Today was the day. After months of planning and of violent thoughts towards Stiles, it was finally time to go steal the stupid necklace.
He was in full wolf form inside of his cage, with the invisible were-chameleon sat behind him. Stiles had told the museum staff that they always brought a spare wolf performer along 'just incase.' Theo's not sure what sort of idiots believed that but here they are, being wheeled around with a light sheet covering the bars of the cage. They finally come to a stop, Theo senses the slight drop in temperature and assumes they must have reached the warehouse area.
The security control room is situated directly above the warehouse, Ethan and Isaac should have cleared it out by now.
All that's left for the two boys to do is sit and wait patiently until the show begins. Just when Theo thinks he's losing the will to live, he hears Stiles' voice echoing out through the microphone. Showtime.
Theo shifts back into human form ignoring the way it hurts because they have a job to do, sweating from the transformation, he wipes his hands on the bottom of the cold cage floor. Moving forward he reaches for the paperclips, he bends both into the correct shape before reaching through the cage to find the tumblr on the lock. Once he feels it in his hand he presses on it before using his other hand to slide the two metal pieces of paperclip into the lock, fiddling them around.
This time he closes his eyes, trusting his fingers to know what they're doing. Within 20 seconds he knows he has it. The lock springs open, falling towards the ground, Theo quickly moves one of his hands down to catch it before it makes a sound.
He pulls the sheet from the cage, pulling it through the bars then pushes the door open. They hear a distinctive knock from above, Ethan and Isaac letting them know the cameras have been disabled for now.
As soon as they're out and both on their feet, Corey hands him a pair of boxer briefs. As he's pulling them on Theo notices the boy's wandering eyes "My eyes are up here" he says "what would your boyfriend say if he was here?"
"He'd probably be looking too" Corey says shyly with a shrug of his shoulders.
Once Theo is decent, Corey takes his hand cloaking both of them with his ability. They move towards the main room where the show is in full swing, looking for Maya Hewitt. They spot her near the back of the crowd and begin moving hastily towards her, just before they reach her two very familiar teenage boys appear at her side. Theo stops walking for a second before Corey pulls his hand dragging him along, his eyebrows raised, telling Theo to pull himself together.
"He still hasn't asked you out?" he hears Mason ask.
"Nope" Liam says his eyes cast downward "Maybe he's just not that into me Mas. He says and does all the right things and I want to believe he likes me as much as I like him him but..I just-I dunno. I think he's holding something back y'know?"
His stomach drops. Corey looks back at him waving Maya Hewitt's keycard in his face. Sneaky little shit.
"So that's why you dragged us here today? So you could see Theo? Here I thought you just wanted to spend some quality time together" Mason says shoving the boy's shoulder.
"Like you don't want to see Corey just as badly." Liam says laughing "I wonder where they are"
Theo forces himself to look away from Liam who is now biting his lip. He has to put all his worries and doubts out of his mind until the job is over and done with. He can fix things with Liam afterward. He hopes.
They make their way to the service elevator, once inside, they press the button for the third floor. They make their way along the long corridor silently before reaching the correct area. Corey swipes the keycard over the sensor and the door opens.
Once they're inside and the door is closed behind them, Corey lets go of him making them both visible once more. They quickly examine the room until they spot the correct display case. Walking over to it they each place themselves at one end of the case. It has a dual lock system, so they'll both need to pick the lock at exactly the same time. They take a deep breath, adjusting their bodies into comfortable positions because this could take a while, they glance at each, Theo gives the other boy a quick nod. They're ready.
It takes a few minutes but eventually Theo hears the click of his lock followed by Corey's. They carefully remove the glass panel, placing it onto the ground, balanced against another display unit. Theo breathes a sigh of relief and looks up to see the were-chameleon wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Cautious of the time they're taking, Theo's frantic fingers reach for the necklace, seizing it from its position within the case. An alarm starts to sound. What the fuck. No-one warned him about wireless transmitter alarms.
"Do you have the replica?"
"The what now?" he asks genuinely puzzled.
"You really need to pay attention when Stiles talks Theo. The replica necklace that we're supposed to put into the case so that the missing weight is returned, to make the alarm stop.." he says, the panic evident in his voice. "Seriously? Nothing?"
"His voice is white noise! If you know I never listen to him then why didn't you grab it?" Theo says raising his voice. "Forget it..it's too late to worry, we just have to get on with it"
Corey passes him the small jewellery pouch and he quickly drops the necklace in, pulling the handles tightly to secure it.
They move towards the back of the room, to the last window on the left, unlocking the window is child's play compared to what they've done so far. Looking through the now empty space, Theo can see Allison. She is crossing the tightrope balancing precariously on her toes. Two well-placed movements later and she's crouched in front of them, her hands gripping tightly onto the ledge.
"I believe you have something for me" she says smiling at them.
Theo holds out the sealed pouch, she takes it from him, slipping the small ribbon handles over one of her wrists. "Will you be able to stop the alarm?" she asks worriedly.
"Not without using these" he says throwing up a clawed hand. "And somehow I don't think that's the kind of subtlety Stiles is going for here"
From behind them they hear the doorknob turning and the door beginning to creek open. Allison's eyes widen as she begins to wobble slightly on the thin rope. Theo wants to reach out and steady her but all too soon Corey is grabbing his hand, making them disappear.
The door opens wider and Isaac stumbles into the room, the decoy necklace clutched in his hand. Corey lets go of Theo again. "Which one of you two morons forgot to pick up the knock-off?" he growls at them.
Theo and Corey both point at each other.
"Ethan's working on shutting the alarm off from the security room" Isaac says "Is Allison safe?"
Theo glances back out of the window seeing Allison up on the opposite rooftop waving down at them before pulling out a curved blade and cutting her end of the tightrope so that it drops into the alleyway below them.
"Yeah she's safe. Your girlfriend is total fucking badass in case you hadn't realised" Theo smirks. Allison might look like a real life Disney princess but she's absolutely deadly with a bow & arrow or blades. Even though he hates to admit it, not even he would mess with her.
"Oh believe me I noticed. I'd have the stab marks to prove it if I weren't a werewolf" Isaac smiles. "That's a story for another time" he says, laughing at the look on the two boys faces.
The three of them begin reeling the rope in, a little bit at a time, until there's no evidence of it ever having been there. Isaac hangs the circle of rope over his shoulder, across his chest.
The alarm that had been consistently ringing out stops abruptly. Thank you, Ethan.
Isaac places the replica into the vacant space in the display case and watches as Theo and Corey place the glass panel back on top, closing the locks.
"The shows almost over" Isaac says glancing at his watch. "I'm going to make my way back now, do you two think you can finish this without screwing anything else up?" he asks them before exiting the room. Theo thinks he's only partly serious but he still doesn't appreciate the condescending tone.
They make it back to the elevator and down to the ground floor. Maya and the two boys are nowhere to be seen now, so they take a detour via the reception area, placing her keycard into lost property.
They squeeze through the crowd and make it back into the warehouse. The boys freeze as they see Maya Hewitt and a couple security guards standing in front of the now empty wolf cage.
"How can a wolf have just disappeared?" she screeches "Someone needs to find it. Now! We have children out there"
Theo and Corey stare at each other sharing a worried look before Theo notices Mason looking directly at where they're standing, his brow furrowed. That's Impossible. He doesn't have time to dwell on it though because suddenly Mason's trying to usher everyone out of the warehouse to go look for the missing wolf. The last thing they hear before the room's empties is Mason's mother stating she's going to call animal control.
They can hear the show winding down and Stiles giving his farewell speech to the crowd. They run back to the cage, placing the sheet over it once more before climbing inside. Theo begins to shift, letting out a muffled scream that quickly becomes a howl.
They did it.
It takes a while for them to make it back to the campground. When they arrive, Josh, one of the circus acts who had to remain with the tents, tells Theo he has a visiter waiting in his bunk.
Before Theo gets a chance to move away from the group towards his tent, Stiles calls for everyone's attention.
"If this works" he begins, lifting the small pouch into the air. "Then we'll all have our loved ones back here before we know it. It's going to take me a couple of hours to get together everything that's needed for making the necklace work it's magic. So we'll meet back here in say 4 hours time?"
They all agreed. Theo would be lying if he said he wasn't interested to see how this all played out.
As he gets closer to his shared tent he smells Liam, a smile takes over his face. He pushes the flap back, seeing Liam laying there, stretched out on his bunk. The boy lifts his head up off the pillow when he hears Theo come in.
"Did you guys find your wolf?" he asks
"Uh..yeah, it was.. hiding amongst some boxes in the warehouse. It didn't go far" Theo stutters. Lying used to come easier to him. "Not that this it isn't a welcome surprise but, what brings you here?"
"I was hoping we could go for a walk in the woods? There's a pretty cool stream near here" the boy says quietly.
"A pretty cool stream?" Theo says trying not to laugh at him.
"Yeah..yeah y'know cause you really like nature and stuff. So I-I just thought..forget it, it was dumb" Liam says screwing up his face, embarrassed.
"I would love to go see this cool stream of yours with you Liam. Let's go" he says taking Liam's hand in his own, bringing it up to his mouth and kissing each of his knuckles before walking them out of the tent.
They're sitting by the bank of the stream, tossing stones into the water when Theo feels stress and anxiety pouring out of Liam. He moves even closer to the boy, bending his head down to nuzzle at his neck, placing soft kisses on every part of skin he can reach. Liam laughs before pushing him off.
"You ready to tell me what's wrong with you?" Theo asks "There's no rush. I'm more than happy to keep sitting here with you for as long as you need."
"Do you ever just get so overwhelmed and angry that It feels like you can't breathe?" the boy asks."
"Yeah. Sometimes" he admits.
"What do you do to feel better?" the boy asks
"Go for a naked run" Theo says smirking as Liam snorts with laughter. "Or..I sit quietly with someone I care about and just appreciate nature" he says, warmth spreading through his chest as he sees Liam's smile growing wider at his words. "Your smile is beautiful, you know that?"
"Shut up" Liam mumbles, turning to hide his smile into his own shoulder.
"Fall's my favourite season" Theo randomly decides to share with him. "I like it when the leaves are all different colours and the weather starts to feel a bit sharper. It's peaceful, reminds me of home"
"Which is where exactly? We've talked a lot but you never mention your home or a family"
"Oregon. My parents owned a Wolf Nature reserve up there, that's why I've spent a lot of time in wooded areas"
"Seriously? That's so cool. I must sound like the most boring person you've ever met" Liam laughs.
"There is not a single thing about you that's boring Liam" he says staring intently into his eyes.
Maybe now is the time to tell Liam everything, what did he have to lose? Except for the boy he's in love with and all of his dignity.
