vdistinctive | 75 Godiva Street, Sunday evening

Eliot wasn't sure who had first started using the term for the occasions when the whole team got together for a friendly meal, instead of eating during a meeting for a job, but somewhere along the lines, "family dinner" had become official. With Nate and Sophie on the island, that was just what the team was doing now, with Eliot putting the finishing touches on his spaghetti sauce (one of the few dishes they all could agree on), Hardison and Parker grabbing dishes and napkins to set the table, and Val skipping about excitedly underfoot, all of them moving easily in and around each other with the ease of long practice.

Nate stood in the doorway with a beer and watched the process with a small smile.

"I take it Hardison bought your home out from under you, too?" he asked when he managed a moment with Eliot alone. The look on Eliot's face wasn't entirely quantifiable. It contained rather a lot of fond amusement, though.

"Sure," he said. "Somethin' like that.

[ooc: for the teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam!]

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Nate said nothing, but his eyes widened fractionally.

Good lord. They were flirting.

Sophie gave them her indulgent smile, then her Mona Lisa one to Nate. Really. It took him quite long enough.

Parker snickered at them, leaning into Hardison for just a second. "I knew there was another reason you took that class." To Sophie she said, "She was very pretty, and seemed potentially kind of evil. You know, their type." She placidly speared a mushroom, and then grinned over at Eliot, too.

"Eliot's always had a thing for hot blondes with weird brains," Hardison said, winking at Parker and throwing an arm around her. "Guess I can't blame hi--what do you mean their type? Who's they?"

"Hot blondes with weird brains," Eliot said, laughing a little. "And I wouldn't call Emma evil. Morally gray, sure, but not evil."

And what kind of thieves would they be if they weren't into moral grayness?

"Wh-what," Nate stammered. "What is -- What precisely is going on here?"

"Finally, he asks!" Was that so hard? Really? Sophie shook her head at him. "Can I just say how happy I am? For all of you?"

Parker gave her a small, complacent smile, but her eyes were watching Nate. "Yup."

"Honestly, I thought he was supposed to be smart," Hardison said, winding spaghetti on his fork, though his body language was stiff and alert. "I mean, not as smart as me, but then, I was always special."

"Yes dear," Eliot said, smirking pretty hard now. "But it takes some of us a little longer to shift the paradigms." He leaned his elbows on the table and gave Nate a sympathetic look. "We're sleepin' together. The three of us. We were all basically doin' the rest of the relationship anyway."

Nate sputtered internally for a few moments, and took another, rather large sip of his drink. "A-are you certain that's, uh. Wise?"

Oh no he did not. "I think it's splendid. Not that you asked for my opinion," Sophie said pointedly.

Parker's gaze was still on Nate, and she was looking thoughtful. "Is that you asking to give yourself time to think, or you asking to get us off balance and reveal something, or you asking because you really want to know?"

Hardison nodded and leaned back, watching Nate. "Good question, mama."

Nate?

"Frankly," Eliot growled. "I ain't sein' any reasons why it wouldn't be."

Nate held up his hands. "Now -- now I wasn't -- my concern is --"

Yeah, he was being an asshole.

"The three of you were angry at us when we started sleeping together!"

No, the three of them had been angry that Nate and Sophie had kept it a secret.

"And then they stopped being angry at us when we admitted to what we were doing." Honestly. Sophie shook her head, embarrassed for him. "He said it to buy himself time, Parker, but excellent analysis of why he asked."

"All of the above," Parker agreed, then shrugged and went back to her pasta.

Yeah, Eliot had already given her answer, and Nate could take a while waffling about this.

"Yeah, yo. You don't lie to your crew," Hardison reminded. And then before Eliot could say anything-- "Plan E wasn't a con, yo. We were workin' towards somethin'. Hush."

"Say it all you want, but it was still damn stupid." Eliot shook his head. "We gonna have a problem here, Nate?"

He considered Nate his best friend, but most of that was because he outright refused to put up with Nate's bullshit.

Nate studied the three of them again, his internal sputtering finally beginning to die down. He raised his glass. "No. No we're not." He downed the glass and smiled. "Suppose it's about time, anyway."

"You are unbelievable." Said with a great deal of love but total acknowledgment of Nate's cat-like I-meant-to-do-that reflexes. And then a quick kiss, because Positive Reinforcement would always be a thing between them.

Parker snickered and put one leg across Hardison's lap so her foot was on Eliot's leg. "You could say that." About how long it took you to catch on, jeez, Nate. She grinned at her guys. "So, you got Sophie's ring picked out yet?"