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Distantly, Liam thinks that if he dies right here and now, like this, with Theo’s crushing weight above him, he’ll be more than happy to go that way.
Especially when his boyfriend is pressing him further onto the bed, running his hands up and down lovingly on Liam’s bare body under the covers, kissing and biting the skin on his throat despite knowing that it’s going to heal in a matter of seconds.
Liam doesn’t know how long this has been going on for, he’s been too lost in the gentleness of Theo’s touch to even think about anything else, but Theo suddenly pulls away only when a particularly loud moan breaks out of Liam’s throat.
Despite the younger boy’s muffled sound of complaint, Theo sits back on his knees and stares down at him with a knock off version of disappointed look on his face, even though both of them can see very well that he’s seconds away from bursting out laughing.
“Stop being an asshole.” Liam hisses out and sits up slightly himself as well, leaning back on his elbows and glaring up at Theo, who simply arches his eyebrow at him like a complete dickhead that he is. “Theo.”
‘’Hey, I’m trying to protect your pride and sanity here, considering that those are your parents sleeping down the hall.” Theo shrugs, booping Liam’s nose and somehow managing not to fall over with laughter at the sight of disbelief on Liam’s face because of his action. “ Besides , you’re so loud that even Scott might be able to hear your voice down the street, with or without supernatural hearing.”
“How loud I am never bothered you before so shut the fuck up now.” Liam scoffs and wraps his fingers around Theo’s biceps. With a bit of werewolf strength (because if Theo decides to stop their make out session just to be an asshole for fun, Liam can easily be one too) he effortlessly switches their positions.
With a self-satisfied smirk on his face, Liam straddles Theo’s hips and leans forward till their chests touch, he watches his boyfriend with half-lidded eyes and places his arms on the side of Theo’s head, pulling Theo into an open-mouthed kiss before he has a chance to make another comment that will definitely drive Liam up the walls.
“Who’s the loud one now?” Liam, a smug bastard that he is, whispers against Theo’s lips after a choked moan breaks out of his throat at the feeling of Liam slightly rocking his hips forward, biting down onto his bottom lip at the same time.
“I hate you so much.” Theo mutters and slides his hands up in Liam’s messy hair, tugging harshly as he breaks the kiss again to turn his head to the side slightly and start leaving tiny kisses on the corner of Liam’s mouth, his jaw, his cheek, pulling him forward until Liam’s face is buried in the crook of Theo’s neck.
“No, you don’t.” Liam whispers, his blunt nails digging into Theo’s sides and scratching painfully, even if Theo still arches into his touch. “In fact, you love me so much that you decided to stay in the town for me.”
“And every day I wonder if it was worth it.” Theo doesn’t even try to suppress the laugh anymore at the sight of offense and dramatic betrayal on Liam’s face when he pulls back at his words. “I’m joking, I’m joking!”
Liam’s blue eyes flash yellow for a split second. “I’m breaking up with you.”
“No, you’re not.” Theo grins and tugs Liam again until their noses almost touch, until all he has to do is just lean forward slightly to kiss him. “You love me too much.”
“Shut up.” Liam rolls his eyes and pulls him into a kiss again, planning to continue kissing his boyfriend until both of them fall asleep like that but his plan goes to ruin when all of the sudden, Theo’s phone starts ringing on the bedside table. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
Theo simply lets out a small chuckle at the sight of a small pout on Liam’s face and gently pushes him onto his side of the bed so he can reach the phone and answer.
Honestly, Liam is too grumpy to use his hearing and listen to what the person on the other side is saying, so he simply settles for burying his face in his pillow and listening to Theo’s casual sure and alright and no, there’s no problem .
“I have to go.” Theo says quietly when ends the call and that sentence is what gets Liam to sit back up on the mattress at the speed of light, looking at his boyfriend with furrowed eyebrows and that pout still on his face.
“It’s 3 am. Where– Who even was that?” He asks, watching as Theo crawls out of the bed and picks his clothes up from the floor, throwing them on without looking at Liam.
“It was Scott, he told me he needs my help with something and the two of us are gonna meet at the school.” Theo says, shoving his phone and keys in the pocket of his jeans. “It shouldn’t take long, I’ll be back soon. You stay here and rest.”
Liam’s frown deepens even more at those words, the sinking feeling in his stomach letting him know that something is– weird about Scott deciding to call Theo out of all people at 3 am to help him with something.
Sure, it’s not like Theo is still seen as a threat by the pack (if Liam doesn’t count Stiles and Malia, and he doesn’t), especially after Liam announced that the two of them are in a relationship, but still, he can’t shake off the feeling that something isn’t right about this.
“Liam, are you listening?” As always, Theo’s voice is what snaps him back to reality because he has a chance to drown in his own thoughts and doubts. When he looks back at Theo, his boyfriend is staring at him with a hint of concern on his face as he brushes his knuckles gently against Liam’s cheekbone. “I’ll be back before you even know it, I promise.”
“Let me come with you, it’s dangerous to go alone.” Liam tells him, trying not to let his voice crack in the end and surprisingly, he doesn’t fail. “The hunters are still out there.”
“I won’t be alone.” Theo chuckles, kissing Liam’s forehead so gently that Liam almost cries before he feels his boyfriend sitting back and ruffling his hair. “Scott is literally going to be with me, remember?”
“Be careful, please.” Liam says, leaving a small kiss on the corner of Theo’s mouth before crawling under the covers again and watching as Theo quietly sneaks out of the room and then out of the house.
– ☾ –
Liam has no idea when he drifts to sleep, because he’s sure he was planning on staying awake till Theo got home, but all of the sudden he’s jolted awake by his phone ringing directly into his ear.
He lets out a muffled groan and covers his head with his pillow but whoever is blowing up his phone at 4 am doesn’t know how to take a hint and stop calling when Liam doesn’t answer for the fourth time.
In the end, Liam throws the pillow on the other side of the room and grabs his phone from the bedside table, jabbing the accept call button so forcefully that he almost breaks his thumb and growls into the phone.
“It’s four in the mor–”
“Liam, where are you?!” Derek interrupts him quickly and Liam doesn’t know if he’s imagining it or not, but he’s somewhat sure he hears panic and desperation in the man’s voice. “Liam!”
“I’m at home, I was sleeping– what’s going on?” He answers, already out of the bed and throwing on whatever clothes he finds on the floor. “Derek, what’s going on?!”
“It’s Scott, we think– we think he was put under some sort of a spell.”
At his words, Liam instantly feels like the floor has been swept underneath his feet and he sinks back onto his bed, the numbness overtaking his entire body.
“A spell? What kind of spell?”
“I don’t know, Liam, I didn’t even think that witches were in Beacon Hills anymore.” Derek sighs out and Liam can hear that on the other side someone says something, but even with his supernatural hearing, he can’t make out what they’re saying. He can not hear a damn thing beyond the ringing in his ears. “Just– stay home until we find him and–”
“He’s at school.”
“What?” Derek raises his voice when Liam stays quiet, not giving him any answer. “Liam, what are you talking about?!”
“Scott. He’s– he’s at school…” Liam chokes the words out after what feels like a century, his voice cracking in the end. “Derek, Theo is there with him.”
“We need to get there, quickly .” Lydia’s voice comes quiet through the phone, but by some miracle, he still manages to hear it. “He will die if we don’t.”
Liam isn’t sure he’s strong enough to ask which one of them she means.
– ☾ –
Theo’s pretty sure he hears the sound of a couple of his ribs breaking as Scott throws him against the railing of the staircase in the school library.
He’s unable to stop himself from groaning out at the feeling, blood starting to drip from the corner of his mouth right when Scott grabs him by his jacket again and this time sends him stumbling over on the floor.
Mercilessly, Scott presses his foot down onto Theo’s knee, the one he shattered not only three minutes ago, his grin feral when Theo lets out a pained yell, trying his very best to crawl away from the alpha but failing miserably.
“You killed me.” Scott growls, the hint of green flashing dangerously in his red eyes and that’s enough for Theo to know that something isn’t right, this isn’t Scott, but that knowledge doesn’t help him a bit, considering that Scott looks like he’s seconds away from killing him with his own bare hands now, just like Theo did back then. “You tried to get Liam to kill me.”
Scott slowly raises his arm and before Theo has time to even be scared, he brings his hand down at the speed of light, the sharp claws ripping Theo’s skin and flesh everywhere they reach.
“And now you think you’re a part of my pack?!” He spits the word out with disdain, like even the thought of it is disgusting. Theo feels another wave of stinging pain as Scott’s claws make contact with his face again. “You somehow managed to trick Liam, but you won’t fool us, not again. You think you’re worthy of being one of us? You are not , you never will be.”
Theo tries not to let these words get to him, he really does.
After all, Scott’s hatred towards him is nothing compared to what Theo feels for himself, but it still hurts to hear, whether this is truly what Scott thinks about him or not, it still hurts.
No matter how much he tries to block his voice out, to not hear the words that are coming out of Scott’s mouth, he fails, like he always does.
“We should’ve sent you back to the ground, where you belong. You should’ve continued rotting down there because that’s what you deserve .”
Theo turns his head weakly to the side, both to spit out the blood that has pooled in his mouth and to hide his tears from Scott because despite knowing that those words are true, they still manage to go through the stolen heart in his chest like a poisoned dagger.
“I think it’s time for me to send you somewhere that you won’t be able to come back from, somewhere no one will care about you enough to bring you back.” Scott sneers and the next thing Theo knows, there are clawed fingers digging into his chest.
Despite the pain and the images in his head of his sister ripping the heart out of his chest repeatedly, Theo still manages to weakly wrap his bloodied fingers around Scott’s wrist and whisper, “it’s okay, you don’t have to stop.”
At his words, Scott lets out a small growl from the back of his throat and pushes his fingers further into Theo’s chest, blood gushing out of the wound and the nauseating metallic smell filling the entire library.
Only a small whimper escapes Theo and then, his fingers around Scott’s wrist go slack.
The flicker of cursed green disappears from Scott’s red eyes the moment all life drains out of Theo’s exhausted and pained ones.
Scott stumbles back, his eyes wide as he stares down at his blood-soaked hand, right when the door of the library swings open and Liam runs inside, Derek, Lydia and Stiles quickly following him behind.
“No…” Liam breathes out the moment his gaze lands on Scott and the blood on his hand, his blues filling up with tears before he even dashes through the tables and stops where Theo’s lifeless body is on the floor. “No, no, no, no–”
Liam sinks on the floor next to Theo, choking on his own sobs as he gently takes Theo in his arms. He lays him on his lap and places his hand over the gushing wound on Theo’s chest with such tenderness that everyone in the room instantly averts their gaze.
Everyone except for Scott, who can not tear his eyes away from the destruction that he caused, whether he could control himself or not.
“Theo, open your eyes.” Liam begs, although deep down he knows that it’s pointless. He still tries because Theo’s not dead, he can’t be, Liam isn’t ready for him to be. “Theo, please, please, I’m begging you, open your eyes–”
A broken, gut-wrenching sound breaks out of Liam’s throat as he leans forward to press his forehead against Theo’s, crumbling down completely when he uses his hearing and still doesn’t hear the beating of Theo’s heart in his chest anymore.
The dull sound of someone trying to take a step forward echoes in the library, only sound aside from Liam’s sobs as Scott tries to move closer to Liam, to comfort him, to apologise, to do something , but he’s stopped by Stiles’ hand on his arm, holding him back and shaking his head slightly, implying that it’s better if he lets him be, at least for now.
Derek is standing by Scott’s side, his eyes sad at the sight of Liam doubled over and shaking with his sobs, but the expression on the man’s face is still concentrated, harsh , like he’s waiting for Liam to lash out and attack Scott for what he has done. Derek remains ready in case that happens so he can protect Scott, but none of it happens, Liam doesn’t make an attempt to move, he doesn’t look like he would be able to even if he tried.
He has his arms tightly wrapped around the boy’s lifeless body, like he’s afraid that someone might come and try to take Theo away from him, even though no one would do such a thing, especially not right now.
Liam doesn’t look up, doesn’t stop crying his heart out even when the door of the library swings open again and his best friend runs inside, Corey following him right behind. Both of them freeze the second they see the scene in front of them, although Mason’s eyes immediately drop on Liam, while Corey’s gaze lands on Theo, unwavering.
“Liam…” Mason whispers and just like Scott did a few seconds ago, he tries to take a step towards his best friend too but Corey stops him, gently pulling him back even though his eyes, glistening with tears under the lights, never leave Theo.
The silence in the library is deafening, broken only Liam’s gut-wrenching sobs every now and then, and none of them know what to do with it.
That lasts until the library doors open again and when they finally manage to turn their attention away from the agonising sight in front of them and look towards the door, they see Parrish at the entrance, still in his uniform but his eyes are glowing golden.
At the realisation of why he’s there, Mason looks over at others desperately for help, but the expressions on their faces easily tell him that there’s truly nothing that can be done.
All they can do is just stand and watch as Parrish makes his way towards the boys on the floor, the younger continuing to sob over the other’s still body. When Parrish gets close enough, he slowly kneels in front of Liam and waits and waits and waits until Liam finally gathers enough strength to look up at him, the vision blurry because of the tears in his eyes.
Parrish doesn’t say anything, and apparently he doesn’t even have to, because just like back then when it was Hayden laying dead in Liam’s lap instead of Theo, Liam understands.
Defeated, Liam releases a broken cry from the back of his throat, the sound going through all of their hearts like a dagger and leaving a scar that might never heal, and then he leans forward carefully, pressing a tiny, loving kiss on Theo’s bloodied cheek.
The sight is devastatingly similar to that moment a while ago when Liam held Hayden’s lifeless body in his arms, in this exact position, leaving a small kiss on her cheek with the same gentleness until letting Parrish take her in his arms, carrying her body all the way to the Nemeton, just like he does now.
The difference is that back then, there was someone who could bring Hayden back to life, but this time there’s no one that can do the same for Theo.
– ☾ –
Liam is laying still on his side, curled in his blankets, staring ahead at the blank wall in front of him.
Theo has been dead for days, maybe even weeks. Liam isn’t really sure.
He lost track of time the moment he walked into the library that day and found Theo lifeless on the floor, a wound on his chest over his heart, it felt like the time slowed down and there was nothing Liam could do to bring it back to the way it was before.
He isn’t even sure it will ever go back to the way it was, not when Theo is dead, not when Scott killed him.
His friends come to his house to check up on him, to see how he’s doing, to talk to him in an attempt to get him out of the bed, but nothing works. He barely even blinks when they’re there, when they’re trying to get him to remember that he still has his pack.
Liam doesn’t react even when Stiles sits on the floor of his bedroom, leaning against the side of his bed as Liam stares at the wall in front of him, and he starts telling him everything he can remember about Theo when he was an awkward antisocial kid who followed his big sister everywhere, when they were still friends in the fourth grade, everything before Theo killed Stiles’ best friend and then got killed in the hands of that same best friend himself.
Stiles doesn’t hide that he still didn’t trust Theo, but he could see that Liam cared about Theo and Theo cared about Liam, no matter how surprising it was for him, and he could get past his uneasiness around Theo if it meant that Liam could be happy.
He even admits that when he thinks of the boy who he used to know before everything went down, the one who tried his very best to impress Scott and Stiles enough to let them be his friend, the one who constantly forgot where he’d put his glasses, the one who loved his sister more than he ever loved his parents, the one who fell in love with Liam Dunbar so deeply that he changed for him, Stiles can’t help but feel like if there were any possibility to bring Theo back, he’d be the first one to do it.
After such a confession that day, Stiles takes the tears in Liam’s eyes as a cue to leave, and he does, gently ruffling Liam’s hair on his way out, his way of showing support.
Scott doesn’t go to see him, and Liam thinks it’s for the best, at least for now.
Deep down, Liam knows that it’s not Scott’s fault. The spell was too strong even for him, even for the true alpha, to resist. When Mason came over the next day after Theo’s death, he started talking to him about it and tried to explain what he had heard from Deaton, but Liam barely listened.
None of that explanation was going to bring Theo back, so Liam didn’t care. He couldn’t bring himself to care enough even to ask how Scott’s doing.
He’s sure that having blood on your hands, especially blood of a person your first bitten beta loves more than life itself, must have affected Scott in a way that none of them can imagine, but Liam doesn’t have it in himself to care or think about anyone that isn’t Theo.
He wishes he could, he wishes he were strong enough, but he’s not.
Theo is dead, and Liam doesn’t think that pain is ever going to go away, doesn’t think that’s something time will ever heal.
– ☾ –
Liam manages to get out of the bed and remain on his feet without sinking on the floor within three seconds only almost two weeks after Theo’s death.
He knows he manages to function like a human again only because it’s Tara’s birthday, and there’s something Theo always did during her birthday. Now Theo’s not here to do it, so Liam has to take care of it for him, for her, for the both of them.
Jenna almost drops her mug in the kitchen when she sees her son walk inside, David looking just as surprised the moment Liam sinks into the chair next to him.
However, neither of them say anything. They simply exchange a brief look and then there’s a hot cup of tea in front of Liam, who slowly sips it without removing his gaze from the napkin holder in front of him.
His parents don’t ask anything even when he gets back up from his seat without a word and makes his way towards the front door, automatically putting on his shoes and walking outside, the stars already shining in the sky, chilling Autumn air instantly causing goosebumps to raise on his skin.
He stops by the flower shop on his way to the Preserve. There, the leaves crunch under his feet as he takes familiar directions that lead to the bridge where nine years old Theo, just a kid manipulated by the Doctors, witnessed her older sister fall in the water and freeze to death within minutes, not fully understanding what was going on.
Liam forces himself to swallow around the lump in his throat and carefully separates white lilies from each other, letting go and watching as they fall in the water one by one.
He isn’t sure how long he stands there, leaning over the railing and watching the water when he hears someone stopping behind him, and he doesn’t even need to look to know who it is.
“Did you follow me?” Liam asks, his voice quiet and a big hoarse, considering how long he hasn’t spoken a single word out loud.
Scott doesn’t say anything for a second or two, and then, “I just… I wanted to apologise.”
“Apologising isn’t going to bring him back.” Liam whispers. He doesn’t even sound angry, it’s because he’s not, but mainly because he’s too exhausted and too hollowed-out to be angry.
“I know.” Guilt and remorse in Scott’s voice is clear, but somehow, Liam can’t bring himself to care, to feel bad for him.
“What did you say to him?” Liam asks, he wasn’t going to, but he needs to know. He has to know. “What were the last words he heard before he died?”
“Liam…”
“Were you cruel to him?” Liam asks quietly, without turning around. “Did you break his heart even more before digging your claws into it?”
Scott doesn’t say anything, but that’s an answer itself.
After that, Liam remains silent and expects Scott to walk away, to leave him alone so he can mourn, but he doesn’t do that. Scott doesn’t really do anything, he just stands behind Liam and waits for something, anything that might get Liam to turn around and talk to him.
Liam doesn’t think such a thing even exists.
And then all of the sudden, through the silence of the woods and the silence that has fallen between the two of them, Liam hears a howl– a howl that he knows all too well.
“Theo…” He whispers, feeling a spark of hope in his heart as he dashes past Scott and runs in the direction that the howl came from, the direction that he is very familiar with, considering that it leads to the Nemeton deep in the forest.
It takes him a few minutes, but he gets there quicker than it can be physically possible, but none of that matters, because when he’s close enough to see the Nemeton, he easily sees a ball of black fur by the thick roots of it and Liam knows.
This time, he slows down and carefully takes steps forward, careful enough not to scare the wolf, not to scare Theo , who is staring up at him in wonder, releasing a content hum when Liam kneels in front of him and touches the top of his head, caressing gently.
He can hear that Scott is coming the same direction he did, but he doesn’t care, not when Theo is alive– he’s alive and he’s right there in front of him.
“Theo, it’s really you, right?” Liam whispers because he needs to make sure, he will not survive if he’s wrong about this, although he has a feeling that he’s not.
The wolf whines in the back of its throat, reaching up to nudge its nose against Liam’s jaw with enough force to send him stumbling back and watch as he lands flat on his ass on the ground.
“Yeah, it’s definitely you.” Liam scoffs and pretends to sound annoyed, although there’s a smile splitting his face in half and his eyes are still glistening under the moonlight, but this time for a completely different reason. “Can you shift back?”
The wolf huffs, as if offended.
“Please?” Liam pleads as he shrugs his jacket off, his voice wavering pathetically but he doesn’t care, because he needs Theo back, he needs to hold him and kiss him and protect him in a way he should’ve done that night.
Theo, even in his wolf form, must have sensed Liam’s internal agony, because he crawls onto the younger boy’s lap, nudging him with his nose once again, and then he shifts.
“You reek of pain and heartbreak.” Theo whispers, his face buried in the crook of Liam’s neck as his arms wrap around the boy’s waist.
Liam lets out a choked noise from the back of his throat at the sound of his boyfriend’s voice, the voice that this morning he thought he would never hear again, and drapes his jacket over Theo’s shoulders, holding him close by his waist.
“For two weeks I thought that you were dead, Theo. I wasn’t exactly having the time of my life.” Liam whispers back, nuzzling his nose into Theo’s throat and inhaling deeply like a drowning man who has finally reached the surface.
“I think– I think I was dead.” Theo tells him after a second or two of silence, tightening his hold onto Liam when he feels him stilling against him. “But then the Nemeton gave me enough power to come back, or heal, or something , I have no idea… All I know is that suddenly I had enough strength to shift, but that was it.”
“That was it?” Liam questions, not really understanding what Theo means by that.
“I couldn’t do anything else, I couldn’t even move , couldn’t howl, nothing. So, I just laid there in my wolf form, waiting to get strong enough again to at least try to let you know that I was alive… It took longer than I thought it would.”
“How long?”
“Almost two weeks.” Theo breathes the words out, sinking further into Liam’s touch like he’s trying to crawl underneath his skin and the thing is, Liam would let him, if he wanted to. Liam would do anything Theo wanted to do.
“You were here for two weeks, all alone.” Liam says like it’s the most devastating thing he has ever heard and for him, it is.
“Liam, for two weeks you thought that I was dead.” Even without looking, Liam knows that Theo is rolling his eyes, leaning back enough to look at him properly in the face. “I don’t think it’s me we should be concerned about.”
“You were, kind of, you know, dead , so I do think we should be concerned about you.”
“Well, I’m not dead anymore, so.” Theo shrugs, like it’s literally not a big deal, and before Liam can scold him about how he needs to stop being an idiot, Theo flashes a grin at him and then pulls him into a kiss and honestly, it’s enough for Liam to feel like everything is alright again, like everything is the way it’s supposed to be and it is .
When after minutes or hours they finally manage to break the kiss, Liam wraps his arms tightly around Theo’s body again and pulls him so close that a small huff breaks out of his boyfriend’s throat.
Liam holds him tight, just like he did that night in the library, but the only and the most important difference is that this time, Theo sinks into his touch and breathes, his heart beating steadily in his chest.