Chapter Text
“What’s happening to me?” Liam asks, his eyes opening painfully. His chest aches as he breathes in, as if it was closing up.
“You’re with us. You’ve been hit by a spell, and you blacked out for some time. How do you feel?” Deaton explains, and Liam hears people move around, whispering things, objects being moved but everything is blurry, mixed together in a constant buzz making his head dizzy.
“My chest aches.” He says, and he feels Deaton’s hands looking for wounds and he can almost feel the worried aura coming from Scott, and that has nothing to do with supernatural powers, he knows.
“Can you sit up, Liam?” Deaton asks, and Liam does, groaning at how heavy his whole body feels. He’s sat on the metal table in the back of the animal clinic, and he can finally see who’s around and their worried faces; Scott and Stiles are standing there, arms crossed in front of their chest, waiting like anxious parents.
Deaton checks his eyes with a light, asks him once or twice if he’s hurt anywhere but Liam doesn’t feel hurt, the aching in his chest that was here a moment ago is gone and he is breathing normally. He feels like something is missing though, an emptiness he can’t quite understand.
“I’m fine.” he states.
“Are you sure? Can you breathe properly?” Scott asks him, stepping closer.
“Yeah, my chest felt like closing up, but now I don’t feel anything.” he shrugs, aiming to get up. Deaton stops him with a hand on the shoulder.
“You should wait a moment, you’ve been hit by powerful magic, and as much as I’d like to say that, this can’t have been nothing.” his voice is grave, and Liam tenses visibly. There is silence for a second before Stiles speak.
“How are we supposed to know what the spell did to Liam, or if it did anything at all?” he asks.
“For now, we’ll just keep an eye on him.” Deaton says, looking at Stiles and Scott, then he turns his gaze back to Liam. “And if you feel anything, the slightest thing, feeling, itch, tingle… tell us right away.” Liam shifts uncomfortably on the metal table, his feet swinging slowly.
“Well, I kinda feel like something’s missing. I don’t know why, it’s strange, it’s like … I don’t know.” he sighs, frustrated. He’d like to help. Scott is suddenly in front of him, searching his face.
“Show me your eyes.” he says. Liam sighs again, flashing him his eyes. He’d have known if something was wrong with his wolf. He knows the problem is not exactly that, it’s more subtle. So subtle he cannot pick up what he is missing. And that is a really frustrating feeling.
The ride back is silent, apart from Scott repeating for the nth time that he has to call, even in the middle of the night, if anything happens. Liam just wants him to stop worrying, it puts him more on edge than he already is. Stiles seems to be sharing his feeling, even though he checks on him from time to time in the rear-view mirror, a worried frown on his tired face.
It’s already late, so when he enters his house, it’s dark and silent, his parents probably long asleep. He quickly gets in bed, after getting himself a glass of water and undressing. He’ll worry about a shower and eating tomorrow.
He gets up late, of course he does, going to bed so late, fighting witches during school nights. He runs around, getting dressed while his dry mouth chews on a slice of brioche, barely tasting it. He doesn’t brush his teeth, and gets in Mason’s car with his steamy mug of coffee.
The greeting he gets is “Don’t you dare spill that.” to what he grumbles a good morning to you, too.
“I was late, I had to.”
“Noticed that.” Mason starts the car, and he adds, “How are you feeling? Anything new?” he asks, the same worried look on his face that everyone was bearing since he woke up after being hit by the spell. Liam sighs.
“No, nothing. Still feel like something’s wrong, but I can’t understand what it is… yet.” Liam tells him, and Mason nods, glancing at him quickly before bringing his attention back to the road.
They walk to their first class, quickly stopping by their lockers to get books and put down some. They get in front of the biology classroom and Liam stops a second in the doorway. Because the second he breathes in, there’s this scent.
Not the one that can catch your throat when you enter a classroom that has been holding dead rats and frogs, or where chemical products have been used to make reactions Liam would rather not hear anything about.
Not that usual smell. It smells like Theo. Only Theo, so strongly that if Liam closes his eyes, he would have thought the other was standing there, his neck a breath away from Liam’s nose.
It’s so strong it makes Liam’s head spin. He forces himself to walk inside, looking for the boy, but he can’t see him. Mason stares at him, frowning, already taking place behind his desk. His eyes catch sight of a jacket thrown over Theo’s usual stool, notebooks already spread on the table.
How come the smell is so strong if he isn’t even there?
He settles on his own table, Mason by his side, glancing at him every now and then. Liam stares at his hands, fingers red from the cold. He’s always had bad blood circulation.
He hears the buzz of conversations around him, people arriving, the sound of people fishing their things from their bags, the rustle of paper, the laughters. He forgets the scent for a second, really just a second, only for it to come back, stronger than before.
It flows around him, like waves coming back to the shores bringing him to crash against the rocks as well; but he doesn’t know if he’s pulled to the surface or being drowned.
He turns around, and Theo is sat there, two rows back, his same expressionless mask on, almost looking bored. He stares back, an eyebrow raised; Liam can tell he’s tired.
Liam shakes his head, forcing himself to think about something else, smell something else, but it doesn’t work. The teacher is talking, explaining what they’re going to do today, bringing a box in front of her. The second she opens it, people start to exclaim their disgust.
“Oh my god!” Mason says next to him, shrinking back on his chair, a hand over his mouth and nose. Liam eyes him quizzically.
“What?” Liam asks, narrowing his eyes to see what the box contains; how has everyone seen what it was when he can’t see a thing and he’s almost on the front row.
“Don’t you smell that?” he says, his free hand moving around in the air, gesturing at nothing. If by that he means Theo, everything Theo, his soap, his deodorant, his toothpaste, then yes he does.
“I don’t smell a th-” this is when it hits him.
He cannot smell anything other than Theo.
Hadn’t noticed how bad he probably smells after missing his morning shower and having fought and run around all night, hadn’t smelt the usual scent of coffee when he had gotten to the kitchen in a hurry, hadn’t noticed the smell in the corridors, that the many students mix together, didn’t catch any scent in the biology classroom, the worst room in the whole building.
Didn’t smell anything other than Theo.
The teacher walks between the ranks, giving them each a box of the horribly smelly thing, thing that Liam can’t smell. Liam stares at his notebook, the ground opening under his feet.
He cannot smell anything.
“Are you alright?” Mason asks him as he slides the box towards Liam, probably trying to get away from it. Liam doesn’t move. He inhales deeply, and no, nothing there apart from that same scent.
He slowly turns his head towards Mason, catching his eyes.
“Wha-” he starts, but Liam stumbles, getting up in a hurry.
“I need to call Deaton.” he says, his shaky hands shoving his notebook back in his bag. He runs out before Mason or the teacher can say anything.