Chapter Text
It was only a couple more hours after Theo got back before at least two of the other residents were waking up. Theo had spent his time on the sofa, watching whatever was on TV at the quietest volume when Liam's mum came downstairs for breakfast.
"Oh, hey sweetie, what are you doing up?" she asked, her tone worried in a way that Theo wasn't used to.
"I struggle with sleep, so I woke up early, went on a walk, then came back and watched shows, hope you don't mind," Theo told her.
"Oh, that's fine, did anyone show you which room would be yours, though?"
"You can do it when I get back from work, it's no problem. Do you need help with anything, I've been kinda bored for the last couple of hours," Theo mentioned.
"Not find any shows you like?"
Theo just shrugged and got up from the couch after turning the TV off to join Jenna in the kitchen. She quickly grabbed a mug and put some water onto boil before started to walk around and prepare some food for herself and her son.
"Do you want to try having eggs? I can keep them plain, or maybe just toast? You don't have to, obviously, it was just a thought," Jenna offered gently.
Theo ended up having a slice of toast with just a bit of butter on it. It was very different from anything else that he had managed up until that point, probably because it was the first properly solid food that he had managed to keep down since he was nine years old. The fact that it was so different was certainly off putting, especially at first, but he managed to eat the entire thing and the nausea was manageable, he didn't even throw up in the end. For some ridiculous reason, Theo felt proud of himself, for eating a slice of toast, despite the fact that he knew that normal people did it regularly - he'd seen Liam eat toast most mornings before school.
Not long after, Liam was practically tripping down the stairs and threw himself into his chair.
"So, you're gonna be living here now, guess that means that we can spend more time together then," Liam mentioned, "I got that new game recently, do you wanna play it with me after school?"
Theo paused for a moment. Liam was acting like it was the most normal thing in the world for your former enemy to now be living in your house, as if Theo had never done any of those awful things. However, as usual, Theo found that any words of rejection didn't come to him when he responded and instead he agreed, trying to sound a bit bored and had to quickly duck his head to hide the smile on his face at Liam's excitement. Maybe he still wasn't back to his usual self ad that's why he couldn't just keep a straight face, though he'd always found it harder to do so around Liam, even if he wouldn't never admit it to himself or even consider the reason why.
Soon, after, Liam was ready for school and Theo was driving him to school and everything felt back to normal. Though, when they arrived at the school, Corey ended up walking over to Theo's car window as Liam was getting out of the car. With a raised eyebrow, Theo lowered the window and lent back to hear what the younger chimera wanted to say to him.
"Hey, don't go around fainting, you scared us," Corey told him flatly.
Theo hid his surprise and instead responded in the usual tone he did if he was talking to someone he didn't consider a friend, i.e. pretty much everyone except Liam, and even sometimes Liam if the werewolf was annoying him, "Didn't think you of all people would care."
"Yeah, well, just because you don't understand the concept of moving on, and that its kinda scary in any scenario to see someone like you faint, doesn't mean that it isn't a thing, Corey snapped, "also, you need to get better at being able to tell when people don't hate you anymore."
"What, are you saying that you have forgiven me? Theo asked, making his tone sound amused to hide his shock.
"You've changed, Theo, that much is clear to me."
"You know, I think I'm starting to miss when you used to be scared of me," Theo snarked.
Corey just stepped back, allowing Theo to roll up his window again and finally drive off to work. He was a little late when he arrived, but Deaton didn't mention it so neither did Theo, and they just started doing their work as they usually did.
The routine of working in the clinic was starting to become somewhat of a comfort to Theo, safe in the knowledge that he finally had an actually tangible amount of money. It was also kinda nice to finally be able to apply the knowledge that he had accumulated over his years with the dread doctors for something other than hurting people.
The main thing that was nice about the job though was when Theo realised that he really liked spending time with the animals, hold or cuddling with them, playing with them, making sure that they were OK. He never minded taking the pain of small animals because it also meant that the small sounds they made went from sad to such small, cute noises that they made Theo happier than he usually tended to be. It was a small joy, but one that he hadn't really had for most of his life by that point.
In the past, the only animals he was regularly around were the rats in the sewers or the animals in preserves, and he had never really paid any of them much mind unless he needed to. Now, he loved animals, and the animals that were at the clinic seemed to love him.
There was this one dog that was in regularly due to a chronic illness that had started recognising him whenever she came in, Theo was even somewhat friends with her owners because the dog had run up to him before while they were out in public, and he'd just become a regular face.
It felt nice, to be able to act like a normal person with people that he knew had no idea what he had done. It made him relax more than he would've in the past, which was a bit of a scary thought, but so far, unless you count the one time he was attacked by hunters while on a walk, it hadn't come to bite him in the ass.