Liam was getting really tired of being woken up by Theo, in Theo's defense Liam was pretty sure he hadn't been trying to wake him judging by the way the radio was off for once and he had yet to utter a sarcastic good morning. His body was stiff from sleeping curled against the car door but he was warm, a threadbare blanket tucked around his shoulders like a large bib.

The scent of coffee seeped into the car as he listened to Theo shifting around, the rustling of a paper bag before he heard the door slam shut

"Do you ever do anything quietly?" Liam asked throatily.

"Go back to sleep." Theo hummed. Liam, as per usual didn't listen to him. He rolled his head away from the window, turning to look at Theo as he sipped on his coffee and started the car.

"Where are we?"

"Arizona." Theo said.

"We're almost there?" Liam inquired, a thrum of energy going through him as he looked out at the dark road ahead of them as if the grand canyon was about to flash into existence in front of the car.

"Almost." Theo said, taking another gulp of his coffee. Liam frowned as he noticed the dark bags under his eyes.

"Have you slept?"

"No Liam. You usually have to be awake to drive." Theo said. "And someone wanted to get here for sunrise."

"We can get a motel, you can sleep while I explore."

"I have coffee. I'm good." Theo said, effectively ending the conversation. Liam shuffled down his seat, tugging the blanket closer around him despite the Arizona heat already seeping into the car, fingers jabbing at the radio until it started playing soft music.

The rest of the drive was silent, a half hour with the two of them watching the road waiting for the canyon to appear, and then it did and Liam was pressing his face up against the window like a little kid trying to peer through the darkest hour of the night to get a glimpse of it.

It wasn't long before Theo was finding somewhere acceptable to park, a quiet ledge overlooking the canyon, away from the viewing platform and the other people beginning to pick their way out into the darkness to take their first glance as the sun rose.

"You have reached your destination." Theo said. "That'll be at least a hundred dollars cab fare." Liam snorted, throwing the blanket off and launching himself out of the car. He raced towards the edge, stopping short, eyes flickering across the horizon. He could see better than a regular human but it was still too dark to see much.

"When is sunrise?" Liam asked.

"Google said around five forty." Theo said, coming to a stop next to Liam, eyes squinted as he peered out over the black abyss. "Wow. It's beautiful." He said, voice edge with the dry sarcasm Liam had come to expect.

"Just wait until sunrise." Liam said. "It's meant to be beautiful."

"Well, I don't know about you but I'm not standing for the next twenty minutes." Theo said. Stalking away, Liam rolled his eyes, looking over the dark canyon waiting for the sun to rise as Theo clanged around in the car behind him. Liam finally turned when he heard the truck moving. Theo reversing it slowly towards the edge.

"Are you committing suicide?" Liam asked watching as the truck crept towards the ledge. Theo didn't reply. Just when Liam started to get worried Theo was actually going to reverse straight off of the edge of the cliff the car stopped. Theo jumped out a moment later the blanket and a pillow under one arm while he clutched the bag of food and an honest to god Thermos in the other hand. Liam watched as Theo tossed the blanket into the bed of the truck before climbing in, setting the Thermos down gently before sitting, back leant against the wall of the car, facing the canyon.

"You going to stand there or?" Theo raised an eyebrow. Liam hoped into the bed of the truck quickly moving to flop down next to Theo, elbow hitting the metal with a clang. Theo grinned, settling the pillow behind his own head and pulling the blanket up high.

"Can I have-"

"No." Theo interrupted.

"But-"

"You should have bought your own."

"Where did you even get a pillow?"

"Under the seat." Theo said as if it were an obvious thing to keep in your car. Liam snatched on the edge of the blanket, yanking it until it rested across his legs too. Theo frowned but said nothing, crossing his arms and turning back to look over the dark valley.

Together, they managed a silence of forty seconds

"Could you pass-" Liam started

"Do you want-" Theo begun. "Food?" Theo finished. Liam grinned, making grabby hands at the bag nestled on the other side of Theo.

"Yeah." Liam hummed.

"Pour yourself a coffee." Theo said, uncrossing his arms to dig into the bag of food. Liam did as he was told twirling the lid until it came off and doubled, with a small plastic mug and poured the steaming coffee into it.

"Here." Theo said, holding out another mcmuffin.

"Thanks, You have another cup?" Theo didn't reply, snatched the Thermos from Liam's hand and took a swig from it. Liam rolled his eyes, snatching his food from Theo's still outstretched hand and flopping against the back of the car against as he begun tearing into it's wrapping.

"You could have just said no."

"You could stop asking stupid questions." Theo said and they fell silent again, each picking at their food and drinking their coffee's.

"It's like a picnic." Liam said with a small grin as Theo wrapped half of his food back up and tossed it into the bag.

"Pretty sure they're usually done in sunlight." Theo said, head tipping towards the sky.

"Yeah well. Since turning I'm pretty sure I'm like mostly nocturnal."

"I think I'm more crepuscular."

"Bless you." Liam said. Theo chuckled, shoulders shaking.

"You have no idea about biology do you?"

"It's not like it's an important subject."

"It's one of the most important-"

"It's boring."

"It's how every living thing works." Theo hissed, sounding hilariously offended at Liam's disdain for the subject. "Biology is the understanding of all life forms how is that boring?"

"The experiments are watching moss grow. At least in chemistry, we can blow stuff up." Liam said, Theo's face pinched in pain as if listening to Liam talk physically hurt him, it left a grin on Liam's face. "And I mean, unless you're like a doctor or a biologist you're not going to use it in life."

"Oh and I suppose history is real useful."

"It is!"

"More useful than knowing how all organisms work?"

"It doesn't matter knowing how they work if you don't understand them! In history you learn about human nature, you learn battle strategies and what mistakes have already been made and if you pay attention how to avoid making them again."

"I'll admit history can help, the mykonos thing that was clever." Liam preened slightly at Theo's praise of his plan, he remembered Theo's smile when he'd explained it the first time, the mutter of 'I'm impressed'. "But-" Theo said, Liam groaned. "You can't logically say that History is a more useful subject than Biology...Why'd you like history so much?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"No. Just most people have one, was there a story you heard when you were younger? Did you like the Greek gods and then go into the more truthful stuff or-"

"Why are you asking?"

"Do I need a reason?" Theo asked, smiling lazily at him. It was a nice smile, cocky, arrogant but real in a way that left Liam's lips twitching in return.

"I saw this show on pompeii when I was a kid. I thought it was cool, scary, but cool. I mean, this whole place all those people, all those lives and all these things from the past preserved. "After that I just..kept watching documentaries. Learnt more, then got my first laptop and could just go wild on the internet searching all this stuff we'll never learn about in school. All the other sides of the stories we do learn."

"You know when most boys get a laptop they look up boobs not historical events." Theo said.

"Is that what you did?"

"Never had my own laptop." Theo said with a shrug. "And I may have little shame but jerking it at a public library would be low even for me." Liam snorted out a laugh.

"What about you? Why are you so interested in biology?"

"I'm a genetic experiment between the natural and supernatural. I needed to learn what I could." Theo said stiffly. "It's interesting, there's a lot to learn."

"Is that what you're doing now?"

"What?"

"Like, college? Are you taking Biology or something?"

"I didn't graduate high school. Can't go to college."

"You didn't graduate?"

"I was dead." Theo said, voice tight in a way that Liam knew meant he needed to drop the conversation soon or risk getting punched.

"So what do you do? I mean, no one saw you for months before everything with the hunters. Are you working or something?"

"I'm still looking for a job." Theo said. "Maybe I'll become a photographer."

"What?"

"Yeah, I took this great photo earlier." Theo moved, digging his phone out of his pocket and tapping away, a moment later Liam's phone buzzed. A text notification from Theo popping up.

Liam was stuck between laughing and hitting Theo when he saw the photo he'd sent. It was taken from outside the truck, the passenger door thrown open to reveal Liam, fast asleep, mouth gaping open curled up in Theo's blanket as he no doubt snored away, his face was strangely pale thanks to the flash Theo had apparently seen fit to use and yet somehow Theo still looked good, all tanned skin and soft looking hair, leaning by the open door, one eyebrow raised at the camera as it peered over the truck at the 'welcome to Arizona' sign standing tall behind them.

His phone buzzed again and Liam clicked out of the photo, moving to open the next one, another from Theo but this time a video. He groaned as it started to play, ignoring Theo's chuckle next to him as the Theo on the screen let out a dramatic sigh when Liam's snoring was audible on camera.

"Welcome to Arizona Liam. It's almost 4am and already at 80 degree's. I've been listening to this for the past two and a half hours." He paused for a moment, Liam's snores the only sound, rattling through the phone speakers leaving Liam wincing. "You know I would be mad, but a fly crawled into your mouth when we pulled over so I'm still pretty happy about witnessing that." Theo said dryly, the video ended.

"I hate you." Liam grumbled. Theo laughed. "Did I actually have a fly in my mouth?"

"You swallowed it." Theo said, sounding far too happy.

"You're an asshole."

"You know you're seriously terrible at this no insult thi-"

"Shut up Theo." Liam grumbled.

The two fell into silence again, sipping at their drink while they waited for the sun to rise, it wasn't too long before Liam saw the edges of light peeking over the horizon. Liam scrambled out of the bed of the truck, heart pounding as he watched wide eyes when the sun rose.

His breath whooshed out in an awed swoop as the light crept over the rocks, half still covered in the cold blue of the nights while the rest was shrouded in a soft red glow.

"Woah." Liam breathed.

"Woah, Rocks." Theo said, despite the bored words his voice was breathy with wonder. Liam chanced a glance at him and saw his eyes sparkling, tracing over the peaks his lips parted and curling up at the edges.

They stood, side by side for what felt like forever and no time at all before Liam could bring himself to move to take a photo, or more, a litany of pictures, spanning from 'artistic' shots where he scurried through the dirt so he could have the camera peering over the edge to stupid selfies that he snapchatted to Mason. He could feel Theo's eyes on him the whole time, here his soft laughs every time Liam twisted into a new strange position to get the best picture possible.

"Theo get over here." Liam instructed. Theo didn't question in, just moved from his perch leaning against the side of the truck and came to stand by Liam, Liam held the selfie stick up. "Alright, say cheese."

"What the hell are you doing?" Theo grumbled, ducking out of shot.

"Taking a photo for my Mom."

"Why do I have to-"

"Dude just get in the photo." Liam huffed grabbing a fistful of Theo's tshirt with his free hand and yanking him back into frame, Theo sighed, narrowing his eyes at Liam, Liam nodded his head towards the camera, he worried for a moment Theo's eyes would literally roll out of his head with the force of the eye roll he gave before he was turning to face the phone. "You know you're meant to smile in photo's right?"

"Just take the photo Liam." And so Liam does, smiling a bright, if somewhat awkward, photo smile at the camera, Theo next to him, eyebrow raised and middle finger sticking up proudly. "Really?"

"My hand had a random spasm." Theo lied. Before he moved back to the truck climbing back into the bed and flopping into his previously vacated seat. Liam turned back to the canyon, eyes roaming over it in awe.

Liam wasn't sure how long he spent standing there, eyes roaming over the rolling cliff's, his shoulders drooping as if the weight of Beacon hills was finally falling off of them, the thoughts of Brett and Lori and everyone they'd lost washing out of his mind, floating away with the gentle flow of the warm wind.

The world was quiet, the sun still rising in the sky casting a red glow across the towering rocks and for once Liam didn't associate the colour red with blood but with the slopes of the Canyon, the flashing lights of Vegas and the splash of red on a mcdonalds packaging.

It was magnificent, it was beautiful, left him feeling more at peace than he had in weeks. He wanted to say something.

"Fuck it's big." Liam breathed. Sure, it didn't quite sum up the beauty of the situation but well, despite it being called the grand canyon he didn't picture it being as big as it was.

When Liam finally turned back towards Theo he found the other boy asleep, arms crossed loosely, head lolling back as he let out breathes slow and even. He moved over slowly, sitting on the edge of the truck, eyes shifting back to the canyon, Theo's heart beat a soft and constant tempo in his ears.