keeneyes | Asher + Elijah = why are you like that?

Elijah was really being far too dramatic about this. Asher didn't want to drug the other man until they crossed a boarder but it was looking more and more like he'd have to. That'd be difficult. Elijah was not a small man, moving him without him walking would be a pain in the ass.

Which was heartbreaking, really. Under other circumstances, violent energy Elijah was a sight to behold which Asher found very appealing, but right then he couldn't even appreciate it. The things he did and sacrifices he made, he was such a martyr.

"Not happening," Asher replied, turning back to the tablet and his work as he went about forging documents for Elijah. He had a few pre-filled out ones that hadn't been caught yet, at least a couple could work. Only one of his own stash of identifications had ever been found, he'd been keeping up on that as much as he could. Rob, well...

Robert wouldn't be an issue for much longer. Not with the couple messages Asher sent out. Poor stupid dear Robert, if only you'd just fucked your feelings out you'd probably be living the good life.

"Sit down, Elijah, stop being so dramatic. You've had no trouble trusting me before now, why is that suddenly changed?"

Asher obviously didn't appreciate the seriousness of the situation at all. He was still playing, always playing, not seeing how there were so many ways this could be the worst thing that happened to either one of them. The Ugly could return any moment now and then everything would go south from there.

Elijah sighed again, resting his hands on the window frame and leaned against it. Sun was casting its last rays of light over the top of the buildings and drawing him a long shadow on the floor. Usually Elijah was calm and collected, smooth in his G-man suit. Right now he was agitated, full of regrets and wrinkles. His suit jacket somewhere on the floor, his sleeves wrapped up to his elbows and blood spattered across his front.

"Before you weren't riding with an escaped con who just threatened to kill me, Ash. It's not very complicated at all. It's you, not me."

And still, he somehow hadn't even started plotting out overpowering Asher. Why was that?

"No, before we were riding with your people who would just as soon break my jaw as follow due process," Asher shot back, anger boiling over as well before he could stop himself. That was what it had come down to, though, he figured. Elijah had no problem trusting Asher when surrounded by allies but when the tables were turned, suddenly the man was an island with no friends to be seen.

It stung, Ash was surprised to find out. He knew it shouldn't, lawmen were all the same at their core, but he'd liked to believe they had some kind of bond build up beyond that.

There wasn't much time to dwell on the sudden upsetting feelings, though. As the saying goes, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Asher's new phone buzzed with a message and he flipped it open, his expression growing dark. He'd spent too much time focusing on Elijah when he should have been focusing on the plan. Robert would be back soon.

"Look, I don't have the time to argue this with you. Get in the hall closet - take your beer or a book and a flashlight or something but stay quiet and don't come out until I come and get you."

Elijah frowned as he turned to look at Asher. There was obvious hurt and anger in his tone, emotions that Elijah wasn't used to hearing from the conman at all. Usually he was playful and easy going, teasing, never that serious.

Somehow Elijah had hit a nerve.

"Ash..." he started when the phone buzzed and they both went quiet while Asher read the message. Obviously it wasn't good news. Elijah wasn't sure what to make of that.

Instead of trying to figure it out, he strode back to the table and took a seat on it, facing Asher. "What are you planning? Tell me. We can still turn back and I'll explain to the bureau, you'll still get your freedom at the end of your contract."

Oh, sure, that got Elijah sitting down and being compliant, something that would have been helpful thirty minutes ago. Asher didn't even attempt to hide his frustration with the other man, standing and setting the tablet aside for the time being.

"Are you familiar with the phrase 'plausible deniability', Elijah?"

"Of course I am," Elijah said with a frustrated tone of voice as he followed Asher to his feet.

He reached over to grab Asher's shoulder to turn him towards himself. "Let me help you. This doesn't have to be the end. Give me the gun and I'll take Rob into custody when he returns. I'll make sure they know you assisted me in the arrest."

It was clear the diplomacy thing wasn't working. Fine, he would have to try another way. Schooling his expression, he sighed and nodded,

"You want to help? Fine. Just sit back down and give me a minute, okay?"

It was time for Plan B. Which did not actually involve giving Elijah the gun.

Frustrating as it was, it was time for Elijah to show some trust as well. He knew he had gotten through to Asher somehow, maybe a little bit. If he would push now, he would just ruin it all together.

Hopeful, he nodded and let that hand drag down from Asher's shoulder, all the way down to his wrist, which he held for a moment in a warm hand before letting it go.

Then he sat down. "A minute," he said softly. As if it would be just a minute. It never was. But he was trying to give Asher a chance to do what he was about to do.

He had indeed gotten through to Asher, but not in the way he intended.

Squeezing Elijah's hand for the brief moment it was in his own, Asher absconded to the kitchen for the minute he was given, pouring them both a glass with whiskey. Not enough to get drunk, just enough to take the edge off of a very difficult decision.

Or at least that's what it looked like. That Asher also fetched one of the many tranquelizers that the safehouse had and dumped it in Elijah's glass as well as pocketing a syringe of it in case Elijah decided to not drink, well. It was for the best. He didn't want Elijah hurt, and the man was too good hearted and honorable, he was predictibly unpredictable, and Asher couldn't trust the man to act in his own best interests. A subdued Elijah couldn't get shot straight through his noble intentions.

The troubled look on Asher's face was sincere as he brought the glasses out, even if it wasn't because of what he was pretending it was. Placing one in front of Elijah, he took a drink of his own glass right away before placing it on the coffee table.

"So. Dear Robert. Your moles in the various organizations don't know everything. Let's just say that dear Robert has rather run low on a lot of his good will credit to some very nasty people and run out entirely with others."

Elijah felt as if he had gotten through to Asher, truly. This was why he didn't even think about the possibility of Asher drugging him. He took the offered whiskey without even thinking and actually downed it in one go.

It burned right and well down his throat, relaxing him in all the ways that he had wanted.

He put the glass down, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and listened to Asher, watching him quietly as he explained the situation.

The problem was that it was really hard to concentrate. His eyes kept getting heavier and heavier. He wanted to say something about Robert. Warn Asher because that made a dangerous man if he was so driven into corner, but it seemed like so much trouble to open his mouth and actually speak.

"Asher," he finally managed when it became clear that this wasn't natural at all. "What did you gave me?"

Then he was trying to stand up, as if that would make things any better. It was an instinct. Get away! Right now!

Asher had downed the rest of his whiskey while he waited for Elijah's to set in, relieved he wasn't going to have to stab the man in the neck with a syringe. Some things it was hard to bounce a friendship back from.

"Sit down, Elijah," Asher said, moving to pull the other man back to lay down on the couch so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. Asher would have felt terrible of Elijah cracked his skull open on the coffee table.

Both for the loss that would face Elijah's son, and just sincerely missing the man.

"Relax into it - you'll be facing a hangover when it wears off either way but if you fight it, it's going to be that much worse. Ideally you'll have a peaceful little nap for a couple hours, worse case scenario you doze off and are barely conscious but still can't get in the way. I know it can be hard to believe Elijah but I know what I'm doing and as long as you don't screw this up we both walk away from this safe and sound and better off than we started, savvy?"

"Asher," Elijah growled, his eyes flashing dangerously as he was easily pulled down to the couch like a little child, manoeuvred by Asher like if he were nothing but a rag doll.

His mind was going black, the edges of his vision blackening and slipping away as his eyes closed against his will.

He did struggle, stayed barely awake even as his body refused to comply with his wishes to get up and do something.

"This is somehng... ur fckng... sher..." The last attempt to form words didn't go quite as well as he thought it would and soon he would be just laying down on the cushions, breathing heavily, while his sleepy mind was swirling in panic that seemed to be somewhere far, far away.

"I'm going to assume that was a 'you are terribly correct Asher and thank you for saving me from myself, you're awful clever'," Asher said, still half crouched over Elijah after laying him onto the couch. When no snarky reply was forthcoming, nor any threat, he waved his hand in front of Elijah's face.

Well. If not unconscious then unresponsive, which was good enough, though he hoped unconsciousness for Elijah's sake.

Right on time, there was the sound of heavy boots coming down the hallway. Asher popped open the top buttons on his shirt. Time to get this show on the road, the countdown clock was on as soon as Elijah and him went off the radar and he did want to have a little fun and take care of an annoying loose thread before going back into that playpen of the FBI.

Asher ended up having to use the syringe after all to put Eli back under twice more before he could get squirrely. The first time they were in the back seat of an SUV like the BAU had, skin around Asher's right eye turning that sickly yellow that foretold a black eye on the horizon, blood from a nasty cut on his lip and more bruising around his mouth as well, if fainter. Eli was buckled in next to Asher who made soothing sounds as soon as the other man began to stir. There was only the faintest pinprick when the syringe went in, not even enough time for the hangover to begin.

The voice from the front seat asked something to indistinct to make out, while Asher calmly replied "No, no problems," before everything went dark again.

The second time he was strapped in a seat again, this one much more luxurious. First class, the faint white noise of an engine roar from outside of the airplane cabin. Nothing was in English. Asher was in the seat next to him, dark mirrored sunglasses hiding the black eye, though there was little to be done about the cut on his mouth. Not profusely bleeding anymore, it didn't seem bad enough to warrant stitches which was what mattered.

Neither of them were wearing the same clothing as before, Asher's style more reflecting the understated luxury he was known for before he got arrested, Elijah dressed similarly. He signed when he saw Elijah stirring, checking a watch on his wrist.

"Damn high altitudes messing with these things. I'd really rather not ... maybe just enough to get you back to the ground agian," was all he said before, again, things went dark.

The third wake was the final one, voices chatting amiably if quietly around Elijah as the world came back into focus. More understated luxury, this time a hotel lobby, with Elijah being pushed on a wheelchair through it towards the elevator where an Asian woman waited as an attendant. Asher was the one pushing him as the mirrored doors showed, still in the sunglasses and the clothing that fit well enough to be tailored to him.

Seeing Elijah stirring again he quickly leaned down to murmur to the other man.

"Nobody here speaks English well enough to understand you - they think you're my companion who had too much to drink on the plane. They'll not take kindly to finding out you're law, either."

After that he straightened, assuring the attendant that his companion was going to be just fine, you know liquor and altitude and all. After another comment that got her trying to stifle a giggle he directed her fe their floor - the top one please. All in Japanese. He had decided on Tokyo after all.

Elijah came about finally. It took what seemed like forever to gain the control of first one finger, then the whole hand and finally his arm. He felt heavy and difficult, like everything was awkward in a way that was impossible to even describe.

His mouth tasted like a roadkill. He felt like a roadkill.

He would make a roadkill out of Asher.

In all the confusion, struggle and bright colours that didn't mean anything to him, he knew two things, Asher was behind this all and that he was mildly surprised to be alive.

He took his time while coming about. It didn't seem there was anything immediately threatening around his near vicinity. He needed his wits about him while dealing with Asher.

He rolled his eyes merely as Asher rolled him into the elevator and then to a hallway, making the young woman with him giggle and look at him like he was some kind of a rockstar. Ridiculous.

Once the door closed between them and the woman, though, Elijah was on his feet, staggering, his expression near murderous as he approached Asher. His body felt still heavy and it wanted to just slump down back to the chair but he forced his limbs to move so he could grab Asher's shirt front and slam him against the door.

"What did you do?" he asked, or rather, he thought he asked, because barely a whisper came out of his throat, raw and dry.

Asher had expected that. Well, he had expected Elijah to not be happy when he came out of it enough to control his body, but he thought he'd have a little time to settle in and maybe calm the man down first. So Asher was mildly surprised when he ended up with his back slammed against the wall, sunglasses clattering to the ground and abhorrantly dark black eye now apparent.

"... wow, you shook that off much quicker than I thought," Asher remarked first, blinking owlishly ar Elijah, hands raising to show he held nothing in them. "Still, you'll probably not want to strain yourself, darling. Drink some water, maybe get a shower or take a nap under your own volition?"

"Asher," Elijah growled, his voice coming back to him after a few good swallows. He still sounded hoarse, like a man whose throat had been dry for weeks in a desert.

It was a warning. He needed to know what had happened. And he needed to know right now.

His hand went up from Asher's front to his jaw, tilting his face up to see that bruise properly. Something dark and dangerous curled in the pits of his stomach.

"Where's Rob?"

Asher did flinch when Elijah took hold of his face, but to be fair the man had just slammed him back against the door and not in a sexy way. When all he did was examine the still painful bruise on his face, however, and demand to know where the assumed culprit was... Asher was briefly left speechless.

Ash was good at people. Really good. Good enough that sometimes he figured things out even before the geniuses in the BAU's thinktank because unlike them he also had the boots on the ground expirience of knowing how and why people who commited awful deeds did what they did. No matter how good, there would always be a difference between being able to think like a criminal and actually being one.

Sometimes though Elijah could still surprise him.

"Which part?" He asked, not quite as flippant as he was originally going to go for.

Elijah's touch wasn't rough surprisingly, it was rather gentle as he tilted Asher's face and watched light play on the bruises. Finally he brushed his thumb down to press it onto Asher's lower lip to get him to open his mouth. When someone took that much hit it was possible he also had some teeth missing or had broken something else. Asher couldn't have seen a doctor.

"Did he hurt you elsewhere?" he asked, seemingly not bothered by the idea that Rob was in pieces somewhere.

He would get to the bottom of that. But first things first.

Elijah leaned his other hand to the wall behind Asher to give himself a bit of support as he looked down along the length of Asher's body.

"Did you kill him?" Elijah realised that he might have been tempted to get the job done himself if Asher hadn't taken care of it already.

Ash's mouth opened for Elijah's touch, showing that while one tooth right by the split lip had a new crack in it that wasn't there before, it didn't look in danger of actually breaking any time soon and all other teeth were present and accounted for. Ash leaned his weight against the wall, finally relaxing to the idea that Elijah was probably not going to give him fresh bruises to worry about.

It still was distracting - checking for injuries was one thing, touching the other man like he was ready to make use of the hotel bed was another. Especially with the way he looked Asher over. He had a nasty bruise over his kidneys as well, but the clothing hid that.

"Please, do I look like a killer?" Asher asked first, all light hearted scandal before he stopped and sighed. "No, I didn't. Clean hands."

Apparently Asher wasn't going to tell him. Elijah just would have to check.

He let his hand fall from Asher's jaw to his shoulder and down to his chest, patting him down firmly enough that he would notice if even a hair twitched on Asher's head at any pain the contact would spring. When he got to that bruised area, his eyes narrowed and he was quick to yank up the hem of Asher's shirt to see what was what.

"Stop trying to dodge and tell me what you did." And don't lie. Elijah could tell, he was trained to pick up all the signs and he knew Asher by now. Better than well in fact. "Did he hurt you? Or was it someone else?"

It didn't take much or really any of Elijah's keen deductive skills to find the last injury, not with the way Ash made a sound like a wounded animal when it was pressed down on in spite of bracing himself for that pain. Looking at how bad it was, it was lucky he walked away without something cracked or internal bleeding.

Just one of many times Lady Luck had Asher's back. The only woman who never left him, as he sometimes said. Pinned between Elijah and the wall, he had few options if he didn't want to turn it into a physical altercation which he was clearly woefully unprepared for. Normally he'd find it pleasing to be manhandled by the fed, but normal had abandoned them days ago.

"Dear Robert came back as I was seeing you set on the couch and I'm afraid he took the situation the wrong way and got a little jealous," Ash explained, as if he hadn't been intending on that all along when it was clear Elijah wouldn't let himself be out of sight out of mind. "It looks worse than it is, he only got a couple hits in before those nasty people I mentioned before somehow found out where he was hiding out and arrived. They rather like me so the situation they walked in on was rather the final nail in the proverbial coffin for dear Robert. What they did with what was left, I've no idea, but they are very good at making people vanish."

Elijah's touch turned gentle the moment Asher made a sound like that. He pulled the man's shirt up to look at the bruising on his skin, assessing the level of his injuries quietly. Nothing seemed broken but the bruising was obviously deep and painful. It would heal on its own but he still decided to keep a watchful eye on Asher in case of any internal bleeding. Honestly, though, Elijah didn't know how long ago Asher had gotten these bruises.

They were in Japan apparently and just the flight here took incredibly long, not to mention the transitions and everything Asher had had to do to get them over the border. He had probably been asleep for at least a day and a half if not more.

It seemed like Rob wasn't going to be a problem anymore. But it still galled Elijah that he had laid his hands on Asher.

His hand rose to cup Asher's cheek again, this time pulling his chin up so Elijah could look into his eyes. "Don't ever do something like that again." You could have been killed.

The time it took for Elijah to bring his hand and attention back up to Ash's face allowed him to get his expression under control again. Mildly regretful, but only mildly.

"It looks worse than it is, Elijah. You don't get where I am in life without learning how to take a few hits."

"You're well aware that you did something ridiculous, wrong and not to mention dangerous," Elijah ticked them off with his fingers. "You drugged me, Ash."

He was pissed off about that, no doubt about it. But on his priority list injuries came first and finding out details about their situation that could be potentially coming back to bite their asses.

"Who exactly did you contact about Rob?"

With the same mildly regretful expression, Ash merely shrugged at the accusation he had drugged Eli. As far as he was concerned that was on both of them. Him for doing it, of course, but also Elijah for putting him in the position to need to.

"No one on your radar, and God willing no one whoever will be," Ash answered. "You'll have to forgive me for not wanting to give up every secret but I'd rather not end up like dear Robert. Trust me when I say they aren't your problem and they’re not why we’re here. Not exactly anyway."

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