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There's something about the fact Liam always had just cause to believe that Harrison was hiding something about himself, perhaps something immense and grievous enough to negatively impact his standing and trustworthiness in the eyes of the other Crown members.

Liam witnessed Harrison shoot someone dead when they recognized him as “Gray's boy” during their very first mission together.

They didn't have a direct order to kill. Their target was already divested of all weaponry and successfully neutralized. He cooperated and, however begrudgingly, handed over the documents they were meant to retrieve.

As far as Liam was concerned, their mission was a success. The man posed no threat to them.

But Harrison's actions begged to differ. He shot the man point-blank after being identified as his father's son.

Harrison himself looked to be in shock as they watched the man bleed out, the color from his face quickly draining as his vitality continued to spill free from the wound and seep into the floorboards—as if he couldn't quite believe the decisiveness which overtook his senses and compelled him to pull the trigger. His body and mind, in that critical moment, both rendered slaves to instinct.

Harrison felt almost certain that he had not killed that man out of malice.

He had panicked. Any semblance of an association with the police would have reflected badly on him, especially since his induction to Crown was still fairly recent at the time.

Allowing the man to blab would've posed a significant threat, not only to Harrison's goals, but his own life included, for who's to say Crown wouldn't have his head as well for harboring ulterior motives in joining the Queen's Cursed forces?

Admittedly, his father's memory being invoked also made something ugly and heated rise in his chest. The people whom he once looked up to as his father's colleagues were little more than treacherous snakes in Harrison's eyes now.

They had shaken his hand and offered only false sympathies to him and his mother on the day of the funeral, all while hiding the fact that Marco Gray's death was a casualty borne from someone else's political machinations.

What right did they have to still speak of him as if they didn’t facilitate the murder of one of their own?

Smoke plumed from his pistol as Harrison held his breath. He didn’t trust any part of his visage to not give away his discomposure. With his gaze fixed on the corpse, he asked, tentatively, if Liam could do him the courtesy of pretending this… first day mishap never happened.

He did not expect Liam, uncharacteristically subdued, to agree so readily to his request. Even more to his surprise, Liam echoed Harrison’s own words of consideration back at him.

“It’s like you said, right? We’re colleagues. The only things we need to know are things like when to jump into the fray and how our abilities work.”

An earlier kindness reciprocated.

Harrison’s mistrust over Liam’s apparent lack thereof was immediate, much to his chagrin.

Along with his Curse, Harrison was convinced that an oversensitive propensity for deceit had awakened in him as well on that fateful day. Now, his first instinct was to doubt good intentions, even when it came to the most benign matters.

Try as he might not to heed it, that same impulse drove him yet again in that moment.

He forced himself to meet Liam’s gaze. Wide. Open. Nary a trace of suspicion in them.

Was Crown really a suitable place for someone so blithe and unquestioning? It seemed as though Liam’s view of the world was of a similar rose-colored hue to his beautiful eyes.

“I won’t ask you anything you don’t want me to, and I won’t tell anyone anything you don’t want me to, either. Not because we’re colleagues, but because we’re friends!”

Friends…

As Liam made his proclamation, that uncanny, preternatural sensation that something was amiss whenever he encountered falsehoods eluded Harrison.

Curious, he decided to probe further.

“The first time we met, you said that you thought we could get along well. But that was a lie…”

“Oh, that… I think that was because of a bunch of stuff I was worrying about at the time.”

Liam looked abashed as he went on. “I like to jump headfirst into danger a lot and tend to cause a lot of problems when I have one of my fits. So even though I wanted to get along with you, I was worried you wouldn't want to be friends with me.”

Huh. That was all true. Curiouser and curiouser.

A small, traitorous, hopeful part of Harrison felt warmed at the obvious sincerity in Liam's words and wishes.

He had become something of a recluse after the Curse upended his life. Choosing to remain in London. Letting his mother take up residence in the countryside all by her lonesome, all while her son devoted himself to chasing the tail-end of a murder mystery brought to life.

Compiling a paper trail of ill-gotten documents related to Yard activity. Diligently reading the morning paper to amass newspaper clippings of suspected Crown operations. His madness personified in the shape of a painstakingly assembled corkboard littered with names, dates, and events leading up to Marco's death and thereafter.

The evidence board, along with his sanity, was held together by mere string, a carton of fasteners, and his own accursed determination.

The “friends” he had made in recent years were all just people he deceived and used for the sake of furthering progress in his dogged investigation. Exactly as he was doing now with Crown and its (for the most part) unassuming members.

He was convinced the Harrison of today was not capable of something as fluffy as genuine friendship.

What would happen, after all, when he inevitably got caught in the future? His secret for being deceptive from the get-go and an eventual renegade aired out for all the Crown members to cast their judgment on him, Liam included.

Heartbreak, he can imagine. Plain as daylight in those earnest, rosy eyes.

But it was hard to say no to a face that beautiful and guileless. And though he'd lie through his teeth before ever admitting it, Harrison has been subtly drowning in his solitary existence for quite some time now.

He has forgotten what it means to breathe easy in the company of a friend, someone who would gladly stand in his corner when the weight of the world threatened to crush him underfoot.

And here was Liam, extending his hand with a smile like he did during their official introduction back at Crown Castle. Promising to lift him out of the waters and help him finally come ashore.

How could he not accept?

Note/s: I did not intend for this to turn out so longggg. I put off reading all the chapters in the Harry & Liam event becuz I was salty that I didn't get the actual card despite being so close to the final soirée level.

But anyway, I adore their origin story. Liam is soooo trusting & Harrison's moral self-perception is soooo skewed due to his Curse, they drive me insaneeee (ง ͠ಥ_ಥ)ง💚🩷

Thanks for reading, dividers are by @/natimiles & @/saradika❣️

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