He hadn't meant to wander off and leave Theo asleep and defenceless. He'd been happy just sitting for almost an hour and a half before the bouncing of his feet begging to go explore got to be too much and well, Theo looked peaceful enough and he did need to sleep. So Liam figured it would be fine if he went for a quick run around. He'd even left a note, well, a text and had thrown the discarded blanket over Theo before he'd taken off along the rim of the canyon, searching for somewhere else to go.

He'd found somewhere, not too long after he'd left Theo behind. A viewing platform with people milling around. Liam picked his way to the front, teetering over the banister to look down at the canyon floor so far below, it made him queasy, he backed up quickly, a laugh sounding from next to him.

"Not good with heights?" Liam looked over to find a woman watching him a small smile on her face.

"I don't mind heights." Liam lied. "It's just..a long way down."

"First time here?"

"Yeah." Liam hummed. "You?"

"Oh no. I come once a year. This is year number twenty-three. How long are you here for?"

"Just the day." Liam said.

"You should get walking then, there's a lot to see in one day." She said, Liam laughed. "Oh! You know what you should do? The skywalk. My husband loved it."

"It sounds high."

"I thought you didn't mind heights?" The woman said a smile on her face. "If that's not your taste then I have a few more recommendations. if you'd like to hear them?" Liam nodded.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, listening to the lady talk as she pointed out places for him to visit, then moved onto her own experiences, voice breathless with age as she passed him toffee's from her purse and wove stories about her late husband.

"Are you here-" Liam tilted his head the edges of what sounded like a scream floated into his mind."-with anyone special?"

"Sure." Liam murmured, eyes scanning over the canyon trying to figure out why the noise had sounded familiar. He jumped as he heard a scream echoing off of the Canyon, a very familiar scream. His head snapped to the side.

"Theo?" Liam breathed, eyes searching the horizon for the car he'd left behind. Another yell echoed. Liam took off, ignoring the old ladies confused calls as he sprinted back along the edge of the canyon. The journey that seemed to pass in the blink of an eye earlier felt like it took years.

Liam scrambled over rocks as his mind ran through possible reasons why Theo was screaming, possible scenario's he'd find himself running into the middle of.

A hunter could have found them, they could have followed them from Beacon hills. They might have been waiting for one of them to be vulnerable.

Why the hell did I leave him alone when he was sleeping? Liam thought, bile in his throat as he pictured turning back up at the truck, Theo's blood staining the dirt, glassy eyes opened to the sky.

Liam skidded to a stop as he finally reached where they parked. He spotted Theo instantly. There was no visible threat, just Theo sitting, curled in on himself on the dusty floor as looked over the Canyon, the car abandoned a few feet away. Liam crept closer, sniffing the air and wincing at the sharp smell of fear. He could hear Theo's uneven breaths, gasping in roughly.

"Theo?" Liam asked, Theo didn't answer, his shoulder only getting tighter Liam hurried over, nose twitching trying to catch another scent, a hunters or a monsters or Theo's blood. He shoved at Theo's top, uncaring that it was damp with sweat. "Are you okay wha-" Liam let out a pained gasp when Theo shoved him away roughly, leaving him hitting the floor with no small amount of force, elbow cracking against a rock.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Theo growled.

"What the hell am I doing? What the hell are you doing? I heard you scream!" Liam said, voice wheezing out.

"I'm fine." Theo said hotly, standing up. "Oh, so you're hearing things now? Good to know." Theo turned on his heal stomping back over to the truck. Liam blinked as he yanked the duffel bag out, throwing it into the back of the trunk with unnecessary force. Slowly, he took another breath in, scenting the air.

"You smell scar-"

"I'm fine." Theo gruffed. Yanking his sodden top over his head and tossing it next to the bag with a death glare as if the top had tried to murder him. Liam slowly stood up, inching his way over to Theo who was still glaring at his top. The closer he got the worse the smell got, fear shifting to terror as if the scent had slipped beneath the cracks in the metal bed of the truck and was now making itself a nice home. Liam peered over to see the messy sprawl the blanket had been left in as if kicked to the side in a hurry.

"What hap-"

"Nothing! I was asleep the whole time, I don't know what you're rabbiting on about. Where the hell were you anyway?"

"Uh..Exploring." Liam said tentatively. His elbow still stinging.

"Did you find anything worth looking at?" Theo asked finally moving to grab the last clean shirt in his bag, well, clean as it could be, Liam recognised the small hole in the arm as a bullet hole, the chimera shrugged into it. Theo's heart was still racing, a beat so fast it made Liam feel dizzy. Theo's arm brushed the metal of the truck and he yanked it back as if burnt.

Scurrying a few steps further away from the truck. When it became evident Liam wasn't even considering replying Theo finally looked at him, his eyes strangely distant.

"Will you just tell me if you're okay?!" Liam said stiffly crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his chin up. Waiting for the answer. Theo's eyes flickered down to his arms, his nostrils flaring before he gave a small nod. "Okay. So what happened?"

"Noth-"

"Theo I heard you scream. Twice okay so if you-"

"I had a nightmare." Theo hissed. "You happy now?"

"Do you want to-"

"No." It didn't do anything to ease Liam's worry. Something Theo seemed to pick up on, his face softening minutely. "I'm fine, Liam." Theo said. The words still had a slight bite behind them, like Theo would rather be doing anything else than explaining to Liam that he was okay. Liam deflated, giving a small nod, satisfied for now."So, did you find anything for us to do?"

"Uh, yeah, kind of. There's this lookout place over there. " He nodded back behind him "And from there this woman showed me a few places we could go. Why? Do you want to go?"

"Yeah." Theo said instantly. "That was the idea, wasn't it? Go visit the grand canyon, be tourists." Theo made it back to his truck, scooping up his sweaty shirt from earlier and moving towards Liam. Liam didn't have time to wonder what he was doing before Theo was grabbing his arm, yanking and twisting until his elbow was exposed and swiping the sweaty shirt across it.

"Hey that's gro-" Theo dropped his arm and stepped away leaving him stumbling. Liam watched as Theo balled it up, a coppery scent wafting from the top, a fresh red stain mixed in with the sweat.

"Don't want people wondering why you're covered in blood but aren't hurt do we?" Theo hummed. Tossing their things back into the car and locking it. "Let's go." Theo decided, stomping past Liam, his heart still a bit too fast to be considered normal.

Liam had had nightmares before, many. Hell, it was one of the reasons he wanted out of Beacon Hills. He remembered being a kid when nightmare's were just about made up monsters beneath his bed, they were outlandish situations where he'd wake up and be able to reassure himself that everything was fine but after being turned that changed. He got more paranoid, rightfully so. His nightmares stopped being silly figments of a child's imagination and started being real things he'd face. It was berserkers and Kate, it was glowing eyes and blood staining his hands. His eyes skirted up to Theo, still marching ahead. And for a while, it was Theo.

It was him standing idly by while he watched Theo murder Scott, or Theo cheering as he did it himself. It was even Tara for a while, or more, Theo getting dragged away by Tara. The way he'd screamed for Scott and clawed at the ground until his nails broke. Those ones left him sitting up with gasping breaths as he'd remember it really happened. He'd really watched Theo die, he'd felt happy about it, relieved when the ground had closed over him.

He wasn't sad about Theo dying, he wasn't guilty and that was what terrified him, he'd watched Theo screaming for help, the first real emotion he'd ever seen from Theo and thought good. That he deserved it, and he did. But that didn't make it any less horrifying to know he'd been a part of killing someone and been thankful it happened.

Liam's stomach twisted with guilt. Was that what Theo was dreaming about? Was he remembering what it felt like to have Liam and the others watch him get dragged away, or was it something else? Was it something with the anuk-ite. Or maybe something before, with the dread doctors, something that had happened long before Liam ever heard the name Theo Raeken.

That world seemed far off now, it was literally another lifetime ago, before he was a werewolf. Before Scott. Theo should drag him further into that world. Should cloud the realm of 'normal life' even more but somehow Theo, who should leave his anger crashing over the edge like breaking waves somehow reels it in, makes him feel more human. Theo brought the two worlds together, as he said that morning, he was an experiment between the natural and supernatural and that explanation fit him.

Because Theo was human, perhaps more so than even Stiles at times. All the others tried to act like they were superheroes, the final stand between good and evil but Theo, Theo wasn't a hero, he was selfish and arrogant and flawed, he had an army of mistakes stacked up behind him. When a fight came he'd be the one trying to say that they didn't have to fight, the one who said it wasn't their job. He'd seen Theo loose control of his emotions, seen him screaming at them, anger pulsing out of him as his plans went wrong, he'd seen him terrified and seen the breathless smile he got whenever he escaped death. Theo wasn't out to save the world, he was out to save himself.

And maybe that's why it felt easier to be with Theo because Liam was doing the same, all he wanted was to find himself a place in the middle, an equilibrium between human and supernatural and Theo seemed to be trying to do the same. Maybe it was unconscious because he didn't seem to like being reminded of his humanity, whenever he would get too vulnerable, too human his walls would come back up. But he kept doing it anyway, kept letting chips form in his armor as they cracked open piece by piece. Kept crawling through the mud and grime and dusting himself off, clawing for the humanity that he'd hidden long ago.

By the time they reached the lookout Theo had finally slowed down enough to actually be considered as with Liam, walking by his side eyes running over the landscape calmly even as his hands twitched by his side, fingers tapping once, twice, at his leg. Liam watched the pattern when he did it, once, twice, Theo paused, then again, once, twice. Liam's brow furrowed when he realised that it matched up with Theo's heartbeat, like he was counting every pump.

Theo had weird habits that could only be considered human.

"So you are here with someone." Liam drew his attention from Theo's fingers to the familiar voice, forcing a smile at the woman.

"Um, yeah. Theo, this is-"

"Evelyn." Evelyn said, digging her hand in her purse. "Toffee?" Liam snorted at Theo's disgruntled face at suddenly having a toffee shoved beneath his nose.

"They're good." Liam said. Theo's eyes shifted from Evelyn to him before he took the toffee.

"Thanks." Theo mumbled, opening it with a crinkle of plastic.

"Liam said you're staying for the day." Theo nodded, popping the toffee into his mouth. "How are you with heights?"

"Never minded heights." Theo said.

"Then you have to try the skywalk!"

"But I-"

"Oh you'll be fine." Evelyn said in a 'pish posh' manner, complete with hand gestures. "Especially with you there, you wouldn't let him fall would you?" Theo turned back to Liam slowly, a smirk twisting on his lips.

"Depends, would pushing him count as him falling?" Theo asked, Liam stomped on his foot.

"He's kidding." Liam grumbled. Evelyn laughed.

"You can hold your boyfriend's hand if you get too scared."

"Boyfriend?!" Theo asked, voice hilariously high-pitched, or at least it would be were Liam not reaching levels only a dog could hear as he stuttered out a panicked.

"No no, we're not-"

"My granddaughter explained it all to me you see, the heteronormative, am I saying that right? Way the world works. I use to come here with my husband too dear." She said the last bit for Theo's benefit. "All couples come here and I dare say you do make a lovely pair. A bit sour faced though, it's the heat isn't it? It always puts me in a bad mood."

"We're really n-"

"Thank you. Hear that Pumpkin." Liam yelped when Theo slapped his ass. "We make a lovely couple." Theo sighed, practically swooning.

"What are you-"

"Where exactly is this skywalk?" Theo mused with all the subtly of a cartoon supervillain.

*

"This is revenge for trying to save you from a nightmare isn't it?" Liam asked.

"What do you think?" Theo cooed a wide smile on his face as he yanked Liam by his hand, clasped painfully tight in Theo's. Liam looked to Evelyn with a forced smile.

"You know you really don't have to pay for us to go on-" He tried.

"My husband and I use to walk around this every year." Evelyn sighed mournfully. Liam regretted ever speaking to her. "It would be lovely to have someone to accompany me again."

"Are you going to bail on her now? With her dead husband's ghost watching us? What would Scott think?." Theo whispered, shoving another pilfered toffee into his mouth. Evelyn smiled at them, eyes basically hearts as if she expected Theo to be murmuring sweet nothings into his ear. Liam smiled, looking up to Theo.

"I hope you choke." Liam said softly. It didn't break Theo's grin.

"We would love to join you Evelyn." Theo said politely, pulling Liam along as he fell into step next to her again when they walked towards the ticket area. "Wouldn't we pumpkin?" Theo asked, hand once again hitting against Liam's butt in a quick slap that left him biting his tongue to stop from cussing Theo out in front of a sweet lonely old lady missing her dead husband.

"I'm so excited." Liam grit out. Evelyn smiled, moving over to buy their tickets. Liam waited until she was turned away before using his left hand to swing a solid punch at Theo's jaw. Theo stumbled backwards groaning.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Touch my ass again and I swear I'll-"

"Boys!" Evelyn called. Liam glowered at Theo before stomping ahead, Theo following like a dog on a leash from their joined hands.

*

"If you let go of my hand I swear to god I will shove you off this damn bridge." Liam hissed as Theo moved to look over the edge of the horseshoe shaped walkway and his hand dared to try and slip out of Liam's. Evelyn gave a laugh.

"Are you seriously scared? There's nothing to be afraid of."

"We're four thousand feet above the ground and there's a glass floor Theo." Liam hissed. "Not being afraid would be stupid. Glass breaks."

"Not this glass." Evelyn said boldly like she was giving fate the middle finger.

"Well, it might if you jump hard enough." Theo mused.

"Theo do-" Theo bounced off of the floor, landing on the glass again with a loud slam that left Liam diving for the banister. He was yanked back before he reached it by the hand he'd, unfortunately, forced Theo to keep holding. "You're such a di-"

"I'm sorry, what was that? Jump higher?"

"Don't you fu-"

"Dear don't scare your boyfriend." Evelyn said, looking disapprovingly at Theo who looked right back at her like she was an idiot.

"Believe me Evelyn, if it wasn't for the chance to scare him I wouldn't be dating him." Theo said seriously, Liam would have laughed at the strange truth to the stupid lie before Theo was jumping again.

"Liam, would you like to help me walk, my knee's a bit sore you see." Evelyn said, Liam knew it was an excuse for him to kick his sorry 'boyfriends' ass to the curb and save his dignity while he clung to a strange old woman for support but he was more than happy to take it. He ripped his hand out of Theo's shooting him a glare before scrambling to grab the elbow Evelyn offered.

Theo didn't seem to be at all bothered by the turn of events. Instead just walked to the edge and peered over until Liam was worried he was going to topple right across the barrier and fall to his death.

*

Evelyn left them after the skywalk with little more than a pocketful of plastic wrappers, memories and one memorable photo Theo had got of Liam clinging to Evelyn's arm like his life depended on it.

Theo settled back into the bed of the truck as soon as they got back, Liam wasted no time in joining him, eyes dancing across the horizon when the sun begun to set. The air around the car no longer held the scent of fear, something Liam was more than glad for, he'd had enough of it for the day, with Theo's untalked about nightmare and his minor freak out on the bridge.

Theo was silent until the sun had long since vanished from the sky, Liam was pretty sure it was because he'd went above and beyond his regular quota for pissing Liam off in a single day while they were stuck with Evelyn.

"So....We have officially been to the grand canyon.." Liam said slowly.

"We have." Theo said.

"And now we're going back to beacon hills."

"Yep." Theo said, popping the p. Liam shifted in his seat, unease crawling over him at the idea of going back to Beacon hills.

It felt too soon. He'd barely gotten away. Vegas had been great, the grand canyon had been amazing, despite the small hiccup that morning and Theo's hand having found a home on his buttocks twice, but Liam could still feel the hard edges Beacon hills had left him with. He wanted to escape, properly, just for a little bit longer. He hadn't even had a chance to miss people yet. It didn't feel fair, going back when he finally felt like the stains were beginning to wash off.

"This isn't fair." Liam said.

"What's not fair?"

That I got a taste of being a stupid kid and now I'm about to crash back to the life of responsibility. Liam thought.

"I got to choose somewhere for us to go. Two places if you count Vegas. We should go somewhere you want to go." Is what Liam said instead.

"We should?" Theo asked.

"We should." Liam said. "I mean, what's another day?" Liam asked. Theo's eyes slid from the canyon to him. "If you could choose what we do next, anything at all what would it-"

"Water park." Theo said breathlessly. Liam blinked, eyeing Theo.

"You want to go to a water park?" Liam asked, he felt Theo tensing up beside him, the small smile twisting at his lips beginning to vanish.

"You said anything." Theo said stiffly.

"I'm not saying no!" Liam said quickly. "I'm just..surprised, you don't seem like a water park kinda guy."

"Really? And what were you expecting? A dog fighting ring?" Theo snorted.

"That wasn't an insult." Liam snapped. "Not everything is you know? It's just not what I expected."

"Well it's not like you know a lot about me." Theo said.