(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]

"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."

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Yeah, so was I," says Harry. "I met this, er, guy. A few weeks ago. And he said that it likes toast or some shit."

He takes a drink of his coffee while he considers the intelligence of the next thing he's about to say.

"He said some, uh... other things, too."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

Perry feels like they're getting off topic here. But since Harry seems to have something on his mind, and it's so rare that Harry has something on his mind (frankly, Perry doubts it's load bearing properties) he relents for now.

"What did he say?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Uh..." He scratches his head while he thinks.

"You know how like, you can meet people there?" he asks. "OK, not like that. Shut up. But like, apparently like, Batman and shit?"

No, he doesn't know about Perry's awkward conversation with Batwoman. He just pulled Batman out of a hat, really.

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I know that." Perry gives Harry a funny look, before deciding that he would have taken all sorts of piss if he'd known about Whatshername from the bar. "What of it?"

Augh, the dumbfuck's got mixed up in something, and who's gonna get to bail him out?

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry laces his fingers together and taps his knuckles against his chin. Whatever it is he's trying to tell Perry, it's apparently one hell of a bombshell.

"I sorta met, well... myself. Only like, from the future? But he's not, because he didn't remember ever meeting him...self, so like, a future me from another universe."

OK, even he's confused now.

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"Did he have a goatee?"

Perry's kind of being a smart-ass, though mainly he's pleased that Harry didn't *actually* wind up in a fight. Although he's pretty sure he's seen porn that started like that.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"What? No. Fuck Star Trek. This is like, John Connor shit. Only... not."

He shakes his head, like he's trying to shake something free inside his skull. Hell, he probably is.

"No, listen. He, uh, told me things. About you."

Yeah, this is going well. He takes a deep breath and decides to just dive right in.

"OK. There's like, this guy. Called, uhm... Damien something? Knox? No. Smith? Fuck it. Whatever it is, it's an obvious fucking alias, and there's something about a boat or something. I don't know, it was a few weeks ago, and I wasn't exactly taking notes."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"Smith?" Perry stares at Harry long enough to make him uncomfortable. "So, what about it?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

"I don't... He... I - whatever. He didn't actually say a whole lot about it. But he was me, and I know when I'm trying to hide something, and he was definitely hiding something. I think you almost got killed on that case. Or I did. Or we both did. Again. The point is, I'm supposed to keep you from taking that case."

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"Are you sure about this?" Perry sits at the breakfast bar and indicates Harry should do the same.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry does as Perry indicates, hoping that maybe it'll get him back on Perry's good side.

"Yeah," he says. "I mean, it's not exactly the sort of thing I'd make up."

And let's be fair. If Harry did make it up, he'd have probably thrown in far too many super-specific details than were necessary.

[thereal-lapi.livejournal.com]

"And he didn't give you any proper names," Perry looks into his mug, mulling it over. "So what you're saying is, I basically have to avoid all boat-trips."

Harry's not actually in trouble, Perry knows how batshit The Bar can be. To be honest, he's a little touched that Harry would worry about him enough to warn him.