Leverage fic
Title: The Boys Watch The Girls Watch The Boys Watch The… Boys?
Fandom: Leverage
Characters/Pairings: Nate/Maggie/Eliot, Sophie, Hardison and Parker mentioned.
Spoilers: None.
Prompt: Nate watches Maggie as she watches Eliot who watches Nate, for pesha at comment_fic
A/N: I think this comes somewhere at the end of Season One. Or maybe it’s the beginning of an AU Season Two, where Maggie’s joined the team. I’m really not sure…
The title is a deliberate misquote of the lyrics to "Music to Watch Girls By", by Andy Williams.
Nate can’t stop watching her. It’s been a long time since they were together. Longer still since they were intimate. But he sees her walking around, talking to his (friends? colleagues? he wasn’t sure how to describe the team… no single word seemed to fit all of them) partners, laughing at something Parker said or listening to Hardison explain something technical while trying to look as though she knows exactly what he’s talking about, or sitting at the table, watching Eliot cook something and talking to him about art… and he can’t stop himself from looking in her direction. Sometimes everything seems to remind him of their marriage - the way her hair falls around her shoulders when she wears it down, the way she walks, the way her smile lights up her face. Other times it feels like he’s watching someone he doesn’t know. Someone he didn’t have a child with, didn’t live with for years.
Sometimes, when she’s with Eliot, he doesn’t recognise her. Her smile, her laugh, her walk, they all seem different to the woman he knew. The look she gets in her eyes, when she looks at Eliot, is a look he’s never seen there. He’s not sure if that worries him. He thinks it should.
~
Maggie shouldn’t be here. She knows she shouldn’t be here. There is a whole list of places that she could be in with fewer potential repercussions than here.
Like Siberia. Or Baghdad. Or Timbuktu. Anywhere but here, in what she knows is the base of operations for a highly skilled and extremely successful group of thieves, who have pulled off jobs all across the country (the world, if the rumours are true), of which her ex-husband is part. And yet here she is, feeling perfectly comfortable, laughing and chatting with them, and she hasn’t even considered calling the cops yet.
She thinks she shouldn’t, but despite herself she finds that she likes them. Parker makes her laugh, and Alec can be pleasant company if you’re prepared to sit through an hour of technical talk about computers or World of Warcraft. It will always be a little strange between her and Sophie, because she knows (even if Nate doesn’t) how her ex-husband feels about Sophie Devereaux - but they get past it, and talk about art and fashion and shopping. And then there’s Eliot.
When Maggie was younger, her parents always warned her to stay away from boys like Eliot. Dangerous, they said. You might get hurt, they said. Not worth it, they said. So she stayed away, like a good girl should, and dated the nice boys, the serious ones with glasses who wore ties to school, and eventually she married Nathan Ford, who’d seemed like he had been one of those boys - and look how that had turned out. She looks at Eliot, and she feels something that she’s never really felt before, not even with Nate when they first fell in love. Despite the fact that when she and Eliot met, he was pretending to be someone else and she was being used as a pawn in one of their cons, she likes him. Despite what he appears to be, she knows from their conversations that there are many facets to his personality. And, if she’s honest with herself, the outside, the appearance that hides his true self, isn’t too bad either.
She talks to Eliot a lot. Sometimes the team is around, sometimes it’s just the two of them in a restaurant or coffee shop somewhere. They talk about almost everything - politics, grifting, art, religion, the economy - the only taboo is that Eliot doesn’t talk about his past. She quickly learns not to ask. Other times, when he’s cooking or busy with something, or even if she’s just talking to someone else, she watches him. She especially likes the way he moves, silently and with more grace than you would think possible.
Sometimes, when her gaze slides over in Eliot’s direction, or when they’re talking or laughing about something, she knows that Nate is watching her. The first few times, it made her uncomfortable, she could almost feel his gaze burning into her. Now, she’s come to the conclusion that she’s single, and entitled to talk to anyone she wants, and if Nate has an issue with that then it’s not her problem.
~
Eliot can tell when he’s being watched. He’s not entirely sure how, but if he had to guess he’d say it was the cumulative effect of his years on the wrong side of the law. After all, in his line of work, the person watching might be a fed, or a sniper, or a rival, and knowing when you’re being watched is a handy trait to have. Until recently, he didn’t like to be watched, preferring to be invisible, unseen. That was before Maggie Collins (previously Ford) came into his life, and they started talking.
As if joining this team hadn’t changed enough of his ideas, when he started talking to Maggie he realised that, actually, he liked her, in a way that he hadn’t expected to like Nate’s ex-wife. (In fact, when he sees Maggie and Nate together now, he can barely imagine them as a couple.) So when he turns around one day and just about catches Maggie looking away and trying to hide the fact that she’d been watching him, he’s surprised to find that he doesn’t really mind. She’s single, intelligent, attractive, and she seems to like his company.
It’s just a shame that Eliot’s been feeling distracted lately, and he knows that it’s Nate who keeps distracting him. Not on purpose, of course. He’s decided that Nate probably has no idea what he’s doing, the tiny signals he’s unconsciously giving that are driving Eliot a tiny bit crazy.
Eliot has never been attracted to men, which is partly the result of growing up in a small and very religious town in Texas where things like that get you spat at, cursed at, and maybe even driven out of town entirely. Religion aside, though, men have never really appealed to him in the past, and that’s why he feels confused when he finds himself glancing over at Nate more often than usual. He’s not even sure what the feelings mean, and he doesn’t tell anyone. Watching Nate feels good, even if he doesn’t quite understand it, and it’s not doing any harm, so he doesn’t try to stop himself.
~
Sophie looks around the room, seeing that Nate keeps watching Maggie, who in turn is looking at Eliot in a rather unexpected way, while Eliot keeps glancing at Nate with an odd look in his eyes, and she sighs, and tells herself that no, she is not going to get involved, no matter how tempting it might be, and that they will just have to grow up and sort things out for themselves (for once).
She does, however, start a private sweepstake with Hardison and Parker on who will crack first and actually do something about their increasingly obvious feelings for the person they’re watching so intently.
Fandom: Leverage
Characters/Pairings: Nate/Maggie/Eliot, Sophie, Hardison and Parker mentioned.
Spoilers: None.
Prompt: Nate watches Maggie as she watches Eliot who watches Nate, for pesha at comment_fic
A/N: I think this comes somewhere at the end of Season One. Or maybe it’s the beginning of an AU Season Two, where Maggie’s joined the team. I’m really not sure…
The title is a deliberate misquote of the lyrics to "Music to Watch Girls By", by Andy Williams.
Nate can’t stop watching her. It’s been a long time since they were together. Longer still since they were intimate. But he sees her walking around, talking to his (friends? colleagues? he wasn’t sure how to describe the team… no single word seemed to fit all of them) partners, laughing at something Parker said or listening to Hardison explain something technical while trying to look as though she knows exactly what he’s talking about, or sitting at the table, watching Eliot cook something and talking to him about art… and he can’t stop himself from looking in her direction. Sometimes everything seems to remind him of their marriage - the way her hair falls around her shoulders when she wears it down, the way she walks, the way her smile lights up her face. Other times it feels like he’s watching someone he doesn’t know. Someone he didn’t have a child with, didn’t live with for years.
Sometimes, when she’s with Eliot, he doesn’t recognise her. Her smile, her laugh, her walk, they all seem different to the woman he knew. The look she gets in her eyes, when she looks at Eliot, is a look he’s never seen there. He’s not sure if that worries him. He thinks it should.
~
Maggie shouldn’t be here. She knows she shouldn’t be here. There is a whole list of places that she could be in with fewer potential repercussions than here.
Like Siberia. Or Baghdad. Or Timbuktu. Anywhere but here, in what she knows is the base of operations for a highly skilled and extremely successful group of thieves, who have pulled off jobs all across the country (the world, if the rumours are true), of which her ex-husband is part. And yet here she is, feeling perfectly comfortable, laughing and chatting with them, and she hasn’t even considered calling the cops yet.
She thinks she shouldn’t, but despite herself she finds that she likes them. Parker makes her laugh, and Alec can be pleasant company if you’re prepared to sit through an hour of technical talk about computers or World of Warcraft. It will always be a little strange between her and Sophie, because she knows (even if Nate doesn’t) how her ex-husband feels about Sophie Devereaux - but they get past it, and talk about art and fashion and shopping. And then there’s Eliot.
When Maggie was younger, her parents always warned her to stay away from boys like Eliot. Dangerous, they said. You might get hurt, they said. Not worth it, they said. So she stayed away, like a good girl should, and dated the nice boys, the serious ones with glasses who wore ties to school, and eventually she married Nathan Ford, who’d seemed like he had been one of those boys - and look how that had turned out. She looks at Eliot, and she feels something that she’s never really felt before, not even with Nate when they first fell in love. Despite the fact that when she and Eliot met, he was pretending to be someone else and she was being used as a pawn in one of their cons, she likes him. Despite what he appears to be, she knows from their conversations that there are many facets to his personality. And, if she’s honest with herself, the outside, the appearance that hides his true self, isn’t too bad either.
She talks to Eliot a lot. Sometimes the team is around, sometimes it’s just the two of them in a restaurant or coffee shop somewhere. They talk about almost everything - politics, grifting, art, religion, the economy - the only taboo is that Eliot doesn’t talk about his past. She quickly learns not to ask. Other times, when he’s cooking or busy with something, or even if she’s just talking to someone else, she watches him. She especially likes the way he moves, silently and with more grace than you would think possible.
Sometimes, when her gaze slides over in Eliot’s direction, or when they’re talking or laughing about something, she knows that Nate is watching her. The first few times, it made her uncomfortable, she could almost feel his gaze burning into her. Now, she’s come to the conclusion that she’s single, and entitled to talk to anyone she wants, and if Nate has an issue with that then it’s not her problem.
~
Eliot can tell when he’s being watched. He’s not entirely sure how, but if he had to guess he’d say it was the cumulative effect of his years on the wrong side of the law. After all, in his line of work, the person watching might be a fed, or a sniper, or a rival, and knowing when you’re being watched is a handy trait to have. Until recently, he didn’t like to be watched, preferring to be invisible, unseen. That was before Maggie Collins (previously Ford) came into his life, and they started talking.
As if joining this team hadn’t changed enough of his ideas, when he started talking to Maggie he realised that, actually, he liked her, in a way that he hadn’t expected to like Nate’s ex-wife. (In fact, when he sees Maggie and Nate together now, he can barely imagine them as a couple.) So when he turns around one day and just about catches Maggie looking away and trying to hide the fact that she’d been watching him, he’s surprised to find that he doesn’t really mind. She’s single, intelligent, attractive, and she seems to like his company.
It’s just a shame that Eliot’s been feeling distracted lately, and he knows that it’s Nate who keeps distracting him. Not on purpose, of course. He’s decided that Nate probably has no idea what he’s doing, the tiny signals he’s unconsciously giving that are driving Eliot a tiny bit crazy.
Eliot has never been attracted to men, which is partly the result of growing up in a small and very religious town in Texas where things like that get you spat at, cursed at, and maybe even driven out of town entirely. Religion aside, though, men have never really appealed to him in the past, and that’s why he feels confused when he finds himself glancing over at Nate more often than usual. He’s not even sure what the feelings mean, and he doesn’t tell anyone. Watching Nate feels good, even if he doesn’t quite understand it, and it’s not doing any harm, so he doesn’t try to stop himself.
~
Sophie looks around the room, seeing that Nate keeps watching Maggie, who in turn is looking at Eliot in a rather unexpected way, while Eliot keeps glancing at Nate with an odd look in his eyes, and she sighs, and tells herself that no, she is not going to get involved, no matter how tempting it might be, and that they will just have to grow up and sort things out for themselves (for once).
She does, however, start a private sweepstake with Hardison and Parker on who will crack first and actually do something about their increasingly obvious feelings for the person they’re watching so intently.