[o] regret is nothing more than a reoccurring disease

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed

It was midafternoon in Haulani, and Liam sat at the bar in the Hanged Man, nursing a whiskey. After meeting Flora on the beach - and everything that followed - he needed a drink, if only to assuage his guilt. He supposed, in retrospect, that he had pushed her without thought of the consequences, and that he should take responsibility for his actions, but whether or not she'd even want to hear him out was something else entirely.

And then there was Maea. Flora had implied that there was something between he and the Ancient, and while there wasn't anything like that (yet), he did have to admit that he cared for her, perhaps more than he'd even dared to admit to himself. After all, would someone not hung up on someone else have turned down the Doubletake's advances?

Well, Liam would, apparently.

Raking a hand through his hair, Liam tipped the rest of his whiskey back, then signaled the bartender for another round. It was going to be a long afternoon of self-loathing, but maybe getting drunk would make it more palatable.

Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary; they can only do harm

Liam

just because the fog is there

The bar isn’t busy—not yet. LongHeat afternoons have a way of making everything feel slow and slick, like the whole world’s caught in a bottle of molasses and sun. Behind the counter, Vesper works through the usual quiet rhythm: drying glasses, sorting bottles, ignoring the soft groan of an ancient fan overhead. He's dressed down for the heat, loose linen and dark sleeves pushed high on his forearms, the constellation of freckles on his arms catching little sparks of sun where it slices through the shutters.

The man at the bar barely registers at first. Just another whiskey-soaked soul stewing in the kind of silence that always makes Vesper think too hard about pulling up a chair or walking away. But then—

Flora. Oh, ho ho.

He doesn’t look like much, but his thoughts are loud. Not in volume, but tone. Guilt like seawater in the lungs. Longing wrapped around denial. A name—Maea?—that has Vesper’s eyes flicking over.

The rag slows in his hands. Then stills entirely.

A long moment ticks by before Vesper tips the glass upside down, sets it on the rack, and finally reaches for the whiskey again. Sauntering over, he holds up the bottle, letting the amber liquid catch the light before filling the man's glass.

"Rough day?" he asks, tone casual, quiet. His eyes flick up, sharp as sea glass. "Or just regrettin' somethin’ you've got planned?"

don't mean nothing's behind it

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed

Liam didn't really notice the bartender at first. Maybe he recognized the young man vaguely from Flora's party: one of the people taking over the bar, if memory served. But aside from that, he hadn't given him more than a cursory glance, more interested in the whiskey than in making idle conversation. And that had worked out, for a while, until he gestured loosely for another drink. Then the stranger sauntered over, pouring a new one.

At the bartender's question, Liam tilted his glass, glaring at the amber liquid within. "Why not both?" he asked, then took a healthy gulp. Although, truth be told, it was less regret for what he had planned and more regret for what he'd already done. He scrubbed a hand over his face. It was too early to get as drunk as he was planning, and yet... "I guess people don't drink in the middle of the day without regretting something. Or is this normal in Torchline? I'm not from around here." Given the emptiness of the bar, he had to guess that midday drinking was not the norm, but he'd been wrong before.

Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary; they can only do harm

Liam

just because the fog is there

Vesper grins down at the man like he already knows the punchline to a joke Liam hasn’t realized he told. "Why not both?" he echoes, drawl slow and amused as he sets the bottle aside with a casual flick of his wrist.

He lingers for a moment, tilting his head just so, eyes sharpening as if taking stock not just of the man’s slouched posture or the crumpled guilt stitched through his voice—but the knots of thought behind it all. They’re loud, knotted. Tangled up in names and regrets and a woman whose mind he knows far better than he'd like.

"Mind if I sit?" Vesper asks, already thumbing the back of the empty chair beside him. "Me'n my sisters just took over this place, and apparently part of the job is bein’ the kind of bartender who listens real good and offers real bad advice that sounds wise enough to stick."

He quirks a brow, waiting—an invitation without pressure. A question without judgment. But the shadows at his boots curl a little tighter, sensing there’s something interesting worth staying for.

don't mean nothing's behind it

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed

Much to Liam's surprise, the bartender offered to sit. With a quick glance around, the soldier could see why. It wasn't like there was anything else to do or anyone else to chat with. He had to doubt that the other man had anything to offer by way of advice for his specific situation, but then again... "Alright, well, I guess you can practice your listening and advice-giving skills on me."

He took a sip of his whiskey. "Let's say, theoretically... you reject someone," he said, being purposefully vague, not realizing that it was pointless to do so. "And it's partly because there's someone else, but also partly because..." Why had he rejected Flora? If he looked past Maea, and past the fact that Flora could obviously do better than a soldier who'd been hiding out in the Greatwood for the past few years, what was it, really, that had made him call a halt before anything had really even happened?

"Well, just because. But let's say you regret it. What do you do? With the person you rejected, and the someone else?"

Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary; they can only do harm

Liam

just because the fog is there

Vesper sinks into the seat with lazy grace, one arm slung over the back of the chair, the other curling around the rim of Liam’s now-replenished glass to nudge it forward with casual encouragement. "Much obliged," he murmurs, the grin tugging at his mouth wolfish and knowing. Not because of the words Liam chooses, but because of the ones he doesn’t. They hum between his temples like a radio station just slightly out of tune: Flora’s flushed cheeks, Maea’s soft silences, and the weight of wanting things in two directions at once.

He listens without interrupting—at least out loud. Inwardly, he’s already halfway through the script, drawing lines between all the quiet guilt and confusion tangled in the soldier’s chest.

When Liam finally trails off, Vesper leans forward, resting his forearms on the sticky wood of the bar, peppermint bark tucked between his teeth. "Seems to me," he says slowly, "you gotta figure out if what you’re regretin’ is the fact you said no, or just the way you did it."

His pale eyes glint as he tips his chin toward Liam’s glass. "If it’s the how that’s stickin’ in your craw, well—seems easy enough. Send flowers. Write a nice apology. Do that whole ‘noble, kindhearted man makin’ amends’ thing." A slow shrug rolls off his shoulder. "Then move the hell on."

But his gaze sharpens, a touch more pointed now. "If it’s more than that—if you’re sittin’ here wonderin’ if maybe you walked away from the wrong damn person—well." He lets the sentence hang, letting the weight of it do the work. "That’s a whole different mess, ain't it?"

don't mean nothing's behind it

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed

The bartender nudged the drink closer, and Liam lifted it in a silent cheers before knocking it back. For someone who claimed to be practicing giving bad advice, the soldier had to say that Vesper was failing rather spectacularly, because what he said actually made a lot of sense. Or maybe it only made sense because he was drinking, and everything seemed to make more sense when one was determined to be inebriated before too much longer. Either way, he narrowed his gaze at the other man. "Can't decide if that's 'real bad advice that sounds wise' or if it's actually wise," he groused. "I don't think you needed practice. I think you're just bored and nosy."

Still, he fell silent as he considered. A small part of him, perhaps, wondered what it might have been like with Flora, if he'd given in to the temptation to see just how far she was willing to go. If her kiss had been any indication, it was pretty damn far, and he had to admit to a certain level of curiosity. But what he really regretted most of all wasn't the loss of opportunity, but the way that it had seemed to make her feel. Despite the mask she'd slipped behind, there had been something fragile in her today that he'd unintentionally taken advantage of - before pushing her away. If he'd hurt her feelings, that was something he regretted, and something for which he wanted to make amends.

He hadn't really chosen one over the other, not when he hadn't even really considered that his feelings for Maea might be shifting from friendship to something more until Flora asked him about her. But if he had to... he'd choose Maea, and he wouldn't regret that decision. He'd spent the better part of a season and then some with the Ancient, and he thought he knew her rather well by now, well enough to be sure of how he felt. Flora, he'd only met a few times, and yet he couldn't shake the feeling that, for all her strength and ability, she needed something more than friendship. The question was: what was it, and was it something he was willing to give her?

He sat back with a sigh, casting his gaze towards the ceiling. "It's not really a competition between the two," he said finally. "Or if it is, there's a clear winner. But it just... feels wrong to leave things the way they are. I can apologize all day long, but I don't know if I can just walk away after that. But I'm not sure how to make amends without making things more complicated." He laughed. "Or maybe I'm just overthinking it, and it's bothering me a lot more than her."

Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary; they can only do harm

Liam

just because the fog is there

Vesper hums under his breath, half amusement and half agreement as Liam lays it all out. The soldier’s thoughts drift like seafoam—guilt, reason, affection, doubt—and though he doesn’t speak on any of them directly, he sifts through them with idle, unapologetic precision.

"Again, why not both?" He grins as he tips back in the chair just enough to let it creak. "But that don’t make me wrong."

Liam’s thoughts linger—on the Ancient, on Flora, on whatever invisible line he thinks he crossed and can’t uncross—and Vesper doesn’t bother hiding the slow arch of one brow as he listens. "If you’re worried about makin’ things worse, then maybe it depends on the kind of rejection you’re dealin’ with." His grin sharpens a little. "You talkin’ the ‘led her on for a few weeks, whispered sweet nothin’s and vanished’ type?" Vesper had seen a few of those very recently in this very bar. "Or the ‘tried to do the right thing but maybe put part of you where it didn't belong', type?" 

From what the young telepath could tell, several weeks spent at someone's side shouldn't really compete with the pout of a hot 22 year old, but admittedly said 22-year-old had also wound his dad around her finger for the better part of a year, so Vesper supposed Liam deserved at least a little slack where she was concerned.

don't mean nothing's behind it

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

All I ever wanted
All I ever needed

The longer he talked, the calmer Liam became. The bartender had a knack for offering advice that both made sense and was reassuring to the soldier, and he started to think that maybe he hadn't irreparably fucked up. The last thing he wanted was to be on bad terms with the queen of Torchline, but maybe he didn't have to be. Maybe he could apologize, and they could simply move past it. "The 'tried to do the right thing by not putting part of me where it didn't belong' type," he said with a wry chuckle. Which, really, one would think would be a good thing, but apparently that hadn't been the case for Flora.

Anyway, it hardly mattered. If there was a choice to be made, he'd made his already. Maea had been by his side, and he by hers, for the better part of a season and a half. He liked to think that she knew him better than anyone else at this point, given his voluntary seclusion for the past few years. Flora, while she had her good qualities, had only met him a few times. And apparently that wasn't enough for Liam to simply take her to bed (or the sand, in this case).

Maybe he needed more connection than that.

In any case, Liam downed the rest of his whiskey. "Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of it than it is," he said, hoping that he was correct. "Anyway, thanks for listening. You're better at the whole giving advice thing than you should be." The bartender was too young to be so wise - or at least so good at telling people what they wanted to hear. Liam wasn't quite sure which.

Is here in my arms
Words are very unnecessary; they can only do harm

Liam

just because the fog is there

Vesper snickers, the sound low and dry as he rolls his shoulder in an easy shrug. "If you didn’t put any parts of yourself where they don’t belong, sounds like you ain’t got much to apologise for." The grin that follows is crooked, unhurried, like he’s not trying to be comforting so much as honest in a way that sticks.

He reaches for the bottle again, topping off Liam’s glass with a little flair—just enough to keep the mood level before the bottom falls out. Then, with a lazy push of his hands against the edge of the table, he rises, the chair creaking faintly in protest behind him. "I won't make a habit of it," he adds, sauntering back behind the bar with the slow, loose ease of someone who knows exactly how to disappear from the centre of a moment when it's done serving its purpose. Then the peppermint bark is back between his fingers, leaving only the soft lap of the tide beyond the shutters and the slow melt of peppermint on his tongue.

~FIN

don't mean nothing's behind it

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3