airplanes(Thiam)

Chapter 34: Ready, Steady Cook!

Liam had never thought he'd be happy to be pushed off a cliff moments after being asked out. He realized later that honestly, it was probably a good idea that it had happened like that. If not Liam may have thrown himself off the cliff when his mind started working through the crazy scenario's that accompanied dating Theo. Scenario's his brain couldn't go through when he was clawing his way up a cliff face and screaming insults at Theo as he raced back in the direction of the car cackling like a fae and leaving droplets of water in his wake that sparkled like a glitter trail in the moonlight.

The burn of anger had turned from Seething to an impotent rage by the time he finally caught up with Theo back at the truck, although, that could have had something to do with the fact that Theo was shirtless and toweling off his hair in a way that seemed far more attractive than practical.

Which meant that Liam couldn't actually start overthinking until they were both warm and tucked into their respective sleeping places in the truck. Theo sprawled across the backseat and Liam curled up on the passenger seat mind reeling at the fact he was dating Theo.

He was dating Theo.

Theo freaking Raeken.

And so far all he'd done was swear at him, which, probably wasn't the ideal start to a relationship but then Liam couldn't think of anything else to say now that the anger of being shoved off a cliff had worn off. The silence hung over their heads heavily.

At least it did until Theo got bored of it.

"Hey." Liam sighed as Theo slapped the headrest, jostling Liam. "Liam." Another slap. "Oi, dumbass" Liam grimaced as Theo aimed a particularly hard slap at the seat that left his ears ringing as it vibrated against his cheek. "You're not still mad I pushed you off the cliff, are you?" Theo asked, voice only half playful. "Because you did it firs-"

"No." Liam said, wiggling around until he was peering down at Theo. "I'm just thinking and don't say 'don't hurt yourself'." Theo's lips twitched in a small grin.

"I would never, that jokes ridiculously cliché and to be honest I'm more worried about you hurting me with your thinking. I mean you do get a bit-" Theo made a flailing hand gesture that Liam still somehow managed to understand as 'batshit crazy and awkward'.

"Thanks for not making the joke." Liam snarked.

"No problem." Theo grinned. Smile faltering as he no doubt realised Liam wasn't smiling along with him, not even an exasperated little twitch of his lips. "What's wrong?"

Liam sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, teeth gnawing at it as he tried to think of a way to explain the fact that the problem was that there was no problem. They were good. Really good. Boyfriends. Liam let the word roll around and around and around in his head until it made next to no sense.

And really, that was the worst thing because it did make sense. Sure, maybe, technically, Theo had dumped him but he was fairly sure if Theo had meant it seriously he wouldn't have hooked the towel around Liam's neck and used it to pull Liam close as he ruffled the towel over the dripping mop of hair with a soft smile. Of course he had ended that moment with draping the towel over Liam's face so he couldn't see and shoving him away with a mutter of 'get the truck wet you die'. So yeah, Liam was pretty positive the breakup hadn't been official.

They were together. No if's and's or but's. There was no more confusion clouding anything. Okay, perhaps a few things, like what exactly dating Theo would be like, But the 'I don't know what we are' discombobulation was gone meaning that Liam had no more excuses for not actually talking to Scott about it.

It had been easy to ignore before, when Liam could hide behind the fact that he genuinely had no idea what the hell was going on, but now, well now...Scott had said full disclosure and Liam was fairly sure he'd been sucking at keeping that deal up. So far, all Scott actually knew about the road trip was accidental, he'd been more than patient about Liam telling him anything at all. Especially after their last phone call.