#TeenWolfExchange

[hobrien]

Derek Hale and Chris Argent's relationship development. ↳ for @clotpolesonly for the @teenwolfexchange

[demonzdust]

Stackson Week || Day 1 || Enemies to Lovers || also gift for @fanfictionfridge & @teenwolfexchange

[ofhamartia]

Scott McCall & Stiles Stilinski

What’s a soulmate? It’s like a best friend but more. It’s the one person in the world who knows you better than anyone else. That someone who makes you a better person. No, actually they don’t make you a better person. You do that by yourself because they inspire you. A soulmate is someone you carry with you forever. It’s one person who knew you, accepted you and believed in you before anyone else did or when no one else would. And no matter what happens, you’ll always love them and nothing could ever change that.

(My first contribution for the @teenwolfexchange. This here is for @liveandletrain who asked for a gif of Scott and Stiles and their high five ritual. I just merely added some of their other coordinated interactions. Merry Christmas!)

[nyxelestia]

Happy Holidays to @darkofthebluemoon7, who asked for a Sciles gifset for the @teenwolfexchange! ♥

[reivenesque]

Requested by @lovelylittlegrim for the @teenwolfexchange

1. (Thiam) A fluffy fair fic. In which Liam takes Theo to his first fair/carnival and they have their first kiss.

Umm, not so much the fluffy fic I planned on when I started and it may or may not be their first kiss. I honestly didn’t know where this was going until I arrived there, but I hope you enjoyed it regardless *hides* I haven’t written a humour fic in ages I could feel my funny bone creaking with disuse as I was typing.

All’s Fair that Ends Fare

One of Liam’s earliest (and fondest) memories was of going to the seasonal fair with his mom and whichever boyfriend she was dating at the time. The only thing Liam really remembered about the guy was that he was a huge dick and pissed at Liam for being forced the tag along because the baby sitter cancelled at the last minute. As a result, Liam made it a point to do his absolute hardest to be the worst little shit to the guy behind his mom’s back and the most innocent angel when she turned to look at him.

The date didn’t last the night. The guy stomped off in righteous fury muttering about annoying children and stupid fairs and his mom was left in confusion staring at his retreating back.

They spent the rest of the night just the two of them going on rides and playing games, and even though his mom put on a smile when she looked at him, Liam could tell that she was hurt, but at the time, his cold little nine-year old heart didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that the guy was gone and he had his mom all to himself again.

Adult Liam eventually came to the realization that he was a terrible, shithead of a child.

But then his mom met his stepdad and the man didn’t run away no matter how much Liam tried to chase him off, so all in all, it worked out for the best in the end.

“This milkshake sucks.”

The very first words spoken between the two of them in the merry compound of the town fair that night.

“It’s free, so shut up and drink it, asshole.”

God, Theo could be such a negative Nancy. Often times Liam forgot that he was actually Scott and Stiles’s age because of how petulant he could be. But then he remembered that neither Scott nor Stiles acted Scott and Stiles’s age so that was a rather pointless train of thought to have.

“Why are we even here? If I wanted to spend my night grinding up against the smelly sweaty bodies of half the population of Beacon Hills, I would have gone to a club – where they have air-conditioning – and alcoholic beverages instead of this… watered down gluten free soy whatever,” said Theo, swirling around the white liquid in the see through plastic cup in front of his eyes and staring at it suspiciously.

“It’s not gluten free or made of soy,” he said, exhaling exasperatedly.

“Well it might as well be,” said Theo petulantly. “How come you’re having juice then?”

“Cause I wanted to get you something special! Now shut up, Theo. We’re here to have fun tonight, and we will have fun even if it kills you,” said Liam.

“Sounds like fun already.”

Liam ignored him. “What do you want to do first? Which ride do you want to try?” he asked.

“How about that one?” said Theo, motioning towards the open gate at the far end of the field under the neon green sign that said ‘Exit’.

“Hilarious,” he said, his face completely straight and his mouth downturned in a frown.

It wasn’t how he’d originally planned on spending the night, but the funfair was in town – with emphasis on fun, and he was bored as hell – Scott was away on a bro-date with Stiles and Mason was away on a date-date with Corey, and Liam who was at that moment on a sad-date with him, himself and no one else, was feeling particularly left out. Plus he’d recently come to learn that Theo had never been to a fair before. Obviously the Dread Doctors weren’t big on the fun kind of activity that didn’t involve suffering, mutilation and death.

“What about the haunted house?” he suggested. He was pleased to see that it piqued Theo’s interest.

It was also a pivotal moment in which historians somewhere down the line would jot down in their tiny little notebooks as the moment Liam vowed to never take Theo into another haunted house ever again.

The screams of terror were not out of place, obviously, it was a house designed to scare the living crap out of the faint hearted. What was out of place was the sight of the people in ghost costumes, some covered in prosthetic fur and fake ears and fangs and other limbless figures covered in blood running out of said house in absolute pant-wetting terror, shoving each other aside and stepping on toes in their hurry to escape.

Theo’s cackling laughter beside him was like the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Theo was the nail and his face was the chalkboard.

“That’s not funny,” he said, turning around just in time to see Theo’s glowing yellow eyes reverting back to the dark blue and his fangs retreating back into his gums.

“Come on, it’s a little funny,” he said. “Don’t be such a sourpuss, Liam. If I wanted to date a boring, disgruntled old man I would have asked out Derek. Or that old guy that lives at the end of the street that likes to throw sand balls made of cat litter at people who walk past his house.”

Firstly, Liam was absolutely offended by getting compared to a disgruntled old man. Secondly, he hated to admit it but it was sorta funny, but he wasn’t about to confirm that fact to Theo, the guy was insufferable enough as is.

“So? How about it? Are we here to have fun, or are we here to have fun?” he asked with a smirk.

“I don’t know what that even means,” said Liam, furrowing his brows.

“Think of it like Troy,” said Theo, reaching over to circle an arm around Liam’s shoulder in a way that was suspiciously intimate, one hand motioning out towards the sky as if he was trying to get Liam to imagine one of the unlimited – and most likely illegal – scenarios he had cooked up in his head. Whatever he was about to say, it was bound to be bad – people were probably going to end up in tears, or dead, or both. “The best way to get in with the enemy, is to get in with the enemy,” he said, punctuating each word like a different intonation would somehow make the meaning different.

“Once again,” said Liam, “Please speak English.”

“You’re the history nerd, Liam” said Theo – completely ignoring the indignant tone Liam used when he repeated the word ‘nerd?’ as a question, greatly offended, “You know this stuff right?”

Liam scrubbed at his face tiredly. He kind of had an idea where this whole thing was headed, and he didn’t like it – or did he? He hadn’t decided. He didn’t want Scott to be disappointed in him and that was definitely what was going to happen if he went through with what he was inevitably about to go through.

“Create havoc from the inside?” he asked, turning his eyes to look at Theo, only to see the insufferably smug gaze already staring back at him. He really wanted to punch Theo in his stupid face at that moment, either with his fist or with his lips. He hadn’t decided that either.

“I knew you were smart, Liam. I’m impressed,” he said.

Liam tried to keep the blush from spreading across his cheeks at the praise. But as it is with Theo most of the time, he knew to take it with a grain of salt. Theo was only super nice like that when he wanted something in return. “Shut up, Theo,” he said, elbowing him in the ribs. “So… what do you have in mind?”

“A thought just came to me.”

“God help us all,” said Liam with a sigh.

“What if we did both? Have a little fun while taking these people for everything they’re worth? I mean, the hammer game? Come on, we could beat that out of the literal park without breaking a sweat.”

“That’s cheating,” said Liam.

“Well good thing I’m here with Liam, and not Scott, right?”

Liam let out a half exhale-half groan type of inhuman sound. “Scott’s going to kill us both when this is all said and done you know?”

“Seriously, Scott would never harm one soft, moisturized strand of hair on that perfect little head of yours. And even if he does, we’ll have a lot of kick ass stories to tell in the afterlife.”

“I don’t like this plan,” said Liam.

“You don’t have to,” said Theo, “You just have to… you know, have fun.”

Liam knew that word was going to come back and bite him in the ass. He thoroughly regretted every life choice he ever made that lead him up to that point in his short sad life.

“Yeah, fun,” said Liam in an over-exaggerated mocking tone.

Everything was on fire.

Children and adults alike were crying; bawling their eyeballs out and screaming in horror.

There was the sound of a gleeful cackle in the distance over the white noise and the small explosions still going off in the background.

Theo was picking bits of glass and pie crusts out of his hair with Liam beside him, doubled over in laughter.

“That was awesome!” Liam said through his mirth. “Who knew exploding pie could cause such devastation! That’s something they definitely don’t teach in chem class.”

Theo couldn’t keep the pleased smirk off his face. “Living with mad scientists for as long as I did, you’re bound to pick up a thing or two.”

The backdrop, the once upright and proud House of Mirrors was in shambles; its wall barely hanging off the hinges and surrounded by almost half a foot of broken glass on the pulverized ground.

“I hate to admit it,” said Liam, “But I don’t think I’ve had this much fun… well, ever. We’re both about to be killed by my dad, Scott, Melissa, Sheriff Stilinski and half the population of Beacon Hills – but, this is definitely the best night of my life.”

“You could say,” said Theo with a wolfish grin, “That we went out with a bang.”

The sound of sirens pierced through the veil of the night, approaching the once upright fair, now several heaps of rubble – some still smoking and smoldering, with parts of blown apart teddy bears strews across the ground like there had been a horrific murder on Sesame Street.

“I think that’s our cue to amscray,” said Theo, smacking Liam on the arm with the back of his hand; both their eyes looking towards the incoming source of the noise.

Liam didn’t turn to meet Theo’s eyes at first, the cogs of his brain and conscience working overtime trying to override his instincts of self-preservation and will to live. He exhaled once before squaring his shoulders.

“No point in us both getting caught,” he said as the whinnying cruisers made their way into the compound, one blaring vehicle after another. “Save yourself… I’m going down fighting.”

Theo furrowed his brows. “Why do I feel like I’ve heard this before?”

“Just go, Theo. I’m not running away.”

He could hear Theo’s frustrated groan beside him but the guy made no move to leave. He opened his mouth to speak again when he turned to look at Theo, but the words were barely out of his mouth before he felt Theo grab him roughly by the side of his face, pulling him close. Everything around him slowed down to a crawl and the sound of the sirens became muffled noises in the distance when he felt Theo’s cool lips crashing down onto his.

The kiss was haphazard and sloppy; Liam wasn’t sure where to put his hands and Theo still kind of tasted like the terrible milkshake he had earlier. He could feel the heat from the car’s headlights shining on his back, illuminating them brightly as the cars pulled up to surround them like a barricade. But the moment he found the pocket of comfort inside himself and his hands found the perfect curve of Theo’s back that sloped down and back up to frame his perfect, perfect ass, Liam couldn’t think about anyone or anything else in the world anymore.

There was only him and Theo in the moment surrounded by the police cars and what sounded like helicopter rotors flapping in the distance and the only thing Liam could think was that it was a very Thelma and Louise type of scenario, which was pretty rad.

He decided in that moment that he wanted that movie to play at his funeral. He wondered if he had enough time to write out a will.

If he had a pen on him he’d definitely scribble it down on Theo’s butt cause quite frankly he didn’t want to take his hands off it ever.

At least not until he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat very close to their vicinity and the familiar stern voice saying the word, “Boys,” in a very crisp, no nonsense tone. It was the biggest of turn offs a person could ever hope for.

Liam found his tongue flicking out to lick at his red and heated lips the moment he and Theo pulled apart.

Sheriff Stilinski’s unamused face was the sight that immediately greeted them.

“Sheriff,” said Theo with a nod as a greeting.

The Sheriff’s reply was a gonad shriveling glare that he shot the both of them.

“Explanation. Now.”

Liam and Theo shared a look before launching into the most abysmal, incoherent, inconsistent explanation that somehow involved the song Extraterrestrial, a bottle of hot sauce, two cans of skimmed milk and the Ace of Diamonds – at the same time.

The Sheriff looked like he was seriously considering murder in that moment which he said as much. “I would honestly kill both of you right now, but then I’d be sparing myself the joy of watching your dad –” he pointed at Liam with a stern finger, “– and Melissa McCall –” he said pointing at Theo (who all of a sudden looked much less amused and slightly more concerned) – “Kill both of you. Slowly. Hell, if I’m lucky I might just get in on some of that action; Scott too. As a matter of fact, we’ll make a party of it!”

“Excuse me, Sheriff,” said Theo suddenly and Liam wondered if it would still be considered manslaughter of you killed a person in front of about half a dozen officers of the law. He vehemently hissed at Theo to ‘shut the hell up’, which unsurprisingly went unheeded. “Would it help any if I said that I was offended by their terrible portrayal of werewolves? I mean, what kind of self-respecting werewolf plays basketball?”

For the record, no, it did not help any.

Getting slammed into the hood of a cruiser while having his arms being yanked behind him and cuffed with cold hard steel was honestly not much fun. It was slightly more fun watching it being done to Theo and seeing the way his face scrunched up in pain. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to get the insufferable asshole to shut up.

“I didn’t know you liked it rough, Sheriff.”

“Shut the fuck up, Theo!” he found himself hollering across the distance.

And Liam had such a positive start to the day too.

To say that his dad was livid would have been like saying a whale was a very big anchovy. He wasn’t allowed to leave the house or have any contact with the outside world at all. His only means of communication was eavesdropping whenever his dad was watching the news to hear whether there had been a reported murder in Beacon Hill or news about a dead body of an eighteen year old male, dark hair, blue eyes, insufferable attitude, washing up on the shore.

There wasn’t.

The silver lining (as Theo –god rest his soul – would have said) came a few days later when it came to light that the fair had been a front for an underground drug ring. They used the fair as a cover to move from town to town making and selling meth, and apparently, the highest concentrated amount of it was found inside the milkshake stand. Liam felt a little bad when it occurred to him that he might have gotten Theo a glass of methshake instead of a milkshake…

Sheriff Stilinski came personally to deliver the news to him and his parents. So not only was he off the hook for the shenanigans he and Theo pulled, the both of them were also getting commendations from the Mayor for thwarting a massive criminal organization.

Once he was freed from his house arrest – his dad was not so much pleased by the sudden turn of events as he was relieved – the absolute first thing he decided to do was to go see Theo (or what was left of him anyway).

Frustratingly enough, the guy seemingly came out of it completely unscathed.

“Tell me the truth,” he said straight out of the gate, “Was this whole thing intentional, or just a massive coincidence.”

Theo’s smug grin gave nothing away. “Of course it was intentional. You think I’d really wreck that much havoc on such an innocent establishment?”

“Yes,” said Liam immediately with absolute certainty.

“Okay, fine. It was a bit of both, okay? Something didn’t feel right in that place but I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I thought, what best way to get to the bottom of it while getting our kicks at the same time?”

“Right,” said Liam skeptically.

“Why do you not believe me?” asked Theo, feigning hurt.

“Cause you’re you and your middle name is ‘trouble’.”

“That’s a gross oversimplification,” said Theo.

“Oh really?”

“My actual middle name is ‘chaotic neutral.”

Liam couldn’t hold back his snort. “You’re right about the chaotic bit but there’s absolutely nothing neutral about you.”

“Please, Liam, I’m the most neutral person you know. Who else can play both sides of the field with as much skill and grace as me? Besides you, that is – I mean, between me and Hayden, that’s like opposite ends of the spectrum in more ways than one.”

“You’re really full of yourself, you know that?” said Liam, rubbing at his face with his hand.

“But that’s why you love me,” said Theo with a smirk.

“I do not –”

Liam was silenced completely by the lips that came down to meet his.

And so, all’s well that ends well, or in their case, it helped being the luckiest motherfuckers alive cause Liam was pretty fond of being alive thank you very much.

The one thing they could both agree on was to make a blood sworn oath to never talk about the Ferris wheel hot dog incident to anyone ever, dead or alive.

The End.

[teenwolfholidayfest]

Does your heart long for a specific Teen Wolf fic, graphic, video, or something else? Want to help spread holiday cheer and build community with other Teen Wolf fans?

Join us this December, and take part in the Teen Wolf Holiday Exchange. We welcome every ship and character.

Unlike other exchanges, this one is zero commitment. Want to only make a wishlist? Go for it. Want to only hand out gifts? Wow you’re generous. Up for doing both? You decide how much.

See the Rules for more info and feel free to send an Ask if you have questions.

[adrianfridge]

Stackson wishlist

Dear @teenwolfexchange

I’d love it if some of my plot bunnies got made into actual fics or oneshots. The links to source posts will hopefully give you more info about the ideas

- Jackson and Stiles start sharing clothes and no one notices for months (because Jackson has been known to wear flannel, we just like to forget it ever happened) (source post)

- AU in which people see the person they are destined to be with by seeing a star appear above their head. Jackson’s lived his whole life without seeing a star and died alone. When he arrives in Hell, he sees one above Satan’s Stiles’s head (source post)

- Jackson and Stiles as witches (source post)

- Nerdy AU where Stiles is a programmer and Jackson is the financial analyst Stiles’s company recently hired (source post)

- AU in which Jackson’s a s1 frat boy whose car breaks down at a gas station where a s5 Stiles works (source post)

- AU in which Jackson leaves a thing out for the trash collector and fae!Stiles takes it as an offering. Now Stiles won’t leave Jackson alone (source post)

- Mermaid AU in which Jackson is captain and the sole survivor of a shipwreck when mermaid Stiles comes along to help him out only for them to squabble the entire time (source post)

- AU in which Stiles is the morally ambivalent angel that guards Beacon Hills from evil, and he happens to decide Jackson is the evil needing to be kept an eye on (source post) 

- Superhero AU in which Stiles is a literal wiseass sidekick gets under the skin of an entitled prick with money trying to buy himself into being a superhero but inadvertently becomes a villain (source post)

- Stiles is having issues in his hate fuck relationship with Derek, and Jackson “helps” by implying Stiles would be more fulfilled if he wasn’t always on the bottom... all while heavily hinting he’d be perfect for the job (source post)

- Porn blogger Jackson (source post)

- “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” except with married Stiles and Jackson (source post)

- Kid fic in which Stiles and Jackson adopt a baby girl, except she’s such a combination of the two that people keep wondering how two dads managed to sire a child. Also she’s a Dragon Emperor, just saying (source post)

All the best,

fanfictionfridge

[jazzmckay]

@teenwolfexchange gift for @clotpolesonly who asked for stiles and allison missing their moms during the holidays

words: ~2200 tags/warnings: past canonical character death, grief/mourning

It doesn’t occur to Allison to dread the upcoming holidays until December rolls around and stores start stocking shelves with Christmas decorations and radios play an increasing amount of festive music. At school, posters go up to advertise tickets for the Winter Formal and most students are talking about what they plan to do in the two weeks of free time they’ll be getting at the end of the term.

Last Christmas, Allison had an intact family with completely average family traditions, like threading a needle to make popcorn and cranberry garlands for the tree instead of stitching up lethal wounds.

It’s been a long year, but if there’s one thing she’s learned of late, it’s to put the past in the past and keep looking forward.

She holds it together until their English teacher gives them an assignment to write a reflection about how their families spend the holidays and then all she can think about is her mother teaching her how to handle a needle, as a child eager to help with the decorations, and then again as a teenager, being taught the same thing but harder, and colder, and with the pretense that this information could save her life someday.

Allison stares down at her blank notebook paper, pencil clenched in her hand, and tries to remember how to breathe.

A crumpled up note lands on her desk, startling her. Allison looks up, at Scott and Lydia sitting in front of her, and Stiles beside her, but none of them return her gaze.

She picks the note up and unfolds it carefully, flattening it out against the page of her notebook.

From the penmanship, she can tell that it isn’t from Lydia or Scott, but Stiles.

‘No one who doesn’t know you well enough will notice the difference if you just make shit up. It’s what I always do,’ the note says.

Allison considers the note, reads it a second time, and feels calmer. Make something up, she thinks. She can do that. She can map out something stereotypical, something that could be straight out of a generic holiday movie, something impersonal and without an ounce of loss attached. The most basic parts of her family tragedy are known to the public, but no one knows what the Argents were really like, what they did as a family before everything fell apart.

After sliding the note up to the top of her desk, still visible and the message on display, Allison gets to writing.

When class is nearly over, she stands up at the same time as Stiles to take her reflection up to the teacher’s desk, and lightly bumps her arm against his to get his attention.

“Thanks,” she says softly, for only him to hear.

Stiles shrugs nonchalantly. “Might as well put all this wisdom of mine to good use.”

“Seriously, Stiles,” Allison says, ignoring his joking tone. “It’s exactly what I needed.”

Stiles’ expression softens a fraction, and he gives a little nod. “No problem.”

The bell to signal the end of the period rings, and the classroom is filled with the flurry of students packing up their things and leaving. Allison nods to Stiles and he nods back, and then they go to rejoin their friends.

*

Stiles sits cross legged on the ground in front of his mother’s gravestone, picking idly at a couple strands of glass while he talks. He tells her what he’s been learning in school, about the last movie he watched, about a mysterious shipwreck he’d somehow ended up researching late into the previous night, and about how his dad is doing.

There’s a chill in the air that makes him wrap his arms around himself. He should have worn a jacket.

“I hope it snows this year,” Stiles says even as he shivers.

Beacon Hills never gets as much snow as the town where his mother grew up, if it gets snow at all, but he remembers a Christmas years ago when it had snowed enough for him and his mom to make a snowman and she had been just as excited as him. His dad has a picture of the two of them putting the final touches on the snowman by wrapping a scarf around it’s neck.  

Footsteps bring him back out of his memories, and he looks up to see Allison approaching. She’s much more sensibly dressed in a fleece coat and warm-looking boots instead of sneakers, but her cheeks are still pink from the cold.

“Hey,” she says as she stops a few feet away from him, looking hesitant, like she thinks she’s intruding.

“Hey,” Stiles responds.

He pushes himself up from the ground, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets as he bridges the distance between them. Allison relaxes slightly.

“Visiting your mom, too?” Stiles asks.

“Um,” Allison says, eyes darting away. “I was thinking about it, yeah.”

Stiles furrows his eyebrows at her, trying to parse the expression on her face. The two of them just haven’t hung out enough for Stiles to understand her, yet. He can read Scott like a book, but that had taken years of friendship.

“What’s up?” he asks.

Allison looks back at him, eyes slightly wide. “It’s nothing,” she says quietly.

“No, it’s totally something. Come on.”

Allison huffs a humourless laugh. “I’m just not sure what I’m doing here.”

Stiles knows the cemetery well, just as well as he knows the school, or the police station, or the public library. He and his dad walk its aisles several times a year, on birthdays and anniversaries and his mother’s favourite holidays, but he still remembers how it felt being young and surrounded by a sea of graves on all sides, clinging to his dad’s hand for fear that they would somehow get separated and he wouldn’t know how to get home.

“Want company?” he asks. “I’ll go with you.”

For a moment, Allison doesn’t respond, deep in thought.

“Just like that?” she finally says. “After everything that happened?”

“Sure,” Stiles says easily.

Allison still looks uncertain, but she nods just a bit.

Stiles steps back towards his mother’s grave. “We’ll be here on Christmas Eve, like always,” he promises. “See you soon, mom.”

Returning to Allison, he nods back at her and then falls into step beside her as she leads him through the cemetery. They’re silent as they walk between the stones together, making their way to a section that Stiles recognizes as the one where Kate Argent is buried. Victoria Argent’s grave is right next to her sister-in-law’s.

Allison stops when they’re still back a ways, though her eyes are honed in on the marker over her mother’s grave.

“I didn’t like coming to the cemetery when I was still young,” Stiles tells her. “It was like going to the funeral all over again, or seeing her in her hospital bed during the last days. It took me awhile to feel comfortable being here.”

“It isn’t that, not really. My dad and I came before we left for France in the summer,” Allison says.

“What is it, then?”

Allison exhales a long breath. “I didn’t know, back then. What she’d done, what she was capable of. Who she was.”

“Oh,” Stiles says.

He knows what it’s like to know and love someone and have them change dramatically, to the point where it can feel like that person no longer exists. For a time, he’d desperately wished for his mother to come back and be who she had been when he was younger, until he finally understood that it wasn’t possible. He learned to cherish the good days and weather the bad ones.

“She was still your mother,” Stiles says.

“But even before we moved here, she already had that in her. I just didn’t know about it.”

“Sure, maybe there were some things about her that you didn’t know, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t know her. Things just got kind of crazy, you know? We were all pushed to new limits last spring.”

Allison considers his words, eyes still trained forward on the gravesite. “I guess you’re right,” she says.

“Usually am.”

That startles a laugh out of Allison, but she sobers quickly. She sniffs, and Stiles can’t tell if it’s because she’s emotional or because it’s cold.

“I miss her so much,” she admits. “I spent all this time bouncing between sad and angry, and then I just tried to put it all out of my mind entirely, but mostly I just… miss her.”

“Tell me about her. Something from before,” Stiles says.

A small smile creeps up on Allison’s face. “She was smart. I swear she knew how to do everything. She taught me a lot and I didn’t appreciate it nearly enough at the time. The other day I remembered this one time she helped me make a homemade wind chime. I think it came to mind because… it wasn’t a secret hunting lesson. It wasn’t a sport, or a skill that could be applied to survival, it was just tying bits of metal and glass together. I’ve realised that a lot of what my parents taught me was preparing me for a future as a hunter but the wind chime… I think that was just us.”

It doesn’t sound too different from the kind of crafty things Stiles’ own mom would have done with him as a child. Stiles never knew Victoria Argent before he knew about werewolves and werewolf hunters, but for a second he can imagine her just being Allison’s mom, a person Allison loved, and a person who is already gone.

“Did it sound any good?”

“No,” Allison says, smile widening. “I’m sure it scared all the wildlife away from our backyard.”

“Well, hey, I bet it still looked cool. Avant-garde. Very artistic.”

Allison playfully jabs her elbow into Stiles’ side. “Shut up, you’ve never even seen it. Maybe ten year old me was a master craftsman.”

“Guess you’ll have to show me, then,” Stiles says, grinning at her. “Do you still have it?”

“Yeah. It’s in a box somewhere, but I have it.”

“You should put it up. Your apartment’s got a balcony, right?”

Allison nods, looking thoughtful. “I could do that.”

For a moment, they’re quiet, and then Allison starts to step closer to her mother’s grave. Stiles hangs back, watching from a distance and giving her space.

Allison crouches down in front of the stone, reaching out to brush her fingers over the carvings that spell out her mother’s name.

“I wish things had happened differently. I miss you.”

She speaks so quietly that Stiles can barely hear it. The wind picks up, swirling around them, making Stiles rub his hands along his arms to warm them up. He waits there, until Allison is finished and comes back over to him.

Looping an arm around his, Allison leads him away from the Argent cemetery plot. “Thanks,” she says. “Again.”

Stiles makes a split decision. Allison’s family is a lot like his own, now. Two people and an empty space that can’t properly be filled again.

“You and your dad should come over on Christmas.”

“What?” Allison says, sounding surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah. Trust me, it’ll be good. The McCalls spent Christmas with us the year after Agent McCall skipped town, and it was one of the best holidays we ever had. When it’s just the two of us… we end up getting emotional, and then it’s awkward and tense and no one has fun. Really, you’d be doing us a favour.”

Allison looks like she’s torn between smiling and giving him a sympathetic look. “Okay. I’ll talk to my dad.”

“Cool,” Stiles says.

When they reach the road where both of their vehicles are parked, Allison turns to face him and wraps her arms around him, pulling him into a tight, warm hug. For a moment, before they separate and part ways, some of the chill in Stiles’ body is staved off.

*

Allison is nearly done screwing together a hook for her wind chime, when her dad appears in the doorway that leads back into the apartment. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see him watching her, hesitating before speaking.

“Is that the wind chime you made with your mom when you were little?” he asks.

“It is,” Allison says.

With the hook done, she picks up the wind chime from the balcony table, and carefully hangs it up. The pieces of metal and coloured glass clink together from the movement and although the resulting sound isn’t melodious at all, Allison smiles.

“Stiles invited us over for Christmas,” she tells her dad. “I want to go. I think it would be good for us.”

Her dad looks as surprised as Allison had felt when Stiles first suggested it. “Are you sure?” he asks.

Allison nods. “It’ll be good for the Stilinskis, too. I want to be there for Stiles.”

“Alright, good enough for me,” her dad says, nodding to her. His face is completely passive, but Allison knows that doesn’t mean he’s unaffected. He looks back to the wind chime for a moment before disappearing back into their home.

Allison takes out her phone and snaps a picture of the chime, sending it to Stiles along with a quick message.

‘We’ll be there.’

[tryslora]

tiny wish list

Dear @teenwolfexchange

Just a couple wishes for things I’d love to see...

1. Halemore Pretty much anything NOT nsfw/abo/angry sex. I’d love to see Jackson and Derek coming together after s2, or later in life as adults. AUs are wonderful. Something where the focus is how they interact and work together, and are drawn together, rather than purely about the sex. Honestly, I just want wonderful healthy Halemore (angst is fine as long as there’s a happy ending).

2. Brett/Liam We are not going to talk about how much certain parts of 6b crushed me. Give me anything with Brett & Liam and a happy ending. Broship where Liam never realizes that he’s Brett’s mate. Happy stable triads with them and Hayden. Future kid!fics (because honestly, imagine Brett and Liam raising kids... where Brett’s the one with actual patience and Liam just keeps exploding in confusion). Anything where Brett takes care of Liam, because he keeps TRYING TO in canon and Liam just doesn’t GET it.

GAH I have to run, but I might come back with some girl ship wishes later, too! But that’s another post for another time.

[settraone]

Dear @teenwolfexchange I wish this year all I want is not much. See below.

-Nolan being the fear and trying hard to fit in society but fails so he has to join the pack. But everyone is mistrusting except for Liam who stands up for him and helps him in a fluffy way to deal with his powers. Maybe something canon love later 😏😏😏

[tabbytabbytabby]

@teenwolfexchange

All I want for Christmas this year is

1. A Teen Wolf and Merlin crossover (with Merthur, Sterek, and/or Thiam)

2. A Teen Wolf and Mortal Instruments/Shadowhunters crossover with plenty of Malec and Sterek interactions (maybe some Thiam too).

3. A crossover with Criminal Minds. With Stiles being in the FBI this is a perfect set up. Maybe working to clear Derek’s name. With endgame Sterek.

4. A Thiam camping trip (with or without the pack). Making smores and telling stories around the campfire, tent and sleeping bag sharing. Just a bunch of fluff.

5. Thiam curled up in front of the fireplace, wrapped in blankets, and drinking hot chocolate

[liveandletrain]

Saturday Morning

For @ofhamartia who asked for  Older!Liam & Older!Scott and Scott and Allison as a married couple.

A plotless, fluffly ficlet set fifteen years after the end of the show. Contains a lot of Easter Egg style references to various characters.

Liam knew before he knocked on the McCalls' door early Saturday morning, that he was going to regret everything.

It was Scott who answered, not by opening the door, but with a quiet "come in" that reached Liam's ears. He pushed through the door and into the house itself and almost instantly relaxed, the scents of his alpha and his alpha's cubs surrounding him in welcoming warmth. Waldo lifted his head from his paws and whuffed, but otherwise didn't react. He seemed content to make Liam go to him to deliver the obligatory ear-scratches. The Great Dane's corner smelled strongly of dog and made Liam's nose wrinkle.

Scott waved a spatula at him from the kitchen in greeting, the other arm holding a squirming baby. Something that might be grease stained the front of his white t-shirt. "You're just in time for breakfast. Rebeca's asleep in the living room, would you get her please?" He adjusted his hold on what was apparently Tori. "Sweetheart, you keep wriggling like that and you are going to end up on the floor." Tori ignored him, babbling and doing her best to escape.

Scott smelled like content and Allison and sweat from his morning run. Tori smelled like baby. (It was a very unique scent that Liam had been trying to find another way to describe for years.) The skillet on the stove sizzled and Scott's heartbeat kept a calm, steady rhythm contrasting Tori's faster and lighter beat. A door opened and closed upstairs as Allison moved about.

Liam crossed the hallway and stuck his head into the living room. Rebeca was indeed asleep, sprawled out in the playpen like a starfish. Beside it, the heartbeat in the center of a pile of blankets shifted and a pair of soft brown eyes peeked up at him. "Hi, Uncle Liam."

"Hey Alex." Liam glanced between the oldest McCall child and the TV. "Any good cartoons?"

"Power Rangers." Alex informed him seriously and Liam nodded.

"Breakfast's ready." Scott announced and Alex scrambled out of his nest to stand gravely beside the playpen, closely supervising Liam's handling of his little sister. (Liam had no idea where the boy got those protective instincts. None at all.)

Tori was already in her high chair by the time they made it back to the kitchen and Liam buckled Rebeca into her own across the table. Scott set a plate of steaming migas in front of him and a smaller one in front of Alex right as Allison breezed into the room. Liam did his best to ignore their usual, mushy greeting ritual by shoving his face full of eggs. Honestly, they'd been married for six years and had kids. You'd think they'd be out of the honeymoon stage by now.

"Good morning!" Allison dropped a kiss on each of their children's heads and smiled at Liam. "Is Julian down yet?" She was wearing a new perfume, light and natural. It smelled kind of like the ones Lydia got, the kind that didn't make all the wolves sneeze.

"You mean has the smell of food lured him from his den?" Scott said wryly, ruffling Liam's hair as if the beta was still a teenager as he passed him by on his way back to the stove. "Not yet."

"I heard that." The actual teenager slouched into the kitchen looking barely awake, Peter the Cat trailed behind him looking smug.

"Good morning, Julian." Scott replied, nudging the boy into a chair and giving him his own plate, ignoring both the scowl the newest addition to the Pack gave him and the way the boy leaned into the hand on his shoulder.

"G'morning Dr. McCall." The boy straightened a little in his seat and Scott sighed fondly on his way back to his own seat between the twins. "G'morning, Coach."

"Morning, Julian." Liam nodded at the kid. "Sleep well?" The full moon had been two nights ago and the newly-bitten teenager hadn't been in school Thusday or Friday.

Julian shrugged and focused on his breakfast, occasionally dropping scraps down for Peter in what he probably thought was a sneaky manner. (There were two kinds of people; those Peter conned out of food, and Lydia.)

"We'll have to make it fast." Scott said apologetically, pulling Liam's attention back to him. "I have a meeting with Sydney at ten and need to stop by the clinic before that."

"And I," Allison said as they heard Braeden's SUV pull up outside, "Need to go." she shoved the last couple of bites into her mouth and stepped around to bump foreheads with Scott, grunting something that was probably "I love you" around her full mouth.

Scott grinned up at her and kissed the tip of her nose. "Love you too. Have fun in LA and give Araya my regards. Stay safe, I'll see you on Monday."

She hugged and kissed Alex and the twins, patted Julian’s shoulder, and was out the door. She had a brief argument with Isaac over who would ride up front once she reached the car. Allison won. (She always did.)

“What do you want to bet,” Liam asked, returning his attention to the other inhabitants of the kitchen. “That they bring back a new kid?”

Julian shifted, looking between them curiously.

Scott remained focused on the applesauce he was spooning into a bowl. “Nah, it’s Derek’s turn to find one and he’s too busy with Lucas.” He passed the bowl down the table to Alex, who shoved a spoonful into his own mouth before reloading the utensil and holding it up to Tori’s face. Scott dished up a smaller portion into another bowl and began feeding it to Rebeca. “Then again,” he admitted. “We shouldn’t underestimate Derek’s ability to find babies.”

Liam watched Alex’s ritual of one spoon for himself, one spoon for baby for a while, mesmerized. “Is that sanitary?”

“They’re werewolves, Liam.” Scott said, sounding amused. “They can’t get sick. Eat your migas too, Ale.”

Rebeca did her best to impale her eye on the spoon her dad was trying to get into her mouth. Julian looked interested. “Wait, we can’t get sick?”

“It’s one of the perks,” Liam told him. “Until all the humans get sick and need someone to take care of them.”

Scott grinned wryly. “As I remember it, Mason was about ready to throw you and Corey out of the house Rebecause you wouldn’t stop hovering.” Tori babbled agreement and flung applesauce all over Alex’s hair.

“Ewww! Daddy, look what ‘Toria did!” Peter the Cat leapt up onto the table and began licking the applesauce up. Liam snagged a napkin and shouldered the oversized furball aside.

“She didn’t mean to.” Alex gave him a skeptical look and Liam glanced at Tori, who should not be able to look that gleeful at only six months. Unable to think of anything to say, Liam focused on cleaning the applesauce out of Alex’s hair.

Julian scarfed down his last few bites, dumped his dishes in the sink, and made a strategic retreat.

“Remember, Malia will be picking you up soon!” Scott called down the hall after him. Alex finished his own plate and, after a pleading look at Scott, dashed off to the living room to resume his cartoon-watching.

“Malia?” Liam asked, finally able to sit down only to be faced with Tori demanding he take up feed her. He had to wrestle the applesauce coated spoon from her grip first. Whoever came up with the saying ‘taking candy from a baby’ had obviously never tried to take anything from a baby.

“She’s teaching the teenagers to track in the woods today.” Scott smiled mischievously. “I believe she’s planning hide and seek.”

Liam winced sympathetically. Half the time he still couldn’t find Malia in the woods and that was an activity the pack had begun before they’d even stopped Monroe. “So, is there a reason you’re meeting with Sydney on a Saturday?”

Scott’s face grew serious, which clashed with the care he used wiping Rebeca’s face. “Theo got back last night. He thinks he found him.”

“The alpha that bit Julian?” Liam’s breath catches.

Scott nods. “It’s not just Sydney I’m meeting. Val and Chris will be there too. This is a Pack matter but keeping everyone in the loop avoids problems.”

“Is this a Pack Matter or a Hunter Matter?” Liam asked quietly.

“That will depend on the alpha.” Scott sighed, hoisting Rebeca out of her chair and to the floor. “But either way, Julian is staying with us.”

Liam nodded sharply. That was never in question. He wiped Tori down and placed her on the ground next to her twin. “And I’m on babysitting duty. Is Stiles going to be at the meeting?”

Scott grimaced. “No, but Stiles has had his babysitting privileges revoked.”

“Oh?” Liam felt a grin growing on his face, anything that gave him an edge in the friendly jockeying between the pack seconds was welcome. “What did he do?”

With a sigh, Scott ran his hand down his face, looking frustrated. “He put Tori and Rebeca inside a circle of Mountain Ash and marathoned the first six Star Wars movies with Alex.”

“He what?” Liam blinked, confused. “Don’t they have like, three different playpens? I distinctly remember Allison on a Scary-Mom shopping spree.”

“It’s Stiles, who knows.” Scott said. “But Alex was upset that he wasn’t able to get to them. He actually had a nightmare about it a few nights ago, probably because it reminded him of last year.”

Liam cringed. No one liked thinking about the time that extremist hunters had kidnapped Alex and a heavily pregnant Allison. The only good part of that disaster had been the pack showing up to rescue them only to find that Allison had already mostly rescued them herself.

“Stiles is upset about that and has labeled himself a horrible person not suitable to be around children.”

“How does he handle being at home then?”

“According to Lydia he’s brooding a lot. Like, Derek back at the beginning kind of a lot. I’m going to talk to him after the meeting.”

Liam hummed acknowledgement. “Would this be a bad time to ask if you’ve noticed that Stiles is gaining weight?”

Oddly enough, Scott looked a little relieved. “So It’s not just me. He really is.”

Liam nodded enthusiastically as they followed the twins towards the living room. “He really is. Just enough to be noticeable. If this is what happens as a field agent then he can never take a desk job.”

Scott laughed and scooped the twins up, deposited them in their playpen, and headed upstairs to change. “Did you know that Derek and Braeden had a pregnancy scare last week?” Liam settled on the sofa, keeping one ear on Alex and the twins and one on Scott.

“I didn’t even know Braeden was back in town until yesterday. And now would be a very bad time to have a new baby in that house.” He was proud of himself for suppressing his shudder. “Newborn plus toddler Wendigo sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Derek said Lucas hasn’t tried to chew on anyone in over a week.” Scott said softly, accompanied by the near-silent clatter of shuffling through the closet. “He’s optimistic they’ll be able to focus on potty-training soon.”

“Instead of ‘don’t eat people’ training.” Liam muttered. There was a moment of silence.

“You okay?” Scott appeared in the doorway, shirt unbuttoned and shoes in his hand.

Liam waved him off. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Just don’t expect me to volunteer to babysit for Derek anytime soon.”

“I think Annelore has that well in hand.” Scott grinned. “You didn’t hear her telling off Grace and Alex a couple of days ago.”

“She enjoys being the oldest way too much.”

Scott sat down to put on his shoes. “There have to be some perks.” He finished buttoning his shirt and stood up. “Lunch is in the fridge, I should be back by two.”

“Have fun!” Liam waved after him, smug in being able to miss what would undoubtedly turn out to be a very boring meeting about territory lines and jurisdiction and inter-pack politics. Sometimes it paid to be the beta.

[demonzdust]

@teenwolfexchange // gift for @liveandletrain // Braeden Icons

I gave them a winter/holiday theme, hope that’s okay. ^_^

[ofhamartia]

❝Letting you go was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.❞

Sceo AU Theo Raeken was like any other boy in college, or so Scott McCall thought. He had the most charming smile and alluring eyes that captured Scott’s attention from day one. Both shared a passion for animals and eventually they started dating. Scott didn’t think he had ever been this happy, life with Theo seemed easier. The other man brought him joy and fun sometimes mixed with a bit of adrenaline and mischief; but things changed abruptly. Suddenly, it was as though Theo was distant, they wouldn’t spend as much time together and Scott felt like Theo was avoiding him. When he confronted him about it, Theo just said that he was leaving… that it was the only thing he could do, but he refused to tell Scott why.  …there are no words for when you push away the one you love, there’s no drug strong enough to make you forget the pain you’ve caused and the ache burning deep within your heart. A secret that withholds you from pursuing the purest of feelings you’ve experienced in your life and has now been turned into a heartbreak you cannot stand thinking about. You hope he’ll forget you, deep down you know he won’t; because neither will you. You won’t be gone, not really. You’ll be watching over him, you’ll experience his pain from afar and watch him grow old with memories that could have been yours… but you won’t dare bring him into the mess you’ve gotten yourself: That’s a burden for you alone to carry. ❝  I love you, Scott.  I always will. ❞

( Just a random board with an AU for @demonzdust who asked for more Sceo things for the @teenwolfexchange. Don’t know if I’ll turn it into a fic but yeah… Happy Holidays and may the Sceo be with you! )

[nyxelestia]

Happy Holidays to @demonzdust! ♥

Theo couldn't move his arms or his body, but he could move his head. He turned away, almost tucking his head under his arm but not quite, the action also baring most his neck. Between the streetlight from outside and the cheap lamp on Scott's bedside, the skin of Theo's neck almost glowed in the dimness of his bedroom, his jugular casting a bronze shadow over the dip of his throat and collar bone. The contrast was so enrapturing, Scott could almost reach out and grab-

"Please," Theo added softly, and Scott froze for a moment as the urge passed and he wondered what had just come over him.

Incomplete, since I got carried away and it got longer than I expected. But this first half stands on its own well enough and I wanted to meet the @teenwolfexchange deadline (even though I wasn't able to meet the Sceo Week deadline), so I'm splitting into chapters and publishing the first one now.

[reivenesque]

Written for @liveandletrain for the @teenwolfexchange who wanted something about Melissa McCall and the baby betas. I don’t know if this is what you had in mind, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

The McCall Home for Wayward Youngsters (and other Supernatural Creatures)

Stiles was the first.

It wasn’t something that happened overnight, it was more of a gradual progression that she came to notice. The longer periods his mom spent in the hospital the more frequently she’d find him and Scott in a tangle of limbs, snoring, drooling slightly in their sleep sprawled one on top of the other in Scott’s bed. Eventually it became almost a habit to put out two plates instead of one before she left for work. On the rare occasions that Stiles ended up not sleeping over, she’d pack up the uneaten food for Scott to take to him to school or occasionally to the hospital where he’d be spending his nights instead.

Sometimes the food would go untouched; when Stiles could barely tear his eyes away from the wall he’d been staring blankly at for hours. When that happened, Melissa would send Scott out of the room to get Stiles something to drink from the vending machine; she knew he never got further than out the door, instead, slumping against the wall soundlessly, leaving her and Stiles to their privacy. In those moments, Melissa would reach an arm across Stiles’s shoulders, gently rubbing her hand up and down the length of his arm before pulling him close to her, letting him sob out his fear and his sorrow into her chest.

He hid his grief and his mourning well behind humour and jokes, but Melissa could always see straight through it.

The first set of their house keys he had she’d made for him herself and quietly slipped into his pocket when she hugged him before he left.  

Often, on the days when she’d be home late from work after working a triple shift just so she’d be able to put food on the table and keep the roof over their heads, she could hear the sound of shuffling in the lawn outside Scott’s window and the less than discrete muttered cursing of someone scaling up the side of their wall. It would usually end with the sound of a body crashing to the floor upstairs and Scott’s fervent hushing and the eventual sound of muffled laughter that would float down like a birdsong to Melissa’s ears.

She didn’t give Stiles a copy of their house keys expecting him to actually use it. She gave it to him so that he’d know that he was welcome in their house always.

Allison was the second.

Melissa had a fondness for Allison from the first moment she met her. She was kind and respectful and smart and she also gorgeous. Scott really struck gold with that one, Melissa thought often.

But Melissa was a realist. After everything she’d been through in her life, she had to be. So she knew that if something seemed too good to be true, it probably was. And the fact had never been proven more right than in the case of the Argents.

Her son was a werewolf.

Just thinking the words drove home what an utterly bizarre turn her life had ended up taking; even taking into account her summer off during her third year of college that she spent hitchhiking across the country and ended up having an incredible one night stand with the single cutest guy she’d ever seen in her life. Once again, everything that seemed too good to be true always ended up being just that. The guy turned out to be some weirdo travelling with his father and younger brother in a badass looking car that had an arsenal in the trunk.

Melissa couldn’t have packed up her bags and skedaddled out of town faster if she tried.

Her werewolf son’s girlfriend turned out to be a werewolf hunter. Not only that, but she also came from a long line of werewolf hunters, and if that wasn’t karma at work being an utter bitch, then Melissa was actually living in an alternate universe where zombies had taken over the world.

She gladly became the source of comfort for Allison when her mom died. Melissa had no lost love for the woman after everything she did to Scott and everything she almost did to her family. But she was still Allison’s mother, and Melissa wouldn’t even try to imagine a world in which it was Scott suffering through the same kind of loss, being offered empty words and useless reassurance when the only thing they truly needed was the feel of a mother’s comforting arms holding them close and wiping away their tears.

But through it all, their relationship – then friendship persevered and stayed strong – until it didn’t.

When Allison died, Melissa realized just how real the situation was, and how serious. It was easy to get caught up in the moment; to hear the words werewolf and kitsune and supernatural and just be like ‘Sure’.

But when Scott walked in through the door that night, his hands and clothes saturated with blood and the look of absolute devastation on his face, Melissa just knew. She didn’t say anything, she just gathered her son up in her arms and let him cry into her chest.

That was the first time she realized that this really was the end of their innocence. She knew it was coming as it inevitably came for everyone eventually. It came for her late, not until she realized that the prince charming she married wasn’t much of a prince and he ended up not being all that charming either. But she had wanted to protect Scott from experiencing that for as long as she could.

That night she realized that for the first time in her life, she failed as a parent.

Isaac was the third.

Melissa was used to seeing a lot of things, a lot of terrible things and terrible situations passing through the hospital doors daily.

The moment she laid eyes on Isaac she knew; the way he’d flinch back whenever she was too quick in reaching for something in his vicinity. The way his eyes would shift to the floor almost in submission and the way his back would hunch down trying to make himself appear as small as he could whenever she was too angry and too vicious yelling into the phone receiver at the dumbass on the other end of the line.

The way he slept curled up on the floor instead of the bed during his first few nights there.

She never mentioned it and she never called attention to it. She let him do what he needed to do to feel comfortable; she just made sure to vacuum and mop the floor as clean as she could make it. She couldn’t stop him from sleeping there, but she could at least make sure that the surface he was sleeping on was clean enough to eat off of.

A week to the day he moved in, Melissa found him sprawled out on the mattress, his long limbs hanging off the sides and his head half hidden under the pillow instead of on it. She quietly tiptoed in and tucked the spare wool blanket around him and walked out, careful not to wake him out of his slumber.

Melissa lost three things the day Allison died.

She lost Allison. She lost Scott’s innocence, and she lost Isaac.

But she powered through regardless. She had to. She didn’t just have herself to carry forward and support, she still had her son; she had Stiles and their friends and Chris who was inconsolable over the death of both his wife and daughter. She had the sheriff who needed her to be strong for him to be strong, because the kids may have had the pack, but Melissa, Chris and Noah really only had each other; the only people who truly understood what each other were going through and the pain that came along with raising a child in such a terrible, cruel world.

Liam was the fourth.

Scott has had many betas through the years, at least she saw all of them as such and it was obvious that was the way they saw themselves as well.

But Liam was his first.

Melissa knew from the moment he came to her, his eyes red rimmed and damp, his body language almost drenched in guilt – that he didn’t have a choice. He didn’t have to say as much because she knew her son. She knew the trouble he went through when he was turned and she knew how difficult it was for him to accept what had happened; to accept what he was. She knew how afraid he was that she wouldn’t accept him, that she would stop loving him and it was that fear that she could still sometimes see in his eyes, hovering just in the background of his gaze.

She knew he would never wish that feeling on anyone else.

But it happened, Scott did to Liam what had been done to him and no matter the reason, Melissa knew he would never truly absolve himself of the guilt.

She could tell right off the bat that his bond and his relationship with Liam was different than the one he had with the others. There was an aura around them, a feeling that was projected that was akin to the bond between a father and son, but one that wasn’t forged by blood or by relation, but instead was bound by something greater than that.

If anything were to ever happen to Liam, Melissa knew that Scott would never recover from it.

Liam came into their home and not unlike the way Stiles had made himself completely comfortable; from the moment he stepped through the door, his presence in the house just felt absolutely right.

Theo was the fifth.

Melissa had strong mixed feelings about Theo from the very beginning; from the first moment she laid eyes on him after Liam pulled him out of hell.

He killed her son. He almost tore their pack to pieces and he wreaked havoc at every corner from the moment he stepped back into town.

But at the same time, Melissa couldn’t stop seeing a much younger face staring back at her when she turned to look at him. She remembered him as a young boy when he lived in Beacon Hills all those years ago. She remembered his frequent trips to the ER because of his asthma. The memory stood out to her because she used to reflect on how much he reminded her of Scott.

But where Scott had her at his side whenever an asthma attack was particularly vicious, Theo only had his sister who would stay by his side through the treatment, and a father who would stomp in, disgruntled and complaining, to sign the release forms only because he had to.

Even when Melissa was at her angriest, the sight of her son’s bloodied body lying limp in her arms still so fresh in her memory, she still couldn’t find it in her to turn him away and throw him out.

Instead she’d sit him down opposite her at the dinner table and make him hot chocolate.

The utterly baffled look on his face was rewarding enough to her.

Melissa didn’t fail to notice the way Liam would come by more often since Theo started staying with them, and the way they would both suspiciously disappear together once the attention of the room was no longer focused on them. But that was a story for another time.

It was hard sometimes, watching these kids that she’d grown to care about come and go – and die, which sadly happened more times than she wanted. She remembered comforting one of the twin alphas after the death of his brother and Melissa didn’t think she’d ever seen grief as potent as she did in that moment.

It was hard sometimes, but it was rewarding most of the time.

Theo was the latest, but Melissa knew that he wouldn’t be the last, and she knew that she would gladly accept every single one of them with open arms, over and over again.

The end.

This is sort of an extension of the plotline and characterization I already have for Melissa in Heart of the Heartless. The fic title is also actually the title of chapter 9, I just elaborated more on it. Also I hope you caught the small cameo I secretly inserted :)