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Eliot has been acting . . . strange.
Parker wasn’t sure at the beginning, but now she is 100% most definitely confident about it now.
He’s been more finicky about the food he buys— and how much. Before, she could just nibble on whatever he placed in the friend and he’d get all red in the face and huff about it, but not say anything else.
Now, he will stop her on her way to the friend or slap her hand before she can open his bag marked, Parker Do Not Eat.
He even went out of his way to get a second bag of food that said she could eat it, but upon seeing something like that, it took her appetite for snacking away.
In addition to the silent food scandal, he’s gotten even weirder about music.
On a con they needed to do the sushi and infiltrate a place for it el and instead the usual country or whatever rock she was used to hearing in his speakers before he turned it off, it was. . . RnB.
Then, he let the song play a little as his hand rested on the knob to turn it off. His eyes got all distant glassy for a moment. His tongue darted slowly across his bottom lip before the briefest hint of a smile crossed his face— no, a smirk flashed across his face before finally turning it off.
And on another day when listening to Hozier on the speakers at the headquarters (a fact he will always deny and say he doesn’t know how the music started playing or who turned it on— in addition to denying the fact that he loves Hozier), he got the same distant look, but this time he was biting his bottom lip as he tinkered with whatever car part or something he had in his hands.
The only reason he didn’t turn it off now was because she was watching him from the vents above.
The rise and fall of his chest got slower, deeper. And he stayed like that, starting off into space for a while. Ten minutes to be exact, and he jumped when his phone buzzed. When he read the text message, his smirk-smile got bigger as he typed away with his thumbs.
Suspicious. It was all suspicious.
She explained as much to Hardison and waited for his input. If anyone could interpret this emotional feeling stuff, it would be him.
“Uhm, okay babe.” He started slowly, gearing up for the explanation of explanations, “before we get into this. What do all these things add up to in your mind? And how do they make you feel?” Hardison was doing that thing he did when they talked emotion. He was moving his hands really slowly and his eyes were looking at every part of her face.
She liked when he did that. How he always makes sure to understand parts of her, she may not even know. Even now, after all these years, there’s always some new feeling or emotional experience she doesn’t understand.
“I’m worried!” She exclaimed, hopping off the couch. “He’s acting different !”
“Different as compared to. . .” He trailed off, following her as she paced around their living room.
“He was never like this with us!”
“So you think he’s seeing someone?” He said it kind of like a question but more in the tone he usually has when he says, oh no or really , after she says they can’t do vents today.
“Well we did talk about it.” he looked down for a moment, absent mindedly licking his lips in the way he does when collecting his thoughts. “He was going to start seeing someone eventually. Have you changed how you—“
“Of course not!” She sharply turned to face him, “I want him happy!”
“He seems pretty content to me, even excited—“
“Of course he’s happy! He always is. . . in the beginning, but something goes wrong, or they find out the truth about what he does and run away, and I don’t want that part to happen.”
“Babe, we can't keep bad things from happening . All we can do is be there for him when they do. We just have to—“
“ He was listening to RnB?!”
“Rn—“ Hardison cut himself off with a shake of his head. “Rhythm Blues?” He put hand on his chest and she nodded in confirmation. “Blues with the rhythm in it?”
“Yes!” She almost hissed, her voice distorting as it rose higher, “and the lady signing sounded like this.” She did her best recreation of the song and Hardison closed his eyes, clasping his hands together over his mouth as he listened. His eyebrows furrowed further.
“Sza!” He yelled incredulously, “this man was listening to Sza?!”
“In his car!”
“We need to investigate right away.”
And that’s how she ended up in the vents of an apartment building she’d never been in— of their apartment. Whoever this mysterious person was.
Eliot had stopped for flowers.
More flowers!
They were similar to the ones he was caught with this morning. He claimed he got them to spruce up the home base. He even gave a short anger fueled speech about taking pride where you work and keeping it clean. He often did that and complained about the stray wrappers and soda bottles Hardison left at his desk and a few crumbs she left in her wake, but to go from cleaning to flowers? Suspicious.
“Hey hey,” Eliot drawled. His voice filled up the almost too small apartment. Hardison had interrupted her comment to herself by saying it’s humbly sized and typical for single people. But this person–
“There he is!”
No,not person, she. . . a woman, not single anymore, she had Eliot. Their Eliot.
She had skin similar to Harrison’s but it was warmer compared to his cool dulcet tones. It made her think of how he would glow under the moonlight on their rooftop date nights. How it glittered like dark silver. She wanted to find out how hers would compare. If she’d shine like gold or not.
He met her at the door. Taking the flowers in one hand, she moved to stand on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek, but Eliot dipped his head half a beat faster and wrapped her lips in his.
She smiled softly and brushed her hair out of her eyes. It was big and thicker and framed her head in a dark brown black halo. It was the type of hair you couldn’t run your hands through. The opposite of Eliot’s. It was curlier than Harrison’s, but not loose and frilly. It was coily and tight.
She moved like she was shy, and that was confusing to Parker. Eliot had been acting funny for a while, so after all this time they’ve probably been together, why be shy?
She bent down, and Eliot’s face started to tinge red.
“What are you doing?” Now he was acting all shy.
“I’m helping,” she began unlacing his boots, “you’re not the only one that can take care of their partner.”
“Stop.” He grabbed her shoulder and pulled it up. A slight frown formed on his features, “I don’t need you taking care of me.”
“But I need you taking care of me?”
“Obviously, that’s not what I meant.” Eliot smirked, “take your flowers.” He ignored her jab, raking a hand through his hair.
“I will take my flowers.” She playfully huffed and walked to the kitchen.
“What’s that I’m smelling? I thought I told you I was making dinner.”
“Calm down chef. It’s just a little something I’m whipping up for dessert.”
“Turn it off,” in sure long steps he strode to her side, “We aren’t going to need it.” He laced one of his hands up her neck to wrap it around her jaw.
“And why is that?” She batted her eyelashes up at him, slowly craning her neck as she did, dipping her head slightly before Eliot embraced her lips with his own once more. The soft brush of her quiet laugh danced on his lips. He swiftly grabbed her by the thick of her thighs and lifted her onto the counter.
“Come here.” Here he murmured in between kisses and pulled at her shirt, lifting it off of her before doing the same with his own, foregoing the buttons and his undershirt all in one movement. It should have been more difficult, as he insisted on completing each action as close to her as possible, but he was Eliot.
And Eliot, as Parker had one to learn over the years, could do anything.
“I’m right here.” She murmured back, slipping her hands into his hair as he left a trail of kisses down her neck, trailing them across her chest, nipping and licking at her skin. Parker bit her lip, following the slight tug if the woman’s hands in Eliot’s hair, and his hands molding into the smooth dips and curves over her back as if he were trying to burrow them within her, shape her into something new, force himself into her being until they both transformed into something new, something whole.
Without Parker. . . without Hardison.
“Babe, I think it’s time for us to go.” Hardison whispered over the comms.
Parker gasped, out of character, not completely unseen and hidden.
If she were anywhere else on any other job or con with the team, it wouldn’t matter.
However, she was around Eliot.
“Wait waitwaitwaitwait . .. hold on a sec”, He froze, holding the woman close to his chest. “I think I heard something.”
“Parker get out of there.” Hardison hissed.
“What do you think I’m doing?” She hissed back, slipping further into the vents towards the exit, no longer sneaking around Eliot and his new girlfriend's home.
As soon as she kicked down the vent cover, his angry face was already staring down at her.
How? . . . it’s Eliot.
“PARKER!”
“It’snotwhatitlookslike.”
“So you weren’t spying on me and my. . . and my. . . Well it’s none of your business !”
“Well I guess it is what it looks like.”
“Why?!” He huffed, raking a hand through his hair.
“Because your happy— well, I was saying you’ve been acting funny, but Hardison said maybe you were just happy, but every time you meet someone that’s not us that makes you act funnier than normal, you tell them the truth about you and everything and then they leave and you get sad and weird in a bad way, and I don’t want to see you like that.”
Eliot breathed roughly through his nose, momentarily closing his eyes.
“Y-you. . . “ he said, then remained silent and for some reason that hurt.
“Parker! . . . Eliot! . . .” Hardison huffed, coming to where they were.
“Look, man,” he started, “no matter what happens, we’ll always be here for you.”
Eliot’s brows drew together.
“You’re here too!”
“You think I was just going to let Parker do this on her own! These are new feelings she hasn’t experienced before!”
“You could have talked to me like a normal people!”
“Since when have we been normal?” Parker huffed with a wave of her hand.
“You wouldn’t have talked!” Hardison threw up his hands.
After five minutes of arguing, Eliot reluctantly agreed to a double date that Hardison proposed. Parker was suspicious, but he explained to her that this was what normal friends do that are worried about who they bring into their lives.
Eliot went back to his girlfriend's apartment, muttering under his breath that he needs to get back before you thought something was up.(not without yelling at them to go home first.)
“So we get to hear her plead her case for why she deserves to be in Eliot’s life. . after we interrogate her.”
“Uhm, no not at all.” Hardison put her arm around her, “we have a nice lunch, brunch, dinner maybe, and we talk and ask polite noninvasive , " he looked at her pointedly,” questions.”
Parker grunted, but otherwise said nothing.
“No, uhuh, “ he shook his head, “no, no grunt. If we can’t ask any nice questions we aren’t going to ask any questions at all.”
Parker scoffed loudly in protest.