He's not Heartless (Theo Raeken)

"Human"

Theo walked in from school. It was a relief that Lydia had been found, it calmed not only Max but himself. His heart made any excuse to lose control, and it had used the redhead's disappearance as one of them.

The boy tried to be quiet as he headed for the stairs, but his mistaken steps had caused the old wooden flooring to squeak under his weight.

"Is that you boy?" His father's voice asked loudly from the living room. There was no way he could escape the man, so he gripped his backpack strap extra hard with his hand as he went towards the said space.

And there he was. Sat in the reclining chair beside the couch, nursing a bottle of liquor in his lazy hand. His mother walked in from the kitchen, the dishcloth in her hands.

"How was school?" She asked. Theo noticed that Tara wasn't home, she must have been out with her friends.

"Normal." It had been back to it, with the return of Lydia and the calmness of his own friends.

"That it, normal?" His father mocked, taking a deep swig from the brown glass bottle. "Then why are you hours after it finished?"

He felt so small, as though he couldn't breathe. His body slid down the locker, his mouth gasping for air. Max ran to him, glaring at whomever dared to judge her struggling boyfriend.

"Let's get you out of here." It was the end of the day, and there was no time for him to wait for his sister.

Maxine aided Theo out to the parking lot, heading towards the rusted blue jeep, which her brother and Stiles were leant against, awaiting her arrival. Theo leant his weight upon her, aware that she was more than capable to carrying him.

"I c- c -can't brea-" He struggled to speak, reaching up to clutch his chest. His nails dug into his shirt, having to grip something. Anything. It hurt, it was on the edge of being unbearable.

His girlfriend's eyes widened as she sensed his pain, looking at her brother for aid. "Is there anything that we can do?" She hated to see him suffer in such a way. It may have been because of a natural cause, but she had as much hate towards it as she did the supernatural.

Scott crouched down beside the couple, reaching for his friend's hand. Theo winced, attempting to retract from the werewolf's touch, but he didn't allow it.

"Deaton taught me something."  Maxine's brother informed her, prompting her to watch the veins in his hand to a little below his wrist turn black. He endured Theo's pain, retracting it for his body, for now at least.

"What did you do?" Theo asked him, astounded by the relief he felt. There was no solemn ache burning in his chest, his system was clear of it.

"I second that." Maxine said, urgent to learn whatever trick of the trade that he had done. If she could remove all painful sensations from anyone when the time arose, she wanted to know how.

"I took your pain."  Scott looked at the two. "But why did I have to?"

It was only a matter of time until someone else found out about his little secret. He couldn't lie to Scott, they were friends, and he'd tell if he was anyway. Theo wasn't sure that he'd ever be able to lie to him.

"I have a heart malfunction, called arrhythmia. Every now and again it acts up." He could see Scott's eyes well up, as Max's did too. It made him almost feel guilty, responsible for his own condition. "I feel like a failure in the gene pool. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy my sister's clear of this but I'm scared. It's indefinite when it will end, and yet I have all this pressure on me. There's the whole knowing of what you two are, my family, my grades. I just want it to be more simple."

" I was in the library." Theo lied to his father, clenching his jaw as he let the poison spill from between his teeth. "We have a test tomorrow, in history."

His father stood, the bottle remaining in his hand. "Don't tell me anything beside the truth, kid. I don't like liars, knowing you, you were with your little girlfriend again, doing god knows what. If you become a dad, you're on your own, and out of my house."

Theo allowed his bag to drop to the ground, and decided to square up to his parent. His mother remained silent as she watched with carelessness. 

"It's not like that, at all. I love Max, she's more like family than you will ever be to me."

A harsh whack impacted his face, he could already feel a bruise forming under the muscle of his cheek.

"Go clear your head before you speak to me like that again, son." He was happy to do so, leaving his bag there on the hallway floor, making sure that he made an effort to slam the door behind his fleeing form.

Before when this had happened he went to the McCall house. But those other times, a Porsche hadn't swept the sideway, stopping by his side.

"What do you want Jackson?" He sighed, discontinuing walking as he looked at the boy behind the far too expensive wheel.

"I'll give you a ride." He hitched the door open, and Theo gave him a weird look before complying and climbing into the vehicle for a second time. 

"Thanks, I guess." Jackson only frowned at him, moving his head further toward the wheel so that he could get a better look at Theo's face. "Your dad do that to you?"

And then he remembered, the slash across the face his father had delivered to him. He was so focused on his words rather than his actions. Living with him had given him the insight that emotional pain was worse than physical.

"Does it matter?" Theo sighed, wishing he had the power to get back at him. But he didn't have the guts to, and even if he did, his body was far too weak to even attempt such a thing.

"Yes, it fucking matters Raeken!" Jackson refused to keep driving until he put some sense into the kid. "You don't have to be weak, you can be strong, just like Max and Scott. All you have to do is see Derek, and after a little pain, no one will be able to better you again."

Jackson was crazy. "Is that what you did?" He counteracted the driver. "You don't get it, do you? The bite isn't a gift, it's a curse. Sure, you get cool abilities, but with them comes people trying to kill you and orders from a crazed alpha. If you hadn't forgot, Derek killed his own uncle."

"I remember." Jackson replied. "But it could help the problem you have, I heard everything. Arrhythmia is pretty serious from what I've heard, and it kills a lot of people. If you want to take the risk of being normal and living another year or two at best, be my guest, but if you want a cure, there's one sat down in a burnt house in the reserve. So where will I be taking you, the McCall house or the Hale house?"