Magic Words
Title: Magic Words
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: gen
Verse: Steal The Sky
Fandoms: Leverage, Firefly, Supernatural
Summary: Concerning a children's book, reading lessons, and magic.
Notes: For the Wildcard: (loss of childhood) square on my H/c bingo card. Unusually for me this is heavy on the comfort (and tastes somewhat like diabeties). Also a somewhat shameless homage to my childhood and one of the first long books I read.
Takes place during a period that spans from just after The Homecoming Job to shortly before The Two Horse Job.
It started after their first job.
The job had gone well and other than the problems with food for Eliot and someone trying to kill their client they’d mostly come out the other side without much hassle.
No one would be entirely sure where the book had come from later. It was a adaption of an Earth that Was classic so there were some guesses that it was Sophie’s and she’d picked up on world.
Though it was about a school for Wizards and a fight for good and evil and looked like it could have been a book for children so that seemed to cancel out that possibility.
Really probably the reason no one knew where it came from was that no one would own up to being the one to bring it on board.
Though, if Nate thought about what brought it to general attention, that might be less of an issue.
What was common knowledge was the day after their first job, when they were on their way to the market station, it had been left sitting on a table in the common area.
After the meal Nate had returned to the conference room to work on their next job, the door open out of habit. He could hear everyone go their separate ways, Parker collecting the dishes since it was her turn.
There was a stretch of quiet and Nate was just starting to tune the rest of the ship out as he worked when he heard a voice from the lounge area.
“That word’s motorcycle.” Parker said.
There was a crash, like someone had been startled bad enough to jump and knock something over (Not unusual with Parker). “Damit Parker!” Eliot half shouted, apparently the one startled.
“You didn’t know I was behind you?” She asked, sounding confused.
Eliot growled and huffed and got up. “I was reading. Focusing.”
“I saw that. You read really slow.” Eliot muttered something angrily. “It’s okay. I was trying to help.” A beat, awkward quiet almost, not quiet right. “The Older Parkers used to read to us. It was fun.” A short silence and then she was speaking, talking about flying motorcycles and giants.
Reading to Eliot.
Nate was only a little surprised when the door out to the catwalk slammed.
“But, readings magical.” Parker stated to the empty air.
oOo
Nate didn’t think about the incident again for nearly a week. Life onboard Leverage was chaotic enough to keep him busy without borrowing additional issues to mull over.
Of course the issue he was avoiding turned out to be a possible problem for a job.
He took a moment to just identify how much of a given he’d thought it to be. Everyone in the core worlds could read and everything he’d seen and heard pointed to the three former agents to be absolute geniuses.
Even after hearing Eliot say it. Even after what he’d overheard it took until halfway through their second job before Nate registered that the fact that Eliot’s ability to read at all was questionable could prove a problem.
They were already in the Mosconi’s mansion and they were breaking up to do their jobs after an abbreviated briefing in the kitchen. Before Hardison left Eliot pulled him over to the side, pulling out his com and Hardison quickly doing the same.
Nate couldn’t hear what they said but after a few whispered words Eliot passed Hardison the piece of paper he’d been given as the chef. Requests and food restrictions to follow when preparing the meal.
Hardison took it and Nate was surprised that there wasn’t a hint of teasing in his eyes as he started to read it to Eliot.
It had been floating around his mind, bits of knowledge, but that moment solidified it.
Eliot had been taken from his family before he was old enough to be taught to read. He’d spent the normal years a child would learn as a member of Areas project and trying to recover his sanity in it’s aftermath. He’d been thrown into a clan of Low Tech classes doing everything they could just to get through from one day to the next. From what Nate knew now he could guess Eliot had seen more beatings than books in those years.
He was a genius, all the children taken by Project Olympus had been gifted, but that gift could only account for so much.
Then it had been missions and more fighting and more beatings. Reading always that skill he didn’t need to survive since even the cheapest Com. Units had text reading programs and he could bluff his way through the other situations so it would always be put off just that much longer. Now he was thirty-five and it had taken him a half hour to work through the first few pages of a children’s book.
Nate turned to go, rearranging pieces in his head, making notes to himself to make sure that someone was always close enough that Eliot could get them over to help him, but it was only a temporary fix.
If Eliot was going to be a viable piece in a con he’d need to be able to do more than bluff his way through situations like this.
oOo
Those on board Leverage kept odd schedules. This was a fact of life Nate had accepted and gotten used to.
This fact was the reason he barely even took note of Hardison wandering into the lounge area at two in the morning when Nate knew it wasn’t his turn for night watch of the bridge (he knew this because Nate had gotten off said duty ten minutes ago and it was now Dean keeping an eye on things).
He did take just the briefest note that Hardison sat down on a couch and picked up the same book that had been sitting there for over a week now and started to read it.
Then Nate realized he was on the last of the bottle he’d been working his way through and the next one was in his room.
By the time he’d debated about getting it, stubbornly gone down, gotten the bottle, and returned to the conference room to drink (and brood) his plan was slightly side tracked when he noticed in twenty minutes Hardison had gotten halfway through the book and was putting it down with a disappointed expression.
Later Nate would be hard pressed to say which realization had actually surprised him. That Hardison could read that fast or that, apparently, despite Nate thinking of Hardison as something as a kid he was too old for wizards and magic.
He was halfway through speculating that Hardison had only been taught to speed read, absorb information from massive amounts of text, had never been taught or even allowed to just enjoy… it seemed like a project Olympus kind of thing.
He got that far before he’d had enough Bourbon that, just for a little while, he could forget about the alliance and just how good it was at stealing childhoods away.
oOo
It was two days later that the pieces came together and really Nate probably should have seen it coming.
He heard the laughter from down the hall as he exited the Captains quarters.
Laughter wasn’t as unusual on the ship as he’d have thought once, but he wasn’t used to much more than silence coming from the crew’s quarters.
He let curiosity take him down the hall, pausing outside the near opaque windows around the door, seeing the blurry outlines of Parker and Eliot sitting on a bunk bed while Hardison stood with something in his hands.
“Ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. ‘Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got…”
Hardison was reading the book out loud to the other two, energy and enthusiasm in his tone.
Suddenly the narration stopped and the door was opening. Parker was there then, grabbing him by the hand, pulling him inside and not being satisfied until Nate was seated nearby.
Hardison started reading again, pausing every so often so Parker or Eliot could explain to Nate what he’d missed.
Nate wasn’t particularly interested in the story of a ten year old and magic letters and evil Uncles and cousins.
But there was something in the air, in the space between them and the movement of Hardison’s hands and the way Parker’s face lit up or Eliot closed his eyes while listening.
The way they laughed every so often, care free. Free.
Nate didn’t know a lot about what their lives had been like before but he knew in his bones this would never have happened.
Hardison finished the chapter and Parker announced brightly. “Our turn!”
Hardison had handed the book over to her and taken a seat on one of the chairs near Nate while Parker held the book between her and Eliot.
Parker picked up the story, Eliot looking on over her shoulder as she read the first line then paused, looking toward him.
Slowly, stumbling slightly, Eliot spoke Dudley’s dialogue. “Where’s the ca- cannn cannon?”
“He said stupidly.” Parker stated. There was a pause when Eliot gave her a glare and Hardison was giving Parker a look. “It’s the next line! Look!” She pointed to the text. Eliot relaxed and Parker continued to read the narration but as they continued she’d stop for Eliot to read the dialogue of any male character.
They got through the next chapter before they seemed to come to the mutual decision that it was enough reading for one night. The book was closed and put on an otherwise empty shelf and they all disbanded.
Parker was the last to slip out of the room, the moment past, everyone moving on, something in the air shifting like they’d been under one of the book’s spells.
But before Parker slipped away with the rest of them she paused, giving him one of her looks that was as crazy as it was sane and said. “Didn’t you know? Reading’s magical.”
Then she was gone.
oOo
It wasn’t immediate after that, nothing changed overnight onboard Leverage, but things slowly, silently something shifted as sure as the turn of the world.
No one would own up to bringing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone onto Leverage so it was only fitting that when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets appeared on the same table after their next job no one would say who it was who brought it on board.
By the time they reached the location of their fifth job the reading had moved up to the lounge area.
By the sixth it had become the only thing other than meals to actually happen at a regular time, every night they were flying right before most of the crew went to bed, that was attended by everyone not on watch on the bridge.
Fittingly for a ship full of thieves new books still mysteriously appeared on the table in the lounge after a job, but it was not unusual for more than one book to show up.
Halfway through The Goblet of Fire Parker called out “My turn.” at the end of a chapter, reading the entire thing. The next night Eliot picked up the book and read the next chapter alone.
When he finished his chapter and passed the book to Sophie if anyone noticed Eliot’s hands shook a little, or that Parker and Hardison were grinning like proud siblings, or that Dean was practically beaming at Eliot when the Hitter sat back down next to him…
Or if maybe Nate drank less that night.
No one mentioned it, or probably would say it willingly, but they all shared a feeling summed up by the words of a crazy former agent.
Reading was magic.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: gen
Verse: Steal The Sky
Fandoms: Leverage, Firefly, Supernatural
Summary: Concerning a children's book, reading lessons, and magic.
Notes: For the Wildcard: (loss of childhood) square on my H/c bingo card. Unusually for me this is heavy on the comfort (and tastes somewhat like diabeties). Also a somewhat shameless homage to my childhood and one of the first long books I read.
Takes place during a period that spans from just after The Homecoming Job to shortly before The Two Horse Job.
It started after their first job.
The job had gone well and other than the problems with food for Eliot and someone trying to kill their client they’d mostly come out the other side without much hassle.
No one would be entirely sure where the book had come from later. It was a adaption of an Earth that Was classic so there were some guesses that it was Sophie’s and she’d picked up on world.
Though it was about a school for Wizards and a fight for good and evil and looked like it could have been a book for children so that seemed to cancel out that possibility.
Really probably the reason no one knew where it came from was that no one would own up to being the one to bring it on board.
Though, if Nate thought about what brought it to general attention, that might be less of an issue.
What was common knowledge was the day after their first job, when they were on their way to the market station, it had been left sitting on a table in the common area.
After the meal Nate had returned to the conference room to work on their next job, the door open out of habit. He could hear everyone go their separate ways, Parker collecting the dishes since it was her turn.
There was a stretch of quiet and Nate was just starting to tune the rest of the ship out as he worked when he heard a voice from the lounge area.
“That word’s motorcycle.” Parker said.
There was a crash, like someone had been startled bad enough to jump and knock something over (Not unusual with Parker). “Damit Parker!” Eliot half shouted, apparently the one startled.
“You didn’t know I was behind you?” She asked, sounding confused.
Eliot growled and huffed and got up. “I was reading. Focusing.”
“I saw that. You read really slow.” Eliot muttered something angrily. “It’s okay. I was trying to help.” A beat, awkward quiet almost, not quiet right. “The Older Parkers used to read to us. It was fun.” A short silence and then she was speaking, talking about flying motorcycles and giants.
Reading to Eliot.
Nate was only a little surprised when the door out to the catwalk slammed.
“But, readings magical.” Parker stated to the empty air.
oOo
Nate didn’t think about the incident again for nearly a week. Life onboard Leverage was chaotic enough to keep him busy without borrowing additional issues to mull over.
Of course the issue he was avoiding turned out to be a possible problem for a job.
He took a moment to just identify how much of a given he’d thought it to be. Everyone in the core worlds could read and everything he’d seen and heard pointed to the three former agents to be absolute geniuses.
Even after hearing Eliot say it. Even after what he’d overheard it took until halfway through their second job before Nate registered that the fact that Eliot’s ability to read at all was questionable could prove a problem.
They were already in the Mosconi’s mansion and they were breaking up to do their jobs after an abbreviated briefing in the kitchen. Before Hardison left Eliot pulled him over to the side, pulling out his com and Hardison quickly doing the same.
Nate couldn’t hear what they said but after a few whispered words Eliot passed Hardison the piece of paper he’d been given as the chef. Requests and food restrictions to follow when preparing the meal.
Hardison took it and Nate was surprised that there wasn’t a hint of teasing in his eyes as he started to read it to Eliot.
It had been floating around his mind, bits of knowledge, but that moment solidified it.
Eliot had been taken from his family before he was old enough to be taught to read. He’d spent the normal years a child would learn as a member of Areas project and trying to recover his sanity in it’s aftermath. He’d been thrown into a clan of Low Tech classes doing everything they could just to get through from one day to the next. From what Nate knew now he could guess Eliot had seen more beatings than books in those years.
He was a genius, all the children taken by Project Olympus had been gifted, but that gift could only account for so much.
Then it had been missions and more fighting and more beatings. Reading always that skill he didn’t need to survive since even the cheapest Com. Units had text reading programs and he could bluff his way through the other situations so it would always be put off just that much longer. Now he was thirty-five and it had taken him a half hour to work through the first few pages of a children’s book.
Nate turned to go, rearranging pieces in his head, making notes to himself to make sure that someone was always close enough that Eliot could get them over to help him, but it was only a temporary fix.
If Eliot was going to be a viable piece in a con he’d need to be able to do more than bluff his way through situations like this.
oOo
Those on board Leverage kept odd schedules. This was a fact of life Nate had accepted and gotten used to.
This fact was the reason he barely even took note of Hardison wandering into the lounge area at two in the morning when Nate knew it wasn’t his turn for night watch of the bridge (he knew this because Nate had gotten off said duty ten minutes ago and it was now Dean keeping an eye on things).
He did take just the briefest note that Hardison sat down on a couch and picked up the same book that had been sitting there for over a week now and started to read it.
Then Nate realized he was on the last of the bottle he’d been working his way through and the next one was in his room.
By the time he’d debated about getting it, stubbornly gone down, gotten the bottle, and returned to the conference room to drink (and brood) his plan was slightly side tracked when he noticed in twenty minutes Hardison had gotten halfway through the book and was putting it down with a disappointed expression.
Later Nate would be hard pressed to say which realization had actually surprised him. That Hardison could read that fast or that, apparently, despite Nate thinking of Hardison as something as a kid he was too old for wizards and magic.
He was halfway through speculating that Hardison had only been taught to speed read, absorb information from massive amounts of text, had never been taught or even allowed to just enjoy… it seemed like a project Olympus kind of thing.
He got that far before he’d had enough Bourbon that, just for a little while, he could forget about the alliance and just how good it was at stealing childhoods away.
oOo
It was two days later that the pieces came together and really Nate probably should have seen it coming.
He heard the laughter from down the hall as he exited the Captains quarters.
Laughter wasn’t as unusual on the ship as he’d have thought once, but he wasn’t used to much more than silence coming from the crew’s quarters.
He let curiosity take him down the hall, pausing outside the near opaque windows around the door, seeing the blurry outlines of Parker and Eliot sitting on a bunk bed while Hardison stood with something in his hands.
“Ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. ‘Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got…”
Hardison was reading the book out loud to the other two, energy and enthusiasm in his tone.
Suddenly the narration stopped and the door was opening. Parker was there then, grabbing him by the hand, pulling him inside and not being satisfied until Nate was seated nearby.
Hardison started reading again, pausing every so often so Parker or Eliot could explain to Nate what he’d missed.
Nate wasn’t particularly interested in the story of a ten year old and magic letters and evil Uncles and cousins.
But there was something in the air, in the space between them and the movement of Hardison’s hands and the way Parker’s face lit up or Eliot closed his eyes while listening.
The way they laughed every so often, care free. Free.
Nate didn’t know a lot about what their lives had been like before but he knew in his bones this would never have happened.
Hardison finished the chapter and Parker announced brightly. “Our turn!”
Hardison had handed the book over to her and taken a seat on one of the chairs near Nate while Parker held the book between her and Eliot.
Parker picked up the story, Eliot looking on over her shoulder as she read the first line then paused, looking toward him.
Slowly, stumbling slightly, Eliot spoke Dudley’s dialogue. “Where’s the ca- cannn cannon?”
“He said stupidly.” Parker stated. There was a pause when Eliot gave her a glare and Hardison was giving Parker a look. “It’s the next line! Look!” She pointed to the text. Eliot relaxed and Parker continued to read the narration but as they continued she’d stop for Eliot to read the dialogue of any male character.
They got through the next chapter before they seemed to come to the mutual decision that it was enough reading for one night. The book was closed and put on an otherwise empty shelf and they all disbanded.
Parker was the last to slip out of the room, the moment past, everyone moving on, something in the air shifting like they’d been under one of the book’s spells.
But before Parker slipped away with the rest of them she paused, giving him one of her looks that was as crazy as it was sane and said. “Didn’t you know? Reading’s magical.”
Then she was gone.
oOo
It wasn’t immediate after that, nothing changed overnight onboard Leverage, but things slowly, silently something shifted as sure as the turn of the world.
No one would own up to bringing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone onto Leverage so it was only fitting that when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets appeared on the same table after their next job no one would say who it was who brought it on board.
By the time they reached the location of their fifth job the reading had moved up to the lounge area.
By the sixth it had become the only thing other than meals to actually happen at a regular time, every night they were flying right before most of the crew went to bed, that was attended by everyone not on watch on the bridge.
Fittingly for a ship full of thieves new books still mysteriously appeared on the table in the lounge after a job, but it was not unusual for more than one book to show up.
Halfway through The Goblet of Fire Parker called out “My turn.” at the end of a chapter, reading the entire thing. The next night Eliot picked up the book and read the next chapter alone.
When he finished his chapter and passed the book to Sophie if anyone noticed Eliot’s hands shook a little, or that Parker and Hardison were grinning like proud siblings, or that Dean was practically beaming at Eliot when the Hitter sat back down next to him…
Or if maybe Nate drank less that night.
No one mentioned it, or probably would say it willingly, but they all shared a feeling summed up by the words of a crazy former agent.
Reading was magic.