The Perk, Sunday Afternoon

[firstofitskind]

Liam had intended to just head out to Turtle & Canary and JGoB, to pick up the cheese and cake he'd promised the mice for- you know what, don't worry about why he'd promised the mice anything. The point was, he'd done his shopping, had been heading back to the apartment, and had passed by the Perk.

Now, he'd just been to the bakery. He had baked goods on him. But none of those were actually for him, and the scones in the display at the Perk-

Well.

A few minutes later, there he was, settled in an armchair with a cup of tea and a lemon-blueberry scone. Because why not?

Comments

[heroic_jawline]

Steve waved to Liam through the window before ambling inside. "Hey there!"

[firstofitskind]

“Hey yourself,” Liam greeted in return. “How’s your Sunday so far?”

[heroic_jawline]

"Well, I haven't been attacked by annoyed, hatless animals, so better than yesterday," Steve laughed.

[firstofitskind]

“I’d laugh, but,” he nodded at the bags from T&C and JGoB sitting on the table. “I’m currently at the mercy of tiny animals with demands, so.”

Though the mice didn’t so much attack as guilt him into it.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve snickered. "What were their demands?" he asked.

[firstofitskind]

“The usual,” Liam said. “Cheese and cake. They tried upping the ante and asking for matches too, but I managed to draw the line there. The fire spinning is very impressive, but I’m trying not to actively encourage it.”

[heroic_jawline]

Steve blinked. "Fire spinning?" he repeated faintly.

[firstofitskind]

"Oh yes," Liam nodded. "It was part of the routine they put together for my birthday last year."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve burst out laughing. "They did a dance routine for your birthday? That's really sweet."

[firstofitskind]

“I married a ballroom dancer,” Liam reminded Steve. “Dance is a very important element in many of the Arboreal Priestess’s rites. And I’m still pretty new, relatively speaking, so they like to go with what they know.”

[heroic_jawline]

"Do they do a fire dance for Verity too, or is her birthday a much more elaborate ritual?" Steve asked.

[firstofitskind]

“Oh, the fire was new, but seeing the mice do the cha-cha is an experience that really shouldn’t be missed,” Liam shared.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve laughed. "How many mice are we talkin'?"

[firstofitskind]

“A few dozen?” Liam told him. “But sometimes somehow it can feel like hundreds.”

[heroic_jawline]

"Especially in a dance number," Steve teased.

[firstofitskind]

“You get it,” Liam nodded, emphasizing his point with his scone.

He wasn’t going to mention some of the songs they came up with, though.

[heroic_jawline]

"So I met a new guy the other day," Steve said, settling in at Liam's table. "Seemed kinda high strung. Thinks he's leaving pretty quick."

Sweet summer child.

[firstofitskind]

Liam let out a little bark of laughter. “Danny Williams?” he guessed. Unless there was another high-strung individual who thought they weren’t sticking around who’d just arrived. But given that the summer camp (and with it, the batch of new arrivals, this past January excepted) didn’t start for another week or so, that seemed unlikely.

[heroic_jawline]

"That's the one!" Steve said, grinning. "He's gonna owe me a coffee when he's still here next week."

[firstofitskind]

“Came into the Station looking for ‘a manager’,” Liam shared. “Of course, I happened to be going over his transfer papers right at that moment, so.” He shrugged. “He didn’t believe me right away about the fact that he had a job lined up already and everything.” For some reason!

[heroic_jawline]

Steve snorted. "Did he flail his hands around and yell? I think that might be his default, though."

[firstofitskind]

"There was a non-zero amount of flailing and yelling," Liam admitted. "Offered to take him to the causeway. Guess he's one of the ones that the island won't let go back home, because it kept spitting him back out every time he tried to cross." He sobered slightly. "And, I mean, I get the freaking out, kinda? Guy's got kids on the mainland, apparently."

[heroic_jawline]

"Alone?" Steve asked, actually alarmed by the idea.

[firstofitskind]

“No, no,” Liam assured him. “They’re with his ex. I guess he was on the way to visiting them, I think, when... Fandom, instead.”

[heroic_jawline]

"Okay," Steve said, relaxing a bit. "Explains why he was so...tightly-wound."

[firstofitskind]

"Yeah," Liam nodded. "He couldn't even get a cell signal through, so," he shrugged. "Maybe he'll luck out and time will run differently wherever he's from?"

[heroic_jawline]

"I hope so," Steve said earnestly, "or that his ex will be understanding."

[firstofitskind]

"Yeah, didn't sound much like it from what he said," Liam told Steve, wincing a little. Although maybe that was just Danny's overdramatic-ness at work again there?