First snippet of the thing - here we go. This just came to me. I feel I should apologise, but I'm not going to.

Title: People can tell

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Ocean's 11-13

Pairing: Danny/Rusty

Warnings: Slash, baking, one step short of being a crack!fic

"So really, what we're talking about is a basic Double Delia with a variant Neiman Marcus on the side." Danny finished, smirking.

Linus looked puzzled for half a second, then nodded, slowly. "That could work."

"Will work." Rusty corrected. "It did last time."

"Well, except for the snakes." Danny felt compelled to add.

"The snakes were unrelated." Rusty answered quickly, apparently before Danny could start blaming him for the whole snake incident. Again. "And anyway, this isn't Texas."

Danny had no real answer to that. Texas had certainly been his fault, though not the snakes. The snakes were all down to one Rusty Ryan. That had been Danny's favorite pair of shoes, too.


Linus was looking puzzled again. Danny almost willed him to ask, certain that any explanation that he and Rusty would come out with would baffle the poor kid further. Sadly, Linus seemed to have learnt enough not to leap head first into these things, since he chose to change the subject. "Livingstone and Basher have the place sewn up, so all we need are the hats and a trolley, right?"

"And the cookies." Danny pointed out.

"Right, I'll swing by a bakery. There's a good one on . . . "

"No!" Danny interrupted, knowing that he sounded aghast. "They've got to be home-baked or it doesn't work."

"People can tell." Rusty agreed, and just for a moment even Danny thought he was being serious.


Linus looked from one to the other. "Are you two up to something?"

"Other than the obvious?" Danny asked, wondering what 'the obvious' was this week. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of the rumors. "No."

"I can't cook." Linus admitted. Amused, Danny wondered why Linus immediately assumed they were expecting him to.

"We're talking about baking." he pointed out, knowing it would piss the kid off even more.

Linus blinked. "But I can't bake either."

"Of course you can't. That's what Rusty's for."

Rusty gave an ironical wave, as Danny gestured to him.

Linus blinked again and turned to stare at Rusty. "You bake?"

Rusty grinned. "Yes I do."

"Yes he does," Danny agreed. His mouth was almost watering at the thought.


There was a pause. Linus seemed to be trying to find a tactful way of asking his next question. "Isn't that a bit . . . " Linus waved his hands. "girly?" Evidently the attempt had been in vain.

"No." said Danny, at the same time as Rusty said "Yes." They exchanged a quick look. "Slightly." Danny compromised.

"Right . . . " Linus said uncertainly. "Where did you learn to bake anyway?"

"There were a lot of bake sales when I was growing up." Rusty said, deadpan. Danny unsuccessfully tried to hold back a laugh.

"You . . . " Linus looked from one to the other, having apparently reached his limit. "You . . . "

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw Rusty grin, pull a piece of paper out of his pocket and hand it to Linus. "Here. Shopping. Make sure to get the plain flour, not the self-raising."

"And get free-range eggs." Danny added.

Linus gave both of them a look, folded the list and placed it carefully in his pocket, and left, not quite slamming the door behind him.


"You know Danny," Rusty began, moving in closer, "If you wanted me to make cookies, you could have just asked."

Danny kept his face blank. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The Hidden Parcel would have played even without the Double Delia. You're adding in complications."

"It's more fun this way." Danny didn't know whether he meant the con, making Rusty bake, or getting Linus to go shopping. He could feel Rusty's breath on his neck and he was getting a little flustered. "Anyway, you had the recipe ready."

"Mmmm." Rusty smiled, and leaned in to Danny's shoulder. "The question is, do you really want to share the cookies with the mark?"

Oh. "We could buy him cookies from the bakery?" he suggested, hopefully.

"Good idea." Rusty said, before kissing him.

A few minutes later, Danny managed to say "But I thought people could tell?"

"Shut up, Danny."

And he did. For a while.

Thank you for reading, if you could take the time to review, that'd be nice, if you can't, hope you enjoyed my story anyway.