Chapter Text
They were stumbling home from a meeting with Mason and Corey - slightly drunk thanks to the wolfbane-mixed vodka, and Liam was fumbling with the key to their apartment, when suddenly, Theo whispered.
"I love you."
He frowned, about to laugh and say "I love you too" and ask Theo what was wrong when he realized the rapid changes in his heartbeat, and oh -
Oh.
Oh no.
He dared to look behind him - Theo seemed sober, his gaze fixed on the ground. When he looked up, his face settled into one of his calm and collected, stoic, even, expression. Liam could still see hundreds of emotions flickering in the chimera's features. On the little defeated slump on his shoulder or from the way his hand shook. For a moment, Theo Raeken laid bare and defenseless in front of him, until he schooled himself, squared his shoulders, straightened his back, a gesture that Liam, painfully, knew all too well. A gesture that somewhat resembled pre-hell Theo, devoid of any emotion.
"I don't expect you to return the feelings. If you want me to move out or something, I'll start looking for another apartment. I - " He ran a hand through his hair, voice deep and hoarse, at a loss of word.
Of course Liam wouldn't want that. They were friends, weren't they? Friends didn't let things like that come between them.
So he said no, told Theo to stay, Theo was still his friend and he didn't want things to go trainwrecked, and watched like a coward as Theo nodded and headed into the kitchen, his green, green eyes darkened under the nightlight. Liam almost missed the green shade. Almost. He told himself that when the morning came, his eyes would return to their normal color. Somehow he seriously doubted that.
Theo took the couch that night.
*
* *
Liam didn't know when their friendship began. One moment, he was in the hospital, screaming at Theo, because I'm not dying for you and Good, I'm not dying for you either.
The next, Theo slammed his body against a Ghost Rider, the latter was about to shoot at Liam. Theo prevented him from killing Gabe, from lashing out on Nolan in the zoo. Theo being the bait. Theo saving his life.
When war was over, they parted their separated ways. Liam didn't care about him, for a moment. He was busy dealing with the aftermath.
The aftermath was brutal.
Every night Liam would wake up with a dying scream on his lips. His bedsheet torned apart, his heart rates skyrocketed. Once, he trashed his whole room and punched a hole through the wall. After nights like that, he would sit in front of his parents room, listening to the steady rythm of their heartbeat, feeling their scents and their body heat seeped through the closed door. He didn't dare to go into the room and slip under the cover with them, for fear that he would claw their guts out in his sleep. Sometimes, he would go for a run. Everything would be quiet, oh so quiet, too quiet for a town that had faced chaos after chaos. He would run until all his senses were numb and he could hardly breathe, burned out all his werewolf stamina. Until he felt like human again. That's how one night, he stumbled upon Theo who was sleeping inside his truck.
It didn't surprised Liam how Theo was tossing and turning in his sleep. After all, when the war was over, they still had their own demons to fight.
He offered Theo a roof above his head, a place where he could sleep and eat and have a normal life. He offered Theo his house. They fought side by side in the war, so that's the least thing he could do for him. His parents had been understandably wary at first, but they soon nodded their approval. Anything for the man who had saved their son more than once. Convincing Theo to move in with him was easier than he expected. Maybe the guy was too exhausted, maybe he was planning his agonnizing and painful death, who knew. He moved in anyway and Liam was grateful for that.
Theo rarely had those violent nightmare. Instead he tossed and turned on the bed, mumbling something Liam didn't quite catch, not that he intended to anyway. He doubted that Theo would want him to. The first two nights came and went with panting breathes and rises of heartbeats.
The third night, he murdered the mattress. Liam ran in just in time to stop him from breaking the bed frame. Not knowing what to do, Liam punched him into conciousness, and remained stilled when Theo clutched his shirt and clung on him for dear life. They spreaded out on the tattered sheet, limbs tangled comfortably till the sun shone through the window. For Liam, sleep hadn't been that peaceful and dreamless for a long time.
They ended up sleeping together. Theo's bad dreams, and his own, subsided. There were nights that he would wake up thrashing, and Theo arm, pale in the moonlight, would drape across the sheet, press him down, hold him close and anchor him back to reality. There were nights when Theo would startle awake with cold sweats, and he would let the chimera bury his face in his neck, broken sobs escape his lips. The mornings afterward, he would look up to see the sun filling up the room and green, green eyes, under long lashes, blinking down at him.
A year after that, Liam moved out for college. Theo spent three weeks going through apartments after apartments with him, and they decided to rent the one with just one bed room. The bed was large enough so that there'd be space between them when they shared. The heater didn't work properly, but Liam insisted they would be fine without it. Theo even got a job as a bartender.
There was no supernatural involved and for once, lofe was easy. They fitted together seamlessly. They took turn doing chores, bickered all the time, met up weekly with Mason and Cory and drove home to have dinner with his parents and attend pack nights once a month. Theo had earned a decent amount of money working as a bartender because of his good look, effortless charm and all, but it meant he had to work night shifts and came home late. Liam always tried to wait up for him but failed miserably, only woke up from his uneased slumber at the clicked of the lock and the crickety sound Theo's feet made on the floor board. He could only sleep properly once Theo crawled onto the bed.
Everything was perfect, until his grades started going down hill due to his lack of sleep. Liam tried to hide it at first and take care of the problem himself. He tried drinking coffee and energy drinks, and took little naps every chance he'd got. He became angry and irritated at smallest of things.
It took Theo two more weeks to figure out what's wrong.
Liam came home in the afternoon, as usual, only to find Theo sitting in their living room, looking furious. Which didn't make sense, because he was supposed to be at work right now.
"Liam, what's this?"
Liam was already pissed, at something he couldn't remember, so he growled at Theo. "It's none of your damn bussiness."
That was their first serious fight in nearly two years.
What started with Theo holding in front of him the recent paper he just turned in, his worst grade so far, looking livid, ended with Theo punching the day light out of him, literally, and knocked him into unconciousness. Liam woke up six in the evening the day after, and saw Theo shuffling in the kitchen, making dinner. Which definitely didn't make sense, because Theo was, again, supposed to be at work. Instead, he turned round, gestured Liam toward the table and served hot soup.
Halfway through dinner, right when Liam was about to snap, tired of the silence, Theo told him.
"I quit my job."
Liam vaguely remembered atmitting to him that he hasn't been getting enough sleep, since he couldn't sleep with Theo by his side.
Something inside Liam warmed up at the thought.
*
* *
Now laying alone in his too big of a bed, everything came back to him, as vivid as a movie. He couldn't sleep, and judging by the heartbeats outside in the living room, Theo couldn't, either.
Sighing, Liam shuffled outside, clutching his blanket, and climbed on the armchair Mason always sat when he visited. He could feel Theo gaze drilled a hole in the side of his head, but he pretended he didn't. Instead he focused on the heat radiating weakly from the body a few feet away from him.
He drifted into sleep easier than he'd anticipated.