TOnk'Peh

furthermore on the dog-coded eliot agenda: if he’s being stubborn about taking painkillers for something, parker and/or hardison hide them in a slice of cheese or a spoonful of peanut butter or something like that. eliot knows what they’re doing (hardison’s not a great liar around him, and parker watches him too intently as he eats whatever it is for her to genuinely just be offering him a snack), but he lets it slide because he trusts them not to be giving him anything weird, plus he was actually kinda hungry anyway. maybe the thought of hurtin a little less ain’t bad either. and yes, he rolls his eyes when p/h scurry off into the other room to clearly find the other and high-five/hiss a yessss!! over their victory, but listen, they’re his idiots, okay?? and he loves them forever

it's so important to me that eliot is canonically not just parker and hardison's third wheel but in fact textually placed right in the middle of their relationship. when parker says she's in a great relationship in the swipe right job, she doesn't say "me and hardison and also you." she says "me, you, hardison." in the harry wilson job they change the infamous "til my dying day" to "til OUR dying day," implying that eliot has made his peace with the idea that he's not on the outside as parker and hardison's protector but an active part of the relationship that can't be lived without. hell in the long goodbye job nate's narrative doesn't have parker and hardison, the romantic couple, holding hands as they die, but the two of them holding hands with ELIOT, who's in between them. he's central to the relationship, and nothing and no one will ever change that