In a fishing boat off the coast of Key West, Sunday afternoon

[vdistinctive]

Like Eliot was going to work a job in Key West without dragging his team out for some fishing? Sure. Right. It wasn't like Hardison could fuss about racist militias on the OPEN OCEAN, after all.

. . . He was waiting for the argument about pirates. Or maybe mosquitos. Or sharks. Whatever, they had a cooler full of beer, a boat to themselves, and an extremely low probability of running into any magic monsters this far from Fandom. Eliot was going to call it a win.

[ooc: for Leveragians and likely slow play.]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"I am not dressin' up as a tentacle monster. Or a pepper pot." Just so they were clear. "Do they have space pirates? I could be a space pirate."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Space pirates. And! Space cowboys. And? space pirate cowboy ninjas."

Someone was planning on finding leather pants for Eliot, yup.

[vdistinctive]

Which Eliot would then bitch about the difficulty of fighting in. Leather pants didn't stretch nearly well enough to keep up with him, dammit. "I'm gonna regret this, ain't I."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Skin-tight silver android suit," Parker promised him. "And maybe getting to growl at people!"

Probably, yeah.

[vdistinctive]

"I already growl at people." Eliot was nothing if not self-aware. "Hardison better wear a tight shirt at least."

Yeah, he was already pretty sure he'd be in something ridiculous.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"I'll make sure." Parker leaned into him, watching the line bob. "...I don't get this."

Fishing. There was fish in restaurants.

[vdistinctive]

"It's about the challenge, darlin'," Eliot explained. He was starting to get used to having to. "Self-sufficiency."

How did she think the fish GOT to the restaurants, anyway?

The line suddenly dragged down harder than it had before. Eliot let out a whoop and ran over to the reel, grabbing on and bracing his feet against the boat railing. "Come on --" and then the line went slack and Eliot groaned. "So close!"

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"That was cool," Parker had to admit. "How big are these things?" She dabbled her fingers in the water. "Heeeere, fishy fishy fishy."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot grabbed onto her beltloop again. "Big, Parker. Like fifteen feet long." He spotted something blue cutting through the water a little ways away. "Look, there."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"HOLY--" Parker stared. "What, why? Why are you wrestling a fish? A fish THAT BIG?"

It was times like this that she wanted Nate there to ask questions of. Because he would either know, or he would give her that look of No one knows, it's an Eliot thing, keep moving things along.

[vdistinctive]

"For the challenge, like I said." None of his lovers understood him. It was very sad. "Back in the day a fish like that coulda kept a village goin' for weeks. You take on a fish like that and win and you can take on anything."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker never would have appreciated Hemingway.

"Okaaaaay." That made a bit more sense. Well. The feeding people for a week part. Right? Sort of. SHUSH. She paused and added, "Are you really letting it go after you catch it?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded. "Catch-and-release helps preserve the population. Lotta fishers around these days, puttin' a big dent in the amount of fish available."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Cool." Parker took another photo of the one-that-got-away, or maybe that was another fish's tail waving in the water. "It's not money. But it's your fun place."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded consideringly. "One of 'em, yeah. It's -- honest, y'know? Ain't many honest things my particular skill set lends itself to."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker bumped his shoulder again. "Got it." She grinned. "Better set up for the next big fish, I guess."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot leaned against her in return, their version of a short hug. "Wanna go pick out the lure? They like 'em shiny."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Sure." Parker foudn one that was candy-colored apple red, and brought it over, admiring how it trailed down. "I think Sophie has some earrings like this."

[vdistinctive]

"Maybe she's a secret deep sea fishin' fan." Well, no.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Maybe she played one once." So much more likely. Parker handed it over with a grin.

Sometime, they'd have to tell Sophie about the three of them. Just... not quite yet.

[vdistinctive]

"Oh lord, can ya picture her playin' Santiago? And the fish. In the same production."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Who's Santiago?" Parker looked intrigued. "But I can totally see her playing some fisher guy and a fish at the same time. It would be *hilarious.*"

[vdistinctive]

"Old man of The Old Man and the Sea," Eliot said. "Never read it, but it's hard to get through high school without at least pickin' up the general gist of Hemingway."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"I'm pretty glad I didn't go, then," Parker said contentedly, putting her sunglasses back on. "Although if it's like Death of a Salesman we really should get Sophie to do it as a one-woman show." She paused, leaning back and idly said, "I wonder what Nate is doing."

Scary, scary thought.

[vdistinctive]

"What, right now?" Eliot shrugged. "Probably out on his boat, just like we are. Takin' Sophie on tours around the Mediterranean."