A/N: Guess who's going on vacation? I am going on vacation. For two weeks. Fucking finally.
That means that I can't promise I'll be able to update next week - might be too busy cooking slowly under the sun. I'll try to, but I can make no promises!

Liam is the only one home when Billy sits up on his own for the first time.

Moving autonomously is not at all easy for babies: their shapes keep them from rolling over, so until their limbs grow strong - and coordinated - enough, they are generally stuck on their back unless an adult moves them. Bill makes up for that by moving a lot anyway, though: he flails his arms, claps his hands and kicks his legs for hours at end. He looks a lot like he's cycling and he's actually pretty funny to watch, especially since he also makes noises: he giggles and squeaks and chirps, eye wide like his flailing limbs are some sort of miracle to behold.

That's why Liam sneaks in the nursery from time to time, to take a look at him when their parents aren't home, because sometimes he needs some cheering up and Billy always works wonders on his mood. Plus, he likes listening to his stories - or, if anything, he never cries while he speaks. It's a win/win situation.

"Hi, Billy."

"Babababababa!"

"I have a new story to tell you. Don't tell anyone I'm here," Liam says, closing the door behind himself. Of course he won't say a thing: he can't even speak yet. But he still likes saying that, like they're in one of the stories he's read where there are secrets to be kept, blood pacts and danger and-

A delighted squeal makes him wince, and he turns back to the crib. "Don't make too much noise! I- hey! You're sitting up!"

Bill giggles and claps, looking supremely pleased with himself, only that he loses balance as a result and falls on his back again with a yelp. He kicks with his legs again, and Liam laughs a bit before he walks up to the crib and reaches in to help him sit up once more.

"Don't throw your weight back again, all right? Try to - Bill, no! Are you- wait. Are you falling back on purpose?"

Bill laughs and holds up his hands for Liam to get him sitting up again. Liam grumbles, then he helps him sit up again. And again. And again. Because Billy keeps falling back and laughing, which is kinda pointless, but it's making Liam laugh as well and all is good.

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap-

"Bill, no!"

Crash.

"UAAAAAAAAAAAH-!"

"Oh no - no no no no no, don't cry, it's alright, please don't cry!"

"... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Liam's plea falls to deaf ears, because Bill keeps bawling, loud as a siren and thrice as terrifying. There is no doubt in his mind that, should their mother come back home early to find him bawling, she'd immediately assume he did something. But he didn't do anything, he just took him out of his playpen and... and… how was he supposed to expect Bill would actually stand up for the first time and try to run before he even knew how to walk?

"You shouldn't run! Don't do that again! Oh Circles, please please tell me you're not hurt!" Liam frets, and picks him up. It takes him an effort to do so without toppling, because his Irregularity makes him lean on one side and keeping balance is always tricky, but right now he's to anxious to care.

Is Billy all right? Has he bent a side? That's the kind of thing that can make you Irregular and no, please, what will happen to him if he's become Irregular because of the fall? What will happen to them both? He will never, ever forgive himself if Billy got hurt so badly on his wa-

"OUCH!"

Liam yelps when Bill suddenly reaches up to stick his finger in his eye, and two things happen at the same time: he topples back, landing on the floor with Bill on top of him, and Bill laughs. Not that Liam feels like laughing with him this time, but there is some relief: the kind of blow that can bend one's side or angle hurts a lot, and Bill wouldn't be laughing if he had suffered an injury like that.

"Don't you ever give me a scare like that again. Ever," Liam wheezes, and Bill giggles again before trying to poke his eye again.

"No! Hey! Stop!"

"Babababa!"

"That's not even a word," Liam grumbles, and takes him back to his playpen. He shouldn't have let him out of it to begin with, and he does his best to ignore Billy's protests when he puts him back in.

"Baaa!"

"No. You stay there before you get hurt."

"Laaaaaah!" Bill protests again, sitting up and holding his arms through the bars. "Leeeeh!"

"I'll tell you a story if you just-"

"Leee-aaah!" Bill calls out again, and Liam blinks.

… Wait a minute.

"Is… is that my name? Are you trying to say my name?" he asks, and the worry fades away into excitement. He crouches in front of Billy and points at himself. "Liam," he says slowly. "Liam."

"Leeah!"

"Yes! That's it! Well, close!" Liam exclaims, elated. His parents have been trying to get him to say 'mom' or 'dad' for weeks now, but Bill never said any actual word until now, and it is his name of all things. Something prickles in his eye, but he dismisses it and reaches back in the playpen to pull Billy out. "Alright, you win. I'll show you how to walk. Don't try running again."

He does try running again, of course, but this time Liam expects him to and catches him on have some time to practice before their mother is back and he has to put him back in the playpen before running off to his room, and by the end of it Billy has been able to walk across the room and back while holding onto Liam's hands. Small steps, but it's still progress. Neither of them falls again, and Bill is delighted. So is Liam, really.

Their parents are impressed by how quickly Bill's learned to walk, but not especially amused when he takes to calling out what's clearly Liam's name at random times of the day and night. But, for once, Liam doesn't mind their disapproval.

Liam is used to falling over.

Keeping balance has always been difficult, but the more he grows the worse it gets. He knows that, if he does pass the Inspection - he won't, he knows he won't, but hope is always there and makes it worse by refusing to leave - he will need a cane to walk properly in his adult years.

He could use one right now, really, but he doesn't want it. He doesn't want yet another reminder of his limitations, and he'll take the occasional fall and bruise over that any time, because you can still rationalize that, explain it away with a toy left in the way or a slightly raised carpet he might have tripped over. It is easier this way.

Bill, on the other hand, doesn't seem to think so.

"Hey! Are you hurt? Did you fall over again?"

"I didn't fall over again, I just… fell over."

"Again."

"... Look, can you just give me a push?"

Bill huffs, but he walks behind Liam's back and gives him a shove as powerful as he can - which isn't much, really, but enough to help Liam getting back on his feet. His lower left angle hurts and he must be leaning on one side more than usual, because the next moment Bill is next to him and gripping his hand. There is just about nothing he could do to keep Liam upright should he lose balance again, but he's there and he's trying, and it is enough.

"I'm okay, Bill. I don't need you to teach me how to walk," Liam says in what he hopes comes across as a joking tone, and picks up the book he dropped in the fall. Bill lets go of his hand, but he keeps scowling.

"Why do you keep falling?"

Liam sighs. "You know why. My Irregularity-"

"No, I mean - why do we fall down if we lose balance?" Bill cuts him off. "Who decided that?"

"... The laws of physics, Bill."

"And who voted those?" Bill huffs, crossing his arms. "You keep getting hurt and it's not fair!"

Liam can think of many things that are not fair, but dwelling in it never did him any good. He just chuckles. "No one got to vote for those laws, Billy. It's just how it works."

"And why?"

"Because… because that's how it is."

"But why?" Bill insists, then blinks in what is both sudden comprehension and absolute, comical confusion. "What- you don't know?" he asks, and for a moment he almost sounds betrayed by the realization Liam is not, in fact, the source of all existing knowledge.

No one has figured that out, Liam is about to say, but he doesn't get to: a moment later his father's voice rings out from the next room over, and catches Bill's full attention - which is about as fickle as the weather to begin with.

"Bill! Are you coming?"

"Oh! Dad's taking me to the shop today! To show me how it works!" Bill exclaims, entirely unaware of the change in Liam's eye at those words - because their father has never taken him to the store, not once. Nor… nor anywhere else, for the matter. But saying anything about it would just ruin it for his brother, so he keeps quiet.

"Sounds like you should hurry up, then," he says instead. Part of him hopes that Bill will ask him to come, too - if he insists enough their father might even relent - but he does no such thing: he just turns around and runs off, his questions and the incident of Liam's fall already erased from his mind.

Or so Liam thinks.

"Daa-aad! Can I have this?"

There is a sigh before his father speaks, that only a long-suffering parent can manage. "And what for, Bill? You hardly need a cane. Let alone one that's almost as tall as you. Besides, it is on sale. Put it back in place and-"

"It's not for me! It's for Liam."

"Oh?"

"So he doesn't fall over again!"

"... I see."

"So, can I have it? It's gonna be a surprise," Bill says, and trots to the counter to put the cane on it. "For his birthday. Keep it aside."

"And I don't suppose you plan on paying for it?"

"Put it on my tab."

"Oh, you have a tab now?"

"I'm opening one!"

That makes his father laugh. There is something else beneath that laugh, the bitterness that comes from the knowledge Liam Cipher is very unlikely to live until his next birthday, but Bill has no was of knowing it, and detects nothing of the sort. He just beams when his father takes the cane in his hands.

"Very well. I'll keep this aside for him."

"Don't tell him anything! It will be a surprise!"

"Not one word."

Not one word is precisely what he speaks later, when Liam is taken, when Bill rages and demands an explanation that will never satisfy him. Not one word is spoken, even to himself, when he returns to the shop the day after the Inspection. He takes the cane from behind the counter and hides it away in the back of the store.

He will never sell it, but he doesn't want to see it, either.

It remains stored away for years, until the day it burns along with everything - and everyone - in the store, the prelude to the fall of a dimension that will never again rise from its ashes.