Artificial Love (Thiam)

Chapter 22

A yawn pulled through Liam's body as he awoke. He nuzzled into his pillow with a soft sigh through his nose, realising a moment to late that his pillow was less a pillow and more a person.

But Theo didn't move or pull away, so Liam tried not to feel self conscious about it. Theo was warm and soft and comfortable so he settled back in and closed his eyes again.

"Morning, princess." Theo's voice was gravelly in the early morning light and Liam tried not to be too obviously affected by the sound. Especially when Theo was clearly teasing him straight off the bat. Truthfully, he hadn't realised the older boy was awake at all yet, so he simply raised a hand, intending to put it against Theo's lips, but accidentally smacking him in the nose on the way.

"Shhh."

"You going back to sleep?" Theo asked, a trace of amusement in his voice as he brushed Liam's hair back off his forehead. Liam kept his eyes closed, wishing he could stay here like this forever. Wishing they weren't ignoring the obvious and pretending to be so little to each other whilst sneaking moments like these.

"The people have a lot of thoughts about all our appearances." Theo said slowly when Liam didn't answer the previous question. Eyes fluttered open and he tried not to have thoughts about Theo's obvious sex hair. "Some very positive, some very negative."

Liam yawned again, stretched out his arms, "Let me guess. We're enemies who want to kill each other, best friends who are inseparable, secretly in love, probably hiding a pregnancy in either Hayden or Tracy or both, and... Mm, I don't know. A curve ball. One of us is dying, maybe. Or, wait, I bet I got Tracy pregnant." He grumbled out, trying to sound more amused than annoyed.

Theo snorted from behind him on the bed and Liam tried really hard not to think too much about it all. About how nice this was, and how impossible it seemed that they had these moments at all, let alone so soon after having kissed for the first time. He didn't forget that it had been Theo who had run and Theo who had wanted to keep it a secret, he wouldn't forget for his own safety. But that didn't change how... nice this moment was.

How surprisingly easy it was to be here together and not bicker or fight or argue.

"Can't believe Tracy didn't tell me she was pregnant." Theo joked, shaking his head dramatically. Liam shot a wide smile up at him. "Seems like a lot more people believe we're really best friends now than did before." He explained. "Josh keeps sending me memes."

That got Liam's attention. He sat up a bit. "You can't say that and not show me, Theodore."

"They're not funny. Most are the crappy instagram sort."

"Did I ask? Show me the memes Josh sent."

Theo sighed and held his phone up. On it was a picture with one of those outdated white caption things above it. In the picture, Liam laughed, eyes closed, head tipped back. On himself, he could easily tell it was a fake laugh, but others apparently couldn't. Beside him, in the image, Theo grinned at him. The heavy handed caption above, complete with two pleading eyed emojis, read, 'Get you someone who looks at you like Theo looks at Liam'.

Liam's grin broadened, and he turned to fix his gaze on Theo, who looked like he was trying very hard not to appear embarrassed. Oh, Liam was never going to let him live this down. "Adorable." He said sarcastically.

"Don't." Theo began.

"No, really. So cute. Looks like a scene out of a Disney movie." He put a hand dramatically on his chest, "I had no idea you cared, Theo."

"You're such a dick." Theo grumbled, nudging him lightly with his free arm, dropping his phone on his own chest to do so.

Liam let himself get shoved and bounced back, still with a shit-eating grin affixed. "Oh, come on, Theo. Surely you can see the absolute karmic value of this."