"This is a terrible surprise." Liam grumbled. Theo snorted a laugh, nudging Liam into the laundrette.

"It's necessary." Theo said setting down his duffel bag on top of a machine and beginning to toss the clothes from it inside.

"Aren't you meant to split whites and colors?" Liam asked.

"They've been washed together so many times it doesn't matter any more." Theo said. Dropping the blanket into the machine next to the rest.

"But the blanket warrants it's own machine?"

"It's delicate." Theo said stiffly. "And the only one we have, I'm not ruining it." He pulled a packet of detergent out of the duffel.

"Seriously are you Mary poppins? Why do you even-"

"Shut up and strip Liam." Theo snorted, dropping a pod of detergent in with the blanket and shutting the lid.

"Wait what?" Liam asked, Theo set the blanket on a quick wash, waiting for the machine to whir to life before he bothered to look at Liam again.

"You heard. Strip."

"But-"

"Your clothes are filthy." Theo huffed, pulling his own top over his head and dropping it into the machine as if it were totally normal to strip off in a laundrette. Liam blinked at Theo's suddenly exposed skin, mouth going strangely dry as his eyes trailed over tanned skin and rippling muscles, Theo then moved to toe off his shoes. He ducked, yanking his socks off and tossed them in after the t-shirt. Liam had the very weird thought that he'd never seen Theo barefoot before, his eyes settling on Theo's toes, poking out from the edges of his jeans.

"Seriously? You're actually stripping in a-" Liam started.

"Yes, We're actually stripping. I'm not having you stinking out my truck, or my clothes any more than you already have." Theo said. Liam's eyes jumped away from Theo's toes as he heard a zipper tug. Theo yanked his jeans down unceremoniously leaving Liam gaping, when Theo stood calm as anything in a pair of tight boxers.

A wolf whistle sounded, Liam dragged his gaze away from the mostly naked Theo, round to a group of teens sat in the back corner watching Theo with cheers. "Come on, hurry up." Theo said. Liam forced himself to look at Theo's face, not his chest, or thighs, or his bare feet which made him look strangely vulnerable. Bare feet were something you did at home, when you felt safe. Not when you were standing in a random laundrette in the middle of Arizona. Or maybe Liam had more preconceptions about what wearing shoes and socks meant than Theo did.

"I am not stripping." Liam said stiffly. Theo tossed his jeans into the dryer, eyes snapping up to Liam in an annoyed glare.

"Either you do it or I'll pin you down and do it for you." Theo said. Liam laughed, Theo raised an eyebrow.

"You have to be kidding." Liam hissed. Theo moved forwards, hands snatching at Liam's top. "Okay okay!" Liam shrieked, slapping Theo's groping hands away. "Okay! I'll do it stop!" Liam grumbled. Theo stopped, crossing his arms over his chest and staring. "Are you going to stand there and watch me?"

"Yes." Theo said bluntly. Liam shifted, eyes darting around the laundrette, everyone in the place was looking right back at him. Liam felt his cheeks heating up.

"Fuck it." He grumbled, shrugging his top over his head, ignoring the way he could feel the blush beginning to creep down his chest as he tossed it into the open dryer. He hooked his thumbs in the waist of the sweatpants, pulling them down. Theo wolf whistled, loudly. "I hate you." Liam felt ready to combust with the heat flushing over him as people in the corner giggled when he hopped around trying to get the pants over his shoes. He didn't manage to do a very good job, Theo's hand suddenly slamming against his chest sending him toppling back into one of the few seats dotted around the laundrette.

Liam blinked as Theo dropped in front of him, fingers yanking at his laces.

"I can do it!" Liam hissed attempting to kick him away. Theo just grabbed his leg to steady it, yanking his shoes off and letting them drop to the floor with resounding thunks.

"Apparently you couldn't. Shoes come off before pants idiot." Theo grumbled. "You were embarrassing us."

"Because you taking my pants off for me isn't embarrassing?" Liam hissed. Theo didn't say anything, just yanked the sweatpants down over his ankles and tossed them into the dryer. Liam sunk down into his seat, hands covering his beet red face as Theo then yanked at his socks. "I hate you so much." Liam grumbled.

"Alright and boxers." Liam screamed when he felt Theo's fingers at his waist.

"WHAT!" Liam shrieked, finally managing to kick Theo away, a hard slam of his heal to his chest that made Theo stumble back, a red mark blooming even as he laughed, head tipped back shoulders shaking.

"Your heartbeat-" Theo cackled. Liam slammed a hand to his own chest, feeling his heart hammering beneath his palm embarrassingly fast.

"You're such a dick." Liam said stiffly, Theo continued to laugh.

"You almost had a heart attack. Oh my go-"

"I will hit you." Liam hissed. Theo sobered, as much as he could which didn't seem to be much, his shoulders still shaking with laughter even when he turned away to put the washing on. It wasn't long before Theo was moving back to him, flopping into the chair beside him, shit eating grin still plastered on his face.

"Smile Liam-"

"wha-" Liam heard the shutter of Theo's phone camera. Liam glared at the phone as Theo snorted a laugh.

"Don't you know you're meant to smile in photos?" He mocked, tilting his phone so Liam could see it. It was probably the happiest Theo had looked in a photo yet, his smile blinding as Liam sat, red checked and mouth gaping next to him. Their naked shoulders showing.

"I reckon we should send this one to your Mom." Theo said.

"You're not funny." Liam snapped.

"Humour is selective Liam. They think I'm funny." Theo said, waving over at the teenagers from before. Liam ducked his head when they turned to smile at him.

"How would you react if I just tried to pull your boxers off?" Liam grumbled.

"If we were in a laundrette? I'd probably punch you in the face, I don't want to get arrested for indecent exposure." Theo said. "Let's go make some friends."

"What?" Theo didn't wait just stood up, walking over to the group of teens, mouth already moving in a greeting. Liam crossed his arms, glaring at his back as he hunkered down into his seat. He grabbed his phone from Theo's discarded duffel, opening up a game.

Over an hour passed and Theo had only come back over to toss the blanket in the dryer, the clothes were still washing, spinning round and round in the machine.

Liam shifted, forcing a smile at the older woman across from him staring him down like he was a piece of meat. He flinched when she winked, eyes snapping to find Theo who was leaning over the dryer he'd tossed their blanket into, apparently perfectly happy to be standing in his boxers in the middle of the laundrette chatting to one of the teens, a guy who looked like he'd just walked out of a boy band, floppy hair and tight jeans and all.

"He-" The woman's voice came, Liam jumped up, rushing over to Theo before she could finish her greeting. Theo ignored him when he came to hover next to him, attention still on the Joe Jonas look-alike who was saying something about hostel and backpacking.

"Theo." Liam breathed.

"So then there's this woman right, like, fifty years old drunk as anything hanging off of Josh -" he pointed to one of his friends in the back of the shop "-while her husbands five feet away watching and not giving a-"

"Theo." Liam hissed, jabbing Theo's exposed side, he slapped him away quickly. Liam jabbed him again.

"What?" Theo sighed, not even looking at him. He raised his eyebrows at Joe Jonas and rolled his eyes exaggeratedly as if Liam being there was a giant buzz kill.

"Can we leave?" Liam asked.

"Are our clothes done?"

"No."

"Then no."

"But-"

"Liam."

"She won't stop looking at me!" Liam hissed. Theo finally turned away, eyes flickering to Liam. He gave a small nod behind him. Theo let out a huff before he looked over to where the woman was, eyes narrowing.

"She looks like she wants to eat you." Theo said turning back with a small smirk as if the situation were amusing.

"I've realised so can we-"

"No. Just ignore her." Theo said.

"Theo-"

"You almost sold me as a whore and I accepted it, you can spend another twenty minutes getting eye fucked."

"But-"

"Liam." Theo growled. "Just tell her to back off if you don't like it."

"I can't just do that-"

"Then sit down and shut up." Liam glared but was only met with a harsher glare for it, finally, he turned on his heel, plodding back over to his chair and flopping down, crossing his arms over his chest to try and hide some of his body from view, staring at his feet.

"Go on." He heard Theo murmur.

"Did you say he almost sold you as a-"

"It's a long story." Theo snorted, Liam smirked. "So what happened with the drunk chick?"

"Oh right, so she was hanging over Josh and he was trying to cook and uh you know you're meant to wait for the dryer to finish before you open-"

"Wait a minute." Theo gruffed. Liam looked up as he heard his footsteps stomping closer. Theo's eyes were stuck on the woman in a hard glare that reminded him of dread doctor Theo. The kind of guy who was ready to tear them all apart without even breaking a sweat. Somehow, it didn't even lose any of its power despite Theo doing it all with a blanket clutched in one hand and clad only in a pair of boxers.

"Hey!" Theo growled. "Pick your fucking jaw up and go take a cold shower." Liam's eyes widened, looking between the shocked lady, who had, finally taken her eyes off of Liam, and now to Theo.

"Excuse me?" she gasped.

"You heard me. This isn't cougar town and even if it was, he's sixteen so you're not a cougar you're just a pedo-"

"How dare you-"

"Says the sixty-year-old staring at a sixteen-year-old." Theo scoffed.

"I'm forty si-"

"And I don't care." Theo said. "You look at him again and I'll tear your fucking eyes out." Theo ended the statement by flicking the blanket over Liam. Liam raised an eyebrow at Theo who was tugging it up until it was covering Liam from shoulders to knee and flopped into the seat beside him, arms crossed and eyes still burning holes into the woman's head.

"Uh..Thanks?" Liam tried, Theo scoffed.

"I could smell her lust from over there." Theo grumbled nodding to where Jonas brother and friends were watching the two curiously. "Was making me nauseas."

Theo sat quietly after that, shooting glares at the woman and tapping a pattern on his thigh while Liam curled deeper into the blanket. It smelt wrong, Theo's scent washed from it only subtle traces left beneath the overpowering scent of detergent. It was nice detergent but still, it didn't smell quite right. He was sure he shouldn't even notice when Theo was sitting an inch away from him but he could and it made him yearn to shift closer so he could fill his lungs with the familiar scent of Theo rather than detergent and the woman's suffocating lust.

Liam's stomach gave a deep rumble, hunger adding to his tale of woes. Theo sighed, grabbing the almost empty duffel and picking through it before dangling the car keys in front of his face.

"You can go wait in the truck if you want, there's half a mcmuffin in the glove box." Liam's lip curled at the idea of eating half a mcmuffin that had been shoved in the glove box for almost 13 hours. "We can't go eat until we have clothes." Theo huffed. "It might shut your stomach up until we find somewhere cheap." Liam winced as the keys jingled in his face again. "You'd be away from her."

"Fine." Liam said, snatching the keys and curling the blanket around his shoulders like a cape as he slipped his feet back into his shoes and plodded out of the laundrette.

Despite his reservations about the food Liam grabbed the brown paper bag all too quickly, clamoring over the console with it and flopping into the back-seat. He flopped back against the pillow, blanket still curled over him as he ripped into the packet.

The half a portion took him all of two bites to eat. He was still for all of twenty seconds before he was grabbing his phone from where he'd dropped it on the front seat and dialing Theo's number.

"You've been gone less than two minutes Liam, what do you want?"

"Are the clothes almost done?"

"They just finished washing, I was putting them in the dryer before you decided to be impatient."

"How long will it take for them to dry?"

"Half hour, an hour tops." Theo said. Liam frowned, peering out the window to the laundrette back down the street. The group of teens walked out, bags of laundry thrown over their shoulders as they piled into a beat-up looking van.

"That's ages." Liam sighed. "What am I meant to do till then?"

"Did you really call me to complain that you were bored after two minutes of being alone?" Theo asked. Liam could hear the smirk.

"I'm not complaining." Liam gruffed. "I'm just...asking for your-"

"You're complaining. Just..listen to the radio, play on your phone I don't know." Theo snorted. "It's not that long, I'm sure you can manage it."

"Bu-" Liam huffed as he heard the dial tone. With a sigh he flopped back across the back seat, getting comfortable and cocooning himself in the blanket. "Theo, can you hear me?" Liam asked.

"you know I hung up for a reason right?" Theo's voice echoed back a moment later, quiet and dripping exasperation.

"I just wanted to say, you're a dick." Liam said.

"Uh oh, I just, accidentally put the clothes on a slow drying cycle. Looks like we'll be another few hours." Liam growled lowly, Theo laughed.

"Asshole." Liam finished quietly.

"Take a nap you grouch." Theo mumbled. Liam ducked his face into the pillow, hating the fact it actually seemed like a good idea, but what he hated more was the way his muscles relaxed as the scent of Theo filled his lungs from the pillow, masking that of the laundry detergent clinging to the blanket.