75 Godiva, Wednesday

[vdistinctive]

The house was gutted down to studs, many of which had been rearranged to make the new configuration of rooms the team had agreed on. Eliot was working on framing the new upper story now, which meant a hard hat, tool belt, gloves, the works.

Seriously, he had this whole men-at-work carpenter look down up here. He hoped his partners appreciated it. Lord knew he did on the few occasions Hardison got down and dirty with a maker get up. He wondered how much Hardison would fuss about the sawdust if they tried to fool around in (a carefully cleared area of) the construction site. . . .

Work was happening, if a little slow. Since the carpenter kept distracting himself with idle fantasies.

[yeah I dunno. Open! Eliot should be visible from the street while he works. . . .]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded. "Nicely done. You stick around for a bit and you might even speed things up around here for the day."

[myownface]

Sparkle glanced back at Eliot and grinned a little. Okay, shut up, he was a sucker for positive reinforcement when it didn't come with strings and he knew it.

"I mean, I don't have anywhere else to be," he noted. "I was just out looking to kill some extra energy anyway."

[vdistinctive]

"Well, you found just the place for it. It's nice when you can do that constructively, insteada beatin' the crap out of something for awhile. Or cleanin' the crap out of it, I suppose." He gestured for Sparkle to follow and led the way to where the construction plans were sitting, spread across a saw-horse-and-plank table and weighted down with jars of nails. "Framin' ain't a bad place for a willing novice. You still wanna burn extra energy later, I can teach you how to drywall downstairs."

[myownface]

Sparkle followed along amiably, looking at the plans and tilting his head a little. His brain still functioned in metric, it took him a few seconds to parse some of what was written down.

"I wouldn't complain about drywall lessons either," he decided. "I mean... like... any lessons, at this point. Cleaning is great for familiar-and-productive, but I'm kind of looking to pick up whatever useful skills I can manage, these days."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded. "Too bad the community center ain't got classes on this semester," he mused. "Still, there'll be plenty of construction work around town for awhile yet, and there's always Baltimore if you're lookin' for more formal trainin' on anything." He tilted his head a little, looking Sparkle over. "Anything goin' on I can help with? Other'n just keepin' you busy, I mean."

[myownface]

Sparkle huffed out a little laugh and shrugged his shoulders.

"I mean, there's always something going on lately," he noted. "The community centre stuff is usually cooking classes anyway, which I've kind of got a handle on these days."

Hard not to, after playing sous chef for Dr. Lecter so often. Incidentally, those two thoughts weren't as mutually exclusive as they seemed.

He leaned in to look at the plans, and then glanced around, placing what was written down with different parts of their surroundings.

"I've had a few people suggest taking classes off the island. Shame this place doesn't have, like, a community college or something so I can take all the random shit I didn't get a chance to take in high school, without having to account for, like, grades or student visas or whatever."

[vdistinctive]

"Hell, man, if an ID's what's stoppin' you from doin' community college on the mainland, we can cover you there. Wouldn't even be hard."

[myownface]

"Nah, it's not just the ID," Sparkle admitted, turning a vague smile Eliot's way. "I've just got... like... hangups. I know you guys would be good for it if I knew what the hell I wanted to do and I asked."

He was grateful for that, too. There weren't many people he would ask, when it came down to it. Most people's help came with a catch.

"I keep telling myself stupid shit, like I have to get my head on right, or I don't completely know what it is I want to do anyway, and it's all stupid excuses and I know it."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot huffed a soft laugh. "Well, you know they're stupid, so least I don't have to point that out. Pretty sure community college is where folks go to fuck around until they figure out what they want to do, anyway."

[myownface]

"And see, if I say, 'yeah, but I have a business to run and don't have the time to just fuck around with school,' that sounds like an excuse too,' Sparkle laughed, shaking his head. "Shit, nobody ever warned me that acting like a functional adult was going to be so fucking hard."

[vdistinctive]

"You'll get better at it," Eliot assured him. "Or more used to it, at any rate. If anything in this world works on the principle of 'fake it till ya make it,' it's bein' a goddamn grownup."

[myownface]

"Thank god I know how to fake it," Sparkle replied, shaking his head. "Right up until I can't."

That part wa a work in progress. He was halfway committed to having his shit together for the rest of his life if only to avoid being kidnapped away to Toronto again.

"I mean, I know I don't have to tell you that this whole shark thing was fucked up, but god, I failed at dealing with that for like a month."

[vdistinctive]

"You dealt well enough to keep your own ass alive and safe," Eliot pointed out. "That's actually all that's required when somethin' like that happens."

[myownface]

"Pretty sure Atton would've tied me up and stuffed me in a closet if I thought for a second I was going to go outside in that," Sparkle pointed out. "... Plus I don't want to get eaten by sharks. This is at least the second time the island has pulled that shit, I'm not stupid enough to wander around in it twice. Doesn't make me any better at wrapping my head around the fallout."

He glanced around at the house.

"Not that I got hit very bad, like, comparatively."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot paused in the midst of gathering supplies for the next stud and just looked at Sparkle.

"What part of 'you kept yourself safe and that's enough' weren't you gettin', man? I don't care what your reasons for keepin' safe were or about anything you think you failed to do while you were keepin' safe. Flat out: disaster happens, and staying alive is enough."

[myownface]

Sparkle... shrugged. And reached into one of the containers to pull out another nail, mostly so that he could fiddle with it. He was feeling fidgety, now.

"Disaster happens," he agreed. "And it's not like it's anybody's fault. It isn't even like I'm the only one who got hit, you know? I just... like... handled it badly after the fact, I guess. Glad I'm alive, glad I got through and nobody really got hurt or anything, still freaked the fuck out when I saw what happened to the shop."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot raised an eyebrow. "You're formerly homeless," he observed. "And one of the big things in your life -- one of the big structures -- got trashed and you couldn't stop it. I'd be more surprised if you didn't 'freak the fuck out' about that."

[myownface]

And now Sparkle was blowing out a little breath, a kind of relieved one. Okay. Cool. Eliot got it. That was good.

That was good.

"Yeah," he agreed. "That's about it, there. And then there was insurance bullshit I had to fight with and I spent, like, a solid week just contemplating flipping a table and giving homelessness in, like, New York a try, just for a change of pace."

Because Toronto was a no-go, and he knew damn well that it was the nuclear goddamn meltdown option, but at least it would be a familiar nuclear goddamn meltdown option.

[vdistinctive]

"I don't recommend it," Eliot said. "But I'm guessin' you worked that part out. Personally, insurance crap usually makes me want to beat on things. Preferably the insurance adjusters."

[myownface]

"... Is that actually an option? Because it can't be any more stupid than what I did end up doing."

It could be an option if you really put your heart into it, Sparkle.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot frowned. "What did you end up doing?"

[myownface]

Sparkle bit the inside of his cheek, and then muttered, "Got really drunk, and then apparently thought it would be a great idea to break into Dr. Lecter's place, drink like half a bottle of his expensive vodka, and pass out on his couch."

Which was stupid on most levels, but extra stupid on a 'Dr. Lecter' level above and beyond that, really.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot's eyes narrowed. "What did he do?"

[myownface]

Sparkle kind of hesitated a moment.

"Impromptu field trip to Toronto. Not my Toronto. A Toronto."

While he'd been unconscious. Sparkle wasn't going to mention that part unless he was prompted to.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot frowned harder, more to himself than to Sparkle. "The hell did he say to talk you into that?"

He honestly hadn't expected Sparkle to try to go back to Toronto -- any Toronto -- any time soon.