Chapter Text
The sun rose the next day on Theo fitfully turning around in his truck. He never slept well, between the nightmares and deputies asking him to move his truck. Something new had disturbed his sleep that night though. Right as he had been trying to go to sleep, a realization had hit him: Liam hadn’t known he was living out of his truck. And while that meant he was the worst responsible person ever, it also meant that contrary to what Theo had been thinking for months, Liam hadn’t been just letting him be homeless, out of some twisted sense of cruelty. The idiot just didn’t realize. Which made much more sense knowing the young wolf. And forced Theo to reconsider a few things, which is rarely conducive to a good night’s sleep.
As the morning started, so did Theo’s day. He hadn’t eaten dinner the day before, not hungry after everything that happened. That was good though, skipped meals meant saved money. And breakfast could wait for a while, he was feeling more sluggish than anything anyway. He knew exercise would help though, and decided to set off for a run through the preserve, on the edge of which his truck was parked.
As he was starting to feel himself get back to normal, he smelled Derek and heard his footsteps approaching. Well, of course, after finally hearing the whole story, Derek was coming to tell him he wasn’t welcome and ask him to leave town. Something Theo couldn’t do. Scott had made him promise to stay there, where he could keep an eye on him. Of course the Alpha hadn’t bothered to help him find a place to live so as to stay in Beacon Hills comfortably, but what did Theo expect… Definitely not decent treatment. He was doing fine anyway, and not hurting anyone. He’d just have to convince Derek of that, especially since not respecting Scott’s orders probably meant Argent chasing after him to bring him back. Theo steeled himself for the oncoming argument, and turned to welcome Derek once he got close enough.
“Hi. What do you want?”
“To make you an offer.”
This was not what Theo was expecting. “What do you think you have to offer to me?”
“A roof over your head and a bed. I have room in my apartment. You can stay with me.”
Several things went through Theo at once. Surprise. Suspicion. Disgust. Anger. “I don’t need your charity. I’ve been doing well enough. See? I’m alive. More than I can say about the state I was in a few months ago, after an encounter with your precious Scott.”
Derek took off his sunglasses and looked Theo in the eye. “You know what? I’m not going to argue with you,Theo. You won’t believe me anyway. I’m just gonna tell you that this is not charity, this is me being a decent human being. Until you find somewhere better than your truck to sleep in. I don’t expect you to answer right now. Offer’s open. Think about it.”
Seeing Theo was definitely not answering right away, Derek just shrugged and turned back the way he came, jogging.
Theo watched him vanish into the forest, taking a minute to process, before getting back to his run. He didn’t need Derek’s charity. He could take care of himself. Had been doing a good job of it so far. Living in his truck wasn’t that bad anyway… At least, that’s what he had convinced himself of by the time he got back to this truck. One thing was for sure, he wasn’t feeling sluggish anymore. Time for a shower and breakfast.
He drove to Beacon Hills High School. As usual, he didn’t have any trouble slipping into the school during lunch hour. After all, he was just any regular teenager, backpack on his shoulder. Nobody would be able to tell the backpack contained soap and a change of clothes instead of notebooks, or that he was only here to take advantage of the locker room showers. Well, nobody except the local supernaturals, but so far he’d always been able to avoid them. Once, he had almost ran into Corey and Mason, but he was able to smell and hear them just in time. He’d kept away from the school for a while after that… But had to come back after Liam had commented one too many times on him not smelling like his usual soap. Things went well this time, and he was quickly clean and changed into fresh clothes. That was his daily shower, taken care of. Food was quickly dealt with by a trip to the local fast food joint for fries and a burger. An improvement on some of his latest meals he could afford since he didn’t eat the night before.
Once he was done dealing with the first necessities, Theo drove the truck back to the edge of the woods. He wanted to nap for a while but only ended up tossing and turning for a few hours, before his alarm clock freed him from pretending to sleep. In the past few months, Liam and him had gotten into the habit of patrolling the town after lacrosse practice. It had started off by Liam commandeering Theo’s truck (and Theo as a driver) for “Very Important Patrols”. Soon enough, it became clear from all the ranting that it was less about keeping the town safe and more about Mason spending lots of time with Corey, leaving Liam craving company. Not that Theo would call him out on that. He could let the Little Wolf indulge for now. Though after their fight the day before, Liam might not be expecting him to show up. But Theo wanted to keep things normal, especially following his late night’s revelation. So he switched to the driver seat and headed back towards Beacon Hills High School.
Theo arrived at the school a bit before practice let out, as usual. Corey was one of the first ones out, accompanied by Mason, obviously. They looked at him warily, which might have meant that Liam had filled them in. But they also still didn’t trust him, so it might have been just that. When Liam got out, he headed towards the bus stop, his way of getting home when neither Mason nor Theo were driving him. Though Theo only had to softly say his name to make him change direction, thanks to supernatural hearing. Which also meant he heard Liam talking to him even before reaching his truck. Smart move from the Little Wolf, Theo couldn’t throw him out if he wasn’t inside to start with.
“Thanks. And... sorry for not noticing about your situation. I’ve been thinking about it, and I have a perfect solution! You can move in with me!” explained Liam excitedly.
Theo chuckled, “Yeah? And how would that work? You’d tell your mom about taking in the reformed murderer? Or you’d sneak me in at night?”
Liam started to get annoyed at having his idea immediately shut down, “Well, I haven’t had time to think it through yet, obviously. But we can figure something out!”
“Don’t worry about it, Little Wolf. I’m good, okay?” At that point, Liam had reached the car and was starting to get in.
“No you’re not! Even Derek said it, yesterday!”
“You know what? Derek already offered me a room at his place. I don’t need more misplaced pity today.”
“Wait, Derek offered you a place to stay? That’s perfect then! No parents or anything, and we do pack business at the loft anyway.”
“Liam. I just told you. I don’t need help. Please drop it.”
“But it’ll be great! You’ll get a bedroom and bathroom and… Wait. How have you been taking showers? … Have you been taking showers?”
“Drop. It”, growled Theo. “Before I kick you out. Can we go patrolling now?”
“Yes, yes, no need to get angry. Just… Keep it in mind?”
“Sure, whatever.”
On those words, Theo started driving away.
Of course Theo had no intentions to “Keep it in mind”. He was doing great. He’d always have to take care of himself. Nothing new there. Maybe the nightmares had gotten worse since his little trip to Hell, courtesy of the McCall Pack. Maybe he’d had more difficulties getting up in the morning, now that he didn’t have the Dread Doctors to serve or villains to save Liam and the rest of the puppies from. But that’d pass. Things would get back to normal soon enough.
In reality, he was unable to forget the offer.
Derek kept on coming to see him, about once a week. Oh, he didn’t mention the roommate thing even once, only asked questions about chimeras and the Dread Doctors and Theo’s full shift. Still, his mere presence was a reminder that Theo was his latest charity case.
Liam though, he wasn’t even trying to be subtle. Motivated by his new found guilt, he’d started paying more attention to Theo, trying to give him gas money for all the patrolling they’d been doing or inviting him over for a meal and a shower. And that was not counting all the times he’d remind Theo of Derek’s offer and why he should accept it, trying to pawn his responsibility off to someone else.
But the worst of it, as usual, came from Theo’s own mind. When he had to cut a shower short because the lacrosse team was coming in after an extra practice, it would remind him, “You could have your own warm shower”. When he’d have to buy unsold bread for a dollar from the local bakery for the fourth day in a row, “You could get regular groceries”. When he’d end up eating vending machines snacks for dinner, “You could have a real meal”. When the cold would cut through his thin blanket, “You could have a roof over your head. A bed.”. When police officers would wake him up in the night: “You could have a home”. That was probably the worst. The misplaced hope that maybe he could have a home.
With all these thoughts going through his head at any given time, things were not getting back to normal. Quite the opposite actually. And by the time a month had passed, Theo was really starting to look like the homeless teen he was, chimera powers or not. That’s the state Peter found him in when he stumbled upon the truck one evening, while Theo was eating dinner. Well, “stumbled”… From what Theo knew of the ex-villain, he might have planned it, but Theo had no way of knowing. His message though was pretty clear. “You’re paper thin. You’re clearly barely sleeping. Contrary to what you were pretending a month ago, you are not taking care of yourself. At all. My good-hearted nephew is offering you an opportunity to get better. Don’t be stupid enough not to take advantage of it.”
That was the last straw for Theo. Derek’s pity, Liam’s guilt, he could understand and dismiss. But Peter’s brutal honesty was the wake up call he needed. Clearly, things weren’t getting better, and they probably wouldn’t as long as he lived out of his truck. He used to pride himself on being a genius manipulator, but wasn’t even taking advantage of the chance he was offered. Stupid indeed…
And that’s how, after months of living out of his truck, Theo found himself at Derek’s door the next day, ready to take advantage of this new start.