Author's note: all the usual disclaimers about not owning the Leverage characters/concept and not making any money from this apply.
Two shortish ones this morning for Sunday brunch :)
Two hours into the flight, Parker was surprised to realise that Eliot was actually sleeping beside her. Not eyes-closed-pretending-to-be-sleeping-to-avoid-con versation but actual, genuine, sleeping.
She poked Hardison across the aisle.
"You ever seen Eliot sleeping on a plane before?" she asked.
Hardison looked up from his tablet and pulled out the ear bud on the side nearest her. He peered around her to where Eliot was indeed sleeping, head tilted again the window on his left.
Hardison shrugged. He couldn't remember seeing Eliot sleep during any previous flights, but they didn't always sit together, and, anyway, there was a first time for everything.
Parker was looking at Eliot like she wanted to experiment on him.
"Normally he wakes up when I stare at him," she said.
"He took some painkillers before we left," Hardison said, turning his attention back to the screen in front of him. "Just leave him be, Parker."
Parker frowned. Eliot had taken painkillers the other night, too, and he had still woken up when she stared at him. Not all the way or for very long, but he had woken up...maybe she was doing it wrong now. She shifted in her seat to get a better angle and fixed the full intensity of her gaze on his right ear. It took at least a minute, but eventually he blinked groggily a couple of times and muttered "Quit staring at me, Parker," before subsiding back into sleep. Satisfied, she settled back into her seat. She was bored. Eliot was sleeping and Hardison was deeply involved in whatever game or project he was working on. She had finished her puzzle, and was pretty sure the flight attendant was going to tie her to her seat if she got up again to wander around the cabin under the guise of going to the restroom. She had tried running through her mental maps of the security systems on her favourite exhibits at various museums around the world, but it hadn't held her attention like it usually did. She picked up the book Eliot had let slip down beside his leg when he fell asleep. It really wasn't very interesting. Maybe that was what had put him to sleep, and not the painkillers, Parker thought as her own eyes started to grow heavy. And maybe she should get her own copy for the nights when insomnia hit and Hardison didn't actually want to stay up all night playing with orcs.