everyonelives | why is it you always get to sit in the shade

( And the mansion is big. )

It'd be the first time anything happened here for me -- without just me. You know, I was joking at first, but I think we should. Late lunch means we can be - leisurely.

[He knows they need to have a conversation about Mickey and him leaving him alone with his dad, but Cooper is also not about to kill the mood. he stakes a step closer, resting his hands on his boyfriend's hips.]

I love being leisurely. No reason we shouldn't take our time.

( Conversations can wait, Cooper.

After everything, once they're drying off and William moves to his bag to start to unpack and find something to change into, he lets himself breathe. )

I can't believe you're really here. You agreed to come and stay with my family. This is happening.

Yeah. I can't believe it either.

[A beat as he fishes out a clean pair of pants.]

Part of me thinks I don't really belong in a place like this.

You belong here because I want you here. But, if it helps, I barely felt like I belonged here. And I lived here. Mia was the one who took to society like a cat to cream.

( She always fit in, or she did. )

[It was more knowing how she was supposed to act, what she was supposed to do. Now she has much less patience for it, but she can still play the game. Coop pulls a shirt over his head before moving in closer.]

Seems like you fit in well enough to me.

Well, you don't really have a choice in this life. A Queen fits in just by being a queen.

( It doesn't mean he feels like it. He did like it, able to charm anyone when he wanted to, but it was never where he belonged. He hasn't found that, yet. Maybe it's with Cooper. )

Mia was always good at it, knew what it was supposed to mean by being a Queen. She was born into it, I... ( Moved into it. ) Well, I survived. ( He leans in closer, smiling. He's okay. This is okay. ) And now you're here. And your... dad. And Mickey.

( He moves away, back to his bag to find underwear. )

Do I need to be worried about him? Mickey?

[He shakes his head.]

Not anymore. There was ... we problem solved and he should be fine.

[He is so not used to having to justify these things so give him a minute.]

Now that he's off Klaus' leash the learning curve has been a little steep. But we got him some blood bags, so he should be good now. At least for a little while.

[A beat.]

Programming control into someone isn't the same as learning it.

( Score one for the first concern William carried since the passenger swap. And Mickey being Klaus' vampire is up there with his worlds colliding coincidences.

Stepping into his underwear, he pulls them up under his towel, an old habit, unhooking his towel after. He has a thought he has to say out loud. But they're new. He doesn't want it to be a thing. Except, he didn't communicate with the last boyfriend, or the one before him.

So, he tries. )

Do I have the right to ask if he has feelings for you?

I can't stop you from asking.

[And he can't say the answer is no either. At the same time...]

But he knows where we stand, and he's not looking to get in the way of that. And I don't have feelings for him. At least not like that.

That, I know. I also know vampires and their emotions. But, you say I shouldn't worry being in close, invited quarters and I won't worry.

( And he trusts Cooper. )

That frees up my time to worry about Mia.

[And Cooper trusts Mickey. Whether or not he should, however, still remains to be seen, but he hopes things don't take a turn for the worst.]

Did your uncle give you anything about what's going on with her?

Only that he, too, knows about the Crisis and remembers everything. But, he said if she should talk to anyone, it's dad. Apparently, he played a bigger part in it than we all thought.

( We all being ... William. )

Considering everything lately, to even be saying how weird it feels to know there was an alternate timeline we all lived in... And Mia has to carry both of them with her alone.

Yeah, that sounds ... messed up.

[He turns to look at him.]

If you could remember, would you want to?

It was called the Crisis for a reason.

( But, still he doesn't know the answer. )

Even as a kid, I always wanted all the answers. But these don't feel like my answers to have. You're my answer. Not something I can't remember.

[He can't help but smile at the last part of that comment, but he stays focused on the task at hand.]

Well, she knows she's here for you if she needs it. Sometimes that's all you can do.

I'm here for her if she needs it.

( Usually, he has to wait for her to come to him, but she did, she was honest. And she came home. Maybe she's on a roll. )

Alright, let's finished getting dressed and unpacked or I'll just undress you all over again.

[Coop smirks and nods as he gets to his feet.]

Yes, we probably should save that until at least after lunch.

After we eat something. I'm hungry.

( Anybody passing by can hear the shared laughter coming from William's room. )

[Yes, they can. And honestly, Michael is pleased to hear it. All he's ever wanted was his sons to be alive and happy, and since he seems to have failed that with Lucas, at least Cooper seems to be on the right track.

But as he's making his way back to his room, he contemplates, before pulling out his phone and sending a text to the one member of the Sullivan family who isn't here. She might still have him blocked, but she's hoping he doesn't:]

Coop and I are in Star City for a while, just so you know.

( She doesn't have him blocked. She couldn't block the father of her children, the man she thought she knew before everything, the only other person who could speak to her remaining son's whereabouts.

She fiddles with a matchbook in her hands when her phone sounds.

What are the odds her son and husband are so close.

She feels like she already needs a cigarette. )

You're in Star City?
I'm in Star City
What are you doing in Star City?

[There's a moment where he contemplates how much gossip he should share, but some of this is information that should come from Cooper.]

Coop made friends with William Queen. After things calmed down in New Orleans, they decided to head west.

[He wants to know what she's doing in Star City, but he isn't sure he's allowed to ask.]

( He underestimates a mother reading through the lines, or at least she can hope it's what she suspects. Obviously, men can be friends. But, she wants so much for her son to be happy. )

William Queen as in Oliver Queen as in the Green Arrow?
That William Queen?

That would be the one.

[He decided he wasn't going to speak for Cooper. He didn't say he would stop his mother from figuring things out.]

Apparently they met in Europe.

( Europe triggers pain she's been living with for months. Europe. She didn't sign on to the cause that led to her oldest son's death. She'd heard about the British Men of Letters and their efforts to ensnare the hunters years back in the 2010's. It felt like history repeating itself. She didn't trust a glorified civilian. A former guidance counselor. But, her men felt the call. It separated them at first, strained a once happy husband and wife who were already going through their growing pains. The loss of her son broke the camel's back. More than a straw. It was half of her heart.

That he could find solace and make a friend after, well, how couldn't she be happy. Life is about finding your happiness amid the turmoil life brings, especially in a hunting family.

Two calls go out to the hunter network, one, a list she wants no part of, and two, a ceasefire. She'd heard Monroe's hunters had disbanded. She heard a few weeks later Monroe's body had been burned along with a few others. Everything had burned in New Orleans. She knew Cooper was a survivor and hoped that losing his brother was a wake up call he needed.

Not that she was perfect. Not that she did her part as a parent. Grief is a funny, shitty, world-altering thing. She drowned in it for days. And then a job came up. And another. And another.

He says apparently like he didn't know his son was overseas where he didn't belong. Where his world didn't crash down.

Worlds can be rebuilt.

This is a hard conversation, and instead of talking around him, she places a call to her son, hopeful he'll answer. )

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