Tradition may be the only constant in a life of unpredictability. They live lives that cannot be mapped out too far in advanced; they're not sure if they'll be alive five days from now, let alone five years. A life like this is hard to live, but there are those few occasions throughout the year where they know exactly what to expect. There are days and nights that have been set in stone long before they were even around. It is these traditions that make the constant anxiety and inconsistency a little more bearable.
For the past fifty years the Beacon Hills Lacrosse team has spent the evening of July 5th setting off fireworks in a clearing not too far from the woods. The players scavenge for fireworks at prices that make it a steal, making the festivities that much more exciting. Nothing sets the mood like items purchased at unbelievably low prices.
This is her first year attending the lacrosse fireworks extravaganza. She was invited the previous summer as well, but she wasn't close enough with any of the players to feel it was worth going to. But after befriending the McCall pack her presence wasn't just encouraged, it was mandatory.
"Having fun yet?" Lydia asks, sitting in a lawn chair next to her with a red solo cup in her hand. Her eyes follow the figures of boys running back and forth from their cars to the clearing. Mounds of fireworks are being organized by explosion intensity.
"Getting there. Has anyone ever blown themselves up at one of these things?" she asks, her voice somewhat concerned. She notices Liam trailing right behind Scott with a large box lifted above his head and Stiles is lagging behind them dragging a crate much too heavy for his human muscle.
"Hmm," Lydia muses, tapping her index finger against her bottom lip, "Not to my knowledge."
"Are either of you as concerned as I am?" Kira approaches the two girls, her friendly disposition as friendly as ever. Liam sets the box down gently, looking behind him to check on Stiles' progress. When he notices how little progress Stiles has made, he jogs over to him. Liam makes a gesture that makes it looks like he's suggesting that he should move the crate. Stiles grimaces, but allows the beta to hoist the object over his head.
"Nah," Lydia waves off the notion.
"I'm not sure. I'll let you know when I find out their procedure for setting the fireworks off," she adds.
"Nothing good can come of teenage boys playing with explosives," Kira sighs, sitting cross-legged in front of them.
"Nobody has ever gotten hurt on the evening of July 5th," Scott joins them, "At least I don't think they have."
"I'm sure somebody, somewhere has obtained some type of injury on the evening of July 5th," she grins, knowing she is just being obnoxious.
"You know what I mean," Scott laughs, nudging her knee gently.
"There's a keg over there ya know," Lydia interrupts to get her attention, "Since you and I are the only two who can actually enjoy a nice buzz, I thought you should know."
"A nice buzz sounds perfect right now," she smiles appreciatively, going out in search of said keg.
**
She fiddles with the nozzle until an amber liquid accompanied by foam fills up the plastic cup. She grins in anticipation of the impending buzz. It'll be nice to relax for the first time in what feels like forever. While the sense of family in the McCall pack is nice, the constant bone crushing anxiety can be a lot to handle. Things have been great ever since the pack returned from Mexico, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way. This may just be the calm before the storm, and if she needs the assistance of alcohol to enjoy it, then so be it.
"That looks... uh... refreshing," Liam comments, eyeing the beverage in her hand.
"Don't like the taste of beer?" she inquires.
"Does anybody?" Liam asks, his glossy blue eyes widening a bit.
"No," she chuckles, "I suppose not."
"It's not like I can get drunk anyway," Liam notes, shrugging.
"Yeah, how do you feel about that?" she questions. Teenage boys seem to have an affinity for binge drinking, so she wonders how it feels for Liam to not be able to take part in that aspect of being a teenage boy.
"It's alright I guess. I could always try to impress the rest of my teammates by downing an entire fifth and suffering no consequences," Liam jokes, his lips stretching into a grin.
"I never took you for an optimist."
"And I never took you for a beer drinker, yet here we are."
"Fair enough, Dunbar," she smiles, starting back towards the pack. Stiles has finally joined them and she can tell he's a bit winded by the way his chest is heaving.
"Do you want me to grab you a water bottle?" Liam calls after her, shifting back and forth a bit awkwardly.
"What for?" she tilts her head in confusion.
"I heard that for every alcoholic drink you have you should drink a bottle of water after to prevent a hangover," he scratches the back of his neck, his gaze shifty as his cheeks blush subtly.
"Sure," she grins in appreciation, "Be a doll and grab me a water bottle."
Liam nods at her, making for the cooler opposite of the keg.
**
The pack has formed a semi-circle facing the clearing with Malia and Lydia acting as bookends. She settles back into her chair, careful not to spill any of her drink. The conversation is centered on the topic of Scott never seeing the Star Wars movies. He defends himself by saying that him and Kira had planned on watching them on their first official date, but Kate's interruption ruined that plan. Stiles responds with muttering something about excuses.
Not too long after that topic fizzles out, Liam joins the group, getting comfy on the ground next to her chair. He leans the water bottle against the leg of the chair, easy for her to reach when she needs it. Liam looks up at her with big puppy dog eyes, waiting for a sign of approval. She smiles at the boy, jostling his shoulder before giving it a squeeze and whispering a quiet "Thank you." Liam beams back, satisfied with her reaction.
"Guys!" Stiles waves his arms, "I think they're starting!"
Sure enough, one of the players runs into the center of the clearing and runs back even faster before a popping sound goes off and the sky is filled with colorful sparks.
"Wow," she whispers in awe.
Fireworks have always been one of her favorite things. She loves how you can feel the explosion in your chest because in that moment you apart of something outside of yourself. You can connect with the colorful sparks that light up the night sky because you can feel them. It's so easy to get caught up in the feeling that you forget that the fireworks aren't there solely for you. But there's no harm in pretending that they are.
Fireworks don't have a special place in Liam's heart. He likes them and he looks foreword to the firework shows around the Fourth of July, however, he doesn't have an emotional connection to them. But the way her eyes light up with the night sky makes him appreciate them in a way he never has before. There's a certain kind of beauty in the way something can transform the way someone appears to you. People always look different when they're caught up in something they love; it's when they're at their most true self.
Liam's eyes shift between the fireworks show and her. At first he started by paying equal amounts of attention to the two spectacles, but surely enough, he ends up looking at her more than the actual fireworks. He decides that the way she looks at the fireworks is more entrancing than the fireworks themselves. He'd rather remember this night by the way she looks right now than by sparks of various colors that he's seen so many times before.
**
The end of the show is marked by the lacrosse captain doing a keg-stand with the other drunkards chanting his name. Scott braces the sides of the keg with Stiles holding his legs up. The rest of the pack, minus her and Liam, are right beside Scott, chanting his name with enthusiasm. The two younger members of the pack hang on the outskirts of the chanting, closer to the woods than the chanting. She'd rather get the whole picture; being up close always obscures your perspective.
Suddenly, over the midst of cheering, police sirens can be heard. They become increasingly louder, indicating that they're getting closer. When the high-pitched sirens register in their hazy minds, everyone scatters in search of a hiding place. She is by no means drunk, but she's definitely not sober enough to risk sticking around. So she runs.
There are an infinite amount of movies based on why this is a bad idea, but she runs into the woods without a second thought. Her feet hit the dirt with a soft thud, branches snapping underneath her rushed steps. She hops over large, fallen branches, her breath coming out in rapid puffs. She runs until she feels far enough in that the cops wouldn't search this far, and then she stops abruptly.
She assumed she ran into the woods alone, but that belief is debunked when a solid force collides with her back, sending her and the unidentified second party flying through the woods. Their bodies hit the ground hard, causing them to continue rolling for a few feet.
"Why did you stop so suddenly?" Liam gasps, clutching his chest.
"I thought I was alone! Why did you follow me? You haven't had anything to drink," she places her palm to her head. She's relieved to find her palm clean when she pulls it away.
"I'm not gonna let you wander into the woods by yourself! It's dangerous out here. Or at least it has the potential to be," he gets up, brushing his hands off on his shorts.
"Thank you," sincerity is clear in her voice. Although she didn't think about it at the time, she wouldn't much like being out here all by herself.
"There's a main road a little ways from here. We can walk to it and then call Stiles to come get us when we get there," Liam suggests, offering a hand to help her up.
She gets hoisted up quickly, Liam's werewolf strength making her nearly weightless.
They start walking, their voices filling in the emptiness in the air.
**
Not too far into the walk Liam pulls out his phone and puts on some music. They dance to whatever song comes on, tripping over their feet and laughing as it happens. Her enthusiastic dancing leads her to be a few paces ahead of Liam. Without warning the music stops and she can't hear footsteps behind her anymore. Her panic instinct kicks in almost immediately.
"Liam!" she calls, her eyes searching for her lost companion.
"I'm alright," his voice calls out, "believe it or not this has happened before."
She spins around, searching for the source of his voice.
"Where are you?" her eyebrows furrow together in confusion.
Instead of hearing a vocal response, she sees the top of his hair poke up from the ground before the rest of his body follows.
"Did you... Did you fall in a hole?" she covers her mouth with her hand to stifle a giggle.
"I fell in a hole," Liam confirms, his cheeks pink with embarrassment.
"Do you regret following me out here now?" she laughs, wrapping her arm around his bicep to connect them.
"Not at all. I'd follow you anywhere to be honest," he admits, feeling a burst of confidence by her hanging off his arm.
"Really?" she's asks, "Why?"
"I don't want anything to happen to you. I want to do everything I can to keep you safe."
She shouldn't be surprised by his confession, but she is. In the time that they've known each other he has always kept a close eye on her. Whenever they go out investigating he is never more than five feet away from her and when they encounter someone new he always stands right in front of her, hiding her body behind his. She always waved it off as some protective werewolf guard dog instinct thing. She didn't want to assume that it meant something else and embarrass herself if she were wrong. But it does mean something else.
"We're uh," Liam clears his throat, "we're right by the main road. I should probably call Stiles."
She nods and lets go of his arm, jogging up to the main road.
The streetlights are almost too bright after walking through the dark woods with nothing but the dim glow of a cellphone. As she sits down on the curb she wonders how Liam fell in the hole in the first place. His eyesight is much better than hers, he should have seen it.
"Liam?" she questions as he sits down next to her, sliding his cellphone back into his pocket.
"Yeah?" he replies, a little shy after what he admitted.
"Why did you fall in the hole? You should have seen it."
"Uhhhh," he mumbles, his pink cheeks turning red.
"Liam," she laughs, shoving his shoulder.
"I think I've already embarrassed myself enough for one night," he turns his head in a feeble attempt to hide how flustered he is.
"No you haven't," she whines, "Please tell me."
"I was distracted," he mutters.
"By?" she presses.
"Your dancing. I was too busy watching you dance to notice the big gaping hole right in front of me," he sighs.
"You're adorable," she grins widely.
"Adorable. That's freakin' great. Thanks," he lowers his head into his hands.
He is the epitome of embarrassed. His red cheeks are hidden in his hands as he tries to shrink into himself and disappear entirely. She finds it indescribably cute how flustered he's acting, especially since he has no reason to be. Not that he knows that. She should probably tell him. It's cruel to let him torture himself over nothing.
"Liam," she tugs at his arm.
He grunts in response.
"Liam," she pulls harder, knowing that she won't be able to move his arm unless he wants it to move, "I want to show you something."
"What?" he turns his head to peak at her.
"You have to sit up," she demands.
He groans but complies.
"What is it?" he looks at her skeptically
"Come here" she beckons him closer.
He leans in and arches an eyebrow.
"Closer," she whispers, giggling.
He leans in closer, his face mere inches from hers. She catches him off guard by crossing the short distance to give him a chaste kiss. He blinks rapidly in surprise, waiting for an explanation.
"I like that you look after me," she bites her lip, trying to read his face.
"Yeah?" he grins smugly, "How much?"
She leans in again, pressing her lips against his. This time she doesn't pull away as quickly. She lets him twist his hand in her hair, holding her in place.
"I like you, too," she whispers against his lips, "In case you didn't pick up on that."
"A little clarification never hurt anybody," he smiles, bumping her nose with his.
The emergence of headlights causes them to jump apart as if they'd been caught doing something they shouldn't have been even though the jeep is too far away for the pack to have seen anything. They both laugh at their overreaction.
"Just so you know," Liam interlock his fingers with hers, "I like looking after you."
"Good," she leans into him, "I'll look after you, too."
"What are you gonna protect me from?" he asks, knowing he fairs a better chance against supernatural creatures than she does.
She looks up at him through long eyelashes as Stiles' jeep approaches. A small smirk plays at her lips.
"Holes."
