment and he sees his own happiness reflected in Danny’s eyes. Danny’s hands warm on his hips, keeping him from floating away.

“Sorry it took me so long to see what was in front of me,” Danny says and the only thing Rusty can do is kiss that stupid notion from his lips.

They have still a big part of life before them and they’re going to make the most of it. They have the funds and a little corner of the world where no one can take them from. Their little safe haven where they don’t have to lie. Where they can be them.

Daniel Ocean has always been a persona that Danny made for himself. One he has learned to become, one that Rusty made real as he blindly accepted it. Just like Rusty has always been more his name than anything his father called him.

Neither of them tell anyone, but people that know them see it the moment they meet up again, because they might be the oldest they’ve ever been, but they look like they carry nothing but air on their shoulders and joke around like they’re twenty again and the world is their personal playground like Vegas used to be.

They don’t get married. They don’t have to. It isn’t legal yet either, but that isn’t the thing that stops them.

But next time Rusty will introduce himself as Rusty Ocean and no one will think to question it or fancy it a lie, because Ocean has always been a name that felt most like the truth, most like home. And as Rusty says it, you can see it on his face.

It’s a grin he never learned to fake.

One of true happiness.