Fic: we'll light up the stars; Gen: Nate, Marty
we’ll light up the stars
one-shot
Disclaimer: I don't own Leverage, Beautiful Girls or any of its characters or plots. I mean no infringement, this is for personal benefit only.
Fandom: Leverage/Beautiful Girls
Pairing: None, could be seen as Nate/Marty
Word count: 631
Rating: G
Summary: Before he was Nathan Ford, he was Willie Conway.
Warnings: None
Author’s Notes:
- Marty is played by Natalie Portman. If you haven't seen Beautiful Girls, I recommend it just for her. She's awesome in it. Tim Hutton isn't so shabby either. ;)
*****
“Pooh.”
Nate looks up from his drink, a mostly empty glass of whiskey. It doesn’t really help anymore, but he keeps hoping it will someday. He squints at the girl--woman--in front of him. “Christopher Robin,” he recognizes. “Not quite 5’10.”
“That’s what heels are for,” she grins. Without asking, Marty takes the seat next to him and signals the bartender over. “Can I get an orange soda?”
Less than a minute late a glass with orange soda dripping down the side is placed in front of her. She taps the straw on the counter to help pull down the wrapper and then drops it into her drink.
“What brings you to Boston?” Nate asks politely.
“I go to school here now,” she tells him. “A tiny little place in Cambridge.”
“Not so close to this pub,” Nate points out.
“Not so tiny either,” Marty answers pointedly.
“Yeah,” Nate agrees. “Not so tiny.”
“So you drink away your sorrows now? Knights Ridge isn’t good enough anymore?”
“Knights Ridge was a million years ago,” Nate answers. Long before he was Nathan Ford.
“I don’t know, Willie,” she says with a shake of her head. “Is something ever really that long ago?”
Nate shrugs. “Might as well be.”
“So. You dating anyone?” Marty asks bluntly.
Nate laughs a little and downs the rest of his whiskey. “I was too old for you then, I’m still too old for you now.”
“Mmm,” she muses. “Were you really?”
“Really what? Too old for you then? You were thirteen.”
She takes a sip of her orange soda and turns large, brown eyes onto him. “I was an old soul.”
“Was?”
“I’m ancient now,” Marty tells him. “You look terrible, by the way. How’s that functioning alcoholic thing working out for you?”
“Pretty well,” Nate admits. “How’s college working out for you?”
“So-so,” she says, tilting her hand back and forth. “I tracked you down here.”
“I know.”
“You said you couldn’t be my Pooh,” Marty says. “But I think you’re the one who’s Christopher Robin.”
“Maybe,” Nate allows. “For a while. Now I’m Eeyore.”
“That sucks.”
Nate draws a circle in the condensation on the bar. “Yeah, yeah it kind of does.”
“So do you just sit around getting drunk all day, Willie?”
“It’s Nate now,” he corrects. “And pretty much, yeah. I also steal things from rich people… Help the poor and all that.”
“Nate,” she repeats. “So you’re a Robin Hood, too? All kinds a Robins, huh, Nate?”
“Everything but the bird,” Nate agrees.
“Do you have a Batman?”
“I know a couple people who might fit the bill,” Nate tells her. “I work with a team now.”
“No more piano playing?”
“Not for a while.”
She sips some more of her soda. “That’s too bad.”
“Do you still mash snow?” Nate asks.
“Yup. It never stops being satisfying,” Marty says. “Sometimes I can get other people to mash it with me.”
“Is that more satisfying?”
“Sometimes.”
Nate drinks the water that the bartender puts in front of him while Marty drinks her soda. He waits until she slurps out the last bit, leaves a twenty on the bar, and then stands. He holds a hand out to her and she smiles up at him as she takes it.
It’s cold outside, snow litters the sidewalks and is shoved up against the curbs. Nate wraps his scarf around his neck and watches as Marty does the same.
The night is dimly lit by streetlights and headlights that pass them by.
Marty worms her arm through Nate’s and he lets her. He doesn’t have anywhere to be, and he thinks she’s already where she has to be. She’s definitely where she wants to be.
“I missed you, Pooh,” she says.
“Yeah,” Nate says. “Me, too.”