onyxbird:

Sweet Surprises

Hardison was the first to run across videos of “the chocolate guy.” When he excitedly shoved his phone under Eliot’s nose (while Eliot was cooking, as if he didn’t have to keep an eye on the pan on the stove to keep it from burning), Eliot pasted on a resigned smile and obediently watched whatever Hardison was so excited about this time.

His eyebrows climbed higher and higher as the concoction progressed to become an incredibly realistic ornate compass. (Hardison was the one who had to pause the video and ask if the stuff on the stove was supposed to be starting to smoke like that.) After salvaging his recipe, Eliot oh-so-casually asked who the video was of and if there were any more.

Parker required no convincing to be interested. Any chef described as “the chocolate guy” was worth checking out in her book, although after the first few she insisted on having cookies or something around when watching, because her mouth was watering by the end of every video.

Which was why, some months later when Nate and Sophie dropped by for a visit, Nate was flummoxed to have a large model ship set in front of him on a platter after dinner.

Eliot presented it with a grin and a flourish. Parker hovered over his shoulder, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Sophie tried and failed to cover her smirk across the table, eyes sparkling with glee. Hardison was filming.

Nate shot a suspicious look at all of them. “…What’s this?”

“Dessert,” said Eliot, innocently.

Nate took a second look at the ship, baffled. It looked like one of his models, albeit perhaps slightly smoother and glossier in places than usual. The majority of the ship was a deep brown with a subtle grain and accents of a paler wood. The daintily carved figurehead of a woman had Sophie’s face, and the name painted in gold on the side was “Leverage.” The rigging…wait.

Nate leaned closer to peer at it. The rigging looked right at first glance, and second, but upon closer inspection the lines were too smooth and they appeared to be fused rather than knotted together.

His brow furrowed.

The sails…weren’t fabric. They had a subtle texture resembling woven threads, but a look at the edges revealed that the furled sheets were a little too thick and solid to match the “weave.”

Nate sat back, frowning. The others were still grinning at him.

“OK, I give up. How is a model ship ‘dessert’?”

Eliot pulled out a large knife and sliced cleanly through the deck, placing the prow of the ship onto a smaller dessert plate and revealing the layers of decadent fillings inside.

“Like that.”

“You…Youmadethis?”

“We all made it!” Parker burst out, in a rush. “Eliot made the hull and all the fillings and flavorings, and Hardison cast the masts and stuff out of chocolate and molded all the details, and I assembled all the finicky stuff!”

“And ate slightly excessive quantities of chocolate while working,” chuckled Hardison, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Nate shook his head. He shot Sophie a vaguely accusatory look. “You knew.”

“I did show you those videos Hardison sent months ago, you know” she said. Her amusement faded into a fond smile. “Happy birthday, Nate.”

crazyintheeast:

leverage-ot3:

I’m not sure what I want more

mcsweeten being in leverage redemption and still having not a clue that parker and hardison are, in fact, not federal agents and are actually world-class criminals

or at some point between the finale and now he did find out, and then some government official gets wind of one of their heists and is jabbing their finger at a blurry image of parker and hardison mid-thievery and with a completely straight face, mcsweeten explains that guys, those are agents hagen and thomas and they are working on an undercover op and were in no way at all involved of what is inconveniencing the government now

and the government official keeps trying to explain they are criminals but mcsweeten just pulls up their dossiers and credentials and he can literally see the vein throbbing in the man’s forehead but he just smiles says that he has personally worked with agent hagen and would trust her with his life

Ok but consider this the team comes clean and Mcsweeten takes it hard and says he needs some times alone . After a few days they go to check on him and find his apartment empty. Panicking they go to the FBI and find out that his office is empty too. After some discrete probing from Sophie they discover that Mcsweeten never existed . Apparently this was a brilliantly crafted false personality used by a mysterious spy who has managed to infiltrate the highest levels of the FBI

The team stunned and with their professional pride hurt decade to join in on the task force designed to hunt Mcsweeten . They finally track him down and burst into the warehouse only see … a surprise party with every member of the task force they thoguht they left in the dust and Mcsweeten who goes “I loved your prank where you tried to make me think you were criminals so I decided to play one on you as well. Thgouht it would be great for team building !”

And the episode just ends with the team unable to decide if Mcsweeten is really that oblivious or if he really is playing a massive prank on them