Title: Other Dancers May Be on the Floor
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: K+
Genres: het
Recipient:
abvjPrompt: Leverage, Sophie Devereaux/Nathan Ford, pretending to be married
Summary: The team isn't convinced of Nate's newest plan.
A/N:
Holiday Fic Request Meme. For
abvj who gave me an unexpected challenge because I never wrote Sophie/Nate before and suddenly had no idea how to go about it. I hope you like what I did with the prompt, anyway :)
Other Dancers May Be On the Floor
“Other dancers may be on the floo
Dear, but my eyes will see only you
Only you have the magic technique
When we sway I go weak.”
Dean Martin, “Sway”
“I still think it’s a crappy idea.”
“Actually, I think it’s a brilliant idea.”
“That’s because it was yours, Nate. It’s going to be a total disaster. A disaster of Jurassic Park proportions. Or maybe 2012. Star Trek reboot proportions. This is going to be…”
“Shut up, Hardison. We all know it’s a stupid plan.”
“Why do you all suddenly think that there are going to be problems because Nate and I are posing as a married couple?”
There. That should settle it. Maybe they will now realize that getting their knickers in a twist about something as easy as she and Nate pretending to be married is something between silly and stupid.
“Posing’s not a problem, Sophie. The plan is.” Ah, the plan. Of course Eliot would say that. She rolls her eyes.
“That’s just because you have issues with your masculinity and your self-ascribed heterosexual orientation.” Cue…
“Dammit, Sophie.” She has to admit, that wasn’t quite fair. It was, however, the truth. She is just sick of Eliot calling the Nate’s plan for him to play Nate’s extra-marital affair to lure their mark into wanting to blackmail the politician Nate is pretending to be.
Alright, so maybe she should have phrased it a little less bold - Hardison’s snickering is testament to just how much of an advantage she now gave him to torment Eliot probably into all eternity - but then again, someone needed to spell it out. And maybe Hardison will stop opposing the plan, now that Eliot has been made aware of his severe shortcomings in just knowing himself. She just hopes Parker won’t jump in now.
As it is, Eliot seems to have recovered from the blow to his masculinity surprisingly fast. “Gay lover’s not a problem. Pretending to be married isn’t the problem. The big fucking holes in your plan are.” What holes? She seriously doesn’t see them.
“Eliot…”
“Dammit, Sophie.” Well. He never said that before. Something must really riling him up. “The guy we’re trying to expose is a moral vigilante. And he’s got guns. Guns and goons and everything to really make it hurt. The whole problem with your “plan” is that it gives him about a hundred possible ways right to where it really hurts.”
“He’s too big for us.” So Parker decided to chime in as well, now.
“Exactly.” The moment Eliot agrees with Parker on the assessment of a situation is certainly the end of the world. She expects the sky to come down any moment now.
Apparently, the rest of the team is thinking the same as suddenly, the room is very, very quiet. Finally, Nate straightens up in his arm chair and regards Eliot with one of those unreadable expressions in his face that mean he doesn’t like something. And that he’s about to strike directly into the heart of someone who just pissed him off majorly. “So you’re saying we should let him keep spreading mud about unsuspecting people to get to all they have and leave them naked out in the dark?”
She’s not sure if Nate ever spoke like that to Eliot - or anyone else on the team, for that matter - and if she wants to see Eliot’s reaction… but to her amazement, all he does is sigh, frown and lean back warily. “No, I’m not. I’m saying that we need a better plan.”
“So what are you proposing?” As of now, Nate should really know better than to ask Eliot to come up with a plan to expose the fact that he doesn’t have and prove that Nate’s plan is the only the actual have.
“I’m proposing,” Eliot says, sounding too sure of himself to not having thought about this before, “that we get rid of the guns and the goons first and then do the whole pretending show.”
She looks at Nate who looks as if he’s contemplating the suggestion… but as it is, he’s clearly just pretending to contemplate it. She wonders if any of the others detect it. Eliot, probably. But then again, his biggest problem was always that he loses his fine observation skills in favor of those relevant to fighting when he’s agitated. As for Hardison and Parker… well. She still needs to work with them. Although Parker is…
“I don’t think Nate likes your plan, Eliot.” Bloody… ahem. Maybe she doesn’t have to work with Parker so much, after all.
And let’s just see how Nate maneuvers himself out of this. “I wouldn’t say I don’t like it. I would say I don’t see it. So far, there hasn’t been much of a plan in those suggestions.”
That is a little dangerous. Whatever Nate is up to, he hopefully knows what he’s doing. Angering Eliot should never be done out of idle and frivolous motives. And now she just sounded like a bloody Regency romance novel. This is not getting better.
“Know what, you’re going to get your plan. I’m not in the mood for getting my ass whupped.” Why… Nate? Why is he looking so… pleased all of a sudden? And hopefully, none of the others have seen it.
“Did I hear that right, Eliot, you just volunteered for forming a new plan?” Eliot just glares. “Alright. If you think you can do it better… plan away. You’ve got two hours.” With that he… gets up and… leaves the room… what?
Apparently, everyone else just had the same thought… or at least she thinks that why they’re all looking at her now all of a sudden. Why is it that every time Nate is being an ass, they think it’s her job to… ah, hell. “Fine, I will go.” The theatrically thrown up arms were only half pretend. Because, really.
In a bit of a huff, she walks up the stairs, enters Nate’s room… and is immediately pressed against the door. Dear… ah, that is nice. That is really, really nice… She grins and murmurs, “They’re going to get suspicious if we keep this up.”
“And until that,” he says and moves his mouth down to her throat and she arches her head back, “we’ll just enjoy what we have, won’t we?”
That actually doesn’t really call for an answer and anyway, it’s too nice being kissed by Nate like this and… oooh, that was… she can’t help giggling and that just spurns Nate on even more and… hang the plan and hang the con, this is so much better. And so much more important. Two hours of that… mmmh. She grins.