Fortunately, I don't believe we've met. Unfortunately, we can't un-meet. Name's Liam, but it's Dr. Raynes to you. I like my drugs strong and my walls padded. Living in Sternbild employed as a medical doctor and infectious disease researcher. Full of secrets you'll never know with a past you're lucky to not have had. Vegetarian. Bisexual. British. Tea > coffee. In love with Korea. Get to know me at your own risk. Toodles. [Independent RP blog for Liam Raynes, M.D. but now more of a writing blog than anything. Liam is played within the Tiger & Bunny universe and belongs to Emery Lee. All art of Liam also belongs to Emery Lee.]
Drabble requested by officer-joubert of Liam waking up beside Lucien.
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Much of the time there is no differentiation between Liam’s memories and his hallucinations. So many things that have once happened he sees before him, occurring again. He recognizes the instances of deja vu as nothing but the extreme side effects of his medication, but there are some visions he doesn’t mind losing himself in. Such a great part of his life he wishes had never happened, but one out of hundred memories he would give anything to be able to relive indefinitely.
One of those memories is the morning after the first night he ever spent with Lucien Joubert. He sees it now before him as he awakes in his own bed and sees Alexei’s back. The Russian’s dark hair grows a little shorter and his skin slightly more pale and Liam doesn’t see Alexei anymore at all. It’s Lucien he awakes next to, now, and the thought breeds butterflies in his stomach.
They fucked the night before, Liam’s first time, and he awakes that morning feeling secure and safe and confident in himself and his decision. It happened so quickly last night, but he can find no regrets even when he searches for them. Lucien is so wonderful, such a perfect fit for him, and though he’s quite a bit older does that really matter?
Still lost in the haze of the previous evening and fondly remembering the euphoria he felt, he runs his fingers softly along the smooth skin of Lucien’s back, touching so lightly and carefully so as not to wake him. Liam can’t help but smile at the beauty of his partner’s body, black hair contrasting so sharply against milky skin, and he tells himself that maybe, just maybe if he plays his cards right, Lucien can be his forever.
“Good morning,” he whispers, not expecting Lucien to hear him or even be awake.
He’s shocked out of his hallucination the moment the body beside him turns over and it’s not Lucien’s but Alexei’s face that greets him.
“Good morning, dushka.”
There is no French accent. There is no gentle sky-blue gaze.
There is only the Russian’s cruel smile and cold, dark, soulless eyes.
Drabble requested by rebirththroughdestruction of Liam and Alexei kissing. Read-more used because slightly triggery mindfuck.
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Liam often dreams strange things, though upon waking he realizes that they aren’t so strange at all, more like exaggerated and very concretely stated truths attempting to make themselves apparent amongst the constant sea of angst in his brain.
He dreams of what a horrible person he has become and what a horrible person Alexei has always been. That is a truth, not a dream, and yet he sees the subconscious reminder in his sleep.
He dreams that he is in a prison from which there is no escape, and while many have called Liam an escape artist, this too is not a dream. It is reality, symbolizing Liam’s cage which is life itself. So much has gone wrong, and there is so much that he cannot change. He can no longer escape the endless cycles of hatred and sin that he is wrapped in, and there is no going back. To remove his blemish of an existence from the world there is only death.
Though what kind of person would he be if he removed himself without also rescuing the remainder of those alive from the evil he knew named Alexei? If, by killing himself, he would be attempting to restore some amount of righteousness to the world, should he not also take the Russian with him?
It is this thought that pervades his dreams tonight. It’s not the first time he’s had a dream suggesting such a thing. Night after he night he watches himself from up above, as if he has separated from his body and watching what he is to do. Night after night he watches himself smear the clear liquid over his lips with two trembling fingers and walk into the bedroom with a murderously seductive smile. And night after night he watches as he kisses Alexei, tempts the man into a more passionate exchange of open-mouthed kisses and battling tongues.
They always die slowly in each other’s arms.
Liam awakes and thinks about the liquid cyanide in his lab, how easy it would be to wear the concentrated poison as a gloss and lure Alexei into the expecting hands of death and eternal darkness. Instead, he pushes the twisted dreams from his mind as usual and turns in the bed to kiss Alexei sweetly, innocently on the cheek.
Why would he attempt to rid the world of the evil that is his husband when the evil itself is so very enticing to him? Alexei is the best thing that has ever happened to him, Liam convinces himself, and he will never do away with him.
Doing away with himself, on the other hand, remains a daily struggle.
"Well that's certainly an interesting question! But even if I was, would I really tell you now? It'd be much more fun to catch you by surprise and confirm your suspicions while you were dying from one of my lovely creations, now wouldn't it?"
The way Alexei called him "my love" made Liam sick, not because he didn't love Alexei but because he knew that Alexei didn't really love him. Then again, Alexei didn't love anyone--it had been proven long ago that he was incapable of such emotions, and Liam wasn't sure how the Russian ever managed to persuade him otherwise. Liam realized in that moment how desperate he was when he had first allowed Alexei to seduce him. He remembered with pain in his heart how alone and needy he had been without the support of his husband while his life literally crumbled and collapsed around him. If it hadn't been for Alexei to protect him, Liam would have undoubtedly been crushed. Maybe Alexei had loved him back then after all. Or maybe Liam had always been delusional. It was hard to tell, and the way Alexei continued alternating between the powers of seduction and fear didn't help Liam's decision-making.
He was lost only in what his senses told him--pain one minute, pleasure the next, and sometimes a combination that Liam forced himself to enjoy. His skin tingled from the light touches of Alexei's fingers against his bare chest and he could feel heat pooling in his groin from the intimacy of it all. Even when Alexei breathed the word "punishment" against his lips, Liam half-sighed and half-moaned at the word. Of course he was afraid, and of course he knew what Alexei meant, but the way that the word danced so eloquently and passionately from Alexei's mouth was enough to make Liam want it.
Liam didn't mind having Alexei invade his mouth so roughly. Anything was better than hair-pulling and besides, the way his husband's tongue probed his mouth so thoroughly reminded him of the way Lucien's lips had collided beautifully with his own, and once again Liam's mind replaced Alexei with Lucien as he moaned and sighed and even returned the kiss whenever he could manage to overpower Alexei long enough to do so.
Wow, this was actually an excellent prompt because it brings out a ridiculously huge plot point of Liam's backstory. I wasn't sure I wanted all of this to be revealed on the blog quite yet, but I couldn't help myself from filling this prompt. I hope the anon who requested, and everyone else, enjoys finding out the secrets of Liam (and Ouroboros)!
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Maverick doesn’t erase his memories right away. No, there’s so much more involved beforehand, so much more that needs to be accomplished before Liam forgets about his powers entirely. The man is tortured and starved, mercilessly beaten and psychologically torn. His younger brother is with him, and that’s what throws him over the edge.
“I’ll tell you one more time Raynes. It’s really quite simple. Turning yourself and your little brother back into children can’t be so hard for one who can manipulate time, hm? You’re so much older than you look right now, so don’t pretend you can’t do it.”
Albert runs one pudgy finger under Liam’s chin and the blond can’t protest seeing as his arms are chained to the wall. Instead, he growls and spits in the bastard’s face, which only enrages him further. He stomps across the room to where Liam’s brother Landon is chained in a similar situation and slaps him hard across the face.
Liam screams something threatening though it’s incoherent as a result of the cracking of his voice. He’s thirsty and his throat and tongue are dryer than they’ve ever been. He realizes he’s dizzy and wonders exactly how long it’s been since he’s been allowed anything to eat or drink. It’s easy to lose track of time when he’s been trapped in a dungeon at the mercy of an entire organization—an organization which used to be his.
An organization which Maverick took for his own and turned against its creator.
“Don’t you dare touch him again,” Liam croaks, his words only barely audible this time and quite a contrast from the piercing scream he let out only moments earlier.
Maverick lifts his hand again, ready to hit Landon a second time. The thin man who so much resembles Liam already looks like he’s passed out, and from this distance Liam can’t tell if he’s dead or unconscious. Even the thought of Landon dying at the hands of these insufferable criminals makes his blood boil and he realizes he has no other choice but to obey the man who singlehandedly took everything from him with only a little political power and monetary influence.
“I’ll do it, Albert. I’ll do it. Just don’t lay your bloody hands on him again.”
Maverick grins, and the expression makes Liam’s stomach turn. He knows Maverick’s plan and knows what to expect the moment that he and Landon are once again young. He knows that Maverick will erase everything he’s ever known and send him away somewhere to an orphanage. Who knows what kind of life he’ll lead and if he’ll ever realize his power or his previous status as the one who created Ouroboros. Who knows if he’ll ever realize how Albert Maverick stole the organization from him and twisted its purposes.
Who knows.
Liam doesn’t.
And there’s nothing he can do.
Maverick lets his hand drop away from Landon’s face and knocks twice on the steel door as a signal to those outside. Several armed agents file inside and one waits for the okay from Maverick before producing a key from his pocket and releasing Liam from his restraints. All the guns in the room are pointed on him, and he bares his teeth at Maverick in what can only be compared to a predatory fashion.
“You’ll fall, Albert. One of these day’s you’ll fall. It may not be because of me, but when it happens you’ll remember me telling you this and you’ll remember what you’ve done to me.”
Maverick yawns and only motions the agents with guns to move in closer to Liam and ready their weapons.
“I didn’t just have you released from those chains to threaten me, Raynes. Do as you’ve promised before we put a round of bullets in your legs.”
Liam obeys because he has no other choice, and as his body is outlined in a faint blue glow, he can’t help but believe that some day this will all be righted. He knows it’s a childish wish, but it’s a hope that he forces himself to keep because he knows that in a few minutes it will be erased from his memory forever.
He changes himself first, reducing his appearance to that of a seven year old child. Landon is next, and Liam kisses him gently on the forehead before the unconscious sibling shrinks to an infant’s size. Even with his big blue eyes and pre-pubescent stature, the glare Liam fixes on Albert Maverick as he cradles his now baby brother in his arms is one so full of hatred it looks more inhuman than not.
“Do it then, you fucking bastard.”
Maverick smiles and gently whispers good night to the children before there’s nothing but a ball of bright blue light filling up Liam’s vision.
He’s in an orphanage in London with his baby brother tugging impatiently at his sleeve, babbling something about a family coming to visit them today and that they might be adopted. Liam only shoos the child away, focusing on understanding a book much too complicated for his age. There’s a brief mention of the Ouroboros, an ancient Greek symbol for rebirth, and Liam suddenly feels funny. He’s never heard of the symbol before but it somehow seems so familiar, as if he’s seen it in a past dream or a nightmare. He sighs and dismisses the thought. Dreams mean nothing. That symbol means nothing to him. He closes the book out of frustration and knows he’ll never be able to think straight with excitable little Landon prattling away beside him.
Perhaps it’s for the best that he doesn’t remember the dream.
Never once has Liam had anything but a nightmare, and he decides that those are best left forgotten.
Of course Alexei liked it when Liam got in moods like this--the Russian was a sadistic freak. Liam was beginning to wonder if he was the same way, because the tiny trickle of blood dribbling down Alexei's chin made him hotter than anything else that had happened that night. He was thankful for the sharp shocks of pain that shot down his spine with every harsh bite, if only because the pain in his neck distracted from the devastating ache radiating from his head and into his very brain, stirring up old nightmares and making the torture seem so much worse.
As wonderful as Alexei's tongue felt roaming over Liam's clammy skin, even that could only do so much to relieve the turmoil raging in his head. His eyes rolled back into his head as he let his head fall against the wall behind him, letting his knees give way a bit so that only Alexei's hold on him and the wall behind was left to support him. The air hitting his bared chest and stomach felt both hot and cold, and Liam couldn't tell if he was sweating or if his entire body was just pulsing from the nervousness and the feeling of Alexei all over him and the leftover remnants of tasting Lucien's tongue in his mouth again.
His pale lips fell open at the thought and he sighed, though Alexei would never know that the sigh was not for him. Feelings lips and tongue drag across one of his nipples sent a tremor through his body and his nails dug into his palms as he struggled against Alexei's hold. His hair was only pulled more tightly as a result and he let out a hoarse cry again, begging for Alexei to stop and willing the terror away while his sobs threatened to return.
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