Work Text:
“You need to take your shirt off,” Parker’s voice hissed in Eliot’s ear.
Eliot managed not to break character in front of the mark, a dirty CEO whose favorite hobby was weightlifting, and continued their conversation about working out while pretending he didn’t have an entirely different conversation going on in his right ear.
“What? Why do you want him to take off his shirt?” Hardison asked. “I mean, I know I like Eliot with his shirt off, because ya know, unf, but is that really going to help us in this situation?”
“It is when the mark is giving Eliot the same kind of look you do whenever he’s working out,” Parker shot back.
“Huh,” Hardison said thoughtfully, after a beat.
I am not stripping to flirt with the mark, Eliot thought as angrily as he could, like that would somehow project his objections through the comms.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” the mark asked. “You look a little…”
Damn it. Eliot smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine, sorry. Just…thinking about a conversation I’m going to have to have after I leave the gym. One of those, you know?”
The mark nodded understandingly. “Ah, yeah. I’ve had a few of those in my time.” He clapped Eliot on the shoulder, and his hand lingered there for just a fraction too long for it to be purely friendly. “Good luck with that.”
Eliot mentally cursed again. Looked like he was going to strip to flirt with the mark. “Thanks, I’ll need it. Anyway, I’m gonna go finish my set. My heart rate’s probably dropped way too far.”
“Of course! Sorry to keep you…Ben, was it?”
“Bryan.” Eliot held out his hand and flashed a flirty grin. “Nice to meet you, Wayne.”
They shook hands, and as Eliot walked back to his weight bench, he stripped off his shirt and dropped it to the floor beside him.
He sat down on the bench and started bicep curls with the largest weight he could manage. “Is he looking?” he asked under his breath.
Parker actually giggled. “Oh yeah. He’s looking. Which might be bad, because I think he forgot he’s holding a weight.”
“Ooh, that’s gonna end poorly,” Hardison said.
From ten feet to his left, Eliot heard the thump of a weight hitting the ground and a muttered curse. “Sounds like it just did.”
Hardison laughed. “Ha! I am gonna love this job so much.”
Eliot switched to the other arm. “Because our mark’s a damned idiot, or because I’m apparently going to be shirtless for most of it?”
“Both,” Parker said immediately.
“Oh yeah,” Hardison said. “Definitely both.”