duke_of_illusions | one foot in front of the other

one foot in front of the other

It helps a great deal, having someone to care for, having something to focus on. He wakes up the next morning aching, but with a bit better of an idea of what to do with his day than he has in the months since his partner vanished.

He makes breakfast, and brings it to Liam's room. Knocks on the door.

"It's me."

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Mission failed, though not entirely his fault if it was something Barma already knew. He decides to keep talking.

"You discovered the secret of the Sealing Stones. In a journal by Arthur Barma."

They get to the bathroom, and Liam gets visibly flustered.

"All right. I'll-"

Leaning to hitch Liam's pyjama pants off, robe aside.

"You'll have to sit. I'll step out and take care of the tray. Call me when you're ready for me."

Liam nods, looking thoroughly humiliated, and levers himself down as Barma leaves the room.

Of course, him being stubborn, he's going to get himself back into a standing position and pull those pants back up before calling for Barma.

Barma will just be puttering about the room, changing the sheets on the bed while he waits for the call. Liam is going to be in for an earful if he tries it.

Liam is rather of the opinion that the lecture will be preferable to the embarrassment. So of course he does it. He does not, however, attempt to walk to the bathroom sink to wash his hands. He's not that stubborn.

"Ready?"

He asks, a few moments later. It's been enough time, he thinks.

Liam has just managed to get his pajama pants up one-handed when Barma asks.

"Yes."

He opens the door, and frowns sharply.

"What are you doing?"

The tone indicates that Liam is, after all, in for a lecture. He has an explanation beyond preserving his dignity, and he gives it.

"Sitting like that pulled the stitches. The slash to my hip is also rather deep."

It is true, but he would have done it anyway.

"Liam."

He says, quietly, reflecting quiet disappointment.

Liam looks away.

"I didn't attempt to walk and I kept my weight on my right side," he protests softly. "I'm injured, not an invalid."

"All right."

Quiet agreement, as he moves to help him to the sink.

Liam accepts his help, relieved that the lecture has been averted.

He washes his hands. When he's done, he happens to catch his reflection in the mirror. He hadn't realizes that he looked so pale and drawn, or that his face had bruised, but it certainly explains why he's being treated like he might collapse.

Then he notices that somehow a pair of earrings--the basic studs he has in his room in his own world--are sitting on the counter next to the sink.

"How in the world--?" He glances at Barma. "How did these get here?"

"This is a strange world. Things that do not make sense find their way here."

He explains, quietly.

"It isn't the last thing of your world you'll find."

Liam starts to put them in carefully, one handed. The left one is difficult because he can't reach that well. He wouldn't bother, but it'd be troublesome if they closed up while he was recovering.

"I need to find a way back. If I'm missing, Xerxes might assume..." He sighs. "He might do something stupid."

Like go after the Baskervilles on his own, or something similarly dangerous. He had no idea what Break might assume had happened to him, but his reaction would not be good.

"There is no way back."

He explains regretfully, watching him.

He drops the back to one of the studs, and it falls on the tile floor. He barely notices, staring at Barma in horror.

"Then I'll be missing from there forever? I'll just have disappeared completely to them?"

He can't accept that. Not when Xerxes' reaction over his "death" had been so drastic.

"Ah- I should be more precise. There is no way back that we control. When you do return home, it will be at the will of the mansion, much like your earrings were simply brought here."

Moving to steer him towards the bed.

"So however long it keeps me, I'm stuck here?"

Liam doesn't notice, instead trying to bend to pick up the earring back so he can get it on.

"Xerxes is going to think the Baskervilles kidnapped me from my sickbed or something."

"Current wisdom suggests time freezes while you're gone."

He supervises this closely, moving to intercept and do it for him when it looks like he's going to pull a stitch or have to use his bad shoulder.

He doesn't protest when Barma does so. He's so relieved by his words that he sags against the sink.

"So if... when I go back, I'll be in the hallway outside my room, where I was when I found myself in that library?"

Liam realizes something.

"But won't people wonder why I've healed a bit?"

He holds his right hand out for the earring back to try again to get the left earring on.

"Let me."

He offers, quietly, moving to do it instead, with a look of rapt contemplation on his face.

"Perhaps you will have, perhaps you will return to the moment you left. If it happens, say it was Hare."

Liam relents and hands him the stud. He doubts he would have been able to do it, anyway.

"But you'll see right through that excuse," he murmurs, then he frowns at the other implication.

"Wait... So I could heal here, and then when I go back I'll be just as injured?"

Oh, that's just cruel.

He fastens it daintily.

"It might be. You would have to tell me the complete truth, of course, but that was to be expected."

There's no lying to him.

Oh, this is just too much. He really doesn't want to go through this twice, and he might have to.

"I hate this place," he finally mutters.

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one foot in front of the other

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