Liam's Shuttle, Fandom and then beyond, Tuesday Evening

[firstofitskind]

So this time last year, Liam and Verity had woken up together for the first time. Yeah, much like this past weekend, it had been after being small children for a few days. But they'd decided that since that first weekend had involved sharing (toy) weaponry, then the morning after ought to count as far as anniversaries went.

Look, it made sense to them, just go with it.

A few months ago, Liam had promised Verity both flying lessons and a look at the Northern Lights, and tonight seemed like the perfect opportunity to make good on that promise, and so he'd worked out a flight plan to guide her through and packed a picnic dinner for when they got to their destination. Now all he needed was, well. Verity herself.

[ooc: for the giiiirl.]

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[firstofitskind]

"Mmm, if it's anything like furniture shopping with you, I'm not too worried," Liam replied.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Picture that but with a lot more Christmas music," Verity said. "And other shoppers to be buzzkills."

She snickered. "Mostly, you're coming along to remind me I'm not allowed to break the fingers of the guy who grabbed me because I snagged the last standmixer or something."

[firstofitskind]

"That seems a little excessive," Liam made a face.

"... The grabbing, more than the breaking fingers." He understood where that impulse would come from, at least.

[arboreal_priestess]

"See?" Verity said, collapsing back on him with a happy sigh. "You get me."

[firstofitskind]

"Though as satisfying as that would be to watch, I don't have the means to get you out of assault charges anymore," Liam said sadly.

Not that, in this hypothetical finger-breaking situation, Verity would actually allow herself to be arrested at all.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Okay, but we could have you 'arrest' me," Verity suggested, waggling her eyebrows. "As Fandom's sheriff. Get me out of trouble and then we have playtime with your cuffs."

[firstofitskind]

"... Yeah?" Liam asked, curious. "You'd be in to something like that?" It was not a scenario he'd particularly considered, but then... it wasn’t as if he would be the one in cuffs, so maybe...

[arboreal_priestess]

"I mean, can't promise that I'd play it straight and not try to resist arrest," Verity said, because she knew herself. "But if you're asking me if I'd give it a whirl just to get you into those tight khakis that make your ass look great...I mean, have we met?"

[firstofitskind]

“Kha- oh, like a uniform." You know he’d never actually technically been a real cop before Fandom, right?

[arboreal_priestess]

There were websites for these kind of things, Liam. And a shop in town if they didn't wanna fork out money for a real uniform, god.

"Look, you're never gonna sell if you're not in a real uniform," Verity said, though whether she meant the fantasy or con to keep her from being arrested for breaking fingers was the real question.

[firstofitskind]

... Both?

"I have a real uniform," he pointed out. "I was in the military after all. Sort of."

[arboreal_priestess]

...Almost certainly both.

"Oooh, so it's gonna be a military police arrest?" Verity asked. "Iiiinteresting. Sir, yes sir."

[firstofitskind]

"Well, you know. Finger-breaking. Very serious offense," Liam said solemnly. "Right up there with treason."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Hell, I often get those two confused anyway," Verity said. "...I have so many 'advanced interrogation technique' jokes right now. I think I'm a bad person."

[firstofitskind]

An uncomfortable expression flickered over Liam's face, but it was gone after just a moment, replaced by a smile.

"Nah," he said, lightly. "Just a terrible sense of humor." Leaving aside that it was his own stupid fault for bringing up 'treason' in the first place.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity leaned over and kissed him lightly, not unaware her joke had fallen flat. "But you love me anyway, right?"

What blatant and obvious change of subject?

[firstofitskind]

When you shared one-third of your genetic code with a person who had been a genuine sociopath, you ended up with certain triggers. The real fun part was in not always knowing what they were until they came up in conversation.

“It’s one of the things I love about you, not in spite of,” he countered.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Between that and you seeing my family as a feature, not a bug, I'm almost worried you're too good to be true," Verity sighed, tucking her head on his shoulder.

[firstofitskind]

“I talk in my sleep, sometimes,” he reminded her. “And I miss a lot of your pop culture references.”

[arboreal_priestess]

"That's true," Verity said, "Which means you actually miss, like, half my jokes. Which is a tragedy."

[firstofitskind]

“That just means I appreciate the ones I do get twice as much,” Liam replied, as if that made total sense.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Well, obviously," Verity said, nodding along with him. "And I appreciate your face."

[firstofitskind]

“In all seriousness,” Liam said. “I never thought I would find someone who could accept the alien part of me as easily as you do,” he told her.

[arboreal_priestess]

"And I wasn't sure I'd ever find anyone who could accept me," Verity said, just as earnestly. "Someone who could handle the monsters without blinking and the tango without sneering."

Not even her family was entirely capable of doing that much all the time.

"You're my partner. In every meaning of the word."

[firstofitskind]

"I really do like the sound of that," Liam said with a grin. Maybe not as much as hearing 'I love you', but it was up there. "So glad we found each other." And that their tiny selves had decided they ought to be friends.