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“Kira found Brett,” Scott informs as he hands Liam a spare helmet. “They are fine but we gotta go,” he accentuates by marching to the front door with deliberate haste.
“More assassins?” Liam questions as he stands up to follow the older teen.
“Maybe a lot more,” Scott replies, his tone grave.
“Different than the ones that just tried to set us on fire?” Liam questions again, slowing down on his steps.
“I think so, yeah,” Scott says distractedly as he opens the door leading outside. That is until he notices the lack of movement on his beta’s behalf. Liam avoids eye contacts when his alpha looks his way. Instead Liam’s eyes focus on the red helmet between his hands as he puts it down on top the nearby table. And just like that whatever urgency everything else has in Scott’s mind takes a backseat. His one priority right now becomes to help appease whatever it is that is troubling his beta.
Scott closes the front door again and also puts his helmet down as he slowly approaches the younger teen. He picks the spare helmet back up and once again offers it to Liam. The alpha can tell that Liam expects to be talked-down-to. Maybe even given a speech about responsibility. But instead Scott’s lips pull into an understanding smile. “How about I take you home?”
Yet even though Scott gives him an out, Liam still feels like he needs to apologize for the position he is taking. “I’m not like you,” the beta explains.
“Not yet,” Scott says encouragingly, mistaking his underclassman’s meaning.
“I don’t mean I’m not strong or that I’m never gonna learn how to be in control,” Liam corrects, looking up at his alpha as he carries his point. “I mean everything else. You and your friends try to protect everyone. Have you been doing this the whole time? I mean how are you all still alive?”
“…Not all of us are,” Scott responds without letting the silence stretch too far. However with the way Liam lowers his gaze without further question, Scott realizes that something in his face must have given away how touchy that subject still is to Scott. The alpha tries to amend it by putting up another cheery smile and offering up the helmet once more to his beta. “Let me at least take you home,” he offers one more time.
Liam doesn’t exactly look reassured, and Scott can’t help putting the blame on himself for that. However, after exhaling, Liam grabs hold of the offered helmet and Scott feels like he can breathe again.
Scott simply is never going to be the type of alpha that uses his pack for power. He is too busy worrying about caring and protecting them for that. That’s why he would never force Liam to do anything he wasn’t ready for. Liam’s emotional state was too much of a concern to Scott. That’s why as he got up on his motorbike—scooting forward so that his beta can get on behind him—Scott begun trying to come up with ways to distract Liam from feeling down about himself.
“Don’t be afraid to hold on tight as I drive,” Scott offers, nodding at his lower body. “I always try to be gentle with first-timers, but you never know when things might get bumpy in the night,” he states with a closed-lip smirk, wiggling his eyebrows up at down suggestively to call attention to his puns.
“Thanks,” Liam deadpans before fighting the smile that threatens to break on his face as he raises a leg to settle himself behind his alpha. The beta also places his hands deliberately on Scott’s shoulders instead. “But I think I’ll manage.”
“Your call,” Scott shrugs unwilling to falter in his attempts to lighten the mood. “But just so you know, I don’t squeak if you squeeze me too hard,” he states proudly as he turns on the bike and ramps up the motor. “As a matter of fact,” Scott begins, face scrunching in remembrance. “The only thing that squeezing me hard has ever done is making me jeez that one time.”
“Oh god, you suck,” Liam half scolds half chokes in his laughter as he punches Scott’s shoulder to make him stop.
“That’s what she said,” Scott was quick to reply as he kicks off the stand and speeds forward. “Or was that something I said?” he questions jokingly.
“Sto-o-o-o-o-o-op,” Liam pleads, begging for mercy. Scott thankfully shows clemency to his beta and stops with the innuendos, choosing instead to enjoy the rest of the ride in amicable silence. He also tries not to make the grin on his face too obvious when he eventually feels his beta’s arms encircle his waist after an incident with a speed bump.
He did not hit the bump on purpose, shut up.
Anyways it isn’t long until they are slowing down by Liam’s driveway. Once they come to a full stop, Scott kicks down the bike-stand while Liam leaps out of the motorbike and takes off his helmet.
“Here,” Liam’s says, wanting to return the helmet to its owner.
Scott however holds a hand up to stop his beta on his tracks while he finishes removing his own helmet. “Not until I walk you to your door.”
Liam flushes at that. “You don’t have to,” he states with a frown.
“But I want to,” Scott refutes, hanging his helmet on the bike handle and lightly bumping shoulders with Liam to get him to walk with him along the entryway. “Never actually seen your front porch before,” Scott offers up as an excuse.
“It’s a porch,” Liam deflates but relents to following after his alpha. “Same as any other. Nothing spectacular about it.”
“Hey,” Scott scolds teasingly, “I’m sure that whoever planted those flowers by the steps doesn’t appreciate you saying that.”
“Yeah, well… flowers,” Liam finishes lamely, flushing a bit at not being able to come up with a better comeback. Thankfully the trek to his front door was almost over. “Well this is me,” Liam states, stopping when Scott does the same and scratching his left arm with his right hand in attempt to dispel the sudden butterflies he feels in his stomach. “I guess you better go help Kira now,” he states, staring down at his shoes as if he suddenly found them fascinating.
Liam feels the weight of Scott’s hand patting his shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze that Liam greatly appreciates before hearing—more than seeing—the steps of his alpha moving away. And just like that Liam can no longer repress his feeling of inadequacy.
“I’m sorry!” Liam shouts after Scott, stopping the alpha on his tracks. Liam raises his head up and turns to face the older teen before starting again. This time at a lower volume. “I’m sorry that I’m not of any help to you,” Liam apologizes again. “I want to, I really do. I want to be like you so badly but I just- I just-”
“Shhhh Liam, it’s okay,” Scott soothes, moving to stand in front of his beta in what seem like a blink of an eye. “You don’t ever have to feel bad for not wanting to fight. It’s okay and you shouldn’t have to anyways. No one is going to hold it against you, ever. Especially me alright? So don’t ever feel like you have to apologize to me for that, okay?”
The younger teen nods at his alpha’s assurances because he knows that Scott means them but: “But I still feel bad,” Liam admits. “Like I’m probably not gonna be able to sleep anyways just thinking about what’s happening with you guys.”
“We’ll be fine,” Scott assures, his nose twitching before he’s placing both hands on his beta’s shoulders and grinning mischievously at him. “Besides, you have other problems to worry about right now.”
“Like what?” Liam asks, raising an eyebrow at Scott’s demeanor.
“Like explaining to your mom—who is creeping on us through the blinds in the window behind you—why you’re alone with an upperclassmen and why you let him give you a ride home on his bike,” Scott states straightforwardly before leaning down to whisper on his beta’s ear. “She probably thinks you’re dating me or something.”
Liam swallows at that, trying to fight off the blush that’s threatening to take over his face. “Why would she think that?” he asks, trying to play it cool now that he knows he has witnesses.
“Oh probably because you let me kiss you on your front porch,” Scott states as a matter of fact.
“W-What?” Liam stutters as he turns his face towards Scott’s only to be trapped in a god’s-holy-angels-descending-from-heaven lip lock.
“Have fun,” Scott eventually breathes against Liam’s mouth before taking a step back to appreciate Liam’s adorable stunned blush. The alpha takes the spare helmet from Liam’s hands, waves goodbye at Liam’s mother, and jogs backwards to his bike with a stupid lopsided grin on his face. “I’ll call you!” he exclaims aloud at Liam before speeding off to attend to his other businesses.
Liam can only manage to raise his hand to wave goodbye at his alpha before he hears the front door of his house unlocking and the voice of his mother calling him by his full name.
Suddenly Liam can’t decide on whether he wants to claw his alpha’s face out or bury his nose on Scott’s neck and cuddle up to his scent forever and ever. However what surprises Liam the most is that not even his mother’s expectant expression can make the smile disappear from his face.