#i can't decide whether i want to meld this to an AU where the OT3 are all werewolves

[takiki16]

but nate IS gonna steal immortality tho, right??? somehow???? ooooooor is sophie gonna give hers up to live out a mortal lifespan *chinhands*

re: THIS post about fae!Sophie and human Nate:

Nate is gonna have to get his rear in gear and find a way to become immortal, because LIKE HECK am I letting my Seelie Queen Sophie give up her magic and her eternal youth and her Aesthetic ™ because BoozeDad couldn’t con his way past the veil.  If Nate can’t even do that, then what is the POINT of his five-season arc on the show!!!!!!  I may be writing a ridiculous amount of meta-fic for a character that I don’t actually like very much at all, but Nate does NOT get an Aragorn son of Arathorn pass.  Naw son.  Nate “Functioning Alcoholic” Ford is going to darn well WORK for Sophie’s happiness.  

Of course, it won’t be easy. OF COURSE when Nate goes to the Courts of the Fae (which for his visit look suspiciously like his old IYS building) and is told to fill out a long, torturous form (that looks suspiciously like an insurance claim) so he can be CONSIDERED for an APPLICATION for a CHANCE to Quest for eternal life, Nate decides to screw it and game the system, because it’s rigged and corrupt and unfair and that’s What He Does.  And OF COURSE this is exactly what the Fae wanted, because half of their ridiculous sadistic shenanigans are for their own amusement.  

So Nathan Ford, firstborn son of James Ford and [sadly unnamed mom] Logue, sets off to Steal An Immortal Life.   

Nate can’t drive directly at his goal, though.  And he can’t just pull out his old human cons and tricks, because the Fae are next level.  But at the same time, tricks that would have fallen flat in the human world are surprisingly effective with the Fae because by their own Law they can’t lie, and not all of them are as clever as Sophie Devereaux.  A lot of the work Nate has to do involves narrowing (by hook or crook) the sea of possible challenges down to a set of actual feasible feats that he could accomplish.  Nate can’t expect to bypass the ENTIRE system through a single cheat, because (1) that wouldn’t make for a very interesting episode, and (2) he is doing this For Love, and everyone knows that you have to put in the effort if you are doing it For Love!  

And Sophie can’t help him, probably can’t even see him, because the Fae don’t just let their own folk go around handing out eternal life like candy.  

I’m imagining it coming down after many harrowing cons to three challenges (it’s always three) that all revolve around testing Nate’s relationship with Sophie.  Maybe Nate walks into the first room of the Final Challenge, and a thousand different Sophies, Charlottes, Indiras, Kristys, Graces, Sarahs, Annies, Felicitys, etc,  turn towards him, all smiling the same smile and telling him that they are ready to spend forever with him.  If he can choose the real Sophie, he moves on to the next phase.  

Nate spends some time walking around the room, observing.  That one’s shoes are too short, Sophie always wants her heels to be as high as possible.  That one doesn’t smile with her eyes - amateur move.  That one’s accent is atrocious.  That one…hmmm, close…she doesn’t blink when he picks up a glass.  He ends up concluding that the real Sophie actually isn’t in the room - which is of course the right answer.  The next room is about honesty, because dammit it is a LONGSTANDING FANTASY of mine that SOMEONE makes Nate Ford confront the mountains of hypocrisy he’s spouted over the course of five seasons of Leverage.  It’s a room that looks a little like the old LA Leverage offices, a little like his apartment over McRory’s, a little like the Brewpub.  Familiar and yet eerie, in the way that the Fae have.  And one by one, people from his life come in - including Sophie (or at least very convincing facsmiles).  Nate has to be absolutely honest in their conversations with him, no hedging or BS justifications, or he doesn’t pass to the next room.  Yes, I COULD have just asked you before I hypnotized you nonconsensually.  Yes, I was dismissive of your feelings and inconsiderate of your needs on XYZ occasions, and I apologize.  Yes, I put us all in danger for my own personal reasons while judging you for doing the same.  Yes, I ran a con on the crew.  Etc, etc, etc.  Very important habit for spending an eternity with someone, honesty.  And when Nate is finally done sweating bullets with the illusions of Sophie and Hardison and Eliot and Parker and Maggie glaring at him, he gets to go into the final room…where Sophie is waiting for him.  Nate has to guess her real name. 

Nate ponders.  And ponders some more.  Thinks about all the options that he’s come up with over the years, all the statistically likely girl’s names that he had to throw out upon learning that Sophie actually sprang into existence millennia ago and has literally been a thousand different people.  And he comes to the conclusion that I think the show and the writers also wanted us all to get. 

It doesn’t actually matter.  Her “real” name is Sophie Devereaux, because that is the name of the woman he fell in love with, and the name of the woman who fell in love with him in return.  He doesn’t want to bind her to any of her thousands and thousands of other lives.  The name she has picked out for herself is just fine.  AND THEN THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER

(and Hardison/Parker/Eliot possibly do their own version of fae challenges for each other SHUT UP i have actual work to do tonight)