Page 75 of Pistols and Plush Toys

Nikolai:You think?

Meredith:I agree. Unfortunately.

Gerard:He’s obsessed with the kid. When I said you’d taken him back, he stepped right into the line of fire before oneof his cronies pushed him back out. He gets blinded by anger and makes mistakes.

Nikolai:It’s shame you only got him in the shoulder

Gerard:Stupid fucking bleeders taking hits for him when we know perfectly well he doesn’t reward loyalty.

Gerard:But yeah, so. If the kid was out and about, that might make the rat want to come out of hiding just to get at him again.

Nikolai frowned at his screen.

Nikolai:As bait, you mean.

Gerard:Yes and no. I was thinking that Mattia cares a lot about Elliot being *his* right? So if word got back to him that he had moved on, was dating someone else…

Nikolai went white-hot at picturing Elliot, sweet, abused Elliot, putting himself back into the line of fire to taunt Vitale into making another appearance.

Nikolai:No.

Gerard:What, you don’t think it would work?

Nikolai growled. He… couldn’t say that. He stared at the above texts slowly disappearing, one after the other as he thought.

If Vitale was a spoiled child, then what did a tantrum-having child get most upset about?

Someone else playing with their toys. Touching their things.

Gerard:He’s cute enough, it wouldn’t be a hardship to have him pretend with one of our guys. I’m sure he’d cooperate. You said he’d changed his mind on Mattia.

One of our guys.As if Nikolai would even think of asking Elliot to play house with Alex or Pyotr or Boris. Not when he was only just opening up to Nikolai.

Nikolai:It wouldn’t work. He’s comfortable enough around me, but I don’t think he could pretend to date just anyone.

Meredith:Nikolai has a point. Asking an abuse victim to fake date a man he barely knows probably isn’t going to result in anything particularly convincing.

Meredith:Not to mention we did kidnap him. Twice. That doesn’t inspire warm fuzzy feelings.

Gerard:Is it kidnapping if we helped him out of a bad situation?

Meredith:The second time was technically a rescue I suppose.

Gerard:And people RESCUED from bad times do indeed sometimes have positive feelings toward their rescuers.

Gerard:Not to mention that if we made it look like Elliot was dating the man Mattia hates the MOST, I bet Mattia would be back in the states inside of a week, spitting mad.

Nikolai stared down at his phone in growing horror.

Nikolai:You cannot possibly be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting.

Gerard:It’s a good idea! We just need to stage a couple of dates for you two, just enough of a public appearance to get it back to Mattia. He’s already living with you. And you said he’s comfortable around you. How hard would it be to have a few outings where you talk and hold hands and he maybe kisses your cheek?

Nikolai:I don’t like it.

Gerard:Look. I don’t want to wait around for him to blow up another building and neither do you. We want Mattia gone. To do that, we need him back in the states. This is a sure fire way to get him to fly home.

Nikolai:Meredith, tell me you have better idea.

---