Nate had a problem. Scratch that, he had an irritant that was fast approaching problem status. Roughly once a week his toothbrush, of all things, mysteriously disappeared from its cup on his bathroom sink, never to return. It was getting to where he picked up a handful of toothbrushes at the store now just to have extras in reserve! He'd watched his team like a hawk, tracking where each of them meandered in his loft, and hadn't seen them put so much as a toe on the spiral stairs.
Week after week, month after month, the theft continued. Never more than once a week thankfully, or he'd have gone insane, but incessant. He'd tried to imagine what Eliot could be using them for, if he was the thief, and only succeeded in making himself very twitchy around the hitter for several days after- some things were better left unimagined. Parker, he imagined could be using them to clean her stash of gems, well, either that or hoarding a truly impressive collection. Nate had terrifying visions of armies of makeshift robots running through his imagination when he considered what Hardison could be using toothbrushes to make and quickly redirected his thoughts.
Sophie, now she was one who he trusted to be the most normal of the group. She didn't have any odd habits or horrifying behaviors, and that's mostly why he always allowed her to use… Nate stopped his train of thought right there. He always let Sophie use his bathroom rather than the general one downstairs; she was disgusted by the state the other three 'kids' left it in and so Nate offered his. What possible reason could Sophie have for stealing his toothbrushes? His shirts, he could see, because she'd lifted several already when she felt too lazy to go change, but used toothbrushes? Only one thing to do- ask!
Sophie blushed a little bit when he finally cornered her alone in his apartment, "They make fabulous brushes to clean my heels," she explained, "They're just the perfect size to get into all the crannies and you buy the softest ones on the market, they don't scratch the finish. I meant to replace them, but then it became a little bit of a game when I noticed you laying out traps. Just couldn't resist." She held up one of her unbelievably high heels as explanation and sure enough, there was a bit of mud from Boston's slushy winter caked between the sole and upper.
He couldn't really deny her anything, never could, and gave in as gracefully as he could. "Fine, just not every week if you could?" Nate received a lingering kiss on the cheek for his permission, and a smiling Sophie ascended to abscond with yet another toothbrush of his. Thinking on the bright side, at least he didn't have visions of robots, weapons, or hoarding dancing through his head anymore! Given his team, though, they were sure to come up with other ways to terrorize him.