What Else Would You Have Me Be?
Epilogue
What the hell was he thinking?
It was nearly six, and Nate had said they'd be done an hour ago, but finally, they were winding up.
Santiago
had been released and reinstated, with a large bonus for her troubles.
The cash looked like some bargain they'd struck up to deflect her
lawyers, but that hadn't been the important part.
She had also,
partially due to recommendations from Agents Taggart and McSweeten,
been installed as the point person in charge of cleaning up the county
jail. Her first day back on the job had been today, and her first order
of business had been to put the call out for lawyers and law
enforcement personnel to start reviewing the cases of every single
inmate. McTeague, one of the guards working the block, had been named
Interim Warden to help her out. Half of Tent City would be emptied by
Monday, and it would probably be shut down entirely within a few weeks.
For the moment at least, Arlington, Miller and Branson were all
occupying isolated cells inside the jail, but Larson, whose name had
sent up all sorts of international red flags that would take months to
sort out, was being transferred to Virginia.
Arlington's murder
trial was set for next month, and Miller and Branson were up on enough
charges- conspiracy, tampering with evidence, abetting in a kidnapping,
possession of firearms and attacking law enforcement officers, to name a
few- that they'd be bouncing between jail cells and courtrooms for
years.
And that was all well and good, but the clock was
ticking, Eliot was getting tired of the glances Sophie and Nate kept
shooting him and Hardison, and they had reservations for six thirty.
"So,
are we done here?" Hardison's leg had been bouncing underneath the
table for the past half hour, and he'd been growing increasingly short
with everyone. Even Parker was starting to pick up on it, though it was
probably because he'd inadvertently kicked her three or four times now.
"Yes, yes," Nate finally relented, waving them off. "You're all free to go."
Parker
was already out the door, muttering something about a bowling alley
under her breath, leaving Sophie gaping after her, trying to
retroactively plot her trajectory. By the time Eliot was grabbing his
jacket off the back of the couch, though, Nate had recovered enough to
sidle up to him, his voice conspiratorial and far too amused.
"I
don't know whether to tell you that I don't want to see you all for
three weeks, or to have him home by midnight," he smirked.
"Shut
up," Eliot growled, glancing at Sophie, who, going by the mortified
expression on Hardison's face, was giving him the same speech.
And maybe they were both just so relieved to be out
of there, that it didn't get awkward until they'd arrived at the
restaurant. As they walked up, Alec examined at the sign warily.
"This is the place?"
"Yeah," Eliot said, ignoring the misgivings that had slowly started creeping up on him, and opening the door.
It
had just opened up last month. Lots of polished steel reflecting lots
of colored lights, art on the wall on loan from some local gallery.
Half of the wait staff had tattoos, making their otherwise stuffy
uniforms look far trendier than they probably were. The wine rack took
up the entire back wall of the place, and Hardison was staring at it
warily.
"It looks…" he caught himself, once they were seated, and
put his hands up before Eliot could call him on it. "Hey, man, no
worries. I trust you."
It didn't mean anything more than
what it was. He was just talking about the restaurant, and he might've
been half-kidding. Eliot shrugged it off. He'd wanted to check this
place out for weeks, now. He didn't like it, there'd be popcorn at the
theater. And that stupid feeling in his chest that kept coming back at
the weirdest times could just fuck off.
---
Deciding that the wine list looked way over his head, Alec looked at the menu instead. And he laughed.
This
place had everything. Weird-ass French stuff that Eliot probably
liked, hot dogs, steaks, tacos, and a grilled cheese sandwich that
looked amazing, even if he only knew what two of the ingredients were.
There was also a beer list.
"This place serves 40's?"
Eliot
nodded at the table next to them, where a group of six
twenty-somethings was hanging out. Two champagne buckets filled with
ice were on the table between them. One of them had wine of some sort,
but the other had a screw top.
"Don't get your hopes up," Eliot smirked, his eyes returning to the wine list.
"Why, we're gonna be civilized? Is that it?"
"Check out the ribs on page four."
"That…does not look at all
civilized," Alec admitted, sparing an apologetic thought for the shirt
he'd never admit to buying just for tonight, already knowing that he
wouldn't even want the stains to come out. "That's just porn."
Eliot was beaming, winking at him as he ordered some ridiculous sounding wine.
That might've been porn, too.
---
After
a few glasses of wine, Hardison started flirting. What was surprising
was that Eliot didn't mind, that he kept catching himself egging him on,
showing off. Teasing him back.
It wasn't until they were
halfway through eating, and Hardison was telling him about the hack that
had gotten him kicked out of college three semesters in, that Eliot
realized how surreal this actually was.
Because it was Hardison. The same guy he'd always been, but.
He
talked more freely about his life than anyone Eliot had spoken to in a
decade, and already knew about the shitty things Eliot had done and was
still sitting there, across the table, leaning in and listening, not
because he was gathering intel but because he actually wanted to hear it.
And he could make him laugh his ass off, too.
And he kept shooting him these looks.
They were enough that he kind of wanted to skip the movie and move right on to after. Because as well as this was going, he wasn't sure, yet, where it was going, and the impatience, the need to find out
was gnawing at him. Right now, he didn't think he could concentrate on
anything besides the way his shoulders filled out his shirt, and how
they had to look underneath it.
But he'd chosen the restaurant, and Hardison had picked out the movie. That had been the deal.
"What time does the movie start?" he asked, once the waitress came back to try conning them into dessert.
"About
twenty minutes," Hardison said, looking regretfully at the menu she'd
handed him before glancing up. "But you know, with traffic and all…"
Eliot could see where this was going. He felt warm. "And it being a Friday night…"
"On opening weekend. We'd miss the previews anyway."
"Which is half the point," Eliot agreed, though Hardison's fascination with watching ads was something he didn't really get.
"Exactly. And I don't know what this is," Hardison addressed the smirking waitress and pointed out something on the menu, "but I'm fairly sure I need it." His finger moved again, stabbing the page. "And he needs this."
---
"So, rain check on the movie?" Alec asked, once Eliot had pulled the car into traffic.
"Definitely," Eliot merged into the next lane, already heading in the direction of Alec's apartment. Alec's very clean apartment, the one he'd spent the week dusting and vacuuming. On the off chance. In case Eliot wanted to-
"When
do you want to go?" Eliot's eyes were on the road, giving nothing
away. It looked deliberate, though, and there was this smirk hovering
in the corner of his mouth that Alec couldn't stop staring at.
They were already less than a mile away.
"There's
got to be a matinee tomorrow sometime," Alec took a breath,
reconsidered, and continued on anyway. "We could catch an early show
after breakfast or something."
There. It was out there, as plain as he could make it.
---
Hardison had been playing it cool, all week, same as him, like they'd agreed to this- all
of this- four days ago in a Phoenix emergency room, and the rest was
just details: the awkward pauses that hadn't happened over dinner, the
minor spikes of nerves that had, the few last minute chances to back out.
They weren't anything Eliot couldn't handle, as long as Hardison could, but the waiting was going to kill him.
"You
want the ten cent tour?" Hardison offered, once they were standing
inside his apartment. He didn't look particularly interested in his
surroundings at the moment, though, not with the way his eyes kept
wandering south.
"Long as it ends up in the bedroom."
"Thank god,"
he said, and one increasingly handsy living room, kitchen, bathroom,
and office-that-looked-more-like-a-toy-store later, Eliot had hips
pressed into his own, hands in his hair, and Hardison's mouth crushing
into his.
He still tasted like chocolate and raspberries and
wine, and Eliot wondered if he'd planned it that way. His teeth were
smooth and slick, and he hummed when Eliot moved on along his jaw, down
to his neck.
Fuck, he smelled good, and his hands were
already stroking up under his shirt, light enough to tease, scratching
at his sides, and when Eliot crowded him back against the wall, there
was no hiding how hard either of them were.
One last time, just to be sure. He leaned back from the waist up, just enough to see his face. "We on the same page here?"
"Seriously?" Hardison laughed, breathing rough as his hands slid down to Eliot's ass, dragging him in again. "Get back here."
---
He'd been thinking about it for days, now, how this would go.
He'd
thought they'd at least get their clothes off, the first time.
Probably. But his jeans were too tight to come off easily, Eliot's
weren't much better, and neither of them were really in the frame of
mind to concentrate on them longer than they absolutely had to.
Eliot
still had him pressed against the wall, but when Alec shoved his hand
down and in between them, curving over his cock for the first time, the
pinning became suddenly less about keeping Alec in place and more about
keeping Eliot standing.
His own arm was in the way when Eliot
snaked his hand in to wrap around him, squeezing experimentally, and
yeah, Alec's kissing might've gotten a bit sloppy at that point, but
Eliot was breathing hard into his mouth, his belly pressed against his
own where their shirts had gotten rucked up, and they were stumbling
into some kind of rhythm, here, so he went with it. Or tried to.
Eliot
had found a better angle, could move more freely, and it was all Alec
could do to keep up, awkward as it was. He wanted to know if Eliot was
as big as he felt under his hand. Wider, to be sure, and hot to the
touch as Alec spread the slickness down from the tip.
Damn,
but he wanted to taste it. He rocked to the side, leaning Eliot up
against the wall before pinning him there with his free hand, letting
him get his legs underneath him again.
"You stay here," he said against Eliot's temple, before dropping- a little too hardly- to his knees.
Eliot's
chest was heaving, but he seemed frozen to the spot, his hands clutched
at his sides, fists against the wall, fingers just starting to twitch.
His jeans were halfway down his thighs, and Alec shoved them down a bit
more in a halfhearted attempt to get them out of the way. Eliot's cock
was dark pink, almost red, thick as he'd imagined and curved- just
slightly- to the left.
He stroked the full length of it for the
first time, grasping it in one hand as he repositioned himself. It
twitched against his lips when he dragged his tongue up the length,
licking experimentally.
"Fuck," Eliot's hands were
suddenly on his shoulders, thumb stroking against the side of his neck
as he opened wide, took it in, pulling back when he went too far too
fast, nearly gagging. Breathing through his nose, he dragged his tongue
all over it, tasted salt. Pulling back, he tightened before nodding
forward again, stroking the length that he couldn't get in his mouth,
spreading the wetness.
And back and again and again, sometimes
faster, sometimes slower, sometimes rougher, sometimes just ghosting,
which was honestly easiest. Eliot's stomach was tight, his mouth open
as he stared back down, silent and possibly unseeing. Alec sped up
again, just a bit, wanting to see how it registered, if Eliot's eyes
could go even wider than they were, and he laved the crown with
his tongue as it slid past again. It was Alec's hands dragging up
Eliot's thigh, though, his fingers brushing against his balls, that
caused his eyes to slam shut.
Eliot tensed, jerking forward just a bit before pulling back sharply.
Alec
repressed the urge to cough, tightening his grip just a bit and
thrusting his fist over Eliot's cock, fast now, fast enough that Eliot
wasn't even breathing any more, and then Eliot was coming,
shooting over his collarbone and chest, legs locked straight and
immobile, still completely silent.
---
Eliot gasped,
still trying to catch his breath as he balanced against Hardison's
shoulder, easing down until they were both lying on the floor. Hardison
tried avoiding his mouth at first, but Eliot was insistent, he wanted
that mouth, even wanted the taste.
He didn't stop
kissing Hardison as his hand trailed down, setting up a slick easy pace
for the moment, just until he could catch his breath enough to actually
go down on him. But Alec was close, already, his hips jerking up off
the floor as he moaned into Eliot's mouth. His hands scrambling against
his chest, grabbing at his shoulders, arms, anything within reach.
"Harder, I'm gonna-"
Eliot
obliged, tightening his grip and increasing the pace. He kind of
wanted to turn, to watch Hardison's dick spill all over his hand, but he
wasn't able to tear his gaze look away. Hardison's eyes were squeezed
shut, and his groans were hitching at all these gorgeous places-
And fuck, Eliot's name, all broken and breathy like that? Caught him in the chest, sharper than any knife.
---
"Last
chance," Alec said, throwing the covers back for the third time and
kneeling on the bed. They'd already made one distracted trip to the
bathroom to clean up before he'd had realized that he'd left the front
door unlocked, and then they'd both needed water. "Speak now, or
forever hold your peace."
Eliot shoved him down and climbed in
after him, his leg sliding in between Alec's, and it was obvious that
they were far from done for the night, but there was no need to rush,
now.
"I'm not speaking," Eliot smirked, kissing his jaw, settling against him more comfortably.
And yeah, put that way, well. Forever seemed like something worth aiming for.
---
The End.
