75 Godiva, Monday

[vdistinctive]

The Leverage team had been in Fandom more than long enough to know exactly what came after the school prom. Eliot's anticipation of seeing Spike and Gracie again had been tempered by his dread over whatever fresh hell of a revelation of his alternate selves' sex lives. He'd already met a daughter some version of him had had with Sterling, for chrissake, but he knew better to think the island couldn't somehow top that.

But Saturday morning had come and gone, and no "you don't get to be with your partners in my universe" child arrived to taunt him. And it turned out, spending time with a couple kids who belonged to all three of them was really nice.

He leaned back on the couch with his coffee, a giant spread of brunch foods arranged on the coffee table, the end tables, and pretty much every other flat surface not currently occupied by a piece of Hardison's tech (yeah, Eliot lost that battle before it ever began), and watched as Hardison finished setting up a video link to Kathy. Parker was perched on the back of the couch next to him, her knee touching his shoulder, looking about as happy and relaxed as he'd ever seen her, and not just because her mouth was full of chocolate cereal. The kids were sprawled on either side of them, teasing and poking each other in a way that reminded Eliot so much of himself and Trudy as kids it almost hurt. Somehow, after everything, he'd still managed to end up with a family. A large one, even. He could get used to this.

He bit his lip thoughtfully, and took a long sip of his coffee.

Maybe he should start taking steps to make sure he got the chance.

[for the fam, and slow play. AU KIDS!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"Doesn't work on me anymore," Eliot said, cool as a cucumber. "I've gotten used to it."

He had not. It was killing him. He wasn't even 45 yet, for chrissake.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Radio says she got at least one teen this year," Hardison mentioned. "But that don't burn at all, right? When some kid old enough to drive comes and says, 'Hey Gramps, what up?'"

Stop trolling your boyfriend, Hardison.

[vdistinctive]

"Man, I got my first kid when she was almost too old to even be a teen," Eliot pointed out. "That don't bother me at all."

It did. Just a little.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison nudged him. "You know what I like?" he said quietly. "That there's a whole bunch of realities out there with various kids who all know you an' love you as their grandpa, complete with holidays an' visits and all that."

God knows, Ada and Spike didn't have that. Wouldn't, probably, even if Eliot's father had still been alive.

"You ain't just their granddad cause you adopted their mom. You earned bein' their granddad."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot hadn't even thought of it that way.

He took a moment to digest the idea. He really liked that, too.

"You know, we play our cards right, and you could get to be someone's grandpa someday, too."

Hardison was going to make an amazing grandpa.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison smiled at that. "Maybe I will," he said. "Kinda jumpin' the gun a bit, though. Raven ain't mine the way Kathy's yours, so probably gonna have to do it the old fashioned way."

Just putting that out there.

His eyes were steady on where Ada and Spike were giggling at each other, over a decade between them but still close.

[vdistinctive]

"Yeah," Eliot said. "I been thinkin' about that."

This was the man who used to have near-panic attacks just at the mention of commitment.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You have?" Hardison asked, dragging his eyes away from the kids to fix on Eliot. "Ain't needed smellin' salts or a paper bag, though, I noticed. Unless you've been doin' all the thinkin' when I ain't been around."

[vdistinctive]

"Don't be an ass," Eliot grumbled. "And . . . yeah. It ain't like we're planning to break up or anything. I can see actually . . . planning out a future."

Well damn. He had a future.

"You know, instead of just lettin' it ambush us on the regular."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I like that idea," Hardison said softly. He took Eliot's hand, lacing their fingers together. "I'm pretty okay about whatever kinda future you got in mind, so long as it keeps involvin' the two of you."

Though his eyes strayed over to the kids again.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot definitely noticed.

"Tell ya one thing I've been thinking," he said, keeping his voice low and tilting his head a little towards Spike. "There's some weird stuff goin' on in the entertainment industry out west. . . ."

Somewhere in their world, there was a version of Spike waiting on them to come find him.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Is there now?" Hardison asked, touching his chin. "Kinda sounds like the kinda thing Leverage was founded to look into, know what I mean?"

He coulda left it there. He didn't though.

"So, Kathy's yours," he said slowly. "But Spike...Spike's gonna be all of ours. I was thinkin' we might wanna get ourselves settled before we go out and get 'im."

[vdistinctive]

"You think we ain't settled enough."

Eliot wasn't necessarily disagreeing. But Hardison tended to go a little more . . . all in than was strictly necessary, and he didn't want to agree to something that resulted in them getting, like, some magical soul bond or something.

(He didn't need his partners ending up where he was pretty sure he was going, when he passed on.)

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Well, no, I ain't sayin' that, exactly," Hardison said, backpedaling.

Maybe this wasn't the right time to bring that all up.

"We're fine. We're better'n fine. S'all good."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot huffed. "I ain't freakin' out, man. I ain't even -- you might not be wrong. Alright? I just wanna make sure you ain't thinkin' anything crazy."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Just thinkin' about all the time we spent tryna steal a weddin' for Nate an' Sophie," Hardison mumbled, looking down. "Might be nice to steal one for us, too." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Ain't like it's necessary or nothin'. I mean, we are what we are, no matter what."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot nodded slowly. "We are," he agreed. ". . . That don't mean we can't show it off, sometime."

You know, eventually. Some day. In the distant future.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Except who knew better than them - hell, better than Eliot - that the future wasn't always guaranteed?

"Yeah," Hardison said. "I mean, an' it only means as much as the folks involved want it to mean..."

[vdistinctive]

"Ain't like we're lookin' for the approval of any government," Eliot said. "Or God."

He and That Guy had issues these days, anyway. So many issues.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

These days, Nana would say that God approved of any relationship build on love and trust and respect and damn what the churches had to say about it. But Hardison knew that Eliot was having some trouble with God and figured now wasn't the time to bring that up.

"Ain't never have before," was all he said. "Can't see why we'd start now."

[vdistinctive]

"So we agree, then."

Eliot wasn't entirely sure if they were agreeing to get married or not, actually. At least they'd started the conversation?

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeah," Hardison said, a slow grin breaking over his face. "Yeah, I guess we do."