Chapter Text
Liam, all things considered, is doing pretty well in terms of the holiday season if you ask him.
He had finished all of his Christmas shopping last week—and okay, so maybe his mom had to remind him to do it before finals started and he’d be too swamped with those to go shopping, but hey, at the end of the day, he did it and that’s all that really matters—three of his six classes decided to do final projects instead of exams, and he had even started studying for his bio final early instead of waiting to cram it all in the night before like he usually does.
And, so. Pretty well.
Liam’s phone buzzes on his bed, and he props himself up on an elbow and reaches up from where he’s lying on the floor studying to haphazardly grope around the comforter until his fingers finally make contact with the vibrating device.
Theo’s contact picture—one that Liam’s honestly not sure if the chimera even knows he’d taken a couple months ago when he’d gone over to his apartment and found him completely knocked out on the couch after coming back from one of the pack trips with Scott—lights up the screen as the call makes his phone buzz again in his hand. Liam blinks at the picture once before swiping right to pick up.
Speak of the devil: the main reason why Liam’s doing pretty well instead of great despite the fact that he’s this close to winter break.
The first thing he hears is Scott’s voice saying something indecipherable when he puts the phone to his ear, but it quickly fades out into the background as Theo seems to walk away from the alpha and into another room.
“You said you’d help me study two hours ago,” Liam declares before Theo can get a word in, because if he does, he knows that the chimera will come up with some flawless excuse about why he didn’t call that Liam can’t poke a hole in.
“I know, I know,” Theo mutters, and there’s a little bit of shuffling from the other side for a few seconds before Liam hears a door close and the line goes quiet again. “Group of hunters found the safehouse we were in before, so we had to move all our shit to one of the other ones Argent has, but it’s an hour away from the first one.”
Liam sulks silently. No fucking way he can poke a hole in that one, as expected. But as—slightly, because the chimera had a pretty solid reason—irked as he is with Theo for flaking on him, he also can’t stop the way his voice lowers a bit and concern shines through in his voice as he picks at the carpet next to him.
“R’you okay? You—you guys didn’t get hu—”
“We’re fine, m’fine,” Theo cuts him off gingerly before he can even finish, and some of the tension that’s packed in Liam’s shoulders drains out at that. Theo’s been going on these pack trips with the alpha for a while now—mostly because he’s one of the only ones in the pack that knows all of the ins and outs of meeting other packs and creating alliances—but as terribly selfish as it sounds, Liam kind of hates that he goes. Hates that Theo’s out there with every opportunity to sacrifice himself like the dumbass that he is, and Liam won’t be there to stop him. Sounds of sheets being pulled back filter through from the other side, and Liam lets the small waves of anger that had creeped up at his thoughts fade back out as he waits quietly for Theo to settle into the bed. “Should be back by Friday.”
Liam flops backwards onto the ground, holding the phone to his ear as he stares up at the ceiling, something in his stomach sinking a little at the words. “I thought Scott said Wednesday when you left.”
There’s a pause as the phone goes silent. “There’s another pack we have to meet with,” Theo says after a few moments, voice almost hesitant as he does, and Liam says nothing as he glowers at the white ceiling above him, like it could somehow transfer over to the chimera wherever he is miles away. “You know I’m still gonna help you study, Liam.”
Despite everything, Liam holds back a snort. There’s a small part of him that can’t believe that Theo thinks that’s the reason he’s annoyed, but the other bigger part of him knows that Theo knows that it’s not. But neither one of them say anything about it, because that’s what they fucking get for still keeping everything implicit like they’ve been doing for months, and so Liam simply gives in and changes the topic instead.
“Why’re you already in bed?” he asks, turning and muffling a yawn into his arm as he stretches his body out on the floor. “It’s like,” Liam pulls the phone away from his head to check the time, and squints at the too-bright screen, “not even eleven.” He fakes an over-dramatic gasp after a second, letting a small smirk tilt his lips up as he continues. “Are all of Alec’s senior citizen jokes actually coming true?”
Liam snickers when Theo mumbles a fuck you in response, picturing the flat glare that’s probably painted on the chimera’s face. Maybe it’s a little strange that Liam knows the exact way Theo’s brows draw in when he pretends to scowl, the exact way his nose crinkles the slightest bit, the exact way his eyes betray the fact that he’s not actually mad. But Liam’s not too sure he cares anymore, if he’s being honest.
(It's not something he can really stop, even if he tries. He's utterly helpless to the way his eyes always seem to drift over to the chimera whenever he's in the room, not warily watching like most of the pack used to do ages ago, but just—just looking. Liam knows it's so goddamn obvious now—he never hears the end of it from Mason, for fuck's sake—but it's not like he's the only one. Because he'd have to be blind to not notice Theo's eyes wander over to him from time to time, have to be dumb not to feel his stare when he thinks Liam's too caught up in something else to pay attention. And so yeah, maybe they are both as idiotic as Mason and Corey and Alec all claim they are, but, well. This is Theo and Liam and this is the way it works.
Liam can't help but wonder what it would be like if they gave in, though. Wonders about it a little too much when he's lying in bed awake at night when he can't sleep and moments flash through his mind and he's left staring at the ceiling as he thinks about all the things they could have.)
“Have to wake up at ass o’clock tomorrow to drive,” Theo retorts, his voice muffled a little at the end like he’s dragging his hand down his face. And Liam pointedly doesn’t think too long about why he knows all of the chimera’s mannerisms a little too well. “Sue me for not wanting to stay up and party.”
“You know, you could just let Scott drive,” Liam tries in vain, knowing what’s coming before Theo even opens his mouth to respond. “He does have his license.”
“Yeah, and risk him veering off the road and almost crashing into a tree because Isaac called and he just had to pick up?” Theo snarks back without wasting a second, and Liam feels a little smile tug at his lips. He distinctly remembers the phone call he’d gotten after that incident, remembers the way Theo had grumbled and complained to him the entire time and had practically kicked Scott out of the driver’s seat with the steadfast warning that he’s never allowed to drive Theo’s truck again. “No fucking thank you.”
Liam hears a barely audible it was one time from the phone and lets out a short laugh when Theo yells back: “Stop fucking listening to me and go call your French boyfriend.”
Silence falls between them for a couple minutes after that, the somehow comforting sound of both of their steady breathing filling the air instead, and Liam stifles a sigh before bending his knees and sliding his feet up, planting them flat on the ground as he makes an executive decision for the both of them. “Go sleep, Theo, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“No, you dick, I can still help you stu—”
“Go to fucking bed, asshole,” Liam interrupts while trying to keep whatever emotion is stirring in his chest out of his voice, throwing his free arm over his eyes and blocking out the light coming from above as he closes his eyes. “My final isn’t until Tuesday anyway, s’fine. But if you ghost me again tomorrow, I swear I’m gonna raid your apartment and take back my Letterman that I ‘forgot’ there.”
Theo scoffs. “You can take it, I don’t need it.”
Liam’s lips twitch at the corners and he hums in false concession, waiting a few seconds before speaking again. “You know Alec sends me pictures of you wearing it, right? I have at least, like, five pictures that I could pull up right now if you want proof.”
“That little shit,” Theo hisses before Liam even finishes talking, and Liam finally lets a laugh bubble up in his chest and leave his throat. In spite of the physical distance between them, it’s still easy to fall into this, fall into the back and forth and the teasing and the pretending they both don’t know. When his laughter dies down, Theo is quiet again, and Liam’s breath catches in his throat when he hears the bare sincerity in the chimera’s voice. “I’m not gonna ghost you again tomorrow, Dunbar.”
Liam firmly ignores the warmth that rises in his chest. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” he fake-grumbles, and he can tell that Theo’s eyes are probably slowly drooping down and knows the chimera needs to sleep soon if he’s gonna have any chance at waking up early to drive. “Go play diplomat, you jerk.”
“Go study then, punk,” Theo quips back without missing a beat, and Liam snorts. So maybe he’d made Theo sit down and watch the entire Captain America trilogy with him one too many times for it to be normal, but he, for one, will not apologize for it. Not when Bucky Barnes looks like he does.
(Not when Theo calls him punk from time to time. Not when the implications of that particular nickname make Liam’s heart skip a beat in his chest. Not when Liam sometimes catches Theo looking at him in a way that makes him think that Theo knows those implications too. Because, well. At the end of the day, they’re both not that stupid and they’re both fully aware of all the unsaid shit between them.)
The call ends, and Liam lets his phone slip out of his hand and drop to the ground next to him, a tired groan leaving his throat as he rolls his head to the side and sees his bio textbook still laying open on the floor next to the complete mess of papers spread out around it, ruthlessly taunting him with all the shit he still has to stuff into his brain before Tuesday’s final.
His phone buzzes again and he lazily drags his hand up and tilts it off the ground halfway to see a text from Corey asking what he got for the second question on the bio practice final, and Liam groans again as he briefly considers if he can steal his mom’s car and drive himself to the middle of fucking nowhere to where Theo is just so he can get out of this exam.
Stupid fucking finals and stupid fucking hunters ruining his holiday season.
