Archive of Our Own

“It’s for you.” Liam’s all but giving Theo puppy eyes.

Theo’s not certain how Liam even found him, parked at one of the older public parks in the outskirts of Beacon Hills. He grimaces, feeling a little like the owner of a dog who’s just brought him a gift it found buried in the dirt. Except Liam did not, in fact, bring him the decaying corpse of some poor animal, but a game console. A Nintendo Switch, he explained.

It’s small, with a shiny screen and buttons on the sides, and blue as a robin’s egg. Theo’s played video games before—often enough when he was really young, and briefly on the night he fooled Liam and Stiles into thinking he was a normal teenage werewolf. But he hasn’t touched a console since. Games are frivolous, in the grand scheme of things. And there’s always some grand scheme going on in Beacon Hills.

But Liam’s pushing the console into Theo’s hands and jabbing the on button, and his fingers are warm when they brush against Theo’s own and that’s distracting enough to keep Theo from telling him to stop.

“I already added myself as a friend so you don’t have to,” Liam explains, clicking through the home screen to the friends list.

“LiamtheLacrosseAlpha?” Theo reads disbelievingly.

Liam flushes, immediately turning defensive. “What? I play lacrosse, and I’m the alpha while Scott’s gone.”

Theo snorts. “Oh, sure.”

“Hey, I got you a Switch, the least you could do is not make fun of my name.”

“I didn’t ask you to get me anything.”

“I know that.” Liam frowns—pouts, more like. “Haven’t you ever gotten a gift before?”

Theo swallows against the instinct to say no, not in recent memory. That’d just sound pathetic and this whole thing is awkward enough already. So he says, “I don’t need gifts.”

Liam heaves an overdramatic sigh. “Just take it, dude. It’s got Animal Crossing.”

“Animal what?”

“Animal Crossing.” Liam waits a beat like it’s supposed to mean anything to Theo by saying it again. “You know. Animal Crossing.”

“I swear to god if you say Animal Crossing one more time—”

“You’ve never played Animal Crossing?” Liam’s eyes go round. Theo’s going to strangle him. “Oh no, we’re playing it right now.”

“Liam, I don’t have time—”

Liam starts up Animal Crossing.

Liam also, apparently, brought his own Switch with him, which he keeps in a worn Beacon Hills High School drawstring bag. His looks different, Theo notes, in that it’s black with different colored controllers on the sides, and decorated with various stickers of band logos. Together, they sit in the back of Theo’s truck with their legs dangling out the end. Theo half-listens while Liam explains the basics of the game through the loading screen and cheerful music. He digresses briefly into a vehement argument about the evils of who Theo assumes is the villain of the game, Tom Nook.

Tom Nook is a raccoon, he learns once the game finishes loading. He doesn’t look particularly intimidating. Theo thinks he could take him. At least, he would if his character wasn’t a two foot tall cartoon sprite.

“You gotta go through all the tutorial stuff first,” Liam says, bouncing in his seat like he’s the one hurrying through the game on Theo’s behalf. “And then tomorrow, your airport will open and we can visit each other’s islands.”

“Fantastic,” Theo mutters distractedly while clicking through the different hair options for his character.

“That one,” Liam says and points.

“That does not look like my hair.”

“Uh, it’s exactly like your hair.”

“No.” Theo scrolls through a few more, into the longer sets of hair. He settles on one in two long braids. “This one’s yours though.”

“Wh— No, shut up!” Liam curses and shoves at him. Theo barks a laugh and lets him, rolling easily beneath Liam’s palm. “Pick your damn hair already, I wanna see what villagers you get.”

Whatever that means. But Theo obliges, settling on the hairstyle Liam chose earlier, even if he doesn’t totally agree with it. Liam rattles on about things Theo doesn’t really understand or care about, like the layout of his new island, or what fruit trees’ll be on it, whatever. The plane carrying his character lands at a harbor where two little creatures wait for him, and Liam makes a choked noise.

“No way!” He grabs the Switch for a closer look, palms folding over Theo’s hands. Theo pays far more attention to these points of contact than anything happening on screen, but Liam doesn’t notice. Theo could probably get back in his truck and drive over him with the way Liam’s pushing his face into the screen, eyes wide, unaware of anything else at all. “Kid Cat and Cherry? Dude.”

“They rare or something?” Theo asks.

“They’re cool, that’s what.” Liam makes a sour face of jealousy. “You got native peaches too, what the hell. Figures you’d be good at Animal Crossing.”

“I didn’t even do anything,” Theo scoffs. “This stuff is random, right?”

“Yeah… Guess you’re just lucky.” Liam nudges Theo’s foot with his own.

Theo slides his gaze over to him. He’s never considered himself lucky. Everything he got, he fought for, clawed his way for it until his nails bled. Pushing and bending things to his whims is what he does—well, did. It stopped meaning much in the hospital with Tara. After that, it was just easier to give in.

Liam taps away at his game, still talking about all these little things in a low rumble of a voice. This boy who had, somehow, pulled Theo out of that place. This boy who fought together with him. This boy who is still here, despite everything.

Is that lucky?

Theo is snapped out of his thoughts by the buzzing of Liam’s phone. Liam reads the text that’s popped up, says, “Oh geez,” and stuffs his Switch into his bag. “I forgot about my study session with Mason. Think I can make it to the other side of town in, uh...” He looks at his phone again. “Five minutes?”

“If you stop driving ten below the speed limit, you could maybe make it in thirty,” Theo says helpfully.

“Well maybe if you stopped hanging out in the outskirts of Beacon Hills, I wouldn’t have to drive so far to find you.” Liam hops off the truck bed, making it bounce. “And excuse you, I drive safe.”

Liam still hasn’t realized Theo hangs out in the fringes because it’s supposed to be harder for Liam to find him. But he does, every time. Even here at this park, by the baseball field where Theo used to play Little League with Stiles, a lifetime ago.

He watches Liam toss his bag into the backseat of his own car, then pause before getting into the driver’s seat. He looks at Theo, the evening sun bright against the edges of his silhouette. Hesitation is obvious in his bottom lip, bitten between his teeth.

He says, “You should hang around more, Theo.”

The next breath out of Theo’s lungs is shaky.

“Maybe,” he says. “God knows you’ll find me anyway.”

A beat. Then Liam grins. “Yup. So don’t even bother hiding.”

Long after Liam’s driven away, Theo lingers, his new game console still in his hands. He never did say thank you.

Animal Crossing is… fun.

Liam will never hear those words come out of Theo’s mouth, but it doesn’t make them any less true. It wasn’t terribly interesting at first, gathering resources like wood and rocks to build crude tools for his character’s new life as a hermit. But the first time Theo put down some items in his tent—a dining set placed on a cardboard box, a clown fish he’d caught from the ocean—an odd, giddy feeling filled his chest.

He turned the game off after that, because he was clearly sleep-deprived or just straight depressed. But then he opened it up the next day. And he played it again, catching fish, building tools, saving Bells—the currency around which the game operates. Menial, mundane. Frivolous.

It’s stupidly addictive.

“Here’s my native fruit,” Liam says, dropping bundles of apples at Theo’s character’s feet. Liam makes his character run in a few happy loops around them, just to make sure that yes, Theo’s paying attention.

They’re sitting on the swings at the same park where Liam found him the other day. The summer heat means it’s empty and quiet, just as Theo likes it, even if it means they’re both sweating uncomfortably beneath the sun’s rays.

Theo grunts in thanks, picking up the apples with a few taps of a button. “You want anything?”

“Nah.” Liam kicks against the ground to get his swing to sway back, forth. “I’ve been playing this game for three months, I’m set. So if you need, like, Bells or iron or anything, I can give ’em to you. Or even tools you haven’t gotten yet.”

“You my sugar daddy or something?” Theo says without looking up from catching a virtual beetle on a tree.

There’s a yelp and a thump against the dirt. Theo looks. Liam’s fallen off his swing.

Long since used to Liam’s clumsy antics, Theo raises an eyebrow.

“You don’t have to say it like that!” Liam hisses, picking himself up and dusting the dirt from his jeans.

“Am I wrong?” Theo smirks. “Giving me Bells and presents in exchange for, what? Quality time?” Liam is sputtering incoherently now, red in the face for reasons other than the heat. “If you wanted feet pics, Liam, all you had to do was ask.”

“Stop!” Liam shrieks, shoving Theo—ineffectually, as it only makes him swing away then back towards him. Theo can’t stop laughing, head tossed back, his body kept from falling only by his arms hooked around the chains of the swing. “Gross, dude.”

“Hey, you’re the one spoiling me.” Theo rubs a hand against his aching cheeks. Shit, that was funny. “Can’t blame me for making assumptions.”

“It’s called being nice. I know you’ve never heard of it, but sometimes friends just want to give friends things.”

Theo pauses at that, mirth slipping away to somewhere deeper within himself. Unconsciously, he listens to Liam’s pulse. Not a beat out of place.

He digs a heel into the ground to stop his swing in its tracks. Friends, huh?

Before he can figure out what to say to that—and he’s really, really thinking, the words not coming to him as easily as they normally do—Liam gasps, grabbing Theo by one sleeve of his t-shirt, his other hand clutching his Switch.

“Dude, dude, there’s two sharks over here.” Over here being the western beach of Theo’s island, apparently. “Come on, let’s catch them.”

Theo does as he’s told, since sharks are worth a lot and it’d be good to sell one. He stops a small ways away from Liam’s character, and they simultaneously cast their lines towards the shark-shaped shadows bobbing in the ocean waves. They wait with held breaths, eyes unblinking. Waiting, waiting, for the telltale buzz of their controllers.

Later, Liam’s character runs sulkily along the shoreline, desperate for another shark’s fin to appear out of the waters.

Theo dogs his steps, ready for the moment Liam slows enough for Theo to tap open his inventory and show off the great white shark he caught. His character holds it triumphantly in its arms as the game plays him a fanfare. The shark wiggles in Liam’s face.

“Will you stop that already?” Liam says, lashing out with a foot to kick Theo in real life. “Catching sharks is hard, okay? Quit rubbing it in my face.”

“Sorry, what? I can’t hear you over the sound of my fucking shark.”

“Sharks don’t make noise.” Liam’s character runs off. Theo follows. Shows off the shark again. The cycle begins anew.

“Theo, I will end you,” Liam threatens, brandishing his in-game axe.

“You wouldn’t dare hit me while I’m holding this.” Theo taps buttons again to take out his shark.

Except this time his thumb slips, and he hits the command that says ‘Release’.

The shark leaps from the hands of Theo’s character and into the sea from whence it came.

Liam laughs for five straight minutes.

He doesn’t stop even when Theo clamps a hand over his mouth and wrestles him into the grass, Switches forgotten to the side despite the cheerful island music still playing through the speakers.

Annoyance and embarrassment itch on Theo’s skin. Maybe it’s the heat that’s making it harder to tamp down on his emotions; they really should get under the shade soon, if he can get Liam to quit laughing at him.

Liam finally calms down to faint giggles. Theo is half on top of him, his hands pinning Liam’s shoulders to the grass. There are wildflowers caught in his hair.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Liam says breathlessly, a wide grin on his face.

A thousand things run through Theo’s mind at this moment. The smell of grass, and sweat, and Liam’s laundry detergent. The sun bearing down on the back of his neck. And, most of all, how much broader Liam’s shoulders are than Theo remembers. When was the last time he touched him like this? Back at the hospital, maybe, when he threw an arm across Liam’s back while they fled from bullets.

Taking his hands off him feels harder than it needs to be. Theo shifts aside, sitting down on the grass next to Liam. His hand opens, fingers flexing, then curls shut again.

Liam sits up too, after a moment. His hair is a mess. Theo wants to laugh but his throat is dry.

It’s quiet for a bit, a few suspended seconds where Theo is desperate for something to break the silence. He doesn’t know why; he’s never cared much before about niceties, about saying things simply for the sake of chatter. That’s always been Liam’s thing. But he worries if it drags on any longer, something unnecessary will leap out his throat. Some great, terrible secret. He doesn’t even know what.

But then Liam exhales, as if there isn’t anything at all wrong with the world, like Theo isn’t next to him arranging and rearranging all the thoughts in his head, and says, “It’s hot. Wanna get milkshakes?”

Theo relaxes. He curls and uncurls his hands once more. He feels like something is let go, when he does. Lost somewhere in the summer breeze. That’s okay with him.

He says, “Yeah, why not,” and accepts the hand Liam holds out to help him up.

The days pass by in much the same way: Theo parks and reparks his truck at various places in Beacon Hills, and it almost starts to feel like a game, waiting to see if Liam can find him. He does, most of the time, except for the days he has study sessions with Mason. Those are becoming more frequent as finals approach like a murky storm on the horizon.

“US History is a no brainer,” Liam says once, in the middle of catching fish for the Fishing Tourney in Animal Crossing. Beside him on the beach, Theo’s character throws fish bait, then his line, fish bait, then his line. “But trig? Can’t do it. Doesn’t matter how many times Mason draws triangles for me. I’m sick of letters and shapes showing up in math.”

“That’s what math’s gonna be like for the rest of your academic life,” Theo informs him.

“Screw that,” Liam moans, and Theo has to agree.

They don’t really hang out much outside of these moments. Not that Theo’s waiting for them, or anything. It’s just that most of his days consist of trying to get some sleep, an endeavor that’s downright Sisyphean, so whenever Liam shows up to break the monotony, Theo welcomes it.

Even if each time it gets a little harder. Harder to—what? Stop wondering what it’d be like if he let his knee tilt just a little closer, until it touches Liam’s?

Theo shakes his head at the thought. There’s no way he’s letting himself turn into the protagonist of some Victorian romance novel. If touching Liam makes him feel all weird in the head, then he’s just going to avoid touching him. Simple.

Anyway. Instead of dealing with that particular complication in his life, he works on his Animal Crossing island. He doesn’t put quite the same amount of energy and meticulous planning as Liam does (“I need to make sure all my trees are spaced out properly for bug catching, right next to my flower fields where I’m breeding hybrids. Oh, you should come see my Godzilla fight zone too, Theo, I have like every color of Godzilla now. I’m gonna build a mini city around them, it’s gonna be sick.”), but he thinks it’s coming along fine. He made a little gym on one corner of his island, complete with a rock climbing wall and a wrestling ring. It’s next to the house of his jock villager and resident favorite, Kid Cat.

And then one day, Kid Cat asks to leave.

Theo frowns after clicking through the dialogue. Liam looks up from where he’s doing his homework, textbooks and notes spread across the floor of his front porch behind Theo sitting on the steps, and says, “What’s up? You catch your tenth sea bass in a row?”

“No.” Theo wrinkles his nose imagining that. “Kid Cat wants to move out.”

Liam gasps like Theo just said he’s going back to his murderous ways of yore.

“Not Kid Cat,” Liam says, stricken. “Aw man. Too bad it wasn’t, like, Moose or something. Well, when you tell a villager no, someone else will ask to move in a few days and then—”

“I already said okay.”

Liam stares. “What?”

“I said yes, he can move out.”

“Why?” Liam looks like he’s never heard of something so nonsensical. “You love Kid Cat.”

Theo scoffs. “I don’t love him.” He watches Kid Cat wander blithely around the gym. The gym he made for him. Theo tries not to be bitter about it but dammit, he likes the gym.

“But he’s your favorite, right?”

“I guess.” Kid Cat bats at the speed bag and Theo, horribly, feels a pang in his chest.

“Then why are you letting him go?”

“Why are you so worked up about this?” Theo screws his face. “He wants to leave, I’m not gonna force him to be here.”

“But…” Liam gestures vaguely with a hand, and while Theo’s used to Liam’s odd methods of communication, this has him a little lost. “You… They don’t have to leave.”

“I really don’t care that much, Liam—”

“If they’re your favorite, you can ask them to stay.” Liam’s face burns with a determination that is completely bewildering. “Sure, you might feel like you’re forcing them to stay just by asking, but sometimes—sometimes it means a lot just to know someone wants you to. That... That they’d miss you.”

Theo is the one staring now. He gets the distinct feeling they’re not just talking about Kid Cat anymore.

Some kind of realization seems to fall over Liam too, and he clears his throat and sticks his face back in his textbook. Not fast enough for Theo to miss the color on his cheeks, though.

“Anyway,” Liam says too loudly, “Kid Cat is one of the best villagers so you’re an idiot to let him go.”

Theo waits, chewing on his words before proceeding carefully. “You can ask him to move in, if you want. That’s a thing you can do, right?”

Liam gives him a look over the edge of his book. “Of course I’m inviting him to my island. Sure, I’ll have three jocks, but jocks are the coolest, so.”

“Said like a true jock,” Theo mutters.

“LacrosseAlpha, remember?”

“Believe me, I wish I could forget.”

Liam stabs his socked foot into the small of Theo’s back. “Dick.”

But there is fondness around the edges of his voice, and just like that, the tension lifts. Theo doesn’t feel like whatever that was has been resolved, exactly, but like the other day at the park, he lets it go. Maybe a braver him would push it more, ease the words apart to find the softer truth beneath, but that’s not him. Not right now.

He exhales. Not right now.

Right now, he goes back to grinding daily quests and arranging furniture outside of his villagers’ houses, which includes contemplating who’s gonna get Kid Cat’s old furniture. Liam goes back to his studying. They do this until the evening sky starts to darken to purple, and Liam stretches from where he’s been lounging in a pile of physics notes and says, “Ugh, I’m sick of this. I’m gonna grab my Switch, you wanna come in?”

Theo stops in the middle of chopping trees. “Inside?”

“That’s what ‘in’ means, yes.” Liam smiles a little. “You’ve gotta be sick of sitting on the floor by now.”

Theo’s pretty used to sitting in uncomfortable spaces, but. “Sure.”

It’s empty inside Liam’s house as neither of his parents are home yet. Theo doesn’t plan to stay long enough to see them, not feeling up to that particular confrontation, even though they have to be aware of Theo’s existence at this point with how much time Liam spends with him. He follows Liam up the stairs to his room, feeling weird about it the whole time.

Liam opens the door without flourish. He gestures vaguely to his bed—made, but with some discarded clothes thrown on it—and drops his school stuff onto his desk.

Theo stops at the doorway, struck with hesitation.

Liam raises a brow at him. “You just gonna stand there like a weirdo?”

Theo glares. “Shut up.” Liam shrugs and dips down to grab his Switch from its charging dock beneath the TV.

Theo steps inside. He perches on the edge of the mattress. Liam plops down next to him, pressing buttons to turn the Switch on, then flops back to lie on the bed fully. Theo takes a second to just… adjust. Everything smells like Liam, obviously, but Theo’s never been so thoroughly surrounded by it before. It doesn’t feel wrong. It feels like something unwinds in his chest with every inhale, exhale. It feels—

Liam gasps loud enough to almost make Theo’s claws snap out.

Whipping around to scowl at him, Theo growls, “Liam, what the h—”

“Celeste is here!” Liam turns his Switch around to show Theo the screen. Sure enough, there’s Celeste: a red owl strolling happily through a field of flowers.

“Just Celeste? That’s what you almost gave me a heart attack for?”

“Just Celeste? Dude, she can give you a recipe for the freaking moon. Now hurry up and come visit so I can see what she gives you.”

Theo takes a moment to count backwards from ten, squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I’m opening my island,” Liam says, ignoring him, and Theo can hear the rapid footsteps of his character sprinting to the airport.

His mood improves greatly when Liam gets a tulip wand from Celeste and Theo ends up getting the freaking moon.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Liam says while Theo’s character does the clapping reaction at him.

“Guess I am good at Animal Crossing,” Theo says with a smirk.

“No, I think our games are rigged because this is the fourth time in a row that I’ve gotten a wand from Celeste and you’ve seen her, what? Three times?”

“Two times.”

“Two times!” Liam starts angrily watering flowers. At least, it’d look angry if his character didn’t have a permanent vacant smile on its face.

Theo strolls to Liam’s character, takes out his own watering can. “Would it make you feel better if I helped you water flowers?” he says sweetly.

“No.” Liam pauses. “Well, you can water some. Having friends water flowers makes them produce more hybrids.”

“Which ones?”

Liam sits up and scoots next to Theo. He leans in to peek at Theo’s screen, close enough that his breath ghosts against Theo’s cheek. Theo stiffens.

“These,” Liam says, pointing at a multicolored patch of roses. “I’m trying to breed blue roses.”

“There are blue roses?”

“Yup. They’re the hardest flowers to breed. I’ve been trying since I started playing this game.”

“Seriously? Why bother?” Theo frowns while watering said roses.

“For one thing, the flex,” Liam says simply. Fair enough. “And for another, they’re pretty.”

Theo snorts. “That doesn’t seem worth all the trouble to me.”

“Maybe.” Liam shrugs, and a small smile rises to his face. “But I don’t mind. They’re a pain and take a lot of time and work and patience, but it’s worth it. I think you appreciate it a little more, because of that.”

Theo silently finishes watering the last of the flowers. Afterwards, he murmurs, “All done.”

Liam perks up when he sees how brightly his flowers sparkle. “Thanks, Theo.”

“Yeah.” Theo clears his throat when he hears the hoarseness of his voice. He feels strange. Liam’s scent is becoming a little overwhelming after all. Or maybe it’s the proximity, or being in this room, or something, because Theo’s starting to feel on edge. His skin prickles with warmth.

Liam’s staring.

“What?” Theo asks defensively. Please tell him he’s not blushing right now.

“Nothing!” Liam says, blinking. “Sorry, I just realized something that was bugging me.”

“My face was bugging you?”

“Yes.” Wow. “I mean no!” Theo squints and Liam drags a hand over his face. “Ugh, I mean… You can add custom designs to your character’s face. You know that, right?”

Theo raises an eyebrow. “Yeah. So?”

“So people use it to add, like, eyebrows and scars and freckles and stuff. And I realized you never drew a freckle on yours.”

Theo frowns. “What the hell are you talking about, Liam?”

“Your freckle. The one on your face. If you want your character to look like you, you should draw one.”

Theo, still confused over Liam making a fuss over something so unimportant, says very eloquently, “Huh?”

Liam makes a frustrated huff. “This one,” he says and raises a hand.

He touches his thumb to Theo’s cheek. A faint, feather-light brush, the rest of his fingers curling around Theo’s jaw but not quite touching.

Theo goes very still.

Liam, unconcerned, brushes his thumb over that part of Theo’s cheek again, more firmly this time. His touch leaves warmth in its wake. Theo was feeling keyed up even before Liam touched him, and this certainly isn’t helping him regain his tentative grasp on normalcy.

He swallows. Liam’s gaze flicks down to the motion of his throat.

Then Liam blinks, some clarity coming back to his eyes, which had gone hazy.

“Sorry,” he says in a rough whisper. He starts to pull his hand away.

Theo catches his wrist.

Liam, surprisingly, doesn’t startle. He doesn’t pull away either, just watches Theo with curiosity that bleeds into anticipation when Theo turns his grip to better see Liam’s bare wrist.

Theo doesn’t know what he’s doing. Not really. These instincts—pack instincts—don’t come to him as naturally as it does the others, the ones who were born with it or bitten. It touches a sore spot in him that he doesn’t let himself dwell on, as it’s pointless anyway. It’s not like there’s a pack around for him to feel these instincts towards.

But Liam—

Theo sucks in a breath, heart stuttering in his chest when Liam’s scent drowns out all other thoughts. Liam always did have a penchant for coaxing out Theo’s more deeply buried tendencies.

He leans in and nudges his nose against the skin of Liam’s wrist. Here, he can feel his pulse beat unwaveringly, if faster than usual. Much faster. Theo would be smug if he weren’t feeling so intoxicated. He presses in further, parted lips brushing against where the pulse beats strongest. When Liam doesn’t tug his hand away, Theo opens his mouth to let the barest hint of teeth nudge against his wrist.

Liam makes a noise like a choke and a sigh, which seems oxymoronic, but Liam has an uncanny ability to make impossibilities work somehow. Because this? Impossible. Liam letting himself be touched like this by Theo. Liam lifting his free hand to cradle Theo’s other cheek, drawing him incrementally closer. Theo’s lips tracing a slow, fleeting path along Liam’s arm, closer, and closer. Liam sliding his fingers into Theo’s hair.

It has to be impossible.

They’re close enough now that all Theo has to do is duck down. Liam is unmistakably looking at Theo’s mouth. Theo stares at his, and he’s still staring when Liam darts a tongue out over his bottom lip and says, “Theo.”

It’s like a crack in the glass. One that grows and grows and, as glass does, shatters. The rest of the world floods back in.

Theo tears himself away.

“I have to go,” he says, his voice a rasp.

Liam blinks like snapping out of a trance. “What?”

Theo gets up and strides to the bedroom door.

“Theo, wait—”

The way to his truck is a blur. Theo notices nothing but the pounding of his heartbeat in his ears. He’s always hated that sound.

He’s so out of it he almost misses Liam’s mom pulling into the driveway. He hurries past without so much as a nod, makes a straight line to his truck parked at the curb and yanks the driver’s side door open.

Sitting inside isn’t enough to muffle the sound of Liam sprinting to the front door, or Liam’s mom walking up to him and saying, “Liam, was that a friend of yours? Liam, honey, what’s wrong?”

Theo starts the engine, loathing himself. As he drives off, he drags a tongue over his teeth. Still pointed.

He hasn’t touched the game in days.

It’s frankly the least of his concerns, but he knows his island will be sprouting weeds if he doesn’t tend to it, and that makes Liam’s voice ring in the back of his mind, nagging him about keeping his island tidy. Liam always plucked weeds for him whenever he visited.

Kid Cat will have moved out by now, without Theo saying goodbye or Liam inviting him to his own island, like he said he would. And that’s not important either, but it feels like another kick in the teeth after everything.

And anyway. Half the reason Theo played the damn thing was to make Liam happy. He found his own enjoyment in it, sure, but building new parts of his island, or catching fish on the beach, or watering flowers—he knows in his bones that they wouldn’t mean half as much if he was doing them alone.

Theo exhales roughly, shifting in the backseat of his truck where he’s sprawled out with an arm over his eyes. The windows are open but it doesn’t do much against the roiling summer heat, despite parking beneath one of the shadier spots of the park. Theo finds himself dozing off anyway, weighed down by the weather and his dark swirl of thoughts.

A resounding knock rings against one of the doors.

Theo jolts into alertness, already scrambling for his keys and talking on autopilot. “I’m going, I’m going—”

He stops when he realizes it’s not a cop.

Mason is glaring at him from one of the open windows.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Theo says, rather blearily now that the brief adrenaline rushes away. “How did you—”

“Get out,” Mason says.

Theo balks. “What?”

“Dude, just get out already. I can tell you’re dying in there.”

“I’m not—”

“I need to talk to you, I’m not gonna do it through the window and I’m sure as hell not getting in an enclosed space with you, so just get out already so we can, like, sit on a bench or something.” Mason takes a breath after that run on sentence, then holds up the plastic bag clutched in his hand. Theo can see two bottles of soda inside. “If you won’t do it for me, then at least do it for one of these.”

Theo eyes one of the bottles. “How did you know I like ginger ale?”

“Liam told me,” Mason says. He nods when he sees Theo grimace. “And now you know why I’m here. Come on.”

They move to the stands of the baseball field, in the back row where tree shade hangs over it. It dredges up Theo’s memories of so long ago, of Tara and his parents sitting here cheering for him whenever he went up to bat. They’re hazy, ill-defined memories, and they almost feel like they don’t belong to him anymore. It makes him slightly nauseous, and it’s a good thing Mason brought ginger ale.

“Before you ask, yes, Liam is also why I knew I could find you here.” Mason glances sideways at him. They’re sitting a careful five feet apart. “He wasn’t specific about where he’d hang out with you all the time, but I could assume enough from how much he talked about you.”

“You here to talk on his behalf or something?” Theo grumbles around the lip of his soda bottle.

“Sort of. He just doesn’t know about it.”

Theo looks at Mason warily.

Mason sucks in a breath. “I don’t know exactly what you did,” he begins, his hands fidgeting with his Dr. Pepper, “but Liam’s miserable. He won’t say why, but I’m his best friend. I know things. And I know Liam makes mistakes and that he doesn’t have the most tact, but I also know for a fact that he was trying really hard with you. That he was being careful.”

Theo, feeling pained, asks, “Why?”

Mason rolls his eyes. It’s funny; Mason used to tiptoe around Theo like he might bite his throat out at the slightest provocation. Now Mason looks at him like he’s any regular annoying person in his life, and it’s oddly comforting.

“I’m pretty sure you know why, Theo,” he says.

Theo looks out at the baseball field, dirt and white lines and grass. He thinks about the one time he and Liam hopped the fence to sit in the dugout, and Liam had come directly from lacrosse practice so he had his stuff with him, and they ended up playing a bizarre hybrid of lacrosse and baseball, just the two of them. Liam dramatically slid to home and got even more dirt all over him. Theo almost laughed himself sick.

That memory—that one feels vivid and real, and undoubtedly his. The old memories are his too, he knows: the ones that still bring him pain and regret and other acidic swells of emotion. And he knows just as well that he can’t leave them behind no matter how badly he wishes to.

But there are other memories now. Bright ones. Liam with the sunset behind him. Liam pouting at Theo’s teasing. Liam laughing in the grass with flowers in his hair.

Theo finally says, in a voice nearly lost to the sound of wind through the trees, “Yeah.”

Mason is quiet for a second. Then he shakes his head and says, “God, you’re both idiots.”

Theo frowns. “Hey.”

“I’m right and you know it.” Mason points threateningly with his Dr. Pepper, which is to say, not very threateningly at all. “Just… go apologize to him, okay? Otherwise he’s gonna keep beating himself up. Seeing him redecorate his AC house with black furniture and emo candles is just depressing.”

“You play?” Theo asks.

“Duh. You think Liam does all that island planning by himself?” Mason almost smiles. “That reminds me, what are your turnip prices today? Liam says you always get good ones.”

They have to go back to Theo’s truck for him to get his Switch, and they sit at the edge of the open truck bed while Theo turns on the game. He doesn’t bother with the stalk market because he doesn’t like how much of a gamble it is, even though Liam said there were bots and stuff that can track prices. Theo is doing just fine making his living off fish and bugs, but apparently Mason is just as invested in the market as Liam.

“556 Bells,” Theo tells him. “Is that good?”

Mason makes a choking sound and scrambles to turn on his Switch. “Dude, you are lucky.”

It takes Mason two trips to sell all his turnips. It’s weird having an unfamiliar character running around on Theo’s island—hell, it’s weird having Mason around at all, let alone sitting beside him in his truck. But Mason didn’t bring a wolfsbane-poisoned knife to stab him, or, even worse, pry into Theo’s feelings. So maybe it’s okay.

When it’s done, they exchange friend codes. Mason doesn’t do anything painfully awkward when he says goodbye, like pat Theo on the shoulder. Instead, he just gives him one last threatening look, and he doesn’t have to say anything for Theo to know what it means.

The taste of ginger ale lingers sweetly on Theo’s tongue. He looks at Liam’s name in his friends list.

He’d better start working on that apology.

The thing is, for all that Theo’s good at weaving the right words together, at telling people exactly what they want to hear to elicit exactly the right response, he still finds himself stumbling over this. He could put together the right words if he thought long and hard about it, sure. He knows the elements of a proper apology, can write it out and practice it and play the part. He’s good at it. Everyone knows.

But Liam doesn’t fall for any of that anymore. Hasn’t for a long time. And Theo’s long since stopped trying. Every good lie has a little bit of truth threaded through it, but Liam pushed past it and found that thread, pulled it, unraveled Theo stitch by stitch.

It’s terrifying in a way different from all that Theo has ever known.

He doesn’t feel ready to admit that yet. He doesn’t feel ready in any sense of the word, but here he is, parking his truck outside of Liam’s house once again and looking up at the light glowing in one of the second story windows.

He gets out and leans against the side of his truck. He’s certain Liam heard him arrive, but nothing happens.

Not bothering with a text, Theo says, “Liam,” out into the night air.

Still nothing. Theo sighs, thinking, then says, “Liam, my turnips are 556 Bells.”

He waits a beat. The light in Liam’s room turns off. Not long after, the front door opens, light spilling out from it.

Liam doesn’t look happy. Theo certainly didn’t expect him to, but he looks tired and wary and his mouth is set in a frown, and Theo hates that. Liam hasn’t looked at him like that since the Ghost Riders plowed through Beacon Hills and they openly vowed to abandon each other.

But Liam stands there, Switch in hand, and doesn’t yell at Theo to fuck right off, so. Theo will take this chance. He walks towards the porch.

Liam steps outside and shuts the door behind him, cutting away most of the light from inside. All that’s left is the porch light, glowing dimly. Liam’s eyes still look punishingly bright.

They stare at each other for a moment, Theo uncertain what to say, Liam looking like he’s physically holding words behind his teeth. But he opens his mouth and says, “Can I come sell now?”

Theo exhales, his mouth quirking in tired amusement. “Yeah.”

They sit on the porch steps. They don’t speak, not while cheery music plays out of both their games, not while Liam picks up his frankly ridiculous number of turnips, and not while he flies over to Theo’s island. It’s only when Liam runs out of the airport and Theo sees his character again—in his mismatched outfit of a king’s crown, a spacesuit, and football cleats—that the silence is broken by Theo’s quick laugh.

“What?” Liam scowls.

“What is that outfit?”

“I’m a football-playing king in space,” Liam explains, like it makes total sense. Then, sounding genuinely disappointed, “All I need to complete it is a moustache.”

“I think I have moustaches in my store.”

“Really?” Liam’s eyes widen. “Okay, nips first, then the moustache.”

Theo groans. “Do you really have to call them nips?”

“That’s what they are, aren’t they?”

Theo wants to disagree, but this is a well-trodden conversation and the resolve that brought him here is only going to last so long.

“Sure, Liam,” he says and watches Liam run straight to his store to sell said nips.

He waits while Liam clicks through the dialogue, and it takes him a minute to realize there’s something new on his island, planted along the path leading to the airport. He furrows his brow.

“Liam,” he says. “Did you put these here?”

“Hm?” Liam looks over to Theo’s screen. “Oh, yeah.” He goes back to selling his turnips.

Theo stares.

Roses. A pair of them in a deep, true blue.

Theo, still staring, asks, “Why?”

Liam waits until he’s finished with his turnips to put down his game and look at Theo.

“I was breeding them for you anyway,” he says. “I mean, I wanted them for myself too, but. They kind of remind me of you.” Liam curls a hand over his face, looking embarrassed. He murmurs, “The color reminds me of your truck.”

Something aches inside Theo. A new ache, a sweet ache. One that’s been building for so long now, through so many days and nights and sun-drenched afternoons. Building and building and cresting now because—because Liam gave him roses.

Theo sets his Switch aside and reaches out to take Liam’s face in his hands. Liam yelps but goes pliant under Theo’s touch, leaning in when pulled, meeting Theo’s eyes when beckoned by Theo’s thumb gently guiding his chin upwards. Color blooms at his cheeks. He’s so beautiful Theo never wants to look away.

He knows what he should say, can feel the words knocking around in his throat, his heart. I was scared. All I do is ruin things. I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

What he says instead is, “I’ve never felt this way before.”

He pleads for Liam to understand. With his thumb brushing over Liam’s cheek, with his soul bared open, with every part of him shivering in the night air. Please, please understand.

Liam pushes forward and kisses him.

Oh, thank fuck.

Theo melts into it, a broken sound slipping past his throat. He curls his fingers into Liam’s hair. Liam fists his hands in Theo’s shirtfront, pulling him in closer, and when he opens his mouth the kiss turns a shade hotter, more desperate. Theo thinks he might pass out right this second.

But then Liam pulls away, not far, just enough to breathe in. His eyes are shut. He looks dazed.

He clears his throat and says, “It took way too long for us to do that.”

Theo blinks, then ducks his head down to hide a self-deprecating smile. “Yeah.”

Liam’s hand has moved from Theo’s shirt to the back of his neck, anchoring him. He says, “I forgive you, though.”

Theo squeezes his eyes shut. He pitches forward until he can rest his forehead on Liam’s shoulder. Liam wraps his arms around Theo and holds him there.

In the game, their characters stand together idly, and a shooting star darts overhead.

Finals are over.

Not that that has anything to do with Theo directly, but it means Liam can stop complaining about having to study whenever they hang out, and that Theo won’t get berated for every time he slips his hands under Liam’s shirt in an unsubtle attempt to distract him from his schoolwork.

It works 75% of the time, Theo recalls smugly. But still, it’s always better when Liam isn’t annoyed with him.

Like right now: they’re sitting in the back of Theo’s truck, as they do so often, and Liam is chewing on the straw of his milkshake while talking to Theo about how easy his US History exam was. His hand is tucked into Theo’s and he squeezes every once in a while as he talks, and life has never felt more okay.

Theo is half-listening to Liam’s tangent about the Spanish-American War while also trying to catch beetles in Animal Crossing. It’s a little difficult to do one-handed.

“You know there’s a Bug Off next Saturday?” Liam says around a mouthful of vanilla milkshake.

“Is that a tournament or something?”

“Yeah, like the fishing one. You get more points if you do it with friends. I thought maybe Mason and Corey could join us.”

Theo looks up from his screen to Liam, who’s watching him with nervous anticipation.

Theo says, “Nope.”

Liam visibly deflates. “Oh.”

Theo stays impassive for thirty whole seconds before snorting. “I’m kidding, Liam. I just can’t next Saturday.”

“Oh.” Liam perks up. “Why?”

“Got a job from Deaton. I have to deliver something to a pack the next town over.”

“A job? Dude, that’s awesome.” Liam slaps him on the shoulder.

Theo shrugs, not wanting to admit just how psyched he feels about it. Liam probably knows anyway.

“Maybe soon I can actually afford a place with WiFi,” he says. “Then we don’t have to spend every waking moment together just to play Animal Crossing.”

“Are you saying you’re getting tired of me?” Liam frowns.

“I’m not saying anything,” Theo says and goes back to playing.

“Theo.” Liam bumps their knees against each other. “Theo.” He makes a frustrated noise. “Theo, Theo, Theo, Theo—”

Theo shuts him up by kissing him solidly on the mouth.

Liam’s lips are cold and sweet, but his hands are hot when he drops them to Theo’s waist and tugs. Theo obliges, shifting closer, knowing full well he could never resist Liam’s gravity.

When they part, Theo says breathlessly, “God, do you ever stop talking.”

Liam grins, not fooled for a moment. Figures. It’s always like this.

Instead of talking more as Theo expected, Liam pulls him in for another kiss.

It’s always like this. And, as Theo lets himself smile against Liam’s mouth, he hopes it always will be.