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

[myownface]

That... that was a good point. Sparkle pursed his lips a little, and then nodded and tilted his head at Eliot.

"So, what are the odds someone from, like, your past is gonna show up on the island waving a gun around or something, and there'll be collateral damage?"

Because, yet again, Hannibal's crashed wedding hadn't even been a first, there.

[vdistinctive]

"Slim," Eliot said. "Ain't gonna say it couldn't happen, but I've got a lot of experience coverin' my tracks. Closest I've heard of is one of 'em showin' up in Baltimore. He wasn't there for me specifically, and we took him out."

[myownface]

Sparkle nodded a little.

"... That was easier than I figured it'd be." Just the act of asking, yes. "I guess you've been around here long enough to get that I don't, like, mean it personally or anything, though. This place is a trouble magnet."

[vdistinctive]

"With my rep back home, you ain't even close to the first person to ask me that," Eliot assured him. He looked away thoughtfully for a moment, then continued. "You're all grown up, so I'm not gonna pretend that I or anyone else needs to be fightin' your battles for you. But . . . you need back up on anything, you let me know, yeah? Especially if it's help gettin' away from someone you thought you could trust."

[myownface]

Sparkle chewed the inside of his cheek at that, and then nodded a little. He wasn't entirely certain what to say, except that... shit... he appreciated the offer. Maybe he'd never take Eliot up on it, maybe he would, but it was good to see that it was there at all.

"Thanks," he said, figuring that about summed it up. He paused, and then followed it up with an, "I'll think about it, okay?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded. "You do that." He straightened up and moved to grab supplies for the next crossbeam. "You want gum or somethin'? You've been gnawin' on your own mouth pretty hard over there."

[myownface]

"... Gum would be good. I mean, this is, like, an 'I need a smoke' kind of conversation, but there's enough sawdust in here to make that a pretty fucking stupid life choice."

Anyway, if he ate his own cheek, nobody else could! Brilliant!

[vdistinctive]

"No smoking on the construction site's a good rule," Eliot agreed. He shuffled through some of the items in his tool box and finally came up with a battered but solid pack of gum. "Gum'll keep your hands free while you smash the hell out of a couple more nails, too."

[myownface]

"Okay," Sparkle said, cracking a little smile, "but I'm totally blowing bubbles."

It was the small stuff that made it worth waking up in the morning.

"... I'm gonna beat the shit out of those nails, too."

Productivity and venting.

[vdistinctive]

"Just so long as you do it with precision," Eliot said.

Did he mean the nail-pounding or the bubble-blowing? Honestly it could go either way.