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It's crowded, stuffy and noisy in a small club on the outskirts of London, and Andy doesn't even have a clue why he decided to come here. There are a lot of musicians he knows here, and his wife talking to them, and there's some band which Andy honestly doesn't like at all on the stage, and he finally realises that if he doesn't get some fresh air right now, he will faint. Andy pushes his way through the numerous visitors of the club to Shiarra and tells her that he wants to go out. She nods to him, and then the next moment Andy's making his way through the crowd again, this time towards the exit. A breath of fresh autumn air fills his lungs when he finally gets out. The only noise he hears now is the faint music coming out from the club, making Andy feel as if he is half deaf. Andy leaves his jacket there at the club, and his hands get cold almost immediately. He looks at his palms, puts them together and breathes on them, trying to warm his skin. This autumn is cold, much colder than usual, and even a barely warm ray of evening sun falling on his chest fails to warm him. He desperately wants to take a sip of something hot, but as luck would have it, this evening there is nothing but booze in the club.
He recognizes Liam by his laugh. A barely audible and soft laugh that breaks the evening silence and makes Andy forget about his cold hands and a shitty band at the club. Liam is standing with his back to him next to some geezer who is telling him something in a very enthusiastic way, and the hand movement Liam does during the conversation indicate that he is drinking beer. And that he's terribly tired of his interlocutor. Andy approaches Liam from behind, and Liam turns around a little when he hears a noise.
"Liam."
Andy is too nervous to say anything else. Liam turns his head in his direction and briefly looks him up and down.
"Alright."
Liam's attention returns to his interlocutor, and Andy has a huge, heartfelt desire to hope that Liam just didn't recognize him. He's shy about interrupting Liam and interfering in their conversation, so he waits patiently for them to finish talking. He modestly stands there next to Liam and the geezer and realises that he hasn't felt like such an idiot for quite a long time. Liam's interlocutor leaves him alone pretty quickly, and now an awkward, embarrassing silence hangs in the air.
Andy decides to skip the part where he's asking Liam silly questions about his well-being. He feels that Liam is unlikely to tell him the truth at the moment.
"How d'you like this place?" Andy asks when Liam turns back to him and takes a sip of beer.
"It's alright."
"Alright, yeah", Andy takes a little pause and his eyes examine Liam who's sipping his beer without paying the slightest attention to him, "Remember when we used to perform in such tiny venues and dream that one day we would become famous all over the world?"
"Yeah, man", Liam agrees, "But the thing is that our band eventually became famous all over the world. Can't say this about yours."
Liam sounds offended, and Andy guesses that he's still angry at him.
"And then we started playing in the same band, anyway. Fortunately or unfortunately."
"Yeah."
Liam continues to slowly drink from his glass. Knowing Liam's habits, Andy thinks that if he wanted to, he would have drained this fucking glass long ago.
"How did you get here?" Andy asks in an attempt to somehow fill the awkward silence that was starting to put too much pressure on him.
"I dunno, man, I was called and I came, simple as that", Liam takes a sip of beer and purses his lips, "I regret it, honestly. These geezers at the club sound like shit. Even your old band was better, what do you call it? Hurricane#1. What a fucking name."
Liam chuckles. And Andy chuckles back. God. He's glad to see him. He's not angry. A slight smile touches Andy's lips.
"Yeah, there is such a thing."
Liam smiles, takes a sip of beer and glances at Andy over the top of the glass, and when he notices Andy looking at him, he looks away.
He takes one last sip and reaches into the trash can to throw the glass away. He returns to Andy with his iconic walk and scratches his nose. They both are like a pair of shy kids right now. Liam squints from the sun, showing his little wrinkles, and kind of even smiles a little, and looking at him, Andy smiles back and bites his lower lip, baring his teeth, as he always did when he was overwhelmed with feelings that he could not express.
"Andy Fucking B," Liam says.
He reaches out to the back of Andy's neck and pulls him to himself, hugs him tightly and closes his eyes, not at all from the sun shining in his eye, and Andy hunches a little, and his arms wrap Liam's back like ropes.
"I fucking missed you so much, man," Liam says in a muffled voice; Andy guesses that it's because he's buried his face right in his shoulder.
He doesn't say anything, just a smile touches his lips slightly and he rubs Liam's back several times, which makes Liam feel a little hot. Here he is, LG, good old Liam, so arrogant and so loyal, a little taller than Andy's wife, still unable to hide his feelings; Liam whom Andy once broke his tender loving heart very rudely and who's now hugging him as if it never happened. When Liam pulls away from him, Andy notices how his eyes shine in the sun and how he runs the sleeve of his parka over them. The cool wind ruffles his tousled hair and Andy finds himself thinking that he has been looking at Liam for too long.
"Listen, let's get the fuck outta here," Liam suggests sniffling and avoiding to look Andy in the eyes, "Anywhere you want. To the pub, or to the bar, or to another fucking universe."
"Like we did at that George Michael's gig?"
Liam smiles at their shared memory making Andy's heart get very, very warm.
"Yeah. Yeah, man, just like then."
Liam puts his palm on Andy's back, and Andy has a lot to say to Liam, and it seems to him that even a whole night is not enough to tell everything that he feels. His phone is left in his jacket pocket, and they'll probably be looking for him, but that's definitely not what he's thinking about right now, when Liam's walking next to him and Andy realising how much he missed him.