#they're stupid damaged boys who suck at communicating and i love their dumb asses

[the-cookie-of-doom]

Orange Haze 2.0

I was binging AHS: Coven last night, because that’s what I do when I’m miserable apparently, and now I suddenly really want to write an au. I don’t have all of the details hammered out yet, mostly just a few scene ideas, but then i started talking with @missleeismyname instead of sleeping and it got even more detailed, so here are the thoughts:

Mitch and Stiles are two of the handful of students at this boarding school for witches. Witches are a dying breed, so this place is left derelict compared to its heyday, when it housed as many as 60 students. Now there’s less than six. 

Mitch has been at the school much longer than Stiles, ever since he was about 14/15 years old. He was strung out and exhausted after a week of not sleeping, unable to due to the voices screaming in his head nonstop, when he finally overdosed on prescription medication he stole from one of his parents in an attempt to escape. He woke up in the hospital hours later still drugged to the gills, and everything was finally, blissfully quiet. The only voice in his head was his own, so he kept going and never looked back. Now that I think about it, he is very much like Klaus. I wasn’t even thinking of that, I guess I just have a type. . 

Now, Mitch is a clairvoyant addict with a bad attitude and issues with boundaries, whose powers also include astral projection and communication with the dead. Possibly full blown necromancy later down the line, who knows. On top of all of that, he’s an orphan. His parents died in a car accident shortly after he was sent to the school, and he’s been there ever since. Now he’s 18/19 and since it’s not a conventional “high school” and he’s got nowhere else to go, he stays. It’s not like college is a concern when he still hasn’t got a grip on his powers yet, anyway. 

I haven’t fully decided on Stiles, but his powers include telekinesis for sure. He’s possibly a late bloomer because while Mitch came into his powers at around 15, Stiles was in his late teens. John knew about the school because Claudia went there when she was younger, and he should have sent Stiles sooner, but he was hoping the magic skipped Stiles’ generation like it did with his grandparents. 

Mitch doesn’t want anything to do with Stiles because close proximity means everything is louder and he would actually like to get some sleep at night, thanks. That’s going to be way harder to do with someone sleeping ten feet away. Especially when that someone won’t shut up. Stiles tries to be friendly for the sake of peace among roommates, but Mitch just blows him off. Stiles doesn’t take too much offence because he’s used to it. It’s not until later that night that he finds out more of what’s going on with Mitch, as they’re getting ready for bed. 

“Yes, I’m doing lines. Yes, Irene knows about it. I have no intention of quitting, so don’t waste my time with an intervention.” Mitch came sauntering out of the bathroom with no shirt, an orange pill bottle in one hand, and a razorblade between two fingers. Stiles’ attention was torn. “Any other questions?”

“Um.” Stiles stared at him wide-eyed. Where did he even begin? “What are you on?”

“No idea.” Mitch held up the bottle, squinted at the label, didn’t bother to read it off, shrugged, and said, “It's good shit, though.” Then as an afterthought, “I’m not sharing.” 

“I didn’t ask you to...?” 

The conversation was clearly over. Mitch went over to his own bed and stashed the pills in the nightstand, replacing them with a pair of earbuds he plugged into his phone. He fell back into his pillows and was passed out minutes later. Stiles could hear his music clear across the room blasting from those tiny speakers. It sounded like Metallica’s Enter Sandman. 

Stiles laid back on his own bed and looked up at the ceiling. “What the fuck?” 

Mitch can hear every thought that crosses Stiles’ mind, including all of his naughty fantasies, and he’s a total dick about it. He decides to take advantage, because if he’s got to listen to Stiles lusting after him all the time, he may as well get something out of the situation too, right? Which is why one evening he comes in, locks the door, and tells Stiles to shut up and get on his knees. Stiles is dumbfounded. He’s never had someone be so forward with him (self-deprecating thing that he is, he doesn’t think anyone would ever want him, much less someone like Mitch) but he goes along for the ride because there is no way he’s going to turn that down, he may never get another chance. 

What he doesn’t know is that Mitch’s overt sexuality actually serves a darker purpose…

After that things are awkward. Stiles avoids him, and Mitch doesn’t really care. If Stiles is interested he’ll come back around, if he’s not, then he won’t, makes no difference to Mitch. He doesn’t make it a habit of getting emotionally attached to people since it only leads to trouble. 

Sometime a while later Stiles is having a naughty dream about Mitch, who decides to eavesdrop and watch for a while before finally giving his position away, because Stiles is so cute and wrong.

“That’s not how I’d do it, you know.” Stiles screamed. He jerked away from the man on top of him to find Mitch leaning casually against the doorframe. The real Mitch. An instant later the dream copy is gone and Mitch watches in amusement as Stiles hastily tries to cover himself. 

“What are you doing here!?” How long has he been standing there? 

Stiles tells him to get out but Mitch ignores him, instead challenging Stiles: doesn’t he want a taste of the real thing? His fantasy was adorable but in reality Mitch would hold him down and make Stiles scream his name, if he wanted. And Stiles does, damn him. Besides, it’s not real, so it doesn’t count, right? 

Unfortunately for Stiles the affect in the morning is very real. He’s awkward and avoids him because he doesn’t know where they stand. As far as Stiles can tell Mitch is really only in it for the sex and doesn’t seem to like him much for anything else, because Stiles is loud, in every way.

Later he confronts Mitch and straight up asks if he’s using him, and Mitch agrees that yeah, pretty much. (Although not in the way Stiles thinks) So. Okay. That’s a thing. Stiles needs to work through that blunt honesty. It’s the answer he expected but it still felt like a slap in the face. 

Mitch leaves him alone to think because they both need to get themselves straightened out, and they can’t do that in the same room, and Stiles realizes they haven’t even kissed yet. Why should he believe Mitch wanted anything else when they hadn’t even done that much? Mitch never even reciprocated the blowjob. Clearly Stiles has been deluding himself. 

While Stiles is angsting Mitch can hear all of it, and he goes on a little bit of a bender because he can hardly deal with his own feelings when he can’t even discern them from Stiles. He needs everything to be quiet so that he can fucking think.

Sometime late in the night Stiles goes looking for him when Mitch doesn’t find his way back to their room, and finds him passed out somewhere he shouldn’t be. Stiles has a brief heart attack thinking Mitch has overdosed again, but he’s fine. Stiles gets him picked up and into bed to sleep it off, and a very delirious, barely lucid Mitch asks why Stiles likes him when he’s such an asshole. Stiles replies that he doesn’t know, and that he’d seriously rather not. Mitch is too fucked up to know that both of those are lies, but not too fucked up to remember it in the morning. He doesn’t ask about it, though. 

Mitch doesn’t want to hear the truth of what he thinks he knows. Of fucking course Stiles doesn’t want anything to do with him; he’s worked hard to make sure no one does, because it’s easier when no one wants to be around him. Then he doesn’t have to constantly listen to every thought that crosses their mind every second of the day. He tells himself it doesn’t hurt when people leave when he’s the one pushing them away.

Fortunately for Mitch, Stiles has decided he’s his, and Stiles doesn’t give up that easy on what belongs to him.

This time it’s Mitch doing the avoiding until Stiles is finally fed up and confronts him, asks what the fuck his problem is, shouts that he isn’t a damn mind reader and that if Mitch has got an issue he needs to speak up! Unfortunately that’s the #1 way to make him not talk, however. At least, he won’t be saying anything Stiles wants to hear.

What he does say broadly translates to “fuck off I don’t need/want you here”, and confirms everything that Stiles had already begun to suspect. That Mitch is lonely, starved for affection because of his self-imposed isolation and using sex to get it, when that isn’t what he really needs. It’s probably the last thing he needs, just another self-destructive habit he’s cultivated over the years. But it’s easier to use his body than to admit he needs something as basic as simple affection, especially after spending so many years pretending he doesn’t. 

Mitch is in denial so that results in yet another fight and Stiles is so fed up with this stubborn asshole.

Mitch storms off and after a little bit, giving them both time to cool off, Stiles tracks him down to the library. He’s got his music playing loud as always, so he isn’t paying attention which gives Stiles the chance to walk up and kiss him. Since words apparently won’t get through to him, maybe actions will. And Mitch already knows that kissing is a thing for Stiles, which is why they haven’t done it yet. But despite knowing Stiles has wanted to, he’s still surprised when stiles actually does

The kiss is brief, a challenge. When Stiles pulls away Mitch can read the intent in his eyes, hear the “your move now, asshole,” as clearly as if Stiles has said it. He knows he can fall into old, comfortable habits, turn this into what it’s been for weeks now. Stiles wants him enough he’d probably even let him, because something is better than nothing. Or, Mitch could take a chance and step out of his comfort zone, let this become something more.

So, throwing caution to the wind, Mitch pulls him back in and throws himself into the unknown, because for some ungodly reason Stiles is willing to take a chance on him. Mitch is the clairvoyant but Stiles is the one that saw something in him worth more than just sex. Just worth more, than anything Mitch has previously thought of himself. Arrogance born from a lack of self-worth, anyone?

Of course it takes one to know one, Stiles is everything he accused Mitch of being. Just like Mitch bartered his body for what he wanted, Stiles was willing to let himself be used to feel wanted, until he realized that he deserves better than that. They both do.

They don’t make it back to their room that night, staying holed up in the library, kissing and just touching each other, petting and caressing because they can’t get enough. This is what they both have wanted but have been afraid to ask for.

Morning finds them curled up on the couch, snuggled under a blanket, and passed out cold. Mitch can count on one hand the amount of times he’s slept without being drugged up, and all of them were after at least a week of no sleep. For the first time his mind was quiet, not overwhelmed with everything going on around him. He could finally drown it all out because he was so caught up in Stiles.

It’s not love yet, but it could be if they nurture it and let it grow. But whatever it is, it’s exactly what they need.