West Wing FF: "Count to twelve and keep your silence" (Matt Skinner, PG)
Title: Count to twelve and keep your silence
Fandom: The West Wing
Characters: Matt Skinner (background slash pairing)
Rating: PG
Length: 630 words
Disclaimer: All belongs to Sorkin and Wells.
Spoilers: Whole series
Summary: Matt knows more about Josh than Josh ever knew about him. That's nine.
AN: For pocky_slash's Tertiary Characters Ficathon (a day late)
Matt is good with secrets. This is not a surprise. What is, possibly, is the kind of secrets he’s keeping. He is not, actually, hankering to join the Democratic Party. The one man who might have persuaded him was Leo McGarry (one), and that was all about Leo and nothing to do with the Democrats. Matt had believed in McGarry, and maybe that had made him a little more inclined to take Bartlet and the rest of them seriously. He had gone to the funeral, and taken Mallory’s hand, and Josh’s arm, and meant his sorries more than he could say. Before, when they were all much younger, he had reminded some of his colleagues that they had secrets too, and that perhaps certain hatchets should be held back a little (two). Not one of them had mentioned that Matt wasn’t the best person to be advising on political suicide.
This was, in ways Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler could never understand, because Matt is only sometimes a moderate (three). Matt did not get onto committees and subcommittees by being a pushover. There were days - when Americans have been blown from the sky, when he has to hear himself called soft on crime because a murderer has walked free - that he threatens to tear the Bill of Rights to shreds (four) and means it (five).
He doesn’t own a gun (six).
But he knows how to shoot one (seven).
He liked sparring with the Bartlet staff (eight a) but not always as much as they thought he did (eight b). He has always walked a very careful line between those two truths, and as such became the go-to-moderate on domestic issues. He has a disproportionate influence on his party’s policy, in exactly the way he told Josh Lyman he did, because both sides think he is lying to the other, just a little.
And he knows more about Josh than Josh ever knew about him (nine).
It was the third or fourth time Matt saw Josh Lyman. He was in a bar, and Josh was in a bar, and if it wasn’t the kind of bar that they’d both have to pretend they didn’t know about, it wasn’t far off. Josh was on Congressman Markos’s staff, and water cooler gossip had him tipped to work for the Minority Whip after midterms. Matt was working for the Majority Leader, and being prepped for Legislative Director.
Matt was working his way up to a third beer, and Josh burst through the back door of the bar, his arm wound around the neck of a young-looking man with dark hair.
Josh bumped the table. “Oh, hey, sorry,” he said. Then: “Hey. You’re…”
“Matt Skinner.”
“Josh Lyman.”
The too-handsome stranger spread up against Josh’s side smiled hello, so sweetly that Matt smiled back, and just nodded his goodbyes at the pair.
The next time Matt meets the other guy, he’s sitting across from Matt in the Roosevelt Room. Josh is in the middle, with Toby Ziegler on the left.
Josh makes a bad joke, Ziegler glares, and Sam Seaborn smiles behind his hand. Josh is leaning forward, with Sam leaning back, and they are as obvious as hell to anyone looking, but neither of them have a clue.
Josh thinks that he knows Matt; he thinks that he is trusted because he holds a secret. There is well intentioned solidarity in Josh’s raised voice, and genuine confusion when he asks the question. Matt knows that Josh is a good man (ten). But Matt is not the one with the secret (eleven) and he doesn’t need the possessive pronoun in ‘our bedrooms’ to know that. There are any number of ways he could use this knowledge to his advantage, but he never will. Matt knows exactly who he is. (Twelve).
FIN
Fandom: The West Wing
Characters: Matt Skinner (background slash pairing)
Rating: PG
Length: 630 words
Disclaimer: All belongs to Sorkin and Wells.
Spoilers: Whole series
Summary: Matt knows more about Josh than Josh ever knew about him. That's nine.
AN: For pocky_slash's Tertiary Characters Ficathon (a day late)
Matt is good with secrets. This is not a surprise. What is, possibly, is the kind of secrets he’s keeping. He is not, actually, hankering to join the Democratic Party. The one man who might have persuaded him was Leo McGarry (one), and that was all about Leo and nothing to do with the Democrats. Matt had believed in McGarry, and maybe that had made him a little more inclined to take Bartlet and the rest of them seriously. He had gone to the funeral, and taken Mallory’s hand, and Josh’s arm, and meant his sorries more than he could say. Before, when they were all much younger, he had reminded some of his colleagues that they had secrets too, and that perhaps certain hatchets should be held back a little (two). Not one of them had mentioned that Matt wasn’t the best person to be advising on political suicide.
This was, in ways Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler could never understand, because Matt is only sometimes a moderate (three). Matt did not get onto committees and subcommittees by being a pushover. There were days - when Americans have been blown from the sky, when he has to hear himself called soft on crime because a murderer has walked free - that he threatens to tear the Bill of Rights to shreds (four) and means it (five).
He doesn’t own a gun (six).
But he knows how to shoot one (seven).
He liked sparring with the Bartlet staff (eight a) but not always as much as they thought he did (eight b). He has always walked a very careful line between those two truths, and as such became the go-to-moderate on domestic issues. He has a disproportionate influence on his party’s policy, in exactly the way he told Josh Lyman he did, because both sides think he is lying to the other, just a little.
And he knows more about Josh than Josh ever knew about him (nine).
It was the third or fourth time Matt saw Josh Lyman. He was in a bar, and Josh was in a bar, and if it wasn’t the kind of bar that they’d both have to pretend they didn’t know about, it wasn’t far off. Josh was on Congressman Markos’s staff, and water cooler gossip had him tipped to work for the Minority Whip after midterms. Matt was working for the Majority Leader, and being prepped for Legislative Director.
Matt was working his way up to a third beer, and Josh burst through the back door of the bar, his arm wound around the neck of a young-looking man with dark hair.
Josh bumped the table. “Oh, hey, sorry,” he said. Then: “Hey. You’re…”
“Matt Skinner.”
“Josh Lyman.”
The too-handsome stranger spread up against Josh’s side smiled hello, so sweetly that Matt smiled back, and just nodded his goodbyes at the pair.
The next time Matt meets the other guy, he’s sitting across from Matt in the Roosevelt Room. Josh is in the middle, with Toby Ziegler on the left.
Josh makes a bad joke, Ziegler glares, and Sam Seaborn smiles behind his hand. Josh is leaning forward, with Sam leaning back, and they are as obvious as hell to anyone looking, but neither of them have a clue.
Josh thinks that he knows Matt; he thinks that he is trusted because he holds a secret. There is well intentioned solidarity in Josh’s raised voice, and genuine confusion when he asks the question. Matt knows that Josh is a good man (ten). But Matt is not the one with the secret (eleven) and he doesn’t need the possessive pronoun in ‘our bedrooms’ to know that. There are any number of ways he could use this knowledge to his advantage, but he never will. Matt knows exactly who he is. (Twelve).
FIN