meet my man [skye, liam]

Mar and Skye were chilling on the school grounds. Well, maybe chilling wasn't the right word. Mar was actually feeling a little excitedly anxious at the moment. Today, she was finally going to have her sister meet her mystery boyfriend, AKA Liam, AKA the freaking overloridian of freaking Cuir.

Skye had no idea. She just thought Mar was dating a slightly older guy from Cuir. Mar kept his real identity a secret for a few reasons. One, she wasn't 100% sure Skye would even believe her if he wasn't standing right in front of her. Two, Liam had wanted to wait a little bit before going public. Three, she thought it would be more fun this way.

"I can't wait for you to meet him," Mar said to Skye, probably for the millionth time. "I think you'll really like him! He's nothing like my old boyfriends."

Mar had dated in the past, mostly guys her own age who ended up being super immature. They never lasted more than a few months, at most. Mar hardly even considered them old boyfriends. More like guys she had kissed a couple times and maybe walked on the beach with. Nothing like what she had with Liam. This was real, and special.

Skylar leaned back, stretching out on the grassy hill she and her twin sister were sitting on. "He better be pretty awesome," she said, shielding her eyes from the sun. "Awesome enough that it makes it okay for you to be ditching me and Carter so often!"

The entire time at Redfern Skye, Mar, Carter, and Jeanine had been inseparable, but ever since Jeanine died, it had mostly just been Skye and Carter.

This weekend Carter had gone home to visit with her family, so Skye had finally insisted that Marisol bring her beau around. She didn't feel like spending the next few days alone while Mar went and had fun without her. "What does he look like, anyway," Skye pressed. "Ya know, besides 'tall, dark, and handsome'." That's all she had gotten out of her sister in the past, except for that he was older than they were.

Mar laughed. "Well, what more you ya need than that?" she asked. "Ummmm. Well, let's see. He has blue eyes, and short hair, and...and gods, Skye, he's just so attractive. Just you wait." She craned her neck and looked around, wondering exactly when Liam would arrive. She wondered if Skye would recognize who he was right away.

"We're by far the best looking couple in Cuir, if I do say so myself," she added jokingly, striking a silly 'model' type pose.

"I dunno about that, Mar," Skye said, sitting back up so she could look around, also. "I only know of a few Cuirs, but ya'll have got one sexy overloridian." Skylar was still unsettled, so she had the joy of staring at listening to Overloridian Pendant's Cuir speech once a year. In the rank of attractive overloridians, he was definitely at the top.

"Not very punctual is he?" she asked, watching Mar crane her head around.

Despite her teasing and complaining, Skylar was actually happy that Mar had found someone that made her so happy. Jeanine's death had hit her the hardest out of their group of friends, and it wasn't until she met this handsome stranger that she started acting herself again. Part of Skye was jealous that she hadn't been the one to make her sister start to smile again, but a larger part was just thankful that the smile was there, period.

Mar stared at Skye for a few seconds, momentarily at a loss for words. She half wondered if Skye had somehow discovered that Liam was her boyfriend and was messing with her, but there was no way. "Uh...yeah, haha, the overloridian..." she trailed off, laughing awkwardly.

"Not very punctual is he?"

Mar cleared her throat, hoping her reaction hadn't given anything away. "Oh, well, he might've gotten held up at work...His job is pretty intense sometimes," she said. She looked out into the distance and saw someone approaching. "Oh! Oh, I think that's him."

When Mar started getting excited, Skye looked over. Indeed, someone tall, dark, and handsome was approaching them. Marisol started to stand, so Skye did as well, figuring she ought to be polite. She brushed her bottom off, and then looked back up.

---

Liam was floating just a few inches from the ground, trying to cover the hilly terrain as quickly as possible. He was supposed to meet Marisol about ten minutes ago, but a meeting back in Cuir had held him over by a bit. He was late more often than he wanted to be when it came to Mar, but she thankfully seemed to be very understanding. It was one of the best things about her. But today, of course, was special, so Liam was trying to hurry even faster than usual.

"Mar!" he called, lifting a hand to wave. An identical copy of her stood right next to her. Skylar, Marisol's twin. He was meeting her for the first time today, and she was the main reason he was rushing.

---

As Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome approached, Skye's eyes became more focused. When he got closer, he called out Mar's name and waved at the two of them. Skylar's mouth fell open.

---

"Oh, gods, sorry I'm late," Liam said as he finally reached the girls. He leaned down and kissed the top of Marisol's head, then turned to Skylar and held out his hand. "It's so nice to meet you, sorry I kept you waiting. I'm Liam."

While Skylar's mouth had slapped shut as THE ONE AND ONLY OVERLORIDIAN PENDANT kissed the top of her sister's head, she was still in awe of, you know, THE ONE AND ONLY OVERLORIDIAN PENDANT (who, btw, was so tall, dark, and handsome that his name needed to be in all caps not once, but twice.). She blinked.

"But Liam, I'm Marisol," she said, pulling herself together and laughing.

Immediately, Liam looked horrified. He had been so sure!

Mar kept looking back and forth between Skye and the quickly approaching Liam, hoping to catch Skye's reaction when she realized who was flying up to them. She wasn't disappointed. As soon as Liam came into view, Skye's mouth dropped open comically. Mar had to grin as Liam stopped in front of them and leaned down to kiss her head.

Skye wrote:"But Liam, I'm Marisol,"

Now it was Liam's turn to get a hilariously surprised look on his face. Mar had to hand it to her sister, getting over her shock so quickly that she was able to come up with a little joke to play on Liam. She debated playing along, though she felt a little bad considering just how mortified Liam looked.

"Gods, Liam, don't you recognize your own girlfriend?" she asked. Then she laughed. "Relax, we're messing with you. See?" She leaned down and picked up Bar to prove it.

"Skye, this is my handsome boyfriend Liam. Liam, this is my beautiful sister Skye," she introduced.

Skylar erupted into a small bout of laughter when Marisol finally let Liam off the hook. She hoped it looked like genuine laughter and that he couldn't detect that a little bit of it was because of her sudden nerves. This was the overloridian of an entire eilemaiden, after all.

She stuck out her hand as a leftover giggle escaped. "The more beautiful twin, actually," she said with a teasing grin.

Liam took it, a relieved look on his face. "It's nice to meet you, Skye," he said with a laugh. After shaking her hand he took a step back. "Gods, you two do look exactly the same," he noted, looking back and forth between the girls.

"Well yeah," Skylar said, "that's what identical means, ya know." She smiled to show she was joking. Then she turned to her sister. "The overloridian? You didn't tell me you were dating the overloridian? That's like, breaking about a hundred sister laws, you know that, right?"

"It was worth it for the look on your face!" Marisol retorted with a grin. "But yep. First lady of Cuir, right here." She jokingly held up her chin, making her look proud and impressive.

"So you guys had better like each other, cuz I don't know what I'd do if two of my favorite clio didn't get along," she told them. Honestly she couldn't imagine anyone not getting along with Liam or Skylar.

"She's real bossy like that," Skye warned (the freaking overloridian), "you best be careful."

Liam laughed again, this time genuine and deep. That he knew.

"So, Skye, Marisol, what do you think about going for a balloon ride this afternoon?" He'd left his balloon docked back near shore, but he knew how much Marisol loved riding it in. Hopefully Skylar would feel the same way--especially since he knew she hadn't settled yet.

Mar scoffed. "I am not bossy," she said, even though deep down she knew it was true.

She perked up when Liam offered a balloon ride. "Oh, Skye, you have to say yes," she insisted, despite denying being bossy ten seconds ago. "Liam has a freaking personal balloon. It's huge and fancy. You will love it." She grinned over at Liam. "The perks of dating the overloridian!"

When Marisol immediately started bossing Skylar around, Liam winked at her. Skylar decided she liked this incredibly important clio.

"I don't know how fancy it is (even though it was totally fancy)," he told Skye, "but it's nice. And since the weather is so calm today I thought it would be fun. The clouds are beautiful right now." It had been snowing on and off for the past few days, and though none of it had stuck to the ground just yet, Liam knew it would be coming full force soon enough.

"I'd love to go," Skylar said, though she was honestly a bit nervous. She'd been on balloon rides before, of course, but didn't clio have to be trained to learn how to fly one of those?

Liam wrote:"I don't know how fancy it is but it's nice."

"It's fancy," Marisol mouthed to Skye from behind Liam. Out loud, she said, "It's even more fun when the weather isn't calm. It's more exciting when it feels like you're gonna get blown out of the sky."

Well, maybe for you, but Skylar can't fly, Bar reminded her.

So the three of them made their way over to the fancy balloon. It was a nice walk, with Marisol carrying on about the balloon and Skylar not really paying attention. She was too caught up in the fact that her sister was dating an overloridian. She knew Marisol had just been kidding about the "future first lady of Cuir" thing, but what if Mar and Liam did end up getting married? She'd live in a freaking mansion in the clouds!

Finally they made it to the totally fancy balloon. "Totally fancy," Skylar stage-whispered to Mar. This was definitely unlike any air balloon she had seen before.

Liam laughed once, then pulled down the entrance ladder. "Ladies first," he said, letting the twins ascend before he did. He smiled, feeling like he was being let in on some sort of secret Marisol had been hiding. It was interesting to see her interact with her sister, and it made Liam like her even more.

After Liam offered "ladies first," Marisol gestured Skye forward. "Age before beauty," she said jokingly. Skye was literally about two minutes older than her, and she was mostly just getting back at her for the 'more beautiful twin' comment earlier.

Once Skye had climbed up Mar flew after her. She looked back and saw that Liam hadn't followed yet, so she turned to Skye excitedly. "So? What do you think?" she whispered. She couldn't think of any reason why Skye wouldn't approve of Liam, but she had to know her first impression so far.

Liam watched as Marisol flew up after her sister. He held back a bit before climbing up the ladder, letting the girls have a few minutes to themselves. It should have been weird that they were gossiping about him, but for some reason it didn't feel that way.

Marisol wrote:"So? What do you think?"

"He's gorgeous!" Skye gushed. "And he seems so nice, Mar! Not to mention the, you know, fame and fortune." Skylar definitely approved.

Mar smiled at Liam as he climbed onto the balloon. Today couldn't be going better. Her favorite sister and her favorite boyfriend were getting along great. They spent the next couple hours on the balloon, enjoying the sights of Amelia beneath them.