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There was something a little uncomfortable about the conversation he'd just had. Something he couldn't quit place his finger on. Or maybe there were too many reasons to account for the dark tinge of color across his cheeks. The thought of pursuing Harper, of the possibility of her being interested in something other than friendship. Working up the nerve to actually do something about it, if that were, in fact, the case.

Or Perhaps it was Harvard's advice. That he should practice the act of sex to keep himself from being rusty. As if he could simply walk up to anyone on base and ask them to sleep with him. As if it were just that easy.

It wasn't.

He sighed, fingers running through his hair to push it back off his face so he could push the green headband back up to hold it.

It seemed lik it took Harvard an awful long time to make his way over. Longer than expected. Long enough for Liam to to feel like this was perhaps a very bad idea. Long enough for him to pick his phone up off the bedside table, to start a message saying he'd changed his mind, only for him to delete it as a knock sounded at his door.

For a moment he stared at it, still unsure. Then the good guy in him won out and he went to open it. It was, as always, raining, and Liam wasn't just going to leave Harvard out in the rain.

The good Doctor was about as wet as could be expected for how long it had taken to get here. He blinked up at him, then looked away quickly as he stepped back to invite him in. "Do you want a towel? Caroline brought me a bunch this morning."

The comment had Liam pausing, hand on the top most towel of the stack still folded on his dresser, and he furrowed his brows thoughtfully. "I hope so, too." It would have been like the woman to give give give, and not save anything for herself. He'd have to remember that in the future. Make sure he only took as much as he needed when she brought him things. And where was she getting everything, anyways?

Magic.

With a small hum he brought the towel over to Harvard, handing it over before taking a seat on the edge of his bed more or less across from him. "It'd be great if it stopped raining for like, an hour." A useless comment meant to fill the silence. Habitual.

Liam chuckled an agreement. "Yeah. A little sun would be nice." It made him think of the conversation he'd had with Harper, how he'd called her a ray of sunshine, and the small, easy smile he wore twitched up in one corner before Harvard getting to his feet pulled his attention up to him. The older man had a strange expression on his face, one Liam thought he recognized, but wasn't sure from where. Brows rose in a silent question, and then Harvard was taking a seat beside him.

Too close. Why was he so close?

"Um." His leg shifted, hands coming down to rest on his thighs as he considered to the request. "You mean other than just being nice and complimenting?" That much he knew, but really, it had always been the other person kicking things off, not the former soccer player. "I think I have her attention, I mean she wants to come visit..."

There was a baffled, frozen moment that followed the hand on his shoulder, a subtle twitch of brows as Liam looked up at Harvard, trying to read his expression. He was being awfully nice to him. Nicer than he usually acted towards him, and something else, something that set the younger man a bit on edge, but a certain fear of misinterpretating the sotuatikn kept him still.

"What sort of things?"

Realization took it's time. Harvard's hand on his shoulder hadn't meant anything, just a condescending touch from a man that always seemed to be talking down to someone, usually him, even when what he had to say was sincere. Like a habitual behavior, something the doctor simply couldn't turn off. Then those tanned fingertips had moved beneath the collar of his shirt, sliding along his skin in a way that had dark brows furrowing slightly, even as a faint wash of goosebumps rolled across his lower arms.

An excusable brush against his throat became a deliberate one, legs touching, and all at once this scene was very familiar. "Harvard?" It was soft, Liam's voice a touch hoarse as color began to rise along pale skin. "I'm not--"

The kiss effectively cut off the protest, and Liam froze, too startled to react at first. When he could, a handful of seconds later, he was flushed and wide-eyed, leaning back slowly so he could see the other man's face.

Considering their history as roommates. This was both incredibly unexpected, and somehow not surprising.

"I'm not," he began, then stopped as he closed his eyes and tried to gather his wits. Too familiar. "I mean, I don't...I don't, um.."

There were all the same bells and whistles going off in Liam's head. Wrong. This was wrong, it was sinful. He wasn't supposed to like it, hated that he liked it, but couldn't deny the truth of it. It was painted across his cheeks in warm tones, the way his tongue tie stung itself when he tried to speak. The too-slow reaction time that spoke volumes of surpressed urges. Austin had seen it, and he'd dragged it out of the younger man.

And it wasn't as if Liam had ever been good at lying. Harvard called him out, breath warm against his lips and a hand settling on his thigh, and the only answer Liam had to give was some half hearted, weak retort that never managed to leave his tongue.

Instead, small surprised sound as Harvard kissed him again, but this time the young man didn't lean back.

Dark eyes were starting to lose focus as they opened to look up at Harvard, half lidded, lips slack. He knew what he wanted. He knew it, but he tried to shove it back, push it under the rug and pretend it wasn't true. Denying a piece of himself that he'd been told time and time again was wrong. It was wrong, and it was sinful, and he didn't want those desires, but they where there. Liam could hide it, if he was careful. If he stayed away from people like Austin.

He couldn't hide it when the door was forced open. Or rather, he could have, but there came a point where he didn't want to.

It was a familiar game. The hand on his thigh, climbing higher. Harvard close, but not close enough. He could put a stop to this now, if he wanted. The choice was there, and if he swayed away then that would be it. But if he chose the other direction. If he leaned in...

His turn to initiate the kiss. His hand on Harvard's knee as he leaned closer.