And don't you ever pay mind to that line in your mind that says you'll ruin it

The winter

The snow crunches beneath Theo's boots, loud enough to fill the preserve's silence, but quiet enough to be muffled under the accompanying sound of crunching leaves. It's his usual trek, the one he's taken so many times he stopped counting, the steps engraved so deeply in his mind he could walk it in his sleep. The cold air bites at his skin, leaving his cheeks tinted a soft shade of pink. The same shade of pink that his knuckles are as he clutches the flowers tighter between his frozen fingers, like he's afraid they're going to fall out of his grasp at any moment.

His steps slow as he reaches the bridge, that all too familiar ache spreading in his chest as he looks down at the frozen water below the now rotting wooden planks. He's careful as he crosses the bridge, ignoring the wood groaning in protest at the newfound weight, coming to a stop in the middle.

The woods are silent, save for his soft puffs of air, the only signal of life in the area as far as he can tell. He's alone, which is entirely unrelated to the way his eyes start tingling and his nose twitches. It's cold out, even for December, and it's not like he's dressed well for it, plain and simple. He wipes at his nose with his free hand, grimacing at the icy feeling it leaves across his knuckles. It's always harder during the winter, when the snow comes in and leaves him aching in more ways than one, his body stiff and cold in that unrelenting sort of way.

Theo leans forward, resting his forearms on the railing, now clenching both hands around the bundle of white lilies. White like the cracked ice he's staring down at or the ghost that haunts him, he's not quite sure, but either way, white felt right. The flowers fall from his open hands, smacking against the ice with the softest thud, their tangled stems locked and woven together from how hard he had been holding onto them.

His head falls forward, pulled by the weight he's constantly trying not to drown under, forehead pressing into the icy cold of his arms. It's stupid, really, or it feels like it, because he knows that nothing is going to change. There's no reason to expect a sudden relief or catharsis. Dropping flowers now is no different from back when Liam and Stiles were following him. He might be trying to really mean it now, but it's still just flowers and still just him.

Nothing's changed.

"Miss you." He mumbles, willing the stinging in his eyes to disappear.

It never does.

He's almost to his truck, fumbling for his keys in his pocket, when he realizes he left his phone behind. It shouldn't matter, not really, no one ever messages him. Between falling off Argent's radar once things have slowed down and the puppy pack heading off to college, there's no one left in Beacon Hills that would. Well, other than Anika, but she's working, so the likelihood of getting anything from her is slim to none.

Typically, he would be picking up the slack, but he's starting to think even the monsters are as bored with this little town as he is. He rolls his shoulders, pulling the hoodie tighter across his body before clicking the key fob to unlock his truck.

It's only when he's fully situated, blasting the heater and pulling his seatbelt on, that he realizes he has an unread text sitting on his lock screen. His heart beat fumbles in his chest at the sight, because it isn't a typical hunting order from Argent, or even a shift change message from his boss-turned-friend. It's Liam . Liam who left for college months ago, Liam who will randomly message Theo unimportant things like pictures of stray cats he finds on campus, to which Theo will always reply 'cool.' and forget about it until the next one. Liam, who makes his heart feel like it's going to combust in his chest at any given moment without warning.

He picks up his phone with frozen fingers, blaming the clamminess on the fact that he's thawing out from too long in the snow. The screen lights up, only one notification staring back at him. He fully expects it to be another picture of a cat, or the odd picture of Mason and Corey with Liam captioning it with something along the lines of 'third wheel 4lyfe', the usual sorts of things.