Notes: This chapter brings us to the end of Act One. Next time I update this fic it will be to start Act Two. But before that I'll be taking a break to write a side-story about Crow's unseen adventures in London, which occurred during his two months absence. The working-title of that fic is 'Squawking at Chimneys', though this is subject to change. Keep an eye out for it and thank you for sticking with Grasping Liquid so far!


When Badger started to wake up, it was a slow process. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep for and couldn't remember more than a few faded details of what had happened before he'd lost consciousness. As he searched his sleep-addled mind for answers, it started to become clearer...

He'd been running through London at night... Because he'd left the hotel in a hurry after seeing... seeing...

Crow and Umid.

It was probably best not to think too much about that right now, even if just their names brought a stingingly clear image of the event back into Badger's head. There'd be time to worry about the two of them later.

Especially since he had no idea where he was. Part of him wanted to fall back to sleep, so he wouldn't have to worry about that for a while longer, but it wasn't to be. Now that his body had started to wake up, it was only a matter of time before he couldn't avoid opening his eyes any more.

When he did, the sight that greeted him was a room, small and stuffy. Although perhaps it wasn't truly as tiny as the impression it gave, since every surface was filled with all kinds of things to take up space. Badger had never seen so many knick-knacks, sheets of paper and other junk crammed into one place. There were many shelves, each one looked as if it had been hastily constructed with the intention of holding more items from what seemed like a collection that lacked rhyme or reason.

As he sat up, he noted that the floor was exactly the same. It would have taken a few minutes to even say what colour the carpet was, because he could see so little of it. And when Badger swung a leg over the side he very nearly stepped on a little glass doll.

Once he managed to carefully make his way off the bed without breaking anything, Badger realised that he was dressed in old pyjamas. They were too small for him and his skinny ankles poked out of the bottom. But they did tell him that he'd at least been out long enough for someone to have changed him, which filled him with embarrassment. And given that Badger was usually a light sleeper, it also told him that there'd probably been more to do with his latest nap than just needing a bit of rest.

The mysterious room of junk was very dark, so it took Badger's eyes a moment to adjust to the light when he got out into the hallway.

It was clear that whoever lived in that room must have been restricted to just that space, as the rest of the house seemed a lot less cluttered. There was still a kind of busy feeling to it, with shelves of books and magazines littered about, but in general it seemed a lot cleaner than the room he'd just left.

Badger made his way downstairs. If he'd been hoping not to alert anyone to his being awake then that idea was dashed by how creaky most of the steps were. Not that it mattered, since he didn't fancy sneaking out and into the unknown right now anyway. Whoever lived here had clearly been kind enough to take him in, so they were instantly preferable to whatever lay outside.

There was noise coming from one of the rooms, the sound of humming. Badger recognised the tune from a popular song that had been playing on the radio a lot lately. So he made his way towards this sound and poked his head around the door it was coming from.

"So you're finally awake? I'm so glad! Honestly, if you'd slept any longer then I would've called the doctors, no matter how much fuss Thomas would've made."

The voice made Badger jump with a start, though he felt bad for doing that as soon as he saw who it belonged to. A kindly-looking woman who was wearing a stained apron and had her hair messily tied back. Her face seemed to be giving way to years of worry, but through it still shone a very genuine smile.

Not sure how he should reply, Badger opened and closed his mouth. He knew that he should thank her and find out where he was, but the words didn't seem to join together right on their way from his head to his mouth.

Though it didn't seem to matter, as the lady swiftly walked over to steer him towards an empty seat at a table and had no trouble filling in the blanks of the conversation with words of her own.

"You just take a seat here, poppet. After being asleep for all that time you must be famished! I've whipped up a bit of breakfast, but just tell me if you want any more, all right? Old Maureen will look after you, no doubt about that."

It turned out that 'a bit of breakfast' was an understatement, as the table before Badger was laid out with toast, eggs, bacon, fried tomatoes, mushrooms, beans, crumpets, cereal and what Badger assumed was black pudding, but he hadn't come across it before, so it was hard to judge. He couldn't manage getting through all this in a week, let alone for breakfast.

"...Th-thank you, um... yeah..." he finally managed to stutter out, after he'd gotten a good look at everything.

"Think nothing of it," chimed Maureen, "I better get you a drink to wash all that down with. Would you rather have milk or a nice glass of fresh orange?"

"Milk w-will be f-fine..." Badger whispered.

"Right you are, love. Just give me a moment," replied Maureen. She turned to make her way to the fridge, but didn't stop talking, "What's your name anyway? Tom is a stubborn one, so he wouldn't let me know."

"B-badgeh," he told her and he couldn't help but wonder why this Thomas would know his name at all, let alone hide it from anyone.

"Yes, I know that much," assured Maureen, as she returned to the table with a glass of milk, "But what's your real name?"

"...My, uh, r-real name is... is Badgeh... Th-thanks for the milk..."

He quickly started to drink from the glass, mostly to avoid having to talk again for a few moments. Though that meant he became all too aware of Maureen watching him. She didn't look harsh at all, but she did raise an eyebrow at his answer.

She hummed, "So he's got to you as well, has he? I'm not going to stop him from doing whatever he wants, but I do wish he wouldn't insist on these weird nicknames. Honestly, who names a group of kids-"

"He gets it, Mum."

Badger almost jumped out of his skin to hear that voice. Then he turned to look back at the door so quickly that he almost spilled milk from his glass. On any other day he'd have been stammering apologies at that, but right now he was too focused on the person stood in front of them.

Crow.

It was hard to say if Badger felt better or worse to see him. So instead he made himself focus on how different Crow looked right now. Gone were the scruffy cap and scarf that he wore almost everywhere. Without them Crow appeared slightly more exposed and vulnerable, though mostly he seemed a lot more like... well, just like some kid. You'd never guess he was the mastermind behind a black market if you saw him right now.

"His Highness returns," Maureen scoffed, "Well let me tell you something, Badger. Don't let our Thomas boss you around. He might put on a haughty act, but he's a big softie underne-"

"Mum, please!" protested Crow, "An' I keep tellin' ya that it's Crow now, not Thomas. Look, Badge' an' me need to talk, so if ya could maybe... well, give us a moment."

The way the two stared stubbornly at one another, Badger could tell that they were related. The moment was soon gone though, as Maureen shrugged her shoulders and headed out of the kitchen.

"I'll be in the living room if you need me," she said, more to Badger than Crow, "Just give me a shout if you want any more grub cooked up, okay?"

Badger nodded; "Th-thanks..."

Once she was gone, Crow pulled up one of the other seats and plonked himself down onto it. He gave a heavy sigh and looked over at Badger.

"I know ya don't eat much, but Mum'll only fuss if ya don't 'ave some o' it," he instructed. This prompted Badger to take a small nibble out of the nearest crumpet, so Crow continued to talk as he ate, "Look, I'm... I'm sorry about everythin'. I know that too much 'as 'appened for me to propahly apologise for, but I'm gonna try to make things up. Wot ya said really made me see 'ow bad I've bin to all o' ya..."

"Doun't worry about that, I were being 'arsh 'cause I were angry," assured Badger, after he'd quickly swallowed a big lump of crumpet, "I didn't mean t' say those things."

"Whether ya meant 'em or not, ya were right," Crow insisted, "I was only thinkin' that we should be Black Ravens forevah. Not that maybe the rest o' ya didn't want that..."

Although he didn't know where the sudden burst of confidence came from, Badger leaned across and put a hand on Crow's arm. Just touching Crow made him nervous, but he felt better to see that the leader didn't try to push him away at all.

"We all want t' be Black Ravens," Badger promised, "And Gus says we always will be anyway, no matteh 'ow far apart we are. But life 'appens, Crowlo. Even you've changed in the last few months."

"Yeah... I 'ave," agreed Crow, "An' I'm sorry that ya couldn't meet Umid on bettah terms... I wanted to get 'im to come up 'ere to meet all o' ya."

"Then bring 'im up," pressed Badger.

"Maybe another time. But not now. An' not for a while, I don't think," Crow mused, "There's too much to do up 'ere first."

Part of Badger wanted to press the matter. He still didn't know very much about Crow and Umid's relationship or what agreements they might have reached when Crow came back to Misthallery. Even if he should know that it was none of his business, part of him felt as if it was. Somehow he felt entitled to know.

But ultimately, it wasn't his place to ask. So he simply nodded again.

"Yeah..."

Fortunately, Crow didn't need much prompting to carry on with the talk; "I guess I should fill ya in on wot 'appened. Umid an' me found ya passed out. Don't think I've evah bin so worried in all my life! We were gonna take ya back to the Weathered Duke, but we both... kinda agreed that might not be for the best. So we called the othahs an' sorted it out to take ya back up 'ere. Umid stayed in London, o' course, an' the othahs were all waitin' for ya when we got back. Aftah that we thought it'd be best to bring ya 'ere. Ya slept all o' yestahday an'... well, 'ere we are now."

Crow took a break in the explanation to help himself to one of the fried eggs, so Badger cut in, "I'm glad you brought me back, but I've got t' ask – why did you bring me 'ere instead of me own 'ouse?"

On the inside, Badger was very glad this had been the case. He didn't want his friends to get involved with his dad as much as possible and he could hardly imagine how badly his dad would have flown off the handle if some local kids had turned up at his door with an unconscious Simon. Maybe that was why Crow had decided not to go there. All the same though, Crow was known to keep his home life away from the Black Ravens just as much as Badger was – very few of them had even seen his mum before. Which was why Badger had no idea who she was or where this place might have been.

A troubled look crossed Crow's face. It seemed that avoiding Badger's dad hadn't been the only problem. It took the stout boy a few moments more to put this into words.

"Ya dad... well, he ain't... at 'ome any more..."

Badger shot up out of the seat. His chair scraped backwards noisily and some of the plates on the table jangled at the sudden movement. Crow had to jump up out of his own chair to keep Badger calm. He grasped onto his northern friend's arms and Badger wished that he was in a better position to appreciate this. But right now he was only focused on one thing.

"What's 'appened to me dad?" he demanded. It took his best efforts to stop himself from bolting out of the door.

"Look, I dunno the full story," Crow explained, "I've 'eard most o' it from Mum, but it sounds like a lotta grown-up stuff."

"Tell me, Crow!" growled Badger.

"Okay, I'll tell ya wot I know," promised Crow, "Aftah ya left, it seems ya dad went out lookin' for ya. Only 'e wandered the streets for so long that people finally started to see 'ow ill 'e was..."

"Oh no... no no no..." Badger choked back sobs. His eyes had already started to well-up with tears. This was exactly what he hadn't wanted to happen.

"I think 'e got into a fight with the police," admitted Crow, though he seemed reluctant to tell Badger this upon seeing how badly he'd reacted to it so far, "But when they took 'im to the station, they saw that 'e needed 'elp. They ain't bad people in Mist'allery, Badge'. I know it seems like they are sometimes, but they ain't. So they took 'im to... some kinda 'ospital. Mum wouldn't tell me much about it. They dunno that ya 'ere though, but I promise we'll look aftah ya 'til this all blows ovah."

"This isn't gonna just blow oveh..." Badger cried.

He reached down and hugged Crow tightly, howling into his friend's shoulder. How could all this have happened? It had only been a few days! It shouldn't be possible for so much to change and go wrong in such a short space of time!

Amidst his wailing, Badger heard the gentle creak of a floorboard. It seemed that Maureen was listening from outside. Though she thankfully decided not to come through. Badger didn't think he could deal with anyone right now, not even nice people who were related to Crow.

A few minutes went by with just crying and hugging, until eventually the tears ran out and made way for silent, sniffing sobs. Crow began to rock Badger from side to side. It almost felt unreal, but it was just what Badger needed in that moment.

They stayed like that for a little longer before Crow braved talking again; "Ya will be allowed to go see 'im, when ya feelin' up to it..."

"I will go and see 'im," Badger agreed, a shaky-yet-firm resolve to his tone, "Not right now, but when all this 'as settled. It might do us both good, t' be with people who can 'elp us." As much as Badger hated to admit it, him and his dad hadn't done the best job of helping each other in the years since his mam had died; "But yer gonna come with me, Crow. To make up for all this stuff you've done. When I'm ready, you've got t' drop everything and come with me to see me dad, ah'reet?"

Crow smiled up at him.

"O' course, Badge'. Anythin' for ya, Badge'," he vowed.

"G-good...!" Badger concluded, he tried to keep his nerve out of his voice. It probably wasn't working. Badger was no good at being bossy; "But right now I want t' go see everyone else – all t'other Black Ravens. Except W-wren and Socket, since... since they're not 'ere..."

"I'd be surprised if they ain't waitin' outside the door for ya," Crow predicted, "It's taken away all the mysteriousness o' my 'ouse, 'avin' my mates 'angin' around out the front."

"I doun't know why you keep this place a secret anyway. Your mam is well nice, everyone would like 'er. Or are you just worried that they'll see your mucky room?" Badger checked. He still felt sad, but being able to talk to Crow like this had let a ray of happiness shine through. As if, even after all this, they could be a little bit normal somehow.

"Don't start or I'll nevah 'ear the end o' it," warned Crow. His eyes darted to where Maureen was stood in the corridor, "Now come on, let's go meet the othahs."

There were no objections from Badger as Crow let go and led him outside. He gave a sheepish smile to Maureen as they went by, which she returned fondly. Part of him felt guilty for not having got through more of the food she'd made, but she seemed to understand. Seeing the Black Ravens was important right now. Even though it had only been a few days, to Badger it felt like forever.

And sure enough, Crow had been right. Once they got out onto the cobbled street of the market, a bunch of people who'd been lurking nearby rushed over to greet them. Louis, Gus, Marilyn, Roddy and Scraps – the remaining Black Ravens, now rejoined by Badger and Crow. Each of them started talking at once and even if no one could tell what anyone else was saying, it was still a good feeling. They all hugged and nattered and even cried a bit – despite Badger having thought he'd already run out of tears for the day.

If they had simply stayed like this then Badger would have been happy. He'd remember this moment for the rest of his life – feeling like he'd lost everything, only to be reunited with his friends. How could he ever have thought they would forget about him or didn't care about him...?

As it stood, their reunion on the cobbles lasted until Louis made a comment that he could smell food from inside. Which prompted Roddy to say that he wouldn't mind a bite to eat. Naturally, Crow protested that they weren't allowed to come in his house and bother his mum, but Maureen took that cue to pop her head around the door and say that she wouldn't mind at all – the more the merrier!

So the lot of them trudged inside to finish off the large breakfast that Badger had been unable to make a dent in. It looked like all that food wouldn't go to waste after all.

And sat at that table, surrounded by friends, Badger could push all of the other worries to the back of his mind for just a little while.

Badger was home.