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Fandom Island Museum, Thursday Daytime

Steven wasn't stupid. He knew Marc was hiding something from him. But it was Marc which meant it was bloody useless to even guess because Marc would be secretive about his favorite song if he thought it was helpful. Only thing to do was wait it out until Marc felt like talking.

In he meanwhile there was work. Since it was still Pride month, Steven had found an interview about queer animals in the wild. He set that up on a tablet for anyone to play if they were interested.

As for himself, he briefly debated picking up where he'd left off on the reading Lana had sent him about Sith philosophy. But, on a whim, he pulled out his phone and instead spent his spare time looking up what types of foods were available in the early 1900s.

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This was probably a really bad idea, considering Liz was going to be meeting them both later for the photo shoot but since she was heading home tomorrow- she wanted to try and explain to Steven …to apologise for dragging him into this mess.

She was just tired and miserable and nothing was making sense anymore and she was also feeling a little hungover from last night as well.

So she stopped by the bakery on her lunch break, got two boxes of vegan pastries even though she knew she owed Steven a lot more than baked goods.

“Um…” she had been wondering what she would say to him when she saw him but now that that was here, nothing was coming to mind.

Thanks to Marc's efforts in the matter Steven was entirely oblivious to anything Liz might have felt the need to apologize about. As such he smiled and waved when he saw her. "Liz! Hello. Not running late for the big photo shoot, am I?"

“No…no, that’s still later,” Liz assured him, I…” she took a deep breath, trying to focus on getting through this without crying.

“I ...” she trembled, “I …I’m so sorry!” and then she burst into tears.

So much for not crying.

Sorry Steven.

Steven was immediately concerned while at the same time confused. Concern won out first. He came out from behind the welcome desk and moved to put a hand on her back if she was all right with it.

"Oh dear. No, whatever it is it'll be all right," Steven said. "Here, do you want to have a sit? There's an office just this way. We can get you some quiet as well, yeah?"

Liz wouldn’t mind if Steven put his hand on her back, she stood there sobbing and managed to nod in response to sitting down.

There was another pause as she tried to remember how to breath, her breathing uneven and shaky as she tried to stop crying and couldn’t.

“It won’t be alright,” she finally managed to say, “everyone’s going to hate me - you’ll hate me, I messed everything up!”

Steven felt Liz's words resonate with not just him but Marc as well. Which only made sense, Liz was both of their friend. If she was in trouble of course Marc would want to be more present for that conversation, even if he wasn't all the way with them yet.

Since she hadn't minded the touch, Steven put his arm around her shoulder to gently guide her towards the office. "Nonsense. I can't imagine you doing anything to make anyone hate you, least of all me. Not on purpose."

Steven suddenly remembered what Liz might have done to make people angry with her. "Oh no - not your powers, surely? Was anyone hurt?"

“No..” Liz shook her head as she let Steven guide her to the office, still clutching those boxes of pastries, “it wasn’t my powers…it …I …”

She took several big deep breaths, gulping as much air as she could.

“None of this wasn’t supposed to ha-happen …I promised I wouldn’t …” she struggled to form coherent sentences, “it …I didn’t mean for it to happen,” she sobbed.

"It's all right," Steven assured her. He closed the door behind them as clearly this needed privacy. That done, he faced her and put both hands on her shoulders, doing what he could to make eye contact. "Whatever it is we'll work it out, yeah? Here, sit. Deep breaths. We'll figure it out, I promise."

Liz forced herself to meet Steven’s gaze as he put his hands on her shoulders, trembling and nodded …not daring to believe for a moment that this would all be okay.

“It…I …” she took another deep breath, hiccuping as she did but she did go to sit down as he instructed.

“I’m so sorry,” was all she could say, “I didn’t want to cause problems for you,” she let out a sob.

"You've done no such thing," Steven told her. He went to take the packages from her so she didn't have to worry about them as well. "You're my friend. What possible problem could you cause?"

Liz bit her lip as she tried to stop crying, handing Steven the packages as she tried to stop the tears, “because…I …I …”

She closed her eyes for a few moments, trying to calm herself down and then opened them.

“I’ve fallen in love with you,” she finally said, staring down at her now empty hands, “I …I love you Steven,” fresh tears began to fall down her cheeks and she couldn’t bring herself to look up at him.

Especially since she realised that Steven might not feel the same way and she didn’t know if that would make things better or worse.

Edited 2022-06-16 14:26 (UTC)

Well now Steven needed to have a sit down. He would have been lying if he'd said there wasn't a thrill at her words, or if he hadn't imagined what it might be if she ever said that to him. For a brief, extremely selfish moment, he thought about telling her the same. Even more tempting was the thought of kissing her so no words were needed.

But Liz truly was his dearest friend. He couldn't imagine doing something which might risk that, especially when it risked doing something he was certain she'd regret as well.

"I don't hate you," he told her, choosing his words carefully. "I never could. But, um, I think you're missing Prompto, yeah? I... I know what it's like to want so much for something that can't be there."

Now more than ever, in fact.

Liz wasn’t sure if this was a good response or not, maybe she had been hopeful of Steven confirming one way or another that he felt the same and kissing her to tell her and now she wasn’t sure if she was disappointed that that didn’t happen and then she was feeling guilty that she was imaging what kissing Steven would have been like and flushed a bit.

“I thought it was me missing Prompto too …” Liz finally looked up at him, since he didn’t seem to be angry with her. “and I …I still love Prompto…that hasn’t changed but I …I love you as well,”

She let out another sob, “I’m such a mess, i can’t even talk to Prompto about it, to try and sort this out and I …I don’t want to hurt you or Prompto and I’m terrified of doing both,” she let out a sob, “I never …I didn’t think I’d feel this way,” she sniffed.

Need me to help? Marc asked, from inside their mind.

"I've got it," Steven whispered back. Not because he had any confidence that he would be able to handle this, but he did know it was something he needed to handle himself. "Later, yeah?"

I'm not far, Marc told him. Then, before he retreated into the background, he added, She can handle honesty. Don't discount her with that.

And then Steven's thoughts were his own again, with nothing but the lingering sense of Marc's worry about whether Steven would be all right.

Good question.

Steven took a breath. He leaned forward in his chair and reached to hold Liz's hands if she would let him. Honesty. He could do honesty. "Well this is a pickle we're in, isn't it? You having all those feelings, and missing your man. And here's me in love with my dearest friend and knowing I can't be with her."

Liz managed a very watery smile at that, not quite hearing what Steven said at first.

“It’s definitely not a situation I’ve ever been in, I ..I’ve known for a while that I’m in love with you and I’m scared,” she admitted. “Not because of being in love with you, but because of what everything means …”

Then she registered what Steven said about being in love with her and for a moment, she forgot how to breathe.

“You…you love me too?” she said, very very quietly, hardly daring to believe it.

"Yeah," Steven said, just as quiet. "I do."

“Oh,” Liz bit her lip, really unsure what to do or say now that she had heard the same words from Steven, “I … I did not mean for this to happen, I … I don’t know what to do … about any of this … I can’t reach Prompto to ask him … “

She trembled, "I love you and I love Prompto and I don't know what to do,"

Steven didn't want to keep going. In that moment there was possibility, and chances that might be taken. But Liz was his friend - hopefully would still be his friend - and as such he had to do right by her. Or try to do right as best he could.

"Liz, I would never hate you. Never ever. Your friendship means the world to me and nothing you say or do could ever change that." Steven took another breath, gathering his courage. "But... I can't be what you need. I've heard you talking about Prompto. I know what you love about him. What he can give you that makes you happy. Not just support and love, which you have from me in spades, Liz. You always will, yeah?

"But... you want a future. You want children. A family. I - I can't do that. Not with Marc and I still trying to figure out how to be what we are. And while I would very much like that to be different, believe me, and maybe some day it might. I don't know if that day will come. And I care too much about you to make you wait for something you might never have. Especially not when it's right there for you, with someone you love, and who loves you too."

“I …” Liz opened her mouth to say more but found that she couldn’t and then burst into a wave of fresh tears, remembering to take deep breaths as she did.

“I’m so sorry, about everything … I didn’t mean to drag you into this and make everything worse … I, I love Prompto and I do want that future but I … I …”

She stopped and bit her lip, “I’m so tired, i just …know that I do love you and I want to be with you,” she shook her head, shaking hysterically “I just messed everything up,”

"No, no, please, it's all right." Steven went to try to take her hands again. He wanted to give her that contact in the hopes it might comfort her and reassure her he meant what he was saying. "Liz, I can't tell you what your words mean to me. No matter what happens, they made me happy. And if you can find all that you want with Prompto? If - when he comes back to you and gives you that, nothing will make me happier. You deserve good things. The only thing which could ever go wrong for me is if I lost you as my friend. Please."

With that last word he couldn't help the note of pleading that crept into his voice. He wanted to help her but her friendship was the one thing he couldn't help but hope he could still count on.

Liz trembled as Steven took her hands, “I … you’re always going to be my friend, no matter what happens … I think … I think I just need time to process everything … get away from Fandom … I don’t …”

She took several deep breaths, “I did not mean for any of this … I do truly care about you Steven and I … I just don’t know how I can fix any of this,” she sobbed.

Liz was saying get away from Fandom with no mention of possibly coming back. Steven knew that day would come that she would move, they'd been talking of nothing but her joining Prompto for weeks after all, but he still felt an ache at the idea that the day might be right now.

But he could be strong for her. He gave her hands a comforting squeeze. "Whatever you need, Liz. And far as I'm concerned there's nothing to fix, yeah? You've broken nothing between us. We're fine. Absolutely fine."

Liz closed her eyes, trying to steady her breathing, she opened them "I just miss Prompto so much and now he's going to hate me and Marc's going to hate me for dragging you into this mess ... I'm so, so so sorry," she sobbed.

Steven rubbed his thumbs against the back of her hands to try to comfort her. "No one hates you. Marc and I don't, I promise you. Nothing you ever do could make me hate you. It's not a crime to have feelings, I promise that as well."

Saying that, Steven couldn't help but briefly think of his conversation with Watts that past weekend, and how Watts had so clearly been taken aback by how the modern world was more accepting of who he tended to have feelings for. It inspired him to say even more to Liz.

"You were brave to tell me. It took such courage, and I'm honored that you used that to be honest with me. I could never hate you for that."

Liz sniffed and trembled, "I never thought they would get to that point, I wasn't ...I should have just been content to be with Prompto, to wait for him, what if I lose him for good now?" she stared down at her hands, "I would deserve it, after all this ... how I've been, I wouldn't want to be with me either," fresh tears began to build in her eyes.

"You don't know for sure," Steven said, gently. He pulled her hands together, wrapping them in both of his. "You thought I would hate you, didn't you? And here I am, doing no such thing. Give him a chance, yeah?"

That made Liz cry even harder, "I ... I hope so, I don't know what I'll do if he doesn't," she sobbed, "I was warned I was moving too fast, with all of this and I didn't listen ...I ...I've wrecked everything,"

Steven moved to hug her. It would be awkward given that he was leaning forward from his own chair to do it, but she was his friend and she was crying so he couldn't help but try. "It's all right. Nothing's wrecked between us. Anything else can be fixed. We'll find a way. Promise."

Liz saw that Steven was trying to go in for a hug, so she attempted to move in closer to help since she was feeling that miserable right now and would appreciate the comfort, "How could I have I've been so stupid..." she sobbed, "all I had to do was wait and I couldn't even do that..."

"You've been having the hardest time of it, haven't you?" Steven said, partially to comfort her, partially to remind her. He stroked her back gently. "No sleep, no news, nothing but worry. Of course you'd feel disorientated about everything."

Which probably wasn't a good sign for how strong or real Liz's feelings about him were but that didn't matter now.

Liz continued sobbing, "I must seem so pathetic to you, crying over all of this ...when this all my fault," she said, hiccuping as she felt comforted by Steven rubbing her back.

"You never could," Steven assured her. He paused long enough to hold her tighter before relaxing again and resuming the gentle stroke on her back. "You're strong, and brave, and kind. That's the only way you seem to me."

“I don’t feel like any of those things right now,” Liz sobbed, “I’ve been unfair to Prompto and to you and you’ve been nothing but nice to me, you should be hating me … I hate me,”

That didn't really make any sense but Liz was too tired to think properly.

That was all right. Aware of it or not, Steven had spent his entire life knowing how to have hope on behalf of someone filled with self hatred.

"Just goes to show what a bad friend I am, yeah?" Steven said, gently joking. "Won't even hate you even when you ask me."

That made Liz cry even harder, even if she knew Steven was joking, "you're not a bad friend, you're a wonderful friend and I do not deserve your friendship,"

"I hope you still want it all the same," Steven said. "Because it's yours."

"I do still want it," Liz sobbed, "and I feel so bad for wanting it as well because I wouldn't blame you ... if you didn't want to be my friend anymore,"

"If I lost your friendship it would crush me," Steven told her. "No matter what happens with you and Prompto, no matter if you stay or move away from here forever. I'll still be your friend."

"Thank you," Liz sniffed, trembling, "I'm always going to be your friend, as long as you'll let me be your friend that is - even when I'm being a complete basket case,"

"Well then who has a friend for forever?" Steven asked. "That's right, you."

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Fandom Island Museum, Thursday Daytime

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