it's a nb leverage kinda night so i ALSO am thinking hard about eliot Super Delayed Adolescence Queer Trope'ing it up and only once he's really really Mostly Shock Silver Hair retired he's like. fuck maybe im not Man. and it just cracks something deep in eliot that is so vulnerable and destabilizing but also thrilling and perfect? its a super sore topic in the thiefsome household because he clings to he/him which is fine (but also not? but also let eliot be eliot and process on eliot's own pace but also eliot is too good at repressing shit UGH). but! unlike parker who is flexible with their afabness/womanness, eliot starts breathing hard at any gendered epithet and sometimes when there's too many he's in a row. so there's definitely a way hardison and parker's language shifts so they two have more reason to use second person & eliot's name & things like Spouse and Person and Hitter and Theirs.
beyond that, not much changes but also a lot of little things change? i just imagine parker french braiding eliot's hair all the time once his dexterity's really gone to absolute shit so he can't flat iron it anymore. but now, more often rather than occasionally as they did before, they will do elaborate braid crowns that eliot'll grumble about but love. eliot grows out his hair a little longer. meanwhile, hardison out here trying to desperately support the Retired Portlandia Bookshop Owner / Farmers Market Crunchy Granola Dyke Realness eliot is so primed to fucking bless the world with. like! shaking, tears in his eyes, hardison """"casually"""" shows eliot an etsy listing for beige overalls with embroidered flowers and a tiny little baby so teeny tiny carrot near one of its ergonomic clasps and hardison's like hahahhhh do you think parker would like this? and they really wouldn't but ELIOT would and so eliot grumbles ...maybe and when it comes in the mail OOPS its the WRONG size (nevermind that somehow its a certain SOMEONE'S exact measurements) and eliot just snatches it out of hardison's hands before he can pretend he'll send it back with a harsh HOW DARE YOU MAKE THIS HORRIBLE MISTAKE note to the maker.
this is how eliot's affirming closet starts building very very quickly. and it feels like so good to have these pieces thrown in to the usual fare. the first thing eliot gets himself though is a super comfy black batwing dress that is easy to pull on when he's having a pain scale 23 pain day instead of the usual 11 and he lounges in it and curls up and hardison and parker take sweet good care of their beloved hitter.
