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janedoeswriting · 7 months ago

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The Way The Wind Blows (Stiles x OC) Chapter Three

Description: Rhiannon finds herself trapped within her guilty pleasure tv show— Teen Wolf. Now, she must choose which path to take… one that leads back home, and another that follows uncertain adventure.

Tags: extreme slow burn, frienemies to lovers, fix it fic, canon change, actions have consequences.

TW: smut??, angst, fluff, sexual harassment, anxiety, depression, obsession, domestic violence, manipulation, etc. Just please do not read if you are sensitive to difficult subjects.

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(One Way Or Another by Blondie)

It wasn't unusual for Stiles to overdo things, but this was a bit much even for Scott. Second period hadn't even started yet and Stiles was borderline harassing Scott about all the theories he'd thought up during first period. The obnoxious flipping of books and whispering may have been a hindrance to other students' ability to focus, but since it was the first day of class everyone seemed to be too busy catching up with one another before class.

Apparently, Stiles never failed to find a way to create more work in Scott's life than he really needed.

"I'm telling you, she could be a lone wolf. I mean-- maybe she somehow heard about Derek becoming an alpha and came looking for a pack--," but Scott cut him of with a hand covering his mouth. Even though Stiles had been whispering, Scott didn't like running the risk of talking about the supernatural around other people.

"Stiles. Not now," he harshly whispered to his friend. Scott couldn't help but glance at Allison who had just walked into the classroom, but quickly glanced away. Stiles ripped Scott's hand off his face, but just as Stiles opened his mouth to fire off some retort the approach of Allison reigned in Scott's attention. To Scott's silent delight, Allison took the only available seat in the room-- the one right in front of his own. As Allison asked if someone sat there and Scott fumbled awkwardly with his response, Stiles' brain was running a million miles a second.

Stiles' legs tapped out of control and his hands fiddled with his pencil. Possibilities and theories flew through his mind. Scott was very obviously not taking the situation as seriously as he was, which made Stiles clench his jaw and turn away. The room erupted with the sound of cell phones buzzing and dinging. Everyone took out their phones only to read a quote. The English teacher read it allowed as she walked into the classroom.

As the teacher instructed everyone to turn off their phone, Stiles couldn't help but raise his hand. He couldn't turn off his phone--what if there was an emergency? What if his dad called him needing his help? What if Rhiannon ran away again and only Stiles could track her down?

His anxiety was senseless as he shot up his hand and asked to use the bathroom. Stiles slipped his phone into his back pocket as the teacher gave him permission to go, and was out the door faster than she could even ask for his name.

"Stiles--," Scott said to the new teacher as he turned off his phone. "That's Stiles."

The teacher nodded and smiled, checking Stiles' name off the attendance sheet. "Good to know Stiles is just as excited to be here as the rest of you." She said sarcastically and the classroom let out a half-hearted laugh at her cheesy joke.

In the bathroom, Stiles called his father. The phone rang once, twice. Finally, it went to voicemail. He tried again to no avail. Stiles couldn't take it any longer. He couldn't sit there in a classroom waiting for everything to go wrong. He'd make himself crazy wondering whether his father had indeed taken Rhiannon to Eichen House, or if she had been submitted to another hospital stay. Or worse-- if she had somehow escaped again.

He slipped through the hallways away from the prying eyes of teachers or students, and made a break for the jeep against his father's order to stay in school.

In the classroom, Scott got called out of class by his mother. He noticed Stiles' blue jeep nowhere to be found and groaned. "He's gonna be in so much trouble," Scott murmured as he put on his helmet and mounted his bike.

While Scott technically was skipping class, it was only because his mother had called him out due to an emergency. Stiles was straight up going against his dad's orders. As these thoughts ran through Scott's mind while he made way for the hospital.

However, he didn't notice the flock of crows flying directly for the school.

"What do you mean she doesn't exist?" Sheriff Stilinski said.

The absurdity of it confused him to the point of anger. "I'm saying she doesn't have a birth certificate. No record of any family or criminal history. She never had a drivers licence. No medical records except for the hospital. Just... nothing."

Sheriff Stilinski looked at the records and faxes and emails. In frustration he tossed the empty file down on the desk and walked away. The CPS worker was in his office with Rhiannon. At least she has a name, he thought.

The girl had started to talk more ever since Stiles had involved himself. Though, she wasn't talking about herself at all. Or providing any useful information. "We have to get her to speak to a psychologist. And get her checked out again at the hospital," one of the agents said. His entire office had been buzzing all day with the case of the Jane Doe, FBI agents in and out researching and calling. The manhunt that had lasted into the morning had turned into a full on investigation. "Maybe even... Eichen House should take her in." One of them said hesitantly.

"She's not crazy," the Sheriff snapped, though he wasn't quite sure. "She's just a kid. A scared kid."

Finally, the door opened and the CPS worker came out with the girl in tow. She was wearing the clothes they had gotten her after they found her earlier that morning in the forest. She had taken another shower and her cuts had been treated with basic first aid, but she still had bruises and scratches on her arms and legs.

"I've already spoken to doctors and agents and deputies. At the hospital." the girl reasoned. Sheriff Stilinski never thought he'd be so relieved to hear the sound of a teenager's annoyed protests.

Thankfully, the girl's expression looked more sober than it had before. Like she had come out of a foggy haze.

"Before you ran away?" the CPS worker asked with a raised brow. Rhiannon gave an exasperated expression and turned to the Sheriff. "Mr. Stilinski tell her I don't need a psychological evaluation, please. I'm not crazy."

She spoke as if she knew him, which was strange, but the Sheriff had to admit she didn't seem like any of the patients who stayed at Eichen. Sure, she had experienced quite a bit of trauma the past 24 hours, but it was clear that she was somewhat acting like a normal teenager.

He made a face that said, 'Welll'. Rhiannon huffed and crossed her arms. He couldn't help but smirk. "Cmon', kid. You don't remember who you are or where you came from, and you have a tendency to break hospital windows to make a break for the woods. We've got to try and make sure you're okay." He reasoned.

"How can I prove I'm not crazy?" She offered. The CPS worker inclined her head skeptically and Sheriff Stilinski pursed his lips.

"Let's start with actually answering our questions, not running away the first chance you get, and letting us help you."

Rhiannon pursed her lips and sucked in a breath. He raised an eyebrow at her and she begrudgingly nodded.

It was noon and the entire department was exhausted. There had been at least five coffee runs, six deputies came in on their days off, countless FBI agents in and out, and constant ringing of the phones.

The day finally seemed to be calming when the majority of the agents left, the calls grew scarce, and half of his department finally went home to sleep. Still, they sat in that office. Two agents, one CPS worker, a Psychologist, and a Sheriff.

Rhiannon sat for hours talking. Answering questions. She didn't remember her family. She remembers she had a dad and mom, but can't remember their names or faces or if she had siblings. She knew she wasn't from Beacon Hills, but didn't know where she came from or how she had gotten there.

She ran away from the hospital because she was scared. She'd wanted to go home. It was easy to play the amnesiac lost girl, until Sheriff Stilinski began to ask questions.

"How did you know who I was when we met?" He asked. He didn't sound like he suspected her of anything, but saying 'I don't remember' was getting repetitive.

"It says it on your nametag," she offered. He looked down and lo and behold, his name displayed on his right breast pocket. "You called Stiles and Scott by different names. Tyler and Dylan. Who did you mean?" Apparently, the Sheriff had gotten a thorough statement from the night prior. Rhiannon remained calm despite the panic tugging at her chest. Thank God there weren't any werewolves around to detect her lying heart.

She made a show of blinking in confusion. "I-I don't know. It's like waking up from a dream and remembering it all one moment, and then the next it's gone."

Every pair of eyes on her was sympathetic. Even the FBI agents bought it. Sheriff Stilinski seemed to as well... almost.

"Do you remember your birthday?" the Sheriff asked.

The words left her lips automatically.

"August 18th." She said. "And what day is today?" He asked. She hesitated. She didn't know that answer, but she recalled what day it was back when she was home. "August 3rd, I think." She said. Sheriff Stilinski's lips tightened into a flat line. The one's taking notes fervently wrote. The agents looked to each other. "What? What day is it?" She asked, wondering what secret they all knew that she didn't. Sheriff Stilinski hesitated.

"It's August 23rd," the psychologist said gently.

Rhiannon looked up to the Sheriff again. "So I turned sixteen and I don't remember it?" she asked. The silent question hung thickly in the air.

They were all thinking the same thing: Where had she been in those twenty days she'd been missing?

"Don't worry, Rhiannon. We're going to take care of you." The CPS worker assured her. Rhiannon looked down at her hands, entwined in her lap. "How do I prove I'm not crazy? I don't want to go to--," she caught herself before she said Eichen House. She had to prove she wasn't crazy. Going there was practically a death sentence in this show.

"-to an asylum." She finished.

She looked toward the psychologist. "Rhiannon, you're going to be taken care of. For now, we need to do some more in-depth assessments of both your mental and physical health at the hospital." Great. Just great. She was going to get torn apart by dread doctors or sexually harassed by creepy healthcare workers.

Still, she had no other way to prove she wasn't crazy other than going along with what they said. She turned to Sherrif Stilinski, who looked hopeful.

"I'll go. And I won't run away. If... Mr. Stilinski promises to keep me safe."

She knew he would protect her. Even if she got sent to Eichen, one word from her and he'd have her transferred somewhere better. If there was one think she knew, it was that Noah Stilinski wouldn't break a promise to someone in need.

She could use that to her advantage.

Slowly, he nodded. He was unsure of why she turned to him, or trusted him at all. Why would she ask such a request from him? But she was alone in the world, and maybe he was the most trustworthy figure she knew. The thought saddened him. The idea of his son being in Rhiannon's position caused his heart to squeeze.

"Of course, Rhiannon. I promise I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe."

Later, when Rhiannon was successfully admitted to the hospital, the Sheriff got a break down of the plan for how they would handle the girl. "She doesn't seem unstable-- just rattled. After some testing is done, we can diagnose if she just has amnesia or if theres something else at play."

"Do you think she's schizophrenic or something?" Sherrif asked. It sounded silly. The doctor shook his head. "From what I gathered, she's as sane as you or me. Just without the majority of her memory."

Sheriff nodded, relieved to hear the good news. He turned to the CPS worker. "What's the plan? Are you going to have to find her a foster home?" he asked. She nodded. "We'll have to find a temporary placing. The foster options in Beacon Hills are very limited, especially on such short notice. We might have to take her out of town. I assume she'll be in the hospital for at least a few days, if not more. I've got my work cut out for me, Sheriff. Not to mention how difficult it is to find a home that's safe. A young beautiful girl like that is a difficult placement. You never know who might have nefarious intentions."

Stilinski nodded grimly. The thought sunk into his stomach and the promise he made her hung in the air. As the CPS worker walked away, she said, "If you know anyone willing to take in a sixteen year old girl within the next week let me know."

Stiles bolted into the building. It was much quieter than it had been that morning. Everyone seemed exhausted, and Stiles scanned the room only to be stopped by a deputy at the front desk.

"Where is she?" he demanded in labored breaths.

He didn't even bat an eye at Stiles. "She was readmitted to Beacon Memorial."

"Where's my--," Stiles started.

"Your dad is at home. Sleeping. And you should be in school. Learning."

Stiles was already halfway out the door when he heard a call coming from the radios and the room suddenly bustled with energy.

He turned, but everyone was scrambling. Some ran out the door, others answered phone calls and barked orders. Stiles finally over heard it on a radio, "...animal accident at the high school..." His blood ran cold. "What kind of accident!?" he demanded from a deputy using a phone.

She ignored him and quickly barked out to other deputies, "A flock of crows flew through the windows of a classroom at Beacon Hills High. Minor injuries, but a lot of dead crows." Stiles stepped back as another officer ran by. Lights and sirens blared outside as they rushed to the scene. Stiles ran back to his jeep and reached for his phone. If there was a problem at the school, Scott would know about it, since he was still there.

"Scott!! What's goin' on at the school?" Stiles exclaimed as soon as Scott picked up his phone call. "The school? What are you talking about?" "There was an accident right? A flock of crows flew into a classroom's windows."

Stiles turned the key in the ignition and sped down the road after the cops. "I have no idea what your talking about. I'm not at the school, I'm with Derek." Scott said, sounding distressed and in a hurry.

"Derek? What the hell are you doing with--?" Stiles started, but Scott cut him off urgently. "Look-- just meet us at Derek's house, okay?"

"Us?!" Stiles asked, but Scott had hung up the phone. Stiles didn't have time for debates, and made a sharp turn in the direction of the Hale house.

Rhiannon slept for fifteen hours. She didn't even realize how exhausted she truly was until she got there.

She showered again, got another IV, ate a hearty meal of delicious hospital food, and was heavily baraded by doctor and nurse alike. Nurse McCall was nowhere to be seen thankfully-- Rhiannon didn't want to face her quite yet after freaking her out the night before.

Rhiannon remembered what she'd said to Melissa. She told her that she knew about Scott, and that she was from another world. Hopefully Melissa didn't tell any doctors that piece of information, or she'd be tossed in a loony bin in no time. Rhi was secretly hoping Melissa wouldn't tell Scott either, but she knew that was wishful thinking.

When Rhiannon awoke she didn't remember how she even fell asleep. She rang for a nurse and asked for her IV to be removed.

When she realized the time, she sighed.

"It's two in the morning," the nighttime nurse told her. "Are you hungry at all?" Rhiannon opened her mouth but her stomach spoke for her with a loud girgle. The nurse chuckled and tucked Rhiannon back into bed. "Don't run off anywhere. I'll be right back with a midnight snack." The nurse had made a joke, but Rhiannon was too groggy to laugh. She saw some male nurses congregating near a desk area outside the open door. They were talking. "Three runaway patients in a day? I mean how do you even put the wrong person on the operating table?" "I don't know, man. Apparently that kid Isaac was in a bad motorcycle accident. I saw him get brought in. There was blood everywhere. No way he didn't need to be operated on. I saw his wounds."

"Oh, bullshit," one said. "I'm serious. It was probably some other guy they wheeled in there. I'll bet the poor kid is kidnapped."

"He ran away. And he wasn't injured-- it was someone else's blood." "Rightt. Well the chick and the kid will have some fun explaining to do if they ever turn up again. Like this one," he said and gestured to the room. Rhiannon pretended not to hear them and suddenly became very interested in the plant on the side table next to her. "She'll have one hell of a bill when she gets released," he said with a chuckle. "Hey, she's got amnesia. Leave her alone." "Oh come on, you know I'm messin' around. Besides, it's only a matter of time before they ship her to Eichen house anyways."

They went silent as the female nurse returned with a tray of food and kind smile on her face. "Here we are. I got you some McDonalds. We have one inside." Rhiannon brightened at the sight. "Thank you," she said. The nurse beamed at her. "Of course! Are you in pain? Do you need anything?"

Rhiannon took a bite of a chicken nugget and shook her head. When she was finally left alone and her meal was eaten, Rhiannon ran through the possibilities of what she was to do next. She could stay there in Beacon Hills and try to work with Scott and his friends to find a way back home. But their skills had never extended to multi dimensional travel. And side characters generally ended up toast.

If she stuck around the hub of evil supernatural forces, Rhiannon was sure to die. Just an extra character laying out on the concrete after some monster rampage. No, it wouldn't be her. She would have to get out. And that meant she would have to run away again. But this time, more successfully. She couldn't be put into Eichen-- it would be impossible to escape. No, she had to convince them that she was sane, and then when they least expect it she could make a break for it on some bus and get as far east as she could. Maybe she'd eventually make it back to Florida-- where she was from. Was. Was there anyone even there? Would she return to her childhood home to find it occupied by strangers?

Rhiannon didn't want to think about it. All she wanted to do was go home. She could do that. She would do that.

Getting out of Beacon Hills sounded like a good place to start.

The next time Rhiannon woke up, it was a busy day. She did tests, scans, x-rays, answered more questions, spoke to councilors and CPS workers and psychiatric specialists. In and out. In and out. New people, new questions, new tasks.

Rhiannon was feeling like a top slowing it's spin by 2pm. Another knock on the door, and Rhiannon grimaced inwardly. She turned only to find who she least expected. Sheriff Stilinski stood in the doorway.

"Oh-- hello." Rhiannon said. He smiled at her and walked in. The sun shone through the window but the two of them looked ragged in their own ways. "Good morning, or- I guess- afternoon," he said, noticing the clock's display of 1:00pm. Rhiannon was surprised he was there given the timeline of events. In her mind, Rhiannon ran through what she believed was happening. She was in season three in one of the first episodes. She didn't know which one. The way time moved was obviously much different in real life. She was also in a hospital with no clue what events were happening around her other than Issac and Braeden being admitted and leaving. Which meant that the Alpha pack was attacking, and a dark druid in the form of a high school english teacher was at large.

"Heh. It's been pretty crazy. I don't even know what day it is because I slept so much," she said.

Mr. Stilinski smiled. "Today is Saturday. I've got some good news from the doctor-- all of your tests are looking good. They're thinking you may be able to be discharged tomorrow." Rhiannon stomach lurched. "Discharged? Not transferred to the loony bin?"

He laughed heartily. "You're mental health evaluation went well. You're perfectly sane."

Rhiannon smiled, relief blooming within her. "Thank God."

"So, what are you doing here today?" she asked the sheriff, surprised he was even there to pay a visit. In Beacon Hills, there was always something important to investigate.

"Thing's are finally seeming to calm down," he said. "It's been an eventful few days. I wanted to come check and see how you were feeling."

"I haven't remembered anything, if that's what you mean," she said. He shook his head, "No, no. I didn't mean that. It... It must be scary for you being here. I want to let you know that I'm doing the best I can to find your family and get you back home." It was so sincere that Rhiannon felt guilt tug at her heart.

He wouldn't be able to find her family-- they don't exist. Not here.

"Thank you, Sheriff Stilinski." His shoulder radio cracked to life and a voice barked coded orders. He clicked the button and responded. "10-4, on the way to you." He smiled at Rhiannon and said, "Duty calls. Let me know if you need anything. I'll be back tomorrow to help figure out the details of your discharge."

Rhiannon nodded and beamed at him. She felt both guilty and grateful in that moment. Guilty to lie to him, and grateful that he was there for her. She felt safer knowing he had her back-- even if she didn't really deserve it.

One Day Later

Stiles and Scott were in Stiles' bedroom debating on whether or not they should go out.

"Come on, it's the perfect opportunity to move on. You know... forget about Allison like you've been doing all summer." Stiles said. He laid in his bed has he tossed a lacrosse ball up in the air and caught it again.

"It's just weird you know?" Scott said.

"How is it weird?"

"Well, after the deer and the birds-- I mean, I thought you wanted to figure out what's up with that girl Rhiannon. See if she was a lone wolf, like you think? And now you want to go to a party?"

"There's time to figure it out with her. I mean, with the way things are going she'll be admitted to Eichen. We'll have plenty of time to interrogate her then." Stiles said, though thoughts of Rhiannon hadn't stopped plaguing his mind.

After the attack on Issac, and with Erica and Boyd missing, they were pretty much at a standstill. Derek had made very clear that taking on a pack of alphas was for him to deal with and that Scott and Stiles weren't welcome in his endeavors.

For once, Scott had the opportunity to take a step back and be a normal teenager. And yet Stiles suddenly dropping the subject of Rhiannon was a subject of Scott's suspicion.

"You were pretty worked up over it until everything with Isaac and Derek." "Yeah, and the alpha pack out to get us? Derek wants to handle it alone, and I'm not gonna change his mind."

Scott had to agree. It was a relief that this wasn't their problem anymore.

"Maybe a crazy girl is the least of our worries," Stiles added.

A sound at the door notified Scott that Stiles' father had arrived home.

"Your dads here." he said, since Stiles didn't have Scott's supernatural hearing.

After Stiles skipped school the other day his dad had been so swamped with work that Stiles had managed to slip under the wire. The ball Stiles had been tossing in the air missed his hand and smacked him in the face.

"Ow!" Stiles exclaimed, clutching his face. Mr. Stilinski appeared at the threshold. He looked tired, but not nearly as bad as he had been two days ago.

"Stiles," he said and then nodded to Scott. "Scott. I need to talk to you boys about something." Stiles sat up straight and his face turned pale. Great, Stiles thought, fearing the impending lecture.

"Yeah, dad? What's up?" he asked, trying to play it cool.

"You two remember that girl you found the other night? Rhiannon Watson."

Stiles' blood ran cold again but for a different reason. The boys attention piqued.

"Yeah." Stiles said. "Well, she's been discharged from the hospital today." Mr. Stilinski said. "Oh she didn't get sent to Eichen?" Stiles said, and Scott elbowed him in the ribs. Stiles held his side and shot Scott a glare that said 'what was that for?'.

"No she's perfectly fine. Your concern is touching," Mr. Stilinski said both sarcastically and sternly.

Stiles knew why Scott had elbowed him in the ribs in that moment. Because from around the corner there she stood. She wore a baggy shirt and sweatpants that looked like Stiles' old clothes that had no longer fit him. She met their shocked gazes with a chin held high, and awkwardly smiled at them. It didn't reach her eyes.

Mr. Stilinski sucked in a heavy breath and continued. "Well, she'll be staying with us for a bit while a foster family is found. CPS ran out of options, and well--...I volunteered to take her in."

Stiles mouth fell open. Scott blinked, and looked between them.

"It'll be temporary, but I hope you'll will be welcoming to her while she's with us," he said, not really knowing what to say to explain himself. He didn't mean to spring this on his son, but that morning had been a whirlwind. When he impulsively told CPS that he could take her he hadn't thought that far ahead.

A silence hung in the air. "Stiles," Mr. Stilinski said sternly to his stupefied son. "Say hello to your foster sister."

Stiles was in such shock that he remained frozen. Scott took it upon himself to break the awkwarness.

"Hello, I don't know if you remember me. I'm Scott, Stiles' friend." he said as he stood. Rhiannon held her hand out and he shook it. Scott didn't forget what his mom had told him-- that this girl knew he was a werewolf. Still, she smelled and looked human enough. Her heart was racing and in that moment Scott felt badly for Stiles' earlier accusations.

"I remember you, Scott. I-...," she looked down embarrassed. "I'm sorry about how you found me. I was, uh... I wasn't in my right mind."

Stiles blinked and shook himself out of his stunned stupor. He quickly shot to his feet and nodded. "H-hi- Hello." He wiped his hands on his pants and held it out. She looked at it and then shook his hand. He quickly withtook it and shuffled his feet.

Rhiannon looked around trying to avoid the weight of their stares on her. "Well now that we got that out of the way... I got some pizza for dinner. Rhiannon, let me show you to your room. It's just down here to the right." After Rhiannon proceeded down the hall Mr. Stilinski shot his son a look and then left the doorway. Scott and Stiles looked at each other in shock. Stiles' expression also held a little bit of panic.

Stiles mouthed 'Is she a wolf?' Scott shook his head. She smelled perfectly human.

'Sister?' Scott mouthed to Stiles teasingly. Stiles bent backward with his hands on his head and then stepped forward into the hallway. He caught a glimpse of Rhiannon and his father walking into the guest room diagonal across the hall from his own bedroom.

Scott followed, pushing Stiles down the opposite direction and into the kitchen. On the dinnertable two boxes of pizza sat.

"What-," Stiles bit out in a hushed whisper, but the sound of footsteps snapped his mouth shut. He did his best to act natural as his dad approached them.

"I expect you boys to be the most welcoming people in the world to that poor girl. She's been through a lot, you hear me?" he whispered to them, and then walked over to get some plates. Stiles and Scott sent each other looks and then sat at the table.

"Rhiannon, do you want anything to drink? We have some coke, or milk if you'd like?" Mr. Stilinski called loudly. Rhiannon appeared from the hallway.

"Um, I'll just have some water." she said, trying not to glance at the two boys gawking at her. "Thank you, Mr. Stilinski." she added.

Rhiannon fiddled with the edge of the table as she sat across from them. "So, uh, Rhiannon--," Scott started. "Rhi." she corrected.

"Right-- Rhi. How long will you be staying here?" Scott asked. Mr. Stilinski shot him a vicious look that Rhiannon didn't see and Scott gulped. "Well I don't know. As long as you'll have me, I guess." she said, looking at Stiles.

"These two go to Beacon Hills High School. If you want, you can start there whenever you feel up to it. The hospital said you can take as long of a break as you'd like until your comfortable." Mr. Stilinski said as he set the water in front of her and began making her a plate of pizza. It was cheese. They never got cheese. Only pepperoni. Stiles sucked in a breath and attempted to speak. "You got cheese?" He asked, and felt stupid for saying it. "We got both." His dad said. Scott and Stiles opened up the other box and began to serve themselves. Rhiannon did the sign of the cross and began to silently pray.

The table went quiet. She looked up in confusion at their stares. "What?" she asked. "Your... religious?" Mr. Stilinski asked. She blinked at them. "Oh. I guess, yeah." she said, feeling stupid.

"I don't really remember...But I was. I think..." and trailed off. Mr. Stilinski smiled. "It's alright. That's good. Muscle memory can help, right?" His hopefull comment brought a small smile to her face. "Right."

Mr. Stilinski bowed his head and when he noticed the boys staring dumbfounded, he gestured for them to follow. They immediately bowed their heads in prayer. "Bless us Oh Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive through Thy bounty through Christ our Lord. Amen." Mr. Stilinski said with Rhiannon. Stiles picked up on the prayer halfway through, remembering it from his childhood.

They hadn't prayed in years. Not since his mother died.

They dug in silently. Mr. Stilinski cleared his throat and picked up the conversation. He was trying his best to be welcoming and warm, which wasn't his strong suit. "So, boys--," he said. They sat ramrod straight with mouths full of pepperoni pizza. "What are you up to tonight?" Stiles chewed and swallowed quickly. "Uh, there's a party."

"A party?" "Yeah, Heather's birthday party."

"Oh Heather. How is she?"

"Good. She's good." Stiles said. In truth he hadn't caught up with her in a while and was surprised to receive an invitation to the party. Nonetheless he was still eager to go. "Good." Mr. Stilinksi said. Normally when they ate there was no pressure to make conversation. Now, a fear of silence hung in the kitchen.

"Well... why don't you go with them, Rhi?" Mr. Stilinski asked. Stiles almost spit out his gulp of soda, and Scott patted his friend on the back as Stiles coughed. "Um, it's okay-," she started.

"You were telling me in the car that you were excited to be a normal kid again, right? Why not?"

He sounded so hopeful that Rhiannon hesitated on her decline of his offer. "Stiles, you'd take her around, introduce her to some friends, right? Make her feel welcome?"

It wasn't a question but a command. Stiles nodded. "Yeah, yeah for sure. You should come," he said but didn't really mean it. "Great." Mr. Stilinski said and took a bite. Rhiannon met Stiles' eyes with a very slight wince. Stiles swallowed and nodded, fighting a grimace.

Rhiannon sat on the bed and looked at herself in the vanity mirror across from it. Her clothes were baggy, and were a combination of what Sheriff Stilinski had brought to her and stuff from charity donations. An old star wars shirt and athletic sweatpants-- both a size too large for her.

Mr. Stilinski said they would swing by the charity center in the morning to get her some new clothes, but she wished they had done that earlier.

After the excruciating dinner Stiles and Scott made a break for Stiles' bedroom. She tried to back out of the party but Mr. Stilinski looked crushed at the idea that she didn't feel welcome, and she didn't have the heart to go through with it.

Now she sat waiting for her final hour of reckoning. A knock sounded at her door. "Come in," she called, pretending to tie the laces on the battered converse that had been donated to her. "Are you ready?" Stiles said. He looked like a lamb for slaughter. "You don't have to bring me, Stiles. It's oka--," she said, but cut herself off at the sight of Mr. Stilinski standing at the edge.

"Don't worry. It'll be fun!" He didn't sound very enthusiastic.

The car ride was excruciating. Scott climbed in the back seat and Rhi had no choice but to sit shotgun. Stiles fumbled with his keys, dropped them, and then it took a few times of turning the key for the engine to start.

"Come on," he begged the car. "Come on." Finally, it burst to life.

Stiles let out a short laugh of relief. "She's a bit rusty."

Rhiannon nodded in acknowledgement, and looked out the window. The sky was colored a burnt orange as the sun set. They drove down the road. Scott lightly smacked Stiles on the shoulder and made eyes at him to say something. Stiles shrugged like he didn't know what to say until he finally gave in.

"Listen-- about the other day-," he started but Rhiannon interrupted. "Don't worry about it. Let's just forget the whole thing." She said firmly. Stiles couldn't object to that, and then Scott gestured for him to try again.

"Okay. Great. Forgotten. Already gone. All the memory just--," and then he got smacked in the shoulder by Scott and Stiles realized how insensitive he sounded to the amnesiac sitting passenger. Talking about forgotten memories maybe wasn't the best idea.

Rhiannon didn't know how to ease the tension but also didn't know if she even wanted to. Against her better judgement she spoke. "Thanks for taking me along but you guys don't have to bring me to the party."

"No!" Scott said quickly. "It'll be fun. Don't worry." But Rhiannon could feel that they knew it wouldn't be fun with her there, and were just doing what Stiles' dad told them to.

"I... Don't plan on staying here for long. In Beacon Hills." Rhiannon said.

"Why not?" Stiles asked. Rhiannon let out a short laugh. Because there are murderous supernatural creatures at every turn. And I'm a side character-- a villians main course. "I'm gonna go home." she responded. The boys were quiet for a moment. Right. That probably sounded really sad coming from a girl who had no home or family or memories of either.

"When I remember what home is." she added. Her quick mindedness was at the least a relief. The sun sank beneath the horizon and colored the clouds into beautiful purples and reds. She'd never been to California before, Rhiannon realized. It was pretty.

"Well in the meantime...," Stiles said trailing off. He didn't have much to say. Scott cut in, "You've got us."

Did they have her? They hardly even knew who she was. It sounded so surface-level that Rhiannon let a scoff slip.

"Right. Look- I don't need to be your friends. Your dad has been very kind to me. I don't know why, but he has. And I'm grateful to him. But you don't have to force yourselves to-," she said, but Stiles interrupted. "We're not! It'll be fun. New girl in town, fresh meat," Stiles said. Ironic, Rhi thought. "You'll fit right in."

As Scott sat in the back, he remembered again what his mother warned him. The memory flashed in his mind. She knows what you are.

"Soooo... What were you doin' out there? In the woods." Stiles said.

"Stiles." Scott said sternly. But Rhiannon responded matter-of-factly. "Waiting to get run over."

It was a joke, but they were so surprised they didn't laugh. Rhiannon sighed. This was going to be a long night.

Rhiannon had already thought through her plan of action during her stay in the hospital.

Plan A was to avoid any main characters and to get the hell out of Beacon Hills the first chance she got. Plan A was obviously dashed to the wind when Sheriff Stilinski volunteered to take her in and pushed her together with the main characters.

Plan B was to play dumb. To pretend like she didn't know anything. She wasn't crazy. She was just some poor, helpless girl who had nothing to do with the supernatural and nothing to do with Scott McCall.

Apparently, Scott had plans to scratch out Plan B too.

"My mom told me she met you. In the hospital." he said. Rhiannon froze up at the mention of Scotts mother. The way she had acted and things she said that night weren't fitting in with the whole 'nothing to do with Scott McCall' thing.

"Did she?" Rhiannon responded, trying to sound bored. His supernatural hearing picked up on the stutter of her heart.

"She said that you knew me."

"I do know you. You almost ran me over." she said.

"Right, but-," Scott started. "And you saw me naked." Rhiannon added, hoping that adding some discomfort would change the subject. It did somewhat. Stiles' face turned beet red and he shifted uncomfortably. Scott coughed. "Right. That too."

Much to Rhi's dismay, he continued. "She also said you knew what I am."

The atmosphere changed instantly. Rhi tried to cover it by playing dumb.

"What, a lacrosse player?"

"How do you know he plays lacrosse?" Stiles asked suspiciously. Rhi raised a brow and pointed a thumb to the lacrosse stick in the back seat next to Scott.

"Oh. That's mine." Stiles said.

"So you don't play lacrosse?" Rhi asked Scott. Scott tipped his head to the side. "Well.. I do-,"

"Great. Then it's settled. You're both lacrosse players."

Scott didn't know what to say. He believed his mother, but what if she was wrong? If this girl didn't know that he was a werewolf and he came out and said it, it wouldn't be good for him. Maybe she'd go around telling people he was a freak who thinks he's a wolf. Or maybe...

"That I'm a werewolf."

Stiles swerved and looked in the rear view mirror at his friend like he had gone mad.

"Is that an inside joke I'm supposed to know about?" She asked smoothly. Stiles subtly let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It was." Scott said.

They finally reached the party. There were cars parked along the street and a house lit up with lights and people lingering outside. Stiles parked and turned off the car, eager to get out of this situation as soon as possible. "Here we are! Party time." He let out an awkward laugh.

Rhi got out and opened the seat for Scott to climb out of the car. He did smoothly and she pushed it back in and moved to climb back inside. "What are you doing?" Stiles asked. "Waiting in the car." She responded as if it were obvious.

"Yourrr not coming in?" Stiles asked.

Rhi shrugged. "I don't really want to. You guys have fun. I'll be here when you're done."

Stiles looked at Scott and begrudgingly gave in. Rhi watched as they walked down the sidewalk into the frey. She recalled the mental notes about what happened that night and knew there was nothing she could do to stop a pre-existing plot from unfolding.

As Scott and Stiles walked down the sidewalk Scott glanced at his phone. One missed call from Allison. "That was a genius move. Just go ahead and tell everyone you're a werewolf. It's a great conversation starter," Stiles said sarcastically, still reeling from his best friend's leap of faith.

Scott ignored the notification and slipped the phone back into his pocket.

"She knows." Scott said. Stiles was taken aback. "What?" he asked.

"Her heart skipped a beat. She was lying."

"Maybe she just realized you're crazy." Stiles reasoned. Scott shook his head, and knew the truth.

So Rhiannon did know.

"That means she's hiding something. Why would she lie about knowing what you are?" Stiles said. "And why is she so determined to get out of Beacon Hills?" Scott added, taking note of how strange it was that she would rather wait in the car than go with them.

Stiles took the information in, glancing back at his jeep down the road. He turned back to Scott. "Do you think we can trust her?"

"No." Scott said quickly. "Not until we know how she knows I'm a werewolf."

Stiles sucked in a breath. "Great. Just great. We've got a suspicious person who came mysteriously out of the woods living in my house."

Rhiannon wished she had a journal to write down what she knew. To put it all on paper so she didn't forget anything. She made a mental note to get her hands on a journal the first chance she got.

In the meantime, she slumped in the seat and tried to remember what happened in this episode. They went to a party. Heather tries to have sex with Stiles. She gets kidnapped and sacrificed because she's a virgin.

Rhiannon's blood ran cold as a realization hit. She was a virgin. And a side character.

What if the story could change? What if she was the next sacrifice? She certainly wasn't in a good position-- alone in a car. Defenseless.

Rhiannon opened the door and ran down the street. Scott and Stiles were approaching the house.

"Wait!" Rhiannon called. They stopped and turned around. She reached them panting.

"Wait."

"What? Change your mind?" Stiles asked with an edge to his voice.

"Yes.... Yes I want to go."

She was still breathing heavily but the boys looked at each other. Scott shrugged and said, "Okay. Let's go."

Rhiannon felt relief as she stepped between them and led the way into the house. Normally she would have been riddled with anxiety at the thought of entering a party sober knowing absolutely nobody. But now, she was just relieved that she wasn't in impending doom.

She just had to stay with Scott. With Scott she would be safe.

When she entered the house a blond girl looked at her in confusion. "Stiles!" She exclaimed, but slowed as he came to a stop next to Rhi. Her expression looked a bit disappointed as she appraised Rhiannon. "Whose this?" Heather asked.

Wait, wasn't she supposed to kiss him?, Rhi thought in confusion as she looked between the two. Stiles was caught off guard but quickly recovered. "Oh! This is my new foster sister."

Foster sister. It sounded silly to Rhi, but she smiled pleasantly and held out her hand to Heather. "I'm Rhi, nice to meet you... His dad uh... made him bring me." Rhi added, noticing Heathers disappointment. Who was Rhi to stand in the way of the girl's targeted conquest?

"Oh..." Heather said, taking Rhi's hand and shaking it. Rhi grabbed Scott's forearm and dragged him forward. "And Scott," Rhi added. She met Scott's gaze with a cry for help. She knew a scorned woman when she saw one. The last thing she needed was for some girl to get the wrong idea and start unnecessary drama. "Hi," Scott said. Heather smiled tightly at them. "Do you guys want a drink?" She asked with a smile.

Rhi's brows furrowed. A drink? Wasn't she supposed to take Stiles down to the cellar and proceed to get kidnapped?

"Yeah, that'd be great!" Stiles said enthusiastically. Heather smiled at him and lead them all to the kitchen.

What is happening? The plot can change?

"Here we are," she said, handing them all freshly poured jungle juice. When Heather handed the cup to Rhi she spilled it. All down Rhi's front. Stiles' old star wars shirt and sweat pants were soaked and sticky.

"Whoops," Heather said with a vicious smile. Bitch, Rhi thought.

"Woah," Stiles said, not clocking how non-accidental the accident was. He rushed to grab a towel and started drying Rhi off. Rhi stepped back and took the towel from him. Stiles realized he had overstepped a boundary and blushed. This only seemed to piss Heather off more. "I'm sooo sorry. You can borrow some of my clothes! Scott, would you take Rhi upstairs? My room is the first door on the left."

Scott looked at Heather in confusion but Rhi smiled tightly and led the way. Behind them, she heard Heather say to Stiles, "Want to come grab a bottle of wine downstairs? This stuff isn't that good."

As Scott trailed behind Rhi, he heard her grumbling angrily. "Are you okay?" he asked. Rhi turned and saw Scott's concerned expression. She sighed.

"Boys are clueless." She said. They found her room, but a random couple was making out passionately on the bed. Rhi quickly shut the door and moved on. "I'll just wipe it off in the bathroom," she reasoned.

Scott checked his phone when it buzzed again. A notification displayed 'one message from Allison'.

"Hey, is it alright if I step out for a minute?" Scott asked. Rhi looked up at him and nodded.

"Yeah. Just don't disappear. I don't really know anyone here."

Scott nodded reassuringly. "I'll be right back."

Rhi sighed. She was alone. She took off her shirt and ran the stain under the water to scrub the fabric clean and muttered to herself about people who deserved to die.

All of a sudden, Stiles himself barreled inside and shut the door behind him. When he turned he ran straight into Rhi, who couldn't catch herself in time. "Woah!" he exclaimed, catching her by the waist and arm before they toppled over.

"Shouldn't you be in the basement?" Rhi asked. Stiles looked down at her partially naked body. His hands held her warm, bare skin. He jumped back red as ever.

"You sure do blush a lot." She commented, returning to her task of scrubbing the shirt clean. "W-w-what are you- I'm sorry! I didn't know--," he stammered. "It's fine. Nothing you haven't seen before, right?" She said, which only sent him further into stuttering embarrassment.

He looked at her as she wrung the shirt out and began to put it back on.

"Did you not find her room?" he asked. He was still breathing heavily from his quest to find a condom, but being alone with Rhi wearing nothing but a bra and his sweatpants seemed to take priority in his mind.

"Nah. Aren't you looking for something?" She asked, straightening herself out. She was wet now, but at least not soaked in mysterious alcohol. Stiles' eyes lit up at the reminder of what he was there for. Rhi opened the drawer for him. There, a box of XXL condoms sat. "Stay safe," she said as she opened the bathroom door and headed down the stairs to find Scott. Stiles reached for the box and then turned. Rhi opened the front door and much to her surprise, Stiles called her name. "Hey, where are you going?" he asked. She turned to him.

"To find Scott. Where are you going?" She asked, but he seemed to be following her out the front door.

"Where did Scott--," he started, but stopped as soon as he saw Allison, Lydia, and Scott on the front lawn. The two approached the trio.

"Allison, Lydia? What are you doing here?" Stiles asked.

The two girls looked concerned and had a serious air about them. Stiles quickly shoved the condoms in his pocket before anyone saw. "What happened?" He asked Lydia. Rhiannon noticed Lydia had a bandage over her forehead.

"Whose this?" Lydia asked, aprasing Rhiannon. Allison seemed to be doing the same. "This is Rhi. My dad is fostering her." "Fostering her?" Lydia asked severely. Rhi's eyes lingered on the bandage, but met the girls' scrutinous gaze.

Stiles nodded. Rhi shifted awkwardly. "I'll leave you guys to it-," Rhi started, but Allison quickly said, "It's alright. We were just leaving."

Allison looked to Scott, who nodded at her in some mutual understanding that Rhi wasn't included in.

Scott turned to Stiles and Rhiannon as the girls walked to their car. "What's up with them?" Stiles asked him. Scott glanced at Rhi.

"I'll tell you later." he said.

Rhi didn't know why but she felt embarrassed at the subtle exclusion. She needed to cut the silence as soon as possible, so she said the first thing that came to mind. "Stiles is gonna have sex with Heather." Rhi stated. It sounded childish coming out of her mouth. Stiles turned to Stiles incredulously. "What?" Scott exclaimed, a sudden smile blooming to his lips.

"Oh shit!" Stiles was hit with a realization, and turned and bolted inside.

Scott looked to Rhi for an explanation. She smiled and said, "He came into the bathroom looking for condoms."

He laughed. "No way." he said as they walked back inside. He was clearly ecstatic for his friend.

Rhiannon smirked and rolled her eyes. As they walked back into the party, though, Heather's friend approached them. "Hey, do you know where Heather is?" She asked. Rhi's stomach dropped. For the first time, Rhi realized what was truly happening.

"No, why?" Scott asked. "We haven't seen her. Do you know where Stiles is?" She asked looking around.

"He's in the-," Scott started, but then Stiles appeared from the basement with a look of confusion on her face.

"Heather wasn't down there." He said, sounding deeply disappointed.

"She probably went to find someone else to lose her virginity to," the friend added, turning back to her friends without a care in the world. Stiles was taken aback in offense. Scott stifled a laugh.

It didn't occur to any of them to be weary. It seemed so innocent-- Heather had just gone somewhere else. At her own party. Rhi's stomach turned over and she gripped the wet spot on her shirt.

Rhi couldn't stop herself as she said, "Wait! Are you sure she's okay? I mean-..." they all looked at her, "What if she's in trouble?"

Heather's friend scoffed as if it were the silliest thing in the world. "She's fine. She barely even had anything to drink anyway. I'll find her eventually." And with that the conversation was over. But you won't. You won't find her.

Before that moment it had all seemed like she was outside her own body staring down at this world from somewhere else. Like what she did and said didn't really matter in the end. Like this plot was something she had nothing to do with and no control over.

Except, Lydia had a cut on her forehead when she saw her just moments ago. One that wasn't there in the original plot of the story. When had Lydia gotten a forehead injury?

Upon the sight of it, Rhi had realized the truth. Somehow, her actions had an impact on this story. The butterfly effect could change everything. Even her barest of interactions could have drastic effects on what she knew to be true here.

And if that were true, then it meant she had indirectly allowed Heather to die. Without stepping in and helping when she had the chance, had Rhi been compliant in her murder?

She remembered sarcastically grumbling about the Heather's mean behavior from earlier. That seemed so long ago now in the face of the truth. This wasn't just a story anymore. This was her reality. And she had the power to change it.

"I- I don't know." Rhi said quickly to Scott and Stiles. "I don't know how to explain it, but something feels off."

Scott and Stiles met eyes and then turned back to her. Stiles sighed out his disappointment at his own fumble with Heather.

"Don't worry. Just an average day for me." He said, thinking Rhi was feeling guilty for indirectly cockblocking him (even though she hadn't in the slightest. Stiles had done that to himself.) "I'm not exactly smooth with the ladies."

Scott patted his friend on the shoulder and they lead Rhiannon back outside toward the direction of the car. "Don't you think we should find her?" Rhi asked desperately as she fell behind them. "Nah. Her friends will do that just fine. Besides, I don't think we really want to." Stiles said without hiding his disappointment as he alluded to the inappropriate activities Heather was probably partaking in currently.

Rhi stopped for a moment, her mind racing. She couldn't convince them unless she told them the truth. But what then? Would they be able to help Heather, or was it too late? Would they blame her for not saying something sooner? Maybe if they knew about her situation, they could somehow get her back home. But then wouldn't she be dragging herself into a story where she didn't belong? Opening up a new conflict that they didn't have room for? If she told them the truth, she could possibly prevent them from helping those in need? What if her attempt to save one person resulted in a domino effect that hurt many more?

Even more tormenting was the thought of changing the plot enough to not know what was coming next. To alter the timeline and leave her unable to help them in the future when it really mattered. Unable to help herself. When it really mattered.

The memory of seeing Allison for the first time flashed in her mind. She was beautiful in person. Prettier than Rhi thought of herself, which was rare because Rhiannon thought herself to be quite beautiful. And if it weren't for the white bandage across Lydia's forehead, she would have been a sight for sore eyes too.

She recalled the look in Scott's eyes as he gazed longingly at Allison. It was only for moments, but Rhi felt like she knew them. She could see Scott holding Allison's lifeless body. See him blame himself for her death.

Rhi could save her. If she planned it out well enough, she could save her.

Rhi clenched her fists. In that moment she made the difficult decision. It weighed on her shoulders despite herself. She followed the boys down the sidewalk. She ignored the idea of Heather being sacrificed.

She got into the jeep without a word.

===

Notes: Thank you all for reading.

PART FOUR

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himynameis4 · 1 year ago

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Good question. Derek arranged… something for Isaac to stay with him, and go to school at Beacon Hills High, for a time. Then Derek kicked Isaac out, and Isaac lived with the McCalls, and continued to attend Beacon Hills High. Then Allison died, and Isaac went to France with Chris… except then Chris dipped from France, so where does all that leave Isaac?

The headcanon I’ve always been attached to is that, after season 3, Isaac’s legal guardian is Marin Morrell: Deaton’s sister, the former emissary to the alpha pack, ex-school psychologist, ex-French teacher, and ex-Eichen House psychologist.

Given Morrell’s reaction to the nogitsune (see: her conversation with Stiles in Eichen House in season 3b), she has a vested interest in seeing it taken care of, like Isaac & Chris. Plus, like Isaac, she vanishes from the series after season 3.

We know she can speak French, because she taught it at Beacon Hills High. Also, Isaac took French in high school, so they have an established teacher-student relationship there. Morrell could, in theory, act as Isaac’s legal guardian in France while they watch over the nogitsune. This explanation, thankfully, means Isaac wouldn’t have been living with some random strangers in France after Chris left in season 4.

It does, however, mean that Isaac would be living with Marin Morrell: former emissary to the alpha pack. & while Morrell ultimately betrayed the alpha pack, & payed Braeden to save Isaac… she didn’t save Erica. Isaac may hold her partially responsible for Erica and Boyd’s deaths, and I think their philosophies would clash. Marin Morrell is willing to sacrifice teenagers to maintain the balance (see again: her conversation with Stiles in season 3b), and Isaac is consistently loyal to people, not ideals (staying in Beacon Hills bc of Scott in season 2, for example). Living together, especially with Morrell acting as Isaac’s legal guardian, would be a learning curve for both of them, and I think that dynamic could be very interesting.

Overall, Morrell’s always been my headcanon for Isaac’s legal guardian post-season 3. I think it makes sense, more or less. Isaac’s guardianship is really open to interpretation, though—it’s one of those things the show doesn’t clarify, like, at all. 🤷 that’s teen wolf for you.

Ok, but seriously, who’s Isaac’s guardian? His parents are both dead and his older brother is dead too. He was about 16 when he was orphaned, so is he in the foster system?

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frayededges-archived · 2 years ago

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psychology + mental health deep dive !

general mental health related trigger warnings apply. feel free to include more or exclude those facts / test results that take too much time or don’t apply, you can check out this list for more personality-related quizzes to include!

QUICK FACTS ,

diagnoses: adhd, depression, anxiety, bipolar ii (potential diagnosis, autism)

triggers: alcohol in large quantities/people being openly drunk around her, people leaving without telling her (going to the grocery store is fine, go out of town without telling her and she’s upset)

positive coping skills: developed plenty of hobbies to cope (most persistent ones are drawing and playing guitar as well as playing volleyball, lacrosse and being on her high school’s swim team), journaling, learning to ground herself

negative coping skills: running away from home, drug use (weed), self isolation, occasionally she can become angry and aggressive

attachment style: anxious

love language: quality time, physical touch & words of affirmation

myers briggs / mbti: infp

HISTORY EXPLORATION ,

are their diagnoses formal ( via a doctor, therapist, etc. ) or informal ( self diagnosis, a hunch, unrealized, etc. ) formal, she was diagnosed for the majority of her mental illnesses in eichen house.

have they ever been treated / medicated? yes, alice attends therapy and has since she left an inpatient program. she’s been prescribed anti-depressants (however, when she becomes a werewolf they stop working at the dosage she was prescribed and at that point she does end up rawdogging her mental illness for a while until they figure out how to get her meds that don’t get attacked by a supernatural system)

have they ever been hospitalized or treated on an inpatient basis? yes, alice went to eichen house when she was fifteen. it was a condition put in place for her to stay with argent, he’d help her if she agreed to help herself.

how old were they when they first started experiencing / realizing symptoms? alice’s adhd went untreated for most of elementary and middle school, however hyperactivity and attention issues were often noted in parent teacher meetings, however no one suggested it might be something diagnosable, only that it impacted alice’s school work and classmates. still, she’d skipped a grade early on so no one worried too much. as for her other troubles, the first signs started showing up when her mom got diagnosed with cancer. when things were bad, alice would have nightmares and panic attacks.

do they have a family history of mental illness? yes, alice’s father was an addict. however any further diagnosis is unknown.

how was mental health handled / discussed in the family? until alice came along, it wasn’t. there was some discussion of her attention issues, but that wasn’t often really a conversation about mental health as much as it was about her flaws and why she couldn’t just sit still. discussion surrounding mental health started when alice went to eichen house, it was made clear then and there that what was going on with alice wasn’t a character flaw.

what are their thoughts on mental health / their diagnosis? at first alice resented argent for insisting she get help. she knew she needed it, but getting help meant change and she’d had quite enough of that the year she went to eichen house. she’s come to be okay with it and looks forward to therapy for the most part. she doesn’t feel like there’s something wrong with her anymore. it’s something wrong with her brain but SHE isn’t wrong.

in what ways has their diagnosis shaped their life or experiences?

SYMPTOMS: note that all of the below are, on their own, normative and typical aspects of human functioning. they become “symptoms” when they last longer than “normal” or when they pose a significant impact on someone’s life / functioning.

BOLD all that are present, ITALICIZE those that are resolved or in the history.

depression. anxiety. panic attacks. dissociation. derealization. depersonalization. suicidal ideation. self harm. homicidal ideation. psychosis. auditory hallucinations. visual hallucinations. delusions. mania. hypomania. racing thoughts. hyperactivity. attention difficulty. flashbacks. nightmares. hyperarousal. hypoarousal. hypersexuality. hyposexuality. psychopathy. risky behavior. catatonia. somatic / bodily concerns. mutism. phobia. agoraphobia. hoarding. obsessions. compulsions. body dysmorphia. hair picking. skin picking. amnesia. illness anxiety / hypochondria. sensory loss. speech difficulty. comprehension difficulty. communication difficulty. tics. defiant behavior. irritable mood. vindictiveness. aggression. pyromania. kleptomania. paranoia. attention seeking. narcissism. avoidance. dependency. pica. rumination. food restriction. food binging. purging. soiling the bed. insomnia. fatigue. sexual dysfunction. delirium. developmental delays.

explanations / elaborations on any of the above symptoms:

in terms of self harm, alice never actively self harmed in the ways one might imagine. she did however often put herself in danger by running away from home when things got bad, and using drugs to numb everything and distract herself. whenever she ran away from home, she knew it would be worse for her when she got back. she usually ran away anyway though.

tagged by: stole from @seesgood lia you’re a goddess

tagging: @thumperking + VIEWERS LIKE YOU!

#drug use tw #self harm tw #mental illness tw #lies of omission . . . [ DASH GAMES ]*#the lone wolf dies . . . [ META & COMMENTARY ]*

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stetervault · 4 years ago

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Hey, love the blog!!! I was wondering if you had any fics where Talia is terrible to Peter and/or Stiles? I know that's a lot of fics so maybe ones where it's a notable plot point? Thanks!

Here are some I know, with various levels of bad alpha/sister/all-around person!Talia (some have her redeemable, others not so much):

IBDC: Teen Wolf by moonstalker24 --> Pretend to be dating AU Part 1 & Part 2

Peter pretends to be Stiles' boyfriend, which quickly evolves into being his actual boyfriend.

The Sphinx of Beacon Hills by Guede (Stetopher)

Stiles is a sphinx, and he’s winging his way to visit his buddy Scott when a storm drops him in Beacon Hills, the craziest, crankiest, coldest place ever. And somehow, he ends up with a bunch of werewolves.

The Other Husband by Therapeutic_Steter

Tumblr Prompt: You start working with your spouse and everyone thinks you're cheating because they don't know that's your spouse.

Home by Ragga

Don't be like him, they would say, and then add, or else you get burned.

Unable to bear the whispers any longer, This One left. He forsook those who forsook him, left him bear his scars alone, the scars he bore for his herd. It was better to be alone, stay off the currents, than swim with those most undeserving of his loyalty. So mote it be.

That is, until he met That One.

Ink Blossoms by Triangulum

"So, you're going to ruin your niece's baby shower with flowers in the wrong color?" the florist, Stiles, asks when they reach the counter. He pulls out a binder and starts flipping through it.

"Not ruin. Mildly inconvenience," Peter says.

"Right, messing with a hormonal pregnant woman seems like a great plan."

"To be fair, her fiance and the father of her baby is my ex-boyfriend," Peter says. "And we weren't broken up when they started 'dating'."

Stiles looks up at him in surprise. "And you're still getting her flowers?" he asks.

"It's under duress, I assure you," Peter says. He absolutely wouldn't be here if his alpha hadn't ordered it.

"Well, shit, yeah, let's get you some purple revenge flowers," Stiles says.

God Only Knows by katiemorag

Peter still couldn't quite believe he was being made to attend his niece's wedding, reason number one being that her fiancé was Peter's ex, who had cheated on Peter with Laura.

There's also the slight issue of his entire family refusing to believe that his boyfriend, Stiles, actually exists.

You Are so Much Better Than I Ever Knew Before by lavenderlotion

“Oh sweetheart,” Kate cooed, voice sickly sweet and obviously fake. “You didn’t think you were dating...did you?”

Stiles just stood there, still in shock and only coherent enough to shrug his shoulders. “Oh sweetie, that is just too cute. No, Der-Bear here just needed something to keep his cock warm while I was away visiting family.”

what the dust reveals by WindyRein

That one where Stiles and Peter are soulmates and there's spy-assassins and wings and other stuff.

You Just Got Ghosted! by Ragga

“What’s your name, angel?” little Stiles murmured even as his eyes fell closed, quickly losing his battle against sleep.

Stiles smiled. It was a little sad but also heavy with the knowledge that what he was doing was the right thing—heavy with the knowledge he didn’t deserve the moniker bestowed upon him.

“You can call me Mietek.”

Or the one where there's time travel, feels abound, two Stiles in one timeline, and one of them stuck somewhere between the planes of existence. Yet a ghost can still manage to save the day and get the girl. Or the wolf. Manly wolf. Because Peter.

Toothed Morality (Send Me Flowers) by rightsidethru

“The world is a dark place, moje kochanie; it is one filled with monsters, always ready to gobble you whole. Be wary of the promises they give: seal every vow with blood and bone and Name. A True Name, one that will bind them to their word.”

“But how will I know that they’re telling the truth, Matka? Couldn’t they lie…?”

“You’ll know, mały płomień.”

Send Newts by Bunnywest

The first thing Peter notices is that Talia’s smiling, and that in itself makes him suspicious. When he sees that Laura’s smiling too, his distrust intensifies. “What?” he demands? “What is it?” Talia’s smile widens as she serves him a cup of tea, made just how he likes it. “Just wondering if your new husband knows you’re such a curmudgeon in the mornings,” she says sweetly. Peter’s cup clatters against the table and the tea spreads in a puddle, ignored. “My what?” “New husband,” Laura chimes in, and then she’s wrapping her arms around Peter’s neck, and saying, “Thank you, Uncle Peter,” and hugging him tight, and the memory of last night tugs at him again. What happened again, exactly?

The Various Triumphs of Mischief Bilinski by Whispering_Sumire

"Hello, Chris," sings a honeyed voice from behind.

Chris' attention snaps toward the intruder, his gun already out of its' holster and aimed at whoever it is — a boy, apparently, with braided russet hair, a red jacket, and wise eyes. He's wearing a gas mask, but Chris can tell by the way his eyes crinkle around the edges, the way sun-burnt sand swirls in his irises, that he's smiling.

Chris cocks his gun.

"You killed my father," he says.

"No offence, but he totally deserved it," the stranger agrees with cheerful solemnity.

"What the hell are you doing in my home?" Chris demands. The kid is perched on a windowsill in Chris' office, as nonchalantly as if this were something he did every day, as if they were familiar.

"I was just wondering," the kid speaks softly, fond amusement sewn through with a peculiar resignation, "how you'd feel about putting down some nazis?"

[Or: The one where Stiles goes back in time and subsequently fucks with everything.]

The Devil You Know by Triangulum

Hell is busy and Peter is understaffed. There are too many evil people being sent down below and there are only so many demons Peter has to torture them with. He needs to reorganize. They don't utilize group torture nearly as much as they should. Stiles probably has some ideas on that.

Peter is King of Hell, Stiles is his second in command, and Talia summons them for a favor.

Call Me Mary Poppins by Triangulum (Stetopher)

Chris pinches the bridge of his nose and says, "You're telling me you want to fuck the nanny?"

"Don't be ridiculous, it's nothing as stereotypical as that, Christopher. This isn't porn. I want to seduce her," Peter says.

A Stetopher nanny AU that wasn't really asked for.

Follow My Lead by Inell (Peter/Laura/Cora/Derek/Stiles)

Peter can’t quite figure out what’s so appealing about the young agent questioning them about his sister’s murder, but he does know that Agent Stilinski is more than he seems.

The Perceptions of You and I by lavenderlotion

“Baby, why did your secretary ask me if I was here under duress?”

Peter looks at him, blinks slowly, and then tilts his head to the side before asking, “She what?”

“She asked if you were forcing me to be here,” Stiles says, eyes flicking across the room to where said assistant is standing at the punch bowl. “She wanted to know if you were blackmailing me or threatening me.”

“She thinks you’re here under duress because Peter is such a terrifying bastard there’s no way a human Omega would be with him otherwise.”

Rent-a-Date by RebaK1tten

If Peter has to spend Christmas with his family, he's going to have a buffer. Even if he has to get him off a website.

Pissing Off The Straights by Therapeutic_Steter

platypusesrneat asked: Peter's family is alive, rich, and complete assholes. Peter can't stand them and is trying to get out of going to their stupid party. Cue Stiles saving the day!

Prayers to a Lesser God by Green

When the Hales are trapped in a house fire, Peter prays to every deity he's ever read about. Miraculously, one answers his call.

this (let's remember) by sinequanon

Peter has always done his pack's dirty work, but it's not until his sister locks him away in Eichen House that he realizes that he has other priorities.

A Romeo and Juliet type story featuring less suicide and more murder.

Don't Come For His Family by lavenderlotion

In the three years Stiles had been with Peter, the man had only talked about his family a handful of times - and as far as Stiles knew had never once spoken to them. So he wasn’t exactly excited to see the mans family, even though that’s exactly what they were about to do.

It does not go to plan.

Beautiful Like Birds by Whispering_Sumire

"Stiles?" he asks, turning on the light, and Stiles looks at him- eyes wide, a flicker of utter devotion and heartbreaking joy passing his features before his whole face crumples and-

"Daddy?"

John has never seen his son like this, or maybe he has, when Claudia died, but it's different somehow, more, and terrifying because he has no idea why. He's closed half the distance between them before he even has time to think it through, but it doesn't matter because Stiles has bridged the rest and flung himself into John's arms.

He falls apart like that, holding onto John so tightly that it's hard to breathe, but he can't care about that right now because his son is sobbing and chanting "Daddy," desperately into his shoulder.

[Or, the one where Stiles goes back in time to save the world, and surprisingly, survives to tell the tale.]

We Three Can Rule The World by Whispering_Sumire (Steterek)

"Hello," he says softly, setting his fiddle down in his lap, not bothering to stand.

"Hi," Derek replies, half-gruff, then, because he should, "that was- that was beautiful but... you know this is private property, right?"

The boy throws his head back and laughs, and laughs, and laughs. The sound of it is overwhelming in its childish joy, and his eyes positively sparkle when they land on Derek again.

"Yes," he says, unashamed "I knew." Then he's standing, fiddle and bow in one hand, the other stretched out toward Derek, friendly and welcoming, "My name is Stiles."

[Or: The one where there's a fiddler, and two werewolves whose eyes flash blue, and a whole fucking world to conquer.]

The Alpha Thief by Triangulum

Something changes around the time Peter turns thirty. His wolf becomes malcontent and angry. His control, impeccable since he was a child, starts to slip, that inner rage leaking out. Talia's iron clad control over the pack chafes him. He can't explain why, but it feels like his world shifts. Pack members he's grown up with suddenly leave with barely an explanation, without a goodbye. His parents' deaths, something that occurred over five years ago, suddenly feel raw, everything after their passing he remembers feeling stilted and wrong.

What if Malia's existence wasn't the memory Talia took from Peter? And what if memories weren't the only thing she stole?

#ask #steter #teen wolf #fanfic rec #bad alpha talia #stetopher #steterek

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angels-creative · 3 years ago

Note

📓👀👀👀

I hope it’s okay I give you my only Teen Wolf Stiles fic (I’ve adjusted it a bit). Also, I totally made this summary up off the top of my head, so… don’t blame me if it isn’t any good!

After the death of his best friend, Scott McCall, in the Beacon Hills Preserve, at the hands of a mountain lion, Stiles Stilinski’s world has crumbled all at once. He’s witnessed the death of his best friend, tried in vain to tear his body away and to safety, and was covered in blood as he watched Scott’s throat be clawed out of his once-screaming lungs. To say Stiles simply isn’t doing too well would be a massive understatement. The understatement of the year, in fact, if they gave out trophies for that.

Having lost his wife already and not willing to lose his son as well, Stilinski does everything he can, but it’s not enough. His efforts aren’t stronger than the night terrors, the hallucinations, the sleeping too much or not at all that wrack Stiles’ mind. He knows this and, knowing that he will lose Stiles if he continues down this path, signs him into Eichen House, where the only items Stiles decides to bring him are his pillow and Scott’s unwashed, blood-stained hoodie from the very night the mountain lion took his life. Stilinski may want his son to recover from Scott’s death, but that doesn’t mean he wants Scott’s memory to be forgotten completely.

Once signed into Eichen House, Stiles becomes a well-known famous patient, and becomes emotionally withdrawn from friends and family. He switches between denial and thinking Scott’s still alive, still at school or comatose, to knowing he isn’t and being reduced to tears, constantly thinking that there was something he could’ve done.

While attending group therapy, he meets long-term resident Peter Hale, who was admitted after receiving severe burns from the Hale house fire. There, Peter tells him that there is a way to bring Scott back, and that ‘way’ is an ancient ritual that, when done on the full moon, can bring the deceased back for a week. Wanting to bring Scott back and knowing he’ll never recover unless he sees his best friend again, Stiles heeds Peter’s warning, but goes through with the plan nonetheless. However, Peter happened to leave out one very important detail: Scott will come back as a werewolf.

Knowing they can’t stay at Eichen House, Stiles then ditches the place and drags his crush since third-grade, pretty and popular Lydia Martin, into it as well. Now having roped her into their plan, Scott and Stiles must go off the grid and avoid all the authorities that are after them, searching specifically for Stiles Stilinski and Scott McCall’s body.

#teen wolf #Scott McCall #stiles stilinksi #peter hale #lydia martin #I should really write this at some point #writing #writing stuff #angel answers #ask me things #ask me shit

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simply-ellas-stuff · 4 years ago

Text

Seeker 2 from Charmed / General Gregor from Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Larry Purcell from NCIS

Mitchell Blair from Stitchers / Samuel Townsend from TURN: Washingtons Spies

Albert Cook from Lethal Weapon / Ted Rainford from Switched at Birth

Steve McGarrett from Hawaii Five-0

Doctor Roderick Campbell from The Gifted

Eichen House Attendant from Teen Wolf

Noshiko Yukimura from Teen Wolf

Marcy from Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life / Amber Holt from Parenthood / Mary Elizabeth from The Perks of Being A Wallflower

Sonia from The Last Witch Hunter / Winsome from Sons of Anarchy

Kelsey Vargas from Kickin' It

King Ezekiel from The Walking Dead

Emma Kurtzman from The Fosters / Erica Straffman from Kickin' It

Bill Cadogan from The 100 / Tucker Shockley from Agents of SHIELD

Steve Brady from Sex and The City

Lieutenant Althea Jarry from Sons of Anarchy

Cupid/Coop from Charmed

Donna Lerner from Sons of Anarchy

Coach Marmer from Kickin' It

So I'm watching Criminal Minds [spoilers for the first six seasons, that's as far as I have gotten].

Jasper from Twilight is a mess of a human being and... somehow got locked in his own mind??... still confused about that one.

Mike from Twilight is an over-privileged dick.

Lydia from Teen Wolf needs some serious therapy after the shit she's been through.

Keith from One Tree Hill is a bad guy and I don't like it.

I'm sure I'll notice more, but... For now that's all I'll add more when I find more people I recognize LMFAO

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tw-anchor · 4 years ago

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40. Unusual Halloween

Anchor Stiles Stilinski x Original Character

Episode: 3x16; Illuminated

Word Count: 8,199

Warning(s): Mature language, canon violence + gore, sex scene (18+ only!)

Author’s Note: Hey guys, sorry I haven’t updated lately. This has been the busiest--and worst--season of my life, so I haven’t felt up to writing much. Unfortunately, it will probably be a while until I update again because I’m starting my new job full time next week while going to school full time as well. Wish me luck! I hope you enjoy the chapter and please make sure to tell me what you think, reblog, and like!

"So, when did you get there?"

If Olivia had to stare at Agent Rafael McCall for another five minutes, she was gonna punch him in the face. She wouldn't be at fault, either; how could she be responsible for her actions when she just went through something as traumatic as a teenager could go through? A serial killer kidnapped her new friend and they all rescued her, but they were the ones being questioned? Where was the justice in the world?

Yeah, if she did end up punching Scott's dad in the face, she would totally blame it on her stressful night. It wasn't because she couldn't stand the smug son of a bitch; even if he wasn't a dick when they first crossed paths, she still wouldn't be able to tolerate him—especially because of what he was doing to Noah. And now, after he ushered in Olivia, Stiles, Scott, Kira, and Lydia into Noah's office, he was asking repetitive questions about their experience.

Hey, Olivia was all for justice and all that—but what exactly could the FBI do about a bunch of werewolves, a banshee, an anchor, and whatever the hell Kira was? Barrow was after kids with glowing eyes and as far as the up-tops were concerned, no such thing existed. They put Barrow in the Eichen House for a reason.

To put it simply, she was not in the best of moods. Kira was some kind of supernatural creature that could absorb electricity, Stiles and Scott were almost electrocuted to death by Barrow, and Isaac was at the Argents, his tether recovering from what had happened to him, even though she had no idea what that was. She did not want to be at the police station at midnight, squished into a small couch with Stiles, Scott, and Kira—Lydia was the lucky one with the armchair—while the jolly green giant questioned them.

To her left, Stiles responded, "At the same time."

"At the same time as who?"

"At the same time as me," Scott told his father.

"By coincidence?"

"What do you mean coincidence?"

Things were not helped when Stiles decided it was time to be a sarcastic little shit. It was well known that Stiles hated Agent McCall—she had heard many, many rants about his best friend's dad—so everyone knew what he was doing. Answering questions with questions, offering sarcastic quips that answered nothing, and silent smirks were what they've been having to deal with since their questioning started. Olivia loved Stiles Stilinski, she really did, but he was wasting their time, precious time where they could be sleeping. He really lived up to his mischievous name.

"That's what I'm asking you," Agent McCall gestured to Stiles and Scott. "The two of you arrived at the same time. Was that coincidence?"

Scott's face twisted in confusion. "Are you asking me?"

"I think he's asking me," Stiles mused.

"I think he's asking the both of you," Lydia said dryly, as annoyed with the boys' antics as Olivia was.

"Okay," Agent McCall interjected sternly. "Let me answer the questions."

Olivia rolled her eyes at him, completely unimpressed with his sense of professionalism, and glanced at Stiles. His lips were pursed ridiculously, like he was taking a selfie with the terribly cliché duck face; she had to admit, it did make her want to laugh, especially when she caught sight of Noah holding back his own laughter.

Seeing the amused faces staring back at him, Agent McCall realized his mistake. "Let me ask the questions," he corrected himself. "Just so I have this absolutely clear: Barrow was hiding in the chemistry closet at the school. Someone left him a coded message on the blackboard telling him to kill Kira. Then Barrow took Kira to a power substation and tied her up with the intent of electrocuting her, which blacked out the entire town."

He closed his notebook, where he had been writing down the information they gave him, with a final snap.

"Sounds about right," Stiles sighed; with his right hand, he idly played with the ends of Olivia's ponytail.

"How'd you know he'd take her to a power station?"

"Well, cause he was an electrical engineer," Stiles scratched his temple with his free hand. He shifted his other away from Olivia until it was folding over his stomach. "Where else would he take her?"

There were a billion other places that Barrow had taken Kira, but they couldn't exactly tell Agent McCall that they knew they were at a power station because of Lydia's newfound banshee abilities. Then they'd be shipped to Eichen.

Agent McCall raised a dubious eyebrow at him. "That's one hell of a deduction there, Stiles."

"Yeah, what can I say? I take after my pops, he's in law enforcement," Stiles swiftly smirked, winking at his dad from where he sat behind McCall.

Noah audibly snorted, amused by his son's answer, but covered it with an awkward cough when McCall gave him a glare. "Stiles, just answer the man."

"We made a good guess," Stiles said finally, wrapping his arm back around Olivia's shoulders. She closed her tired eyes and rested her head in the crook of his neck, inhaling and relaxing at the scent that was pure him. Stiles always smelt so good, like sandalwood and musk and minty gum.

Agent McCall set his sights on Scott and Kira. "What were the two of you doing?"

"Eating pizza," Scott answered at the same time as Kira spoke, "Eating sushi."

Olivia rolled her eyes but didn't bother opening them; couldn't they have gotten their story straight before McCall started questioning them?

Scott and Kira glanced at each other awkwardly and cleared their throats.

"Eating sushi."

"Eating pizza."

Jesus Christ.

"Eating sushi and pizza," they finally said together.

Olivia opened her eyes just as McCall looked back at Noah in disbelief. "Do you believe this?"

"To be honest, I haven't believed a word Stiles has said since he learned how to speak," Noah spoke candidly, ignoring the offended gasp Stiles gave in response. "But I think these kids found themselves in the right place at the right time and that girl sitting there is very lucky for it."

"Kira," all heads turned to her when Agent McCall addressed her. "is that how you remember it?"

At once, Stiles, Olivia, and Lydia leaned forward to stare at Kira, giving her their own keep-your-mouth-shut looks. Kira only hesitated for a second before she answered him. "Yes...Could I get my phone back now?"

The police hadn't taken the rest of their phones, but apparently Barrow had started videoing Kira while in the power station. It was officially evidence. Which meant...

"Sorry, but no," McCall refused her as he stood from his seat on Noah's desk. "All right, I think that's it for now. If I have anymore questions, I'll get in touch with you. Kira, a deputy is going to take you home but we'll need you to fill out some paperwork first."

Olivia sighed in relief once they were ushered out of Noah's office. Sticking close to Stiles and Lydia and as they exited the police station, she pulled out her phone. She needed to call Isaac and see if he was okay. Because while Scott and Stiles were in danger with Barrow, Isaac had some other trouble that he had gone into.

There was no electricity pulsing through Beacon Hills unless it came from a generator. Despite this, the students of Beacon Hills High still had to attend their regular classes. Though the sun provided some light in the dark hallways and classrooms, everyone was still bathed in shadows and had to resort to their phones for flashlights if it was too dark for them.

Thankfully, Olivia's house had a generator that ran long enough for the food in their refrigerator to stay fresh and their phones to stay charged. She didn't want to be one of those people, but she would be seriously lost without her phone.

"Class starts in five minutes," Coach boomed through his trusty megaphone as he walked past Stiles' locker where he and Olivia stood before classes started. "Just because there's no power don't expect there to be no school."

Olivia looked up from her phone to narrow her eyes at him, knowing that something was off with that sentence.

"That was a triple negative," Stiles called out as he dug through his locker. "Very impressive, Coach."

"Copy that!"

Olivia snickered and shifted so she was leaning on her side at the lockers next to Stiles'. "Your relationship with Coach is so intriguing."

Stiles chuckled at her, smirking. "What, like how madly in love we are?"

"Exactly," Olivia laughed while pointing a manicured finger at him. "So, am I considered the side chick, or...?"

"Actually, you are," Stiles nodded seriously. "By the way, on a completely unrelated note, I have to cancel tonight's plans. I'm busy..."

"You're gonna Netflix and Chill with Coach? Damn..."

Stiles' amused face immediately creased into one of disgust. "Okay, gross. We took it too far."

Olivia laughed, her heart racing when Stiles gave into his amusement and chuckled along with her.

"Speaking of tonight," Olivia said when their laughter died down. "I'm kinda, sorta, throwing a party?"

Stiles blinked at her in shock. "You hate parties."

"But I don't hate Danny and every year he throws a Halloween party," she explained. "Jackson's not here to help him out and now with the power out, he doesn't have a place, so Lydia and I offered our house because we have the generators."

"At least I'll finally be invited to one of Danny's parties," Stiles paused and looked down at her with wide eyes. "I am invited, right?" when Olivia teasingly grimaced; Stiles' jaw dropped in offense. "Livvy!"

"Of course you're invited, sweetcheeks," Olivia rolled her eyes at him and shifted closer to him in order to wrap her hands around his right arm. "I was just teasing you."

"I have a fragile heart, you can't tease me about that kind of stuff," Stiles ducked down so he could whisper in her ear, his lips grazing against her skin. Olivia shivered and tightened her grip on him. "You know, unless we're alone, hopefully in a bed, though I wouldn't be against a shower or the back of Roscoe..."

Olivia held back her gasp but biting her lip. "But your fragile heart...?"

Stiles chuckled and quickly pressed his warms lips against the sensitive spot behind her ear. "You caught me. My heart's fine, it just beats really fast in your presence so I thought I might have a heart condition."

"You're so fucking cheesy, Stiles Stilinski," she giggled and lightly pushed him away from her. In the process, Stiles' backpack brushed against his locker, making his keys fall to the floor. "Oops, sorry."

"It's fine—and you love my cheesiness, by the way," Stiles winked at her and then bent to retrieve his key ring. He paused when he noticed a key that he didn't recognize. "Hello, where did you come from?"

"What, the key?" Stiles nodded at her; Olivia shrugged. "Maybe your dad put it on there. Oh, there's Scott."

Stiles, who was about to disagree with her about the key, turned around to see his best friend stepping into school. He waved at him, but Scott's focus was not on Stiles or Olivia. No, Scott was staring at Kira, who was at her locker down the hall. Before Scott could even take another step in her direction, Stiles quickly intervened.

"No, no, stop, stop," he directed Scott over to Olivia by his locker.

Scott gave him a disgruntled look. "What? I need to talk to her."

"No, you need to remember someone left a coded message telling Barrow to kill her," Stiles corrected him.

Olivia sighed. To be honest, she was with Scott on this one. Kira had a serial bomber go after her and try to kill her, and though she was mysteriously able to survive an astounding electric blast, Kira was a sweet girl and they needed to check up on her. It was out of the norm for her, she was fully aware, but since Kira was like them—at least, she was supernatural—maybe she needed friends, or a pack, to help her along. Olivia and Scott were willing to extend that olive branch.

"That's why he needs to talk to her, Stiles."

Stiles gave her a betrayed look. "Don't take his side!" he looked at her and Scott sternly. "Guys, until we figure out if she's just another psychotic monster that's going to start murdering everybody, I vote against any and all interaction."

"Stiles, she uses an elephant backpack, for crying out loud," Olivia rolled her eyes. "Does that seem psychotic to you?"

Stiles cocked his head, seriously considering her question. Before he could answer, Scott spoke, "What if she's like me?"

Scott's comment seemed to make up Stiles' mind. "That girl walked through 1.21 gigawatts of electricity," he pointed out, annoyed, and slammed his locker shut. "She's not like you."

Olivia turned her head toward Kira's locker. Kira seemed nervous, as though she could feel their eyes on her, as she rummaged through her locker. Quickly, she grabbed a textbook, shut her locker, and walked away, glancing back at them only once.

"Maybe Stiles is right," Olivia gave in, looking over at Scott. "Werewolves can't take that level of electricity. So...until we find out what Kira is, maybe you need to give her some space."

Stiles gave her a proud look while Scott sighed and shook his head. "Fine," he finally agreed. "Let's go to class."

Together, they walked to physics class. Today was the first day that Olivia's aunt, Natalie, would be taking over Mr. Harris' classes. Olivia was very proud of her aunt and excited to be able to learn from her, as she usually didn't have time to sit down and discuss the sciences with her whilst at her previous job at the local television station. No longer would they have subpar substitute teachers trying to teach them about higher levels of science—if Olivia was going to be challenged for the rest of the year, she needed a real science guy and Natalie more than fit the bill.

"Scott, Stiles," Natalie greeted the boys when they passed her to find their shared table. "Olivia, sweetheart, can we talk?"

"Sure, Aunt Nat," Olivia stepped aside to allow her classmates to walk into the room. "What's up? Are you nervous for your first class? Because you don't have to be. You're gonna be amazing."

Natalie smiled gratefully. "Well, thank you, Liv, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I know we discussed the party at the house tonight, but Sherry's house doesn't have power, so I was hoping we could have book club at our house. We're the only ones with working generators..."

Olivia smiled to hide her disappointment. "Don't worry about it, Aunt Nat. I'm sure book club will be fun. I have to go talk to Danny, though..."

"Of course," Natalie nodded. "I have to pass out these worksheets anyway."

Olivia gave her aunt one last smile before scurrying over to the lab table where Danny was seated. Usually she and Lydia were lab partners and Danny shared with Aiden, but they could handle a switch for one day. She clambered onto the lab stool next to Danny, and gave Lydia, who was seated at the table in front of them, a significant look. Lydia could read her easily and since she knew about the party plans, she was able to realize that something was going on.

"You're my lab partner today, huh?" Danny gave Olivia a confused look.

"It's because I have bad news. We can't use my house tonight, my aunt's having book club."

Danny visibly deflated. "So we have no venue?"

"Do we know of another place that's big enough for a party and has generators?" Olivia mused. The only other place that she, personally, could think of was Derek's loft. Derek would never go for it, would he? "Wait a second..."

Every Halloween, since Derek was around fourteen, his mom, Talia, would take him and Laura to a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was very shocking that Derek enjoyed such an event, but he never failed to go each year, even after Talia died. Olivia had been with to the show with her cousins once, and though she liked the movie, she didn't much enjoy being surrounded by strangers who sang louder than the actors or threw stuff at the screen.

Yes, she was entirely aware that she was a party-pooper, thank you very much. The point was that Derek wouldn't be at the loft, as the nearest showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show was an hour away. He'd be gone all night and would be none the wiser of a party.

Danny perked up, seeing the scheming look on her face. "You have a plan, don't you?"

"I know a place where we can have your party."

She pulled out her phone to text Derek.

Ollie: Are you still going to Rocky Horror?

Derek: Yeah, why?

Ollie: Jw. Have fun and be safe!

When Stiles thought about how his Halloween was supposed to go, he certainly hadn't thought of today's events. He'd been expecting a scary movie marathon with Olivia by his side, allowing him to hide his head in her neck at the scary parts. He'd been expecting them to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters that stumbled upon the Sheriff's house because the Stilinski's always gave out the best candy in their neighborhood.

He wasn't, however, expecting a rave at Derek's loft—that Olivia helped plan, by the way—or helping Scott and Kira break into the police station.

When Scott had approached Stiles, asking for help get into the police station, he had immediately said no. Agent Jackass McCall was already trying to get his dad impeached, and there was no way he was taking part in any plot that could get Noah into even more trouble. Unfortunately, he felt obligated to change his tune when Scott told him exactly why he and Kira needed to break into Agent McCall's office.

Apparently Kira had already known that something was off with her before the Barrow incident. She had taken a picture of herself and found a sort of aura around her, one that definitely couldn't be explained if you didn't know about the supernatural happenings in the world. Now that McCall had Kira's phone, he had access to that picture and they absolutely could not let him know about the supernatural side to Beacon Hills, let alone his son's current nature.

So, instead of helping Olivia, Danny, and the twins set up the rave at Derek's loft, he was stuck playing sidekick. Fun. Yeah, it was totally what he wanted to do on Halloween.

Bitterly, he chewed up the rest of the Snickers bar he had been snacking on and threw the wrapper away in the small bin he kept in the backseat of his jeep. When he turned back, facing the front, he saw Scott and Kira pull up on Scott's bike.

All right, here we go.

It wasn't that Stiles didn't like Kira—honestly, he didn't know enough about her to like or dislike her—but he certainly didn't trust her. After everything they went through since Scott was bitten by Peter, how was he supposed to trust anyone new? Especially when she happened to be immune to electricity and instantly took a shining to Scott.

Stiles grabbed the station keycards that he had sneakily copied from Noah and handed them to Scott one by one. "Okay, this one will get you into all of the perimeter doors," he passed another one. "this one into the evidence room, and this one's for my father's office."

Scott looked at him, alarmed. "You didn't steal these, did you?"

"No, I cloned them using the RFID emulator."

It was clear that Scott nor Kira had no idea what he was talking about. "Is that worse than stealing?"

Stiles rolled his eyes; the two of them had done a lot worse than stealing before. "It's smarter."

Scott nodded, his lips quirking up, impressed by Stiles' actions but he was quickly pulled away by Kira. "Scott, can I ask you something?"

Stiles narrowed his eyes at her. That wasn't suspicious at all. "Okay, I'll just...wait here..."

Luckily, Kira and Scott's conversation was brief. They joined him back at the jeep, Kira smiling widely up at him. "Okay."

"Okay," Stiles mimicked her, raising his eyebrows as he glanced between her and Scott. "So, now almost everybody's out dealing with the blackout, but there's always somebody at the front desk, dispatch and usually a night shifter or two," he pointed at the only door in the alley where he and Scott parked. "You guys are gonna use the service door entrance by the dumpster, all right? Nobody uses it."

Scott and Kira glanced at the service door and nodded obediently.

"Now, I'll text you if anyone comes out," Stiles continued. "But, Scott, if you get caught, I can't help you. My dad's under investigation for an impeachment because of your dad, so if anything happens, I will run and leave you both for dead."

Kira blinked and smiled nervously at him while Scott nodded, knowing how serious he was. "I got it. Seriously, dude, thanks."

Stiles pressed his lips together and nodded. "I'd ask my dad, but you know..."

"No, I know," Scott assured him earnestly. "I get it."

"All right, just, uh, hurry up," Stiles waved them off. "Be careful."

Scott and Kira scurried off and once they were inside, Stiles let a big sigh of relief. Hopefully they'd have no trouble and get in and out after deleting the pictures on Kira's phone. However, a part of him knew that it wouldn't be that simple. When were they ever given the easy way out? The answer was that they didn't; they had notoriously bad luck.

Stiles waited silently, impatiently fiddling with his key ring. He tossed them round and round his index finger until he caught sight of the key he had noticed earlier at school. He didn't know what it was for and he knew the purpose for all of his keys. He had his house keys, his jeep keys, his dad's car keys, Scott's house keys, and even Olivia's house keys...but this key? Well, he had never seen it before and it was bugging him out. How could he not remember putting a new key on his key ring? How else would it have gotten there?

Bright headlights seared his eyes for a moment as a vehicle pulled into the alleyway behind the station. He didn't know who it was that had parked there until the headlights went off and the man got out of his car; Stiles would recognize that tall, lanky figure anywhere.

Fucking asshole, he cursed to himself as McCall rounded the front of his car. Fuck, Scott, where are you? Come on. Oh, fuck it. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Despite telling Scott upfront that he would leave him and Kira, he couldn't do it.

"Fuck," he opened his door and jumped out as McCall entered the station. "I'm go going to regret this."

He quickly ran around the building, entering only a few seconds after Agent McCall flashed his badge to the deputy at the front desk.

"Hey, hey!" he called, waving to the workers at the desk before catching up to McCall. "Wow!" he exclaimed when the agent turned to face him, confused. "Thank God you are here. Oh, boy! Thank the lord!"

As always, Agent McCall was not impressed with his antics. "What do you want, Stiles?"

Shit, now he had to come up with something to talk about. "I was...I was just...I was thinking on the case," he blurted out nervously, his absentminded thoughts taking over for him. "I was thinking I should clue you in on my thinking. Here's my thinking, I was thinking this..."

He grimaced at the annoyed glare McCall was giving him. "I was thinking that Barrow, right...I was thinking that Barrow received the information about who to kill at the school, right, you know that?" he was fully aware he was rambling but the more his brain worked, the better he felt about this excuse of a conversation. "So, I was thinking that maybe the person who gave him that information—check this out—might actually be someone at the school."

Agent McCall raised his eyebrows and Stiles laughed awkwardly, poking his chest. "And that's, uh, my thinking."

McCall hummed for a moment, eyeing him suspiciously Stiles honestly thought that he was caught and he had just given him the very reason to fire Noah, but then the older man spoke. "You're right."

"I am?!"

"Yeah, we, uh...we started looking for links between Barrow, faculty, and students last night," McCall informed him.

"So you already, then, know that stuff?" McCall nodded at Stiles' question. "You already thought of that."

"Your dad did," McCall shared, his mouth twisting into a disapproving smirk. "His one useful suggestion."

A storm cloud of rage bubbled in Stiles' gut as McCall went to enter the bullpen. He was so fucking sick of this man coming around and ruining everyone's lives just because his sucked so bad. McCall made his bed and instead of laying in it, he was destroying everyone else's.

Without thinking, Stiles firmly grabbed McCall's arm, stopping him from entering the bullpen. "You know, this attitude that you have toward my dad? You can dress it up to all the professional disapproval that you want, but I know the real reason you don't like him."

McCall chuckled sarcastically, sending Stiles deeper into his silent fury. "Is that so?"

"Yeah," his voice lowered threateningly, his nostrils flaring angrily. "because he knows something that you don't want him to know. And guess what?" his whisper took on a sing-song tune before quickly diving into a hard whisper. "I know it too."

McCall swallowed uncomfortably and a thrill went through Stiles as he congratulated himself on being able to intimidate an FBI agent who was trying to fuck up his dad's life. "Go home, Stiles. There's a curfew."

Stiles smirked as McCall pulled himself from his grasp and stepped around him, clearing his throat awkwardly as he entered the bullpen. Without another word, he left the police station, riding the high that the whole interaction had caused him.

He waited only a few minutes by his jeep until Scott and Kira ran out of the building, huge smiles on their faces.

"We did it," Scott told him enthusiastically. "All the pics are deleted."

"That was awesome!" Kira crowed, bouncing in place. "I mean, terrifying, completely terrifying...but kind of awesome! I've never done anything like that before. Have you guys?"

Stiles snorted and shared an amused look with Scott. "Yeah, once or twice."

Scott grinned back at him and then sighed, looking to Kira. "I guess I should take you home."

It was very clear to Stiles that Scott didn't want to stop hanging out with Kira. They were obviously having a good time and, really, what trouble could they get up to at a party? Olivia liked Kira, too—as much as he could like someone that she hadn't really hung out with—so it wasn't like Kira would be unwanted at the rave.

"Hey," he patted Scott's shoulder pointedly. "Don't forget, Livvy's throwing that party at Derek's loft."

"Oh, yeah," Scott perked up and glanced back at Kira. "You wanna go?"

Kira smiled shyly—that was all the answer the boys needed.

Olivia was only a little tipsy.

She was being responsible tonight—well, as responsible as one could get while throwing a party at your cousins loft while they're out of town—and not drinking as much as Danny. He needed to have fun and relax a bit, and while Olivia wanted to have fun too, she didn't need alcohol to do so.

The only reason she was drinking at all was because Lydia had begged her to take a couple of shots with her and it seemed socially unacceptable to not drink a beer at your own party.

So, yeah, she was feeling a little bit buzzed but not enough to feel it in the morning. She knew her limits and she wasn't the type of person to go over them.

All around her, people were dancing, drinking, and having fun with neon paint dripped all over their bodies. The black lights that she, Danny, Ethan, and Aiden put up around the loft made everyone glow in the dark and with the pumping of the loud music that the awesome deejay that Danny hired played, it was enough to make anyone excited. She didn't even like most parties and she was having a great time. Besides, after what Beacon Hills went through with stupid Jennifer and the million human sacrifices, they needed a time to let loose.

So, even though she normally couldn't stand Aiden—or Lydia spending time with him, for that matter—she couldn't help but smirk when she saw him and Lydia dancing up on each other. No doubt Lydia was trying to keep her mind off of Scott and his newfound crush on Kira by focusing on the former alpha. It wasn't the best way to deal, but who was Olivia to tell Lydia how to live her life? Lydia was completely capable of taking care of herself.

"I cannot believe that Olivia Martin threw a party," her attention was caught by Allison as she and Isaac walked over to her. "at her cousin's loft, no less."

Isaac laughed and added, "I'm guessing Derek can never know about this?"

"Maybe in a couple of years," Olivia quickly wrapped her arms around them in a short group hug. "How are you doing, Isaac? You never got back to me."

She didn't like the way that Isaac and Allison immediately shared a loaded look with one another, as if debating on how to answer her question. She wasn't dumb, she knew they were hiding something. Why, she didn't know.

Isaac knew that she wouldn't give up and though he knew he owed her some sort of explanation, he had promised Allison and her dad to keep his mouth shut for twenty-four hours. "Enjoy the party, Liv. I'll tell you after."

"Promise, both of you?" Olivia gave the two of them a serious look.

Allison grinned while Isaac nodded, both of them speaking together. "Promise."

"All right, fine. Why don't you guys get something to drink?" Olivia glanced around the group of dancing bodies before pointing out where the bartender was set up. "Oh, and get painted up, too."

"Yes, ma'am," Isaac hooked Allison's fingers with his and pulled her away, pointedly ignoring the amused look their friend sent their way.

Olivia shook her head, eyes following Isaac and Allison as they slipped into the crowd. She should have known something was going on there, but she guessed she had been a little preoccupied with everything else going on in their lives. Still...Allison and Isaac? Yeah, she could see it. Allison was badass and strong and she was the firm ground of support that Isaac needed and Isaac was light and funny and could definitely get Allison to let loose. They complimented each other, they were cute.

They didn't need her approval whatsoever, but they had it anyway.

Out of nowhere, a sharp pulse came from Derek's tether before fading away. Olivia paused, her hand on her chest, and focused in on him. He was fine now, but it was odd, they way he lit up and went dark so soon after. Right now, it didn't concern her. Maybe he almost missed a red light or something...

Thoughts about Derek slipped away as she spotted the loft door opening. She recognized the neon-striped t-shirt that Stiles had worn to school earlier that day, and was instantly on her way toward him. She was tipsy, she wanted to have fun, and her hot-ass boyfriend had just entered the premises. There was no way she was just going to stand there and wait for him to come to her.

She made her way through the jungle of her drunk classmates, her eyes never leaving Stiles. As she got closer, she heard Scott—who was with Kira—asking him about leaving so they could figure something out. Before Stiles could respond, she was grabbing his arm, turning him and standing on her tiptoes so she could kiss him on the cheek.

"Happy Halloween, sweetcheeks," she purred into his ear, giving him a seductive look before letting him go.

"It can wait, it can wait!" Stiles shouted at Scott over the music. As Olivia began to slip away, he grabbed her hand so she would take him with her. "See ya!"

Olivia smirked knowingly when Stiles tightened his grip on her hand and abruptly pulled, swiftly turning her to face him. "Look at you, baby."

She was fully aware of what her outfit would do to him. Other than the fact she thought she was hot, she knew that her short, flowy shorts, and neon orange bralette would turn him on. And the body paint brushed all over her, well, that was just a bonus. "You like?"

"I love it. You're so fucking hot," he pulled her closer to him, their fronts pressed together; Olivia instantly grabbed his biceps, not fighting when he smashed their lips together.

It had been about a month since Olivia and Stiles had sex because of their busy lives. Of course, they did other things when they were in the mood but they never had time to go all the way again. Both of them were feeling the strain; they were crazy in love and so terribly attracted to one another, so of course, hormones were always pulsing through them. That night, they reached a pinnacle of tension that they couldn't ignore.

Within minutes, Olivia and Stiles found themselves upstairs in the bedroom Olivia used when she stayed over at Derek's loft. The both of them completely ignored the full-sized mattress in favor of the back of the door that Stiles pressed her up against, the wood soothingly cool against her back.

Stiles' hair was a mess under Olivia's fingers as she lost herself in his mouth, tongues wrestling together in a fight that neither of them wanted to lose—or win, for that matter. Stiles' palms were hot against her thighs, pushing her up until her legs wrapped around his waist, and when they moved tantalizingly slow to her ass and squeezed her cheeks, she gasped and arched her chest against him.

"Shit, Stiles!"

"Mmhm," Stiles moaned against her lips as her movement pressed deliciously against his cock. Slowly, he kissed away from her mouth and down her jaw to her neck, sucking harshly against the smooth and silky skin he found there. He loved the way she reacted to him, pushing herself against him again as she groaned under his demonstrations. "Livvy."

An indescribable warmth curled in Olivia's belly as she and Stiles rubbed up against one another. Letting go of his hair, she moved one hand down the length of Stiles' body to the band of his jeans. She easily popped the button and took a second to play with the wiry hair of his happy trail, knowing that it would lead her right to paradise.

"Mm...want you, baby," Stiles abruptly pulled away from her neck to stare at her with blown eyes. "Can I have you?"

Olivia didn't need to think about it. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her. "'Course, babe."

A wickedly sexy grin split Stiles' lips and Olivia's head nearly hit the door with how forcefully he kissed her. She was so caught up in their kiss that she didn't notice Stiles using one hand to pull her bralette down, freeing her breasts; it wasn't until he pulled away from the kiss and wrapped his lips about her right nipple when she realized. She moaned loudly, the pitch arcing higher when Stiles pushed his left thigh between hers to take some of her weight so she could grind down on him.

"Fuck, Stiles."

Stiles playfully bit at her nipple in response, prompting a pleasured sigh that turned more intense when he sucked at her. Shit, he felt so fucking good.

"Please..."

Stiles pulled away from her breast, licking his lips, and smirked up at her. "Please what, baby?"

Olivia's chest heaved as she breathed, "Please fuck me."

In a rapid succession of movements, broken up by awkward giggles, loving kisses, and whispered promises under their breath, Stiles and Olivia stripped from the rest of their clothes. The heat turned back on once Olivia's panties were officially out of the way and Stiles took it to his advantage, playing with her clit with the pad of his thumb.

Olivia moaned and ducked her head into his neck, her mouth finding traction between his neck and collarbone.

"Ready?"

"Mmhm."

Both of them moaned together as Stiles slipped into her with one single thrust. Quick to find a rhythm, they moved their hips together, taking pleasure from one another that was freely given.

"So fucking good, baby," Stiles groaned into her collarbone, gently nipping the skin there. By now, some of the neon paint on Olivia's body was starting to rub off on him and boy, did he not mind. They were like some kind of sexy painting together, they could totally be in a museum. "Love you."

"I love you," Olivia returned, arching back when he hit a particularly good spot inside of her.

She gasped when he licked from her collarbone all the way up to her chin before uniting their lips. Pressing her up against the door so most of her weight was resting on it, Stiles moved one hand to hold her jaw, keeping her lips on his, and the other to her clit, rubbing it firmly.

"S-Stiles..."

"You gonna come for me, baby? Huh?" he dragged his lips over to her ear, whispering to her with hot and heavy breaths. "C'mon, baby. Come with me."

The coil of pleasure that had been starting to build since she first kissed Stiles that night was wound too tight. Even though it felt so, so good to stay on the edge while Stiles thrust in and out of her and played with her clit, heading over the precipice would be even better. That's just how orgasms with Stiles went: pleasure, pleasure, and more pleasure.

Moving her right hand from where it was attached to the firm muscles in Stiles' back, she grabbed the back of his head and pulled her back to her lips. Their moans harmonized together as they reached their peaks, coming within just seconds of each other with sharp sighs.

Ten minutes later, after waiting out their aftershocks and post-orgasm bliss, they cleaned themselves up, shared a few more kisses, and went back downstairs where the party was still going strong.

Reminiscent of their first dance together, Stiles pulled Olivia onto the dance floor. They made fools of themselves as they danced crazily together, pulling out silly dance moves from the blue. The goofy grins on their faces told outsiders how madly in love they were and the warmth inside their chests proved it to themselves—not that they had any doubt, either way.

Before long, Stiles mentioned how thirsty he was, so they scored a couple of beers off the bartender and went to sit down.

"Let me see your bottle opener," Olivia held her palm out to Stiles expectantly, knowing that he kept one on his key ring.

"Oop," Stiles rummaged through his jean pocket and pulled the key ring out, handing it over to her. "Here ya go."

"Thanks," she detached the caps from their bottles and paused, her eyes lingering on his keys when she went to give them back to him. "You know, your key has phosphors on it."

Stiles furrowed his eyebrows. "Phosphors? What the hell is that?"

Olivia rolled her eyes and smiled patiently at him. "It's any substance that luminesces," she told him. "It's in your teeth and your fingernails, laundry detergent, this paint," she brushed her thumb against his lips, where some of the leftover lipstick she had one glowed against his flesh. "this..."

Stiles cut her off, urgently smashing his mouth to hers. Her stomach flipped pleasantly as she kissed back. After a few seconds they pulled away, both of them inhaling deeply.

"It reacts to the UV light," she finished, breathing heavily. "that's why it glows."

"How would I get phosphors on my key?"

"Probably lots of ways," Olivia shrugged carelessly. "You could have touched them after chemistry class, or after you washed your clothes..." she trailed off when she saw the frown playing at his lips. "Stiles, are you okay?"

Stiles forced a smile. "Yeah, yeah...um...I'm sorry, I just thought of something and I really have to go."

"What?" Olivia was understandably confused. "Stiles, what are you talking about?"

"I want to stay, I really do, cause I love you and you're so fucking beautiful," Stiles rambled quickly, standing up and setting his beer bottle down on the floor. "but I need to go see something, so you stay here, okay. I love you. Drink a bottle of water, okay?"

"Stiles, wait—"

"Love you, be careful!" he called, slipping away before she could stand and go after him.

"Stiles!"

Olivia wanted to follow him, she really did. She knew something was bothering him and she wanted to know what it was so she could help him. But before she could chase after him, Lydia's tether flared brightly and disappeared just like Derek's had before. Just like Isaac's had the night before, which could not be a coincidence.

Worriedly, she dived into Lydia's tether and looked for her. In a daze, she started walking, not even noticing when Danny had started to follow her, worriedly calling out her name.

"Liv, what are you doing? Olivia!"

Lydia, Lydia, Lydia...

She opened the door that led to Derek's balcony and paused when she saw her cousin laying still on the ground, her fingers seizing lightly. "Lydia!" she rushed to her and knelt down, finally noticing Danny. "Go get Aiden, hurry!"

"I'm so sorry, Lyds," she murmured, using all her strength to pull Lydia into her lap. She wrapped her arms tightly around the shivering red head and dug her head into her neck. "It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be fine."

What the hell happened to Lydia? What had attacked her and left her freezing on the balcony, unable to move or call for help? Whatever it was, was this the thing that got Derek and Isaac?

It was only a minute before Aiden and Danny rushed back out to her and Lydia.

"What happened?" Aiden asked as he knelt down next to the girls.

"I have no idea, but she's freezing," Olivia's eyes stung, feeling helpless, as she helped transfer Lydia to Aiden's warm arms. "I think she's hypothermic. We gotta get her inside."

Aiden nodded seriously and got to his feet, lifting Lydia with ease. "Let's go."

"Over here," Danny pointed to the nearest wall as they passed him to go back into the loft. "there's a heating vent!"

"Thank you, Danny," Olivia placed a grateful hand on his shoulder before following Aiden.

The former alpha set Lydia down in front of the heat register—thankfully the building used propane for heat, so the lack of electricity didn't affect it—and held her tightly, rocking her back in forth in order to get some heat back inside of Lydia. Olivia immediately started rubbing Lydia's bare legs, hoping that friction could offer some heat too.

"I'll try to find a blanket," Danny volunteered.

"Upstairs, the first door to the right," Olivia told him; he nodded and took off into the crowd. "Lydia," she called loudly so her cousin could hear her over the music. "Lyds, what happened? Can you tell me what happened?"

Lydia stared at her, wide-eyed, and gasped, "They came out of the dark."

"Who?" Aiden asked. "Who came out of the dark?"

"Lyds?"

"They—they looked like n-ninjas," Lydia stammered, her teeth chattering. "I—I couldn't scream, it took my scream."

Olivia and Aiden shared a dreadful look, both of them thinking the same thing. Shit.

Then, Olivia heard it, the ferocious growl that filled up her whole mental map. Derek's tether lit up brilliantly as he called out for her and Scott. It was then that she realized that she had horribly screwed up, ignoring his tether earlier. She could have done something if she just took her warnings of Derek and Isaac's injuries seriously. She was a horrible person.

"Derek!"

Aiden looked at her sharply. "This happened to Derek too?"

"I think so."

Danny quickly came back with a blanket and draped it over Lydia's shoulders. Though the redhead was still kind of out of it, she was slowly warming back up to the point where Olivia felt a little better about her health. Just as she was about to suggest they move Lydia to her room, the music was abruptly cut off.

"GET OUT!"

Yeah, that was definitely Derek. Olivia was so fucking screwed.

At once, the crowd started running for the door. Olivia helped Aiden get Lydia to her feet and let Danny take some of her weight. "Can you take her home please? I'll deal with this."

Danny nodded, giving a very angry Derek a wary look. "Yeah, okay." And with that, he towed Lydia out of the loft, leaving only Olivia, Derek, Aiden, Ethan, Scott, Allison, Isaac, and Kira.

Well, there were the dark shadows that appeared out of nowhere, too. Just like Lydia had described them, they looked like ninja assassins, with silver masks and glowing yellow eyes draped in black robes.

In unison, the robed ninjas took a step toward Aiden and Olivia, their glowing eyes glaring at them.

"Guys," Aiden called to the rest of the pack, reaching for Olivia to move her behind him. "Guys, they're looking at us. Why are they all looking at us, guys?"

"Ollie, go!"

Olivia didn't hesitate, taking Derek's warning. She ran away from where Aiden stood toward Isaac, Allison, and Ethan, who was leaning heavily against them. At the same time, Derek and Scott attacked, turning as they went to fight the dark ninjas.

Olivia focused on Derek, watching with a grimace as she realized that the ninjas were much better than him and Scott at combat. Sure, Derek had experience and strength, but these guys that came from the shadows seemed unbeatable. At one point, Derek had even snapped one's neck, only for it to pop back in place.

Derek was not doing well in his fight, his tether pulsing brightly, and neither was Scott. Once they were both on the floor, tapped out, Isaac stepped in, sharpening his nails into claws as Olivia took the rest of Ethan's weight to help Allison.

Isaac growled at one of the ninjas but the being did not look at all intimidated. In fact, he pulled a long, sharp sword from the middle of his chest and held it out toward Isaac, swinging it around threateningly. Smartly, Isaac stepped back—protecting Aiden, of all people, was not worth the sword to his stomach.

The ninja turned away from Isaac, facing Aiden like the others.

"Someone do something!" Allison called out, looking between Scott and Derek.

It was too late. Two ninjas grabbed Aiden's arms and held him still while a third stood in front of him. He looked into the former alpha's eyes and cocked his head, reaching up to grab a hold of his ear. A rattling noise came from its chest as it used one strict flick to make a mark behind Aiden's ear; Aiden immediately collapsed onto the floor, looking much like Lydia had when Olivia had found her.

Another step and all the ninjas were looking at her.

"Oh, shit."

Scott raced in front of her, Ethan, and Allison, growling fiercely at the beings. Before any of them could take a step forward, the sun began to shine through the large window. With only a touch of the rays against the ninja's, they disappeared in a black mist.

Finding his strength, Ethan left Allison and Olivia's grasp to run across the room to his brother. At the same time, Olivia went over to Derek, helping him up from the floor and wrapping an arm around his torso to keep him upright.

"What the hell were those things?" Scott asked, looking around the room for any answer.

None of them knew...except maybe Allison and Isaac.

Isaac stepped forward, glancing at Allison. "Your dad's twenty-four hours are up."

(Gif is not mine)

#teen wolf rewrite #stiles stilinski x oc #stiles stilinksi x reader #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #stiles stilinski fanfiction #teen wolf fanfiction #stiles stilinski x original character

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louisapennyfeather2021 · 4 years ago

Text

Newsies as Teen Wolf Quotes/Conversations without context

***

Crutchie: Have you guys done this before?

Race: Something dangerous, or something idiotic?

Katherine: It's yes to both.

Jack: You don't have to be apart of it if you don't want to.

Crutchie: I'm not scared.

Race: Then you're borderline idiotic.

***

Kid Blink: I want you to be honest with me. Totally and completely honest... Have you been time traveling?

Race: Hang on, what?!

Blink: Because if time traveling is real, I'm done, I'm out. You're going to be driving me to Eichen House!

Jack: We found him like that! *Referring to a now tween Spot*

Blink: Where?! Swimming in the fountain of youth?!

Race: No. We found him buried in a tomb of wolfsbane... in an Azetec temple... in Mexico... underneath a church in the middle of a town... that was destroyed by an earthquake.

Blink: *thinks of all the ways he can lock Race in a jail cell legally*

***

Jack: *holding ID's* you didn't steal these did you?

Race: No, I cloned them. With and RFID emulator.

Jack: Isn't that worse than stealing?

Race: I mean... It's smarter?

***

Katherine: For half of my childhood I was locked in a freezer, so being helpful is kind of a new thing for me.

Race: Are we still milking that?

Everyone else: *facepalm*

***

Race: Okay, I'm going to call my brother.

Albert: I already called the police.

Race: You called the police before you called me?

Albert: I'm supposed to call you first when I find a dead body?!

Race: YES!!!

***

Race: I can't take waiting around like this, ya know. It's nerve wracking. My nerves are wracked, they're severely wracked.

Oscar: I could beat you unconscious and wake you when it's over?

***

Blink: You're not gay.

Race: I could be!

Blink: Not dressed like that, you aren't.

***

Skittery: You're a dumbass for doing this.

Crutchie: Is that your way of thanking me?

Skittery: No, that's my way of calling you a dumbass.

***

Specs: Considering the state of my dating life, I need a wingman, co-pilot and a really hot flight attendant.

Crutchie: And I'm the flight attendant?

***

Davey: So I don't suppose you have any idea why Race would frame us for murder?

Spot: I didn't think Race was smart enough to frame us for murder.

***

Oscar: Why are you looking at me like this is my fault?

Spot: Because it is your fault.

Oscar: ... Yeah, you're probably right.

***

Oscar: *to Katherine and Spot* FYI - coming back from the dead has left my abilities somewhat impaired, but the hearing still works. So I hope you're comfortable saying whatever it is you were feeling straight to my face.

Spot: We don't like you.

Oscar: Fair enough.

***

Hannah: Now that's how you play lacrosse! Kelly, who's that kid? He's spectacular.

Jack: Coach, that's Charlie.

Hannah: Well, how the hell am I supposed to tell them apart? They're all wearing the same thing!

Jack: They've got numbers on their jerseys, Coach...

***

Blink: Hang on, hang on, this little delinquent is mine.

Race: Blink, how're you doing?

Blink: So do you listen into all my phone calls?

Race: No... Not the boring ones...

***

This was probably unnecessary and probably completely pointless if you haven't seen this he show and don't know the characteristics of the characters, but I'm avoiding sleep right now and this is how I'm doing it!

#newsies memes #newsies imagines #newsies broadway #newsies imagine #newsies #newsies au #teen wolf au

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imagineseclipse · 5 years ago

Text

Theo Raeken x Reader- Back and Forth

warning:strong language

part 2

You weren’t expecting too many people to be in the library after school, you had rushed there from your last lesson before any of the pack could distract you from doing your work. It’s not that you didn’t want them around, your grades were suffering a whole lot due to the fact that you hadn’t really been paying attention in class. When you actually attended class. Long story short your mind had been elsewhere, mostly concentrating on staying alive amongst all the chaos.

You settled down in a quiet corner of the library, throwing your bag down on the floor beneath your desk as you set up your working station. Gathering all the materials you needed for your revision session.

At least half an hour had passed and you had already written up half of your English essay when the sound of someone clearing their throat in front of you made your typing come to an abrupt halt.

You peered up from your seat, rolling your eyes at the sight of Theo Raeken stood opposite you, a small smirk playing on his lips as he watched your face drop in annoyance.

“Can I bother you for a second?”he asked, pulling out the chair in front of you before you could even answer.

“You always bother me, besides it looks like you’ve made yourself pretty comfortable already”you mumbled, staring back down at your paper not really paying attention to the boy who was sat across the table observing you.

Theo leaned fowards, earning a quick hate filled glare from your direction. What the hell did he want?

“Y’know y/n, I get the feeling that you don’t really like me”he murmured.

You gasped dramatically.

“No way, now what would give you that idea?”you answered back, you’d been hanging around with Stiles a lot lately he could tell from the sarcasm dripping from your voice.

“Why don’t you like me y/n?”Theo queried, his eyebrow raising. Was he really being serious? Had he fallen and bumped his head...although that wouldn’t have been much of an inconvenience.

“You really are just trolling me here aren’t you”you leaned back in your chair, rolling your eyes until they touched the back of your head once again. Theo raised his arms, questioning you.

“Maybe- just maybe I don’t like you because you attempted to kill the alpha of my pack you put my best friend in eichen house , maybe I don’t like you because you tried to rip us all apart quite literally. So I’m sorry if I’m not being as nice as you would like me to be.”you exclaimed angrily grabbing your things, pushing yourself up off the chair.

“When a big bad predator comes into Beacon Hills to really kick your asses you’ll be begging me for help”Theo almost sang out smugly.

“Don’t hold your breath. Actually, go ahead I want to see what happens”you shot back, ready to just go home and throw your pillow at the wall. Your parents would kill you if you smashed anything valuable.

The smirk on his face dropped as his eyes flickered at something just behind you. You narrowed your eyes, snapping your head to the direction he was looking in.

Theo rose from his chair, standing to the side of you as you both stared over towards the entrance of the library. Your eyes widened and you could feel your hands starting to shake.

“W-why are they back here I thought we were done with them?”you shook your head, confused as to why the Dread Doctors had returned, completely baffled as to why they were in your school library.

“You are done with them, but I’m not”Theo informed you regretfully, taking a step backwards. He reached out to grab your arm so that he could take you with him but you shrugged him off sending him a warning glare.

Your patience was running very thin and you were about to snap.

“What do you mean you’re not done with them, If you are working with them again to get to us I will kill you right now with my bare ha-

“No I owe them, they are after me”Theo muttered, trying to scan the library for a nearby exit.

“Well in that case i can’t say it was nice knowing you but I’ll see you around- or i won’t”you shrugged as you began to leave the library. The dread doctors getting closer with every second.

Theo’s hand reached out once again, this time successfully pulling you back towards him using your bag strap.

“Seriously Theo I’m not saving your ass-

“You think they won’t kill you too y/n, they have seen us already, they have seen you with me” Theo exclaimed.

Theo watched as you turned into a full scale dragon in front of his eyes, he swore he could actually see smoke coming out of your ears and nose.

“You have got to be kidding me, so you have gotten yourself into utter shit- karma by the way I have no sympathy for you- but now you’re dragging me down with you”you exploded angrily, moving around the table so that you could distance yourself from the dread doctors after Theo had informed you that you were now on their hitlist.

The two of you moved quietly, creeping down the rows of books so that the dread doctors wouldn’t hear you. The bookcase in front of you serving as protection for now.

“So what’s the plan smart ass”you hissed over to Theo who was peering through the bookcase, looking out for the doctors.

“We run, obviously”He replied sighing.

“Okay well we need to have eyes on the dread doctors so that we can make sure the exit’s are clear”you slowly poked your head out, trying to find any sign of the powerful hunters.

Your heart dropped to your stomach as you turned back to face Theo who was biting his lip nervously.

“How many dread doctors were there in the beginning?”you demanded.

“Three why?”he breathed out.

“I can only see one, I think they’ve split up”you whispered, gulping. Theo jumped up, taking his chance to run towards the fire exit that from what you could see was clear.

You were about to follow suit when a large hand clamped onto your school bag, securing you to the spot, you raced to free yourself from the dread doctors grip dropping your bag from your shoulder.

As you began to sprint towards Theo your vision became blurry, there was a loud ticking noise and you knew that the dread doctors were messing with your head. It had happened before in eichen house you were very familiar with the feeling unfortunately.

Theo watched in horror as you dropped to your knees, clutching your head as you groaned out in pain. He hesitated as the Dread doctors advanced towards you, he could just leave, he literally had basically escaped their clutches.

The old Theo would have run, leaving you there without looking back but something wasn’t sitting right with him as you struggled for breath on the floor. You had fallen unconscious within seconds not being able to handle the frequencies that were frying your brain.

He growled loudly using his werewolf side to amplify his roar, Theo proceeded to throw his school bag down from his back. He flicked his claws out, ready to fight the beings that had been searching for him. He pounced towards them, attempting to fight them as they surrounded you.

The musty smell of the drainpipes above you wafted up your nose as you rubbed your sore head, slowly propping yourself up onto your elbows so that you could take in your surroundings.

They had taken you somewhere completely different this time, you couldn’t recognise anything around you and there was light streaming in from a barred window.

“Nice to know they changed up the location just for us”you coughed out, your throat feeling rough and dry.

“Finally, sleeping beauty awakens”Theo yawned from the corner of the cell you were trapped in.

“Theo, I don’t want your voice to be the first thing I hear when I’m waking up in a place like this”You grumbled, rolling your eyes as you slumped back down onto the floor, your head unexpectedly hitting something soft.

Your eyebrows knitted together as you lifted Theo’s hoodie from underneath you. Throwing it in his direction.

“You can’t knock a guy for trying”he shook his head, as he peered down at the dry blood beneath your nose. You hadn’t even noticed.

“Yeah well, try less”you shot back, trying to make yourself comfortable with the few resources you had.

“You should have left me to die”You snarled, blaming Theo entirely for what had occurred in the library.

“But that’s just what you wanted me to do, what sort of enemy would I be then, huh?”he seriously had an answer for everything. And it was starting to get on your nerves.

“I’m in here because of you”you cut your eye at the teenager who sat with his elbows resting on his knees. His hands running through his hair tirelessly.

“I just saved your life y/n, and I’m probably going to have to save it again with me being the only supernatural in here”he tutted.

“And so you should, after you tried to take my life away from me in the first place”you exclaimed.

“Face it y/n you’re stuck with me until we get out of here”

You lifted your head once again, shooting daggers in his direction.

“Please don’t underestimate my willingness to die just to spite you”you spat out before your head started to spin again. You hissed out in pain, fresh blood dripping from your nose.

He hesitated before walking towards you, sitting down next to where you were sitting. Theo reached out to take your pain but you flinched away from him not trusting him for even a split second.

“Where does it hurt?”he asked, trying to be patient with your stubbornness.

“It doesn’t so please go away”you replied through gritted teeth.

“Stop being a bitch for once and just give me your hand I know you’re hurting”Theo wouldn’t let this go.

You mumbled out a few words of profanity before slapping your hand into his, you could feel your body becoming less tense as he took the pain you were feeling away.

At first you tried your hardest not to make eye contact with him but his hands started to feel warm around yours and you found yourself staring into his eyes, and he was staring back.

“You don’t look so good”Theo frowned.

“Jhee thanks Theo, just add fuel to the hatred I feel towards you”you scoffed.

“We need to get out of here, I need to get you out of here before you actually do die on me”he said to himself rather than you.

“If I’m not mistaken that’s your guilty conscience talking, huh funny I didn’t know you had one”you taunted him, if you were going to be stuck in that place then you wanted to have a bit of fun at least.

Theo ignored your comment, his ears pricking up at the door in front of you.

“They’re coming”he stated as he jumped to his feet, setting his hands underneath your arms.

“What are you doi-

“Y/n, please shut up and let me try and save your life”he cut your protests short, lifting you over to the furthest wall. He sat you down gently covering your body with the hoodie he had given you before you had awoken.

For a moment, a very brief moment you wondered if Theo was actually trying to be a good person.

Theo pressed himself up against the bars, facing the dread doctors that were entering the room head on. They stood tall and strong in front of you their shadows causing the room to fall dark.

“Hey look, you’ve got me now you don’t need the girl just let her go I’ll stay you want me not her”Theo pleaded with them. You could never understand what they were saying so you were glad that Theo was doing the talking.

“It turns out we do have use for the girl, we need more test subjects and she seems like the perfect fit”one of the doctors informed Theo. Of course you couldn’t register what it was talking about so you weren’t panicking yet.

“Oh, no no no, I’m not going to let that happen I’m sorry”Theo warned, his eyes flashing yellow. You couldn’t interpret what they were saying but you could hear Theo Raeken loud and clear, and his tone of voice didn’t exactly sound like good news was around the corner.

“Theo, whats wrong what’s going on?”your voice piped up from behind him as he gripped onto the metal poles tightly, his knuckles turning white. The dread doctors said a couple more inaudible words before they filed out of the room one by one, closing it securely behind them.

“They aren’t going to kill you”he said truthfully.

“Well that’s good isn-

“They have chosen to experiment on you instead”he gave you the bad news.

“You might aswell let them take me, because if you save my life and we get out of here I am going to murder you”you shouted, rage surging through your veins.

“So you’ve said”he grunted as he brought out his claws, fumbling around with the lock. He grew angrier, it seemed as though he didn’t have the power, he just simply didn’t have the strength to get through the metal.

“Theo, what if you wait, we need to be patient”you finally spoke out to him, no sarcasm no anger, just normally.

“Wait for what y/n they are gonna come back for you, and for me we don’t have time to wait”he stressed as he slumped down against the wall next to you.

“We wait for the next full moon, that’s when you’ll be at your strongest right?”you confirmed.

“That’s in six days y/n, that’s too far away we won’t survive until then”Theo turned his head to face you.

“We’re gonna have to if we want out of this place”you muttered.

A/N: MY WISDOM TOOTH IS IN FACT MAKING ITS APPEARANCE SO PLEASE SEND ME REQUESTS TO TAKE MY MIND OFF THIS PAIN

also there will be more parts to this pls be patient x

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sunnyie-eve · 4 years ago

Text

Chapter 23 | De-Void

Series: Unnatural

Word count: 2.9k

Warnings: Possession, Abduction, Light Torture, Manipulation

I got a call from Noah asking me if I wanted to go with him and Stiles to be by his side moving into Eichen House for 72 hours. Stiles begged me not tell Scott but he found out anyways showing up with us. Noah explains that Stiles' MRI results looked exactly like those of his wife and that he is terrified. That he is going to LA tomorrow to talk to a specialist and that it was Stiles who had requested that he be locked away in the mental health facility so that he doesn't hurt anyone. Scott tries to talk him out of the plan saying that Deaton's got some ideas and Argent is calling people to try to find something to help him rid himself of the Nogitsune. Stiles tells him if they don't find something then Scott must make sure he never gets out.

As the three of us leave Scott going in Stiles grabs my hand, "Bella, I'm sorry again ab-," I cut him off before we walk inside. "Stiles, stop apologizing. I know it wasn't you. Same goes for every time you have kissed me after the party." I laugh giving him a hug. "It was still part of me. He knows how I feel about you and I think he sort likes you too. That's another reason I need to be here." He says as Noah opens the door for us to go in.

The Eichen House attendant explains the rules that there are no phone calls, emails or visitors allowed in the first 72 hours. As she lays out the process, a physical, meeting with a psychologist, and group therapy, Noah becomes more and more agitated making me place my hand on his shoulder. The sound of door buzzers and cell doors slamming makes me look around. The attendant takes Stiles shoes and gives him brown slippers because no laces allowed and then makes him empty his pockets of keys and other items.

Suddenly Noah declares that they forgot Stiles' pillow and that we must leave to go and get it. He manically explains that every time they've stayed in a hotel, the first thing they pack is Stiles' pillow. Stiles explains that he hasn't slept well in weeks and hugs his father tightly before doing the same to me giving me a small kiss. Then Stiles is off down the hall with the attendant, leaving me and his father standing alone. "He'll be okay Noah." I hold his hand in mine. "I hope so. Want me to take you to go see your dad? I heard he gets out soon." I nod my head as we head back to his car then the hospital.

Before I go see dad I go to Isaac seeing he was healing a little bit more but I still help him out. "Hey dad." I say walking into his room. "Hey Bell. Shouldn't you be home?" He asks as I sit down next to him. "Not really when you're here." I smile looking at where the arrow hit him. "Does it still hurt a little?" He nods his head, "A little bit mostly fine." I nod my head debating if I should just heal it for him.

It was Saturday and dad was sitting in the couch watching tv while I caught up on homework in my recliner. I hear him hiss as he moved a certain way making me give up. "Okay, I can't stand seeing you in pain." I go sit next to him placing my hand over where the arrow got him. "What are you doing Isabella?" He asked but shuts up when a small light came out from my hand then he no longer felt a pain. He lifted his shirt to see nothing like he never got shot by an arrow. "Umm so you did get it from her." He says making me shocked, "You knew mom was a witch?" I asked surprised. "The moment I met her when she jinxed one of my bullies." He laughs and I hug him. "So I'm guessing you know other supernatural things?" I ask and he looks at me, "Like werewolves?" I smile nodding my head. "Yep, but I choose to ignore it because it doesn't bother me. Now go out and do something, you've been by my side for days."

As I was heading out I get hit in the head making me pass out. "Hello sweetheart." I heard a voice but my eyes were closed. I wake up to my hands tied to a chair making me struggle. "Use your abilities to get out of that." I hear Stiles voice but I knew deep down it wasn't him. "Why did you knock me out?" I ask annoyed. "Like you would've come if I called." He bends down to my leave. "Actually I probably would have because I don't know what's going on. I've been with my dad since he got shot by your trap not Stiles trap." I say making him smile. "Isabella, you know I feed off pain right. Well even though you told Scott to take your dads pain I still felt yours." He plays with my hair. "The pain of being scared that something worse could have happened to him. The pain of Isaac not healing fast. The pain of losing Stiles, your best friend, who you have a crush on." I glare at him, "So why did you kidnap me again?" I ask not letting him get to me.

"So you can't help your friends get to me but then again I took you to get them to come to me. Also because you are very beautiful." He kisses me and I pull back. "Just because you are using Stiles doesn't mean that I would help you." He laughs, "Maybe you are sorta right but you can't tell me you don't like Void Stiles. I mean, just look at me? I'm the hot bad guy. Aren't I?" He leans towards my face and I don't say anything. "I know you have a thing for bad boys. You always told Stiles that you loved bad boys in the movies and tv shows you two watched. I mean Isaac was sorta one when he first turned into a werewolf because of Derek. Well now you finally got another bad boy that's Stiles. Come on, you can tell me. It will be our little secret." He kisses my jaw slowly as I squeeze my eyes.

"See you aren't fighting back anymore but I want to hear you say it Bella. Come on Isabella, tell me that you like this Stiles." His lips trail wet kisses down my neck as I slight cry out, "No, I don't like this Stiles." He chuckles running his hands down my arms squatting down, "Oh little Bella... Why must you lie to me? I don't like being lied to." He places his hands on my hips grabbing them applying pressure hurting me. I groan in pain with tears falling from my eyes. "Say it and I'll stop." He pulls about a small blade. "I will not lie." I choke as he puts the blade to my chest, "But baby girl is already lying." He slowly presses the blade across the top of my left boob. "Please just stop." I stop myself from crying.

"Then just admit that you deep down like Void Stiles and don't lie that you don't. I can feel and hear your heartbeat." He places his ear to my chest. "Deep down I like Void Stiles." I cry out hating myself. "Go on, tell me way?" He looks up at me kissing up towards my jaw. I hiss with tears falling, "Because I have a thing for bad guys and you fall under that category. Void Stiles just has all the qualities, hot, evil, demanding, smart, sneaky-," I get cut off by his lips but I don't kiss him back. "I know you want to kiss me." He says against my lips but I shake my head no. "Guess I gotta make you." He continues to kiss me while he raises my shirt pressing the blade onto my stomach. I cry out in pain allowing his tongue to slip into my mouth and I finally kiss back.

"See, not so hard was it?" He smiles backing away from me. "I hate you." I spit making him laugh at me. "Maybe you do a little." I shake my head no, "I'm still not helping you." A smile spreads across his face, "But you already are." He picks me up carrying me to Stiles room placing me on his bed next to him. "Now we wait for Noah to see us." He waves to the camera.

"Now, we go somewhere else for everyone to come together." He picks me up again. "You want to know why you aren't fighting back?" He asks as he walks me out to the jeep. "Like you know." He laughs, "Because you are scared for Stiles, you don't want to leave his side since he's helpless. Plus you admitted you like this Stiles too. Hold my hand to see him right now." He says and I look at my tied hands. "Dumbass, I can't." I show him my hands so he takes my hand into his. Stiles sat there on the Nemeton out of it playing a game with the the Nogitsune.

"See, that's why you are staying with me." He smiles as we drive off to wherever he was going. "Derek's loft?" I ask as we get out and he grabs my arm. "Yes, now you are going to play along when people show up." He he drags me inside up to Derek's loft. "And if I don't?" I ask going to sit on the stairs. "I kill someone you care about." He smiles standing in the middle of the room. "Seems fair enough." I let out a huff. As time passes Noah walks into Derek's loft alone making Stiles turn and say hi dad. "Noah." I stand up walking over to him and Void Stiles gives me a shut up look. Noah approaches Stiles and asks him to willingly put himself in handcuffs. Stiles complies as Noah then unties my hand, but then Stiles quickly breaks the cuffs pushing me behind him as Argent, Allison, and Derek walk in.

Allison hits him with a taser which Stiles catches and holds as electricity courses through the line then tosses it to the side. Derek then attacks but is easily tossed aside too. Argent pulls his automatic pistol and levels it at Stiles. Stiles feigns distress and begs his father to save him. Then turns to Argent and dares him to shoot him. Noah starts to yell at Chris and I tug on Void Stiles jacket, "Please, stop. Stiles is still in you." I cry as they all continue to yell at each other. I going to hate myself for saying this, "Please, I don't even want you to get shot." I lie to him as Allison points out that this chaos is exactly what the Nogitsune wants. Stiles says it's not exactly what he wants because he'd hoped Scott would be there. Stiles says he is glad everyone has their guns out because he drew them to the loft not to kill him but to protect him. The Oni manifest and phase through the loft's large main window. Stiles walks backwards grabbing my arm dragging me with him behind everyone. "You're still staying with me." He held my arm tighter and we disappear.

"Why here?" I ask as we end up at Eichen House. "A old friend." He says before we appear in the basement. He puts his finger to my mouth telling me to be quiet. He asks Kira's mom why she carved the kanji for Self into the wall. She says to signify that Rhys died as himself and not as a monster. It turns out that Noshiko called off the Oni at the loft making him ask why, and wants to know what happened to the woman who called out for chaos, strife, and pain to descend upon everyone and everything. Noshiko says she doesn't want that anymore. Stiles counters that he does and snatches away her dagger, her last tail, and cuts into his own stomach. A swarm of flies comes boiling out, briefly surround Noshiko and then dissipate. He grabs my hand and everything went dark.

"Isabella." I hear Lydia's voice making me open my eyes. "What happened? Where am I?" I ask looking around to see we were in an empty parking lot. "I don't know but we have to go. I called Scott and we're taking Stiles and you to him. What's the last thing you remember?" She asks as we all get in her car. "Stiles dragged me to Eichen House to see Noshiko and they talked before Stiles snatched away her dagger, cutting into his own stomach. A swarm of flies came boiling out, he grab my hand and everything went black." I explain looking over at Stiles unconscious.

Aiden and Scott carry and unconscious Stiles into the McCall living room and place him on the couch. Deaton, Melissa, Lydia, and me follow behind. Melissa implores them to take Stiles to the hospital but Scott reminds her of the last time he was in the hospital. Deaton checks his wound and says he seems to be healing the way the werewolves do. Aiden wants to kill Stiles, barring that, he suggests they tie him down with really big chains. Deaton says he has something more effective. He produces a brown bottle of liquid from his doctor's bag. As Scott and Aiden hold Stiles' mouth open, Deaton places a few drops of the liquid on his tongue. Stiles awakes with a start and grabs Aiden around the throat. Slowly his grip loosens and he realizes that Deaton has slipped him paralyzing Kanima venom.

Aiden is pissed growling at Stiles but the Nogitsune just issues a veiled threat about how twins get a feeling when one of them is in pain and says he hopes the twins didn't lose that talent too. He then tells him that Ethan is at the school implying that he is in danger. Scott tells Aiden to go then Stiles says he likes the twins because of their short tempers and homicidal tendencies. He says they are a lot more fun that Scott, who he calls a bakemono, trying to save the world all the time. Melissa asks if Deaton brought something to paralyze his mouth too. The doctor places black gaffers tape over Stiles mouth.

I was left to babysit him while Deaton talked to Scott and Lydia while Melissa went to get something to clean Stiles cut. I watch his eyes scan my body and his eyes told me everything as I read his mind, "Stop thinking of me like that and you're wrong. We will get Stiles back." I say crossing my arms as Melissa comes back into the room. "You can hear my thoughts? Hope they weren't too rated R for you." I I give him a smile, "Yes, I can read your thoughts too. And they were terrible." I say making his eyes smile as I leave the room to use the bathroom. When I go back to the room Melissa looked pissed walking past me. "What did you do?" I sit down in front of him. "Told her that Stiles knows the truth why Scott's dad left. You know the truth too because Stiles told you. It's one of your many secrets between each other. You two have quite a lot". I glare at him, "Fuck you."

"Oh please, fuck me. I would like that so much. You'd probably be better then when Stiles and Malia had sex. Ha, did you know Stiles has thought about you while jerking off? His mind is a funny place really." I roll my eyes shaking my head. "Yeah, not going to happen. Stiles is my best friend and I still wouldn't if you were in someone else." I tell him getting up to leave the room. When Peter arrives he says Stiles doesn't look like he would survive a slap across the face and certainly not the bite of a werewolf. Peter tells us that we're looking at it wrong; it's a war of the mind not the body. So they come up with going into Stiles mind to find him. Scott plugs into Lydia and Stiles and the rest of us wait for when they come back.

When Lydia and Scott snap back to reality Stiles begins to cough. He rips the tape from his mouth and begins to vomit a long strand of gauze bandage until there is a sizable pile on the floor. Suddenly black smoke issues forth and a hand reaches out of the gauze; it appeared to be the bandaged hand of the Nogitsune. Stiles watches in horror as the figure crawls out of the bandage covered floor until it is fully formed. The figure lunges forward and Scott and Peter rush to hold him down but Scott senses something and tells Peter to wait. Removing the bandages from the creatures head they find Stiles. Deacon realize the Nogitsune had fled and taken Lydia with him.

#teen wolf #teen wolf au #teen wolf ff #teen wolf fanfiction #scott mccall #stiles stilinski #void stiles #isaac lahey #allison argent #lydia martin #derek hale #peter hale #noah stilinski #chris argent #melissa mccall #werewolves #witches #nogitsune #dylan o'brien

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feelingsdusk-writes · 6 years ago

Text

Every revolution begins with a spark

Chapter 1

For a moment, Stiles can't breathe. There's a deafening ring in his ears, he can't move and darkness begins to creep in from the edges of his vision. Then he starts shaking, a wet and cold sensation filling him, and his legs give out on him, but he barely registers the pain in his knees when they impact with the ground. After a moment, he finally manages to make his body cooperate and he crawls forward, gulping air like a man would water after going way too long without it.

Then he screams.

"DAD!!!"

Everything slows down. Blake is saying something and Deucalion is speaking too, no longer blind. Melissa rushes towards his dad with Scott and Isaac in tow, but Stiles already knows there's nothing to be done. Something dark and twisted surges inside him so abruptly that he chokes on thin air.

Everything fades away suddenly.

It's the frantic screaming of his name what brings Stiles back to himself. His breath is coming in short gasps and his muscles are spasming uncontrollably. He looks around himself, trying to will his eyes into focus, and is greeted by the sight of carnage. Blood is splattered everywhere and Jennifer Blake lies on the ground dismembered, with vacant eyes and features locked in a terrified expression. Deucalion is choking on his own blood, one arm and both legs detached from his body and he's trying to crawl away.

It takes Stiles a moment to notice that everyone is looking at him horrified. Then, details start trickling into his mind: they're giving him a wide berth, Chris is pointing his gun at him, Deucalion is trying to crawl away from him, there's blood on his hands, under his nails, inside his mouth.

(Everything goes to hell quickly after that.)

---

His room is bare save for a cot, a small table and a chair, all of them bolted to the ground. He's not tied to the railings now, but he was when he first woke up. He didn't take that very well, but he learned quickly that either he calmed down or the bindings would stay. Four days ago they finally took them off.

"Mr. Stilinski, this kind of attitude won't help your case," the woman says after giving a pointed look at the tray still full of untouched food.

She's been coming here since he woke up and apart from the doctor that gave him a check up on the first day, he hasn't seen anyone else the whole week. There's not one but two guns strapped to her waist right in plain view and who knows what else she has hidden on her person. She says her name is Sarah Stratford and that she's a representative of the Tribunal.

Apparently that's a thing.

An organization to control that hunters and supernaturals alike don't get out of line. An organization that somehow missed Gerard Argent killing Deucalion's pack during a peace talk, Kate Argent burning the Hales alive, the alpha pack killing entire packs over the course of at least six years and all around the country... But they come now.

Now!

If they had intervened when Gerard Argent killed Deucalion's pack, the alpha pack wouldn't have happened to begin with, Jennifer Blake wouldn't have become a darach and thus, Stiles' dad wouldn't have been used as a human sacrifice. If they had also intervened when Kate Argent burned the Hales alive, Peter wouldn't have been left packless and then gone on a crazy rampage, Scott wouldn't have been bitten and Stiles would have never been involved with the supernatural world.

But. They. Come. Now.

"Oh," Stiles answers sweetly, giving her a smile so sugary that it can't be anything but fake. He turns on his bed from his stubborn staring at the wall to look at her fully. "So eating will help my case, hmm? Everything will be better if I eat then? Eating will get me out of this cell?"

"It's not a cell, Mr. Stilinski," she cajoles calmly. "The moment-"

"Will it make me human again?" Stiles barrels on, ignoring her completely. "WILL IT GIVE ME MY DAD BACK?" he finally shouts, grabbing the tray and throwing it at her. She deftly dodges it, seemingly unfazed by his outburst and he wants to scream in frustration. There are claws in his balled hands, biting into his own skin, and his canines feel a little sharper in his mouth. He forces them to disappear ruthlessly. "WILL IT?!"

"Of course not," she answers matter-of-factly and Stiles lets out a choking noise, his whole frame shaking. "At this point, since we've already established that you can control your shift in strenuous situations, eating, Mr. Stilinski, will simply let us ensure you're healthy enough to be able to attend your father's funeral."

Stiles hates her.

He hates everything, everyone, himself.

(He eats.)

---

"Don't touch me," he snarls quietly when any of them tries to approach him at the funeral.

He doesn't own a suit. Stratford said that the Tribunal could get him one but just the thought of accepting any help from them makes his stomach turn, so he glared at her until she stopped bringing it up. She brought from his house an all black outfit from his own clothes instead and Stiles had to force down a snarl. He had to remind himself that he wouldn't forgive himself if he missed his dad's funeral so he could swallow down his anger at the thought of her or anyone else going through his home, his things, and just put them on.

Stiles hates, he hates so damn much. He hates the Tribunal for their incompetence when it counted and for their competence now that it doesn't. He hates Scott and Allison for concentrating on their own parents and not on everyone, leaving his dad to die. He hates Isaac for being there doing nothing but save his own skin. He hates Melissa and Chris for, each in their own way, having the skills to help his dad and not using them. He hates Derek for being an idiot that let himself be fooled again. He hates himself for not being enough, for being too slow and too weak, for his horrible luck. He hates his dad for not sticking to his damn diet, which caused his heart to be unable to stand what Jennifer Blake piled on him. He hates, hates and hates and hates. And so, hatred burns and burns inside of him like red hot lava to the point that nausea has lodged firmly at the back of his throat and he feels physically sick constantly.

And so, as they lower his father's coffin, Stiles just... hates.

(Somehow it feels as if they're burying Stiles along with his dad in that grave.)

---

As far as he can remember, Stiles has never met any of his relatives on his mother's side. He had always assumed that they were all dead like on his father's side, especially since no one but his mother's friends showed at her funeral, but it turns out they weren't. The Tribunal tracks them down easily to Modesto, of all places, and then gets in contact with his grandparents.

They come to the center where they're keeping Stiles, Eichen House, with sour expressions that only turn darker the more time they spend inside. It doesn't take Stiles more than two minutes with them to start suspecting why his parents may have cut all ties with them and that's even before Stratford starts testing the waters about his new special needs without outright revealing everything. After the third time they cross themselves she desists and just tells them they will keep an eye on Stiles for a while to make sure the transition is smooth, but he knows it's too late when his grandfather promises to straighten him out with good old fashioned discipline.

Then, his uncle and two cousins, all of them lawyers, show up and things get even worse, if that was even possible.

"You're not selling my house," Stiles states, tone flat because he's so angry that he can't shout. "You have no right."

"Listen, kid, family or not, we're neither rich nor a charity. If we're going to be saddled with you, you're going to have to help..."

"Then leave."

"Now you listen-"

"No, you listen to me. I know what my dad's will says and you can't touch the house or the money. Everything gets frozen until I become an adult in the eyes of the law-"

"Such a stupid little kid. You think there will be anything left to be frozen after settling all the debts?"

"Debts? If you think you can fool-"

"Your house has a double mortgage and Claudia's hospital debts haven't been fully paid yet. You're lucky your friend here," he nods towards Stratford, whom remains emotionless and seemingly unaffected by the proceedings, "took care of the costs of your father's funeral or it would have been even worse. Doing things right, the best we can do is settle about eighty percent of it, ninety if the house sells well. The rest of it will have to come out of our own pockets so you better start being more grateful, brat."

They sell the house.

They sell everything.

They camp in his house (he doesn't have the heart to call it his home anymore) for a week while they manage everything. Stiles has to bite his tongue as his grandparents sleep in his dad's room, as his uncle takes his own room and his cousins the guest room, leaving him to sleep on the couch. Part of him wants to scream when they eat everything in the fridge, including the healthy veggie lasagne he had prepared for his dad.

Then what little that was left alive inside himself after the funeral dies as they go through everything in the house as if it's garbage. They even go so far as to organize a yard sale to get rid of all of it and what cannot be sold, they don't even bother donating and throw it to the trash. Stiles' possessions get reduced to two changes of clothes and an ugly ten thousand piece puzzle they let him keep to entertain himself. He hides his dad's wallet and badge, three family pictures he managed to secret away when they weren't looking and a memory stick with the Argent' bestiary inside its box.

He tries to save his childhood teddy bear and quilt (both of which had been crocheted by his mom when she was pregnant) too but fails. They tell him that he needs to grow up, that he isn't a child anymore, as they take them from him. They're already sold and gone when he finds a window to try again.

In the end, the remnants of Stiles' life up until now fit inside a backpack.

(He doesn't hate anymore, he just feels numb.)

---

The trip back to Modesto is as miserable as his newly found family is turning out to be.

It turns out they drove here from Modesto together and, for a moment, Stiles feels panic clawing at his throat at the prospect of six people squeezed for more than three hours in a tiny old car whose bumper has been kept in place with tape -Stiles saw it by chance when his wallet fell underneath and he really wishes that he didn't know about it right now-. It sounds rich coming from him with the state his (no longer his, Stiles, do keep up) jeep was in, but the car really looks like it could be broken by sneezing too hard at it. He swallows nervously, hands trembling and hurriedly mutters something about the restroom. There, he forces himself to breathe and count until he wrestles himself back in control.

The whole ride is an exercise in self-control. For starters, the combined smell of their cheap colognes and deodorants keeps him nauseated for the entire duration of it, burning his sensitive nose. More over, they only stop for gas once and they don't even let him out of the car. They refuse to buy a bottle of water when he asks for it, mouth parched and almost dizzy from the heat because the air conditioning of the deathtrap they call a car is broken and they won't let him open the windows because one of his cousins is starting to come down with something and he should be in bed instead of having to traipse down to a podunk town in the middle of nowhere. They also scoff and answer his request contemptuously, as if they find absurd to an insulting degree the thought of paying for water and what a comfortable life he must have led if he could waste money like that, but then again, maybe that's why he has nothing now.

Needless to say, he doesn't ask for anything again.

It was late when they left Beacon Hills because they refused to disturb their lives any more than the strictly necessary (which Stiles thought was complete bullshit, they just didn't want to pay for a hotel room now that they couldn't stay for free at Stiles' former house), so it's completely dark when they pull into the drive of a very nice looking house, in an equally nice and very green neighbourhood. Parting from what he has found about his family, Stiles is momentarily surprised, but it only lasts until they usher him in as if he's a dirty little secret they want to keep hidden. Then he's faced with the house version of the car, which means old, shabby and patched everywhere to look nicer than it really is.

He learns eight people live in the house (his grandparents, two uncles, an aunt (by marriage) and three cousins) on the way towards his bedroom. His uncle points towards a door and then leaves unceremoniously. Inside there's a tiny room with a mattress directly on the wooden floor and right against a wall, with a blanket folded on top of it. And that's it. However, it's not like anything else would fit inside anyways, because there's about two feet of free space at the left of the mattress and three feet at the end of it.

Stiles breathes and counts, hugging his backpack to himself. When no one comes looking for him after a while, he forces himself to let go of it and search for them, even though he wants nothing less than to see them. He's not hungry, but he's really thirsty. He finds out that everyone has gone to bed already from his pajama clad aunt, who ushers him back to his room without letting him get a word out.

He sits on his bed and looks around, feeling empty in so many ways.

He breathes and counts, again and again.

(He doesn't sleep that night.)

(He shoves everything that remains of himself deep, deep down and then locks it away.)

---

Over the first two weeks, he learns even more about his family even though they ignore him unless it's absolutely necessary. They say first impressions can be deceiving and that's a truth as big as the universe. He thought that maybe they were that way because poverty molds people and leaves scars that will never go away, but he was wrong. They're not poor, they don't lack resources, they're just greedy, selfish and tightfisted. They're also petty, narrow minded, snobbish, egotistical and just plain mean. And the funniest of it all? They go to extreme lengths to make it look like they aren't.

Their car looks like a vintage lover's wet dream and they go as far as to clean it behind closed doors to make it appear as if they have hired someone to do it. Their lawn is perfectly taken care off and looks as if a professional had designed it. Outwardly, the house looks as if it has been completely renovated, but inside, excepting the entrance or anything that can be seen from the outside, is shabby and patched everywhere.

They gossip about everyone but make it look like it's beneath them. They act as if they're liberal and accepting but then, for example, they insult their trans neighbour and call her everything under the sun and subtly try to edge everyone in the neighbourhood against her to force her to leave. Stiles saw them give a pittance to a homeless man and then note the exact amount to deduct it from their budget.

Everyone around loves them.

(Stiles would be impressed in a disgusted kind of way, but he's too tired and unable to feel anything, not even revulsion.)

---

From the very first day, his family piles a lot of rules and chores on him because he has to earn his upkeep, and then proceeds to generally ignore his presence in the house unless absolutely necessary. Apart from keeping good grades and being well behaved at the public school they've enrolled him in, he's to clean, do the laundry, cook and buy the groceries. Even though they are nitpicky as hell and nothing can be thrown out (it has to be reused until it falls apart and can't be put together again), he has no problems with the first five, to be honest, because it's not like it's any different from what he used to do back when he had a home in Beacon Hills. The last though? It's horrible and it gives him nightmares when he actually gets any sleep.

(The halfway completed puzzle under his mattress is enough testament of that.)

For some reason the grocery shopping has to be an almost daily thing, even though the store is quite far away and it just doesn't make any sense to waste the time and resources to go there every day. With how obsessed they are with being frugal in everything they do, he's really surprised by this, but maybe it's a new thing now that Stiles is there to do it for them. Who knows? In any case, from Monday to Friday he has to walk to the store and then back carrying the bags.

Up to that point it would only be annoying and time consuming, which Stiles could bear with easily because it's not like he has anything better to do or as if he likes staying in the house, but the problem is the budget. They give him a whopping two hundred dollars a week to shop for nine people. And again, Stiles is resourceful and a really good cook, he could make it work somehow, but they give him a list. They give him a damn list of the things he needs to buy apart from the actual food and Stiles has to manage to get it all with the ridiculous budget he has.

The first time he goes to the store he does his best to find sales and cheapen his shopping to the bare minimum, well aware that with less than thirty dollars for each day of the week he's not going to go too far, but in the end he can't buy two of the things on the list. His grandfather is silently furious and sends him to bed without dinner. Stiles learns quickly that that's going to be a thing and debates whether he should carry some of the money he has secreted in his dad's wallet or not, but decides that it wouldn't help him in the long run. In the end, he does take some money, but it is to buy himself some power bars that he hides in his backpack along a bottle of water that he refills every day at school.

After that he learns quickly. He doesn't always have a list, so he saves every cent he can for the days he does. Hearty vegetarian stews and soups become his friends, along with a lot of tricks that he learns as he goes, such as buying food that is about to expire because it has the best prices and secretly making his own detergent to fill the box and tricking his family into believing he's still buying it. There's no escaping fasting on Fridays though, because no matter how much he's able to save throughout out the week, it's impossible to shop enough for three days with what remains and to complete the list too. So he makes it as far as he can with what he has (because if he doesn't it will only be piled on the next list), not touching what he may had saved throughout the week and leaving it for Monday when he knows he will need it.

It's a nightmare and after those two weeks, Stiles is horrified to discover that he's becoming as miserable as they are when he battles ruthlessly with an old lady for the last of the peppers on sale and he's just relieved when she almost falls and she has to let go.

(He needs to leave.)

---

Over the next two weeks, he prepares to escape and thinks about how to leave the house with his things without anyone noticing. His best idea is to simply leave for the groceries and not come back, because his grandfather is a very light sleeper who will notice him sneaking out at night and that would be a disaster. Besides that, he has to be careful about the Tribunal. No one has come to check on him and he hasn't noticed anyone keeping an eye on him, but that doesn't mean there's really no one, so it's better to be safe than sorry.

There's only two things he can do for now, though. The first is to start using his backpack to carry the groceries back so that seeing him taking it with him isn't such a strange sight, and the second thing he can do is to somehow learn the bus' schedule to time it so that when he leaves, he doesn't have to risk waiting at the station. He downright hates leaving the puzzle box behind right in plain view and can't breathe easily until he comes back to the house, but there's no going around it.

All in all, it's nerve wracking and he wishes he had more control over the situation, but he'll take what he can at this point and be grateful.

Or maybe that's not so true... All things considered, there is a third thing he can do actually, and he's going to make it epic, especially since he knows that they will call the police and claim he has stolen something from them or something like that.

When he finally leaves, they do call the police. Stiles knows it because it makes the news the very next day after his disappearance. As the week progresses, Stiles goes from being a problem teenager to a possibly mistreated one when the police finally put the puzzle under his mattress back together and find the message he had left behind along with the two hundred dollar bills he had cut to fit and glued to the back of the puzzle pieces. They try to cajole him into letting himself be found but, no matter the reassurances, nothing will make him do that.

(He's never letting anyone have that kind of power over him ever again.)

---

The first days are the worst. He can't find a secure enough place to sleep on the streets and he can't afford to pay for a room because he has to save everything he has for food. And he has to be frugal in that aspect too, because he can't get a job in his circumstances. He jumps at every noise, he's suspicious of everyone and, to get as far as he can from Modesto, he's constantly on the move, keeping out of sight as much as possible. So, all in all, he's tired, hungry, paranoid, afraid and disheartened too, because it looks like that's not going to ever change and he'll be like this always.

(Or at least until he becomes eighteen and he can finally stop hiding in any case. And that's way too far away in time to be of any consolation at the moment.)

Also, now that he has to actively use everything he has at hand to keep himself safe, Stiles can't ignore what absorbing a nogitsune did to him and part of him hates it, even if he sees its usefulness at the same time.

Apart from the improved sense of smell and the ability to grow fangs and claws, he's stronger than he used to be and he heals faster. Not extremely so on both counts, but more than enough to notice a difference if he needs to engage in a fight, which he can't help but be grateful for. He's also much faster and his reflexes are better, which do wonders to avoid said fights, which is even better than being stronger, in his very humble opinion. Finally, there are the things he can modulate at will and that he still has to get the hang of: his hearing and his night vision. Again, really useful, but there are drawbacks to those, because with the control he has of his hearing now, it's all or nothing, so if someone makes a really loud noise when he's tuning in, it really hurts him and leaves him momentarily disoriented. Similarly, if he uses his night vision his eyes glow green, which is not inconspicuous at all.

And so he learns as he goes, using everything at his disposal to keep himself safe, and before he notices, he's regained his footing and making do with what life deals him. And sometimes even coming on top.

(It has been a long time since that happened.)

---

Grief comes back to punch Stiles in the gut unexpectedly and leaves him reeling.

When his dad died he went through the stages so ridiculously fast that it was laughable. At the cellar, he went through denial, anger and bargaining in one swift move before going back to the anger and settling comfortably there for a little while. Then he went numb just as he moved to Modesto, which he supposes accounts for depression, and at one point, he simply accepted at the back of his mind and moved on to concentrate on being safe.

Except something must have gone wrong.

Stiles is in a convenience store in the middle of the night when an armed idiot tries to rob it... and him because he's there, so why the hell not? He doesn't care about the money, but the family pictures are inside his backpack and the robber takes his dad's wallet and badge from his pocket too. Before he can even make it out of the store Stiles has reduced him unconscious with a well aimed coke can to the head that bursts upon impact, spraying everywhere. He slips out just as the clerk is calling the police, hightailing the hell out of there as fast as he can. Then he proceeds to sob his heart out clutching his dad's badge to his chest in a dark alley and somehow goes through the first four stages again in an hour before finally embracing that acceptance will take some time to fully and truly set in.

(And that's totally fine.)

---

Apparently, the security video of a blurry him nearly braining that robber with the exploding can of coke has gone viral after making it to the news and put the Tribunal back on his tail. Or that's Stiles' best guess, in any case, because suddenly he can't seem to stop running into them.

The first time, in Bakersfield, one of them corners him at night, when he's trying to find some place secluded to sleep. She's really nice about it, he supposes, because she never points a gun at him, even if she keeps a respectable distance and a sensibly wary attitude, which he reluctantly approves of. Nevertheless, he gives her (Loren Anderson, she says her name is) the slip the moment a window opens and leaves Bakersfield that very same night.

The second time, about a week later in Lancaster, Anderson has company but they're equally nice about it. Stiles refuses to go and they try to cajole him (isn't he tired of running, of having to hide?) but he's having none of it. He loses them at the mall and leaves Lancaster ten minutes later by bus.

The third time, in Victorville and again at a park at night, he runs before they can even reach him. The first two times he was very cautious about not showing his supernatural abilities, but this time the two women accompanying Anderson do have guns even if she herself doesn't, so he's not willing to risk it and he pushes himself to leave them behind. Again, he leaves Victorville as fast as his legs can carry him.

After nearly getting caught three times in less than three weeks, Stiles decides it's time to get out of California. He's more than fed up with having to look over his shoulder constantly when he had finally found his footing, so it's time to put more distance between them even if the thought of moving out of his comfort zone is a little terrifying.

However, he only makes it as far as Hesperia before they catch up with him again. They hold him at gun point, which makes him not care one bit about Anderson's reassurances or how kind she's trying to be about the whole thing. No, he isn't tired of running or hiding; No, he doesn't want a family or a place to stay. Thanks so much for offering but he wants to leave, like right now. And leave he does, but only by a hair's breadth and because they're trying to avoid hurting him.

He manages to lay low for a week before he gets caught again, officially the fifth time, when they corner him near a Walgreens with their guns out, but hidden enough to be missed. Stiles regrets so damn much not having thought of leaving by the second time this happened.

"Can it," he finally snaps to the reassurances Anderson keeps spewing. "I'm being held at gun point by two people right now, including yourself, so don't you tell me you're making things better for me when you've already made them ten times worse."

"I tried to do things right, kid, and you didn't-"

Stiles will never know what she would have said because he does the stupidest thing he's ever done and just turns to sprint into the store, counting on the fact that they don't want to hurt him or draw attention to themselves. He breathes relieved when he finds the store packed with people and he can blend in.

There are two hunters after him but Stiles would bet his ass that one of them is waiting outside in case he slips out, which means that he has to go for the oldest trick in the book and get everyone to leave en masse so he can escape.

He tries to locate the fire alarm as he goes through one of the aisles, cap firmly in place to cover his face. He grabs a pair of scissors and a pen, and then goes to the kids section, trying to find plastic balls that he can use instead of the ping pong balls he would really need to make his smoke bombs. What he finds is table tennis balls (which he had never heard of but whatever) that will suit him just fine. Now he only needs tin foil and he's set.

He spies Anderson turning at the corner and he hurries to hide and go right in the opposite direction. As he passes one of the aisles, he finds an unattended shopping cart with a hoodie perched on the handle. With a mental apology, he snatches it and puts it on to throw Anderson off. As he hurries he tries to find a corner where he can prepare the smoke bomb without being noticed. All the while, he also tries to walk on the blind spots he guesses the cameras to have when he does something suspicious, so he won't have the police after him when this whole ordeal is over.

Finally, he manages to open holes on three of the balls and to stuff them with the pieces of the other three. He hides them as a family passes him, feigning looking at some cologne bottles and then hurries towards another aisle when he spies Anderson again. It takes him another nerve wracking five minutes to prepare the tin foil tube with the help of the pen. He chooses one of the areas that he's really sure is a blind spot but is also decently filled with people to light it up. And just in time too, because Anderson sneaks up on him and grabs his arm in a vice grip.

Then the smoke starts coming from where he's hidden the bomb under the shelves and someone pulls on the fire alarm screaming. In the confusion, Anderson gets pushed to the ground, the contents of her pockets spilling out and the gun she has in the holster left in plain view. People scream even more and two men throw themselves at her to restrain her. Stiles grabs her car keys and wallet from the ground as he rushes by and hides himself in a big group that is trying to get outside. Then he runs towards the SUV, the other woman nowhere in sight, and drives the hell out of there.

He reaches Baker an hour and a half later and, after parking, he searches the car thoroughly for anything that can be useful. He finds two bags full of clothes that are way too small for him, another bag filled with quite the amount of non perishable food (obviously an emergency stash) that he grabs greedily and some first aid supplies that he stashes inside his own backpack. And most importantly, he finds money hidden under the driver's seat to add to what's in Anderson's wallet. More than three hundred glorious dollars that couldn't come at a better time because his funds are almost gone with all the buses he's been forced to take as of late.

He considers driving to Las Vegas in the SUV but decides against it because by now the problem he created at Walgreens is probably solved if the Tribunal has the pull he thinks it has, and they probably have reported it stolen. Or if any of that hasn't happened yet, it will soon and he can't risk it despite how tempting it is. So he ditches the car and grabs a bus to Las Vegas instead. And when he gets there another hour and a half later, he doesn't even wait and gets another to Phoenix.

(And he doesn't stop moving again for a long while.)

---

When Stiles was a kid, he used to stay at Scott's house when his dad had to go out of Beacon Hills for more than a day. They would make forts in the living room and then imagine epic battles against invincible enemies that looked doomed to be lost but that they managed to win by a hair's breadth in the end every single time. Whenever they played this game, Scott would insist on calling their headquarters Fort Scott (located also in Scott city), and Stiles would argue it was lame, that they should call it something cool like the Infinite Bastion, the Defense Alliance Headquarters, the Justice Assembly or the Commanding Forces Fort, for example, but to no avail.

It turns out that in Kansas there's a Scott County... with its Scott city, of course. His face when he saw the sign after passing through Wichita must have been a sight, that's for sure, but not as epic as when he learned that there's an actual Fort Scott in Bourbon County, also in Kansas but almost at the other end of the state. And never mind the Scott County in Minnesota that he finds in the map after a very nice old lady gives him one.

(He should have know something was going to go wrong, that it was some kind of sign of impeding doom or something. Shame on him.)

Stiles has left the river he was following but is still going through the countryside, trying to avoid being spotted because even if he hasn't had any encounters with the Tribunal since the Walgreens stunt, he still wants to put more land between them before he dares more populated areas. It's dark but clear, the moon full in the sky, and he's crossing a field when he hears it. At first he thinks it's his imagination playing tricks on him after so much time alone, because there's no way a baby is in the middle of nowhere, Kansas, crying at night. It's impossible.

But then he hears it again, loud and clear. And Stiles is an asshole and he almost can't take care of himself nowadays, but it's a baby, a distressed baby crying in the middle of nowhere and it's really cold outside today, so he runs forward towards where he thinks the noise is coming from.

Except what he finds is most certainly not a baby.

"WHAT THE F-" he can't help but shout at the sight of a scarecrow-like creature mounted in a cart pulled by black cats. The image is too strange for his brain to process.

It turns to look at him and Stiles feels rooted in place, terror invading him. Then he hears the cries of the actual children the creature was targeting, shakes himself out of the trance and springs into action. He runs forward, feeling the chill that was seeping into his bones disappear the further he moves from the creature, grabs the two kids as he passes them and just runs. The screams the creature emits are terrifying but just push him to go faster and faster instead of paralyzing him like it probably intends.

"TO THE LEFT!" one of the kids in his arms shouts and Stiles ducks thinking an attack is coming that way. "NO! OUR HOUSE IS TO THE LEFT!"

And so Stiles goes that way, praying that it isn't too far, because he may be stronger and faster now, but he's carrying two kids in his arms and he can't last forever. Thankfully, the house comes into view not long after and he pushes himself to go faster, still hearing the creature screaming shrilly right behind him.

"MAMA, MAMA, MAMA!" the same kid screams again at the top of his lungs. "MAMA!!!"

With his nocturnal vision Stiles can see the front door open not long after and people spill out the house, obviously searching for the threat, which is the worst thing they can do right now, even if they are supernaturals like he suspects.

"GET INSIDE!!" he screams panicky. "GOGOGO!!! INSIDE NOW!!! NOW!!!"

"MAMA!!!" the kid cries terrified when she looks behind and sees the creature gaining ground as Stiles tires out.

"INSIDE!" Stiles screams again.

After a slight hesitation they obey and Stiles wants to cry in relief. He puts another burst of speed, feeling his lungs and his muscles burn in protest but ignoring them, and eats the distance to the house rapidly. He almost trips as he climbs the front steps but a woman grabs him with surprising strength and pulls him towards the safety of the house.

"CLOSE THE DOOR!" he shouts as they all cross the threshold. "NOWNOWNOW!"

Stiles falls to the wooden floor, clutching at the kids as he stares at the rattling door. He's shaking violently and letting out a stream of oh my god and what the fuck in between his gasps for air and one of the kids is crying and trembling as she holds onto him equally tight. The rest of the family have their guns out and they are in between Stiles and the door, but time passes and nothing comes in. Then the same sound of a baby crying starts again and he shivers in horror.

"NO! DON'T!" Stiles exclaims when they seem to be about to go outside in search for it. "It's that thing, it makes that sound to lure you to it," he explains when they look at him outraged.

"It's true, mom," the kid hiccups in between her sobs. "We heard it and went looking and now Emily..."

"Something happened to Emily?!"

It turns out Emily is the other girl in Stiles' arms. The girl that hasn't even uttered a sound or moved since Stiles picked her up and ran. He turns her around carefully, feeling dread pooling in his stomach, and the little girl, who is starting vacantly ahead, doesn't even react.

"Emily? EMILY!!!" the woman screams as she takes the girl into her arms, caressing her cheeks and her hair, trying to make her respond. She turns enraged towards Stiles when it fails. "What did you do to her?!"

"No, mom! He saved us from that thing!" the kid protests.

"What thing?!"

"The scarecrow!"

"Scarec- Anna, please, your sister-"

"Do you have a computer?" Stiles interrupts hastily.

"What?"

"A computer," he repeats ignoring the incredulous looks of everyone present. "I have a bestiary but I need a computer to access it. Give me a computer so we can see what we can do to help her."

"Jonathan, bring your laptop," an older woman orders to a frightened looking teenager and he runs out, presumably in search of it.

The kid has already turned it on by the time he comes back and only has to input his password. The moment he can, Stiles plugs in his memory stick and simply types scarecrow as the keyword to find in the document. Luckily only one creature matches the description (the cart pulled by black cats is a dead on descriptor) and in no time he has it identified. It's a bubak, and he has precisely until the sun comes out to get Emily's soul back from it or she'll be an empty shell for the rest of her life. Apart from that, there's nothing there about how to actually accomplish that, so he quickly searches the Internet for more information, his fingers typing impossibly fast. He finds none but doesn't let that dishearten him and reads everything he finds about the equivalents to a bubak in all the cultures around the world.

"Did you find anything?" the older woman asks grimly but calmly. In the background the mother is almost silently crying as the dad holds onto Emily too. The teen and an older man are holding Anna as she cries, trying to calm her down, and a pale looking middle-aged man is holding a whimpering baby between his arms. "Can we do anything to help?"

"What are you?" Stiles asks bluntly, a ridiculous and very risky plan already forming in his head.

"Werewolves," she answers simply, to everyone's surprise.

"So you are fast too. Ok, cool." Stiles nods. "I think we need to lure it into the river and drown it, but I'm not sure if it will work at all. There's almost no information at all, sorry. I just-"

"We'll take any chance we have at this point," the dad points out, making a visible effort to calm himself as he incorporates. "How do we do this?"

"I-I," Stiles stutters for a moment, thrown off because he always has to fight to be heard. Then he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Ok. Ok, this is how we do this."

The kids stay behind with the middle aged man and the mom. She will keep her phone with her in case Emily has to be brought to the river for her soul to go back into her body or something like that and he will take care of the kids. The rest slip outside the house from the back door and then run.

(Stiles almost drowns that night.)

They stealthily approach the little clearing where the thing has settled and Stiles can see the wolves' horrified expressions at the sight. He makes a signal and they nod grimly. The dad steps into the clearing, drawing the attention of the bubak as he does so, and then runs as fast as he can out of there. It follows him and Stiles and the rest go right behind, struggling to keep up.

Something is wrong, Stiles thinks as it rapidly gains ground no matter how much the dad pushes himself. With a sprint, he pushes himself forward shouting at the bubak to get it to come after himself instead. As it turns towards Stiles, he spies the dad slipping away with a grateful look. Stiles takes off again, pushing himself as far as he can and trying to look past his exhaustion at this point. When it looks like it will get him, the wolves intervene to let him get a respite and gain some distance between them.

It's soon very clear to him, though, that the bubak seems to prefer his soul over any others because presented with the option of pursuing Stiles or one of the wolves, it always goes after him in the end. So with that in mind, when the time comes and they can't seem to find a way to drown it, Stiles does the most sensible (and stupid at the same time) thing and jumps into the river, shouting at the others to stay hidden. Sure enough, the bubak can't resist the temptation and follows him in.

Stiles tries to swim to the other riverbank but by now he's exhausted, which makes him slow enough for it to grab him as it gets pulled under by the currents. He can't shake the bubak off no matter how hard he tries. He squirms and hits it as darkness starts to close on him but it won't let go.

The next thing he knows it that he's coughing water onto the ground, shaken by full body tremors, as the old man helps him to not choke on his own tongue. There are also countless incorporeal beings around them, whose only clear features are the clothes they are wearing. Stiles has the clear impression that they are being grounded by them.

"Bring her here," he coughs out after a moment. "Quick, it's almost sunrise."

When the mom finally arrives with Emily in her arms, Stiles starts helping the incorporeal beings take off the clothes the bubak wove for them, to the werewolves' astonishment, because they can't see them at all. All of the souls disappear except for one and suddenly the mom has a wailing toddler in her arms.

"I'm Thomas," the dad says after they all have calmed down. "This is my wife, Linda, my father David and my mother in law, Margaret."

"Stiles," he sighs as he waves from where he has let himself fall unceremoniously to the ground. "Er, nice to meet you, I guess?"

"Very nice to meet you," Margaret assures him warmly, coming near to give him an awkward half-hug, and the rest nod tiredly. "Although you could use a shower, kid."

He really, really could.

(It's telling that the prospect of a long hot shower after all this time makes him tear up.)

---

He ends up staying for a while.

His initial plan was to take that shower and then find somewhere to sleep, because he was veritably dead on his feet. Linda insisted on him staying at least the night and he point-blank refused, but then Margaret pointed out that he was so exhausted that he wouldn't notice any threat that approached him and he had to reluctantly relent. Then, the next day Margaret convinced him again to stay just in case Emily's health took a turn for the worse, because he had been the only one to be able to see the souls (or whatever it was that the bubak took) when they were out of the bodies. Then it was Emily, Anna and Jonathan who begged him to not leave (just for a day, please?) and he didn't have the heart to refuse the puppy eyes, and the next day Charles wanted to know if he would share some knowledge about this or that creature and could he hold the baby for a moment, please? And the next day David and Thomas...

At that point, because Stiles wasn't stupid, he was already suspecting something was going on and his bet was on the Tribunal having made the Collinses stall him so that they could catch him. So, after almost a week in the house, he picked up his things and just left at the very first opportunity that presented itself. David and Thomas caught him just as he was about to reach the edge of the property and Stiles snapped at them angrily. What followed was a very enlightening conversation that cleared up a lot of things.

Apparently, they just liked Stiles. As in a lot.

(What.)

They didn't know the Tribunal was searching for him, but they did suspect he was in some kind of trouble because of the way he acted. And they wanted to help him because they weren't stupid either and they knew he could have run the other way instead of saving the kids from the bubak or left afterwards, when they found out something was wrong with Emily. Instead, he nearly died both times for complete strangers. They would have helped him just out of obligation in any case, but the thing is that they actually liked Stiles a lot. They liked how he carefully held baby Daniel, how he played with the shy Emily, how he listened patiently to the hyperactive Anna, how he treated the insecure Jonathan, how he helped Charles when he was overwhelmed, how he cooked with Linda and made her laugh, how he bantered with Margaret, how he accompanied David when he went fishing and no one else wanted to, how he assisted Thomas when he needed it and many more reasons. They wanted him to stay because they liked Stiles a lot.

(Just.)

(What.)

To make a long story short, it's been nearly four weeks now and he has stopped sleeping on the couch because he has his own room and he's been somehow integrated in the chore rooster and, more generally, their lives.

(Stiles is almost completely sure it's Margaret's fault because she got everyone into the plan of making him stay. That woman is way too smart and sneaky for Stiles' own good, but he can't help but like her for it.)

"Stiles?" Emily murmurs from the top of his left shoulder, her arms tightening minutely where they are holding onto his neck when he hitches her up to a more secure position on his back.

"Mmm?" he hums softly and when she doesn't seem to get the courage to speak he continues on, vaguely remembering that she's been eyeing one particular store. "The colouring book?"

"I finished the other already," she nods shyly and he nods back.

"Ok. We still have time before we have to pick up Anna and Jonathan from practice, so let's go take a look and see if you find anything you like."

After all that's happened, Stiles feels a little trapped inside stores and it's no different this time. If anything, it's made worse by Emily's presence, because it means that if he gets cornered he can't just beat it, because that would mean leaving the nearly six year old alone. He's not about to pressure the poor girl though, so he bears it with as much grace as he can, his eyes darting around looking for threats when she's not looking.

But, as he's come to find over the last few weeks, Emily is a very perceptive child, so after a couple of minutes staring indecisively at the picture books, she nervously looks at him, grabs the first at hand and shows it to Stiles with a nod.

It takes everything he has to not laugh out utterly charmed, because it's obvious she hasn't looked at it at all and she'll be horrified when she does. There are clowns in its cover and she positively hates them. The thing though, is that she'll force herself to finish it because she won't want to hurt Stiles' feelings.

Stiles bites his inner cheek to contain his mirth and then reaches to take one that has all sorts of animals depicted on it. It's bigger and more expensive, but he figures that she deserves the treat for being such an adorable cutie.

"What about this one?" he asks as he takes the one in her hands and replaces it with the bigger one. Her eyes widen comically when she catches sight of the clowns and Stiles has to bite his cheek again. "It even has koalas, look."

"But mama said..." she reluctantly starts to protest, her eyes going back nervously to the clowns.

"My treat," he smiles. "It's a present."

"But it's not my birthday?"

"It's an unbirthday present. Just because I like you a lot." She blushes like a tomato and hugs his legs tightly. Stiles finally laughs and, after leaving the clown picture book back in the rack, he hoists her up onto his hip and turns her to look at the other picture books. "So, this one? Because that one has kittens too."

"This one," she answers without even looking, hugging him tight, and he smiles fondly.

Stiles does breathe easier when they leave the store, but decides it was totally worth it when Emily happily shows the picture book to Anna as if Stiles has given her the greatest thing in the word. For a moment he thinks that he should have gotten something for Anna too, because she might feel left out, but she only grins and hugs Stiles before launching into an explanation (physical demonstrations included) of what she has done in ballet practice today.

(She loves ballet but wanted to learn karate too. Since she can't control her strength yet she can't, but apparently it's ok because she already knows how to punch idiots and with ballet she can learn to do it looking like a princess at the same time.)

(She's going to grow up terrifying.)

The only hitch of the day comes when they pick up Jonathan and find him being harassed by some jocks. They end up having to run back to the car, fleeing the scene of the crime, so to speak. Anna is cackling delighted, Emily is giggling (even though she doesn't understand exactly what happened) and Jonathan is looking awestruck. Stiles sighs, gets ice cream for all of them and proceeds to give them his 101 of dealing with bullies.

When Jonathan comes back from school the next day, he hugs Stiles and doesn't let go for several minutes, to the general confusion of the adults. Anna squeals happily when she sees it and starts doing pirouettes around the kitchen table before joining in the hug and Emily, after blinking confused for a moment, joins in too. Stiles can't stop laughing.

(Stiles hasn't felt this happy for a long time.)

---

Life with the Collinses, Stiles has come to find out, is peaceful and uncomplicated and it's nice to be able to relax for a change.

He helps around the house with the chores (though it took a lot for Linda to let him) and babysits the kids, including Charles' baby, which he's extremely grateful for because now he has actual time to work from home at normal hours while before he had to squeeze it in whenever he could. Also, more importantly, he also trains with them, which has helped him heaps to control the abilities the nogitsune left him.

"Stileeeesss," Anna whines, "I wanna play."

"But you still haven't finished your homework. You know the rules, hun," he counters.

"But I wanna play," she whines again and pouts. "Math sucks."

"I wanna play too," Emily pleads in, turning the puppy eyes on him, and Stiles inwardly groans. Jonathan coughs suspiciously and he throws a dirty look at him. "Please?"

"Here's the deal, ok?" Stiles starts. "How about you finish colouring the picture you were doing for your mom? I'm sure she'll love receiving it when she comes home tired from work! Don't you think so?" Emily nods after a brief moment of consideration and picks up the crayon again. Stiles sighs inwardly in relief and turns towards Anna as he hastily stops Daniel from crawling under the table. He bounces the giggling baby as he talks. "And how about I help you with Math? That way you'll finish faster. Then we can play and your mom and dad won't ground you for not finishing homework. Mmm? How about that?"

"Ok," she pouts adorably and brings her Math assignment near Stiles.

"Nice save," Jonathan snickers softly and when Stiles flips him the bird covertly, he guffaws. "You can help me with Math too, if you want?"

Stiles rolls his eyes and points out the way to resolve the problem the teen is working on. Jonathan blinks surprised and then grins, bringing his own assignment near too. Half an hour later, all of them have finished and they are pouring out of the house to play by the front door.

Yes, peaceful and uncomplicated, he thinks as he helps Daniel keep upright to toddle around at the same time he and Jonathan follow the convoluted game of princesses and dragons Emily and Anna have concocted. Emily and Anna are the warrior princesses that have to fight the bad wizard, Jonathan, to liberate mama dragon, Stiles, and the baby dragon, Daniel, and that's exactly how Thomas finds them when he gets home.

"What do we have here?" he asks amused at the sight.

"We are warrior princesses, dad!" Anna exclaims and Emily nods seriously. They both wave their swords (sticks) in the air.

"And I'm an evil wizard!" Jonathan roars as he comes at them from behind, making them shriek and run around trying to avoid getting caught.

"And who are you?" Thomas asks Stiles smiling.

"He's mama dragon," Charles answers helpfully from inside through his opened window and Stiles feels himself blush.

"Well, I can see the logic in that," Thomas says after he stops laughing and Stiles scowls, which only makes him laugh harder. "Well, mama dragon, I need to speak to you for a moment."

"Sure?" Stiles answers warily.

"Don't look so worried, kid. I just could use your help, if you don't mind?"

When he nods unsurely, Thomas asks Charles to come outside to keep an eye on the kids for a bit. He leads Stiles towards his office and closes the door behind him, motioning to him to take a seat, which Stiles does.

"Ok, first, here," he says passing him a box.

"A phone?" Stiles asks surprised.

"Ah, yes," Thomas answers, suddenly looking a little awkward. "After what happened when we met, I'd feel better if we had a way to communicate with you in case of an emergency. I know it's been almost a month, I didn't know how to bring it up. I've already put everyone's number inside," he explains, his mouth quirking a bit at the dumbfounded expression on Stiles' face. "If that's ok?"

"Ah, yes. Yes!" Stiles finally replies, shaking himself out of his daze. "That's awesome. But you said you wanted my help?"

"Yes, about that. You need to understand this first: it's completely your choice and if you say no there will be no problem at all, ok?"

"Ok?" Stiles answers warily.

"Remember the lake where you went fishing with dad?"

"The one in Swallow Water?"

"That's the one," Thomas nods. "Well, something nearly pulled him underwater today and-"

"Wha- Is he ok?!"

"Yes, yes, he is! Sorry I wasn't clear about that," he apologizes chagrined. "The thing is that we could use knowing what the hell that thing is when we go to take care of it before anything else happens."

"Oh, you want me to go and identify it with the bestiary?"

"In all honesty, I'd rather not put you in danger again, but I also know that you can take care of yourself so... it's your choice."

Stiles is shocked again. Never in his life has someone said something like that to him. He finds himself smiling without meaning to and Thomas looks confused by his reaction, but he mimics him unconsciously.

"I'll go check it out."

It turns out to be a kelpie of all things and it wasn't trying to kill grandpa David but to ask for his help in a entirely wrong way. In her defense (because that kelpie is a she), she's really young, a six year old by human standards, and she didn't know not everyone can breathe underwater. She was terrified and in dire need of help, so when she recognized David as a supernatural, she tried to bring him with her because she doesn't speak a word of English and she didn't know how to explain except by showing him what was wrong. This is what her mom explains after Thomas calls the local werejaguar pack for help and they come with diving equipment, which allows them to help the kelpies that had been trapped by hunters six days ago and left to die out of starvation.

(It doesn't escape Stiles' notice that they trapped them together, so clearly they were hoping they resorted to cannibalism out of desperation, because otherwise they wouldn't have taken the risk of leaving them in a group that could somehow force their way out by working together.)

(A bitter and vindictive part of him wonders where the hell is the Tribunal now.)

Three days later, Stiles has to sneak out a second floor window when the Tribunal comes knocking at the door as if summoned by his thoughts. He doesn't even have time to pick up his backpack and leaves with what he has on. Thankfully he never separates from his dad's wallet and badge, so at least he has that, but he mourns the loss of the family pictures, even though he hasn't looked at them since he hid them back in Beacon Hills. His only consolation is that he knows that the Collinses won't let the Tribunal have them.

When he's nearly at the county's border, he finally allows himself to slow down a bit and call them. He adores Jonathan so much, he thinks when he tells Stiles that they couldn't stop them from taking his backpack, but that he took the pictures out while Margaret stalled them. He loves baby Daniel, he thinks too when Charles gleefully tells him that the poor thing got so stressed by the hunter's presence that he puked his dinner on two of them just as they passed.

"Will you be ok?" Thomas finally asks with a sigh after Stiles explains and he finally understands he won't be persuaded to come back.

"I'll try my best? The werejaguars must have told them I was there, so now I have them on my tail again and I'll have to keep moving for a while," he admits chagrined.

"I'm so sorry, Stiles, I didn't think they'd..."

"It's not your fault, Thomas. Please don't think that," Stiles assures him earnestly. "You've given me the best time I've had in a very long while. You can't know how much that means to me."

"You keep in touch, you hear me?" Linda says firmly, apparently wrestling the phone out of his husband's hand. "Don't you dare lose that phone. Promise me."

"I promise."

"Good," she replies. "Just know that you'll always have a place here and that you can call us if you need help and we're good. Now there are several someones that want to talk to you, hold on."

"Wha-"

"Stileeees," Anna whines tearfully through the speaker. "How am I gonna make you fall in love with me and marry me if you aren't even here?! I had a plan! A ten year long plan!"

Stiles laughs his heart out at the irony. Suddenly tears are rolling down his face and he finally notices that maybe he was ready to tentatively call this place home, after all.

"I'll be back," he promises, trying to keep his voice from wavering so that they don't notice he's crying.

"We'll hold you to that," David answers warmly.

(Not much later, right at the edge of the county, he gets caught and tranquilized as if he's an animal. He doesn't even feel the impact when he crumbles to the ground as a puppet whose strings have been cut off.)

#every revolution begins with a spark #teen wolf fics #my writing #teen wolf #steter

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24stiles920 · 6 years ago

Text

Echo House

Teen Wolf Rewrite

Pairing: Stiles x Reader

Warnings: Ages 16+, swearing, suicide, violence,

Words: 9027

A/N: What. A. Whirlwind! I wanted to try something out for this episode that I thought would work. Hopefully it’s not too confusing but let me know if it is! I tried to mark each POV, so… Also, my girl Malia is in this! Woot, woot! Hope you enjoy!

Link to Masterlist on profile!

Y/N

I glanced at the floor, memorizing the wood grain in the laminate flooring that adorned every room of the house. Focusing on this helped me a little bit, but I couldn’t get what was about to happen out of my head.

Stiles was voluntarily signing himself in at the Eichen House, the mental institution where William Barrow came from. I didn’t agree with this plan, in fact, I was strongly against it, but I was outvoted two to one, and what I wanted didn’t matter.

Stiles silently packed, slowly walking around his room and putting whatever he thought he needed into his duffle bag. He put a couple of pairs of gray sweatpants into the bag, followed by simple t-shirts; jeans and button-ups weren’t allowed according to the nurse that Noah spoke with over the phone.

“Don’t forget socks.” I muttered, stroking the light blue cast that was fitted around my broken wrist. “Your feet will get cold.”

“Okay.” Stiles said simply, walking over to his dresser and pulling out a couple pairs of socks.

“They’ll probably give you slippers or something.” I continued, remembering the information I looked up about mental institutions. “No shoes with laces are allowed.”

“Okay.” Stiles repeated, pulling out his pair of Adidas sneakers from the bag.

“And don’t forget your pillow, either.” I sighed, looking from his bag to the floor again. “You won’t be able to sleep without—”

“Y/N, please just stop.” Stiles interrupted me, a hint of pleading in his rough tone.

I looked up sharply, not expecting his harsh reaction. “I’m just trying to help.” I mumbled, looking at the dark circles under his eyes.

“I know.” Stiles sighed, slumping down on the bed next to me. “I know you are and I know you hate what I’m going to do, but I have to do this, baby. I can’t hurt you or Scott again.”

“That wasn’t you, Stiles!” I objected, turning my body to face him. “That was the Nogitsune and Dr. Deaton put it to sleep for a couple of days. We have time to figure something out! What you’re doing is rash and—and—”

“And right.” Stiles said firmly. “What happens when the Nogitsune comes back, huh? Because I know we’re not going to find a way out of this in a couple of days, okay? The Nogitsune is gonna come back and I don’t want you anywhere near it! Look what it did to you! Look what I did to you!”

While Stiles voice had gotten harder and louder, a dull pressure started from behind my eyes; tears had already started to blur my vision and I kept wiping them away, not wanting them to fall.

“Stiles, please.” I begged, grabbing his hand tightly. “Please don’t do this.”

“I’m sorry, Y/N.” Stiles murmured solemnly, looking at me with sad eyes. “But I have to.”

I whimpered and leaned forward, wrapping my arms around him and burrowing my face in his neck. Stiles gripped me back tightly and laid his head on mine, stroking my hair and back with his hands.

“I love you.” I whispered as I pulled away.

“I love you too, Y/N.” Stiles smiled sadly. “That’s why I have to do this.”

There was a knock that came from Stiles’ door and we both turned to Noah, who was leaning against the doorframe.

“Ready to go, kiddo?” He asked Stiles, a frown on his face.

“Yeah.” Stiles sighed, standing up and zipping up his duffle bag before throwing it across his shoulders. “I’m ready.”

It was raining softly as we walked out of the house to Noah’s civilian car, so I had to hide my cast-covered wrist inside my jacket. I clambered into the back seat, and to my surprise, Stiles climbed in next to me, grabbing my hand and intertwining our fingers.

It was about a thirty-minute drive to Eichen House, which was on the outskirts of Beacon Hills, and we spent all of the drive in silence. Noah fiddled nervously with the radio while Stiles and I stayed still in our seats, tightly squeezing each other’s hands. When we arrived just outside of the Eichen House gates, we got out and met in front of the car.

I looked up at the building, hearing distinct whispers and murmurs. I decided right then that I didn’t like this place; it couldn’t be good if my banshee instincts were flaring up and I hadn’t even been inside yet.

The loud sound of a motorcycle echoed through the air and Noah, Stiles, and I turned to see Scott pulling up on his bike. He turned off the engine and removed his helmet, getting off the vehicle and walking to where the three of us stood.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Scott asked Stiles. “Why did I have to find out from Y/N?”

Both Noah and Stiles looked at me and I bowed my head guiltily.

“Because we wanted to avoid something like this.” Noah said, sending me a pointed look.

“It’s only seventy-two hours.” Stiles told Scott.

“This is the same place where Barrow came from.” Scott said, as though Stiles didn’t know that already. “The guy who had a tumor inside him filled with flies.” Scott turned to Noah and shook his head. “You don’t know everything yet.”

“I know enough.” Noah replied. “Nogitsunes, kitsunes, Oni, or whatever they’re called.”

“Wow, that was actually all surprisingly correct.” Stiles commented, looking slightly impressed with his father.

“Scott, I saw an MRI that looked exactly like my wife’s and I terrifies me.” Noah said firmly. “I’m headed down to L.A. tomorrow to talk to a specialist.”

“Then why are you putting him in here?”

“He’s not.” Stiles answered Scott’s question. “It was my decision.”

“Stiles, I can’t help you if you’re in here.” Scott sighed, shaking his head.

“And I can’t hurt you guys.” Stiles said, glancing at me quickly.

“Deaton’s got some ideas, Argent’s calling people. We’re gonna find something and if we can’t—”

“If you can’t—” Stiles leaned in closer to Scott. “If you can’t, you have to do something for me okay? Take care of Y/N and make sure I never get out.”

I closed my eyes, trying with all my might not to cry. As I opened my eyes, Stiles stepped back and looked at Noah, who nodded and said, “Come on.”

Noah placed his hand on my back and led me and Stiles to the gate, which buzzed open. I glanced back at Scott sadly and nodded at him; he nodded back. We had to figure something out.

We entered Eichen House and slowly walked up to the front desk. I looked around at the patients; there was a guy in a wheelchair up the hair, his head bowed, and a girl behind a barred door, twitching as she stared at us.

“Mr. Stilinski.” Noah, Stiles, and I turned to see a nurse smiling at us expectantly. She gestured toward a hallway. “This way, please.”

As we sat down in the nurse’s office, she handed Noah a clipboard of entrance papers that he had to sign since Stiles was still underage. Noah reluctantly took a pen and started to fill the papers out while the nurse explained the rules.

“First seventy-two hours there’s no phone calls, no e-mails, no visitors.” The nurse informed us. “We will be taking you from here to a brief physical. In the morning you’ll be assessed by a staff psychologist, speak to a social worker, and attend group therapy.”

The door buzzed loudly and I turned in my seat, looking out the open door. In the hallway, two orderlies were escorting a patient into a room with what looked like handcuffs keeping their hands together.

Noah set the pen and clipboard down. “I feel like we’re forgetting something.” He said, looking disgruntled.

“You will be wearing these, Stiles.” The nurse said, placing a pair of ugly tan slippers on the desk in front of Stiles. “No laces allowed. You don’t have a belt, do you?”

When Stiles shook his head, the nurse went on, “And please empty your pockets in here.” She gestured to a small, white, plastic container.

“Your pillow. Your pillow.” Noah said, nudging Stiles. “We forgot your pillow.”

“Dad, it’s okay.” Stiles assured him as he took off his shoes.

“No.” I shook my head. “You’re never going to be able to fall asleep.”

“She’s right.” Noah agreed. “We have to go back.”

“It’s fine.” Stiles shook his head. “I don’t need it.”

“I can’t believe I forgot it.” Noah continued, a bit hysterical. “I mean, every time that we’ve ever stayed in a hotel, the first thing you pack is your pillow.”

“You can bring it tomorrow. It’s all right.” Stiles said, emptying his keys into the white container.

I flinched as the door buzzed from behind us again. Noises all around me started getting louder and every clink of the change Stiles was putting into the white container made my ears ache. Then the door buzzed again and footsteps were growing louder and louder.

“Stop, stop!” I exclaimed, standing up abruptly. I could feel the eyes of the nurse, Stiles, and Noah on me, but I didn’t care; Stiles couldn’t stay here. “Enough. Stiles, get your stuff. We’re leaving.”

“Y/N…” Stiles sighed, rubbing a hand down his face.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this place, Stiles.” I told him, trying to convey my meaning through my eyes.

“And I’m not checking you in here if you’re not gonna get one good night’s sleep.” Noah added.

“Dad!” Stiles exclaimed, standing up and putting his hands on Noah’s shoulders. “I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks.”

He pulled Noah into a hug and Noah slowly returned it, squeezing his son tightly before letting go. Stiles then turned to me and grabbed my crossed arms, slowly unraveling them. I sniffed, holding back tears as I wrapped my arms around his waist.

“It will be okay, baby.” Stiles whispered in my ear. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I whimpered, pulling back quickly to give him a peck on the lips. “Please be careful.”

“I will.” Stiles assured me as he pressed a firm kiss on the apple of my cheek. “I promise.”

With that he pulled away and walked down the hall with the nurse close by his side. I let the tears fall from my eyes, not bothering to wipe them away as I watched them walk down the hall. Noah sighed and wrapped an arm around my shoulder, hugging me to them.

“He’ll be okay, kiddo.” He whispered. “He has to be.”

3RD Person

Stiles walked down the hallway with the nurse, trying not to listen to Y/N’s cries. The nurse led him up the stairs and with each landing that they climbed to, Stiles could feel himself becoming tired.

As they walked upon another landing, Stiles looked around, his gaze falling on a tall girl who had just walked out of her room. He narrowed his eyes at her, noticing that she looked familiar.

“Stiles?” The nurse called, making Stiles turn back to her. “This way, please.”

The nurse led Stiles to another staircase and as Stiles glanced back, the girl was gone. Focusing on the stairs, Stile followed the nurse, looking up and wondering how many more stairs they had to climb before they got to his room.

Almost instantly, Stiles spotted a man a couple floors up, leaning over the railing and trying a twisted sheet around it. As the guy worked on tying the sheet around the railing, he kept muttering, “I’m part of the bird that’s not in the sky. I’m the part of the bird that’s not in the sky.”

“Hey, do you see that?” Stiles asked the nurse, his eyes focused on the man speaking in riddles.

“I’m the part of the bird that’s not in the sky.” The guy kept saying as he tied the sheet into a noose.

Stiles sped forward, climbing the stairs three at a time to get to the man.

“Stiles, wait for me.” The nurse called from behind him.

“I’m the part of the bird that’s not in the sky.”

“That guy up there.” Stiles said to the nurse, pointing at the guy a few floors up.

“I can swim in the ocean, yet still remain dry.” The guy said, knotting the noose to the railing. “I can swim in the ocean, yet still remain dry.”

“Hey!” Stiles yelled, climbing the stairs more quickly now. “Stop! Somebody stop him!”

The guy climbed onto the railing, the twisted sheet wrapped tightly around his neck. He stared down the area between the floors, still repeating his riddle, “I can swim in the ocean, yet still remain dry…”

The man stopped talking and stepped forward into the air, his body falling and pulling the sheet taut, snapping his neck and killing him. The nurse gasped loudly and Stiles stared at the dead body in horror before hearing whispers from below him.

He looked down and saw a group of people looking up at the dead guy, whispering in shock. There, in the group of people, Stiles saw a man with his head covered in bandages, his teeth sticking out sharply.

It was him. Stiles thought. The Nogitsune.

Y/N

“Did you have any trouble with Ikeda?” Mr. Argent’s voice came from the speaker of Dr. Deaton’s phone. Allison, Scott, and I stood by Dr. Deaton’s desk, listening closely to their conversation. Noah had left me with the McCall’s while he went to go see the specialist and Scott invited me to tag along with him and Allison instead of moping about Stiles.

“Only minor.” Dr. Deaton replied. “The white wolf was exactly where you said it would be. But we have two problems now. First, the lichen is not a cure. It’ll wear off in a matter of days.”

“But while it does work, the Oni won’t go after Stiles, right?” Mr. Argent asked.

“I hope.” Dr. Deaton sighed. “Eichen House has an unusual history. It might not be all that safe for the Oni there as well.”

“What’s the second problem?” Mr. Argent wondered.

“I checked with your contacts in Japan.” Dr. Deaton answered. “The Yakuza Boss you saw killed by the Oni never found the scroll.”

“What scroll?” I asked, confused.

“The Shugendo Scroll.” Dr. Deaton told me. “The Shugendo were the ascetic mystics of Japan.”

“The scroll had information on how to exorcise a Nogitsune.” Mr. Argent continued to explain.

“So we need to find that scroll?” Scott said, leaning on his elbows.

“Exactly.” Dr. Deaton nodded. “And I did get a name of the man who last purchased it. Kincaid.”

“He was with Katashi.” Allison spoke up. “He’s the guy who met with Isaac to buy the gun.”

“Sounds like Katashi wanted the scroll for himself.” Dr. Deaton commented.

“But Stilinski already told me nothing like it was found among his things.” Mr. Argent said. “And a paranoid like Katashi would keep it close. Probably on him at all times.”

“What’s the Shugendo Scroll look like?” Allison asked, a thoughtful look on her face.

Dr. Deaton stood up from his chair and walked over to a table of drawers. He opened the first drawer and pulled out a large scroll with golden handles. “Something like this.” He said.

Allison took the scroll and said, “Do these come in different sizes?”

“Any size.” Dr. Deaton said, looking at Allison in confusion.

Allison looked up at Dr. Deaton. “Then I think I know where it might be.”

3RD Person

“Okay, I know there’s the whole seventy-two hour thing but I really need to use the phone.” Stiles said to the nurse urgently.

“The accident that occurred is being taken care of.” The nurse said as she stopped at a door and pulled out a set of keys.

“You’re seriously referring to that as an accident?” Stiles stated in disbelief.

“Incident.” The nurse corrected herself, inserting a key into the doorknob.

“Slightly better.” Stiles snarked. “Still need to use the phone.”

The nurse ignored him and gestured into the room. Stiles sighed and stepped into the dark room, turning around quickly to look at the nurse.

“Just five minutes.” He begged. The nurse went to close the door but Stiles blocked it. “Three minutes, please. A three-minute call.”

The nurse glared at Stiles, loosing her pleasant aura. “Would you like to go to sleep, Stiles, or would you like to be introduced to our five-point restraint system?” She asked.

“I would go with sleep.” A voice called from behind Stiles.

Stiles looked around and saw a guy around his age laying in a bed, restrained to it with leather straps. While Stiles was distracted, the nurse closed the door.

The sound of the door closing made Stiles look back and he lunged forward, grabbing the door knob and trying to open the door again.

“Hey, wait, wait, wait!” He called, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Son of a bitch.” Stiles exhaled, hitting the door slightly.

“I’m Oliver.” The guy in the bed introduced himself.

“Stiles.” Stiles said, still staring at the door.

“There was a suicide, huh?” Oliver called over to Stiles.

“Yeah.”

“Is it Monday?” Oliver asked. “There’s a much higher rate of suicide on Mondays.”

“Okay, then.” Stiles muttered, looking back at the door before calling out, “Hey, can someone…someone just please let me out of here. Someone? Anyone?”

“I heard it by the way.” Oliver commented after a second of silence. Stiles looked back over to Oliver and slowly made his way toward his bed, sitting down. “It happened in the stairwell, right?”

“Yeah.” Stiles nodded. “How’d you know that?”

“I heard the echo.” Oliver answered.

“What do you mean?” Stiles wondered.

“It’s this place.” His roommate explained. “Something about the way that it was built. Everything echoes. Eventually. That’s why they call it Echo House.”

Stiles didn’t respond, instead looking out the window. He didn’t stop looking out the window all night, even when Oliver fell asleep. He spent the time thinking that Y/N was right, that he shouldn’t have checked himself in here, especially without his pillow.

About forty-five minutes after the sun rose, Stiles heard Oliver shift in his bed, obviously awake.

“Have you been awake all night?” Oliver asked, his voice groggy.

“Yeah, I can’t sleep without my pillow.”

Stiles looked away from the window as Oliver began coughing loudly for a while. After he was done, Stiles raised his eyebrows, and asked, “You okay?”

“I swallowed a bug the other day.” Oliver responded. “You ever do that? I keep coughing like it’s still in my throat.”

“That’s disgusting, Oliver.” Stiles commented, looking at the restrained boy. “You don’t have any idea when they unlock the doors, do you?”

At that precise second, there was the sound of the door unlocking. Oliver craned his neck up as far as he could before saying, “Now.”

After breakfast, Oliver and Stiles had free time before their therapy sessions. Oliver decided that he wanted to take Stiles on a mini tour to see as much as the place that they could. Stiles agreed, hoping that he would maybe see a telephone and be able to use it.

“Now, most of the people here are okay.” Oliver said as they walked along the courtyard. “The violent ones are in the closed unit.” He turned and pointed at a girl sitting in the grass. “That’s Hillary, she has OCD. That’s Gary—” Oliver pointed at a guy that walked past them. “He thinks he’s Jesus Christ. Dan—” He pointed at another guy. “Also Jesus. That’s Mary…”

“Mary Magdalene?” Stiles guessed, running with the biblical theme. He spotted a phone at the far side of the courtyard and started toward it, Oliver following him.

“No.” Oliver shook his head. “She also thinks she’s Jesus. You’d be surprised at how many Jesuses we get.”

“Not really.” Stiles said, glancing at the phone where a woman that looked a couple years older than him was using it.

“Hey, how come you want to use the phone already?” Oliver wondered.

“Because,” Stiles glanced at Oliver. “After one night, I’ve changed my mind about this place being safe for me. Or anyone. Ever.”

“No. No, I think you’re wrong.” The woman who was on the phone said loudly, gaining Stiles’ attention. “I really think I should tell them. They’re going to want to know the story. The whole story. I really think they should know. Yes, I do. One of them is standing right behind me.”

Stiles looked at the woman, narrowing his eyes at her. The woman didn’t acknowledge him as she hung up the phone and walked by him, making her way back across the courtyard.

“Who was that?” Stiles asked Oliver, watching the woman go.

“That’s Meredith.” Oliver told him. “She’s a little weird.”

Stiles walked over to the telephone and picked it up off the hook. “You’re a little weird.” Stiles said to Oliver. “She’s a lot weird.” He pressed the phone to his ear; there was no dial tone. “It’s dead.”

“Yeah.” Oliver said, as though it should be obvious. “They turn off all the phones for twenty-four hours after a suicide.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Stiles asked his roommate, a bit frustrated.

“Why didn’t you ask?” Oliver retorted calmly.

Stiles sighed and roughly hung up the phone, walking away briskly.

“What are you going to do now?” Oliver chirped, rushing after Stiles.

“I’m getting out of this nuthouse.” Stiles snapped.

Oliver chuckled. “That’s not really the appropriate way to describe a facility like this.”

Stiles slowed down, noticing the girl that he saw in the hallway last night. As he got closer to her, he recognized her as Malia Tate, the werecoyote that him, Scott, Y/N, and the rest of his friends had saved from her trigger-happy father.

“Malia?” Stiles called, glad to see a familiar face. Malia turned around, pursing her lips at the sight of him. “Hey, it’s Stiles.” Stiles continued. “Do you remember me? I’m friends with Scott. Remember? We were the ones who helped you out with—”

He was cut off as Malia, who had bristled more and more as he continued talking, socked him in the jaw. Stiles let out a grunt and fell to the ground.

“Hey, Malia!” An orderly yelled, running toward them with another man.

“No!” Malia shouted as an orderly took a hold of her.

“Hey, what the fuck?” Stiles said as another orderly pulled his arms behind his back and pressed his face to the ground. “She hit me!”

“A few more like this, Malia, and you’re headed to the closed unit.” The orderly that had grabbed Malia said with a malicious grin.

“Okay, wait, wait, wait.” Stiles said as the orderly holding him pressed his face into a grate. “Stop, I didn’t do anything!”

Stiles looked down at the grate below his head, his eyes widening in recognition. He had seen the basement below the grate. He had been there before in his dreams.

“Enough!” A loud and familiar female voice shouted. “Enough!”

Stiles barely looked up and saw that the voice came from Ms. Morrell before looking back at the grate in shock. Why had he been in the Eichen House basement in his dreams?

“Stiles.” Ms. Morrell said, grabbing his attention. He looked up to see that she was now kneeling in front of him. “You saw something, didn’t you?”

Stiles nodded. “That basement.” He whispered. “I’ve been down there before.”

“I want to go back to the topic of guilt today.” Ms. Morrell, who turned out to be Stiles’ counselor, said during the group therapy that Stiles had been thrown into. “It might surprise you to hear me say that guilt is a good thing. It’s a rather mature emotion. Malia, you said something about guilt the other day. You said it came with a visceral reaction.”

Stiles moved his gaze up off the floor and let it fall on Malia. Malia, who was staring at him, nodded, and said, rather harshly, “I said it made me feel sick to my stomach.”

Stiles looked away as Oliver coughed obnoxiously next to him.

“Guilt often becomes physical.” Ms. Morrell said. “You feel it in your gut. It’s not just psychological.”

Hearing some talking behind him, Stiles turned around a little in his seat. His eyes widened as he took in the man in the doctor coat talking to a nurse. His head was covered completely by bandages; the Nogitsune.

Stiles turned around abruptly, gasping in panicked breaths.

“How does guilt make you feel, Stiles?” Ms. Morrell asked him.

“I’m sorry, what?” Stiles looked at the former guidance counselor.

“Guilt.” Ms. Morrell stated. “What does it make you feel?”

“Nervous.” Stiles said quickly.

“Like a sense of urgency?” Ms. Morrell guessed.

Stiles nodded shortly.

“You feel an urgent need to make up for something you’ve done.” Ms. Morrell assumed. “To apologize.”

Stiles thought about what the Nogitsune did to Scott and Y/N and even Kira. To say he felt guilty was an understatement. He didn’t want to do anything but make it up to them, and he could eventually. But those people that he killed? How could he make it up to them?

Stiles could feel someone watching him now, and when he looked out of the corner of his eye to see who it was, he saw the Nogitsune again. He lowered his gaze, trying not to panic, and blinked. As he opened his eyes again, he saw a bandage-covered hand on the knee of the person next to him.

“These are healthy responses.” Ms. Morrell continued. “Does anyone know what we call someone who doesn’t experience guilt?”

Oliver raised his hand. “A Sociopath?”

“That’s right, Oliver.” Ms. Morrell nodded, looking over at Stiles, who was shaking with panic. As he grabbed the back of his neck, where Dr. Deaton had injected him with the Wolf Lichen, Ms. Morrell stood up.

“I’m sorry, everyone, but we need to take a break.” She said firmly before walking over to Stiles. “Come with me, Stiles. I’d like to talk to you for a minute.”

Stiles followed Ms. Morrell to her office, where she requested for him to lift the back of his shirt so she could examine the marks on the back of his neck. Not even realizing that he had such marks, he obeyed.

“It’s called a Lichtenberg figure.” Ms. Morrell told him as she looked at his back. “They appear on lightning strike victims.”

Stiles dropped the back of his shirt and turned to face her.

“The fact they’re appearing on you after a shot of Wolf Lichen is both significant and strange.” Ms. Morrell said, putting her hands on her hips.

“By significant and strange do you mean hopeful and optimistic?” Stiles asked hopefully.

Ms. Morrell turned and unlocked a cabinet, grabbing a couple of bottles of pills. “When the marks fade, the Nogitsune’s grip over you will return.” She said, closing the medicine cabinet and handing Stiles a bottle of pills.

“What are these?” Stiles asked. “Sleeping pills?”

“Amphetamines.” Ms. Morrell told him. “Sleeping is exactly what you don’t want to do. You’re vulnerable when you’re asleep.”

“So all I have to do is stay awake?”

“For now.” Ms. Morrell nodded before taking on a foreboding tone. “If your friends haven’t figured out something by the time those marks are gone, I’ll come find you.”

“To tell me what to do?”

“No, to give you an injection.” She said, holding up a small bottle of medicine. “Pancuronium Bromide. It causes respiratory paralysis.”

“That’s sounds a lot like death.” Stiles commented, his gaze hardening.

“It’s used for lethal injection, yes.”

“So, when the Nogitsune takes over, you’re going to kill me?” Stiles spat through gritted teeth.

“I’m going to do what I’ve always done.” Ms. Morrell replied shortly. “Maintain the balance.”

“Okay then.” Stiles exhaled angrily before turning to walk away. “I’ve missed our talks. Thanks for the illicit drugs.”

“Stiles.” Ms. Morrell called, causing Stiles to stop in his tracks. “Stay awake.”

Stiles walked down the hallway to the basement door. Once he got close enough to touch it, he grabbed the gold-painted door handle and slowly tried to open it. When the door wouldn’t budge, Stiles shook the door knob desperately. He needed to get into the basement.

“What are you doing?”

Stiles gasped and turned around, seeing Oliver standing behind him. Oliver gave him an apologetic glance and stepped back cautiously.

“I need to get through here.” Stiles told him. “To the basement.”

“Doctors don’t even have a key to this door.” Oliver replied. “Only Brunski.”

“Is that the head orderly?” Stiles asked.

Oliver nodded. “He’s got keys to everything in here.”

“Does he keep them on him all the time?”

“If you want them, you’ll probably have to figure out a way to trick him.” Oliver answered Stiles’ question.

Stiles sighed. “Well, part of me is getting very good at playing tricks.”

Y/N

Scott, Aiden, Ethan, and I stood outside Allison’s apartment, waiting for her to answer the door. Apparently Allison and Lydia had made up a plan to get the Shugendo Scroll from the police station, but they needed our help. Well, Scott, Aiden, and Ethan’s help. I was pretty useless.

The door swung open, revealing Allison.

“My father said all of the Katashi evidence is being moved to a Federal Lockup by armored car tonight.” She said, leading us into the apartment. “Probably within the next few hours.”

“We’re going to rob an armored car?” Ethan asked as Lydia stepped into the hallway.

“Well, we’re going to try.” Lydia smiled mischievously.

3RD Person

Stiles ran into the boys’ bathroom, trying to ignore the sound of running water, and took the pill bottle that Ms. Morrell gave him out of his pocket. He uncapped it and took a pill, throwing it into his mouth before running the water at the sink he was leaning against and cupping his hand under the stream, drinking the pill down.

“Okay.” Stiles whispered, trying to give himself a pep talk. “Okay, just got to stay awake, Stiles. You just gotta stay—” He cut himself off, looking in the mirror toward the shower, where a naked Malia was standing under the running water, cleaning herself.

He looked away instantly, being respectful to not only Malia, but to Y/N, as well. Why the hell was she in here? Unless…unless he walked into the girls’ bathroom by mistake?

“Don’t worry, Stiles.” Malia called. “You didn’t just accidently walk into the girls’ room.”

“Thank God.” Stiles sighed before clearing his throat. He started to walk out of the room but paused, his curiosity overwhelming him. “Okay, so what are you doing in the boys’ room?”

“Showering.”

“I can that.” Stiles snarked, instantly feeling awkward. “I mean, I saw that. Well, actually, I didn’t see anything really. I just…there was too much steam to us…not that I would prefer there to be less steam. I mean, I have a girlfriend…”

“Stiles, I don’t care.” Malia snapped, cutting off Stiles’ rambling. “In the woods, there was no boys’ and girls’ room. And if you really need to know, they keep the water temperature in the girls’ room too low. It’s much hotter in here. Ever since I turned back to human, I just can’t seem to get warm.”

“Maybe you just have a low core temp.” Stiles suggested. “Y/N always gets cold, too. She wears my sweatshirts a lot, maybe—"

“I used to have a fur coat.”

“Or it could be—hey, it might be that.” Stiles scratched the back of his neck, feeling more awkward then the time he saw Lydia naked. Maybe it was because Y/N wasn’t there…

Malia turned off the shower and pulled on her towel, coming out of the shower area. She glanced at Stiles, who had turned to give her some privacy, and said, “What are you doing?”

“Uh…” Stiles glanced at her, feeling relieved that she was covered up. Now, he just had to lie about the medicine. “I was kind of wondering why you punched me.”

“Did you think I was going to thank you?” Malia asked in disbelief.

“No.” Stiles shook his head quickly. “Maybe. We did kind of save your life.”

“You’re right, Stiles.” Malia nodded. “Thank you. Thanks for invading my home. For putting me on the run. For turning me back to human so I could look at my father every day and try to figure out how to explain to him that the reason my sister and mother are dead is because I almost ate them on a full moon. Thank you so very much.”

Stiles sighed, feeling more guilt than he was already feeling. “We were just trying to help.”

“You want to help me?” Malia raised an eyebrow. “Find a way to change me back.”

Stiles looked at her in surprise. “You want to go back? To being a coyote?”

Malia grabbed the neck of Stiles’ t-shirt and looked at him excitedly. “What do you know?”

Stiles didn’t hesitate to answer. Maybe if he helped Malia, she would help him out.

“I might know somebody who could teach you.” He said. “How to change.”

“Okay.” Malia nodded. “What do you want?”

“I need to get into the basement.” Stiles answered her. “Which means that I need to get the keys off of that orderly. The big one.”

“Brunski.” Malia supplied.

“You help me and I’ll help you.”

Y/N

“This is a really bad plan.” I commented, looking down at my sneakers.

“It’s not that bad.” Lydia disagreed in a hopeful tone.

“It’s not that good.” Ethan said, siding with me.

Lydia sighed and placed her hands on Mr. Argent’s desk, leaning over the map that we were using. “None of us knows the route they’re going to take. If Allison can get one of her dad’s GPS trackers on the armored car then we can follow it.”

“So when it gets here—” Allison said, pointing at a spot on the map.

“We attack them?” Aiden spoke up from one of the armchairs.

Lydia turned to face him. “No.” She said firmly. “Your bikes will be in the middle of the road, looking like you guys got into an accident. And, when the driver gets out to help…”

“We attack him?” Aiden repeated.

“No!” Lydia, Allison, and I said in unison.

“You distract him.” Lydia went on, pursing her lips and turning to face Scott. “And Scott will break open the back door.”

Scott winced. “I hope.”

Lydia gave him a firm look and continued, “And you’ll get Katashi’s finger.”

“It’s not his actual finger, is it?” Ethan asked, his face wrinkled up in disgust. Scott looked to Lydia curiously.

Lydia sighed. “We are so our of our league.”

“Why aren’t we just going to Stilinski for help?” Ethan wondered.

“Because if he gets caught, then it’s the sheriff tampering with federal evidence.” I explained.

“Guys, this is going to work. We can do this.” Allison said optimistically. “We’re losing Stiles. My dad’s in jail for murder. We need to do this.”

3RD Person

Stiles watched as Oliver threw Malia to the ground and held her down. This was all part of the plan the three of them had cooked up to steal Brunski’s keys. Malia and Oliver would fake a fight, Malia would steal the keys and give them to Stiles, and then he would break into the basement.

“You’re lying, you’re a liar!” Oliver shouted in Malia’s face as orderlies rushed toward the fighting pair. “You’re lying!”

“Get this nut-job off of me!” Malia grunted.

“No!” Oliver yelled as Brunski and two other men grabbed him. “She said that they drill holes in your head. She said they’re gonna put a hole in my head!”

Stiles rushed forward to help Malia up, sneakily grabbing the keys out of her hand and putting them in his pocket. Oliver smiled at them as the orderlies started to pull him away.

“Please, come on!” Oliver pleaded, doing a very good job at acting the part. “Please, don’t—Please don’t drill a hole in my head!”

“You okay?” Stiles asked, turning to Malia.

Malia smiled, looking at Oliver. “Yeah.”

Once the group surrounding Malia and Oliver’s fight broke up, Stiles sneaked out of the courtyard and into the building. He looked both ways, looking for any sign of anyone, before making his way to the corridor that held the door to the basement.

Stiles got to the basement door and took the keys out of his pocket. He tried five different keys, but none of them worked.

“Come on, come on.” He muttered to himself. “I thought his guy had a key to everything.”

A hand came down on Stiles’ shoulder, causing him to freeze.

“I do.” Brunski said with a smirk, grabbing the keys out of Stiles’ hand. “But nobody has the key to that room.”

Brunski pulled Stiles away from the basement door and dragged him down a couple different hallways. They finally came to a stop in front of another locked door. As two other men joined them, Brunski unlocked the door and opened it. The two men grabbed Stiles and threw him into the room.

“Into the Quiet Room, little man.” Brunski laughed as the men searched Stiles’ pockets. He paused as one of the men grabbed the bottle of amphetamines and tossed them to him. “Want to tell us where you got these?”

“The vending machine.” Stiles snarked.

Brunski chuckled. “I always love the sarcastic ones.” He help up an syringe filled with medicine and handed it to one of the men holding Stiles. “Give him five of the Haldol.”

“Wait, what’s that?” Stiles started to panic as one of the guys grabbed his arms and held them behind his back. He couldn’t fall asleep. “Is that a sedative? Okay, hang on. Hang on! I can’t go to sleep…okay? I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Look…” The man with the syringe came closer. “Get off me, man!”

With a grunt, the man injected Stiles with the sedative. The two men pushed him to the ground and started walking away.

“You don’t understand.” Stiles pleaded with the men as he tiredly dropped to the ground. “I can’t go to sleep. I can’t go to sleep…”

The next time Stiles opened his eyes, he was in a locker. It was just like the previous dreams that he had been having for the past several weeks and it terrified him.

“No, no.” Stiles whimpered, banging against the locker door. He started to shout, “Hey, hey! Let me out! Let me out!”

“Let me in.” The Nogitsune said, dragging his hand along the lockers.

Stiles froze, leaning away from the door, terrified. “What…what do you mean?” He trembled.

“You know.” The Nogitsune whispered loudly.

“Okay, screw you and your stupid riddles.” Stiles spat, lowering his head.

The Nogitsune approached the locker Stiles was in and banged against the door, making Stiles jump. “No riddle this time, Stiles. You know what it means.”

“Let me out.” Stiles cried quietly. “Just let me out. Let me out, let me out!”

“LET ME IN!” The Nogitsune roared in Stiles’ face.

Stiles opened his eyes, shocked to find Malia patting his face, the door to the cell he was in wide open.

“Shh!” Malia hissed. “Hey, hey, hey! Shut up!”

“How did you get in here?” Stiles asked her, pulling away from her grasp.

“I broke the lock.” Malia replied with a short laugh. “If I concentrate, I can be pretty strong.” She grabbed Stiles’ arms and pulled him up. “Get up.”

Stiles groaned, feeling nauseous from the injection that the orderlies gave him.

“There’s another way to the basement.” Malia told Stiles. “Through the Closed Unit. Where they keep the real psychos.”

Y/N

Allison, Scott, Kira, and I crouched down between two cars outside of the police station. We were in charge of getting the GPS on the armored car, and we decided that Kira would do it with her new-found ninja moves.

Allison looked through the scope on her bow and said, “You’re up.”

Kira nodded and ran toward the armored car, placing the GPS on the front bumper. Just as she was about to run back the door to the police station opened and Deputy Parrish walked out. Kira hid behind the other side of the car as he opened the driver’s door.

“Okay, let’s get out of here.” Deputy Parrish said to the driver.

Something must have been wrong, though, because Deputy Parrish pulled out his gun in front of him and started looking around.

“We have to do something.” Scott whispered to Allison and I.

Just as Deputy Parrish walked in front of the doors, they burst open and a huge man knocked him out with one hit on the head.

“Who the fuck is that?” I asked, horrified.

“Kincaid.” Allison answered.

Scott walked forward and gestured for Allison and I to follow him. Clutching the aluminum baseball bat that was I borrowed from Stiles, I followed Allison and Scott over to Kincaid, who was distracted while looking at Katashi’s prosthetic finger.

“We need that finger.” Scott demanded, announcing our presence.

Kincaid glanced at Allison, who was aiming her crossbow at him, to me, who held up the baseball bat threateningly. He laughed and turned back to Scott. “Why should I give it to you?” He asked.

“There’s a briefcase in there with 150,000 dollars in it.” Allison replied stoically.

“The scroll inside this prosthetic finger is worth three million.” Kincaid chuckled, holding up the silver finger.

“Give me the finger.” Scott commanded before closing his eyes in humiliation. “You know what I mean.”

All of a sudden, Kira jumped from the top of the armored car, landing on Kincaid’s back. With a grunt, Kincaid reached behind him and grabbed Kira, throwing her to the ground.

“I guess negotiations are over.” Kincaid commented, flashing his blue eyes and fangs before growling loudly.

3RD Person

Malia opened the basement door and Stiles followed her into the room, looking around. His eyes landed on a piece of wood nailed into the wall, a backwards five carved on it.

“Do you know what you’re looking for?” Malia asked Stiles.

“Something to do with that.” Stiles pointed to the wood covering.

Malia and Stiles walked over to the wall that the wood was nailed to. Malia bent down and ran her hand across the carving, looking up at Stiles.

“What does it mean?” She asked.

“Self.” Stiles answered, remembering seeing the symbol on the back of Y/N’s ear.

“Maybe you should tell me more.” Malia suggested, not understanding.

Stiles shook his head and glanced down at her. “You might not like me if you know any more.”

Malia snorted and stood up so that she was level with Stiles. “Try to remember that I’m a werecoyote who murdered her own family. I won’t judge.” She said. “I promise.”

Stiles scoffed and looked down at the floor, wondering if he could trust the werecoyote.

Y/N

Kincaid ripped an arrow out of his bicep and threw it down. He stepped toward Kira and reached out, grabbing her throat and raising her up into the air. She grunted, running out of breath, before Kincaid threw her through the air, where she landed in a heap against the brick wall.

I stepped forward nervously and swung my bat at his abdomen. It hit him and he simply chuckled, reaching forward and grabbing me, throwing me next to Kira. I gasped as my head hit the brick, but my eyesight was fine and I didn’t feel any pain. I watched as Kincaid slapped Allison away from him, where she landed next to me.

Scott approached Kincaid, punching and kicking at him. Kincaid hardly moved a muscle, staring at Scott with amusement in his glowing blue eyes. Kincaid grabbed both of Scott’s arms and headbutted him, causing Scott to be pushed away a few feet.

Scott threw another punch but Kincaid blocked it and grabbed Scott, kneeing him in the abdomen. Scott fell to the ground, where Kincaid kicked at his ribs repeatedly. Scott gasped for breath as Kincaid crouched before him.

“You have the eyes of an Alpha.” Kincaid said, looking over Scott. “But where’s the strength?”

“Up here!” Aiden called, making me look up. The twins were on a balcony, staring down at Kincaid with blue eyes. They growled and jumped at him.

“Allison, Y/N!” Lydia said in a panicked voice as she came rushing toward us. She helped each of us up. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I breathed shakily. “Just another day at the office, you know?”

Allison and Lydia gave me unamused looks; I shrugged.

“Ah!” Kincaid shouted, falling to the ground and capturing our attention. The twins had thrown him to the ground and got ready for another round of beating him up.

“Ethan, Aiden, stop!” Scott shouted, getting to his feet.

“You want him to come after us?” Aiden asked harshly, pointing at Kincaid who laid on the ground, panting.

“Scott, we’ve seen guys like this.” Ethan tried to reason with Scott. “Trust us. He’s dangerous.”

“So are we.” Scott replied. “And he looks smart enough to remember that.” He glanced down at Kincaid, who wiped the blood from his eyes. Scott reached toward him and pulled Katashi’s silver finger out of his pocket. “We’re here to save a life. Not end one.”

3RD Person

“This place definitely used to be a lot more fun.” Malia commented as she and Stiles looked through a mountain of old paperwork. “Electroshock, ice baths. Trepanation?”

“That’s what Oliver was talking about.” Stiles said, looking over at the papers in Malia’s hand. “Trepanation is when they drill into your head.”

“No wonder they don’t want anyone down here.” Malia sighed, causing Stiles to chuckle.

Then he sighed, throwing his pile of papers to the ground. “There’s nothing here.” He said into his fist. He glanced at Malia, wondering if she would do something for him. “Could you do me a favor? Could you just check the lines on my back? Just tell me if they’re fading.”

He pulled up the back of his shirt and turned, allowing Malia to looked over his bare back.

“Yeah, they’re almost gone.” Malia confirmed his fear. “I’m guessing that’s bad.”

Stiles nodded.

“Okay.” Malia pulled down the back of Stiles’ shirt, causing him to jump when her cold hands touched his skin. “Sorry.” She apologized. “I told you, I’m always cold.”

“That’s okay.” Stiles shook his head. “I’m used to it, Y/N always has me hold her hands. Here.” Stiles took Malia’s hands in his own and chuckled. “Boy, you really are cold.”

Malia grinned at him and Stiles sent her a small smile back. It seemed weird, but if he couldn’t have Y/N with him right now, he was glad someone else was here at least. He didn’t feel as lonely.

Malia slowly leaned in, her eyes wide and her lips pursed, as though she was going to kiss Stiles. Stiles’ own eyes widened and he leaned away quickly, not realizing that he would offend Malia.

“Sorry.” He said quickly before explaining. “Um, I like you—um—a-as a friend, but I-I have a soulmate that I love very much.”

“Oh.” Malia sighed, leaning back. “Okay. Um, Y/N, right? You’ve been talking about her…”

“Yeah…” Stiles smiled goofily. “She’s my girlfriend.”

“Stiles.” Malia said, sitting up suddenly, a look of realization on her face.

“What?” Stiles asked, looking at her curiously.

Malia didn’t answer; she got up and walked around the furnace to the wooden panel with the backwards five on it, Stiles following her. She crouched down and knocked against the panel, making an echoing sound.

“Do you hear that?” She asked, looking up at him.

Stiles nodded and looked around, picking up a random tire iron. Malia got out of the way just in time, as Stiles hit the wooden panel with the tire iron. The wood gave away easily, revealing a corpse with its head wrapped completely in bandages.

“This is him.” Stiles murmured, staring at the corpse.

“The Nogitsune?” Malia looked at Stiles in confusion.

Stiles nodded.

Malia reached forward into the hole and took something out of the corpse’s shirt pocket. She pulled out a picture and handed it to Stiles.

“Recognize them?” She wondered.

Stiles took the picture and scanned it before nodding. “One of them.” He stood up, glancing down at Kira’s face. “I have to get this to Scott.”

Suddenly there was a loud crackling and Stiles felt an electric current run through him, causing him to fall to the ground in pain. Malia stood up in shock, watching as Oliver held up a stun gun.

“You took Brunski’s keys.” Oliver stated blankly. “I took his stun gun.”

Oliver thrust the stun gun forward into Malia’s stomach, causing her to slide down the wall to the floor. Oliver crouched down in front of her and held out a syringe. “I also got his Haldol.” He said, injecting her with a sedative in the knee. Malia quickly passed out and Oliver stood up, turning to Stiles.

“Like I was saying, Stiles.” Oliver said, walking away toward the stairs. “I heard they used to do trepanation here.”

Stiles shuddered against the wall, the current still running through him.

“Oliver…” He said weakly. “What are you doing?”

Oliver picked up an electric drill and held it up for Stiles to see. “I’m going to let the evil spirits out.”

As Stiles passed out, all he heard was the whirling of the drill.

Stiles’ eyesight was blurry as he woke up. Oliver was standing above him, and as Stiles went to get up, he found that he couldn’t move; he was restrained.

“I borrowed a few pointers from the five-point restraint.” Oliver chuckled.

Stiles looked down in horror, seeing that he was tied up with no escape.

“Oliver, stop this.” Stiles begged his roommate.

Oliver coughed roughly, his hand over his mouth. He pulled his hand away, revealing blood and a dead fly in his palm.

“Oliver, listen to me.” Stiles continued. “Stop!”

Oliver started the drill and moved closer to Stiles’ head.

“Oliver! Oliver! Stop!” Stiles shouted.

“Start with her.”

Stiles looked up at the familiar voice of the Nogitsune. He saw the Nogitsune sitting next to the furnace, watching the events happening with a casual air. Oliver followed his command, turning to Malia with the drill held up.

“You did this.” Stiles whispered as the Nogitsune turned to look at him. “You got into his head.”

“Every Dracula needs a Renfield.” The Nogitsune replied.

Stiles looked over and saw Oliver putting Malia into the five-point restraint. He turned back to the Nogitsune and begged, “Let her go.”

“Let me in.”

Stiles shook his head and grunted as he tried to get out of his restraints.

“Stiles.” The Nogitsune drawled, coming closer to Stiles. “Do you want her to leave here alive? Do you want us to leave? We can walk out of this place.”

“Just let her go.” Stiles said pleadingly. He didn’t want Malia to die for him.

“Let me in.” The Nogitsune hissed, walking over to Stiles’ chair. Stiles screamed and tried to get out of his chair, but he was stuck. “Let me in, Stiles.”

Stiles glanced at Malia and Oliver and saw that Oliver had started his drill and was moving it closer to Malia’s head.

“Just let her go!” Stiles cried, tears of panic and frustration slipping down his cheeks.

“Let me in, Stiles!” The Nogitsune threatened. “Let me in! Let me in and I’ll let her live. Let me in or I’ll find your precious Y/N and kill her too! Let me in!”

Stiles slumped in his seat, knowing that he had to do this. He couldn’t let Malia die and he sure as hell couldn’t let the Nogitsune kill Y/N.

Oliver continued to move the drill closer and closer to Malia’s head on the orders of the Nogitsune. He was just about to make contact when a voice stopped him.

“Oliver.”

Oliver stopped the drill and looked up. Stiles ripped out of his restraints easily and stood up, glancing at Oliver with dark eyes. He slowly strode over to Oliver and looked him up and down before grabbing the drill from Oliver and hitting him in the head with it, knocking him to the floor.

Malia sighed as she woke up, her eyes blurry. She blinked once to clear them and saw Stiles with his back to her, holding a drill in his hands.

“Stiles?” Malia called weakly.

Stiles semi-turned to look at her, an evil smirk on his face.

The Nogitsune. She thought. He’s the Nogitsune again.

And she watched as the Nogitsune walked away, using Stiles’ body as his host.

Y/N

Dr. Deaton undid the scroll, looking over it quickly, a frown on his face.

“There isn’t much here, unfortunately.” He said solemnly.

“Does it say anything?” I asked worriedly, grabbing Scott’s hand for assurance.

“My Japanese isn’t great.” Dr. Deaton glanced at me. “But it appears to say that one method of expelling a Nogitsune is to change the body of the host.”

“Change the body?” Scott said, raising an eyebrow.

“Which begs the question, how do we change Stiles’ body?” Dr. Deaton wondered.

Scott was silent for a second before he looked up, a grave expression on his face. “By turning him into a werewolf.”

@julzdec @karamelcoveredolicity @thegirlalmighty01 @eat-unicornpoop @belleknows @supernaturallover2002 @dontstopxx @feelingsareharddd @brien-odylan @shewritesshedraws @dylnobrien1911 @kaleyana @mad-hatter-021 @nikcentric @addietagglikesbands @seninjakitey @shayke-and-bake @southsiderepresent @screamxqueenx94 @lostinwonderland314 @rissa-raeken @caitsymichelle13 @barryallenplease @dafine18 @loverofwaytoomanythings618@winchestergirl907

#stiles x reader #teen wolf rewrite #stiles stilinski imagine #stiles #stiles stilinski #stiles stilinski x reader #teen wolf #teen wolf imagine #stiles x oc #oc x stiles #reader x stiles #stiles series #stiles stilinski series #soulmate au #teen wolf fanfiction #stiles fanfiction #dylan o'brien

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thiswarisours-rp · 6 years ago

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PAST ➜

MALIA TATE’S childhood was confusing - even for Beacon Hills. She was born toPETER HALE and Corrine – also known as the DESERT WOLF. But, officially and legally, her father was HENRY TATE, a laid back animal hunter. She was adopted at birth by the Tate family – and had a loving mother as well as a younger sibling. Malia had inklings of something being … different about her. But, she kept it to herself – afraid that her family would no longer want her if they rendered her a freak of nature. She had no idea the magnitude of it all – or that her birth mother was trying to hunt her down to kill her. When Malia was nine, Corrine - in the dead of night - shot at the car that was holding her, her mother, and her sister. The resulting car crash was traumatizing and forced a feral shift – Malia then, controlled by the coyote inside of her since she was never able to be taught control, killed all of her family. The guilt consumed her - and it wasn’t until years later that she even remembered the it was caused by Corrine. The guilt was worsened by the memory of an argument she had had with her mother just before the car ride, telling her she wished she was dead. Because of the guilt, her human side hid away for eight years - “trapped” as a coyote and living in her small den of a cave near the crash site. When SCOTT MCCALL and his pack forced her to revert to her human form, she was at first bitter at him – not wanting to be human, but instead living her life as it was easiest for her; as a coyote. For a short time, she was admitted to Eichen House. However, when Stiles was there and the nogistune escaped – Malia escaped behind him. It was from there that Scott helped her to control her coyote – and STILES STILINSKI helped her think more human. After finding out that Peter was her father, she agreed to work with him to try and find the desert wolf – until she learned how the truly was. Her and Stiles were in a relationship for a while – and she was truly happy; being with him made her feel the most human. But, as things go, it couldn’t last forever and they needed to step away from one another. When the Dread Doctors came to town, Malia worked with THEO RAEKEN and BRAEDEN to once again try and find her mother and kill her – trying to keep her plans hidden from Scott, as she knew the true alpha would not approve of her killing. In the end, Malia instead takes the rest of her mother’s power instead of killing her. And with the help of her pack, she continued to figure out how she fit in.

NOW ➜

Malia, after her hard work to study and catch up to the rest of her class, was able to graduate with everyone else her age – with Lydia, Scott, and Stiles. She was proud of herself, and rightfully so, for many reasons. She was finally coming to terms with who and what she was, and she felt like the run in with her mother helped close up some loose ends; even if she decided not to kill Corrine. Her control over her coyote grew to the point where she could full shift back and forth at will, training with Scott and the others in the old Hale home so they could fight if the need ever arose. Malia opted not to attend college – at least at first. Considering how long she had been trapped as a coyote, she was still figuring out what she wanted. A little time off from school couldn’t hurt. She picked up a job at the clinic helping Deaton to fill in for Scott while he was in school and trained with Chris to help combine her coyote abilities with the skills of a hunter so that she could further help the pack – and put the hurt on anyone and anything that tried to interfere with the town. Albeit, when everything went south, Malia didn’t care if there was a plan or not – she rushed into the chaos of the riot to defend everything she had come to know about herself. Claws and fangs bared, she fought the relentless forces against them until Stiles almost forced her to back down when the rest of the pack fleed into the shadows. She was angry about it, almost convinced that they stayed and fought they could’ve won out – despite how hard the government was to fight, since it wasn’t just their town this time. It was widespread. When the initial chaos ended, Malia followed some of the others underground. She refused to give herself over to the government after all she had fought for and worked for – and she was ready to dig her claws into whomever she could to win back the freedom of everyone like her.

➜ MALIA TATE IS OPEN!

#malia tate #malia tate rp #shelley hennig #teen wolf rpg #tw roleplay #open #openf

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unholyretributionrpg · 6 years ago

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‣ LYDIA LOCKWOOD is 21 years old and is a BANSHEE.

‣ HISTORY

Lydia was born to CAROL and an unknown father in mid-March. To avoid the scandal and keep up the image of the perfect family, RICHARD LOCKWOOD claimed her as his, considering she looked much like her mother and her half brother, TYLER, looked like his father, it was believable. Lydia has attended Beacon Falls High, and is currently enrolled in Dalcrest College along with her usual group of friends. At some point in her academic career, her IQ was tested, and she rated a genius-level score of 170. Despite her intellect, her father Richard expects nothing but the worse from her-- having once been under the impression that at a student conference, he would hear about her “bad grades, concentration issues, and bad behavior”. Even when Lydia’s teacher assured her parents she was a bright student, her father continued to be dismissive about her academic success.

She was very close to her maternal grandmother LORRAINE, with whom she read many books. Her favorite was The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, which she loved so much that she insisted she be called Ariel, a trait Lorraine found adorable. Though the happy moments were short lived, and her grandmother was sent to Eichen House. While Lydia's mother and step-father were sure that Lorraine was mentally ill, in reality, she was a Banshee who could hear voices, and other sounds on a level of the universe no one else could perceive, as well as experience almost psychic-esque premonitions of impending deaths. One day, Lorraine performed trephination on herself while in the bathtub at Eichen House, which caused Carol to be called to help deal with it. Though the young Lydia was told to stay in the car, she eventually got bored and followed her mother inside, where she found Lorraine surrounded by a pool of blood, a memory that was repressed until recent events.

Growing up, Lydia's behavior of the mean-girl persona she adopted until mid-way through high school, was due to the fact of her mother and step father always bickering behind closed doors. Many of which people could say she was similar to her older brother in the sense of popularity and running the school. It lead her to clashing often with the trio, BONNIE, CAROLINE, and ELENA. Despite this, Lydia excelled in school and demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities, something that surprised both her mother and step-father before his passing. Since then, Lydia has developed quite a bit since she met ALLISON ARGENT.

‣ PRESENT DAY

Unknown to her, PETER'S attack had activated the latent Banshee abilities that she had inherited from her maternal grandmother, which he later used to resurrect himself through their connection and the worm moon. Yet, even after he had vacated her consciousness, Lydia began to be drawn to dead bodies in Beacon Falls, particularly those whose deaths were related to the supernatural. It’s gotten to the point where in light of recent events, she’s been the one to find the bodies of those being sacrificed. She already had a lot in her plate with worrying about her mother, and half-brother, TYLER now that he was a hybrid.

‣ CONNECTIONS

‣ TYLER LOCKWOOD: Her half-brother in which she used to clash with in the past; the two have developed a more stable relationship since then. Lydia cares deeply for him, and ever since he’d return from breaking his sirebond, she can’t help but worry for him. Especially now that he was under Klaus’ watch. She didn’t trust that the original hybrid won’t suddenly change his mind and decide to kill Tyler for his ‘betrayal’. It was a thought that lingered in the back of her mind. ‣ CAROLINE, BONNIE, & ELENA: In the past, Lydia would find herself butting heads with the trio, namely Caroline who shared that same mean-girl persona at the time. However, the two have developed a whole lot since, and Lydia has made amends with them. They can’t let petty high school drama follow them into their college years, and with the influx of supernatural happenings-- it was better to be allies. ‣ ALLISON ARGENT: Ever since Lydia met Allison, the two hit it off immediately, and became best friends. Their friendship developed a lot throughout their school years. At the beginning of their friendship, it appeared to be nothing but similar to that of the popular girl stringing along the new girl, but the friendship became something much more than that. Allison helped Lydia grow as a person, and she confided in the huntress like no other. With the recent sacrifices, both of them are working together to try and figure out who is behind the murders, and how they can help Scott stop them.

‣ LYDIA LOCKWOOD is portrayed by HOLLAND RODEN and is OPEN.

#tvd rp #tw rp #open: character #species: human

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eliehasmoved · 7 years ago

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we’re the ones who made it out - teen wolf/thiam

Pairing/Characters: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken, Corey Bryant/Mason Hewitt, Alec Word Count: 9350 Rating/Warning(s): Teen. Mild violence and swearing. Mentions of blood. Summary: You’d think spending Christmas and New Years cooped up in a safe house with his best friends, the new beta and a little girl would be the worst way to spend the holidays, but Liam’s okay with it, honestly. At least until the mistletoe incident that almost screws everything up.

A flash-forward written as a belated Christmas gift for the lovely @purplehoodiesandleatherjackets <3 also on ao3

There's something flickering in the distance, a faint blue and green that glows and pulses throughout the old shopping district they’re driving through. It’s late, very late, which means everyone’s safely tucked into their beds and the lights are out. Well, most of them, apparently. It makes Liam wary, and he grows tense the closer they get to their destination, running through all of the scenarios that could be the cause of it. His fingers drum a nervous beat on his thigh.

Theo obviously has his own concerns—he’s silent for once, and focused, grip so tight on the wheel his knuckles are turning white. They’re supposed to fly as far under the radar as possible while they’re here, looking into rumors that a few omegas had settled here two weeks ago, on the run from one of Monroe’s hunter cells. Argent had picked this place to hide in plain sight, in the thick of the shopping district, where they could come and go with a crowd. The only drawback was that it was directly above a Christmas store, apparently.

Despite that, nothing could have prepared them for the sight that greeted them when they finally turned the corner.

“Holy shit!” Liam exclaims, grin lighting up his face. “Did Rudolph throw up everywhere?”

Theo lets out an annoyed huff, hands tightening on the wheel. There’s Christmas lights everywhere, strewn all over the outside of the old brownstone they’d chosen as a safe house. It looked as though someone had simply dropped them there in a hurry—no rhyme or reason as far as they could tell, except to be as garish as possible. One string’s even dangling off the Holiday Shoppe sign out front, making it lopsided.

They may as well have hung a giant neon display that said “Hey, hunters, we’re right here! Look at us!”

“Did you have something to do with this?” Theo asks, voice tight as he pulls into the alley next to the townhouse. He undoes his seatbelt, gaze still fixed on the building in spite of the glare.

Liam snorts. “Please. I have some taste.”

The chimera gives him a sidelong look, mouth curling up in a half-smile, not saying a word. He doesn’t need to, not when the werewolf catches his look and rolls his eyes good-naturedly.

“Come on,” he says, unfastening his own seatbelt. “Guess we’d better go find out why the guys wanted our safe house seen from outer space.”

Theo follows close behind, still smiling to himself and content, apparently, to let Liam take the lead just this once. The beta wishes it were for something more important than scolding their friends about the definition of laying low, but he’ll take it. They take the side entrance in and find the culprit almost immediately—Alec’s in the middle of plugging in another set.

He smiles when he catches sight of them—or, well, Liam anyway—and straightens up, ignoring Theo the way that he usually does. There’s a slight tick to the chimera’s jaw. Liam thinks this is getting old.

“Nice decorations,” the taller man says mildly, forcing the younger wolf to acknowledge him. “Very...festive.”

Alec gives him a tight little smile before his attention switches back to Liam, and it widens, becoming far more genuine. “I thought the kid might like them.” He jerks his head towards Lea, who’s hovering in the doorway, eyeing Alec like he’s grown a second head.

The six-year-old doesn’t return his smile, but she certainly returns Theo’s as the chimera starts towards her with a grin. He reaches down, plucks her off her feet, and swings her up into his arms, rubbing his stubble against her face just to make her giggle and squirm. “Hey, short stuff!”

Liam watches them indulgently for a few moments, reminiscing.

Scott had shown up with her eight months ago, the same way he had Alec the year before. He and Derek had found her whole pack cut down in Montana after they’d spent weeks trying to find them before Monroe’s hunters did. She’d only survived because her mother had hidden her in a nearby lodge, sensing trouble had been coming.

He had originally hoped that his mother would adopt her, and while Melissa had been overjoyed at the prospect (despite the fact that she already had Alec under her roof), Lea had taken an immediate shine to Theo when he’d picked her and the Alpha up from the airport. And then she’d spent nearly the whole ride to Beacon Hills playing I, Spy with Liam after they’d picked him up from their apartment.

By the time the pack meeting had ended and they’d tried to leave, wanting to make it home before it was too late, she’d refused to be left behind. Liam had taken one look at her, small fingers wrapped tightly around Theo’s wrist, his green eyes glassy with tears as he saw someone else in her, and known they couldn’t leave her. So, after much deliberation, weighing whether or not the boys could support her while finishing their senior year at Berkeley and working part-time, they’d ended up with Lea instead.

If someone had told Liam at sixteen when he’d been bitten that by twenty-two he’d be adopting a six-year-old werewolf with the man who’d tried to manipulate his whole pack and kill his Alpha, he’d have checked them into Eichen. Hell, if all they’d done was tell him that he’d be best friends and roommates with said murderous chimera, and that they’d be sharing an apartment and attending the same college together for four years, he’d probably have laughed in their face and sent them on their way.

And yet, here they were. And despite the fact that they’d never planned on having a third person in their small, two-bedroom bachelor pad when they’d picked it, they’d made it work. They had fairly opposite class schedules, which meant that someone was almost always home with Lea. She helped Liam with his history presentations; she got to listen to him read off all the names of places and point them out on maps. But she particularly liked it whenever Theo had a biology project, because it usually meant they had arts and crafts time together.

Mason thought it was hilarious that the big, bad chimera had been reduced to a giant, soft teddy bear in the face of a little girl. It pulled all sorts of heartstrings for Liam, who had a pretty good idea of why his roommate had taken such a shine to her, and who she reminded him of.

But then, they all had. It’s exactly why she was here with them in Portland. Because none of them had been willing to leave her behind. Mrs. Geyer and Melissa had both been more than happy to take her when Scott had called asking for them to look into the omegas while he was overseas dealing with a Nemeton, but the light had gone out in Lea’s eyes when they’d told her they might be gone for Christmas. Her lower lip had begun trembling, and a single tear had made it to her eyes before they’d caved.

It was dangerous; they knew that. They were putting her life in danger by bringing her along, and Liam’s pretty sure Scott would have their heads when one wrong move in this city could bring hunters knocking at their door. But everyone’s spirits were higher with Lea around. Corey found immense joy in turning invisible for her, Mason doted on her constantly and called her his niece, and Alec… well, Alec was trying.

It’s then that Liam realizes the young wolf is still watching him, waiting for something.

“It’s uh… it’s nice,” he tells him, blinking awkwardly. “It’s a little bright, though?”

“What Dunbar’s trying to say,” Theo interrupts, placing Lea back on her feet, fingers tightening around her little ones as she slips her hand into his, “is that it’s the kind of thing that draws attention. Maybe the wrong kind of attention?”

Alec shrugs, his handsome face settling into faint lines of distaste. Liam wonders, sometimes, if he’s even aware of the expression on his face when he looks at Theo—always disgruntled, always a little bit offended by the chimera’s existence. He doubts it, somehow. He feels like the younger wolf would be better at controlling it if he did, but then, it’s not exactly like his distaste for Theo is a secret.

“It’s in character,” he says, waving a hand towards the front of the brownstone. The light leaking in through the windows is a putrid green. “We sell Christmas decorations, remember? That’s part of our front.”

It’s not, technically. Although Mason and Corey have both taken turns working in the shop as part of Argent’s safe house agreement, they don’t really have to. Keeping up appearances downstairs isn’t entirely crucial, but they’ve done it anyway, using chatter with customers as the best kind of recon.

There’s a slightly condescending tone in Alec’s voice, though, and Theo doesn’t miss it, sending him a glare over the top of Lea’s head as he crouches down beside her. For once, he stays blissfully silent, not pushing things further and goading Alec into a fight, the way he usually does. Liam’s grateful. He’s the Alpha when Scott’s not around, and with the chip on his shoulder, he thinks the other boy fancies himself his second, when he’s the furthest thing from it. It means that he typically gets incredibly pissy when Liam takes Theo’s side.

Which happens almost always.

“You ready for bed?” Theo asks the girl, and she nods, despite being obviously disappointed. She doesn’t argue, merely squeezes his hand.

“Will you read me a story?” She says, gaze flicking to Liam over her shoulder. “Since you’re back on time?”

“Sure, kiddo,” and now Theo’s looking at him over her head of curls. “Want to go brush your teeth and one of us will be with you in a minute?”

Lea grins, trotting off obediently, and Liam moves to follow her down the hall. He’s idly aware of Alec hard on his heels, but he ignores him in favor of exchanging a look with Theo as they fall into step with one another. He’s about to ask him which one of them has story duty tonight when he comes to a sudden stop, staring upwards. Slowly, he turns to give Alec a look of wide-eyed innocence that immediately puts Liam on guard.

“We sell mistletoe, too? Hm, I hadn’t realized that was part of our front.” There’s a twinkle of mischief in his eyes, as Alec stops, too. His tone is more than a little sarcastic as he presses on. “What with it being poisonous to us, and all.”

Alec’s expression is nonplussed, but when it slides Liam’s way, there’s something furtive in it that fills him with unease, triggers his flight instincts hard. He can feel his cheeks heat. Oh, no.

“Aw, man,” Theo continues. “You shouldn’t have. No, really, you shouldn’t.”

The younger wolf opens his mouth, maybe to argue or make some comment intended to put the chimera back in his place (as if he’d ever stay there), but Liam will never know which, because Theo isn’t finished yet. He never does unless he’s guaranteed the last word.

“But since you did…” Theo reaches out, grabbing a hold of Alec’s shirt front and jerking him forward before he can react. And then he presses his lips firmly to the werewolf’s, the corners curling up into a mischievous smirk. It lasts only a moment, but with the two clasped together barely a foot in front of him, Liam’s stomach does a strange sort of reversal. Something twists almost viciously at the sight, and his heart skips a single traitorous beat.

He’s not sure what it means, but doesn’t have the time to figure it out, because then Theo’s pulling away, staring straight down his nose at Alec. The look on his face is neutral, but his eyes are still glittering with amusement, just daring the younger wolf to say something.

His lips part, and for a split-second Liam thinks he might actually be that stupid. But then Alec clamps his mouth shut and shoots an embarrassed look his way, cheeks flushing.

“Merry Christmas,” Theo says lightly, patting Alec’s shoulder and turning to walk away before he could react. It means he misses the sudden furious colour that blooms across the beta’s face. Anger this time instead of embarrassment, Liam thinks.

He shrugs, offering him a ‘what are you going to do?’ half-smile before he turns to follow Theo, hurrying the first few steps to catch up to the older man.

The chimera shoots him a little sidelong look, mouth quirking up at the side in quiet amusement as he winks. “Someone has a crush,” he says, voice sing-song.

Liam snorts. “On you? Unlikely. He hates you. And that was mean, by the way. It’s just going to make his opinion of you worse.”

“Eh. He’s a big boy. And you know I don’t really give a shit what he thinks of me.”

“Well, I do,” Liam says, sighing. “I’m Alpha when Scott’s not around, which means I have to deal with it if my pack members don’t get along.”

“Good luck with that,” Theo gives him another sidelong look, this one longer and more searching. “I wasn’t talking about me, by the way. You know he’s got a major hard-on for you, right?”

Liam sputters, eyes wide as he throws a furtive glance behind them. Theo knows full well Alec can probably still hear them. “W-What? No, he doesn’t!” Liam hisses, dropping his voice to a whisper.

The chimera rolls his eyes. “Oblivious as always,” Theo mutters, and he sounds a little bitter. “You probably don’t think the mistletoe was for you, either, do you?”

Liam feels his cheeks heat again. “You’re imagining things.” But he knows he isn’t, because he saw the way Alec looked at him when they discovered the mistletoe. He feels his stomach twist unpleasantly with nerves at the memory.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure I’m not,” Theo says. “At least not if the awkward conversation I had with him yesterday while you and Corey were out on patrol is anything to go by.”

This isn’t remotely a conversation Liam’s interested in having, yet he still finds himself asking, “What kind of conversation?” His tone is wary, careful. Theo’s answering smirk sets off all kinds of alarms.

“Oh, you know. He wanted to know whether or not he’d be stepping on any toes if he made a move on you.”

Hang on, what? Liam’s eyes widen, his pulse icing and his heart skipping a beat. Theo breezes on, seemingly having not noticed, coming to a halt outside Lea’s room with a huff. His eyes roll skywards as he keeps speaking, a strange edge to his voice.

“As if he’d really give a fuck if he was. It sure as hell wouldn’t stop him.”

Liam’s pretty sure he resembles a fish with his mouth agape, but he doesn’t care. He’s far too busy processing the chimera’s words, repeating them on a loop in his head as if that’s going to cause them to make any kind of sense. Wrapping his head around Alec having a crush on him is difficult enough, though it does explain the innapropriate level of hero-worship the younger wolf has for him, but then he gets hung up on the rest.

Why had he gone to Theo to ask permission?

Liam makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat.

Why had he thought he needed permission? From Theo?

Sure, they lived together, but they’d done that for convenience when they’d chosen to attend the same university. They’d decided it would be far better than trying to find a roommate and explaining away their strange behavior once a month. Or more, if their penchant for troubled decided to follow them from Beacon Hills. And it made more sense than trying to adjust to someone else’s habits, when they’d already been used to one another, considering his parents had taken Theo in after the hunter war.

And okay, they spent the majority of their free time together, but they were best friends. Maybe not the way he and Mason were, but still. They liked the same movies, played the same games. They’d grown together after the war, Theo teaching him how to handle his anger, and Liam helping him in turn with his nightmares. And they made a good team, which meant they often paired off together for missions, like tonight. (Although, he wouldn’t necessarily call last minute Christmas shopping a mission.)

And then, of course, there was the Lea situation. They were, for all intents and purposes, raising a child together. A werewolf child. Who’d more or less chosen them by the force of her large, brown eyes and adorable pigtails.

Liam blinks.

He knows it’s silly. Theo clearly thinks it’s ridiculous. Mason and Corey would find it hilarious. But he supposes that from an outside perspective, of someone who doesn’t see them outside of monthly pack meetings, like Alec…

He gets how it might look.

“Um,” Liam says finally, returning to the present with his revelation. “And what did you tell him?” He’s already in this deep, so he figures he may as well ask.

Theo shrugs, but he gives Liam a peculiar little smile, one that’s harder around the edges than his normal ones and doesn’t reach his eyes. “Told him I had no claim on your affections. And that I was looking forward to watching him crash and burn.”

That much he can believe. Theo’s incredibly good at being an asshole when he wants to be, and clearly, that’s the mood he’s in tonight. His next words confirm it. “Still. Mistletoe? Fuck, is that really the best move?”

Liam’s brain helpfully supplies the earlier image of him swooping in to kiss the younger wolf, and he pulls a face. He tries very hard not to let the swell of bitterness—or disappointment—show. He has no reason for either, and he’s still not quite sure how he feels around the kiss. He thinks, maybe, that it’s jealousy. At least, the bitterness.

After all, it’s been so fucking long since he’s been kissed—really kissed—that he barely remembers what it feels like.

He’s dated, since Hayden. He hasn’t loved, not like her, but he’s gone out on dates. He’s seen people for extended periods of time, intimately. But he’s never tied himself down to someone for more than a few months, much to his mother’s chagrin. He just hasn’t found anyone to keep his attention focused. And he stopped bothering, after Lea. Between school, the kid, and being the Alpha whenever Scott is off saving the world or other supernaturals, well…He just hasn’t had the time or energy.

The disappointment, though, is surprising. And unwarranted.

Theo said it. He has no claim on his affections, and vice versa. He isn’t allowed be disappointed about that, he thinks. It’s not like it’s news—if he’d been interested, he’d have made a move before now. He’d certainly made plenty over the years they’d lived together whenever they went out with Mason and Corey, though he’d always been polite and never brought them home with him.

And if Liam’s thought, once or twice, about wanting moves to be made, well, that’s his business.

“It’s still an asshole move,” the beta says mildly, bringing himself back to the conversation and hiding how much it stings.

“Funny, though,” Theo snickers.

So Liam changes the subject. “Do you want storytelling duty, or…,” he lowers his voice, making sure that Lea can’t hear him from her bedroom. “P-R-E-S—”

“She can spell, you know?”

He shoots Theo an irritated look, and the chimera grins back at him, lighter this time, the edge gone from his eyes, as though it had never been there. “I’ll get stuff out of the truck, you do story time. Deal?”

“Deal. As long as you start wrapping them, too. I have a feeling that story time,” he makes little air quotes with his fingers, the same way he’s seen Theo do a hundred times before, “might last, oh, at least as long as it’s going to take to wrap those suckers.”

Theo’s eyes narrow into a halfhearted glare. “Now who’s being mean?”

Liam hums a little in answer, knowing he has the chimera just where he wants him as he slips into Lea’s room and beyond his reach.

——

Lea wakes them up first, slipping into the room at the crack of dawn and padding over to the bed he’d elected to share with Theo when they’d arrived to discover the safe house had a total of four. Mason and Corey had claimed the one off the computer room immediately, and they’d wanted Lea to have her own, so it had been normal that they’d ended up together. He certainly hadn’t been about to share with Alec, but he realizes, somewhere in the back of his mind, that this is probably another strange thing about their friendship he could’ve read the wrong way.

The little girl crawls up onto the bed and throws herself unceremoniously onto Theo’s back first, who wheezes out a breath as she knocks the wind from him. Giggling, she rolls off him and onto Liam, tapping her fingers against his chest as he smiles down at her. “Merry Christmas!” she shouts, and he watches Theo wince at the volume.

The chimera grunts, pulling the pillow over his head.

“Lea,” Liam says patiently, and she beams at him. “You know Theo’s a Grinch before his morning coffee, right?”

She nods, and there’s a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that’s all too familiar. He can’t help but laugh. “C’mon, why don’t we go make him some?” He slides out of bed, dragging her with him, dangling her feet off the ground a moment before he sets her down. “I’ll start the machine, and you can do the honors of getting everyone else, yeah?”

“Okay!” She grins, then zips out of the room at inhuman speed.

“Thanks,” Theo mumbles from the bed, voice muffled.

Liam smiles and slips from the room, throwing over his shoulder: “If you’re not up by the time she’s done, I’m sending her back in here.”

He cackles at Theo’s petulant groan.

An hour later and the whole safe house is up and abuzz. Corey’s playing with Lea in the other room, Alec’s in the shower, and Liam is sipping his morning coffee, going over the folders of the omegas they’re looking for. Mason and Theo (who is now a functional being after guzzling a cup of coffee) are making breakfast together in the kitchen. While the human whips up pancakes and fruit dishes, the chimera focuses on the meat and eggs—a strange complimentary dance they’d discovered one morning after Mason and Corey had come to spend a weekend at their place.

It’s incredibly domestic, their little set up, and Liam can’t help but smile at the sight of everyone working in tandem. He’d been worried about spending Christmas away from his family for the first time in twenty-two years, but he more or less realizes, looking at all of them, that he brought his family with him, instead.

There’s Christmas music playing out of Mason’s laptop and he’s singing along, bobbing his head, while at the stove, Theo’s dancing. Something in Liam’s chest tightens, a little flutter around his heart, and he tears his eyes away just in time to see Alec arrive in the doorway, damp hair low around his eyes. His face reddens when he spots the older beta.

“Good morning,” Liam says, and he knows from the look Theo shoots him from the stove that there’s probably something off about it. He ignores him. “Did you sleep okay?”

He knows the younger wolf has trouble sometimes in unfamiliar environments. It had taken him weeks before he’d started sleeping properly at the McCall residence, a side effect of being on the run. Alec makes a face at him. “It was alright.” He glances furtively into the other room, where there’s a loud thump, following by a small giggle. “Is breakfast almost ready? I think she’s getting antsy.”

Despite that, Lea’s as good as gold. She waits patiently for them to be ready after breakfast, barely needing the hot chocolate with whipped cream that Theo made her to keep quiet. She sits on the sofa in the living room, feet kicking back against the couch, eyes glued to the presents under the tree. She’s careful with her hot chocolate, sipping at it gingerly, having taken Liam’s request about not spilling any to heart.

They’d decided on presents, him and Theo, because they weren’t sure what her Christmas had been like, before. The other boys had been more than fine with it, and Mason said they’d planned on bringing their gifts along anyway. They didn’t know what sort of traditions she had with her family in Montana, if that was even where she was originally from, but they hadn’t wanted to ask her either. Or do anything that could bring up bad memories.

Argent would probably be pissed they’d used some of the mission funds on gifts, but one look at her huge, round eyes and excited face when she’d opened the first gift, a pair of ridiculous, fluffy wolf slippers Liam had fallen in love with and they’d known it was worth it.

It had warmed Liam’s heart to watch the way her face had lit up when she’d unwrapped the soft, stuffed coyote Theo had chosen for her, or her pleased smile when she’d carefully opened the covers of the illustrated Disney books Mason and Corey had contributed to her large Christmas haul. They’d probably all spoiled her, but none of them really cared.

Alec gives them all knitted sweaters he’d worked on with Melissa. From Mason he gets an autobiography from his favourite historian, while Theo gets a new cookbook. Corey gifts them both with a beautiful photo album filled with pictures he’s taken of Lea and their adventures since she came into their lives. Liam’s favourite is a photograph of her sitting on Theo’s shoulders the day they’d taken her to the San Diego zoo. It displays Corey’s artistic talent beautifully, and Liam’s never been happier that he chose to follow his creative passion at UCLA.

And Theo, well…

Maybe he just loses track. Maybe, with all the exchanges, he just forgets. But by the end of the morning, Liam is one gift short, having received a great big nothing from the chimera. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t even know why it bothers him anyway, and then Lea’s climbing into his lap to ooh and ahh at the pictures of them he ends up distracted.

But there’s an ache in his chest that serves as a pretty obvious reminder.

Christmas is a success overall, at least as far as Liam can tell. Enough so that he loosens up enough to smile at Alec during dinner when he takes the time to talk to Lea one on one. So what if he takes it as encouragement? He’ll deal with it if he does.

It isn’t like Theo’s interested anyway.

——

They find the omegas four days later.

One’s dead, but two are holed up in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Mason gets a hit on an old security camera, and they’re up and out of the brownstone in minutes. The human stays behind with Lea, who looks none too pleased to see them gear up and head out towards danger. Liam presses a kiss to her forehead on the way to the door, promising they’ll be safe, and be back before she’s even started to miss them.

He’s half right, in any case. It doesn’t take them long to find the two wolves, and to convince them that they’re there to help. They’ve heard about Scott McCall and his pack’s efforts to save and protect people from Monroe. They just didn’t think they’d ever need it, but they’re immensely grateful.

They’re on their way to the truck when the gunfire starts.

Liam curses, and feels heat at his back as a body covers his. He hears Theo grunt, and he glances up to see the flash of pain across his face. “Did you just—?”

“I’m fine,” the chimera snaps, but a moment later he cries out, and blood sprays from his shoulder.

Liam curses, and panic strikes at his heart. His hands come up to push at the chimera, herding him back into the warehouse as his pulse thunders in his ears. Alec rolls in behind them with one of the omegas, and then Corey rematerializes across the doorway with the second one. “Anybody hurt?” Liam calls to them.

The omega with Corey raises a hand, and Alec grounds out: “I got clipped.”

“Bad?”

“No.”

“Then watch the door,” he orders, and the younger wolf moves forward to do that. He focuses on Theo then, searching his face as the chimera lets out gasping little sounds, pale and etched with pain. His green eyes are panicked when they meet Liam’s, and it sends a wave of fear surging through him. “Where—”

His hands find it immediately, pressing into the sticky warmth of blood near Theo’s ribs. A breath wheezes out of him at the contact, and Liam has to resist getting angry at his carelessness. “The bullet was meant for me.” And Theo got in the fucking way, like he always does.

“Was it?” Theo smirks, but it’s pulled tight at one corner with pain. “Hadn’t noticed.”

“I heal faster than you—I could’ve taken it,” Liam says, even though he knows it’s pointless. They’ve had this argument a hundred times, and it always ends the same.

“Not when it’s wolfsbane.” Theo’s voice is level despite the way he seems to be fighting for breath. He looks down, fingers sliding over Liam’s where the shorter wolf is applying pressure to the wound. He scrambles for purchase, and then squeezes the werewolf’s fingers hard, like he’s trying to pull him closer and can’t quite manage it. Something sparks through Liam at the touch.

His unbloodied hand comes up to touch at Theo’s cheek, stroking his skin with his thumb. “You’re a fucking idiot,” he says, but there’s less bite to it than he intends. He’ll have time to be angry, later. Right now, he can hear boots thundering against the pavement outside, moving closer, and that means he needs to keep his head. “You need help digging it out?”

“No,” he huffs. “Kick their asses.”

So he does. He exchanges one look with Alec as he sidles up next to him, and glances across the warehouse to nod at Corey, and then they move.

He channels every ounce of anger and fear into his fists and claws as he assaults the hunters, dropping them like flies. The omega that isn’t injured joins in, but really, he doesn’t need to. When he’s this angry, this scared about one of his own, Liam’s a wrecking ball with a singular purpose: protect. Monroe’s hunters know this—it’s why the first shooter had gone for him.

It’s why Theo had taken not one, but two bullets for him.

Lea’s going to be pissed when they get back to the safe house.

——-

By the time New Years rolls around, Liam’s exhausted.

He’s slept very little since the warehouse fight a day and a half prior. Everything had been a blur after Theo had gotten shot. He’d placed calls to Argent and Scott to figure out how to deal with the hunters, and where the omegas would go. Those he remembers.

But the aftermath in which they’d returned to the safe house, with a semi-conscious and bleeding Theo draped over his shoulder, well, most of that’s just a flurry of colours and sounds and panic. The problem with the chimera being the one to get shot and subsequently lose enough blood to pass out was that he was a Biology major. Which meant that on most missions, he was their fucking medic.

So Liam spends a fair amount of time pacing their room, on the phone with Deaton, growling and snapping at anyone that dares step foot inside. Except Lea, of course, who stays curled up at Theo’s side, refusing to move. Tears stain her cheeks, but she stays quiet, drifting in and out sleep with the chimera.

He’s as white as the sheets he’s laying on, and a fever causes sweat to glisten against his skin in the early hours of the morning. He’d gotten the bullet out of his ribs at the warehouse, but the one in his shoulder had remained until they’d made it back here, meaning that some of the wolfsbane had gotten into his system. Not enough to kill him, but enough to make him sick. And certainly enough to make Liam worry.

He knows he’s being ridiculous, this isn’t the first time one of them has had a close call like this, and knowing how they throw themselves into danger for one another, it definitely won’t be the last. Liam thinks back to that day in the elevator, all those years ago, two reluctant sort-of friends and allies promising that they weren’t going to die for each other.

He wonders if that’s when he started lying to himself about his feelings for the chimera, or if it came later, with the realization that the volatile boy had become his anchor. He isn’t sure, but he’s not doing it anymore. There’d been real fear in his eyes when he’d gotten shot, and that’s an image Liam just can’t shake. Because he’d felt it, a visceral panic at the thought of something happening to Theo.

At the thought of their apartment, with his history books strewn about and Theo’s neater, organized textbooks (because he was surprisingly tidy for someone who’d grown up in the sewers and lived in his truck), suddenly being emptier. At the prospect of no longer waking up to the smell of pancakes on Sunday mornings, or being able to see the bright smile he reserves solely for Lea, that dimples his cheeks handsomely. Or the one that only surfaces when they’re alone, that twinkles in his eyes and that Liam knows is just for him.

He thinks of Theo’s earthy scent, and the way it’s calmed him down from many an anger episode. Of the way he styles his hair messily when it grows too long, and favors shades of grey or black, but owns this one green sweater Liam’s mother gave him his first Christmas with them that brightens his eyes. Of the way he hasn’t kept a partner for more than a few months, because none of them could ever measure up.

Of the way that he has loved since Hayden, after all. It’s just taken him some time to realize it, to see it written there, clear as day, a neon thread running through their last few years together. To say it, in the dark, quiet of the room when both other occupants are asleep.

It’s the reason panic keeps a vice-like grip around his heart until Theo’s fever breaks late morning on New Year’s Eve. By the time his breathing evens out, Liam feels confident that the worst has passed, leaving him tired, a little ripe, and with a head swimming full of emotions he’s only just figured out.

He drags his sorry carcass from the room, headed for the coffee maker in the kitchen. He’s almost there when a little gasp to his left tells him he’s not alone. His gaze flickers there to find Mason seated at the kitchen table, the omega files spread out before him.

“How is he?” he asks after a moment.

“Out of the woods, I think,” Liam sighs, and it sounds so damn heavy. “Not well enough for me to kick his ass yet, but he’s getting there.”

“Liam.” He’s got that look in his eyes like he’s itching to give out unsolicited advice.

“I don’t want to hear it, Mase.” He chugs back the lukewarm cup, wiping at his mouth with his sleeve when he’s finished. “Where are the others?”

“One of Argent’s guys came by to pick up the omegas already, so Alec and Corey are down in the shop.” Mason motions to the paperwork around him. “I’m just finishing up a brief to send to Scott.”

“Thanks,” Liam winces, because that’s meant to be his job.

Mason shrugs. “You were busy. I figured with it out of the way, we could enjoy our last night here, instead of worrying. We don’t have to clear out of here until late afternoon tomorrow.”

He grins at his best friend. “Is that your less than subtle way of hinting we should take the night off?”

“I don’t hint,” The human laughs, and it’s full of delight. “I mean, it’s New Year’s Eve. We won this time. Your personal bullet magnet lived to fight another day. What’s not to celebrate?”

It brings something of a smile to Liam’s lips. “Yeah. We could do with a fun night.”

“Good.” There’s a mischievous glint to Mason’s eyes. “Because Corey’s actually on a liquor run, not downstairs.”

“Thank fuck,” a voice says, sounding thrilled, and the two men look up to see Theo standing there, hip cocked against the doorframe. Lea’s pressed against his left side, blinking blearily at them, hair falling out of her ponytail. “Best plan to wake up to.”

Liam’s eyes narrow into a frown. “You can’t get drunk.”

“There’s still wolfsbane in my system, that is definitely something I can do,” Theo smirks. He ducks his shoulders slightly, and his cheeks flush. “If that’s alright with you, boss?”

Liam blinks at him. Something flares in his chest at the submissive gesture, something low in his belly that wars with the gentle urge to step up and ruffle his sleep-rumpled hair. He shrugs it off. “As long as you don’t expect me to hold your hair back.”

Theo and Mason exchange grins.

——

Apparently, it wasn’t just Theo that planned on getting drunk now that the chance had arrived. Mason had brought wolfsbane for everyone that wasn’t him. Just enough to mix in with the booze his boyfriend had picked up and give them all a good buzz. He says it’s because Alec’s never experienced it, and if the kid’s going to try it, New Year’s Eve is the perfect time.

Liam figures there’s no harm, at least until the younger wolf corners him in the kitchen when he’s getting another drink.

“Hey,” he says, shuffling awkwardly in the doorway.

Liam offers him a tight smile. “Hi.”

“You seem to be in a better mood,” Alec says, and the older beta realizes from the way his lips curve at the corner that he’s trying to joke. He winces at the implication.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” Liam grumbles into his cup. “I know I snapped at all of you, and I shouldn’t have done that. I’m supposed to be in charge—I’m supposed to keep my cool.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a little hard when Theo throws himself into shit like that,” he shrugs, but Liam can hear the sharp tone.

“This isn’t about him,” Liam frowns. That’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told.

“Ah,” Alec says. “I guess Theo isn’t quite as special as I thought.”

He bites down the instinct to bristle at that, putting on his best imitation of Scott’s patient, serene face. “I would have been upset if any of you had been that careless, that reckless. I don’t like it when other people put themselves in danger for me. That’s not the kind of leader I want to be.”

Alec straightens up, smiling brightly at him. “For what it’s worth, you’re a great Alpha. I’m glad to have you.”

Liam shakes his head, suppressing the awkward tightness in his chest with a laugh. “Alec, I’m not an Alpha yet.”

“But you will be, one day. And I’ll be right there with you.” He had a nice, supportive smile, something warm and human in it. It just… wasn’t the smile Liam was used to, or the one that made him want to smile back.

“Look, Alec…” He pulls a face, because this is so not how he pictured having this conversation with the younger wolf, but realizing he sort of needs to. Especially if he’s going to have the other conversation he needs to have, after this. “I’m sorry. I’m not interested in you like that.”

“What?” Alec blinks, back to shuffling his feet awkwardly and staring in his cup. “What gave you the impression that I was interested in you like that?”

Liam fights the flush that wants to rise in his face, clearing his throat and drawing Alec’s gaze back up to his. He forces the humiliation from his face from sheer effort.

He’s going to kill Theo if this whole thing was his idea of a joke.

“You did,” Liam says quietly, firmly. “Maybe I misread you, but that would also mean you didn’t talk to Theo about me. Am I wrong about that, too?”

“He told you, huh?” He ducks his head guiltily.

“He told me that you asked if you’d be stepping on his toes, yes.” It’s difficult to keep the irritation from his voice, to hold back on pointing out that no one but him got a say in his own romantic life. “You’d probably have been better off asking me that question, though.”

Alec nods, mouth curling up in a rueful smile. “I’ll bear that in mind. He let me know that you were… available. Of course, he also told me that he’d break my face if I tried anything, which didn’t really give me the free agent vibe.”

Liam stays silent, but there’s a tick to his jaw, and his eyes flicker past Alec’s head at the sound of Theo’s laugh drifting from the other room, deep and hearty.

“Guess I wasn’t wrong about that.” Liam watches the light in his eyes dim. “Well,” he says, dragging out the word as he raises the cup to his lips. “It was worth a shot, Liam. You were, I mean.”

“Uh, thanks. I think?”

“It’s a compliment,” Alec confirms, backing away. His voice remains low as he says, almost wistfully: “You should probably tell him, y’know. Start the New Year as you mean to go on.”

Liam blinks. “What?”

“It’s something my mom used to say. I think it’s the same as starting off on the right foot, but it always sounded better when she said it.”

Liam watches him walk away, frowning as he mulls over the words.

He makes a decision a few heartbeats later, following him back out into the hall. He disappears into a room, and the click a moment after tells Liam he’s retired to his bedroom for the night. In the living room, Lea’s curled up on the couch between Mason and Corey, her new bunny clutched to her chest and fast sleep. Theo’s nowhere in sight.

“How’s she doing?”

“She’s fine,” Corey says, smiling fondly down at the little wolf. “Just a bit overtired, I think.”

Mason straightens the blanket draped over the three of them, careful not to spill the cup in his other hand. “She wanted to wait up to see the New Year in, but I don’t think she’ll make it.”

Liam nods, reaching out to stroke a hand over Lea’s soft, dark curls. “If she doesn’t wake up on her own, we’ll put her to bed.” He chews his bottom lip, the only outward sign of his nerves. “Have you seen—”

“He went up to the roof,” Mason says, and Liam doesn’t miss the knowing smile that stretches across his lips. “You should probably go find him.”

“We’ll watch her,” Corey adds with a grin, and Liam thinks they definitely know something he doesn’t.

He narrows his eyes at them, but doesn’t ask anything more, nodding his thanks as he turns away. Liam snags the bottle of vodka from the counter as he passes the kitchen, glancing at the clock. Lea had been close; the minutes to midnight are ticking down fast, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to see it in without a drink in his hand to toast it on its way. He takes the stairs at the end of the hall leading up to the flat roof.

When he toes the door open at the top, he spots Theo right away, leaning against the railing and staring out over the distant city. He’s brought one of the camping lanterns from the gear room up with him, and it’s set on the small bistro table, throwing off warmth but not much in the way of light, at least not from a distance. There’s enough to see Theo, the fluid lines of his body, the relaxed set to his shoulders, and the sleeping bag and pillow tucked into one chair.

“Hey.”

He turns at the sound of Liam’s voice, giving him a pleased little smile as he joins him. “Hi,” he says. “Thought I’d try and make it a bit cosy up here in case half-pint wanted to watch the fireworks.”

“She’s asleep,” Liam says, smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Fireworks?”

His face screws up in momentary disappointment before it smooths out again. “Yeah. City’s putting on a show at midnight, down by the river, but we should be able to see them from here.” He nudges Liam slightly with one shoulder. “Want to see the fireworks, Dunbar?”

“Sure,” Liam shrugs, watching the profile of Theo’s face for a moment as he turns to stare back out over the city. “I’m avoiding Alec anyway.”

Theo snorts, but Liam doesn’t miss the way his lips tighten at the name. He isn’t able to tell from his voice, though, which stays light and even. “Why? Is he after a New Year’s kiss? Hasn’t learned his lesson?”

“You could always teach it to him again, I suppose.”

He snorts again, more genuinely this time. “Once was enough, thanks. I can think of, oh, at least half a dozen people I’d rather kiss than him.”

It strikes him right in the chest, like a gut punch that knocks the air from him. Liam does miss the bitter tone to his own voice. “That many, huh?”

Theo’s eyes find his, then darken slightly as he watches the shorter wolf intently. “Maybe just one.”

Liam takes a swig from the bottle in response, trying to stop the way his heart starts beating a little faster at the look. “Well, maybe I’m keeping my options open. After all, what was it you said? Alec wouldn’t be treading on your toes?”

Theo’s voice stays even, while the light from the lantern dances across his face. “No, I said I had no claim on you. If we’re being accurate.”

“Really?” Liam takes another swig, feeling the burn of wolfsbane and courage right down to his stomach. “I thought—since we’re being accurate—you said you’d punch him in the face if he tried.”

“I told him I’d break his face, Liam,” Theo says, eyes glittering with genuine amusement. “I don’t think I specified the body part I’d use. Since we’re doing the whole accuracy thing.”

He’s unbelievable, sometimes, even if he is nearly as funny as he seems to think he is.

Liam opens his mouth, ready to tell him that he’s figured it out—how he feels, what Theo means to him—when the chimera drops something into his hand. Frowning, Liam looks down to see a small, black box, roughly the size of his palm.

His throat dries up.

“Relax, it’s not what it looks like! Jeez,” Theo barks out a laugh, loud and full of life. He reaches out, plucking the bottle of vodka from Liam’s other hand, his fingers brushing against the shorter boy’s. It warms Liam’s insides, and he ducks his head, smiling slightly.

He opens it to find a watch. The face is made of dark, tungsten steel, and Liam can see a leather strap disappearing into the inside of the box.

“I didn’t forget your gift, you know,” Theo says, clearing his throat with a cough. His voice sounds strangely light, and if Liam’s not mistaken, there’s colour dusting his cheeks. The chimera’s not looking at him. “I just… wasn’t sure it was appropriate to give this to you, in front of the others. In front of the new kid, in any case.”

“It’s a watch,” Liam stares, dumbly.

“Very astute observation.” He takes a swig of the vodka, smirking. “Might want to dig a little deeper.”

His brow knit together into a frown, but Liam plucks the watch from the box, letting it drop into Theo’s hand as he reaches for it. Carefully, he turns it over, examining every inch. The leather smells good, really good, which means it’s real. And probably expensive. He goes to turn it back, to admire the watch face itself, when it catches in the light at just the right angle for him to see it. There’s an engraving on the bottom.

“Until the end of time,” Liam reads out loud. He frowns, looking up at Theo. “I’m confused.”

“There was a card, originally,” Theo says, setting the box and the vodka down on the table. It frees up his hands, and he cards one through his hair, mussing it. “With a number on it. 1460 days. It doesn’t make much sense now, given that it’s not Christmas.”

“What’s 1460 days?”

“The amount of days since I realized I was in love with you.”

Liam’s shoulders lock up, the breath whooshing out of him in a nervous little laugh. He doesn’t see a single hint of mischief in Theo’s eyes, only raw, brutal honesty. And fear. “What?” he squeaks, a small voice the only thing he can manage.

Theo’s lips turn up softly into a smile that dimples the way Liam likes, pulling at the scruff on his face. It’s warm, and a little nervous. “Our first Christmas at the apartment together. You woke me up at the crack of dawn to show me that you’d decorated everything, and stayed up all night wrapping.”

Liam remembers. They hadn’t been going to, originally. They were supposed to go to his parents, like the year before when they’d been living there. But his dad had gotten called into work for an emergency surgery, and his mom had chosen to drop by her office and settle a social case to ensure the kid involved had a roof over his head on Christmas. And, well, Liam hadn’t wanted it to ruin things for them. “I’d wanted you to have a good Christmas. You’d had so many bad ones over the years that I couldn’t bear the thought of another one going wrong.”

“I was so angry you’d woken me and tried to thrust Christmas cheer on me before I’d had caffeine, but the second I saw the way your eyes lit up like the lights you’d strung around the apartment, it evaporated. I didn’t care, as long as you kept smiling.” He gives Liam a searching look. “Do you remember what you got me that year?”

Liam nods, not missing a beat. “A piece of Kira’s sword.” His voice is barely above a whisper as he speaks, breathless. “I’d meant to do the year before, that first Christmas, but I wanted to ask her, first. And she didn’t come back until the spring.”

Theo chuckles, and hs breath ghosts over the tip of Liam’s nose. “Scott had already told me I was pack by then, and you’d said it more than enough times but… To be given a piece of it, the thing that could send me back down there, to her… I’d never felt more accepted than in that moment.” His voice breaks, slightly, and Liam’s fingers twitch around the watch in his hands like he wants to reach out. “It meant everything to me, and I realized you did, too.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

Theo shrugs. “It wasn’t the right time. You were seeing that guy, from your psych class? And, honestly, I wasn’t sure it ever would be. Right right time, I mean. I wasn’t sure if you’d ever—” His eyes flicker away from Liam, then back, and the beta catches a whiff of uncertainty, of fear. “I’m a very hard person to love, Liam.”

This time, the werewolf reaches out, fingers catching Theo’s as he tries to pull away and lacing them together. He squeezes. “You’re not. It just—took me awhile to realize.”

Theo huffs out a laugh, and the corner of his mouth tilts upwards. It looks less wounded than before, but still fairly self-deprecating. “Had to explore all your options, right?”

His fingers grip the chimera’s tighter, and he shuffles closer, knees knocking against Theo’s. “There hasn’t been another option in years, Theo. Not really.”

The smile softens into something more genuine. “I know,” he breathes. “There hasn’t been for me, either. Not for 1460 days, and—”

Until the end of time.

The meaning clicks. Liam opens his mouth to respond, to say the words he still hasn’t, when the dull sound of a cheer echoes from below and the sky to the east of them lights up with blue and red and gold.

The firework display draws his attention for a moment, and when he turns back, Theo’s eyes are warm in the lantern light, his hair shaded with the colours exploding overhead. “Happy New Year, Liam. Hope it’s better than the last.”

He grips the watch in one hand, and Theo’s hand in the other, and grins. “Happy New Year,” he parrots back, eyes searching the chimera’s face, memorizing the shadows and the curves, the shape of his nose and the angles of his cheekbones. It’s familiar and yet new, somehow, as though he’s never seen him before but still knows him on a deep, instinctual level.

When Theo leans in, Liam meets him halfway. His free hand comes up to cup the shorter man’s cheek, a gentle pressure that has him tilting his head, letting him deepen the kiss.

Liam presses closer, sliding out of Theo’s fingers to mirror his move, capturing the chimera’s face as his lips parted, letting him in. His mouth moved slowly over Liam’s, sending heat racing through him as he wrapped his liberated arm around his waist, pulling him closer.

Eventually, he broke away to look down at him, staying close enough for his breath to brush against Liam’s skin, warm and certain. “Well, this year is looking up already.”

The beta’s heart swells, threatening to burst with emotion as he watches fireworks flicker in the light of Theo’s eyes. “I love you too, you know,” he whispers, grinning. “I just thought I’d say it. To be sure.”

“That you felt it?” Theo arches a brow.

“That you knew.”

“Don’t worry, kid,” Theo says, kissing the tick in his jaw at use of the nickname. “I know. A little birdie told me.”

It’s Liam’s turn to arch an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Lea heard you curse it at me, apparently.”

Colour floods Liam’s cheeks. I love you, you fucking idiot, so wake up any second now so I can tell it to your face. And then punch you. In whichever order is fitting.

“Oh,” Liam says, ears burning. “She heard me.”

“She did,” Theo smirks.

And then he closes the gap between them again, pressing his mouth against Liam’s, soft and sweet. The beta slides his hand around his neck, holding him there, kissing him back again and again, taking his time with each achingly slow kiss until he could feel the warmth of Theo’s touch in every part of him and he—finally—relaxes completely against him.

This time when he pulls back, the warmth in his eyes, the light there, rivalled any amount of Christmas cheer.

“Happy New Year, Liam.”

It was going to be.

#thiam #theo x liam #eliewrites #teen wolf fic #purplehoodiesandleatherjackets

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