Damn you, Leverage writers.

[rsadelle]

So the last bit of "Chocolate Chip" had me thinking about how if the Leverage crew is a family, Nate and Sophie are the parents and Hardison, Eliot, and Parker are the children. So then I wanted deaged fic. I had two bunnies for this.

One is that they're all deaged to about eight or ten, and then they end up in school together (because this somehow helps with the job) and bullies are picking on Parker and Eliot steps in, because they've been bodily deaged but with their own minds, and beats them up and says, "Don't mess with my sister."

The other one, which I actually started writing yesterday, has them deaged to different ages - Hardison thirteen or fourteen, Eliot seventeen or eighteen, and Parker seven - and they're really their younger selves, which makes things awkward for Nate and Sophie, who have to explain things to them. Anyway, one of my plot points was going to be about Parker hoarding food when they have dinner (I was having trouble with this, though, because how would she hoard pizza? Or would Nate and Sophie have it together enough to go buy kid-friendly groceries?) or clearly eating high-calorie, high-protein foods and either Nate or Sophie noticing and worrying about it. Except now we know they wouldn't notice it unless maybe it takes place after "The Stork Job."

Other potential plot points not ruined by last night's ep:

• Eliot, Parker, and Hardison kind of stick together and don't quite trust Nate and Sophie.
• Eliot and Hardison use the Leverage offices surveillance system ("I knew I would have audio and video on this whole place.") to listen in on the conversation where Nate and Sophie are worried about Parker. Parker's supposedly asleep on a couch, but she's sneaky, so she's behind them listening too, but she's back on the couch pretending to sleep by the time they turn around.
• They leave to take the kids somewhere for the night, possibly Nate's house ("I'm a struggling actress," Sophie says. "There isn't enough room in my apartment."), and Eliot carries the still pretending to sleep Parker down to the car ("Are you sure?" Nate asks, remembering how heavy sleeping kids can be, but Eliot's strong and it's no big deal to him, plus the sticking together thing.), and she's really asleep by the time they get downstairs, but still clutching Bunny (Mr. Bunny? I can't remember, and I don't have the patience at the moment to go watching and try to figure out which episode that was.).
• Sophie makes no headway trying to get Parker to go to bed (because of course she's woken up by the time they get into Nate's house). Eliot takes the toothbrush - bright orange with PARKER in red letters on the handle - Sophie bought her and hands it over and says, "Why don't you and Bunny go brush your teeth and then I'll tell you a bedtime story." And that works.
• And then somehow they complete the job, and they all get restored to their real ages, but they, of course, remember what it was like when they were here when they were deaged (because it was just a deaging, not a time travel or time displacement kind of thing), and then Parker just silently hugs Eliot.

I swear this all sounded better in my head.