Liam was about to respond but I quickly interrupted. “You don’t have to feel obligated to say yes, by the way!” He gave me a soft smile

“I’d like that and it’s ok that you don’t know much about romance or relationships. That means there’s one more thing I get to teach you next to cooking.” Butterflies formed in my stomach and a tad of nervousness as well. Liam stood up extending his arm to me. “Speaking of which, we should start making lunch, shouldn’t we?” I took his hand and stood up. “Yeah.”

Liam led me to the kitchen and we started preparing some b.l.t sandwiches. When we were finished, Liam started making coffee and took out a bottle of whiskey. “What are you doing?” I asked, packing the sandwiches in a basket. “Making Irish coffee. It’s just coffee and whiskey. I know that people with anxiety get a little anxious from the caffeine so I’m using decaf.”

“Oh, thx, I’ve never tried that before.” Lots of the guys in the facility found ways to sneak beers in and sometimes I would steal from their stashes. I always thought it tasted gross though, like liquified old bread. “It’s good to drink when it’s cold since it’s hot and the whiskey will warm you up.” I nodded my head.

When Liam was finished we grabbed a blanket, put on our coats and boots, and left the house with our lunch. “Nickel, just out of curiosity, do you feel comfortable around me?” We weren’t too far from the lake and most of the walk was in silence so I was surprised by the question. “Yes, but I find your flirting to be somewhat intimidating,” I spoke. “Now, I wouldn’t say I’m much of a flirt.”

We made it to the lake and Liam sat under a tree where there wasn’t as much snow. I followed behind. “Well, you are.” He laid the blanket down and began taking out the food we had wrapped up in napkins. “I do like teasing you I suppose.” He nudged his glasses up a bit and I smiled thinking it was cute. I sat down next to him and handed him his thermos of Irish coffee. “So you admit to being a flirt,” I grinned. I was about to reach for my sandwich but Liam stopped my hand before I could. He brought it up to his mouth and gently kissed my palm whilst keeping eye contact on me. “I’ve only dated about three people and I never flirted with them. Only you.” I swallowed thickly. He held my hand for another second before grinning and letting it go.

“You should see your face,” he beamed while handing me my food. “Tch, bastard,” I said under my breath. I took a bite of my sandwich, which didn’t have too much mayo but just enough, and relished in how good it tasted. “Like it?” Liam said while he opened his thermos to take a sip of his drink. I nodded my head and went back to eating. “You know that you can slow down, no one’s going to take your food.” I turned to him “Obviously, it’s just a bad habit.” Liam turned to me with a serious expression. “If you eat quickly out of stress that you won’t get fed again then that’s a bad habit we need to fix.” He moved closer with his lunch but didn’t seem to make a move to eat it. “Can you tell me what it was like growing up in that place?” I was about to say that I didn’t want to talk about it and I wasn’t sure why I didn’t, but I decided to tell him about my experience.

“It was lonely. As you can probably tell I developed trust issues and my anxiety worsened. I thought they were going to kill me at first like they did my dad especially because I was slower than the others in almost every aspect, but for some reason, they didn’t. I used to wish they would though. For a while, I couldn’t process that my dad was dead.” I took a drink of my coffee trying not to cry as I remembered my father getting shot.

“When I was 14, I used to get into a lot of fights. The punishment was to run 50 laps in 30 minutes. To top it off they turned up the temperature to 100 degrees in the workout room. Sometimes they used simulation to create a desert. I think at some point my teachers and coaches were annoyed with the lack of progress, but I wasn't sure what they expected, I was almost 12 years behind. Around the age of 15, they just started testing different products on me. Went from shampoos to medication. That’s a part of the reason I got nervous earlier. I used to have allergic reactions to some of the things they gave me. At times, it resulted in panic attacks.” Liam remained silent when I took another bite of my food. “Oh!” I said with my mouth stuffed. I swallowed before continuing. “The reason why I eat quickly is that other hybrids used to take my food or push me down so I wasted it. There was a rule that you couldn’t get seconds so sometimes I wouldn’t eat.” I took another sip of my drink before twisting the lid back on.

“I’m sorry. About your dad and how you were treated.” His voice cracked when he spoke. I turned to Liam to see his eyes tearing up. “There’s no need to cry or be sorry! I’m fine now, is all that matters” I tried to smile at him but there was no use. He could see right past that facade. “And if you start, crying I’m going to cry too and I did enough of that earlier,” I tried to laugh. Liam solemnly looked away and tried to wipe the tears that had begun to form. “Liam I’m serious, I’m fine. Ple...please don’t cry. I shouldn’t have told you all of that. I don’t want you feeling ba–” In one swift movement, he had brought me into his chest, wrapping his strong arms around my body.

“I’m glad you told me,” was all he said. We sat there for a while like that. It was weird to open up to a person. At some point, I had simply become numb to most things. It didn’t phase me so I didn’t see why it was that big of a deal at least for Liam to start crying. It was even weirder to have someone try and comfort me. In those minutes of silence, I played with the zipper on his coat pocket and took in his warmth and scent. I had gotten so lost in the moment. The food was almost forgotten when Liam pulled away slightly. He met my eyes and stroked my face with the back of his hand. 

“I promise to never let you get hurt again. Not even by me,” he smiled softly. I pushed him away gently and tried to hide my face, afraid I was going to cry if I looked at him. “You’re being dramatic.” In actuality, I found what he said sweet but I also felt guilty for making him feel that way. “It’s not like we’ve known each other for long so you don’t have to be so concerned. It’s not like you could’ve done anything to prevent it.”

Liam was silent and as I looked up to see his face his lips pressed against mine.

Thanks for reading! Please like, subscribe, comment, and share! My friend and I are being stupid and listening to the Baka Mitai song lol. 

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