Title: Dance with me
Pairing: Parker/Eliot (established relationship)
Disclaimer: Dude I swear I wished they were mine but sadly they're not!
Spoilers: Episode 3x02 "The reunion" if you haven't watched it, only slightly though
A/N: Hello you guise! Thank you for staying with me, reading my things, adding my stuff to your favorites, I mean that's the greatest thing ever so yeah I'm a happy camper! Oh and I wrote this fic because I thought, after watching the episode, that everyone were dancing and having fun but Eliot. He was hurt and angry so I though "hey! I can totally write a little something with this" so HERE IT IS!
Also you can follow me on tumblr, my username is "retrieval-specialist".
Love ya!,
Fran
They had finished another con successfully and Parker had even been able to do what she had never done; dance at a prom. She couldn't help herself when Hardison had kindly invited her, with a smile on his face, she had gladly accepted, especially after seeing Nate and Sophie doing the same.
When the job was done they had climbed into Hardison's new van and made their way home. She hadn't realized how desperate she was to see her boyfriend until Nate had mentioned his name and her excitement had turned into desperation.
Sophie opened the door of Nate's apartment, with Hardison and Parker at her tail, laughing at some inside joke Eliot could not comprehend. For some strange reason something burned inside of him, from the pitch of his stomach to the back of his head. It wasn't anger, he could have recognized it easily, this time it was something Eliot had never experienced before just by looking at them laughing; jealousy.
"Eliot!" Parker screamed excitedly ad ran towards him. It was something that surprised him, how happy she could be just by seeing him, one of the many things he had to learn to get used to. Now, despite how uneasy he felt, he couldn't help but smile and take her in his arms as she later dropped brief kiss on his lips.
"Hey, you." he said.
"We danced." Parker told him while she exchanged looks between him and Hardison excitement written on her beautiful face.
"You did?" Eliot asked, confused. A sudden span of jealousy hit him so hard he was caught off guard. His friend must have noticed because he immediately looked at anything but him.
"Yes! It was fantastic." she explained. "I've never been to a prom before so it was my first time dancing at a prom."
"Oh, that's—that's nice." he said, suddenly and slowly walking away from Parker, who frowned briefly at the loss of contact. "I'm glad you had fun"
"WE had fun." she said, smiling at her friends who watched the exchange in silence, "We did, right? I mean we helped someone …"
"Well, I guess you and I have a different definition of fun," Eliot replied, the sentiment he had felt before was slowly being replace by that of anger, "Because while you were dancing around I was being beaten by five dudes."
"Oh baby, I'm sorry. Are you alright?" Parked asked as she made an attempt of approaching him, but he backed away leaving her confused as mildly hurt.
"I'm fine." he responded too harshly. He regretted it the minute he saw the hurt on Parker's face. Sighing heavily and walked a few steps away from the group, rubbed a hand over his face and closed his eyes briefly. "I'm gonna take a shower."
"Eliot…" she called him but he had his back towards her and was already closing the bathroom door behind him.
"What was that?" Hardison asked to no one in particular.
"I believe, Hardison, that would be jealousy." Nate told him.
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
20 minutes had passed and there was no sign of Eliot. Parker had heard the shower turn off a few minutes ago, she didn't know why it was taken him so long to walk out of the bathroom but surely she was going to wait. His reaction was something she hadn't seen before and it startled her how upset he looked. Whatever had triggered it was what had made her stay in and wait for him, despite the invitation Nate and Sophie had extended to her. She knew better than to leave him alone when he was upset, he liked to clear his head by sitting on the bed with the lights off until he felt better.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Sophie asked her a few minutes later, her bag in hand and Nate waiting by the door. "We could all wait for Eliot there."
"No, you should go and have fun." Parker told her.
"Okay, as you wish." Sophie responded and walked towards the door with Nate following close behind.
"Do you want me to talk to him?" Hardison asked her, she smiled gratefully but shook her head. "I feel like he's upset because of the dance."
"I'm pretty sure he's not." Parker replied, even though she wasn't sure herself. "Besides I don't feel right going to celebrate without him, you know?"
"Are you positive?"
"Yep. Go, have a few drinks for me."
"Alright." he said reluctantly and then left without saying another word.
For what it seems an eternity later Eliot walked out of the bathroom, wearing clean clothes and wet hair. He looked at her with surprise as he walked towards the refrigerator to grab a beer. Parker was sitting on a stool, quietly watching him as he moved around and ignored her altogether, not quite understanding why.
"Are you ever going to tell me what's wrong?" Parker asked him as softly and as calm as possible, though the ridiculous silent treatment he was giving her was getting on her nerves.
"There's nothing wrong." he replied rather coldly.
"Okay, should I need to remind you that we've known each other for three years and we've been together for four months?" she said. "That means I know you, better than you think. So now tell me what's wrong."
"I'm tired Parker." he spoke, making an attempt to move pass her but she was already up from the stool and standing in front of him, his escape proving fruitless. "I wanna go to bed, I'm sore and bruised all over. Can we have this conversation in the morning?"
"No, because you'll go to bed upset and there's a big chance you will be upset in the morning as well." she said. "So we're gonna have this conversation now."
"What do you want me to tell you?" he questioned her, shrugging.
"Why are you so upset?"
"I already told you I'm not upset." he lied, Parker stared at him, trying to read his face, his eyes. He was lying for sure.
"Then explain to me why were you mad when we arrived." she questioned him. "Because surely your demeanor changed for whatever reason."
Sophie had told her how to read people, especially those who were not quite open like Eliot, and at the moment his whole behavior was telling her there was something eating him alive, something that made him uncomfortable and upset at the same time. Something that exploded when the con was over.
He shifted in his spot and ran a hand over his face in exasperation. Parker was not going to stop until he spoke. "It should have been me." he suddenly told her, his voice an octave lower than usual, his face still showing signs of irritation.
"What are you talking about?" Parker asked confused.
"When you told me you danced with Hardison, it should have been me, alright? There, I said it." he spoke quickly.
"You're upset because I danced with Hardison?" she asked in disbelief. "That's why you stormed out?"
"Hey! I didn't storm out." he complained. "I had to take a shower. I was sweating. And you wanted to know so…yeah."
"Eliot, it was just a dance." she said softly, walking a few steps toward him, letting her hand rest against his chest. "Nothing more."
"I know." he said. "That's not why I'm angry."
"Then what is it? I don't understand." she asked.
"I've…" He sighed, suddenly finding hard to speak. "I've never felt like this, ever. I've never felt like I wanted to rip someone's head off just because he was standing next to a woman. I'm not possessive, I'm not controlling, I know Hardison doesn't see you as more than a friend but just the idea that he was there to enjoy that moment with you—it killed me."
"It meant nothing to me." she told him. "The whole thing was just a friendly moment. He offered me a dance and I said yes because I saw how much fun Nate and Sophie were having. I've never been to a prom so I saw that as an opportunity, but that's all. My feet were not even touching the floor and I was hanging from the ceiling."
"I know." he whispered. "I just…I don't know, it's weird and silly. I know it's silly."
"It's not silly." she said. "I would probably feel the same if you were dancing with another woman, a stranger, though, not a friend, like Sophie, for example."
"I really want to dance with you." he told her. She smiled and walked a bit closer to him. He left the untouched beer behind the counter and wrapped his arms around her, she sighed contently.
"Then let's dance." she said
"Now?" he asked.
She nodded. "We have the apartment to ourselves, so why not take the opportunity to do what we want?"
She pulled away and bounced toward the radio. Searching through all the CDs Nate possessed, she found one song that she liked the most and pressed play. She turned around and grinned at Eliot, who did no longer look upset but amused instead, and reached out for him. He took her hand as he pulled her into his arms again.
They swayed to the music, wrapped in each other's arms. Parker's head rested on his shoulder and his hands carefully on her lower back. She felt protected, comfortable and happy, as if there was no one else in the world but him, her heart full of a love she didn't know she could possibly feel for anyone.
"I love you." she whispered, rising her head just enough to look at him. He was smiling sweetly and just that small gesture melted her heart.
"I love you too." he responded, dropping a brief kiss to her lips.
They kept swaying to the music, ignoring the whole world around them.
THE END
In case you wanted to know, the song they danced to is "Crazy Love" by Cassandra Wilson. It is my favorite song of all times.
