Parker's POV of Leverage season 4 episode 15, <1k, G, for the May Trope Mayhem prompt 'Bachelor Auction'! I have a bit more planned for this fic and once it's all posted I'll compile it into one work on Ao3, for now have a little scene here on tumblr! The event is run by @duckprintspress, thanks for organizing :)

~

Parker doesn't know why Sophie corners her before the Bachelor auction to ask her whether she 'is alright with it'. Hardison has already asked her permission, but that's normal, that's because he's always asking her things like that even though it's usually fine anyway. Sophie though, that's a bit weird.

"Why wouldn't I be fine?"

Parker hides another knife in the sash of her dress. It's a bit impractical, only one shoulder strap, and she has to rearrange some of her usual formalwear hiding spots, but she makes it work. At least she can always work more hairpins into her half-up-do, and the little lockpicks are so useful for so many things...

"I know you and Hardison have been... going out for a while now," Sophie starts again. Huh, Parker had almost forgotten that she was there.

"We don't go out, usually. Unless it's with the team. We just stay in and Hardison builds stuff for me to take apart or we watch TV. Or both... Usually both, actually. Did you know there's a bird that commits identity theft murders?" That had been in a documentary on hummingbirds last night. Parker had felt kind of proud of the 'murderous little floofballs', as Hardison had called them.

"I - no, I didn't know that. Thank you for telling me, Parker."

Parker nods, twists around to look at her back in the mirror, making sure none of the things at her waist show through the fabric.

"I just wanted to make sure... Well. Hardison will have to flirt with the women in the auction, and then with whoever bids on him," Sophie continues.

Parker nods. "Yes. Good thing it's men being auctioned off. I wouldn't want to do that." She frowns a bit. "I'm not good at flirting with strangers."

"There are other things you're good at, Parker. And you have been getting better at grifting."

Smiling, Parker twirls a little in front of the mirror. Sophie is right. She hasn't even stabbed any marks for a while, well, unless they actually needed to be stabbed a bit.

"And you're alright with Hardison flirting with women that aren't you?" Sophie finally asks.

Ah, this is what this is about. "That's for finding the mark. If Hardison flirts with people except for me and Eliot when it's not for a job, I might stab him a bit though."

"That's..." Sophie trails off.

Parker kind of wonders about what part of what she said has confused Sophie so much, but she gets distracted by the shiny dress Sophie has put on. It's not real gold, she can tell, but it looks pretty good for just being fabric. Almost worth stealing.

~

Part 1 of ? • more Leverage content by me

I don't have a Leverage tag list yet - Let me know if you want me to @ you when I post more!

Part 2, 3 4 5 and 6 are up! • Prompt me!

Louis posing for a selfie in Costa Rica 1/5/25*