So I'm a dumbass and misread econocourt as 18 but I'll do a Economos x male reader too! 💖 Either 12 or if you'd like another number lemme know 😭🙏 kiss prompt 💋
no. 18 in encouragement
It starts out as a joke, a little gag to let off steam during major jobs.
Nothing serious.
What's a kiss here and there amongst colleagues, friends, who risked their lives everyday on missions after all?
"Good luck out there Slugger, give them hell!" John waved her off.
For encouragement, a peck on the cheek is given to Emilia, who is the work husband, Economos the work wife of course.
Nothing out of the ordinary for these two, nobody in Project Starfish even bats an eyelid, used to their antics by now.
Then suddenly things get serious, the mission goes every which way sideways and Rick Flag Jr. is killed by Peacemaker- on orders from Waller. Emilia isn't herself. She's not coping.
For the first time in all the years he's known her, John can tell that she's not okay.
So the kisses become more frequent, in private, still encouraging, platonic, they kid themselves that there's nothing underneath the surface.
It's easier that way.
One morning as Emilia is putting a pot of coffee on in the HQ break room, John wanders in and tries to give her a silly morning honey peck on the cheek, but she recoils.
"I can't do this anymore." Emilia left him in the waft of her sweet perfume, a haze that made him realise it had become too real for her.
Had it become to real for him? It's something John laments, but tries his best not to fixate one when he and Emilia are put on another long haul mission by Waller, this one to make up for their 'serious fucking blunders' Amanda's phrasing from the last job.
It's in Evergreen, Washington, wherever the hell that is, a mid-sized town, bordering on a city, and he hates it from the word go. Because Peacemaker is there, their job is to babysit him and John can tell that Emilia is holding on by a thread when the idiot in a shiny helmet tries to flirt with her.
He should be angry, but John is more bemused, he knows that Emilia has it handled, like always. She never does anything she doesn't want to, takes anything from anyone else, only the burdens she wants for whatever reason to carry.
All are her own. That's something he respects blindly, wishes he could emulate but knows he can't, so instead, John admires her. There's a moment shared between them, she's worried and staying back late, he's a nervous wreck, both unsure if the world won't truly end or not and a little kiss is given as encouragement, this time from her.
"You've got this one Tiger." She's right, now he does.
John finds Coverdale ranch and in the midst of their cheering, he thinks about kissing her back, properly this time. But Emilia is always one step ahead, her eyes spelling out that it's a bad idea. She's not ready to move on yet from Rick and John doesn't want her to.
For the longest time that's enough, project butterfly goes without a hitch, kinda.
The world is saved, more or less. John is a born pessimist, so he really can't admit it's totally saved. He's also grumpy with a leg injury, the one time he tries any sort of cardio in the last twenty years and he gets a spiked fence pole straight through the calf. No more running, ever again, he resolves.
But worse for wear is Emilia, she's in the ICU and John has never seen her look so weak. Terrifying, she's meant to be giving him shit for whining like a little baby right now over a minor wound, not hooked up to a hundred machines.
Chris is forlorn about her, of course he is, and for whatever reason that makes John's blood boil. As if Chris cares about her more than he does somehow, not even knowing who she truly is, what Chris, Peacemaker truly did to her.
"They say she's going to wake up soon...I don't know if I can see her like that." Chris laments and it takes everything within John not to strike him. Mainly the cowardice is a deciding factor, flight over fight, he goes to get everyone terrible vending machine coffees instead.
"Come on slugger time to wake on up." John chuckles at Emilia's groggy state, eyes fluttering open. Somehow she looks dangerous even when she's on deaths door.
"Put me back in coach." Harcourt drawls back, nose like a blood hound at the steaming hot Styrofoam cups.
"Yes I got you one, you damn addict." He rolls his eyes, holding it up for her to feebly sip from. "Goodie!" She's grinning ear to ear, delirious, oh Em is on the good stuff right now, totally drugged out.
"Got you high as a kite huh?" He gives her a lazy smile, sitting down beside the bed, hand resting at the railing. Her hand joins his, looking so small in comparison, but firm, calloused, a manicure that could cut diamonds, strong and capable.
"Yup." She giggles, almost girlishly back, eyes staring into his soul, as if she's figured some big secret out.
"What's up?" John asks, placing his other hand on top of hers, making a comfort sandwich.
"You like ME." Emilia announces, loud and annoyingly abrasive.
"Obviously." John tries to not feel embarrassed, but is in an instant, beet red and glasses slipping off his nose.
"AND I LIKE YOU!" She points at him, finger booping his nose with an audacity, only Emilia Harcourt can possess.
"Do you now?" John can't help but feel giddy inside, smile lopsided and goofy.
"UH-HUH." Emilia is having a great time, pinching his cheek now, pulling his beard, annoying the absolute shit out of him.
John barely protests, she's earned it, nearly dying and all.
"Careful with the merchandise, this beard is insured." John tells her after one particularly rough tug and Emilia stops, frowning.
"Is it really dyed?" She whispers, leaning right in. "I won't tell..."
"That's a lie, you're a total gossip, even off the oxy." Thoroughly rolling his eyes, he gives in and tells her the truth.
"It's more of a wash, not a dye. If you must know. But unfortunately my beard has always been patchy and doesn't match the carpet or the drapes so I've been trying to keep it all one colour since a teen." Emilia is laughing, no too kind a word for it, snorting, wheezing at him, probably too much with her punctured ribs and stitches and John joins her.
There's too much excitement and he can tell she's going to fall back to sleep, it's all kicking in.
"Gimme a kiss, so I'll get better?" She whines, hands pawing up for him as she lays back on the pillow. John hesitates, apprehensive but gives her a chaste kiss on the forehead, brief as he can.
"There we go. Feel better soon blondie." When she pouted, John frowned in return, a questioning, what do you want from me?
"When I'm better, awake, not so loopy. Give me a proper kiss." She's ordering him around like they're back on a mission, and it makes him give a deep belly laugh.
"Sure, when you're not loopy, so never then." He replies drily, but there is no retort, as Emilia falls straight to sleep in a chainsaw snoring stupor. Somehow she manages to snore even louder than he does.
"Night night my knight in shining leather jacket and combat boots armor, your fine bearded maiden clad in flannel will be awaiting your return." She gives a faint curling smile in her sleep at that and John fondly sits at her side, eventually succumbing to his own need for sleep.
The next kisses given aren't in encouragement but in necessity, desperation and longing, finally fulfilled on Harcourt's rooftop when she organises a party at her place. It's messy, sloppy and rushed when they hear Adrian about to interrupt, dripping in beer and only in his underwear.
"I need the bathroom..." His eyes are wide, like he'd discovered his two teachers kissing in the school utility closet. Waddling off with him, still soaked in those ridiculous tighty whiteys, John sighs at the questioning gaze Arian keeps giving him.
"You got a staring problem Adrian?" John asks eventually, once Adrian has washed his hands and is back out of the bathroom, eyes glued to his back up the stairs.
"Are you and Harcourt going to get married? If so who will take whose last name? Both of you go by your last names a lot and they are rad. Harcourt, Economos. I think I'd personally like to be Mrs. Harcourt, Adrian Harcourt at your service. Makes me sound like a fancy lawyers wife. Mrs. Economos makes me sound like a socialite and my husband is pretty shady. Either way I bet I'd cheat on the pool boy at the yacht club. Neither sound like I'd be satisfied you know?" He chirps happily and unashamedly away. It's honestly inspiring in a way.
"Ah yes, of course I completely get what you're saying..." John says to shut him up but refuses to elaborate.
Back up on the rooftop, they're all dancing, outside of Emilia and John, sipping beers, shoulders touching ever so slightly as they watch these idiot 11th Street Kids of theirs terribly boogie away.
Okay I promise I’ll be normal about them now but. The thing that gets me about Economos and Harcourt is that everyone else would never speak to Harcourt the way John does. I mean he’s like it with everyone, telling them to fuck off etc, but no one else is like it with HARCOURT. Because she would punch them. But they are besties so Emilia doesn’t even get mad <33
Something something where Adrian is wearing Harcourt’s robe when he does the weird forehead kiss, half-asleep Economos assumes it’s Emilia and is really weird and awkward about it
I’ve seen people say that Harcourt and Economos probably weren’t friends at Argus and I can see that (Emilia telling Rick flag he’s her only friend) butttttt idk. I feel like, even if they’d never admit it, the team seemed close! They bet on the prisoners together and did silly little dances. Economos and Harcourt were deskmates,,,,,
ALSO I’ll say it again but the only first name Emilia uses at the start of s1 is John‼️
(And he also knows her name is Emilia way before the others right??)
#project hail mary
#the amazing digital circus
#coquette
#heated rivalry
