Onboard Dottie's Pride, Key Largo, Florida, Monday Evening

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison lounged on the deck of Dottie's Pride, sipping at a beer and watching the sun set over the water. Next to him, Megabyte and Stance snoozed next to his chair, tuckered out after a long day of romping about in the sea air. He wasn't sure where Eliot was--doing something nautical, no doubt--and the last time he'd seen Parker, she was clinging to the side of the boat and giving him a heart attack, but he figured they'd be joining him soon enough to enjoy the last vestiges of the day and looking out towards the gorgeous expanse of ocean. Tellingly, his laptop was still in its bag in the cabin; he hadn't even pulled his phone out, except to take pictures every so often.

Don't tell anyone, but sometimes it was nice to be unplugged for a bit. Long enough to appreciate warm weather, the rocking of a gentle ocean, and the company of the two loves of his life.

...Though he was starting to get hungry. One and a half days of sailing to get to the Florida Keys would do that to a man. Maybe he should needle Eliot about letting him starve at the very beginning of their vacation to see if that would turn into dinner for all of them.

Oh yeah, vacations were great.

[NFB and for thems what are with him, please!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"They don't," Eliot said. "Horny toads just have spiky scales. Also they shoot blood from their eyes."

Which was pretty damn badass, really.

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Ooooo. Can we get one of those?"

[vdistinctive]

"I mean. Not right now."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"But sometime?" Parker grinned. "Cooooooool." Which reminded her: "Eliot, have you ever punched a shark?"

[vdistinctive]

"Sure," Eliot said. Like he was going to say 'no' to something like that. "You gotta be careful doin' it, though. Gotta get 'em right on the snout so you don't get your fist bitten off."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"They don't go crazy and keep attacking you?" Parker almost sounded disappointed. But also, like she completely believed this.

[vdistinctive]

"Nah, see, they've got all these crazy nerve endings in their snout to tell 'em where they are in the water. You get 'em there, and you pretty much short circuit their nervous system for awhile."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"So then you can swim away! ... or disembowel it or something." Parker could practically see this in her mind's eye. "Poor shark."

[vdistinctive]

"Why would I disembowel the shark? It's already incapacitated."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"To summon more sharks?... I'm assuming you have a Faraday cage and some other people on standby to help you out with that."

[vdistinctive]

"What -- I don't just go around hunting sharks, Parker."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"So how come you had to punch one before?"

[vdistinctive]

"Same reason I punch anything else."

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Someone threw Nate to the sharks?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot laughed. "Nah," he said. "Sharks ain't all that into alcohol."