Title: Exposure
Author: wildwordwomyn
Word Count: 217
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Alec Hardison/Eliot Spencer
Rating: PG
Disclaimers/Warnings: No spoilers or anything. Pre-slash.
Author's Notes: Written for the livejournal community *staringout* picture prompt #511. A hint of darkness but the prompt made me go there.
Summary: Alec reminisces.
"She looks lonely," you hear in your ear, startling you out of your daze. "Who is she?"
"An old friend," you reply.
It's the first time you've talked about someone from your past that has nothing to do with your Nana, and you're not sure why it doesn't scare you to do so. Anyone getting too close, anyone, and it could mean disaster. You know this. Yet Eliot has asked. You have answered...
"So...She didn't want her face to be seen, huh?" He gets it immediately.
"She was a foster kid that stayed with Nana for a while. She said it was the only place she ever felt safe. She was thirteen in that picture."
Eliot sits beside you, seemingly as entranced in the photo as you are. "What made it safe for her?" You can tell by the look in his eyes that he already knows, that you don't need to say it. You do anyway. Maybe to hear it out loud.
"The only thing any of us other kids were interested in back then was how far she could throw a baseball..."
You don't mention that it was you who wasn't safe. Somehow, though, he knows that too, and when he leans against your shoulder, instead of feeling exposed, the contact makes you feel protected.