Fic: Five Times Eliot, Hardison, and Parker Weren't Sleeping Together and One Time They Were
Title: Five Times Eliot, Hardison, and Parker Weren't Sleeping Together and One Time They Were
Prompt: Leverage, OT3, five times Nate (or Sophie) thought that Hardison, Eliot and Parker were sleeping together, and one time that they actually were.
Notes: I added a Tara time because she would.
1. Rainy Day
They'd still been in LA and it was right after the Mosconi job, the first time. It was miserably wet day, in the way that only cities like LA and New York and London can get, and Sophie was happy to be huddled at the office, where she could watch the rain and let her trench coat dry. She was less happy about Nate's drinking, but, for once, she was willing to admit she couldn't control the man.
"You make the best breakfast ever," Parker declared loudly. Sophie had heard the door open, but hadn't expected it to be Parker - who still seemed to prefer windows - or someone she had breakfast with. "That was even better than fortune cookies and Fruit Loops."
"Fortune cookies and Fruit Loops are not breakfast, girl," Hardison said, his voice carrying into the conference room. "You need to get real food."
"Or we could always have breakfast with Eliot. I like that better."
Sophie knew her eyes were hugely wide when the three of them walked into the conference room, but she didn't want to disguise it. The three of them were soaked to the skin, with Eliot and Parker both dripping water with their hair plastered to their heads. It gave the impression of the three jumping into a pool together. Or a shower.
Eliot scowled at her as he took his usual chair. "It's not like we're sleeping together."
*
2. At the Theater
Nate didn't say anything the first time he noticed anything, either. He'd been in Boston for six months, drying out and finding a living as an honest man. An honest single man, without a family or a friend or an ally or a person to save. And going back to thieving, that felt like backsliding.
So it was a little weird, when, at the bar after Sophie's play, he watched the four of them and felt something he hadn't felt in years. While Hardison checked something on his phone and Eliot poured drinks and Parker laughed and Sophie buried her head in her hands, something inside him swelled and came to life - something he thought he buried with Sam, something that walked out the door with Maggie.
He stayed behind, that night, savoring that feeling and trying to figure it out. He knew that Eliot and Parker and Hardison weren't his kids and Sophie wasn't his wife, no matter how tempted he'd ever been. But maybe, in another way, in another life, they were. Maybe this was another way to have a family.
Thinking those thoughts and feeling those feelings, Nathan Ford almost bit his tongue when he looked over at the bar. Sophie was gone, possibly upstairs, and Parker had her head on Eliot's shoulder, nuzzling his hair, with one hand fiercely gripping Hardison's shirt. It wasn't hard to put two and two - or three and three, in this case together - but it was a shock. It was a blow home that this wasn't a normal way to live.
It was possibly even more surprising when Cora brought him his coffee and said, "She's just drunk. And I think Eliot tried a new strawberry shampoo. Or that's what the computer guy said. It's not like they're sleeping together."
*
3. On the Run
The next time Nathan let himself even think about it was when Sophie's halfway around the world somewhere and they're supposed to be working with Tara. And Tara had no end of questions. Nate was getting a headache by the time Hardison dragged Parker and Eliot off to do something downtown.
"So how long have they been sleeping together?"
Nate sat up quickly at that, too quickly.
"I mean, it makes sense. There's not really another reason three loners would stick together this long," Tara continued. "And, I'll admit, it's sort of hot, in a creepy way. But I didn't think you'd stand for it, Mr I'm An Honest Man."
"Sleeping together, oh yeah," Nate said intelligently, wondering if he had enough ibuprofen to deal with this headache. If the world had enough ibuprofen to deal with it.
"What, you didn't notice?" Tara looked genuinely shocked.
"Hardison's just enthusiastic, especially when they humor them. And Parker, she feels safe with them, for whatever reason. And Eliot's just very protective."
"Protective, right," Tara said, her tone completely disbelieving. "That why he needed to pull Hardison into the dirt and hold onto him like his security blanket. And why Parker uses his shampoo nine times out of ten. Even when we're on a trip."
"Oh." Nate hadn't actually noticed that, but he also avoided smelling his teammate's hair, especially Eliot's. Even if Eliot just assumed he started drinking again, he didn't want to see anyone else's reaction to that. "They're still not sleeping together."
*
4. Memories
He'd been drinking again, Sophie knew, but she put up with it for reasons even she didn't understand. Maybe because he'd actually gotten out of jail. Maybe because they were finally back together and it felt like everything was right with the world to have her family altogether.
"Remember rehab?" Nate asked.
Sophie frowned. She didn't imagine Nate had good memories of it. "Of course, I do. You jumped over the wall."
"Not me." Nate gestured vaguely with his glass of whiskey. "Parker."
Sophie sighed and smiled. "She did so well. I don't remember seeing her really smile before that. And even if we had to take her off the pills, I think it really helped her."
"Afterward," Nate continued like Sophie hadn't said anything at all, "remember? When she jumped on Eliot and they all walked away."
"Yes?"
"How long do you think they've been sleeping together? Since the first heist?"
Sophie thought about the rainy day in LA and she thought of all of the times Tara called, giving her updates on the three of them, like they came as a packaged set. She thought of the way Parker hadn't been able to choose who to pull up first in Juarez and how Eliot took down eight ex-Marines who'd cornered the other two and how Hardison had taken the other two home to show them how to build a firewall.
And then she thought about Parker poking Eliot's wounds and Hardison and Eliot bickering and the way Parker vanished into the ether every time Hardison sighed after her.
"No. I don't think they have." She took the bottle away from him. "And stop drinking so much."
*
5. Paris
It was after San Lorenzo and they decided to come back through Paris. Actually, Nate was man enough to admit, Sophie decided to come back through Paris and since they'd killed her in the last con, no one wanted to stand up to her.
He was stumbling back to his room from the hotel bar and froze when he heard his team talking in the dark of the hallway.
"No way," Eliot said. "I have the best shower. And I made sure to get a place with a professional kitchen. I would be able to cook breakfast every morning."
"It's right on the street," Parker argued. "I don't think we'd be very safe living there. I need to be able to escape sometimes."
"And we've been to your place, man. I need space for my toys. And, no offense, last time I brought Lucille over, your neighbor accused me of trying to kidnap and molest children," Hardison said.
"Parker, you don't even have a kitchen. Or a garden. Or anything," Eliot pointed out, sounding exasperated. "We can't live somewhere without showers."
There was a long beat, like they were all trying to think, and Hardison finally said, "I guess we'll have to go house hunting when we get back to Boston."
Nate shook his head and waited until they disappeared from the hallway. He told himself that they were just scared, especially after everything that went down with Moreau. And when he got back to his room, he drank himself into oblivion and forgot all about it.
*
6. Bar Fight
That meant that he didn't quite know what was going on when Eliot punched a guy at the bar hard enough that he just stayed down.
Eliot punching guys wasn't that surprising, but he normally didn't do it in McRory's without proper provocation. And even then, it was usually part of the con, unless Sterling showed up.
Even more unusual, Hardison hadn't slipped the barman his set of twenties. And the barman was on the phone, probably calling the cops. And Parker and Hardison weren't just watching Eliot, like the usually did. Hardison was shit talking and Parker looked dangerously angry so even the people avoiding Eliot's fists were avoiding getting near her.
So he and Sophie tried to interfere when the Boston PD showed up. Sophie tried to sweet talk, while Nate glared at Hardison and Eliot and gave them half thought out lectures under his breath.
"Look, I'm sorry your son got in a bar fight," the cop said in a nasal voice. "But I gotta question him, even if he's a good kid."
Eliot squared his shoulders and looked the cop in the eye. "I didn't think self-defense was a crime."
The cop raised an eyebrow. "Self defense?"
"Called my boyfriend a fag when he kissed me," Hardison jumped in.
"And then punched me in the kidneys," Eliot finished.
Nate didn't know what to say to that. He watched as the cop finished with them, while they played up the boyfriends act, and then the cop questioned a couple more people in the bar. Nate didn't know what to think when everyone else back up the story - Mickey got mad when Eliot kissed Hardison and that was the take down.
Somehow he wasn't surprised when, after the cop left, Parker grabbed Eliot and Hardison and kissed them both in turn. Or when grinned at Nate and Sophie and, holding onto the boys and pulling them to the door, said, "We're going to go have sex now."
Prompt: Leverage, OT3, five times Nate (or Sophie) thought that Hardison, Eliot and Parker were sleeping together, and one time that they actually were.
Notes: I added a Tara time because she would.
1. Rainy Day
They'd still been in LA and it was right after the Mosconi job, the first time. It was miserably wet day, in the way that only cities like LA and New York and London can get, and Sophie was happy to be huddled at the office, where she could watch the rain and let her trench coat dry. She was less happy about Nate's drinking, but, for once, she was willing to admit she couldn't control the man.
"You make the best breakfast ever," Parker declared loudly. Sophie had heard the door open, but hadn't expected it to be Parker - who still seemed to prefer windows - or someone she had breakfast with. "That was even better than fortune cookies and Fruit Loops."
"Fortune cookies and Fruit Loops are not breakfast, girl," Hardison said, his voice carrying into the conference room. "You need to get real food."
"Or we could always have breakfast with Eliot. I like that better."
Sophie knew her eyes were hugely wide when the three of them walked into the conference room, but she didn't want to disguise it. The three of them were soaked to the skin, with Eliot and Parker both dripping water with their hair plastered to their heads. It gave the impression of the three jumping into a pool together. Or a shower.
Eliot scowled at her as he took his usual chair. "It's not like we're sleeping together."
*
2. At the Theater
Nate didn't say anything the first time he noticed anything, either. He'd been in Boston for six months, drying out and finding a living as an honest man. An honest single man, without a family or a friend or an ally or a person to save. And going back to thieving, that felt like backsliding.
So it was a little weird, when, at the bar after Sophie's play, he watched the four of them and felt something he hadn't felt in years. While Hardison checked something on his phone and Eliot poured drinks and Parker laughed and Sophie buried her head in her hands, something inside him swelled and came to life - something he thought he buried with Sam, something that walked out the door with Maggie.
He stayed behind, that night, savoring that feeling and trying to figure it out. He knew that Eliot and Parker and Hardison weren't his kids and Sophie wasn't his wife, no matter how tempted he'd ever been. But maybe, in another way, in another life, they were. Maybe this was another way to have a family.
Thinking those thoughts and feeling those feelings, Nathan Ford almost bit his tongue when he looked over at the bar. Sophie was gone, possibly upstairs, and Parker had her head on Eliot's shoulder, nuzzling his hair, with one hand fiercely gripping Hardison's shirt. It wasn't hard to put two and two - or three and three, in this case together - but it was a shock. It was a blow home that this wasn't a normal way to live.
It was possibly even more surprising when Cora brought him his coffee and said, "She's just drunk. And I think Eliot tried a new strawberry shampoo. Or that's what the computer guy said. It's not like they're sleeping together."
*
3. On the Run
The next time Nathan let himself even think about it was when Sophie's halfway around the world somewhere and they're supposed to be working with Tara. And Tara had no end of questions. Nate was getting a headache by the time Hardison dragged Parker and Eliot off to do something downtown.
"So how long have they been sleeping together?"
Nate sat up quickly at that, too quickly.
"I mean, it makes sense. There's not really another reason three loners would stick together this long," Tara continued. "And, I'll admit, it's sort of hot, in a creepy way. But I didn't think you'd stand for it, Mr I'm An Honest Man."
"Sleeping together, oh yeah," Nate said intelligently, wondering if he had enough ibuprofen to deal with this headache. If the world had enough ibuprofen to deal with it.
"What, you didn't notice?" Tara looked genuinely shocked.
"Hardison's just enthusiastic, especially when they humor them. And Parker, she feels safe with them, for whatever reason. And Eliot's just very protective."
"Protective, right," Tara said, her tone completely disbelieving. "That why he needed to pull Hardison into the dirt and hold onto him like his security blanket. And why Parker uses his shampoo nine times out of ten. Even when we're on a trip."
"Oh." Nate hadn't actually noticed that, but he also avoided smelling his teammate's hair, especially Eliot's. Even if Eliot just assumed he started drinking again, he didn't want to see anyone else's reaction to that. "They're still not sleeping together."
*
4. Memories
He'd been drinking again, Sophie knew, but she put up with it for reasons even she didn't understand. Maybe because he'd actually gotten out of jail. Maybe because they were finally back together and it felt like everything was right with the world to have her family altogether.
"Remember rehab?" Nate asked.
Sophie frowned. She didn't imagine Nate had good memories of it. "Of course, I do. You jumped over the wall."
"Not me." Nate gestured vaguely with his glass of whiskey. "Parker."
Sophie sighed and smiled. "She did so well. I don't remember seeing her really smile before that. And even if we had to take her off the pills, I think it really helped her."
"Afterward," Nate continued like Sophie hadn't said anything at all, "remember? When she jumped on Eliot and they all walked away."
"Yes?"
"How long do you think they've been sleeping together? Since the first heist?"
Sophie thought about the rainy day in LA and she thought of all of the times Tara called, giving her updates on the three of them, like they came as a packaged set. She thought of the way Parker hadn't been able to choose who to pull up first in Juarez and how Eliot took down eight ex-Marines who'd cornered the other two and how Hardison had taken the other two home to show them how to build a firewall.
And then she thought about Parker poking Eliot's wounds and Hardison and Eliot bickering and the way Parker vanished into the ether every time Hardison sighed after her.
"No. I don't think they have." She took the bottle away from him. "And stop drinking so much."
*
5. Paris
It was after San Lorenzo and they decided to come back through Paris. Actually, Nate was man enough to admit, Sophie decided to come back through Paris and since they'd killed her in the last con, no one wanted to stand up to her.
He was stumbling back to his room from the hotel bar and froze when he heard his team talking in the dark of the hallway.
"No way," Eliot said. "I have the best shower. And I made sure to get a place with a professional kitchen. I would be able to cook breakfast every morning."
"It's right on the street," Parker argued. "I don't think we'd be very safe living there. I need to be able to escape sometimes."
"And we've been to your place, man. I need space for my toys. And, no offense, last time I brought Lucille over, your neighbor accused me of trying to kidnap and molest children," Hardison said.
"Parker, you don't even have a kitchen. Or a garden. Or anything," Eliot pointed out, sounding exasperated. "We can't live somewhere without showers."
There was a long beat, like they were all trying to think, and Hardison finally said, "I guess we'll have to go house hunting when we get back to Boston."
Nate shook his head and waited until they disappeared from the hallway. He told himself that they were just scared, especially after everything that went down with Moreau. And when he got back to his room, he drank himself into oblivion and forgot all about it.
*
6. Bar Fight
That meant that he didn't quite know what was going on when Eliot punched a guy at the bar hard enough that he just stayed down.
Eliot punching guys wasn't that surprising, but he normally didn't do it in McRory's without proper provocation. And even then, it was usually part of the con, unless Sterling showed up.
Even more unusual, Hardison hadn't slipped the barman his set of twenties. And the barman was on the phone, probably calling the cops. And Parker and Hardison weren't just watching Eliot, like the usually did. Hardison was shit talking and Parker looked dangerously angry so even the people avoiding Eliot's fists were avoiding getting near her.
So he and Sophie tried to interfere when the Boston PD showed up. Sophie tried to sweet talk, while Nate glared at Hardison and Eliot and gave them half thought out lectures under his breath.
"Look, I'm sorry your son got in a bar fight," the cop said in a nasal voice. "But I gotta question him, even if he's a good kid."
Eliot squared his shoulders and looked the cop in the eye. "I didn't think self-defense was a crime."
The cop raised an eyebrow. "Self defense?"
"Called my boyfriend a fag when he kissed me," Hardison jumped in.
"And then punched me in the kidneys," Eliot finished.
Nate didn't know what to say to that. He watched as the cop finished with them, while they played up the boyfriends act, and then the cop questioned a couple more people in the bar. Nate didn't know what to think when everyone else back up the story - Mickey got mad when Eliot kissed Hardison and that was the take down.
Somehow he wasn't surprised when, after the cop left, Parker grabbed Eliot and Hardison and kissed them both in turn. Or when grinned at Nate and Sophie and, holding onto the boys and pulling them to the door, said, "We're going to go have sex now."