Luke's, Saturday

[vdistinctive]

Eliot didn't typically work the diner floor more than once a week or so, but his good mood from yesterday hadn't faded, and he decided he wanted to cook. For as many people as possible. So he came in today, shoved the cook aside (in a nice way, don't look at him like that!), and started grilling up some burgers.

He didn't even put the spatula down when Nate called, just tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear and kept going. "Nate, man! How's it going? You and Sophie set a date yet?"

"This is not a social call, Eliot."

Eliot snorted. "Right, no, of course not. You don't do social calls."

"What's this I hear about you beating the crap out of Sterling?"

"He called you about that?" Eliot spun the spatula in his hand and flipped a couple burgers, getting some pretty impressive height on those patties. "Musta left an impression." In Sterling's face.

"Why did you beat the crap out of Sterling, Eliot?"

"'Cause he irritates me?" Eliot grinned. "You remember he drugged me, right? In Dubai?"

"I do, I do. I also remember when he let all of us go in Portland. You remember that part, Eliot?"

Eliot sighed. "Yeah." Nate was just determined to kill his mood, wasn't he. Dammit, Nate. "Listen, man, it's been nice talkin' to you, but I gotta go. The, uh. Stove's on fire."

"What?"

"Flames, just -- everywhere -- the busboy burned his hand off -- tell Sophie I said 'hi!'" Eliot hung up and jammed his phone into his back pocket. When it almost immediately rung again, he pulled it out, turned it off, and shoved it back in.

"Alright! Who wants bacon on theirs?"

Today's specials
Burgers grilled to order
Beef tallow fries
Deep fried apple pie

Luke's was open.

Comments

Mod your service

[vdistinctive]

No one's on fire.

Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

Ask him about that awesome new wolf claw necklace he's wearing.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"I want a burger. With cheese. And pickles. And bacon. And onions. And that stuff you put on the turkey sandwich last week."

That was not exactly a request, either, Eliot.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

Eliot spun the spatula again and pointed at her with it, winking. "Gotcha. You want me to do it turkey burger? Would go better with the sauce."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Noooo. Turkey burger isn't a real thing." Even you couldn't convince her of that, Eliot. Parker folded her arms, staring at him. Glaring at him. "You're... perky."

What's up with that?

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

Eliot sighed. "It's called bein' in a good mood." He shook his head. "It's just ground meat, Parker. You can prepare meats in lots of different ways."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"I can tell the difference. Not turkey." Parker gave him a mulish look. "Real beef makes me happy."

You started this, Eliot, explaining food to her. About memories and sharing yourself and all. Now she has Standards.

"Navaan didn't stay overnight again, did she? She's annoying. People agree with me."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"Alright, but that sauce ain't gonna work as well. I'm gonna have to modify it." Which would be fun. A nice little challenge. "Nah, no Navaan. Just spent a nice, quiet night at home with Val. Thanks for lookin' after her for me, by the way. I know it was pretty last minute."

Or, you know, extremely last minute.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker wanted to keep up the bad mood, but Eliot was making it difficult. "We could have fed her avocados. I wanted to feed her chocolate, and then Hardison told me it was poisonous to her." She scowled, but it didn't have any real heart in it. "We liked having her at our place. She was good. Didn't chew the furniture. Quinn needs to give you more notice."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"Ain't really how our job typically works," Eliot said, smile falling just a little at the reminder that he'd had to lie to his team. "Especially if you're a hitter who typically works alone." Time to change the subject. "She wouldn't've liked avocado. But it ain't as bad as chocolate is. If I didn't think you two could handle her for a couple of days, I woulda found someone else to look in on her."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Just remind Quinn you don't work alone, and you have partners who would be happy to help from now on." And maybe he wouldn't ask again? They could hope? Maybe? That compliment made her smile a little more, though. "I almost got her trained to bark on command. Do you think she'd like to go along on a job?"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"Not until she's at least full grown," Eliot said. "We could run fake ones for her to get her trained up, though." Get her one of those little working dog vests. A working dog opened up all sorts of different characters!

Re: Talk to Eliot

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker gave her happy evil laugh, and nodded hard. "Maybe for the next class we should talk about that! And about evading guard dogs. Or other large animals. Horses." Still not a fan of those.

The next time Eliot turned to speak, she noticed his new necklace. "Hunh. Where'd you get that?"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[geniuswithasmartphone]

You know, Hardison would love to ask Eliot about his new necklace. Really. He would. But right now, he was too busy getting chewed out by Nate to really notice Eliot's new accessories.

Funny that.

"Naw, Nate, naw. Look, man, we were left at home! We were dog-sitting! I--well, yeah, eventually he told us--no, we--yeah, Nate, I get it, but--I know we owe him--ain't you ever heard the phrase, 'Not my brother's keeper'? It's biblical, Nate! Bib! Li! Cal!"

Eliot was getting SUCH a glare right now.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

Eliot just shrugged at him helplessly and flipped another burger. It totally wasn't his fault Nate was a control freak who still wanted to be the one calling the shots even after he quit!

That was totally what was going on here. It definitely wasn't that Eliot had acted completely irrationally. Nope. Not at all.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yes, I will certainly pass along to Eliot how completely irresponsible of him that was," Hardison continued. "Oh. He had to go to the hospital? Yes, I'm sure that Leverage, Inc can see towards covering his expenses. I'll be sure to have Eliot mention that to Parker. Was there any other message I could pass along? Since I'm Eliot's receptionist as well as his baby-sitter now."

Hardison was pissy at both of them. Nate for deciding that he was a good substitute for the lecture he wanted to give Eliot, and Eliot for putting him in this damn mess in the first place.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"He went to the hospital for that?" Eliot shook his head. "Pansy."

Because that was the appropriate response here.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Eliot says he hopes Sterling feels better soon," Hardison said, giving Eliot a dirty look. "And is very sorry for whatever trouble he's caused."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

Eliot smiled back. You and Nate weren't going to ruin this mood, Hardison. "Awfully sorry." That Sterling thought he had to go running to Nate just 'cause he got his ass kicked a little.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[geniuswithasmartphone]

There were not words to describe the levels of doneness that Hardison was dealing with right now. "Yup, yup, I will most certainly pass those messages along, Nate. Yup. Buh-bye now."

And as soon as he hung up, the words were exploding from his mouth. "Man! What the hell's wrong with you?!"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"What?" Eliot was clearly innocent here, Hardison, he doesn't know what your problem is. "It's Sterling."

Re: Talk to Eliot

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"The guy that let us all go even though he knew we had the book?" Hardison asked. "That Sterling?"

Sure, no one was a fan of Sterling, screw that guy, but come on!

"I thought you just hit him up for his hard drive, not literally started hitting him!"

Re: Talk to Eliot

[vdistinctive]

"He walked in." Because Eliot planned it that way. "Look, this way he doesn't even know we hacked him. He just thinks I showed up to beat him up a little."

Because Eliot literally planned the job specifically to show up and beat Sterling up a little.

Re: Talk to Eliot

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison was just looking at Eliot now, all astonishment.

"That's better?" he sputtered. "You want him to think that you're the kind of guy who just shows up and beats on people for ha-has?"

OOC

[vdistinctive]

It is almost warm enough to crack the balcony door open. Ah, spring!