| Disassociate and Disconnect |
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather see this with your friends?" Jayna asked, standing in line.
"Mason's already seen it. And he and Corey are on a date anyway," Liam said.
"What about Nolan?"
"Do you not wanna' see the movie?"
"With my favorite nephew, anything," she said with a cheeky smile.
"Not that this is news, but I'm your only nephew."
"Now I'm not sure who's using who as a last resort."
Liam smiled, turning to look at the long line of people waiting for the tellers. "Nolan's at Disneyland for the weekend."
"And Hayden would be too much like a date?" Liam nodded, though he couldn't look at her. "No one on the lacrosse team?" Liam shrugged. "No one from the pack?" she said, more hushed.
"No one's back. Yet. I think Lydia's coming home soon and Scott...I think he's taking the Summer off for a change to spend time with his mom."
"An he-who-must-not-be-named?"
"Still ghosting me."
"And you're sure he's alive?"
"Positive."
Jayna stepped up to the large slanted touch screen and began tapping at it, some of the button requiring extra force and a seeming dance of the finger to get them to select. "I'm sorry, Liam."
"I'm just ready to go back to school. Get it over with."
"Get your mind off things?" Liam nodded. "The offer still stands. Whenever you're ready."
Liam took the ticket she offered him before grabbing her hand briefly and squeezing it. They started walking towards the theater entrance when he said, "For now, I just wanna' laugh my ass off."
"Well why don't you go park that ass in a couple good seats for us while I get the goods," she said. Liam grinned, opening the door for her before making his way toward one of the sides. Passing on his ticket for check to the surly teenager at the stand, he rushed quickly to the top once inside the dark room. Finding the middle unoccupied, he plopped down right under the projector lights illuminating a still-muted commercial. Finding the room too inanimate despite his fellow attendees, Liam pulled out his phone from his pocket and subconsciously clicked on the 'Texts' icon. There was Theo's slot, showing the start of Liam's last message of three to the chimera. And that's how Liam thought of him—addressed him in his mind. 'The Chimera.' It had briefly changed, and he'd hoped for more, but almost two weeks to the day had passed since he'd seen him. The mess with the nekomata. Falling apart in the middle of a neighborhood street. Only to be picked back up.
Liam shoved his phone back in his pocket, realizing his eyes were glowing blue in the dim reflection of the phone, even on an illuminated screen. He closed them, repeating that mantra in his head. Cycling through 'alpha, beta, omega' sprinkled into his normal one as to trick his mind into thinking about Derek, about another werewolf that wasn't Brett. Those memories. That memory. In that neighborhood street.
"Hey, you're Liam right?"
The werewolf looked up to see an unfamiliar girl around his age looking down at him, her friend behind her turning to look at him with a sudden glint of fear following. "Um, yeah?"
"I'm Phoebe, Gwen's sister," she said, taking the seat one chair down from him.
"Gwen...Gwen! Oh, hi."
"She told me what you did for her. You and your friends."
"So...you remember?" he said hushedly.
"Bits and pieces. It feels like a dream, really. I just wanted to say thank you."
"I...yeah." Liam nodded before glancing at her staring friend, both of who instantly looked away. He sat back in his seat and dug out his phone.
Just then, two boys entered the theater, both of who he recognized. When they took their seats, one in between the girls and the other on the far end of the group, Phoebe looked back at Liam. "You remember Tony, right?" she said, referring to the boy immediately to her right.
"Diaz," Liam said, nodding at his former lacrosse rival.
"Dunbar," the muscular boy said.
"Smiley," Liam said, looking at the boy on the far side.
"Hey, Liam," the kid greeted, his presumably girlfriend not looking his way anymore.
"Sorry about Jenn," Phoebe said, mostly a whisper now.
"Why?" he replied in kind.
"She was there that night. On Littleton."
Liam's heart skipped before breaking out into a seeming sprint. His vision tunneled. Brett and Lori. He looked away, staring straight ahead as he felt everything caving in.
"Alright, I got all your favorites," Jayna said, appearing mercifully. He took one look at her and she took her seat just that much faster. "You know your words," she said, discarding the drinks and food into sorted places. The werewolf nodded, closing his eyes and attempting to concentrate. The sound, however, that had yet to appear from the screen suddenly turned on. The new television show-advertisement cut right through him. His eye popped open and the blue was clearly aglow. "Liam," Jayna said. He looked at her and she smiled. "Take my hand, try not to break it, and listen to my words." He nodded. "Who's your alpha?"
"S-Scott."
"How did you meet Stiles?"
"Lacrosse practice."
"What's a banshee?"
"Someone who predicts death."
"Who's your best friend?"
"Mason."
"How'd you meet Hayden?"
"Accident in middle school."
"What's a chimera?"
"A...a uh…" He paused, searching for the description in his mind. Yet, only an image popped up. Theo.
"It doesn't matter," Jayna said, pulling his gaze and attention back to his aunt. She was smiling again. "It worked."
/ | * | * | \
"They confirm Liam's story."
"A whole pack of them. I'm still...I thought we'd seen just about everything," Scott said, looking at the dusty dashboard of Roscoe the Jeep.
"A streak, Scott. Aren't you in veterinarian school?" Derek said from the other side of the phone.
"For cats and dogs…"
"You didn't have to take biology, or zoology?"
"Derek…"
"You should read more. The bestiary as well. Clearly you don't know what 'everything' encompasses."
"Derek, I'm already late."
"Fine. A streak of weretigers. Guarding the nemeton in Zhengzhou. They took this kid's grandmother's body to it. There's no hellhound, but they seemed confident it had been handled. The thing is, Scott...it's fully grown. The tree."
Silence fell between them. Derek heard breathing from the other end, letting him know that the true alpha was still on the line. The beta looked at his own reflection in the tall and wide window, refocusing his eyes to look out over the city. He wondered if anyone was watching him from this height; spying on him, targeting him.
"Do we need to protect them?" Scott finally said. "The nemeta?"
"That's a question for Deaton."
"Right." Scott paused again. "Will they join us?"
"Some of them seem more anxious, so maybe."
"Okay. Let them be then."
"I left them a way to contact us."
"Thanks, Derek."
"Of course."
"Alright, I'm gonna'—"
"Hey, Scott?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay? I mean...life and everything?"
"I guess. The war's slowed down. Mom's happy. I'm almost done."
"Malia?" Derek tried.
"So you've heard?" Scott said, knowingly.
"I've been known to keep tabs," the older man said with a smile.
"It's been two months. They...I get it, I just. It's hard."
"She'll come back. And she's not alone."
"Noshiko said Kira's training is complete."
"Your exes are scary, Scott," he said with a smirk.
Scott simply laughed, the humor and bizarrity of his words helping him away from the ledge. "And you? Life?"
"Well, apart from running the international mission for a teenager—"
"I'm 23."
"—everything's how I like them." Derek turned to look behind him, letting his eyes just soak in the sight of the woman in his bed. It certainly wasn't the first for them.
"I'm happy for you. You deserve it."
"Our exes are scary."
Scott laughed again. "So is she, but she's a good one."
Derek looked up at Braeden's sleeping face. "She really is."
A pause nudged its way in before Scott finally said, "Alright, my advisor's going to leave if I don't go now."
"Take care, Scott."
"You, too." Scott lingered only a second with the phone to his ear before pulling it away and watching the call end. He grabbed his wallet from the console, took the keys from his lap, and started making his way towards the Irish pub two blocks down. Passing a staring set of eyes here or there from some of his fellow classmates, one with an accompanying flirting smile, the alpha opened the door. Spotting the familiar man at a table cornered away from the bar, he pushed through the crowd delicately. "So sorry I'm late. My...brother called me."
"I was going to call it here," the man said, tapping the mostly finished Guinness, "but I think I've got room for something small.
"It's on me," Scott said, smiling and looking towards the bar, hoping to spot one of the staff. However, his eyes landed on a blond man. His hair was slicked back. Tattoos on his knuckles. He took one last sip of his beer, looked back at Scott, and left. Scott's eyes followed him out.
"He's been here longer than I have," Scott's advisor said. The true alpha looked back at him, glancing only briefly to where the other sat.
/ | * | * | \
"Just as good as the first one?" Jayna said, walking side by side with Liam, their arms linked.
"Maybe even better," the werewolf said, a toothy grin effortlessly spreading. "And Josh Brolin as Thanos and now Cable, ugh that was so good. In the comics he's so—"
"Nope. Dinner first. Then you can give me the full 100 year run-down of Cable and Deadpool."
"It's definitely not that long," Liam grumbled.
"Liam, hey wait up," the werewolf heard, turning to look back at Diaz coming up to him. "Listen, uh, so Phoebs suggested it might be cool if you joined us tonight."
"Joined you?"
"Yeah, uh, there's a party tonight. Pop-up, y'know. It's at the old firehouse."
"I mean, I'm out with my aunt and we were gonna' go grab—"
"Liam," Jayna said, "go have fun." The werewolf smiled, gratitude spelled across his face. She pulled him into a hug and said, "You earned this. Just be careful." He nodded. She held her hand out. "Keys." Liam frowned but retrieved the set from his pocket regardless. "And do me a favor." His eyebrow raised. "Call him."
Following his former teammates and their girlfriends to their car, Liam complied and selected his number. It rolled over again and he sighed. "Hey, it's me again. So," he paused, "so I'm going to a party right now. I think...I was kinda' hoping you'd come. But you're not picking up again and I...I'll see you around."
"Everything okay?" Phoebe said from the middle seat next to him once they finally clambered in.
"Yeah," Liam simply said. He stared out of the window of Brandon Smiley's short car, not really paying attention to where they were going. They got only a mile down the road when Liam's phone buzzed.
Where? was all the text read. The tension in Liam's shoulders seemed to slack in one single turn around. He sighed and typed out the location, even Phoebe glancing to see that Liam was actually brighter than the last she glanced. When they pulled up 20 minutes later to the rundown firehouse, Liam could hear the music and feel the base the moment one of the car doors opened. He followed behind the two couples, paying his way in at the door. The base vibrated through his feet once he found himself upstairs. The music took over his ears, the lights his eyes. The electricity made him feel a little more alive, more than he had since he'd been back. Save for one thing, one night.
Liam waited near the entrance for nearly 30 minutes before considering leaving. He had considered calling Mason, wondering if they would join him, but that would require more out of him than he had; he wasn't even sure he wanted to be there. The beta looked around again, catching a glance at the far wall that shook him. The glance, and the song. Orion was playing. He hadn't given it two notices, but there, at the far wall, he could have sworn he saw Brett Talbot dancing.
"What's wrong?" Theo said, finally materializing. Liam seemed to blink out of a trance and looked at Theo. The chimera's presence registered. He turned to leave. "Hey. Hey! Talk to me." Liam glared at him. "Okay, wrong choice of words."
"You think?"
"It's just, something happened that night and..."
Liam, however, looked back at that wall. The tall boy with his back to them had the same build, the same height, the same hair. The werewolf could sense another supernatural in there with them. It could be Brett, but it couldn't…
"Liam?"
The beta looked at Theo, then back at the boy, who'd turned their way. It wasn't him. He looked back at Theo and pulled him in for a kiss. It was hard. Hot. Wet. Liam bit at his bottom lip after pulling away, their foreheads together. "Just dance with me?"
"Yeah." Theo subconsciously nuzzled their noses together before taking his hand and leading him into the dance mix. They danced close. They danced tight. They let their hands move freely on each other. Let their lips dance just far enough away to feel the air move between them. "I'm sorry," Theo whispered.
"You're here," Liam whispered back.
Theo nuzzled him again before Liam pushed close and kissed him. Theo pulled him closer by the back of his neck. Liam's hands rested just above his ass underneath his shirt. Theo's tongue pushed out first, prodding at the crease of the werewolf's lips. Just as he let him in, though, he felt it.
The buzzing in his pocket.
Liam pulled apart. He looked at the screen to see six missed calls and a text message from Mason and Alec of all people. The message simply read: PICK UP! Liam tapped the dial for Alec's number and waited, sneaking through the crowd to get to a point where he could; he had Theo's hand in his own.
"Where are you?" Alec said once he answered.
"At a party," Liam said, his brow furrowed. Theo was looking at him, half confused, half listening. "What's going on."
"There was an explosion. You need to get up here, to the hospital in Davis. Scott's unconscious."
