The days seemed to fly by as Arthur tried his hand teaching Liam and Heather to fight. They started with basic combat first then slowly worked in magic. The hems of Liam’s clothes were singed by the flames he could only cast haphazardly. By now, Arthur had learned to keep a wide berth when practicing with him, unless he wanted to lose an eyebrow or two. 

Liam had learned to fight quite rapidly. His reflexes were quick and his reactions even quicker. Arthur was now finding it hard to land a blow on him when they sparred. This was relieving because he didn’t know how much longer he could keep up with the state his body was in. 

“I think this is about all I can teach you. You’re doing a great job, babe.” Arthur wiped the sweat from his face as he reached his other hand to clasp the back of Liam’s neck. He placed his hand there partly out of affection but also to balance himself. He was exhausted. He felt like his legs were going to give out at any moment.

“Are you okay?” Liam asked, taking note of the weight Arthur was placing on him. “You are looking a little pale.”

“I’m fine,” Arthur lied, obviously taking a brisk walk towards death’s door. 

“Let’s sit down for a minute.” Liam sat down on the cold earth, tugging on Arthur’s hand to follow suit.

The sun was due to start rising in an hour or so. They had once again stayed up all night to practice. It’s not like they had a choice, Arthur clearly didn’t have the energy to be out in the sun. Now it seemed like he didn’t have the energy to be out at all. 

“You’ve got to be starving, Arthur. When was the last time that you even ate? From me that one night at your house?”

Arthur waved a weak hand at him, “I’m really okay. I still have some time before it’s an issue.”

“I don’t think that’s the case. Look how short your hair has gotten,” Liam chided, running his fingers through Arthur’s hair. “You need to eat, and I think sooner rather than later.”

Arthur cradled his hand over Liam’s, bringing it to his face to nuzzle. “I am not so weak as to fall apart from this much. I can handle it.”

“Handling it and being healthy are two different things, Arthur.” Liam’s sorrowful eyes glared into Arthur’s. “I want you to take care of yourself, not just scrape by.”

Arthur buried his face in Liam’s hand for a long time before saying, “okay.”

“I appreciate you. Please don’t worry about me. I’ll be more than okay. You are still in your right mind so I highly doubt that you will lose control again. If you do, I’ll just give you the ‘what for’,” Liam joked as he fake punched Arthur’s arm. 

Arthur let out a long sigh with a weak smile. “Okay, okay. I trust you. But, can we go back to my house? I don’t really think it would be wise to do that around your mother. She already doesn’t like me.”

“She doesn’t like anyone, don’t feel bad. I would be more confused if she had welcomed you with open arms. We have to let her know we are leaving though.” Liam held out his hand to help Arthur stand. “Come on, let’s go talk to her real quick then get to your house before the sun comes up.”

Arthur let him do most of the work. He really was weaker than he was letting on. Well, he was hoping anyway. He didn’t want to worry Liam anymore than he already was. He felt bad relying on him. Here he was, about to cave in on all his work he put in not to feed on others. Again. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t but he would rather not fight with Liam over it. So, feeding again it would be. He had felt much better recently but the guilt was still a heavy weight on his heart and mind.

“Mom,” Liam called towards the back of the house where Heather’s room was. “We are going to go to Arthur’s house for a bit to grab some medicine for him. He’s not feeling so good.”

“Like hell you are,” Heather scolded as she opened the door to her room, nearly flying out. “ We don’t know what’s out there or if anyone is going to find our houses. It’s better if you stay here. I don’t give a damn what he does but you aren’t going anywhere.”

“Mom, look at him. He can hardly stand on his own. I’m not going to let him go by himself.”

“No, I have no way to talk to you or see if you are okay. That’s final.”

“There is a way,” Arthur interjected. “If you have a mirror I can use, I can connect it to one in my house. You can write messages on them or see each other through them if you activate them at the same time.”

“I still don’t like it,” Heather denounced.

“Mom, just get him the damn mirror. We don’t have a lot of time,” Liam said, trying to hurry his mother along. He didn’t want to argue for the next twenty minutes and get trapped by the sunlight. 

Heather stared at him for a few moments before agreeing. “Fine, I’ll get you a mirror but I’m getting another for you to carry with you.”

“That’s fine, just hurry up.”

A few minutes passed before Heather returned with the two mirrors. One was a compact she took from her makeup bag. The other was a large ornate one she must have taken from the wall in her room. 

“Here Arthur,” she said, handing the compact over first. I want Liam to carry this on him at all times. You can connect this one to my mirror too, right? And this one I’ll take to whatever room I’m in so I can see it as soon as you try to get ahold of me.”

Liam busted out laughing. 

“What?” Heather asked, shooting him a glare. 

“Nothing, it’s just the thought of you carrying that huge thing around the house is a hilarious thought,” Liam replied, wiping tears from his eyes.

“Well, what am I supposed to do? It’s the only other mobile mirror I have. It’s not like using the bathroom mirror is more practical.”

He couldn't deny that. If she wanted something that she could carry around then that was going to be it. She had given the good one to him. He mulled it over in his mind. Sometimes she had small acts of kindness and he didn’t know how to feel about it. She was showing that she cared or at least she was trying to. It was just really hard to get over everything that she put him through. It made actions like this seem like a joke or just selfish behavior. Like the thought of not being able to control him was just something she couldn’t handle. He was a grown ass man and having her babying him was infuriating. Although, their circumstances were a bit different now. It was all a lot to think about and he would rather just not.

“Done,” Arthur said, snapping Liam out of his thoughts. “Look, if I write on the compact here with my finger, it will show up on your mirror.”

Sure enough, the word “test” slowly showed up on the mirror just as Arthur had written on the small hand held resting in his palm. “Live communication is a little more difficult since we both have to be touching the mirrors at the same time. I think it would be best to leave a message for a time to meet if we need to communicate live. Otherwise, just using messages is probably the easiest.”

“This is great,” Liam said as he took the compact Arthur passed him. He turned it over in his hand a couple times then opened it and wrote something on the glass. Moments later a quickly drawn smiley face appeared on the mirror in front of him. “Will this be enough now? The sun is going to rise soon so we really need to get going.”

Heather glared at Arthur. 

Liam couldn’t tell if she was trying to read him or threaten him but eventually she gave in. “This will do for now but you better check it often. And if anything out of the ordinary happens, message me immediately.”

“Yes, we promise. We will message you as soon as we get there so you know that we are safe,” Liam assured.

The cold damp air hit them as they crossed the woods to Arthur’s home. Fall was definitely on its way, and quick. Liam thought about how much more exposed he’s going to feel once all the leaves fall. He was going to have to look into more shrouding magic. The house just simply appearing abandoned from the outside wasn’t enough for him. He didn’t want anyone to see it at all. 

“Let me go down first,” Liam said once they got to the opening at the base of the tree. 

“It’s really not that bad. I’ve been in a much worse state before and had no issues. Really.”

“Just humor me.”