Sunday, April 12 – 2:30 am

Liam's eyes fluttered open.  His mind slowly drifted into consciousness, trying to remember the day before.  He rolled onto his side and saw the cake sitting on the table next to the bed. 

Roarke was here…

He reached out and swiped a finger through the icing.  Licking the chocolate off his finger, he sat up slowly.  He felt a dull ache in his back and his limbs were stiff, but he certainly felt much better today than he did yesterday.  He took another taste of the icing and decided to actually eat a piece instead of just play with it. 

He helped himself to a nice large chunk of cake, unlike the very small piece Roarke had offered him.  He was ravenous!  Crumbs fell onto the bed, but he didn't bother to wipe them up.  The cake had grown a bit stale from sitting out, but it was food and it was close.  There was a bowl of soup on the bedside table that had gone cold, but who would ever choose soup over chocolate cake, anyway?

Feeling a bit stronger now that he had something in his stomach, Liam made his first attempt at standing in nearly twenty-four hours.  He felt lightheaded and weak, but managed to get to his feet.  He headed for the loo, stretching out his arms and twisting his shoulders and back to help them loosen up.   Once there, he slowly pulled off his robe and look at his face in the mirror.  He looked awful.  There were dark circles around his eyes and he needed a shave desperately.   His eyes drifted down to the reflection of the scar on his chest: four neat round punctures formed where Oliver had bitten him – and cursed him.  The werewolf had bitten him deliberately and carefully; spanning its jaws over the tattoo he'd let Oliver talk him into.   Liam felt sick thinking about it, and abruptly turned from the mirror and stepped into the shower. 

The water was like ice, but it felt good.  The bite of cold woke him up.  He stood under the stream of water, not moving, just letting it run over his skin.  He stayed that way until the water started to warm up.  He scrubbed himself determinedly, as if he could wash away the curse with soap and water.  His skin was pink and tingling by the time he turned off the water.

Once he was clean, he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist.  He needed to shave, but his wand was out on the coffee table.  No worries, it can wait.  Besides, who shaves at this hour of the morning? 

What time is it, anyway?

Liam walked back to his bed and glanced at the clock.  It now read 3:07 am.  Wow!  I though it was later than that!

A noise from the living room startled him.  It sounded like someone snoring.  Liam froze in place, certain his mind was playing tricks on him.  But the sound came again.  "Surely it's not…"  The sound echoed through the flat again.  "No…she didn't…"

Liam peeked out into the living room to see Roarke asleep on his couch.  His eyes grew wide and his hand flew to the knot holding the towel in place at his waist.  Had she seen him?  He didn't recall shutting the door to the bathroom.  He thought she had left.  He quickly shut the door to his bedroom and found a clean robe in the closet. 

Once he was properly dressed, he tiptoed over to where Roarke was sleeping.  Her face was turned just enough for him to see her features, although there was a bit of hair covering her eyes.  Liam fought the urge to move the hair so that he could look at her better.  She was just so beautiful. 

She shivered slightly, and Liam jumped back in surprise.  He reached down and picked up the blanket she had obviously kicked off during the night.  Gently, careful not to awaken her, he placed the blanket back over her body.  His hands came close to her face and the desire to touch her hair was almost irresistible.  Almost.

He pulled himself away from her and sat down in the chair opposite the couch.  His eyes settled on her sleeping face.  He watched her body gently rising and falling with each breath.  Her hand was draped over the side of the sofa, and on the floor, just under her hand, was his sketchpad.

Liam winced.  Had she looked in it?  Hopefully she fell asleep before finding the one he attempted of her.  It was horrible.  It didn't hold a candle to the real thing.  She was much more beautiful than he would ever be able to capture in a drawing. 

That's when he noticed that the floor was clean.  And not just the floor, but the table…and the books were picked up.  He looked over his shoulder.  His clothes were gone.  Where had she put his clothes?  Why did she even do this?

Movement from the sofa brought Liam's focus back on Roarke.  She rubbed her eyes and pulled her arms out from under the blanket in a long stretch.  Her yawn faded into a very feminine sigh, the sound of which sent a chill right through Liam's body.  Her gray eyes blinked open and she smiled at Liam. 

"Hi," she said casually. 

"Hi," he replied softly.

"You're obviously feeling better."

"Yes, thanks to you."

"Oh," she waved a hand at him.  "It was nothing."

"Not to me."  He held her gaze for a while without speaking.  There were no words that could express his gratitude for what she had done. 

"What time is it?" she asked sleepily.

"After three," Liam said, not thinking anything of it.

"Three!" Roarke exclaimed sitting up with a start.  "Good God!  I have to go!"

"You didn't have an appointment at two, did you?" joked Liam.

"No, but I never meant to stay this late."  She stood up and folded the blanket.

Liam stood up as well.  "Seeing as how it isn't late but rather early…"  He took Roarke's hand in his, stopping her from doing any more tidying.  "I don't see the problem."

He noticed Roarke swallow very hard as she looked up at him.  She licked her lips and Liam couldn't help but stare at them.  He wondered what she would do if her kissed her just then.  Was it too fast?  Yes…too fast.  He dropped her hand and took a step away from her. 

"Anyway…" he started, "you don't have to go.  You can stay if you'd like."

"Well…it's just that I…"  Her face grew pink with embarrassment.

"You what?"

"I'm starving!"

Liam laughed.  "Well, did you eat dinner last night?"

"No, I kind of…er…fell asleep."

Liam turned and headed for the kitchen.  "Uh huh – after cleaning up my flat so I won't know where anything is."

Roarke followed him.  "This place was a pig sty!  I only really moved the dirty clothes.  Or were they part of your decorating scheme?"

"I'm an architect, Rory, not a decorator."  He opened the refrigerator and looked inside.  "Well, that's a surprise.  I happen to have eggs and juice."  He looked over his shoulder at Roarke.  "Care for some breakfast?"

"Yes, please!"

4:30 that same morning.

"I've never played rugby, but I hear it's a lot like Quidditch," Roarke said picking at the crumbs of toast left on her plate. 

Liam leaned back in his chair, tilting it off the floor.  "Did you play Quidditch?"

"Yes.  I was a Beater for the Gryffindor House Team."

Liam's chair thudded to the ground.  "No way!  You were a Beater?"

Roarke flashed a smile.  "And a damn good one if I do say so myself.  Why?  Is that hard to believe?"

"Actually, yes, it is."

"Why is that?"

"Well…I mean…Beater – that's a very masculine position that takes a lot of strength."

"Oh!" Roarke sat forward with her arms crossed.  "So, a female isn't strong enough to be a beater?'

"I didn't say that!" Liam said with a small laugh.  "I swear, how do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Twist my words so that it always sound like I'm insulting you?"

"Their you're words, Liam, not mine."

"What I meant was, that even though I know you have the aggression that it takes to be a beater, you still seem very feminine to me."

"Well, I can't cook, I don't like pink, and I think dolls are stupid."

Liam laughed out loud.  "No, I mean…your features.  If someone told me to find a female Beater, I would go out and look for the most butch looking woman I could find."

"I see," Roarke rested her chin in her hands.  "So, telling me I'm feminine is a compliment."

"Yes, it is.  I mean your just so…"  Liam stopped abruptly, looking for the correct word to finish the sentence. 

"I'm what?"

"Pretty."  He raised his eyebrows at her as if challenging her to disagree with him. 

Roarke took that challenge.  "Then by your standards, only ugly girls can be Beaters."

"Oh GOD!" Liam cried, covering his face in his hands and flinging his head back.  "What did I do to deserve this?"

Roarke laughed at him.  He met her eyes still smiling.  "I'm only giving you a hard time, Liam."

"Well, you're doing a good job of it!"  Liam gulped down the last swallow of his juice.  "So, change of topic…Have you ever been to Australia?"

"No, I've never been out of England."

"You're joking, right?"

"Well, we've been to Ireland a few times, but I am hardly a world traveler.  I've never been out of Britain."

"Wow.  Don't you want to see other places?"

"Sure, but there's plenty of time for that.  Besides, isn't Australia expensive?"

"No more so than here!  The food in this place costs a fortune."

"I imagine that water costs a fortune over there."

"Only in the summer.  But then our continent isn't as soggy as yours.  Really, does it ever stop raining here?"

 

"Sure it does!  There is a lake at Hogwarts.  When the sunlight catches the water, it casts a glow all around the castle.  You would think that they enchanted it to do that, but they didn't."  She lost herself in the thought.  Liam lost himself just looking at her. 

"Sorry," she said snapping out of her daydream.

"It's OK.  We all have our favorite spots."

"And yours would be?"

"The top of the mountain five miles behind my house.  My brother and I used to climb up there every summer.  I think we wore a path we climbed it so many times."

"I've never really been into climbing."

It was now Liam's turn to get lost in thought.  "You don't know what you're missing!  The challenge of climbing something that seems impossible to climb.  The strategy and planning and trust it takes to get to the top.  It's a lot of hard work, but the reward is to be in a place that few people have seen.  You are on top of the world and you can see how it bends. The sky is almost black because you're above the clouds and so close to space."  He looked at Roarke.  "I would love to take you there."

"Who knows, maybe someday you will." 

Their eyes met and that thick silence that seemed to follow them around snuck up and surrounded them again.   "Be warned," Liam smiled at her.  "Climbing is a poison.  It's additive as hell.  Once you've gone to the top of one mountain, you can't wait to do it again…and again…and again."

"Kind of like sex?" Roarke teased as she picked up her plate and utensils and carried them into the kitchen. 

Liam followed suit.  "Now that you mention it, there is something…" he paused next to Roarke and looked down at her face.  "…orgasmic about climbing – both physical and cosmic."

Their faces were inches apart.  Roarke took a deep breath and cleared her throat. 

"So," Roarke said breaking the thick silence.  "You have a brother?"

"Yeah, he's younger than me.  Charles - named for my father.  How about you?  You mentioned that you had a…sister?" Liam couldn't quite place the memory, but he knew from somewhere that Roarke had said she had a sibling.

"Yes, I have a younger sister and an older brother.  Malcolm is an Auror and Annie is still in school."

"That's interesting.  I would never have taken you for a middle child, Rory."

"What did you say?"

"I said that you don't seem like a middle child."

"No, not that.  You called me Rory.  That's the second time you've done that."

Liam shrugged.  "So?"

"I prefer Roarke," She left the kitchen and headed back out to get the rest of the items still on the table. 

"But Roarke is so…I dunno…It has that hard guttural 'K' at the end.  It's almost too harsh of a name for you.  You need a name that's…delicate."

"Are you back to discussing my femininity?"

Liam poured himself another glass of juice.  "I meant it as a reflection of your spirit, not your body."  He took a drink.

"So then, I don't have good body?"

Liam nearly spit out his drink due to surprise.  Once he managed to swallow it he pointed a finger at Roarke and said, "I never said that."

Roarke only laughed at him again.

"You're teasing me, again," Liam smiled.  "Just for that, you will forever be Rory."

"But Rory is a boy's name!"

"Well, you're the one that doesn't want to be feminine!"

"Touché, William."

Liam turned slowly and walked towards her.  A smile pulled on the corners of her mouth as she walked backwards, away from him.  Their eyes never broke contact. 

"William is what my mother calls me, my dear."

"Does that mean you don't like it?"

"I don't mind it, it just makes me think of my mother."

"Well let's see…you don't mind William, and yet you shortened it to Liam.  So that must mean that the name you really hate is…"

"Roarke, don't you dare…"

"Will!"

Liam grimaced.  "Ugh!  I hate that!"

"Good!"

"Fine, Rory.  If you want to call me Will, so be it."

She backed up against the wall, unable to go any further.  Liam looked down into her eyes and took one last step to close the gap between them.  For a moment, he thought he saw fear flash over her face.  But she lifted her chin defiantly and returned his stare.  She was breathing heavier than usual.  Liam couldn't help but catch the scent of honeysuckle that surrounded her.

Roarke licked her lips and looked directly at Liam's mouth.  Does she want me to kiss her?  She's looking at me like she does.  But Liam didn't want to spoil this beautiful morning by doing something impulsive that might scare her away.  He took a step back and glanced over at the clock.

"It's after five now."

"Yes…so?"

"I'm…supposed to meet your father at noon…for lunch."

"Oh," she said disappointedly. 

" I think it would be best if I got a few more hours of sleep and a shave and…changed into something…nice."  He found it very difficult to talk to her about this.  Meeting her father after spending a whole night with her was an uncomfortable thought.  "Maybe you should…er…go," he said softly.

Roarke nodded.  "I suppose so.   I'm supposed to meet my mum today anyway.   And my sister is home for the Easter holiday.  So I better…"

Liam did not want her too leave.  He took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze.  It was warm and soft, and it fit just perfectly in his own.  "Thank you – for everything."

"It was pleasure.  It's good to see you back to your old self again."

Liam smiled brightly.  "And here I thought you didn't like my old self."

"Well…he might have been a bit arrogant, but he had a very sweet side to him that I hope to see more of."

"And he would like to see more of you, too."

Roarke brought her hand up to touch the side of his face.  "I would like that."

"I have twenty-seven days of humanity free.  I think I could find sometime to have dinner.  Maybe…Tuesday night?  We never did get a chance to talk about that book you gave me."  He would have suggested Monday, but he didn't want to look desperate for her. 

"Sounds great."

"Should I meet you somewhere?  I don't think it would be wise to come to your house."

"I'll come here.  That way, if you're sick again, I don't have to worry that you stood me up."

Liam laughed.  "I don't think you'll have to worry about that."  His face suddenly grew serious.  "I don't plan on standing you up ever again."

"You had better not!"  Roarke went up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

Liam's eyes fluttered shut as she did.  The softness of her mouth against his face lingered when she broke contact.  He inhaled deeply, claming his racing heart.  "I'll see you Tuesday."

She smiled and nodded.  Liam opened the door for her and she walked out into the hall with only one small glance back at him.

(Note – a special thanks to Luna and LB for help with the dialogue about climbing.  I can not be credited with any of those innuendoes.)