The first shirt is an accident.
Dirk's shirt is unwearable - slime, again - and he changes into Todd's spare flannel without even thinking. It's a bit short in the arms, but not if he rolls the sleeves up. "What do you think, Todd," he preens, "am I a sufficiently macho lumber man?"
"In slacks?" Todd rolls his eyes. "Nice try."
They meet their client in matching plaid, and then Dirk takes Todd's shirt home. He promises to bring it back. He washes it and hangs it in the closet to dry. He de-slimes his original shirt, along with his other spare office clothes, and replenishes the requisite cabinet.
A month passes.
He doesn't return Todd's shirt.
---
The second shirt is more of a decision.
He's changing at Todd's - mud, this time - and Todd sets out what he considers his most Dirk outfit. It might actually be Dirk's, in fact. Dirk has never bothered to keep track of his possessions, with a few notable exceptions.
These exceptions, it occurs to him, are also Todd-related.
He refuses to see the pattern here.
Dirk wanders over to Todd's closet. There's a flannel sticking out from the others, the hanger jammed practically sideways. It's begging to be noticed. Dirk looks at the shirt on the bed and then back at the flannel.
"Todd," he calls experimentally, "this shirt is too small."
No response. He unhooks the hanger.
"I'm choosing another one," he says. "With a longer torso."
Still nothing.
Dirk puts on the shirt.
Todd rolls his eyes when he sees it but doesn't say anything. Dirk washes it, dries it, hangs it up by the first, and continues not to return either.
---
The third shirt he steals outright, and then the game is truly afoot.
---
He doesn't wear the flannels, usually. They're not exactly his style. They hang innocently in his closet, incongruous among jackets and button-downs. There's no reason to keep them, when Todd hasn't even noticed they're gone.
(Except they smell like Todd, even after the wash.)
(Except they remind him of Todd when the nightmares come, and ground him enough to fall asleep.)
(Except, if a piece of Todd is here, he can imagine all of Todd here, and though that's impossible, it's enough of a good dream that he can't quite let it go.)
---
There are rules to the game: he can't take them the same way twice; he can't ask Todd to give them to him; if anyone notices, he has to give it back. Todd never notices. Dirk finds Todd's complete ignorance of his closet contents mildly disturbing, but then, Todd has been undergoing a bit of a makeover recently, and perhaps he doesn't need this much flannel anymore.
Farah does notice, at least twice. Farah probably notices every time. Farah prefers willful ignorance in some matters, however, and this, fortunately, seems to be one of them.
Mona notices, and starts changing into flannel shirts that are actually in Dirk's size. Dirk wears these to humor her, though it's not the same. Mona-flannel, for better or worse, will never smell like Todd.
He takes Todd's flannels from the laundry, from the spare cabinet, from shopping bags. He snatches them off the bathroom floor, slung over the coatrack, draped across dining chairs. He gathers up Todd's clothes at the hospital and doesn't give them back. He "forgets" his jacket, begs off Todd's shirt, and stashes it with the rest.
---
And Todd in his shirtsleeves and his new button-downs and his eyes brighter than any sky steals back, in their place, Dirk's heart.
---
It feels like far too long before Dirk learns he's had Todd's heart all along, too.
---
"It's freezing in here," says Todd, climbing off Dirk's bed. Dirk has refused to give him any of his blankets, but he's also refused to give back Todd's shirt. "I'm taking your jacket, then."
Dirk nestles deeper in the blankets, warmed by the thought of Todd in his clothes, and remembers far too late what else is in his closet. "Wait," he says, flinging off the mound of blankets as Todd slides open the closet door.
It's a shocking display: flannels nearly outnumber jackets, by now. Dirk would have to buy more to outpace them, as though Todd hasn't already colonized his whole life. "Dirk," says Todd flatly, staring at his wardrobe arrayed.
"It's - ow - not what it looks like," says Dirk, tripping on his way out of bed. "I was, er. Washing them. For you."
Todd frowns at the flannels, and then something in his face softens. "How long...?" he asks.
"Er." Dirk shuffles his feet. "It's, er. I hardly remember."
Todd plucks at the arm of Dirk's favorite, a blue that brings out his eyes. "You don't even do your own laundry," he says, fondly.
Dirk buries his head on Todd's shoulder and wraps an arm around Todd's waist. "You can have them back," he relents.
"It's alright," says Todd.
Dirk draws his head up to eye Todd suspiciously. "I'm not wearing them," he says, "if that's what you're about. You have ridiculously short arms. I'm not going about flaunting my wrists like a - a wrist harlot."
Todd snorts. "Wrist harlot," he repeats. "No, uh, I thought - well - my stuff's already here. It moved in without me, I guess. So..."
It takes Dirk much longer than it should to catch on, mostly because it's never occurred to him before. Not seriously, at any rate. Not in any sort of permanent, real way. But Todd's clothes are here, and Todd has procured a spare toothbrush, and Dirk has gotten so used to Todd's warmth at night that he hardly knows how to sleep without him...
"Dirk," says Todd, with a note of gentle impatience, "I'm asking to move in with you."
Dirk considers the flannels, all the months of their collection, the Todd-smells and Todd-comfort surrounding him all along. "I think you're right," he says. "I think I moved you in ages ago. It only took you and me a while to catch up."
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