CCL FIC: Good Will Towards Men (Leverage - Eliot/Nate or OT5 - FRT - 1/1)
Title: Good Will Toward Men
Author: Sam
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Eliot/Nate or OT5
Rating: FRT - slash, het, fivesomes, angels, angst
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Disclaimers: Not mine (exceopt for the AU), no money made.
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Summary: It's Christmas Eve: a time for family, friends, good food, and second chances. (Set in my Hunter!AU)
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Snow fell in soft, fat flakes outside the building; the temperature having dropped well below freezing during the evening while last minute shoppers wrapped in coats, scarves and gloves had made their frantic dashes to the malls, department- and super-stores for that desperation gift. It happened every year like clockwork; no matter how carefully one planned ahead, picked up this and that early, or promised themselves they would avoid the mob, millions everywhere were left to fight it out among others like themselves hoping against hope there would be that nugget of gold among the coal they might have overlooked the first, second, and third run through.
Inside the brownstone above McRory's Place, Nate Ford sat at the bar to his kitchen, nursing his second drink of the night and watching his family bustle around his apartment, getting everything ready for Christmas Eve. Eliot had been cooking all day, the savory smell of ham, sweet potatoes, and only the angel knew what else thick and welcoming in the air. Sophie had taken Parker shopping earlier for decorations for the tree the grifter insisted they must have, leaving Hardison to find the one tree lot left in Boston open on Christmas Eve and select a tree worthy of whatever vision Sophie had in mind.
Nate had walked in the door on the hustle and bustle already in progress. A raised eyebrow at the chaos going on in the one corner of his living room and Nate had made it as far as the kitchen before Eliot had handed a fingerful of scotch back over his shoulder.
"Dinner'll be ready in half an hour, though I'd stay outta the path of Hurricane Sophie if I were you," the blue eyes had glittered with good humored amusement as the angel had warned, "Might be pulled in otherwise."
"Good plan." Taking an appreciative sip and feeling the smooth burn all the way down, Nate had set up shop at the bar and bided the time before dinner by watching Parker taking advantage of Hardison's longer reach in order to place the smaller ornaments nearer to the top; the bulk of the brightly colored, traditional glass balls, icicles, and spheres having already filled out the lower branches under Sophie's critical eye.
"Here, tell me what ya think," Eliot pushed over a wooden spoonful of greens for him to try, hand cupped under to catch the juice before it dripped to the counter. "Need more salt or anythin'?
Taking the bite, Nate chew happily, feeling the hunger teased and tormented by the maddening smells drifting through the apartment roar into life. Wrap up from their last case had made for one long day and breakfast had been way too early.
"Perfect," he denied, shaking his head, eyes pleading for another bite. "Though maybe one more? You know, just to be sure."
"No you don't, bubba," Eliot denied, turning to cut the heat to simmer. "Only one taste per tester in my kitchen."
"Technically it's my kitchen," Nate pointed out.
Only to receive that good natured rise of eyebrows in warning. "Could use a hand with settin' the table if you were bored with watchin' me work."
"Never. Though would there possibly be a reward for setting the table?"
"You want a reward for settin' the table? So much fer being an honest man, Nate."
"Eliot, I live with a bunch of thieves," the mastermind pointed out. "What did you expect."
Watching as Parker stole the ornament Hardison had been holding while contemplating where it should go on the tree, the thief grinning at the indignant protest at being had, Eliot shook his head. "Good point. Go on, you set the table, I'll let you sample the ham in about five minutes."
"Fine, put to work in my own place," Nate mock grumbled, smiling at the chuckle behind him as he went to get out the good plates and Eliot once more turned back to his assumed domain in Nate's own place.
Five minutes later found the table set, the tree finished, and Eliot taking a test bite of the ham; a bite he transferred to Nate with a kiss when Nate had been about to protest that Eliot had stolen his reward. Taste exploded over his tongue as Eliot withdrew his own; brown sugar, pineapple, the sweet tang of the ham and of Eliot himself.
"Yeah?"
Opening eyes he hadn't realized he had closed, Nate smiled at the smirk on the angel's lips, wiping it away with a returned kiss of his own. "Nice."
"Hey. Where are the lights for the tree? Christmas trees are supposed to have lights, right?"
"Parker!" Sophie exclaimed. "You didn't put on the lights?"
"How was I supposed to know the lights went on before the ornaments?" Parker protested. "This is my first Christmas tree. Besides, Hardison is in charge of all things electrical..."
"Woman! Your - wait. Ever?" Hardison protested.
Trading a look between them, before Nate could intervene, Parker realizing she might have been found lacking in some way, Eliot waved a hand at the tree; hundreds of tiny lights in various colors appearing in and around the branches, sparkling off the glass ornaments and lighting the tree from within.
"Better?" he asked.
Sophie smiled, no doubt having realized the direction the conversation had been taking. "Much. Thank you, Eliot."
"Awesome, man," Hardison smiled, and Parker grinned from ear to ear, eying the softly glowing lights and the brand new little angel on top with every evidence of having forgotten the rest.
"No problem," the angel shrugged. "Dinner's ready, y'all come eat 'fore it gets cold."
Leaning to the side, Nate whispered, teasing, "You could just wave it all warm again."
"Shaddup." Eliot nudged. "Ruin my rep why don'cha."
Nate smiled innocently and shrugged. "Just saying."
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A couple hours later, Galway, Ireland...
The pub was dark; smoke and the quiet, lilting brogue of voices hanging in the air as the door opened on the newcomer making his way to the bar and the lone figure still throwing them down this deep into the pre-dawn morning. False dawn was only an hour or so away and the place was pretty much empty except for the hardcore regulars; the pair of old men in the far corner and the lone man hunched over a glass at the bar.
"You checking up on me?"
Eliot nodded, taking the seat next to him and sending the bartender away. "Jimmy."
"Nathan send his pet angel to spy on me?"
"No," Eliot denied, casting him a sideways glance as he asked. "Knew about that did ya?"
A small, wry smile, though Jimmy Ford stared straight ahead, not looking at him while saying, "Kinda hard to miss the wings, son."
Which meant Jimmy Ford was one of those special humans who could see and hear angels in their true form. Figures.
"Can't argue with that. You doin' alright?"
"For being chased out 'f my own city, exiled to the Old Country by my own son? Yeah, I'm doin' alright."
"Coulda been worse, Jimmy," the angel warned.
"What? You mean Nathan might have shot me?" Jimmy snorted softly, swallowing down the last bit of his drink and rolling the glass between his hands. "I doubt that. He's too much his mother's son."
"I wouldn't be too sure 'bout that. Nate has more of a dark side than you might be givin'im credit for."
"More of a spine you mean?" Ford asked lightly. "Ah maybe you're right. He did manage to turn the tables on his old man, so maybe you're right about that dark side. You would know after all," When the blue eyes met his, so like his son's and so different, there was a dark, knowing glint in them as he added pointedly, "Angel."
Eliot merely held the gaze unselfconsciously as he admitted to everything Jimmy Ford knew and wasn't saying. "Yer right. I would."
Turning back to his glass and nodding to the bartender for another, Ford sighed. "So if not for Nathan, why are you here?"
Eliot favored the man with a glance, once more denying a drink. "For you," he told him seriously. "You're Nate's family, whether either of ya want ta admit it 'r not. That should count fer somethin'."
"Oh it does," he agreed. "It does. Just might be a bit late for that father/son Christmas reunion you're thinking of." Ford favored him with a wry glace. "That is why you're here, isn't it? Family?"
"Maybe." It was Eliot's turn to shrug, catching the human's eyes and saying gravely, "Though I don't think it's nearly as late as you think it is."
With that the angel reached over, placing two fingers between Jimmy's eyes...
...and sent the feel of the last few hours in Nate's apartment to his father. Family, friends, food and presents. The snow outside, the warmth within; the tree brightly lit and decorated by a woman who had never had a real Christmas before. A mismatched band of thieves, molded and hammered by hardships and enemies and a single purpose that had grown on them all. Friends, lovers...
Family.
"No, Jimmy," Ariel denied, the bar going on around them as if nothing was wrong; and nothing was. "I don't think it's too late at all."
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Epilog...
Moving easily through the dark, not bothering with a light, Eliot crawled into bed naked behind Nate; Sophie, Parker and Hardison asleep on his other side. Arm wrapped around Nate's hip and beyond, Eliot settled in, having just closed his eyes when the sleepy rumble half accused, "Have a good trip?"
Busted. "Shoulda known you'd know."
"Yeah, you should have." Nate told him, tangling their hands together over Sophie's hip. "Dad alright?"
"In a pub, but not in trouble, " Eliot admitted. "At least not at the moment."
Nate let out a breath in the dark, a moment of silence stretching out between them before saying only, "Good."
The angel pressed a kiss to the bare shoulder, wishing there was more he could do and knowing he was already doing all that he could to heal the rift between father and son. "Get some sleep, Nate. We have the Garrison's in the morning at nine."
Nate returned the gesture on the back of the hand he held in his. "Yeah. Night, Eliot."
"Merry Christmas, Nate."
End