Fic: What Happened in Hungary, Stays in Hungary (Except When it Doesn’t)
Title: What Happened in Hungary, Stays in Hungary (Except When it Doesn’t)
Fandoms: Leverage, MCU
Pairing: Eliot/Quinn
Word Count: 1398
Summary: Eliot gets a call for help from an old friend, and meets up with another old acquaintance in the process.
A/N: It’s a while since I’ve written Eliot/Quinn rather than crossing one of them over with the Avengers so I thought I’d go ahead and write some (of course, Clint had to sneak in there somehow.) For ishilde, because she's an awesome friend and co-mod and everything.
The first time Eliot meets Quinn, they’re tearing strips out of each other in an airport hangar. Eliot’s pissed and worried because something’s gone wrong, and maybe he is a little impressed that this guy is a match for him, but he doesn’t stick around to show it. Quinn’s good, but Eliot has the extra motivation of needed to help his team and he emerges triumphant. If he asks around about the guy after, it’s just professional interest.
The second time Eliot meets Quinn, he’s in another desperate situation. They’re being targeted again and Dubenich knows them too well for them to be able to take him down on their own. There’s not really a favour to call in, but Eliot does it anyway, approaching this guy he’s only met once to ask for his help. It makes sense, he knows, because he has no connection with Quinn and he knows from experience that he’s tough. It’s not the fact he asks that surprises him, it’s the fact that Quinn accepts and wholeheartedly throws himself into the thick of things. When the job’s done, they both walk away because it’s what has to be done but Eliot wonders if, in different circumstances, they would have become friends.
The third time Eliot meets Quinn, it’s because of Clint Barton. Eliot’s known him for years, since when they’d briefly worked the carnival together, and they’re good enough friends that Eliot never ignores a call from the man. When that call turns out to be a call for help, Eliot doesn’t hesitate. They’re in-between jobs and taking a few days won’t make any difference so he jumps straight on a plane because Clint needs someone outside of SHIELD that he can trust and Eliot feels he definitely fits into that category.
When Eliot arrives in Budapest, he’s barely out of the airport before he starts hearing whispers of a gun fight that took place in the centre of the city. There could be dozens of explanations but his gut tells him that he’s right in thinking Clint’s involved. He listens to the gossip as he walks and then, when he hears someone who actually sounds like they were there, he stops and talks until he gets directions to the site where the incident happened.
Eliot is used to carnage, but even he is surprised to see so much of it in such a public space. He’s not entirely sure what’s gone down, but whatever it is has led to bodies in the street and a lot of frustrated looking police. Looking around, he’s not really sure where the trail goes and is hoping Clint will call him again soon when he notices the symbol chalked on the wall. It’s a rudimentary signal, one that means Clint was in a hurry and didn’t have the time to go for anything more subtle, but Eliot’s pretty sure no-one else has noticed it; they haven’t been trained in the art of Clint Barton, after all.
He follows the trail that’s been left for him and ends up in a room with Clint, a woman he doesn’t recognise, and a bleeding Quinn. He takes the sight in for a moment, because it’s kind of hard to believe that even Clint could get in this much trouble in the time it’s taken him to travel to Hungary, and then walks further into the room.
“You going to tell me how this happened?”
Clint shrugs, reaching up to shake his hand before going back to patching up a wound on Quinn’s shoulder. “You’d probably rather not know.”
“I’m here now anyway.”
“Yeah,” the woman snorts, “after everything’s happened. How helpful.”
“Come on,” Quinn shrugs, making Clint’s job of sticking up his wound even harder, “he flew here on the first plane.”
“The point I’m making is that we didn’t need him - I don’t know why you called him when we were handling it.”
Clint shakes his head, “Natasha, that’s not really my definition of handling it.”
Eliot knows he needs to end this before the bickering goes any further, or he’s never going to find out what is going on. “Either way, fill me in.”
“It was supposed to be a simple job-”
“And then Quinn showed up-”
“And everything went wrong.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Quinn adds, looking a little indignant, “I just happened to show up in the same place they did at a bad time.”
Clint nods, “Anyway, when I called you things were bad but we thought we had time to, you know, wait for extra help - it just didn’t turn out that way. Sorry you’ve had a wasted journey.”
Eliot looks from Clint to Quinn and back again. “Are some of the people who were shooting at you still alive?”
“Yeah.”
“And chances are they’ll try and get you again?”
Natasha clears her throat, “Probably.”
“Then it’s not a wasted journey, is it? I presume you all want to get out of the country in one piece - I can help with that.”
“Actually, we’ve sort of already got our exit sorted,” Clint’s not usually the type to look embarrassed but he’s just about pulling it off, “SHIELD and everything, you know. Which leaves you and-”
“Me,” Quinn smirks, “I was just going to, you know, leave the country the normal way now my business is sorted but I’m perfectly happy to buddy up with you and leave together - security in numbers and all that.”
It’s a flimsy reason to travel together - especially when it’d actually probably be safer separately - but up until now Eliot hasn’t really been in a position where he’s had time to actually try and get to know Quinn properly and, yeah, he’s curious. He nods at Quinn and ignores the confused look that Clint - who knows him well enough to know agreeing to this is out of character - gives him.
“How’s his shoulder doing?” Leaning back against the wall, Eliot wonders how long they have before someone else discovers their location.
Clint pulls back, “It’s done.”
“Then we should go.” The woman called Natasha stands up and starts walking to the door without ceremony, professional and efficient; qualities that Eliot respects.
“Yeah,” Clint looks a little reluctant, “Are you sure you two will be okay?”
“Yeah, we’ll be fine - you owe me one, though.”
“Think I owe you more than one.”
Eliot laughs and waits until Clint and Natasha have left the room before turning to Quinn, “It’s a small world, huh?”
“That it is,” pushing himself up off the floor, Quinn grins at him, “good to see you, Spencer.”
“Is it?”
“Sure, fun things usually happen when you’re around.”
“Fun things? Like having your ribs broken and being forced to hang around with Chaos?”
“Exactly. Come on, we should get out of Budapest.”
Eliot’s inclined to agree - they can discuss less important things later, when they’re on a plane back to the States. He has to admit, though, he’s very interested to know why Quinn enjoys his company so much.
~~
The next time Eliot sees Clint, they’re at a bar near Leverage HQ. Eliot’s at a table, Quinn sitting opposite him, their feet touching. Eliot’s listening to Quinn talk about the apartment he’s seen and how the rent is reasonable and how Quinn won’t always be in it because he’ll have work but how it’ll be the most permanent place of residence he’s had in years. Eliot’s pretty sure he’ll spend a lot of time in Quinn’s apartment, too.
He glances up as he feels the draught that means the door has opened and sees Clint walk inside, with Natasha and a man Eliot vaguely recognises from his past dealings with SHIELD. Clint catches sight of them almost immediately as Quinn talks on, oblivious. Clint’s eyes widen slightly and Eliot just nods, smiles at him, and returns his attention to Quinn.
Quinn’s just as much of a regular in this place as Eliot is now, but Clint isn’t so they don’t talk that night, not somewhere so public. Instead, Eliot and Quinn carry on with their date while Clint gets on with whatever he’s doing. As Eliot and Quinn are leaving, though, Eliot feels eyes following him and glances back over his shoulder to grin at Clint. Eliot’s still not exactly sure what happened in Budapest, but he’s really glad he was there to witness it.
Fandoms: Leverage, MCU
Pairing: Eliot/Quinn
Word Count: 1398
Summary: Eliot gets a call for help from an old friend, and meets up with another old acquaintance in the process.
A/N: It’s a while since I’ve written Eliot/Quinn rather than crossing one of them over with the Avengers so I thought I’d go ahead and write some (of course, Clint had to sneak in there somehow.) For ishilde, because she's an awesome friend and co-mod and everything.
The first time Eliot meets Quinn, they’re tearing strips out of each other in an airport hangar. Eliot’s pissed and worried because something’s gone wrong, and maybe he is a little impressed that this guy is a match for him, but he doesn’t stick around to show it. Quinn’s good, but Eliot has the extra motivation of needed to help his team and he emerges triumphant. If he asks around about the guy after, it’s just professional interest.
The second time Eliot meets Quinn, he’s in another desperate situation. They’re being targeted again and Dubenich knows them too well for them to be able to take him down on their own. There’s not really a favour to call in, but Eliot does it anyway, approaching this guy he’s only met once to ask for his help. It makes sense, he knows, because he has no connection with Quinn and he knows from experience that he’s tough. It’s not the fact he asks that surprises him, it’s the fact that Quinn accepts and wholeheartedly throws himself into the thick of things. When the job’s done, they both walk away because it’s what has to be done but Eliot wonders if, in different circumstances, they would have become friends.
The third time Eliot meets Quinn, it’s because of Clint Barton. Eliot’s known him for years, since when they’d briefly worked the carnival together, and they’re good enough friends that Eliot never ignores a call from the man. When that call turns out to be a call for help, Eliot doesn’t hesitate. They’re in-between jobs and taking a few days won’t make any difference so he jumps straight on a plane because Clint needs someone outside of SHIELD that he can trust and Eliot feels he definitely fits into that category.
When Eliot arrives in Budapest, he’s barely out of the airport before he starts hearing whispers of a gun fight that took place in the centre of the city. There could be dozens of explanations but his gut tells him that he’s right in thinking Clint’s involved. He listens to the gossip as he walks and then, when he hears someone who actually sounds like they were there, he stops and talks until he gets directions to the site where the incident happened.
Eliot is used to carnage, but even he is surprised to see so much of it in such a public space. He’s not entirely sure what’s gone down, but whatever it is has led to bodies in the street and a lot of frustrated looking police. Looking around, he’s not really sure where the trail goes and is hoping Clint will call him again soon when he notices the symbol chalked on the wall. It’s a rudimentary signal, one that means Clint was in a hurry and didn’t have the time to go for anything more subtle, but Eliot’s pretty sure no-one else has noticed it; they haven’t been trained in the art of Clint Barton, after all.
He follows the trail that’s been left for him and ends up in a room with Clint, a woman he doesn’t recognise, and a bleeding Quinn. He takes the sight in for a moment, because it’s kind of hard to believe that even Clint could get in this much trouble in the time it’s taken him to travel to Hungary, and then walks further into the room.
“You going to tell me how this happened?”
Clint shrugs, reaching up to shake his hand before going back to patching up a wound on Quinn’s shoulder. “You’d probably rather not know.”
“I’m here now anyway.”
“Yeah,” the woman snorts, “after everything’s happened. How helpful.”
“Come on,” Quinn shrugs, making Clint’s job of sticking up his wound even harder, “he flew here on the first plane.”
“The point I’m making is that we didn’t need him - I don’t know why you called him when we were handling it.”
Clint shakes his head, “Natasha, that’s not really my definition of handling it.”
Eliot knows he needs to end this before the bickering goes any further, or he’s never going to find out what is going on. “Either way, fill me in.”
“It was supposed to be a simple job-”
“And then Quinn showed up-”
“And everything went wrong.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Quinn adds, looking a little indignant, “I just happened to show up in the same place they did at a bad time.”
Clint nods, “Anyway, when I called you things were bad but we thought we had time to, you know, wait for extra help - it just didn’t turn out that way. Sorry you’ve had a wasted journey.”
Eliot looks from Clint to Quinn and back again. “Are some of the people who were shooting at you still alive?”
“Yeah.”
“And chances are they’ll try and get you again?”
Natasha clears her throat, “Probably.”
“Then it’s not a wasted journey, is it? I presume you all want to get out of the country in one piece - I can help with that.”
“Actually, we’ve sort of already got our exit sorted,” Clint’s not usually the type to look embarrassed but he’s just about pulling it off, “SHIELD and everything, you know. Which leaves you and-”
“Me,” Quinn smirks, “I was just going to, you know, leave the country the normal way now my business is sorted but I’m perfectly happy to buddy up with you and leave together - security in numbers and all that.”
It’s a flimsy reason to travel together - especially when it’d actually probably be safer separately - but up until now Eliot hasn’t really been in a position where he’s had time to actually try and get to know Quinn properly and, yeah, he’s curious. He nods at Quinn and ignores the confused look that Clint - who knows him well enough to know agreeing to this is out of character - gives him.
“How’s his shoulder doing?” Leaning back against the wall, Eliot wonders how long they have before someone else discovers their location.
Clint pulls back, “It’s done.”
“Then we should go.” The woman called Natasha stands up and starts walking to the door without ceremony, professional and efficient; qualities that Eliot respects.
“Yeah,” Clint looks a little reluctant, “Are you sure you two will be okay?”
“Yeah, we’ll be fine - you owe me one, though.”
“Think I owe you more than one.”
Eliot laughs and waits until Clint and Natasha have left the room before turning to Quinn, “It’s a small world, huh?”
“That it is,” pushing himself up off the floor, Quinn grins at him, “good to see you, Spencer.”
“Is it?”
“Sure, fun things usually happen when you’re around.”
“Fun things? Like having your ribs broken and being forced to hang around with Chaos?”
“Exactly. Come on, we should get out of Budapest.”
Eliot’s inclined to agree - they can discuss less important things later, when they’re on a plane back to the States. He has to admit, though, he’s very interested to know why Quinn enjoys his company so much.
~~
The next time Eliot sees Clint, they’re at a bar near Leverage HQ. Eliot’s at a table, Quinn sitting opposite him, their feet touching. Eliot’s listening to Quinn talk about the apartment he’s seen and how the rent is reasonable and how Quinn won’t always be in it because he’ll have work but how it’ll be the most permanent place of residence he’s had in years. Eliot’s pretty sure he’ll spend a lot of time in Quinn’s apartment, too.
He glances up as he feels the draught that means the door has opened and sees Clint walk inside, with Natasha and a man Eliot vaguely recognises from his past dealings with SHIELD. Clint catches sight of them almost immediately as Quinn talks on, oblivious. Clint’s eyes widen slightly and Eliot just nods, smiles at him, and returns his attention to Quinn.
Quinn’s just as much of a regular in this place as Eliot is now, but Clint isn’t so they don’t talk that night, not somewhere so public. Instead, Eliot and Quinn carry on with their date while Clint gets on with whatever he’s doing. As Eliot and Quinn are leaving, though, Eliot feels eyes following him and glances back over his shoulder to grin at Clint. Eliot’s still not exactly sure what happened in Budapest, but he’s really glad he was there to witness it.