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]

Liam’s hand found its way to Verity’s, and he pressed their palms together, eyebrow raised in a clear challenge. Just try and lie to him now, Price. Go on. He dared you.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You are one smug son of a bitch, Kincaid," Verity grumbled, but laced her fingers through his. A strong pulse of love and affection beat between them, strong and clear.

[firstofitskind]

"You know, that's definitely not the first time I've heard that?" Liam pointed out, closing his eyes and just letting himself ride that wave of emotion for a few moments.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You know, that's definitely not surprising to me," Verity said, chuckling and curling against him.

[firstofitskind]

Of course, the other times in his life he'd heard that phrase there had been no undercurrent of fond exasperation, the way there was when Verity said it.

But that was a discussion for another time, perhaps.

"... Shit," he muttered softly as something occurred to him. "We were supposed to go flying this weekend." Which wasn't all that big of a deal, they'd been going up fairly regularly since she'd started learning how to fly the shuttle, but he'd had something specific he'd wanted to show her on this particular trip.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity nudged him. "It's okay," she said, not realizing there was something special he'd had planned. "I mean, we missed way more time when the Covenant was in town."

[firstofitskind]

"True," Liam acknowledged with a sigh. "But I set something up. That I was going to show you."

He couldn't quite explain why it seemed so important that he had to bring it up now instead of just waiting for the next time they had a chance to go up in the shuttle. Just a feeling. But he knew better than to ignore those sorts of feelings when they nagged at him.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Did you set up that weird porn simulation I was teasing you about last time we went up?" Verity asked. "Because, hot, but I was generally kidding."

[firstofitskind]

"No, oh my god," Liam said vehemently. "I just, uh. Igaveyouasetofcommandcodes," he said, all in a rush.

She'd had access to the shuttle's systems ever since that first lesson, but he'd always needed to be there in order for the shuttle itself to initialize. With this, she could take the shuttle out on her own, without him there. It was something he'd been planning on setting up since the beginning, but he'd wanted to wait until she was reasonably confident in her piloting skills to do so.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You gave me what?" Verity asked, eyes wide.

[firstofitskind]

"Command codes," Liam repeated. "For the shuttle."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Like...to control it?" Verity sputtered. "By myself? Without you?"

The shuttle was like his baby.

[firstofitskind]

It was, but she was ready for this, he figured, so it was time.

"Well, yeah," Liam said, lifting one shoulder in a half-shrug.

[arboreal_priestess]

"So like...if this was all a long con to fly off with your ship, I could do that now?" Verity blinked. "Wow."

And then was kissing him. Hard.

[firstofitskind]

And Liam happily matched her enthusiasm in that kiss, which went on for quite a while, until finally he had to come up for air.

"I would prefer it if you did not fly off with my ship," he said. "At least, not if you weren't planning on coming back. But yes, if you wanted to, you could."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Totally gonna steal your ship," Verity lied, snuggling close to him and smiling. "Gonna go be a space pirate with my crew of cryptid criminals. Gonna be amazing."

[firstofitskind]

"Mmm, hope you and your crew don't mind getting all up close and personal with each other," Liam pointed out, cheerfully poking holes in her clearly well-thought-out plan. His ship was a shuttle after all.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Gonna go be a space pirate with my crew of three cryptid criminals who are probably just mice," Verity amended.

[firstofitskind]

"Good idea," Liam agreed. "Not that I don't think Istas, for example, would make an excellent space pirate, but you'd need a much bigger ship for that."

Like. Maybe the Taelon Mothership.

[arboreal_priestess]

"The warehouse wasn't big enough for Istas and multiple people," Verity said fervently. "I don't think anything the size of a shuttle would be."

[firstofitskind]

"The Mothership, maybe," Liam mused. "But you'd have to fight Renee for that one." Not to mention that was also where Lili and Ariel were living, these days. In short, they had dibs.

[arboreal_priestess]

Okay, but what little girl wouldn't want to see an older woman in curls and frills and lace? And what mother wouldn't want someone who could turn into a ravaging monster looking out for her daughter?

"Could I sub in Istas as my champion in this fight?"

[firstofitskind]

"Nope," Liam said, popping the 'p' on the word. "You're the pirate captain, you do the dirty work when it comes to commandeering a ship."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," Verity whined. "You're making space piracy sound like a lot of hard work."

Weird that.

[firstofitskind]

"That’s because it would be a lot of hard work," Liam replied. "Which is why it’s probably for the best if you just stayed here with me, for the time being."