Chapter Text
It was Friday. Last day of the week. Ultimate day of school. Final day before the weekend. Weekend-eve. Liam couldn’t wait. He even had plans to hang out with Mason. And Corey, because you couldn’t get one without the other anymore. But it was going to be fun anyway! They’d play video games and order pizza and-
“Dunbar! Those nets won’t store themselves away!”
And first he needed to finish cleaning up after lacrosse practice. The good thing about having a co-captain, even one who tried to kill you several times, is that clean up is twice as fast. As such, it wasn’t long before they were able to hit the showers. They separated once they’d reached the parking lot with a simple exchange of “Bye.” “See you next week.”, Nolan heading towards his car and Liam towards Theo’s truck. Patrol time! And since it was Friday and both his parents were at work, he would be able to invite Theo over and make him eat! He had it all figured out: he would pretend to be hungry so Theo would have to stay and help him cook. Maybe they’d make pasta with pesto again… Honestly, Liam had no idea how he didn’t notice Theo’s “living in my truck” situation, but now that he knew, he was dead set on making things better. If only Theo accepted Derek’s-
“Hey, Little Wolf. What’s going on up there?”
Oh. He had reached the truck. How long had he been standing next to it?
“Nothing, just thinking about homework.”
Theo threw him a look. Right, built-in lie detector. Luckily he decided he was better off not knowing, because he didn’t ask. “Well, get in then.”
“... it was so completely wrong! It’s like they base their knowledge about the Troy war on the movie and never opened a book!”
They had been chatting for a while, Liam telling Theo about his last History class and how the teacher kept on getting things wrong, when Liam looked out the window and realized they were nowhere near the Preserve.
“Wait, Theo. We’re not on the patrol route?”
Theo threw a look at him, smirking. “Haven’t been for fifteen minutes, Little Wolf. I was wondering when you’d notice. Haven’t we been working on paying attention to your surroundings?”
Sarcastic jerk. Why did Liam like him, again? “Yeah, okay, I wasn’t paying attention… Where are we going then?”
“Don’t you trust me?” teased Theo.
Well, that was an easy question. “Yes I do, Theo.”
Theo seemed surprised for a second by this serious answer, and Liam grinned at seeing him lose composure. Always a nice thing to achieve! Didn’t last long before he was smirking again though. Back to default, then.
“Good.”
An answer which did not give Liam any more information about where they were going… He grumbled, hunkering down in his seat and crossing his arms. Theo didn’t want to tell him? So be it. He’d figure it out and prove he can pay attention to his surroundings! But not before sending a text to Mason to complain. How dared Theo leave him in the dark.
Liam tried figuring out what was going on. He had looked around, but since he missed the moment where they changed course, he wasn’t able to figure out where they were. Even the GPS feature on his phone only told him they were on a road in the middle of nowhere. Veeeery helpful. Nothing seemed familiar, and they had already been driving for almost half an hour at that point. So he tried reasoning about it.
Where would Theo take him? His first thought was supernatural business. But Theo would have warned him! Except he wasn’t so sure. And the more he tried thinking of something else, the more he came back to it. They were still at war. Maybe Scott had found something? But no, he would have called Liam directly, not Theo. Unless it was something Scott didn’t know. Maybe Theo had gotten a tip from someone else and took Liam along to investigate? Wouldn’t he have told Liam, though?
But what else could it be? A date? Wait… no. Why would he think that. Dates are not something that happens between them. They were just friends! (and not even that according to Theo). Also, what was his heartbeat doing? Could Theo hear it? Nevermind, it was just surprise at thinking of a date. And - Liam quickly looked at the driver - Theo wasn’t even looking…
It must have been something supernatural then! Maybe hunters! And for some reason Theo just decided not to tell him.
Suddenly, the truck stopped, and Liam raised his head to see-
“The hunters are hiding at Ikea?” exclaimed the teenager.
Theo looked at him strangely, then snorted. “What? No. Just… follow me.”
Things got even stranger when they reached the doors though. Derek was there, waiting for them, but he apparently was not expecting Liam because he immediately turned to Theo.
“What is he doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” answered Liam, annoyance seeping through his tone.
“What are you doing here?” asked a smirking Theo, as if he hadn’t practically kidnapped Liam to get him here, making him think they were going to hunt hunters. This was enough. His anger just exploded.
“Can someone just tell me what’s going-”
Theo cut in, smirking. “Couldn’t you have guessed? I’m moving in with Derek, as you kept pestering me to do. We’re here to get furniture.” Theo gestured towards the giant store in front of them. “Isn’t that what people usually do at Ikea?”
This cut Liam’s anger short. Oh. So Theo had ended up being reasonable. And he wanted Liam to come with them! Unlike Derek, who was currently looking like he was regretting every decision that led him here, but Liam would prove him wrong.
“I’m the best at furniture shopping! Me and my mom-” “My mom and I” muttered Derek. “-renovated the whole house a few years ago, we spent so much time here!”
This apparently weren’t the correct words, because Derek was starting to glance towards his car as if he wanted to just run away. “How long… Will this take?”
“Well… What do you want to buy furniture for?”
“Theo’s room? And maybe some for the common rooms.”
“Ah…” Liam paused. “Well, I’m sure we’ll be done in a couple hours. Let’s go!”
Once they got inside, Liam headed straight for the complementary pencil and notepad. As he turned to continue towards the automatic stairs, he realized Derek and Theo were still frozen at the door. Right. First timers.
“Come on. Lemme quickly explain to you how it all works.”
The other two shook themselves and walked to him. Theo was looking puzzled.
“What is there to explain? It’s just a furniture store.”
Liam snorted.
“Have you seen the size of this thing? We’re not just going to waltz in and pick stuff up. There are three floors.” He waved them over to the nearest floor plan. “The first one will be the showroom. That’s where we’ll find the furniture stuff, exposed as if in real rooms. When you find something you like, you need to write the reference down. That way, you can find the correct package once you reach the third floor. And between those, on the second floor, you have small stuff you can directly pick up. All’s clear? Okay, let’s go!”
He started heading towards the stairs, but realized he was still walking alone.
“Didn’t you say we start with the first floor?” asked Derek.
“Well, yeah, but the first floor you go on is the highest. You don’t want to carry the packages down two flight of stairs, do you?” scoffed Liam.
Derek and Theo finally convinced (or maybe just overwhelmed, but as long as they followed…), they followed upstairs.
“Look Derek, couches!”
The first area was of course the living room one. Filled with sofas and armchairs and other comfortable stuff to sit on. Perfect for the loft. Something Derek didn’t seem to agree with, since he was looking at Liam as if he had grown a second head.
“I already have a couch, Liam.”
“Yes, but have you seen how small it is? It’ll never fit all of us. Also, believe me, you don’t want to share a couch with Mason and Corey. I love them, but so much PDA…”
Derek looked to consider this for a minute, before shrugging and heading towards the closest sofa.
“No, not that kind! You need an L-shaped! So we can stretch our legs!”
Theo, who had been looking around and taking the maze in, clued back into the conversation at this point.
“We? How much time do you intend to spend there, Little Wolf?” asked Theo, snorting.
“Well, you’re still my responsibility! So of course I’ll have to come around and check how you’re doing!”
Derek looked like he wanted to intervene for a second, before closing his mouth and heading towards the part with the correctly shaped sofas.
“Which one?”
“Let me look… Oh, this one! It’s the same as ours, it’s great! And the armchairs are on sale, that’s perfect, you can get one! Maybe the sofa in black to fit your current one, and the armchair in grey?”
For some reason, this gave Derek pause. He looked at the armchair, considering it, before saying, “You know what? Let’s do red, that’s more Peter’s color.”
Wait. What? “Peter? We’re specifically buying Peter an armchair now?”
“You want to share a sofa with him and his ego?”
“... Fair. Hey, Theo, we probably should get you your own armchair as well, what do you think?”
Theo just rolled his eyes. Looked like Liam would have to up his game.
“Seriously, I know what you need. A bean bag chair, for your bedroom.”
Grabbing Theo’s elbow, Liam steered him towards them, leaving Derek behind to figure out the references of this sofa. He looked at the different bean bags for a second before throwing himself in the bigger one.
“See? It’s super comfy!” exclaimed Liam, while wiggling around.
Theo snorted, “Why would you care? Not like you’ll be sitting in it.”
Oh no. Theo had not just said that. Of course Liam would hang out with him! Liam pouted, looking up at Theo. Then, when the chimera’s facade started to let a smile come through, he raised his arms at him, silently asking for help getting up. Which Theo reluctantly provided after a few minutes. Except that the moment Liam was back up on his feet, he used the momentum and the tiniest bit of werewolf strength to turn them around and push Theo into the chair. Ha! That got him a reaction! Theo just stayed there for a second before chuckling and brushing his hair out of his face.
“Good job, Little Wolf. Help me up now?”
Liam grinned, very proud of himself. “Told you they are super comfy!”
He then proceeded to snap a quick picture to send to Mason, before going to join Derek, leaving Theo to get out of the bean bag on his own. Mason’s immediate answer of “You are soooo dead” accompanied by Theo’s grumbling set him off laughing again, while he grabbed Derek and they moved on to get some chairs for Derek’s table.
“Kitchen! Oh, wait, the fun stuff is downstairs. It’s only counters and stuff like that here. Come on, Theo, let’s let Derek look and keep going!”
“Okay, bedroom furniture. I’m guessing you have none right now?” asked Liam.
“Yep. Room smells like it used to be someone else’s, but Derek threw everything away.”
“Sooo… Mattress, bed frame, pillow… Oooooh, a bedside table!” Liam turned towards Theo, who had started wandering off. “See anything you li- What are you doing?”
“Shopping for a mattress?”
“Are you… looking at the price tags?”
Theo looked at him as if he was going crazy. “Yes. To pick the cheapest?”
Was Theo trying to rile him up or… He was serious! “No, no, no. That’s not how you choose a mattress!”
“I just need something to sleep on. No need to waste money.”
Liam was at a loss for words. This wasn’t how mattresses worked! Fortunately reinforcements arrived right then, as Derek joined them. “Derek! Theo wants the cheapest mattress! Tell him he needs something comfortable, and that he’s not allowed to look at the prices!”
It took Derek a second to process, but then he turned to Theo. “You need something comfortable, and you’re not allowed to look at the prices.”
Liam turned back to Theo, who was looking slightly dumbfounded. “See. No prices. You need to test them.”
Seeing Theo’s confusion, Liam smiled at him, and sat on the edge of the nearest mattress before lying down. “Like this! And then you see if it’s comfortable, and pick the best one.”
Liam waited for Theo to follow his example and lie down on another mattress, before sitting back up. “Come on! You have lots to try out!”
At first, Theo looked quite uncomfortable. But he relaxed as he went on around, meticulously testing each one. Liam was just looking at him, smiling, when Theo called him.
“What do you want? Need more help?” teased Liam.
“Just… Come here, Little Wolf.”
As soon as Liam got close enough though, Theo reached out and grabbed his arm, then pulled to make him fall on the mattress next to him.
“Payback…” he said, sounding strangely out of breath. Liam looked at him, and his ever changing eyes. Right now they were grey. His heart started beating slightly faster, for no reason. Their elbows brushed... And then Theo was jumping back up, leaving Liam confused.
“Ok, this mattress is fine! Let’s go! What’s next?”
Liam was still reeling from the change of pace, but Derek answered, “Grab pillows, and then we’ll go look at bed frames.” He paused for a second, then added, “Oh, and take a queen size, not a twin.”
That was too much for Liam. Theo was right. They needed to get going!
“Yes, bed frame! And we mustn’t forget to get legs!”
“Legs?” asked Theo, apparently also glad for a distraction.
“Yes, see, they don’t always come with the frame, and that one time we forgot them and only realized once we got home and tried to assemble it and had to go back!”
“We’re almost done for this floor. Only have dressers then bathroom, and then it’s the kid stuff.” explained Liam.
“Well the bathroom is already furnished, so we only need to get a dresser.” said Derek.
“Meh. Dressers are boring.” grumbled Liam. “I’ll go… look around.”
He wandered ahead to the bathroom section. Derek might have said it was furnished, but some personalization wouldn’t hurt! Like a fun shower curtain! He was keeping an ear on Theo and Derek though, making sure they were getting along.
That’s how he overheard them, while he was wondering if Theo would go for a donut themed shower curtain.
“I don’t need something so big.” protested Theo. “It’s not like I have much clothes to store in it.”
This apparently took Derek by surprise, because the answer wasn’t immediate. “Well, I guess you’ll need to get more clothes. We’ll deal with that next week.”
Ooooh… Liam was disappointed he couldn’t see Theo’s face, because he would bet it was doing this weird thing it did when he was happily surprised but trying to hide it.
Theo had a point though, now that Liam was thinking about it. There was this one time where Theo’s hoodie was so full of holes Liam gave him his own - speaking of, he couldn’t remember if he had gotten it back - but overall he hadn’t been paying much attention to the other guy’s clothes. Thinking back, though, wasn’t Theo always wearing the same jacket? And this T-shirts were always at least frayed around the edge… As for his jeans, he had always assumed the holes were “fashion”, but maybe they weren’t. Was that another thing Liam had failed to notice?
Derek’s voice broke him from his thoughts. “No, Liam. We are not getting this curtain.”
Liam started, caught by surprise. He shook himself off, and started speaking before Theo could get a word in about surroundings.
“Good. Well. I think that’s it? We have everything?”
“Yes, I think so.” answered Derek. “Now we go to the ground floor and retrieve everything we wrote down, right?” Theo looked up, hopeful.
“Eh, no, not really.” said Liam, hesitant to burst their bubble. “When I said ‘everything’, I meant everything on this floor. You know, getting the furniture is great, but Theo needs bedsheets. Towels. This kind of stuff?”
Theo and Derek exchanged a look, before taking a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s keep going then.”
First, they found the cookshop and tableware. Which Derek tried to bypass, obviously.
“We’re looking for stuff for Theo. I already have plates and mugs.”
“But, how many?” questioned Liam.
“Enough.”
“To feed Theo and you? Plus like, Mason, Corey and I? And possibly the rest of the pack?”
Derek looked like he reluctantly agreed, and motioned towards the piles of plates. “Any advice, here?”
Liam considered for a second, before grabbing the cheapest set.
“So now quality isn’t a concern anymore?” asked Theo.
“Well, given that we will probably break them…” Liam paused, throwing a guilty look at Derek, who just shrugged before adding a second set to their cart.
Liam took a picture of the content of their cart, and sent it to Mason. “Dude, we can hang out at Derek’s now! He has a couch and chairs and plates and shit!”
They also grabbed cutlery and mugs, before heading towards the cooking and baking utensils. Which Derek once again tried to persuade Liam they didn’t need to buy.
“You need knives to cook, Derek.”
“Peter gave me knives.”
“I don’t mean murder knives. I mean, like, kitchen knives.” explained Liam patiently.
Derek rolled his eyes. “Yes, that’s what he gave me.”
“Wait, Peter knows how to cook?” This thread of thoughts was quickly abandoned though, as Liam spotted a cute baking mold. “Guys, look, this cake mold is so cool! Theo, you have to get it!”
Theo looked at him funny. “... Why do you think I can bake?”
Derek seemed to consider for a second, then went, “Well, you can learn.” and threw the mold as well as a whisk and measuring spoons and cups in the cart. Good, Derek had decided to encourage Theo picking new hobbies!
Liam couldn’t let this opportunity go. “I’ll teach you!”
Theo didn’t look convinced. “No thanks, I remember when we made pasta the first time. You’re a disaster in the kitchen, Little Wolf.”
That was… absolutely wrong! “Baking is totally different! I bake with my step-dad all the time. I’m a pro at it.” Which was true. He’d never gotten into cooking, but he asked Dr Geyer to show him how to make a cake for his mom when he was a kid, and it had became their thing. He definitely needed to make Theo one. To prove him wrong, of course!
“You need to buy dark ones. Easier to clean if you get blood on them.” That was Derek’s suggestion when it came to bed sheets?
“What? No. Derek. You don’t keep bed sheets once there is blood on them!” Liam knew Derek’s living conditions had not been the best before he got the loft, but that was something else. “Theo, get what you want.”
For some reason, this seemed to confuse Theo greatly. His eyes were jumping from one set of sheets to the other, not focusing on anything.
“Hey. What’s your favorite color?” asked Liam, softly.
This broke Theo’s trance, who, startled, looked at Liam before answering, “Blue.” He seemed surprised by his own answer, somehow.
“Okay.” Liam looked at the offer, and picked a dark blue one. “Like that?”
“Yes, that works.”
Though when Liam was looking at the pillows, he saw from the corner of his eyes Derek propose another set, and pat Theo’s shoulder after swapping them. And lo and behold, when he came back to the cart, Theo’s sheets were now a light blue. Hm.
Theo had already moved on though, and gotten distracted by the shelves covered in blankets. Derek and Liam exchanged a look before wordlessly deciding to let Theo look at them on his own.
“Thanks, by the way.” said Liam under his breath, too quiet for Theo to hear.
“What for?” scoffed Derek, just as softly.
“Offering to take Theo in? I mean, I didn’t even notice, and you’re giving him a bedroom and furniture and...”
“Hey, Liam, breathe. You’re a kid, you shouldn’t have to worry about someone like that. It’s adults who need to take care of him.”
“But he’s my responsibility!”
“Then do what you’ve been doing today. Spend time with him. Take him to the movies. Be teenagers together.”
This was… Liam didn’t know what to answer to that. Thankfully, he didn’t have to, because Derek nudged him to focus back on Theo. Theo, who was touching one of the really fluffy blankets, looking fascinated by it. They saw him shake himself though, before changing course and grabbing one of the more basic ones. Liam looked at Derek, and they exchanged a smile, before seamlessly maneuvering around Theo, Liam putting the cheap blanket back while Derek grabbed the one he wanted. “You deserve quality, remember?” added Derek, echoing Liam’s earlier words.
Apparently, this finally convinced Theo. Except his fancy was caught by the devil’s invention.
“Theo, you don’t need throw pillows.”
“There were throw pillows on the exposition bed!” protested Theo.
“Yes, but that’s a trap. Throw pillows suck.” Liam picked up a pillow, and started gesturing with it. “You can’t sleep with that on your bed! So you end up throwing them on the ground and they live there and they never get back on the bed.”
This very nice warning was apparently funny to Theo. “I’m not you, Little Wolf. What makes you think I’m messy?”
“What? no!” exclaimed Liam, offended. “This was a general example. I never did that, cos I’m smart enough not to get throw pillows!”
Theo started outright laughing at him. “I can hear when you lie, Little Wolf, remember? Also, I thought I was supposed to get nice things.” Theo fake pouted.
This was enough. There was only one valid response. “Well, if you want it so bad!” Liam threw the pillow he was holding at the chimera, who wasn’t expecting it but wasted no time retaliating. Security ended up separating them, and when Liam looked around for Derek, the traitor had gone ahead and left them behind! And he laughed at them when they caught up!
“Are you done fighting yet? Can we get on with the shopping?”
“Hey, Theo! Since you can full shift, do you need a dog bed?” exclaimed Liam when they walked past the pet accessories. This got him two glares. Which. Rude. He was just being considerate!
“No? And what about a toy?” laughed Liam, waving one and squeezing it to make it squeak. Which. Was more painful than anticipated. Liam hid a wince.
“We are almost done. We will leave you behind.” warned Derek. Liam laughed some more, but ran back to them, just in case.
And then, right as they were getting to the last section of the second floor, Liam saw them. They were sitting in the baskets. Asking to be picked. Looking so cute.
“Heeeeey buddy” Liam, having sneaked up on Theo, put the plush shark’s head on his shoulder.
“What?” Theo turned around, looking at him strangely. “What’s that, Liam?”
“ He is a shark, can’t you see!”
“Yes. Right. And what is that shark doing here?”
“I want him! I was super helpful, I deserve a shark!”
“Oh.” Theo’s smirk fell for a second, before coming back full force. “Well, too bad we’re shopping for me, not you.” And he added the shark to the cart.
Okay. They had picked everything. Liam had even shot a text to Mason, who didn’t have any suggestions. The smaller stuff was already in the cart. It was time for a team meeting.
“Derek, Theo. We all did very well so far. Now it is time for the last step. For everything we picked out from the first floor, we should have either written down the coordinates of where to find it on the last floor, or have a receipt for the bigger pieces. Those will be delivered, we don’t have to worry about them. We just need to get through the self-serve area quickly and efficiently. We do not want to double back, understood?”
Theo and Derek nodded, having accepted by then that in here, Liam was the leader. Theo though wasn’t completely paying attention, since he was looking at the receipts they had collected.
Liam started again, “First step will be to sort the coordinates we jotted down, in order to pick everything up as we go.” Theo was still not listening, even though Liam was giving out crucial information. “Theo. What is so important?”
Theo looked up from the stack, slightly hesitant. “Are we sure I have all the receipts?”
“Yes, I gave them to you as we went.” answered Derek. “Unless you lost one?”
“No, I’m sure I didn’t. But… The mattress is missing.”
“What?” exclaimed Liam. “Give those to me.”
But Theo was right. Couch, armchairs, bed frame… They had everything but the mattress. Fuck his life.
“Oh my god guys. We fucked up.. One of the receipt is missing. This can mean only one thing. One of us needs to go back, and get it.” Liam looked at each of his companions in turn. “As the expert, I say I should go to the self-serve area, start picking up our packages. It’s probably best if one of you come with me as reinforcement, while the other goes to get the mattress. What do you say?”
Theo, who was not taking this as seriously as it warranted to, laughed. “I’ll go get the receipt. Derek can help you, because I’m pretty sure you can’t reach the top shelves, Little Wolf.”
Theo left immediately, not waiting for an answer. Of course. Coward.
“Okay, let’s start here and go through every row.” Derek shrugged, before motioning for Liam to get going.
They actually made a pretty good team. Werewolf strength meant that Derek didn’t need help getting the boxes down from the shelves, so Liam just drove the cart and managed their pieces of papers, telling Derek what to grab. Quickly, they had everything, and Liam sent a picture to Mason. His best friend didn’t answer right away though. Liam did not want to think about what he could be doing with Corey that would warrant not answering.
They stood next to the cart for a few minutes, Liam playing on his phone and Derek doing whatever he was doing, before Derek spoke again.
“- so long?”
Liam, who had only caught the end of that sentence, looked up from his game. “Sorry, what?”
Derek’s threw him a look that screamed “Teenagers…”, before repeating. “Should it take so long? For Theo.”
Now that Derek was mentioning it, no, it should not. Liam looked back to his phone, finding Theo’s contact - complete with a picture he had snapped while on a patrol a few weeks before - before pressing “call”. The phone rang. And rang. Until it reached voicemail. Liam frowned before trying again. This time, the call went through.
“Theo, what are you doing?”
“Getting the receipt.” answered Theo.
“Yeah? And did you get lost or something?”
Only silence answered him, which Liam took as confirmation.. This was too good to pass up.
“For real? The big bad chimera of death, defeated by Ikea?”
When Theo still didn’t answer though, Liam started getting worried. It wasn’t like him not to raise to the bait. Liam threw a look at Derek, who looked like he wasn’t sure if he needed to get worried.
“Theo? What’s going on?” asked Liam, trying to remain calm. “Are there hunters? Are you in danger?”
“No.” came the immediate answer. Okay. That was good. He could work with that.
“Okay. I’m coming to meet you. Where are you?”
It took a minute, but Theo ended up answering, “the exposition bathroom.”
“Which one?”
“donut one”
Liam remembered that one. “Okay. I’m coming to you. Stay on the phone with me.”
As soon as he knew where to go, he took off. He used every shortcut in the store, dodging people and hastily throwing half-assed apologies when he failed to, continuously speaking nonsense to Theo. As he got closer to his goal, he was suddenly hit by Theo’s smell. But it was not his usual, clean soap one. It was saturated by the sour scent of anxiety. Theo might not have been in danger, but something was clearly wrong. Which was only confirmed when Liam turned the last corner and saw him, huddled on a corner of the exposition floor, sitting on the bathroom’s toilet. He seemed better than when he couldn’t even answer the phone though. He raised his head, meeting Liam’s eyes head on. And stayed like that. Liam slowly brought his hand away from his ear, hanging up, giving the other a minute to breathe.
“Hey, Theo. You’re okay?” asked Liam, careful to keep his voice soft so as not to startle the chimera.
The effect on Theo was immediate, as he visibly came back to himself, then stood back up. Though given the size of the bathroom, this got him very close to Liam, who hurried to take a step back. Not sure what to do now, he ended up patting Theo’s shoulder the way he’d seen Derek do. Once. Twice. Then bringing his arm back to his side.
“Okay. Good. You’re okay?”
At Theo’s nod, Liam decided the best thing was to keep going. Back to business.
“Do you have the receipt?”
“No.” Theo seemed slightly embarrassed, but Liam just smiled at him.
“No problem. Let’s go get it.”
“Where is Derek?”
“That’s… a good question. Hopefully by the cart.” Now was Liam’s turn to get embarrassed. “I didn’t really take the time to talk to him.”
At least this admission made Theo smile before teasing him softly, “Of course you didn’t…”
Ignoring whatever his heart did right then - this whole ordeal had been stressful, nobody could blame him for his heart doing weird stuff - Liam took the lead once more. “Let’s go!”
He took Theo to the mattress area first, showing him the shortcuts.
“There are shortcuts? Didn’t you think to tell us?”
“Well, you know, maybe you should pay more attention to your surroundings.”
Dealing with the vendor and getting the proper receipt was a matter of minutes, and then they were heading back. As they passed the baskets of plushies, a kid holding a small wolf play-growled at him. In a much better mood than before, Liam immediately stopped and pretended to be scared.
“Oh my, what a scary wolf!”
The kid was delighted, as young ones tend to be when you play along. He started laughing, which drew a laugh out of Theo as well. Liam smiled, relieved that whatever had happened, the chimera was more or less over it. This gave him an idea though. Pretending to search for Derek in the crowd, he turned his back on Theo and quickly grabbed a plush wolf from the closest bin, tucking it into his hoodie’s pocket. He then gestured towards where he had last seen Derek.
“Derek is over there, follow me!”
Luckily, Derek was actually in that direction, close to where Liam had left him. Less luckily, at least according to the face he was pulling, a woman was talking to him, quite clearly hitting on him. He looked quite happy to see them, and they could hear him mutter a fake sounding excuse about having to go look after his brother, before heading their way. He didn’t mention it though. He just took one long look at Theo.
“Are you good?”
Theo just nodded, which was apparently enough for the older werewolf who started driving their cart towards checkout. Liam rolled his eyes. Those two were not going to be talkatives roommates.
As they got closer to paying, the wolf was burning a hole in his pocket, reminding him he needed to find a way to pay for it without Theo seeing. After all, Theo had gotten the shark, and Liam still wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the wolf. But he knew the teasing would be endless. Good thing he had a plan!
Liam stopped right before they reached the counters. Theo immediately followed, as did Derek once he noticed his footsteps were the only ones. They both turned to him, Derek only raising an eyebrow while of course Theo couldn’t resist getting a dig in.
“What’s going on? Did you forget something again, Little Wolf?”
Liam had a plan. Liam would not get baited. Liam would- “I’m not the one who forgot the mattress!” -not remain calm. Oh well. “No, didn’t forget anything. It’s just that we’re supposed to give the pencils back. So I was thinking we could split up. You two go pay, I go put the pencils back. We meet back on the other side.” There. The truth, just not all of it.
This offer seemed to take Theo by surprise for a second. Liam immediately took advantage of it. “Don’t worry, Theo, paying isn’t so hard. Derek will take care of it anyway.”
This got him a roll of Theo’s eyes - ha! reaction again!. And also a much less suspicious chimera. Not willing to give them a chance to ask questions, Liam just waved goodbye, and headed towards the counters furthest away. Luckily, neither of the two followed him. He was then able to pay for the plush toy on his own, and even actually put the pencils back, before the other two were done with all that they bought.
Okay. Everything was paid for. The bigger items were set to be delivered the following day. They had all the packages for the rest. It was now time for the best part of going to Ikea! Well, except that Derek was definitely heading in the wrong direction.
“Derek. Where are you going?”
“To the cars. We’re done with shopping, leaving seems like the next logical step, Liam.”
“What? No! No, you can’t just leave! This is Ikea, Derek. And it’s dinner time. You have to get food!”
Theo was looking at him as if he had grown a second head. “You want us. To eat here? At the furniture store?”
“Yes! Eating at Ikea’s restaurant is like, a tradition.”
Apparently the others were too tired to argue, because they just shook their heads and motioned for him to lead the way. Victory was his! As well as the food.
Once they reached the cafeteria, Liam gave them a minute to look at the menu at the entrance.
“Any recommendations?” asked Derek.
“Nah, everything here is good. it’s supposed to be, like, Swedish food? My mom always gets the salmon though. And I get the meatballs, cos they’re the best!”
“Are you sure you shouldn’t get a kid’s menu? A full plate might be too much for you, Little Wolf.”
“One Inch, Theo. We have one inch of difference. Grow up.”
“Sounds like you need to grow-” Liam growled at him, while Theo cut himself to laugh, which only made Liam more annoyed. A cuff on the back of his head snapped him out of his annoyance.
“Boys, please. We’re almost out. Let’s just get food.” said Derek.
Liam grumbled, but headed inside, deciding everyone had had enough time to choose what they wanted to eat.
He got the meatballs, as announced, while Derek had apparently decided to follow his mom’s indirect advice and got the salmon. Theo, on the other hand, had decided to get a piece of the cheesecake. And nothing else.
“Man. You’ll get hungry. It’s not as much food as it seems.”
“I’m good, Liam. Not too hungry anyway.”
“Suuure… You’d better not take my food though.”
Which, of course, happened as soon as Theo was done with his cheesecake and had gotten his appetite back. Something Liam protested. Loudly. All the while pushing some more meatballs to the side of the plate closest to the other teenager. After all, his original goal had been to get Theo some food. It might have ended up being at Ikea rather than his own place, but that was still a win.
Once he was done with his salmon, Derek pushed his empty tray away from himself, and sighed.
“That was exhausting.”
“Well, yeah.” answered Liam. “That’s why people usually shop for one room at a time.”
Derek did a double take. “One room?”
“Like, Theo’s room. Or the living room. Or the kitchen. Not all of them at the same time.”
This was apparently the last straw for Derek, who was starting to have trouble remaining calm, while Theo was chuckling. “Why didn’t you tell us that at the start? We could have just done Theo’s room, the rest could have waited.”
“No, it couldn’t have! You guys were a desperate case! I refuse to sit on the floor again.” exploded Liam. “Mason agrees! He’s actually glad we thought to get Creepy Peter his own armchair!”
“You’re texting Mason?” asked Theo.
Liam rolled his eyes and answered, as if it was obvious. “Of course I am, I am always texting Mason.”
That sent Theo full-on laughing. Liam was starting to get offended, and grumpily asked, “What’s so funny?”
Theo, who once again had quickly gotten himself back under control, just smirked. “Derek, meet Liam.” He almost seemed… fond, somehow.
Derek’s bored voice brought them back to reality. “Okay, everyone is done. Let’s go home.”
They took the cart to Theo’s truck, since the Camaro did not have the room necessary to fit all their bags and packages. Once the back door was closed, Liam noticed Theo still had a bag in his hands. He turned to Liam, and produced a shark from the remaining bag. An. Actual. Ikea. Shark.
“Here. Thanks for coming.”
That was… unexpected. Blushing a bit, Liam in turn pulled the wolf plushie out of his hoodie’s pocket, and handed it to Theo.
“So you won’t just be alone with grumpy wolf over there.”
This was enough for Derek, who rolled his eyes, before addressing Theo. “You’re driving Liam home, right?” At Theo’s nod, Derek took the cart and left with a “See you at the loft” for Theo.
“Hey, so. Now you have him… See, he’s the Little Wolf! So you can start calling me Liam?” he asked, while reaching for his car door.
“Yeah, no, Little Wolf. Also, this is Littlest Wolf’s seat. You’re in the back.” And Theo sat his new plush toy on the passenger seat.
Liam grumbled, but Theo was adamant that it was the backseat or walking home, so he ended up in the back, sulking but hugging his new shark friend. He sent Mason a text to complain, followed by a selfie captioned “Corey could never look as good as Bruce”. The answering “Is Bruce your new nickname for Theo?” sent him blushing, and made him grumble about “no real friends” until they got back to Beacon Hills.