Archive of Our Own

Theo hadn’t been back to Beacon Hills since Monroe and the Hunters had been vanquished.

He had helped Scott and the rest of them, he knew that, but as the dust settled, it was clear to him that he didn’t have a place here, and that he didn’t want to spend all of his time and energy trying to gain the trust of people that were, at the end of the day, never going to fully trust him.

Theo had gotten in his truck and left town, glancing back only once as he did so.

It was hard to leave.

The last time anyone had cared about Theo, he had been ten years old, and his parents had still loved him, he supposed. He had been so fucked up by that point that he didn’t even notice it, and he had let the Dread Doctors take them out, just as he had let his sister die so that he could claim her heart.

Did Scott and his pack care? Theo wasn’t sure, but they had given him a second chance, one that he was sure he hadn’t deserved, and when they needed him the most, Theo liked to think that he had come through. However, that didn’t cancel out every bad thing that he had done, every evil act of manipulation, and frankly, murder, and he felt that it was best to leave it all behind. They all had each other, and they didn’t need him.

He wasn’t sure where he was going to wind up, and it took him a while to gain any sort of bearing. Being alone wasn’t easy, but drifting was easier than setting down roots anywhere, and he spent his time moving from place to place. Sure, he’d stay a few months, sometimes more, but never quite a year anywhere. He waited tables, worked behind a bar, whatever it took to get by, but he never set down roots; nowhere ever felt right.

He didn’t make friends, either. It wasn’t an easy thing for someone like him to do, and when he longed for companionship, he found it at last call with someone who was good enough for a night, and for that one night, he did his best to be everything they wanted, and in the morning, he was gone.

It wasn’t a good way to live, but it was the best that Theo had found in a long time, and he didn’t think that he would find better.

So why, after ten years, was he back in Beacon Hills?

He wasn’t sure.

He hadn’t meant to drive back to his hometown, but he was passing through California, having left a job in LA after declaring it far too busy for someone like him, and he had taken the exit for Beacon Hills before he had even realized he was doing it.

The feeling that took him over as he entered city limits was overwhelming. The first good years of his life had been here, and then he had let everything go wrong. He had left with the Dread Doctors, to cover up the fact that his parents were dead, and when he had returned, it had been for blood.

When he had left the second time, it had been knowing that he had finally done the right thing. Coming back now, he wasn’t sure what he was looking for.

He was just passing through, he told himself. Just one drink at one bar, and then he would be on his way.

What he didn’t expect, when he walked into The Boxcar tavern was to see Liam Dunbar.

It took Theo a moment to recognize his appearance, but his scent hit Theo like a truck the second he walked in, and that aching in his chest, the one that had made itself known when he had driven into town, increased tenfold.

Liam was sitting at the bar by himself, and initially, his back was to Theo, but as Theo walked around, he got a good look at him, and god. It was definitely Liam.

His hair was still longer than it had been when they had first met, but it was well kept now, and he had a beard to go with it. He was wearing slacks and a blazer over a button up - he looked like an adult, and Theo wasn’t sure why he was surprised by that. It had been a decade since they had seen each other. Liam wasn’t 16 anymore, but in Theo’s head? Well, he hadn’t seen Liam grow up. When he thought back, Liam was always a teenager.

Theo wondered how different he looked. He knew that his hair was different - shorter than when they had last met, and while he hadn’t gone the full beard route that Liam had, he was no longer a clean shaven 18 year old.

Would Liam recognize him?

Would he care if he did?

Should he care?

Did Theo care if Liam cared?

He took a deep breath and figured that it was best not to go down this road. He turned to leave, but he didn’t make it to the door before he heard Liam speak.

“Theo Raeken?”

Theo squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then turned around, his cover blown.

Liam had swiveled on his barstool, and he was looking directly at him.

“Liam.” Theo stepped forwards, not wanting to cause a scene in this bar. Sure, it wasn’t the nicest place ever - The Boxcar was the resident “divey” sports bar, which was what made it feel like such a good place for Theo to go into, but he hadn’t been expecting to see anyone he knew there.

Hell, he hadn’t known that any of them were still in Beacon Hills, let alone Liam. It had seemed that he had such a bright future, but then again, Theo wasn’t sure why Liam couldn’t have that here, and he looked good. If Theo had to guess, he would guess that Liam was doing well.

Then again, Liam was alone in a bar, when they couldn’t even process alcohol properly enough to feel the intended effects.

“What are you doing here?” Liam asked, taking in Theo’s appearance with the same shock that Theo felt.

Theo wasn’t dressed as well as Liam - he was wearing faded jeans, black converse, and a jersey cotton t-shirt, comfortable clothes, good for traveling, and wasn’t that what he was doing?

Just passing through.

“I’m just, you know,” Theo shrugged. “Passing through.”

A smile flickered onto Liam’s face for a moment, then disappeared.

“Have a seat.”

“Okay.” Theo knew that he had no good reason to say no, and frankly, he didn’t want to. He took the barstool next to Liam’s, inspecting him further.

He did look older, but not in a bad way - just in a “time has passed” sort of way. What got Theo’s attention the most, though, was the glint of a gold band on Liam’s left ring finger.

He was married?

Theo felt a pang in his gut, and he could pretend up and down that he didn’t know why, but he did.

He wanted to ask about it, who the lucky girl was, but instead…

“You look good, Dunbar,” he said with a smirk. “Very posh. What are you, a bank teller?”

“Ah, nice to see you haven’t changed,” Liam said, but the smile he gave Theo was genuine. “I’m a history teacher. At the high school.”

“You’re not.” Theo looked at him in surprise.

“I am.” Liam grinned. “Is it really that hard to believe?”

Theo thought on it for a moment. Had he ever pictured Liam as an academic? No, but he had only really ever experienced him when there was an emergency, and he realized that there was just so much he didn’t know about the other man. He also remembered that day at the zoo, Liam talking about the tunnels at Mykonos, and mentioning he liked history, so maybe it wasn’t all that out of left field.

What really struck Theo, though, was just how clearly he remembered that moment, that day. How clearly he remembered Liam , even though they were worlds different now. A decade was a long time to be apart from someone, and he wasn’t sure what else had changed, but he suspected quite a bit.

“I guess not,” Theo shrugged, trying to hide just how much his mind was working right now. It wasn’t something that he wanted to put out there. He didn’t want Liam to know how much he was thinking about him.

He didn’t want Liam to know that the magnet that had drawn Theo back to Beacon Hills once he had seen the sign for it was probably him. He didn’t want to admit it, even to himself, but when he had taken the exit for his hometown, a part of him, maybe all of him, was curious to know if Liam was still there. If he would see him. If he would talk to him. And then when he had seen him, he had tried to walk out the door unnoticed, and he had failed.

“What about you?” Liam asked. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, you know,” Theo shrugged again. “This and that.”

“This and that?” Liam laughed. “Could you be more vague?”

“I could try.”

“I’d like to see that.” Liam was clearly amused, his body angled towards Theo’s, just slightly. “Can I buy you a drink? You know, just to kill the time while you show me just how vague you can be?”

“You know alcohol doesn’t work with us…”

“Hey, you walked into a bar, same as me,” Liam teased.

“That is true,” Theo admitted.

“And besides,” he reached into the pocket of his blazer. “Mason is basically a genius, and he figured out that if we dried out a specific strain of wolf’s bane, and crushed it into a powder, we could add a little to a drink, and, well, it slows the healing process just enough to let you get a little buzzed.”

“Are you serious?” Theo raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Liam nodded. “You gotta be careful not to take too much, or it lasts longer, and you know, you don’t want to be caught completely unable to heal, so getting fully drunk isn’t smart, but a little buzz going?” He smiled. “I’ve got a good best friend.”

“Yes, you do.” Theo shifted on the stool. “I’ll take a beer, then, if you’re offering.”

Liam gestured to the bartender for two more.

“Want to grab a table?” Liam asked, handing one of the frosty glasses to Theo. “A little less noticeable, putting a powder in our drinks from a booth.”

“Smart.” Theo couldn’t help but laugh, because he had never expected to hear Liam Dunbar talk about lacing drinks, but he supposed they were older now, and the circumstances had shifted.

Times had definitely changed.

“How is Mason, anyways?” Theo asked, getting up and carrying his glass to the nearest wooden booth.

“He’s good,” Liam said. “Married Corey straight out of high school. They went to college together as husbands.”

“Yeah, that is not surprising,” Theo said with a chuckle. 

“I mean, it was a little strange,” Liam admitted. “Being unable to legally drink at his own wedding, but Corey was always, you know...Corey.”

“I…” Theo bit his lip, because no. He didn’t know.

He had turned Corey into what he had become, and he had thrown him headlong into situations that he wasn’t ready for, but he had never really gotten to know him. He didn’t think that Corey would have let him if he tried, not after everything.

“I guess I don’t really know.” Theo felt a little ashamed of that, because Corey had, if briefly, been in his pack, and he should have gotten to know him.

He should have gotten to know all of them.

He shouldn’t have murdered the only two that stayed loyal to him.

“What?” Liam asked, sensing a shift in Theo’s mood.

“Oh, just, you know, I never really knew the guy.”

“Oh.” Liam nodded, opening the little vial of light brown powder and shaking just a tiny bit into his glass, then Theo’s. “Well, his parents paid him absolutely no mind, and then he never really found solid footing on the lacrosse team, and it was hard with him and the pack, because he didn’t really hit it right with, you know, the other chimeras, mostly because of Mason…”

Because of me , Theo thought.

“And then I wasn’t exactly easy on him, and he just struggled, you know? Understanding what Mason saw in him, and he would have these days where he was sure that Mason was going to leave him, because he wasn’t enough. So Mason proposed at graduation, because he loved Corey, but also to show him that, even though they were going to college and things were changing, he wasn’t going anywhere. Corey said yes, and they just did a quick thing at city hall.”

“Did they ever have a real wedding?” Theo asked.

“Nah.” Liam shook his head. “Mason never really wanted one, and Corey just wanted to be Mr. Hewitt, so they only did the legal stuff.”

“That is a little weird,” Theo admitted. “But...it’s good? They’re good.”

“Yeah.” Liam nodded. “They’re happy. They live just outside of San Francisco with their kids.”

“ Kids ?!” Theo’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, they have two year old twins. Adopted. Corey stays at home with them and writes, and Mason works for an R&D firm being, well, basically a genius.”

“Makes sense,” Theo said with a laugh. “God, it’s hard to believe that our-” he stopped himself. “That your friends have kids.”

“Yeah, I mean, everyone’s in different places now, I guess. You sort of disappeared, Theo. Beacon Hills didn’t freeze and wait for you.” 

“No, I know,” Theo said, raising his glass to his lips and taking a sip. “I didn’t think it would, I just...I guess I didn’t really think about it at all.”

And that was true. He had done his best not to look behind him, because there was a lot of pain there, things that he didn’t want to address, and when he did look back, he made sure that it was fleeting, brief.

And it was usually Liam he thought of.

“Wow,” Liam laughed. “That’s so shitty! You just blew right out of town and never looked back at us? What, out of sight, out of mind?”

“No, not…” Theo trailed off. “Well, no, I guess sort of exactly that. But not because I wanted to forget, I just didn’t look back.”

“Not really sure how those two things are different,” Liam admitted.

“Fair.” Theo slumped back against the back of the booth bench he was in. “So tell me about everyone, then. Catch me up on what I’ve missed.”

Liam smiled. “Well, most of the group is still doing the whole, saving the world thing,” he said. “Stiles got his FBI certs so he helps from the inside, and you know, if they call on me, I pitch in, but Scott has people all over the place now, and they operate with Argent, and Derek Hale, and they basically just professionally protect supernatural beings. It’s really cool.”

“I’m surprised you’re not with them,” Theo admitted.

“Yeah, well…” Liam shrugged. “Life happens, and I was struggling with control, as you know, and then when we chased Monroe out, it took me awhile to get everything under control, and Scott thought it would be best if I went to school, you know, found ways to focus and anchor and cope,” Liam gulped, and there was a hitch in his heartbeat that Theo didn’t totally understand.

Again, he wanted to ask, but he knew that was probably not for the best.

“They left you behind?”

“Without control, I was a liability,” Liam admitted. “They never left me behind, they’ve always been around to check in on me, we’ve always been close friends, but…” he shrugged. “It was better that I not help sometimes, so I got my degree, met a girl, got my masters in teaching, and here I am.”

“So, the ring?” Theo finally gestured to Liam’s left hand. “You’re married.”

“Uh…” Liam sighed, reaching up and raking a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Okay…” Theo was dying to know, but did he have a right to ask that of Liam at this point? He really didn’t know. He was the one that had left and never turned back. It was clear that there was more to the story than just that Liam was married, and god, did he want to know.

Instead, he took another long gulp of his beer, waiting for Liam to say something else, to either explain more, or change the subject.

“And you’re just drifting?” Liam asked finally.

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve stopped in towns, I stay for awhile, get a job pulling pints or making coffee, and then when I feel like it’s time to move on, I move on.”

“Doesn’t that get lonely?” Liam asked.

Well, that was not what Theo had been expecting the other man to say, that was for sure.

“Eh, not really.”

He wondered if Liam could hear the lie on his heart, because yes, it was lonely, but Theo had been lonely for his entire life. Maybe there had been parts of his childhood that were void of that loneliness, but at the end of it all, he had spent his entire adult life, and the bulk of his childhood feeling very alone. Hell, he wasn’t sure that he even knew how not to be lonely.

“Come on, it has to be,” Liam said. “You have no roots. Nothing.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what I’m used to. That’s what I know.”

“Oh.” Liam turned his pint glass in his hands, clearly unsure of how to respond to Theo. “So you just go from city to city, getting by?”

“Pretty much.”

“Do you like it? Are you happy?”

“Uh…” Theo didn’t know what to say to that. “Sure, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Yeah.” Theo replied. “And you guess that you’re married. I won’t ask if you don’t.”

“Fair enough.” Liam took a sip from his own glass, his drink nearly half gone now. “And you’re just passing through here?”

“Yeah.” Theo nodded. “I’m headed to New Mexico, I think. Just thought I’d stop off and see what the old hometown was looking like. I’m not even staying the night.”

“Why?” Liam asked. “You got somewhere to be in New Mexico?”

Liam had him there. He didn’t have anywhere to be. Hell, he didn’t even know if he was heading to New Mexico, but it was a place that he hadn’t been, so why not? It sounded better than telling Liam just how aimless he was.

“Not really,” Theo admitted.

“Well,” Liam drained the rest of his glass. “Have another drink then.”

Before Theo coud answer, Liam raised his hand, gesturing to the bartender to bring them two more, and Theo did nothing to object. He could leave after another drink.

Maybe two.

Or three.

After the fourth drink, he felt the wolf’s bane working. He was buzzed, tipsy, for the first time in his life, and he couldn’t deny that Mason was sort of a genius for figuring this out. He never would have even thought to try and find a way to get drunk, but tipsy felt good.

Especially since being around Liam was strange.

Over the beers, he learned more about the lives of the others, and about what Liam was teaching. He learned that Liam’s passion was teaching Ancient history, but that he taught US history and current European history as well, because that was a part of being a teacher - taking on all of the classes that they needed, and he was still a pretty new professor.

Theo talked about all of the places that he had been, and told his best stories from his travels. He tried to hide the rush he got when Liam laughed - once so hard he pounded on the table with his hand.

“Wow, so you’re...really living some sort of life,” Liam said with a smile, gazing over at Theo across the table.

“I guess you could call it that, I mean, it’s definitely interesting some of the time.”

But a lot of the time, it was boring, and lonely. It was surprising, how similar one place was to another, and after years, they were all starting to blend together in Theo’s mind. In fact, the only place that he really had truly vivid memories of was Beacon Hills, and he had only really been here for a short while. It had left an imprint, though, and he didn’t think that he would ever fully shake it, even if this was the last time he set foot in the area.

“I’m a little bit jealous,” Liam admitted, taking a long pull from his latest drink. “I mean,” he sighed. “My life here is good, but I spend all my time talking about and teaching about all of these places that I’ve never been, and that I know, and my students know, I’ll never go to. There’s a part of that that is deeply unfulfilling.”

“So go,” Theo said. “I mean, why can’t you?”

“Are you kidding?” Liam asked. “I have a job, I have a life here, I have a wife.”

“So you’ve said,” Theo replied. “Well, sort of.”

“Yeah.” Liam sighed. “She’s...staying with her sister right now. I don’t know. Things aren’t so good I guess.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.

“No, it’s okay.”

Theo noticed how Liam’s hands were fidgeting, his fingers playing with the ring on his finger.

“I mean, we got married young. Not as young as Corey and Mason, but it wasn’t the same. I met her in college, and uh...she got pregnant. Or...we thought that she got pregnant, and you know, I thought she was going to give birth to a fucking werewolf or something, and I couldn’t leave her alone with that, and I loved her, I do love her,” Liam corrected his words quickly. “I did the right thing. And it was a false alarm, and then I couldn’t just take it back, you know? Say I’d only asked her to marry me because of the baby?” He let out a long sigh. “And it was love.”

“The way you say that, it sort of sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself of it.”

Liam frowned at Theo’s words.

“Okay, what the fuck? You’re gonna come in here after being God knows where for ten years, after leaving without telling any of us anything , and judge my marriage?”

“No, Liam, that wasn’t-”

“You just left ,” Liam said. “You don’t get to judge me for anything after that.”

Theo felt his heart rate picking up. Liam was buzzed, and he was upset that Theo had left? Theo had always assumed that no one had really cared where he had gone or what he had done. After all, he hadn’t actually been one of them, not really. He had always been on the outside, helping when they needed him, but always, always being watched. It felt like they were waiting for him to take the wrong step so that they could kick him out, and now? Now Theo wondered if maybe some of that had been self perceived.

“I wasn’t one of you.”

“Like hell you weren’t!” Liam said. “You were my fucking anchor, and you left me!”

“What?” Theo looked at him, confused and intrigued all at once.

“Did you really not know?” Liam asked, looking up at him.

Theo just stared blankly at him, unable to find any words. Liam couldn’t be saying what he thought he was saying.

“Wow, god, I thought you were a jerk, but are you really just that blind?”

“I’m sorry,” Theo said. “I-”

“I couldn’t control myself, but you knew how to get me to stop. Every time. You were helping me, and then the hunters left town, and so did you, and I couldn’t get it back for years , Theo. It took me years to learn how to be my own anchor.”

“But you learned?” Theo asked.

“Do you see fangs right now?” Liam spat.

Theo just nodded, Liam’s point clearly made.

“I didn’t know,” he insisted.

“And if you had, would it have made a difference?” Liam asked, looking up at him with those big blue eyes. “Or would it have all been the same? You would have left anyways? I mean, you’re Theo Raeken, you’re not exactly known for being selfless.”

“Except when it comes to you,” Theo muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Liam asked.

“Nothing.”

“Look, if you’re just passing through, and it’s gonna be another ten years or more before we see each other again, you might as well just fess up.”

Liam had him there. Theo had been carrying around so much inside of him, things that he had kept bottled up, things that he hadn’t admitted even to himself, but now, with just a little wolf’s bane and beer in his system, that bottle was loosening, and he wanted to get it out there. He wanted to open himself up and lay it all on the table between them. But there was a problem. He didn’t know what that would look like, because he had spent so much time and effort pushing everything down.

“Fine.” Theo sighed and took another gulp of his beer before continuing. “I...ever since you brought me back with Kira’s sword, I’ve had trouble being selfish when it came to you. I don’t know if it’s some sort of bond we had from you bringing me back, or what, but I tried. I really tried to throw you to the wolves, as it were, but I couldn’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Liam asked.

“You know, with the Ghost Rider’s, and the hunters,” Theo shrugged. “I could have run, or at least I thought that I could have, but when push came to shove, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave you to stare all of that down on your own. The others? I don’t think I would have had a problem leaving them, at least not at first, but you? I tried, and I couldn’t do it.”

“Really?” Liam said dryly. “Because it seems to me like you had no problem leaving.”

“Things were safe,” Theo argued. “It wasn’t the same.”

“Maybe not to you,” Liam retorted. “But it was still hard for me. I felt like I was losing my goddamn mind, and then all of a sudden, you weren’t there, and no one seemed to really know how to help me.”

“So you went to college and got married. It really doesn’t seem like things turned out all that badly for you, Liam. Forgive me if I’m not doubled over with sympathy for you.”

“Just go,” Liam said. “Maybe you should just leave again. You’re so, so good at it.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Yeah, it is.” Liam finished his drink, looking over at him. “You’ve said you’re going to leave anyway, so just do it. Or you know what? Maybe I’ll leave this time.” Liam stood, throwing a few bills down on the table to pay for the drinks, and with one last pointed look at Theo, he turned towards the door.

Theo sat there, staring at his mostly-empty glass, trying to figure out how he was in trouble for something he had done ten years ago, when it hit him.

Liam wouldn’t be mad at him if he didn’t care.

He rushed to pull out his own wallet, putting a little cash on the table with Liam’s before bolting out the door.

“Liam!” He called after him.

Liam didn’t stop. He kept moving towards a car in the lot, and Theo wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but he also wasn’t sure how drunk they were. It was hard to tell, since it was something he had never experienced before. Maybe Liam was fine to drive, maybe he wasn’t, but either way, Theo didn’t think that he could let Liam get in the car.

“Liam!” He called again, picking up his pace to a jog as he went to catch up to the other man.

Liam stopped in front of a blue Subaru Forester, reaching for his keys, but Theo got there first. He grabbed Liam’s wrist and pulled him around.

“Liam, wait.”

“For what, Theo?”

“I don’t know,” Theo admitted.

“Yeah, not really a convincing sale’s pitch.” Liam yanked his wrist away from Theo, and went back into his pocket for his keys.

“Please don’t,” Theo said.

“Why not?” Liam turned to look at him. “Give me one good reason - and I mean a good reason - why I shouldn’t get in my car and drive away from you the way that you drove away from me - from all of us?”

Because you might be the only person that’s ever really known me, and cared about me anyways.

Theo gulped, and leaned forwards, pushing Liam up against the side of his Forester, kissing him long and deep.

“Whoa.” Liam reached out after several seconds, pushing Theo back from him. “What the hell was that?”

“You wanted a reason.”

“Yeah, I wanted a good reason.”

“That wasn’t good enough for you?”

Theo could barely breathe. To him, that had felt freeing, electrifying. He hadn’t realized that he had wanted to do that for close to 11 years until it was happening, but now that he had done it, now that he had buckled, and kissed Liam Dunbar, a lot of things that had confused him before were starting to slide into place.

The way that he felt about Beacon Hills, the tightness in his chest when he had seen Liam in the bar, his flat out refusal to think back to his time here...did it really all boil down to this?

Was he in love with Liam?

Could you even be in love with someone that you hadn’t seen for ten years?

“I’m married.”

“Sort of,” Theo argued.

“No, I’m definitely married.”

“But you don’t love her.”

“That’s not true, and even if it was, that doesn’t mean I can kiss you.”

“I’m not asking for everything, Liam,” Theo said. “Just...just one night. Please.”

“Please?” Liam looked at Theo, utterly confused, not sure that he had ever heard that word from the other man. “What makes you think I would ever do that?”

“Because you kissed me back.”

And Theo could tell that he had Liam there. It may have been brief, but just now, Liam had kissed Theo back, and there was no way that either of them could deny it. Sure, they could walk away from each other now and pretend that it had never happened, but that wouldn’t change the facts.

Theo had kissed Liam, and Liam had kissed him back.

“One...one night?” Liam asked.

“One night.” Theo nodded. “We get each other out of our systems, and then you figure things out with your wife, and I’ll hit the road.”

Liam looked into Theo’s eyes, studying him, and Theo could tell that there was something there. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but he knew that it wasn’t nothing , and he hoped that he would be able to sort it out, or at the very least, Liam would be able to sort through it enough to give him what he wanted.

What Theo was pretty certain they both wanted.

“Fine,” Liam said softly. “One night. I don’t live far, can you drive?”

“Yeah.” Theo wasn’t sure that he had ever felt more sober in his life than he did in this moment, when everything that had been just a giant question mark was finally starting to make sense.

“Fine. Then you can follow me back to my place so that you can leave in the morning.”

“Okay.” Theo nodded, grabbing his keys and heading for his truck.

The vehicle was no longer the new, up to date automobile that it had been when he had first gotten it, but it still worked, it still got him where he needed to be, and right now, as he got behind the wheel and turned the keys in the ignition, he knew that it would be taking him exactly where he needed to be right now.

It felt surreal, following Liam’s car down the roads of Beacon Hills, down a quiet street, and finally in front of a quaint home.

Liam parked in the driveway, and Theo parked on the road, getting out and following Liam to the door.

“This is your house?” he asked.

“Yeah.” He nodded, gulping. “Bought it a little over a year ago.”

“It’s nice,” Theo said as Liam fumbled with the keys.

“Thanks.”

He unlocked the door, and they were barely inside before they were on each other again. This time, Liam seemed more confident in what he was doing. He pulled Theo in for a kiss the second they were in the door, and in moments, Theo was pulling at Liam’s blazer, tossing it to the ground, neither of them caring.

They stumbled their way to the stairs, attached at the lips, hands clawing at each other’s shirts.

“Oh, fuck.” Theo paused as he slammed against the wall, knocking a hanging painting loose. He moved to straighten it, but Liam reached for him.

“Leave it. I’ll fix it tomorrow.”

Theo didn’t have to be told twice. He wasn’t sure how long he had wanted Liam for, but he knew that this was his only chance, and he wasn’t going to let it go.

They crashed their way up the stairs and down the hallway, through an open door. Theo pretended not to notice as Liam reached onto the dresser as they passed, turning a photo frame over on their way to the bed.

The two men fell to the mattress with a thud, and after a brief moment of wrestling for control, Theo was on top of Liam, pulling at his belt buckle. They had both lost their shirts somewhere between the front door and the top of the stairs, and even now that they had reached their final destination, they were both just as frantic, pulling at each other, removing every piece of clothing between kisses, as though they had only seconds to act before this moment was lost forever, and maybe they did.

Maybe if either of them paused to think - to really think about what they were doing, they would decide that it was a bad idea, that it was the wrong choice, but neither was allowing themselves to go down that road right now, and soon, they were both falling back to the mattress, sweaty, a tangle of arms and legs.

“Oh my god.” Liam looked at Theo, finally catching his breath as he leaned in to kiss the other man.

“You can say that again,” Theo breathed.

“Oh my god ,” Liam repeated.

Theo lay back on the mattress, putting one arm around Liam as he stared up at the ceiling, still working to catch his breath. Maybe this was what it felt like, when you were with someone that you truly cared about, or maybe it was because they were both werewolves, both strong, both athletic. Or maybe it was because it was him and Liam, he didn’t know, but he had never felt like this in his life, and if he only got this for one night, he was going to make the most of it.

He drew Liam closer, kissing his shoulder. It was salty from sweat, but Theo didn’t mind at all. He just lay there, close to Liam, panting, and listening to Liam’s own breathing, still heavy from their romp.

“I think you broke my heart, you know,” Liam said, finally breaking the silence between them after several minutes. “When you left.”

“I didn’t know,” Theo admitted.

“I know,” Liam nodded against Theo’s arm. “But it still hurt. One minute, you were there, grounding me, and the next, I was alone.”

“You weren’t alone,” Theo said.

“Not technically,” he said. “But I mean, you were there, and I was still sorting out why that mattered, and then you were gone. It took me a long time to sort out why I was so upset, and then once I figured it out, I pushed it all down. I told myself that I was just upset because you had been anchoring me, because if I let myself believe that, it didn’t hurt as much. If I let myself believe that that was all that it was, it didn’t feel so crushing and all consuming.” He sighed. “I don’t think I let it in, not fully, until tonight.”

“Let...let what in?” Theo asked, his tone shaky.

“That I was in love with you. Back then.” Liam gulped. “That...that when I said I wouldn’t die for you, it was probably a lie, and I didn’t even know it. That you meant something to me that I wasn’t ready to accept, and that by the time I was, you were gone.”

“Yeah,” Theo pulled Liam a little closer. “I think it was the same for me. I didn’t know what it was with us, and then I left, convinced that no one would care, and locked all of it away so that I didn’t have to think about it, because if I did, I might let in what I had been suppressing, and then I would have to face the fact that I had left you behind.”

Theo turned, looking at Liam, making eye contact.

“But it got in, anyways. I tried to keep it out, but it got in. I didn’t mean to drive to Beacon Hills tonight,” he admitted. “And I don’t...I don’t know if I meant to walk into that bar, I don’t know if I picked up your scent before I even realized it. I don’t know if I knew that you were there, but when I saw you again, after all that time…”

“It hit differently,” Liam said softly.

“Yeah.” Theo felt that aching in his chest again. “My life has been so fucked up, and I think you were the one good thing that I didn’t ruin. I think, at least subconsciously, that’s part of why I left. I worried that if I stayed, if I held you in my hands, I would crush you the way I did everything else.”

“You did anyways,” Liam said, and Theo could swear that his eyes were glistening with tears.

“I didn’t realize that would happen.”

“It’s how we’ve always been,” Liam said. “We’re all about hurting each other, and not stopping to think about why.”

Theo opened his mouth to reply, but he didn’t know what to say to that, so he closed it again and rested back on the mattress, pressed against Liam, letting that sink in, because it was true. He and Liam had spent all of their time together at each other’s throats, and some of that had made sense, and some of it didn’t. They had lied to each other about how they felt, and even though they could hear it in each other’s heartbeats, they had both believed the other’s lies because it was easier than facing the truth.

Now, though? Now they were both staring down the barrel of the truth, but ten years too late.

Theo leaned in, kissing Liam again, his hand resting on Liam’s cheek.

They stayed like that, tangled together, kissing, touching, cuddling. All of the words had been used up between them, and now all that was left was this. At some point, they fell asleep, curled up against each other, limbs intertwined.


Theo woke to sunlight streaming through the window, and turned to find that the digital clock on the bedside table read 6:42 AM. It was early, for a Saturday morning, he supposed, but once Theo was awake, he was awake. He rolled over, turning his gaze to the man in his arms. Liam’s bare skin reflected the sunlight, and, even rumpled from the night before, Theo didn’t think that he had ever seen anything, or anyone, more beautiful.

Still, this had been their night, their one night, and it was over now. Carefully, he extricated his limbs from Liam’s body, and began collecting his clothes from the bedroom floor. He dressed - boxers, then  jeans, socks, shoes. He’d have to get his shirt from the stairway on the way out. He moved towards the door, stopping at the dresser, lifting the photo frame that Liam had turned over the night before.

It was a gorgeous frame, intricate, silver, wrapped around a photo of a happy couple on their wedding day. Liam looked handsome in a classic black tuxedo, his hair slicked back, and a large grin on his face. His arm was around a gorgeous redhead in a white lace gown and veil. For a moment, Theo closed his eyes, wondering what the photo in that frame might look like if he had never left Beacon Hills. If he had never left Liam .

He couldn’t call an image to mind.

Instead, he turned back, taking one last look at Liam lying in the bed, stomach down, the sheets, tangled around his legs and torso, breathing softly. With that image in his mind, he left the bedroom. He picked his shirt up off of the banister where it had been thrown last night, and he quietly closed the front door behind him, not wanting to wake the other man.

As he started his truck up, and drove for the Beacon Hills city limits, he gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles went white, because that ache in his chest?

It remained.

Their night together had done little to alleviate it, and he turned onto the highway, leaving his hometown, leaving the man that he loved, certain that he had known that this would happen when he had come here, and he had done it anyway. 

But Liam cared about him, Liam had loved him once, and Theo had needed to know that, to feel it.

Theo had been driving across the country for ten years in search of something that was right back where he had started, and after all that time, he had finally found it.

Even if it was just for one night.