Work Text:
He had never been accused of being soft.
But that would probably be a different story now.
Elliot looked around his apartment completely ignoring the mess piled in his kitchen to appreciate the warm feeling he had in his chest. He looks at Nate and Sofie curled up on the love seat, Sofie half asleep and leaning heavily against Nate’s side. He barely registers slinging an arm around her as he watches the game on the big screen.
Eliot’s heart swells in his chest looking at the couch opposite them and he sees Parker stretched out with her head in Hardison’s lap. Harrison is distracted on his phone looking up stats for some game tournament happening for the holidays. He says it’s for charity, but Eliot is convinced it’s just for nerds who would rather play against each other than to be around their families.
Though, he has no room for objection on his end. If given a choice, he’d literally be nowhere else in the world. And he has the addresses of all of his immediate kin memorized. He shakes the thought, and instead of heeding to the call of the dishes soaking in the kitchen, Eliot makes his way to the couch. He carefully lifts Parker’s feet and sets them back down in his lap. Hardison’s other hand reaches for him across Parker’s back without looking and Eliot laces their fingers together. Parker smiles sleepily up at him from her almost pie induced coma and murmurs a “Happy Thanksgiving” to him. He gently squeezes one of her calves and says it softly back.
No. Eliot has never been this soft. But he’s also never been this happy. And he wouldn’t change it for the world.