Gramps, Shopping and Coulson

Liam looked through the messages on his phone and couldn't help but feel guilty. All the worried texts his grandfather had sent, all the phone calls he had made in an attempt to reach him. There were so many of them, all asking where he was, if he was alright.

'I should call him back now,' Liam thought as he sat down on his bed. 'But what should I tell him?'

"What are you thinking about?" Illyana asked.

"Thinking about what to say to my gramps," Liam responded. "I did kind of disappear all of a sudden."

"It's simple—tell him what happened," Illyana said.

"Well, that's the thing. He doesn't know about all of this since I didn't want to worry him," Liam sighed.

"I can see how that's working out," Illyana said as she grabbed something off a shelf in Liam's room.

Liam rolled his eyes. "Right, can you now keep your mouth shut so I can call?" he said, annoyed.

He pressed the call button on his phone and turned his back to Illyana and Lockheed, having an idea in mind. 'I'll tell him the truth soon enough anyway since I can't hide what happened to my eyes. That still doesn't mean he has to know about my near-death experiences.'

Meanwhile, as the call went through, Illyana tossed something across the room, with Lockheed flying after it to catch it.

"Hi, Gramps," Liam started the call.

"Liam?" his grandfather asked, just to make sure.

"Yeah, it's me, Gramps," Liam said.

After a moment of silence, Liam heard his grandfather mumble something along the lines of "Thank God," before continuing.

"Are you doing well?" his grandfather asked.

"Yes, Gramps, I am," Liam answered, feeling slightly choked.

"It's been two full months. Do you have any idea how worried I was?" his grandfather asked.

"Sorry, Gramps," was all Liam could say for now.

He heard a sigh on the other end of the line before his grandfather continued. "It's fine. You're a grown-up now. As long as you're alright, that's all that matters. Just please say something next time. It wasn't funny to hear from those agents that they couldn't contact you either when they visited me. You have to explain to me what happened."

The conversation continued with Liam telling his grandfather that he will explain it all in detail when he visits him next time. Despite knowing that his grandfather would want to know what happened right now. It was all he could think of for now.

Liam stayed on the phone for another half hour until he heard the sound of shattering glass behind him, followed by snickering from Illyana.

"What's going on?" his grandfather asked as Liam turned around.

One of the bedside lamps had fallen on the floor, breaking the glass inside. Beside it was Lockheed, gnawing on a blue scale Liam had saved on his shelf in case he needed it.

"Don't worry about it, just some hooligans," Liam answered as he rolled his eyes at the snickering Illyana.

"Gramps, I have to go. I'll call you again later," he continued.

"Alright. When you come by next time, tell me in advance so I can prepare something to celebrate the birthday you missed. Twenty is a significant year, after all," his grandfather said.

"Will do, Gramps. Love you," Liam answered.

"Love you too, Liam," his grandfather replied before the call ended.

Liam looked deadpan at Illyana as he put away his phone. "Really? Was that necessary?"

"You took so long, Lockheed and I had some fun," she said, smirking.

'I'm starting to regret bringing her here...' Liam complained internally as he opened a rift under the mess and teleported it away.

"Since you're done calling, let's go shopping," Illyana said as she stood up.

"No, I still need to catch up on a lot of things," Liam answered as he started his laptop.

"While I love looking at your abs, I'd rather not have anyone else see them," Illyana commented as she leaned on the chair behind Liam.

'Oh right, forgot about that,' Liam thought as he noticed the hole in his clothes from where the Tyrant had pierced his chest. 'I'll deal with it later. I need to make sure nothing happened while I was gone.'

"I have plenty of other shirts in my closet," he answered as he started Googling on his laptop.

Annoyed at being ignored, Illyana huffed and moved back to play with Lockheed.

'Doesn't appear as if anything major has happened due to a butterfly effect or something,' Liam thought as he browsed news pages. As he started typing to search for "green monster," a tiny blue dragon flew past, ripping off the screen from his keyboard.

'This motherfu—' Liam snapped his neck back to see Illyana praising Lockheed.

"Now you have time to go shopping," Illyana said, smirking as she taunted Liam.

'Yup, this is what pure regret feels like,' Liam thought as he locked eyes with Lockheed, who was trying to act innocent.

"Next time you do that, I will skewer you," Liam said, causing Lockheed to hide behind Illyana.

"As for you, I hope you brought money with you, 'cause you're paying for this," Liam said, pointing to his old laptop.

Illyana's smirk fell for a moment before she crossed her arms, tilting her head in defiance. "Pay? You must have me confused with someone else because I don't have any money from this Earth."

Liam, unimpressed, answered, "You broke it. You pay for it."

Illyana pretended to consider his demand. "I could pay you in my Earth's money," she started.

"Or maybe I'll just owe you a favor. A big one." She said while stepping closer to him.

Liam sighed, rolling his eyes as he murmured, "A favor I'll most likely regret collecting."

"Besides, it wasn't me who did it. Lockheed did. He should pay up," Illyana added, causing Lockheed to turn his head to her in surprise, the tables had turned on him.

"With our appearances, how do you think we can go shopping?" Liam asked her.

"I can wear a hat and a coat. You can wear sunglasses," Illyana responded.

"You really want to go shopping that badly?" Liam asked.

"Yes, this is a new world and most likely a new fashion," she said excitedly.

Liam rolled his eyes. 'I need to get a new laptop now anyway. While we shop, I'll read all the messages. I'm glad I can multitask,' he thought. 

"Sure, but promise me you won't act up," Liam said. "And Lockheed can't go with us."

"I promise," she said. "And Lockheed can stay in Limbo. Right, Lockheed?"

Lockheed yelped at this, clearly disagreeing. But Illyana pressed on.

"Am I right, Lockheed?" she asked again, her face threatening him.

Lockheed caved in and nodded slowly, feeling betrayed.

"Good boy," Illyana said, smiling again.

Liam decided to ignore her behavior and opened a portal near Fifth Avenue in New York, walking through it with Illyana close behind.

The next few hours could only be described as hell as Illyana dragged Liam from store to store, making him spend thousands of dollars on clothes, shoes, and other items.

While walking, Liam read through a lot of texts from many different people. One sender stood out: Coulson. Initially, there were messages about Agent Ghost disappearing from SHIELD and some casual inquiries from Coulson asking how Liam was doing.

'That is, until five weeks ago,' Liam thought. 'The content changed then.' The later messages were more urgent, containing repeated requests for help and meeting locations.

The last message Coulson had sent read: "Need urgent help. Fury in danger. Call me when you get back." It dated back to three weeks ago.