33 Apocalypse Ave, Friday afternoon

[existencemisspent]

So. Eliot had managed to give Jon's weird metabolism something to feed on for a hot minute despite it very much still being played out, and as far as he could tell, he hadn't managed to pick up a psychic hitchhiker while he was at it.

He had, however, managed to drain Jon's entire apartment of any ambient magic and completely exhaust himself.

He swanned wobbily into the house, feeling much like he might after a very successful party back at Brakebills, and let himself collapse full length across the couch in the living room.

"We need a fainting couch," he announced into the cushion. "This would be much better with a fainting couch. And grapes. And brie!"

If anything would let Margo know that it had all gone okay and Eliot was not going to slowly dissolve into his own trauma, it was overly dramatic demands for fanciness.

[expecting the housemate, but can also be open!]

Comments

[existencemisspent]

Eliot made an unhappy noise into the pillow, torn between his very real need for a nap and his desire not to be in a fight with his best friend.

“It worked,” he said into the cushion. “By the way.”

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

Margo walked into the living room and yes, she made damned sure to slam the door behind her. “Congrats,” she said flatly, placing one hand on her hip. “Martyrdom unsuccesful. Get your own snacks.”

[existencemisspent]

"Not a martyr," Eliot grumbled. "Would've been better with two of us," he said a little louder. "It's a big spell."

He was not going to tell her how close he probably came to going niffin doing it.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

The narrative was happy to hear Eliot still had a sense of self-preservation.

“You playing ‘I spy’ with a fear entity was hard? Fuck me, now there’s a surprise,” Margo said, her one eye narrowing and her empty eyesocket trying its best behind that pretty purple eye patch.

[existencemisspent]

Eliot managed to roll over just enough not to have his face directly in one of the cushions. "Would you rather I hadn't told you about it at all?" he asked. "Because I'm happy to make that adjustment next time."

Next time would not be happening any time soon. He was wiped.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“No, I’d rather you hadn’t done it,” Margo said. “And I’m not drawing any conclusions about whether you didn’t just completely bone yourself until tomorrow.”

[existencemisspent]

Eliot rolled his eyes. "Yes, Bambi, your objection was noted, albeit ignored. I'll look forward to your concession speech tomorrow, when I've awoken sans nightmares."

He might just fall asleep now and sleep right through til then, honestly.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“Please,” Margo said, lifting her chin. “I don’t concede. At best, I tolerate.”

She shook her head.

“Go to sleep.”

[existencemisspent]

"But you're mad at me," Eliot said softly. Letting a bit of honest concern show.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“Yeah, well, shit, what did you think was going to happen,” Margo said. Her hand left her hip, and maybe on someone else, those crossed arms might almost read as . . . self-protective. “I asked you not to do one thing, and you did it anyway.”

[existencemisspent]

"Don't remember a lot of asking," Eliot pointed out. He thought about maybe sitting up, but that would take a lot of effort. "I ovaried up."

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“You know me, I’m never big on using actual question marks,” Margo drawled.

She turned her head and stared at the window, arms still crossed. “You could’ve gotten killed, or maimed, or something.”

[existencemisspent]

Eliot nodded faintly. He couldn't deny that.

"I took a calculated risk. Which is kind of big for me."

Usually he either threw himself wholeheartedly into something trying to get killed, or took no risks at all.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“‘But boy, are you bad at math’?”

Margo knew his math was fine. Exceptional, really, because that was the fucking baseline for getting into Brakebills at all. Still.

“I’m glad you didn’t get killed,” she allowed. “That doesn’t mean I have to like this.”

[existencemisspent]

"Just because you don't like the math doesn't mean it's bad," Eliot said. "You don't have to like it. It'd be nice if you admitted I wasn't being reckless, for once."

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“I will,” Margo said, nodding, eye unusually wide in faux-cheerfulness.

It lasted about ten seconds.

“When you’re not being reckless.”

And just like that, her tone dropped about an octave.

[existencemisspent]

Eliot lazily flicked her off.

"At least now he won't end up starving enough to traumatize and eat a kid or something."

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“Great. Coulda accomplished the same thing by tying an anvil around his ankle and shoving him into the sea,” Margo retorted. “Look, I could do this all day, but I don’t wanna. Yay, you’re not dead. Congrats.”

She gave a casual flick of her wrist.

“I’m still not gonna crawl in the dirt and worship at the altar of wowee-what-a-great-thing-you-did no matter how many rounds we go, so if you don’t mind, I’m gonna go upstairs and pour myself a few drinks until I forget about all this.”

[existencemisspent]

Eliot heaved a sigh and waved her along. "As though I could stop you if I did, Bambi."

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“Great. Would’ve loved if you’d had this epiphany five minutes ago,” Margo said.

She was already moving for the stairs before half that sentence left her mouth, brushing her hair back so it’d fall back just right.