Written for the prompt - Leverage, Eliot/any, all the ways he says I love you
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It's all the little things that count.
Nate watches as Eliot walks into the conference room, a glance up that's all as Eliot sets a cup of coffee down in front of him. It's not the usual brand, not the one Eliot makes for everyone else, Nate can smell the difference, savor the quality in this one. It's about appreciation, Eliot knows that when Nate's sober, the aroma of this one is a real treat. Nate knows that when he's been drinking, he couldn't tell the difference between this and the cheapest store bought brand . . . this is a sign that Eliot knows he's trying, recognizes the struggle it takes and is there to support all the way.
Eliot's there in the early hours of the morning with the chess set laid out ready, repeat of a hockey game playing quietly on the TV and a warm blanket that he'll cast round Nate's shoulders. Eliot's there, Nate knows it when he can't sleep, when the urge to drown in a bottle is more than he can take alone, Eliot will still be there and he'll stay, until the urge passes or the need for sleep is greater. Nate knows that Eliot won't back down, won't desert him.
He's there quietly when things are going well too. When the team are together and celebrating a job well done, Eliot's there in the background. He's usually in the kitchen cooking, feeding their mismatched family, but there's always something, one dish that Nate knows he made specially. It'll be because he knows Nate likes it, or because Nate wondered what it was like in a late night conversation.
The fridge is stocked, fresh and appetizing in a way it never was before Eliot. The apartment organized but filled with things Nate wants. The apartment is filled with life, not just memories. Sam's here and Maggie, Eliot made sure of it; they were a big part of Nate's life and there were good memories before the bad and that's what Eliot managed to find, what he put out for Nate to see.
Eliot's there in the conference room, a solid voice of reason. In many ways, he's the most stable member of the team. His attention is always where it should be on the details, the minutiae of the job, not off on a tangent or distracted altogether like Parker and Hardison can be, he's not so self-involved as Sophie and Tara have been at times and if Nate is honest, he himself is not always focussed in the way he should be when people's lives at are risk.
The biggest danger with Eliot is that while he knows his own limitations, he'll ignore them if it keeps the rest of the team safe. Nate knows that he loves them all in his gruff, unvoiced way enough that he would lay his life down to keep any one of them safe. The worst of it all is that he expects nothing in return from anyone of them, doesn't even expect them to notice.
Nate knows it's time he made sure that Eliot knows just how much all he does means. It's time Eliot knew that the kind of love he's willing to give is not a one-way street.
