#levot3

[qwanderer]

Parker calling the food trucks "meat wagons" to annoy Eliot has the same energy as Aziraphale calling the bicycle a "velocipede" to annoy Crowley

[qwanderer]

If Hardison is the lightning and Eliot is the thunder, then Parker is the rain - persistent, inevitable, will drown you if you cross her without remorse, but also capable of being infinitely gentle and generous.

Instead of the sun/moon trope, how about the lightning/thunder trope

which of your otp is showy, bright and illuminating, always visible and dramatic, lights up the earth, usually looking for a fight -- not subtle at all and truthfully, not very threatening

which of your otp is subtle but also very scary, is not always visible, is always a threat, shakes the earth, and is mostly peaceful until they're not -- a subtle but ever present threat

[qwanderer]

Variable (Vegetable)

Domestic Fluff, Cooking, Post-s5

This story is influenced in some ways by Redemption but contains no spoilers.

–

“I am gonna get you two to eat salad,” Eliot said, “eat salad and like it, if it kills me.”

“No!” Parker stood up and marched over to him, waving a finger in his face. “You are not allowed to die! I’ve been very clear about this.”

“Babe,” Hardison said, “I’m pretty sure that was hyperbole.” He raised his eyebrows at Eliot, who just stood there in front of the stove with his arms crossed. “It’d better be!” Hardison told him.

“I’m gonna make it work,” Eliot said, returning to stirring the contents of the pan in front of him. “Someday.”

“But you make all kinds of vegetables that we do like!” Parker told him. “It doesn’t have to be…” She wrinkled her nose. “Leaves, not cooked or anything, just sitting there. We’re allowed to have things we just don’t like.”

Eliot sighed. “You are allowed,” he told her. “I just… I can’t help thinking I could make it work.”

Hardison hummed thoughtfully. “Your food is all kinds of tasty,” he told Eliot. “Most of the time. Just, like, maybe don’t hold your breath about this.”

Rolling his eyes, Eliot said, “Okay, fine, I promise I won’t die of trying to reinvent the salad.”

“Good,” said Parker, and leaned her chin on Eliot’s shoulder to peer at what was apparently cream sauce he was making. “You know I’ll try anything you make,” she said, “even if I don’t end up liking it, right?”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “I do.” He turned to peck her on the cheek. “But, like, the harder something is to break into, the more fun the two of you have trying, right?” he asked. “It’s not always about what you get once you’re in.”

“That’s true,” Parker said.

“Yeah,” Hardison agreed. “Sometimes hacking is just about the puzzle. It’s about knowin’ you can.”

“Yeah,” Eliot agreed. “So. This is a puzzle.”

“Oh,” said Parker, her eyes widening in understanding. “You’re trying to steal our souls. With salad. Because that’s the hardest way you can think of to do it.”

Hardison snorted and hid his face behind his hand. 

“Somethin’ like that,” Eliot agreed mildly. 

“As long as you make dessert,” she told him, “I will forgive you anything you make me eat first.”

He chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. 

–

Eliot was always growing something new in the backyard, but this year he had a lot of new things happening. He spent every spare minute out there, weeding or watering or whatever. 

And it was extra pretty. There were always flowers somewhere, because as Eliot had explained, flowers made seeds for the next year, and also a lot of vegetables were actually fruit, and to get fruit, first you needed flowers. But this year, there seemed to be more of them. 

The thing that was most interesting was how, when he went out to work on the garden, he had that attitude that meant he was Up To Something. 

That wasn't bad, or even all that unusual, because when were any of them not up to something? But it did make the other two extremely curious. 

So they spent some time out on the back porch, trying to see what he was up to. But as far as they could tell, he was just… gardening. Like usual. 

But it was nice, actually, being out in the fresh air, all three of them, just doing their own things quietly together, Eliot weeding, Hardison on his laptop, Parker checking her rigs, all surrounded by the bright beauty that was Eliot's garden. 

And maybe that was the point. 

–

The bowls Eliot set in front of them were a riot of color. Yellow, orange, deep purple, purple-red, and only a touch, here and there, of green. 

“Ooh! You got us flowers!” Parker exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Eliot agreed, with a mischievous smile.

Hardison frowned down at his. “Okay, but why are they, like, in a bowl? In front of us? Instead of, like, in a vase in the middle of the table where flowers belong?”

“Because they’re not a bouquet,” Eliot told him. “They’re a salad.”

“I’m fine,” Eliot said, sitting down with his own bowl. “I am not dying. Okay?” He looked at the two of them. “Trust me.”

Hardison gaped, and made noises, and pointed at his bowl, and eventually managed to say, “That is not a salad!” He peered at Eliot. “That is a bowl of goddamn flowers! How hard did you hit your head on that last job?”

Parker picked up her fork and poked at the beheaded flowers in her dish. “Ooh, some of these are even cooked!” she said. “I’m going to try them first.”

“Those ones are squash flowers,” Eliot explained. “Cooked ‘em with the dressing and used that as the base, so it wouldn’t ruin the look of the flowers on top.”

“Are you for real with this?” Hardison asked. “Like, for real, for real?”

“Yeah,” Eliot said, glaring at him. “Just try it, okay? I grew these special for this.”

Parker bit into the squash flower. It was sweet, cooked with honey and butter and a little tang like apple juice and a bit of spice and something a little bit like vanilla, but not quite. 

“It looks like flowers and it tastes kind of like pumpkin pie and it’s a salad,” she said in consternation.

“Try it with some of the fresh ones,” Eliot urged her. 

With determination, Parker speared some of the other flowers on her fork with the rest of the squash flower, and she put them in her mouth. And she chewed on them.

“Oh, that’s good,” she said in surprise. 

Hardison gave a put-upon sigh. “If this is some kind of trick,” he said, “I am not gonna be happy.” He stuffed some flowers into his mouth, too. 

As he chewed, his eyes widened, and he slowed down, actually savoring, instead of just trying to get the food down. He hummed in approval, nodding. 

“What are these ones?” Parker asked, pointing at the orange, poofy, kind of spicy flowers. 

“Marigolds,” Eliot answered. “They do double duty because they help control bugs, and a lot of animals that like to eat stuff from my garden don’t like the smell of ‘em.”

“Why not?” Parker asked, sniffing one. “They’re really good, actually.” She tried eating it by itself. Not as good as with the sweet cooked squash flowers, but not actually bad. 

Eliot shrugged. “Not sure,” he said. “It just works.”

“This is witchcraft,” Hardison said, pointing at Eliot. “Flowers ain’t supposed to be tasty. They’re just flowers. But then you do this.” He narrowed his eyes at Eliot. “It’s dark magic, is what it is.”

“It ain’t magic,” Eliot said, shaking his head. “Just, some vegetables are fruits, some are flowers. It’s easier to get edible flowers fresh from the garden, so you don’t see a lot of ‘em in stores.”

“I can’t believe I just ate a goddamn marigold,” Hardison said, but he took another bite all the same. “What’s this one?” he asked, pointing to a big, flat, orange-yellow flower. 

“That’s nasturtium,” Eliot told him. “And then there’s pansies and red clover.” He pointed those out in his own bowl. 

“Huh,” said Hardison, nibbling on one of the clover flowers. “Okay, okay, I get it. Bunnies have a point about these, huh?”

Eliot visibly held back laughter. 

“You solved your puzzle,” Parker told him. 

Eliot grinned. “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”

“I did not think it was possible,” Hardison said. “But I also think this is cheating.”

“Oh yeah?” Eliot asked, still smiling. “What rule did I break?”

“I dunno!” Hardison said. “I don’t know the rules of cooking!”

“Well I do,” Eliot said, standing up to go and loom over Hardison, joke-threatening. “So I’m allowed to break ‘em.”

“Is that so?” Hardison said, looking up at him. 

“Mm-hmm,” said Eliot, leaning down towards him. 

They held each other's gaze for a moment, challenge quickly turning to pure fondness, and then Hardison reached up to pull Eliot down for a kiss. 

“You're magic,” Hardison murmured, “don't you dare deny it.”

Eliot sighed, but he was smiling. 

“Did you still make dessert?” Parker asked him.

“'Course I did,” he answered, turning his soft smile on Parker. “First salad, then lasagna, then dessert.”

“Ooh, lasagna too,” she said. “You're the best.”

“Now go eat,” Hardison told him with a gentle shove back in the direction of his own seat. “Magician, feed thyself, or whatever.”

So Eliot went, laughing. 

Eliot was softest and happiest when he got to cook, when he got to feed people, but he still had that drive in him, the way they all did, to be tricky and solve puzzles and face challenges. 

To win something.

Parker didn't think she'd ever seen him smile this much. Not when he wasn't on the grift, at least. This was home, with them. This was real. 

So she ate her yummy salad, full of flowers, and then she asked, “What's the next puzzle?”

Eliot shrugged. “Dunno. Guess I'll think of something.” He winked at her. 

Yeah, he should definitely be allowed to steal their souls as many different ways as he wanted.

[qwanderer]

Possibly the most OT3 line in the entirety of Leverage Redemption?

“Parker, you and your grappling hook are about to be very happy.”

[qwanderer]

Brain. Listen. I have enough leverage ficlets to write. I did not need this incredibly vivid image of Eliot and Parker infodumping to each other about grapes (types of grapes, how to grow them, all the most valuable still lifes featuring grapes, most valuable wines and why) while Hardison in the background half on his laptop and half grinning at them throws all the grape gummy frogs at them

[ancient-string]

So I rewatched this episode recently and I have an Analysis of Hardison’s hugs here.

He hugs Eliot first and longest. The two of them press against and into each other, as if they don’t want any physical space between them. Eliot here is his strength and his sustenance. Both of them Need this to reassure themselves that Hardison is really Here.

He hugs Nate next, and then Sophie. Both are slightly more sideways. He presses his face into them, some of his chest, but not all of him. They hug him back but they don’t press into him the way Eliot does. The hugs are also shorter in duration. This is more of the hug from a parent or older sibling. Still full of love, but love of a different sort.

Parker he doesn’t hug, because at that point she’s not comfortable with that kind of physical contact. Hardison knows that and doesn’t push her. He shows her he’s ok, but waits until later when they’re alone and she’s more comfortable before talking to her and giving her any physical attention. Hardison knows Parker so well at this point. All it takes is a Look.

liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike. let’s talk about their reactions here? because i 100% believe in my filthy trash bin of a heart that this episode was the point of no return for parker and eliot both, the point at which they both realised holy shit i am in way over my head. 

look at those reactions. like, it’s not simple relief, it’s relief and *total fucking whelm*. and neither eliot nor parker has–allowed themselves, maybe, the relative luxury of just thinking about what someone means to them. because it’s always been a liability. for eliot, caring too much about people would just be something that someone could use against him; for parker, it’s what archie’s cautioned her against a million times: we don’t get involved. 

and worse for both of them, really, is that they’re not–not too caught up in a job, not too wrapped up in their own reputations or…or things that could be forgivable, really. things that they could realise and chide themselves for and then pull back from, do better. no, instead they’re both of them way overinvested in another person, in a person who could be hurt, who could be taken from them because they weren’t good enough or fast enough or–or just because sometimes you lose. 

parker and eliot have always been aware of when they should cut their losses and get out. but this–this isn’t an acceptable loss. maybe neither of them can say the word love just yet, even to themselves, but this is where they realise it.

hardison doesn’t die, but he comes back to life anyhow, and when he does, the whole world changes.

[qwanderer]

Eliot-bothering is the pardison national sport ✌️

[qwanderer]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Leverage Redemption Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer, James Famille/Leon Famille Characters: Eliot Spencer (Leverage), Alec Hardison, Parker (Leverage), Leon Famille, James Famille Additional Tags: RS1E14: The Great Train Job, Domestic Fluff, Soil Remediation, Coming Out Series: Part 23 of Pardicer Summary:

“Sorry,” said Eliot, ducking his head just slightly. “If there’s anyone I could’ve trusted with this, should’ve known it would be you two.”

“No,” said James, shaking his head, “not a problem, never a problem, I just mean I wouldn't have guessed.”

Eliot gave the barest huff of a laugh. “I spent a lot of my life figuring out how to keep people from guessing. I’m trying to let it go more, when I can.”

[qwanderer]

Kinda hope I get inspired to write more leverage redemption fic over the course of my s2 rewatch, but I don't think it's going to end up as epic or interwoven as the previous parts of my series. I could be wrong! I could find all kinds of things I want to weave into the open places in the season. But I'm looking at the season in comparison to the others I've written the series through and it's different.

Listen, the ot3 have obviously loved each other since leverage s1, and from s1 to about mid-s4 I can believe that we see the important notes of that onscreen. But I started writing fic in my first late s4 rewatch because a) I saw them falling in love with each other in a sort of irrevocable way and b) there were things going on canonically! Offscreen in their romantic lives. Leverage said "at some point between late s4 and early s5 Hardison and Parker started dating and you don't get to see what that looks like" which is so interesting because. We see so many of the ins and outs of Nate/Sophie, when they're together and when they're not, the tensions, the sex, it's pretty clear onscreen. And with Hardison and Parker it's just. No. Their private lives are private. And Eliot is visibly close to them in the same ways they are visibly close to each other with the exception of the information "hey we're dating" and a few related behaviors.

It's interesting because the information that Hardison and Parker are dating is almost all told rather than shown. If we want to know what that looks like, what changes for them, we have to imagine it for ourselves. And I happen to imagine that Eliot has been involved as well from basically the beginning. But the key is I have to imagine it.

Then in leverage s5, there was a whole host of things that looked very different with that picture in my imagination, things that needed to be reconciled with that. And the same was true for redemption s1. "See, canon is true, but it's not the whole truth," I said with my fic.

Redemption s2 has been different. There were things that I needed to reconcile with my fic series, or, no, actually! What's different about this season was I felt the need to adjust my series to fit canon because I like the way canon does it better.

I dropped one of my stories from my headcanons because the version of the same story presented in canon was more vivid and true and appealing. And there were other details in s2 that made me look at my fic series and go, "oh, I see now! These fics are true but they're not the whole truth." So I wrote new fics that merge my series into line with canon.

One reason I think s2 feels so different is that there is so much love onscreen. So much sharing in love as a family, so many examples of caring things like date nights and "are you all right" and "Nana knows to expect us" and all of it. They really managed to show us. Despite physical distance and despite all we don't see. The important stuff is all there.

Who has sex with who, that's all just the details. And I think I've covered that pretty well already.

I don't know if I'll find much more to add.

[qwanderer]

The final chapter of For Joy has been posted!

“How can you tell the difference without knowing the secrets?” Sophie asks, not like she doesn’t believe Parker can tell, but curious, or testing. 

“It’s how you hold yourself,” Parker explains. “The secrets that hurt, they keep you curled in on yourself, bend you a little.”

Sophie frowns just slightly. “The way Eliot is,” she says. 

“Yeah,” Parker agrees, without looking at Sophie. “Like that.”

“I didn’t realize,” Sophie says, slow and quiet. “That he was that hurt. That he thinks so little of himself. I feel like I should have known.”

[qwanderer]

New chapter, and we’re back to Parker’s perspective!

 Eliot shoots him a glare and says, “Stop being a dad at me, it's not good.”

 “It's… got potential,” Harry corrects, shrugging.

[qwanderer]

I'm glad that AL is still making progress but I've discovered that that last pardicer fic is not done with me yet. Looks like there's going to be a follow-up from Parker's perspective.

Not sure how much it's going to be just introspection. But if my muses want it written there's probably something cool in there to dig up.

[qwanderer]

Wrote a bridge fic to connect my Leverage OT3 fic series to Redemption S2A! It’s intense and full of horniness, jealousy, and swing dancing. Because Reasons. 

“Alec,” says Parker. “What’s wrong? You’ve been being weird.”

He groans softly, not taking his hands off his face.

“Come on,” Eliot says impatiently, sitting up and leaning on one arm to look down at him too.

Hardison feels judged, even though he knows that’s all in his head.

“I’m having a issue, okay,” Alec says, still half-hiding behind his hands, “but I don’t wanna put it on you two. It’s not fair of me.”

[qwanderer]

Another chapter, right on schedule! Eliot’s perspective again, and a little bit of a songfic for Once in a Lifetime.

Eliot rubs at his face, and then he mumbles, “I got a song stuck in my head,” because where do you start with this stuff? Where do you even start?

[qwanderer]

Okay picture this:

Hardison and Eliot rewrite the lyrics to Two Princes so it has a lot more "and"s in it among other things and they sing it to Parker as a proposal. Eliot plays the guitar and Hardison adds a violin solo. They both came prepared with diamonds of course.

[qwanderer]

Got totally derailed by this idea that Eliot's signature can't stand to be perceived too much; couldn't explain it any other way than this rather poetical second-person portrayal of Eliot's life up through leverage s5.