Are You Alright?

"Are You Alright?" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Verdandi sways on the spot, trying to keep both herself and Liam upright. “Let’s go home,” she whispers, starting off towards William’s. As is becoming the norm, the man himself isn’t home when she stumbles over the threshold with Liam. “Are you hurt?” she asks in an undertone.
tree-the-cat
“N-not…not any more.”
Liam kept running his hands over where he had just been injured, to assure himself that no more blood ran from open cuts, no more bruises ached, no more rock rash burned. He still felt like he was dragging his legs through thick mud. “Need…to sit down, I think,” he mumbled, his breathing a bit labored from the very short distance they’d walked.
aroleplayingcephalopod
With a nod, she staggers over to the couch, sitting heavily on it and pulling Liam down beside her. “I’m glad,” she says.
tree-the-cat
His legs seemed to fold as he hit the couch heavily and he put his elbows on his knees and covered his face, rubbing it tiredly. “I’m sorry,” he said through his hands. “I didn’t know that was gonna happen…I never would’ve…” He didn’t feel guilty, necessarily. Just shaken, bewildered, that they’d been dragged into some kind of soul-searching for himself, and he could still feel it. It was something vague, but he felt it as a sort of dark echo, a silhouette tracing his slight movements, but when he pulled his paws away and stared at them, he could see nothing.
“Were you in the way? Did you get hurt or anything?”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“No, I didn’t,” she rushes to assure him. “It wasn’t your fault, Liam.” Verdandi reaches out, taking hold of Liam’s paws. “You couldn’t have known what was going to happen.”
tree-the-cat
He quickly snatched his paws away, his eyes wide as he looked up to stare at Verdandi with a slightly wild, feral look in his gaze. “D-don’t,” he stammered. “Just in case. I…I feel weird.” Liam wasn’t lying; his heart was in his throat. But the fear was suddenly mixed with lightheadedness. 
aroleplayingcephalopod
A wound look fills her eyes. “I–okay,” she whispers. She wasn’t hurt, during the fighting, but she was still terrified out of her mind, and… well, it doesn’t help matters to have Liam take away a source of comfort. “Can… can I help at all?” she asks in a wavering voice.
tree-the-cat
“I think you already did. What…the Hel was that? That was different shit than normal.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“I… don’t know. I just… I didn’t want you to kill her. And I did that.” She lets out a short breath. “I don’t know how.”
tree-the-cat
He fixed his eyes on her hand and very hesitantly reached out again, taking one of her hands and bringing it a little closer, inspecting it closely. “I don’t get it,” he mumbled, his breath soft on their linked hands. “Valkyries ‘n gods ‘n shit…this was my mom’s problem, not mine.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi’s grip tightens on Liam’s paw. “I think Will was right,” she whispers. “Our parents’ war is about to become ours.” She pauses. “Well… not my parents. But I’m in this now as much as you are.” She leans forward, looking into Liam’s eyes. “I’m with you to the end of the line,” she says, as serious as he’s ever seen her.
tree-the-cat
“Yeah…uh…end of the line sounds…”
He blinked, the temporary spell of her intense focus breaking a little. “H-hey, um, I know I’m…I can be stupid, but…your eyes are…they weren’t that color before. Are you sure you’re okay?” He put a paw on her cheek, trying to get a better look.
aroleplayingcephalopod
She blinks a few times. “I… I feel fine,” she says slowly. Subconsciously, she leans into Liam’s touch. “And you’re not stupid,” she adds in a whisper.
tree-the-cat
Liam exhaled in a slight laugh. “Naw, I’m a gods-damn idiot,” he said in a low voice. “Trust me. I don’t even know what color your eyes are, apparently.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“Are you sure?” Verdandi asks in a soft voice. 
tree-the-cat
“I d…uh…” His heart was thundering again, but Liam didn’t pull away like his instincts demanded him to. Looking down at their hands again to hide his face, he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. “Uh-uh.” He shook his head, his ears twitching. “Not sure. But I kinda feel like one when…when you’re around. Fuck, sorry, that was mushy. Dammit.” Their foreheads touched as he ducked his head lower.
aroleplayingcephalopod
A soft giggle escapes from her. “I don’t mind,” she says. “I kind of like it, actually,” she adds. Verdandi takes a deep breath before turning her head just enough to capture Liam’s lips in a kiss.
tree-the-cat
For a second, the darkness shivering on the edges of his being faded into nothing, and he was caught off-guard like before, but he had more time to savor it. He pushed his fingers into her hair, the very tips of his claws brushing over her skin, and pulled her a little closer into him. 
Though he didn’t want to, he let his lips drift away but kept them touching the bridge of her nose, unable to stop a flustered smirk from creeping up. “Hey, don’t kiss me when I say gross shit. It’s cute. You’re gonna make me keep doing it.”
aroleplayingcephalopod
“Maybe that’s the point,” she whispers, a mischievous glint in her eyes. 
tree-the-cat
“Well, cut it ou–whoooooooaaaahhkay.”
Liam leaned forward as his vision fizzled into black for several seconds and he caught his breath, gripping her arms to stay upright on the couch. “Whew, okay, almost…that was almost lights out. I might…need to lay down.”
He was burning with embarrassment, he hated looking so damn weak in front of anyone, but especially Verdandi. She was outpacing him in badass powers and she was handling it like a champ, whereas he was…almost fainting?
aroleplayingcephalopod
Verdandi’s eyes fill with concern. “Do you want to stay here, or… would you rather go lay on your bedroll?” she asks. Admittedly, now that he’s mentioned it, laying down sounds like a wonderful idea. It’s been… a long night.
tree-the-cat
“I’m not gonna lie, the legs feel kind of like eels right now…I don’t know if I’m going anywhere. I bet I could bunk here. It would bug the Hel out of Will.”
His mouth twisted up and his eyes grew a little softer. “But I don’t really want to be alone right now, either,” he mumbled. 
aroleplayingcephalopod
“I’m not going anywhere,” Verdandi promises. “We can just stay here.”
“Well, I don’t wanna make you…”
He trailed off and gripped her hands, still afire with shame. “I’ll be okay. You don’t gotta hang out here.”
“You’re not making me do anything,” Verdandi says. “I want to be here. With you.”
Liam leaned his head forward until it rested against her temple, feeling exhaustion drag his eyes shut. “Yeah. Mmkay. That sounds good. I just…just warning you, uh…Kendra says I snore loud enough for her to feel it.”
She huffs a laugh. “I know,” she says. “We’ve been sleeping in the same room. I don’t really care, though.”
“Oh. Right.”
Shaking his head wearily, he adjusted himself to lean longways on the couch, pulling his feet up so that his paws hung just a little bit off the other side. Will was so small in contrast to Liam’s lanky, lean build. Thanks, Dad.
He yawned widely, showing the points of his teeth, and blinked blearily at Verdandi in the dark. “You sure you’ll be okay?”
Verdandi stretches out along the couch, resting her head on Liam’s chest. “Yeah,” she murmurs. “Are you?”
He lifted a paw in front of his face and flexed his claws, squinting at them through the darkness. “Um…I think so. Don’t be afraid to bail if I start doing…freaky shit.”
She lets out an amused huff. “I think I started doing freaky shit first,” she points out. “I said I’m with you to the end of the line, and I meant it.”
He rested his cheek on the top of her head, already almost too tired to talk. “Mean it too,” he mumbled. 
Verdandi hums contentedly, snuggling into Liam. “Good night,” she whispers.
Liam was already mostly gone; his breath stirred the air above them as he breathed slow and heavy. And just below his subconscious, in the very surface layers of his dreams, he saw strange images–featureless faces as empty as the void, tawny wings drowning in black oil, the familiar glow of Nala’s scarlet essence burning into oranges and golds and whites, the shapes of swift birds crossing the sky that he wasn’t quite sure were birds. 
In his sleep, he gripped Verdandi a little tighter.
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Act I
Category:Events
Category:Liam Arnason
Category:Verdandi Østergård