Part Two: One Million Dollar Kisses

[sunspot]

The stadium at Mexico City was bigger than ninety percent of the venues Parker had played in her life. When they showed up just in time to start the first sound check, Parker nearly turned around and ran out again. Eliot caught her by the elbow and pulled her back.

"Relax, Parker, it's just a concert. You've done this a thousand times before."

She scowled. "Playing to a bunch of drunks in the back of your bar doesn't really count."

"Well, you've done a lot more than just that. But why is it so different anyway? I mean, besides the fact that you have a boat made of glitter in your hair now, this is basically the same. Just a little bigger."

She touched her hairboat self consciously. "Is the boat too much? I told Sophie it was a lot."

"No, no," Eliot said quickly, obviously aware of what kind of landslide was heading for him if he let it. "I like it. It's... nautical. Just got get ready and I'll, uh... Find something to do."

"Okay," Parker said. She left him standing in the middle of the slanting sea of seats and followed a stage hand backstage with Quinn and Sophie in tow.

After that, she fell into the rhythm of pre-show rituals and routines. Sophie and her assistant, Zoe, started on her makeup -- and it was a lot of makeup -- while Parker talked to a reporter from the local paper. It was the same boring questions as ever, about where she got her inspiration from, and how was she liking the city and on and on. Parker liked the routine and had a lot of very similar answers she used when asked. It was calming, like reciting a familiar quote or something.

As Quinn showed the reporter out of the dressing room, Eliot slipped in. "Hey, I ... Whoa."

"Shut up, I look awesome," Parker said sharply. She was a little sensitive about her fins, mostly because A, it was the most complicated costume she's probably ever worn, and B, they were fins.

"That's what I was going to say," he said with a huff. "But now I won't. Hey," Eliot said, with a quick smile to Sophie and Zoe.

"Eliot, you met Sophie on the plane. And this is Zoe, my other stylist."

"Assistant stylist, really," Zoe said, looking away from Eliot's million watt smile. Parker smacked his hand, having seen that smile a hundred times before, but he ignored her and Zoe didn't seem to notice either.

"Really good to meet you," he said, offering her his hand. She took it after a second and Parker could see the blush colouring her face.

Sophie caught Parker's eye and made a face. Parker rolled her eyes and shrugged, as if to say 'get used to it.'

"You want me to fire her?" Sophie asked in a quiet voice. "We can leave her in Mexico; I bet she'll never find her way home again."

Parker laughed. "Sophie, you're being ridiculous."

"Just know that the offer stands," Sophie said with a wink.

"Sound is ready for you, Parker. If you're done here, that is..." Quinn eyed her outfit and makeup form the door, obviously not sure what 'done' was when it came to mermaids.

She wanted to tell Eliot that she was leaving, but he seemed pretty absorbed in his conversation and Zoe's laughter seemed a little too fake and forced so obviously that meant it was going well. Parker didn't want to interrupt. She thanked Sophie and followed Quinn back to the stage.

The sound check went great and Parker was riding high on endorphins and hair spray when Alec met her at the corner of the stage with an urgent look.

"What's up?" she asked cautiously.

"Set list. I need it like, half an hour ago."

"Crap, sorry. I forgot. Nate said you were going to need it, but I totally... Why are you staring at me?"

"There is a boat in your hair," Alec said with a little shrug. "I'm having trouble concentrating on what you're saying."

"Okay, what is with everyone fixating on the boat? There's more than just the boat." She took a piece of paper form a stage hand and started scribbling out her set list for the evening.

"Well, I thought you might kick me off your tour if I fixated on your, uh... shells." Despite his words, Alec snuck a definite peek at said shells.

"Look, last night was --"

"Can we not do this?" he asked. "Like, can we not do it right now? Let me get my first day finished without any major fuck ups and then we can talk. Or not talk, whatever works."

"Sure," Parker said. She was kind of hoping to get through her first night without any major fuck ups either.

"Thanks," Alec said. She wasn't sure if he meant the set list she'd just handed him or something else, but he smiled again and she felt that same giddy, flip-flopping feeling in her stomach. If the complete awkward feelings he kept giving her didn't go away soon, it was going to be an extremely long nintey-two shows.

"Oh, and Nate said you had a thing with green lights?"

"I hate them," she told him. "They make my hair look awful."

"Your hair... Or your hairboat?"

Parker rolled her eyes, but good-naturedly. Even in the few short conversations they'd had after their initial encounter, he'd made her laugh every time. "Stop eye-fondling my hairboat and go do your job."

"I can't even begin to tell you where that sentence went off course, I just need you to know that it really, really did," Alec said with that feelings-inducing smile again. "Break a leg!"

Parker wandered back to centre stage and considered just whose legs she wanted to break. Sophie was leaning on the wall just offstage, smiling and nodding along to the background noise like it was music. Parker gave her a little wave and she waved back. At least some things still made sense.

Instead of hiding in her dressing room, Parker decided to stick around and watch the opening act from the wings. It was a local band she'd never heard of, but their energy was great and she found herself singing along in terrible Spanish for a couple songs.

"Shouldn't you be meditating or something? Getting ready to go on?" Nate said, all but sneaking up on her. He had to talk with his mouth right to her ear to be heard over the music, but that was about par for the course for their line of work.

"I'm fine. I'm excited, actually." She smiled brightly, in case he needed a little reassurance.

He stared at her for a few seconds, but then nodded. "Have fun out there," he told her before hurrying off to see to something else that no doubt needed to be seen to. Nate never walked, Parker noted. He always hurried.

"Eliot's got my assistant bent over the counter in your dressing room, doesn't he?" Sophie asked once Nate was out of sight. Parker cringed visibly.

"Be more crass, Soph."

"I could have been! I could have said his penis was --"

"No, don't," Parker said quickly, knowing full well how many swear words Sophie knew. There was something unsettling about proper, polite Sophie knowing that many synonyms for 'penis' anyways. She ducked out of the way of a guy carrying a heavy looking light.

"We can leave her in Mexico," Sophie said again, rubbing her hand soothingly across Parker's back, but carefully so as not to upset any fins. "And we can just shove him out of the plane on our way to... Wherever it is that we're going next."

"Rio," Parker said. "And for the last time, I don't care what he does with his dick. We're just friends."

"Still," Sophie said.

Parker sighed loudly. She got closer to Sophie and leaned in, just in case anyone could hear them above the music. "Sophie, can I tell you something? You have to promise not to tell anyone."

"Of course, dear, you know that always allowed."

"I slept with the new DJ guy."

"What, just now?" Sophie looked around like she would see evidence of it.

"No, last night, before I knew I was ever going to see him again."

Sophie eyed her closely, reading something on Parker's face that she didn't know she was betraying. "Are you okay?"

"Of course. No, it wasn't anything bad, just. Sex for the sake of sex."

Sophie 'tsked' in sympathy. "Let me guess, small package? That's odd, you know, because they say --"

"Please don't tell me what they say," Parker said quickly. "And I don't really want to talk about it? I just thought I should tell you because I feel like it's going to be a thing."

"Like, a regular thing?" Sophie asked, clearly not meaning the same 'it' that was going to be a 'thing' as Parker did.

"God, no. I meant, it might turn into a fight or someone might get fired." Parker thought that was clear enough that time, since she was the Parker and probably wouldn't fire herself.

"We can push him out of the plane," Sophie reminded her.

"Yah, thanks, Soph." There was something endearing about Sophie's willingness to commit violence on Parker's behalf.

"Eighteen minutes 'til you're on," Sophie said, changing the subject. "Excited?"

"Yes," Parker said with a happy sigh. "It's been months since I did a proper show. I'm anxious to get out there and blow them away."

"Good. You know I love it when you're happy."

Parker gave Sophie a kiss on the cheek. "I am happy," she assured her.

Sophie beamed. "Do you need anything before you go on? Water? A hug?"

"I'd love a hug, but after. I don't want to smudge my scales."

"Right, right. Okay. You know what to do."

'You know what to do' was their version of 'break a leg' or 'good luck'. Parker grinned back at Sophie and rushed away to get into her proper place. The smile across her face was permanent, it seemed, because she just couldn't shake it. For all the other complicated, messy things in her life, performing was the thing that made all the bullshit fly away.

One of the stage hands checked her microphone one last time and even though her hands were way too cold, Parker thanked her with a smile.

A disembodied voice from the ceiling thanked the opening band and welcomed Parker to the stage. The crowd went absolutely wild and Parker's heart soared with the first few thudding beats of the music. It was going to be a good night.

--

"Incredible," Sophie shouted over the noise from the crowd as Parker all but limped offstage after her final encore. "You were just absolutely incredible."

"Thanks, Sophie," Parker said, immediately bending to pull her high heels off. "Ugh, so glad to be out of these."

Sophie took the shoes gently, cradling them like expensive, sequined babies. "And you did 'Banging In The Backseat'. I love that one!"

Parker beamed. "I know, you were always saying. I think we're going to do a video for it when we get back to the States. Something big and unruly. Eliot laughed his ass off when I told him. He said there was no way I could pull off something that dirty."

"Well, that's just because you're not as dirty as him," Sophie said. "Water?"

Parker took the bottle gratefully and tipped it back, half missing her mouth and not caring. "Oh my god, water is amazing. I love water."

"Spoken like a true mermaid," said Nate, coming up behind them. "Amazing set, as always."

Parker beamed.

"Did you have plans for tonight?" Nate asked. "Because I booked you for a morning radio show tomorrow at seven a.m. and I need you to be at least conscious for it. It's radio, so you don't need to look your best, but they want to ask a couple standard questions about the new album and the single and whatnot."

"Oh my goodness," Parker said, drawing out the 'oo' sound with a goofy grin. "Okay. I don't think I had plans. I thought you had parties and stuff planned?"

"Not here, but in Rio next week you've got a very busy schedule. I tried to balance it out for you."

Parker ruffled his hair, which she knew he hated, but she was still full of adrenaline and smiles from the show. "Thanks, Nate. Sophie, can you help me wash all this glitter out of my hair? I feel like I could decorate all the drag queens in Mexico right now."

Eliot made a disgusted noise, like he had walked into exactly the wrong part of the conversation. "Oh, Parker, that's just such a mental image."

She tried not to give him her Eyes of Ultimate Judgment, which his rumpled clothes and definite sex hair absolutely deserved, and instead just hugged him.

"You reek like sex," she told him with a smile, even though there was a tiny, angry voice in the back of her head that told her to punch his lights out. Parker ignored that voice just like she ignored most of the voices in her head.

"Sorry," he said, clearly not meaning it at all.

"I hope you left Zoe in one piece," Sophie said dryly, glaring reproachfully.

"Who?" Eliot asked. "Oh, right, yeah, she'll be fine."

Parker winced a little, knowing Sophie was counting down the hours in her head until they'd be back on the plane and she could shove him out the airlock.

"Wow," Sophie said, showing surprising restraint before she walked away.

"Don't piss Sophie off," Parker said. She gave Eliot a careful look. There were thoughts bubbling up inside her, words that wanted out, but she wouldn't say them. Instead, she gave him a warning. "And try not to get yourself into too much trouble, okay? Nate already doesn't want you here, so if you fuck everyone on the tour over, you're going to get yourself kicked off."

"I didn't fuck anyone over," Eliot said.

"Well, you fucked Zoe and it's the same thing. Look, let's not argue about it, let's just celebrate how awesome I was tonight and leave it at that?"

"You were awesome," he assured her with a grin. "Drinks?"

"Tacos!" she said instead, smacking his arm excitedly. "Let me just, you know, get all this off."

It was still early on in the mermaid routine, something they had originally intended to keep for the first half of the tour, then switch it up for something fresh. Parker knew there were still kinks to work out, but the makeup and hair took almost as much time to get out of as it did to get into.

Zoe was helping to get the wooden and plastic boats pieces from Parker's hair, and every time she leaned over to set a piece aside or reach for more conditioner, Parker could smell Eliot all over her. Parker closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at the dumb, dreamy smile on Zoe's face.

If subjected to it much longer, Parker knew the urge to lean over and bite her wherever she could find bare skin would take over, and then Parker would have to taste Eliot on her too. That was the most repulsive thought. So, Parker kept her eyes closed and her mind on the thought that she didn't care where Eliot stuck his dick.

Finally, Sophie and Zoe were done taking all the sections of boat from Parker's hair and she could sit up without having to hunch over the sink anymore. Sophie sent Zoe on an errand to go find something or someone, and for that Parker was eternally grateful.

"So, tell me, what exactly is the history there? You and Eliot, I mean." Sophie took the make up remover to Parker's face like a woman on a mission.

Parker didn't want to rehash all the details, especially the ones that made her look like an emotional little girl, but Sophie was not going to let it drop.

"Regular story, I guess," Parker said. "We met in grade school. It was my first day at the school and some older boys took my bunny and tried to bury her in the sand, so Eliot beat them up. But when he went to pick up bunny, I thought he was going to try and steal her too, so I punched him in the nose. Eliot lied to the principal and got Bradley Waters in trouble for it. He said it was so the foster home didn't send me away, but I think he was just embarrassed that a little girl made him bleed."

"And that's it?" Sophie asked.

"That's it until I was in college and he came to visit for a weekend and I told him I liked him and that we should date and he said he couldn't because I was like his little sister."

"Ouch," Sophie said with a wince.

"Yep. And when I got upset and started to cry, he backpedalled and tried to say it was more than that, like a deeper connection than just brother and sister, and he ended up comparing me to his dog."

"Oh my god," Sophie said, her cough not covering her laugh.

Parker felt herself blushing just at the memory. She wanted to kick the crap out of him at that point, or punch him in the face again like she had the first time they'd met. Instead she cried herself to sleep in his lap while he stroked her hair. Really not her favourite thing to remember.

"And now?"

"Now? Now I don't care anymore," Parker said. "We're friends and that's all."

Sophie made a noise, like a sigh and huff. "Right, okay. Ooh. Ooh. This might be tricky..."

The skin on Parker's shoulders and chest had a few pieces of ... Parker wasn't sure what, vinyl maybe, glued there to look like scales. Sophie had assured her that they would come off with a little soap and water, but that was not the case.

"Holy mother fuck!" Parker shouted, swatting Sophie's hands away. "What the hell?"

Sophie made a face. "Sorry, honey. Let me see." She poked and prodded and Parker tried not to grimace. "Okay, now, I think I know what happened. Don't be mad."

'Don't be mad' was possibly the one phrase in the world that always made Parker instantly mad. "What? What is it?"

Sophie was busy flipping through things in her giant makeup as she answered. "I think the lights heated up your skin, which heated up the glue and made it stronger."

"Shouldn't it have just melted off then?"

Sophie shrugged. "I'm not a scientist. I think this will help, but you have to promise not to hit me if it doesn't work." She held up a little bottle with a label too smudged for Parker to read.

Parker sighed. "Okay. But is it going to hurt?"

"Quite possibly. I'm sorry, dear."

Parker braced herself while Sophie wiped whatever it was in the little bottle with the sharp herbal smell all over the scales. "Okay," Sophie said, and then, "I'm sorry, dear."

Once the scales were off and Sophie had sworn up and down she'd find a better way to do them before the next show, Parker slunk off to find a ride back to the hotel they were staying at for the night.

"Hey," Eliot said, looking up at her when she walked through the door and threw her coat on the bed.

"Hey, Eliot. Do you still do all that meditation crap?" she asked, when she saw him on the floor. It had always been something that both baffled and amused her about him, and seeing him on the floor on his jockeys was more than a little jaw dropping. She gathered her thoughts quickly before she imagined jumping his bones in vivid technicolour.

"It's yoga," Eliot corrected her. "And I keep telling you, you should give it a try. It would even you out and get rid of all that negative energy."

"I don't have negative energy," Parker said, flopping onto the bed and trying to worm her way out of her cardigan without sitting up.

"You're made of negative energy," he assured her. "And I bet it would help you clear your mind so you could work on some of those songs you've been talking about. You can get some pretty intense focus when you're doing it."

"Isn't it just bending?" Parker sometimes got bored in long showers, so she really didn't think she had the attention span for hours of yoga.

"Uh, there's a lot more to it than that," he said, settling back down and sounding only the smallest bit annoyed. This was a conversation they'd had many times before and he obviously was better at not taking it personally when Parker poked him in the nipples while he was doing his Compass Pose or whatever he called it.

"I'll pass for now," she said, rolling onto her back and finally freeing herself from her oppressive outerwear. "Ooh, do I smell tacos?"

"Yeah, you said you wanted them, so I stopped and picked them up. Half chicken, half beef, guacamole on the side."

Parker beamed. "It's like you know me or something."

"Heh, yeah, magic. Hey, what happened to you?" Eliot asked, catching sight of the angry red marks across her skin. "Allergies?"

Parker touched the warm spots on her chest. "Probably a little. We had some trouble taking off the scales Sophie glued on me. She's working on a better plan for tomorrow night though."

"Good," Eliot said. He stared at her carefully for a moment before getting up and walking over to her. "That looks pretty bad. Let me see, little one."

Something about hearing that nickname from him always made her compliant and she dropped her hands. He was gentle when he touched her, just the ghost of his fingertips across the painful places, soothing her and exciting her at the same time. Parker took a deep breath and held it, counting the seconds in her head until he finally took his hands away.

"Do you have something we can put on those? Vitamin E or something, maybe."

Parker let out her held breath in a rush. "Maybe. Check my travel bag in the bathroom." She sent him to find it instead of getting up herself, because in addition to her very sore feet, her head was suddenly spinning.

Parker knew her usual method for dealing with Eliot and the stupid butterflies he put in her stomach (that was, 'ignore, avoid, change the subject') was coming to the end of its usefulness, especially considering Nate was refusing to make any changes to his carefully calibrated budget and Eliot was sharing a room with Parker for the duration of the tour.

Before she had left to become famous and be universally adored, she and Eliot had worked out an easy-to-deal-with dynamic, a 'best friends, no benefits' kind of relationship that had worked so well. But absence, it seemed, made the heart a hell of a lot fonder.

Talking to him on the phone was okay, she always managed to save her 'I love you's until he hung up. But now he was always around and it as driving Parker crazy. He was there right after a shower, wet hair dripping all over whatever Parker was doing, or stretched out like a cat doing his annoying yoga, or he was there when she ordered a Greek salad and offered to eat all the olives because he knew she hated them. Stupid, sexy Eliot.

Eliot found what he was looking for in Parker's bag and came back. "Here, sit up," he said, prodding at her.

She let Eliot fuss over her, smoothing the cream over the sore spots on her skin. If she had any breath left, she would have told him it felt nice. Hopefully the redness would be gone in the morning and he wouldn't need to fawn over her any more. Parker didn't think she could take any more of his casual intimacy and stupid caring attitude.

"You do know that I care about you?" he said carefully, looking at his hands and not at her. "Like, a lot, right?"

"Yeah," Parker muttered, trying not to lean into his touch and failing just a little.

"Good," Eliot said, his voice barely over a whisper. Parker's eyes snapped open and she pulled away before the situation spiralled out of her control. She felt like it was going to.

She made him sleep on the couch that night, despite his vocal protestations that they'd been sharing beds off and on since they were kids and that the couch was lumpy and had questionable stains.

"Tough," she said. "I want my space." And then, because she was feeling petty and wanted someone to take it out on, she added "and you still smell like pussy. You get the couch."

"I showered," Eliot said, shooting her a glare. "Do I at least get a pillow?"

"... Fine. But you're not allowed to enjoy it."

Eliot scowled and Parker smiled sweetly. "Goodnight, El."

"'Night," he said, after a long moment and a longer stare.

Parker thought she would feel better with Eliot at a safe distance, but she really didn't.

--

Parker went to her radio interview the next morning in track pants and a deep frown.

"Something wrong, girly?" Quinn asked, escorting her from the car to the station doors.

"Didn't sleep well," she said with a sigh. "Nothing really new."

Quinn frowned too. "Take care of yourself. We worry about you."

Parker wasn't sure about the 'we' he was referring to, but she was touched nonetheless. "I will. I think it's all the excitement from staring the tour. I'll be okay by our next stop. We leave again tonight, right?"

Quinn nodded with an easy smile. "Yep, we'll be in São Paulo before breakfast and you go onstage at..." he flipped open a bright blue folder labelled 'DAY 1 - 4' in Nate's blocky print to check the exact itinerary. Parker rolled her eyes. "The Olympia at seven pm, local time. Says here that's four hours ahead of what we're at now."

Parker nodded, piecing it together in her head. She had a blue folder too, and the red one that came after it, but she had almost immediately dumped the paper back into Nate's briefcase when he wasn't looking and started her collection of interesting bits of paper she was going to find during the tour in them instead.

The blue one was for funny food labels and the red one was for any handwritten notes she would find. She liked to imagine that all of them would be deeply romantic love notes, or spy messages.

"Okay, cool. You take care of yourself too, Quinn. There's some crazies out there." She meant it good naturedly, but almost as she said it, Quinn opened the door to the radio station and the screaming of her adoring fans assaulted them.

And that was basically the rest of the day for her. Fans, fans, fans, and a Swiss cheese and peanut butter sandwich. Alec eyed her from across the lounge at the airport as she ate her sandwich.

"What is that?" he asked finally, getting up and moving over to her with look of horrified fascination lighting up his face.

"Peanut butter and Swiss cheese," Parker said, spitting a few crumbs across the screen of his phone and his paused game of Doodle Jump. "Oh, sorry."

He laughed and wiped the phone on her sleeve. "No problem," he said easily. "If it gets ruined, you can just buy me a new one. Job expenses and whatnot."

Parker smiled too, finding him infectious. "You'd have to go through Nate for that kind of thing and trust me, he's not too forgiving about broken phones."

"Noted," he said. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Nate came and told them it was time to board the plane. Parker wondered briefly what he'd been about to say, but getting on the plane always got her nervous and excited and she forgot in the flurry of movement.

"How was it out there?" Sophie asked as they took their seats on the flight heading for São Paulo.

"Crazy," Parker said, dropping her head back against the headrest. "Just insane. I think I signed like, five hundred autographs today? Maybe more. Half of them weren't even my name. I just scribbled words. Potato and pagoda and picnic. The P is the only important part."

Sophie laughed. "And I'm sure those will all be worth money someday."

"They're all worth money now," Parker pointed out. "I'm a hot commodity."

"You sound like Nate," Sophie said, rolling her eyes.

"Is Nate a hot commodity too?"

"Ugh, don't get me started," Sophie sighed. "He seems to think he is."

"... So, you and him, that's over?"

Sophie gave Parker a long look. "I doubt it ever really started. That man is so frustrating. But I don't like talking about my own boy trouble. How is your boy trouble going?"

Parker gave Sophie a pained look. "Shh!" She glanced around the cabin, making sure no one was listening in.

"I don't even know, Soph," Parker said, finally accepting the fact that everyone else was otherwise occupied. "I feel like such a stupid little girl again."

"Having Eliot around?"

Parker's mind was spinning just a little, and she didn't think she could blame it all on the busy day. A lot of it was definitely extra thoughts and emotional bullshit brought on by Eliot's reappearance, which was dumb because he was supposed to be making her feel better. She thought of the best way to phrase her response to Sophie's question.

"Yes. No. Not exactly. It's just having all these dumb feelings makes me feel... I just wish I could hate him. It would be so much easier."

Sophie chuckled. "That's the worst thing about men, darling. It's so hard to hate them because we know they're just as hopeless as we are." Sophie patted her hand reassuringly, but Parker wasn't reassured.

Parker was quiet for a moment, considering the reality behind that thought. "I think I'm actually, for real in love with him." It was weird to hear it out loud, even though her voice was pitched barely above a whisper. She glanced around again, but no one was paying any attention. She caught sight of Alec across the cabin, playing cards with Quinn, and felt a twinge of guilt.

Sophie gave her a smile halfway between amused and pitying. "That's nothing to be ashamed of, Parker. Isn't he your best friend? I think that happens to best friends a lot of the time. And I know that that works out into 'happily ever after' just as often as two people who never knew each other do."

Parker tried to make sense of what Sophie was telling her, but it wasn't adding up. "I don't buy it. He's ruining my life just by existing."

With a dry chuckle, Sophie patted Parker's arm. "That about sums up relationships. How about I get you a drink?"

Parker was about to refuse, to tell Sophie that drinking away her boy problems was something college Parker would have done, but it was going to be six hours before the plane touched down again and she could hear Eliot's bright, loud, laugh from thirty feet away. Yeah, that sound wasn't going to remind her of all the nice things she wanted but apparently couldn't have for the next three months or so.

"Make it a double," she said miserably, sinking further down into her seat.

--

A few days later was the first time she accidentally walked in on Eliot fucking some random chick, it was her own damn fault. She had walked into the ladies' washroom in the VIP lounge at the airport in Bogotá with the intention of peeing before boarding their flight to Lisbon, so clearly she had been asking for it.

Neither Eliot or the waitress noticed her, so she slipped back out into the lounge without saying anything and threw herself into the first empty chair she saw.

"Hey, you, I've been meaning to talk to you…" Alec said, smiling over at her. Parker cringed, probably visibly, because he cocked his head and gave her an amused look.

"Sorry," she muttered. "It's been a weird week."

"Sure," he said, smiling never fading. Parker didn't understand how he was always so upbeat about everything, but she considered cutting up his brain to see if she could figure it out. "So, it's about your song, Love and Sprinkles. How set are you on the lighting design? I know it's like, super dramatic and everything, but I think if I made some changes, made some of the cues a little softer, it'd be awesome. Softer and like, more emotional instead of a Steve Tyler power ballad, but… good, you know?"

Parker blinked at him. "Sure? Okay, yeah. We can try it." She wasn't even positive she'd heard a word he said.

"Great!" he said with a laugh. "Awesome. Okay, I'll set it up. I called ahead to the arena in Lisbon and they have what we need, so we could even try it tomorrow night, if you're up for it."

She nodded again, eyes fixed on the bathroom door. As much as it was driving her up the wall to fixate on it, she really had to pee.

"You okay, boss?" Alec asked, poking her gently.

Parker sighed, finally looking at him. "Yeah, I just have to pee and there's someone in there. Sorry."

He chuckled. "Use the men's room? And then we can talk once you can focus on something other than your bladder."

"The men's?"

Alec shrugged. "Well, I doubt anyone is going to give you a hard time if they catch you. You're the one and only Parker."

Well, that was true if nothing else. She tried to hang onto that fact and ignore the rest.

She peed and came back to Alec's table. Just as she opened her mouth to ask about his plans for Love and Sprinkles, she noticed Eliot, leaning on the wall next to where Nate was sitting, chatting idly and looking sweaty, dishevelled, and perfect.

"Fuck this," Parker muttered. Alec looked taken aback.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing," she said quickly. "So, tell me about these lights."

--

The second time Parker accidentally caught Eliot with some girl, it was five hours later on the plane over the Atlantic Ocean.

He saw her that time; their eyes met over the girl's shoulder while he fucked her up against the counter in the little kitchen. Eliot gave her a strange look, one she was not sure how to return. If she had a bit more practice reading facial expressions, she might have got it, but instead she just ducked her head and ran away. That approach had worked in the past, so she stuck to the status quo. She didn't want to hear whatever he had to say about the girl's pretty eyes or soft mouth. They both knew it was bullshit and he never bothered to remember their names.

Ten minutes later, he sat down next to her. She turned towards the window and put in her headphones. He tried to talk over her music, so she took out her cell phone and pretended she had a hundred text messages to send even though her phone was dead.

Finally, Eliot gave up and went away and Parker was left alone to cry silently into the sleeve of her sweater.

--

Despite saying that Lisbon had everything they needed, Alec wasn't able to pull together the new lighting. Luckily, the show in was still a great success. Parker was flushed and exhausted, but happy, and she had high fives for everyone when she came off stage after her second encore.

"Thanks! Thank you!" she said to everyone congratulating her on a good show. She kicked off her shoes and let Sophie start fussing over her.

After Sophie unwound her hair and washed out all the sticky glitter, Parker let Quinn carry her, piggy-back style, back to her hotel room. Getting in and out of the cab was tricky, but they managed, and he dropped Parker off in front of her door with a smile and a ruffle of her hair.

And that was the third time she walked in on Eliot boning some random in a semi-public place. The third time overall and the third time that day. Charming. She considered hurling something at him to express her distaste for his choice in hobbies, but instead she just turned and left again, hoping he hadn't seen her.

Whatever, it wasn't like she was bone-tired and running on empty. She didn't need sleep. Actually, now that she thought about it, she really didn't feel like sleeping. She was too pissed to sleep.

The first time, okay, whatever, but the second time, he clearly had understood that she was upset. Why would he go for the trifecta? And in her room? He obviously wanted to upset her. And it was working.

Two could play the casual sex to ruin Parker's good mood game. She was knocking on Alec's door before she could stop herself, playing chicken with an idea in her head and losing.

"Hey," he said. He looked bleary-eyed and rumpled, like she'd just roused him from bed.

"Hey," she said. She suddenly felt uncertain, but she'd be damned if she gave up now. "Sex?"

"Uhhh," Alec said, staring at her. "Pardon?"

"Do you want to have sex with me? Like, tonight. Right now." She was talking way too fast, keyed up on post-show adrenaline and betrayal-fuelled anger.

Alec leaned out of his room and looked both ways up and down the hall, like he was expecting some kind of set up. "Come on in," he said after a long moment.

Parker stripped off her shirt before he even had the door closed again She threw it past him into the hotel room, not caring where it landed.

"Parker, whoa, whoa," he said, holding up a hand to make her pause, hand on the front clasp of her bra. "Are you okay? You seem... not okay."

"I don't want to talk," she said. She knew she sounded moments away from tears, but she was really hoping they could let that pass unnoticed. "I want to fuck."

She knew, even from the short amount of time she'd spent getting to know him, that he was a genuinely good guy. Alec deserved a lot better than being used for cheap stress relief and revenge sex, especially if she wasn't even sure what she needed revenge for. He wasn't the one who had ruined her day and made her feel worthless by going for the oblivious pervert hat trick. She knew that he knew the right thing to do right now would be to turn her down, to send her back to her room.

Parker reached up and unhooked her bra, letting it fall to the floor with her shirt. "Please?" she asked, keeping her voice soft and letting it hitch right at the end of the word. She stepped a little closer and looked up at him through her eyelashes. After a moment, when he didn't step back or tell her 'this is wrong', she hooked two fingers in the waistband of his boxers and stroked a fingernail across the head of his already-hard cock.

As great of a guy he was, he was also, you know, a guy, and Parker knew she was damn near irresistible when she begged. And she was begging.

They had sex right there, her back pressed flat against the wall and one of his arms around her waist. His other hand toyed with her hair and he whispered sweet things to her that made her blush into the dark. She hoped he didn't notice how warm her face was.

"So," he said when they were done and they had both made it to the bed. "You want to tell me what's going on now?"

"No," she said, pulling him down with her. "Sleepy now." And even though it was true, she stayed awake for a long time after that, nestled under one of his lanky arms, listening to him breathe.

--

Alec was even great the next morning, ordering her a spanish omelette and hot coffee before disappearing into the shower without a word. Parker liked the 'without a word'. She still really wasn't feeling like talking.

"So," she said, when Alec came out of the bathroom. She offered him a cup of coffee, which he took with a small smile. "Sorry, I uh... I sort of..." she paused and thought hard about her words. While she thought, she took a good, long look at him, still wet from the shower and covered from waist to knee with a too-small hotel towel. It was a pretty gorgeous picture, if she was allowed to be a judge.

"Actually, I'm not sorry," she started again. "Why should I be sorry for good sex?"

He chuckled dryly. "I don't know. Do you want to tell me why you suddenly decided to booty call me randomly? I mean, we've been on tour for a few weeks know and you've known about how good the sex is since before then..."

"Yeah..." she said, suddenly wondering that herself. If Eliot was going to keep up at the rate he was going, then she should be able to do the same. "I guess I've been trying to find my footing with this tour and all the travelling and interviews and stuff. Can we... can we not make a big deal out it?"

"No, no, that's fine," Alec said. He stared into his coffee cup. "I won't mention it."

"Thanks," Parker said, then, realizing how terrible the whole conversation probably sounded. "But we can do it again. If you'd like. Not anything serious or monogamous or anything."

"No strings attached? Yeah, okay. Just, uh... Let me know," he said.

Parker left him the last two bites of her breakfast. "See you on the plane," she said with a smile and a kiss on his cheek. She felt a lot better after that, though she wasn't sure why.

Maybe it's because she knew where she stood with Alec. He wasn't playing games with her and there wasn't all that complicated back story. It was like a fresh start with good sex and a tight ass attached.

She walked away from his room in her clothes from the night before and felt strangely good. A lot better than she had the night before. She knew Eliot would be in her room when she got back, but she didn't even really feel as angry as she thought she would. Yeah, maybe she felt like dousing him with some bleach, but his indiscretions didn't even warrant the cleansing power of fire anymore.

"Hey," she said when she let herself into the suite. She snagged a tee shirt out of his duffle bag by the bathroom door, balled it up, and threw it at his sleeping face. "Wake up, jackass."

"Parker? Did you come back here last night?"

She waited until he was sitting up and had his eyes open. "Yeah. Next time I catch you doing... whatever weird kind of reverse cowgirl, rusty trombone, thing that was supposed to be with the concierge last night in my room, I will have security toss you outside without your pants," she warned him.

"Oh, Parker. I'm so --"

"Don't. Just don't," she said, waving a hand at him to shut him up. "Just get dressed. I'll order you some coffee. Sophie's going to be here in a few minutes and we're going to do my hair for the little television segment I'm doing before our flight to Madrid."

"Okay," he said, still in the process of waking up. "You know that the reverse cowgirl and the rusty trombone are two completely different things, right? One of which I really wasn't doing."

"Pants. Now."

It was weird not having any banter. Eliot barely said two more words to her before Sophie showed up with her crate of hair products.

"And how are you this fine morning?" Sophie asked, in her bright and chipper way that Parker would hate on anyone else.

"Fine. All right. Okay."

"That great, hmm?" Sophie said with a smile. She turned Parker this way and that, eyeing her from either side. "What are we doing with your hair this today?"

Parker shrugged. "Surprise me? I want to wear that red dress, with the white glitter."

"Oooh, sexy, I like. Okay, I can work with that." Sophie pushed Parker down into a chair and got to work, teasing and primping. "Are you going to tell me why Eliot nearly knocked me over as I was coming in just now?"

"Um. Promise not to kill him?"

Sophie snorted. "Great lead in. Spill."

"I got back here after the show last night and he had a girl here."

"Here... in your room?" Sophie's comb paused halfway through a stroke, right above a tangle.

"Yeah. Don't say anything."

Sophie set the comb down carefully on the arm of the chair. Parker turned around and looked at her. "Seriously, Sophie, it's fine. I was just... startled. Don't say anything."

With all the regular, 'being internationally famous for being racy, semi-political, and off-beat' drama in her life, Parker didn't really want to deal with 'the guy I'm in love with likes to fuck anything with a pulse in open public areas where I might have to see and now everyone on my staff wants him dead for hurting my feelings' drama too.

"I won't," Sophie said with a sigh. "I wish you would though."

"I threw stuff at him this morning. He knows what he did."

"Have you mentioned that you're completely head over heels for him yet?"

Parker forced the comb back into Sophie's hand. the tangle she was about to work out was going to hurt, but not as much as feelings did. "I told him already, remember? He wasn't interested."

"Right, and he said you were like his dog. I meant have you told him lately, Parker."

"Not planning on it. That would be ... bad. No, I'm making a conscious decision to be so over him. I'm over him. Totally over."

Sophie scoffed, clearly about to say something else when Eliot let himself back in the room with a tray of drinks and a bakery box. "Hey," he said softly, sinking down on the couch across from Parker. "I brought coffee and uhhh. These little custard tart things." He flipped the box open and offered the contents to Parker without meeting her eyes.

"Pasties de nata," Sophie said, glancing into the box. "I'll have one."

Parker plucked two from the box without saying thank you, because she worried she might accidentally say 'I love you, why can't you just see that, what is wrong with you,' instead of 'thanks.' She handed one to Sophie and bit into the second one.

"Yeah?" Eliot said to Sophie. "How do you know?"

Sophie popped it into her mouth in one mouthful and went back to Parker's hair. "It's in Nate's daily package. Does no one read them?"

"No," Eliot said with a shrug. "Are they good?"

Parker nodded.

"Good," he said. He caught her eyes for just a second before looking away. There was something there, something Parker couldn't quite identify. Guilt maybe, or shame. Parker hoped it was shame, even if she knew that it was a pretty out of character thing for Eliot to have.

"So, Eliot, do you have any plans for Barcelona?" Sophie was the very picture of casual politeness while she twisted Parker's hair into braids, but Parker cringed anyway.

"I got Hardison to agree to letting me into the sound booth for the show, so it's going to be cool to watch the concert from up there."

"Really? I asked him if I could sit up there during last night's show and he said that was against some kind of technical regulation," Sophie asked.

Eliot smirked. "I guess you just have to know how to talk to him."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Bribed or blackmailed?"

"Beat him in an arm wrestle."

"Ah. Not a solution I really considered."

Parker tried not to laugh at the thought of how that arm wrestle probably went. Eliot was such a show off sometimes.

"Well, enjoy it. I think Barcelona is going to be our last night with the whole mermaid thing, right Parker?"

They chatted about costuming and set design, Parker occasionally adding a word or two. Mostly she just zoned out while they talked and Sophie teased her hair.

"And that's why I'm chose all leather," Sophie said, snapping Parker back to the conversation.

"All leather? You mean, for your car, right? Sophie, I'm not going to be able to move in that little kitty cat dominatrix outfit you showed me."

"I love that outfit. You're going to be fine."

"Leather... cat suit?"

Parker ignored the sudden interest in Eliot's voice, expecting the mocking would start if she engaged him.

"We'll talk about it," Sophie said, pinning the last piece of hair where she wanted it. "Close your eyes."

They both closed their eyes as Sophie sprayed Parker down with hair spray. "Go, you're done."

Parker kissed Sophie on the cheek before she left and didn't realize she was in the lobby, waiting with Quinn for her cab, that Eliot had followed her.

She turned around with the intention of snapping at him, but the heat just wasn't there. Maybe what she had told Sophie was the truth. Maybe she was finally over him.

"Coming with me?" she asked.

He shrugged carefully. "If you want me to."

Parker shrugged back. "It probably won't be interesting for you."

Eliot gave her a look, like he was somehow annoyed. "Maybe," he said. "But I feel like we haven't got to spend tons of time together. And you're busy, so I guess I'll have to hang out with you while you're working."

"Yeah? You can be a back up dancer, if you want. Ricky's really been annoying me recently, so I'd be happy to fire him."

Eliot stared at her, a total deer in headlights moment. "I don't, uh..."

Parker burst out laughing and poked him in the nose. "Okay, that was funny." She wasn't as mad at him as she had been earlier, or the day before. Something had definitely changed. She put on her third best pair of sunglasses and stepped out through the revolving doors into the street with Eliot staring after her.

Part Three