The loft above Luke's, Sunday night

[vdistinctive]

"I loaned Kanan one of your scarves, by the way," Eliot said as led the way into the apartment. "The sweater the island landed him in is even stupider than mine." He switched the lights on and gave the kitchen and living room a cursory scan. "You sure you two even want to crash here, tonight? Y'all been extra -- tense about this place lately."

You know, since Hardison got trapped in here by a giant evil cat-Kenzi. Not that Eliot could blame them. His talk with Sophie had helped with the 'useless in my own skin' feeling, but he wasn't exactly cured of all fear or anxiety from the events of last weekend.

[ooc: for the bf and gf!]

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[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Hardison, that is the Voice of Overselling the Con. Parker gave him the look of Seriously? in return for that.

"Okay, I'll just put-- one layer of lights? Along the top and edges?" They would be icicle-drippy lights, the kind that made everything else super pretty. Blue-white and shiny.

Back to the topic of Tru, Parker said, "She could come stay with us. You know, after she gets to know us." She sighed happily, kicking her silvery-tree-wrap feet. "And we can show off everything to Nate and Sophie when they come." YAY.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot yelling about Hardison's tech was going to be a Thing. He could see it now. "I ain't kidding, man. The living room's s'posed to be a peaceful place."

Also, probably an argument about what constituted "peaceful."

"Tru's got kids, darlin'. She'll appreciate the invite, but I'm guessin' she's not gonna want to drag her whole family of five around."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hey, they hadn't had a new Thing in awhile. This might be fun!

"I find the hum of electronics peaceful," Hardison said, mostly because he, too, scented the new Thing on the horizon. "That beepin' an' the monitor's blue glow is very restful."

Hey, there was that argument Eliot had been expecting!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker gave them both tolerant looks, and then rolled her eyes in favor of getting up to get cookies to eat while watching the Drama. "We still have to steal a wedding for Nate and Sophie too."

[vdistinctive]

"Beeping is not relaxing!" Beeping to Eliot tended to mean 'count down counter on a bomb.' So the opposite of relaxing. "Nobody finds beeping relaxing!" He was pretty sure Nate would back him up on this. "We don't know anyone havin' a big ceremony, Parker. I'm pretty sure Jono and the doc gave up on that completely."

Also, they'd gone and gotten quietly married already.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Finally. Watching them muddle through had nearly been enough to put Hardison off the idea of matrimony.

"I'd say find a mafioso marryin' off his daughter again, but I have a feelin' Sophie wouldn't approve of their style."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"I'm going to keep a lookout. But if it's not the right wedding, they just won't do it. Or Sophie will cry. One of those." Parker looked very thoughtful about this. "I have some ideas. Gimme 'til after Christmas Day." Because there was still all kinds of celebrating up until Epiphany!

[vdistinctive]

"Take all the time you need, darlin'. If you two are gonna be movin', you're gonna be pretty busy."

As would he. Damn, he was going to have to do some cleaning up, wasn't he. It wasn't quite a bachelor pad, and they had plenty of stuff there already, but Eliot's house was definitely not ready to be a shared home yet.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"It's true," Hardison said, thinking of the sheer amount of stuff in their apartment. And there was plenty of stuff squirreled away that he didn't even know about. "Probably better to finish that up before tryna throw Nate an' Sophie a weddin' they don't even know to expect."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

And Parker had to make new stashes for her guys, too!

"Okay, that's fair," Parker said reluctantly. "Should we rent out the apartment?" It just occurred to her it would just be sitting there. "Or keep it for a back-up place?"

[vdistinctive]

"Dunno," Eliot said, frowning faintly. "Which'd you two rather do?" He wasn't really sure about having strangers live right upstairs from his diner.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison's voice was small when he mumbled, "You 'member what we talked about, right after Kathy--right after? We were gonna offer them the apartment for a bit, since they couldn't go back to the dorms?"

Back when there'd still been some hope that they'd all come driving home to safety.

"Well, I'd like to still give it a bit of time. I'm still workin' to hack a portal. We may still get..."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot leap-frogged right over Parker's ping leaned in to cut Hardison off with a kiss. "You're right. Of course."

It wasn't that he didn't have hope -- for Raven at least. He was just too used to losing people; at a certain point, he'd learned to lock the hope away so he could deal with the loss and move on. He was more thankful than he could say that Hardison kept reminding him they were still trying to get her back.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison also leapfrogged over Parker, WE LOVE YOU WE SWEAR! kissed Eliot back, clutching him a little more than he ordinarily would if he wasn't still a little fragile. "Thanks," he said.

Thanks for believing he might be able to do this. That he wasn't wasting his time in trying. That his hope wasn't a stupid thing to cling to.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker didn't have hope. But she had faith. If there was a way to do it, Hardison would find it. And Eliot would make it happen. Raven just had to hold on; Kathy just had to stay in one piece.

She leaned in to kiss Hardison after Eliot did, then kissed Eliot. "Yeah. This'll be their place. Plan."