A/N Alright, now for something completely different... I actually wrote about 90 percent of this fic about six months ago as a writing exercise when I was in the middle of Feels Like Home and needed to do something completely different, and since I haven't posted anything lately while I've been working on some other long form stuff, I figured I should dust this off and finish up the last little bit so it was ready to share, just so you guys know I haven't completely forgotten about you guys.
This is a complete departure from my normal writing style so I'm a little bit nervous about posting it so I hope you enjoy. And as always my thanks go to Alexandra926 for being a second pair of eyes on this, and for reassuring me that this was something worth posting so it didn't languish and die on my hard drive like I was tempted to let it... Also the title comes from the song of the same name by Mumford and Sons
I Will Wait
or
I Came Home Like A Stone (And I Fell Heavy Into Your Arms)
The man known as Eliot Spencer was older than he looked.
In fact, if someone had known to ask, he wouldn't even be able to say how old he was. The passage of time and things like age blurred and lost importance once you had lived through your first few millennia.
However, though he'd lived through enough lifetimes to have forgotten more than a few, he would always remember the beginning of the road that had led him here as sharply as when those days were new.
He had been a celebrated member of his village, a fierce warrior and skilled hunter who had made his home with two others. A woman who'd been touched by the gods and dreamt prophecy. Her abilities set her apart from anyone else he'd ever known, but she was revered by their people for the messages the gods delivered through her. The second was a man who was well respected by all within their community, his sharp mind bringing prosperity to them all.
He called her his Kitten, curious and coy, she was fiercely independent until she decided she wanted to curl up in his arms. And he was his Raven, clever and cunning beyond all rights. And in turn, he was their Wolf. He could be destructive and protective in equal measure, but he'd do anything to keep them safe.
Life was simple and times were often hard, but they'd had love to share and they were happy.
Until the day his life had changed forever.
He was returning home after a successful hunt, pride at being an ample provider surging through his veins, only to find that his village had been raided and burned while he was away. He ran home as fast as he could, but he was too late. He found nothing but his loves' lifeless bodies awaiting him. They had been all but defenseless in his absence.
They had depended on him to protect them and he had failed.
As he held their broken bodies, he prayed, pleaded, and begged to the gods. He'd always been a faithful devotee and now he was promising anything if only to have them back.
And then, just when he had almost given up hope, the gods answered.
What would he be willing to do? They asked him.
Anything, he promised.
What would he do with his second chance? They questioned.
Protect them, he vowed.
How long would he be willing to wait? They wondered.
Forever, he assured them.
And so the gods gave him what he asked for.
But what people living in the modern monotheistic world don't realize, is that the old gods have a sense of humor.
He waited and he waited and he waited. Until finally the other surviving members of his village forced him to let them perform proper burial rites for the cherished members of their community.
He didn't understand. The gods had told him that they'd give them back. He waited just like he'd been told. Why didn't he have them back?
Then, he realized the gods never promised him that they would be returned to him in this life.
Perhaps the promise was to return them in the afterlife.
Now a desperate man with a death wish, he led the the answering raid on the village that had caused his so much pain. The harbinger of death personified, he almost single-handedly delivered retribution against his enemies. His quest was successful in every way. Revenge for the pain and destruction wrought on his village was had, but at the cost of several life-threatening injuries to himself. His fellow warriors carried him home and his injuries were attended to as best they could by their best healer, but no one expected him to live through the night.
But against all odds, and his own desires, he not only survived the night, but he healed completely and far more quickly than he should have.
Again and again he walked away from battles. Again and again he healed from wounds that no other man could have. All of his efforts to rejoin his loves as soon as he could, thwarted.
His people thought him to be blessed by the gods, but he privately wondered if he was cursed.
He didn't understand it, but if this was a test then he was determined to pass. He'd vowed to wait and wait he would.
When the day came that it became clear he was not aging like those around him, he left his village and wandered the land. For twenty years he traveled the world, a fighter as skilled as he was always able to find work when he needed it. Until one day, when he walked into a humble inn in search of lodging for the night.
He sat down in the corner, liking to keep to himself, when the innkeeper's young daughter brought him a bowl of stew. He barely glanced up to give her a nod of thanks, but when his eyes met hers, his heart stopped.
She looked different then she used to. Her hair black as night where it used to be red as fire, her eyes a clear blue where they used to be a mossy green. She was shorter and more slight, but his soul screamed out to hers and he knew exactly who she was.
He now understood what game the gods were playing.
And then a smile spread across her face and she said the words that made his heart soar.
"I've been waiting for you, my Wolf."
She explained how she had dreamed of him since she was a child. And that she had always known that he'd return for her someday.
And so his wandering ended. He stayed and married the innkeeper's daughter, continuing to run the inn after her father died the following spring. And while they never forgot their missing third, they a lived a life as a family of two, and they were happy.
However, she was still mortal, and one long winter she caught a fever from which she never recovered. There was so much he could protect her from, but he could do nothing for sickness and once again he lost his Kitten far too soon.
Nothing left for him there, he left the inn behind and wandered once more.
It was another decade before he found him.
He was in a coastal city looking for passage across the sea. In a tavern one late afternoon, he was settling terms with the captain of a ship, after which he was introduced to a cartographer who would also be traveling with them.
But he was so much than that.
Just like his Kitten, his Raven didn't look anything like he remembered him. But everything inside of him screamed that the young mapmaker was his.
He was confused at first, because he didn't remember him like she did, and he wondered if her dreams had been a remnant of the prophetic gifts the gods had bestowed her with in her first life. But in the end it didn't matter. His Raven had always had the most generous heart out of the three of them and it didn't take long for him to open his heart to him once more.
They traveled the world together, living a life of adventure as his Raven chased his dream of mapping the world with his protective companion. And while his thoughts often traveled to their missing third, not sure if it was better or worse that he was missing her alone, they were happy.
Until the day they were on a ship much like the one they'd met on, traveling to a new land. The storm came out of nowhere and they never stood a chance.
He woke up on a far flung beach. Alone. He hasn't been able to protect him from nature's wrath and he'd lost his Raven once more.
He resumed his wandering.
xXxXxXxXxXxXx
He found them again and again as the centuries passed.
Over the years he had learned not to look for them. Whenever he actively searched, he never once found them. Instead it was only when he stopped looking, that they would find him in their own due time. There was no rhyme or reason to where or when he would stumble across them. He found them all over the world and in all walks of life. Sometimes he only had to wait a few years before finding one of them. Other times entire lifetimes passed without a glimpse of either of them.
It didn't matter that they carried new names and different appearances every time he found them; something in the magic that kept him alive, made sure that he always knew them at first sight. And while they were shaped and altered by the lives they lived prior to meeting him, they were always fundamentally them at their cores.
His Raven was always the smartest man he'd ever known, and conspicuously aware of that fact. But he was also a gentle soul, with a tender and generous heart. He was quick to reach out, eager to trust, but had a clever and devious streak in him when he or his loved ones had been wronged.
While his Kitten was always fearless and passionate, she was also more guarded, slower to open herself to others. She saw the world in a way others didn't, in a way others couldn't. She never had the same ability for prophecy that she had in their first life, but she always remembered her past lives with the others eventually. He'd learned over the course of time that she didn't always recognize him right away. In some lifetimes, like the first time he'd found her, she had dreamed of him since she was a child and was waiting for him with a smile to welcome him home. But other times it took days, weeks, even months before memories of her past lives resurfaced.
He'd learned the hard way after a couple of early missteps with her, that it was usually best to let her come to him, to wait until her memories resurfaced. Whereas his Raven was always more open to him inserting himself into his life.
But the absolute best times of his very long existence was when he found them both at the same time. Most recently they had had a particularly good stretch, living an indulgently bohemian lifestyle in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century. It had only happened a handful of times over the centuries, but those were the years where his soul felt truly complete. Those were the lifetimes he thanked his long-forgotten gods for. Those were the memories that kept him going during the long stretches of times when he walked the world alone, waiting for the next time he stumbled across one of them. Those were the times he treasured when he did find them, but the course of true love didn't run so smooth.
Because as much as he wished it, it wasn't always as easy as stumbling across one or both of them and living happily ever after.
There was more than one occasion when he found his Raven, where he was already married with a family. But that didn't stop him from finding a reason to stay in his orbit. It was better to be his friend and swallow the longing that lay thick on the back of his tongue. He would smile as the man he loved looked at him like a brother. He would play Uncle to children that weren't hers.
Another time he was working as Captain of the King's guard during the presentation of the King's betrothed. As soon as she walked through the door, his soul called to his future Queen. Three weeks after her wedding to the King she found him in a darkened corridor, her heart calling to his despite being tied to another. What followed were years of meaningful gazes from across the room and the rare, but oh-so-precious stolen moment. Honor keeping them from what they really wanted.
Those lifetimes were not his favorites, but he'd still take them whenever he could get them. His endless life was brighter for having them in it, no matter the capacity. To be so close yet so far was preferable to knowing they were currently in the world and not be at their sides. He'd sacrifice anything to still be able to see them, to talk to them, to keep them safe anyway he could. Until inevitably something he could not foresee, something he could not prevent, would rip them from his life once again.
Because sometimes when he found them, it was nothing but tragedy.
He once found his Raven bleeding out on a battlefield, where he died without knowing him as anything but the stranger who held his hand and gave him comfort in his last moments.
He once found his Kitten and they spent a blissful day together before an earthquake decimated the entire city, killing thousands including her.
Sometimes he wondered why the gods would tease him with only getting them for minutes or days sometimes. He wondered if it was a punishment for something he'd done, or perhaps for something he hadn't done. These snatches of time were almost more cruel than not getting them in that life time at all. But that didn't stop him from fiercely hoarding those memories in his heart, like he did any memory that included them. He was selfish in that way, no matter how much pain they caused him, he would never give those moments up.
Over the course of centuries, the simple warrior from the tiny village, who'd wanted nothing more than to keep those he had loved safe, had seen and done more than most men dreamed possible. He'd fought wars and protected kings. He'd seen kingdoms rise and empires fall. He'd been on the right side of history and the losing side of revolutions. He'd fought for what he believed in and sold his skills to the highest bidder. He'd stood elbow-to-elbow with men they would write books about for years to come and he'd lived off the grid for decades.
But none of it meant anything to him, if not for them.
xXxXxXxXxXxXx
At the beginning of the twenty-first century the man now known as Eliot Spencer was still wandering the world, selling his skills to the highest bidder.
He'd done things he wasn't proud of in recent years. He found it harder to keep his moral center the longer he'd been alone. And while it wasn't the longest he'd gone without one of his loves - he'd spent the entirety of the eighth and ninth centuries alone - he was feeling the lonely decades wearing on him.
And then he got a job in Chicago.
They were called Parker and Hardison in this lifetime.
A hacker and a thief.
He didn't give a shit about Dubenich or the job anymore, but as much as he wanted to bundle them both up and drop off the grid immediately, he had a job to do. And that was to protect them, just like he'd been doing for eons. He'd wait until the job was done, and evaluate where to go from there.
Everything happened so quickly after that. The job, the double-cross, taking down Dubenich, the payout, the decision to become a full time team.
Of course the multimillion dollar payday wasn't the real prize as far as Eliot was concerned.
Things were falling perfectly into place.
Until they didn't.
Eliot didn't know quite what to do.
In every lifetime all three of them came together, his Kitten had always recognized him on sight, and together they brought their Raven into their lives, home, and bed. But Parker gave no indication that anything about him was familiar, let alone that she remembered anything about the many lives they'd shared.
And to make matters more complicated, it was clear that the life that Parker had led to this point had left her skittish and fragile. He knew that if he played this wrong, he could lose her forever in this lifetime.
It had never taken this long for his Kitten to remember him, and he was beginning to wonder if she ever would. Days, yes. Weeks, sometimes. Months, occasionally. But never years.
And so he watched, as Parker and Hardison grew closer and closer and begin a relationship.
Without him.
There were days he wondered if this was a new game the gods were playing with him. If these was the consequences for the darker roads he'd taken of late. To have them be so close, to watch them be happy together with him just on the outside. But if that was what he could get, that was what he'd take.
He was still happier than he'd been in decades. Having them both within arm's reach, being able to keep them safe, making sure they were taken care of, was more than he deserved. And he'd much rather see them happy with each other, than with some outsider.
There were times over the years where he'd forgotten himself. Where he'd pulled Hardison into an embrace before remembering that that wasn't appropriate. Where he'd unthinkingly invade Parker's personal space, before remembering he didn't have any right to.
It had only gotten worse since Nate and Sophie had left. He'd all but moved into the spare bedroom at their apartment, the three of them now spending almost all of their time under the same roof.
They were several months into this arrangement, when one night they arrived home after a long and exhausting job. All three of them were dead on their feet, but none of them had eaten all day, and that was something that Eliot couldn't stand. While both Hardison and Parker would have been willing to skip dinner in favor of sleep, they allowed themselves to be herded to the table while Eliot warmed up some chili he'd left frozen in the freezer for just such an occasion.
When Hardison almost brained himself against the table after nearly falling asleep into his mostly finished bowl of chili, Eliot ushered them off to bed, with assurances that he'd take care of the dishes. Despite his own bone deep exhaustion, he didn't go to bed himself, something unsettled in his chest keeping him awake. So nearly an hour after the other two had gone to bed, he was still puttering around the kitchen, looking in the pantry as he mentally made up a meal plan for the rest of the week, deciding what he'd need to pick up at the store in the morning.
Anyone else wouldn't have heard her silent footsteps approaching.
But he'd been tuned to her for millennia.
"What is it, Parker?" he asked tiredly, not turning around as he tried to remember if he had all the ingredients to make paella.
"I'm so sorry," she said quietly.
That got Eliot's attention. Parker never apologized. For anything.
"Why?" he asked suspiciously, as he spun to face her. "What did you do?"
The next thing he knew Parker was right in front of him, only inches between them. "Five years," she said softly, bringing a hand up to rest gently against his stubbled cheek. "I'm so sorry it took me so long."
Eliot searched Parker's face, and for the first time saw the dozens of shared lifetimes in her eyes. "You remember," he exhaled with wonder.
"I remember," she nodded, closing the distance between them, kissing him sweetly.
Eliot wanted to sob against her lips, relief and joy mixing in his chest. She soothed all the rough edges that his soul had gathered since the last time he'd held her in his arms like this. "I've missed you, Kitten," he admitted freely. "You've been right here, but I missed you."
"My Wolf, so patient," she murmured, her forehead leaning against his.
"I've waited for you through centuries," he said, sinking his hands into her hair. "Five years is a blink."
"No more waiting," Parker said with promise, before deepening the kiss.
Eliot allowed himself to get lost in her for several long moments before he came to his senses. "Wait," he sighed, regretfully pulling away.
"No, no waiting. Isn't that what I just said?" Parker said with a frown.
"Hardison," he reminded her pointedly.
"What about him?" she asked, not seeing the problem.
He shot her a loaded look. He was so close to having everything he wanted, but he knew he had to tread carefully. It wouldn't do to mess things up with Hardison if he thought he was trying to steal his girl.
"Trust me, I don't think he'd mind," she smirked. "He's the one with the open heart remember."
He did know that, but he still wanted to ease the other man into the idea slowly. He was a hair's breadth away from perfection, and this was too important to screw up by getting impatient.
But like he'd been summoned by their thoughts, Hardison wandered into the kitchen rubbing tiredly at his eyes.
"What's going on here?" he asked, when he spotted Parker and Eliot still firmly in their intimate embrace.
Eliot sighed, so much for easing him into the idea. The only thing he took heart in, was that Hardison sounded more curious than upset at finding his girlfriend in his best friend's arms in the middle of the night.
"Eliot's our boyfriend now," Parker announced matter of factly. "Do you have a problem with that?"
Hardison blinked slowly. "I've had this dream before. Am I dreaming right now?"
"Go kiss him," Parker ordered, giving Eliot a shove in Hardison's direction.
Eliot rolled his eyes, this was not the way he wanted to finesse this. But the way Hardison's eyes widened and he licked his lips at the suggestion told Eliot that he was not averse to Parker's plan.
Stepping into the hacker's personal space, Eliot wrapped a strong hand around the back of the taller man's neck and pulled him in close. He gave Hardison a moment to say something, to pull away, to do anything to indicate that this wasn't what he wanted. When he gave none, Eliot closed the last few inches between them.
It was a tentative meeting of lips, slow and steadily building as Hardison's tongue darted out to probe at the seam of Eliot's mouth, who was all too willing to deepen the kiss.
"Normally my dreams aren't this vivid," Hardison exhaled breathlessly, when they finally pulled apart.
"I don't think he's awake enough for this," Eliot said, bemused, since the other man clearly wasn't alert enough to know what was happening.
"We'll convince him this is real tomorrow," Parker replied, from where she was watching the two men kiss with interest. "Let's go back to bed. I'm tired."
Before either of them could reply, Parker had taken both men by the hand and they let themselves be dragged into the bedroom.
Still not entirely convinced he wasn't dreaming, but grateful nonetheless that he had a California king, Hardison got into bed on his normal side. Parker shoved Eliot into the middle before crawling in after him, immediately plastering herself to his side. Normally, he had a thing about needing to sleep closest to the door, but when Hardison, already mostly back to sleep rolled over to throw an arm over his chest and bury his face into his hair, Eliot couldn't find it in himself to complain.
It couldn't stay this easy, there would be conversations and explanations. But there would be time for that in the morning. For now, Eliot was going to bask in the feeling of being nestled between the two loves of his eternal life. He wanted to stay awake just to enjoy it, but the peace that settled deep in his soul, was pulling him into a restful sleep.
Just as he was drifting off, he felt Parker reach out to brush a lock of hair off his face and tuck it behind his ear.
"We're gonna make this life a good one," she promised in a whisper.
And for the first time in longer than he could remember, Eliot fell asleep with a smile on his face.
AN And there we have it! Like I said it's completely different than pretty much everything else I've ever written, so if you could let me know what you guys thought, I'll love ya forever!