All about control

3a.m. conversations (january)

3:05am

Theo wakes up first, blinking his eyes rapidly to rid the blurriness, wincing at the loud sound of a phone going off. He tries to roll over, looking for the intrusion, but there's a heavy weight pressed against his back along with an arm around his waist. He freezes, body going completely still. When he had fallen asleep last night Liam was on the other side of the bed, he's sure of that. At some point in both of their sleeps, they shifted and ended up in the middle, Liam wrapped around him in a protective hold and Theo allowing it to happen, his own arm on top of Liam's holding it in its place.

The phone is still ringing somewhere to his left, lighting up the dark room. He manages to successfully pull himself out of his daze and Liam's grasp all in one go before attempting to wake the beta up.

"Liam," He goes to place a hand on Liam's shoulder, watching the rise and fall with every breath, he pauses his movement mid reach, thinking better of it. He instead picks up one of the pillows that aren't being used and launches it full force at Liam's face. The beta wakes up, limbs flailing, shooting out of bed, eyes wide with alarm.

"Wha- What happened? Are we being attacked?" Liam's eyes are flared, wide, snapping his head in every direction looking for a threat. Theo might consider it endearing if his phone wasn't still going off and effectively ruining the first decent night's sleep he's had in weeks.

"No, dumbass, we aren't being attacked." Liam frowns at the insult, eyes going back to their normal blue color. He stays standing at the foot of the bed, head tilted in confusion at Theo's annoyed expression. "Phone. Answer it."

Liam's eyes flick over to the nightstand as if this is the first time he's registering that there's something other than Theo in this room. He mutters a soft apology, crawling across the bed to snatch his phone, he gives Theo a nervous look before tapping the screen and bringing the phone to his ear.

Theo tries to tune out the conversation, he even rolls over, facing the wall instead of Liam, closing his eyes and trying to sleep again. Liam is keeping his voice low, but Theo can hear the nervous tremor under it all. He frowns.

"Yeah, sorry, went out to help Argent with searching through a new warehouse, lost track of time, I was exhausted when I got home."

Theo can hear the way Liam's heartbeat starts to quicken, hears the sound of him picking at the duvet, a nervous tick. He's lying about what he was doing, mostly, omitting who else was there and where he went afterwards. Theo's not upset about it, knows it's probably Mason on the other line, Liam wants to keep this part of himself away from prying eyes. He wants time to not be what everyone else expects him to be, something he can only seem to be when he's with Theo.

"Sorry, Mase," Bingo, Theo was right. "It's really late, I'm sorry for worrying you. I'll call you tomorrow."

When Liam hangs up the phone he stays silent, unmoving. Theo opens his eyes, rolling over to look at the younger boy. Liam is sitting there, staring at his phone with a frown.

"I'm sorry I woke you up. It's still pretty late, I can head home now. Sorry, Theo." Liam's eyes are still downcast, voice sounding distant even though he's not even an entire foot away. It makes Theo's chest ache for reasons he can't begin to explain when Liam moves to get out of the bed, toeing his shoes back on, ready to walk out of Theo's apartment in the middle of the night like a lost puppy.

"Hey," Theo starts, sitting back on his arms, eyeing Liam as he pauses in the doorway, still not looking up from the floor. He hums in acknowledgement, waiting for Theo to speak, to kick him out, to do something. Theo suppresses a frown, everything about Liam is wrong right now. "Do you want some Mac and Cheese?"