milliways_bar | (no subject)

Liam sits down too, watching him with a slightly worried edge to his smile.

"Char, it was just... nobody takes the bouquet seriously, do they?"

"No, of course not. But . . ." He sighs. "Look. You know I've never been good at the long-term--you know that. The last time somebody gave me a ring and asked me to promise him forever I panicked and slept with the first bloke who looked at me the right way.

"And Darien has been teasing me a lot lately about rings."

Liam winces.

"I didn't know that last part - how could I? It was just supposed to be a joke, but if I'd known Darien was teasing too..."

"Doesn't exactly come up in everyday conversation," Charlie says with a sigh. "'By the way, I think my boyfriend wants to propose and it scares the bejeezus out of me.'" He shakes his head.

"Exactly", Liam says, worried and wondering if he should offer to talk to Darien.

"So--I don't know. I'm probably just being hypersensitive, but--" He holds out his arms to Megan, who has decided to sit on his lap since he's right on the floor anyway. "But. Well. You know. Stuff. Complicated, grown-up stuff." He beeps Megan's nose.

"Sorry", Liam says genuinely.

He shrugs. "So many hangups," he says simply, and honks loudly when Megan beeps his nose back. "I'm not saying I don't want to be with him always . . ."

"But you don't want to have to be?" Liam asks quietly, watching his brother's face.

He looks at Liam helplessly and sighs. "Maybe."

Liam sighs, rubbing at his temples.

"Look, Char... I don't think Darien's going to force anything on you, if you don't want it. Talk to him."

"No, I know that. It's not that." He sighs again and tries to explain, "It's just that if he asks and I say no, is that going to be what ends us? If I say yes, is that going to be what ends us? Are we doomed no matter what?"

"Doomed," Megan says wisely, nodding, and Charlie beeps her nose again.

"After everything you've seen here, and outside, baby brother, are you so sure anything's going to end you?"

Charlie gives him a duh look. "I do know I'm not in his future. Unless time can be rearranged somehow so that he doesn't have that future and I get to stick around--and I don't know if that's a good idea, considering what changing time has done to me."

Liam shakes his head.

"No, you know you're not in the future of the Darien who first came here. But... well. When you go back to the island, are Claire and Sawyer there?"

"Yeah," he mutters.

"And was Kevin here, when that Darien was coming in?"

"No," Charlie says and rubs his nose. "But that could mean he leaves at some point. People do."

Liam eyes him. "You really think he'd leave while his little brother was still here?"

Kevin and Liam understand each other.

"Well, I don't know what happens, now, do I," Charlie says, perhaps a bit snappishly. "Suppose Darien asks me to marry him and I say no and he leaves because he's so unhappy and then Kevin leaves because Darien's gone and then Darien comes back from that future?"

He's thought about this. In detail.

"...Char, you've really been overthinking this", Liam tells him, not unsympathetically. "You know time's strange here. Take it as it comes, eh? You might be surprised."

"I know."

Somewhat sulkily. Don't try to be logical with a man who's got his pouty on.

"It's just never gone right for me. Never. And it's so easy to see all the ways it could go wrong."

"Sounds like you're overdue some good luck, then."

"Yeah. Wish I thought the universe worked that way."

"You used to", Liam says softly. "And I think... sometimes, it does."