75 Godiva, Friday

[vdistinctive]

So. Hardison and Parker were officially going to be moving in. The first rush of "yes, please, be where I can keep an eye on you and make sure you're not turning into creepy zombie versions (or alien bug versions, or any other kind of creepy versions) of yourselves" had worn off, and Eliot was starting to realize what that actually meant, logistically. The house couldn't just be his place, anymore. He had to make sure that they had the space to make it their own, too. It wasn't as if Eliot's house was small, but, well. He'd been living there for coming up on three years now. It had stuff in it.

So today, Eliot was cleaning house. He'd cleared out the dining room (never used, they always ate in the kitchen, so that'd be great as, like, an office or study or something) and was now tackling the basement.

Which would be how a box full of bear traps ended up on his front stoop.

He had no idea what he was going to do with those.

[open!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"Hang on, have you not had a bed since then?"

Kanan.

[uncertain_dume]

"I've had a couch. What's wrong with the couch?"

This was an actual, legitimate question. Whether it came from a have-not mindset stemming from a Jedi upbringing, a stubbornness that came from sleeping in the dirt during the war, or just being a dumbass who was prone to staying in nightmarish flophouses or just crashing on cantina floors was anybody's best guess, though.

All of the above?

[vdistinctive]

Admittedly, Eliot hadn't spent his twenties sleeping in a bed, either.

"Couches are alright. And I guess you're young enough not to much notice the difference. Still, what're you gonna do if you wanna bring someone home, huh?"

. . . Was Kanan even interested in that sort of thing?

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan was terrible enough at being a Jedi that he was, in fact, very interested in that sort of thing.

"... I've been going to her place," he admitted. "Anyway, there aren't exactly all that many single women on the island who aren't actually a human personification of Death. Things like that."

He'd met one. One woman on the island who was not Death, or a Valkyrie, or spoken for. They had fun.

[vdistinctive]

"Really?" Eliot hadn't exactly been on the market in awhile, himself. "Well damn. Wait, is that Death thing hyperbole?"

Around here, you never knew.

[uncertain_dume]

"Not so far as I can tell," Kanan replied after a pause. "She's pleasant, though. Just... also Death. We talk sometimes. She makes me feel... really damn young."

Ignore that he was young, please.

"So Death doesn't get invited over for anything I wouldn't want a flamingo, a dog, or a roommate crashing in on anyway. Neither does anyone else."

[vdistinctive]

"You are really damn young."

Like Eliot was actually going to ignore that.

"Still, that's a damn trick. It's your apartment, right? Your name's on the lease, you should get a damn bed."

[uncertain_dume]

"This bed thing is really a sticking point for you, huh?"

Yes, Kanan. The bed thing was probably going to be a sticking point for a lot of people. It was kind of your bed.

[vdistinctive]

"It's your bed." Really, Kanan, you grew up the way you did and you hadn't learned to defend your own territory? "If anyone should be crashin' on the couch, it's the kid."

[uncertain_dume]

Kanan defended his territory fiercely! His territory just happened to consist of a lightsaber, a holocron, and a blaster.

Oh, and now a dog.

"Wait... I thought I was the kid?"

A beat.

"I mean, unless I'm not the kid anymore. I can live with that, too."

[vdistinctive]

"You're definitely still the kid," Eliot said. "I meant the other kid." Keep track, dammit.

[uncertain_dume]

"Okay, I'm really starting to wonder what your definition of 'kid' actually is, here," Kanan confessed, frowning a little. "Not that I'm opposed in any way to sharing the title, mind."

He wasn't! Because he wasn't a kid! Let Cecil have it!

[vdistinctive]

"Really? Now you're gonna pitch a fit about me callin' a teenager a kid?"

[uncertain_dume]

Blink.

"I wasn't going to pitch a fit about anything," Kanan said slowly. "I was mostly wondering why you were calling a guy who has to be at least in his thirties a kid."

[vdistinctive]

". . . There more'n one Cecil runnin' around town with a giant pink bird?"

[uncertain_dume]

"... Space, I hope there isn't."

No offense, Cecil.

[vdistinctive]

"He as a student like, last year. He ain't thirty."

[uncertain_dume]

"He's got a scientist boyfriend trapped in a desert otherworld back home? And I'm not a great judge of a lot of things, but I want to think I know a guy who's actually older than I am when I see one."

[vdistinctive]

". . . I think we're gonna have to write this one off as a 'Fandom Thing'."

[uncertain_dume]

"I'm going to cling really hard to 'Fandom Thing,'" Kanan agreed. "Because otherwise I've been living and teaching classes with a teenager, and I don't think my mind can handle that."

[vdistinctive]

"And you'll have plenty of other stuff to carefully not think about. So you might as well get the practice." Eliot found the box of old surveillance equipment -- the stuff that had survived having boots thrown at it, anyway -- and offered it to Kanan. "I've lost track, personally."

[uncertain_dume]

"I get the feeling that this place does that to people eventually," Kanan mused, accepting the box and peering into it thoughtfully. "In the meantime... I guess I'll worry about figuring out what to make of this, huh?"

It was definitely...

...

It had cameras?

[vdistinctive]

It did! And weirdly large audio bugs. You had to go very old school when you were trying to set up a system your genius hacker friend couldn't hack into.

"If you don't end up needin' any of it, you can probably junk it. I'm not sure it's useful to anyone who ain't completely batshit crazy, these days."

[uncertain_dume]

"I'm going to see if I can repurpose it if it comes to that," Kanan decided. "It's not quite like anything I'm used to back home, but I'm saying that so often lately I'm starting to feel like a glitching holo."

[vdistinctive]

"Culture shock's a bitch, man." Not that Eliot had ever experienced quite as thoroughly as Kanan was. "You can turn me down, you know. I promise I won't be offended."