Don't Tell My Brother

Chapter 25 - Silent Treatment

"Christ, alright. At least let me get that."

And suddenly Damien was in front of him, lifting the box into the air with apparent ease and balancing it against his hip. He looked at Lucas for a moment, a slight frown creasing his brow.

"You're seriously not going to talk to me." He sighed, shifting the box in his arms so he could free a hand to run it through his hair. "I'm going to have to watch you suck Cameron's dick for another hour, aren't I?"

Lucas was horrified. Horrified enough to break his vow of silence. "I'm not sucking his dick!"

"No, not literally." Damien groaned, looking a little exasperated. "It's like..." He snapped his fingers, searching for the right word. "...a metaphor. That's it. Or it's 'figurative', I don't know. Point is, it's kind of gross seeing you fangirl over him."

Lucas crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not doing that."

Damien grinned a little, though it didn't look as confident or as cocky as it always did. Maybe it was a trick of the light. "You totally are. You're all 'Cameron, you're so smart! Cameron, that's so interesting! Cameron, could you please-'"

But Lucas decided he didn't want to hear whatever Damien was about to say next, so he reached out and thumped him on the arm. Damien took a step back, looking a little satisfied.

"Did you just come here to be an asshole? Because I don't know what your problem with Cameron is, but I'm actually liking having somebody with more than two braincells to talk to, so I think I'm going to go. I don't have time for whatever tantrum you're throwing right now." Lucas was very, very done.

Damien looked a little taken aback. "Tantrum? I'm not throwing a tantrum, I..." He waved it off. "Nevermind. Look, I want to talk to you."

Lucas scowled. "Too bad. I don't particularly want to talk to you."

"Yeah, I know, you'd rather talk to Cameron. Can you just let me apologise? And then I'll fuck off, I promise."

"This is supposed to be an apology?" Lucas almost laughed at that. "It's terrible. Not really surprising, given it's coming from you." He was still angry and hurt, and willing to take as many shots at Damien as he could get.

"That's probably fair. I don't have a lot of practice." Damien said matter-of-factly.

"So you never apologise? Charming."

Damien groaned. "You're really not going to make this any easier, are you?"

"Right, because you've been so lovely to me." Lucas' tone was acidic enough to strip paint.

Damien winced. "Guess I deserved that." He opened his mouth to speak, but paused for a moment, putting the box back down. "That was getting kinda heavy. Anyway, I've been thinking about the other day."

"The other day?"

"Yeah, y'know. When my friends came in." Damien glanced to one side, and Lucas thought it was the first time he'd ever seen him look uncomfortable.

"Oh, right." Lucas narrowed his eyes. "When they came in, and you insulted me and told me to piss off. That other day."

Damien cleared his throat. Lucas was pleased to see that even in the dim light of the basement, Damien's discomfort was obvious. He shifted from foot to foot as he spoke. "Yeah. That. Anyway, I wanted to say that I'm sorry. Because that was kind of a dick move. And it's obviously made you upset. Which I actually feel bad about." Damien sounded a little surprised at his own guilt, as if he didn't feel bad about things very often.

Lucas raised an eyebrow. "That's the apology?"

"Yeah, more or less. Would you have preferred a speech?"

"Honestly, I would've. That was pretty bad."

But, Lucas thought to himself, it was something. Damien still looked slightly unsure of himself, which was so wildly out of character for the usually loud, confident coworker he knew that Lucas was taking a minute to actually consider this.

"Damn it. So you don't accept it? I'm really sorry, Lucas. Maybe you're sometimes right when you say I'm an asshole."

"More than sometimes." Lucas tapped his foot, considering. It was kind of nice watching Damien look so out of his depth. "As soon as your real friends walked in, I wasn't cool enough for you to even talk to. It was embarrassing, especially when I was just trying to get you to do your job. So no, I don't really accept it. Apologies require some sort of change to prove that you're sorry, and I think if your friends walked in tomorrow you'd do the same thing, because yes, I do think you're an asshole. I don't even really know why you did it in the first place, or why you're apologising."

Lucas took a deep breath, surprising himself with that little speech. He wasn't even sure why he was bothering to explain all this to Damien, who probably wouldn't even care. He knew Damien enough to know he liked things to be easy, and Lucas had no intention of making this easy.

Damien took a moment to think, thrusting his hands into his pockets. "It's sort of complicated. Sometimes you've got to act different around different people, y'know?"

"No. I have friends who actually like me."

"It's not like that." Damien scoffed. "Of course they like me. I'm great."

Lucas rolled his eyes. Damien quickly changed tactic.

"Joking. I'm the worst. Anyway, they're just...I don't know. They like to assume things. About people, and stuff, and I thought if they saw how I was with you normally they'd....jump to the wrong conclusion. Or think something was happening that wasn't. And because I didn't want them to think that, especially not Mallory, I sort of...what's the word? Overcompensated."

Damien wasn't looking at him now, examining the floor of the basement as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Lucas tried to understand what he'd said, but there was clearly something Damien wasn't saying. He wanted to keep pressing, especially because Damien really did look like he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Sorry I took so long." Cameron had appeared at his side, smiling at Lucas. "Should we take this one upstairs? You're not busy here, are you?"