The Beach, Sunday (All Day)

[geniuswithasmartphone]

So, yesterday had been Hardison's birthday but as the crew had, umm, lost track of the date over the past week, they'd only realized that Hardison was twenty-eight today. Making the impressive decision to actually leave the house today, they'd all trooped down to the beach to have a small cookout. Well, as 'small' a cookout as Eliot could be reasonably be expected to manage, which involved fancy seasoned burgers, marinated mushroom caps, various salads and sides, and a bunch of other things that fit into the coolers they hauled down with Hardison cheerfully bitching the entire way.

They spread out blankets and towels, let Eliot fire up the grill, and settled back to enjoy the day.

...Well, enjoy it as much as possible without wifi.

"I'mma have to retask a satellite--again--if I wanna watch anythin' on my phone, y'all," Hardison noted. "Did we bring Ziplock bags? Otherwise I'mma get sand in all my electronics an' ain't nobody wants that."

[SP, other two modded with permission, and open to anyone who wants to wander by!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"Why the hell're you watching anything on your phone?" Eliot asked. Not that he expected a reasonable answer. "It's a beach party, Hardison, you're supposed to be watchin' the waves and your friends."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"...Are the waves doin' somethin' special that I should be checkin' out?" Hardison asked, looking away from his phone out to the sea. "I mean, I'm happy to watch you an' Parker all day long, but waves? Really man?"

[vdistinctive]

"It's meditative," Eliot growled, flipping a burger. "Relaxin'. The beauty of nature."

Really, you'd think he wouldn't even bother, anymore.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeah, wow, nature, so impressive," Hardison drawled. "If I need to be impressed by the beauty of nature, again, I can just keep watchin' you an' Parker."

And as for meditation, yeah, Hardison wasn't really great at that. His brain was too fast and too loud for all that.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot would argue that was exactly why Hardison should try it. Sometime when he wasn't already having an entirely pointless argument with him. "So what you're sayin' is, we should get Parker to go swimmin' and give you something to watch."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You finish my hamburger an' I can watch both of you swimmin'!"

Hardison was a certified genius.

"...But definitely finish my hamburger first, a'ight? I'm starvin'."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Yes, your highness. You want one of the fried squashblossoms to tide you over?"

He was pretty sure the answer to that was 'no'. Which, well. More fried squashblossom for him.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"A fried what man?" Hardison was making a horrified face. "You ain't puttin' that on my burger are you? Why would you even--like, squash is bad enough, but then you decided to make it worse? On my birthday? Seriously?"

[vdistinctive]

"Not on the burger," Eliot said, grinning a little evilly. "An appetizer." He held one up. It looked vaguely squidlike. "C'mon, it's deep fried."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"We have ziplock bags. After we've eaten what's in them." Parke skinned out of the shirt and shorts she was wearing, down to her swimsuit. "And I want something fried that Eliot made. Because fried! Eliot-made!"

Hardison, live a little, birthday boy.

[vdistinctive]

"Squash blossom?" Eliot offered. "Hardison's afraid of them."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Gimme. Please." See, she *could* learn manners. Parker grinned and started slathering on the sunblock over areas that stayed pale as ice no matter what kind of suntanner she used.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot held the deep fried blossom out for her. "Let me get this grill all set snd I'll help you get your back," he offered.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Yessss," Parker said, taking the blossom and starting to nibble. Somewhat indistinctly, she said, "But if Hardison wants to help, he gets to, 'cause birthday." Nom nom nom nom. "Dip? Or something?" MMM.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot pulled a tupperware container out of one of the coolers. "Feta, olive oil, red onion, and olives," he said. "Goes geat with 'em. Also good on lamb."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Mmmmmm." Also good with kisses of gratitude! "You made a cake, right?" Because all of this was awesome, but cakes were the things that were supposed to be for birthdays.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot could get used to cooking coming with kisses of gratitude. He'd do it either way, but kisses of gratitude were a definite bonus. "'Course, darlin'. What kind of birthday party would this be without a cake?"

Honestly Eliot was just glad nothing had risen from the dead or fallen from the sky or tried to kill them this weekend, so they could properly celebrate it.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Unreal," Parker said promptly, continuing to nibble on the squash blossom. "We can get ice cream on the way back." She lowered her voice. "Did you get him another present?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Babe, you can't gang up on me," Hardison protested, watching her happily. "It's my birthday! You gotta say that I'm right an' Eliot should be makin' something way better than squash flowers."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Grinning back at him, Parker started burying his feet in the sand. "There probably is other stuff. But it's Eliot-food. You know it won't be horrible."

Except maybe brussel sprouts. No one could do anything about those.

She ticked the sole of his foot, while she was at it.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeah, but he's busy makin' squash flowers an' mushrooms taste not-horrible when he could be makin' food that's already good taste even better," Hardison pointed out, trying to keep his foot away from the tickle-fiend.

It was a futile effort, he knew, but he was going to try anyway.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Hold still, Hardison! She was testing your reflexes! You were approaching thirty and she had to make sure you still had those!

"Did you request deep-fried gummy bears?" Because if he had, Eliot would... not make them, but probably come up with something just as good.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

He didn't wanna have his reflexes tested! And, shh! He was still two years away from thirty!

"...I ain't, but now I'm gonna," Hardison said, cackling. "Just to see Eliot's reaction to that."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker abandoned his feet to walk her fingers up to his knees. And wait for a moment to see if the backs of them were still in shape and twitchy.

"Meeeean." She gave him a sweet smile. "I'll eat whatever you don't like."

She was a giving girlfriend that way. "Especially if you help me build a sand-castle."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

They were definitely still twitchy, yep! Good job checking, Parker!

"A'ight, a'ight, a'ight, I'll try a squash floret if it'll make you happy," Hardison sighed, because he really did want to try them but had needed a good excuse. "An' we'll build a sandcastle. Do you have a bucket? Or are we just gonna mound up some sand."