The Last Prince (Thiam/Teen Wolf AU)

Chapter 4

February 28, 1933

Panicked at the sound of someone about to enter, the two males looked at each other. Odds are, it was the guards, and they would not take too kindly to two stowaways in the baggage cart. Even still, the two of them were cornered. They were on the last cart of the train, and they still needed to rendezvous with Stiles and Lydia at the next stop in Hamburg. "What do we do?" Liam asked worriedly.

Theo knew there was no right answer, as any option they chose would be based on impulse and limited information. However, Theo figured one thing trumped everything else, survival. Rushing to the window as the intruder unlatched the door, Theo noticed that the train was going over a river, and the bridge that they were traveling on wasn't too high. "Get your luggage and put our important papers inside," Theo ordered. Luckily, in their spare time earlier, the two of them had sorted through the man bags in the baggage cart and had found their own bags.

Liam obeyed while Theo ran to the large sliding door of the baggage cart. This door was securely locked during the journey, but it was made to be easily opened in order to help the loading and unloading of luggage during the stops. Theo just needed to find the lever or the latch that would open it. Creek. Theo could see the door shift, and right at the same time, the intruder also made it in through the main door, and it was clear now that they were guards. Mustering up all of the strength that he had, Theo pushed open the giant sliding door on the side of the cart. Liam rushed over with their luggage. In one hand, Theo held his bag, and in the other, he held Liam's hand, who was holding his own luggage. Without so much of a warning, Theo jumped out the side of the cart, pulling Liam and their bags with him, all the while the guard was shouting for them to stop.

The fall made his stomach churn, and the harsh feeling of hitting the water almost made him vomit, but as he submerged into the water, Theo almost felt like he was in another world. With his eyes closed, the world was silent other than the almost comforting hum of the residual sounds of their splashing into the water. In this state, he slipped away, into what felt like a dream. At a lake he'd never been too before, with a girl he'd never seen, but also felt all too familiar with, she assured him they'd be ok as long as they were together, before the two of them jumped into the lake, being submerged into the water.

He snapped back into reality when he felt the hand he was holding pull him towards the surface of the water. In an instant he remembered that he was not playing in a lake with this strangely familiar friend, but he was in a river, on the run, with the all too familiar Liam. Bursting through the surface of the water, Theo gasped for breathe, seeing Liam, whose hand he was still holding, right next to him. "You weren't coming up, you made me nervous," Liam said, still breathless.

Theo nodded as he tried to tread water while still holding onto his luggage. "Can you swim? All we need to do is make to the shore." Liam nodded and the two men swam to the edge of the river.

As they sat lazily in their suite, Lydia looked out the window at the scenery as the train sped along. "Look at this view. The river is so beautiful. I am a bit sad to leave."

"Like a pretty mask, the landscape perfectly hides the sinister things going on in this country," Stiles replied nonchalantly as he wrote in his notepads.

Lydia fell back into her seat with her arms crossed, "How poetic of you, but as pessimistic as ever." But she knew that he was right. Much like the hatred and bigotry in their homeland of the United States, Lydia could see the flames of hatred being fanned even further by this Adolf Hitler. She liked to think, although admittedly too optimistically, that the United States was at least moving in the right direction, but Germany most certainly was moving backwards, or perhaps even worse than anything the world has seen thus far.