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The Perk, Early Friday Afternoon

Therapy, swimming, and then coffee at the Perk. Two times, not even in consecutive weeks, was not really enough to make it a tradition for Octavia's Fridays. Not even a habit. But still, it was... Nice.

And this time, she was even actually eating the pastry she'd ordered with her black coffee. Although she was also scrolling through things on her phone more than she was looking out the window she was sitting right by.

There were a lot of stables in the area around Baltimore.

[ooc: Expecting one, but open to all!]

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Liam's investigating at the Station hadn't turned up much at all, so it was a very frowny (well, frownier, since that was more or less his default expression) and somewhat preoccupied Liam who made his way to the Perk that afternoon for a tea and pastry.

As he waited for the barista to finish preparing his drink, he noticed Octavia sitting by the window. His frown turned thoughtful for a moment, as he pondered whether he ought to go over and say hello.

It took Octavia a while to notice him. She'd noted someone coming in, of course, because not being aware of everyone sharing a space with her had not been an option for a long time and likely never would be again, but she hadn't actually looked to see who it was.

But then she was done with the latest website she'd been browsing, and glanced up.

And stopped.

"Liam," she said, after a beat for hesitation. "Hi."

The invitation from Nina for Liam's - her dad's - birthday party was still somewhere on her boat, slowly spreading glitter on things. Just another thing that had been buried in last week's everything.

"Octavia," he greeted, that frown softening slightly, along with a beat of hesitation that mirrored Octavia's own. "Hey. How's it going?"

"Coffee," Octavia said, as if that was a perfectly acceptable response to his question. "That's how it's going." Her voice found some shades of her usual rasp, as she set her phone down on the table. Found her footing. "Just got back from the mainland. And New York, before that."

Therapy days were kind of busy.

“Sounds like a busy day,” he noted, collecting his chai and heading over in her direction. “I can see why it might rate coffee. Mind if I sit with you?”

There was hardly a shortage of seats in the shop, but- she’d said hi and all.

Sometimes, Octavia still managed things like that.

Or things like this: "Sure," she said, with the faintest little headtilt towards the chair across from her.

That no-longer-a-frown shifted again, turning into something even closer to resembling a smile.

“Thanks,” he said, taking a seat. “It’s- good to see you,” he added. Because, well. It had been a while.

"You, too," Octavia replied. That it was mild did not make it less sincere. "I missed the party."

Not that she tended to show up at a lot of parties to begin with. But at least she might have actually considered this one if she'd seen the invitation before everything went all... LA.

"Sorry 'bout that."

“It’s okay,” Liam said. Even though, yeah. Despite the fact that they hadn’t been particularly close for… a while… he would’ve loved to have seen her there. “I know the games and stuff aren’t really everyone’s thing.”

Let's be real, Octavia would have been lost with the games.

But also... She shrugged a little. "It wasn't a good time to be going anywhere."

Even Liam, with his inhuman pattern-recognition skills that made him preternaturally good at just about any game he tried, had been overwhelmed. More by the sheer scope than the games themselves, but.

“Anything you can talk about?” he asked, voice gentle with concern.

"We went to Los Angeles and had a bad time," Octavia said, succinctly. "It's... over now."

Sure it was. Reaching for her coffee cup and taking a sip right after said so.

“Hm.” That syllable and the arched eyebrow that accompanied it probably made it fairly clear that he didn’t quite believe her. But also, he wasn’t going to push.

“You ever tried anything made with ube halaya?” he said, instead.

Edited 2021-07-02 21:36 (UTC)

Octavia looked up at him through her lashes.

"What's that?"

That was a no, then.

He’d sort of figured, but you never knew!

“It’s, uh. A dessert, made from purple yams. From the Phillipines. Where my father was from.” The non-alien one, anyway. “Nina- Nina picked up an ube cake for the party last week, and, well. I saved some. In the freezer.”

(The mice had gotten their own, separate cake, otherwise Liam putting some away and not sharing with them may well have started a riot.)

"Never tried that," Octavia said, even though she knew she probably didn't need to clarify, all things considered.

Something in her expression had very subtly softened, in a slightly distracted sort of way.

“Well, I saved some, so,” he shrugged one shoulder. “If you wanted to give it a try.”

Don't look so surprised, Octavia.

(Okay, so it was a pretty small expression. But still.)

"I think I'd like that," she said. "Thanks."

Between that and the way her face had softened just a bit a minute ago, Liam was getting a whole range of (albeit small) expressions he hadn’t seen on Octavia in- a good while.

“No problem,” he said easily.

Let's face it, he hadn't seen any expressions on Octavia in a good long while. Or even just... Octavia.

Amazing what actual effort towards getting better could do, wasn't it?

(It was a process in progress and still very hard.)

Silence fell for a short moment, and she faltered a little. Not because she couldn't deal with it - she was very good at withstanding silences - but because there was something that had been on her mind, and she didn't quite know how to ask.

In the end, she took a sip from her mug, and said, "So Nina really calls you Dad, huh?"

And now Liam’s expression became something softer, fonder.

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “She does.” Maybe one day he’d stop being awed over the fact that she’d picked him of all people, but not today.

"How did that happen?"

She was curious, for reasons she couldn't even entirely understand, herself.

"It was kind of gradual," Liam admitted. "Hell, at first, I'm pretty sure she looked up more to Verity and I was just... some guy," he shrugged. "But we connected, over some similar experiences, and she came to see me as someone she could trust when she was in trouble. The Dad part came after we took a trip to her world. She had paperwork done up saying that's what we were, a father and daughter, ostensibly to make traveling easier?" He took a long sip of his chai. "And something about it just felt- well. Right. Like something clicked into place."

"Sort of just fell into it," Octavia noted with a mildness that may have had some softness to it. Or maybe that was just a trick of the ear. "That... doesn't seem like it happens every day."

“Yeah,” Liam agreed. “It wasn’t how I expected things to go, but I’m really grateful they did.”

"Good," Octavia said. That one word, right there, that was unmistakably softer.

She picked up her coffee again, and took a slow sip.

Had you missed the ways she just randomly fell into silence, Liam?

Yes and no?

He’d missed the times where it felt companionable more than awkward.

This definitely felt like it was leaning more towards the former.

“Yeah,” he agreed, his own voice going soft and fond.

It was a lengthier silence, this time. With Octavia taking another sip or couple.

(And not touching the pastry on the plate in front of her, even though a third of it was already gone.)

She was just... sorting through some of her thoughts, here.

"Sometimes," Liam said, less out of a need to fill the silence, exactly, than a need to just put this thought into words, "I do worry that I'll- do it wrong. Somehow."

Which was in and of itself a sign that he was actually on the right track, because most parents worried about 'doing it wrong' at one point or another.

Oh, hey. Here was something Octavia was going to have an opinion on, the following week.

Though that didn't have a non-italic one already. "I think worrying is a good sign," she said. After a beat. "It means you care."

“You do?” Liam asked. “Because I do. Care, I mean. A lot.”

Yeah, Octavia could probably already tell that much, you dork.

"Yeah," Octavia said. "I can tell."

Was there a brief, wryly teasing note there, for a second? Hard to say.

"And, yeah, I do," she added. "Puts you one step ahead of anyone who doesn't think to worry. Or thinks they don't need to."

“I’m so used to just… knowing, how to do things?” Liam admitted. “This is- new.”

Welcome to how everyone else navigated the world, Liam.

Yeah, the wry was definitely in there, now. In the faint crinkling around her eyes, the tilt of the corners of her mouth.

"Seems like most people."

Yes, welcome to being normal, Liam.

(As meaningless and context-dependant a word that was.)

And there was just the slightest feeling of victory, to accompany that almost-smile he'd managed to wrangle out of Octavia.

"Who'dve thought having a kid would be the thing to get me there?" he asked, slightly amused.

After years of not even entertaining the possibility because it wasn't part of Ha'gel's plan (not to mention the complicated genetic factor), Fandom had shown him a future where he'd ended up with children and he'd wanted that, fiercely. This... wasn't how he'd seen himself becoming a father, honestly, but he had absolutely no complaints.

Octavia shrugged a little.

"Seems to work that way," she said, milder again, but in -- like something had turned inward a little. "Makes you human. No matter what your genetics might say."

She was definitely not just thinking about Liam anymore, no.

(She would change her mind about this in the following week, too.)

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The Perk, Early Friday Afternoon

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