Expelled and needing to transfer for his final year, Liam had known immediately where to go. It was the place that'd taken everything from him; that'd ruined him so absolutely it'd twisted his personality beyond recognition.
The place where he'd met...
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After getting off the phone with Millers—with the whole conversation having gone by in an anxiety-strung daze—Liam was putting the date into his calendar as a chill jolted his shoulders.
ㅤOn this particularly biting evening, it was hard to shrug off the overhanging reality that Millers could arrest him any time he wanted. The copper clearly knew he'd been involved in some not-so-legal activities as a teenager. Evidence might not've been so difficult to uncover.
ㅤHe hated feeling that his life was in someone else's hands more than anything.
ㅤWith a calming sigh, he rambled back to his boyfriend with his demands of a compensating hug, but paused, stricken, once he saw Charlie's face pale and colourless, his phone clenched by his ear.
ㅤ"Where are you?" Charlie was spitting into the receiver, tight and restrained. His wild gaze was fixed sharply on the ground.
ㅤLiam was there immediately, instinct driving him to approach before he could think better of it. He wasn't sure what Charlie was hearing to cause this alarm, but it wasn't good.
ㅤCharlie's eyes flicked up at him then. "I'm coming. Barricade that door, do you understand?"
ㅤHeartbeats anxiously ticked by as he waited, and Charlie listened for a few more moments before he finally hung up. Liam couldn't ask a thing before Charlie simply said: "I have to go."
ㅤIt was so clinical in delivery, Liam felt like he'd been shoved.
ㅤPushing through the snub, he persisted. "Is everything okay?" Even if he twitched with the urge to reach out and touch, he knew better than do so. The earlier slight wouldn't necessarily remain so unintentional on the second occasion.
ㅤCharlie's attention was darting around, his shoulders tenser than any naval captain's, unable to duck as his ship got shot at. He was struggling to stand there instead of taking off to whatever situation was making him like this.
ㅤ"I just need to—" Charlie pushed his palms into his sockets. Stress. "Something's come up. I don't have the time to talk, I really have to go." Energy thrummed from him in vibrating waves, and he'd already walked away before he'd finished his sentence. Liam followed, fists clenched.
ㅤWith his shoes scraping the potholed tarmac, Charlie must've heard him, but he didn't turn around to look. He was focused on what would soon come ahead.
ㅤ"I'll come with you," he declared as he caught up.
ㅤCharlie's face scrunched up, but—perhaps because he didn't have the time to argue—he gave no verbal objection, leaving Liam to heel at his side like a scrambled dog.
ㅤCharlie was skittish with companionship at the best of times, but he flirted with the line between distant and personal enough to keep Liam content. Liam was happy to pour enough affection in for both of them, as long as the other man was receptive and warm. And, for the most part, he was.
