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Slightly bored at the clinic on his day off, Liam’s looking for ways to stay busy. When Scott invited him over a few weeks ago, he was promised puppies, and Theo kissing puppies, yet so far, he's gotten neither. He tries not to let the disappointed pout show on his face, but it gets more and more difficult as the day goes on.
Currently, Liam entertains himself by shuffling nosily through the drawers. Despite being in the clinic a thousand times, he’s never looked through any of the cabinets and drawers, and boy, are there a lot. Needles in the cabinet above his head, dog treats in the one beside it, a muzzle in this drawer, a slip lead in that one. No one pays him any attention as he rifles through the things he probably shouldn’t be looking at. The clinic hasn’t had a client for over an hour, yet somehow these three are still busy.
“You need a rabies shot, little wolf?”
Liam jumps as Theo catches him off guard. He just found the most interesting drawer yet and had a hand on one of the items. Dropping it quickly, he turns back to Theo, who just offers an amused smirk. “No,” he scoffs, remembering his question.
Theo just shrugs. His shoulders relax a moment later. “It’s almost the end of the day. We close in just a bit, and as long as we don’t get any emergency patients, we’ll finish up with our guys in the back and get going.”
“Okay.”
“You can come back and help if you want. Don’t stick your fingers in cages, though, especially Luther’s.”
Liam nods, then decides that’s probably a better use of his time than what he’s doing now. Besides, Scott told him he should come in for the vet tech experience, so he might as well experience it. “Sure. In a minute.”
“Yeah, I have to grab a shot anyway.”
Liam turns his attention back to the drawer that previously looked so interesting. Upon second glance, it is for sure a fun one. Rolls of stickers fill it almost to the brim, some saying things like, “medical,” or “allergy,” but others say, “for oral use only,” and “will bite.” Liam smiles happily and digs a little deeper. He peels off one that says, “may bite,” deciding that Theo’s not a guaranteed “will bite” anymore, and for that, Liam should give him some grace.
“Theo.”
“Hm, what’s up?” His back is towards Liam now as he clicks buttons on the only computer in the room.
“Whatcha doing?”
“Someone found a stray dog just a bit ago, so I’m putting it in the system. This is a distemper shot, which we give to everyone that comes in. It protects them from any viral infections they might have contracted on the streets. This is a microchip scanner, and we use it to see if they have an owner.” Before Liam can respond, Theo’s scanning his chest with the thing.
“Shut up!” He playfully pushes.
The older boy just smirks again and turns it off. “Nope, no chip. No home.”
“ Shut up, Theo!” He’s re-thinking his decision to choose “may bite” over “will bite” now.
“Alright, ready to go back there? I can show you how we process new dogs, and then we’ll finish up feeding them all.”
“Okay.” The sticker lingers on his finger awkwardly, his hand behind his back. How Theo hasn’t noticed his odd position is beyond him. “Wait, one second.” He has to think fast. “You have a hair out of place.”
“What?”
But Liam’s already reaching up to his forehead to mess with the stray hairs there. He thinks he and Theo have: A, become close enough; and B, have been flirting with each other long enough, for Theo not to mind the unexpected action. When Theo doesn’t scoot out of the way, he takes it as a good sign. Liam pushes himself up a bit on his tiptoes, because Theo has two inches on him, but neither comment on the close proximity. He raises his hands into the boy’s hair, one hand combing through it, while the other chooses the best placement.
“Li-”
“Almost got it.”
He’s so chilled out about it, Liam almost feels bad about this actually being a prank. He puts the sticker in the center of his forehead, pushes it down gently, then runs his hands back through his hair. As a final distraction - and an I just can’t help it moment - Liam presses a quick peck to his cheek, then surveys his work.
“Got it.”
The blush on his cheeks is about as red as Liam imagines his was when Scott told him about the puppy the other day.
“It’s good?”
“Yep.”
“Alright, c’mon.”
The two of them are alone in the back for almost five minutes until Scott wanders into the room. He sticks his head through the doorway just as Theo’s pulling the needle out from its muscle, which he hands to Liam to cap while comforting the little dog that had yelped at the poke.
“You’re okay, little fella!” He squishes her cheeks gently and smiles when the dog sticks out her tongue to lick him.
“Hey guys? Owner’s here to pick her up. The deputy that found and picked her up, scanned it and called them.”
“Oh, okay, good. I just gave her a shot.”
“Is that okay?” Liam asks.
Scott takes a second to answer, doing a double-take on Theo and the sticker on his head he seems to not notice. “Yeah, it’s fine. Just a booster shot. Liam, do you want to take her out to them?”
“Uh, sure.”
Theo all but dumps the dog in Liam’s arms, luckily it can’t weigh any more than twenty pounds, and smiles at him. “Deaton should be doing the paperwork, you just have to hand her to them.”
“Can you give him a slip lead, Theo?”
“Yep.”
It only takes about thirty seconds to hand the dog over and assure the woman she was just fine, but for some reason, it gives Liam a whirlwind of anxiety. When he comes back to Theo’s side, the chimera pokes him.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t expecting human interaction today.”
Theo snorts but he secretly gets it. “Well you did great. Come back and let’s feed these last few so we can go home?”
“Okay.”
The sticker’s still there. He isn’t sure if he’s not yet noticed or if he just doesn’t care.
Nah, it’s Theo. It’s definitely the former.
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It’s nearing six o’clock when they’re finishing up the last three, but since it’s November now, it’s already dark outside. The clinic’s been closed for an hour - they had a bit of delay around five thirty because of Luther - but are finally getting ready to lock the doors.
The four of them have been working together, but nobody’s said anything to Theo about his new accessory. Deaton raised an eyebrow at the implication that Liam went through his stuff, but the werewolf only shrugged and Deaton must’ve decided it wasn’t worth his time. Scott, on the other hand, bites his lip to prevent a smile every time Theo looks right at him. If he thought the prank would upset Theo, he would’ve told Liam to find a new, creative way to take it off, but Theo’s a different Theo than the one a year ago, and the worst he would do now is playfully tackle the younger boy to the ground and stick it on his forehead instead.
The sudden sound of the clinic doors closing has all four of their heads popping up from their tasks. Suspicions increase as low voices are heard in the lobby. Scott goes to check it out first, peering his head through a small crack, but then his shoulders visibly relax.
“What is it?” Theo whispers behind him.
Scott opens the door wider, exposing Mason and Corey as they stand in the center of the room. “What are you guys doing in here?”
They freeze, conversation ceasing, and then Mason smiles. “Hey! That’s where you guys are. We knew Liam was here today, and we were bored after our movie ended, so we decided to stop by.”
“You mean you wouldn’t stop by just for us?” Theo asks, tone full of tease. “I thought we were closer than that, Cor.” He makes his way into the other room, closer to the two boys. Liam and Scott follow behind, then Deaton, who goes straight to the computer to make a note. He nods to the boys, though, indicating he’s not totally upset at them breaking and entering again .
“Ha, ha,” Corey says, flicking the air in Theo’s direction as if to poke him from afar.
“Nice look,” Mason comments, attention also on Theo.
The boy’s head tilts in confusion, but Mason doesn’t clarify. Liam and Scott exchange nervous glances; they’d gotten this far without Theo noticing, but now the gig is up.
“What do you mean?”
Mason notices Liam and Scott’s looks and shuffles his feet. Whoops.
“Nothing. Your hair looks good today.” Wrong thing to say , he quickly realizes.
“Why? Did Liam do something to it?” He runs a hand through it. “He was messing with it earlier.”
“No! I don’t think so. Looks… normal.”
Theo glances at Corey whose cheeks are sucked in so he doesn’t laugh. He looks at Liam who wears a guilty expression. “Alright, what did you do?”
“Nothing, I fixed your hair.”
He raises an eyebrow at Scott, who just shrugs. Theo stalks over to the mirror in the corner of the room and his disposition immediately changes. His back muscles tense (which Liam tries not to find hot , knowing he’s about to get mauled ) and his face distorts into something not upset, but definitely unimpressed.
“Liam!”
“Wait-” He holds out an arm, as if that’s going to protect him.
He puts his hands in his pockets and carefully walks back to Liam. The energy in the room is tense, electrically charged, as everyone waits for him to snap.
“Are you mad at me?”
Theo stares at him, exhales, and then focuses his attention to the floor. Deaton shuffles out quickly, disappearing into the lobby, and the moment he’s gone, Theo jumps at him. Liam bounds backwards to escape, but he’s one second too slow for the vengeful chimera. Theo grabs his wrist and jerks him close, maintaining his grip as Liam struggles. Everyone watches, but no one intervenes. There’s no anger radiating in Theo’s scent, and to be honest, they’ve been waiting for them to get this close to each other forever .
“Wait-” Liam tries again, sinking to the ground to try to free himself.
“Nope, you asked for this.” He only tightens his grip and sinks down with him.
“But-”
“Ah, ah, ah, little wolf.” He pins Liam on his back - seriously, the more he struggles, the more control Theo gets - and straddles his hips to hold him down.
“Theo!” The room, Theo included, checks Liam’s scent - no fear. Corey, though, wrinkles his nose at something else he catches.
“Hold still. You’re only making this harder for yourself.”
“No- wait- stop!”
Theo does the exact opposite and grabs a hold of both his hands in one of his own. Liam turns his head, still wiggling under him, and nips at Theo’s arm, teeth catching a small bit of skin, but not latching enough to make him let go.
“Biting now, are we?” He pulls the sticker off his forehead and presses it onto Liam’s instead. He grinds his hips down just enough to still the boy’s movements, giving him a split second to push it down so it sticks , and tries to ignore the small gasp that escapes his lips. Theo then swings his leg back off him and stands up, clearly proud of his work. Liam jumps back up after him.
“Asshole.”
“You’re the one that actually bit me.”
“You sat on me.”
“You stuck a sticker on me two hours ago !”
“You took that long to notice!”
Liam goes to shove him playfully, but Theo grabs his hands again, holding them to his chest and staring into his eyes. Liam gulps at the proximity of their bodies and the intensity of his gaze. The feeling of his hips hugging his own still tingles on his lower body. Theo lets him go, confident in the dominance he’s exuded.
Liam doesn’t rush back at him, and instead goes to lean against the counter. Scott stares at the absolute manhandling of his beta, but he doesn’t look offended by it, so the fraction of fear Theo feels at overstepping quickly dissolves. Across the room, Mason’s and Corey’s jaws are both dropped. The room is silent .
Deaton comes back, sensing something happened, but genuinely not wanting to know.
“What are you all still doing here?! Go home!”