MHA #6, The Wee Hours of Tuesday Morning

[firstofitskind]

Liam- the smaller one- had gone to sleep on the couch on Monday night, same as he'd done the last two nights. At some point during the night, Fandom magic struck again, and the correct Liam took his place. His dreams were the smaller Liam's memories, his own, Ha'gel's, all blending in to each other in a confusing jumble.

It was the one about the volcano that finally startled him awake; his eyes flew open with a shout on his lips and the smell, the memory of burning flesh clinging to his nostrils.

Stumbling in to the bedroom, he crawled underneath the covers and wrapped his arms around Verity, burying his head in her shoulder and just... waiting for his heartbeat to return to normal.

[ooc: for she who is mentioned, if she'd like.]

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[firstofitskind]

A shudder ran through him as he listened to Verity's words. It wasn't the first time she'd expressed a sentiment like this, and like before, there was no switch in his brain to be flipped that would make him really, truly, believe what she was saying.

But neither were her words falling on deaf ears; they got just a little easier to hear, every time.

[arboreal_priestess]

That's pretty much how this worked. You kept throwing down truths until they finally worked their way in and started to grow on their own. Verity couldn't convince him. But she could keep supporting him until he managed to convince himself.

"Let's say you and I do have kids," she said quietly. "And I decide that their whole existence is for the sole purpose of defeating the Covenant. That's the whole reason I give birth to them: they have to take down the Covenant brick by brick. Even ignoring how unhealthy and unfair it is for me to put that all on them...could you really look at the child in your arms and believe that they have no value beyond that purpose? That if they die in the attempt, they don't deserve to be brought back because they failed?"

[firstofitskind]

Liam thought about the kids that had visited for a weekend last year. Hayley's boundless exuberance, and Tyrus' equally unending well of calm (and quiet exasperation).

"No," he said with a sigh. He got what she was driving at, really, but she was working against a lifetime (if a relatively short one) of conditioning and expectations here. "But you would never," he pointed out.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Probably a really bad practice for someone else to do, then," Verity noted.

[firstofitskind]

"Maybe," Liam was willing to admit.

[arboreal_priestess]

And Verity was willing to leave it there, rather than keep pushing. Instead, she drew him closer, lips finding his forehead. "I missed you like crazy when you were gone," she said. "Even only for those few days."

[firstofitskind]

The tension that had been thrumming under his skin since waking up from that nightmare began to melt away with that kiss, and Liam let himself relax.

"I- he- could tell, you know," he shared.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Could tell?"

[firstofitskind]

"That you seemed... kind of sad about something," Liam clarified. Beyond the things the other-him had been telling her about what his life was like, he meant. There were small things; the way her gaze lingered on his jacket where it hung on the hook over the door, how she'd talked about it being 'her' apartment...

[arboreal_priestess]

"You're...a fixture in my life now," Verity said. "I turn to you to laugh, to joke, to talk, to cry. And suddenly you weren't there. I felt..." She paused, trying to figure out how to put it. "Off-balance. Like I was dancing, but I didn't have a partner."

[firstofitskind]

At least this time, it hadn't been Liam's poor life choices that had taken him away for a few days?

"I've gotta stop doing that to you," he murmured. "Sorry." Yes, he was aware that apologizing for Fandom's whims was kind of pointless; he was doing it anyway.

[arboreal_priestess]

"We'll put it on things to work on," Verity said, since she didn't think she'd get him to stop feeling back about that right now, either. "Along with me not getting kidnapped."

[firstofitskind]

"At least you had the decency to wait a good six months between kidnappings," again, as if that was anything she'd had control over. "I didn't even make it a month."

Making it into a joke made him feel... slightly less terrible about it, at least.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Okay, but the thing you should actually be feeling bad about?" Verity said. "That I had to make muffins wrong. With my own to hands. And pretend like it was okay."

[firstofitskind]

"Poor Verity," Liam agreed. "What a hardship. That must have been awful."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Thank you," Verity said, "for understanding my pain and trauma."

[firstofitskind]

"And yet you bravely soldiered on," Liam continued, reaching up to tuck a loose lock of hair back behind her ear. "And did so multiple times."

[arboreal_priestess]

"It was hard and there were several times when I thought about giving up," Verity said. "Especially when little you wanted to try grape and strawberry jelly on one muffin. But I just had to keep being strong." She wiped away an imaginary tear.

[firstofitskind]

"I really don't know how you did it."

[arboreal_priestess]

"I clung to the image of your smiling face when you got turned back to normal," Verity said, reaching out to cup his face in her hands. "And saying those three most important words..." She inhaled. "'You were right.'"

[firstofitskind]

"I'm glad you found the courage to say those words to me," Liam grinned back at her.

That was not at all what she'd meant and he absolutely knew that.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity gasped in outrage and did the only possible thing: batted at him with a pillow.

[firstofitskind]

“Hey!” Liam protested as the pillow connected. “Keep that up and I’ll go back to the couch!” he threatened. Unlikely, given that he hadn’t so much as let go, incoming pillow or no.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Good," Verity said, also lying. "And I'll go back to appreciating all this bed to ourselves."

[firstofitskind]

“Yeah?” Liam challenged. “Even though you just told me how much you missed me like, ten minutes ago?”