Work Text:
There’s no many things one can say are amazing about working on a coffee shop.
Most of the time, Liam finds himself pretty bored. He gets to eat whatever pastry he wants and drink as many coffee as his heart desires, but at what cost? His body can take as much caffeine and sugar before a heart attack makes its appearance over the horizon.
So the next best thing is to clearly have a crush on a client.
*
The guy is over a level of sleep deprivation that Liam isn't sure it's accessible for any human. For fuck's sake, each new sip of coffee makes him look somewhat more tired than before. At verge of just falling asleep over the coffee shop table. But the worst part of it is that he also looks ready to fight God itself and Liam-- Liam is embarrassed to admit the whole scene scares him a little bit.
It also turns him on, but fear is the one feeling he’ll settle with.
*
For a bit more than a month, Liam’s life swings from how dare he smile like that first thing in the morning and make my insides melt so disgustingly quick to how can I tell him in a cup of coffee that all I think about is to share an apartment together and have fifteen cats as our kids?
Just, y’know, the usual.
*
“I'm not saying you should talk to him--,” Mason mutters, doing the whole I’m avoiding to look at you but you know I am looking at you , “--but that's exactly what I'm saying because watching you pine from afar is really not that amusing”
“Nope,” Liam replies, trying to convince both Mason and himself that he never entertained that idea in his mind. “I don't even know him”
“Exactly,” Mason sighs, finally turning to look at Liam with the glint in his eyes of someone that clearly is about to say I’m really tired of your shit but at the same time very amused, even when I say I’m not . “Listen, I don’t want to start an intervention on your ass but you know his coffee order by memory now and you haven't, like, exchanged words at all. He didn’t even ask you for it, Li. You just saw me making it once and it magically got ingrained into your brain”
Liam doesn’t reply because Mason is right. There’s nothing he could say to make this better. But at the same time he knows that by constitution, everyone is innocent until proven guilty and like hell he is going to give that satisfaction to Mason.
But it’s not that he needs to say anything anyways.
“I’m saying this for own good, Li: this is even more depressing that watching The Notebook for a 3rd time”
Mason has decoded him way too long ago to throw a well packed punch without any issue.
*
Liam has nerve.
He does. Really. Enough to be smug to two seniors when he was a junior, just because he knew he played lacrosse better than them. Yes, it got him to be pseudo-kidnapped, tied in a bathtub, a broken leg when he ran away and a bitten arm but that’s not important.
What is important is that he has nerve.
He just can’t find it anywhere now.
*
It’s not his nerve but Mason’s shove what pushes Liam to find himself at the side of the Most Gorgeous Guy He’s Ever Seen Really.
But he guesses that’s better than nothing.
*
“Uh, hi, good morning, hi,” Liam stammers like the mess he is, feeling embarrassment coil at the pit of his stomach. “I’ve noticed that you, uh-- you are studying a lot? Finals week?”
Liam waits, wriggling his hands together, but the guy doesn’t even look at him. He doesn’t even react not gives any clue that he knows of Liam’s existence. It’s like Liam isn’t even real.
Oh, but he is real.
The amount of stares burning over him with pity, commiseration and even amusement are making him feel extremely real right about now.
“Okay, well-- good talk,” Liam croaks out and turns around, fleeing the scene with all the shame and remorse possible.
He’s very much ready to stop being real right about now.
*
It’s somewhat 20 minutes later when Liam peeks out from the back door and That Asshole is still there. Looking exactly as if nothing happened, sipping his most coffee, black like his own soul, and just keeping his gaze glued onto the fucking books, which is the only thing closer to being a human that he’ll ever be.
And yet the only thing Liam can think is fuck, he’s still cute .
*
“It’s okay,” Liam mutters to himself, doing his best to not look at the guy that just broke his heart without even muttering a word or sending a glance his way, “You can leave this behind. He’s not going to come back. You can bury your shames”
Mason, at his side, snorts.
All it takes is a best friend to know you’re never going to be able to forget about any shame as long as he lives.
*
If only did he know that Mason wasn’t going to be the only one ruining his plans.
*
Next day, the guy walks back inside the coffeeshop and Liam can feel his blood boil. How dare he. How dare he come and smile at him when the day before he just completely ignored his existence.
How dare he still be goddammit breathtaking as fuck and put Liam’s brain into trouble once more.
*
Liam’s handwriting has always been a mess.
The letters tend to be too small, too clumped together. A loop is unable to be told apart from a stick, never crossing his Ts or dotting his Is. A terrible utter mess that no one, not even the closest people to him, would be able to read.
But that is not an issue when he decides to write down very neatly The Asshole on the guy’s cup.
*
The look of surprise on those stunning green eyes is way too satisfactory for him.
In every sense of the word.
*
“You do know he is deaf, right?,” Mason asks, watching Liam glare at the corner where his crush-not-crush is sitting.
“He is what?”
“Deaf,” Mason repeats, matter of factly, finally managing to make Liam pull his gaze away from Douchebag Modern Greek God. “He always orders with his phone, Liam. Why did you think he would do that?”
Liam stares at his best friend in silence. Mason stares back, with a bit less surprise in his gaze and more of a motherly instinct of you’re so lucky I still love you so much . Utter, deep, bone-gnawing silence stretches between them both. His brain is sending signs of ‘abort mission’ and ‘fatal mistake’ all at once.
It’s overwhelming to think how everything makes far more sense now.
How The Asshole is him now.
*
“I insulted him in his cup!,” Liam cries out, hiding once more in the back room. The door is closed but Mason can still hear him perfectly because the damn thing is made out of cardboard possibly.
“One of your long string insults or--?”
“I put The Asshole in his name setting,” Liam groans in embarrassment.
“You can say you mistook the order”
“It’s his specific order!”
A hand falls over his shoulder and pats him gently. It’s the unspoken message of the universe to say you fucked up so bad that even Mason doesn’t know what to say .
And that is a message that Liam isn’t ready for.
*
The guy keeps coming back to the coffeeshop. There are no demands to call a manager nor complaints of any kind. Specially when the guy still smiles at him. Yes, it’s a bit more clipped. The edge of something a bit dangerous tainting the gesture, but Liam decides that it all just means that he still has a chance of fixing this.
Maybe, if he’s lucky enough, the guy doesn’t even know he was the one who wrote the cup.
*
Oh, how wrong can he be.
*
Deathly embarrassment resurfaces in all of it’s glory with the neatly folded paper over the guy’s table when he goes to clean it up.
For the Jerk , it says. Inside of it, his tip folded artistically enough so the bills are flipping him off. All of his tip, leaving him with an assorted of middle fingers just for him to enjoy.
Liam is positive to say he never felt more in love with anyone before.
*
“I’m telling you I’m fixing it,” Liam says with a huge confident smile playing on his lips. “He’s going to like me back”
“Or he’s going to want to kill you,” Mason quips back, “Although I’m not sure the people you’ve been into knows the difference between those two”
Liam doesn’t rise to the nudge to his ego and instead shrugs as only reply, the smile on his lips not wavering one bit. Yes, Brett and him might have tried to annihilate each other more than once when they were playing lacrosse in the same team. And Hayden had given him more than one black eye to sport around before they were together. But this can be the change of the rule, right?
Right?
*
He has come to the conclusion that he might be too wishful thinking about it.
But if he’s honest, it’s not like death isn’t a worthy price as long as he can still look at those breathtaking green eyes.
*
He keeps finding his tip neatly folded and flipping him off as usual.
Mason has to agree with him, at some point, that the lack of violence is kind of a good sign.
*
It takes a couple of days, but noticing that his crush doesn’t mellow at all, Liam decides that maybe resuming the ASL classes with his mom and be a little bit less rusty with it would come in handy.
*
“I need to get the ASL mojo back, mom,” Liam mutters to the phone.
He’s not on his break, Mason is. But he’s not at the peak hour so the shop is almost empty, and the few patrons in there are wearing headphones in a clear sign of trying to drown the world around them, so he didn’t think about it too much before calling.
“I know this is a wonderful thing but you’re my child and I’ve known you far enough to know I have to ask the reason behind it,” his mom’s reasons, but she sounds somewhat distracted, which is always a good sign. He can be somewhat honest and she’s not going to ask a lot of questions because that’d mean she has to stop doing the other thing she’s doing.
“Well, there’s a guy--”
But of course his plan backfires.
“Oh my god, Li! Baby! How did you two meet? How is he called? Is he older or younger than you? How long how you guys been together?”
He really can’t blame her for the motherly instincts kicking in of wanting to know more about her son’s life. But really, she could do something to ease that spy strike in her blood.
“Well, I don’t-- I know his name because he orders coffee at the shop, we haven’t really talked and I don’t think he really likes me but--”
“Oh, sweetheart...,” his mom mutters under her breath, as if he was a second away from breaking down crying.
And okay, if he’s being fair, maybe he’s not that far from it.
*
At this point and in this society, Liam is more than used to the Rebeccas and the Brads . That’s how he calls them in his head, at least. White man and woman that get offended or horrified - sometimes both of those at the same time, just to spice things up - with whatever they see out of their little fragile 2x2 square they live in, ready to throw a fit because how even dares the world function in any way they don’t see fit.
And they seem to love baristas and retail workers the most. Even more if they manage to get the combo breaker of them being a millennial and queer.
Liam, for his part, doesn’t see fit that the Rebecca #15 of the day decides to buy one the really weird beverages that have nothing like coffee in it and, not pleased enough with that, also asks to change half the ingredients just to not leave any tip and flutter all around the place trying to take photos with the damn branded cup. But what he hates the most of all of that is the fact that she keeps sending flirty eyes to the table where Beautiful Jerk is sitting at. Yet he manages to live with that burden.
Okay, maybe not so much about the last one.
Rebecca #15 doesn’t seem to share her extra fluttery gaze with him once she notices that Liam is, in fact, not putting the exact amount of ingredients she asked for but a healthy amount of caramel and whipped cream.
“Ugh, can I get someone that can actually make me a coffee for once?,” Liam sighs and stops all together. He understand where this is going, Rebecca #15 doing her whole charade when still trying for Theo to look at her and think she’s pretty or interesting or whatever those bodily contortions are supposed to be, “What are you, dumb? I want to talk to your manager. CALL. YOUR. MANAGER.”
The woman solo show now has extra hand and arm expressions and her mouth is doing the patronizing punctuation of words that Liam came to know so well. He smiles and nods, because that’s his job.
And then he signs.
He isn’t sure why he does it. Yeah, he and Mason used to do it when they were little kids so they could ‘secretly’ talk to each other in class. But this?
This is new.
This is a new level of fury he hasn’t unlocked before.
Letter by letter, quick and harsh enough to make her reel back a bit. Not exactly because she understands anything he is saying, but because the intention is clear as water.
<<Fuck you too>>
Well, if that isn’t a funny story to explain how he got fired from work.
*
He knows it would have ended bad, because Rebecca #15 has that crease at the corner of her mouth that's nothing but disgust and she’s frowning enough to make her forehead look oddly close to a shar pei. You’re never supposed to make customers do that thing with their face, no matter is the manager is your best friend or not.
And on top of that, his mom is going to be so pissed at him for using ASL for this. The whole “this is a language of inclusion”, which it is. She is right. Liam knows and always knew that. He just had the power and used it in the wrong way, like Peter Parker who lost his uncle. Except he lost his job now. And really, it would have ended bad--
Except nothing happens.
*
Rebecca number 15's mouth opens, probably ready to yell, when the Glorious Bastard appears out of nowhere like a fucking knight in shining armor with the same expression of discontent that she’s wearing.
But it’s not directed at him, it’s at her.
Thank god.
And then the boy signs with a barely contained rage in his demeanor.
Wait, I take it back, holy shit.
*
Liam is a bit rusty on his ASL. He might forget what the meaning of some of the signs is or it make take him a bit longer to decode. He’s prone to making mistakes, for sure.
But there’s no way of mistaking that the Beautiful Jerk is signing a Moana song, all along with the most terrifying bitch face Liam has ever seen.
*
One of the boy’s hand slap over the counter to mark that he’s over with his ‘rant’ and Liam jolts, clearly hearing the loud sound in the same way the other 10 patrons inside did.
Thankfully no one calls him out on his shit.
*
Rebecca #15, on her defense, looks more than just a bit troubled now. Liam is sure that she caught nothing of what the Breathtaking Asshole just signed and the little more of dozen of eyes looking at her fighting not one but two signing people must not be the best attention to draw on.
Soon there’s a wobbly lip and puppy eyes and Liam knows is a tactic of deviation, expects it to work actually.
It doesn’t.
The Beautiful Bastard stays unmoved, hard shoulders as if he is ready to actually throw hands with a poorly caffeinated middle aged woman. Liam is actually expecting for everything to go down and needing to call 911 but Rebecca #15 is who withdraws from battle at the end, huffing and turning around, leaving immediately and without offering an apology. Not that Liam was waiting for one.
As if the sight of the middle aged woman’s retreating defeated wasn’t enough of a turn on, the guy turns and smirks at him. Liam wonders if maybe he should apologize, thank him for defending his deplorable and non existent honor or just swoon.
<<I am hearing-abled,>> Liam signs sheepishly, taking a complete different route of action.
<<I know,>> the Stunning Motherfucker signs back, smile beaming a bit more before the guy swiftly moves back to his table, leaving Liam as if nothing of what just happened was real and he just imagined the whole thing.
Maybe he did.
Although the way he’s just crushing harder than before is enough proof to let him know that maybe the whole thing was pretty real after all.
The fact the whole thing was pretty insane helps too.
*
“So he defended you,” Mason mumbles, mouth full of the leftover pastries from the morning.
“Yeah, I-- I guess he did,” Liam mumbles, frowning slightly and focusing on cleaning the tables instead.
“And you’re swooning,” Mason
“Am not”
“You totally are,” Mason singsongs amusedly. “A knight in shining armor, signing off the big bad witch of the hour. Man, if it wasn’t for Corey, I’d snatch him all for myself”
“You wouldn’t,” Liam quips back, almost like a jealous little kid.
“You are right, I wouldn’t,” Mason replies with a snort, clearly noticing where Liam’s little outburst comes from, “Just because I have standards”
Liam isn’t sure what standards is Mason even talking about, because they are clearly friends which is a sign that there’s none there but he’s not going to comment on it, no sir.
One less person trying to snatch that Gorgeous Jerk for themselves is always welcomed.
*
<<I'm Theo>>
Liam looks bewildered at the boy in front of him, feeling like he's about to explode on his own skin. This is a change in their routine that Liam wasn’t ready for. At all.
<<I know,>> Liam signs dubiously back, turning to look at both his sides as if maybe the boy wasn’t presenting himself.
<<Do you?,>> Theo signs back, amusement written all over his face. <<I recall you writing The Asshole on one of them”
<<That was clearly not me, you have no proof>>
It sounds awfully like he is at fault, which he is, but Theo’s smirk is still in place so Liam is going to take it as the other boy believing him. That, or he’s going to get a surprise restriction order at some point.
Trying to look less awkward than how he feels, Liam twists towards Mason, waiting for him to come pick up the order. It is their thing: Mason picked it up, Liam prepared it and avoided the embarrassment of talking to his crush after the awful work he’s been doing lately. But Mason seems too comfortable leaning against the counter and smiling at him.
Some friend he is.
Huffing, Liam turns back and tries to look not awkward at all as he gestures to the board with all the coffee options. Theo barely glances up before smiling at him once more.
<<What I want isn’t in the menu, so-->>, Theo signs with a playful shrug at the end before adding, <<One black coffee with a muffin, please>>
Liam barely nods, trying to keep his knees steady before he turns around to start to prepare the order. It's nothing fancy, but most people avoid ordering fancy coffees at 7.30 in the morning. Although he doesn’t remember Theo ever asking for anything fancy, always a black coffee and a pastry. What is definitely new is the smooth flirt that put Liam’s world upside down way too early in the morning.
Each time he peaks up, the boy is looking at him and really, most customers do. It's like brewing a potion for them, it's thrilling. But there's something in this guy's face that's a bit unnerving. He's not just looking, he's ogling. There’s no doubt the guy is checking him out and--
The boy turns and looks at Mason, who's signs something quick enough so Liam couldn't understand properly, the fucker. He's suddenly overwhelmed with the need to throw the coffee order at him, but he's not going to pay a cent for it.
“Stop it,” Liam hisses under his breath, barely missing throwing the scalding hot coffee over his hand.
“I’m just bonding with the love of your life,” Mason replies easily, a smile in his voice.
“He can read your lips!,” Liam screeches as embarrassment takes hold of him again.
“My point stands”
The only point that stands is the fact that Liam should have chosen a better best friend when he was four years old and that the consequence for his actions is Mason becoming his early death.
*
After that incident, the lingering gazes start.
Ponty.
Sharp.
Unblinking gazes.
Liam isn’t sure if he should feel giddy with the thought of finally being noticed or if he should fear for his life.
*
After quite a while of feeling overwhelmed by the sensation of being watched, Liam wonders if he just got a crush on a serial killer.
*
“You know how some people say ‘you too’ when you tell them to enjoy their coffee?”, Liam mumbles softly, his face a mask devoid of emotion.
It’s not that he doesn’t feel a thing about what just happened, but more like he feels all of the things and even more, so he can’t give enough credit to just one to take the wheel of his facial expression, can he?
“Yeah?,” Mason asks back with a slight frown of worry.
Maybe Liam hasn’t been able to mask all his inner freak out and his face has been doing all kinds of crazy things. Maybe he's been clowning himself with Theo all along too. Although he's sure that one had been going for a while and it doesn't revolve around his facial expressions only.
“Well, I just had one of that”
“What? A brain fart?”
“I just told him I loved him too,” Liam whispers hysterically, finally relenting to the embarrassment gnawing on his bones and deciding to cover up his face.
If there is a perk about Theo being deaf is that he can’t hear Mason’s loud laugh of amusement and Liam’s groaning into his hands as his body recoils on itself with shame.
Is too much of a shame that he still can see them.
*
<< I’m thirsty >>
Well, so am I.
Liam is so going to hell.
“Liam--!,” Mason hisses and who even knows how many times did he do it before, “You’re holding up the line!”
The worst part of it is that Mason knows he’s going to hell. He’s known for quite a while now but this, this is for unrelated reasons. Because there’s no way that with Theo’s smirk side by side with his ‘thirsty’ sign, finger travelling down his throat, Liam will not just die then and there.
Okay, maybe there is a way. He’s still working and he has to keep his decency to some sort of level to ensure not getting kicked out but he’s not that far from just swooning and looking like a complete dumb.
Mason does one of his are you kidding me now sounds and yes, he knows he’s holding up the line. He can see the grumpy faces just behind Theo, who’s smirking like the asshole he is. Because that’s what this is about, Theo is an asshole who knows how to rile Liam up and Liam just go and lets him because otherwise he’ll get fired for punching a customer square on the face.
Or for incorrect use of the staff's bathroom.
Whichever it is, sounds like a valid option in his mind.
He’s opening his mouth, ready to say something, when Theo’s smirk morphs into a smile and really. What even is this. That is a completely unfair move, he can’t just throw some softness over that whole fuckboy thing he did before.
No, Liam can’t handle this. The coffeeshop did not train enough for this shit.
*
This time, Mason’s sound is a bit more on the verge of desperation, but Liam is too occupied with just running away to hide in the staff’s bathroom to even care about that.
Mortification is a slow killing method, he is sure of it.
*
“Is it bad to flirt with a customer--?”
“Are you telling me that running away at peak hour to hide in the bathroom was your definition of flirting?,” Mason mutters in surprise, stopping from drying the coffee mugs to instead look at him as if he just grew up a second head.
“It wasn’t that bad”
“Liam, he told you he was thirsty and you reacted as if he had just signed that he wanted to have your babies”
He perks at that thought. It’s not that he’s interested, but if Theo is interested, then he can take it into consideration. Put a pin on it for future references.
“Do you think he wants that?”
“I think that’s not the point here,” Mason huffs amusedly. And okay, maybe he is right, but it was worth a shot on asking. “Listen, why don’t you just invite him--”
“Can’t do”
“Well, good thing I invited him for you then”
“You what--!?”
“Pizza at Corey’s at 7,” Mason replies, ignoring completely the way Liam is starting to freak out again. “Use the button up I gifted you for your birthday and forget about putting product on your hair, you make it look greasy instead of stylish”
“You can't tell me what to do”
Going by Mason's pointed gaze, it sounded as unbelievable as it felt when coming out of Liam's mouth.
*
He does take on Mason’s advice and dresses with the fancy button up and avoids putting any product on his hair. But it has nothing to do with Theo going to show up.
He just wants to feel pretty tonight.
If Theo also finds him pretty too, that’s just a coincidence.
*
“You’re panicking”
“I’m not panicking,” Liam hisses, clearly panicking.
Theo hasn’t come yet and Liam isn’t beyond thinking that he’s just not going to show up. Who would anyways? Liam wasn’t even the one inviting him, this was all part of Mason’s plan for ruining his life and let him be alone forever, all because he broke his favorite princess wand on accident when they were six and--
The front door rings.
Liam doesn’t even try to pretend he’s not excited, practically parkouring over the couch and running to the front door just to almost tear it away from the door frame.
“Man, what the fuck,” the delivery guy mutters under their breath, taking a step away in a clear demonstration of fright.
“He’s just hungry,” Liam hears Mason reply just one second before he’s stepping at his side, paying for the pizza and taking the boxes inside.
He does not, he repeats, does not feel disappointed. The sensation of emptiness in his stomach is just the hunger.
That's just it.
*
Maybe just a teeny tiny bit of disappointment too.
*
The strange thing of having people not addressing the elephant in the room is that said elephant is in fact his heart crushed and then buried over the weight of greasy dough and too much cheese.
Still, he appreciates that both Mason and Corey didn’t complain about having to call the delivery again because there's no pizza left for them.
*
Mason says he’s just imagining things when he hears the knock on the door, that the delivery is supposed to arrive in another 10 minutes.
Liam has to admit that it is an almost there sound but he still goes to check because maybe the last pizza guy has been cursed enough to be sent back and it's scared shitless of having another almost feral welcome.
Liam can hardly blame him.
*
Turns out it was better than more pizza.
*
Theo looks at him from the other side of the door, shifting from one foot to the other.
It’s dark outside and a bit cold. Just like Theo’s heart. And Liam knows the right thing would be to invite Theo inside. But the actual right thing would have been for Theo to not stood them (him) up, so checkmate.
<<I’m sorry I’m late,>> Theo signs slowly and almost coy, <<I had some things to do and I had no one’s phone to contact>>
Liam blinks, lifts a hand to stop Theo for a moment and tell him to wait, and goes to close the door for a moment. He stays there for a second or two, pressing his forehead against the wood and trying to make sense of it all before facing his friends. When he turns around, Mason and Corey are looking at him with far more interest that it’s allowed because his life is not a damn blockbuster movie.
“Did you give Theo your number after inviting him for pizza?,” Liam asks out of the blue.
Mason doesn’t exactly reply, but he tenses for a second. The universal sign of I’m not going to agree I made a mistake, but we all sure as fuck know I did .
Liam isn’t sure exactly what to do but Corey’s slap on his Mason’s arm conveys how he feels way better than anything he'd have come up with.
*
When he opens the door again, Theo is still there. Hands buried in his pockets, shoulders a bit hunched and looking around as if he isn’t sure if he got kicked out without even getting inside or if this is just normal Liam behaviour.
It is the latest, but he still have time to learn that out.
<<I thought you just ditched us,>> Liam signs back slowly, a bit ashamed.
Theo watches him for a moment before a smile breaks through.
<<Let me make it up to you,>> Theo signs, <<let’s get ice cream>>
Liam knows that the sign is like holding a real ice cream cone and licking it. He knows. But he also knows there are some other things that can be licked like that.
What he doesn’t know is how he’s going to survive this one on his own.
*
Theo takes them to the sketchiest ice cream parlour ever.
It’s like a hole in the sewers. A nd on top of that it’s like a themed thing.
Or at least Liam likes to think it is, because there’s three masked grown ups serving the ice cream in some odd hospital looking like plates.
But he has no room to complain.
If he compares his lacrosse dates with Brett, when one of them always came back with the weirdest looking bruises, or that one date with Hayden in the middle of the woods that ended up with her in the hospital because she got some severe food poisoning, well.
A murdery themed scene sounds way more romantic than it should.
*
<<I never asked you why were you learning sign language?,>> Theo signs expertly, ice cone still in his hand and not a single drop of ice cream falling. A wide teasing smile blooming on his lips. <<Planning on going deaf?>>
Liam snorts out of nowhere and thanks that Theo can’t actually hear the unflattering noise that just came out of his mouth.
<<No, I, uh-- My mom teached me when I was a kid. I haven’t used ASL in while, so I’m a bit rusty but I just wanted to, like, talk? To you? Or, you know, sign to you>>
The amusement in Theo’s smile is still there, but now tinged with something else. Something softer quirking the edges of his mouth. An extra glint on his green eyes that makes Liam’s insides flip in all the right ways.
<<Are you aware that I can read lips?>>
<<Yeah, but it’s not the same,>> Liam answers slowly, frowning a bit in amusement at how much it’s taking him sign some of the words. What’s left of his ice cream dips around in a show of how ungraceful he is compared to Theo.
<<Making a clown of yourself was better,>> Theo teases, a wall of white teeth delivering that line.
<<Being able to talk to you, you know, in your language is better, asshole,>> Liam signs and huffs.
It’s a second too late that he notices the completely not romantic slip up. His face must do something because Theo barely if manages to keep his cool for a second before a laugh burst out of him. It’s a bit quirky. Out of tune.
Odd, some might say.
But for Liam, it's one of the best sounds he’s heard in his life.
*
The good thing of being a, as the youths and Mason likes to call it, Living Disaster™ is that he gets to hear Theo laugh more than once.
*
Somehow, at some point, the ice cream turned into a beer.
Then into another.
And another one.
*
<<What is like to hear?,>> Theo signs slowly with one hand as he eats what’s left of his second ice cream with the other one. He’s a bit tipsy, slightly blushed nose and glinting eyes.
Liam frowns slightly and tilts his head towards him. It’s not like he doesn’t understand where the question comes from. He guesses it’s like hearing able people asking deaf or hard-hearing people how is it like to not hear.
He’s just not in the best of his capabilities to explain it now.
But it’s fine, he’s prepared. He’s been able to hear his whole life, so it shouldn’t be that hard to explain it, right?
<<Does the sun have a sound?>>
And okay, maybe Liam wasn’t as prepared as he thought.
*
Liam is used to humming when he’s nervous. Or drunk. Mason usually quips in and hums with him, sometimes he sings a duet if Corey is close. The thing is that it’s so natural to him by now that he barely notices he is doing it.
He’s also both nervous and drunk now, so that doesn’t help either.
Theo is pointedly looking at him and really, Liam could do without the whole feeling like a freakshow thing.
<<What was that?,>> Theo signs and Liam grimaces a bit.
<<I do that when I’m--,>> Liam gestures at the general air around him, hoping it conveys how he feels. Signing when drunk is a bit harder than he’d like to and avoiding doing it as much as possible sounds like a solid plan. But Theo frowns at him and okay, maybe he needs to use words. <<Nervous. Drunk. Both.>>
<<Do I make you nervous?>>
Liam could lie.
He could play it cool and pretend that no, he does not get nervous by being in close proximity of the guy he’s been having a crush on for months. He’s just drunk, right? He can play that one out.
Except he can't, because he’s a really bad liar.
<<You do>>
Theo’s smile is softer this time. There’s no hint of the mockery Liam expected to find. Just a light amusement reflected in those green eyes that makes Liam lost track of what is up and down for a moment.
<<Can you do it for me?>>
It’s an odd request but Liam nods anyways. The doubt of how Theo is going to hear him do it vanishes as soon as a hand gently cups the side and part of the front of his neck. The short lived surprised is pushed aside and Liam starts to hum again. Softly at first. Then, as he notices that Theo gets a bit more mellow and leans a bit closer, he loses the embarrassment completely. Theo’s feeding a special kind of starvation now. Liam doesn’t even think before he starts to sing.
“But I can’t help falling in love with you,” Liam sings, ignoring the odd looks they are getting and instead focusing on Theo, “Like the river flows, shortly to the sea, darling so it goes, some things are meant to be”
Liam is not surprised to see that that song never quite fitted before, until now.
*
They don’t drive back.
First, because they are drunk.
Second, because for some reason Theo closed the truck with the keys inside.
So walking back is the only option left.
*
Liam’s apartment is closer and, for all the general murdery vibes Theo has going on most of the time, he doesn’t doubt before inviting him to stay the night.
*
<<You can use the bed,>> Liam signs, moving to take a pillow from the bed and go to the couch. But when he turns around, Theo is close to him. Way too close.
There’s something that makes him look both dubious and predator like. Liam blinks because no words come to his brain. He’s tired and drunk and there’s a gorgeous guy in front of him biting his lower lip. He’s asking too much of his poor brain.
<<I like you,>> Theo signs.
If Liam thought his brain wasn’t working before, well. Now it’s working even less.
<<Really?,>> he signs back in surprise, getting a little amused snot.
<<Yeah, it surprises me too>>
Liam tries to come with something to say or sign or do, but before he can come to terms with his brain, there are lips on top of his and whatever rational thought left his brain has now left for good because Theo is kissing him. Really kissing him. Like for real .
<<I really like you,>> Theo signs after a moment or two. Liam can’t tell. His brain short circuited so hard that time, space and even reality seems like a flimsy lie. <<I want to stay>>
Liam nods.
<<I want to keep you>>
Liam nods again.
He knows that this is drunk talking. He’s sure of it. Theo is drunk. He just wants to make out. It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t have to mean anything. But then soft lips press once again over his and caution?
Caution is thrown into the wind.
*
<<Do you think there are other universes where we are lying like this?,>> Theo signs sleepily with one hand.
He’s laying over his chest, burrowing closer with each passing second. Liam can’t find in himself to make sense of any of this anymore. For all he knows, he might have brained himself on the way home and this is just a beautiful dream right before Death comes to collect his soul.
“Maybe,” he mumbles and takes the risk of pressing a kiss on Theo’s forehead. The boy hums softly at the touch.
<<I’m sure in none of them I’m as happy as I am now>>
If this is the way he dies, well.
What a way to go.
*
Takes more than a minute to convince himself that he is not dying and that this is actually reality.
Still, he pinches himself more than once just to be sure.
*
The aftermath of the whole night is them snuggling close to each other.
And really, that’s the only thing he could have asked for.
*
The phone rings and Liam blindly picks up, pressing the phone against one side of his face as the other presses closer to the damp pillow under his head.
“--ello,” he croaks into it, feeling the shift at the other side of the bed and a body burying closer to his back.
“So, about your date--,” Mason asks from the other side of the phone and Liam huffs. He should have checked the ID before answering.
Pulling the phone slightly away from him, Liam checks the time. 7 am of a Saturday. They are not even supposed to be up for work, this is their free day. Who is this person calling him so early and why has he decided to call him best friend?
“Not what you thought it was,” Liam huffs and shifts around a bit, unconsciously getting closer to that other body sharing his bed.
“Liam, you ditched us without even thinking about it to go with him”
“Yeah, well--,” Liam feels the blush rise to his cheeks. He rubs a hand over his face and turns slightly to peek at the sleepy face of Theo, “He invited me to get ice cream”
“Sure,” Mason mutters amusedly, “Ice cream”
“Listen--,” Liam mutters, ready to retort. But whatever he was about to say dies at the wake of a throaty groan behind him that makes every sound at the other end of the line stop. Theo moves again and buries his nose at the back of Liam’s neck just to sigh, the arm around his waist pulls Liam’s body closer for a second before relaxing as he falls back into slumber.
“Is that--?,” Mason asks after a couple of seconds in silence.
Liam quickly hangs up.
There’s no way he will unpack all of his night that early.
*
He wakes up to an assortment of missed calls and unread texts.
Also to a soft and sleepy kiss from Theo.
There’s no surprise about which one takes his attention the most.
*
Life continues to go the same way.
Liam still works at the coffee shop, he still crushes hard on Theo, who goes for a coffee each and every day. Mason still teases him with it. Everything is the same.
And at the same time, it’s not.
For starters, they text. Which is normal for two people who mess around from time to time or hang out, right?
But soon Liam also notices that what he thought was a one night thing turns easily into two when Theo shows up with pizza at his apartment. And then into five. Not so long after, into a week. Then two.
And he doesn't want to make assumptions but his weak heart is not going to be able to take this any longer.
*
"He just-- he keeps showing up," Liam whispers almost hysterically
"Well, yeah," Mason mumbles back, frowning at his best friend. "That's what people do?"
"No, it's totally not"
"It totally is," Mason tries to reason, nodding enthusiastic back, "They like the coffee or the pastries or both and they come back so they can have some more again"
"I was talking about Theo showing up at my apartment after work"
"Oh. Oh? He shows up?"
"Yeah"
"And does it bother you?"
"No? He stays the night sometimes"
"Does he?," Mason mumbles, now back on board. "Does he force you to let him stay?"
"No! No, he just-- I-- I ask him to stay," Liam mumbles back, now red as a tomato.
"I don't want you to think I don't get what you're saying because I totally do, I swear, but I also don't get it so you'll have to explain a bit more”
“I tell him to stay because I like when he does,” Liam fills in, matter of factly. Why is it so hard for Mason to understand?
“Okay, no, y’know what, you lost me”
Liam can’t even blame Mason, if he’s honest.
After all, he’s quite a bit lost himself too.
*
It’s nearing the end of week two that Theo starts to sign over Liam's skin.
It takes a while for Liam to notice that what Theo is saying. It’s not the same as watching the boy move the hands in front of him. It’s slower, almost shy. Enough to be misunderstood for just caresses for far too long.
Compliments
Always a compliment.
You’re cute, even when you drool .
You’re such a clown, you always make me laugh .
I like how you smell clean today .
Or, y’know, the closest to a compliment they can be.
*
One faithful day, Theo signs over Liam’s skin of how gay he feels for him.
That’s the day Liam’s brain has to forcibly hit the brakes.
*
“How about you just talk about it--,” Mason says and stops Liam right before he can interrupt him, “--to him”
“Can’t do”
“Liam, remember that one time--,” Mason cuts himself and Liam gets it. There’s far too many times where the lack of communication sent him down a rabbit hole and ended up with a huge misunderstanding.
“I just-- what if he doesn’t like me that way?”
Mason is looking at him funny. Although funny is not even the word Liam would go for. Desperation. Bewilderment. An I can’t believe how far you have gone in life without help look. That’s more like it.
“Just talk to him”
“Yeah, okay, yeah,” Liam mutters, not really convinced, “I can do that, I can totally do that”
He’s just hoping that for once life stops that strange thirst of vengeance that seems to get each time his general life is involved and instead works on his favor.
*
Of course.
Of fucking course.
*
“Theo--,” Liam turns in bed, laying face to face with Theo, who looks a bit startled in his sleepy state, “What are we doing?”
He’s never been good at having the whole heart--to-heart talk. Now, both of them half asleep and nearing into another week where Theo shows up at night with food and stays, might most likely not be the best time to start.
The boy frowns. <<Laying together>>
“No, like-- why do you keep coming here? And staying?”
Liam wants to add that there’s also clothes from the other boy mixed with his own and that there’s now a toothbrush at the sink that’s too neat and clean to be Liam’s.
<<You don’t want me here?>>
“No-- yes! Yes, I want you here. Just-- what are we?”
Theo’s gaze flickers all over Liam’s face before it settles back into his eyes, frown deepening a tad bit more than what Liam is comfortable with.
<<Boyfriends?>>
“Boyf-- What? Since when?”
Theo looks blankly back at him and a shiver of fear runs down Liam’s back.
It’s like suddenly, like a switch going off, Theo’s devoid of every human emotion. It shouldn’t scare Liam they way it does, yet here he is. Yes, he is scared of Theo most of the time, but now it’s like he transgressed to a whole new level. Like he’s just way closer from commiting murder than usual.
Maybe that’s why Liam jumps a bit when Theo gets up.
What he has to come to terms with is if Theo just leaving is something good or bad.
*
He decides, after many attempts of calling Theo and getting no response, that it is bad.
*
“So you’re telling me--,” Mason says, a perfect mix of utter disbelief and resignment in his voice, “-- that you have been boyfriends this whole time and you didn’t know”
“Did you?”
“Well, yeah,” Mason replies, frowning at his best friend, “He comes every day, without missing a beat, twice. One for coffee and one to get you home. And he left you that nice note with your breakfast that time you came to work late, wearing his clothes”
“They just were around,” Liam grumbles
“You don’t leave clothes around when you’re just messing with someone,” Mason huffs, as if there were rules that everyone knew about except Liam.
“You leave me notes too!,” Liam tries desperately picking up the pieces and trying to finally make sense of something that everyone seemed to have cracked way before him.
“Not with cute nicknames, no”
“Little wolf is not a cute nickname”
“Think again buddy”
Covering his face with both hands, Liam groans and tries, but mostly fails, to not feel overwhelmed with all of this. They were boyfriends and he didn’t know. He didn’t know.
If there’s one thing he can learn from all of this is that he definitely doesn’t have to be left unsupervised at life again.
*
He plays with the idea that maybe, just maybe, Theo will not come get coffee today.
He clearly forgets that level of pettiness coursing through Theo’s blood.
*
Liam allows himself a minor freak out once he sees Theo enter the coffeeshop.
Just a teeny tiny small that leads him to duck into the back room and pretend that he doesn’t exist for a little while.
*
Theo’s sitting at his usual table.
Liam spots him right away but Theo seems vehement to not look at his or Mason’s way, no matter the amount of time he is sending puppy eyes to the side of his face. Actually, he seems vehement into not looking anywhere else but at his cup of coffee that hasn’t been touched at all but seems to stay warm by the force for hatred radiating from Theo’s gaze.
“You’ll have to go there and fix it,” Mason quips, like the yoda Liam knows he is, “You’re the one who fucked it up”
Liam knows he is right.
He knows.
But that doesn’t mean he’s going to risk his life and do that.
*
It dawns on him, later that night as he curls around one of Theo’s discarded shirts and feels the loneliest he’s felt in the last time, that maybe he does need to do it.
*
“Hey--,” Liam mumbles, tapping lightly on Theo’s shoulder.
That morning Liam had given himself a pep talk to actually go and apologize to Theo. Fix things once and for all. But once Theo got there, he had managed to take his coffee order and move as quickly away from the register that Liam hadn’t even had time to try and establish any conversation.
Or maybe it had been the icy glare that it had been sent his way the whole while what scared him into silence.
The same one that is being sent to him right about now.
<<Did you need something?>>
Liam sighs defeatedly and moves to sit in the chair at Theo’s side. Almost as if reading his mind, the boy moves his books and bag in there as quick as possible. A petty smile on his lips aimed right at Liam’s ego.
“Can we--”
<<Sorry, I don’t know you>>
Liam groans.
Of course Theo would not make it easier for him. And why would he? He’s pissed. Who doesn’t notice they got into a relationship with someone else?
“Hi, I’m Liam Dunbar,” he grumbles, taking one of Theo’s hand out of the blue and shaking it, “I’m pretty oblivious and pretty dumb most of the time so I didn’t notice that we were actually boyfriends but that doesn’t stop me from being terribly in love with you. Would you please let me apologize now?”
Theo blinks, clearly taken aback.
Then he looks around.
Suddenly Liam notices that he may or may not have not said that as quietly as he thought he was. He may have screamed a bit, who knows. The whole coffeeshop is now silent. Terribly so. And he can feel the stares, piercing right through him.
He can also feel what little dignity left he had now escaping his body.
*
It’s not the only thing that escapes.
*
<<I’ll call your manager and say you’re harrassing me,>> Theo signs as he gets away from the coffee shop and tries use the people on the street as a shield.
“Mason is my manager,” Liam answers and follows him, trying to erase the distance the other boy keeps on putting between them.
<<I’ll put a restraining order on you>>
“No, you’re not”
He’s bluffing. He’s not totally sure that Theo wouldn’t put a restraining order on him. Actually, the boy looks like the kind of person that would just go and do that when he’s bored. Or, y’know, trying to murder someone on his free time.
That’s exactly why, when Theo turns around and strides towards him, Liam tries to put as much distance between them as possible.
“You can’t murder me, I’m in love with you”
Theo’s demeanor changes. Just slightly so. <<I wasn’t going to murder you>>
“Are you sure?”
Theo seems to doubt for a moment too long. Maybe he was, after all, doing to murder him. But he seems not to be on board with that one anymore, so Liam tries to convince himself he is somewhat safe. Or as safe as he can be.
<<Is it true?>>
“What?”
<<Everything you said there>>
Liam blushes, looks around just because looking at the earnest gaze of Theo feels like a bit too much at the moment, and settles on the boy’s hands. “Of course it is true”
<<So you are in love with me but didn’t know we were boyfriends>>
“I was trying to play it cool”
Maybe too cool , Mason’s voice quips in his head.
<<You let me stay over>>
“Yeah”
<<And you let me pick you up after work>>
“Yeah?,” Liam mumbles, now frowning in confusion at the other boy. “What with that?”
<<You thought we weren’t together,>> Theo signs, frowning back at Liam, <<I could have been a psychopath>>
“Are you--?,” Liam mumbles with a frown, “A psychopath?”
<<That’s talk for another day>>
And isn’t that reassuring.
*
What is truly reassuring is the kiss he gets a second after.
*
<<You’re still on thin ice,>> Theo signs after he they pull apart. This time is him who looks around, trying to play it cool and pretend like he’s not blushed.
“If I do another public confession do I get a second kiss?,” Liam mutters with a smile. Theo rolls his eyes and smiles back.
<<Thin fucking ice,>> Theo signs before leaning in for another kiss.
*
“Now that I know--,” Liam mumbles, hugging Theo closer.
They’re laying cozily in bed after Liam’s shift ended. It had been quite a thing to come back to the shop and face the gazes of amusement that he received. Mason said to inform him next time he felt the urges to run a show like that, that way they could charge coffee a bit more.
Demanding cuddles had been a must.
Theo touches lightly his neck, right over his pulse point, as he look at him intently. Liam knows that he’s waiting for him to finish the sentence, but Theo looks just so adorably cute--
<<If you ask me again if we are together, I’m murdering you>>
Maybe cute isn’t exactly the word.
*
It’s not like Liam wants to stir the pot now that things are calm and well but--
“Remember that talk we had about you possibly being a psychopath”
To be honest, Liam hadn’t expected to get a pillow pressed into his face as a reply. But it’s good to know he got an answer to his pressing question.
*
<<I want you to stay,>> Liam signs over Theo’s skin, after he managed to take the pillow out of his face and throw the remaining away so his boyfriend doesn’t feel compelled to try to murder him again. <<I want to keep you>>
Theo snorts and lets himself relax over Liam’s chest, pinching lightly at his stomach as what feels like a little reprimand.
<<So you remember now?>>
In hindsight, he had been quite obvious with his words. Liam had just been too blind to see.
<<I thought you were just drunk>>
That earns him another pinch, but Liam giggles with it. Soon after there’s a gentle hand pressing on his neck and feeling the vibrations of it, making Liam’s insides go all gooey with the emotions he feels.
<<Can I keep you?,>> Liam signs again after the giggle fit fades and he’s left looking unashamedly into Theo’s eyes.
<<Are you going to forget we are together again?>>
<<I just made a mistake one time-->>
A kiss is what shuts him up.
He doesn’t complain about that tactic. Not even a little. He gotta say that's way better than almost being suffocated to death with a pillow, thank you very much.
<<You can keep me>>
A teasing smile blooms on Theo's lips and it's soon pressed over over Liam's in a new kiss.
And that.
That is definitely the best sign of them all.