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Language:
English
Series:
Part 3 of The Bits And Pieces Job
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Published:
2021-09-17
Words:
393
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
8
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175
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1,079

Listen To Yourself

Summary:

There's a backwoods country radio station that still plays the Kenneth Crane version of a hit song. Eliot isn't exactly ready to hear it right now, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need to.

(a Realiztion Moment drabble - meant as groundwork to the OT3, but as it's Eliot-centric it can read a bit like "unrequited pining")

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Eliot doesn't really even think about his quick stint as Kenneth Crane anymore.

But its a couple days after the Value More job, and he's driving back from his disastrous attempt to speak with his father. Down winding country roads. His own highbeams the only light under the overgrown canopy. Rain starting to patter against the windshield.

A text message from Parker waits on his cellphone, read but not replied to, asking what normal people do on fancier dinner dates. There's a picture from Hardison too, asking whether or not a jacket would be too much with this vest and tie, and if the colors were alright together.

Eliot's used to having to deal with all the crap he'd gone through after leaving home. Where all his choices led him. That shit was all on him, so he could handle it. Lie in the bed he'd made, so to speak.

But the past couple weeks had been just one slap in the face after another of all the shit that wasn't his to control - how he'd grown up, how his small hometown struggled, how another town was staring down the barrel of the same fate, how even now - as he's trying to make things a little better - he's not Nate or Sophie.

He doesn't know how to change peoples' minds like they do, doesn't know how to make someone want to talk to him. Give him a chance to reconcile.

It's just all been building up, and Eliot can see the wave starting to crest in the distance. He knows that if he stops to think about whatever date night Hardison and Parker are planning - if he even just thought about 'Hardison And Parker, ' which he never does - the riptide is going to snag him by the hips and drag him out to meet it.

He isn't sure why, exactly, just that he knows it will.

Then, over some fuzzy little backwoods radio signal spitting out of his pickup's radio, his own voice reaches his ears.

He only makes it halfway through the first chorus before he needs to slam on the breaks and pull over. Gasping for breath as he chokes back whatever's bubbling up inside him. Hands white knuckling around the steering wheel so hard the old leather cracks.

Oh. That's why.

 

He never does go on that date with Tabitha.

Notes:

Local Idiot reads the messages:

"hey. if you were on a date. how would you want it to go. like a normal people date, not like the ones i usually take hardison on. somewhere fancy. how should I act. I should dress up, right? what kind of place is fancy enough. where would you want to eat when you get back."

and

"Hey man, what do you think about this look? Is it too much? Like, would you be embarrassed if I wore this out with you? I know Parker said she asked you about where to eat, like, fancy places and stuff, but I don't wanna overdo it, you know? And oh hey, what about the colors? You like these? How's it look? Oh, uh, right, your probably still... just answer when you've got time, okay? No pressure."

and WILDLY misunderstands them.

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