a shallow sea.

⌠ MAX ANDO, 25, CIS-MALE, HE/HIM ⌡ welcome back to gallagher academy, LIAM HIRANO! according to their records, they’re a THIRD year, specializing in THREAT ELIMINATION; and they DID go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of (messy too-long hair, half listened to science podcasts, a colorful assortment of button up shirts). when it’s the (leo)’s birthday on 08/17/1994, they always request their DUNGENESS CRAB ROLL from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation. / @gallagherintro

“Well, that we already knew,” she huffed, but she’d be lying if she said she wouldn’t miss his antics. She bristled at his joke, if only because he could have very well come close to it this year, but laughed it off anyway. “You’re a bad modern human. Your phone’s your key to everything now, yada, yada, yada, answer the phone!” she finished, knowing he didn’t need her to explain the new age of technology, but she did want to whine.

“i guess the restaurant isn’t the only thing that hasn’t changed.” a warmth in her chest blooms at his smile that makes her wonder if it would’ve been this easy to be friends during the school year as she returns it in full. mari knows deep down that it would’ve, and she regularly faces the guilt that she’s the one that stopped it when she thinks about liam. maybe they could try to regularly get food on purpose or revisit some of their favorite spots on a free weekend for old time’s sake- though it could be weird to propose going to places that they’d had dates as just friends now, and she wouldn’t want to make things awkward by bringing it up. “we could always spar over the table and give everyone a show with their meal.” it’d certainly be a sight. “that’s so fun!” she imagines she’d love being paired with vida. not that she’d trade maddox for anything, she just is going to miss the other girl like crazy when she’s gone. “well, if they ever kick you out or you get lonely because she’s gone, you have my number,” she offers, a more casual alternative to bringing up regular meals or revisiting familiar sights. “not that i don’t think you have other friends, but i’m here.” she’s trying, painfully so, and she’s sure it shows. “it wasn’t too bad! lots of family time with riz and my parents, and jas visited so bonus family time. i had daily study sessions with jo and picked up more german, too, so i won’t have to use tons of hand gestures when i go out in public this time around.” she’s not sure if liam will remember jo, seeing as she’d only briefly mentioned her name when she’d asked him to drop her off down the hall from her dorm the night of the party, and that’s not exactly the best way for him to remember (as mari’s very drunk friend that she was reluctantly checking up on), but it is how the night went. “what’d you do over break?”

“When we moved here my dad made it a point to learn a bunch of idioms to use during his business meetings.“ she shrugged with a small laugh, acknowledging the silliness of it. Regine contemplated his reasoning, “I…can’t disagree. I just feel like the work is disproportionate to the amount of planning it must have taken to organize this for everyone.” she debated, and knew anyone reasonable would ask why she was complaining. Rei nodded to Liam as a way to agree with properly meeting him without having to outright say it. “I guess me too. I have a few people I like, a few I really like, and the rest I just try to be friendly. As much as I can.” She went to speak, and laugh, and retort his reading of her, but mostly her mouth just parted, closed, and parted again before she looked over and grinned. “Okay.” she said plainly, “That’s fair. Uh…döner? Schnitzel?” Regine shrugged, feeling like she ought to give him options at the least. 

"And that...works for him?” He asked with a laugh, because somehow he couldn’t picture that being as effective as her father seemed to think. “And insulting for our skill level, and the groups are clearly based on specialization and not experience. I feel like people of the same specializations should be together, and same years, too. It’d make sense to do it the way they did it if we were ever gonna have to work together on a mission or something, but...” It was just a bummer after nearly a whole semester of cancelled missions. “Sounds like you don’t have any enemies.” Neither did Liam, that he knew of? “So not a vegetarian, noted,” he commented with a smile. “Option number one, please.”

SHE THINKS IT’S FOUL PLAY… IT DEFINITELY SHOULDN’T COUNT, AT LEAST. “ well, in a tournament or something you wouldn’t have people just walking in and obstructing you, so.. ” she shrugs, she didn’t know how the game worked in an official sense, if it even had one. “ i can’t tell if 27 is high or not but i’m pretty impressed. ” she nods, not one to admit that so easily to people who she wasn’t super close to but she really doubts she’d pass even five shots. “ that makes me sound like a loner, ” which she was, but she’ll deny it. “ it’s totally fine, i can’t say my company will be as entertaining as .. this. ” she gestures to the bin. “ but i’m buying, so. ”

“You know what I meant,” she groaned, throwing a stray makeup brush his way. She didn’t even look to see if it landed, because with her aim it would, but hopefully with his own skills, he’d either catch it or swat it away so what was the point? Simply to annoy him back. “I will definitely give you second tier, I could see that.“ That time, she did turn around back to him to offer a childish, but she wouldn’t say what’s on her mind, and that of course she’d worry because he’s like family. It was simply too sappy. “Why are boys like this? Like, it’s 2020, answer the phone, it won’t kill you! And I will blow up your phone, thank you!”

“i  asked  you  first.”  truthful  and  a  fact.  “and  i  wanna  know  your  thoughts  on  it,  is  all.”  briar  doesn’t  really  know  why  they’re  roommates  when  emmett  is  right  there,  but  she’s  not  going  to  be  weird  and  ask  that.  it’s  just  a  simple  question,  so  answer  it,  liam!  “wait,  how  long  have  you  known  each  other?  i  didn’t  know  about  that.”  arms  crossed,  as  if  she’s  offended  it  wasn’t  said  before.

“They can hear me, but they’d know they haven’t done anything to warrant me calling them an asshole,” she pointed out. “Anyway, you can breathe and rest, it was not directed at you.” It was mainly for him to just stop clarifying.. Mira liked ice cream so at least that topic was way better. She needed to not think of the biker. “Hokey Pokey? That’s an interestingly weird name. Not what I’d expect for a ice cream parlor to be called. But as long as it serves good ice cream, who cares, I guess.”

"I mean...I could have accidentally stepped on your foot. In which case I’m sorry. If I had.” He would hope, if it was a situation where he’d made an honest mistake, she wouldn’t call him an asshole, but who knows! “Yeah, has that song been about ice cream this whole time? What would you name an ice cream shop? Personally, I think puns are the only way to do it. Like, Fly the Scoop! And the logo is an ice cream scooper with wings.”

         ‘  𝒏𝒐𝒘  𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕  𝒊𝒔  𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕  𝒔𝒐  𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚  𝒂  𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍  𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎  .  ’    and  she’s  drunk  enough  that  there’s  not  really  a  lot  of  …  oomph  in  her  statement  .    ‘  i’m  a  grown  woman  ,   liam  .   you  should  .  ’

         ‘  𝒖𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚  .   𝒃𝒖𝒕  ,  𝒕𝒐  𝒃𝒆  𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒓  ,  𝒊'𝒎  𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆  we  could  get  away  with  eating  in  front ?   like  outside ?  ooooh  ,   or  maybe  the  rooftop  is  open  .  ’   at  least  she  was  open  minded  .    ‘  uhm  ,   yep !   someone’s  birthday  .   or  maybe  they’re  looking  for  an  excuse  to  drink  .   but  that  would  be  great !  ’  

“My dad always says ‘if you have time to lean you have time to clean’, and ‘working hard or hardly working’, and basically any other painfully cliche idioms that make you want to punch your boss.” she grinned only slightly, still pressing on the idea that there was always more work to be done. “Valid. You think they’d give us something a little more challenging if they were going to fly us all out to Berlin…for paperwork.” she shrugged, placing the papers down on the nearest surface in a clean and organized manner. “I definitely will.” she put her hands on her hips. Not feeling the need to clarify what they both knew, that their mutual connection was Mari, Rei responded with a simple “Yep, that’s me.” Shrugging, she spoke candidly, “Honestly not too much. I hung out with Juliet for a day, but it’s not really in my nature to seek out friendship. And you? I don’t have the patience to invite anyone, what are you in the mood for?” 

"I didn’t know people actually said that in real life.” Suffice it to say, Liam’s father didn’t speak in cliches, at least not American ones. “Well, hey, free labor is free labor for them. And a free trip is a free trip for us. So, if you think of it that way, it’s a win/win situation.” Liam wasn’t super enthusiastic about spy training but he wouldn’t mind a challenge. “Well, nice to properly meet you.” Somehow this hardly felt like a proper meeting ever, but getting lunch together was a pretty friendly activity. “Sorta...same? I might be what you call a social floater.” Dropping out of school for two years certainly hadn’t helped. “No offense, but I feel like whatever I say here is gonna be the wrong thing.” She just seemed like the type of person who always knew what she wanted.

“originally, that had been my thought, but you can’t get dessert without a meal first, and a meal without an appetizer just seems wrong.” especially when she knows the appetizers here are so good, and liam is well aware of that, too, so he should be just as on board to split one. “but would you make it easy? that’d take all the fun out of it.” he probably would if she were to genuinely ask, always the chivalrous one, and then she’d have to eat alone which would not be fun knowing he’s right there. “it’s nice to know i wasn’t the only one,” she smiles at him because it is. this was the first location she put on her little checklist of places she needed to go again while in the city as opposed to the ones that are labeled want to revisit and if i’m super bored and the other lists are completely crossed off because we magically had way too much down time. “how’s your hotel? or your roommate? i never even asked who you paired up with.” she flashes a sheepish look. “i guess i haven’t really been keeping up with staying in touch.”

“That’s good then!” she decides, even though it really has nothing to do with her. She’d just happy two can be friends now. “Pretty big ego there thinking you’re at the top of their list,” she joked back. “Besides, I’d like to blame us graduating separate years on you, but you don’t see me complaining! I’ll just spend every day on the job wishing and hoping that my dear, sweet Liam is doing well and not letting the underclassmen show him up,” she sighed dramatically, clutching one hand to her chest before shooting him a playful grin. “Oh, and if you forget to text me back and stuff I’ll be the one coming back to whack you.”

“Did you just nearly knock me down with your bicycle?” she questioned sarcastically, unable to see why in the world he seemed to think she was talking to him in the first place. “Who knows if you did something else, though. I wouldn’t.” She shrugged before letting out a sigh. “National Ice Cream Day sounds way better.”

"No, but you know, when you think out loud like that, other people can hear you. And I didn’t see you almost get run over by a bike.” How was he supposed to know what she was referring to?? “It did inspire me to Google a few places in Berlin. There’s a place called Hokey Pokey that I like because--well, mainly because I can actually remember the name.”

closed / @liamhirano.

she  doesn’t  know  much  about  liam  —–  forget  the  fact  that  he’s  vida’s  roommate  (  which  ???  confusion,  because  emmett  )  but  that’s  besides  the  point.  it’s  also  their  point  of  common  ground,  so  the  brunette  slinks  over  to  where  he  is,  arms  resting  on  the  counter.  “how’s  rooming  with  vida?”  seemingly  pretty  well,  if  what  she  can  tell  from  the  adjourning  room.

“You must be so proud.” Regine’s voice was part dry and part mocking, but the simper on her lips showed an air of playful humor that was common for her. She hadn’t learned until age fifteen how to appropriately talk to people, so she settled for making everything she said seem ambiguously lighthearted. “I don’t eat, I only work.” she spoke without hesitation, before letting her face ease into a grin, “Absolutely kidding.” Looking down at her papers, “Hm, guess I could…make copies later. I could eat. Did you…” Regine pointed behind herself with her thumb, “I mean, you were suggesting we grab lunch, right? You’re Liam, I think we’ve met in passing.”