The Main Fandom Sim in the Matrix, Definitely At Some Time on Saturday

[geniuswithasmartphone]

So after twenty fruitless minutes of trying to find what sim Eliot had jumped into next (while telling his stupid brain that of course Eliot jumped to a new one, death wasn't a thing here, they hadn't seen a single shred of evidence--though he had no idea what had happened to Pinkie, hadn't seen hide nor hair of her, either, not in any sim at all...), Hardison knew that he needed to search for something else to keep himself from going crazy.

And if he wasn't looking for Eliot, then he was looking for Parker. That was just the way of things. He was a lodestone and his crew was his magnetic north.

He settled in for what would likely be another useless search (no one found Parker when she didn't want to be found, dammit) only to have the virtual heavens open up and smile on his for the first time in days. Because his girl was there. Right there. In the Fandom matrix, blazing down the street in a souped up Hennessey Venom GT and practically hooting as she slammed it into the side of a building. The car and the building went up in a gout of fire and oily black smoke, but Parker had bailed at the last minute and was now cackling maniacally at the destruction.

God he loved her. His heart almost hurt with how much he loved her. He might have to put a little more effort into looking up weddings he could steal for her because damn.

He was shrugging into the remains of his tattered leather trenchcoat, bitching about the scorched holes in the leather from yesterday's explosion, when his alarm went off--Eliot had been spotted somewhere in the Matrix. He flung himself to the computer, pulling up coordinates to find his beloved idiot, ready to snatch him out of wherever he was stuck and drag him by his hair if necessary--only to see that he had ended up on the same street that Parker had just sauntered onto. He watched Parker's code fling herself at Eliot's with a smile and a wateriness to his eye that he would go to his grave swearing was allergies.

Okay. No more hiding behind his computer. His crew was back--time to go ruin Zinyak's whole day.

[For the reunion, pls!]

Comments

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker was still zooming around, now doing donuts in the park, and kicking up pixels and flamingos like party favors.

"I want to take out one of those towers!" she yelled over the wind to Eliot. "But we gotta get up some speed!"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot clung to the interior of the car for all he was worth. He loved Parker, he really did, but her driving was terrifying.

"This thing can go faster?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

It better not go much faster. Not if they wanted their abandoned boyfriend to be able to catch up with them, anyway. He'd discovered today that he'd gotten superspeed at some point--and, like most of this simulation, under any other circumstance he'd be thrilled to discover that--but even at his speediest, he couldn't keep up with a NOS-equipped Maserati.

But hopefully he wouldn't have to even try. Because right now he was blazing his way through the park, yelling, "PARKER! ELIOT! YOU DRIVE OFF AN' I SWEAR TO GOD I'MMA HACK YOUR CAR INTO A VOLVO!"

The Leverage definition of 'rom-com reunion' was a little different than most people's.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker thought she was hearing things for a second; then she thought she was seeing things.

Then she realized they were REAL things, and in particular, Hardison.

The car fish-tailed all over the place as she stood on the brakes, a skreeeeeeeeeeee of metal sounding through the air.

"HARDISON HARDISON HARDISON--" The car hadn't pulled to a full stop before she had the door open, running toward him.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot didn't even yell at her for being crazy. He was too busy bailing out his own side -- and then having to skid and roll in the kicked up dirt -- and running after her.

"Hardison, you glorious cocksucker! I can't begin to tell you how fucking good it is to see you!"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison couldn't even pretend it was allergies this time. No, his eyes were wet and he was crying, drawing in deep breaths the way he'd done when he'd first climbed up out of that coffin. This time, he didn't let Parker go, couldn't let her--this time she didn't want him to try. He swept her up into his arms, clinging to her, peppering her face with kisses.

"God, girl, I missed you so much. I missed you, I love you, I was so damn scared--I couldn't find you an' I looked, you know I looked."

Then, keeping her tucked against him tightly, he wheeled to glare at Eliot. "An' you--you--!" Beat. "...The hell did you just call me?"

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Alec." Parker was keeping her voice very low, and repeating his name. "Alec. You're okay, I'm okay, it's all good--" And just hanging onto him. Because she'd left to go after Eliot, who'd been in immediate danger, and had had a good long time to think about what she'd maybe left Hardison to.

He hated being left.

Hugging him and hanging on, she grinned into his shoulder after kissing him. "That's his new vernacular."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot paused in his rush just long enough to push a frustrated hand through his hair. "It's this whole -- fucking thing. Stuck in my goddamn head."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Oh?" Hardison asked, attitude in every line of his body. "I'm surprised that bullet didn't knock it out as it passed. Cause, see, I found you! Right at the end there? I was there!"

He dropped his arm from around Parker and advanced on Eliot. "I almost had you! I was less than a minute away from comin' in to save you! I will always save you, you just need to trust me!"

And then he was swinging for Eliot's stupid, perfect, beloved, alive face.

[vdistinctive]

And missing because Eliot wasn't where he'd been a moment ago, he was wrapping his arms around Hardison in an extremely firm and rather possessive bear hug and burying his face in Hardison's shoulder.

"I fucking thought you were fucking dead you cocksucker. I knew it was a fucking trick and that it wasn't fucking real and I still fucking thought you and Parker were both fucking dead --"

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

So, this was what it was like to want to glomp people. Parker went with it.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I had to go after him I thought you were safe and then I lost Eliot and then I was trapped and then stuff happened--" They were all talking at once, staying inside each other's space, and it was the safest she'd felt in forever. "I'm sorry. We're back, we're okay. But that was really not okay, Eliot."

Relief had her hanging onto them both and saying, "Now we're all safe."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"We're gonna have to talk 'bout your mouth if you intend to keep callin' me that," Hardison growled, and gave Eliot an excellent example how by moving his shoulder away and kissing him hard. "I missed you, too," he said, swallowing down the I love you that wanted to follow. "An' you scared the hell outta me. Both of you."

He turned to give Parker another kiss and then a second to Eliot, scrubbing away his tears with a rough hand only to have them be replaced a moment later. "I understand why you jumped after him, mama, I do. I tried to do the same, but I was too slow--it closed before I could get through. As soon as that Kinzie girl told me it was a sim I tried to find you both, I swear I did, I'm sorry it too me so long, I'm sorry I was too slow to follow through--"

[vdistinctive]

Jesus, that was the same thing he'd seen happen to Parker back there, right after he'd first gotten dropped into the camp. Hardison had had to watch as both of them --

Hardison was going to find himself clung to somehow even tighter, just then, as Eliot pressed his lips against any part of the man he could get to just then without interrupting explanations or Parker kisses. Cheek, neck, ear, hair, didn't matter.

"Stop fucking apologizing," he said finally, voice faintly choked. "Ain't none of this on you. Just -- just tell us how we can get the fuck out of here and finally put an end to these alien motherfuckers."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

That earned a certain amount of teary snickering from Parker. Who was now doing a very good impression of some kind of spiny octopus, trying to hug both guys at once and maintain contact with all limbs simultaneously.

"That. Let's do that." She gave Hardison another kiss. And then Eliot. And then hugged them even closer. "Briefing time! Without the tech. Or sitting down. Or letting go."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison's ribs ached a little where Eliot was clutching him. He didn't care.

"A'ight, so, short answer--the more trouble we cause, the more instable this sim is. We keep fightin' an' breakin' stuff an' we can bring this mother down. Now, we're up on some spaceship or somethin', so once we break through the sim, we still gotta find a way to get out, but that's Step Two of my amazin' three step plan."

Step One: Break Everything
Step Two: Find a Way Off the Ship
Step Three: Profit

[vdistinctive]

"Undermine the structural fucking integrity of the system until it falls the fuck down around our heads," Eliot said. "This is the kind of fucking computer shit I can actually understand."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Hardison got a huge kiss for being so smart right then. Yup.

"Is there any C-4 around here for blowing stuff up with?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"We can find out," Hardison said, grinning dopily at Parker. Her kisses remained magical. "Though y'all better figure out what you can do with only one hand. Cause if you think I'mma let either of you outta arm's reach for even a minute, y'all have another thing comin'."

Be prepared for the clingiest Hardison to ever cling, y'all.

[vdistinctive]

"Of course you fucking won't," Eliot said. "We wouldn't fucking let you anyway." He looked around. "We need another car. With bench seats."