Rated T | Thiam | Trauma, hurt/comfort, healing, romance, getting together, idiots in love, evolving/true alpha Theo | Theo Raeken, Liam Dunbar, Mason Hewitt, Corey Bryant, Scott McCall, Malia Tate
Theo calls Liam because his house is closest, and he's bleeding faster than he likes. He does heal like the other wolves, of course, but as a chimera he heals slower. This blood loss might outpace him. Liam doesn't answer, but then immediately calls back. "Hunter shot me, might pass out," he manages to greet between gritted teeth. Liam sighs on the other end, as if it's an imposition, but then asks where he is. "Your back door," Theo says, before making good on his earlier warning, and promptly losing consciousness.
Theo calls Liam because he needs help, and doesn't know where to turn. He calls Liam because he's hurt and afraid.
When he wakes up, he is lying in a bed, which is different enough from the cold concrete he'd passed out on that he jolts before Liam's thin fingers and broad palm spread out across his chest and force him back down. Every one of his nerves is screaming, especially loud from the point of contact where he's being touched, and he keeps his eyes screwed tight but knows by smell that he is in Liam's room, and it smells like his burning flesh and burnt wolfsbane, and like Liam recently lit some incense but stubbed it out soon after.
"What the fuck?" he manages to choke out. Liam shushes him, finally removing his hand. Theo's solar plexus is suddenly freezing without Liam's touch, but the pain is too great for him to articulate anything.
"I dunno how you made it here. Wolfsbane should've knocked you down. Seems like you're finally fighting it, since this is healing and you're awake, but it probably hurts like a bitch," Liam answers, whispering. It must be very late. He still lives with his parents, so he's obviously trying not to wake them.
"T-touch me again," Theo whispers back, instead of acknowledging the situation. Liam doesn't say anything, but the searing heat outlining his hand, like a brand, settles across his shoulder this time. His eyes are still closed, and he focuses on the pain and uses it as an anchor; pain has always been his anchor. He knows without seeing that the ropey veins in Liam's arms are running black, but it makes no difference. His consciousness is soaking back into the meat of him, and it's going to hurt. It always does.
I deserve this, Theo thinks, and then he slips once more into the soft quiet dark of sleep.
He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, so Corey tosses his hands out to his sides and growls. They've been arguing over the mysterious hunter for hours, and if Corey recommends using Theo as bait on more time he is going to get violent.
"We will be there! Invisible! You'll be fine," Corey says, dancing around outright demanding. Theo opens his mouth but it's Liam who speaks first.
"No one is going to be bait," he says, glancing to Scott for approval and receiving a minute nod. No one else notices. "We're going to use the wolfsbane from the bullet to track the hunter by the strain and approach as a group."
Corey drops his head into his hands, and Mason comforts him. "We can't track a hunter just by the strain," he says, weakly, though he's correct.
"That's true. But we're not gonna track the hunter, we're gonna find the seller," Scott says, glancing to Lydia and receiving a quick thumbs up. Theo rolls his eyes again.
Sometimes he enjoys the petty dramas of these pack meetings. Scott isn't always here for these, often taking more an advisory role, but he's here today and he's still the alpha so the plan is set. As he's walking down the sidewalk, after, Liam falls into step next to him. "Don't take Corey too seriously. He's… anyway. There's no way I'd let him use you as bait," he says.
"Why not?" Theo asks. "It's the quicker, more effective plan. The hunter already tried to take me out and failed, he'll come back for me."
Liam pauses, Theo doesn't, and he tries not to guess at the series of expressions that must cross the face behind him. Then in a few quick, thudding footsteps, Liam catches up. "What the fuck is your problem?" he asks.
Theo laughs. "It's just logical, I'm not offended. We're not friends, why wouldn't you guys use the situation to your advantage?" He does pause, then, because Liam makes a sound like he's just stepped in a bear trap, and the smell of venom fills his nose.
He twists and ducks just in time. Claws drag through his hair, just missing his neck, and he thrusts his hand forward, digging his own claws into the kanima's stomach. It shrieks and leaps back, clear over to the other side of Liam's limp form, eyes wide, on the ground. "Shit," Theo says, before howling. There is a heavy moment then, which passes in absolute silence. The kanima growls and whips its tail around, lashing at the sidewalk near Liam's feet. It's late, but not late enough for a full-on public brawl; the smart thing to do would be to try and draw the kanima to follow him away from Liam and somewhere more private, but Theo hesitates to leave Liam behind.
The kanima tilts its head, and over its shoulder he can see Scott rushing forward. Somehow, its reptilian face shifts into an obscene grin; a rictus grin, and the needle-like teeth gleam orange in the streetlights. He sighs, regretting his decision already, as he rushes the creature and shifts. Behind it, Scott shifts as well. It leaps away, down the side street, and up onto a rooftop. "Get him somewhere safe," Scott says as he leaps up to grab the fire escape and scale the building to follow.
"This fucking sucks," Theo says, as he scoops up Liam's limp body and runs back toward Lydia's house.
"Tell me about it," Liam groans weakly.
He's sitting next to the couch, on the floor, and his back hurts but he hasn't moved in an hour. Everyone else went after Scott and the kanima, and, by extension, the hunter who is its master. He is here, though, ignoring his aching back while Liam glares up at the plain ceiling. "Can you put the TV on at least? Christ this sucks," Liam says. It startles him from his thoughts, images of the Hell he had lived within, of his sister. "Why'd you even stick around?" he asks, then, "I mean, you don't even like me."
Theo shrugs. He is genuinely unsure, but finds himself unwilling to examine the reasons. There is too much going on, too much at stake; Scott is out there, somewhere, either fighting or in danger, and he can't shake the feeling that this has all played out too conveniently. The wolfsbane bullet and kanima, both ostensibly targeting him, Scott following the kanima almost as if the hunter was listening to their bait idea and had been inspired… He can't afford to make mistakes. "Scott needs help but none of us should be alone right now, someone needed to stay with you and I'm the strongest fighter."
Liam laughs, or tries to but mostly coughs, and then says, "I'm the best fighter, you narcissist. You're the best punching bag."
Theo looks down, at his hands in his lap, and the darkly stained wood floor in Lydia's impeccably decorated house. What he sees, though, is his sister's eyes as she ripped the heart that was hers out of his chest. The Dread Doctors and their torturous operations. He is, if nothing else, good at enduring. "Sure," he says, "but you're paralyzed and Scott isn't here so who, exactly, would be a better option? Corey?"
He knows that Liam rolls his eyes even though he doesn't look over. "Fair," he eventually answers. Now twenty, he's certainly matured since they first met; yet still Theo often feels like a babysitter when around the puppy pack as Stiles used to call them. He used to complain about their immaturity to Scott, say that they needed to take this all more seriously. Scott would say, 'we didn't get to be kids, Theo. Let them.' At the time, it felt dismissive, but in some ways he knows that Scott is right. His own childhood was stolen from him, and now he is this broken version of the man he could have been. "My hands and feet are starting to tingle," he says. Theo looks over and sure enough, Liam manages to twitch two of his fingers.
"Great, keep trying to move. You gotta Kill Bill it, dude," he says. Liam doesn't answer, but his brow furrows, perhaps in concentration, and he finally looks away from the ceiling and to Theo for the first time. "You've got this."
Within an hour, Liam sits up, rubbing at his head. "Does kanima venom always give you a migraine?" he asks. Theo is looking through Lydia's cabinets, and can see him there through the large open arch between the two rooms. Finally he finds a glass and fills it with water, then turns to see Liam watching him. He nods.
"Worst headaches of my life," he says, "and I've had cranial surgery without anaesthetic." He doesn't mean it as anything, but Liam flinches and glances away, lifting an arm to run through his messy hair. He's been growing it out a bit, so it exists in a permanently mussed state as if he has always just rolled out of bed.
"I uh…" Liam says awkwardly. Theo shrugs. "Thanks."
Theo hands him the water and sits on the couch, twisting his torso to stretch out his aching spine, and listens as Liam gulps down the entire glass desperately before refilling it and walking back into the room.
When the pack returns, they look exhausted. Lydia's shirt is torn and stained red near her hip; Corey and Mason are barely holding each other up, both bruised; Scott slumps through the front door and slowly past them, filthy and limping and smelling like his blood, kanima blood, Lydia's blood, and venom. Above all else, they smell scared — bitter like pine needles.
Scott walks directly into the bathroom, and Theo listens as he turns the shower on, slumps against the wall, and slowly sheds his clothes. "No luck on the hunter, but the kanima is dead," Mason says. "No choice, we couldn't subdue it, it wouldn't stop fighting, and we have no idea who the master is."
"He," Lydia reminds him as she exits a spare room with some of Scott's clothes, left behind after weekend get-togethers over the years, "not it, but he, is dead. That was a person, Mason, who had no control over his actions. Don't ever forget that." Her bare feet leave a trail of bloody footprints.
With that she enters the bathroom, and Theo stops listening as she speaks to Scott. He instead focuses on the way that Liam's heart rate spikes, the way Mason deflates. "So what now?" Liam asks. No one answers.
Liam tosses the football and frowns as it thunks against Corey's chest. It's a nice day, so they're outside, but everyone seems distracted. "So what's the deal with Theo?" Mason asks, sitting nearby against a tree and sketching something. Liam looks over, tilting his head in confusion, when the football smacks the side of his head. As the three of them laugh, Liam walks over and sits next to his best friend.
"The hell does that mean?" he asks, leaning to try and see Mason's drawing, which he shifts to hide.
"You know, what's his deal? He's weird as hell, and kind of a jerk, so what did you guys talk about while everyone else was fighting the kanima?" Mason explains. Corey walks over and places a hand on his boyfriend's head, looking at his drawing and grinning.
Liam pauses, considering for a long time. "We just talked about dumb shit. Like small talk," he says. Even though that was the majority of what they'd done, he feels almost like he's lying. He frowns, and can tell the other two notice. "And he might be weird, but he's not actually a jerk. I dunno… he's awkward, but it's not like he's mean on purpose."
When he really thinks about it, Theo has been there for him more often than not. Really, ever since that day at the zoo, Theo has had his back. He is a series of question marks, a true mystery, and Liam finds himself thinking about the chimera often.
"Whatever you say," Mason says under his breath. Liam groans and tilts his head back so it hits the tree trunk with a dull thud. "I think he's a jerk."
Liam runs his hand through the grass, then roughly tugs some out and tosses it to the side. "You don't know him," he mumbles.
"Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck fuck fu-" Liam chants. He sprints down the long hallway, skids along the floor at the corner, and sees smooth white marble and polished walls sprayed with scarlet. The two hunters are cornered, with Liam at one end of the hall and Theo at the other. In between him and the hunters are four bodies. They make eye contact, then both move. At the same instant the hunters shift to be back-to-back and open fire. Liam jolts off to the left before ducking right and then sliding along the floor once more. He's closing in fast when a bullet grazes his arm. He does not slow. The hunter drops his gun and pulls a stun baton from his back, but it's too late.
Then there is quiet. The empty bank building, recently abandoned, muffles all of the outside city noise, and other than the two of them there is no one left to speak. They're sitting in the lobby, panting, and Liam is using a towel from the janitorial closet to wipe the blood off his hands. "I'm getting real sick of this shit," he says, sighing. Theo grunts in affirmation. He is particularly quiet, and it's making Liam nervous. "You okay?"
"Desmond Johns," Theo says. Liam tilts his head. "That was the kanima's name."
Liam isn't sure how Theo managed to find that out, isn't sure if he wants to know. He looks down, to the floor and the barest hint of his reflection in the white marble. "Oh," he says, because he doesn't know what else to say.
"He was a mathlete and ran track and field for the University."
What Theo is trying to say, he thinks, is that this life is dangerous. That they are in danger. That all of these people, supernatural or hunter or completely ignorant to the situation, are people with lives and families. The thing he is dancing around is guilt, and suddenly Liam has an epiphany.
Theo feels guilty; for his sister, the dread doctors, his chimera pack, the chaos he caused… all of it.
"How old was he?" he asks. Theo is silent. The empty bank echoes his question. Young, he guesses. Somewhere around their ages. Sometimes he forgets that Theo is four years older than him, that there was an entire chunk of his life before Liam was even born, when he was a normal kid and none of this existed outside of the movies. How strange, he thinks, that fate brought them together. Then he stands and rolls his shoulders and neck out. "Let's get out of here. Hungry? I've got some leftover ribs and mashed potatoes."
Theo looks up, meets his eye, and nods. Liam feels a static jolt, shakes out his hands, and turns to leave. Theo follows.
Theo finishes rinsing his plate and puts it in the dishwasher, turning to face him and leaning back against the counter. Liam jerks his head toward the hall, toward his room, and then leads the way. Theo follows.
Once inside, Liam walks over to sit on his bed while Theo lingers by the door. He just watches him; they watch each other, and then without warning Theo crosses the floor and walks straight up to him. He reaches out, grabbing Liam by the back of his head, and ducks down to kiss him. He freezes, for a moment, shocked into stillness, before he wraps his arms around Theo's broad shoulders and pulls him closer. He shivers as fingers tangle in his messy hair, and distantly he thinks about needing a haircut, before all thought is wiped from his mind entirely when Theo bites his lower lip. Then, he pulls back.
"What are you doing?" he whispers, even as Theo's palm spreads across his chest, like returning the favour from when Liam helped him after the wolfsbane. Theo lightly shoves and Liam reclines, the chimera following as if they are tethered together, a short chain running from heart to heart.
"I dunno," Theo answers, equally quiet. Then they kiss again.
Throughout the next few weeks, the hunters seem to quiet down. Whatever door Theo had opened after the bank, the two of them don't bring it up. Still, sometimes Liam finds himself pressing a couple fingers in his neck, where a bruise had faded near instantly but left the heat of it behind, where Theo's lips had danced across his skin while he whispered. It is not as if they are avoiding each other, in fact they see each other often, but they don't kiss again and they certainly don't bring it up.
He thinks about it, though. A lot. The half-lidded way Theo had looked at him, and the darkness that clouded his striking eyes in the half light of his bedroom; his callused fingers, hard-earned through years of working on his cars; his breath spreading across Liam's skin like poured water. Before this kiss he hadn't ever really given much thought to kissing another man; Mason and him had made out once or twice as teens, and he didn't mind it but didn't exactly think to seek it out after. Now, though, Theo's voice is echoing in his mind, and he can still feel the ghosts of his fingers on his skin.
"You good, dude? Where the hell did you just go?" Corey asks, snapping Liam out of his thoughts. He looks around, had been completely unfocused, and sees his two best friends and the booth they occupy in a diner downtown. He elbows Mason and says, "you need to check on your boy. He's completely distracted."
"Fuck off," Liam answers, reaching over to take a sip of his lukewarm coffee, "I'm fine. I was just…" he trails off. Mason and Corey give each other a look and chuckle.
"Can't even come up with an excuse?" Mason asks, sarcastic. Liam doesn't bother to answer, eats his fries sullenly, and then heads home.
The thing is, Theo is pissing him off. If he thinks he can just kiss me and then pretend it didn't happen, he's an idiot, Liam thinks, as he unlocks his front door. Then his head snaps forward to hit the solid wood and he drops to the porch.
When he wakes up, he's suspended by his wrists, the metal shackles still steaming from the electricity that had just been flowing through his body. "God damn it," he mumbles, before hearing a laugh from the darkness. The cellar has a dirt floor, and the toes of his sneakers are drawing abstract swirling shapes in it as he shifts on the chain. There is a bright spotlight directly above him, so all he can see is a few feet of dirt in any given direction and then inky blackness.
"The chimera will be here soon," a voice says, as a another voice chuckles.
"Great," Liam says, "now I'm the fucking bait." Then his mind goes white as his muscles tense, and the electricity flows through him again.
3. Between the blue of sea and sky
"So… you still don't think you deserve anything good?" Scott asks him, quirking a brow. He takes a swig of beer, which will not get him drunk, and leans a bit closer to make sure Theo hears him over the low roar of the bar. "I thought you were the smart one. What good are you?"
Theo laughs, shoving Scott away, and tilts his head in faux thought. "I'm the punching bag," he answers, thinking back to his conversation with Liam. Scott rolls his eyes. "It's whatever, forget it dude. He's not interested. I made myself pretty clear, I hope, even for someone as dense as Liam."
"The only one who's dense in this situation is you, Theo," Scott answers. He finishes his beer and stands, striding toward the bathroom. "All you did was throw in another question for him to overthink. Give him some answers."
Theo shrugs, looks up to the TV playing the hockey game from last night, and tries to focus on the plays and fights that he's already seen before.
He decides that, as is often the case, Scott is right. When they leave the bar and part ways, he veers away from the direction of his own apartment and instead toward Liam's. Flashing lights outside, however, slow his approach. From a distance he can hear Liam's parents, telling the police that they haven't heard from him since yesterday, and Theo's heart sinks. He calls Scott, explains the situation, and then stands statue still in the shadowy yard across the street until the police leave, and then until he is sure that Liam's parents are asleep, and then he creeps quietly in through a window and up to his bedroom.
He stands for a moment there, in the middle of the messy floor, before he moves to sit on the bed, running his hand along the blanket up toward the pillows. He thinks about a few weeks ago, about kissing Liam here, and then he cries.
He is so afraid. He doesn't know what to do, or where to go. Liam could be anywhere. Could be dead and cut in half and buried under wolfsbane. But somewhere in his chest, somewhere inside the vast unending space within him, he can still feel the pack bond burning away. Liam is alive, and he needs help. Theo shakes himself out, takes one last deep breath, heavy with Liam's smell, and decides that he's wasted too much time already. He leaves the house and begins tracking the scent, following a trail around to the front door and then down the street. He breaks into a run, turns off his brain, and follows his instincts.
He is standing in an alley in the industrial part of town closest to the waterfront. There are warehouses all around him, and he's pretty sure he knows which one Liam is in. He called Scott and agreed to wait, but finds himself growing too restless to wait. Every second that passes increases the odds that he will never see Liam again. That thought alone is unbearable, but another then occurs to him: Theo will have to see his body. He shivers and then starts walking toward the end of the alley only to freeze and duck to the side, behind a dumpster, to watch as two men walk by as if on patrol. He waits, and then continues on, turning the corner to see the two men unconscious at Scott's feet, Mason and Corey flanking him.
Malia, from behind Scott and cracking her knuckles which are barely dusted by rapidly fading bruises, says, "bonsoir, motherfuckers," and then the pack moves in.
As they stalk down a long hall, Theo is distracted to say the least; he is barely present, in fact lost inside a stormy mind, until Malia knocks their shoulders together. "You good?" she asks.
"Hell no," he answers, looking around at the dingy concrete floor and barren walls of the empty space. "Why are you even here? I thought you loved Portugal too much to, 'ever step foot in that dumpster fire again'?"
She rolls her eyes and stops, he stops too, and then her face turns serious. "I'm here for my pack, Theo. All of you. What's going on?" Theo crosses his arms and leans back against the wall. His chest feels, suddenly, as if it is cracking open; like he's lying on the Dread Doctor's table and being inspected.
"I really like him," he admits, glancing away from her fierce gaze and to the smooth grey concrete of the floor. "I'm scared out of my fucking mind."
"Then quit wasting time and get your damn head in the game, dude." She is as blunt as ever, the years since high school that she spent along the coasts of Europe and Asia have done little to smooth out her rough edges, and Theo has never been so grateful.
"Right," he says, nodding, shaking out his arms and rolling his shoulders, before they hurry to catch up with the others.
He can feel his hair stand on end from the electricity sparking off of the stun baton as it swipes just over him; he slides along the ground and slashes at the hunter's ankle, dropping him as Theo swings his momentum through his legs to rotate and punch the guy in the back of the head. He's on his feet in an instant. So close to Liam's limp body. He is still breathing. It is not too late.
Theo shakes out his hand and strides forward. Just as he reaches Liam, he can feel the shimmering magic of a mountain ash circle closing around him. A voice behind to laugh from the shadows.
The pack fights on, as Liam inhales raggedly. "Shouldn't have come," he manages to groan.
"Look who's bait now," Theo teases. Liam doesn't laugh. Theo turns to look toward the dark corner of the room and can see two pinprick lights shining back at him. A man strides forward and Theo shudders, taking a step back on reflex.
This man is still human… but barely, in a different way from how Theo is not-quite human. He has augmented parts of his body, looks like he will soon be a Dread Doctor. He grins maniacally. "At last, the chimera. I can now begin my transformation."
"Getting real sick of this shit," Theo drawls, as he reaches over to snap the chains restraining Liam one-handed. He drops to his knees and Theo follows, crouching protectively over him and growling at the strange man.
Liam shudders, once across his entire body, as the healing finally kicks in. No longer stifled by electricity, it must be agonizing. He doesn't make a sound, until he chuckles. "You ready?" he asks, as he stands on shaky legs.
The rest of the hunters are knocked out; the rest of the pack are slowly surrounding the would-be nightmare; Theo steps up to the line of ash, presses a hand against the magic, and pushes.
His vision slowly fades as the crackling magic flows through his veins, up his arm and into his chest. The heart that beats there pauses, thuds three times, and then starts beating harder than it ever has before. Mason, who had been moving to break the circle, freezes. His vision returns but stained crimson as he roars, pushes forward once more, and he watches in awe as the magic shatters apart under his palm. Within his chest, the feeling of an echoing howl bouncing off mountain peaks.
Just before the battle begins, he has a single thought. I am a wolf, he thinks, and then grins wildly.
His breath catches in his throat as he watches Theo press one big palm against the mountain ash's magic. He takes a deep breath in tandem with Theo and as they exhale the magic barrier shatters apart; Theo's piercing eyes shift red as it does, and then together they launch forward past the scattering circle of ash and directly at the doctor.
He takes another deep breath and realizes suddenly that the only fear he can smell is coming from the enemy; even in the face of someone recreating his torture, Theo is not afraid. He is calm and steady.
Liam can feel all at once as some warm thing settles in his chest, a light which glows and soaks into him, which rests next to his own heart as it thuds along. He knows that it is Theo, that it is their pack bond, instinctively. It settles his shaking hands as the fight explodes around them.
"Do it again," he says. Theo laughs. Then his eyes flash red. He can feel it burning into him, Theo's gaze like lazers raising goosebumps along his arms and his bare chest, the ghostly heat left behind. "Wow," he whispers, shivering. Theo grins and leans down to kiss him, again, for what must be the hundredth time this afternoon.
"So," Theo starts, before pausing. The quiet stretches around them, interrupted occasionally by birdsong or percussive traffic. "I was wondering if I could take you out some time…" he finishes. Liam grins.
"Really?" he asks; he knew already that Theo had feelings for him, their first kiss told him that. What he had not yet known is how comfortable Theo was with these feelings, if this would be a quiet thing that existed only in their bedrooms, or if Theo wants instead to wear this love proudly. There is a moment then where they both just sit suspended, and a bird sings loudly outside his bedroom window, and Liam just looks at this amazing man in front of him. The boy-turned-chimera-turned-wolf. A shapeshifter beyond the rest of them; a true alpha who ascended because of love; his love; their love.
Liam nods, slowly, and watches a smile slowly bloom across Theo's face like the sunrise they had watched together hours ago. "I'd really like that," he says. Theo nods back.
"Good. It would be embarrassing if my boyfriend wouldn't let me take him out," Theo jokes, and Liam rolls his eyes.
"Boyfriend?" he asks, teasing right back, "slow down, dude, you just asked me on our first date. Just because you're in my room and about to kiss me doesn't mean we-"
He's cut off as Theo leans in, ducking close suddenly, and kisses him. A hundred and one.
"Anyway, I tried to tell my parents and they were barely listening. I'm pretty sure I could admit to a murder and my mom would just say, 'that's nice honey,' like what's even the point?"
Corey shrugs, chuckling. Liam knows that his parents were much the same, if not worse; they outright refuse to acknowledge who he is. Mason snaps his book shut and glances over, quirking a brow. "So you two are like, official?" he asks. Liam nods. "Having any thoughts about that?" he asks. Liam shrugs.
"I dunno. Positive stuff, excited and happy. Look, I'm sorry that I was queer after all and we never…" he answers, before Mason slaps his arm, laughing harder than Liam has heard in months.
"As if! We made out once and it was your idea," he says. Liam would argue but he doesn't have the energy. "I'm happy for you, man. And I guess Theo isn't as much of a jerk as I thought."
"If he makes you cry we're burying him, though," Corey interrupts, seriously. Over his shoulder, Theo pauses in his approach. He catches Liam's eye and grins.
"That's fair," he says, startling Corey into falling off the bench of the picnic table. "Good luck taking out an alpha though. Plus who'll drive you dorks around if you kill me?"
Mason shrugs, opening his book back up, but smiles as he says, "I'll have to get a new car."
"We're not dorks!" Corey argues as he stands back up.
"We're kind of dorks," Liam admits, striding over to Theo and kissing him. He can feel it as Theo smiles. "But we don't have to worry about Theo making me cry. Scott already threatened him enough."
He laughs, and it's a musical sound. Liam wants to hear it again, over and over, for as long as he can.
Things are not perfect. Nowadays he has very serious doubts if anything is, anywhere. Sometimes Theo cannot sleep, jolts whenever he closes his eyes for more than a minute; and sometimes Liam feels his control wane as anger takes over, feels the heat across his face and in his hands. But he has learned on those nights he should put on 90s alt rock and gently pet Theo's hair; and likewise Theo knows that when he sees Liam's face reshape into rage it is time to make an excuse and head home, and he sits him down and makes him talk it out just the two of them.
They are slowly, slowly, learning how best to be them, together, instead of them, apart. It is not easy, but as Theo always reminds him, 'nothing that's worth it is easy.' When he can't even stand the idea of being around anyone else, not even Mason, he shows up at Theo's door.
And Theo calls him when he is feeling small and powerless. Theo calls him because he knows that Liam cares, and will always care. He calls because he just wants to listen to their voices overlapping; because the way that the phone distorts their laughter makes it feel new; because they are in love and it has been such a long time coming.
Like waiting for dawn. It seems to take forever until suddenly, light burns across the sky. "I love you," Liam says, and feels the contented sigh wash across his shoulder before Theo's full lips press against it.
"I could hear you say that for the rest of my life," Theo whispers.
Liam chuckles, running his thumb across the delicate bones of Theo's wrist. "Sounds good to me," he says.
