Part Four: Falling To Fortune

[sunspot]

Parker had spent the night mostly awake. Eliot slept like a rock and Parker curled across his chest like a cat, but she couldn't get to sleep. Her mind was spinning with possible futures and visions of baby bunnies and she knew she was going to majorly regret it when Nate showed up to get them onto the plane in a few hours.

She slept most of the way from Rome to Tokyo and threatened anyone who attempted to wake her with bared teeth and a growl.

Parker dreamed too, and in her dream, she, Sophie, and Nate were onstage during a concert. Parker was in her red leather rhinestone getup and a towering hat made of leaves and fruit like something from one of Carmen Miranda's wet dreams.

She was dancing on the stage, trying to balance the hat on her head without it tumbling off while at the same time trying to avoid bumping into Nate or Sophie who kept offering her more fruit for her monolithic hat.

Every time she got close, they would thrust the fruit at her and get her all off balance and confused, and she would push them away and tell them she had enough fruit.

"Do you though?" Nate asked in a creepily hollow voice. He held up an apple.

"Hi!" the apple said cheerily with Eliot's voice. Then it blinked at her with Eliot's eyes. Parker smacked it from Nate's hand in shock and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "Ow!" the apple said as it rolled across the stage.

Parker turned to Sophie to say 'holy crap, did you see that', or something of those sort and Sophie tossed an orange to her. "I think your hat is missing something, love. How about you try this?"

"No, Sophie, I don't want --"

"Are you sure? I'm a pretty nice orange," said the orange that had Alec's face. Parker screamed and threw it away, just as Sophie disappeared into smoke too. Then she was falling, the weight from the hat finally pulling her down. As Parker struggled out from the twisted wreckage of fruit and ribbon, she saw am empty place on the hat that would have fit an orange or an apple perfectly. It explained why the hat had been so off balance...

Parker woke up with a start and a cough.

"You okay?" Alec asked, looking up from his conversation with Sophie in concern and holding out a bottle. "You want some orange juice or something?"

"Oh god, no!"

He blinked and looked at Sophie for some kind of explanation. "How about apple --"

"Don't say apple juice to me," Parker warned him, still spluttering. "Gin and tonic would be good though."

--

"I had a prophetic dream," she said, cornering Eliot on his way back from the bathroom.

"Yeah? Are you sure? You remember how well that turned out last time you had a prophetic dream, right?"

Last time, they did not find treasure, as twelve year old Parker was sure they would. They did uncover the pet cemetery belonging to the people who had lived in Eliot's house before his family did, however, and they found a gas line. No one filed charges because they were just kids, but Eliot's parents had to pay a fine and he got his hide tanned for not knowing better.

She smirked at the memory. Other than all the dead cats and not finding any rubies, it had been a pretty great day. "Yes, absolutely. Prophetic."

"Okay, what happened?"

"You were there," she said, not really wanting to relive the horror of the talking fruit. "And I think I know what it means, so it's okay."

"Okay," he said. He glanced around, verifying their amount of privacy and leaned in to press a kiss to the side of her mouth. The whole situation was still new enough to give her chills. "I still need some time to do... the thing. We can do dinner in Seoul. Yeah, that gives us enough time, right?"

Parker gave him a little smirk. "I'm kind of a busy girl, in case you didn't notice. Internationally recognized popstar and all that."

"Yeah, okay, you'll have to fit a breakup into your busy life if you want a piece of this."

She eyed him closely with a frown. "...Yeah, okay. I guess."

"You're pretty awful to me sometimes, you know that?" he said, but he kissed her again so he clearly found her charming.

Once they'd landed, Nate marched everyone through the airport at double time, claiming they were behind schedule. Parker barely got a chance to look at the signs written in Japanese and sometimes-broken English that she'd been so looking forward to.

Outside, the night air was colder than she was expecting and she shivered while they waited for the car. Parker piled into the fancy green limo with Sophie, Zoe, Nate, and Quinn. She turned around to grab Eliot, too, but he was already gone in one of the fleet of cabs Nate had hired for the rest of the crew to take.

She side-eyed Nate and Sophie the whole way to the hotel because she kept expecting them to pelt her with fruit. "You okay, Parker?" Sophie asked.

"Yeah," Parker said. "Just feeling all weird from sleeping on the plane."

"Not too wired, I hope. You need to get a good night of sleep in because there's an afternoon and an evening show tomorrow," Nate said, looking up from his PDA.

Parker shook her head. "No, no, I'll be fine."

He looked concerned for a moment, but nodded. "Okay. Let me know if you need anything."

"I always do."

Sophie was still looking at her sceptically. "Big plans for tonight?"

"It's three in the morning, Soph. I think I'm going to have a bath and then go to sleep. What time is sound check tomorrow?"

"Noon," Nate said. "Quinn has your schedule." It had only been two weeks into the tour when Nate had stopped handing her her own sets of paperwork. Everything went through the bodyguard now.

That meant the crew had to leave earlier, which meant she needed to find Alec before she turned in for the night. He probably wouldn't be pleased about that.

Parker tried to frame the words in her head for how that conversation would go. She wasn't sure what she should say, or if she really needed to say anything. 'Hey, Alec, we can't sleep together anymore,' pretty much covered everything, but she knew it wasn't enough. She had to give him a little more. He'd been so good to her.

Fucksticks, she thought. She was definitely having feelings about Alec. That was a revelation unto itself.

"You look like you're going to throw up," Nate said, digging through his bag that he refused to call a man purse for a bottle of water and a bottle of pills. "Dramamine. Now."

"Uh, throwing up in limos in foreign countries at three in the morning is pretty safe trashy popstar territory, Nate," Parker reminded him. She took the water and left the pills. "I'm fine. I think you're projecting. How about you take some Dramamine?"

"Hah hah," he said flatly. "You know the tour would fall apart if I slept for eight hours."

"Definitely," Sophie said with an overdramatic eye roll that made Parker giggle. "The whole world might, even."

Nate opened his mouth to say something, but after looking between the helplessly laughing Parker and the deadpan Sophie, he just sighed and went back to his PDA and his anal retentive planning.

One they got to the futuristic looking hotel, Parker kissed Sophie and Nate's cheeks, wishing them goodnight, and headed up to her room with her bodyguard in tow.

The elevator was the slowest thing on the planet and they had twenty one floors to go. Also, elevator music in Japan was weird. "Quinn, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes, ma'am."

They were alone in the elevator, but she paused carefully for a moment before continuing. "Say you were only allowed to have one kind of juice for the rest of your life. How would you pick?"

His blank expression didn't change which was a pretty clear testament to how much he got paid to deal with her. Or maybe just to how long he'd been dealing with her. "I'm not sure. Why am I only allowed one kind of juice?"

"Because... I'm not sure. Just because. Social convention dictates only one kind of juice for every person." Parker was already taking more away from the conversation than she thought she would.

"The premise is a little shaky, but I'll play along," he told her with only the briefest raise of his eyebrows. "I guess I would just pick one? Or I would refuse to live in a world where society tries to tell me the right way to drink juice."

"And become a secret, off the grid juice rebel?"

"Yes, very underground. Does that help you at all?"

She thought about it. "I don't think so. But I appreciate the effort."

"Any time then," he said.

Parker texted Nate about giving Quinn a raise. He replied promptly with 'lol no, did you know he makes more than Sophie.'

"I have to go do something before bed," she told Quinn. "Do you mind waiting?"

He shook his head. He never had a problem with what she needed to do. How considerate.

"Awesome."

Eliot was standing on the other side of the elevator doors when they slid open.

"Hey," she said quickly. "I'm going to go do a thing. Order us some food or something and we can watch a movie."

"I did my thing already," he said in a rush. "It kind of sucked, but it's over."

Parker nodded and handed him the room key card. "I kind of figured it would be. Wish me luck?"

He ruffled her hair. "Good luck, little one."

"Excuse me," Quinn said, once Eliot was out of earshot. "I might be out of line, but the juice was a metaphor, right?"

Parker frowned in thought. "Maybe. It might have been an analogy. I never paid a lot of attention in English class."

He nodded once. "Well. All right then."

Parker knocked on Alec's door and her heart was vibrating in her chest while she waited for him to answer. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked. "Come on in."

He was as quiet as she was once they were alone. He leaned against the desk and waited for her to make the first move.

Parker looked at him and opened her mouth the start the 'it's not you, it's me' conversation, but she couldn't get the words out. "Look," she said, but then stopped. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say."

Alec stepped up to her and brushed hair off her forehead. "So then, we don't have to say anything." She could smell his skin, that smoky, warm smell that made her think of the sunset on the roof in Barcelona. She wanted to roll herself up in that smell and that memory like a blanket and stay there. His hands were warm on her hips, holding her just an inch or two from his body. She could feel his heat through her clothes and against all logic, it gave her goosebumps.

Parker forced her mind back to Eliot, to the way he carded his fingers through her hair and the way he said 'little one,' and as much as she knew she wanted him and how Alec was the complete opposite in about a thousand ways, she couldn't bring herself to tell Alec to take a hike and flee from the room to avoid his tears (because he was obviously going to cry).

She let her head fall forward against his shoulder, just taking in the moment and trying to get her thoughts in some semblance of order so she could figure out what to do next.

"We can't do this anymore," she said at last. "I'm in love with Eliot."

Alec was quiet for a long time and he didn't pull away from her. She thought it was stupid that he didn't and she was eternally grateful because his hand felt reassuring against her back and it was the only thing keeping her from tears.

"You've been in love with him since long before you ever met me or got famous or anything though," he said quietly. "Why's it changed now?"

She pressed her lips to his tee shirt, mouthing a little at his collarbone through the fabric.

"I think he loves me back. I have to... I don't know. Try."

He nodded slowly and finally let her go. "Okay," he said. Then, a little stronger, "okay. Okay. Good luck," he said. He tried a little smile that was maybe supposed to be genuine, but Parker thought it looked mocking.

"Good night," she said.

"You don't have the feel guilty," he said. He still had that wry smile that made her guts twist up painfully. Apparently no matter what his smile, he made her stomach feel something stupid. "I mean, we said no strings, right?"

"Yeah," she said. Her voice echoed hollowly in her ears. She had said no strings, but the strings had definitely shown up anyway. They tied her limbs together, made it hard to move.

"Good night," she said again.

"Good night," he said, and he smiled again, and this time Parker thought he was just grateful for her to leave.

Despite Nate's instructions, she didn't sleep well that night.

--

"You okay?" Eliot asked the next morning. She'd made him sleep on the pull out couch in the other room of her enormous suite, despite the extra large bed and he looked a little ruffled by it.

"Yes," she said. "And I wish people would stop asking me that."

"Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "I'm going to go swim some laps. You want to come with me?"

"No. Thanks. I'm going to do my hair, I think."

Eliot gave her a funny look, like that was somehow the weirdest thing she'd ever told him. "Okay. Have fun."

He left and after a few more minutes of lounging in the giant bed, she rolled out and phoned Sophie to come and meet her.

"I figure if I'm having a life crisis, my hair better show it," she explained. She didn't get into the details of the crisis because Sophie preferred all her gossip in person.

The knock on the door came way before Parker expected it.

"Sophie, I was thinking -- oh."

"Good morning, Miss Parker," Quinn said.

"Is everything okay?" He didn't often have reason to interrupt her, but when he did, it usually meant an emergency. She was already slipping on her shoes.

"Of course," he said. "I saw Mister Spencer leaving and I thought you could use breakfast." He handed her a bottle.

"Juice?" she said with a laugh. "How do you know it's the right kind?"

He shrugged. "You never do. Not until you've tried it."

She took that as her cue to take a drink and was pleasantly surprised. "What is it? It's good. Is it. Oh god, is this juice a metaphor thing too?" The thought of dealing with feelings for three men at once was slightly nauseating. She couldn't deal with her feelings for juice most of the time.

"Oh, no, I would never -- I respect you too much too -- No, ma'am," he said, blushing a shade of red she'd only seen before when it was covered in rhinestones and form-fitting to her own ass. "It's just juice. Pear and mango."

"Oh. Oh! I get it. I... don't really know exactly what you're implying, except that maybe you shouldn't be implying it, but I think I get it." She took another sip of the juice. "It's really good, though."

"Sound check is at twelve," he said, staring at his feet. "We need to leave in exactly one hundred and twenty six minutes to get there in time."

"I'll set a clock," she said with a smile. "And thank you, Quinn."

"Ma'am," he said.

Sophie showed up a few minutes later, barging in without a knock. "Spill. Everything. Now. And what are we doing to your hair?"

"Colour," Parker said. It was the only thing she was actually sure about. "I think Quinn just put forth his official endorsement of my tentative polyamorous relationship."

"Uh huh. Did he hand you a certificate? Like, colour streaks?" She pointed Parker into the chair by the door and heaved her heavy rolling kit of hair supplies up onto the desk next to it.

"No, a bottle of juice. I was thinking brunette."

"I refuse," Sophie said, shaking her head resolutely. "Blondes have more fun."

Parker sighed dramatically. "I think I'm over fun," she said.

"And I don't understand what juice has to do with it, but I guess we're just appreciating his contribution?"

"Yes. How about red?"

"Cherry red, fire engine red, or carrot red?"

"Carrots are orange," Parker said, snorting. "How about something between cherries and the red colour of Spanish sunsets?"

It was Sophie's turn to snort. "Because that's not a ridiculously arbitrary, quite possibly imaginary shade. Also, it's going to clash with your costume and we don't have time to make you a new one before your show at three." Even as she was complaining, Sophie flipped open her hair kit and starting comparing bottles of dye.

"I think it's ridiculously arbitrary that you carry that all around with you," Parker said. She was definitely a little in love with Sophie's hair and makeup kits. So many pretty things for her.

"We could do like, a dark red brown auburn sort of colour, maybe," Sophie said, holding up the bottles to the light. "And so what kind of polyamorous thing have you gotten yourself into and do I need to have a stern talk with anyone?"

Parker was going through the clips and decorations in the top compartment of Sophie's kit. "Is this the mainsail from the hairboat? Can I keep this?" It would fit perfect next to her false moustache in her travel trunk.

Sophie nodded. "Yes, now answer the question." She started combing out Parker's hair and twisting off sections, forcing Parker to sit still.

"I don't know. I don't think I'm technically in any relationship right now. Sort of an in between period. I think it was his official hypothetical endorsement."

"Oh, well then. Lovely."

"Okay, so I love Eliot, right?" It was getting easier and easier for her to say out loud when Eliot wasn't around.

"Right, I think I dimly recall something to that effect," Sophie said dryly.

Parker rolled her eyes to herself, because Sophie had her hair in a vice grip and turning around to show Sophie her annoyance would have hurt a lot. "Augh, you. Right, so then I was sleeping with Alec because Eliot was being.... stubborn."

"You're stubborn, dear. He was being unbearable."

"Okay, sure, yeah. Maybe a little. Except now he's not and he's being adorable and vulnerable in a not at all vulnerable way and all... Eliotish."

Sophie laughed. Parker could hear the telltale sound of hair dye getting mixed up. "And that's a good thing? I mean, I don't see it at all."

"I know, but it's a very good thing," Parker said. "I happen to like Eliotish."

"So, where's the 'but'?"

"That's what I thought!" Parker said, leaning back into the chair heavily. "The 'but' is Alec."

Sophie somehow found enough class and grace not to giggle at that. "Oh?"

"I kind of think I love him too?"

She was quiet for a long time, combing the dye through Parker's hair with her hands. She squirmed a little under the cold hair dye, but it wasn't so bad after the first few seconds.

"Is it just a crush? Is it because he has a fabulous cock?" Sophie asked.

Parker laughed. "No. I mean, he does. He's got a lot of fabulous things. But he's completely different than Eliot."

"What's wrong with that? I mean, it's not unreasonable to love two different things, is it? Spring and summer, rum and coke and gin and tonic, unicorns and horses..."

"You know I hate horses."

"Okay, unicorns and... I don't know what else. Ogres."

Parker turned around to give Sophie a 'what are you on right now' look. "Ogres? Who loves ogres?"

"I don't know! That Shrek movie! Kids love that movie. Nate loves that movie."

"I was thinking it's like apple juice and orange juice," Parker said.

Sophie nodded. "Yes, okay. I see the point and I'll allow it."

"Allow the point or allow my polyamorous juice relationship?"

"Either? Both. As long as you promise you're happy. Now that should be ready to rinse in about twenty minutes," Sophie said, slipping off her gloves and dropping them in the closest trash can. "And you know that Nate is going to actually have kittens, right?"

"Why would he care, as long as I'm happy?"

"Oh, honey, I'm not even going to get into that right now. I meant your hair."

"Oh. Right. I forgot."

--

Nate didn't have kittens, which would have been briefly disgusting, and then adorable and fuzzy. Instead, he had a bit of a scream and then just looked at her very carefully. "I think it looks lovely. I also think something you're trying to kill me. Get out there for sound check. Sophie, can we chat?"

Sophie gave Parker a shrug, a sort of 'oh well, what can I do?' gesture, and followed Nate back into the dressing room. Parker got compliments left and right about her hair from her crew and posed for a few pictures with the stadium staff. She came away with a huge grin and knowing about six words of Japanese.

All of that disappeared when she got to the stage and Alec was waiting. He hooked up her microphone and checked the levels with a polite, but distanced attitude.

"Alec, wait," she said, covered the microphone with her hand. "Can you just -- stop?"

"Sorry," he said, looking at his hands. "I know we said no strings. Turns out I'm not good at no strings. This week has been pretty clear about that. I'll let you know when to start." He fled the stage and Parker was left to feel like an asshole amid the bustle of the setup.

"And your hair looks really nice," Alec mumbled through the ear piece. She couldn't see him, but she couldn't ignore the possibility that he could still see her. She hide her smile in her hand.

Her afternoon concert went off without a hitch and she didn't even feel tired from it. Something about her conversation with Sophie and her kickass new hair gave her wings and she was flying high.

"Hi," she said, all but jumping into Eliot's arms when she found him in her dressing room. "Where have you been all day? Did you see the show? I was awesome."

He was chuckling when he set her down and Sophie and Zoe swarmed around her to get her touched up and remade for the next show. Not enough time to undress and shower, which is exactly what she wanted at that moment, but by the time they got it all off, they'd be twenty minutes late for starting to put it all back. Nate's schedule had been very clear.

"I went out to get you something," he said. "I'm pretty sure there's a price on my head because I may have pissed off the Yakuza, but I got you something."

Parker could feel the combined stares of Sophie and Zoe on her, and she ignored them both. "Oh?"

"Yeah," he said. He handed her the little folded paper box. "It's nothing much. Just made me think of you."

"Thanks," Parker said, already marvelling at the gift before she had even opened it. When she did, she let out a little excited squeak. "It's so pretty."

"Yeah," Eliot said again. "Glad you like it."

Parker lifted the pendant from the box and held it up to get a better look. Probably in spite of herself, Sophie cooed. It was a little folded paper crane, about as big as the tip of her finger, made from shiny purple paper and hanging from a long silver chain.

"I love it. Thank you," Parker said. Her heart was pounding and she didn't know why. Feelings, obviously, but she wasn't sure what they were.

"What's the other thing?" Zoe asked, nodding to Eliot's hand in the pocket of his jacket.

"What?" he said. He looked a little startled, which was weird in and of itself. "Nothing."

Parker perked up curiously. "More shiny things for me?"

"No, nothing. I bought some creepy Japanese porn," he said. Parker knew it was a clear lie, but Zoe must have bought it because she sighed disgustedly and turned back to Parker's makeup.

Eliot changed the subject. "Your hair is really different. I mean, I like it," he said quickly. "But it's really different."

She eyed him closely for a second while he looked guilty before she let him off the hook. "Thanks," she smiled.

"Do you want to grab a drink and some air when they're done? Just water. I know you go on again soon."

She nodded. "Sounds good. You're going to watch the show this time?"

"Yeah, looking forward to it."

"Cool."

"Cool."

Eliot left, citing a quick errand to run before they hung out, and Parker counted down the seconds until Sophie had something she had to say.

"Oh my god," Sophie burst out. Two and a half seconds. New best record. "I wasn't sure what you meant this morning, but my oh my. That boy is in love with you."

"Shut up, Sophie," Parker said happily.

Sophie was repining the feathers in Parker's hair, adding a few yellow ones in with the red while Zoe was touching up her eye shadow.

"You seem really... happy," Zoe said. Parker wasn't sure how to identify the tone there, if she was mad or what. She couldn't be too mad, since Parker was the only reason she had a job, but it probably hurt a little to see them together.

"I am," Parker said, because she couldn't very well lie about it even if she wanted to. She needed to say something else though. "I..."

"Oh please, it's okay. Don't say anything else. I'm fine. I'll be fine."

Parker gave Zoe a hug and Zoe laughed, even if she didn't sound completely enthused.

"You know I'm buying everyone spectacular presents when we get home again for sticking it out on the tour," Parker said in an attempt to disarm some of the tension in the dressing room. "I'm going to start making a list."

"I'd like a Lexus," Zoe said with a smirk.

"Oooh, me too," Sophie said.

Parker knew she wasn't going to be buying anyone a Lexus, but it still felt good to joke about it.

Eliot met her outside the dressing room door when she was done. "If you so much as jostle one of those fake eyelashes, I will not be impressed," Sophie warned them. "Now go, get some air." She said it like it was a conspiracy.

"So," Parker said carefully as they climbed to the roof after paying off a stadium caretaker to point them in the direction of a quiet set of stairs. "There's something I want to talk to you about."

Eliot held the door to the roof open for her."What's up, little one?"

She took a deep breath. "I might be confused about my sexuality."

He burst out laughing. "So, all the tabloids are true? Really, Parker, after all this time and all the feelings and you're a lesbian?"

She punched him in the arm (it was like punching a rock) and stamped her foot in frustration. She rocked a little in her stilettos and grabbed his arm to steady herself (it was like grabbing onto a rock). "Okay, firstly, it wouldn't be a big deal if I was a lesbian, regardless of what the tabloids say."

"I know that, I'm just saying it would give me a pretty bad complex if you were to tell me you love me and then the very next day turn around and decide to swear off men. Seriously, I might not be able to cope." He was smiling, so it was a joke, but there was something on the edges of that smile, some kind of tight, worried anxiousness.

"I'm sure your ego could take it," she said. "And secondly, do you think I'd be so awful as to choose this as a way to come out to you if I was a lesbian? It's windy up here, give me your coat."

He did, without hesitation. Parker wrapped it around herself carefully, holding the sleeve up to her face without disturbing her fake eyelashes and breathing in the Eliot smell. It was nothing like the Alec smell, yet it still gave her a little thrill and a wash of warm memories. It was the weird little boost she needed for the conversation at hand.

"I'm not a lesbian, El. And I am in love with you. I just also might be in love with someone else."

"... Right," Eliot said, staring blankly at her. "And that means what exactly? Because I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do with that information."

Not exactly the spectacular response she had been imagining optimistically, but not Eliot throwing himself off the roof either, so it wasn't all bad.

"I don't know," she told him, because she really didn't. "I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with that information. See, because I am just coming to this revelation myself. It's not something I was keeping secret on purpose."

"Okay," Eliot said with a sigh. "So, do you have some soul searching or something to do?"

"Yeah, I guess. But like. Don't be mad at me."

"I'm not," he assured her, holding out his arms. "C'mere."

She hugged him fiercely and wondered what she was going to do. She didn't want to think about, wanted to just keep hugging him because that, at least, was straight forward.

"Tonight. Do you want to go out after the show?" she asked. "Like, karaoke or something?"

Eliot laughed and looked down at her in his arms. "You're not going to be tired of singing?"

"Never! And you can't go to Japan and not got to karaoke."

He kissed her hair, avoiding any of the hair pins or feathers. "Okay, let's do it. Just you and me, or is this a group thing?"

"Well, Quinn has to come. We could invite Alec, too, he's fun right?" It was a long shot, and she knew it. But if Alec agreed to come with them, maybe that meant he was willing to be friends and then she could see how they interacted and if they could even handle being in the same room with each other. Then maybe should could ahead with her plan to come up with a plan about what to do.

Eliot sighed. "Yeah, that sounds... fine."

Again, it wasn't the enthusiastic response she wanted, but it was better than nothing. "Okay," she said. "I'll mention it to him when I go down for the second sound check. Now, tell me what you did to piss of the Japanese mob."

--

Alec was quiet when Parker asked him to join them that night. "You sure?" he asked finally. "That wouldn't be weird?"

Parker glanced around the stage, but the only person was paying them any attention was Quinn because that's what they paid him to do. He pointed to Parker with the bottle in his hand and gave her a thumbs up, which made her think that there was juice in the bottle (or rum, but that seemed unprofessional).

"Oh, goddamn, I broke my microphone. Damn, and the only spare one is up in the booth. We should go get it," she said, just loud enough that anyone who overheard wouldn't think she was putting on a show.

Alec stared at her looking highly unimpressed.

"Don't worry, your microphone is fine," she said in a whisper. "I'm lying to get you alone."

However unimpressed he might have been, he followed her up to the sound booth above the stadium. It was nine flights of stairs and Parker and her stiletto shoes were regretting the whole idea after two flights. When they entered the booth, a handful of people looked up from a bank of switchboards and computers and Parker was a shocked.

"Holy crap. Complicated much?"

Alec shrugged. "Yep." Then he said something in Japanese that shocked Parker a little more.

"You speak Japanese?"

"Enough to get by. What's up, Parker?"

She was wearing enough strategically placed leather to make one very skimpy bikini, if you tried hard, with enough rhinestones and sequins to decorate a regular sized elephant and her heels were basically sharpened into points. What did she really have to be afraid or ashamed of at this point?

"I think I'm in love with you," she said, with a 'eh, what can you do?' shrug.

He stared. She smiled.

"Tah-dah," she added, because he was still kind of staring at her.

"Me?" he said finally. "Not Eliot?"

"Well, see here's the thing. Both of you. I'm not sure how it works or anything though. Still working on it. Also, he doesn't know about you. I mean, he knows about the idea of you. Just not that you are you. Does that make sense?"

Alec nodded. "Knows there's someone else, doesn't know who exactly."

"Right."

He looked uncomfortable while he took a few seconds to think. Something in the room beeped and Parker looked around to try and find the source of the noise. Alec had something in his hand and clicked a few buttons. The thing trilled a little musical note and then was quiet. He looked up at her with a little shrug. "Tamagotchi," he said, sounding apologetic.

He jammed the thing back in his pocket and straightened up. "So, you think the three of us hanging out is a good idea?"

"It's a step in the plan," she said. He looked stumped, but she didn't offer up any more information regarding said plan. Mostly because she still didn't have any.

"Okay, there's something you should know too," he said. He pulled out a chair and sat down, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I maybe love you too."

"Maybe?"

He shrugged. "Hey, you said 'you think', but I can't say 'maybe'?"

Parker sighed at him in a huff. "I guess it's fair, I just don't think it's right."

He laughed, then paused and looked at her, but started laughing again almost immediately. "God. Okay, I love you. It's hard not to. If I'm being honest, maybe I loved you since I heard One Million Dollar Kisses on the radio for the first time. I can't help it. You're weirdly down to earth for someone as famous as you. And you make my stomach do this weird twisting, butterflies thing every time you smile at me."

It was her turn to stare at him for a few seconds. "Yeah?"

He looked a little uncertain, but he smiled hopefully.

She kissed him then, bending to reach him in the chair. It was a regular kiss, not a million dollar one, but it was perfect nonetheless.

"Gotta go," she said, grinning impishly at him. "Thanks for fixing my microphone. See you after?"

"Yeah," he said. He looked a little shell shocked as Parker left, but in the good way. She clattered down the nine flights of stairs back to the stage, and she felt good doing it.

--

She should be tired, she knew she should be, but as Sophie helped take her hair down, she was buzzing in the chair.

"What's got you so worked up?" Sophie asked, pulling a brush through Parker's hair to work some of the hairspray out of it.

"Just excited. Going to karaoke tonight." Parker grinned at Sophie in the mirror.

Sophie shook her head and kept working at her hair. "Okay, as long as our star is happy."

"Well, I am. Unusually happy. You should tell Nate to check me for drugs. I'm kidding. I don't like drugs, they make my brain all spinning and bubbles. I imagine they would, anyway. I've never tried them. But I've seen a lot of after school specials. Am I babbling?"

"Yes," Sophie and Zoe said in unison.

"Sorry," Parker said. And then, because she was finding it physically impossible to keep from babbling. "I'm going to find out what happens when you mix two kinds of juice together tonight."

Sophie choked on her laugh and dropped the hairbrush she was holding as she doubled over. It bounced off Parker's head and her head before it hit the floor. "Ow!"

"Oh my god," Sophie gasped between bursts of laughter. "I cannot. I cannot."

"Can't what?" Zoe asked, not impressed she was being left out.

"Cannot!" Sophie repeated.

Parker rubbed at the back of her, but managed a smile. "You're finding this way too funny, Soph."

"You're not finding it funny enough," Sophie countered, grabbing the brush and standing again. She wiped away the tears from her face and gave Parker's hair another few cursory brush strokes. "Okay, okay, you're free. Have fun and be careful," she warned.

Parker jumped up and kissed her cheek before grabbing Eliot's jacket from where she'd thrown it earlier and running out the door.

--

Parker was bouncing on her feet, glad to be out of the high heels and back in the cute little flats she'd picked up in Venice Beach the previous spring. "Are we there yet?" she asked Quinn as they walked towards the secret back door of the stadium that they were leaving by. The guys were going to meet them with the green limo and it was going to be the best, least awkward night ever.

"Are we there yet now?" She spun a circle around him and ended with a little hopping jump. It was terribly impressive, but he remained impassive.

"How about now?" After two solid minutes of no response to her pestering, she conceded and walked like she wasn't overflowing with nervous energy. She jammed her hands on the coat pockets and some sharp and plastic stabbed her in the hand.

"Ouch, dammit. Why doesn't the world want me to use this hand?" She pulled the offending plastic from the pocket so she could get rid of it before she hurt herself again. When she saw what it was, she stopped in the middle of the hall.

"Parker? Ma'am?"

"I can't read Japanese, but what do these pictures look like to you?" she asked Quinn, pushing the package into his hands.

"Um. Isn't one of those little computer pet things that all the kids had back in the 90s?"

"A Tamagotchi. Exactly. And the package is empty." Parker threw it in the next trash can they walked by.

"Are we on the case of the missing Tamagotchi, then?" Quinn asked.

"Negative," she said with a smile that could only be called 'fucking triumphant.' "I know exactly where it is and I'm going to make Eliot get it for me."

--

The car met her at the door and she only had to sign a few autographs before Quinn stuck her in the backseat and they were driving. The guys were sort of tense, but she had expected that. They talked about the show and both complimented her new hair again, but overall it was quiet.

Despite the initial tension, she beamed the entire way to the karaoke bar the driver picked for them. When Alec asked why she was so happy looking, she almost broke down and told them, but instead she resisted the urge. She had come up with another step to her plan and it involved playing everything like a sneaky-snake until she could confirm the secrets the missing Tamagotchi had told her.

While Alec negotiated some drinks for them, Parker dragged Eliot to a booth and got comfortable. "I'm glad we could do this. I like that we can all spend time together."

Eliot nodded. He had looked a little tense on the ride over, but it seemed the like noise and the crowd and just the whole feel of being in bar again had relaxed him a little. There was even a live three piece band that played the music to accompany the singers.

"Yeah, me too. Are you going to sing tonight?"

She laughed. "Maybe. Only if you sing first."

"Whoa, no, not me," Alec said, setting three frilly looking drinks on the table. Eliot gave him a look and he shrugged. "My Japanese isn't great; just be glad I got us booze. Oh, shit, you want something, man?" Quinn waved him off and took the seat on the other side of the booth to give them privacy while at the same time sending a pretty clear message to anyone who got too close.

"So, you and Eliot are going to sing?" Alec asked once he'd sat down. "You any good?"

Eliot shrugged. "Not really."

"That's a lie," Parker smirked. "He's fantastic."

It actually took three of the fruity drinks and half of one of Parker's to convince Eliot to get up and sing them something. Parker collected the umbrellas and stuck them in her hair.

"What are you going to sing?" Alec asked, polishing off his third drink of the evening and unable to hold back laughter whenever he looked over at Parker. "You look like an alien," he told her.

"I'm not tellin'," Eliot said. "Just never you mind."

"He's nice," Alec said, as Eliot walked towards the stage with just the hint of a swagger. "I'm happy for you guys." He was still chuckling, but he seemed sincere.

"Thanks," Parker said. She slid over a little on the bench, brushing her hand against his leg under the table.

"Hey now," he breathed. "Quit that."

Eliot climbed up to the stage and from the looks of it, was arguing with the band. Finally, the guy handed over his guitar and gave Eliot a little bow which could have been real or mocking, and Eliot took centre stage under the lights.

There was a bit of a hush that there hadn't been for the previous singers. Everyone wanted to know what the crazy tourist with the guitar was going to do. He looked over to where Parker and Alec were sitting and gave them a little nod before starting. He played a few mindless bars before starting the song.

Parker's heart stopped in her chest when she recognized it. It was 'Falling To Fortune', her very first single and one of her most favourite songs she had ever written. It wasn't one the crowds usually loved, and it only ever got put on the set lists if they had a really long time slot to fill. She still loved it a lot though.

It was the song that she'd written about getting the chance to write more songs. It was her 'okay, now I have what I want but I didn't really get a say, where do I go from here' song, and it meant more to her than any of the others. And she'd never told anyone that, not even Eliot.

Eliot had slowed it down a lot and put a bit of a soulful little country spin on it. Definitely not a way Parker had ever imagined her song, but she was hearing it and then Alec bumped her shoulder with his.

"Here," he said, offering her his sleeve. "You're crying."

She wiped her eyes on his sleeve regardless of the fact that she totally wasn't crying. When she looked around, she could tell there were other people in the bar singing along, which was cool, but then Eliot got to the chorus and she couldn't tear her eyes off of him.

"He's really good," Alec whispered. "God, he's really good. Not better than you, but good."

Parker patted his arm because it was the first thing she touched when she reached out. Everything about Eliot was demanding her attention. The lights made his hair glow and the way he held the guitar was exactly the way she want him to hold her. Not even all the godawful neon decoration in the bar was throwing her off.

"I love him," she whispered, pulling her eyes away from him finally and pressing her face into Alec's arm.

He ran his hand down her back. "I know. And I don't blame you."

Parker pulled back and looked up at him. "Why not? Because people can't help who they love or because you know firsthand what he's like when you're not in a crowd and you have time to just be near him?"

Alec stared at her. "Umm."

"And because you guys have been sleeping together for a while and then he broke up with you but you're still kind of into him and he bought you that Tamagotchi?"

Despite the umbrellas still in her hair, he wasn't laughing. "So... he told you."

"Nope, it never came up. But remember earlier when you said 'oh, I have something to tell you'? That would have been important to mention. Now shh," she shushed him, turning back to the stage. Eliot was getting to the bridge of the song, and playing it like it was his job.

Parker knew then that her plan had to work. It just had to. With Eliot singing her song, pouring his heart into it the same way she always did, and Alec's arm sliding around her waist like it was specifically designed for that purpose... She wouldn't be able to function if this plan didn't work.

Eliot finished onstage and she had tears in her eyes again.

"There, now it's your turn," he said, a little breathless and positively beaming.

"We're leaving," Parker said, fishing the umbrella from the last of her drink and tucking it behind her ear.

"What? Why? What's up?"

Alec stood and grabbed his coat, looking to make a fast exit. "I'll get out of your hair. I guess you have shit to talk about."

Eliot looked back and forth between them, his smile gone entirely. "What. Is going. On?"

"She knows. All of it, even the part about the Tamagotchi."

"Parker, hang on," Eliot said quickly. He turned back to Alec. "Why did you tell her? What the hell is --"

"I didn't tell her anything, man, she just knew."

"No, no, you're coming too," Parker said. "We have talking to do."

"Everything okay over here?" Quinn unfolded himself from the next booth and was suddenly looming.

She watched Alec and Eliot trade a guilty, horrified look. There was one more step to her plan, but to tell them now would ruin eighty-six percent of the fun in it. "Everything is great. Let's go," she said.

--

Quinn gave her a secret, down low high five when he saw them to the door of her hotel room. "I'll see you at oh-nine-thirty tomorrow, Miss Parker. Call if you need anything at all," he said, unlocking her door and taking a quick look inside before he held the door for them. "Good luck," he added in a whisper.

Once they were in the room, Eliot and Alec started to shift out of their coats and shoes while Parker turned on the bedside light. "Were you ever planning on tell me about this?" she asked. She settled on the bed, toeing her shoes off and letting them drop to the floor.

Neither one of them spoke right away, standing stock still at the end of the bed, watching her and each other.

"Look," Alec said finally. "I know I should have said something. Especially when you told me," he said. He was picking at the edge of the sheet, carefully focusing on his hands until he just couldn't resist any more and he glanced at Eliot. "Or when you told me."

Eliot snorted. "Yeah. Would have been nice."

"Hey," Parker said, trying to put a little warning in her voice. "You never told me anything either."

The last thing they needed was a fight. Her heart couldn't take the possibility that they could hate each other. It felt like she needed this to work as much as she needed air. She waited on edge, barely breathing, just waiting for someone to say something that would mean that this could work.

"It's just that you were both so adamant that there be 'no strings attached'," Alec went on. Parker felt a little guilty about the way he said it.

"Not an ideal set up," she admitted. They both nodded.

Time for a gamble. "You know what maybe is an ideal set up..."

Alec caught on before Eliot. "Are you... Really?"

"Not just tonight," Parker said quickly. "But like. Strings attached."

Alec chuckled. "Yeah? What kind of strings?"

"Strings made of feelings. Strings where I want to meet your parents. Strings of sitting through an awkward Christmas dinner with Eliot's racist dad."

That helped to clue Eliot in. "That's crazy," he said.

"Not really," Parker said. "I'm an international household name, El. You sold your bar to join me on an across the world concert tour and had a gay relationship. Pretty much everything that we used think was normal is ruined now."

"Oh come on, it was hardly a relationship," Eliot said with a scoff.

Alec did too. "He had a tear in his eye when he broke up with me, you know."

"Because I was so happy to be done with you, god."

Alec didn't respond to that. "You're thinking a long term polyamorous relationship is the answer to our problems."

"All of our problems. The answer to problems we haven't even come up against yet. And definitely the answer to the question 'what are we going to be doing for the rest of the night'."

"Are you going to dump us when you get bored?"

Parker shook her head. "I know it seems like I get bored easy, but I've had Eliot around for what, sixteen years?"

Eliot rolled his eyes. "And what about when Nate and everyone else find out?"

"Quinn and Sophie already do know and they both gave me their blessing. And Nate will be mad and yell and everything else, and then he'll just be grumpy I didn't tell him in advance so he could prepare a statement, and then he'll be secretly happy that I'm such a weirdo who keeps herself in the press. And that I'm happy, I guess. That makes him happy too."

"Yeah, and the tabloids? They're going to have a field day," Eliot said.

"The tabloids also say I have a dick and sometimes chat with Satan. I think I don't care what they say about the guys I fall in love with. What about your family, El?"

"Mom won't care. She's been hoping that you and I get married since you started middle school."

"And the addition of a good looking black man won't bug your racist dad?" Alec asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your family won't care you're dating a pair of crazy white kids?" Eliot shot back, a fair counter point.

"We'll take all family holidays very slowly, I promise," Parker said, raising her hands in a quest for peace. Her heart was beating again after what felt like entire minutes of stillness in her chest. They were bickering, yeah, but no one was throwing punches or swear words around.

She tried another, more direct route. "And you do know that 'let's go back to the hotel and talk' was kind of my code for 'we can talk after the tour is over because everything is so crazy now, so let's go back to the hotel and have sex in the giant bed.' So, can we do that?"

Eliot and Alec regarded each other very closely for a moment. Parker was worried for a moment that it was not going to work out, but then Alec broke into a grin.

"Yeah, I think it's something that could work. We could try."

"Yeah," Eliot agreed finally. "We can try that."

They stripped out of their clothes lighting fast and Parker barely had time to register it before they were on the bed with her, both grabbing at clothes and then there were hands on her skin and -- oh.

Oh.

She was on her side, sprawled across the luxurious silk sheets. Eliot was behind her, pressed right against her and the feeling of finally, having him against her, naked, was almost enough. His mouth was sucking at the soft junction of her neck and her shoulder and every so often he made a little noise or whispered her name. He had one arm around her, his fingers brushing across her breast or Alec's chest.

"Fuck," she said because other than curse words and Eliot's name, she couldn't think of anything else to say. His dick was hard, pressed against her ass and thigh, but instead of anything else he could be doing with it, he was just holding her and kissing at her skin. Evidently, he subscribed to Alec's method of taking things slow.

Alec. Where did he get to? She was sure he had been right there... Parker opened her eyes and there he was, almost nose to nose with her. He was smiling and her stomach did that same, familiar flip-flop that it always did.

"Hi," she said, a little impressed with herself that she had remember that word, too.

"Hi," he said softly.

"Are we taking it slow?" she asked. Everything was soft and warm, including the fuzz wrapped up around her brain.

"Yeah," he said with a laugh. "Do you want me to speed things up a little for you?"

As soon as he asked it, Eliot made a little murmur against her skin and pressed his erection against her a little more firmly.

"Yes," she said, a touch too enthusiastically. The loudness of her voice startled her in the quiet of the room and she jumped. Eliot's mouth came off her skin with a wet noise.

"Yeah," Eliot said, echoing. Maybe Alec was the only one who liked slow.

"Help," Alec said to Eliot. "And you stay right there," he added after, to Parker. He batted one of the paper umbrellas off the bed before he pushed Parker over onto her back. Eliot scrambled out of the way.

"Follow my lead," Alec said as he crouched over Parker's body. She shivered in anticipation and let her mind go blank. She didn't want any expectations for what was about to happen.

Alec's mouth came down, lips just barely grazing her skin. Eliot's fingers laced in hers and he squeezed her hand back when hers tightened. Alec's tongue darted out and ran over one of her nipples and she twisted under him, laughing.

"Ticklish?" he asked, grinning evilly.

"No," she lied.

"Right here is worse," Eliot said, brushing her hair off her face and pressing his lips right under her ear. She pulled away from him, from the overwhelming tickle of his lips and breath right there, but Alec had her pretty effectively trapped.

"Mean," she groaned.

"Not really," Alec said. She should have known something was up with how conversational and casual he sounded, but Eliot was lapping at her earlobe and she was distracted so much that when Alec slid two fingers into her pussy, she let out a shocked gasp and her whole body came up off the bed. She collided with Alec, who was still propped up on his knees and one elbow above her.

"Oh god," she said. "Oh god, oh god."

Eliot laughed quietly, a perfectly sexy sound so close to her ear. "Good?" he asked.

She couldn't answer. Alec had started moving his fingers, slow and steady and oh god, she was going to have a very serious talk to him about how this was basically torture. She thought briefly about later, and about Alec on his knees with his hands pressed to the wall and Eliot fucking into him from behind and how she was going to get down on the bed in front of him and suck him off so slowly that Eliot would finish three times before he had come once, and she felt a little better.

"It looks good," Eliot said. His voice had taken on a lower tone, as if that was even possible. She shuddered against Alec whenever Eliot spoke.

"It feels good," Alec said, laughing when Parker moaned her agreement. "Come here, let me show you."

When Eliot slid two fingers inside her along Alec's fingers, she squirmed. It was a lot to take when they had barely given her time to warm up, but he pressed a hard kiss to her knee and looked up at her with his concerned eyes and she nodded, yes, they could continue.

They took it slow, and Parker adjusted, and it was fucking incredible having them both of them in her at once. She knew there was more, so much more, that they could do with both of them in her at once and to be honest, four fingers was more than enough right now. They're get to the rest of it and it would be sexy and magical and there would be so many limbs, but that was the future.

Right now it was them and they were together and she was coming on their hands and mumbling their names and life was pretty fucking perfect.

--

Parker had predicted the future with disturbing accuracy. She really shouldn't have told Nate mid-flight, because when he started shouting, everyone on the plane knew exactly what was going on. The pilot probably heard too, all the way up in the cockpit, and so she blamed Nate for all the turbulence from Seoul to London.

Alec did a good job of keeping Eliot in his seat and not punching Nate in the throat while he got it out of his system, so that was a very good thing that Parker was grateful for.

"What is his fucking problem, anyways?" Eliot asked Parker while he broke all Alec's cigarettes into pieces into a plastic bag. Alec had made the mistake of leaving his coat in his seat when he got up to pee and Eliot was taking full advantage.

"He worries about me. He's still not convinced you're not here to get me hooked on drugs. Kidding!" she added quickly when she saw the thunder on his face. "Relax, he's fine. He just likes to shout when he's stressed."

"Which is always," Eliot said darkly.

Parker shrugged. "Welcome to the family?"

--

As fast as the first part of the tour had gone, the last part was so much faster. Everything was passing in a blur of happy and loud and her warm boys.

"Three whole days off?" Parker said, her eyes wide and shocked. She bounced once or twice on the edge of the bed in the hotel room, experimenting. It had to be a nice bed if Nate was expecting them use it for the next three days.

Nate sighed. "If you ever bothered to read to files I give you, you would know this. We only have eight more shows, but we have time for a little break. Think of it like a mini vacation, because once the tour is done, we're doing two straight months of press work for the new album."

"A vacation!" Parker sang out, leaping up from the bed, across Alec's lap and throwing her arms around Nate. "You're perfect, I love you."

"I love you too," he said wearily. "And I don't care what you three are getting up to, but under no circumstances are you to ditch Quinn again. He is your shadow, you got that?"

"We apologized for that," Alec said, but Nate waved him off.

"Quinn goes everywhere with you, understand?"

Parker nodded.

"I don't like Quinn," Eliot said once Nate had left them in the room.

Quinn, standing less than three feet away, nodded. "Yeah. I get that a lot."

"Okay," Parker said, throwing herself down on the carpet at the end of the bed and flipping open her trunk. She dug through for the sunglasses she wanted to wear. "Vacation time. What do you guys want to do first?"

Eliot sighed. "Get drunk and punch a moose? I don't know, it's Canada. What the hell are we supposed to do?" He pulled back the curtain and glared out across the Toronto skyline in the sunny afternoon.

"They apparently have a pretty cool science place around here somewhere. You guys want to learn some science?" Alec said. He was thumbing through some pamphlets he'd picked up somewhere. He made it sound casual, but Parker glanced up and saw him reading the pamphlet in his hand with avid interest.

She didn't want to disappoint her geek, but that seemed like way too stuffy for the amount of energy she had at the moment. Parker picked the orange sunglasses with the blue rhinestones that clashed pretty ridiculously with her brown hair. "Let's just go for a walk. Take in the sights, that kind of thing."

"The Canadian sights," Eliot grumbled, but he followed everyone else out of the room when they left so he wasn't that mad. "I'm going to kick a beaver if we see one," he warned them.

After a few minutes, Eliot was over the fact that it was Canada. He was even over the fact that Quinn was trailing two feet behind them the whole time. It was nice to just be out in the open air together, he said.

"Canada does have some nice air," Eliot admitted.

Parker agreed and they walked for a while until they'd gotten completely turned around and had to ask a man at a sausage cart for directions back to the hotel. He was very polite.

"How Canadian," Eliot said, pretty amazed.

"Yeah, you didn't have to threaten one of his homeland's precious native animals, either," Alec said with a smirk. "A day of diplomacy all around."

The majority of her adoring fans hadn't seen Parker's new hair yet, so they got through the crowds pretty easy. Plus, she could duck behind Alec if she thought people were looking at her for a little too long.

Then Alec saw something in a shop window he thought was funny and turned to Eliot. "El, I think... Where's Eliot?"

There was a small scale panic then, both because he might be scared and lost and alone, and because he might be wrecking the city, but he showed up breathless a few minutes later.

"Got you something," he said, grinning crookedly at Parker.

"Is it a dead beaver head? I don't want that."

He snorted and pressed the little bag into her hand.

"You don't have to buy me presents to get me to love you, Eliot," she teased as she opened it.

It didn't look very fancy, probably he found in some tourist store that sold trinkets, but it was still pretty. A silver ring, with a little red heart laid over a darker read maple leaf. It fit her finger and when she held up her hand and wiggled her fingers, Eliot smiled and kissed her.

She tried to thank him, but her brain was shouting 'ring, ring, it's a ring, you know what that means! Panic!'. She didn't panic though. There was something distinctly non-panicsome about Eliot giving her a ring.

"It's really nice," Alec said.

"Here, before you get huffy." Eliot said, handing Alec a different bag. "Got you a matching one."

Alec looked away from them as he took it out of the bag and tried it on. "Thanks," he said, his voice going quiet for a second before he kissed Eliot, then Parker. She beamed at him, still fairly lost for words. But he was smiling and Eliot was smiling and showing them his ring, just the same as theirs, already on the chain around his neck.

Things slowed down for a minute and Parker just watched them talking animatedly about whatever they were talking about. It didn't matter, so long as they were both there. She sighed the happiest sigh she could have ever imagined for this weird, perfect fortune she had fallen into.

Eliot laughed at something and threw an arm around Alec shoulders. Then tugged Parker in on the other side of him and they started walking again, hand in hand in hand.

Comments

[tassosss]

This was about ten kinds of awesome! I love how Parker loves being a star. Her and Sophie plotting outrageous costumes. Nate being spastic with a folder for everything. Eliot and his yoga and figuring out his feelings. Hardison being hot and sweet and them both falling for him independently. I love your Parker to pieces, and Quinn totally stole the show. Loved it!

[earthquakedream]

This was awesome. I think I loved Quinn the best, he was wonderful. You did such a great job with this!

[snarkasaurus]

~clappy hands of glee~

yes, i just got to this.