Work Text:
It’s when Rusty’s looking down the barrel of a gun that he meets John Wick for the first time.
In all the years he’s known Danny, Rusty’s always known to expect him to just pull things out of his ass; you think Danny’s gonna go right, and he goes left and up. You think Danny’s afraid of commitment, and he goes and gets married, apparently.
John doesn’t hesitate to shoot the guy, and Danny practically throws himself at him. It doesn’t down on Rusty that this isn’t just some guy that owes Danny a favor and is repaying him by saving his ass, until Danny plants one on him, but it’s the kind of kiss that someone could pass off as friendly if they were european, but the thing is, Rusty is pretty damn sure, from years and years of being Danny’s friend, that he doesn’t have a single drop of european blood running through his veins.
“Ah,” Rusty says out loud, and then Danny’s looking at him, his brain probably working on a way to get himself out of this one.
John, who seems to be intimately acquaintanced with Danny, isn’t very good at reading Danny Ocean’s mood from the likes of it, and he extends a hand towards Rusty. “John Wick.”
Rusty takes a few steps forward and takes John’s hand. “Rusty Ryan.” He remembers the guy, but barely. Danny'd hired him for the Vegas gig.
“Yes, Rusty. Daniel had spoken of you before.” John replies, and it's obvious that he also doesn't remember Rusty. “Don’t know when he planned to have us formally introduced, but this is certainly not the way I’d imagined it would happen.”
“Someone’s feeling chatty.” comments Danny, before he steps out of John’s personal space. “Rusty, there’s something I have to tell you.”
-
It sounds just like Danny that he’d go and make the guy who was hired to kill him fall in love with him. Rusty tells him so. “Danny, you gotta be fucking kidding me.” he adds for the dramatics of it.
Danny shrugs. “What can I say? Once a charmer, always a charmer.”
John’s been listening in the whole time, but it isn’t until then that he decides to speak up. “Daniel does have a way with words.”
“Stop calling me Daniel. You make me feel old.” Danny then turns around to look at his husband . Danny Ocean-Wick is a mouthful, and Rusty is still wrapping his head around it. “Going back to New York?”
“I left Dog behind.” John says.
Somehow that makes sense to Danny, “I’ve told you to stop calling him ‘dog’.” John shrugs. “So that’s the story of how I met that one.”
“Did you ever think about mentioning this before he saved our asses?” Rusty asks. He’s not even that mad, he’s just--this isn’t the first time Danny leaves him speechless, and it won’t be the last, but Rusty wonders how Danny managed to keep this under wraps. But then, one of Danny’s best talents is his ability to lie his ass out of any situation.
“John’s job is… not conventional.” Danny offers as a reply. “We thought that the less people knew about it, the better. I wanted to tell you.”
“Well,” Rusty shrugs. “What’s the next step, then?”
Danny and John look at each other, and then Danny turns back to look at Rusty. “There’s something of John’s he willingly offered, but now we have to steal it back. You in?”
Rusty doesn’t know why Danny bothers asking when he knows the answer will be yes.