[Thiam] Let Me Be Your Front Line: The Album

May 1

The next two weeks pass by in roughly the same fashion; they head to the studio in the morning, and Liam flops down in the corner and occupies himself by twisting magic around his fingers and prodding at the other people in the room, mostly Theo, to see how much it took before they snapped and yelled at him. Theo works through his notebook with Corey and Mason, sometimes Lydia or Malia, and fills nearly an entire new one.

By the time May comes around they've got three songs that Theo is ready to record.

When he steps into the booth on the far wall there's a moment where he doesn't know what he's doing. It's taken him so long to get here and now he's standing in an actual recording booth with the entire team sitting outside and professional headphones sitting on a table under the microphone. Mason and Lydia had recorded a rough instrumental version of the song yesterday so that he could try out the vocals.

One of the three guys Malia brought in to help with recording and mixing gives him a thumbs up. Theo takes a deep breath and picks the headphones up.

When the piano starts he relaxes. This part is familiar, they've played this particular song over and over with him singing along.

He closes his eyes and lets the words pour out.

———

Liam watches with wide eyes as Theo hits yet another high note. He's been in the room for probably thirty minutes now, trying out different cadences and styles over the instruments.

Malia nods and there's a bright grin on her face when she turns to one of the guys Lydia brought, Liam thinks his name is Brad.

In the booth Theo pauses for a moment and opens his eyes. He immediately looks right at Liam. Liam forces his face into a more neutral expression, but by the look Theo gives him he thinks he's probably failing. He looks away pretty quickly and has to stop his magic from making sparks. Lydia starts talking excitedly to Brad about something and Malia presses a couple of buttons. Liam has to take a few deep breaths and sit down to gather his thoughts.

The thing is, Theo sounds amazing. Like, transcending what a human being is capable of amazing. Liam knows that if he wasn't a supernatural he'd probably be begging at Theo's feet. It's a strange feeling to not be the most powerful person in the room. The other two guys that Lydia brought with her had had to leave after only five minutes. Lydia and Malia are wearing headphones, but Brad must be at least part fey.

"How did you think the last take was?" Comes Theo's voice through the speakers.

Liam looks up then, and finds Theo still looking right at him. He clears his throat over the clamour of the others in the room nearly shouting in their excitement.

"You need to figure out if you can turn off the Fey part of your voice." He says when they quiet down.

Theo blinks at him but Liam just raises an eyebrow.

"What thing?"

"You know what thing."

Theo genuinely looks confused, which just makes Liam confused. He had to know. Right? Although Derek said he was pretty oblivious about the effect he had on magic users, so maybe not.

"The luring thing. Why do you think Lydia and Malia are only listening to you through the headphones?"

Theo's expression changes to guilty so fast Liam has to do a double take.

"I thought I'd outgrown that." He mumbles.

Liam frowns and him and stands up. Theo is looking at his feet and twisting his fingers.