Chapter Text
“Do you ever wonder what we’d be like if our lives were different?” Parker asked, sitting between Eliot and Hardison and fiddling with a wrapper from a piece of chocolate she’d just eaten.
“No,” Eliot said almost immediately. Parker glanced at him, but he kept his eyes forward on the screens.
“Sometimes,” Hardison shrugged. “But then I realize it doesn’t really matter.”
“Why not?” Parker asked.
“Because if life were different, who knows if we would’ve met,” Hardison said, and Parker smiled slightly. Eliot hummed in a way that sounded like agreement.
“Besides, we are who we are for a reason,” Eliot mumbled. “Whatever that reason is. It’s real.”
“And I like us for who we are,” Hardison added.
“Me too,” Parker said, before opening another piece of chocolate.
Eliot glanced at them from the corner of his eye. He was lying when he said no, he thought about it constantly. The difference was he didn’t like thinking about it. And he didn’t actively do it. It snuck up on him in the night sometimes when he’d find himself staring at his hands, seeing the blood no one else could see, staining him. Sometimes he wondered. He wondered if he was different, maybe he could be with the two he knew he needed. However, that thought scared the shit outta him, being with both of them, but he shoved that fear down with the current memories of Hardison and Parker and their lives together, and that was enough.
-_-_-
“Dammit, Hardison- I gotcha,” Eliot grunted as he lifted Hardison from the ground. Hardison had taken a bit of a beating while Eliot handled a different group, being distracted with another fight certainly wasn’t fun, but he was able to get to the hacker regardless.
He opened Lucille’s doors, setting Hardison down. “Did anything break?” He asked.
“I don’t think so,” Hardison grunted, holding his abdomen.
“Can I lift your shirt?” Eliot asked, and he nodded, moving his hand so Eliot could check his torso.
When Eliot decided no, nothing was broken, he grabbed the first aid he made Hardison keep in the van to patch any open cuts, mostly on Hardison’s face. Parker appeared in the van, as silent as ever, but Eliot wasn’t deterred. He wrapped Hardison’s bruising stomach as well, compression helped with bruising. He was pissed with himself, and it showed on his face, mixed with determination to make sure Hardison was as comfortable as possible. He was almost too late, he was too late.
“When we get to your place, you’re icing that,” Eliot huffed as he closed the kit, Hardison pulling his shirt back down.
“Yes, nurse Eliot,” Hardison tried to joke, but winced when he inhaled too deeply.
“You’re only getting away with that because your ass is already beat,” Eliot grumbled, carefully helping Hardison to get more into the van, Parker happily hopping into the driver's seat to take them away.
Back at the couple’s apartment, Eliot supported Hardison’s weight. Once safely inside, he sat the hacker down and carefully started inspecting his knees, looking for more injuries to take care of. Parker was pacing, muttering about what went wrong, trying to pinpoint what happened. Eliot was doing his damndest to ignore her.
“Babe, please-“ Hardison finally stopped her. “You’re driving me crazy.”
“What went wrong!” She huffed, finally sitting down. “What was different?”
“The partner,” Eliot said after thinking about it for a second. “Remember the job we had a couple years ago. When I had to throw a fight? The partner had connections we didn’t know about, maybe the same thing happened here.”
“There’s a chance,” Hardison sighed, rubbing his eyes as he felt one of the biggest headaches of his life coming in. Eliot was already handing him medication he got from… wherever, Hardison wasn’t paying attention. “So what do we do?”
“Do it the old fashioned way? By force?” Parker asked.
“We’d need to, if we wan’ to continue,” Eliot mumbled. “The con is already off, we’ve been blown.”
“I don’t want to let Mrs. Kelson down,” Parker sighed.
“I could check to see if he’s moved his money, maybe we don’t have to be hands-on involved, we might’ve spooked him,” Hardison offered.
“Best we can do right now until we can come up with a plan,” Eliot huffed, “You’re right, nothing’s broken, but this knee is definitely worse for wear, it’s swelling.”
“Sprained?” Parker asked.
“Possibly,” Eliot nodded. “I should’ve checked back when I checked your ribs, would’ve been easier to tell.”
“As long as I don’t have a broken bone-“ Hardison groaned. “Is that what fighting you is like?”
“No,” Eliot chuckled, carefully patting his shoulder. “You wouldn’t be awake right now.”
“Right,” Hardison sighed.
“Okay, Hardison, check his accounts,” Parker sighed, standing to grab Hardison his laptop.
“I’m gonna make dinner,” Eliot huffed.
“Isn’t it late to be making something right now?” Hardison asked as he started typing away.
“Would you rather be hungry?” Eliot questioned as he stood. “I need to do something with my hands anyway, I’m getting antsy and more pissed the more I’m sitting here.”
He didn’t really let the two argue with him as he walked into the kitchen to make something easy. Parker watched him closely, noticing his tension.
“He’s mad at himself,” She whispered, and Hardison glanced at her. “He thinks he failed.”
“Babe,” Hardison mumbled as he pulled up the accounts. “You know how he feels when one of us gets the punches instead of him. I was in the wrong place at the right time, and he’s not acknowledging that.”
“I hate it when he has that look on his face,” She sighed. “Did you find anything?”
“Yeah. He moved 500 thousand about 10 minutes ago,” He mumbled. “It’s large enough that they have to confirm before sending in the morning, so I’m flagging it now and holding the transfer, just until I can alert the insurance company and then redirect it to our accounts instead. He’s ruined and we’ve got the money for the client. Eliot definitely spooked him.”
“Thankfully,” Parker sighed, “He finished the con for us, I had no idea what we were gonna do.”
“We definitely got lucky,” Hardison agreed, setting his computer aside.
Parker stood, kissing Hardison’s head before going into the kitchen to talk to Eliot, who was dicing garlic for the pasta he was making.
“Are you okay?” She asked and Eliot sighed as he cleaned the knife with one movement, a familiar sharp metal noise filling the momentary silence as he did.
“Yeah,” he answered shortly after a moment of consideration.
“Eliot,” She started.
“No, you know what,” Eliot huffed, cutting her off. “No, I’m not okay. They were- he got lucky I showed up right when I did. They were trying to beat his head in, I’m surprised he’s conscious! I should’ve-“
“Eliot, it was a surprise to all of us,” Parker whispered, and Eliot was staring at the blade in his hands, jaw clenched.
“I’m better than this, Parker,” He whispered. “What am I gonna do, huh? If one of you is taken away from me?”
“That’s not gonna happen,” Hardison said as he limped to the bar stool next to Parker.
“You shouldn’t be walking,” Eliot grumbled, going back to chopping.
“You shouldn’t be handling a knife when you're this pissed,” Hardison teased. Eliot glared at him, without any real anger behind it. “Eliot, I know it scared you. But I’m okay, they didn’t even break a bone-“
“They weren’t trying to break your bones, Hardison. It wasn’t a warning,” Eliot snapped. “They got you down with one hit to the knee, we got lucky because they didn’t have guns.”
“So take the win,” Parker tried.
“This isn’t a win,” Eliot huffed. “Hardison is more beat up than I am! I do not see that as a win!”
“I say it’s about damn time,” Hardison grumbled.
“Don’t-“ Eliot snapped again before transferring the veggies to the pan to sear.
“I’m serious. I’m sick and tired of you being the only one who takes a fucking punch,” Hardison snapped back. “I can handle-“
“It’s not about what you can handle, Alec!” Eliot cut him off, turning to look at him. “I know moves that’d knock them on their asses if they tried that shit with me. I am not at risk of death! You are!”
“I know how to keep myself alive enough for you to arrive. Isn’t that enough?” Hardison whispered, his tone wearing upon the use of his first name.
“No,” Eliot said, his voice finally failing him. “Because if I’m too late… Hardison if I find you dead because I couldn’t get to you in time-“
“You’ve never been late,” Parker spoke up again. “Never. There isn’t a risk in this world we wouldn’t take if we didn’t know, believe, trust that you would show up just in time.”
“That isn’t a bet you can always make,” Eliot whispered. “I’ve been taken down, drugged, you name it, it’s happened. But I can’t live with the idea that I won’t be fast enough. Everytime I wake up from these momentary defeats I panic, because what if that was just enough time for them to take you away.”
Neither one of them had an answer, so Eliot sighed and went back to cooking.
“So you do understand,” Parker finally whispered, and Eliot glanced at her. She was staring right at him. “You do understand the fear.”
“I never said I didn’t,” Eliot mumbled, falling into confusion.
“Eliot, we’ve been saying the same thing about you… for a while now! Everytime you’re shot, everytime you go silent on coms, everytime I have to hear you take a beating, that is how we feel !”
“It’s-“
“It’s not your job!” Parker cut him off. “Your job isn’t to die!”
Eliot blinked at her for a moment, and she inhaled deeply.
“Eliot,” Hardison whispered. “Just as much, just as badly as you don’t want to lose us, we can’t lose you. This goes both ways, man.”
Eliot sighed, turning off the pan to start on the noodles. “You’re right, Parker. My job isn’t to die. It’s to make sure you two don’t. Yes, I do understand the fear I always have. I don’t like being shot, I don’t like having broken bones. But if having those things means that Hardison doesn’t always look like this, or you don’t look like that- that’s why I do it. Parker, it’s what I was trained to do. What I was trained to take. You don’t live in fear because you think the world can’t hurt you. You can live fearlessly knowing that I’m there, and I will always be there. Just like how I know that if I need someone to open a safe, or to do a lift, I know I have the best person to do it right next to me. Or if I need to bypass some cameras or hack into accounts, I have the best person to do it on my other side.”
Parker sighed, crossing her arms on the counter. “It hurts us when you’re hurt.”
“And I’m sorry about that,” Eliot whispered. “I don’t like knowing that you’re scared for me everytime I face someone just a little stronger than we’re expecting. But just like you’ve had some safes a little harder to crack, or systems a little harder to hack, you gotta understand that sometimes we take a defeat. But, we don’t give up, do we?”
“No,” Parker whispered.
“No, we don’t,” Hardison agreed.
“As long as you guys need me, I’m going to keep fighting. Whether that be through the pain, to stay alive, or knocking out some punks, I’m not giving up. But I can’t just stand by and… accept the fact that I almost lost one of you tonight. I can’t handle that. We got lucky, but we can’t depend on luck to save our asses everytime.”
Hardison exhaled softly, “So… would you feel more comfortable if you taught us more stuff? About what to do in those situations? You’ve taught us a lot. It helped tonight… how could I’ve gotten out of that?”
“Take them out with their legs, aim for their knees and aim to break them so they can’t get back up,” Eliot said. “If they’re kicking you, try to gain the upper hand by grabbing the ankle, not the foot, and pulling as hard as you possibly can, they’ll most likely hit their head. Use your legs if you’re able, don’t frail. But if you can’t fight back, do what you did tonight. Protect your head. Curl your knees up if you can to protect your chest, but always, always have your hands protecting your head and neck. Other bones can be reset, healed. A cracked skull, brain damage, and while yes a broken rib isn’t always life threatening, if the rib is high enough it can and will hurt your heart.”
Hardison nodded as Eliot checked the noodles. “I’ll get more specific when you start to heal. For the next few weeks, though… you shouldn’t be doing much.”
“You do,” Hardison mumbled.
“I’m trained to fight through the pain,” Eliot reminded. “You’d pass out, whether it be from pain or exhaustion.”
“Your training sucks,” Parker mumbled. “I mean- I mean-“
“I know what you mean, sweetheart,” Eliot reassured, reaching over to squeeze her closed fist.
She blinked, “This is why I sometimes wished things were different,” she whispered, and Eliot tilted his head in interest. “Living lives that didn’t cause us pain. Just… being normal.”
Eliot sighed, “Yeah, I get it,” he said as he grabbed his homemade sauce to finally put with the veggies once he deemed them done.
“Maybe, while I’m healing, we pretend?” Hardison whispered. “Forget about… the jobs for a while? I know, babe, that you’re happiest when your rigged up somewhere, so I don’t mean stuff like that. But… just no looking for clients, no work. Just… us.”
“We’re never really going to be normal,” Eliot whispered.
“As normal as we can?” Hardison offered gently.
“Eliot would have to stay with us,” Parker said, but she was still staring at him.
“In all honesty, I was thinking of ways to convince you two to let me stay just so I could stay on top of his bruising,” Eliot mumbled.
“You do know that you don’t have to convince us, right?” Hardison asked. “Dude, you can stay here whenever you want, for however long you want. You already know we think it’s BS that you live basically next door.”
“Another argument for another time,” Eliot said, draining the noodles.
-_-_-
Pretending to be… normal actually wasn’t all too strange. On Eliot’s side of things. However, he did notice a few things he never noticed before. Like how the kitchen was fucking perfect , sure he’d cooked in here before, but he never took time to notice where everything was, and going through it he realized it was top quality. All of it, the stove, the pots and pans, the knives. He was so used to cooking in passing that he never… noticed.
He was also shown that the apartment next door wasn’t even a living apartment, it was a workout/training area that connected to the main apartment from a built-in door in the living room. It was perfect for both him and Parker. He spent hours in there, punching, kicking, practicing takedowns, teaching Parker (and showing Hardison while he recovered).
Hell, even the bathroom he used was tailored to him. Jet showers that provided relief to his sore muscles, every brand he preferred for his hair and body. There was a huge first aid kit in each bathroom, extra supplies where needed. Seriously, it was abnormal.
He spent a lot of time worrying over Harrison’s bruising, using compression and ice to try and help the healing. He paid special attention to his knee, even had Hardison start wearing a brace when it wasn’t getting better as fast as he preferred. Everytime he sat Hardison down to check him over, he didn’t miss the eyes filled with adoration from the hacker, or Parker when she would sit in and watch to poke at the bruising. Or the soft thanks Hardison would say when Eliot was done and packing up.
“You don’t have to thank me,” Eliot grumbled everytime.
“It’s not like I can cook you a four course meal,” Hardison sometimes said. Other times he would say something along the lines of “So? I have to do something to show appreciation.”
Eliot wasn’t… used to it. Having things seemingly tailored to him, who he was. Or receiving appreciation for doing stuff he believed was part of his job. He was their protector, the one who took care of them. This is what he does!
Regardless, they didn’t talk about jobs, about Nate or Sophie unless they were recalling a memory of them all hanging out, they just… they were them. Eliot cooked, Hardison made stupid geeky jokes, Parker hung out in the rafters in the ceiling or on Eliot’s back or the counter or wherever she wanted to be. It felt weird, being in their space. But he had to admit it was honestly some of the best times he’s had in his life.
It wasn’t until he was doing midnight training that he stopped to think. Think about how attached he was to them. How he felt when they were around, when they were close, and how it felt when they were gone. He was so much better around them, he felt lighter, quicker, human . He sighed as he put his forehead against the bag he’d been punching.
“Dammit!” He cursed, punching the bag so hard it finally gave in and broke. He exhaled slowly, cracking his knuckles, watching the foam flow out.
He took the time to clean it up, take the bag down and take it outside to be disposed of. Once he got back inside, he huffed, running a hand over his face before brushing his hair back and out of the way. He walked into the kitchen, grabbing a beer and resisting the urge to chug it.
He glanced over upon hearing light footsteps. Parker, and she wanted him to know she was approaching. She appeared from the hallway, in what was most certainly Hardison’s shirt and who knows if she had anything else on. Eliot sure as shit wasn’t going to look further into it.
“Are you okay?” She whispered.
“Broke the punching bag,” Eliot grumbled, taking another drink, longer than necessary as his urge to chug was still there.
“Your face is screwy,” she whispered. “You’re angry, why are you angry?”
“M’not angry, Parker,” he said, fully aware of his lie.
“You’re a terrible liar,” Parker accused, walking closer to him without a sound. “C’mon,” she whispered.
“What?” Eliot asked, confused as she took him by the arm, setting the beer down.
“C’mon,” she repeated, leading him through the room and down the hallway, into her and Hardison’s room.
“Parker-“ Eliot said as he stopped right at their door. “I’m not goin’ in there.”
“Yes you are,” she insisted.
“Is Hardison more hurt?” Eliot asked.
“No he’s sleeping, silly,” Parker said with a weak chuckle.
“Exactly,” Eliot whispered. “I’m not goin’ in there.”
“You’re coming to sleep with us,” She pressed, opening the door and pulling Eliot inside.
“Parker-“ Eliot growled lowly, but didn’t physically fight Parker as he was pulled inside.
Parker pulled him to the bed, gently musing Hardison awake. “Hardison, move over a bit, Eliot’s joining us.”
“Mm?” Hardison hummed, lifting his head enough to see them.
“No- no I’m-“ Eliot tried, but Hardison grumbled something unintelligible and scooted over, allowing Parker to get in and leaving just enough space for Eliot.
“C’mon,” Parker said, pulling his arm just enough to tug him closer, which forced him to put a knee on the bed to keep him from falling over.
“Parker, I am not sleeping in here,” Eliot whispered.
“Did you already get your 90 minutes?” Parker asked.
“No… not yet but-“
“Dude, just get in the bed,” Hardison grumbled, turning to look at him. “You’re a shit whisperer, just get in. It’s not gonna bite’cha or somethin’.”
Eliot growled under his breath, but resigned himself to sit down on the bed. That wasn’t enough for Parker, and she pulled him down to ensure he was lying down. She continued to pull the comforter over him, practically tucking him in before Eliot sternly moved her hands away from him, making sure not to be too rough.
“I’m good,” he grumbled, and she huffed but accepted it as she curled up next to him, seemingly satisfied.
Eliot stayed staring at the ceiling, willing himself to not think about this. To not think about how the two people he just realized how significant their existence and importance in his life were laying next to him. Sure, somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he was in love with them, but what did Eliot truly know about love?
He’s only had two relationships, neither of which he was proud of. One relationship ended because he hurt her emotionally. The other ended because he was hurt physically. Sometimes it was hard to think about either of them: Aimee and Damien. Or different reasons. Aimee he wasn’t sure was real love. Maybe just a prolonged fling he’d gotten emotionally attached to, but he did make her the one promise he hardly made anyone. The one promise he’s only made a handful of times. Once to her, once to his country, once to him, and once to them. Maybe to others, it was a lot, but to Eliot, that wasn’t a lot. He’s made so many other promises to so many people that he lost count. He promised so many people he’d come back, his father, his mother, his brother, Damien, Aimee, a couple of his brothers from his time in the service, himself, the two next to him. Problem was, he only kept that promise to Parker and Hardison. He only intended for them to be the only people he kept his promises to now.
But he was scared. Scared because the last time he got involved with someone he worked with, or worked for but regardless, he ended up with the biggest scar on his body and the blood of innocence staining his skin. Damien ruined his life, destroyed who he was as a person. He was scared of Damien. Not because of what the man had done, but the effects that lingered afterwards. He’d been Damien’s puppet, to do his bidding as he pleased both for jobs and behind closed doors. If Damien wanted to, Eliot would do it. It destroyed his self image, worse than any war, any woman, any father could.
Eliot was scared of getting too close to them. Not because he feared they’d hurt him like Damien did. But because he was scared he’d hurt them . He didn’t want to end up like Damien in a way, hurting the people he claims to love.
Something ripped out of these thoughts, and he realized it was Parker’s hand resting on his chest, just above his heart. He exhaled shakily, tempted to move her away, lay her against Hardison and leave. But her fist closed in his shirt.
“You’re not sleeping,” she whispered.
“Neither are you,” Eliot whispered back.
“You’re thinking too hard, El,” She said, lifting her head and pressing the sweetest of kisses to the scrunched forehead, immediately smoothing the lines as his face relaxed against her touch. She raised the hand to touch his face, and for once he flinched, closing his eyes.
“Just relax,” She whispered, closer to his face now. She rested against his shoulder, letting her hand fall over his heart again, holding him there. Eliot ignored the burn in his eyes when he reopened them, smelling Parker’s hair more than seeing it. He allowed his body to relax beneath her, nobody likes sleeping on a rock, and eventually his eyes fluttered shut.
When he woke up, he realized he’d slept longer than he usually does. It was still dark, and a quick peek at the clock on Hardison’s side showed it was almost 4 am. Over 3 hours of sleep. That was new. He then realized how his position had changed, Parker was no longer on top of him, but he was on his side now, his hand resting on her hip. Hardison was also facing them again, and Parker’s hands were resting against his jawline, and his hand resting on her waist just above Eliot’s hand, their pinky’s touching.
Eliot carefully moved his hand, forcing himself to sit up and quietly as he could. He exhaled slowly, getting out of the bed (shocked when a single spring squeak didn’t fill the air) and snuck out of the room like he was doing the walk of shame. He made it back to the kitchen, tossing the beer bottle after dumping the rest of it, and going through everything to get things prepped for breakfast. He wouldn’t start yet, the other two wouldn’t be awake for another four hours at least, but still, he needed to breathe and do something with his hands.
Once he had the shelf ingredients out, he kept the refrigerated items where they were for the time being, he walked to the bathroom to take a shower. Usually he did quick ones, in and out, no time to loiter, but today? Today he felt like he deserved to take a second. He turned on the ceiling head instead of the side jets, and sat on the built in bench, allowing the water to pour over his skin. The glass fogged over quickly, and Eliot exhaled into the steam, starting to meditate.
He didn’t stay in his trance long, but he allowed himself time to think properly, to breathe in the warm steam from the shower and let it fog away the memories of Damien and Aimee. They weren’t a part of his life anymore. Not that they didn’t affect him, but he’d moved on. He accepted that. Now he needs to accept the fact that Parker and Hardison were there, they were wielding him back to someone they didn’t know. They were trying to put back the pieces of his history that were broken and shattered. He just didn’t know how to handle it. Or if they would want to continue should they know the worst of him.
He washed himself, his hair, and called it done before the water even remotely started to get cold, which was awesome for how fucking long he realized he’d actually been in there. And once he was in his own room, he put on his home clothes instead of the jeans, shirt and flannel. Just sweats and a tank-top. He went back into the bathroom, thank god for the heated mirror, and did the two little braids from the lower base of his hairline around his neck, and used the hair ties that had small feathers attached to hold them before putting his bandana on.
He doesn’t remember when he started doing the braids. But he liked it, and so did Parker, she played with them constantly. Even Hardison would make a nice little side comment if he noticed the feathers attached. Once he was ready for the day, making his tea and everything, it was closer to six am. So, he got out the eggs, milk, bacon, butter, some fruit and started on his pancake breakfast. He cooked in silence for a while, keeping himself busy as he created pancake batter from scratch. Cooking bacon on the other pan as he started making the pancakes.
By the time the other two had woken up, Eliot was plating their food.
“Eliot made breakfast!” Parker exclaimed as she practically hopped into the kitchen. Hardison carefully limped behind her and took a seat at the table.
“Go sit,” Eliot said, lower and softer than he intended, but it got his point across as she went to sit next to Hardison. Eliot soon followed with their plates, Hardison’s stack had blueberries, normal syrup, and a couple strawberries, with chocolate between each layer. Parker’s was purely just chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate with some strawberry for a little added health. Eliot had made his own stack first, since he didn’t want any of the extra stuff, and was just a plain stack of pancakes. Each of them had a couple pieces of bacon on their plate and there was more on the center of the table.
“Any pain?” Eliot asked as he set down their cups, orange juice for Hardison, freshly squeezed. Apple juice for Parker, also fresh, and tea for himself.
“Just a little in my knee when I first woke up, but I’ve got that brace on and I took that medicine you’ve been given me, so it should be gone within the hour, as usual,” Hardison said with a warm smile as he took a bite. Parker was already devouring her plate. ”How’d you sleep?”
”Fine,” Eliot shrugged, ignoring the twing in his stomach at the question. Ignoring the side of his brain screaming how he slept more than fine about how he hadn’t slept that good in literally years, or for that long in longer.
“You slept longer than you usually do,” Parker commented, her face covered in chocolate.
“I did,” Eliot mumbled, sipping his tea. “And that’s really throwing me off today, actually.”
”Is it?” Hardison questioned, and Eliot nodded.
”I just… I don’t know, I’m more tired than usual,” Eliot said, unsure why he was really trying to explain this to them. He wouldn’t usually, maybe it was the tiredness that was opening him up.
“Seems… counter-intuitive,” Hardison said, and Eliot shrugged.
“Oversleeping can cause exhaustion too,” Eliot reasoned.
“But you’re not oversleeping, humans are, by design, supposed to get more than 90 minutes of sleep a day,” Hardison reasoned.
“I’ve trained myself and my internal alarm clock to only get 90 minutes. There’s too few hours in a day to get everything I need done… done in the time that I need it. I run fine off of 90 minutes, and have been for years now.” Eliot explained, trying to keep the huff in his voice to a minimum against Hardison.
“It’s just… it’s weird,” Hardison mumbled, taking another bite.
“So’s your obsession with the star…whatever franchise,” Eliot grumbled into his bacon, half listening to Hardison’s defend to his precious geekiness with a small smile on his face, Parker watching the Hacker with a big proud smile, and adding on where Hardison most certainly taught her to.
“You did the braids,” Parker said, effectively cutting Hardison off as Parker reached to grab a braid that wasn’t over his shoulder, and pulled it forward.
“You put the feathers in,” Hardison added with a warm smile. It almost weirded Eliot out, if he hadn’t done it for them specifically.
“You two are strange,” Eliot huffed.
“You should do french braids,” Parker said, dropping her hands finally once she made sure each braid was proud against his shoulders, putting them on display.
“No,” Eliot shut that idea down instantly. He could do the tiny little braids, but he wasn’t braiding all of it. Parker just giggled how she did when she had a plan to get Eliot to fold whichever way she wanted. Eliot just huffed and ate more of his breakfast.
Once they were done, Eliot took all of their plates, stacked them in one hand, then grabbed their empty cups to carry back into the sink and start on the dishes. However, the other two didn’t retire to do their own thing like they usually did, instead, Parker followed him to the kitchen and started… helping? In her own way. Everytime Eliot rinsed a dish she’d grab it from him and put it in the dishwasher the way he’d taught her. Hardison had taken incentive to start wiping down the counters and stove. Using the cleaner Eliot was very specific about.
Once the kitchen was spotless, Eliot was left confused as the other two were clearly proud of themselves. Regardless, Eliot ushered Hardison to sit on the couch so he could check his knee and other bruises. The swelling on his knee had gone down, which was a relief to Eliot, who could now tell that the knee had definitely been sprained but luckily not popped out of place. Hardison’s other bruising was healing significantly.
“Give it another week or so for your knee and we should be back in business,” Eliot mumbled after he finished putting the brace back on for Hardison. “You’ll want to continue wearing this for a couple more weeks though, so probably no grifting for you.”
”Hey, no work talk!” Parker chided.
“I’m just saying!” Eliot defended. “Regardless, it’s been a week and a half, we’re gonna have to ease back into it anyway.”
”We said no work talk until Hardison was better!”
“He is better!”
“Alright, alright,” Hardison started before it went too far. “No more work talk for a couple of days, yeah? Then we’ll come up with a plan.”
”How long is a couple days in your book? Cause to me it’s two, but to you two it seems to be more,” Eliot grumbled.
“Three days!” Parker insisted. “No more work talk for three days!”
“Okay, fine,” Eliot huffed, standing and flicking his hair out of his eyeline. “I’m gonna go put a new punching bag up.”
”What happened to the other one?” Hardison asked.
“I punched it,” Eliot deadpanned. “And it… busted open,” he added slowly.
“When?!”
“Last night,” Parker helped. “He’d thrown it out right before I found him sulking angrily in the kitchen and dragged him to bed with us.”
”Yeah, which… don’t do that again,” Eliot mumbled.
“You didn’t like sleeping with us?” Parker asked.
“Don’t say it like…” Eliot huffed. “It’s just weird, man.”
“Why?” Hardison asked. “You were grumpy, and clearly you stopped being grumpy long enough to get over 90 minutes of sleep.”
”I don’t have the energy to explain this to you right now,” Eliot decided.
“Do you need more sleep?” Parker suggested. “Here come sit-“
”No, Parker,” Eliot said, stepping back from her reaching arm. “I gotta put up the new punching back… and maybe use it too.”
Parker huffed as he walked through the door to the training apartment, but they let him go.
“We might’ve overwhelmed him, babe,” Hardison mumbled to her.
“But, how’ll he know we love him if he’s always running away from us?” Parker whispered.
“It’s just like you said, we steal him, but we have to get past his security system first. And this system seems harder to crack than I originally expected.”
”It is harder to hack a person,” Parker whispered in agreement.
That wasn’t going to stop them from trying.
-_-_-
Despite what he’d told them, Parker didn’t stop trying to drag Eliot to their room to sleep. If she noticed he was still awake by the time even Hardison went to bed, she found him, whether it be in the training apartment, or the kitchen, living room, wherever, she found him. And she’d gently take his hand, and drag him to their room, where he’d inevitably stay for the night until he got up to make breakfast in the morning. Some nights it was easier than other, laying down for her benifit and just staying there without argument as she curled into him. Other nights not so much.
Those three days had passed quickly, and they were finally allowed to talk about jobs again, that feeling of normalcy leaving them as quickly as it possibly could. Eliot stayed up training harder than he had the last two weeks. Preparing himself, and hyping himself up. It’d been two long weeks since he got to knock someone out, and he was getting restless. Parker found him beating the shit outta some dummy, and the only reason he stopped was because he felt her touch his elbow.
“Not tonight, Parker,” Eliot said before she could speak.
“Especially tonight,” She argued. “You’re angry again.”
”I’m not-“ he huffed, unsetting himself. “Why do you always assume I’m angry?” he asked.
“Because… you’re face says you’re angry,” She said.
“Explain that to me,” Eliot asked.
“Your eyebrows are down, your face is… that scary look you have when you’re about to beat up a bad guy, your shoulders are up, your eyes… you’re just angry,” Parker reasoned.
“I’m not angry, sweetheart,” Eliot promised, dropping his voice. “I’m just restless, all this… pretend shit. I gotta punch someone, Park. I gotta punch a really bad guy.”
”We’ll get you a bad guy to punch,” Parker promised. “We’ll get back to work real soon. But right now, tonight, I need you to just come with me.”
Eliot sighed, brushing his hair back once again. “Fine,” he huffed, undoing his gloves and tossing them onto one of the racks. “Fine.”
She took his hand, and once again they did this song and dance to her and Hardison’s room. And once again Eliot gave into Parker, laying down next to her and forcing himself to relax so she could lay against him. Parker pulled Eliot’s arm around her, laying warmly against him.
“I know we can never really be… normal,” Parker whispered. “We can never retire, but… it was nice. Just being us. Even for a while.”
”Thieves are who we are,” Eliot whispered. “We’re not normal people, we’re thieves. Con men—and women— we steal from people, and I beat people up. It’s who we are.” This is who we are… this is us .”
“He’s right, babe,” Hardison mumbled as he carefully turned over to face them. “While these last two weeks were great, I miss breaking into secret bank accounts and stealing all their money.”
“I do miss breaking into safes,” Parker whispered in agreement, and Eliot chuckled softly. “But I don’t miss watching you get all beat up and bruised for a job.”
”We’ve all agreed to be more careful,” Eliot reasoned. “I promised that too.”
”Will you keep that promise?”
“As best as I can, I don’t have a choice with how hard they hit, but I’ve gotten faster at dodging sparring with you,” Eliot said softly, and Parker giggled.
She leaned her head up, kissing his cheek lightly before curling back in against him. Eliot's hand rested just on her side, where she placed it, and he felt Hardison’s hand rest right over his, which almost caused him to pull away, but the squeeze of Hardison’s hand kept him there.
“I want french toast for breakfast,” She said sleepily.
“Okay, sweetheart,” Eliot agreed easily, and with that she fell silent. Hardison warmly squeezed his hand again.
-_-_-
It was through some miracle they got through their first job in almost two and a half weeks so easily. Like riding a bicycle. Not that they were out of practice, but hardly did they ever take two weeks between jobs. However, Hardison got to hack bank accounts, Parker got to open safes, and Eliot got to break the noses of some assholes. It was a success in multiple ways.
When they retired back to Hardison and Parker’s apartment, Eliot thought about things going back to how they were three weeks ago. He paused in the hallway space between their apartments because of it. For a second he became dizzy but his mind cleared and he started thinking about his dilemma again. Him living in the apartment across the hall, the other two going back to their lives together. Hardison was doing significantly better now, the brace was really the only thing Eliot was worried about. But, Parker noticed his hesitation first, then Hardison turned to look at him, and one look from his people and he knew he wasn’t going to win that argument of going back to separation between the three. So, with very little reluctance, he walked into their apartment.
He started making a debriefing meal, something easy but well deserved as Parker and Hardison were reliving the job, loudly talking about the things that went well. Eliot’s head was starting to pound, he grabbed the countertop as the world started spinning. He filled a cup with water and chugged it, willing his vision to clear so he could finish dinner.
“Babe, that was awesome!” Hardison agreed with whatever point Parker’d made. “Oh Eliot, by the way, how’s your shoulder?”
“It’s fine,” Eliot mumbled, “It’ll bruise but that ain’t nothing. They barely got a hit in on me.”
”Bet it felt good, though, didn’ it?” Hardison teased.
Eliot cracked a half smile. “Just a bit,” he agreed quietly, and Hardison clapped his hands in victory.
Parker wrapped her arms around Eliot from behind, and Eliot grunted softly but didn’t try to move her, he just lowered by his knees a bit so she could climb onto his back. Once she was secure, apologizing for the wince Eliot did when she nudged his shoulder wrong with a kiss to his head, he continued cooking. He hoped the pressure on his body helped keep him grounded, because he was slipping away, and his body was giving in. He was exhausted, he realized. Completely and utterly ran through and exhausted.
“Could I get away with climbing on you?” Hardison teased as he sat down at the island barstool.
”No,” Eliot deadpanned as he stirred the pot of noodles.
“You could probably get away with a hug by now, though,” Parker reasoned, and Eliot grumbled something they clearly weren’t meant to hear, and Hardison chuckled.
“Maybe, we’ll have to test the theory when there isn’t a hot pan in front of him and you’ve not already climbed him like a tree.”
Parker shrugged and tightened her grip around Eliot.
They ate in the living room tonight, watching whatever movie Hardison was forcing them to, Eliot didn’t really care. What he did care about was how close Hardison was sitting next to him once dinner was finished and their dishes were in the dishwasher. Parker was in the ceiling, seemingly having her fill of physical contact for a while. He tried ignoring it, both the feeling of exhaustion and the giddiness that Hardison made him feel, by making stupid comments about the movie he didn’t understand or even really care about. However, he eventually grew tired of saying the same shit, so he just started watching in silence.
What he didn’t understand was why he felt as exhausted as he did. He wanted to go to bed and just sleep, but there were two things wrong with that idea. One, it was too early for any of them to retire for the night, especially after such an easy job. Two, not that he’d ever admit it out loud, but it was significantly harder to sleep by himself now. So he felt stuck in his exhaustion, which wasn’t a good thing.
His head was getting fuzzy again, and while he’s usually able to keep himself level when he gets like this, having to do it multiple times. Something was different. They caused the difference. He was comfortable, too comfortable. Regardless, his human body was starting to beat his mind, and his head fell onto Hardison’s shoulder without permission, and it felt too heavy to relift. Hardison didn’t say a damn word, thank whatever god was puppeting them, and instead rested his head back against Eliots. They made it through another half a movie, to which Eliot was basically on the verge of actually passing out, before Hardison grabbed the remote to turn it off.
“Let’s go to bed,” Hardison whispered, and Eliot tiredly lifted his head as the hacker started to stand, gently taking Eliot’s hand to haul him up.
Parker hopped down, taking Eliot’s other hand while Hardison walked them to their room. “Tiring day, huh?” Hardison said softly as they sat Eliot down on the bed. “Can I take your flannel off?”
Eliot had made the effort to do it, but Hardison gently moved his hands and did it himself once Eliot gave a nod. “I don’t understand why I’m so… drowsy.”
”You’ve been sleeping more, your body is adapting to it. Also I don’t think you slept at all during the job,” Hardison whispered. “Do you want to sleep in your jeans?”
”Don’t have shorts in here,” Eliot grunted.
“I can grab some from your room,” Parker offered softly, already standing. Eliot didn’t try to stop her, so she went to fetch them.
“Couldn’t sleep on the job,” Eliot whispered, blinking slowly.
“You had the hotel room, we didn’t really have to do anything at night,” Hardison said, confused.
“Too quiet,” Eliot said as he shook his head. ”I was… I-“
”You were alone,” Parker said as she reappeared. “We had different hotel rooms.”
”Why didn’t we just share one, we’ve been sharing since Eliot’s been staying with us,” Hardison grumbled, like he was mad at himself.
“This bed was custom-made to fit all three of us, someone might have fallen out of bed in the hotel.”
Eliot shrugged, and nodded when Hardison offered to change his jeans for him, too exhausted to try and argue. Besides, he knew he wasn’t wearing embarrassing underwear. He only realized what he agreed to when his bare legs felt the cool air of the room, leaving the scars high on his thighs showing deep against his skin. However, neither of them said anything as Hardison helped him put the shorts on. He felt stupid, being dressed by the hacker, but he was starting to lose the ability in his hands.
“I feel like I’ve been drugged,” Eliot whispered.
“It’d be late for the signs to start showing,” Parker whispered as Hardison laid Eliot down. “You’ve not slept in 56 hours, Eliot, I don’t know how this didn’t happen sooner.”
”Adrenaline,” Hardison said, getting onto his side of the bed.
The last thing Eliot processes is that for once, he’s in the middle and they wrapped around him as Hardison clapped the lights off.
-_-_-
“Please… I’m so tired,” He could hear himself speaking. Could feel the binds against his skin, nearly breaking the few fear layers. He could feel the boot on his knee, threatening to push in and break it.
He knew he’d been up for at least 48 hours, but he was starting to lose track of the hours, his eyes heavy, his breathing laboured.
“Good,” His voice. That voice . His tormentor, his boss, his lover. “Maybe now you’ll learn the importance of the jobs I give you, and how important it is for you to immediately report back to me. Not sleep when the job is done.”
“Damien… please-“ He cried out as Damien struck his bare skin again, jolting his body into fight or flight and making him more alert for even a moment, waking him up.
He just wanted to sleep.
Damien started laughing, screaming, shouting at him, but slowly his voice seemed to shift into someone knew, and Eliot's vision grew blurry once again.
“C’mon Eliot, wake up. Wake up, Eliot! Wake up!”
Eliot woke with a small jolt, but kept himself on the bed for a moment as he processed where he was. Slowly he sat up, Hardison and Parker already awake next to him. They looked worried, which meant Eliot slept too hard again.
“I’m sorry,” Eliot whispered.
“For what?” Parker asked. “A nightmare?”
”Did I…”
”No, you didn’t move to try and hurt one of us, that isn’t why I woke you up,” Hardison whispered. “You were just… you’re crying. You were… you were calling out so softly, speaking, whimpering, I was… it scared me.”
Eliot touched his face and he felt the tears then, and could feel them in his eyes the moment he noticed them on his hand.
“What were you dreaming about?” Parker asked.
“Babe-“ Hardison started.
“Damien,” Eliot whispered before he could think, the exhaustion still affecting what he was and wasn’t doing, at least that’s what he’d blame it on. And not the fact that he really did want to tell them. They deserved to know some things, right? He owed them.
“Back when I was still working for him, one of his favorite… acts of what he called treatment, training, whatever— he’d keep me awake for days. Restrain and everytime I even remotely closed my eyes for a second too long, he’d be sure to wake me up again.”
”Eliot,” Hardison whispered.
“We weren’t allowed to be human,” Eliot whispered. “My body became compliant to him, especially when he finally deemed that I’d earned my right to rest. When he was done with me… he…”
Memories of sweetness from Damien flashed in his mind, and he shoved his face in his hands. Exhaled slowly before lifting his head again. “I tried, as hard as I could, just to not go through that. But he wasn’t ever satisfied. I guess the exhaustion triggered a memory.”
”Is that why you only sleep 90 minutes a day?” Parker asked, and Eliot nodded.
“My body became compliant to his needs,” he repeated.
Hardison gently touched his arm, and Eliot instinctively flinched. Hardison recoiled back like the flinch had burned him, and Eliot blinked. All this talk about Damien and remembering the torture… he didn’t think he’d honest to god flinch because of Hardison.
“I’m sorry-“ Eliot started again.
“Stop— don’t, don’t do that,” Hardison whispered. “Don’t apologize for being in the middle of high emotional turmoil.”
”A panic attack?” Eliot supplied.
“Is that what it feels like?” Hardison asked.
“I don’t know, I kinda just feel… numb and scared. Kinda contradictory.”
”No, no, I get it,” Hardison whispered. “Can I try something?”
”What?” Eliot whispered.
“Close your eyes,” Hardison said, and Eliot squinted at him worriedly. “Just, just trust me and close your eyes.”
Eliot sighed, but did as he was requested and shut his eyes, his brows furrowed together in concern. He felt something touch his face, and he instinctively tried to pull away from it, but it stayed there, and Eliot deciphered it to be Hardison’s hand. He leaned against it slightly, enjoying the warmth. And then the hand was moving from his cheek, fingertips trailing up to his hair. Gently, his fingers brushed through, down to his shoulders and against his arms, down his shoulder and elbows to his hands.
”What’re you doing?” Eliot whispered.
“Something my Nana taught us kids,” Hardison whispered. “You know me, Eliot. You know what I feel like, you know my touch. You can tell whether it’s me or Parker or someone else. But sometimes, your brain can convince you that it’s false. Sight has a lot to play in that, so by closing your eyes-“
”You’re forcing me to feel instead of letting my brain think I’m conjuring hallucinations,” Eliot whispered as he opened his eyes. “But I didn’t say I was—“
”You flinched away from me,” Hardison said. “And you kept looking at me like a stranger, like you weren’t quite sure I was real. Maybe you didn’t notice, maybe you’ve accepted the idea that you hallucinate and were just subconsciously working your way back to reality. But, I want you to know that this is reality. We are real. You’re real.”
Eliot didn’t even notice, which said a lot. “I’m exhausted.” It was an admission, a weakness, guilt.
“Do you want to try and sleep again?” Hardison asked, and Eliot nodded.
“Just… please…”
”We’re not going anywhere,” Hardison whispered. “Even if that means we spend all day tomorrow here, until we’re sure you’re ready, we’re not goin’ anywhere, baby.”
Eliot allowed Hardison to pull him into the hacker’s arms and lay them down. He shied away from the world in Hardison’s chest, and he could feel Parker lay next to them, wrapping her arms around Eliot’s waist, centering him more. He laced his fingers into one of Parker’s hands, and he could feel her kiss the back of his head again.
“We love you,” Parker whispered, strained and weak.
Eliot wasn’t awake to say it back.
-_-_-
Ever since that night of weakness, Eliot started letting his guard down around them more, but only when they were in the apartment, surely safe. He allowed himself to be human. This was him changing, he realized. Him becoming normal. He wasn’t a fighting machine when they were inside these doors. He was Eliot Spencer, a chief, a human pillow (according to Parker), climbable, a bully to true geek culture. Human.
Eliot tried sleeping alone only one more time. Knowing the two he needed were just a door away didn’t make it easy, and he tossed and turned all night. It was pissing him off. He felt… co dependent. And if there was one thing Eliot Spencer was not, it was needy .
However, Parker and Hardison apparently were, and they had no shame in it. As his door opened silently and two bodies crawled on each side of him.
“This bed isn’t big enough for this,” Eliot mumbled.
“Well we wouldn’t be in this situation if someone would just come to bed like normal,” Hardison mumbled, tugging Eliot closer to himself.
“Isn’t this weird?” Eliot asked, forcing himself to sit up in the middle of the bed, causing the other two to follow and they sat at the head, leaning against the headboard.
“No. Why would it be weird?” Parker asked.
“Because you two… and me.. I-“ Eliot couldn’t find his words, he sucked with words sometimes. “You’re in a relationship.”
”And?” Parker asked. “We’re all in a relationship, we just… kiss and sex you… we less kiss and no sex.”
”Babe,” Hardison said gently, and she looked at him confused for his tone.
“What? What’s she mean- what’d you mean by that?” Eliot asked.
“Well you don’t… you don’t really seem to want kisses or sex, you’re more… cuddly,” Parker continued, ignoring Hardison trying to cut in. “Which is nice sometimes, but I’m glad to let Hardison do most of it. I love you, Eliot, and I love touchin’ you, but I get overwhelmed and-“
”Sweetheart I ain’t talking about that, if you need a break, that’s fine, take that break, I know that by now. I’m asking about… why you think I’m… there’s a relationship between you two. I just… kinda live here because I’m too scared to try and go back to my apartment.”
“You’re scared of us?” Hardison teased.
“More I’m just scared of her,” Eliot mumbled, and she smirked. “And her… abilities. Regardless, Parker, what’d you mean? Hardison is your boyfriend.”
”Yeah… but so are you, right?” She asked, now seeming very confused.
“No… when did you…”
”When you broke the punching bag while we were nursing Hardison back to health, pretending to be… as normal as we can.”
”The first night you dragged me into your bed?” Eliot asked, and she nodded.
“You put up a little fight, but you gave in so easy that I just… assumed you understood what I was trying to do. Well, Hardison said we’d have to hack you more, but… you gave in pretty easily after so I just… I don’t know.”
”’Hack’ me?” Eliot questioned, looking at Hardison.
“We just wanted to gauge how you felt about us,” Hardison explained slowly. “Parker suggested getting you into bed, which I took wrong at first, but when we noticed you were sleeping more, and you tended to be more… relaxed during the day we figured it wasn’t a bad sign. And then the other night with the nightmare and… listen man. I understand if this rubs you the wrong way, we weren’t trying to con you before you start thinkin’ that-“
”But we love you, and we know you love us, so we’re dating,” Parker said, which clearly made perfect sense to her.
“Three people can’t just date, Parker,” Eliot reasoned with maybe a bit more sass than he intended.
“Maybe not traditionally,” Hardison mumbled. ”But, we’ve established that we’re not normal people, and the things we enjoy are certainly not traditional. Polyamory is a thing, Eliot.”
Eliot blinked, and he felt something swoop in his stomach. “I can’t,” He whispered.
“Why?” Parker asked.
“I don’t know how,” Eliot responded.
“Neither do I, or did I- none of us do. You’ve been in more relationships than us,” Parker reasoned.
“Two,” Eliot confirmed. “But neither were… good. Aimee was… we were jealousy filled, there was more hatred for others than love for each other. I was a side piece, really. She married and I moved on. Damien he…”
”Damien doesn’t count,” Hardison grumbled.
“Yes he does,” Eliot whispered. “He does because I would’ve done anything for that man, I did everything for that man. I fell for that man, the typical, mid-20s, soul searching that puts you on the wrong path.”
”He tortured you,” Parker growled.
“And then he’d kiss the wounds better and lie next to me, whispering sweet apologies that made me believe him,” Eliot whispered, and her face softened, Hardison’s eye twitched but he stayed silent. “But neither relationship was real. Nothing about them was built on trust, or equality. There was always a power imbalance somewhere, and I always found myself on the lower end. I let myself be used and abused.”
”You know we’d never-“
”Exactly,” Eliot cut him off. “I already struggle with the idea of accepting appreciation, allowing you guys to take care of me. That night where I… That never would’ve happened if I wasn’t high on exhaustion and not in any sort of headspace I recognize. I would’ve never allowed that to happen. It's why I don’t fall into deep sleep around you guys, which is why I seem like I’m sleeping longer, more time in light sleep instead of going into deep sleep or REM. My dreams… they’re just nightmares. And I can’t control myself during my nightmares. I’m just lucky it was a dream where I was the victim, I was small and I was weak, and not me trying to make someone else the victim. That could translate to hurting one of you.
“Regardless, even from people like my father, I was always unbalanced. I don’t know how to accept love, and I’m scared that it's just gonna hurt you more than just… not being with me. Can you imagine pouring your heart into someone and them just… tossing it aside.”
”But you’ve never done that, even with what we are now,” Hardison reasoned. “Sure, you don’t take compliments without a fight. You don’t like it when we say thank you. But you do accept it, you smile to yourself, your cheeks get red, you’ll put your head down like you’re shy or something. That is you finding a way to accept it. You’re not shaming us out of saying night things about you. You allow Parker to pull you into bed every night, you allow her to rest against you, you allow me to hold you, or your hand. It’s okay, we understand that maybe you’ll need to grow into it, but… don’t give up on us. Please.”
“Remember… we change, we grow, together,” Parker whispered, carefully crawling over to Eliot, kneeling in front of him to create a faux high difference. She gently touched his face, and Eliot’s eyes unfocused slightly as he looked up at her.
“Let us ask you properly, man,” Hardison whispered, slowly moving closer.
“Will you be ours?” Parker finished for Hardison.
How could Eliot strength saying no to something like that.
“Yes,” He breathed just before Parker swooped down to finally catch his lips. Eliot’s hands gently rested on his waist, careful not to squeeze. She kissed slower than Eliot expected her to, like she was testing the waters, before she seemed to get bored with that and started putting more into it.
When she did finally pull away, Eliot’s bottom lip tingled a bit from where she’d gently bitten him. He didn’t mind, and he glanced at Hardison, who was watching them with a happy little grin.
“That is just a scene of sexiness right there,” Hardison mumbled. “Like that. I want that, all day, everyday, forever.”
“I mean… I guess if you don’t want a turn I could just keep El all for me,” Parker teased, and Eliot couldn’t suppress the grin as Hardison started stammering and trying to move closer.
Eliot felt his head gently being turned away from Parker, and he went with it. He knew Hardison’s hands, and he trusted Hardison with everything in him. The hacker kissed him gently, which was expected. He was slower, and particular. Like he was trying to learn how to hack Eliot more. Eliot tilted his head slightly to give him a little boost, deeping it just a bit.
Hardison pulled away slowly, pressing their foreheads together, “Hey,” He whispered, to which Eliot chuckled.
“Hey,” Eliot whispered back.
“Hardison’s right, that would be lovely to watch forever,” Parker whispered, leaning down to kiss Eliot’s cheek. Eliot smiled, leaning up against Parker’s lips.
“Can I- can I touch your hair?” Hardison asked.
“Go for it,” Eliot shrugged, “You’ve done it before.”
“Yeah but like you said, you were in a different headspace,” Hardison whispered.
“I would’ve told you when I was rested that I don’t like it,” Eliot whispered back just before their lips met again, Hardison’s hand carefully threading with the strains of Eliot’s hair, careful not to tug just in case.
“We should go to bed,” Eliot whispered when he pulled away.
“We’re in a bed,” Parker reasoned.
“Someone’s gonna fall outta this bed if we tried to sleep in it together,” Hardison mumbled as he yawned, letting his hair free from Eliot’s hair.
“And it’ll probably be me,” Eliot huffed.
“So let’s go to the bed designed for all of us,” Hardison suggested. Carefully getting out of the current bed. Parker hopped off of Eliot and then took his hand to pull him up. Eliot chuckled slowly as he allowed himself to be pulled along easier now, and allowed himself to be pushed into the massive bed, Parker climbing over him to kiss him some more. Hardison not far behind her.