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There were wendigos running around Beacon Hills. Or, it was something like that - Liam wasn’t really paying attention to whatever Theo had said Scott told him about this stakeout, when he was picking him up that night. He had bigger issues, okay?
Like the fact that Theo Raeken’s hair was not gelled back the way it usually was.
It flopped over his forehead, down towards his eyes - which were half-lidded and unfocused as they looked out at the woods. It looked soft, which wasn’t usually a term Liam would use to describe Theo, but it was true . The hairstyle made him look younger, sleepier, and softer - and it was distracting as all fuck.
What even were wendigos? Was it wendigos? It could’ve been unicorns, for all Liam knew.
“What?” Theo asked, looking over to him and breaking Liam out of his creeper stare.
“What?” Liam repeated, eyes locked on the trees instead of Theo’s fluffy hair.
“You’ve been staring at me for like five minutes.”
Theo wasn’t an idiot - Liam knew that. He was caught red handed. “You didn’t gel your hair.”
“That’s ‘cause I was literally going to sleep when Scott called me to come out here. I just rolled out of bed and picked you up.”
“Looks weird.”
Liam stiffened, because what the fuck ? How did Liam ever have a girlfriend when he was like this? Then again, he honestly wasn’t sure if he ever had been like this. Nobody had ever made Liam feel the way he felt around Theo. Like he wanted to punch him in the face, but also get down on his knees in front of him.
Theo rolled his eyes good naturedly. “I’ll make sure to gel it for you next time, little wolf.”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” Liam said, hoping to save the situation. “I meant it’s different - not weird.”
Theo nodded, obviously not convinced.
“Seriously - I like it,” Liam admitted. “You should leave it down like this more often. It looks good.”
Liam wasn’t sure why he was such a disaster tonight - liking Theo was not a new predicament. He’d liked the guy for a few years now, so there was no reason for tonight to be so different. But it was .
Theo was so relaxed tonight, and maybe that was adding to why he looked so soft. He lacked all of the alertness he usually held in his stiff posture and guarded eyes. His head was tipped back against the headrest, which Liam’s wolf was interested in, and his legs had fallen open - which Liam was rather interested in. Specifically, in the slight bulge he could see through the sweatpants.
Maybe Theo was trying to kill him.
And on top of that, Liam was highly aware of how close their arms were resting on the center console between them. He could feel their arm hair touching - which shouldn’t have felt so intimate, but it did .
Then Theo yawned and his arm shifted just enough to press against Liam’s, causing the younger wolf to jump slightly in surprise.
“What’s up with you?” Theo wondered, examining his face.
“Nothing.” Liam waved him off. You’re just beautiful and my brain doesn’t work around you . “Just tired as shit.”
“Same.”
Theo went back to looking out the windshield and Liam glanced down to notice a silicone bracelet around his wrist. It was dark, since the lights in the truck were off, but Liam’s wolf eyes could see the shape of it just fine.
“What color is your bracelet?”
“Green.”
“Nice.”
Liam didn’t bother thinking it over too long before tentatively ghosting his fingers across the skin of Theo’s wrist, just beside the bracelet. Touching Theo was something Liam very rarely did, but fuck it - he was feeling ballsy. The full moon was in two days, and he was already feeling the reckless effects of it.
Theo didn’t pull his arm away, so Liam slipped his fingers under the band, trapping them against the skin enough for him to faintly feel the pulse on the backs. He brushed his thumb over the indented lettering, not really caring about what it said, but wanting an excuse to have his hand there.
Liam’s stomach clenched when Theo did pull away, but the chemosignals in the truck remained light and happy - so the chimera wasn’t upset. He was just starting to wonder why he’d broken the contact, when Theo held the bracelet out towards him.
What the hell? Liam stared at the bracelet in confusion, because why would he want it? How did Theo not realize that Liam was touching him intentionally - or better yet, how had he actually thought that he wanted this dollar tree bracelet?
He took it anyway, even though he wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do with it.
Liam held no reservations about banging incessantly on the metal door of the loft that night.
After several very long seconds, the door finally slid open and a shirtless Derek Hale was glaring at him. “It’s three in the morning - you better be dying.”
Liam mimicked his glare and Derek rolled his eyes as he stepped aside to let him in.
“Stiles,” Derek hollered towards the open bedroom door at the top of the spiral staircase. “It’s yours.”
“Liam?” Stiles asked groggily.
Technically, Liam was Scott’s beta - but after Derek and Scott’s packs unofficially merged and they all became a makeshift collective Beacon Hills pack, Liam found himself gravitating towards Stiles for most things. Scott was nice, but he wasn’t always the best at advice or the brightest tool in the shed - so Derek and Stiles stepped in where he lacked. Liam loved Scott, but he was not the one to go to with his disaster of a love life. At some point over the years, it became a running joke that Liam was Stiles’ beta - and neither of them cared enough to fight it.
“I hate Theo Raeken!” Liam announced.
“Jesus fuck,” Stiles grumbled. “Just get up here - I’m not leaving this bed.”
Derek motioned towards the staircase and Liam rushed up them two at a time.
Stiles was sitting up against the headboard, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Why do you hate Theo this time?”
Liam sat on the end of the bed as he had countless times before, as Derek reclaimed his place under the blankets beside Stiles.
“Because he’s an idiot.” Liam held up the stupid bracelet.
“He… gave you a bracelet?” Stiles asked confusedly.
“Yes!” Liam exclaimed. “Scott made us do a stakeout for something -”
“The wendigos,” Derek said. So it was wendigos! “Did you see anything?”
“Yeah, I saw Theo without hair gel and I wanted to squeeze him until his head popped off.”
“ What ?” Stiles looked at him like he was crazy, and hell - maybe he was.
“You don’t understand how soft and sleepy and adorable he looked,” Liam all but whined as he fell forward to bury his face in the blankets.
“So… you wanted to squeeze his head off?”
“I get it,” Derek surprisingly said. “It’s like when you see a really small animal and you want to put it in your mouth because it’s cute.”
Liam shot up. “ Exactly - thank you!”
“What the fuck are you guys on?” Stiles asked, a disbelieving smile on his face as he shook his head.
“Anyway, I wanted to touch him, right? His arm was so close to mine and I thought, hey, maybe I could get away with touching him, y’know? Something simple, something he could pull away from if he was uncomfortable - something I could make up an excuse for if he was weirded out. So I started playing with his bracelet. Just, like, touching it.”
Stiles looked at the bracelet clutched in Liam’s fist and broke into laughter. “And he gave it to you.”
Liam slammed his hand down on the bed, squishing the bracelet between his palm and the mattress. “He thought I gave a shit about the bracelet !”
“Why didn’t you just hold his hand or something?” Derek asked. “You know he likes you.”
“Hold his hand? Are you shitting me?” Liam gaped at him. “Derek, we don’t ever touch each other. He’s never touched me. Why would I just hold his hand ?”
“Because you like each other,” Derek told him, as if it were obvious and Liam was ridiculous for not thinking about it.
“He’s never said he liked me.”
Derek raised an eyebrow. “That’s why reading chemosignals is helpful.”
“Just help me. What should I do?”
“You should tell him that you like him,” Stiles suggested. “I can’t read chemosignals, and it’s even obvious to me how much he adores you. It’s gross.”
“What do I say?” Liam asked.
“I like you. We should go out sometime,” Derek said. “That’s literally it.”
Liam groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face several times, before nodding. “Okay, I can do that.”
“Great. Go do it and don’t tell me how it goes until the sun is up,” Stiles said, using his foot to push Liam towards the edge of the bed.
Liam flipped him off as he stood up and headed towards the door.
Liam wasn’t sure what the hell he was doing, but he ended up in front of Theo’s door. He clenched his fist, feeling his nails dig uncomfortably into his skin, before forcing himself to knock.
It only took a moment for Theo to open the door, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What’s wrong?”
Liam shrugged. I like you. Do you wanna go out with me? “Nothing.”
Theo squinted at him. “Oh- kay .”
“You left this with me,” Liam explained, holding the bracelet out. “I just wanted to bring it back.”
Theo grinned, something akin to amusement in his eyes. “Could’ve waited.”
“Yeah,” Liam agreed, because what else was he supposed to say? Oh, well 4am seemed like a good time.
They stared at each other in silence, until Theo told him, “It’s freezing. Are you trying to come in, or do we just keep standing out here?”
And then Liam did something that he was definitely going to blame on the approaching full moon, because he was a werewolf and blaming impulsive, stupid decisions on full moons was something he was allowed to do.
He surged forward and pressed his lips to Theo’s.
Only for a second, only long enough for him to wonder if Theo felt how hard Liam’s nose had jabbed his face, because that was pretty fucking awkward. Just long enough for him to panic at what he’d done, because first off: he was kissing Theo, and secondly: he knew how to kiss - what the hell was with the nose punching?
Liam pulled back, not quite leaving Theo’s space, but separating enough for Liam to try gauging the emotions on his face, in case he was about to deal with an angry chimera. Theo’s eyes were wide and his lips were parted just slightly - and Liam unhelpfully had no idea what that meant.
“You kissed me,” Theo whispered, as if trying to figure out if he was deciphering the action correctly.
“Yeah,” Liam confirmed. “Was that... fine, or?”
Theo’s hand fisted in the front of Liam’s shirt and tugged him forward into another kiss that was actually even less coordinated than the first, somehow, because Liam wasn’t expecting it. He fell directly into Theo, sending them both stumbling into the apartment. He was mildly aware of the door being kicked closed, but he was more focused on the soft moan that fell out of Theo’s mouth as Liam ran his fingers through that gorgeous, distracting hair.