Bloody Nose (or The Lucky Shirt Job)
Bloody Nose (Or the Lucky Shirt Job)
Blood dripped down his shirt and Eliot cursed. It wasn’t like this hadn’t happened before but this was his lucky shirt damn it! This was supposed to be a routine job and no need for him to have to lash out, certainly no indication that anyone would be lashing back. But there he was anyway, nose bleeding profusely and the man that had caused it was lying on the floor unconscious. He really wanted to beat him down more because of his shirt but even as pissed as he was he wasn’t about to kill anyone because they ruined his shirt.
“Eliot? Are you okay?”
He nodded as he pinched the bridge of his nose and pulled the end of his shirt up with the other hand to try to stop the bleeding. They needed to get the hell out and now wasn’t the time to stop.
He ignored Nate’s question as he turned the corner and met up with the others.
“You good?” Nate asked again, this time realizing why Eliot hadn’t answered a moment before. He gave a nod and they were all high tailing it back to the van where Parker and Hardison were waiting.
He kept the pressure on his nose and luckily enough this job was close to Leverage headquarters. The bleeding hadn’t stopped yet and when they got to the right floor he went straight into his office where he could sit still for a few minutes and get this under control. He knew the nose wasn’t broken, but it didn’t seem to make a difference in the amount of blood that he was losing. He sat in his chair and leaned forward slightly, pulling his trash can underneath his head to let any blood drip into it as he fumbled for a tissue. He blocked the nostrils with the tissue and then just sat there, waiting for the blood to stop.
“Here.” He heard Nate’s voice as he entered and felt the ice pack as it was placed on the back of his neck. “I read that this helps sometimes.”
Eliot didn’t know if it would or not but the cold felt good. He’d need the ice for his face once the bleeding stopped anyway. “Thanks.”
Nate didn’t move away once the ice was set against his skin and it took Eliot a minute to realize that Nate was just holding it there for him. Like he needed to do it, needed a reason to be there.
“I got it. Thanks.” He said suddenly, his hand coming up to take the ice pack. He felt his fingers brush Nate’s and he nearly bit off his tongue to keep from making any sort of noise about it. He needed to get this under control. His nose wasn’t the only think bleeding lately and as much as he’d like to think there was someplace this thing with Nate could go that might make them both happy, he was a realist. Nate was broken in places Eliot didn’t even have. The fact that Eliot didn’t have them made him just as broken. He hurt people for a living and Nate helped people. Even when he was being the bad boy, Nate was a good person. He needed to get away from Eliot before he could corrupt that.
He felt Nate step back and looked up slightly. Nate’s eyes were a bit wider and Eliot wanted to kick himself for doing that. He’d worked really hard to get Nate to want to be friends, to want to open up in some way, but for all his work he realized too late that it went both ways.
Nate was willing to be his friend. Eliot wanted so much more.
Nate’s eyes closed to him suddenly, his stare as icy as the pack on the back of his neck. “I uh… think I need it for my face more man.” He said, hoping to take a little of the sting back. He did still want to be Nate’s friend. He just needed to learn to distance himself more.
“Gonna have a shiner come morning.” Nate said.
Eliot took a chance and pulled the tissue out, found that the bleeding had stopped finally. When he sat back in his chair he gave Eliot a small smile. “Least you can do is tell me what the next step is while I sit here icing my face.”
Nate nodded, taking the invitation for what it was. There was still a bit of ice in his stare but it was melting a little as he took a seat across the desk from Eliot. He leaned back and put the ice pack on his nose, hoping he’d just get one shiner out of it and not two but he wasn’t too hopeful about that one.
Still, Nate’s voice was soothing as he talked about what they could do next to get their client’s company back for them. He was aware of the smile he heard in Nate’s voice, the affection as he kept talking but wasn’t sure why. When his eyes drifted closed for the last time it was to Nate’s voice and the thought that Nate as a friend was like a nose bleed. His friendship came out of nowhere, sometimes like trauma and sometimes with no notice. There was no way to stop it, you just had to hold on and hope it passed quick enough. It hurt and it was annoying and when it went away you were relieved. Only his body was like life and without a little blood, nothing worked. Eliot needed Nate, needed him to make him bleed to see what was still out there. He just hoped before it was all over, Nate didn’t bleed him dry.