Page 57 of Pistols and Plush Toys

“Wow,” Elliot said quietly. “That… really fucking sucks. I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well, so,” Xander waved the hand not playing with his necklace. “I know it’s not the same thing at all—Caleb never hurt me, but I—I get the shitty ex thing. At least mine fucked off when I told him to.”

Elliot was looking at Xander, so he saw when his eyes dipped over Elliot’s shoulder to where Gerard was sitting.

“I’m glad you have some people looking out for you,” Xander said with feeling. “And I’ll say it again, that I’m glad we reconnected. If you need me to go kick your ex-boyfriend’s ass, I totally will.”

That got a startled chuckle out of Elliot. Xander had been a band geek in high school and college, and while he wasn’t as slight as Elliot, he was not a large or intimidating figure.

“Have you ever even been in a fight?” Elliot laughed.

Xander grinned. “I mean, almost! This one time I was busking in the park and some drunk came over and grabbed a handful of cash out of my case. I had to threaten him with my bow to get it back. I mean, it wasn’t like I was going to hit him or anything, my bow is worth way more than the like, ten bucks he grabbed, but a lot of arm waving and loud words will generally make people listen to you. Or leave you alone.”

“Somebody tried to steal from you?” Elliot asked, eyes wide.

“Oh, uh—“ Xander flapped a hand. “I don’t think he really knew what he was doing? He was pretty wasted. But I can hold my own,” he declared, puffing up.

“Of course you can.” Elliot smiled. Of that he had no doubt. “But sorry, um, what’s busking?” Elliot wasn’t sure he’d ever heard the word before.

Xander lit up. “Oh! It’s like, um—okay, so, when you see people in parks sometimes playing music?

It’s called busking. You perform and people can tip you.

I make decent money in an afternoon, especially because I do requests and people seem to like that,” he said proudly.

“I started when I moved back in with my parents because I needed to do something out of the house so I wouldn’t lose my mind, and the money sure didn’t hurt.

Now I’m kind of a regular down by the Park Street fountain. ”

“Oh, cool!” Elliot said. “Still the violin, right?”

“Yeah.” Xander was beaming now. “Like, living at home really sucks, I won’t lie, but it got me started with busking, and I’ve met a lot of cool people.

I’ve even collaborated with some of them.

” Xander’s smile turned sort of sad. “I didn’t realize how much I missed playing.

It always annoyed Caleb, so I kind of fell out of practice while we were together. It’s been great to get back to it now.”

That made Elliot think of cooking, of the way he’d come back to it as well.

“I’m glad you’re playing again,” Elliot said. “I’ll have to come by and see you sometime.”

“Oh man! You totally should!” Xander said excitedly. “I can even do movie soundtrack stuff now. That’s the stuff that people tip a lot for. What was that movie you liked—Lone Winter Trail? If you come by, I could play you a song from it.”

Elliot stared at him. He’d talked to Xander about his favorite movie, but that had been literal years ago. “Yeah, Lone Winter Trail,” he said in awe. “How did you remember that?”

Xander beamed at him again and tapped his own head.

“Memory like an elephant. But yeah, it would be cool if you came by. Layla–you remember Layla?–she says there’s a couple videos of me on social media that blew up.

I’m not really on social media, but that’s pretty cool.

It’s nice to get to play for an audience and do something that I love.

” He shrugged. “It’s weird, you know? Like some things suck more now after everything with Caleb, but this part of it sucks way less. ”

“Yeah,” Elliot said, thinking about Mattia, about the ways in which his life had changed after him. “Yeah, I can relate.”

Their food came out not long after that, and they dug in.

Elliot had gotten himself a BLT, which he scarfed in record time.

He enjoyed his own cooking, but there was nothing quite like a cheap diner meal.

Xander seemed equally as famished, but with what he now knew, Elliot wondered if his friend was eating enough.

If Xander was putting all of his money toward debt, what was his food situation like?

Did his parents feed him at home? Or was that another way that they tried to control him?

Elliot didn’t know enough, but he couldn’t ask all of those questions right now. Their rekindled friendship was still too new. But as Xander demolished his burger and fries, Elliot wondered.

“Oh so hey, Nikolai, what does he do?” Xander asked in between bites of French fry.

“He owns his own jewelry business,” Elliot said. That was easy enough to talk about, at last. “Well, co-owns. Gerard is actually the other partner.”

Xander’s eyes flickered to behind Elliot again. “Oh really? That’s cool. Like online? Or is there a store in the city?”

“I think they do online, but they have stores here too. They own Elementals on Juliet Street and Gold N’ Lock on Broadchurch.

” Elliot purposely didn’t bring up Lucky Clover, because Xander might’ve seen the news coverage.

That might bring too much up that Elliot didn’t feel like he could talk about.

“Oh!” Xander said excitedly. “I’ve been in Elementals. They had some music themed necklaces a few years ago that I went and looked at. Nice stuff.”

Elliot’s own eyes dipped to the necklace Xander was fiddling with.

Xander chuckled as he finished the last fry in his basket. “No, not this. This one’s just silicone. That was back in the Caleb years anyway, so I’m glad I didn’t end up with one and the debt to follow. They were nice though. I remember.”

Elliot pushed his plate with the rest of his fries toward Xander. “Do you want the rest? I’m done with them.”

“Oh hey, thanks,” Xander said and started on the fries. Elliot had to hold his expression not to frown. Was Xander just extra hungry today? Or was he not getting enough food?

“Of course,” Elliot said. “And yeah. Nikolai and Gerard work with a lot of up-and-coming artists. It’s really cool.”

“That’s legit,” Xander said enthusiastically. “Well if he’s nice and helping you out, that’s great. I’m glad. You deserve to have more good people around you.”

“So do you,” Elliot told him.

Their waitress coasted by the table then, dropping a folded up receipt discreetly on the edge. Xander snapped it up before Elliot could.

“Are you busy after this?” Xander asked as he pulled out his wallet.

Elliot scowled at him. “No. But I was going to pay.”

“No way.” Xander shook his head. “I invited you out, I pay.”

“But–” Elliot started.

“Nope!” Xander waved a finger at him. “Just because you know I’m broke, doesn’t mean I don’t get to pay for stuff once in a while. It wouldn’t be fair, okay?”

Elliot understood. There was help and then there was pity.

“Okay,” Elliot said. “But I make the plans next time.”

“Sounds good,” Xander said easily. “But anyway, I was thinking—there's a music store a block down, and they have a record I reserved a while back that I need to grab. Do you want to come? We could also browse a little, hang out some more? They’ve got a ton of stuff. If you want!”

“Okay, yeah that sounds fun,” Elliot said with a smile. He was warmed at the fact that Xander wanted to spend more time with him.

“Do you have to like… inform your bodyguard?” Xander asked, nodding in Gerard’s direction as the waitress swung back by for Xander’s card.

“Um… I think he just follows us.” Although Elliot was guessing. He wasn’t quite sure how this was supposed to go.

Xander’s brows pulled together. “I mean, do you want him to just hang out with us? He doesn’t have to follow from a distance like he’s in a spy movie, does he?”

“I mean I—I guess he can come with us?” Gerard had seemingly had no issue joining him and Meredith. “But–I mean, don’t feel like we have to. He knows I’m here to hang out with you. I don’t want to impose on our time.”

Xander looked thoughtfully between Elliot and over his shoulder. “It’s cool,” he said. “I don’t mind. And this way I can give him the shovel talk!”

“Here you go, thank you,” the waitress said as she dropped back by Xander’s card and the final receipt. “I hope you two have a nice day!”

They both thanked her and then Elliot turned his attention back to Xander.

“What?” Elliot asked as Xander bent over the receipt to scribble his tip. “What shovel talk?”

“Alright!” Xander put the pen down and slid his card back into his wallet. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, but–” Elliot started, but Xander was up and out of the chair, striding straight for Gerard. Elliot followed quickly, catching Gerard’s brows going up in surprise as he finished signing his own check and looked up to see Xander standing right in front of him.

“Hi, I’m Xander. But you probably already knew that,” Xander held his hand out.

The edge of Gerard’s mouth quirked before he offered his own. “Gerard.”

They shook.

“Figured it would look less suspicious if you just went with us to the next place instead of shadowing us,” Xander said. “Because I don’t know about you, but if I saw some random guy-especially a guy who looks like you–following someone down the street, I’d be very concerned.”

“Xander,” Elliot hissed, feeling his cheeks flush.

“Someone who looks like me?” Gerard asked with a bigger smile, like all of this was very amusing.

Xander had a hand on his hip, “Uh yeah, you’re enormous,” He gestured with the other hand, “Did you not notice? I could climb you.”

Gerard was still seated, Xander technically standing over him, but it was very clear to anyone looking how big Gerard was.

“Could you now?” Gerard asked, voice lowering.

“Only if you asked nicely,” Xander said cheerfully. “Anyway, we’re going to the record store to hang out, so I guess you’re coming too.”