firstofitskind | MHA #6, Early Saturday Morning

Verity had been out patrolling in Baltimore last night, late enough that Liam had fallen asleep on the couch waiting. It wasn't the first time that had happened, and wasn't likely to be the last, except that normally what happened is he'd either wake up when she came in through the ~~door~~ window, or if he'd been really tired, after his usual couple hours of sleep and make his way to the bedroom to find her there. This time... not so much. Maybe whatever Fandom magic was in the air was responsible for making sure he actually slept through the entire night, because the Liam who woke up was not the Liam who'd gone to sleep.

The Liam who woke up was about six years old, and very, very confused. Gone were the familiar purple walls of the Mothership and the hum of her engines. Instead he was on some sort of- squishy but also lumpy surface?

He looked around, eyes wide. The only thing he recognized was a completed Taelon puzzle on a shelf just out of reach. A cursory examination of the space revealed another room with a table and chairs, and he dragged one of the chairs over to the shelf and clambered up on it to bring the puzzle down.

Prize acquired, he made his way back to the couch, clinging to the one bit of familiarity in this strange place he'd found himself in.

[ooc: mostly establishy, but open if you live here!]

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"That bothers you, doesn't it?" Verity asked, voice full of sympathy. "Don't like not knowing things? Me neither. And my brother Alex is even worse."

"I hate it," Liam admitted. Even more frustrating was the feeling that the answer was just out of his reach.

"But if you know everything now, then what will you have left to learn?" Verity asked.

"What if I do not figure it out in time?" Liam asked her, distressed. "And they die? That is- I do not want that."

Verity sat down in the other chair. "Hey, c'mere," she said. "Cause you look like you need a hug. And sometimes it's better to talk about this kinda hard stuff while holding onto someone. That's a very human need, you know?"

Yeah, shockingly, Taelons? Not big on the physical affection. Liam hesitated for just a moment before he slid off his own chair and clambered in to Verity's lap.

Verity was shocked. Absolutely shocked.

Still, she knew her Liam soaked up physical affection like a sponge and didn't think this Liam would be all that different. She helped him up, then settled in with her arms around him and her chin resting on his hair.

"I know you don't want them to die," Verity said gently. "And I know you'll feel bad if they do. But you need to understand, you're just a little boy. Ha'gel sat around and thought about it for eight million years. And you've only had six! That's barely any time at all."

She stroked his hair. "Little boys aren't supposed to sit around worrying about extinction. They're supposed to run and jump and play and laugh. That's a very special kind of learning that all the books in the world can't teach. And you're missing out on it."

And it wasn't like he'd never been held. His caretakers had done so plenty, when he'd been too small to walk anywhere on his own. But they'd never done so simply for its own sake.

"I play!" Liam insisted. "Sometimes." With a variety of toys, both Taelon and human, that those same caretakers had deemed 'educational'. Like the puzzle sitting on the table.

Edited 2019-04-03 06:02 (UTC)

Yeah well, being held for its own sake was kind of a big deal. "Mmmhmm," Verity said, not sounding particularly believing. "When was the last time you ran around? Kicked a ball? Jumped rope or swung on a swing?"

“Si’al says physical activity is necessary for proper development,” Liam said. “I run, sometimes. In my room.” The other things... he knew about them. But he’d never experienced them himself.

"That was probably why you're here for the weekend," Verity decided, improvising like all hell. "To explore what it means to play like a human child. Get ice cream, swing on swings, play hide and seek, all that stuff."

Liam mumbled something barely intelligible in response to that.

"Didn't catch that," Verity said, still running her hand over his hair.

"I would like to try ice cream," Liam repeated.

"You should," Verity said. "Because it's pretty delicious. But before we go, I'm going to need you to make a big decision."

She looked at him solemnly for a long moment. "Cone? Or sundae?"

“Well,” he said, biting his lip thoughtfully as he looked up at her. “Which do you think is better?” he had no idea, and that seemed like a good place to start.

"It depends," Verity said thoughtfully. "If you wanna eat ice cream on the way to something else, a cone is definitely more mobile of the options. If you'd rather sit and savor the experience with more flavors, sundae is the way to go."

“I think,” he said slowly, “that a sundae would make more sense, then.” A cone sounded... messy.

It often was. But then, Liam looked like he could use a little messy in his life. And this version didn't have her to fulfill that function.

"Well then, we're gonna have to go shopping then," Verity said. "Need ice cream, whipped cream, hot fudge, cherries..."

"Sprinkles?" Liam said softly. "The rainbow kind?"

He'd never had them, but he'd seen them, in memories.

"An incredibly important addition to any sundae," Verity said. "Thank you for making sure I didn't forget those."

"Can we go now?" Liam asked, a hint of excitement coloring his normally solemn tone.

Verity looked at the table, covered with breakfast leavings, and nearly said that they had to clean up first. But Baby Liam here had probably had responsibility drummed into him since he could toddle; that wasn't the lesson that she needed to drive home today.

"Let me just get dressed and we absolutely can, yes," Verity said, hugging Liam once before letting him down onto the ground. "We'll get all the very best sundae fixings."

And Liam had felt so happy, and safe, when Verity been holding on to him that when she set him down again he couldn't help but feel a little... sad?

But it was fine, he told himself, she wasn't going anywhere. And soon there would be ice cream.

"This is an excellent plan."

"And once we put them together, what do you say we eat them on the couch and watch fun TV shows?" she suggested.

As Adult!Liam knew, that couch was perfect for snuggling.

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