milliways_bar | (no subject)

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aramis,
liam pace

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Liam is in the bar, once again. He will go home one of these days, honest. Just not yet.

His mun feels that in view of certain planning, he really ought to meet Alex. *hint*

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"Kind of like Charlie, that. No wonder they get on well."

He chuckles.

"Apparently Charlie uses Nick as a living sofa sometimes. I can see the appeal, they're boht very tactile people."

Liam manages a grin.

"He always has been. Charlie, that is, I wouldn't know about Nick. Me too, when it comes to it."

"I'm not so much that way myself, except with Nick or if I'm upset. But it can be nice."

He tilts his head. "You okay?"

Liam hesitates, then says, "Um... sort of. Has Nick or Charlie told you what happened at the weekend?"

He frowns. "Not really. Nick told me something had happened that had upset Charlie, but not really what. And I haven't talked to Charlie lately."

Liam sighs.

"It's been a rough few months for both of us, really. Stuff at home - although for Charlie, that was really more the stress of not being able to help than anything - and stuff here. Bartleby being gone, and Seth... Anyway. At the weekend, someone came in from the island Charlie came from, and tried to take Seth."

"Fucking hellfire. The baby's okay, I hope? Gods."

"Oh, the baby's fine, not hurt at all. The man who tried to take him... not so much. He was the one who killed Charlie, before the Purgatory mission, I don't know if you would have heard about that..."

"I think I heard a little about it. That was around when... well, I wasn't really in any condition to pay much attention to what was going on then."

He frowns. "Charlie was the one who killed him, didn't he."

It's not a question.

"Yes. It was self-defence, no question, the guy was about to beat Charlie's head in with a rock, but... that isn't helping Charlie much."

"Damn it. Killing someone, even in self-defence... it's never easy. I know."

He hesitates.

"Do you think it'd help if I talked to him? I know what he's going through, at least a little. And he's a nice person, I don't like the idea of him suffering."

"It couldn't hurt", Liam answers quietly. "And the more friends he's got around him right now, the better."

"I'll see what I can do, anyway. Poor thing."

"Thanks. Like I said, it all helps, I think."

Alex sighs and sips his tea.

"He'll be okay. We all are, in the end."

"He's tough", Liam agrees with a half-smile. "Again, always has been."

"He's got people here that care about him. They'll see him through it."

"Definitely. I won't be going anywhere for long, for the next little while."

"You're not Bound, then?"

"No, thank God. I was, for a while after the Purgatory thing, but I can come and go again now. I spend a fair bit of time here, though."

"I'd noticed a lot of people who aren't Bound seem to spend a lot of time here. I can't blame them, it must be a nice place to get away to."

Liam shrugs.

"Can't see Charlie anywhere else."

"There is that... 'Lanna can't see Thom anywhere else. Myself, I've got nowhere else to go."

"Oh, yeah, I remember Alanna mentioned Thom when she was talking to me before we went to get Charlie back. So, if you don't mind me asking, is it that you can't leave, or that the alternative's worse...?"

"Given that the alternative is the Black God's realm, and He doesn't tend to look too kindly on traitors... I've opened the door all of twice, both times I saw there, and I don't care to go back there."

"Can't say I blame you. ...Charlie, actually, could leave here with me if he wanted to, and go home. Proper home, not just the island. But he has a letter from the Landlord saying that if he cuts corners like that, he'll lose his right to come back here."

"Seems a bit harsh."

Liam nods, with just a trace of bitterness in his expression.

"I mean, I guess I can see the reasoning. The Landlord, whoever it is, doesn't want anyone using Milliways as a means to skip stages of their lives they'd have to go through if they'd never come here. But... yeah."

"I suppose I can see the sense in that. Still."

He sighs and sips his tea.

"Fate", Liam says with a shrug. "Looking back on it, just about everything that's happened to Charlie and I, and a lot of the things we've done, in the last ten years or so could be seen as a step leading him to the island."

"Ah. Fate."

He laughs softly, just a hint of bitterness to it.

"Fate's a bloody bitch sometimes."

"That it is." He sighs.

"Still. It'll work out in the end."

It didn't for Alex. But Charlie's different; he's a good person. Everything works out for good people, in the end.

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