Fandom: Leverage
Characters/Pairings: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Rating: Teen
Length: 896 words
Written for: Written for genprompt_bingo round #20 prompt: Food, Cooking, and mealtimes
Summary: Eliot’s recovering from an injury, Parker’s being cuddly, and Hardison’s out picking up food for a picnic in bed.
Originally Posted: May 9, 2021
CW: minor injuries
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Eliot opens his eyes. Still daylight. Parker’s all curled up around him with her head resting on his chest. He brushes the hair out of her face. “Hey sweetheart,” he says softly.
She gives him a lazy smile. “Hey, you.”
Alec isn’t there. “How long was I out?” Eliot asks.
Parker rolls over on her back and bites her lip. “Maybe twenty minutes,” she says.
“Where’s Hardison?”
“He’s out getting food so we can have a bed picnic.” Parker smiles.
“I could have cooked.”
“Your arm is still healing, you’re supposed to be resting it, remember?”
As if they’d let him forget. “I still could’ve cooked. I like cooking for you guys.”
Parker lifts his arm gently and tries to get a peek under the bandage. “Do you think it’s gonna scar?”
“Probably. I still can’t believe I let you two convince me to go to that doctor.”
“It was infected.”
“You couldn't know that for sure.”
“It was oozing and it smelled bad. Like trash left out in the sun during a heatwave bad. Anyone could tell it was infected.” Parker pokes his arm right below the bandage.
Eliot try not to wince. The antibiotics had done their job cleaning up the infection but the jagged slice along the outside of his forearm was taking its own sweet time to heal. He knows he’s supposed to be resting it, giving it time to heal — all the usual doctor’s orders bullshit, but it was driving him crazy.
“I don’t mind scars.” Parker sits up, still naked from earlier.
“Good thing, considering I have my fair share of em’.” Inside and out.
She pokes his arm again.
“Stop poking me.”
Parker sticks her tongue out at him but at least she stops poking his arm. She huffs. “I didn’t want to have to saw your arm off, Eliot. I like your arm.”
“Just my arm?” Eliot asks. Parker smirks and the sound of the door catches both their attentions.
“Hey, all,” Alec calls out and a moment later he strides through the door his arms laden with take-out bags. “Breakfast is served.”
Eliot bristles a little while they set up the special picnic blanket before spreading the food out on the bed. Parker puts on a shirt — one of his. He thinks about pulling on some sweatpants, maybe a t-shirt but decides it’s not worth the bother.
Alec sits on the bed and starts unpacking the food. “This here’s a dozen assorted donuts, over there we have various pastries that caught my eye, and these here are the new breakfast sandwiches from the coffee shop off of Pine Street. They have eggs, maple bacon, and three kinds of cheese and there’s also a little bucket of home-fried potatoes in there somewhere.” Hardison looks pleased with himself.
“Did you get coffee?” Eliot asks gruffly.
Alec puts his hand to his chest as if the very question hurt his heart. “Did I get coffee? How can you even ask me that?”
Eliot shakes his head. “Hardison —“
“Of course I got coffee, man.” He pulls into view one of those little cardboard holders with three steaming take-out cups.
Parker claps her hands. “It’s picnic in bed time.”
“Dig in, everyone,” Alec says.
Parker leans over to Eliot. “It’s okay to let the people who love you take care of you. You and Alec taught me that.” She gives him a quick kiss before turning her attention to the box of doughnuts.
Alec hands him a coffee. “It’s nice to be able to take care of you for a change, you spend so much of your time taking care of us.”
“It’s my job,” Eliot grumbles.
Alec gives him a knowing look and Eliot feels a flash of guilt. He needs to be better. He knows that relationships are a two-way street — or in their case, a three-way street but he’s not so great at letting himself being cared for. It was hard to let himself show any kind of weakness — real or imagined, even with the two people in this world he trusted the most. He needs to try harder to let them in more. “Hand me one of those sandwiches, will you?”
Alec hands him a paper-wrapped sandwich and flashes him a big smile. He sniffs the sandwich. It has promise. He unwraps it and takes a bite. “Not bad.”
Alec digs into his sandwich while Parker stuffs herself with sweeter things.
Eliot snags himself a raspberry pastry stick before Parker can eat all the sweets. He touches Alec’s wrist for a moment. “Thanks, man, everything looks really great.”
“You’re most welcome,” Hardison says.
They finish nearly all the food. All that’s left when they finish breakfast is one lone blueberry doughnut with a bite taken out of it.
“Parker?” Eliot says.
“What?” Parker turns to him.
Eliot holds up the doughnut.
Parker shrugs. “I got full.”
He frowns.
“Fine, I didn’t like that one as much,” Parker says.
“Hey you two, do you really think this argument is an effective use of our time?” Hardison asks.
“It’s not an argument,” Eliot grumbles.
“Fine — discussion.”
“You got a better idea?” Eliot smiles. He has lots of better ideas.
“Yeah, you know I do,” Hardison says.
“Are we going back to bed?” Parker asks.
“You know it,” Alec says.
“Yay!” Parker pulls off her t-shirt and jumps back into bed.
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