MHA #8, Monday Morning

[stykera]

It had been an odd weekend. Odd in a better way, or at least a less painful one, than last weekend had been but still odd. This weekend hadn't involved any barfights or subsequent trips to the pond, for one thing. It had just mostly involved watching out for a much younger than usual friend while Faye tended to Grogu, and then meeting a very unusual version of Din.

Stark had left Liam asleep and curled up on the couch last night, eventually. Maybe the frappucino hadn't been the wisest choice but Stark was inclined to indulge children, especially temporary ones, when he was able to do so.

He was hoping that Liam would be back to his usual self this morning. These things usually ended with the weekend but not always. If Liam was still a tinier version of himself Stark would deal with that. He was fairly certain Liam would do the same for him if the situation had been reversed.

"Liam?" he called out softly as he walked out of his bedroom.


[For the no-longer-tiny guy on the couch! If you have a reason to also show up? Go for it.]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

Liam nodded.

"Me, but if I hadn't just, you know," he made a sweeping-upward gesture with one hand that was meant to communicate the whole 'grew from infancy to adulthood in a matter of hours' thing.

[stykera]

"This way seems to suit you better," Stark said. "The smaller you seemed unhappy."

And frightened, unsure, not well-cared for...

[firstofitskind]

"I- he-" the lines between that other-Liam and himself were blurry, made pronouns harder than they should have been, "- may have been a child, but he never got the chance to be a kid. He was lonely."

The Taelons who had raised that other-Liam had certainly seen to his material needs. But there had been a lot they'd neglected, too, either because they didn't know or just didn't deem it important.

[stykera]

Stark nodded.

"He seemed lonely. And hungry. That's why I didn't want to leave him alone. I understand lonely."

[firstofitskind]

"'Lonely' about sums it up," Liam agreed. "He was being raised by Taelons, and the last Taelon child was born over two thousand years ago. Add in the fact that he was part-human, on top of that..."

[stykera]

"That sounds very hard." And lonely, but they'd covered that.

"Two thousand is a very large number. I...the oldest person I've known wasn't even half of that though she wasn't old. At all."

"I can imagine they would have forgotten many, many things about what children might need after all that time. Or maybe they never knew what he needed if he wasn't their usual sort of child?"

[firstofitskind]

"A little of both," Liam nodded. "Like the 'hungry' thing. They made sure he had enough, nutrition-wise, but the Taelon Mothership wasn't exactly stocked with things like chocolate and ice cream."

... Aside from what was in any Companion-Protector's personal quarters, anyway, but it's not like the kid-Liam would've had an opportunity to interact with any of them, forbidden from talking to the human crew members as he was.

[stykera]

"Children ought to have more than just what they need to survive. Everyone ought to, but especially children."

Stark had spent much of his life having barely enough. He didn't think anyone else needed to experience that.

Which would explain, of course, his willingness to indulge the little Liam and most other children he came across.

[firstofitskind]

“I don’t disagree,” Liam said. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around there being a reality where I’m one,” he shook his head.