fandomtownies | Town Square in the Park, Saturday Afternoon

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Town Square in the Park, Saturday Afternoon

Most of the information they had found was circumstantial, at best: rumors about what might have happened, strange reports that could mean anything about what caused this. But from it had arisen one potential path, the destruction of whatever anchored this place here - though whether it was an anchor that held their island tied to this, or an anchor that held this island tied to its doom, Obi-Wan couldn't say.

Regardless, it was time. He made his way to town square after spending some time urging people to come there. Just to make sure, he raised his voice. "May I have your attention?" he called.

And waited. A bit.

"I'm sorry if I am being presumptuous. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am... newly here. I, and several of our people, have spent some time researching the current state of the island." Yes. That. "We have identified two creatures that may be involved in powering our current circumstances. Therefore, we find it credible that removing these creatures may at the very least improve our circumstances some."

He couldn't make any promises, here.

"If you are willing to volunteer to take on a flying man vulnerable to electricity, and an easily-distractable... thing... out in town, please do report to me." Beat. "And Principal Zoe? I would like to speak with you as well."

He stepped away from the rock he'd stood on, straightened his robe, and waited.

[[ ~~wait for the~~ ocd up! ]]

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Eliot was there, looking rather grimmer than usual, even for him. He stayed off to one side and listened.

So. The anchors of his world weren't the anchors of this one, then. Good to know.

He couldn't fly or shoot electricity, and frankly, Parker and Hardison might kill him (ha) if he volunteered to play distraction to anything else, after Kenzi. So while part of him was raring to -- was always raring to -- dive in and fight, this time it seemed like he was better off staying behind with his crew.

None of them were up for being separated very long, today.

"Don't even, man," Hardison said, before remembering that that was probably the wrong way to handle this.

"You see me goin' up there?" Eliot snapped, then grimaced. "They'll get plenty enough volunteers."

Of course not. He was saving himself for the worse option!

"It's Fandom, I ain't surprised." If things had been a little different, Hardison might have considered volunteering himself. Rigging up something to shoot electricity would have been pretty simple--if, you know, they weren't in some post-apocalyptic wasteland. Three days after being beaten up by the murder hobo version of himself. Two days after being held hostage by a corrupted Kenzi and forced to travel through air vents. One day after getting roughed up by a corrupted version of himself.

"You know, I kinda miss the aliens," he said. "Not the ones that laid eggs in my chest, but the ones that locked us up on their spaceship an' let us play in the Matrix."

"It was real fun how they stuck me in a wild west simulator and tried to convince me you two were dead."

You know, the time he went on a rampage and killed a bunch of constructs and then let an imaginary Al Swearengen shoot him in the head. Good times.

On the other hand. . . .

Eliot rubbed his eyes, then let his hand drag down over the rest of his face. If he didn't get a razor and some damn conditioner soon, he was going to start looking like a dying murder hobo himself. "Yeah, alright," he said. "I get your point."

"Sorry, I'mma always be fonder of them aliens than I oughta be," Hardison said with a slight smile. "First time you said you loved us, after all."

Hardison, you Care Bear.

That managed to drag a smile out of him. "If you want, I can start callin' everybody 'cocksucker' again."

The look Hardison gave Eliot was hardly comm- or BDE-appropriate. "Might just get jealous," he teased.

"You're damned irrepressible, you know that?" Eliot leaned into him with a relieved laugh. "I even made sure I was allowed to at the start of all this and I ain't even looked at anyone but you two."

"Yeah, but look how pretty we are to look at," Hardison said, then grimaced. Then winced as his grimace pulled at his injuries. "Well, I will be after I heal."

Funny, even just a few years ago, he would have been whining about how much his face hurt. Now he was just resigned and ignoring it as much as possible.

Eliot leaned in to gently kiss Hardison, just past the edge of the swelling. "You look gorgeous to me no matter what."

Hardison wasn't interested in any of this 'gently' nonsense. There was a bit of desperation there, built up over the number of times he'd nearly died over the last few days. He kissed back Eliot fiercely, ignoring that the intensity of the kiss made his split lip open up again.

"We're gonna make it through this," he said when he finally pulled back. "That--that ain't ever gonna be us."

"Damn straight," Eliot said, slightly breathless. "Damn. Straight."

"I think we just proved we ain't hardly that," Hardison said, grinning.

And then his smile fell and he shook his head. "Do you--wanna?" he asked, nodding towards Obi-Wan. "I'mma hate it if you go, but if you need to..."

He did want to. And he really didn't. There were a lot of things he'd be happy to work through whaling on a monster, but even if Parker got on board with pretending, neither of his partners would be okay with it. And that wasn't okay with him, not right now.

"They'll get plenty of volunteers," he said again. "I think we need to be done fighting for the day."

Parker had her back pressed up against the guys' backs, so she could see things coming. She was more than a little jumpy after the last few days, and what Obi-Wan was saying wasn't helping.

"Why do they need someone to distract an easily distractible thing? What's the catch?" She paused. "Not that we care. Just curious."

"'Cause then the thing is distracted on our terms. You don't wanna count on the environment to keep distracting a guy when you're attacking him."

Parker rolled that around in her mind, put it in Leverage Inc. terms, and said, "Ah. So the mark-- target, goes where you need him to go to take him down easy." She took a breath. "We are going to train more for fighting after this. Because of reasons."

"You two are welcome to join me any time," Eliot said. "I train plenty."

Eliot, don't be a brat.

Parker bumped her hip against his, little sharp bones digging in where they could. "Fight with you. So we aren't leaving you to bronco-ride a giant cat, or having to wait for you to save us, or..."

Yeah, she wasn't up to even thinking about what had happened before.

"Saving you guys is what I'm here for," Eliot said. "I ride the giant cats and fight the -- I do all that so you two can get on with what you do best. That's the whole point of being a team, Parker. You have to let me do my job."

"I let the other you do your job and look what happened!" Okay, now she was thinking about it. Parker turned around to bury her face between Eliot's shoulder-blades. "I can figure out how it happened exactly and how it didn't happen and I don't want that to happen so we're gonna learn more so you stay alive forever."

Eliot squeezed his eyes shut, took a shuddering breath. "He went because you did. Because he didn't save you. That's what -- that's what happens to me if I lose you two. You get that? It'll break me."

Now Parker was hugging him hard around the waist, eyes shut tight, breath catching like she had something in her throat. "I should've... she should've figured something out sooner, so it wasn't--"

She had no idea what other-her could have done and didn't, but being able to fight was a start, wasn't it? But even as she was talking, she was listening, and clinging to Eliot even harder. "We're okay," she whispered. She'd said that a lot, before. "We're okay, we're okay, we're okay. You and me and Hardison."

Eliot leaned back into her. "We are." He rubbed her arms where they squeezed against him. "We're going to be fine."

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Town Square in the Park, Saturday Afternoon

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