Work Text:
mase i need you to gather the pack as soon as theyre available. Its important
Liam nods to himself, satisfied as he’ll ever be with what he thinks is a sufficiently vague yet urgent message. Granted, he agonized over whether to add in an apostrophe in theyre or not for far too long to be normal, but then his hands cramped from holding still around his phone for so many minutes that his thumb accidentally hit send and, well. The elephant crossed the mountain or the die was cast or however the expression goes.
Mason texts back as swiftly as one would expect his busybody best friend to while barely restraining himself from going on FaceTime while his aunts and uncles are around for family dinner.
Mason: And why would I need to gather them and not you gather them yourself?
Liam’s been prepared for this exact question.
Liam: bc ur my best bud and i have way too much to handle as it is already with the big news i need to announce
Mason: Omg omg omg 👀
Liam: nobodys dead obvs
Mason: I mean my brain didn’t immediately go THERE but ig knowing you you *would* gather the pack just to say you buried a body wrong
Liam: excuse u i could bury a body perf well it wouldnt even stink up the back yard
Mason: So there IS a dead body????? 👀👀
Liam: if u keep trying to prod and pry there prob will be one soon
Mason: Well damn
Is it something supernaturally urgent
Like bro. Wait are you okay
Liam: im fine im fine not hurt chill
wait are YOU hurt??
Mason: No why th would I be??
Liam: idk !!!
Mason: So what’s the news
Liam: ill tell u at the meeting
Mason: Orrrr
You could tell me now
Yk as your bestestest friend in the world
Liam: its a……….surprise?
Mason: Wait omg this could be one of three things
If I’m right then holy shit
Liam: nooo pls dont try 2 guess
Mason: Does it have to do with family
Liam: technically no
Mason: ‘technically’ hm that doesn’t quite narrow it down
School?
Liam: its July
im officially checked out of any n all thoughts about school
eww
Mason: You do realize as a junior that’s abnormal right
Liam: 🖕
Mason: Rude and uncalled for
Can you just tell me what *type* of news it is
Liam: its personal
not urgent. like. per se
just cant really expect myself to hold off on announcing it anymore
Mason: OMG
Okay okay okay
Shall I muster reinforcements or will the puppies’ presence suffice my liege
Liam: omg do NOT call Scott. or stiles. or Malia or Lydia or any of em for that matter
Mason: Juicy
Consider it done
Liam: ffs could u talk a little less like a henchman
Mason: But what am I ever but your unctuous advisor
Whom you never fucking listen to btw
Liam: great could u bring cheetos the flaming kind
Liam is engrossed in the highly stimulating activity of watching Mason’s speech bubble pop on and off the screen with floating ellipses when Theo rouses from where he’s been napping with his cheek pillowed over Liam’s thighs. He snuffles and scrunches his nose once, glances around far too alertly for an ex-homeless teenage superspy that the Dunbar-Geyers have been attempting to domesticate, and clocks the source of the odd tanginess to Liam’s scent.
“I am not meeting the puppy pack,” Theo grumbles.
Liam locks his phone and lays it over his chest so he can peer down at his boyfriend. “Too bad. You already meet them almost every day.”
“Yeah, as a criminally exploited chauffeur.”
“See? You’re practically besties. Now all I’ll be doing is reintroducing you to them as my boyfriend.”
Theo’s nose wrinkles again. “Magnificent. So not just exploited for rides, but exploited for pity sex, too.”
Liam whacks him. “Hey! I don’t pity you.”
Theo stares up at him. “That is the opposite of what I was trying to imply.”
Liam whacks him again. “Whatever you meant, you definitely deserved to get hit.” As he contorts his face into the middle distance, processing exactly what Theo was actually saying, he seems to come to a conclusion. He whacks his boyfriend a third time.
Theo howls—dramatically and more for sympathy points than anything else—and rolls off the couch away from Liam’s questing fingers.
After briefly checking his notifications, Liam cranes his head backward over the top of the couch and calls after the chimera: “We’re meeting tomorrow at Brett and Lori’s place at three! Oh, and if you’re going to the bathroom, could you grab me my bottle of water and that unfinished bag of chips from my desk on your way back, pretty pleeease?”
“Get fucked,” Theo calls back.
He shows up five minutes later with the water bottle, the bag of chips and Liam’s unfinished AP English summer reading.
Liam hates him sometimes.
—
“You’re late,” Alec announces imperiously as he stands in the threshold of the Talbot-Rohr apartment with his hands on his hips like a haggard single mother calling in her children from the field for suppertime.
“I’m the alpha. Y’all are just early,” Liam tells him as he breezes past into the residence.
“I’m telling Scott you said that,” Alec calls after him. “The guy would roll in his grave.”
“Um, first off, the guy is not dead,” Mason interjects. “And second of all, Scott has been late. Like, famously. And to multiple important events.”
“Arguably, the last war started because all the humans in BH thought he was too late to save them,” Corey agrees from his corner of the kitchen island.
As a general hush descends, Corey glances up and around with a delicate grimace. “Too soon?”
Brett raises his hand from where he’s sprawled over an oversized armchair and still makes it seem like children’s furniture. “We became roadkill in the last war, so yeah, too soon.”
“Speak for yourself. You were roadkill, I was just trying to drag your sorry ass out of the way before they flattened your skull,” says Lori. She’s sorting Skittles by color into five different dainty glass bowls on the coffee table. “Though, considering the state of your brain before the attack, I’m not even sure why I bothered.”
Alec cackles in the doorway and dashes off to the kitchen to—apparently—grab a whiteboard marker knotted on a string to the refrigerator handle and draw another tally mark on the small magnetic whiteboard hanging there. It’s split in the middle, ostensibly keeping score of Lori’s versus Brett’s clapbacks since a month ago. The tally marks heavily favor Lori’s side, though considering which guffawing little fiend is the one adding them in the first place, Liam doesn’t doubt that bias comes into play.
Liam settles at one of the bar stools facing the kitchen island and drags his stony-faced boyfriend into the seat beside him. Not that Theo ever had a choice—Liam’s fingers have been plastered in an unshakable ring around his wrist ever since they hopped into his truck and began the drive over here. If not for the fact that Theo would have needed his hand to disembark from their ride, Theo is fairly certain Liam would have found a way through space and time to keep them attached.
He’s not sure if he should be insulted or impressed by Liam’s dedication to the bit or his patent mistrust of Theo’s ability to keep it together before the pack as they finally announce their relationship, and it shows in the flat look he sends Liam’s way.
Liam blows out a breath, cheeks puffing out slightly, and seizes an unpeeled orange from the fruit basket that some adult (definitely not Derek) keeps stocked on Brett and Lori’s counter. He shoves the fruit in Theo’s chest. “Eat. And don’t talk.”
“My absolute pleasure,” Theo drawls, earning a visceral shudder from Corey in his peripheral vision.
Liam swivels around in his bar stool and claps his hands to snag everyone’s attention. “Guys! Okay, so…I have an announcement.”
Mason, Corey, and Lori instantly perk up. Brett lolls his head in Liam’s direction, while Alec goes on fixing the stray smudges on the whiteboard with his thumb and continues to stand obliviously with his back turned to the action.
Lori blinks when Liam doesn’t speak for several long seconds. “Ohhh…kay? What was the announcement?”
“Hold on, hold on, let him cook!” Mason admonishes her. He drifts closer to Liam and lays a supportive hand over Liam’s forearm from across the counter. “C’mon, you can do this, man.”
Theo snorts from where he’s slumped over the counter, a single claw extended on his thumb to help him lazily peel his orange. Showy motherfucker.
“It’s not hunters again, is it?” Corey worries.
Liam shakes his head. “No, no, I would’ve done a group FaceTime first if that was the case. And, like, not asked any of you to drive anywhere.”
“Okay. Good. That’s good,” Lori says.
Brett perks up with an idea. “Is your mom making you do community service again? Do we get to have free car washes from you this time?”
“No, and no, not even over my dead body,” Liam snaps.
“Oh, but Theo gets free car washes,” Alec sasses him, finally turning around to face everyone else.
“He was homeless. And he cooks for us now,” Liam says, flustered.
“And just to clarify,” Theo adds, “I’m doing the car washing. In case that wasn’t—you know—abundantly clear from the time you shits all decided to show up in Liam’s driveway and demand car washes, too.”
Liam beams at him for a few soft seconds, unable for a moment to suppress the overflow of pride and affection for his nearly domesticated boyfriend who only cussed once at his packmates out of irritation but didn’t threaten bodily harm on them this time.
“Okay, so what is the news?” Brett demands.
And just as quickly as it stole over him, Liam’s joy is zapped away. He tenses, muscles cramping in his thighs from how forcefully he’s keeping his knees from bouncing all over the place.
Subtly, Theo slips his left foot off the footrest of his stool and hooks it around Liam’s jiggly ankle.
“Is there a new shapeshifter in town?” asks Lori, when Liam is once again silent for far too long.
Liam shakes his head. “No, no, it’s not supernatural. I mean, not directly.” His eyes flit toward Theo’s and then swerve away.
“All righty, then. Is there a new ice cream truck in town?” Alec throws out there, just for the shits and giggles, it seems.
As one, the members of the puppy pack swivel to stare at him.
“What? After the shitshow that has been the past year and a half, a new ice cream truck is the least this fucking town could do to make up for the insanity.”
After weighing that statement, Mason quirks his mouth downward and bobs his head like fair enough.
“Is it school?” Brett presses. “Wait, did you flunk your SAT?”
Lori whirls around and flings a Skittle at her brother, nailing him in the eye. “You could at least try to sound a little less gleeful.”
“I would never let Liam flunk a test,” Theo says, intensely and bordering on violent, at the same time that Liam protests, “I haven’t even scheduled a retake!”
Theo turns to gape at him. “Liam?!”
“Priorities! Guys, priorities!” Mason blessedly cuts in to save his best friend. “Theo, dude, as pumped up as I am about a discussion of academic checklists, we are all dying to hear Liam’s news. So raincheck on the protective mafia tutor routine for now.”
On cue, the puppy pack swivel their attention back to Liam.
The beta gulps. “I—um—well, you see, when—wait. What I’m trying to say is…”
“Buddy,” Mason interrupts him warmly. “You know we all love you and accept you, right?”
Liam swallows again. “You do?”
Corey straightens up from the counter and raises his hand. “Am I the only one who’s offended you don’t think that?”
Liam squints at him. “To be fair, me and you have had a very complicated relationship.”
Corey points in Theo’s direction. “He tried to kill you and now he’s doing your mom’s laundry. Your point?”
“No, seriously,” Mason goes on, thankfully steamrolling over his distractible boyfriend’s tangent. “Liam. Li. Dudester. We will always love and accept you, no matter what.”
Somehow, the second time Mason says it, the intensity of his sincerity punches Liam square in the chest. The corners of his eyes are prickling before he knows it. “Really?”
Mason gives his forearm a squeeze and a shake. “Really. I mean it.”
“So—so it wouldn’t matter if I was…um…you know…if I were—”
“Bisexual?” Mason finishes for him, at the exact same moment that Liam blurts out: “Dating Theo?”
Somewhere at the edge of Liam’s vision, Alec drops the marker he’d been fiddling with. It clatters jarringly against the tiled floor.
Liam’s heart is galloping now, and he knows Theo’s would be, too, if only the chimera weren’t drawing on his age-old habit of masking his scent and his vital signs to draw attention away from his reaction to the situation. As Liam glances around him—at a furrow-browed Corey, at Alec openly gaping, at Brett with his lip curled and at Lori with her teeth frozen around a blue Skittle—the uncertainty and consternation he finds only make the sweat bloom hotter across his palms.
Theo, adorable supportive murder boyfriend that he is, seizes one of Liam’s trembling hands and squeezes.
Then the moment turns into a record scratch. Liam shakes his head and blinks at Mason. “Wait. You thought I was bisexual?”
Mason unfreezes then. “Oh, shoot! Sorry, man. Are you not bi? That’s okay, the cake we made says ’BI’ but we could totally bust out the piping bags and turn that into ’GAY’ or ’PAN’ or whatever you need.”
Alec dutifully dives for the fridge and unearths said cake, resting slightly lopsidedly on a sheet of cardboard and spelling out in gaudy pink letters over the chocolate frosted top: Congratulations on Being BI!
Liam is tearing up for the second time that afternoon. “You—thought I was coming out to you? And you guys made this for me?”
“Corey baked most of it,” Mason says proudly.
“I contributed the flag cake toppers,” says Alec.
“I contributed the flavor selection,” says Brett.
Lori sighs. “That’s a lie. I did.”
“Fine. I contributed moral support.”
“He didn’t contribute jack shit,” Lori assures the room.
Liam peers curiously at the cake. “What is the flavor, anyway?”
“Dark chocolate for the base layer, regular chocolate on the middle and peanut butter in the top layer,” says Corey.
Liam frowns. “Theo’s allergic to peanuts.”
“So don’t give him any,” says Brett.
“I would like to be fed at some point during this whole shindig,” Theo says, “y’know, considering I drove your asses around all summer for free.”
“Then eat the cake, whatever. You’ll heal,” Brett says, bored.
Liam glowers. “He’ll go into anaphylactic shock, you dipshit.”
“Apoplectic shock is what I’m in right now,” Alec pipes up for the first time. “You’re dating Theo?”
Liam sighs. It seems as though the coast is clear, though he doesn’t particularly enjoy the part where he must now defensively explain the rationale for his new relationship. “C’mon, guys,” he eventually settles on. “Is it really that surprising?”
“That you’re dating Theo? No,” Corey says. “That you dragged us all out here to announce it? Yes.”
Liam looks to his best friend for backup. “Mase, I told you it was personal and had nothing to do with school or family. You didn’t once think this was what I was gonna talk about?”
Mason stares at him, bug-eyed. “Li, something ‘personal’ and not school- or family-related was either you coming out or, I don’t know, telling us you found a new wart on your butt! Though why you’d make it a pack matter boggles my mind, even though you did do that to us that one time.”
“It was not a wart!” Liam contests heatedly. “It was an infected rash, and I was concerned it could be supernatural-related!”
“You took a pic and sent it to everyone in the group chat,” says Alec.
“My crack was censored!”
“Yeah, and yet somehow that would have been far more preferable to see than whatever was growing on your butt! I’ve been scarred. Scarred for life!”
“Hey,” Brett says loudly. “Can we go back to the part where he’s dating the pack assassin?”
“They’ve been playing footsie and holding hands this entire time,” Lori deadpans. She looks over at Liam and Theo, unimpressed. “I can see you guys, you know. I have eyes.”
“I heard he killed multiple people,” Brett goes on.
Theo closes his eyes and tips his head back at the same time Liam bares his teeth with a snarl. “Yeah, and I could rip you limb from limb and give you multiple problems if that’s all you’ve got to say about my boyfriend.”
“Leave it, Li,” Theo murmurs.
“Woah, chill. I wasn’t condemning anyone,” Brett explains. “I was just thinking, like. Damn. You got to the bad boy before I could.”
A sudden quiet settles over the group as they absorb that statement.
Finally Mason turns toward Brett and points at him over the counter. “Talbot, do we need to be celebrating your coming out today instead?”
As Brett sinks into his chair with a barely audible mumble, the rest of the pack erupts into excited chatter. Alec and Corey detach themselves from their roosts in the kitchen to join the new bullying session happening in the living room. Throughout it all, Liam just keeps up swinging his and Theo’s joint hands back and forth between them, resting his cheek in his other hand on the counter and smiling dopily at Theo’s profile.
When Theo blinks and glances over at Liam shamelessly absorbing the sight of him, he says: “What.”
“Nothing.”
“Seriously, Dunbar.”
“What, I can’t look at your face?”
“Not like that, you can’t.”
“I’m just happy everything worked out fine in the end.”
“I knew things were going to be fine.”
Liam rolls his eyes. “Sure you did. You almost had a panic attack earlier over what to wear.”
“Wanted to put my best foot forward.”
“Make a good first impression, huh?”
Theo scoffs. “A little late for that, don’t you think?”
Liam’s grin widens. “Well, you were technically reborn from hell, so…”
“Shut up and stop talking stupid shit so I can kiss you,” Theo mutters, and reels him in amid the chaos and does just that.