Chapter Text
The moment Liam sees it, he doesn’t quite know what happens. It’s like everything falls away around him, Mason and Corey’s light-hearted, hand-clasped bickering over the merits of pocket squares fading into background noise as Liam finds himself making a beeline for the wonderful thing that’s just appeared on a rack across the aisle.
It’s just – it’s so soft. And fluffy. It has the delicate pink tone of an early spring morning or the inside of a shell or the blush that sometimes Liam manages to rise to Theo’s cheeks, and it has a big, soft hood and white fur on the inside and it’s perfect.
‘Uh… Liam? Earth to Liam,’ Mason says at his elbow.
‘You’re getting this?’ Corey pops up on Liam’s other side, reaches out to stroke the soft velvet. Liam bats his hand away.
‘I’m getting it for Theo,’ he breathes, not taking his eyes off the rack. He can already see Theo in it. It would be so soft.
There’s a long silence that Liam doesn’t pay attention to, because he’s too busy working through the rack to find the biggest size. It’s got to be big.
‘You’re getting Theo – Theo – a pink fluffy hoodie?’ Mason says faintly.
‘A pink fluffy women’s hoodie?’ Corey adds.
Liam sighs, annoyed. ‘Who cares? It’s a hoodie, a big one! I’m getting it.’ He finds the biggest one, bundles it up in his arms. It’s as soft as silk and angel wings.
‘He’s never going to wear that,’ Corey says with conviction. ‘I know he’s softened up a lot since you rehabilitated him, but you’re absolutely delusional. It’s a waste of money.’
Liam hugs the hoodie protectively to his chest. ‘Why are you always such a downer? It’s not.’
He looks at Mason for backup, but Mason grimaces. ‘I don’t know, dude,’ he says apologetically. ‘I’m with Corey here. I just can’t see it.’
‘Thanks, babe,’ Corey says sweetly, and Liam glares at them.
‘You’re both wrong,’ he huffs. ‘I’m going to give it to him and he’s going to wear it and then maybe I’ll finally ask him out and he’ll say yes out of pure gratitude. This thing,’ he pats the pink velvet lovingly, ‘is awesome.’
‘How can you be so incorrect on so many different levels,’ Corey says flatly. ‘The only thing you got right in that past sentence is that he’ll say yes to you, because he’s stupid desperate in love with you as well, even if you are both too chicken to make a move. But even that isn’t going to make him wear a fluffy pink hoodie.’
Liam rolls his eyes at him. ‘We’ll see,’ he says stubbornly, and heads towards the checkout.
There’s evening rain pelting against the windows when Liam finally manages to wrangle the hoodie into a casing of wrapping paper, coax it into a jumbo-sized gift bag and turn up at Theo’s door to present it to its intended recipient.
‘You bought me something?’ Theo says slowly, as though he’s a little confused about the concept of receiving a gift. He’s sitting cross-legged on his bed, in what had once been the guest bedroom of Liam’s parents’ house and is now – after six months of determined reiteration on the part of Liam and his parents – Theo’s own, permanent bedroom. His hair is damp from his shower and pushed back spikily from his face, and there’s a brightly coloured fantasy novel lying in his lap, carefully bookmarked when Liam had come in, and he looks so adorable that Liam has to take a deep breath and blink to reorient himself. Focus, Liam. Focus.
‘Yeah!’ he says, when he recovers. ‘Here, look, open it.’ He shoves the bag into Theo’s lap and climbs up onto the bed, crossing his own legs and facing Theo expectantly.
Theo opens the bag, then darts his head up to stare at Liam. ‘You wrapped it?’ His eyes widen slightly; they’re so pretty, grey-blue like winter water.
‘Yeah, well, it’s a gift,’ Liam says, trying not to get lost in them. He snaffles one of Theo’s pillows and pulls it into his lap, surreptitiously breathing in the Theo-scent that permeates it. Theo glances askance at him, but doesn’t protest, so Liam takes that as implicit permission to go on hugging his pillow in his arms and getting his own scent all over it. ‘Come on, open it,’ he tells Theo.
‘Okay, okay,’ Theo says, and eases the parcel out of the gift bag, folding it carefully and setting it aside.
Liam sighs, resting his cheek on the pillow, because of course Theo’s apparently the sort of person who takes for-fucking-ever to unwrap things. Still, it means he can watch Theo’s face, soft and intent as he carefully unpeels the sticky tape that Liam has slapped all over the edges, piece by piece.
‘Oh my god,’ Liam says eventually, when it’s been what feels approximately like an hour and Theo still hasn’t even peeled back a corner of the paper to reveal the gift underneath. ‘How are you so slow! You’re killing me! Just pull it off!’
‘How are you so impatient?’ Theo grumbles, still picking at an unnecessary bit of tape. ‘It’s nice paper. I don’t want to rip it.’
Liam growls. ‘Dude, I’ll give you the whole roll! Open it!’ but Theo has finally removed the last piece of tape and is already tugging the paper open, the soft, sweet pink of the velvet spilling out across the bed and his knees.
Liam holds his breath expectantly. Theo stares down at the sea of silky pink. The rain beats against the window outside, but inside, it’s warm and still and quiet. Slowly – very slowly – Theo reaches out one knuckle and brushes it gently over the soft fur. He doesn’t say anything, or look up, and something flips anxiously in Liam’s stomach.
‘I thought… it would be. Warm,’ he falters.
Theo still doesn’t say anything, just goes on staring downwards, blank-faced, and the thing in Liam’s stomach wriggles and writhes like a thousand snakes. He should have listened to Mason, because this had obviously been a terrible idea. ‘It’s stupid. Here, let me – I’ll just – I can return–’
‘No!’ Theo says quickly. His arms curl protectively around the velvet, gathering it close. ‘No, you can’t. You gave it to me.’
‘Wait, so you don’t hate it?’ Liam says hopefully.
Theo hugs it a little closer. ‘It’s soft,’ he says awkwardly, then flicks his eyes quickly sideways to Liam’s face, a little suspicious, as though he’s checking Liam’s reaction to see if there’s any mockery there. His shoulders drop, very slightly, when he doesn’t find any.
‘Warm, too,’ Liam says softly. He’s not hinting. Well, maybe he’s going to hint a little, because he really, really wants to see what Theo looks like when he’s warm and safe and tucked into a mountain of pink fur. ‘Try it on.’
Theo’s eyes flicker back to him. He bites his lip, glances back down. ‘Okay, fine,’ he says after a long moment, and Liam wants to cheer.
He grins at Theo delightedly instead, earning back a fleeting little twitch of Theo’s mouth, as though he wants to smile but is having one of his weird moments about it all. Liam wants to wipe away the uncertainty, have him smile for real. He glances at Theo, considering, then lifts Theo’s pillow and whaps him over the head with it. It’s so very worth it for Theo’s look of startled, wide-eyed betrayal. ‘You’re taking too long again,’ Liam tells him, and rocks forward and up so that he’s kneeling on the bed in front of Theo, grabbing a handful of fluffy fleece. ‘Put your arms up.’
‘What are you- ufh!’ Theo says, drowned in a sea of fleece. There’s a flurry of pink, and then Liam tugs it again and Theo’s face appears, popping out of the hood like a meerkat. He narrows his eyes at Liam, who sits back, satisfied.
‘You were being slow,’ he says, spreading his hands.
Theo still looks a little wide-eyed, wriggling his arms gently until his fingertips pop out of the sleeves. He rubs his hand softly across the fleece, almost mesmerised, then looks back up at Liam. ‘It’s… warm,’ he says quietly.
‘Yeah, told you,’ Liam says, beaming at him, feeling as light and bubbly and exhilarated as champagne. Theo’s cheeks are lightly, faintly flushed with the same soft shade of pink as the hoodie, and Liam wants to touch them, see if they feel warm under his fingers as well. Instead, he reaches out one hand, careful and slow as if Theo might spook like a scared animal, and strokes his fingers over the fluffiness covering Theo’s knee. ‘It’s really big and soft, too.’
‘You – you already said that,’ Theo says, and his voice sounds shaky as all hell, his fingers spasming against the fleece. When Liam glances back up at his face, he’s pressing his lips together unsteadily, as though he’s holding himself back from nibbling them, his eyes flickering between Liam’s face and his hand on the fabric of the hoodie.
Liam swallows. Their fingers are very close together. His heart beating high and fast in his chest, he lets his fingers inch closer, feeling the warmth of Theo’s knee through the velvet, until there’s barely a whisker of space between Theo’s hand and his own. ‘Yeah, I guess I did,’ he says.
Theo doesn’t seem to be breathing any more. Liam takes a deep breath of his own to make up for it, and screws up his courage, sucking his lip in tightly, and crosses the last quarter-inch, his fingers nudging against Theo’s.
Theo is so still Liam’s actually worried he’s about to pass out, especially since he’s still barely breathing. His hand jumps anxiously against Liam’s, and Liam’s own heart pounds wildly. Very slowly, so that it almost falls within the bounds of plausible deniability, he strokes his thumb across the side of Theo’s index finger. Theo’s heart jumps, audible and incriminating, and Liam’s stomach flips with elation.
He strokes Theo’s fingers again, then very gently curls own hand up and around Theo’s. Theo takes a shaky little breath as their fingertips just barely brush at first, then lock softly together, his hand curling hesitantly back around Liam’s. We’re holding hands, Liam thinks in delight, daring to glance up at Theo’s face. I’m holding his hand and he’s holding back and he’s wearing the hoodie I gave him and he hasn’t punched me in the face.
Theo’s eyes are downcast, fixed firmly on their linked hands, his face framed by floppy brown hair poking out of white fleece and silky pink velvet. He looks soft and wondering, a little vulnerable, and Liam wants to kiss him so badly it almost hurts. He’s pretty sure he should ask before doing that though, and Corey’s right. He’s too chicken.
But still. They’re holding hands, and that has to count for something, right? Neither of them seems ready to break the little spell of silence hanging over them, but after a moment Liam ventures a hopeful little squeeze.
He holds his breath, and then Theo gives a shaky exhale, and Liam feels him squeezing gently back.