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Quentin woke up early that morning to check the transit schedule and plot every point of the day. He knew Eliot had an idea of the city since he’d been there a few times but wasn’t sure how often Eliot ever left Brakebills let alone took the subway.
Judging by the pristine look of everything Eliot owned, Quentin figures it was safe to assume a subway was not much in Eliot’s modes of travel.
Quentin took out his small notepad and made scribbles.
“Take the E…. 3…. yeah, 3 stops. Transfer to..” he paused and looked at his transit map.
“...yeah… ummmm… ok yes...D.”
He continued to mutter to himself as he wrote out everything. In reality once they got to the station it would become instinct, but today had to be perfect and he didn’t want to miss anything.
“Ok, lunch there… oh, could go to Midtown, the new Batman: Forever is out, then ….”
He debated the recent list entry.
“Fuck would Eliot even want to go there?” He thought to himself before he heard a few soft footsteps behind him.
“Morning Q.” Eliot put his hands on Quentin’s shoulders and did that cute thing where he rested his chin on Quentin’s head. “Whatcha got going here?” He looked down at Quentin’s scribbled notes.
“Oh, umm just planning our day.” Quentin let out quietly.
“Well, today's plans are all you. I planned last week.” Eliot smiled at Quentin and let out a small laugh.
“Eliot, last week we had takeout and watched reality TV.”
“Yes, and you’re welcome. Margo doesn’t even know about my odd love of chicken wings. She’s caught me watching trash tv before so nothing’s news there.” He rolled his eyes and went back to making his cup of coffee.
“Jesus even bitching about chicken wings he’s hot.” Quentin caught his thought as he felt his face warm, knowing he was blushing enough for anyone to notice.
The door burst open and in walked, or rather clamored, Margo.
“Have you two nerds planned where you’re going yet?”
Quentin looked down at his notes.
“Almost done.”
“Coffee?” Eliot called from the kitchen.
“I got the bagels.” Margo called back. “You owe me Coldwater, train to Long Island for bagels? Really?”
“Yes, it all has to be perfect including breakfast.”
Quentin walked over and began unpacking the bag of still slightly warm, bagels. He spread them out on a silver tray he found in the kitchen.
“Jesus Q…” she rolled her eyes before grabbing her bagel of choice.
Quentin sat down and scribbled more notes.
“Shit, has Eliot seen Times Square? I mean he has to have seen it. Right?” He thought to himself. “Would he even want to? Tourists and all that?” He noted it with a question mark.
Eliot made his way out, flawlessly carrying three cups of coffee.
“Oh, bagels, how quaint.” Eliot smiles before choosing the obnoxious rainbow colored one.
They sat and ate their breakfast and made small talk. Quentin was hoping he could weasel some details out of Eliot.
“Hey El, you love been to the city right?” Quentin took another bite so he wouldn’t ramble too much.
“Well, yeah.” Eliot tried to seem calm about the whole thing, he had been a few times but not like he was a native or anything and admittedly the first time he went he had the ‘small town in a big city’ feeling a bit, but of course he’d never let anyone know.
“Central Park zoo?”
“No, heard about it just never been.” Eliot tried to pass it off.
“Well, the Bronx zoo is better but Central isn’t bad, still fun, maybe a different time.” He kept that idea for later.
“Have you seen everything?”
“Ugh, I need more cream cheese.” Margo slightly huffed and made her way to the kitchen.
Eliot leaned over to Quentin. “Ok, so I’ve seen parts of the city but not all of it, but whatever you want to do Q, today is your pick.” Eliot smiled and kissed Quentin on the cheek.
Quentin looked down at his notepad and scribbled out the question mark next to his Times Square note.
They all finished their breakfast and Margo made her way to the living room to dive into her pile of magazines.
“You boys have fun, my ass is staying planted right here.” She opened a rather thick fashion issue and got settled in.
“I’ll go get dressed and we can head out.” Eliot smiled as he made his way upstairs.
“God I hope he likes this.” Quentin muttered to himself as he checked his notes and the transit maps one last time.
“Ok, Q, whisk me away.” Eliot laughed as he grabbed his wallet off the table.
“Ok, first stop Grand Central.” Quentin smiled.
They stepped outside and found Penny on the porch.
“Hey Penny.” Quentin smiled and looked at Eliot.
“Ok one trip to Grand Central then you nerds are on your own.”
“Deal.”
“How’d you manage that Q?”
“He owes me, big time.” Penny glared at Quentin not wanting to give away that Quentin gave him a tip on a good diner to take Kady on a date.
Within a few minutes they arrived at Grand Central.
“Bye nerds.” With that Penny was gone.
“God, I hate when he travels to a bathroom.”
“Well, we can’t be that obvious.” Quentin shrugs. “Ok, now to the E.” Quentin smiles and hands Eliot a small card.
Quentin takes Eliot’s hand and they headed out towards and elevator that took them underground. They headed down a hallway, went through turnstiles and finally made their way to the train.
Eliot watched as Quentin casually sat there reading his Fillory book. Eliot looked around at all the people and counted stops as they came. He wasn’t anxious like he thought he might be he was oddly at ease and just enjoying everything and taking it all in.
After a few stops, as if by instinct, Quentin out his book back in his bag and slowly stood up. The train stopped and Quentin took Eliot’s hand and smiled.
“This is us.” He smiled as he led Eliot off the train.
Quentin led Eliot over to some stairs and they walked up and out another set of turnstiles, down a bit of a hallway and up some more stairs before emerging out onto the sidewalk.
Quentin took a quick look around.
“Ok, this way.” Quentin started walking and Eliot followed. They walked a few blocks then stopped on the corner to cross the street to head the other direction.
After a few more blocks Quentin stopped.
“Ok what’s this?” Eliot asked.
“Lunch.” Quentin smiled and opened the door.
They both walked inside. Eliot took a look around.
“Hotdogs?”
“They’re good El, I promise.”
Quentin went to the counter and ordered. Eliot stood behind him gazing up at the menu.
“Ok…. I’ll take two dogs, just ketchup, loaded cheese fries and a large coke.” Eliot ordered as if he’d been to this place a thousand times.
He grabbed his tray and headed to the table where Quentin was waiting for him.
“Dang El.” Quentin was slightly shocked to see the loaded tray of his friend.
“Ok… confession time. I sneak out of Brakebills sometimes. There’s one of these places about four blocks away and I’m just addicted to it. It’s a guilty pleasure really but come on…. cheese and bacon covered fries? Heaven.” Eliot smiled as he put a fork full of cheese covered fries into his mouth.
“You never cease to amaze me El.”
He smiled as he took a large bite of hotdog and Quentin couldn’t help but laugh.
They were close to finishing their meal.
“Ok, so after this, we can go see some sights.” Quentin smiled.
They finished and walked outside. They headed down the street and reached a corner a few blocks away.
Quentin smiled at Eliot and led him to the right. They went a few more blocks and Quentin stopped.
“Ok, El, turn around.”
Eliot gave him a strange look but slowly turned around.
“I present, Times Square…. well, from a distance but here it is!!”
He joined Eliot by his side as Eliot looked around at all the signs and buildings. He looked up and say a huge billboard for “Wicked” then looked over and saw a few different theaters with different shows running.
“Cool.” He tried you sound nonchalant about it but realistically couldn’t hide his excitement from Quentin.
“Ok Q this is pretty cool. Thank you.” He smiled as he wrapped his arm around Quentin’s shoulders.
“Ok, one other stop then we can head back to the cottage.” Quentin smiled.
“Sure. Where to?”
“Follow me.” Quentin smiled and started walking. He took Eliot’s hand and led him a few blocks away and they took a few turns.
At this point Eliot wasn’t paying much attention to the directions. He just followed Quentin.
After about twenty minutes of walking they reached their destination.
Quentin led Eliot up a stairway that was pretty narrow and pretty much a one way kind of deal.
They walked up and got to the second floor of a building. They walked in to shelves full of comic books and gaming books and even small figures.
“Welcome to Mid-Town comics, it’s kind of legendary.” Quentin smiled.
Eliot nodded and smiled and took a look around and followed Quentin.
Quentin made his way over to the back corner along the wall and began browsing. He picked up a few comics and continued to look.
Eliot glanced around and out of the corner of his eye saw a sign that said “doctor strange”. He took a quick look back at Quentin and saw he was elbow deep in Batman comics.
Eliot smiled and took a few steps over and tried to make it a casual move to check out the collection of Dr. Strange comics. He picked one up and it brought back memories of when he was a kid reading them. Some of the few good memories he had growing up.
Quentin turned around to see Eliot had wandered off. He made his choices in comics and headed off to find Eliot. He went to the other side of the first shelf and found Eliot sitting on the floor with three comics in his lap and reading a fourth.
“Eliot?”
Eliot just slowly looked up to see Quentin standing in front of him with a small load of comics.
“Well…” Eliot looked around.
“Oh my lord… I don’t think I could love you any more.” Quentin smiled and helped Eliot up.
Eliot picked up his small collection of comics and looked to put them back. Before he could find the correct spot for them Quentin grabbed the pile.
“My treat.” Quentin smiled. Quentin paid for the comics and they made their way back to the subway to head home.