Vacancy Signs

Chapter 9: We Should Have Stayed in Bed

Liam wakes slowly, blinking up at the ceiling in bleary-eyed confusion at the warm weight pressing against his side. The room is washed in a soft blue glow and riddled with shadows as the winter morning sun filters in through the dusty windows. Hair tickles the underside of Liam's chin and the stretch of his neck. Soft breath gusts across the skin of his chest, warm and sleep slow. Liam shifts tiredly, tilting his head down to stare at Theo who has his head tucked beneath Liam's chin and an arm thrown around Liam's middle.

The chimera is pressed along Liam's side, a delicious warmth radiating from his bare skin to Liam's. Liam has an arm wrapped around the chimera's shoulders, he brushes his fingers across the skin beneath his palm but doesn't feel it. His arm is long since numb from Theo sleeping on it, still, he doesn't stop moving his fingers in lazy little circles along Theo's shoulder and down the exposed planes of his back.

Liam feels like he should be freaking out more about this; about their nearly naked bodies pressed so tightly against one another but all he's capable of right now is reveling in the warmth Theo gives off and the sense of safeness he feels in laying here within this cabin.

He tilts his head further to watch the steady rise and fall of Theo's back as he breathes. He can't see Theo's face from this angle, but he wishes he could. He likes how soft Theo looks when he sleeps; how young and uninhibited his face becomes when he's not trying to hide himself away.

A yawn builds up in the back of Liam's throat that he tries to bite back, but it still manages to slip out. His breath stirring the messy strands of Theo's hair. Fingers twitch along his ribs as Theo curls and unfurls his hand in sleepy little spasms. Liam can feel the moment Theo starts to wake up. Theo's body tenses up against him in tiny noticeable increments until Liam feels like he's sharing a bed with a stone statue.

Liam lets his arm fall away from Theo's shoulder; it's still uncomfortably numb.

"Morning," Liam says quietly, breath hanging above his face like a tiny pale cloud. His tongue feels heavy and slow in his mouth.

Theo stops breathing, his breath ceasing to ghost hotly along Liam's skin. Liam should have just shut his eyes and gone back to sleep, or at the very least pretended like he wasn't awake yet instead of talking. It's too late to take back his words now though, they're both obviously awake and the longer neither of them speak the longer the awkwardness will be drawn out. Liam gathers his courage and ignores the hastened beating of his heart as he sucks in a breath.

"Theo?"

Theo pulls away stiffly, his fingers dragging over Liam's chest, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. The chimera's expression is inscrutable as he stares up at Liam, eyes dark and emotions hidden.

Liam licks his lips nervously as they continue to stare at one another.

"Uh," Liam breathes at a loss for something clever to say which isn't all that different from any other moment. "Did you sleep okay?"

A tiny wrinkle appears between Theo's brows and Liam's caught a little off guard by how much he wants to reach out and smooth it away with his thumb.

"Yeah," Theo says haltingly, his voice low and rough with sleep. "You?"

"Yeah." Liam bobs his head up and down a few times before he feels like an idiot and stops. He clears his throat and casts around in his head for something else to say and prays that his brain comes up with something less offensive than it had the night before.

"I, uh, think you killed my arm, though," Liam says nodding at his arm because Theo is still laying on it and Liam still can't feel it other than a dull, tingling ache.