Notes: Tag to The Three Days of the Hunter Job.
Hey, everyone remember when I finished Fathers and Cell Number Eight and promised that I was writting another longfic called The Legacy Job? Well after a bit (read: More than is reasonable) of reaserch, lots of storyboarding, and figuring out how I'm going to tie everything together I have now started to write The Legacy Job. I hope to have the first chapter to my beta by friday and have it posted early next week. Keep your eyes open.
Thoughts on New Homes, Old Rules, and Kitchen Knives
Nate and Eliot have started to break some old rules. Sophie notices.
Sohpie sat, staring at the wrap up papers in front of her, not really seeing them. She was listening to Hardison and Eliot spin conspiracy theories to torment and entertain Parker. It took Sophie a long moment to recognize what about the scene was bugging at the edge of her concentration.
Another round of chopping started. Eliot had convinced Parker to try stir fried vegetables after the last job and to the entire team's amazement she hadn't just liked them. She now continually bugged Eliot to cook them for her. Eliot had even offered to teach Parker how to make them but she said no.
Sophie had a small suspicion it was the fact Eliot was willing to cook something specially for her as much as the food itself.
Chop chop chop chop…
It hit Sophie. The sound was different. Eliot had cooked in Nate's apartment dozens of times, feeding the team had been something he'd done even in L.A. and he'd taken up the habit almost immediately after they came back together. Sophie had never thought anything of it, even after she found out about their relationship.
But something had changed.
Sophie turned enough to be able to watch. Eliot was using new knives, different than the old battered ones Nate had had before. Sophie didn't know much about knives but she could recognize something that had probably been the result of a ridiculous amount of designing and engineering. Knowing from the set of knives Eliot had had in the Leverage Offices (that the rest of them had been forbidden to touch under threats that had even Parker obeying) they were probably worth about as much as the entire apartment and everything in it before Hardison had brought his stuff in.
And Eliot had put them in Nate's kitchen.
Sophie paused, thinking, remembering a conversation she'd overheard. Nate on his phone between the action of the job, talking to someone. He'd mentioned about how something was three times what he payed for rent, frustrated, but ended up agreeing to whatever had been going on. Sophie had figured he was buying a new coffee pot or something for the team or something.
Now though she watched Eliot feed Parker a slice of carrot and glance toward Nate, standing just a little bit closer to the hitter than most would find wise, and smiled.
Yeah, Sophie was pretty sure that even if Eliot would be the only one to use them he wasn't the one who put them there.
Nate clasped a hand around Eliot's shoulder and both Parker and Hardison paused their joking to make faces at each other like they'd just seen their parents kiss. Sophie caught an identical look of mischief cross both Nate and Eliot's faces in time to look away.
Judging by Hardison's "Hey! Not cool! PDA's are not allowed in the Bat Cave." And Parker's far too interested noise Sophie knew she had only just barely missed a kiss.
She was trying to be hands off, to let the both of them do this thing that seemed to be so good for both of them…
But she was only human, and it had been a lot easier while she was dating someone herself.
She turned back to her papers and sighed. Nate had once admitted to her they had half a dozen rules about the team and their relationship but it seemed slowly but surely Nate and Eliot were being more and more open about being together. They were breaking old rules, settling into new homes, and sealing the relationship with little gifts like Nate's new kitchen knives and the growing collection of first edition Sherlock Holmes books finding their way into Nate's book case.
They were settling in and sealing the relationship even as Parker and Hardison were taking the first few steps toward their own relationship.
They had all found something that made sense in their crazy worlds.
Meanwhile Sophie was losing her grip on what little had ever made sense in hers.
Not for the first time Sophie started to wonder just how much longer she would stay with these people who'd become her family.