Office hours, Wednesday

[vdistinctive]

Eliot straightened up from where he'd been installing screens behind the vent grates. He hadn't held office hours since the unfortunate gremlin incident three weeks ago, and he wasn't taking any chances with ending up convinced he was something considerably worse than a giant six year old bird.

Val looked at the vent and then up at Eliot and whimpered. He sighed and scratched behind her ears. "Yeah, I know. But I ain't crazy this time. And besides, these vents are too small for Parker, anyway."

Yeah, the similarities to his lovely psychotic break wasn't helping his peace of mind much, either. But at least he hadn't busted out any bear traps.

[Open office is open! Just not to gremlins.]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"Because you have zero game." For real, Hardison. "And anyway, I kinda figured our roles were, you know, settled. You and Parker did your thing, and -- I protected you guys. Made sure you got to keep doing it." He shrugged. "It worked for us."

You know, the way all unrequited relationships based on one of the people thinking they didn't actually deserve what they wanted and convincing themselves that any signs from the other people they saw was just wishful thinking on their part worked.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Worked." You'd better believe that Hardison was using finger quotes for that one. "It left all three of us wantin' somethin' none of us were sure we could have. This now. This works for us."

[vdistinctive]

There might still be a part of Eliot half convinced the two of them were just obliging him. Because, you know, it wasn't like they'd gone to weird lengths trying to woo him or anything.

"This works, too," Eliot agreed. "I'm just sayin', buying a brewpub isn't the best first move when you haven't even managed to let a guy know anything was on the table."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

One day, Hardison was going to grab him by his wolf pendant and shake him until he acknowledged that they loved him far too fiercely to simply be 'obliging' him. One day.

"It was step one of a multistep process," Hardison sniffed. "Which woulda eventually culminated in us bein' on a table, probably. Wearing bows an' pretty smiles so you'd know for sure what we meant."

[vdistinctive]

Now there was a mental image.

"See, now, most people would do that in the opposite order."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison just looked at him. "First of all, we're thieves. When we ever do anything like other people do? Second, we're us. Even more of all that, c'mon now!"

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, what you seem to be missin' is that there are reasons some things are done the way they're done, Hardison."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I'll let you explain 'em to Parker then."

[vdistinctive]

"Alright, but I'm usin' that 'on a table with a bow' line." He smiled. "Maybe it'll give her ideas."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Put money down first," Hardison advised. "You know it perks her right up."