Chapter Text
Despite the war being over and him being now considered as an ally to the McCall pack, it hadn’t guaranteed Theo a place to live. He was alive, yes, but he was back at sleeping in his truck since he didn’t have a home nor a job for that matter. It ended up being just like before all this Anuk-Ite mess happened.
Except it wasn’t. Theo wasn’t really alone anymore, he hung out with Liam occasionally. The beta had invited him over to his house after the fight in the hospital against the hunters. He had seen Theo’s selfless act of taking Gabe’s pain away, and something had softened inside of him as much as he hated to admit it.
Liam felt that the least he could do was invite Theo over to get some food and maybe some sleep.
So it had started that day, and then it just kept happening more and more, with Liam texting random things at Theo like “you’re telling me you’ve never played video games before?!” and Liam dragging him to his house to play because clearly Liam hadn’t had enough with all the real-life violence and fighting, he had to resort to video games to get hunted and fight others.
Sometimes Theo was exceptionally tired though, most likely because the night before he had been woken up too many times by cops telling him to park somewhere else, or because he still had nightmares sometimes. He’d end up falling asleep in Liam’s couch or sometimes even on Liam’s floor on his room, and Liam would let him, because he really didn’t have it in him to kick Theo out when he knew of his living conditions.
It had become more frequent lately, and Liam thought his parents hadn’t really noticed. Until one night he was confronted by his mom at dinner, his step-father was taking a late-night shift at the hospital.
“So who is that Theo Raeken boy who’s been constantly coming over?” Mrs. Geyer asked him casually, and Liam almost choked on his food.
“Uh, he’s a friend mom,” Liam said without wanting to elaborate much.
“A friend, huh?” Mrs. Geyer had this knowing look on her face like she had her suspicions that they weren’t just friends.
"Yes mom, a friend ,” Liam mumbled, not looking at his mother in the eye.
“Liam, I just want you to know that you can always tell me anything,” Mrs. Geyer put her fork on the table to show she was ready to listen, wanting for Liam to open up and confess. “It is perfectly fine if you and Theo are dating, but we need to talk about him constantly spending the night-”
Mrs. Geyer was interrupted by Liam, who had choked on a piece of chicken and seemed to not be able to breathe right in that moment. So much for having werewolf skills.
“Mom! Theo and I are NOT dating! What makes you think that?!” Liam spat out pathetically, still trying to recover from choking on his food.
“It’s just- he seems different. It’s different how you treat him than how you treat Mason, or Corey, or any of your other friends,” at this comment, Liam blushed, because he kinda knew what she was talking about, but at the same time he thought he was being subtle.
So what if he was kinda nervous around Theo? It wasn’t out of fear, it was… something he couldn’t explain. He wasn’t trying to impress him either, oh no, he could care less. But the thing with Theo is that every time they talked it was something new. He never knew what to expect exactly when he was with him, it was nerve-wrecking.
“Look, the reason why Theo has been staying over is because… he’s homeless,” Liam mumbled the last part, but his mom heard it anyway.
“Liam! Why didn’t you say this sooner? We could’ve offered him a place to stay here!” Mrs. Geyer scolded Liam, the tone in her voice sounded like she was concerned and a little bit mad.
“See, this is why I didn’t tell you! You were going to make a big deal out of it and you’d end up adopting him or something! It’s not like he’s living on the street, he’s sleeping on his truck-” Liam got cut off by his mom gasping, getting more preoccupied every time Liam got out more details.
“On his truck? My God, Liam! You know how dangerous Beacon Hills is and you let him sleep on his truck? Someone could try and rob his truck and they could stab him while he’s sleeping!” Mrs. Geyer seemed more alarmed with each time passing.
Yeah, right, like he wouldn’t stab first whoever dared to try and steal his truck, Liam thought and rolled his eyes.
“And you knew this entire time and didn’t do anything about it?” Mrs. Geyer said.
“I let him crash on the floor of my room sometimes,” Liam shrugged and it earned him a glare from his mom.
Liam kept eating his food, unsure of what would happen next. The last thing he needed was for Theo to be his permanent roommate.
---
...And the last thing he needed was the first thing he got. Next time Theo came over to his house, Mrs. Geyer stopped both of them before they could go upstairs to play in Liam’s room.
“Theo, I just wanted to say that my son here told me about your, erm, living arrangements,” Mrs. Geyer started saying and it threw Theo off track. He wasn’t expecting Liam to say anything. “And just so you know, you can come and stay here with us indefinitely.”
Theo was speechless. He had been offered a place to stay with such kindness, it felt weird. People being this nice to him felt weird, because he knew what he had done and he knew he didn’t fully deserve this kindness. But he’d be lying if he denied that he really, really wanted a home to live in.
Liam, however, was currently standing next to Theo, a hand over his face trying to repress a groan and trying to hide from the embarrassing moments his mom put him through sometimes. Theo glanced at him, kinda unsure to take on Mrs. Geyer’s offer, but Liam wouldn’t look at him, he just shrugged in a ‘it’s your decision, dude’ kind of way.
So if it was his decision to make, then he’ll take it.
After a couple more minutes of Theo being overly nice to Mrs. Geyer for giving him a place to stay, and Mrs. Geyer acting like Theo had been her long lost and only son, Liam wished that this was a bad dream he would wake up from. But it wasn’t, and it kept progressing onto his worst nightmare.
“So we don’t really have a spare room, but you can stay with Liam,” Mrs. Geyer pointed out and Liam shot her a look, to which she ignored. “We are going to get you a proper bed for you to sleep in, but it might take a couple of days.”
“Well, he can sleep on the couch until the bed arrives-” Liam started but was cut off by Mrs. Geyer shushing him.
“Liam, look at him, he looks so tired,” Mrs. Geyer pointed at Theo’s face. Sure, his eyes looked tired judging by the dark circles under them, but he didn’t look that bad. “Why don’t you let him take your bed so he can get a good night’s rest?”
Liam couldn’t believe he was hearing this. It’s like he didn’t have a say in the matter. He felt betrayed by his own mother because wow, she really went and picked someone else’s well being- Theo’s, nonetheless - over his?
He looked dumbfounded as he stared back at Theo, who had an unreadable look on his face, Liam wasn’t sure if he was getting ready to mock him or he simply didn’t have anything to say about it. Could be both.
Oh, but he would stop calling himself Liam Dunbar if he let Theo win and take the bed. Sure, his mom had said ‘ give Theo the bed’, but was she really going to be there to make sure he did? Was Theo really going to rat out on Liam not giving him the bed? He didn’t think so.
Stubbornly, he crossed his arms once it was just Theo and him in the room.
“So, I take it you’re not giving up the bed,” Theo started after he took the silence and glaring as a sign that Liam wasn’t going to start the conversation.
“Nope, no way in hell I would,” Liam said and stood hovering over the left side of the bed. Theo followed and stood next to the right side of the bed.
Theo smirked. Two could play at this game. “Your mom kinda said you’d have to give me the bed, though.”
“But is she here to make sure? I don’t think so!” Liam yelled between whispers, not wanting to wake his mom up. “You have more than enough space to sleep on the floor.”
“Well if there’s enough space you can sleep peacefully on the hard, cold floor,” Theo smirked.
They kept going at it, each one of them finding more petty reasons to argue about who deserves the bed and why. It was nearing midnight, they both seemed tired but they were still arguing.
“It’s just a bed, Liam,” Theo tiredly said.
“This is my bed,” Liam said after a while, clearly he had run out of reasons excuses to get the bed.
“What if I want to sleep on the bed?” Theo retorted back.
Liam got fed up at that point, his resolve cracking with his need for sleep.
“You know what? Fine!” Liam said and Theo was starting to smirk triumphantly until he realized Liam had taken off his shoes, undone the covers and got in the bed since he was already in his pajamas. “Suit yourself. You can sleep on the bed if you want, but I am going to be sleeping on it too.”
Theo stared down at him for a moment, biting his lip, weighing his options. He could take the floor and just use a lot of covers to make himself more comfortable. He could go and sleep on the couch, which was a better upgrade than the back of his truck to be quite honest. He could do any of those options and still get a better night’s sleep than past nights.
But two can play at this game, and if Liam wanted to continue being a stubborn little shit, he would too.
So he took off his shoes. Followed by his hoodie. Followed by his jeans.
“Fine. Move over,” Theo said getting on the right side of the bed, nudging Liam so he would give him half of the bed. Liam looked infuriatingly at him, like he couldn’t believe Theo had the nerve to actually do that.
So this was really happening, they really were going to share a bed and try to sleep without killing each other. He couldn’t believe this was his life now.
Liam rolled onto his right side, giving his back to Theo. The chimera sighed at the soft feel of the bed, looking to the ceiling and focusing on the shadows that were coming from the window. It all felt so relaxing, and peaceful… except for the little ball of rage that was lying stiffly on the left side of the bed. Theo could feel that Liam wasn’t asleep yet, probably too bitter over having to share his room with him because his mom said so.
“You ever gonna try to sleep or are you just going to lie there contemplating humankind’s existence?” Theo mockingly said out loud, and Liam moved a little bit.
“Shut up, I’m trying to sleep,” Liam replied.
“Okay, good.”
“Good.”
There was a moment of silence in which neither of them knew what to say. Theo looked over to see Liam, who had relaxed just a bit since they first started talking.
“Night, sweetheart ,” Theo mockingly said, laughing, because yes he had been that person and used a pet name just to annoy someone else.
“Oh my God, don’t call me that!” Liam snatched the covers all to himself and curled up on them, leaving Theo laughing at his reaction but without a blanket to cover himself with.
An hour passed and Liam had finally managed to fall asleep. But that couldn’t be said for Theo. It felt like his body wouldn’t reset, feeling like all of a sudden he was hyper aware of where he was. Also it didn’t help that Liam snored, loudly.
Out of all the people to share a bed, Liam was possibly one of the worst people to do it with. He snored, he hogged all the blankets, he constantly rolled around the bed like he had the goddamn full-size mattress to himself. At some point Theo had gotten accidentally smacked in the face with Liam’s arm as he was trying to close his eyes and get some sleep.
Suddenly sleeping in his truck seemed more safe and pleasant than sleeping in the same bed as Liam.
Three a.m. came by and he still hadn’t managed to sleep. He literally was in the same position as he had been when he got on the bed, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. He felt Liam move again, and he swore if Liam “accidentally” punched him with his arm he was gonna-
He didn’t get to finish his thought when he felt an arm wrap around his chest, and a body mere inches away from his.
Aside from snoring, Liam was also a heavy sleeper. It seemed he wasn’t aware of what he was doing, he just rolled around and his brain didn’t possibly register that ‘Oh yes, I am sharing a bed with none other than my frenemy Theo, but here, let me just use him as a pillow instead, no big deal’. Theo sighed in defeat.
It was weird, but it felt somewhat… nice. Theo wasn’t really used to this kind of human contact. He was still new to social interactions, having a lot to make up for lost time when he was in the sewers locked up with the Dread Doctors. So feeling Liam’s warmth being radiated onto his body, especially when he didn’t have any blankets and was starting to get cold, felt nice. He could get used to this.
He was pretty sure Liam would kick him right out of his house if he found out this happened though.
He wanted a nice place to live in for once, so Theo sighed once again, and began lifting Liam’s arm off of his chest. He tried to do it carefully as to not wake him up, but indeed he didn’t wake up at all. Apparently it didn’t work out as well as he planned because within five minutes Liam was back at it again using him as a pillow, this time he also put one of his legs on top of him.
Somewhere along the line, Liam’s snores got lower, and despite the uncomfortable sleeping position they were in, it was as calm as it was going to get for Theo to sleep. So he tried, and after a while he fell asleep.
One could argue that Theo only managed to sleep four hours that day at most, but those four hours could be classified as one of the best night’s sleep he had gotten in months. Sure, it had been a struggle to fall asleep, but once he had, he had been peaceful, no nightmares popped up, no actual sign of discomfort.
Until he was rudely woken up by a yell piercing through his ear, one of the worst ways to wake up somebody. Startled, Theo fell to the floor because he had been so close to the edge of his side of the bed. Apparently, what had woken him up was Liam, screaming.
“The hell is wrong with you?” Theo exclaimed, holding onto his ear like it was gonna fix the loud ringing he still had in it.
“S-sorry,” Liam stuttered, not wanting to say much, but he looked as red as a tomato. Theo looked knowingly at him, realization dawning on him that Liam had probably woken up to the sight of him using Theo as a pillow. He would’ve paid top money to see his exact face when it happened.
“What’s wrong, what happened?” Mrs. Geyer abruptly opened the door, clearly she had been woken up by Liam’s scream too.
“Nothing mom, there was a spider,” Liam said scratching at his neck, looking thoughtfully at the floor as if he was staring at the non-existent spider.
“It was taken care of, nothing to worry about Mrs. Geyer,” Theo replied nicely enough to ease off her nerves, so she wouldn’t start asking more questions that Liam probably didn’t want to answer.
“Okay, well, since you two are up, start getting ready to go to school,” Mrs. Geyer said, closing the door as she left the room.
“Did you yell because you were still sprawled all over me, using me as a pillow?” Theo said dryly after he made sure Mrs. Geyer was out of hearing range, and Liam never had turned to look at him so fast than in that moment.
“How did you know?” Liam embarrassingly admitted to it.
“Because you didn’t let me sleep, you moron,” Theo rolled his eyes and lied down on the bed again, this time grabbing the covers for himself.
“Why didn’t you move me out of the way?” Liam asked, his voice getting a bit higher.
“Believe me, I tried. I contemplated knocking you out and dumping you on the floor too. But after a while I just gave up, I got tired,” Theo replied.
“So you’re just… okay with the fact that we were cuddling? ” Liam groaned and covered his face with his hands.
“You were the one who insisted we shared a bed because you were too stubborn to sleep on the floor, what was I supposed to do?” Theo bit back.
“It’s my bed,” Liam said back.
“Believe me, I was made aware,” Theo glared at him, and Liam defeatedly went to look for clothes to take a shower.
Liam couldn’t believe the nerve Theo had. He had just let Liam practically hug him while he slept, he had allowed him to rest his arm over his well-defined chest, and wow, if Theo didn’t have a really well-defined body, even with his long-sleeved shirt- and what the fuck am I doing thinking about this?!
Liam mentally scolded himself as he remembered Theo was still on his bed, wearing a shirt and boxers, with no intention of getting up. He took a shirt and a pair of jeans that were too large to fit him but would sure fit Theo and he threw them in his direction.
“Get up and take a shower, we need to go to school,” Liam ignored the confused look Theo shot him.
“You know I don’t have school,” Theo said.
“Well too bad, you’re gonna have to find something to do during those hours because I can’t just explain to my mom why a homeless kid somewhat my age that’s now living at my house has also dropped out of school,” Liam made the mistake to look at Theo, who somehow looked really good despite having just woken up.
They stared at each other for a while, Theo smirking while Liam looked away and sighed in defeat. He wasn’t sure if the reason why he couldn’t breathe properly was because Theo had gotten on his nerves and made him angry, or because he couldn’t get the mental image of how he woke up this morning.
“You know, some people say cuddling makes them less grumpy in the mornings, you sure you don’t wanna use me as your personal pillow for another five minutes so you can get less angry?” Theo mocked him as he grabbed the clothes and made his way to the bathroom.
“I swear to God, if you bring it up again I’ll throw you out the window,” Liam replied back, and even though he was angry he really didn’t mean it.
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m an atheist then,” Theo smirked and closed the bathroom door, leaving an even more angry and sexually frustrated Liam sitting on his bed, contemplating just how the hell is he going to get through the next couple of days.