Here comes the next chapter!

Chapter 14

The Leverage team had a loose agreement to meet every day, except at weekends, at approximately eleven a.m. in Nates condo. If a job came up and they had to meet earlier or although it was weekend Nate would call them. Since it was only eight a.m. Parker and Ave still had lots of time until they had to be at Nate's.

Parker changed from her sleeping clothes into her normal clothes while Ave grabbed her bag and her jacket but kept on Parkers clothes which were actually way too big for her. Then they left Parkers warehouse and walked to Eliots place who didn't live that far away.

When they arrived Ave steered towards Eliots front door but Parker grabbed her arm and dragged her towards a window. Twenty seconds later they were inside of Eliots home.

"Why couldn't we just ring?", Ave wanted to know dazedly while looking around curiously. They stood in Eliots living room, furnished with soft brown colors and wooden furniture.

"Aw! That would be boring!", Parker laughed and threw herself on Eliots comfortable couch as if she were home.

"Shush! Maybe he still sleeps!", Ave whispered conspiratorially and sneaked inaudibly across the room to admire Eliots gigantic bookshelves. She did not thought of Eliot as someone who liked to read.

"Nonsense! He never sleeps longer then ninety minutes a day.", Parker lectured Ave as if she should have known that. "He is a hitter, he's always attentive!"

Ave wrinkled her forehead skeptically. "But if he already noticed us then where is he?"

Parker grabbed Aves arm and dragged her behind her. "Let's check on him!", Parker announced. They walked up the stairs and Parker suddenly stopped when they reached a door.

Ave bumped into her and cursed low-voiced: "Mind what you're doing!"

"Don't make such a fuss!", Parker answered, declining. Carefully she opened the door to Eliots bedroom and they both looked in. Eliot lay in his bed, peacefully sleeping. Strange to see him like that, Parker thought.

"Ninety minutes a day? Seemingly he exaggerated a little bit!", Ave giggled.

"Let's not wake him up.", Parker decided with a fond smile towards the sleeping features of Eliot. "We will find something to eat in the kitchen without Eliots help." So they headed back down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Aves face lit up when she suddenly stroke on an idea. "Maybe we could make breakfast for him! Since we came along without his permission…"

Parker smiled. "I don't think this is a problem since I do that all the time…" Her face fall. "But I don't know how to make a real breakfast.", she admitted sadly.

"Oh, that's easy.", Ave explained happily. "You just search for everything you want to eat or drink for breakfast and put it on the table along with a few dishes. Ready!"

"Great!", Parker exclaimed bubbly. "Let's start!"

Crash!

The sudden loud noise coming from somewhere in his house awoke Eliot abruptly and immediately set him on the alert. Still drowsy he at first thought it belonged to his strange dream. He looked at his buzzer to see that it was already a quarter past eight a.m., later than his usual time to stand up. Well, having around the double amount of craziness results in double tiredness. He listened carefully and could her soft voices sounding through the walls. Someone's in my house!, flashed through Eliots mind and immediately he jumped to his feet.

He sprinted down the stairs, ripped open the door to his kitchen and…

Stopped dead in his tracks.

When Parker noticed Eliot standing in the door, just in his boxer shorts, she grinned widely. "Aw!", she remarked disappointedly. "I thought you would wear boxer shorts with teddy bears on them to symbolize your underneath lying softness!"

Ave giggled. "But look, Batman also looks great on him."

"It fits.", Parker agreed enthusiastically. "Since he also is a superhero!"

Eliot could just stare. He realized that Parker and Ave were the ones having woken him up. He wasn't even very surprised by the fact that Parker was here since he had become used to her showing up at his place without announcement. But he did not really process what they were saying. He was way to shocked by what he saw in front of him.

His kitchen looked like an embattled field.

Finally he found his way out of the shock and recovered his voice. "What the HELL did you DO with my kitchen?", he hollered desperately and furiously. It was a chaos: broken fragments of a plate lay on the floor, the stove was all over with charred, over boiled milk, on the table a glass of marmalade was upset and ran out. Then something else stroke Eliots eyes and immediately he raced to the counter.

"My new toaster! You destroyed it!", he scolded angrily. The toaster was completely sticky with cheese that had dripped inward. Eliot turned around, his eyes narrowed to slits. "I want an explanation!", he demanded harshly.

"I wanted to make a cheese-filled roll…", Ave answered shyly.

Parker cringed. "We wanted to make breakfast. It should have been a surprise for you!", she explained sadly.

"Wonderful surprise!", Eliot huffed wrathfully. "Really great!" Even Ave got that this was meant as sarcasm.

"We're sorry.", Parker mumbled affectedly. "You always cook for me or make me breakfast and now I wanted to do something for you so you can be happy." She looked at him with big pitiful puppy eyes.

Eliots angry facial expression softened at this revelation and at Parkers and Aves obvious dismay. "Okay.", he sighed deeply to calm himself. "Okay. I know you didn't do it with intention." Once again his sight fell on the destroyed toaster. "But girls!", he exclaimed desperately. "How is it possible that two so small people like you can make such a gigantic mess?" But he couldn't hide the small smile that crept on his face.

Relieved Ave and Parker smiled widely at him. "So you aren't mad at us?", Ave asked cautiously.

"Nah, maybe a little bit.", Eliot grumbled and looked regretfully at his toaster. Then he glared at the two girls and demanded sternly: "You have to promise to never ever again touch anything in my kitchen without my permission, clear?"

Ave nodded seriously. "Crystal clear!"

Parker saluted. "Aye, aye, Sir!"

Eliot glared at her. "Don't you dare to make fun of me!"

Parker giggled, absolutely unimpressed by his glare since she by now knew him good enough to know that he just did it to hide his grin. She saluted again. "Never ever, Sir!"

Eliot rolled his eyes. "Okay, girls, but there's one thing you have to do to make up for it.", he told them mercilessly. "You have to police up everything here, got it?"

Parker groaned. Ave looked at him hopefully: "But then you forgive us?"

Eliot couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, then I forgive you." Then he added conciliatorily: "And while you two clean up I will prepare us a proper breakfast without it ending in chaos."

"Yeah!", Parker exclaimed happily.

Suddenly Eliot frowned. "Tell me, why do you have cereal in your clothes, Ave? I do NOT own something like that!" Ave picked a piece of cereal from her sweater.

"Oh, that...", she stammered. "Yeah, well... we..."

"...did a cereal fight this morning!", Parker finished for her, bouncing happily.

"A cereal fight?", Eliot shook his head incredulously. "You. Are. Nuts."

Ave giggled. "But Eliot, look who's talking. Maybe you should firstly put on a few more clothes." Eliot looked down and realized that he still wore nothing but his Batman-boxer shorts. "Nice boxer shorts!", Ave commented gleefully. She could have sworn that the brave hitter Eliot Spencer reddened.

While hurrying out of the room Eliot threatened grimly: "But I warn you, girls, if you tell Hardison about this…", he pointed at his boxer shorts, "I will ground you both!"