Impractical Jokers One Shots

Got a Light? Q

Brian felt his forehead starting to sweat, "Guys, it's hot as balls out here, can we hurry this up?"

He heard Joe snickering over his earpiece, "We can't leave until you get a lighter pal! Pick someone quick or we'll do it for you."

Glaring over at the bushes where his friends were hiding with the rest of the crew, Brian started scanning the park for someone who looked approachable enough that he could pull this off. His search stopped when he saw a woman that made his knees go weak. He tried to avert his gaze but soon realized his folly when he heard the sadistic laughter of his buddies.

"Ahh I think I see the perfect candidate Q," it was clear by the tone of Murr's voice that he was smirking, "I doubt you missed her big guy, the beautiful H/C haired girl over there, leaning on the fountain and looking at her phone. That's your target." The woman in question lifted her gaze, glancing around the park for a second, as if she knew they were talking about her.

Blood rushed to Brian's cheeks as the woman turned her head in his direction. He averted his eyes and whispered, "Murr, come on, pick someone else. Please, dude, I'm begging you."

This time Joe responded, "No way Jose, you're not getting out of this that easy. It's her or you lose. And, let me remind everyone, if Q loses this challenge he'll be the big loser today. And I think I have a great idea for a punishment."

Brian racked his brain for some excuse, any reason he could possibly find to get him out of this without failing the task. He knew his friends would only give him something worse to do if he refused this. Sighing, he grumbled, "Alright, fuck you guys."

Ignoring the cheers, he began walking in the direction of the woman, desperately trying to stay calm and avoid coming off as a total creep. He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to get it perfectly mussed, to make the best possible impression. Before he took her lighter of course. He figured any shot with her would be ruined after that. Not that he wanted a shot with her, he was getting a little ahead of himself. She was just probably a decent person and he didn't really want to fuck with her. Even with the explanation of it being a part of a show, some people just didn't react well to their antics. Usually Brian didn't care much about that though, finding it relatively easy to brush off the bad interactions and keep the humor alive. But he found himself worrying as he approached this girl. Before he knew it he was only a few steps away from her. He gave himself a mental slap in the face and tried to ignore the taunts in his headset. Clearing his throat to get her attention, he opened his mouth to speak but found he couldn't when she glanced up at him with the most enthralling E/C eyes he'd ever seen in his life. He gasped like a fish, feeling his face heat up again. She quirked an eyebrow at him and brought her phone down out of her line of sight, "Um, hi, can I help you?"

Brian felt a haze in his mind as he nodded numbly, unsure if his mouth had closed completely or not. He thought he noticed the ghost of a smile on her lips as she spoke and now he couldn't help but stare at them, like an astronomer waiting for a rare celestial moment; spending a lifetime longing for just another glimpse of the nebulous sight, and relishing it every time it painted its way across the night sky, a reminder of the beauty that can always be found in the darkness, waiting. Her voice was so sweet, so smooth, deep and mellow but kind and almost musical, it felt like something he could listen to for hours. Days. The rest of his life maybe. He wished the voice in his head sounded like that, his inner critic, as his therapist called it. Maybe the words wouldn't sting so much if they sounded so sweet. Or maybe it would hurt more, to hear them as if they were coming from her soft lips, as if she saw through him, just as he feared everyone did. As if she knew every single mistake he'd made, every regret he had, every flaw that he saw in himself. He frowned slightly, yeah, never mind. He didn't want his inner critic to sound like her. A sharp burst of Sal's wheezing laughter startled him back to reality and Brian lamented his own stupidity as he felt his face heating up again. He pulled himself together as quickly as he could, he was Brian fucking Quinn, he wasn't so easily flustered. Not even by a pair of beautiful E/C eyes and soft H/C hair and a voice he wanted to wake up to in the mornings. Shaking his head and throwing on his signature charming smile, Brian tried to keep his voice steady, "Sorry about that, doll," He stumbled when she quirked her brow again at the pet name, "Uh... I was just wondering if I could uh bum a light?"