The Kiss Thing (THIAM)

Chapter 7

The moment they come home, David is smiling warmly at them.

Theo's nose is turning red even before he speaks.

"So boys, how was your date?"

Theo runs upstairs.

Liam stares at his stepfather. He's not even surprised at this point. Does Monroe knows too now?

"How does Derek have your number?" He asks anyway.

"He doesn't" David shrugs. "But Melissa does."

***

Theo's face is buried in his pillow when Liam walks in his room.

"I said everyone Derek lied" He assures him. "It's my word against his."

"Your word means nothing, you say pineapple pizza is good." Theo's voice comes out muffled by the pillowcase, but Liam still distinguishes the words.

"You risk to drown on tomato sauce every time you eat pizza, you're clearly not a reliable...wait, I got an idea."

"Terrible idea."

"I didn't even-"

"You having an idea is already a terrible idea."

"Listen, just text Malia and Stiles right now: tell them Derek is right and that we were holding hands today."

Theo doesn't look like he's going to do it.

"Why."

"Because they don't believe a word of what you say" Liam explains. He usually avoids mentioning his pack's distrust towards Theo, because it makes Theo all tense and cold, but this time they're going to use it for their own advantage. "So if you vouch for Derek, then they won't believe him."

Theo sits, rubbing a hand on his forehead. He looks tired.

"This is stupid, I can't believe you actually said it aloud. There's a guy in France we haven't even ever met who knows that today we held hands, why is that, what's wrong with your pack. And why the fuck the two gays from London keep texting me, they're so creepy and they won't stop mentioning the tail, I-"

Theo looks a lot like Liam right now, walking around the room with his hands in his hair.

This is weird. Liam doesn't like it: Theo is not supposed to worry and panic, that's Liam, not Theo. Theo doesn't do panic. He smirks and stares and stays collected and indifferent like he has everything under control even when he's not even in control of the tomato sauce on his pizza, but that's what Theo does, make you believe like he knows what he's doing.

That's what lobsters do, they stare at you with their little mysterious black eyes and make you think they're superior beings who happen to know everything about the universe even when they're out of the water.

Liam contemplates briefly if throwing Theo in the bathtub and then sprays water on him could be a good idea. He decides that it's not.

"Ehy" He says and his voice comes out softer than he intended. He doesn't like it, why is Theo changing Liam's voice? "Calm down, it's not a big deal."

"You literally said it's a tragedy one hour ago."

Liam is aware of that, but he said it when it was needed to be said, when the tragedy still didn't happen but was about to, so someone really needed to point it out. But now the tragedy already happened and they both know, so there's no point in emphasizing it even more.