A/N: Oh, deanangst, I blame you for this one. Haha. You got me hooked on sleepy!Eliot, now I'm on huggy!Eliot too! So I wrote this one in like...fifteen minutes. Just kind of popped into my head. Enjoy! -pj
Parker isn't sure if she's the only one who notices, but she thinks so. It's weird too, because she's never the one the team thinks of as particularly observant. Not about people anyway.
But she observes Eliot, she supposes, because he's the same as her.
And completely different.
She likes that. That they're opposites. And still the same. Contradictory and complimentary. Soft and hard. Crazy and angry.
Maybe those last two aren't opposites.
But really, that's not the point. The point is, no one else has noticed, and she has.
No one else sees the way Eliot craves physical contact. They think he doesn't like to be touched, but that's just not true. He doesn't like to be touched unexpectedly, and that's entirely different. If he didn't like to be touched at all he wouldn't lean over Sophie's shoulder, one hand on the back of her chair, when she's doing a cross word. He wouldn't wrestle the remote away from Hardison when he's perfectly content watching baseball as it is. He wouldn't put a hand on Nate's shoulder to push him back down in the chair when he's drunk and about to fall over. He wouldn't guide Parker around by the small of her back.
And he wouldn't hug. Eliot hugs them a lot.
If Sophie's upset, Eliot hugs her. If it's a bad night when Nate's saying Sam's name in his sleep, Eliot hugs him. If Parker shows up at the foot of his bed in the middle of the night with that small twist on her lips that she always seems to wear after one of those dreams, he hugs her. Always. Hardison doesn't really need a reason. He likes to 'hug things out'.
But he doesn't notice that Eliot doesn't mind.
If Parker were Hardison she would say 'he wasn't hugged enough as a child'. If Parker were Sophie she'd say his mother 'never held him as a baby and left him with an emotional need for contact that was never filled'. If Parker were Nate she'd pretend she didn't notice at all and pour herself another drink.
But Parker's Parker, so she just realizes Eliot likes to be near people, likes to hug, and gives him more opportunities to do it. She sits close to him during briefings, stands beside him when they're waiting on a mark. Asks him to help her learn to fight so he can adjust her stance with careful hands, she stands at his elbow in the kitchen, watching him work.
And if no one else is around to ask 'why' or read into it, she turns toward him and throws her arms around his neck, smelling his shampoo and leather jacket, feeling his arms tighten around her and the way he sighs, relaxing and letting his eyes shut.
And she hugs him for all she's worth.
Because, if she's perfectly honest, Parker kind of likes hugs too.
End - Thoughts?