Bonded

[Happened November 7, 2010]

Six days was not really enough time to do LA to London and back again. But when the opportunity presented itself, in the form of an unexpected break from filming, Daniel had to take it. It'd been months since he'd seen Ella and he just didn't want to wait until Christmas.

But the trip is a little rough, even in first class, and to make it all the more fun, he can't sleep. He braves the stroll up the cabin to the bar, perching on a stool and hoping that the turbulence doesn't send him flying as he requests a hot chamomile tea.

Sendhil's been alone at the bar for half an hour, better even than sitting in his more comfortable seat, given his nerves at the flight. His fear of flying isn't severe, but turbulence never helps, and he feels like he hasn't slept at all this trip, between spending time with the children, long talks with Olga, and being up with Alex when the stomach bug from hell hit in his last two days.

The lack of sleep makes him jittery, but he knows he can't sleep now, and is drinking coffee instead, hoping it'll keep him alert until the inevitable crash in his apartment tonight. When someone sits down next to him he immediately tosses the man a friendly smile, hoping for conversation, something to take his mind off his nerves. Maybe too much caffeine is partly to blame for his exuberance. When he gets a better look, he recognizes the actor, who'd been sitting across the aisle from him earlier, and hesitates before he speaks, wondering if Daniel might prefer his privacy.

"Hot tea?" Daniel gestures with his own mug toward Sendhil's. "Not a night for alcohol."

"I'm on coffee," Sendhil grins sheepishly, showing his mug. "I'm about to bounce off the walls, but," he shrugs. "Nervous flyer."

"Ohh," Daniel grimaces sympathetically. "Bit of a drawback, in our line of work," he notes that he recognizes Sendhil, he was actually quite a fan of the first couple of years of Heroes, before it got complicated and reset time and missing an episode made it impossible to know who was where and why. "Well, maybe less so for television?"

"Less so," Sendhil agrees, pleased that Daniel seems to know who he is, making introductions unnecessary. "I filmed the first season of a show this year, Covert Affairs, in Toronto. But Toronto's a welcome relief in the summertime, and I didn't fly back and forth to LA." He shifts on his stool, takes a sip of coffee. "This trip was for pleasure, not business. I can't miss an opportunity to see my kids," Sendhil explains with a little smile and a shrug.

"They're in London? That was my reason for this trip too, seeing my daughter," Daniel returns the little smile. "Always on Daddy duty, one way or another."

Sendhil grins at that, shaking his head. He doesn't say the first thing that comes to mind, which is that he wished he had more Daddy duty. No point in being maudlin with a stranger. "Yeah, mine live in London with their mother. How old is your daughter?" he asks, instead.

"Eighteen now, just started at University of Westminster. It's rather mindbending, I'm sure that she was in kinder just a few months ago." Daniel shrugs, you cannot stop the march of time. "Yours?"

"Two and four," Sendhil replies. "So, my mind isn't quite bent yet," he admits. "Now it's just boggling how much they grow up in three months' time."

"When they're small, there are rapid changes," Daniel remembers somberly. "When Ella was that age she was in Liverpool and I was in London and even that was too far away. Well, especially for a striving actor. No cost-no-object travel in those days."

Sendhil nods. "We've only been living apart for 15 months, it's... hard, with Alex especially," he admits. With both of them--Halina's such a Daddy's girl, and he finds himself spending far too much of his money on little girly tchotchkes to send overseas. "He was so young when their mom and I decided to split, but we didn't want to carry on and make it even harder for them. I visit as often as I can." He looks a little sheepish, sipping at his coffee. "Sorry. I don't mean to be depressing."

"No, no, I understand. Ella was just 2 when her mum and I split," Daniel nods Sendhil's way. "It's not depressing, it just is. Do you have pictures?"

"Oh, yeah," Sendhil smiles, lifting up from his stool a little to get his wallet out of his back pocket and opening it to the two plastic-encased photographs--Alex as a baby, sitting on a blanket in the sunshine, and Halina dressed head to toe in purple, hanging upside down from a tree with a huge grin on her face. "There you go," he says, laying the wallet on the bar next to Daniel's tea.

"Oh, look at her," Daniel laughs, turning the wallet to see the little girl right side up, then turning back. "And what a happy boy, too. Oh, they're magnificent." He takes another look before passing the wallet back. "Lucky man."

"I'm an incredibly lucky bastard," Sendhil agrees with a bright smile, swallowing the last of his coffee and then returning the question. "Do you have a photo of your Ella?"

"I have a whole slideshow," Daniel laughs, extracting his phone from his pocket, pulling up the pictures and sliding it over. "The newest are the ones in the blue dress, she came with me to a premiere, got to do the red carpet thing." He laughs, he spent years protecting her from the press, but as an adult, he put the choice in her hands, and she had a blast as his date.

"Wow," Sendhil exclaims. "She's stunning." It's easy to see the resemblance, they both have that kind of effortless beauty that you can't help but be drawn towards. He laughs a little, shaking his head. "I don't envy you, man. If Hali grows up to look like that I'll be following her around with some sort of bludgeoning device in hand."

"She's living in my flat in London with her best friend. I've threatened to have a security gate put at the door that takes a photo of everyone who enters and sends it to my phone for approval. No blokes allowed," Daniel jokes. "But she's got a good head on her shoulders, I trust her."

"Entirely reasonable," Sendhil replies with a grin. "But yeah, I guess you have to. I'm not looking forward to those days, myself. I can only hope that her brother will grow up into a great hulking thing and protect her in my absence. Not... really all that likely," he concedes, holding up and pretending to inspect one of his own slender arms.

Leaning in as if confiding a great secret, Daniel shakes his head, smiling mischievously. "It's the brains, not the brawn."

"Ohhhh," Sendhil murmurs, as if he's as impressed by this tidbit as Daniel pretends to be secretive in giving it. He feels a little surge of pleasure at just being in close proximity to a person he finds attractive, and accordingly he keeps the space between them close. "Unsurprising. I don't think it'd be difficult to outwit half the suitors a teenaged girl might encounter," he laughs.

"This is true, some of the stories Ella tells me about her friends and their exploits make me wonder how they're all still walking around upright." Daniel starts to sit back, but after a momentary reconsideration, doesn't. "But my parents probably felt the same way about me and my friends at that point."

"Teenage rebel?" Sendhil asks, his smile in his eyes.

"Well, not a rebel exactly, just fond of shenanigans, I was part of an unholy trinity, my mother said, with my ex-wife and our best friend," Daniel explains. "We got into a bit of mischief from time to time. Nights out on the drink, that sort."

"I see," Sendhil nods. "You know, I don't think I was ever all that mischievous until I was about thirty. I've grown into my mischief," he explains with a laugh.

"Oh, I like that, I'm having a period of that myself, now. I figured why not? I've got time -- well, when I'm between films -- I've got money, I've got no one to answer to..." Daniel shrugs, "may as well have a bit of fun, right?"

"Definitely," Sendhil agrees. "So, what does Daniel Craig do for fun?" he asks, and if that sounds unduly flirtatious for an encounter with a presumably heterosexual male on an airplane, he'll blame the caffeine.

There's something intriguing in that question, or maybe it's the asker, and the inclination to be glib that is usually prompted by that inquiry goes right out the window. "Well, when I'm filming, which is now, I'm usually too worn for too much fun, so I read a lot. Hike a little. And I've been getting out on the water when I can, a friend lets me use his boat, though I need to go ahead and get one of my own, now that it seems I'm staying in L.A."

"Sail? Motor?" Sendhil asks, his own giddiness about being on the water probably leaking through in his tone of voice.

"My friend's boat is a motor, meant for fishing actually, though I don't do that. Ultimately a sailboat is what I have in mind," Daniel raises an eyebrow at the interest Sendhil's telegraphing. "Do you like the water?"

"Love it," Sendhil agrees. "Sailing, in particular, I love to sail. Once the kids are all set for university funds, I'm definitely going to save up for a small boat."

"So responsible," Daniel teases, "your kids will appreciate that, one day, in about thirty years or so."

Sendhil laughs. "If ever. But television's been good to me, it shouldn't be too long now. And sometimes I rent a boat and go out in that."

"I was thinking of doing that over the Thanksgiving weekend, I'll have a bit more time off then, that Saturday," Daniel thinks aloud. "I'm not doing much hiking these days, so that's my other easy-access recreation."

"Hiking's hard, when you're working a full schedule. Kind of a time commitment. My recreation has been... going to the bar," Sendhil laughs.

"I've done a little of that, mostly for the people watching though," and Daniel blinks at himself as he tries to work out if he just revealed more than he ought to.

"Now I'm embarrassed that I do it mostly for the drinking," Sendhil laughs. "Though... watching can be fun." And okay, that came out more pornographic than he intended.

Daniel looks, and blinks. He's never seen Sendhil's name on the member roster but then, he wasn't exactly looking. Hasn't been looking at all, really, just letting things happen as they come. "It... can, yes. Especially depending on where you go."

Sendhil's eyebrows go up, just a little. He wonders, but... seems like too big of a coincidence. "Yeah, that's... definitely true," he agrees, holding Daniel's gaze. One thing's for sure, he's definitely taking a look at the club directory as soon as he's on the ground.

"Oh hell," Daniel mutters under his breath. The attendant working the bar has stepped off for something and everyone even remotely nearby is asleep. "Definitely true in certain sorts of establishments."

Sendhil has to clap his hand over his mouth to keep his laughter to an appropriately quiet level. "Oh man. You have balls," he exclaims when he's caught his breath. "And you're entirely on base, too," he adds, trying not to grin too widely.

"Balls? Me? Did I say something?" Daniel feigns innocence, but his smile tells all. "Had to take a chance. Happens rather often that it's the right chance, these days."

"Isn't it uncanny?" Sendhil smiles. "Sometimes I feel like everyone in the entertainment business is... well-established."

"And the ones who aren't are the ones who shouldn't be," Daniel lifts his mug in a little toast. "Here's to screenings."

Sendhil laughs and clinks his mug, even though it's empty now, pretending to drink. "I haven't even spent that much time there, but it does have its perks," he reasons. "Not the least of which being an amusing inside joke to share with strangers. Good information around which to bond." And of course, he immediately wonders if that sounds too forward, the assumption that bonding with someone Daniel's just met would be a good thing.

Bond. Interesting choice of words. Daniel's not sure if that was meant to be a pun or if it was a suggestion. "Do you often bond with strangers?"

"No," Sendhil answers honestly. "Not often. But you never know where a conversation will lead, I suppose." He's not normally this openly flirtatious, and even though he knows Daniel's kinky, he doesn't know queer or straight, dom or sub. Still, he's ready for this, and his instincts are driving him to be bolder than usual. "I like to leave myself open to possibilities."

"That's a very wise way to live. I did exactly the opposite for a very long time, and it got me nowhere. At least personally," Daniel explains. "I'm learning to embrace possibility again, the way I have with my career."

Sendhil nods. "I'm glad to hear it. I think... have you ever heard of the Law of Attraction?"

"What, is that like The Secret? Hang out with successful people and you'll become successful or something?" Daniel's sure he's misstating the premise somehow, but he's not entirely sure.

"Sort of similar, a little less Boys' Club-esque. It just means that if you start believing good things will happen to you, they will. So you embrace possibility, and good things happen because you're expecting them to," Sendhil explains.

"Ahh, well then, yes. I am believing that good things will happen to me," Daniel nods decisively, not voicing the other half of the thought, that good things needed to start happening in his personal life because it's definitely at a point where it's got to get better. Well it has been getting better. He's got a couple of... friends, he guesses is an acceptable word, and well, things have definitely been worse. "Well, they already are, I've met someone to talk to on what would've otherwise been a dreary flight."

"Likewise," Sendhil smiles. "And after, if you'd like," he adds, pulling a business card out of his wallet and sliding it down the bar to Daniel. There's a hint of flirtatiousness in his eyes, and Daniel can pass it off if he wants to, but given the conversation, he figures carpe diem and all that. You never know.

Smiling, Daniel plucks up the card and slides it into his pocket. "I'm afraid I can't reciprocate, I left my cards in LA," he laments. "Oh, but I'm in the club directory, you know," he gives a little shrug, the invitation to look him up hanging in the air, but entirely unspoken.

Sendhil smiles, takes the ball and runs with it. "Oh, that's right. So... if I were to use that directory to--" he hesitates a moment, but hell, it's not like they're likely to see each other again if he's off base, if Daniel's straight, if he's not interested "--say, extend a dinner invitation... would that be welcome?"

Smiling widening further, Daniel turns, intentionally engaging, body language modeling every unspoken means of signaling attraction he knows how to show. "That would be entirely welcome. Absolutely." He hopes to the soles of his feet that he hasn't misread Sendhil's intent, but he's pretty sure they're on the same wavelength.

"Wonderful." Sendhil's probably grinning like a loon, but here he is, and here is Daniel, and the openness of the man's expression has him terribly intrigued. He's already thinking about restaurants.