palace Marton

[Takes place in the evening the day after Will and Liam talk.]

Marton knocked on Liam's study door before he opened it and peered around the corner. It was late, but not too late for Liam to be up and he wanted to say a private goodbye to his host as the entire party was leaving particularly early in the morning. Christian, Will and Johnny had already started their goodbyes with the others earlier that evening and even now, he could hear their voices from down the hall as they all made the most of their final evening together. Liam was in his office and he looked up as Marton stuck his head around the door, gesturing with a hand and a smile for Marton to enter.

Liam offered Marton a cup of coffee and asked, ( ''Are you sure you want to leave your horse here? He's more than welcome, but you feel like someone abandoning a child.'' )

[Takes place in the late-ish evening, the same day as Marton, Will, Christian, Johnny and entourage arrive at Liam's]

Waking from his doze in front of the fireplace in the living room, Marton found himself alone and cursed softly, grinning to himself. Seemed everyone had gone up to bed and no one had bothered to disturb him. He checked the clock and it wasn't that late. Oh well. He was still pleasantly tired; he'd head up to bed now, maybe see if Will was still awake. Today had been good, riding, talking, lying around, but damned if doing nothing wasn't bloody tiring! He got to his feet and picked up the book he'd been reading to put it away. ( Handling the volume reminded him and he cursed again, patting his pocket to make sure before leaving the living room and heading out to the hall, hoping Liam was still awake and in his study. )

24hrs after this.

Christian leaned back in his seat, despite the twinge it caused, and put his bare feet up on the side rungs of Liam's seat, sipping at his coffee. Liam was halfway through the paper and munching on toast as he read, Christian sitting beside him and working on his second cup of coffee while he waited. He wanted to talk to Liam if he got the chance, but there were certain other things that would need to be dealt with first, any second now if his senses were pinging him correctly and Johnny and Adrian really were waking up this time.

There, they were awake. Good. And... they'd found his little surprise. Excellent. He felt humor and just a touch of embarrassment from Johnny, and could hear giggles from both of them coming from down the hall. Liam looked at him from over the top of his paper, one inquiring eyebrow raised. Christian just grinned at him and held one finger up in front of his mouth. Any second now....

And then it came, startled dismay from Johnny, then a howled chorus of "CHRISTIAAAAANNNN!!" flavored with feelings of dire vengeance. ( He grinned and sipped his coffee. Ahh, success. )

Liam exited the lift on Palace Proper, his bag over one arm, snapping his second bracelet on. It'd been a while since he'd worn the things regularly and they felt... odd. At least he'd had a decent nap in the car; he'd been running short of sleep since his last trip to Balize and the chance for an extra six hours had been more than welcome. Well, five and a bit -- he'd been ready to toss his com out the window when he'd gotten that call from Walden asking for records from four damn years ago, like he was the only one who kept copies. Ah, well....

Wanting to avoid meeting anyone else for now if possible, he turned left from the lifts and went out to the verandah, then left again to his Majesty's office door, where he stopped and knocked.

( ''Come on in,'' he said. ''I've got coffee on the way in case you need it and whisky on the bar in case you don't.'' )

( Read more... )

Christian sighed and shifted, the movement causing tiny prickles of pain to race up and down his arms. Reluctantly, he began to surface, chased upwards by remnants of dreams both good and bad, familiar and strange. To escape them, he had to open his eyes and, once he did, sleep was banished and the dreams faded away.
( Read more... )

“... and that’s all of what I know,” Marton finished. He waited out the short silence that followed, allowing Liam time to think through what he’d said. Eventually, the deep rich voice wafted down the line.
( Read more... )