Archive of Our Own

The day Theo left for college wasn't supposed to make such an impact, but in the week Liam had at home without him, everything seemed different. He was bored, and by the end of summer, he was wishing that his first year of college could come faster so he would be out of the house and meeting people again. He'd see Corey and Mason going to Beacon Hills Community College with him, and the dullness of not having a friend around would eventually fade.

The first thing he got sent from Theo after he arrived in Massachusetts was a short Instagram video of him walking through the school grounds, carrying the one suitcase of things he'd brought with him and looking around half-scared and half-happily. "Liam! It's my first day of being at Harvard! Aaahh!"

Yeah, that had been a big one, Theo applying for college there without really knowing what kind of a prestigious school Harvard University was. All he knew at the time of turning in his application was that it was apparently the best school for studying biology, which meant he had no idea why Liam almost spit his lemonade across a mall food court table when he told him he applied. Liam was surprised he had applied, but not surprised that his friend had gotten in, and had celebrated with him. He sat through weeks of Theo being nervous and anxious about getting his rejection letter, and had been the one whose bones were almost crushed when Theo grabbed onto his hand as Jenna read out the letter when he couldn't. What could he say? Theo was smart, no doubt about it, and if any of them deserved to be able to study there, it was him.

Liam was content to stay at Beacon Hills Community College, since he was unsure if he could bear going somewhere with such high expectations. The only thing that bothered him about staying in Beacon Hills was how far away he was from Theo.

That wasn't to say he didn't still have friends with him. He went to college the same place as Corey and Mason, and he wasn't lonely for long. His boredom did go away after awhile, and he texted Theo whenever he could, not wanting to get out of touch with his albeit smarter friend. It was mostly short conversations or meaningless memes sent back and forth, but it was enough to make it worthwhile.

A week passed, and everything was going good. Liam joined the lacrosse team without much difficulty, his supernatural strength definitely helping out, and he was enjoying his classes a lot more than he expected to. It was a pain finding out that there was a reason students tried not to schedule morning classes, but he got used to it by the middle of September, no matter how much of a headache it could be sometimes.

He was watching Netflix on his phone when a text from Theo took up his screen, surprising him, since it was late in California and even later in Massachusetts . It was a simple "Can I call you," which Liam didn't get to answer before the chimera called anyway. Liam laughed. Typical.

He picked it up anyway, not even being able to get out a hello before Theo started talking, his concerned face filling the screen. His phone was sat on his bed, the lights mostly off while some music played in the background as the chimera struggled to untangle his headphones. "Hey, shit," Theo groaned, almost dropping the white wires entirely. "I need help."

"Hello to you too, isn't it, like, two AM there?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, 'you need sleep' and all that, I've already heard that from Al," Theo said, referring to Alan, his roommate who he barely ever shut up about. "I have one of my first big assignments due in a few days, but you've always been better at writing essays than me, so..."

"So you want me to help you write your essay?" Liam asked, and Theo nodded gratefully as if he had already agreed.

"Please."

Liam smirked, sighing. "Yeah, sure. What do you need help with? Format, citations, research?"

"Citations. I always used to get Corey or Lydia to help me do it when I was in English class," Theo groaned, ruffling a hand through his already messy hair. His phone tilted a little from its precarious perch on his comforter, making Theo appear slightly diagonal as he sat cross-legged on the bed.

Liam grinned and rolled his eyes lightheartedly, pulling up a page on his own laptop about all the rules of citing sources and got to work with him. Theo grumbled and groaned throughout the whole thing, but Liam helped him anyway with all one billion different things Theo seemed to have to do. He didn't even mind when Theo almost tossed his phone across the room, opting for just putting it on the floor instead. He stared at the ceiling of Theo's dorm for awhile, but as Theo observed, he didn't hang up like one of the other pack members would.

When they were done, Theo was still talking about what a pain it was about "citing sources,"and Liam had to cut him off. "Something tells me this isn't all about the essay."

Theo paused and looked off to the side, biting his tongue. He sighed and laid down, holding the phone parallel to his face. "I guess I'm not that used to it yet," Theo admitted, shrugging. "It's weird. I don't know anyone out here at all, and I'm kind of just floating through all this, to be honest. It doesn't feel real, a lot of the time."

Liam nodded. "I get it. You don't know anyone? There's seriously nobody you talk to?"

"Nobody except Alan, the fucking bastard," Theo grumbled, smirking and looking off to the side when Alan protested. "Nah, I guess it's okay. I'm in a study group. There are some people there I talk to, but not really outside of school subjects."

"Well, try it," Liam suggested. "I'm making friends with the guys on my lacrosse team, and it's a worthwhile cause. Try texting one of them, set up something."

Theo considered it for a second before nodding to himself. "Yeah. Yeah, alright. I guess I can't be stuck with being antisocial forever, right?"

"Right!" Alan called out, and Liam laughed as he watched Theo aggressively chuck a pillow off-camera.

By the end of the call, Theo had gotten done talking about the people in his study group and listening to Liam go on about some funny incident involving pineapples that happened during lacrosse practice. Before he signed off for the night to finally get some rest, Theo rubbed a hand over his face and turned serious. "Next time I call you, it's gonna be for a better reason than citing my page sources, alright?"

"Alright, I'll be waiting on it," Liam chuckled. "Good night, Theo."

"'Night, Liam."

__

"So remember how I told you about the pineapple thing?"

Theo groaned. "Yes, in all of its disgusting, sticky details. I couldn't forget."

"Okay, so the same thing happened with strawberries."

No one had hung up on Liam as fast as Theo did in that moment, but they didn't stay disconnected for long. "So the entire locker room, covered in strawberries, but it wasn't even fun anymore-"

"Do I really need to hear the same gross story over again?" Theo sighed, almost dropping his phone as he unlocked his door. Alan was gone from what Liam could see, so Theo sat on the floor in front of his bed instead of on it. "I get the jist, the students at Beacon Hills are awful."

Liam feigned offense. "Okay, first of all, they're not awful, it's just a couple unknowns, and second of all, we can't all get into Ivy-League schools on the first try. On accident. Moron."

"Can you quit calling me a moron and just get on with it? Was there anything different?" Theo asked, grabbing a package of fruit snacks out from under his bed, hidden away from Alan. What a child.

"Oh yeah. They tried to get them in through the slits in the locker doors, ruining half of what some people had inside, my white T-shirt included, and whoever did it completely ruined the posters in there, because it was all smeared there. It wasn't even fresh this time, it was canned and syrupy. Whoever's doing it got cheap all of the sudden."

Theo grimaced at the thought. "How does it smell?"

Liam glared at him after gagging, remembering it all too well. "Shut up, it's awful. It's not even funny anymore! I'm an adult with a bunch of other adults now, and adults get mad! It's weird!"

"Oh, 'adults get mad' coming from you? That's pretty rich, Liam."

Liam rolled his eyes. "Shush. What's so important going on in your life?"

"Just Alan. I may have been kidding about him getting on my nerves before, but he is annoying! There's a reason I have to keep my fruit snacks hidden under my mattress, he eats whatever he can touch!"

Theo talked about what weird things were going on with Alan and in his study group while Liam got some of his work done, finding that it was somehow easier to focus when there was a little background noise. The chimera was mostly venting anyway, so it wasn't like he needed answers to whatever he was saying. He only really caught snippets of "fruit snacks" and "excessive plastic usage" (since Theo had apparently become some environmentalist since moving to Massachusetts ) while he worked, smiling and nodding along.

"Hey, I'll talk to you soon, right?" Theo asked, catching his breath, and Liam looked at the time. Theo had been talking at him for about an hour, and he was almost halfway done a freshly-started project.

"Yeah, of course. Just text me when you're free, okay?"

Theo smiled and something in Liam's stomach shifted weirdly, but he didn't have much time to think about it before Theo was clicking the button to hang up.

__

The calls become more and more frequent as the days go on, Theo mostly calling him first, much to Liam's odd pleasure. He's usually in his dorm room sitting on his bed, peppering in little insults about Alan whether he's there or not, and sometimes Mason and Corey joins Liam in the calls. Theo knows all about how the rest of the pack he doesn't keep in touch with was doing, what with Malia ending up going to France after all and Lydia and Stiles having a pregnancy scare. Liam also met one of Theo's friends from his study group, a tall girl named Paola, and was thanked by both of them for encouraging Theo to talk to people.

Theo calls him one morning as he was getting ready for his first class of the day, and he had to answer the call while shoving his leg through his pants. "Oh, hey," Theo said, kind of shocked and with a hint of laughter. "Get lucky or something?" He asked, looking at Liam's disorganized state.

"If you call waking up half an hour late to three missed calls from your mother telling you about a pipe burst lucky, sure," Liam grunted, almost falling over while putting a sock on. "It's early."

"Yeah, I know," Theo said apologetically, and Liam was a little surprised, since old Theo would have just told him to piss off. "I wanted to call early, since we're currently on a nine-day streak and I'm gonna be busy today. I'm meeting some friends at a new cafe."

"Paola?" Liam asked, grinning a little bit at the thought that Theo was keeping track of their calls but not really knowing why.

"Yeah, but some of the others. Two from my study group and two from my evolution class. Jane, Peter, Henry, and Marco. Henry said that the coffee there is enough to make me like it, and I don't trust him, but Paola talked me into it because she likes him."

"You're just gonna lay Paola's business out on the line like that? Damn," Liam joked, Theo shrugging it off.

"She won't mind. Marco's gonna show me how to skateboard afterwards though, since I told him I haven't done that since I was like, seventeen and offered to teach me a few things. He's really good at it, if you saw him you'd know. God, I don't know how he does it."

Liam slowed down as he laced up his shoes, looking at Theo's kind of starry-eyed expression. He debated saying anything about it at all, but then Theo chewed on his lip and stopped talking and the decision was made for him. "'Friends,' huh?" Liam teased, raising an eyebrow at the chimera. He was wearing a grey beanie, which moved a little bit when Theo rubbed the back of his neck. "Something you want to tell me?"

Theo's face flushed red. "Oh," He said quietly, looking down at the table his phone was propped up on. "I guess I didn't tell you, did I? I kind of thought you just knew."

"That you're...?" Liam trailed off questioningly, wondering if he was overstepping anything.

"Gay," Theo said like it was still a little foreign, and he gnawed on his lip again. "That I'm gay." Liam smiled comfortingly.

"I didn't, but the way you were talking about your 'friend' Marco there..." Liam started, and Theo half-laughed and half-groaned, tossing his head back. "That kind of tipped me off."

"You know what? I'm gonna send you a picture of him, you'll understand what I'm talking about. Marco is something else, Jesus."

Liam had just gotten done tying his shoes when he felt his stomach drop, and it put a weird discomfort into his entire body that he didn't understand. "You really don't have to-"

His phone buzzed instead, and Theo raised one eyebrow, waiting for him to look. Liam sighed and checked it.

Theo was right, Marco was cute with long-ish dark hair and dark eyes with tan skin, but it didn't make Liam feel any better, not that he was expecting it to. "Okay, I guess he is pretty hot," Liam admitted, and when he went back to the call, Theo was looking at him triumphantly.

"See? Even a straight guy will admit Marco is hot."

Liam bit back a response about how one of those things was wrong, even more so now that they had been talking, but he was pretty sure Theo already knew what he was thinking by the way he raised his eyebrows and laughed lightly. He must have made a face or something. "Well, have fun with Marco. I hope you get all touchy-feely when you fall on your ass off your skateboard," Liam lied, but made sure to do it at Theo's expense.

"Thanks...Hey!"

__

"Is it weird to say that I miss Beacon Hills?"

That was probably one of the things Liam least expected to hear from Theo. All he could see of him was one side of his face in the dark, since he had been trying to sleep before he called him. Liam was holding his phone close to his face, having already taken out his contacts and not wanting to show Theo his glasses. "I mean...no? Why would it be weird?"

Theo shifted over in bed, laying so that his full face was in the camera's frame. Liam's breath caught, and even he wasn't stupid enough to wonder why. "I don't know. I just...I feel homesick," Theo said like it hurt him. "Even though I never really considered Beacon Hills...a home?"

Liam couldn't help but be a little hurt. Before Liam and Theo had gone off to live on their respective campuses, they had both lived together with Jenna and David, Liam's parents. He thought Theo had been happy there. "You didn't think you had a home?" He asked, just a touch of sadness coming through over the speakers.

Theo didn't notice it, but corrected himself anyway. "Well, I mean, you and your parents were home. The house was a home, but the town wasn't. I never really felt like I belonged there."

Because he didn't. Liam closed his eyes and sighed through his nose, careful to keep it quiet. Over the last few weeks of calling Theo and hearing about how much he loved life at school, he knew that Theo was right. Theo belonged in a place where people were as smart and inclined as he was, people who would treat him right and didn't hold his past against him like a knife to his throat. Liam had never seen Theo this truly happy-looking, and it made Liam feel like there was a stone in his stomach. He wished he could have been the one to help him get there.

"But lately, I've just wanted to sit on Jenna's back porch and listen to your neighbor's dog bark at all hours of the day at me, or walk down to the ice cream place where everything is kind of melted as soon as you get it, and it's weird."

Maybe he was wrong.

Liam smiled at him sympathetically. "I can't say the same, but I know that it's weird without people I used to know around me."

"I know! The worst thing about it is that I'd rather hang out with Malia than some of the others around here, and Malia painted a target on my forehead from day one."

Liam chuckled at that, but quickly turned concerned. "What about the people over there? You don't like them anymore? What about Paola and Marco?"

Theo's face softened at their names, but he quickly seemed to shake it off. "Paola's fine. She's been busy lately, I think she's a lot more serious about the group than I am at this point. She stresses me out a little bit."

"...And Marco?" Liam asked, knowing he was avoiding something. Ever since their second unofficial skateboarding date, Liam hadn't heard anything else about him.

"Marco...Marco was hot, and he was funny, but I don't know, we just didn't really fit," Theo explained, not looking too worried about it. "I guess we just kind of bored each other in the end. I did learn how to do a pretty decent kickflip out of it though, and we're still friends. Tomorrow he's taking me to an actual skatepark."

Liam smiled. Hearing that Theo was now unattached somehow made the green eyes on his screen look a little more inviting and a lot less intimidating, and it felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest that he wasn't aware he was carrying.

When he hung up the call after a half hour of talking until the chimera finally managed to fall asleep, Liam rolled over in bed and looked at the top bunk, feeling lucky that Mason was such a heavy sleeper. As he stared at the wood, he knew one thing for certain: he was screwed.

__

Two days later, Liam was the one who couldn't sleep and called Theo at four in the morning in Massachusetts time, but unsurprisingly, the chimera picked up. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and turned on his lamp, Alan stirring slightly, but at that point being used to it. "Hey," he said blearily, his voice gruff from being asleep. Liam felt calmer already.

"Hey, I'm sorry to bother you..."

"It's fine," Theo assured quickly, sitting up a little so he was propped on his elbow. The low lighting bounced off his face perfectly, Liam observed. Jesus. "You okay?"

"I can't sleep," Liam whisper-whined, and Theo chuckled softly. "Mason has been out cold since seven-thirty, and I figured who better to call than the guy I'm on a twenty-three day streak with?"

"I still can't believe we broke it that one time at sixteen," Theo groaned, shaking his head at the memory. "Tests. Anyway, how exactly am I supposed to help?"

"I don't know, just...talk to me about something. Anything, just not anything too interesting. Talk about your day or something."

"You already heard most of it," Theo said, but took a breath anyway, happy to help. Liam shuffled down into his mattress, almost hitting his elbow on the top bunk bed. He gathered the blankets to his chin and set his phone down on his bedside table. "Okay. So, I started the day by brushing my teeth, you know, like most people do, and then I got dressed. I wore a grey longsleeve under that Beacon Hills hoodie, because it's seriously cold here, like you wouldn't believe."

"You're good at this," Liam mumbled, grinning a little. Theo shushed him and willed him back into sleepiness.

As he listened to Theo talk in a low whisper about the mundane things he did like eat lunch and play a game on his phone, he couldn't help but keep his eyes open to the screen. Theo's were mostly looking around his room as he tried to remember the little details of hours past, so he didn't notice Liam at first.

The beta knew he had a soft smile on his face that he couldn't even try to hide when Theo finally looked at him, and he could see in the little box that his eyes were shiny. "Okay, wait, then I-" Theo's eyes caught his between the screens, and he faltered for the first time in ten minutes.

Even if it was just wishful thinking of a tired mind, Liam swore that Theo's cheeks turned a little pink, and not just because he had just been woken up. His lips quirked up in a tiny grin before he kept going, and Liam finally closed his eyes, because he doubted he would have a better sight that night.

He let Theo's voice lull him to sleep, and he was imagining Theo petting someone's dog as he finally drifted off. The evidence of their call that was left behind in the morning showed that it only took him about twenty minutes or less to fall asleep - the shortest it's taken him in months.

__

It's November ninth when Theo called him one day, settling on his bed while trying not to spill his cup of iced tea. He called Liam as soon as he walked into his room, and his eyes were already bright with excitement. The phone got set down on the bedside table again as Theo rubbed his hands together before opening his laptop with one and picking up his drink with the other.

He was wearing a backwards cap and one of the black long sleeved shirts that made Liam weak, and he had a reusable straw and cup, the metal clinking against the non-disposable plastic as he shook around his ice. He looked completely at peace and domestic.

It's November ninth and they're on the thirtieth day of their facetime streak, and Theo was talking about something he learned in one of his classes when Liam looked into his bright eyes and realized he was in love with him.

At first, it was like a punch in the gut, but in an oddly good way, and then something settled in his chest that made him feel warm. Every time Theo smiled the feeling grew a little bit until his cheeks felt rosy and his head was dizzy with rushing thoughts. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and was eternally grateful that heartbeats don't tend to come across calls, because Theo would have been able to hear it.

It all seemed so quick, but deep down, Liam knew he loved Theo for much longer than he had known about it. He must have started to love him the second he realized who pulled him into the hospital elevator that second time, and it definitely started kicking in a little faster watching him take Gabe's pain. He could have wondered why he was just realizing it now, debating if it was the sweetness of seeing him in all his domesticity or just because he had a lot of time to think now that the chimera wasn't around, but he didn't. All he did then was just enjoy what he had then, basking in the warmth that settled around him as he listened to Theo speak.

"It's just so interesting! I never learned anything like that at school, or even when I was snooping through the Dread Doctors' old stuff. This is actually the first time I want to actually learn about something, you know? I wake up and I want to go to class, and...Liam?"

Liam snapped out of his daze, realizing he was staring at the screen and not thinking much about what he was actually saying. "Yeah? Sorry," Liam said, scratching behind his ear.

"You okay?" Theo asked slowly and a little teasingly, and for a second Liam was scared that he could somehow hear his thoughts through the phone. To his relief, he didn't press the issue when Liam nodded his reassurance. Instead, he hopped back into his story about biomedical sciences, something Liam had very little knowledge about but was willing to listen to if it came from Theo.

That day, he just listened. He watched Theo take little sips from his environmentally-sustainable iced tea and readjust his hat, typing things onto a computer as he continued to talk. He still felt a little dizzy every time Theo looked at the camera, but he managed to keep it under wraps. The one thing he knew for sure was that this was perfection in his eyes, and one of the most beautiful sights he'd ever seen.

Theo eventually had to go because Alan came home with a friend, but he promised to call Liam the next day, and Liam had no doubt that he would. "Thirty-one day streak tomorrow!" He joked before the call ended, leaving the black screen with a lasting impression of Theo's smile.

__

The thirty-one day streak didn't break. It kept growing, and they were into thirty-nine days when Theo really made him sad for the first time.

He wasn't coming back home for Thanksgiving with the family. He had the choice to leave, but he said that it would take so much time to drive there and back that he would barely get to see them anyway, and he couldn't afford a plane ticket. Planes were also out of the question, since he had never been on one before and was saving up so that he could fly down for Christmas instead. "Hey, winter break is only a few weeks away. One month and three days, Liam," Theo reasoned when he saw Liam's disappointed face. "I know that feels like a long time."

Liam wanted to scoff, wanted to say that it felt like a long time to Theo but an eternity to him. Every time he talked to Theo now, his heart felt a little heavier and his brain was a little more clouded, and it was hard to keep his mind off of the chimera. Just knowing that he wasn't going to be seeing him was enough to keep him awake at night, which lead to more falling-asleep calls at all hours in the morning, which made him think about him again...it was a vicious cycle. "Yeah," Liam agreed, and that day, their conversation wasn't very happy-sounding, considering that Liam couldn't keep his gloominess off his face.

The next day, however, was better. Liam laid on his stomach on the floor, Theo on his bed once again, and Theo was back to talking about class. Once again, Liam had barely any idea what he was talking about, but asked questions when he understood bits and pieces.

"I'm learning more about genetics and stuff, which is cool, because it kind of gives me insight as to what would happen if I ever had a kid. Like, I'm not sure yet if they would have my supernatural DNA because I wasn't born or bitten, but I'm looking into it, and it seems like it would be a yes since it's in my blood anyway?" Theo took a breath, looking back at the camera after realizing he had been on kind of a tangent. Liam was listening anyway. "You think you'd ever want kids one day?"

That question took Liam by surprise, especially at how casually but seriously it was posed. Theo looked genuinely interested in his answer. "Um," Liam stuttered, still a little shocked. "Yeah. I mean, that's always been kind of part of my plan, supernatural or not. I like them."

Theo grinned. "Yeah, me too. I never thought I would like them, let alone have one of my own, but I don't know...there's just something about it that sounds nice to me. Nice and..."

"Normal," Liam finished when Theo couldn't find the word he was looking for. "It's one of the things we can have."

Liam's mind took the 'we' differently, thinking that it sounded like Theo and him instead of supernaturals as a whole, and according to the split-second of surprise on Theo's face, he took it that way too. "Yeah, being something else never stopped the Hales from having kids, after all, and look what they did."

"I don't know if Peter is really the best example of that," Liam said jokingly. "Although, if it weren't for him, Scott wouldn't be a werewolf and he wouldn't have bitten me, so..."

"We would have never met," Theo realized, aghast. "Wow."

Liam froze, looking down at the floor. He knew that Theo considered him a friend, but he wouldn't have expected him to be so devastated by the concept of never having met each other. They were both silent for a few seconds, both in their thoughts, before Theo's expression softened with his eyes. "How are you doing, Liam? We don't talk about you a lot, I want to know."

Liam gave a wavering smile. "Oh, where should I start..."

__

Liam's calendar was marked for December twentieth, the day Theo and Liam's winter break started, and he looked at it every day. He crossed the days off without ever forgetting, each square covered by a blue sharpie X, and every time, he got a new sense of joy that the days were ticking down.

Still, even if there was evidence that he wasn't stuck in a loop, it sure felt that way. He missed Theo so bad that sometimes it physically hurt, his chest feeling tight and his movements heavy. With every day that passed, so did another facetime call, just another time he would see him but not really see all of him.

He fell in love a little more each day, so painfully that he could list off the things he loved and knew about Theo in his head. His laugh, his smile, the questions he asked, his love of learning, his enthusiasm, his beautiful green eyes. He loved strawberry ice cream and his favorite thing to study was genetics, he slept with three blankets on the bed but he always kicked two off in the night, he was strongly against olives and believed they were the most disgusting thing around, and he got homesick all the time, especially towards the end of November and into December.

Finals were coming around soon for both of them at that point, so as Liam crossed off December seventh on his calendar, he sighed. He knew that finals were taxing enough as it was, and they had both been a little too preoccupied studying to call each other for as long or as often. They almost broke their then fifty-eight day streak because Liam fell asleep over a textbook, and most of the talking they did was helping with each other's study guides and things. December tenth was the day Theo started his, and Liam didn't have a good feeling about it. He didn't like seeing the dark circles under Theo's eyes at all, and he was sure that it would only get worse.

Mason had decorated the dorm in different red and green things, trying to put Liam in the mood for Christmas, but the holiday itself was mostly in the back of his mind. The three of them, Liam, Mason, and Corey, were all going back to their families and they'd come over to Liam's house for Christmas, but Liam was focused on Theo. His heart ached every time he thought of him, only being elevated when Theo mentioned coming back home. The plane tickets were purchased, and it was almost time to find out if Theo had aviophobia or not.

He wondered what would happen when he saw Theo. Sometimes he sat awake thinking about what it would be like to finally see him in person again, and he wondered if he had changed at all in ways that Liam couldn't see on camera. He knew Theo had a tattoo on his right bicep, because he had called him very shortly after he got it to show him, but perhaps he had grown taller or gotten a little more built, if that were possible. Most of all, he worried about his own feelings.

He thought about Theo so much without an outlet that he was afraid everything would just spill out, but he tried to steer away from that. Mason had also asked him about it a few times, not-so-silently judging Liam's anxiety. He hadn't explicitly told his roommate that, but being Liam's best friend and all, Mason had figured it out on his own.

"I don't think you're going to have much of a choice," Mason told him flat out after Liam told him about his plan to keep it quiet. "I will bet you money, and I've already bet Corey enough, that if you don't immediately try to jump him when you first see each other that you will definitely do it sometime this break. You have an entire month..."

Liam had thrown his plastic spoon at him and left, his face turning pink at the implications of those words.

And oh, did Liam think about that. His relationship with Theo was obviously completely not physical, which made the whole thing even more intimidating in the end. Liam wanted Theo's hands on his hips or his shoulders or other places, anywhere the chimera would let them be, and he wanted his own cupping Theo's cheeks the first time they kissed, or maybe Theo's on his cheeks. It almost made him pass out from his dizziness when he thought about kissing him at all, the unknown feeling making him itch for December twenty-first, the day Theo's plane touched down in California.

He missed Theo so much that the days felt like molasses, and he could barely take his mind off of the boy he loved while he was taking his finals.

__

"I'm gonna admit it, I'm kind of scared," Theo said, shivering, as he walked into a new section of the airport. Liam grinned even wider, his smile never leaving.

It was the last time that Theo would call him before they saw each other again at LAX and Liam was buzzing. He could hardly sit still as Theo showed him all of the things in the Boston airport in an attempt to stay calm himself.

"I can't wait to be back, I've missed Jenna and David and everyone so much, and Jesus fuck, I miss that old dog barking, it's so hard to fall asleep without it, and..." Theo took a breath and stopped where he was walking. "And I miss you."

Liam's heart swelled and he wasn't sure what to even say. He couldn't really put any of it into words, but that was all they had until the next morning when Theo's plane landed. It was either very early or very late in both places, and they were both a little delirious with their excitement.

Theo didn't wait for him to speak. "I did all my Christmas shopping here, so I'm paying extra for luggage, hope you appreciate me," He scoffed, and Liam laughed. "You think Mason and Corey will want to see me?"

"Oh, yeah, of course," Liam said, sitting down on his bed. His bag was already packed to bring to his parents' house for the holidays, ready to be put in the car when he needed to pick Theo up from the airport. "For as much as we've been talking, I think it would be kind of insulting not to want to see you."

Theo breathed out a short laugh.

It was clear that it was a little awkward for Theo to be talking on facetime in the middle of an airport, but after a little while, they both got over it. Liam listened to everything he had to say, and even helped him through it when he got worried. "Okay, I've never been on a plane before, as you know, so what am I supposed to do? I watched a whole bunch of videos on proper plane etiquette but what if I screw up?"

Liam sighed. "Theo, I can't believe that after everything I'm saying this, but you're one of the most polite people I know. You don't have much to worry about that."

Theo whined and put his head back on his waiting room seat. "What if I get sick? I hate that."

"Do you have mints and gum with you? Dramamine? Advil?" Theo nodded to all of them. "Then you're gonna be fine. If you really feel that bad, take a dramamine and it'll knock you right out, promise."

"Alan also gave me these little wristband things? I don't know what they are," Theo said, raising one of his hands so Liam could see the compression band. He took a few minutes explaining what those were to Theo, who seemed a little too apprehensive to care.

Liam talked to him for as long as he could, until Theo's freshly-charged phone was at half battery and he was being called to board economy. "Alright, Li. It's the seventy-first day, remember," Theo said, getting up from his seat and taking a deep breath. "Remember, because from now until January twenty-fourth, it's on hold."

"I wish we didn't have to have a seventy-second," Liam sighed, and Theo smiled softly and nodded.

"Seventy-One on hold" was the last thing Theo said before the call was over, the words Liam kept rolling around in his head all night.

__

Liam didn't sleep that night at all since he had slept through a lot of the day in preparation, so he was ready bright and early to pick Theo up from the airport. The drive over to the Los Angeles International Airport was full of him tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and humming discordantly to the random songs on the radio, and he was glad that Corey and Mason hadn't taken him up on the offer to go with him, since he would have undoubtedly annoyed the hell out of them. He made a mental note to try and stop so that Theo wouldn't want to jump out of the car within the first hour of being home.

All of the music on the radio seemed weird and distorted to him, warped by the many feelings whizzing around his head and chest all at once. He couldn't wait even when he was mere minutes away from the airport to see him, which affected everything around him. He didn't even mind the stupid bumper stickers that would have normally annoyed him, instead appreciating that they added a bit of color to the world.

He knew that he had been at LAX before just months ago to see Stiles and Lydia off after they visited in the summer, but it still felt odd as he entered the parking lot and went through airport security. Everything seemed to smell different and his vision was altered, things look a little brighter than usual to his already sensitive eyes. He picked up every little detail, from the flowers printed on a young woman's dress to the smell of overpriced pretzels spinning in one of the shops. Still, none of the scents around him matched up to the one he was looking for.

I'm here Liam texted him, wondering if Theo's plane had even landed yet, as he'd gotten there admittedly way earlier than necessary. He knew that planes sometimes landed late or early, so he didn't want to leave Theo hanging, but it was taking a toll on him to just stand at his arrival gate, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He shivered in anticipation.

If he were to call Mason, the first thing he would say was 'My heart is going to beat out of my chest,' and he imagined it to calm himself down. It felt great in some way to need to calm down because he was excited and not angry, but not by much. He felt like his veins were buzzing somehow and like all the blood was rushing through his head, each second passing another closer to Theo.

It only dawned on him for real that Theo was there when there was an announcement that his flight had landed, and the werewolf swore he blacked out for a second. Theo, the one who put this warm feeling in his stomach, was in California. He wasn't just a face on a screen anymore. In a few seconds, they'd be breathing the same air, touching his shoulders playfully like he always did and coming home to help decorate a little more for Christmas with his family.

Liam watched with wide eyes and frantic movements as the first class passengers got off first, some businessmen carrying briefcases off and heading straight to the baggage carousel with their phones, others reuniting with their families and loved ones. He craned his neck to make sure he caught the exact moment Theo stepped into the room, ducking around people flooding out, all jetlagged and happy to be home.

He knew that Theo came through the door by the sandalwood-brown sugar scent that filled the air, rising above everyone else's, and Liam broke into a grin that almost hurt to hold. Theo looked down at his phone and at Liam's text before glancing around the place, looking radiant as ever even just doing a simple task.

Their eyes met and Theo pushed his way through the crowd, a slow-growing smile spreading over his lips as he made his way towards the beta. He was wearing his crimson Harvard pullover and a backwards hat, but Liam's world had long since stopped spinning and he was transfixed on Theo's eyes, filled with emotion and excitement.

Liam wasn't going to hug him, just to keep himself at bay, but the chimera obviously wasn't thinking the same thing, because as soon as they were in front of each other, Theo dropped his carry-on bag on the ground and wrapped his arms around Liam. The beta was suddenly hit with his scent in such an overwhelming way that it made his head spin, breathing it all in as he was pressed into Theo's chest. "Ah, Liam!" Theo groaned, sounding elated and relieved that he was really there. "Jesus, it's been so long."

Even with Theo right in front of him, Liam somehow managed to keep himself from fainting, although he did roll over his words a few times. "Oh, god, I know. How was your flight, how are you?" He asked like they hadn't just talked the night before and like he wasn't quite sure what to say to him. On instinct he rubbed Theo's covered arm as Theo picked his bag back up.

Liam took another breath as they started to walk. Good, Liam, he thought, unsure of when he had set a goal not to do anything with Theo. He could now honestly tell Mason that he hadn't tried to jump Theo at the arrival gate.

Hearing Theo in person was like the song of life, his deep, raspy voice sending shivers down his spine, his laugh sending waves through the air unsullied by phone speakers and thousands of miles. As he talked about his flight on their way to the baggage carousel, Liam just gazed up at him with a calm and content expression.

Theo was home.

"Li?" Theo asked lightly, waving a hand in front of his face. There was a light pink blush on his cheeks and Liam almost died. "You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry," Liam murmured, looking down at their feet as they finally got to the carousel. "It's just a little weird seeing you again. I missed you a lot."

"We talked every day," Theo laughed, but stopped after a second, smiling. "But I missed you too."

Their shoulders were pressed together as they waited for Theo's red suitcases to come around, only stopping when Theo took off his hoodie to reveal one of those longsleeved shirts, because of course Theo was making it as hard as possible for him to stay calm. His hat came off and the fabric messed up his hair, and he just left it that way, a little unruly but perfect nevertheless. Liam's heart skipped in his chest.

Your Theo is back! A little voice cheered, more joining in until they melted into more of a roaring in his head like the waves of an ocean. Your Theo! Your Theo!

Liam's fingers itched to touch him all over again, but this time a thousand times worse, ranging from in pain to unbearable in seconds. "Here's mine," Theo said, breaking the semi-comfortable silence, nodding down at his suitcase.

Liam reached for it at the same time as his, and in a split second, sparks of heat flew up his arm as his hand fell on top of Theo's. Liam sucked in a gasp and found that he couldn't move, but he wouldn't have been able to anyway. A second later, five fingers were laced through his and he couldn't breathe anymore.

They stood in stunned silence, hands wrapped tightly together, the carousel moving along with Theo's bag still on it, but they didn't care. Liam's face burned up hotter than he'd ever remembered it getting before, and his heart pounded against his ribcage.

Liam swallowed down nothing and glanced at the boy he was holding hands with, afraid of what he would see.

Two green eyes were staring down at him, and the shine he found there was enough to throw all of his reservations away. With one last breath, he launched himself at Theo albeit a little too hard, but he chimera was quick to catch him. The hoodie he was holding fell to the ground as he wrapped both his arms around Liam's back, eyes closing on their own volition as he knew what would happen next.

Liam kissed him first, bringing his hands to the back of Theo's head and pulling him down so he could reach, melting with relief as soon as their lips touched. Theo didn't hesitate in returning it, both of them too shocked to be coordinated at first, but getting the hang of it and getting into it within seconds. One of Liam's hands tightened in Theo's hair as the chimera's tongue ran over his bottom lip, begging to be let inside, and Liam couldn't stop the noise he made when Theo bit into one of his lips without remorse, causing them to break apart and gasp.

They rested their foreheads together and it took Liam a second to realize he was crying, only noticing it when Theo used the pad of his thumb to brush a tear away. "I..." Liam whispered, his eyes dropping back down to Theo's panting and kiss swollen lips. "Holy shit."

"I know," Theo chuckled, all of the sudden breaking out into quiet laughter. He closed his eyes and kissed Liam again, this time not getting so lost in it, but it was just as passionate as the first. "Why did it feel like that?"

Liam was taken aback, still a little out of it, but didn't move away. "Feel like what?" He asked, searching Theo's eyes. "All I felt was what I've wanted for what feels like forever," He whispered, his fingers moving along the back of his neck. "Is that not what you..."

Theo couldn't put it into words, so he shook his head and went back in for another kiss, Liam's knees going so weak he didn't think he could recover. "That's exactly what it was," He agreed quietly, looking down at their feet when looking at Liam got too intense. His hoodie was still there by Liam's sneakers and he grinned even wider. They stood in silence for just a second, taking each other in, hearts full, before someone cleared their throat.

"Sorry," Liam said sheepishly, moving out of the way of the impatient girl trying to get her bag. "Oh, your suitcase went back around," he groaned, spotting it all the way on the other side of the rotation. Theo just laughed and put his arm around his waist.

"That's okay," Theo said, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. "I'll wait with you."

__

Theo still hadn't detached himself by the time they got back to Jenna and David's house, walking up the two front stairs to the front door at each other's hip. "We're home!" Liam called out after he opened the door, getting both Theo and his bag inside.

Jenna dropped something in the kitchen sink and came rushing to the foyer, a huge smile on her face before she even saw them. She had a wooden spoon in her hand, but that soon fell too as she took one look at their two red faces and joined hands. "Finally!" She cried, pouncing on them for a bear hug, both of the taller boys groaning and laughing.

"Welcome home, Theo," Liam said, rubbing his back, and Theo smiled. "We've missed you."