To See You Again [UWMA AU]

Chapter 35

« Liam ! »

The man was still avoiding him as if he wanted to erase Dean from his life. This was starting to be irritating.

Not knowing the exact reason for this running around in circles, was starting to run down his patience to naught. Anger was lurking away and this wasn't the best way to deal with their misunderstanding. Dean took a deep breath to try and calm himself before he exploded.

It has been a month since he was chasing the damn hard headed man for a heartfelt talk. Dean had tried multiple times to broach the subject from different angles, but nothing seemed to work on the stubborn man.

The first time he had been in Liam's shop, shortly after they returned to their daily routine at the Campus, he had waited to see how the man would talk to him, if he would talk at all. It had been a psychologically tiring afternoon. The older man was nothing less that curt and brief in his instructions. At some point, he had mostly removed Dean from the less important projects he was working on, reducing the reasons he had to be in the studio.

« Why don't you let me finish with this ? » asked Dean, feeling disappointment at being taken out of things that he had involved a great deal of himself in.

« I need to be in charge of it. » was the only response he got from Liam.

« Then why don't you let me work on the communication for your chairs series ? » argued Dean.

« Too much time needed. »

« What about this one ? » offered back the younger one.

« No. » the answer was definitive, leaving no space for negotiations « You will finish those two projects and that's it. Time is limited to finish your guitar. »

Depending wholy on Liam to manage the creation of his guitar, Dean couldn't find fault in the logic although he felt deprived of his right to be in the shop.

Until before the holidays, Liam had never mentioned the fact that they would need a lot of time to finish it in time. It's true he had only two month before he was leaving, but that was plenty of time according to their previous estimation. He didn't refuse before, when Dean offered to help for the shop's regular works and projects. It also was part of their original agreement...

That day, after such earth braking changements, he hadn't been able to even broach the reincarnation subject.

Later on, at the end of the Craftsman ship club, Liam had called Dean to meet him. The previous week, he had ignored the Thai man when he had called him and just went out quickly. Expecting an improvement as time had gone by and Liam himself made the first move, Dean had gone merrily to join him in front of his desk.

The harsh reality let him down completely.

« Now that you have mostly finished on your two last tasks, you don't have to come back to the workshop. » sternly announced Liam as soon as he was close enough to have a private talk.

« What ? But Liam ... »

« As for the guitar, we can do it here in the club room, that should be perfectly fine, wouldn't it ? It's closer to your place anyway. » interrupted Liam, his questions rhetorical, then turning his back to the black haired man not waiting for an answer.

« Are you still angry with me ? » asked Dean, rooted on his feet.

« I am not angry. » answered back the older man without facing the younger one.

« As if ! You are putting distance with me. Don't even try to deny it. »

Liam grabbed his bag, looked at Dean with cold eyes and then left without saying anything. Stunned, Dean hadn't been able to call him back nor run after him. He had racked his brain for a reason and a way to talk to the man long enough to understand what was going through his maze of a brain.