75 Godiva, Thursday night

[vdistinctive]

The island had that vacation quiet thing going on, and life in general had been pretty quiet and peaceful for Eliot recently, too.

It was enough to drive a hitter nuts.

He'd bought pretty much everything Williams Sonoma had to offer right now, and had broken in every single piece. He'd actually gotten tired of cooking. So now he was sitting in the living room, reading a political thriller, his reading glasses sliding down his nose.

Oh good god, he'd totally gotten old. This was exactly why he'd talked to Kanan about going off and starting a bar fight sometime.

[for the partners. And probably for slowplay]

Comments

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster," Hardison said, humming the tune. "You lookin' to see if me an' Parker are up for a trip to Bangkok, or lettin' us know in advance that you're headin' out for awhile?"

[vdistinctive]

"Not awhile," Eliot said. "But Kanan and I were talkin' about going out tomorrow night and looking for some trouble." They were both getting twitchy. It wasn't pretty. "And in Thailand I know I can dodge the cops when I need to."

He knew how to do that most places, but getting arrested in Oklahoma had stuck to him.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

As well it should. That had been both embarrassing and under his real name.

"So this is less you lookin' to see if we were interested an' more you givin' a head's up in a way that's more useful than a note sayin' Be back, watch Val." Hardison nodded easily. "You know Parker's gonna wanna know why we can't come, right?"

[vdistinctive]

"I can go back to vague notes, if you'd rather," Eliot said. "I was tryin' to be good."

Parker wanted to know the why of most things. Eliot was used to it by now.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Nah, nah, I like this better," Hardison said quickly. "I hate playin' Where In The World Did Eliot Go? Havin' a destination an' a idea of what you're gettin' up to is nice."

Hey, if Eliot needed to go halfway around the world to rearrange a couple of guys' faces for fun, Hardison couldn't really judge him. After all, he'd been lighting plenty of people on fire over the internet the past few weeks.

"You mind wearin' a earbud while you're there?" It was his one real request.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shook his head. "Nah, that's fair. So long as y'all promise not to panic if it gets knocked out of my ear or something."

He wasn't likely to take it out for a hook-up, anymore -- those needs were more than taken care of at home these days -- but there were all sorts of reasons why Eliot sometimes went radio silent on the things.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"It shouldn't do that anymore," Hardison said absently. It was one of those problems he'd fixed when he was futzing around because of too much free time. "I'll do ya one better, then. We won't try to talk to you through it while you're fightin'. Unless it's an emergency." He grinned. "Fair?"

[vdistinctive]

"You shouldn't be doin' that anyway," Eliot grumbled. "Deal."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Then yeah, sure, I'm cool with it," Hardison said, cuddling close. "I get the urge to blow off steam, yo. An' I'd rather you go pick bar fights with Kanan than tryna drag me along into it."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot had to laugh at the mental image he got from that. "You'd be hiding in the corner, trying to make the jukebox do the fighting for you."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yo, hold 'em off me for long enough an' I could have Robo-Jukebox up an' doin' the fightin' for both of us!" Hardison protested. "'Sides, I ain't that bad. Remember how I took out that dude in the bar on our night out with the dudes? When we were pretendin' to be crooked cops."

...Eliot might remember that part of the evening differently. In no small part because Hardison had given himself a concussion headbutting a guy.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot frowned, not immediately placing that story, then remembered the night he'd quietly taken out literally everyone else in the bar while Hardison was doing his overdone grifting thing. "Oh -- oh yeah, sure, man. That was cool."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeeeah that was, right?" Hardison said, holding up his hand for a fistbump. "You saw that I could handle myself there. First griftin', then fightin'. We practically strolled outta there when I was done. Nobody tried to stop us."

[vdistinctive]

"That's true," Eliot said, chuckling a little as he bumped Hardison's fist in their traditional manner. "No one tried at all."

How had Hardison never noticed that Eliot had to hold that one guy upright?

[geniuswithasmartphone]

He had really been into his role! His role of Racist, Crooked Cop!

"So, you know, maybe I ain't always gon' hide behind the jukebox," Hardison declared. "Sometimes I just might surprise you."

[vdistinctive]

"You know I don't mind when you hide behind the jukebox, right?"

It meant Eliot didn't have to worry as much about protecting him while he fought.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Well, yeah," Hardison said. "Doesn't mean I like havin' to. Sometimes it ain't half-bad, bein' up there in front with you. Bitchin' about how mad I am I'm up there in front with you."