brutal | grayson hawthorne

what now

***
Perfect Sense by Arctic Monkeys
***

"You look like you want to hit something," Liz is staring into the distance on the balcony outside one of the libraries when she hears Grayson come up behind her.

"You can't even see my face," she snarks.

"I can sense that you want to hit something," he comes up right beside her.

"Yeah, you," she has a feeling this interaction is going to be the closest thing she gets to an apology.

"Would you settle for swinging a sword at me?"

***

The last time Liz came to this little rendezvous point was with Nash after she was done ranting to him about how annoying his younger brothers were for not letting her play with their Virtual Reality thing because they were worried she would get makeup on the goggles.

It seems fitting that she comes back with the same level of annoyance towards one of the same Hawthorne brothers now.

In the moonlit night, she hates how close she has to stand to Grayson to know where she's going in the maze before they reach the center where Tobias Hawthorne's extensive sword collection rests underground.

They immediately get into it, Liz letting the only sounds being metal clanging on metal as her feet shift through the grass.

She's not very good - definitely not as good as Grayson - but she doesn't really care as he's clearly taking the defensive side here, only reacting to her actions.

"I'm sorry," he says after a particularly rude move of knocking Liz's longsword out of her hand, but she knows he's not apologizing for twisting her wrist weirdly.

"I guess I am too," Liz says nonchalantly, as if she hasn't been playing this out in her head all day.

She makes a move to pick up her longsword, but he puts his through the hilt of hers while it's on the ground, so she can't pick it up yet.

"It's just a lot," he explains himself as she meets his eyes. "And I didn't mean to be an asshole about it, bringing up your parents and whatnot, I just wanted to show you how upsetting it is to talk about it."

"I get it," Liz always melts when he shows his soft side. "I shouldn't have tried so hard to get you to open up," she steps toward him, not really knowing what to do with her hands since she still can't pick up her longsword.

"I know you were just trying to help," he closes their distance so they're centimeters away from each other. "I'd probably go crazy if I kept everything bottled up inside like I do when you're not there."

"Well, then, you're welcome," she smiles up at him, still smiling a bit when he tilts his head down to kiss her.

***

Nash and Libby got back from Costa Rica, explaining how they met Nash's father who was the caretaker of the Hawthorne Residence in Cartago, who gave them a vile of some powder and a piece of paper that, with Zara, the group found revealed a hidden message from Tobias Hawthorne to his daughters about love and forgiveness and such.

Avery saw a connection to the postcards that she's kept from her mother in the locations that the old man mentioned and saw countless letter that Toby had written to her mother in invisible ink.

Kaylie Rooney was Avery's aunt, Toby had bought that accelerant and was ready to set the house on fire before lightening struck and did it for him.

Jameson had gone to Hawthorne Island to see some guy in a shack who wouldn't open the door unless Avery was there. So, naturally, Avery flew out to this middle-of-nowhere shady town to meet this shady guy who could give her answers to her mother. On their way back, a bomb exploded just before they'd boarded their plane and Avery was in a coma for a couple days after finding out whatever she needed to find out about her mother.

Avery then got kidnapped by Sheffield Grayson, found out Toby isn't actually her father, just the one who signed her birth certificate because her dad is the deadbeat she always knew he was, and Sheffield died because he's literally a psychopath.

Liz thinks she's caught up Grayson now in her retelling of what Avery told her and Max last night when the three of them were celebrating Max's birthday a little late with a classic Hawthorne-adjacent get-together of the three of them in the House's movie theater watching the Star Wars movies and eating their weight in over-buttered popcorn.

Now it's Grayson's turn in their game of pool, and he'll probably win, but he always he goes easy on Liz for the first couple turns.

"Wow," is all he says.

"I know, right?" Liz waits for him to be done before she climbs onto the table to get a better angle. "I'm glad all that's over."

a/n:
speed ran this I'm just too excited for the next part - New Romantics - taylor swift