(no subject)

[captain_fucking_magic]

It's been a weird few days for Harry. But weird in a good way, which is sort of what makes it weird. He's not really used to so many good things happening at once like that. He and Harmony are going out on Saturday (which, ok, that's going to be awkward since he's down to like, his last $40), he's got a job that doesn't involve moving heavy boxes across some nasty warehouse, and no-one's tried to shoot at him in several weeks.

He's celebrating by taking over Perry's sofa with a book he found in the office. He's half-way through The Sign of Four and wondering why no-one ever told him that the Victorians were into more than just melodramatic romance. He might have actually read these earlier if someone had bothered to tell him that there was actually a decent plot to them.

Comments

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"You stole them. From the hotel. Jesus Christ, Harry." Perry drops him, looking disgusted. "The fuck is your problem?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Yeah, it's just gum. It's no big deal. It's not like I took the TV from the room or anything."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"But you stole it. As in, you took it without permission. You said you were going straight. Or is this what passes for straight on the East Coast?" Perry considers shaking him till he gets a clue.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Fuck off. It was a rough week, all right?" Harry says. "And besides, you didn't even know I stole shit at the time I took that."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"'It was a rough week?' What, is this how you get your kicks? You son of a bitch..." Perry is pissed, but it's all tangled up with other emotions, so he just cuffs Harry over the head. "What is wrong with you?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Ow! Hey!" Harry tries to slink out of the way. "Yeah, it was a rough week. Or did you forget about all the corpses and shit?"

Apparently, this is a valid explanation for Harry.

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"So what you're telling me, asshole, is you stole all this shit just to feel better?" Perry cuffs him again, for ducking, and drops his shirt, though he doesn't step back.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Fuck! Ow! Stop it!" He does manage to step away this time, putting a few feet of distance between them. "So what? Yeah, it makes me feel better. Fuck, it's not like it hurts anyone."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

Perry stares at him, long enough to make anyone uncomfortable.

"That's actually fucked up. You didn't even have to pay for this shit, they had it in tacky little bowls everywhere. Would you have taken it if they had made you pay for it?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry shrugs awkwardly. "Yeah, probably. So what? Like I said, it was a rough fucking week...

"It helps."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

That's possibly the most fucked up, pathetic thing anyone has ever said. Doesn't surprise him at all that it came from Harry. Perry steps back.

"Come on, I'm going to make coffee." Oh god, he's turning into his mother. Next thing he'll be panic-baking. He leads off, turning Harry's gum over in his mind.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"OK."

Harry stays back, not really sure if he's supposed to follow after or not. Also, he doesn't want to get smacked again.

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"Come on, numbnuts." Perry yells back down the hall. "Don't make me come back there."

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry follows after with a start.

"You know," he says, sounding almost timid. "I never stole anything after you told me to stop. I mean, there were a few times when, like, I felt like I needed to, but I still didn't."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"That's good."

Perry rolls his eyes as he fills the pot. Well, it's not really. But he doesn't even have to look at Harry to know the face he's pulling, and that is just a whole other can of worms right there, so stop thinking about pretty brown eyes and start thinking about the light fingers, hm?

"Get the cream out, willya?"

Still thinking, really.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry gets the creamer from the fridge and sets it down on the counter.

"Well, what the hell else do you want from me?" he asks. "I'm doing the best I can, here."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"I want you not to fuck it up, idiot." Perry leans against the counter whilst the coffee bubbles away to itself. "And not because it will come back to me, because it will, but because you're running out of second chances."

Hectoring Harry about his life choices is almost too easy.

(But admitting friendship causes an aneurysm. Idiot.)

[captain_fucking_magic]

"I've got it. It's fine," Harry insists. "So I just don't go to the store. Whatever. Problem solved."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

Perry looks at the coffee-machine for answers. It goes 'blup'. Okay, no answers there.

"So okay, you don't go to the store. That's fine, right? I can do it. Or maybe Harmony. Right? Or hell, you can get 'em to deliver, right?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry shrugs. "Yeah, see? We're agreed, then. Problem solved."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"You're an idiot. That's not actually solving the problem, at all. How-- How have you lived this long?"

The coffee pot still doesn't have answers, but there's a chance it might have coffee, so Perry gets some mugs down.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"By... not dying? What?"

Harry's lost again. Of course he is.

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

Perry gives him a look.

"Okay. Okay. So what about going to the library? Or the bar?" A thought strikes Perry and he pauses in the act of pouring coffee. "Don't you dare pull shit like this in The Bar. I won't even end you, I'll just feed you to the squid."

[captain_fucking_magic]

"No, it doesn't eat people," says Harry easily. "It eats toast or something. Or maybe bagels."

Missing the point? Totally.

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"That's not the point." He's being deliberately dim. Definitely. No one can be that fucking stupid, right? "The point is, if you have this need to steal, which, by the way, is all sorts of fucked up, then it's not going to stop just because you stop buying the bread!"

Perry plonks the mug in front of Harry and helps himself to creamer.

"And I mean it about the squid."