Title: Santa Baby
Prompt by: hannasus - Santa hat
Rating: PG-13
Setting: AU Season 3, post-The Ho Ho Ho Job
Word Count: 717
It was too early in the morning for visitors, that was all Parker could think as she rolled out of bed and padded to the door, rubbing her eyes. The fact it was almost noon didn't occur to her, bleary eyed and brain fogged as she was. Champagne followed by egg nog and no food except for candy - never again! Staggering toward the knock that wouldn't end, she vaguely yelled for the person beyond her door not to be so damn loud. She almost felt bad when she realised it was Hardison, almost.
"What do you want?" she asked, leaning heavily on the now open door.
"Well, good morning, sunshine," the hacker laughed at her weariness, which Parker did not appreciate. "I thought maybe you wanted to hang out today? Y'know, since the team is taking a little time off and all..." he went on as he strolled right by her into the apartment.
He stopped suddenly when he spotted something on the coffee table. Parker followed his eye-line and spotted it too. She cursed aloud without meaning too but quickly painted on a smile when Hardison turned to look at her.
"It's Christmas," she reminded him, as if he couldn't tell by the fact her apartment looked as if a tinsel factory had exploded. "It's a decoration," she shrugged, picking up the Santa hat and spinning it around on her finger.
"Oh, yeah, sure," the hacker smiled too then. "For a second there I was thinking... never mind," he shook his head then, walking back towards the door when he realised Parker was yawning in a big way now. "I should leave you alone, you look real tired so... Gimme a call later, if you wanna hang or whatever," he told her as he finally left.
Parker mumbled a 'maybe' kind of reply, shut the door behind him, and sighed. That was just awkward.
"I don't know why I couldn't just tell him we had sex," she exclaimed loudly as Eliot wandered out of the bedroom in only his underwear. "It would've been so much easier," she huffed, going straight into his arms like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"I already told you, we can't do that," Eliot reminded her, holding her close. "Not yet anyway. You can't break the guy's heart at Christmas, that's just... it's not fair."
"I guess not," Parker agreed, hands sliding up Eliot's bare back and into his hair.
No sooner had he realised what she was up to than it was done, that damn Santa hat was back on his head.
"Hey, we had a deal," he reminded her then. "If I'm wearing the Santa hat..." he said, pausing to kiss her and then continued whispering in her ear. "You gotta wear the stockings."
She laughed out loud at that. Parker never did understand what the deal was with guys and stockings. They were just like socks but longer, she totally didn't get what the big deal was, but that was okay. This Christmas was turning out to be pretty good so far. She got the family parts of it all, she got the best presents, they had saved Santa, the toy drive, and put Chaos in jail. On top of all that, she got Eliot. Quite literally on top actually, and those kind of thoughts, along with the way Eliot was kissing her now, almost made Parker forget everything else. Her stomach rumbling kind of spoilt the mood.
"Oops?" she said, looking embarrassed as Eliot pulled away to stare at her.
"We eat, then we go back to bed," he decided, suddenly picking her up off the floor and bodily carrying her to the kitchen, the blonde laughing all the way.
It was the best sound in the world to Eliot. He might have played Santa this year, for the mall, for the team, and especially for Parker's mixed up fantasies, but he was the one that had got the greatest gift in time for Christmas. He had this awesome, amazing, crazy, ridiculous woman in his life, loving him like he knew he couldn't ever deserve. That was so much more than he'd ever dared to ask for, and a gift Eliot never planned on letting go of for as long as he lived.
