akblake

When Sophie notices something odd, she gets far more of a surprise than she'd bargained for!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sophie kept an eagle eye on the ‘kids’ as she called them- Eliot, Parker, and Hardison, the youngest thieves of their odd little family. They were all roughhousing by the pool and she didn’t want one of them getting hurt, or for an errant splash of cold water to interrupt her sunbathing. Eliot and Parker caught her attention yet again as she couldn’t put her finger on what was off; only that it drew her eye at infrequent times, like catching the barest glimmer of a diamond in sunlight. She watched unobtrusively and waited- the answer would eventually come to her, it always did.

 

“Bansai!” Parker shrieked as she leapt onto Eliot’s upper back, overbalancing him from where he’d been laughing after having thrown Hardison into the water and dumping them both into the pool with a riotous splash. Hardison was now cackling like a hyena, and even Sophie had to chuckle at the tables being turned on their normally sure-footed hitter. They had been at it for hours already and it finally looked to be slowing down as Hardison sedately paddled a few laps around the pool.

 

In a calm moment, Eliot put a hand on Parker’s face to still her, examining something Sophie couldn’t see from her distance, and then pointed to the shaded chairs. A pouting Parker emerged from the pool to flop bonelessly onto the lounger next to Sophie’s. “Party pooper,” she muttered, and Sophie could see what caught Eliot’s attention.

 

“Parker, darling, didn’t you put on any lotion earlier?” Sophie examined the deeply pink hue Parker’s skin had taken on in the sun and determined that perhaps only her nose and cheekbones would likely peel. An inconsistency caught her eye. “What is that?” she asked, pointing to an odd white shape on Parker’s finger, only visible due to the contrast between it and her reddened skin.

 

Parker immediately pulled her hand away from Sophie’s inspection and stammered something to the effect that she’d tell them later, and then escaped. Intrigued, Sophie tracked her as she made her way directly to where Eliot now lay sunbathing, whispered something to him, and the two disappeared together after an unreadable nod to Hardison. Something was up. Ever patient as a lioness stalking her target, Sophie refrained from following and settled for simply observing.

 

---------------

 

By the time that darkness and hunger had driven them inside, Sophie was beginning to become concerned. Eliot and Parker had remained indoors after the discovery and were now being conspicuous in their attempts at acting “normal”. By dessert, Sophie was ready to abandon her earlier resolve and harangue the two into explaining. Eliot standing, though, preempted her.

 

“Parker and I have decided to come clean with you all,” he started off, and Hardison’s knowing grin assured Sophie that it wasn’t a horrible secret that had been kept. “We’ve been dating for the past year, and four months ago we got married.” Eliot sat to silence while Parker beamed and held his offered hand.

 

“You two have been dating. For the past year?” Sophie nearly stammered with surprise; her job was based on observation, so how did she miss something this massive? Nate’s avoiding her gaze sparked an idea. “You knew!” Sophie pointed at Nate.

 

Nate shook his head, the proud look he’d had since Eliot’s announcement still very much in place. “I knew they were dating and ran interference so that they could get nights off together, but I didn’t know that they got married.” He turned to the couple and lifted his glass of water in salute, “Congratulations you two, I’m glad that you made it official.”

 

Hardison piped up, “Actually, I knew that they got married, but that’s only because I had to help with the marriage certificate. Crazy kids wanted to use their real names, but didn’t want to send up any red flags,” he rolled his eyes. Knowing Hardison’s talents, it had likely taken fewer than ten minutes to accomplish, but he still had problems showing that he cared. Sophie made a mental note that she’d have to work with him on that.

 

“When and how?” she asked rapidly, desperate now to know the details.

 

Parker grinned. “When we all split up for break, we went to Vegas and got married on a *bungee jump*,” she nearly bounced in her chair while Eliot shuddered slightly. “We also got tattoos, wanna see?” She pulled out what Sophie recognized as Hardison’s little ever-present black light and held out her left hand in demonstration. There Sophie could see that the odd white line appeared to be a luminous purple under the light; Eliot’s hand bearing the same strange line joined hers under the light a second later.

 

“UV-reactive ink?” Nate asked with appreciation as he leaned in to inspect the work. Sophie quirked an eyebrow at him in question and only received a smug look in return, which frustrated her. *Someone* was going to face an interrogation once she corralled him in their room tonight!

 

“Not like we can wear rings,” Eliot explained. “Rings hurt my hand when I hit people, and anything reflective would set off motion detectors on Parker, so we agreed to tattoos. The ink won’t leave any identifiable markings since it’s nearly invisible in regular light, but we can still feel the raised band.” Parker stroked over his tattoo to demonstrate, and Sophie watched them exchange a close look. She’d missed their courtship and marriage, but there was still something she could do for the obviously bonded pair.

 

“Since Nate is going to give you two weeks off, I want to give you a honeymoon.” Her soft announcement brought all eyes to focus on her, and Sophie used the opportunity to give Nate a look of warning. They were going to have time off whether he scheduled it or she took it from him. Nate nodded acceptance of her unspoken demand. “I have an island off the coast of Japan that I think would be a perfect getaway for you two- the guest house is a lovely little minka set on the seaward side of the island…” she trailed off temptingly. Another silent look between Eliot and Parker, and they both agreed, thanking her.

 

As it was late, they all retired; Eliot and Parker allowing themselves to be visibly together as they walked off hand in hand. Sophie snagged Nate’s arm as he tried to slink past unnoticed. “Where do you think you’re going?” she whispered as she towed him along to their bedroom. He was due quite the ‘punishment’ for hiding the pair’s dating, yet was due a reward for giving them time off, and Sophie had plans for giving him both tonight!

Eliot is more than willing to provide anything that Hardison needs, especially a pleasant distraction! Very much slash, though not terribly explicit, so be warned all ye who dislike slash!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eliot clicked off the tv, rather disappointed in the game- it hadn’t even been a close call, the other team didn’t seem prepared and were outclassed by a wide margin. Hardison had given up an hour ago in disgust and went to bed, but Eliot wanted to see it through to the end. Now that he had, he was left with a vague wish to buy the other team and teach them what true training was about. Clicking off the apartment’s lights, he joined his partner in bed and dozed off to the feeling of a warm body unconsciously cuddling into his. Hours later though, he was jolted awake and automatically searched for a threat; harsh panting met his ears, and he clicked on the bedside lamp to look at Hardison.

 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, voice rough from sleep even though he was fully awake. Eliot reached over to stroke Hardison’s cheek and frowned as his fingers came away damp with sweat. As if the gentle action broke some kind of spell, Hardison abruptly rolled over to grab onto Eliot, desperately fisting a handful of undershirt. Tremors shivered through the larger frame.

 

“I dreamed that I was back *there*, and when I woke up it was dark, and I couldn’t tell if I was here or still buried,” Hardison managed to mumble through his fear and embarrassment. His night terrors had faded out in the months following his being buried alive, but Eliot knew that nightmares could bring back even long-dead fears and make them seem as real as when they’d happened.

 

Pulling Hardison closer, he could feel the tremors fading away as reality settled in to chase the dream’s ghosts away. “You’re right here, with me, and I’ll always be here,” he assured. “Darkness is just the absence of light, and with me here I’ll always be the scariest thing in the dark.”

 

Hardison laughed a bit at the old joke, one he’d heard on nights when he woke up screaming, thinking that he was still in the coffin. “Boogey man ain’t got nothing on you,” he joked back. Now that he was properly awake, he *knew* that the silk he felt around him was just their sheets, not the coffin’s lining, and the dark seemed less oppressive, less strangling.

 

Deciding that a little distraction was in order, because the brain could be tricked into forgetting fear while putting the adrenaline already released to a better use, Eliot let his comforting hand wander down Hardison’s back to stroke at the soft skin right above his boxers. A stirring against his thigh was all the confirmation he needed as he moved in to capture Hardison’s lips in a kiss. The hand which had his shirt in a death grip suddenly released to tangle in his hair and pull him closer, and Eliot grinned into the kiss. “You know, if you’re still too afraid, we can stop,” he teased when they broke apart to breathe.

 

Brown eyes squinted menacingly and the hand in his hair tightened. “You stop now and I’m afraid that I’ll have to beat up the ‘scariest thing in the dark’, you understand me?” Eliot simply chuckled and shuffled them so that he could shove Hardison’s boxers down and follow them, ignoring the tug as Hardison took a second to catch on and let go of his hair. The hand was back a few seconds later, scrabbling to catch hold of his shoulder, as he unceremoniously engulfed Hardison’s erection and set a fast pace. They could read each other like an open picture book after being together so long, and Eliot knew that right now Hardison wanted blinding lust and overwhelming sensations rather than slow teasing and playing around.

 

Hardison mumbled something and released Eliot’s shoulder to push at his hip, and Eliot obligingly shifted his balance so that he could twist his hips around. Granted access, Hardison didn’t waste any time freeing Eliot from his boxers, though due to their positioning he was limited to stroking and squeezing his partner rather than returning the blowjob. Eliot couldn’t care less, though, as he focused on reading Hardison’s body cues to know when to speed up and bring him to a wringing orgasm. From hard-won experience, Hardison had released Eliot’s cock just before he came, and Eliot quickly finished himself off while Hardison worked on rebooting his brain. “That’s cheating , you know,” Hardison managed to pant, and Eliot didn’t bother lifting his head off Hardison’s thigh while he grinned mischievously.

 

“You can owe me one,” he promised. They caught their breath for a few minutes before Hardison reluctantly stirred, twitching his leg to let Eliot know that this pillow was about to disappear, and shuffled off to the bathroom to clean up, dropping his boxers in the laundry bin on his way past. Eliot finished stripping, thankful that his shirt and boxers had borne the brunt of the mess, and was naked by the time Hardison returned to hand him the damp washcloth. Once they were both clean and settled back into bed, Eliot promised, “If you need anything to help with the nightmares, just let me know and I’ll do whatever it takes.”

 

Hardison gently kissed the bit of neck he could reach, as they were tangled together again, and smiled at the goose bumps he raised. “All I need is your love,” he said as he squirmed a bit to make himself more comfortable.

 

“You’ll always have my love,” Eliot tightened his hold for a moment in a hug, and lay there listening as Hardison dropped off to sleep. He allowed himself to lightly doze through the night, remaining on guard to catch and break the dream cycle before they woke Hardison if any nightmares returned. He always found it amusing that getting little sleep during training had always left him wishing to slaughter the instructor, yet he was more than willing to sacrifice sleep to look after his lover. Even having his shoulder drooled on by the aforementioned lover wasn’t quite as bad as he let on, though he’d never let Hardison know that or the man would be insufferably smug.

A bit of friendship, and trust, between our favorite hitter and thief. Can be read as pre-romance if you squint and tip your head in the right direction.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eliot sat on the floor meditating while, thirty feet above him, Parker did her own version of meditation. She’d outfitted her new Portland warehouse with a tangle of steel bars, varying thicknesses, metals, placements, and angles. She had worked hard on it for months and today was the big test- will her modifications hold, or will they send her crashing to the ground?

“You still good up there?” floated up to her ears, making her smile as she crouched on one of the highest bars. Eliot had made her promise, years ago, that she would have him standing by any time she tested out new equipment or harness alterations; the team’s hitter wasn’t just her protector on the job, but also tried to be there to catch her any time she may need him. That level of care, and the trust she felt for him in return, was still such a new experience that her tummy got butterflies when she thought about it.

“Yep,” Parker sang out, “Just planning the best route down!” That drew his attention, and Eliot looked up in time to watch her step off the bar. She fell a second and then whipped her hands out to catch a thin bar, set at an angle from the one she just left. Swinging off of it tossed her in another direction and she joyfully went with the momentum. Eliot felt like he was watching a human pinball as the crazy but undeniably graceful thief swung from bar to bar, sometimes falling an alarming distance before bouncing and swinging back up again. The massive grin on her face was easily visible even from where he knelt on the floor.  He had a small grin in response as he marked her progress up, down, and around, seeming to defy gravity with every twist and flip.

One pole shifted as her foot landed on it, Parker intending to spring off of it to reach the perpendicular iron bar seven foot above it and she slipped. “Parker!” Eliot sprang up, immediately calculating her speed and trajectory, and knew that the fall would be a bad one for them both. He still was in the process of moving under her, ready to break her fall, when she twisted like a cat and scrambled to grab onto a structural support which held up her twisted version of monkey bars. After slipping a few tense seconds, her hold stopped her momentum and they both froze, breathing heavily. Parker took a moment and then made her way back down to the ground where Eliot met her, automatically looking her over for any injuries. “You good?” he asked, trying to hold onto calm despite his racing heart and adrenaline.

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m good,” she repeated, reassuring herself too. “One of the anchoring bolts on the pole mount must be defective. It didn’t move the last two times I landed on it, so it either loosened, which it wasn’t supposed to do, or it stripped the threads…” Parker was still pale, and talking too fast, so Eliot stepped closer, giving her the choice. He couldn’t force her to accept comfort, but he could offer it if she needed it. She abruptly quit talking and immediately grabbed him for a quick hug before stepping back. One deep breath later and Parker appeared far less shaken-up than she did before. She flashed him a grin of thanks before turning to walk further into her living space, leaving a very puzzled hitter behind to deal with the fading remnants of his own fright.

She returned a moment later, holding her own custom harness and a spare which she offered to Eliot. “Want to go freak out some museum curators?” The manic look was back in her eye and her smile grew when he simply raised his eyebrows at her, face expectant. “I found my thing.”

Eliot waited a second for her to elaborate, but in typical Parker fashion she seemed to expect him to already know what she meant. “What thing, Parker?” he ran his hands through his hair in confused aggravation as he attempted to keep his temper. No one could wind him up faster than Parker. Granted, Hardison usually hit his buttons in four words or less, but it just wasn’t the same feeling.

“Like how your thing is cooking,” Parker attempted to clarify, cocking her head to study him, “I found my thing. I break into museums and switch the exhibits around, rearrange the dioramas,” she broke off to laugh. “It’s always funny to watch them freak out when I switch the Greek artifacts with the Egyptian, or shuffle the Rembrants, Monets, and Picassos. The curator in the Bowman wing still hasn’t figured out that I switched their Rubens and Ruisdael!”

Eliot had to laugh too, her joy proving infectious. He took the offered harness and buried his own dislike of dangling off the end of a rope. Whether protecting her from a mark’s goons or even from her own rattled nerves, he would always be her safety. Parker loosed a whoop, grabbed his hand, and pulled him out of her warehouse. They had a museum to break into!

Sophie's a little concerned and, in trying to talk around the issue, leaves Hardison to misunderstand.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hardison… Alec, might I have a word?” Sophie hesitantly requested, and Hardison turned to face her, leaning back against the office’s kitchen counter to make himself comfortable. From her tone of voice, he could guess that the conversation wouldn’t be a short one.

“Absolutely, what’s up?” Hardison kept an eye on body language as a clue towards trying to figure out what had her so uncomfortable.

Sophie took a deep breath, appeared to decide something, and then spoke. “I’m a little concerned about your relationship with Eliot, that someone will end up getting hurt. Are you certain that it’s a good idea?”

Floored, Hardison could only stammer for a moment. He hadn’t expected her commenting so pointedly on their relationship. “Of course there’s a chance for one of us to get hurt, and we already have, but we’ve learned from it,” he blurted out, overriding whatever else she looked about to say. “I mean, I’ve had to learn that the best way to wake him up when he’s dreaming is by throwing a wadded up shirt or something… from across the room; got kneed once in the stomach before I learned that one. And Eliot, man, Eliot’s already learned that walking across my floor in the dark isn’t a good idea. He cut his feet up and killed two motherboards by stepping on them before he got into the habit of turning on a light. So yeah, I think we’ve both learned that our kind of relationship has its hazards, but we’re good.”

“Not quite what I meant, sweetie,” Sophie managed to interject as he stopped to take a breath. He drew a blank as to what she could mean and could only stare in question until she clarified. “I meant that I’m afraid you’ll hurt each other emotionally, like if you two broke up or it turned nasty. I can tell you, thieves don’t make for stable relationships!” Sophie huffed a derogatory laugh at her own yes-no-maybe relationship with Nate.

A voice from the doorway behind Sophie had her spinning around in shock, to Hardison’s carefully hidden amusement. “There’s very little risk of me hurting Hardison.” Eliot leaned against the door frame, appearing casual despite the conversation’s topic. “I’ve learned quite a bit in my life so far, and I ain’t the same person I was twenty years ago.” He meaningfully nodded and Hardison got the point- whatever happened in the past wouldn’t be repeated in the present.

“Besides, that’s not how we work. Despite the fact that unintentional hurt is inevitable, neither of us are cruel people and we’re both mature enough to talk out our problems when they come up,” Hardison reasonably stated, and was mostly telling the truth. They did end up talking out their problems, though it was usually after one or both of them had their screaming fit first. Get the anger or frustration out of the way and they could both act like mature adults. He cradled the soda he’d been in the kitchen for, and walked out the door; Eliot didn’t give way and they ended up brushing gently against each other as he passed into the hallway. Sophie made a sound, like she wanted to continue dissecting their relationship, and Hardison decided that enough was enough. “Don’t hold us to the same standard that you and Nate are setting, Sophie; it’s not fair to any of us, and neither Eliot nor I will appreciate the comparison.”

Heels clicked on the floor and he turned to watch her step out into the hallway with them. “I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to upset you; I just… I just don’t want to see my ‘kids’ get hurt, and I do love you both dearly.” Both Hardison and Eliot nodded in acceptance- they did understand the point she had tried, and failed, to make. Sophie stepped up to give Hardison a light hug, and then bussed Eliot’s cheek as she passed by, heading down the hallway to corner Nate about her part in the upcoming job. The two shared an amused look and split up to their own duties- even relationships had to wait a bit when both partners were thieves with jobs to do. They simply did what had to be done and looked forward to the downtime between when they could spend more than a few hours together.

Unexpected circumstances provide Parker with the perfect opportunity to corner Eliot about his attitude.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parker glanced up at the hole in what used to be the floor, which was now the ceiling given that they’d fallen through it, and worked to keep the grin off of her face. She had planned to pin Eliot down for a serious conversation and though this wasn’t exactly what she envisioned, she’d take it anyway. “Nope, can’t climb out- it’s all at the wrong angle,” she fibbed when he asked if she could monkey her way back out. The tiny room had metal sides, and what looked like thick insulation in the ceiling, so given that and the fact that their earbuds couldn’t connect since their fall she guessed it was a refrigeration unit at one time. Its single door had resisted their attempts at forcing it open and was either stuck or locked from the other side. They had been checking out the warehouse in preparation of Nate using it to pose as an arms dealer, but the concrete floor had given out under their combined weight and dumped them into this unknown room. From the black mold coloring the insulation that tumbled down to join them, it appeared that water damage was the cause of the collapse.

Eliot swore and paced around the small space, and Parker could nearly physically feel his bad temper. His euphoria immediately following their triumph over Moreau had plummeted into a black mood which had the others stepping carefully to avoid drawing his cutting sarcasm, and Parker wasn’t going to put up with it anymore. He needed to talk, whether he would admit it or not, and now that they’d landed where he couldn’t escape without her help she’d happily take the opportunity to force the issue. Hopefully before Hardison realized that their earbuds weren’t responding and tracked them down.

“So, anything you want to get off of your chest while we wait?” Parker started off with a soft question to give him a shot at doing this the easy way. His venomous glare answered that question. “See, I think that you need to talk about something that’s eating you up inside, and since we’re not going anywhere-“ Eliot cut her off.

“What, we’ve pulled a few jobs as a team and now you think that you know me well enough to play amateur psychologist? Doesn’t happen that way, and I don’t want to talk,” he snapped and went back to his restless pacing.

Parker watched him stride five steps to her right, spin, and pace the same five steps back to the other corner of the enclosure. He held himself stiffly which, given that they weren’t injured beyond a few bruises in the fall, spoke to her of agitation and stress. “No, I think that you do,” she contradicted his claim. Parker decided to take an educated guess as to what had him wound so tightly. “I think those memories are eating you alive now that you’ve had to bring them up again and you don’t have a way of forcing them back down again.” She watched him twitch slightly and turn furiously to face her.

“When I said that I don’t want to talk, that means stop pushing! I don’t want to satisfy some morbid curiosity of yours, or let you see how far you can poke before I react.” Eliot all but yelled. “You wouldn’t have the first idea what’s bothering me, so let’s just pass the time in silence, not talking.” He drew a deep breath and forced his hands to unclench. Parker caught an expression flash across his face for just a second before it was gone, but it was enough for her to recognize. She’d seen it in her own reflection a few times.

She settled onto a fallen chunk of the floor above and tucked her knees up to her chest. This conversation would be painful, in more ways than one, and she couldn’t help her own need to curl up, to hide. “Yeah, I think I do. Shut up!” She raised her head and glared as he snorted and opened his mouth to send another volley her way. “Let me speak, and then you can say anything that you want when I’m done.” Parker rested her chin on her knees and hugged them to her, eyes sliding away from his to focus on a bit of insulation swaying in the air current.

“The first time I killed someone I was ten years old.” She deliberately started blunt, determined to hold nothing back if she was going to tell. Eliot froze in place, but she didn’t pay him too much attention. “I was always small, too thin, and he grabbed me when I cut through an alley. We ended up on the ground and even then I knew what he wanted to do to me, so I fought. I scratched and kicked, and when I felt something on the ground, I picked it up and swung it at him too. Caught him right across the throat.” Parker swallowed hard at the feelings the memory brought up and took a moment to collect herself before continuing. “It was some twisted piece of metal, maybe from a car wreck, but it just cut across his neck so easily. He… I remember being shocked at how hot his blood was when it splashed on me. I freaked out, ran away, and had nightmares about it for weeks. Tried to justify that it was self-defense, but a part of me was satisfied that he was dead- he couldn’t hurt anyone else.”

Parker glanced over to find Eliot staring at her, frown of confusion pulling at his lips and furrowing his forehead. She shook her head to remind him to keep his mouth shut until he was finished. If he interrupted, she may never get the courage to start this up again. “The second person I killed couldn’t be justified as self-defense, it was cold revenge, and I was twelve.” She heard a shuffle and thump as Eliot must have sat on the floor, but didn’t look over to confirm it. Parker couldn’t stand to look him in the eye as she voiced her own ghosts.

“On the streets, I had made a friend of another kid, Katie. We scavenged and begged together, and usually did okay. I remember that it was a Tuesday when I found her, laying there so still beside our favorite dumpster, and dragged her back to the building we were hiding in.” A tear broke free and rolled down her cheek as she remembered just how badly beaten her first ever friend had been. “She managed to tell me that an older boy had caught her, took all the food she’d managed to find, and beat her for absolutely no reason. She didn’t fight, couldn’t have hurt him, but he still kicked her nearly to death before he ran away. When Katie got worse, I couldn’t take her to the hospital- they would have split us up, put us in group homes, and we’d have ended up worse off than we were on the streets. Wouldn’t have made a difference, though, as she died two days later.”

Parker sniffled and wiped the tears off of her face. She could still remember how Katie’s face lit up with a massive smile whenever they had begged enough money to actually buy food from a store. Those memories were still etched, perfect as a photograph, in her mind. “I tracked down the boy who’d attacked her, followed him until he finally split off from the group he was with, and deliberately beat him to death with a brick I’d picked up just for that purpose. He cried, and begged, and screamed, and I didn’t stop until I couldn’t lift the brick again. By then I’d caved in his head and when I picked something off of my shirt, I had to go puke as I realized that it was some of his brains. Still really don’t like gelatin.” She risked another glance at Eliot.

Contrary to what she’d feared, he appeared more understanding than horrified, though his gaze seemed to be looking more into the distance than focusing on her. Parker could work with that far better than horror or disgust. She took advantage of his distraction to gather herself back together again. She had very good reasons why she rarely spoke of her past and the emotions seemed to suck away all of her energy and she just wanted this over. “I killed again a few years before we made a team. Had paired up with another thief to steal the Marluck collection and once we got away, he tried to shove me off a rooftop rather than split the jewelry.” Parker noticed out of the corner of her eye that Eliot seemed to be focused on her again rather than whatever he saw in his head. “I ended up shooting him in the stomach; must have hit something important because he died before I could do too much to help. After that I kept away from everyone; didn’t want any friends after Katie, no partners who could double-cross me, nothing. The only reason I took Dubenich’s offer is because he didn’t tell me it was part of a team until he called to say where I should show up.”

Parker steeled herself and stared Eliot directly in the eye. “So you see, I do know what I’m talking about when I say that memories are eating at your insides. I do know that you need to talk.” Eliot thought silently and then nodded.

“I need time to get my thoughts together,” he responded, and Parker realized that his request for time wasn’t some sort of dodge. He wanted to get himself sorted out before he’d come and find her for that talk. Grateful that he wasn’t trying to discuss the admissions she’d made, she gave him a small nod in acceptance before standing and dusting off her pants.

“Now that that’s settled, let’s get out of here before we panic Hardison too much.” Parker eyed the pile of collapsed concrete and rebar and began plotting a route to the top. It would be tricky, but fairly easy compared to some of the vaults she’d broken into.

Eliot made an inarticulate noise of frustration. “You mean that this entire time you could have gotten us out of here?!” he growled.

“It was an opportunity to get you to talk without everyone else around and I took it. We aren’t hurt or in any danger, just confined where you had to stop and listen. Would you really have let me speak if you could have walked away?” Parker crossed her arms over her chest and faced him squarely.

His frustration visibly drained away. “No, I would have walked out of the nearest door,” he admitted.

“Okay, so it served its purpose and now we can get out of here.” Parker ended the conversation by carefully working her way back out of the room they’d fallen into, and lay down on the floor to offer Eliot a hand up. He dubiously eyed some of the fallen debris before he decided to jump and trust that she’d be able to lift him. Parker easily managed to pull him up and help him climb out onto what they both hoped was solid concrete.

Eliot rolled to his feet first and helped pull her up. “You’re not as crazy as you act, are you?” Parker eyed him speculatively. She didn’t allow too many people to see the person under her protective shell, but she’d already pulled away part of it when she gave voice to some of the worst memories she carried.

“I won’t ever be normal, but I’m not just crazy,” she admitted. Part of it was her, and part of it was an act to keep everyone else at arm’s length where they couldn’t hurt her. Eliot accepted her reasoning without comment and the two friends carefully exited the warehouse to tell Nate that he’d have to find another place to take their mark- this one was far too dangerous to use.

Parker and Eliot practice a little stealth and tracking... Unrepentant excuse for Parker/Eliot smut, some parts explicit- fair warning!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eliot and Parker arrived at the park early, ready to set up their surveillance. Their mark, a Joseph Donaldson, seemed to prefer meeting his criminal contacts at various parks, believing that there was less risk of being observed. He was right, in a way, given that the various law enforcement agencies didn’t work as well in those circumstances, but a team of thieves had far more freedom. Their plan was to bug the bench that he was most likely to use and then get out of there, but that plan fell apart almost immediately.

“Damn it!” Eliot swore under his breath as he caught sight of a familiar face and ducked behind a nearby tree, pulling Parker with him. He could hear the others’ questions in his earbud and explained what he and Parker could easily see. “Donaldson’s showed up early, and he’s not alone-he’s kept Quinn on the payroll and must have brought him along to act as a bodyguard for the meeting. If Quinn sees us, he ain’t gonna keep his mouth shut.”

Parker thought quickly and then looked up with a grin. “I think I know a good hiding place,” she drew his attention to the large tree they were currently using as cover in the mostly-exposed park. He shook his head vehemently as she lithely slipped up into its branches and then held a hand down to him. “Look,” she scolded, “we don’t have a better choice; the leaves will camouflage us if we’re careful, and they’re getting closer. Hurry up already!”

Spurred on by the realization that they’d be seen if they ran, and seen if they stayed on the ground, Eliot grabbed her hand and let her help haul him up into the tree. Early summer meant that the tree was in full foliage and he was grateful that it was also old enough to have a few limbs thick enough to support his weight. Parker seemed to weigh no more than a feather, but he had no illusions about what would happen if he ventured onto the wrong branch. Parker settled down in front of him, reclining against two branches, and they listened to the mark’s arrival under them.

They couldn’t answer any of Hardison’s questions over the earbuds as the park’s morning quiet wouldn’t cover their voices, but they had trusted in the equipment’s sensitivity and near-silently shushed him. Barely five minutes had passed when Parker began slowly inching backwards, crowding Eliot between her body and his perch against the tree trunk. He gave her an exasperated questioning look, to which he only received a devilish grin and comically wiggling eyebrows. For some reason, that didn’t entirely reassure him.

Parker settled for a moment as movement below drew their attention; Donaldson’s meeting appeared to start, and both sets of bodyguards went on alert. Eliot’s attention snapped back to Parker as she began to slowly grind her butt against his crotch. She looked back and quirked an eyebrow at him in question and challenge- was he up for it?

He certainly was, and becoming more up for it by the second as she continued her careful sinuous movements. Eliot reached around to undo the button on Parker’s pants when she grabbed his hand and redirected it across to her left breast while she efficiently dealt with her clothing. They couldn’t strip, but she was flexible and strong… and determined. So he didn’t argue and instead slipped his hand up under her shirt to squeeze each breast just how he knew she liked, and used his left to manage his own belt, zip, and boxer flap. By the time he’d pulled himself free, Parker was nearly panting and reached around to grasp him. Eliot bucked slightly when he firmly pinched the nipple he was playing with and her hand reflexively tightened its hold.

Abandoning her handhold, Parker quickly shifted enough to drag her pants down to her thighs and carefully moved back onto Eliot’s lap. She bit her lip as he guided himself home and they froze as each had to battle their bodies’ demands to move. If they moved wrong and scuffled against the tree’s bark, the noise would alert the people below; they also had to be careful not to shake the limbs they were hanging onto as trees don’t normally shimmy without a wind blowing. Parker carefully shifted, left hand keeping a strangle-hold on a parallel branch to steady her, and felt Eliot begin a very slow glide. She knew that he usually wanted to use his hand below, and so nudged him out of the way so that she could pinch and squeeze her own breasts with her right hand.

Eliot had to quickly think as he secured his footing on the branch. With him squatting on it and Parker partially crouching above him, it was an awkward affair, but also an interesting challenge and the risk only enhanced their thrill. He couldn’t thrust as hard as either of them wanted, so he followed Parker’s silent prompt and put his free hand to good use. With the extra stimulation, she soon climaxed and Eliot stilled, both to help support her and to stave off his own. Her internal muscles clenched around him, a delicious sensation, and he nibbled on the back of her neck as he waited for her to regroup. A few moments later and she was arching back to receive a proper kiss, leaving him in awe again at her seemingly spineless flexibility.

Once her mind cleared of its pleasant haze, Parker purposefully squeezed down on Eliot to let him know that she was more than ready for round two. As he resumed his incredibly slow strokes again, Parker could only hang onto her branch and enjoy. She couldn’t really move without her weight shaking the branch as she was further out along it than Eliot was, and couldn’t turn around to face him as she’d already determined in her mind that the geometry just wouldn’t work. He seemed to be trying for a longer buildup this time, alternating the pressure of his fingers and their speed, and Parker mimicked that variation as she pinched and rolled her own nipples. She felt his breath stir the loose strands of hair at the nape of her neck just before Eliot firmly bit down and catapulted her into her second orgasm. Parker barely had enough presence of mind to freeze in place, though she was sure that the earbuds caught her tiny grunt that escaped, and felt Eliot’s arm come up to clamp around her shaking middle, helping to ground her.

Miraculously, when they both recovered enough to look down again, none of the people below had noticed their camouflaged activities and the meeting was still going. Eliot rested his forehead briefly on Parker’s shoulder as he tried to pull his control back together. That orgasm nearly pulled him over the edge with her and had they been alone in a bed he knew that his bite would have had her screaming. Neither of them cared a lot for pain during sex, but occasionally used it to throw the pleasure into high relief. More than once he’d sat back during team meetings only to feel the stings as he pressed fresh scratches along his spine against the chair’s back rest. Those times it was all he could do to contain his self-satisfied grin, remembering how he’d earned her clawing up his back.

Eliot gathered himself and set back into motion- slow pull out, pause, slow push back in. It was maddening in more ways than one, but he couldn’t complain as the alternative was for them to sit, bored out of their heads, until the meeting broke up. Speaking of, Eliot paused as they both tuned back in to listen. He slowed the movement of his fingers as well and received a slightly frustrated look from Parker in return. Eliot simply gave her the same grin and wiggling eyebrows that she’d given him, and she responded very maturely by sticking her tongue out at him. The meeting finally concluded and Donaldson walked away towards downtown, presumably to wherever he’d parked.

“Parker, Eliot- are they done?” Nate’s voice startled them both as Hardison had apparently cut the incoming audio feed to their earbuds while they couldn’t respond so that they didn’t have to put up with all the chatter.

“Yeah, they’re done and walking out. Once they’re clear we’ll have to work our way down out of the tree and we’ll meet you at the van,” Parker informed the rest of the team and shot Eliot a wide grin as they heard Nate’s agreement. They’d still have to be silent to keep from alerting the team, but now they could finish this!

Eliot watched Parker brace herself better and then began to forcefully thrust, more than ready for his own release now that there was no reason to delay. He sped up his fingers’ rhythm and pressed harder, knowing that it wouldn’t take much as her body was already sensitized by the two previous orgasms. Parker’s muscles clenched around him and he stuttered a few more thrusts before he joined her in release, he pulled her against him in a tight hug as he gently kissed the side of her sweaty neck. They remained until Hardison’s questioning reminded them that they were supposed to be getting down out of the tree, not getting off in it.

“Yeah, Hardison, I know! We’re working on it,” he snapped as their hacker went into yet another tirade about them taking too long. They separated to rearrange their clothes and then, sharing one last long look, worked their way back down to the ground. Parker exuberantly bumped his shoulder with hers as they hurried off to join the others in the van and Eliot grinned back at her as he tried to walk off a cramp in his calf. That hadn’t been too bad of a wait, and certainly had been an experience!

Parker and Eliot practice a little stealth and tracking... Unrepentant excuse for Parker/Eliot smut, some parts explicit- fair warning!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parker was used to flitting from shadow to shadow, silent as a ghost. She wasn't, however, used to nearly-silent footsteps following her even if it was a familiar cadence to their steps. She thought as she walked home and came up with a course of action- she'd see if the footsteps followed her back to her warehouse and then deal with her follower after. Parker slipped through back alleys in the worst part of town with utter fearlessness as to what could be hiding in the dark. Her shadow's footsteps sounded aggravated, if footsteps could display an emotion, and she smirked to herself, tallying a point on her mental scoreboard. Before too long she had wound her way through the city and was nearly home; time to deal with her shadow. Parker silently shimmied up the brick side of a nearby building, one that she had scoped out in the first weeks because of its second floor balcony- perfect perch for a cat burglar.

Mere seconds after she ensconced herself in her hideaway, the source of the footsteps came into view. No more than a deeper shadow within the alley's shadows, it moved with the loose grace of a powerful predator and she knew that the barely audible footsteps were merely a courtesy to her. She felt no such chivalry in return and wore a wicked grin as she dropped down silently behind her stalker. "Caught you!" She caroled happily.

Eliot stilled, stifling his instinctual reaction to the sudden displacement of air behind him, and turned to face Parker. "So you did. Question is- what are you going to do with me now that you caught me?" He allowed her to circle him in victory, eyes down submissively in keeping with his status of 'prisoner'. He truly hadn't caught her climb, even if he'd noticed her jump, and willingly conceded that he lost that round. Besides, losing was still winning in their game.

Parker used her scarf to loosely hitch her prisoner's wrists together behind his back before she pushed on his shoulder to get him walking to the warehouse. She keyed in the access code and Eliot followed her inside the surprisingly warm building without needing unnecessary conversation between them. Once inside, Parker released his wrists so that she could hang the scarf in its place with her coat by the door and Eliot simply grasped his left wrist with his right hand to keep his arms behind his back. She led him by the elbow to the center of the room where she left him standing while she walked around the room.

His heart began to race as she came back into view, completely nude and absolutely unashamed. Eliot kept his gaze on the floor's rug as she circled him again before coming to stand squarely in front of him. Strong fingers buried themselves in his hair and he was pulled in for a dizzying kiss before that same hand yanked his head back so that she could lean in to deliver a sharp nip to his throat. Eliot tried to breathe through the desire to reach out and pull Parker into his body; no one could test his control like she could and he tightened his grip to near-bruising on his wrist. The slight pain allowed him to better focus beyond his desire as he was pulled back in for another deep kiss.

"Knees," Parker bluntly ordered and purred to herself as he immediately complied. She carded her fingers through his loose hair again before giving a slight tug to get him to look up at her. Parker widened her stance and used her grip to pull his head forward, right where she wanted him. His devilish smirk as he set to work made her groan even as her eyes slid shut in pleasure.

Eliot kept up his exquisite torture, pushing her towards the peak and then backing off before an expert graze of teeth made her knees buckle. He caught her slight weight and held her through the tremors of her orgasm, untangling her unresisting hand from his hair so that he could give her a proper kiss. They remained on the floor, Eliot still kneeling and her held close, until Parker caught her breath. "Bed now?" he rasped, withheld desire making his voice rougher than normal. At her nod against his chest, he rearranged his hold and easily rose to carry her over to the plain bed.

Parker stretched bonelessly once he laid her down and basked in the endorphin rush while she watched him efficiently strip. That he allowed his clothes to fall into a messy pile on the floor spoke to his urgency more than any impassioned words ever could, and it was a sight that she loved to see in her normally restrained lover. He joined her on the bed and Parker pulled him on top of her so that her hands could wander as they kissed. She loved the feel of him- bumps and ridges of scars over warm muscle on his back, the dip of his lower back, and the muscles in his sides that tightened in ticklish reaction every time she lightly raked her nails up them.

Having recovered and more than ready, she swept Eliot's right knee out from under him so that she could roll them. His hands instantly came up to her hips and Parker immediately sheathed him to keep him from flipping them back. At the sensation of tight heat, Eliot's head thumped heavily to the pillow and his hands tightened on her hips to pull Parker even closer, all thoughts of moving them forgotten. They quickly moved into rhythm as neither wanted to dally this time and soon his thumb working her as she rode brought her to muscle-clenching orgasm. Her internal muscles contracting pulled him over the edge and he crushed her to him as he rode out his own release. Sweaty and panting, they lay beside each other and let their racing hearts calm.

"I love your stealth training," Parker emphatically stated as she rolled over to rest on Eliot's chest. His arms came around her as they shared a gentle kiss before she shimmied down a bit to lay her head over his heart and listen to its steady beat.

Eliot hooked the comforter with his toes and stretched to pull it over them without dislodging Parker. "Certainly ain't how they taught it in basic," he chuckled. This was the best way that he'd come up with for teaching Parker and keeping his own skills sharp; whoever was caught ended up at the mercy of his or her captor, and he hadn't ever experienced torture as sweet. Giving one last gentle kiss, they both settled in for a quick nap before round two.