Queliot

Real

Summary: The writers have pity on our souls and Julia and Margo are able to bottle the monsters. Eliot wakes up, but is traumatized by the happy place. Only Quentin can convince him what's real. A loose part two to chapter one, Happy Place!

There were peculiar things about the monster, things that made him look different than Quentin remembered Eliot too. His eyes were always red and puffy, his face slick and wet. For months Quentin chose to look past it, even though imagining him as Eliot hurt more.

As the glittering dust poured out from his mouth and into the bottles, Quentin saw all the things he could never quite put his finger on melt away.His lips became plump and pink, his glazed over eyes started to take on new life. Suddenly aware of his posture, his own frustrating stature.

He had also promptly passed out. Sorrow and Sorrow still embedded in his chest. Margo quickly performed a healing spell, it was unnecessarily complicated and Quentin worried it would use up all the ambient, which it did, but the spell still worked anyhow. Quentin and Penny attempted to prop him up so they could travel back to the apartment. Quentin only fell over once, and he felt so bad he nearly cried.

Eliot slept for 17 hours, Margo claimed she had never seen him pull of more than 4 in one go, so perhaps this was a good thing. Quentin could tell she was trying to convince herself as much as everyone else.

Quentin held his hand.

It occurred to him that no one else had known about what happened on the quest, or a couple of times after. The only ones with some idea were Julia and Margo, and even then it was just speculation. He knew he should have probably explained to them, to Margo at least, after all she was right next to him the whole time. But it felt like Eliot's story to tell as much as his own, the fact he would get up to tell it was the kind of hope Quentin held onto.

"Bambi?"

Margo crashed. All she had been holding in over the months, even an utterance of his name. The letters garbled in her mouth like unruly prisoners bustling for a chance at escape.

"Eliot!"

Quentin was silent, slack-jawed and stupid. He pawed at Eliot's chest, uncertain of the exact words to say. Eliot had always known what to say.

"Q?"

"Yeah El, Im here."

"You are, you are." Over and over like a mantra.

"Yeah I'm here, I'm always gonna be here El."

Eliot suddenly jolted awake, his eyes scarce and frantic.

"I'm here I'm here!" He said it like a twisted nursery rhyme.

"Eliot what's wrong!" Margo exclaimed.

He couldn't seem to get his sentences straight.

"Your not here, you always say you here! I want to leave! I want to leave the happy place!"

"Eliot we got the monster out of you. This is real life!"

He circled the room, stalking them.

"I know better, your not real!" he taunted.

Margo approached him slowly. "Eliot, sweetie. I Know your scared, but it's me. It's your Bambi."

"I can make you go away, I can make you go away!"

He was closing his eyes tightly again and again. Every time he opened then he looked genuinely surprised to still see them standing there.

"Eliot." Quentin choked. "It's all okay now."

Quentin could hear Alice preparing a defense spell under her breath.

"I'm real Eliot. All of its real. Peaches and plums, you told me that!"

"No! That doesn't make you real. It's just my mind it's making all this up." He was now a pitiful pile on the floor, Quentin crawled up next to him.

"I'll tell you stuff you've never heard okay? Will you believe I'm real? Will you believe this is all real?"

Eliot didn't say anything, but he leaned into Quentins chest, clawing for meaning in it.

"My Dad died, while you were away."

Eliot was still twitching, grabbing his hair in clumps.

"No one came to his funeral, not even me. I couldn't forgive myself over it, cause I caused it. I brought magic back, I brought back his cancer. Things break around me Eliot. So I started to break things on purpose. I hurt people, I haven't said a word to my Mom and I trashed his entire fucking apartment. But I'm not the reason no one came.

He never loved anyone Eliot. Even my Mom, and even if he did he fell out of it. She said he was too boring for her anyhow. Like it or not I don't think we stand a risk of that happening but, I know I'm not going to be like him because, I found love."

Eliot looked up at him before darting his eyes away, He kept poking at Quentin's arms and chest. Just to make sure they were there.

"I brought Alice back from being a niffin because I loved her. I didn't think I could manage any more. It took everything I had to tell you I was falling for you after that."

The room seemed to crackle as the revelation broke. He could hear Alice. It broke his heart to hear how hurt she was, because he remembered what she had told him, that she was the best thing that ever happened to her. But Quentin had hurt her so bad he wasn't sure he could ever trust himself with something so reckless again.

But Eliot was just as reckless, if not even moreso. He still fell in love.

"And when you said no it fucking broke me El. Because I still love you, and I'm still going to do everything I can to protect you.."

Quentin started to cry, holding onto an Eliot that seemed to made made of mirrors, all the indecision, trauma, and regret shone across Eliot's face as his own reflection. Quentin hated how much it all hurt.

"It hurt so bad to protect you El. But every time I thought about giving up you wouldn't let me. Because I knew you would never leave me alone, I-."

He couldn't even finish his sentence, whatever perfect or painful thing he was going to say next. Eliot kissed him.

Eliot had never been the first one to kiss. He had never believed if he had the choice Quentin would chose to kiss him but he had, again and again. Quentin was always scared Eliot would never choose to kiss him back.

It all melted away just then. The fact they were just a tangled mess on the floor, that their friends could help but stare agape. Margo had lost patience,and was once again returned to Eliot's side.

"I love you, I swear I'll never leave you alone again Q."

Quentin buried his head in his chest as the rest of their friends began to join them. Eliot was still skittish, adjusting to his own autonomy. But he was there, solid mass. Proof of concept.

Eliot started spurting out incoherent apologies, they all sounded rehearsed, but many of the words ended up in the wrong order. Eliot seemed objectively aware of his own tongue. 

The thought of each other had sustained them. Now they didn't need it. Quentin had to keep reminding Eliot that they didn't. Now they just had each other, and that was much simpler.

"I'm so glad I found you."

Okay so this is messy and fluffy and doesn't portay the complexities of the relationship AT ALL but I'm leaving for a missions trip to build houses for those who lost theirs in the tsunami and I wont be able to write!(or witness the next epoisode, my fangirl heart mourns) and yes we are all fully aware of the irony Im refrencing Jesus on a gay fanfic. Come at me WBC. Please tell me what y'all think!(Or better ideas, I kept racking my brain but with all the ambient shit my options for Q's grand gesture seemed limited lol) Bye!!