Liam woke before Theo. He figured he shouldn't be that surprised, Theo hadn't slept much in the past week and, the few times he had he'd either been woken by a nightmare, Liam, or on one occasion, a police officer but still, despite everything it was strange to think that not only had Theo slept a whole night through but he'd also stayed calm enough not to yank his hand from Liam's.

Liam blinked out of the window. Not yet ready to move despite the uncomfortable press of his bladder. The blanket around him was warm and soft and despite Theo rudely stealing his own blanket back, Liam knew his one didn't smell too bad. Their scents had leached into it from where it had been stuffed into the duffel and then laid over Liam for a night, nicely masking the smell of random shoppers and despite his arm being sufficiently dead from the awkward angle he didn't want to pull his hand out from Theo's.

It's helping him sleep Liam thought with a small nod and quick, resolute huff. Nothing weird about it And he could believe himself, as long as he didn't think too hard about the fact that they'd....sleep wrestled..just two days before.

Theo's fingers begun to twitch just as Liam was worrying he'd wet himself. Liam slid his hand from Theo's grip, he curled his hand into a fist, trying to counteract the sudden spike of cool air against the skin. Theo let out a muffled grunt that Liam supposed was meant to mean 'good morning'. He watched as Theo slowly peeled his eyes open, squinting against the sun pouring through the windows bitterly. Liam shrugged out of his blanket, throwing open the door, ignoring the hiss of 'fucking cold' from Theo as he wandered further into the field to find somewhere a bit more hidden from the main road to take a piss.

By the time he was back at the car Theo was sitting in the bed of the truck, blanket around his shoulders, knee's tucked up to his chest and chin resting on them.

"You alright?" Liam asked, Theo hummed, the sound soft. "Are you actually awake right now or is sleepwalking a thing I should be prepared for." Theo grunted again. Liam couldn't help but laugh as Theo tilted his head towards him, hair sticking out every way and his eyes still hazy with sleep. "You sleep well?" Theo's lips curled in a smile, either he was too sleepy to try and stop it or he just didn't care about Liam seeing him actually looking happy any more. Liam really wasn't sure which one it was. His head bobbed in a nod and Liam resisted the urge to brag about how he'd helped with that.

"Where too?" Theo asked, voice coming out in a dry croak. Liam shrugged, looking towards the main road.

"We could just drive? See where we end up."

"You drive."

"It's daytime."

"Well noticed." Theo hummed, tossing Liam the keys. Liam watched as he basically rolled out of the back and threw himself into the still reclined passenger seat.

"You know, sleeping well is meant to make you less tired." Liam said. Theo pulled the blanket up until it was basically at his ears, eyes peeking out, crinkled at the edges like he was smiling behind the cover.

"I needed it after all your snoring."

"Will you cut it out with the snoring? I don't constantly joke about your drooling!"

"Tell you what, if you start the car first time, I won't make another snoring joke."

"Deal."

*

"Jesus, that's almost as annoying as your snoring." Theo snorted, Liam glowered out at the road stretching in front of them. His phone vibrated harshly against the dashboard leaving both boys glowering at it.

"Then get it-"

"You get it, it's your phone."

"I'm driving, I can't take my hand off to see who it is!" The phone rattled again. "Come Theo plea-" Theo launched himself forwards with a grumble throwing his blanket into the back seat leaving a wisp of fir and citrus lingering in the air. "Thank you." he sighed. "So who is it?"

"It's a video call. From Stiles." Theo said, face twisting in distaste.

"Answer it." Liam urged, surely if Stiles was calling there was a good reason.

"Really? You won't take your hand off the wheel but you'll video chat with someone while you drive." Theo said, unimpressed.

"Theo come on. He'll bitch if I ignore the phone call." Liam said. Theo sighed but swiped his finger, accepting the call. He set the phone up so it was leaning between the window and the dashboard, focused on Liam. Liam could tell that Theo must also be in the shot by the sour look on Stiles's face the moment it appeared.

"You watched star wars without me?!" Stiles shrieked. "Dude, that's just..That's a knife to the back. Why aren't me and Mason good enough?"

"Why are people taking this so personally."

"It's star wars. Of course it's taken personally." Theo scoffed shaking his head at Liam like he was an idiot. Stiles looked ready to faint on screen.

"You know it still makes me sick knowing that I've watched the same movie as Theo." Stiles said

"He's got a boner for star wars." Liam said with a small laugh.

"I haven't got a boner for star wars." Theo huffed.

"Dude, You knew all the characters names and were like telling me what all the background aliens were. Not to mention the twenty-minute rant about Anakin being manipulated into everything and how he was a victim."

"Hey, don't use that judgey tone." Stiles scolded. "Anakin was screwed over. Don't get me wrong I love Star Wars and I'd love to be a Jedi but the Jedi are some messed up people my friend. He was a decent person, proven by Darth Vader redeeming himself at the end, Anakin just made some wrong choices. If you don't get that then-"

"If you really think that why can't you accept the same happened to me?" Liam's head snapped to the side just in time to see Theo's eyes widen, his lips parted in shock as if no part of him meant to actually say that.

"What?" Stiles asked. Liam blinked between the screen and Theo. He flinched as Theo's finger begun to tap against his seat, his expression returning to the uninterested mask he'd managed to keep away for most of the morning.

"I'm just saying." Theo hummed, voice a lacey drawl that made Liam's skin crawl as a smirk crept onto his face. "Anakin was nine when he met the Jedi, he was told he could have power, a better life, that he could be something, if he just went with them. He just had to leave his family. Sound familiar to you?" Stiles spluttered on the screen.

"That's not..I don't-"

"Or how about how they spent the next ten years grooming him, trying to teach him not to feel." Theo said, finger still tapping. Once, twice. For once Stiles was silent, eyes bugging out of his head looking like his world had just been tipped upside down. Liam looked between the two, licking his lips. Unease bubbling in his chest. "You want to hate me? Fine. Do it. But don't sit there and say Anakin's a victim and I'm evil when I basically did the same thing he did. Just better." Stiles continued staring, mouth gaping gormless. Theo's finger continued to tap. Apparently waiting for a reply. The second seemed to last an eternity before Liam moved, one hand coming off the wheel and jabbing the red button. Stiles face vanished in a blink, returning to the lock screen. Liam's eyes lifted to Theo, who was already looking at him, eyebrow arched in a silent question.

"It felt like the right time for a dramatic hang up." Liam explained. Theo's eyebrow climbed higher. "Or did I read that wrong?" Theo's lips twitched his eyes moving back to the road. Liam followed his lead, quickly swerving the car back into the centre of the lane.

"It was the perfect time for a dramatic hang-up." Theo agreed.

"Good." The phone rattled against the dash as Stiles tried to call back."You want to go to the salt lake?" Liam asked. Theo nodded, arm swaying in the wind out the window.

"Why not. Can't wait to see the big pool of brine." Theo said. "Sure that won't be boring."

"It's going to be fun asshole." Liam snorted, pressing his foot lightly on the gas.

"Woah, don't you think you're going a bit fast? You almost overtook that snail."

"Go fuck yourself." Liam huffed.

*

"Wow." Theo said breathlessly. Liam squinted against the salty air, it was like he could feel it crystallising his eyebrows. He scrubbed a finger over one of them, expecting to see piles of salt pouring down. Nothing happened. "This is just..Look how awesome this rock is! It has salt on it."

"It kinda smells." Liam grumbled. "Mind if I wait in the car?"

"Oh thank god." Theo said letting out a relieved sigh, the excitement falling from his face as he turned around and made his way back towards the car, basically scurrying over the crystallized shore. Liam raced after him. "Can you feel it in your eyebrows? I can feel it in my eyebrows." Theo grumbled, scrubbing a hand over his brow like Liam had done moments before.

"I thought you liked it?"

"It's a salty lake Liam, we don't like that far from the sea and that's definitely bigger and doesn't smell as weird."

"You lived in sewers but you're turning tail and running at a bit of brine?"

"And here I thought we'd finally found something saltier than you." Theo muttered. Liam replied with a quick shove.

*

"Hey Scott." Liam said smiling innocently at the camera. Scott hovered over a desk smiling warmly as Stiles sat glowering at a star wars poster in the background.

"Hey Liam...Can I talk to Theo?" Scott asked. Liam's head snapped over to Theo

"What do you want?" Theo asked with a bored sigh, Liam tilted the camera towards Theo, glaring as his finger begun to tap at the wheel. He was going to cut it off one day.

"Liam mentioned you were in Vegas. That still the case?" Scott said.

"No."

"Oh..Alright, where are you?"

"Why do you-" Liam started. He'd said it was fine, he said Liam could stay why would he-

"Utah." Theo answered simply as if he weren't at all worried that an angry flock of Liam's pack wasn't going to come down and drag Liam away.

"Utah?" Scott said. "So uh..you reckon you could make it to Idaho by tomorrow?"

"Depends on why you want us in Idaho." Theo said slowly.

"You'd have known if you didn't hang up on Stiles before he could get to the point."

"Technically Liam hung up on Stiles." Theo said with a satisfied little twitch of his lips. "It's about the full moon isn't it?"

"The full moon?" Liam parroted. "Why? When is it?"

"Tomorrow." Scott said.

"You're a werewolf Liam. You need to learn the freaking moon cycle." Theo scoffed. "So what's in Idaho?"

"I-"

"There's a pack. Derek knows the Alpha, She said you can stay for the full moon so-"

"I don't want to." Liam said stiffly.

"Liam." Scott said softly. "You still need to work on your control and..well.since Hayden left it's only gotten worse. You can't just hang out in a hotel without any restraints, you could hurt someone."

"It's a good idea, having someone to stop you go all murder wolf." Theo said softly. Liam let out a betrayed whine that only seemed to amuse Theo. "It's the first full moon since the anuk-ite, your anchor moved away-"

"Hayden-"

"Scott and Mason are in another state. One that you don't want to go back to. Getting away from humans might be a good plan. If you lose control-"

"Then I have you." Liam scoffed. Theo's eyes widened, lips parting over unspoken words. "So I'll be-"

"You don't exactly have the friendliest feelings towards me." Theo croaked.

"What?"

"That stuff you said the other night." Theo mumbled, he cleared his throat, sitting up straighter. "You obviously still want to kick my ass-" Liam opened his mouth to retort. "Which I get. But I'm not a fan of the idea of being the only one in the way of you and the bloodlust."

"You apologised." Liam said stiffly. "We're good."

"Liam-"

"I'm serious. We're..you know...friendlier."

"Right..Okay..well..." Scott said slowly. Liam snapped his eyes back to the phone where Scott was blinking owlishly. "I still want you to go alright? Derek trusts them-"

"Derek doesn't trust-"

"Exactly." Scott said eagerly. "But he trusts them, or well, he promises they won't kill you so-"

"I still don't want to go." Liam gruffed. He was on the road trip to get away from supernatural drama, not to go meet a group of random werewolves

"Liam come on. It's one night and then you two can carry on to Disney land or wherever the hell you're going."

"We're going to-" Theo asked.

"No." Liam said quickly. "We're not going to Disney land and we're not going to Idaho!"

"Think about it man-"

"Mason?"

"You go to Idaho, Theo drops you off. He gets some time to go do...whatever the hell it is he does when he's not around and you get a night without him and the next day you meet up and boom Disney land-"

"Why would we have to meet up the next day? He'd be with me-"

"Well-"

"I don't think I'm invited to the little full moon party." Theo said with a stiff smirk tugging at his lips. Liam's eyes fell back to the screen brow scrunching as Scott and Mason looked at each other with wide eyes. Stiles scoffed in the background.

"You have control." Scott said after a moment, voice tentative. "You don't need to go, Liam does, we figured you'd probably like a night to-"

"I'm not an idiot." Theo scoffed. "You're a true alpha, at least have the balls to be honest with me McCall." Scott's brow smoothed out, his chin jutting up.

"I can't risk you hurting them." He said calmly. Liam held his breath, waiting for the argument, for the anger.

"Just tell me where I need to drop Liam off and he can find his way." Theo said, voice soft. Scott's shoulders drooped in relief.

"Wait what?" Liam asked.

"Thanks. Okay so if you go to Idaho then-"

"No." Liam snapped. "I'm not, I haven't agreed to this! You can't just ship me off to some werewolf sleepover because you want a night off. That's not fair. If I have to go to this crap Theo has to too."

"Look I know you-"

"Liam's right."

"What?"

"Seriously man. I told you it was a sucky plan." Stiles said with a small snort. "He should be coming back here for the full moon-"

"I don't want-"

"But-" Stiles said loudly cutting Liam off. "Since he's gone all little miss sunshine on us-" Theo snorted. "-and won't do that then, as I said, this is a dumb plan."

"It's not-"

"You want to take little hulk wolf and drag him out alone into the middle of the wilderness against his will and have the one person in the entire state he knows ditch him there when his bloodlust is at his peak?"

"I-"

"Sorry Scotty but doing that is a sure fire way to get another pack pissed off with you when he eats all their little wolfy children when he freaks out about being around a group of supernatural strangers."

"So what do you want them to do?"

"I'm guessing chloroforming him and throwing him into a lake is still out?"

"Yes!"

"What?" Liam squeaked.

"We are right next to a lake." Theo hummed. Liam backhanded him.

"I'm just saying."

"No one is being drugged." Scott said shortly.

"Okay, then I think, and believe me I hate to say this, Theo's the best bet at keeping Liam in control."

"Thank you." Liam sighed. "We'll just carry on as normal and-"

"Nu-uh Scott's also right about you being away from humans. Like, far away, I don't want you coming back flashing some baby blues because Theo was too distracted with his own reflection to notice you mauling someone. They should both go to the pack."

"But-"

"Theo's not going to hurt them." Stiles said, face twisting like the words caused him physical pain.

"Are you-"

"You were the one telling me like two days ago that I didn't need to go and drag Liam back here, that he'd be safe with Theo. I'm not saying he's not still an asshole, or that I trust him because I'd love for him to fuck up so we could stick him back in the ground but he's...he's like, I mean look at him. He has fucking confetti in his hair." Stiles snapped. Liam snorted a laugh as Theo's eyes snapped up to the mirror trying to check his hair for the still present dregs of confetti. "Dude's lost his edge. He went to a water park Scott. And I mean....Derek gave us the information. Do we trust Dere-"

"Yes. Stiles. Of course we trust Derek."

"Let me finish. Do we trust Derek's judgment on who is non murderous?" Stiles asked, Scott paused, mouth opening and closing soundlessly. "I mean. He hasn't exactly had the best track record with people he tru-"

"Theo goes with him." Scott said quickly. Stiles clapped him on the back.

"Exactly, and then, if they are murderous Theo will take a few of them out before he goes down, meanwhile Liam can run the other direction and come home safe and sound. It's like, three birds one stone."

"I was almost touched." Theo snorted.

"Shut it, Darth Vader, this conversation doesn't involve you."

"I can send you the coordinates. You'll have to walk a fair bit, they're pretty far into the woods but Derek said it's nice there and-"

"I'm not going to Idaho.

*

They were going to Idaho.

Liam really had no say in it. Not when Theo had the steering wheel and Scott was using his best Alpha voice, so, eventually, he had begrudgingly accepted it, if only because Stiles went to bring up the star wars conversation again and Theo's dumb finger had started ticking like a clock. He'd considered going back on his word when after a quick stop in a diner, Theo had tossed Liam the keys and told him to find somewhere for them to sleep. They'd driven in silence, night falling around them as Theo scrawled on a map finding where they'd be going the next night. Liam knew he was paying no attention to what Liam was doing when Liam had got out to pee and Theo hadn't snapped at how he should have gone back at the diner.

Liam had looked at the next few turns chewing his lip. He could drive the other way, leave Idaho far far away from them. Maybe by the time Theo realised and righted their course it would be too late to get there on time.

They could buy some more movies. Have another night watching stuff and eating junk food while they figured out where to go next.

Before he could convince himself that he was willing to risk his life to avoid an awkward night of being stuck with supernatural creatures, he spotted it. A little path leading to a corps of trees glittered beneath the moon. He could see the rise and fall of the city, the flickering lights beyond the hill. It didn't seem like a shabby place to sleep. Nicer than the fields or edges of roads Theo usually parked them on.

Liam came to a slow stop, a few other cars littered the clearing Theo kept on with the map, fingers sliding over it slowly as he traced the mass of green paper that imitated the forest they'd be stuck in come the next night. With a sigh Liam dug out his phone, ready to listen to some music when he heard it. A soft moan and an uncomfortable slap of skin that made both boys raise their heads. The map falling forgotten in Theo's lap as he looked out the window.

"um..Are they-"

"Liam where are we?" Theo asked, squinting through the glass.

"I found us somewhere to sleep." Liam said slowly. Another moan came. Theo pursed his lips, amusement bubbling close beneath the surface making Liam's cheeks heat.

"So...Option one, you're trying to not so subtley hint."

"What?" Liam asked, flinching at another moan.

"Option two. You're a voyeur and were hoping I'd be asleep." Theo continued.

"Wait what-"