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Leveragetober23 Day 11: kiss

Summary:

Part of my Leveragetober 2023 list
Day 11: kiss

How Parker understands and interacts with touching, bodily autonomy, and kissing with Eliot and Alec.
How Parker learns.
How Parker trusts.

Work Text:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that, if given a ceiling to climb on, Parker will find herself up there, eventually. Now, this is not usually a problem, unless, like all spiders, you didn't know she was there until she dropped down onto you. Then...there is usually screaming. Something (or more than one somethings) gets thrown. Slapping noises get real loud, real quick, as people try to bat away whatever is tickling the top of their head, only to find it is a FACETHEREISAFACETHEREWHATTHEFUCKPARK-

Now, though, Hardison and Eliot are much more used to it. Honestly, it has helped them in their line of work, the fact that they always look up when they scan a room now. Not just for cameras, no, but the rafters too. It's always handy to be able to quickly catalogue what looks like it can hold a person's weight, just in case. Yeah...just in case.

Parker, personally, is just happy that she has taught other people a skill that she believes is vitally necessary to existing, and doesn't even try to suppress her smile every time she sees their eyes catch on her when she is...hanging around.

One skill Parker has learned from the others, though, is touching. Touching can be good. It is not just used to hurt, or get things from other people. Sometimes it can be used for comfort. Sometimes as the only way to express the emotion others are feeling. Like when Hardison got buried and they found him and Parker hugged him like her life depended on it and then Eliot hugged him like everyone's life depended on it. Parker does better with examples.

Of course, at some point, all of this led to a very long (and what, at the time, Parker felt was a slightly unnecessary) discussion on consent and touching. Back then, Parker just didn't touch people, and she made sure people didn't touch her, so she didn't really see it as a problem they needed to discuss. But they knew her too well, by then, and they knew she does better with examples, so they sat her down and gave her some damn examples. 

Sometimes people don't want to be touched, and that's okay. You are allowed to say no to a hug, or a kiss, or a tap on the shoulder. You do not need to duck away, or disappear, or stabsomeonejesusparkerno. You can just turn around, look them in the eye, and say no. Yes, "no touchie" is acceptable.

Nate tried to say that sometimes unwelcome touching was needed for a con, and Parker would just have to deal with it in the moment until such a time that she could properly decompress, but Sophie shut that shit down before it got encoded in Parker's psyche as "acceptable." She made a good point, honestly. She couldn't claim to be half the conwoman she truly was if she couldn't see some other way to get what they needed out of the mark other than forcing a teammate to go through something that truly made them uncomfortable.

All of that to say, though, that Parker needs examples. And she was given them. But she took them more to be...rules. Which meant that for a few months, until the other two figured out what was going on, any attempts to initiate touching by her were quickly squashed because they did not explicitly give her consent to touch them. Or she would come up behind them and they would say "No, Parker" and she thought that meant "no touching at all ever" but they thought that meant "no, Parker, you can't have the food on my plate that I see you eyeing with my innate (hehe, Nate) senses which are informing me that the distinct lack of scent and sound identify the disturbance of air behind me as Parker."

This led to more rules. Better rules. Parker needed signs to know what was acceptable and when, so Hardison went to work. It took a while, explaining it and getting Eliot and Parker to agree, but eventually they had an understanding. Hardison made the three of them bracelets with a square bar that would lay flat on the top of their wrists, to be worn outside of cons. It had three colors: green, yellow, red, and blue. It had a tiny gyroscope inside so it always knew what side was on top, and that color would be reflected on a colored dot next to their names in their contacts on their phones, but the color was also on the bracelet in case they weren't near their phones at any given moment. 

Green meant yes. It is okay to touch me, I will not react in a way that will insinuate I do not want to be touched, I will not take it out on you. Welcome.

Yellow meant caution. Approach at your own risk. I may grumble. I may push or shove you half-heartedly. It may mean I'm busy and touching will distract me. It may mean I'm having a bad-skin day and everything is itchy and wrong and I want touchbutIdon'tIdon'tknowwhatIwant. Basically, approach at your own risk, be prepared to not be reacted to in a totally pleasant way, but at the same time, I will not reject it (or you) outright. I'm just a bit tetchy right now.

Red meant no. Simple as that. Don't touch. No touchie. No explanation needed. Red over an excessive amount of time may eventually call for a group-talk, because something is obviously wrong, but for a few hours, maybe even a few days, we don't ask, you don't tell (of course, unless you want to, those puppy dog eyes can be killer). 

Blue, though? Blue meant I need comfort. I need all the touching, now. I need a group huddle, please for the love of all that is holy I need to be buried beneath the weight of two bodies holding me down. I need something grounding me to the here and now, I need food or a blanket or lights or dark but really I need you.

All of this is an explanation for Spider Kisses (note the Capitals). 

Parker loves the ceilings, and she will always find a way to be closer to them, but she is also learning to love touch, which is typically with people who cannot also be found on ceilings. Thus, Spider Kisses.

As long as bracelets were on and colors were green (and maybe yellow depending on what was going on) Parker was free to descend from the ceiling and drop a kiss on the top of their heads whenever she wished. 

So, at least once a day, Eliot or Hardison would just be chilling. Cooking, watching a movie, hacking something, talking on the phone, scrolling the internet, etc., when all of a sudden, * boop * there goes Parker, dropping down to deliver a quick peck to a forehead, before scrambling back up to her web of gear spanning the whole building. Sometimes she stayed suspended right above their head, curious, wanting to get a better look at what they were doing. Sometimes she would descend and deliver a quick kiss in order to butter Eliot up and convince him to give her the leftover brownie batter. Sometimes Hardison would feel a brush atop his head and when he would look back to his station, a donut would be missing. Both men would grumble good naturedly at the food being absconded with, but that never stops them from sharing a look of understanding, proud of their little spider for taking what she wants and reaching out for them.

Touching them.

Trusting them.

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