airplanes(Thiam)

chapter 26: Texts from last night

Liam woke up to a thundering crash that made his head give a dull throb. It was followed a moment later with a voice, muffled and raspy.

"Motherfucker, you fucking-" Liam squinted against the dark room, the curtains swaying slowly from side to side. He trailed his eyes down as the swearing continued, voice only getting more muffled, his eyes landed on Theo, sprawled on the floor next to the window, an upturned chair beside him as he curled into a ball, slithering slowly like a snake as he made himself smaller.

"Theo?" Liam murmured, grimacing at the cottony tang of his mouth. "What-"

"Shh." Theo said, burrowing his face into his arms as he finally finished pulling himself into the fetal position on the dirty carpet. Liam watched as Theo went quiet, apparently quite comfortable.

"Du-"

"SHHH!" Theo snapped urgently. Liam let his mouth snap shut, far too tired to attempt to fathom out why Theo had decided to stay on the floor when there was a perfectly good bed a few feet from him.

With a soft huff, Liam flipped himself over to face the other wall, burrowing his face into a pillow that smelt an awful lot like Theo. Liam let his eyes flicker to the other bed, the sheets barely ruffled, Theo's jeans still balled up on the floor next to it.

Liam groaned as the memories of the night came rushing back to him, from trying to convince Scott and the others that apples had gotten them drunk to breaking a football table and finally falling asleep curled up next to Theo. His head gave a throb at all the sounds filtering through the room. It felt like when he had first turned again, being completely unable to control the sense. He could hear people talking in another room, the rush of water as someone had a shower, a soft tap tap tap of a pen on a desk, a bell dinged, a car horn honked.

"Oh my god shut up." Liam groaned. Theo made a vague noise of agreement. Liam closed his eyes trying to focus on the thump of his own heart and block out the sounds.

Instead all he could hear was the showering running, forcing him to notice how much he needed the bathroom. Theo's heartbeat paced in his ears and Liam turned his attention to it. It was slow but Liam felt the noises getting fainter, Theo snuffled against his arm and Liam let out a sigh of relief and he managed to focus his hearing on their room only.

His bladder protested still, like it didn't know he'd managed to avert the noise crisis, with a small groan Liam sat up, swallowing down the nausea at the quick movement.

He padded back out of the bathroom after swilling his mouth with water in hopes of getting rid of the dryness, it only somewhat worked. Liam's gaze settled on the matching empty beds.. His eyes moved back to the floor where Theo was still curled up. A small grin found its way onto his face.

"Dude come on." Liam sighed. "Motel floors are gross you shouldn't be-"

"What did I say about shutting up." Theo huffed.

"You're gonna smell even worse than you do already."

"You like how I smell." Theo said, voice barely recognizable as he spoke into the crook of his elbow. Liam chose to ignore that particular comment, instead marched over and laughed at Theo's whine of pain as he hauled him off of the floor.

"Stop being a baby."

"I'm dying." Theo said seriously. Liam threw him back onto the bed. Theo let out a pitiful groan, eyes squeezing shut as his stomach gave a few dangerous sounding rumbles.

"Are you going to throw up?" Liam asked. Theo didn't move, just stayed starfished back where Liam threw him face pinched in pain, skin pale and tacky with sweat. It took him a few moments, bare chest heaving before he finally opened his eyes again with a tentative flutter.