Fanfic, Title: Reading, Fandom: Leverage
Title: Reading
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: implied slash, nightmares, lots of focus on Sophie’s abilities-blame the muse, and I am very tired, so I may have missed something
Characters/Pairings: Nathan/Eliot, Sophie, Alec, Parker
Disclaimer: Nope. Still don’t own it.
Feedback: Is a physical need, just like water and air.
Summary: It isn’t possible for a human to live without dreaming.
Notes: This is kind of a little break from both plot and slash. A look at what the other three are doing while Nathan and Eliot are staying together.
Barcode
Puzzle
Offer
Student
Agent
Problem
Shattered
Expert
Nightmare
~
“Made any progress yet?” Sophie called.
“Yeah, because you would have already finished by now, right?” Parker griped. “This takes time, you know.”
“Nine ball, side pocket,” Alec announced.
“You know, you don’t actually have to call what goes where until you get to the eight ball,” Sophie reminded him. “You’re usually wrong anyway.” Sure enough, the nine ball went in-but into the corner pocket.
“I wouldn’t be wrong all the time if you didn’t keep screwing me up,” Alec complained.
“Definitely Aquarius,” Parker mused.
“What was that?” Sophie asked.
“I’d be done already if you didn’t keep talking to me!” Parker snapped.
“All you have to do is ask, darling,” Sophie answered, batting her eyelashes delicately. Parker rolled her eyes. Sophie smiled and turned back to the pool table.
“Two ball, far corner,” she informed Alec.
“You do it too.”
“Call them?” The two ball glanced off the four so that it knocked against the corner of the pocket instead of going in. “Sure, when I’m playing with Nate. That’s what he does.” She looked at Alec as she said it, waiting for the reaction she was sure she’d get. Sure enough, a flicker of emotion crossed Alec’s face. The emotion wouldn’t have been enough for anyone else to identify, but Sophie could tell.
“You always watch people,” Parker commented. Sophie looked over at the girl, surprised. Parker was frowning, a thoughtful look on her face. “Any time you talk to someone, you’re always watching their face. Why?”
Sophie hadn’t thought the girl had been watching. “So I can read them,” she answered, perfectly honestly.
“What do you mean?” Parker spun the swivel chair, sitting cross-legged like the attentive kindergartener she’d never been.
“I watch them. Gauge their reactions. Put those reactions together until they make a complete puzzle of who the person is.”
“So you pretend to be a mind reader, basically,” Alec summed up. Sophie turned back to him.
“In a manner of speaking,” she replied. “I prefer to think of it as… I’ve learned the language of action and reaction.”
“That’s why you’re such a good con artist,” Alec said. Sophie nodded graciously.
“And such a terrible actress.” Sophie turned back to Parker, injured.
Parker continued, “Because no one else is as good as you. They’re putting thought into their actions. They’re not reacting the way they would naturally. So you can’t either.”
Sophie blinked. “How long did it take you to come up with that?” she asked.
Parker sneered. “Stealing professionally takes knowing patterns of behavior,” she said.
“Doesn’t take knowing the intricacies, though,” Sophie countered.
“Just how good are you?” Alec asked, leaning on the pool table, a challenging smirk on his face.
Sophie turned back to him. “Take your turn,” she said, “and I’ll tell you what I’ve put together about you.”
Alec nodded. “Fair enough.” He scanned the table carefully. “Eleven, corner pocket.” He probably would have made it if the cue stick hadn’t just glanced off the ball, his mind too focused on what Sophie was going to say.
“Nate said you’ve been doing this since high school,” Sophie said. “How old were you in high school? Five? Six?”
He looked up. “Eight as a freshman,” he answered. “Graduated when I was ten.”
“In a more balanced society you wouldn’t have managed it,” Sophie commented, “but in a world where computers are king? You win hands down. But that’s a different story entirely. Some would say you were deprived of a childhood, but that’s not true. You had exactly the childhood you wanted. Maybe it wasn’t one most parents would have let you have, but it was the one that fit you. What you were deprived of was the experience of high school. Most people go through high school as teenagers, surrounded by other teenagers. You were in college before you got acne. You missed out on the years where people socialize by going out and drinking illegally, partying all night at the clubs where people don’t card, dating and screwing when Mommy and Daddy aren’t watching. You never got the chance to be a real teenager. So that’s what you keep trying to be. You talk in slang, you tease people about being in love, you hit on Parker every chance you get. Did I miss anything?”
“Yeah, I drink until I can’t remember what happened when I wake up the next morning.” But Sophie could see he was regretting asking.
“What do you know about Nate?” Parker asked.
“Hold on,” Alec said. “You didn’t have her read you yet.”
“The world seems much fairer to those who don’t expect it to be,” Sophie said.
“That can’t possibly be as profound as it sounded,” Alec shot back.
“Hello!” Parker snapped her fingers. “Nate! Eliot! Read! Now!”
Sophie laughed. “It’s funny that you said them both together, because… Four ball, near corner.” The four ball went in, taking the two with it. “Well, Eliot and Nathan are… which one of your lovely American reverse euphemisms shall I use? ‘Getting busy’? ‘Doing the nasty’? ‘Screwing’? Although I don’t think they’ve actually shagged yet…”
“What?” Alec completely flubbed his shot. Parker leaned so far forward in the chair it fell over.
Sophie looked at them. “I thought it was rather obvious.”
“Yeah, obvious like a Russian thinks it’s obvious that ‘Beliy Plaschik’ means ‘White Robe’, maybe,” Parker said. “How… What… When… I thought you and Nate were together!”
Sophie laughed. “Me and Nate? My dear Parker, Nathan is very, very gay.”
“He was married!” Parker protested.
“What difference does that make? Look, Nathan got drunk one night in college, slept with a woman, stayed with her for his son’s sake. There was no expectation of love between them, only an expectation that they present the face of a happy couple to their son.”
“So he was straight for one night?” Alec’s eyes were so wide they were bugging out of his face. “How exactly does that work?”
“Nathan’s wife was a very attractive woman, and very attracted to him,” Sophie answered. “Nathan was very gay. His friends bet him he couldn’t ‘get it up’ for the most attractive woman in the school. She was devastated when she found out, of course. I think that’s when he started drinking.”
“And how do you know all this?” Parker asked.
“I didn’t always work as a grifter,” Sophie answered with a conspiratorial smile.
“So what about Eliot?” Alec asked.
“Pansexual,” Sophie said. “Take your turn.”
“I did.”
“You missed. Go again.” She smiled sweetly. Alec rolled his eyes and bent to aim for his shot. “I would be willing to bet that Eliot’s had male partners, female partners, and partners who don’t identify with either,” she mused. “Or at least, that he would be willing to have those partners. I don’t think he’s had many ‘partners’ in his life.”
“He’s thirty!” Alec objected.
“That doesn’t mean much,” Sophie said. “In any case, sexuality isn’t a concern. Vocation would have been a problem before this project started, but now Nathan can pretend we’re all on the same side. The only real problem is that Eliot is so suspicious, but Nathan is very persistent.”
“So they’re… together?” Parker whispered.
“Well, it’s early on, but in the loosest sense, yes. They haven’t shagged; I doubt they’ve even snogged; but yes, they’re together.”
Alec’s computer beeped. Sophie looked over. “Speak of the devil,” she said softly, going over to the computer.
“What?” Parker stood, trying to see.
Sophie clicked open the video conference as the other two arrived at the desk.
Four people spoke at once.
“Trouble in paradise?” Alec asked.
“Lovers’ quarrel?” Parker asked, always less subtle.
“Eliot in trouble?” Sophie asked.
“Parker, Alec, would you mind leaving?” Nate’s question wasn’t quite a question. Alec and Parker glanced at each other and left.
“What’s wrong with him?” Sophie asked as she picked up the headset that always rested beside the keyboard.
“Plug that in.” Nathan wore one as well, she noted. She also noted that he was in the living room of his tiny apartment, that he was wearing an old T-shirt and boxers under his robe, that the couch behind him wasn’t made up into a bed, and that the door she knew led to the bedroom was shut tight.
“Interesting,” she said. “You haven’t slept together, but you’re sleeping together.”
“I’m assuming the difference is between having sex and sharing a bed, and as usual, you’re right,” Nathan acknowledged. “Eliot doesn’t want anyone to take care of him. That includes being noble on his behalf. That includes letting him have the bed. The only way he would sleep is if I slept in the bed with him.”
Sophie had to laugh. “All that to stop you babying him?”
“I wasn’t babying him,” Nate said, offended. “I was being chivalrous.”
“He’s asleep now, though,” she guessed. “And somehow you know that he’s going to stay that way.”
“He won’t wake up before it’s time to get up, unless someone touches him or tries to hurt him.” Sophie didn’t ask how Nathan was so sure of that.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Nathan had been hesitant until she asked, but then he asked a question of his own. “How is it possible for a human being to live without dreaming? I mean real, physical, subconscious-working-things-out dreaming. How can that happen?”
“It can’t,” Sophie answered immediately. “All mammals need to dream. It’s a physical need, just like water and air.”
“Say a person truly believed that they didn’t dream,” Nathan said carefully. “They knew exactly what their mind was doing from the time they went to sleep until the time they woke up, and it wasn’t dreaming. How might they not die from that?”
“Nate, neurology isn’t exactly my strong point,” Sophie reminded him.
“Just take a guess.”
Sophie sighed. “I suppose, in theory, a person could tune out their dreams, like you do a song that’s playing while you’re reading a book. But that would take either a lot of practice-”
“Or a real need. Thanks, Sophie.” Nate turned off the conference on his end. Sophie did the same, thinking. Nathan had already known that. He’d come to the same conclusion already. He just wanted someone else to say it.
“I got it!”
Sophie turned in time to see Parker doing a victory dance, jumping up and down, being caught and spun around by Alec. She looked at the bomb on the table.
“Well, it looks like it’s time to get back to work,” she murmured.
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: implied slash, nightmares, lots of focus on Sophie’s abilities-blame the muse, and I am very tired, so I may have missed something
Characters/Pairings: Nathan/Eliot, Sophie, Alec, Parker
Disclaimer: Nope. Still don’t own it.
Feedback: Is a physical need, just like water and air.
Summary: It isn’t possible for a human to live without dreaming.
Notes: This is kind of a little break from both plot and slash. A look at what the other three are doing while Nathan and Eliot are staying together.
Barcode
Puzzle
Offer
Student
Agent
Problem
Shattered
Expert
Nightmare
~
“Made any progress yet?” Sophie called.
“Yeah, because you would have already finished by now, right?” Parker griped. “This takes time, you know.”
“Nine ball, side pocket,” Alec announced.
“You know, you don’t actually have to call what goes where until you get to the eight ball,” Sophie reminded him. “You’re usually wrong anyway.” Sure enough, the nine ball went in-but into the corner pocket.
“I wouldn’t be wrong all the time if you didn’t keep screwing me up,” Alec complained.
“Definitely Aquarius,” Parker mused.
“What was that?” Sophie asked.
“I’d be done already if you didn’t keep talking to me!” Parker snapped.
“All you have to do is ask, darling,” Sophie answered, batting her eyelashes delicately. Parker rolled her eyes. Sophie smiled and turned back to the pool table.
“Two ball, far corner,” she informed Alec.
“You do it too.”
“Call them?” The two ball glanced off the four so that it knocked against the corner of the pocket instead of going in. “Sure, when I’m playing with Nate. That’s what he does.” She looked at Alec as she said it, waiting for the reaction she was sure she’d get. Sure enough, a flicker of emotion crossed Alec’s face. The emotion wouldn’t have been enough for anyone else to identify, but Sophie could tell.
“You always watch people,” Parker commented. Sophie looked over at the girl, surprised. Parker was frowning, a thoughtful look on her face. “Any time you talk to someone, you’re always watching their face. Why?”
Sophie hadn’t thought the girl had been watching. “So I can read them,” she answered, perfectly honestly.
“What do you mean?” Parker spun the swivel chair, sitting cross-legged like the attentive kindergartener she’d never been.
“I watch them. Gauge their reactions. Put those reactions together until they make a complete puzzle of who the person is.”
“So you pretend to be a mind reader, basically,” Alec summed up. Sophie turned back to him.
“In a manner of speaking,” she replied. “I prefer to think of it as… I’ve learned the language of action and reaction.”
“That’s why you’re such a good con artist,” Alec said. Sophie nodded graciously.
“And such a terrible actress.” Sophie turned back to Parker, injured.
Parker continued, “Because no one else is as good as you. They’re putting thought into their actions. They’re not reacting the way they would naturally. So you can’t either.”
Sophie blinked. “How long did it take you to come up with that?” she asked.
Parker sneered. “Stealing professionally takes knowing patterns of behavior,” she said.
“Doesn’t take knowing the intricacies, though,” Sophie countered.
“Just how good are you?” Alec asked, leaning on the pool table, a challenging smirk on his face.
Sophie turned back to him. “Take your turn,” she said, “and I’ll tell you what I’ve put together about you.”
Alec nodded. “Fair enough.” He scanned the table carefully. “Eleven, corner pocket.” He probably would have made it if the cue stick hadn’t just glanced off the ball, his mind too focused on what Sophie was going to say.
“Nate said you’ve been doing this since high school,” Sophie said. “How old were you in high school? Five? Six?”
He looked up. “Eight as a freshman,” he answered. “Graduated when I was ten.”
“In a more balanced society you wouldn’t have managed it,” Sophie commented, “but in a world where computers are king? You win hands down. But that’s a different story entirely. Some would say you were deprived of a childhood, but that’s not true. You had exactly the childhood you wanted. Maybe it wasn’t one most parents would have let you have, but it was the one that fit you. What you were deprived of was the experience of high school. Most people go through high school as teenagers, surrounded by other teenagers. You were in college before you got acne. You missed out on the years where people socialize by going out and drinking illegally, partying all night at the clubs where people don’t card, dating and screwing when Mommy and Daddy aren’t watching. You never got the chance to be a real teenager. So that’s what you keep trying to be. You talk in slang, you tease people about being in love, you hit on Parker every chance you get. Did I miss anything?”
“Yeah, I drink until I can’t remember what happened when I wake up the next morning.” But Sophie could see he was regretting asking.
“What do you know about Nate?” Parker asked.
“Hold on,” Alec said. “You didn’t have her read you yet.”
“The world seems much fairer to those who don’t expect it to be,” Sophie said.
“That can’t possibly be as profound as it sounded,” Alec shot back.
“Hello!” Parker snapped her fingers. “Nate! Eliot! Read! Now!”
Sophie laughed. “It’s funny that you said them both together, because… Four ball, near corner.” The four ball went in, taking the two with it. “Well, Eliot and Nathan are… which one of your lovely American reverse euphemisms shall I use? ‘Getting busy’? ‘Doing the nasty’? ‘Screwing’? Although I don’t think they’ve actually shagged yet…”
“What?” Alec completely flubbed his shot. Parker leaned so far forward in the chair it fell over.
Sophie looked at them. “I thought it was rather obvious.”
“Yeah, obvious like a Russian thinks it’s obvious that ‘Beliy Plaschik’ means ‘White Robe’, maybe,” Parker said. “How… What… When… I thought you and Nate were together!”
Sophie laughed. “Me and Nate? My dear Parker, Nathan is very, very gay.”
“He was married!” Parker protested.
“What difference does that make? Look, Nathan got drunk one night in college, slept with a woman, stayed with her for his son’s sake. There was no expectation of love between them, only an expectation that they present the face of a happy couple to their son.”
“So he was straight for one night?” Alec’s eyes were so wide they were bugging out of his face. “How exactly does that work?”
“Nathan’s wife was a very attractive woman, and very attracted to him,” Sophie answered. “Nathan was very gay. His friends bet him he couldn’t ‘get it up’ for the most attractive woman in the school. She was devastated when she found out, of course. I think that’s when he started drinking.”
“And how do you know all this?” Parker asked.
“I didn’t always work as a grifter,” Sophie answered with a conspiratorial smile.
“So what about Eliot?” Alec asked.
“Pansexual,” Sophie said. “Take your turn.”
“I did.”
“You missed. Go again.” She smiled sweetly. Alec rolled his eyes and bent to aim for his shot. “I would be willing to bet that Eliot’s had male partners, female partners, and partners who don’t identify with either,” she mused. “Or at least, that he would be willing to have those partners. I don’t think he’s had many ‘partners’ in his life.”
“He’s thirty!” Alec objected.
“That doesn’t mean much,” Sophie said. “In any case, sexuality isn’t a concern. Vocation would have been a problem before this project started, but now Nathan can pretend we’re all on the same side. The only real problem is that Eliot is so suspicious, but Nathan is very persistent.”
“So they’re… together?” Parker whispered.
“Well, it’s early on, but in the loosest sense, yes. They haven’t shagged; I doubt they’ve even snogged; but yes, they’re together.”
Alec’s computer beeped. Sophie looked over. “Speak of the devil,” she said softly, going over to the computer.
“What?” Parker stood, trying to see.
Sophie clicked open the video conference as the other two arrived at the desk.
Four people spoke at once.
“Trouble in paradise?” Alec asked.
“Lovers’ quarrel?” Parker asked, always less subtle.
“Eliot in trouble?” Sophie asked.
“Parker, Alec, would you mind leaving?” Nate’s question wasn’t quite a question. Alec and Parker glanced at each other and left.
“What’s wrong with him?” Sophie asked as she picked up the headset that always rested beside the keyboard.
“Plug that in.” Nathan wore one as well, she noted. She also noted that he was in the living room of his tiny apartment, that he was wearing an old T-shirt and boxers under his robe, that the couch behind him wasn’t made up into a bed, and that the door she knew led to the bedroom was shut tight.
“Interesting,” she said. “You haven’t slept together, but you’re sleeping together.”
“I’m assuming the difference is between having sex and sharing a bed, and as usual, you’re right,” Nathan acknowledged. “Eliot doesn’t want anyone to take care of him. That includes being noble on his behalf. That includes letting him have the bed. The only way he would sleep is if I slept in the bed with him.”
Sophie had to laugh. “All that to stop you babying him?”
“I wasn’t babying him,” Nate said, offended. “I was being chivalrous.”
“He’s asleep now, though,” she guessed. “And somehow you know that he’s going to stay that way.”
“He won’t wake up before it’s time to get up, unless someone touches him or tries to hurt him.” Sophie didn’t ask how Nathan was so sure of that.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Nathan had been hesitant until she asked, but then he asked a question of his own. “How is it possible for a human being to live without dreaming? I mean real, physical, subconscious-working-things-out dreaming. How can that happen?”
“It can’t,” Sophie answered immediately. “All mammals need to dream. It’s a physical need, just like water and air.”
“Say a person truly believed that they didn’t dream,” Nathan said carefully. “They knew exactly what their mind was doing from the time they went to sleep until the time they woke up, and it wasn’t dreaming. How might they not die from that?”
“Nate, neurology isn’t exactly my strong point,” Sophie reminded him.
“Just take a guess.”
Sophie sighed. “I suppose, in theory, a person could tune out their dreams, like you do a song that’s playing while you’re reading a book. But that would take either a lot of practice-”
“Or a real need. Thanks, Sophie.” Nate turned off the conference on his end. Sophie did the same, thinking. Nathan had already known that. He’d come to the same conclusion already. He just wanted someone else to say it.
“I got it!”
Sophie turned in time to see Parker doing a victory dance, jumping up and down, being caught and spun around by Alec. She looked at the bomb on the table.
“Well, it looks like it’s time to get back to work,” she murmured.