Electricity (Mate/Whip-Hand, d’Schane/Terry)

Terry swallowed a brief wave of panic. He forced himself to move, slowly walking into the den and kneeling next to d’Schane’s chair. His hands clenched in his pants to keep from trembling as he remembered similar situations, almost a year ago, between him and Daphne. A thought flickered through his head and he tried to suppress it, unsure if d’Schane had his lead in and was listening. The thought refused to be buried. He wondered if it was something about him that made all of the really important people in his life eventually hate him or if it was just bad luck.

d’Schane finally turned towards him, staring down at him with a vaguely annoyed look. It reminded Terry too much of the end of his relationship with Daphne, when she’d exiled him from her bed and kept him locked away in the tiny closet. He dropped his head to rest against d’Schane’s leg, briefly nuzzling his face against the fabric of d’Schane’s pants. His entire body relaxed when one of d’Schane’s hands twisted in his hair and he breathed a sigh of relief. Even without the lead turned on, it wouldn’t have been hard for d’Schane to pick up on the fact that Terry was distressed.

“What’s up?” d’Schane asked after a long pause.

He debated his words, trying to decide between the most recent problem that had brought him to d’Schane and the deeper issue. The former seemed like the safer option. He didn’t want d’Schane to think he was being too needy. “My shirt is missing.”

d’Schane turned back to his console. A technical document was open for review, one of the ones that Terry had written earlier in the week but d’Schane had yet to approve and pass on to the client. “You have others. The shirt you’re wearing now is fine.”

Terry bit his lip, still hesitant to even bring the issue up with d’Schane. He was being silly. “But I can’t find it. It’s not anywhere in the house and I just wore it last week. That’s not the only thing missing.”