MHA #6, Thursday Evening

[firstofitskind]

Apparently, there was only so long Liam could actually avoid the apartment, before things like 'needing a change of clothes' became an issue.

So here he was, letting himself in, maybe moving a little more stiffly and gingerly than usual, thanks to the morning's sparring session with Beau. He hoped that Verity was wasn't home, so he could avoid that bit of awkwardness and heartache that was sure to come from seeing her. He missed her, god, so much, but at the same time... he'd just be in the way. She deserved that time alone to heal.

[ooc: for that girl!]

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[firstofitskind]

"I have no idea," Liam said, sounding lost. "There's no handbook." Or rather, there was, but it was buried in millions of years of racial memory that had a harder time swimming to the surface than any of the human memories Liam had access to.

[arboreal_priestess]

"And what if I do this?" Verity asked, and blurred into movement, reaching out to lay a hand on his face, summoning up all the fear and horror she had at the very idea of going through that again.

She didn't have to dig very far. It was right there, after all.

[firstofitskind]

Liam let out a choked out cry at the touch, sounding for all the world like a wounded animal.

The connection wasn't nearly as strong as if she'd taken his hand, but they'd shared (and Shared) so much that that fear and horror slammed right in to him anyway.

But beyond that? It didn't pull Robert up from Liam's unconscious, and it didn't make his other fear manifest, either: his body didn't change to mirror Verity's.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Would that stop you, you think?" Verity asked, voice quiet. "Could you really do...those things...if you felt that?"

[firstofitskind]

"No," Liam shook his head. Something- the tension he'd been carrying for the past three days- in him snapped, and he collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

But it was a good kind of collapse, because now he also finally knew the answer to the question that had been haunting him since Monday night. "Not to you. Never to you."

[arboreal_priestess]

"You ever lose yourself in someone else's memories, I'm here to snap you back out again," Verity murmured. "That's what partners do. They trust each other enough to know that if one of them makes a leap, the other will be there to catch them."

[firstofitskind]

"I'm sorry," he choked out. "I was scared and I ran and I'm so sorry because you were scared too and I left you."

[arboreal_priestess]

"You left me," Verity agreed. "You left me to the dark and to the memories and to the pain. I'm hurt and I'm mad and I'm sad and I'm upset--" She shook her head, tears standing in her eyes. "And I'm now extra mad, because I should just be mad at you for leaving me and instead part of me is glad because you're not here to pack up all your stuff and go."

[firstofitskind]

"I'm not going anywhere," Liam promised. "I'm staying, as long as you'll have me, I'm staying." And he was pulling one of those gloves off and holding out a hand, tentatively, to her.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity was tempted to shrug it off, to see how he liked reaching out and being left behind.

The rest of her was already reaching for him, clutching at his hand with hers.

[firstofitskind]

Liam would've been the first to admit he'd have deserved it, had she done that.

But she hadn't, and so he poured all the relief and regret, and, woven through it all, the all-encompassing love he felt for her through that connection.

[arboreal_priestess]

Something in her face eased at that and her shoulders loosened. The emotions she sent back were more mixed - fear and hurt and anger, yes. So much anger, mostly to cover up that hurt. So much fear.

But under it all - an around it, and through it - that solid core of love.

[firstofitskind]

I'm sorry, he repeated, albeit not out loud this time. And then he was shifting positions on the couch, closing the physical distance between them.

Sorrysorrysorry.

He kept up that mental litany as he pulled her in to a hug.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I can't even tell you how many coffees you owe me," Verity said, burying her face in his chest. "You are still in such trouble."

But he arms were around him and her face tucked against him and she wasn't moving not for the whole world.

[firstofitskind]

Liam made a noise that was half laugh and half sob. “I’d even drink a coffee for you right now if you wanted me to,” he choked out.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I wouldn't be that cruel," she whispered. "It would be a waste of coffee anyway."

[firstofitskind]

"Wouldn't want that," he agreed, rubbing slow, gentle circles across her back as he rocked the two of them slightly.

[arboreal_priestess]

"So what do we do now?" Verity asked.

[firstofitskind]

"Right now? Bed, I think." He was exhausted, personally, and figured she was too. He glanced up, casting a hesitant look at the bedroom door. He'd follow her there, practically ached to, but he'd also understand if she wanted him to stay on the couch or something like that. "Tomorrow... tomorrow I think I'm going to talk to Ghanima. See if she can help me figure out what's going on in my head."

Beyond that, they'd just have to take things as they came, one day at a time. Together.

[arboreal_priestess]

And maybe Verity should have insisted that he sleep on the couch. Maybe she was being dumb for offering forgiveness so quickly. But the nights had been so long and so dark without him and she just wanted him close by. Wanted him to be there in the night, to hold her when she woke up, shuddering and afraid, and to soothe her back to sleep with warm arms and soft kisses.

"Bed," she agreed softly. "I have a feeling that neither of us have been sleeping well. And then you can talk to Ghanima with a clear head."

[firstofitskind]

"Come on, then," he said, rising to his feet and pulling her with him, keeping one arm around her shoulders.

Letting go of her in order to go to work in the morning was going to be difficult. He could already tell.