Archive of Our Own ^beta

Parker still wasn’t great at matching expressions to emotions, but she didn’t need to be an expert to see that Breanna was absolutely fuming. The only problem was that she had absolutely no idea why. They had been fine just yesterday, but then Breanna’s mood had completely flipped, seemingly over night.

At first she thought it was just a bad mood, and that it would pass in time, but no matter what she did, Breanna just kept shooting her those icy glares, angrier that Parker had ever seen her, and it didn’t look like she was going to mellow out any time soon. She still intended to just ignore it, hoping that Breanna would eventually get over whatever was going on, but then their team’s up-and-coming new tech specialist pulled her aside after a team meeting, acknowledging Parker’s presence for the first time all day by immediately hissing at her.

“I really thought you were better than this!”

She was really upset, even more than Parker had thought, but she still wouldn’t say why, and at this point, guessing and potentially getting it wrong seemed like an incredibly dangerous idea, which was exactly why Parker didn’t even attempt to figure this out on her own. She had never been particularly good at reading people anyway, even those closest to her – including Breanna.

Instead, she tried the silent approach, just staring Breanna down in the hope that she would eventually crack. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, and Breanna just got even more irritated than she already was, apparently thinking that Parker already knew what she was talking about and was just playing stupid, which simply wasn’t true. So, when it became extremely clear that Breanna wasn’t going to open up without prompting, Parker finally decided to just come out and asked her directly.

“What are you talking about?”

Parker had sort of expected Breanna to mellow out at least a little bit once she asked the question, but it ended up having the opposite effect. Breanna’s frown deepened and her eyes grew more fiery, and if Parker had been a normal person, she would have run away terrified at this point.

Since she wasn’t a civilian, she just stared back instead, not angry or guilty, just waiting for an explanation. She was tempted to look away, maybe stare at her feet or watch the people walking by outside, because this intense eye contact was definitely going on for way too long, but she also didn’t want to give up first. So they just kept staring at each other, both waiting for the other to crack first.

If she hadn’t been completely confused by what was going on, Parker might have broken the silence first, just to make Breanna feel a bit better and maybe get her to calm down a little again, but she had no idea what was going on so she didn’t know what to say. So she just waited instead, and was eventually rewarded with yet another statement she couldn’t understand.

“You cheated on my brother! I thought you were cool!”

Breanna was nearly shouting now, and Parker thought about how the rest of the team was most likely listening in on their conversation – except for Hardison, of course, because he was still in space and that was way too far away to hear what was going on – but didn’t want to interrupt. They probably knew exactly what Breanna was thinking, but Parker couldn’t read minds like them, so the only thing she could do was ask for clarification yet again, even knowing that that would probably just make Breanna even angrier.

“I genuinely have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Just like she had predicted, that riled the younger woman up even more. She was positively furious at this point, and she looked like she was genuinely considering murder if Parker didn’t say exactly what she wanted her to say sooner rather than later. It still didn’t seem like she was going to explain herself, though, at least not properly.

Maybe this was going to escalate into a real fight soon, with fists and maybe even knifes or forks, or at the very least a taser or two, but that probably wasn’t a good idea. Judging by how furious Breanna was, their team was already threatening to fall apart, so it was smarter for Parker not to exacerbate that by attacking her boyfriend’s little sister, who at the very least finally explained why she was angry after a few more moment of angry glaring and tense silence.

“Don’t even try to deny it, I saw you kissing Eliot last night.”

Parker almost laughed at that – a small giggle might have still escaped her mouth despite her best efforts to keep it inside – relieved that this was all that was going on. She really didn’t want to fight with Breanna of all people, and she had been starting to worry a bit that she had somehow actually messed up and not realized it until now. That happened to her sometimes, even now, after so many years on the team.

But this was all fine, just a simple misunderstanding that could easily be cleared up just as soon as she felt like she could open her mouth without bursting out in laughter. Breanna still glaring daggers at her just made it even harder to calm down, so Parker had to close her eyes and take a few deep breaths – just like her therapist had taught her – before she could finally respond.

“Oh, that doesn’t count.”

It was just a simple statement, no dramatics to it because, to Parker, there was nothing special or noteworthy about it. She saw no reason why anyone would consider her kissing Eliot to be wrong, and no need to explain herself any further because it should have all been extremely obvious. But clearly, Breanna didn’t agree, and she felt strongly enough about it to actually yell at Parker this time.

“Just because you were only kissing doesn’t mean it isn’t cheating! Hardison is going to be so upset when he finds out. It’ll probably break his heart!”

Parker really didn’t like being shouted at – it brought up too many bad memories, even if the rational part of her mind knew that she was safe now – but Breanna was upset, too, and Parker was supposed to be the mastermind. A mastermind always stayed cool, even in high-stress situations, and they saw things from every angle so they wouldn’t miss anything, like Parker apparently had.

She was desperately trying to twist it into something that made sense in her head but the puzzle pieces just didn’t fit together. It looked like a clear-cut situation to her, and not one where any possible results would upset Breanna or hurt Hardison. So Breanna had probably just missed or misunderstood something, and that problem could be easily solved with just one simple sentence.

“No, silly, it doesn’t count because it’s Eliot! He’s part of it.”

It was obvious, not an argument in a discussion but a simple fact of the universe, like the sky being blue or vents being Parker’s favourite spot. She halfway suspected that Breanna was just playing dumb to get a rise out of her because she genuinely couldn’t figure out why she could possibly think that there was anything wrong with what she had done.

Breanna needed a moment to get used to the thought, though, and it was only now that Parker fully realised that she really hadn’t known, and that maybe that particular aspect of their relationship wasn’t quite as obvious or well-known as she had thought it was. She’d probably have to talk to the boys about it later so they could try to figure out a solution together. They always worked best when it was all three of them anyway.

But the others weren’t here right now and Breanna looked like she was about to pass out from how red she was turning. Parker felt a little bad for her, but it was also really funny. She managed not to laugh out loud this time, but she was grinning, which was probably just making Breanna feel even worse.

At least she was just embarrassed, not actually hurt. Probably because of this, she finally managed to babble out a few disconnected words after several long moments of silent contemplation.

“But- oh. Oh. Cool. That actually makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it…”

Her mouth kept moving even after any sound stopped coming out, and Parker gave her another moment just to see if she had anything else to say. She didn’t right now, but there would be a flood of questions for Parker to deal with sooner or later. Parker could already guess what at least some of them were going to be, so she decided to get a head start on answering them before Breanna could even ask.

“I’m actually kind of surprised that no one ever figures it out, we aren’t even trying to hide it or anything…”

It really was weird, now that Parker thought about it. She’d never considered it too much before, but there had been a few similar moments in the past, when people who really should have known better just didn’t seem to understand that her, Hardison and Eliot had all been together for over a decade now. Even Nate and Sophie had been a bit surprised when they first found out, and they had all been living together at the time.

At least Breanna didn’t look quite as embarrassed now, even if she was still more than a bit red and clearly avoided Parker’s eyes. It was a weirdly strong reaction to something so mundane, but Parker had long since given up on trying to understand why humans acted the way they did and how they decided what to think and believe. She could usually at least sort of predict what they would do without knowing why, and that was all she needed for her job. Her team could help her with anything else concerning emotions.

Breanna was good at understanding people’s feelings, at least usually. That was why Parker had been so surprised by all of this, because she probably should have known – or at the very least suspected – already. Parker would have asked her why she didn’t, but before she could, Breanna started explaining herself on her own, without any prompting from Parker.

“I guess people just can’t look past their own biases. Me included, and I’m sorry about that. I’ll try to do better in the future, I promise.”

She sounded genuinely remorseful now, as far as Parker could tell, and she had practiced picking emotions out of voices for years so she was pretty good at it at this point. It was kind of sweet for Breanna to be this upset about a simple misunderstanding, but it was also kind of sad. It wasn’t her fault, so in Parker’s opinion, she had nothing to be sorry for. It had just been a mistake, not anybody’s fault.

Besides, Parker didn’t really mind. Sure, it had been a bit uncomfortable at first, when Breanna was just angry without explaining herself, but the situation had been resolved now, so there was no reason to dwell on it any longer. Only, Breanna clearly hadn’t gotten over it yet, which meant that Parker would have to talk her through it if she didn’t want to hear constant apologies for the next week or so.

“Nah, it’s fine, we all think it’s pretty funny how weird people react when they finally get it and how long it always takes them…”

That finally seemed to do it, and Breanna relaxed into an amused smile that quickly escalated to genuine laughter. Parker laughed along with her – it would have been kind of rude not to – and just like that, everything was back to normal between them again, and Breanna had learned something new about her brother and her friends.

Parker should probably let Eliot and Hardison know about this confrontation at some point since it concerned all three of them and not just her, but that could wait. For now, she had a job to get back to, and a rich and cruel art collector just begging to be relieved of all of his earthly belongings. It had been far too long since Parker had stolen a van Gogh.