Fic: Christmas Spirit (Leverage)
Title: Christmas Sprit
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Eliot/Hardison
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 695
Summary: Hardison’s going to give Eliot a Christmas, whether Eliot wants one or not.
A/N: Christmas fic for romennim- sorry it’s a few days late but I hope you like it anyway!
All through December, Hardison looks forward to Christmas. They’ve managed to convince Nate not to take on any clients for a week because it’s been way too long since any of them have had a break. So he looks forward to spending time with their unusual family and he looks forward to good food and a break. They all spend Christmas Eve together at Nate’s, swapping gifts and even managing a semi-successful game of charades.
On Christmas day, they all have plans to do their own thing. Parker is meeting up with Archie Leach - he’s in town on business and his real family aren’t with him. Sophie and Nate are doing something together - Hardison doesn’t even want to think about what that is- so that leaves two of them. He debates what to do; he and Eliot haven’t been doing the whole dating thing for that long and he’s not sure how the hitter wants to deal with things. But he was raised to spend Christmas with the people he cares about so the decision is easy in the end.
On Christmas Day, he goes to Eliot.
They hadn’t exactly made solid plans but there’d been mentions dropped casually into conversations and Eliot hadn’t said no when Hardison had said he’d see him tomorrow. But Eliot still looks surprised when he opens the door and sees him standing there.
“Merry Christmas, man.” He holds up the beer he brought and grins. “Can I come in?”
Eliot looks from the beer to the present Hardison is holding in his other hand and frowns. “Yeah, sure.”
He follows Eliot into the apartment, looks around at the walls devoid of Christmas decorations. In the corner of the room there’s a pile of the stuff that Eliot had been given the day before, Hardison can see his own gift for Eliot there, but they’re the only sign in the room that it’s even December. Shaking his head, he puts the beer down on the table and watches as Eliot picks it straight back up again.
“I’ll put it in the fridge.”
Eliot disappears into his kitchen and Hardison sighs, sits down on the couch and looks again at the blank walls. He knows that Eliot isn’t big on holidays but he’d expected something; a few cards from relatives, maybe a bit of tinsel.
“I got a turkey.” Eliot walks back into the room, won’t quite meet Hardison’s eyes as he talks. “If you want to stay for dinner, I mean.”
“Damn right I want to stay.” He moves over a little on the couch to make room for Eliot. “I didn’t come over to see you on Christmas just so you could throw me out when it’s feeding time.”
Eliot snorts and drops down into the space Hardison has made. “You can wash the dishes.”
Hardison would complain about that but he knows that, in reality, they’ll end up doing them together - Eliot washing, him drying - because that’s what always happens lately.
“What do we do now?” Eliot looks at him expectantly, like he was the one who was meant to come up with the plan.
He shrugs and looks around the apartment before standing up. “Have you got any decorations around here?”
“No. If I did, they’d be up.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s stupid putting stuff up just for me.”
“It’s not just you this year.”
“Well, yeah, but-”
Hardison grins as Eliot trails off. “Look, I know we haven’t exactly acknowledged this but I’m here and you’re here and it’s Christmas.”
“And your point is?”
“We should at least have some tinsel up. What time will you have to start cooking?”
Eliot glances at the clock on the wall. “A couple of hours from now.”
“Okay, good, we have time then.”
“Time to what?”
“Go to my place and bring some of the decorations back here.”
Eliot sighs but Hardison can tell he’s secretly pleased because it’s a sigh, not a growl. Just like he knows that, later, Eliot will fuss over the turkey and tell Hardison he shouldn’t be in the kitchen, then pull him in for a kiss anyway. It’s just Eliot’s way.