Three (a Lew Ashby/Renfield Turnbull snippet)
Title: Three
Fandom: Due South/Californication
Pairing: Lew/Turnbull
Length: 236 words
Prompt: esteem
Notes: fluff ;)
Turnbull says it a lot; nearly every day. Lew hasn’t said it in years; not since Janie left him. In all those years, Lew never said it, not in bed, not when drunk, not when stoned. Turnbull says it often; in bed, over breakfast, when he comes back to the mansion after his shift at the Consulate. Turnbull says it, but Lew never says it back.
The weird thing is, Turnbull doesn’t seem to mind. He says it and goes about his business, not waiting for Lew to say it back. It’s as if he doesn’t need Lew to say it, as if he holds Lew in some kind of high esteem, as if he’s confident that Lew reciprocates.
It’s on Lew’s mind, because these days, Lew is sober all the time, and everything is real, starkly real with all of his senses heightened, and Lew is so much more aware of everything; sex and food and music and even, surprisingly, the way he feels.
So one morning he walks into Turnbull’s bathroom. Renny is singing loudly, and even his awful tastes can’t make Lew change his mind. He pulls the shower curtain back, Renny turns and blinks at him, and the three words that come out of Lew’s mouth aren’t the ones he planned. “Sobriety is under-rated.” Renny seems to get it though, because he grins and pulls Lew to him. “I love you too.”