Title: The Game

Author: Lanna_kitty

Rating: Pg-13

Pairing: Parker/Hardison

Summary: In which Parker is angry and talks about stealing penguins and buildings on skis and Hardison tries to follow her train of thought.

Prompt: "It's a game. When I run away, you're supposed to chase me."

Author's Note: Written for my prompt table. First Leverage Fic. I love these two, so I wasn't surprised it turned shippy. Thanks to Racethewind10 for the quick beta. Takes place after 2x01 The Beantown Bailout Job

He'd searched. He'd hunted. He'd literally followed her to the ends of the earth. But after eighteen-thousand miles, eleven countries and, amazingly, all seven continents, Alec had decided to take a break. He'd watched the plane take off from Williams field, knowing she was on it and that he'd missed her by half an hour. It would be another two weeks before he'd be able to follow.

He'd gone back to McMurdo and played the part of emergency IT guy. It helped their system was a mess so he'd straightened it out. After all, there wasn't much to do in Antarctica. He'd taken some pictures of Mt. Erebus and some penguins, read Whiteout and watched March of the Pensions again for the irony, and had generally frozen his ass off. When he finally, finally had boarded the plane that would take him to New Zealand, Alec decided he'd throw in the towel.

For now.

He'd done some casual searches, but hadn't gone globe-trotting again. When Sophie had contacted him to see the play, she'd been there. Then suddenly the band was back together and while he'd mentioned that he'd searched for her, they hadn't really discussed it. That was cool with Alec. Sort of. He didn't really want to discuss it, he just wanted her to know that he'd looked. Parker, being Parker, hadn't really reacted.

There was the confusing thing with the locks, but he wasn't sure that was really related. It was hard to tell with her. They hadn't talked about the global game of tag, so Alec had thought it was case closed, locked in the vault, shut away, shoved aside; no longer an issue to be discussed.

So when, weeks later, he found her in his sanctum sanctorum, his innermost geek-lair, drinking his orange soda precariously close to his computers, and playing Peggle, Alec was a little surprised.

"How'd you get in?" Alec asked, immediately realizing that was the dumbest thing he'd said all day.

Parker lifted an eyebrow and sipped her drink before resuming her game.

"Okay, that was a stupid question," Alec muttered, more to himself than Parker. "Why are you here?" he asked instead, dropping into the leather sofa on the other side of the room.

Parker spun the chair around and narrowed her eyes. Alec shifted a little before he realized what he was doing and stopped. He'd seen that glare before. That glare usually meant he'd don something stupid and now had to make up for it with flowers or jewelry. Only he and Parker didn't have that kind of relationship. Right? She was a friend though. Wasn't she? Did Parker even understand "friends"? The silence dragged on and finally Alec couldn't take it. When in doubt, do what Nana had told him to do when a girl was upset with him; apologize.

"Whatever I did, I'm sorry. I'm a guy, I do guy things."

"You stopped playing," she accused, pointing a finger before crossing her arms.

"Say, what?" Alec's mind immediately went to World of Warcraft and he was pretty sure Parker didn't go in for WoW. Did she? She'd probably be a natural rogue.

"I thought geeks were supposed to be smart," she said, interrupting his train of thought. She rose from her seat with the empty soda and slipped out the door.

"Now hold on," Alec said, following her into the small kitchen area of the condo. "Hold on just one minute. What is this about, Parker?"

She dropped the empty bottle into the trash. "It's a game." She spoke slowly, as if he were a child, a stupid one. "When I run away, you're supposed to chase me," she explained, continuing the glare.

"I followed you!"

"You stopped!" Her statement was punctuated with a little huff that was just adorable. She was about half a second away from a foot stomp and the mental image made Alec smile just a little.

Then Parker did stomp her foot, right on his, and headed for the window.

"Hold on, girl!" Alec said, hopping after her. "Parker, hold on a second." He managed to shove the window closed before she could crawl outside. He met her narrowed eyes and set jaw. "You left me in Antarctica!"

Parker grinned, the tiny, not-quite-right-and-completely-terrifying grin that made her eyes sparkle. "Did you see the penguins?" She actually bounced on her toes. Terrifying but cute which should have been impossible, but this was Parker.

Alec's jaw worked for half a second. "Yes, I saw the goddamned penguins!" He crossed his arms. "They're not nearly as cool without Morgan Freeman."

"I decided my refrigerator was too small. Did you know they were so big?" She slipped past Alec, heading back into the apartment. "Well, the big ones."

Staring after her, Alec followed in her wake. "Okay you lost me again."

"The penguins," Parker replied, rolling her eyes. "Duh." Her tone heavily implied she thought he was slow for not following her vary obvious train of thought.

Alec held up a finger and looked at her askance as he tried to catch up to the crazy train. "Wait, are you telling me you went to Antarctica, to steal a penguin."

"No!" she laughed. "Steal a penguin. That's a good one!"

"Oh. 'Cause that'd be pretty-"

"Penguins don't belong to anyone. You can't actually steal them. Well, maybe from a zoo." Parker turned and tilted her head to one side, considering. "Think they'd miss a panda? Those are valuable, right? They look cuddly."

"Yes. Yes they would miss a panda. Parker, why did you go all the way to Antarctica?"

"There was this special on the flight from Tokyo, right? The movie said all the buildings down there are on skis. So I thought, why not."

"Why not what? Wait, steal a research station?"

"I've never stolen a building before. Figured I'd try a few on skis as practice."

"A research station. As practice."

"Right," she said nodding. "Skis would be easier than the normal type. Turns out it's not as much fun as I thought it would be," she informed him, pouting. "So I thought I'd take a penguin back as a souvenir but they're too big." Her eyes narrowed. "And the little ones were squirmy."

Alec frowned as he started to digest the facts then stopped himself. "Why did you want to steal a building?"

"I've never stolen one before." Parker shrugged. "They're supposed to be worth billions of dollars."

Alec rubbed the back of his head. This was one of the more confusing conversations he'd had with Parker, which was saying something. "Can we get back to why you're mad at me?" he asked.

Her almost happy expression fell into the glare again. "Oh yeah. I'm mad at you."

"Parker, you left me trapped on the world's biggest iceberg for two weeks!"

"Continent."

"What?" he asked. He seemed to be asking that a lot.

Parker straightened and began to recite in a monotone, "Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent. On average, it is the coldest, driest, and windiest, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is considered a desert, with annual precipitation of only eight inches along the coast and far less inland."

Alec waved a hand. "So not the point here, Parker. So not the point. Come on, sit down," he invited, pulling out one of the tall counter stools for her. Nana's lessons on being a gentlemen hadn't fallen on completely deaf ears. She sat down on the very edge of the seat, tensing when he pushed the chair in just a little. "Right, so." He rummaged around in the fridge and got them each a soda. "Let's talk about this. You're mad at me."

"You stopped following," she answered neutrally with a shrug. She began to peel the label off the bottle.

Alec sat across from her on the counter. "It wasn't for good, I wasn't throwing in the towel. I just needed a break." He needed her to understand that. He hadn't given up but...Antarctica was crushing.

"You run out of money?" she asked, head tilted to one side. She began working at the other corner of the label.

"No." Alec rand a hand over his face and thought about how to explain what he'd been feeling. Hard since he still didn't quite know. "Every time I thought I had caught up to you, you were gone."

Her eyes lit up, pleased. "You almost got me in Rome. And Dubai." Her eyes got flat again and she resumed peeling strips of paper off the glass. "And then you stopped."

Alec sighed and sat back in his seat and watched her add strips of sticky paper to the pile she'd started on the counter. The chase had been unexpected fun...for awhile. Then each near-miss had been less and less of a thrill and more tiring than anything. She was like an impossible boss fight he hadn't yet figured out, but the metaphor would probably be lost on her. Kinda like her thing with people being like locks, he realized with a small smile.

"It's a game. You run. I chase," Alec summarized.

Parker smirked and sipped from the now naked bottle.

"But a game," Alec pointed out as he stood and came around to her side of the counter, "is only fun if it ends at some point." Her eyes narrowed and he held up a placating hand. "You're good, Parker. You're real good." He paused then added, "Maybe too good for me." He hated to admit it, but he liked the way she preened, just a little. "And if you tell anyone I will deny it," he added. "And by anyone I especially mean Eliot."

She set the bottle down and leaned on one arm with a challenging tilt of her head. "So you stopped playing?"

"Hell no. I intend to win." He leaned against the counter. "I just needed some time to figure out how to do that."

"Yeah?" she asked.

He wasn't sure, but he heard a hint of uncertainty. "Did you ever think about stopping?"

"I never get caught," she countered coolly, eyes narrowing.

"But it's good to get caught in this game, Parker."

She frowned, working that out.

He knew she might kick his ass, but he leaned in anyway and kissed her. "Gotcha." He watched her expression shift from surprise to something more calculating, eyes narrowed, evaluating. He swallowed and wondered if he'd gone too far.

Suddenly, Parker smiled and grabbed his shirt, hauling him down to her level again and said before kissing him, "I like this game."