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Theo couldn’t keep the grin off his face. It just felt so good. He didn’t like tapping into that old version of himself, hated how cold and calculated he had been then, but being able to use those strategic skills to embarrass Liam, make him blush? It was worth it.
He wasn’t being mean about it, at least he thought so. He meant every word he said. Liam was sweet and tough and just amazing. And yeah, Theo wanted him. Not that he would ever dream of asking for anything; it simply felt good to pretend, for just a few minutes, that his words might affect Liam the way Theo truly wanted them to. That they might affect Liam and make him actually do something about it.
Wishful thinking, that was.
The rest of the guys wolf-whistled and whoop loudly when he finished, their encouragement adding to the euphoria he felt. Liam, who had been staring at him the entire time with eyes wide and barely breathing, suddenly looked away, hiding his face. Yet all he managed was to show off that beautiful blush that travelled across his cheeks and down his neck.
God, how Theo wanted to believe he was moved by the song and not just flustered because Theo was being flirty.
“So is it my turn now?” Theo asked, his smirk widening to a more vicious one. Alec’s eyes went wide as the boy gulped loudly, and Theo couldn’t help it, he started laughing. Still, payback was in order. While he should have picked the other pair and then had them impose a dare upon Alec and Nolan, the way it had been going around for a while now, Theo chose to just skip Mason and Corey. They were already together, there was no fun messing with them.
“Nolan–”
“No, why me again?!” The boy protested, making everyone crack up. Theo even felt Liam relaxing again.
“Because your boyfriend made me serenade Liam, and now it is payback time.”
“Alec’s not–”
“I’m not–”
Both boys started, then turned wide eyes at each other, both flushing red. They were just adorable.
“Anyway,” Theo continued, “Nolan… I believe there was this popular thing called Seven Minutes in Heaven? And I think it would fit here nicely, so… I dare you to spend seven minutes kissing Alec.”
Alec squawked and everyone burst out laughing again.
It felt incredible, to be able to make everyone laugh like this. To be included.
(no more sad thoughts, go away)
After that nice little make out session that everyone lost interest in within the first minute and only Mason was left to time it, it was Nolan’s turn to dare someone. His eyes flew over to Liam, but then glanced at Theo, widening with fear for a split second. He immediately turned to Corey.
“I dare you to, to…” he stuttered, unable to come up with anything. “Tell us one of Mason’s embarrassing secrets!”
Oh. That sounded like fun.
Corey’s eyes went wide, and Mason, likely knowing exactly what secret Corey might share, immediately jumped to his feet and slapped a hand over his boyfriend’s mouth. “Don’t you dare!!”
“Hey, no fair, he has to do it now!” Alec pipped in.
“It’s the rules, Mason,” Theo added, grinning widely. Mason shot them both a dirty look, then shook his head. For a moment, it seemed like he wouldn’t relent, but then suddenly, he let out a long sigh and removed the hand from Corey’s mouth. His boyfriend just smiled at him before turning to the room.
“Mason had a crush on Liam when they first met."
Nolan and Alec both shouted so loudly that they made everyone else flinch. Mason kept his head down, not meeting anyone’s gaze, while Corey just kept on smiling, looking amused. Theo thought that maybe he should have felt a twinge of jealousy, but it wasn’t there. After all, he knew all too well how easy it was to get a crush on Liam.
“I, uh, I knew about that,” Liam suddenly said and then all hell broke loose. Alec started laughing obnoxiously, Nolan not too far behind. Corey was cracking up too, while Mason looked outraged.
“You knew? You knew!! And you didn’t say anything?! All these years, I’ve– It’s been eating at me!” Mason shouted. Liam was smiling, but he did have the decency to look a little embarrassed. He ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck before looking back up at his best friend.
“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it,” he replied defensively, “besides, you got over that quickly when Garret transferred.”
“Wait, Garret? As in one of the bounty hunters who tried to kill Scott and other werewolves?” Alec pipped in, but nobody really cared about that.
“Liam!! I told you that in confidence!!” Mason shouted. “Reveal all of my secrets, why don’t you?!”
“Like the one where you like to–”
“LIAM, I SWEAR TO GOD! Corey, make him stop!! Use your dare, make him do something!! Something embarrassing!!” Mason turned and begged his boyfriend to help. Corey, much like Theo, seemed very amused at the situation and kept laughing. But when Mason asked him to pick Liam for the next dare and humiliate him, Corey did not seem a bit reluctant to comply.
“Liam, I dare you… I got nothing.” That made everyone laugh. “Wait, I got it. Liam, Theo recited a song to seduce you. I think you should repay him the favor.”
Oh shit! Oh, oh, shit!
Okay, keep smiling, this is all just a game, no big deal! Theo told himself, keeping his expression carefree while slightly panicking inside. He had to keep his face straight or risk revealing just how much this could affect him.
“Come on, Liam, don’t drag your feet!” Nolan pipped in, and Alec snickered.
“Yeah, just sing him something cute, like ‘Adore You’ by Harry Styles. Oh, or do ‘Lover’ by Taylor!”
“Shut up, guys, I’m trying to think,” Liam said. When Theo chanced a glance at him, he found Liam biting his lower lip, brows furrowed in contemplation. Theo did not like that one bit.
The song he picked in his dare, the ‘I want Candy’, he heard it yesterday and thought of Liam, but didn’t put this much effort into it like Liam was doing right now. It scared him a little.
“Okay, I think I got it,” Liam said, then turned to Theo. His bright blue eyes latched onto Theo’s, stealing his breath away. “You remember when I told you my mom wants us to go visit my aunt in Florida for the summer? I said I hated the humidity, but you said something about wanting to see the ocean?”
“Uhh, yeah? Vaguely.” He remembered alright. He couldn’t believe he had said it though, letting that confession slip out like that.
“Well…” Liam trailed off, then took a deep breath. He looked a little uncertain, a small, soft smile on his face. And then, he actually started to sing.
“Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take ya…”
Wha–
“Bermuda, Bahama, leave behind the drama,
Key Largo, Montego, baby, why don't we go? Jamaica…”
Baby?!
“Off the Florida Keys, there's a place called Kokomo, that's where you wanna go, to get away from it all.”
Okay, yes, that did sound nice, but what the hell? Theo knew he looked like a deer caught in the headlights, but he couldn’t help it. This? This was the song Liam chose?
The worst part, with each spoken word, he seemed so much more confident, his words slipping beside Theo’s defences and softening something within him, something that should stay hidden.
“Bodies in the sand, tropical drink melting in your hand…We'll be falling in love, to the rhythm of a steel drum band… Down in Kokomo…”
Oh shit. Falling in love?
Theo’s entire body flushed with tingles, while something fluttered in his stomach. Fuck. He wanted that. He wanted that so much.
Meanwhile, Liam just kept singing. “Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take you, to Bermuda, Bahama, leave behind the drama, Key Largo, Montego, baby, why don't we go?”
His smile spread wider, like he knew exactly what Theo was thinking, like he could read him like an open book and loving what he was seeing. His voice dipped lower, became smoother, sweeter.
“Ooh, I wanna take you down to Kokomo…We'll get there fast, and then we'll take it slow, that's where we wanna go, way down in Kokomo…”
Get there fast and then take it slow? Fuck.
“Martinique, that Montserrat mystique…We'll put out to sea, and we'll perfect our chemistry, by and by, we'll defy, a little bit of gravity…”
Theo’s heart was hammering, much faster and harder than Liam’s was when Theo was performing his little stunt. Fuck, everyone could see, everyone could hear. Everyone knew.
“Afternoon delight, cocktails and moonlit nights… That dreamy look in your eye, give me a tropical contact high. Way down in Kokomo.”
Liam kept singing, but the words weren’t registering with Theo anymore. He was having trouble breathing, trouble getting his thoughts in order, trouble just being. God, he wanted all of that. He wanted it so much, but it wasn’t true, it wasn’t real. It was just a stupid dare.
“Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take you to Bermuda, Bahama, leave behind the drama, Key Largo, Montego, baby, why don't we go? Ooh, I wanna take you down to Kokomo, we'll get there fast, and then we'll take it slow, that's where we wanna go…Way down in Kokomo…”
“Oh my god, that was perfect!!” Alec shouted, snapping Theo out of his daze. He put on a smile he didn’t realize he dropped, pretending like the song didn’t bother him at all.
“Did you see the look on Theo’s face?” Mason pipped in, grinning, but Theo felt it like a slap. He had let the mask slip and they all knew how much this affected him. Damn it.
“That was fun,” he said, aiming for nonchalant even as something rotten burned inside of him, “but now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go to the bathroom. That took way too long.”
So he ran. He ran because it was the only thing he could do, the only thing that would ease this heavy feeling inside of him. He made it into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him, hating how that action too made his feelings about this so transparent.
He splashed some water on his face and started figuring out how he was going to salvage this. The best thing would be to just leave, but he couldn’t do that. He would leave Liam stranded, plus it would be rude - they had invited him over.
Not a moment went by before there was a knock on the bathroom door. “Theo? You okay?”
Of course Liam would come looking for him, of course he’d want to make sure he was okay. The kid was way too kind for his own good.
“Yeah, fine,” he said, resisting the urge to yell at the beta and say something like ‘can’t a guy take a piss in private’.
“Theo,” Liam said, and it contained everything - ‘I know you’re lying, I know you’re not okay, please let me in, let me see you, let’s talk.’ Great. This was not how he imagined the evening going.
He knew that one day, he would have to face the music. That he would have to reveal his feelings for Liam and leave himself bare and vulnerable. He just thought it would be in a fight, while he saved Liam’s ass. By dying for him, like he said he’d never do.
Instead, it would be in Mason’s cramped up bathroom, and over something stupid like a fucking seranade.
Taking a deep breath, he reached for the door and released the air from his lungs as he opened it. Liam stood on the other side, face scrunched up in concern. “I’m fine, see,” Theo said, making one last ditch effort to play it off.
Unfortunately, Liam wasn’t buying it.
“I’m sorry,” he started with, and oh, no. No, not this. “I didn’t mean…”
Of course he didn’t. He never means it.
“Hey, no,” Theo said with a casual shrug, “No worries. It’s not like I meant what I said with my song.”
“You didn’t?” Liam said, his entire posture changing. It looked like he relaxed, but the truth was probably more close to him deflating.
“What?” The question was out of Theo’s mouth before he could think better of it.
“You said ‘someday soon, I’ll make you mine’,” Liam threw Theo’s own words back at him, not knowing how sharp they were at that moment. “You didn’t mean them?”
Well fuck. How was he supposed to answer a direct question like that?
Lie and say no? Even if it was probably true, he had no chance of making Liam his.
“I–”
“Tell me,” Liam said, asking, pleading as he stepped into the small bathroom, completely ignoring the concept of personal space. Theo gasped, eyes going wide as his heart rate skyrocketed. But Liam, he was… Calm. Collected. Curious and with those brilliant blue eyes, so hopeful so…
“I want to,” Theo found himself saying, “I just… I can’t make you, make you, but yeah… I’d… I’d want that.”
“You do?” Liam’s voice came out a little shaky, filled with disbelief, but Theo couldn’t make himself reassure him, not right now.
All he could do was let out a small, barely audible “yeah”.
“I want to take you to Kokomo,” Liam responded after a beat, confusing Theo. What exactly did that mean? But before he could answer, Liam was stepping closer, getting up on his toes and kissing him.
He was… He was kissing Theo.
It was such a shock that Theo didn’t kiss him back, just froze. Because of it, probably, Liam broke the kiss fast and took a step back. The look in his eyes changed to apologetic, sprinkled with sorrow, and, no, no, that’s not good, that’s not what Theo wanted.
Thankfully, that made him snap out of it. He surged forward, grabbing Liam’s face and bringing their lips together again. It was a little forceful, and a little awkward, but it only took a second to turn into the most amazing thing ever.
He was kissing Liam. Theo was kissing Liam.
And Liam was kissing back.
They pulled apart after a shout came from the living room, then just stared at each other for a moment. Liam was the first to smile and Theo couldn't help it; he smiled back.
“So,” Liam started, “I guess, uh, my seduction song worked, huh?”
They both cracked up at that, grinning at each other like the two idiots they were.
“Hey, mine worked first,” Theo countered, “don't think I didn't see how you got all flustered.”
Liam laughed, the sound so beautiful and happy, it filled Theo with joy all the way down to his dark little soul.
He thought Liam would counter it, refute it, but the beta just kept smiling at him as he gave him a little shrug.
Theo couldn’t help it; he had to kiss him again.