75 Godiva, Sunday evening

[vdistinctive]

There wasn't anything quantifiable that Eliot could nail down, but he could tell when Fandom managed to shake off its latest evil invasion. It was like an enormous, evil weight had been lifted from the world.

It was an enormous relief, but mostly Eliot kind of wanted to take a nap. Again. Apparently freaking out as hard as he had took a lot out of a person, more than sleeping a good 10 hours straight thanks to the medication Hardison had dug up.

"Right," he said. "So . . . what. We should be good through, like, March now, right?"

[ooc: for the family, especially, but can also be open!]

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[vdistinctive]

"I'm dealing with it, okay?" Eliot said. "We don't need to make a whole big production out of it."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Havin' a conversation ain't a production, it's havin' a conversation," Hardison said. "It's important enough for you to take a week off to think about, it's important enough to talk about when you get home."

[vdistinctive]

"What, you're punishing me for wantin' some time to myself?"

That wasn't fair. But Eliot didn't much think forcing him to talk about stuff he didn't want to talk about was fair, either.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Wantin' to talk to you about important stuff ain't a punishment any more'n you insistin' on teachin' me to fight is," Hardison said, unimpressed. "An' you know it."

[vdistinctive]

"And I don't deal with things by talkin' about them. You know that."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Which means that sometimes you just don't deal with 'em."

Case in point.

[vdistinctive]

"As I recall," Eliot said, voice low. "Tryin' to force people to do things the way I wanted 'em to was the problem. Or is it only bad when I do it?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You really pullin' some false equivalency nonsense?" Hardison asked. "You're better'n that. An' we both know you're smarter'n that."

[vdistinctive]

"You wanna stop tellin' me what I 'know'."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Fine," Hardison said with a sigh, pushing himself away from the wall. "I don't know what you know. But I know that you ain't gonna be magically better after a week."

He walked into the kitchen. He needed to get himself an orange soda.

[vdistinctive]

"Ain't gonna be magically better bein' forced to talk, either," Eliot pointed out after him, then slouched onto the couch. God he was tired. This was like the damn gun argument all over again. He hated this shit.

But he hated talking about this shit even more.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Well, we had a year provin' it ain't workin' your way," Hardison growled.

[vdistinctive]

"Excuse me?" Yeah, this conversation was really not going well. "I was fine until the damn monsters started showin' back up!"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Swimmingly!

"Yeah, well, the monsters come back, Eliot!" Hardison snapped. "That's the cost of livin' on this damn island! The monsters always come back!"

[vdistinctive]

"Gaunt ain't come back. The damn Brood stayed gone. Sorry if the world where the three of us killed each other showin' back up made me a little twitchy."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"A little twitchy?!" Hardison asked. "We had to drug you just to get you to sleep! That ain't healthy!"

[vdistinctive]

"I never said it was!" Eliot said. "But you ain't a doctor!"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You wanna go to a doctor an' talk to them instead?" Hardison said. "Hell yeah. Shit, I'll step way off that happens."

[vdistinctive]

"I'm not an idiot, Hardison," Eliot growled. "I do actually know when I can't handle shit on my own. I also know the difference between a boyfriend and a shrink."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison's look suggested that he found the first half of that statement, at least, to be debatable. "Cause you ever--" he started and then stopped himself. No, so long as Eliot was agreeing to talk to somebody, Hardison wasn't going to argue. "Not a professional, but better than nothin'. You get a doctor to talk to, consider this conversation off the table."

[vdistinctive]

"And what, you're going to demand proof? You're not my babysitter, either, man. Back off."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Did I say that?" Hardison snapped. "You see me comin' in here, demandin' a referral?" He shot Eliot a disgusted look. "Man, you know you come in here sayin' you were talkin' to somebody, I would have believed you. So get out of here with that nonsense."

He walked over to his laptop and picked it up. Time to angrily hack Russian bots for a few hours.

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah, 'cause you're showin' me all the trust right now. Sayin' 'if' I talk to someone, you'll back off. That really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

This was precisely the reason why Eliot was looking to get away for awhile. Things were clearly far too heated and intense around here.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

A little break really wouldn't hurt, no. Give them all a chance to back away from the emotional edge the weekend had pushed them to.

"Yeah, man. How dare I take steps that I never have to look you in the eye while you're beggin' me not to leave an' know that I'mma turn you down? How dare I not wanna have to choose between fightin' off a bout of claustrophobia an' not bein' here when you need me! Wow, I really am a controllin' asshole, you're right."

He stood up, grabbing his laptop and the cables. "I'm goin' to Luke's," he announced. "Get some work done."

Hardison, petulantly reprogramming twitter bots to intersperse BLM quotes and the new Space Battles spoilers was not 'work'.