MCA#1, Wednesday Evening

[hugetractsofland]

Lulu was bustling around the kitchen, as was her wont, not making anything particularly special; a cup of tea, a toasted sandwich. Something light to eat for dinner while she read a book.

If anyone wanted to join her, she'd be more than willing to make more; it was simple enough.

[Specifically for one, but open as well, especially for the flatmate!]

Comments

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

There was a knock on the door.

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

Lulu called, "Coming! So's Brad!" as she stepped out of the kitchen towards the entryway. She opened the door and smiled at Liir. "Come in, come in! Would you like something to eat? I'm just making myself a sandwich."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Nothing, really, I'm just fine," he said on the question of food. "Some tea might be nice. Nothing too bothersome. I mostly came to talk."

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

"Oh, not a bother at all," Lulu said, leading him into the kitchen and putting the kettle back on the stove. "Any particular blend?" she asked, waving her hand vaguely at the cupboard where she kept her teas.

Yes, an entire cupboard dedicated to teas.

"You know that I'm always around, if you need to talk," she added, sitting herself down on one of the stools at the counter, her sandwich beside her."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Well, it wasn't so much need as--"

He paused.

"You met my father. He said."

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

"Ah, yes," Lulu said. "Today, at the docks. He seems a pleasant sort," she continued. "I imagine it must be an... adjustment, for you both."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I don't know what to do with myself, I'm so happy," he admitted quietly.

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

There, that's what she was looking for. "A perfectly natural reaction," she said. "You've finally met someone you've been missing your entire life." She picked up one half of her sandwich and gestured with it vaguely. "He certainly seems happy -- if surprised -- to have met you, as well." She smiled. "And appreciative of your cooking."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I've been keeping him and Mr. Tennant fed," he said with a brief chuckle.





"Though I still haven't figured out how to tell him that going back will probably kill him."

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

Lulu blinked at that, set down her sandwich, and looked straight at Liir. "No," she said. "I rather imagine you haven't."

Well. This was a conundrum. "You realise," she said, "that there's every possibility you've not even been conceived yet, where he comes from." She hoped he'd realise what that meant.

No Liir then meant no Liir now.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He shook his head.

"He knew I could exist. They didn't have long together, from what little I've ever been able to learn, so he's already taken her as a lover. I'll have to ask him a few things to figure out as much as I can of the timeline, but no one spoke of him much. The whole thing was a mystery."

He breathed out.

"I might have to go back and see what I can find out in Oz."

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

Time travel wasn't something Lulu had much considered before coming to Fandom, to Earth, but she'd been doing a lot of reading on a wide variety of subjects since she'd arrived. "And if you convince him to stay?" she asked. "If he doesn't go back, and finish his life? Who knows what could happen?"

She paused, sighed. "Take what time you have with him," she said. "Learn from him what you can. Maybe you'll have a few days, a week, two weeks with him, before he needs to go back. Maybe you'll have years. However much, you'll know he loves you."

It was more than some people got, she wanted to say. More than some people got to remember. More than he'd had before.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He looked at Lulu.

"I do know one thing, which is that my mother was brought to the mauntery as a patient. Injuries of the brain. I know when that was, approximately.

"It's just a matter of asking him when it is for him."

He shook his head.

"I won't send him back to die. Disappearing is disappearing. Better he do it here than Southstairs."

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

Lulu nodded, slowly. "If you're sure," she said. "... Maybe he did disappear to here," she added. "It could be that it's not a change at all."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He shook his head.

"Southstairs. Shell said he knew where my father had disappeared to and his strongest ties, from what I've seen, are to Southstairs. Glinda wouldn't have put me in his hands unless this was so."

And he realized Lulu wouldn't know any of this, but best to cover it.

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

"Did he tell you Southstairs?" she asked. "Or merely allow you to draw that conclusion?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"It's where his daughter ended up," he said. "And it's where they put those they want to get rid of."

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

Lulu merely nodded, looked at her sandwich, and ignored it, instead reaching for her tea and grabbing onto it as if to a lifeline.

"You're right, then," she said. "You should try to find out more."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He looked up at her.

"I don't want to change what was for me," he admitted. "I just want to change what happened for him."

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

And there.

The kettle whistled.

"I... can't fault you for that," Lulu said, getting up and moving over to take the kettle off the heat. "Given the chance, I think I might..."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"You think you might?"

He peered at her curiously.